The perception that high scores are crucial to sales is a myth, said EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich speaking at the Montreal International Games Summit, and developers should realise the cold fact that a poor quality game shipped with a big marketing spend will sell much better than a great game with little financial support behind it.

You can make the greatest game and it won’t even matter. I know that’s discouraging to developers at first but it’s very true.

Looking at all games released between 2007 and the end of 2008, and comparing as many different configurations as possible – single format exclusives, handheld releases, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii only – the research came to the same conclusion; marketing is more important than game quality.

You can read the entire speech at gamesindustry.biz but what I would like to know is: do this apply to Flash games too?

First, let me say “marketing” is something different than just sending some emails to portal owners or submitting the game everywhere… it means using cash to make people know about your game.

I’ll talk later about cash, now I’ll focus on submitting the game everywhere… all in all submission takes time, so you are going to spend time to submit your game or to pay cash to someone willing to spend his time to submit your game everywhere.

Christmas Couples really sucks, but I submitted it everywhere, and was one of the first games to include the MindJolt API. With its 17,596,730 views it was an incredible success.

BallBalance was released a couple of months later, was featured on NewGrounds so I let the viral distribution do the bulk work for me… it got “only” 6,198,007 views, than it’s about 1/3 of Christmas Couples views.

Let’s suppose both games have the same ECPM, we can say marketing made me earn three times more than quality.

But in Flash games there is an income source that does not exists in PC/Console games, excluding some minor cases… sponsorships.

BallBalance was sponsored by Kongregate and AddictingGames and that’s where quality won over marketing.

Surely quality AND marketing would perform even better, but the entire point of this post is focused on spending less resources on quality and more on marketing.

Pay to be featured

Now, let’s talk about cash. Normally Flash game developers don’t pay to have their games featured. So the question is:

Would you pay to get featured on NewGrounds? I would.

Would you pay to get reviewed on JayIsGames? I would.

And the list could be much longer… obviously NG and JIG won’t feature lame jigsaw games because they would lose credibility, but let’s say I made a good game, and I would try to “help” it by “suggesting” some important sites to feature it… I really would.

And if you think this is not the right kind to make marketing… never mind… I would buy a review (or a featured spot) on important portals even if something says it was a paid submission, as long as the game is listed among other “free” games.

Do you?

Some days ago we saw how Bomb Digger allows to play extra levels on its official site, now it’s time to introduce you a more complete project.

Do you remember HiRoads developer Diary?

Now the project is finished and Filippo Bodei is explaining us something about his work:

You can play the game on HiRoads’ official site.

« I published a demo version (something more than just a demo… 18 out of 27 levels) on Kongregate (rated 2.83) and NewGrounds (rated 3.70) with several ads inviting to play it on the official site where you can play more levels, create your own tracks with the level editor and play tracks submitted by users.

During the first hours I noticed 50% of registered users created his own level.

The site is built around phpBB and every page checks if you are a logged user. Having an HiRoads account allows you to join the forum, to save created levels and to play new ones.

There is a database saving tracks completed by each player allowing to rate and review tracks submitted by other users. You can even keep a list of your favorite tracks or search for a specific one with several options such as difficulty, rating and so on.

Moreover, the site uses Facebook Connect to see tracks played by friends, to invite friends to play and to publish on your wall you just completed a track o created a new one.

The full 27 tracks game does not need any account creation to be played. »

Filippo said he will share some results in a month or two, meanwhile I wish him good luck for such a complete project.

Now Yarden Refaeli from Rigel Games is sharing with us his experience in creating a Flash Facebook application using another technique.

Let’s read it:

« Hello, my name is Yarden Refaeli and I have been flash programmer for 1 year. A few weeks ago, I decided to make my first facebook flash game, Snaker. Well, I won’t lie: It was HARD. After I made it to the end, I decided to write a tutorial about the best approach to build flash-facebook game. So let’s start!

First, we need to save our meta user-data about every user in OUR database, and for this we need to use a server-side language (in this tutorial I will talk about Mysql, but every other database or server-side language is fine).

Let’s say we want to make a game that save our score at the end, and then show us the score we got, and the scores of our friends. We need to save the score for every user, with it’s unique id, which can easily access through facebook APIs. Now lets say we want to do all the server-side jobs, with PHP and not flash: we don’t want to get the user-data we need from facebook-flash API, then send it all the way to the server and store it in the database, we want ALL the facebook/database related work, done on the server-side, with PHP. You should know, that you can access simple facebook library PHP code from flash, you need to authenticate first with the facebook function “set_user” with your user’s uid, and session key, that passed via the FBML tag in the flash vars. (for some strange reason, there is NO official documentation for this function AT ALL)

Now, flash needs to communicate with the server-side (POST requests for example). We can build our own dandy classes in PHP and AS3 (as I did in the beginning), but why? We shouldn’t spend precious time on this task when we have AMFPHP!

AMFPHP is a great open-source tool that allow flash to communicate with the server-side in a few lines of code! All you need to do, is of course, write the server-side functions, and then you can call it from your SWF, with Actionscript 3.

For example, if we want to get the user’s name from the server (using PHP and Facebook PHP-Platform), we need to create the following PHP class:

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<?php
 
class HiWorld {
 
	public $facebook;
 
	public function HiWorld() {
		include "path/to/facebook/PHP/platform";
	}
 
	public function sayHi($uid, $sessionKey) {
		$appapikey = "fefcc99d6c09e56d9330d3d8e9e1d30a";
		$appsecret = "eb5680d5137ba850487984ac75d97583";
		$this->facebook = new Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);
		$this->facebook->set_user($uid, $sessionKey);
 
		$name = $facebook->api_client->users_getInfo($uid, 'name');
		$name = $name[0];
 
		return "Hi," . $name . ", how do you do?";					
	}
}
 
?>

And save it in the “services” directory of AMFPHP, on our server. Now all we need to do is to call this function from our Actionscript 3 code, like this:

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package {
	// required for flash file and output display
	import flash.display.MovieClip;
	import fl.events.*;
	import flash.events.*;
	// required to send/recieve data over AMF
	import flash.net.NetConnection;
	import flash.net.Responder;
 
	import flash.text.TextField;
 
	public class Main extends MovieClip {
		private var gateway:String = "path/to/gateway.php";
		private var connection:NetConnection;
		private var responder:Responder;
		private var response_text:TextField;
 
		public function Main() {
			// Responder to handle data returned from AMFPHP.
			this.responder = new Responder(this.onResult);
			this.connection = new NetConnection;
			// Gateway.php url for NetConnection
			this.connection.connect(this.gateway);
 
			this.respond_text = new TextField();
			addChild(this.response_txt);
 
			// Get the auth vars from the flash vars
			var sessionKey:String = LoaderInfo(this._root.loaderInfo).parameters.fb_sig_session_key;
			var uid:String = LoaderInfo(this._root.loaderInfo).parameters.fb_sig_user;
 
			// call remote function
			this.connection.call("HiWorld.sayHi", responder, uid, sessionKey);
		}
 
		// Handle an AMF call. This method is defined by the responder. 
		private function onResult(result:Object):void {
			this.response_txt.text = String(result);
		}
	}
}

In this tutorial, we use the NetConnection class to connect flash and PHP. Actually, the NetConnect is more like the “pipe” between them, as all the data passed with it. The first parameter for the “connect” method of our connection object, is the className.function to call, the second is the responder object, and the others are the parameters for the function. When you call the remote function, you can pass as many parameters to PHP as the function require. The responder is an object with a reference to a function, (simple and stupid ;) ) that will be invoked when the request completed. When we get the data from the server, the “onResult” function called, with the result parameter. The result paramter is an object that the server returned. Our function simply cast it to string and put it in our text field.

Note: AMFPHP is also ENCRYPT the data sent (vice-versa), and automatically decrypt it as well in the other side.

This way, we can access all the data that facebook supply… Now only the skies are the real limit… This is what I’ve done in snaker (Actually, I’ve built a Highscore class in AS, that handle all the highscore and facebook related data).

This was my first tutorial ever about AMFPHP and facebook! Feel free to send me feedback to yard2010[at]gmail[dot]com! I hope you learned something new =]

All the code above most be in it’s appropriate place: PHP on compatible server, and the SWF must run only in a facebook canvas page with the fb:swf FBML tag! »

The best picks so far, in my opinion. You’ll really enjoy these ones.

B.C. Bow Contest: Great bow game with a prehistoric theme… win all tournaments using several kinds of arrows

What I liked: Everything, great Nitrome game, as usual

Programming difficulty: The hardest part is the physics behind arrows… 3/5

Cannon Bods 2009: Kill parachuting pirates with your Bod, using one or more cannons

What I liked: it’s a funny game…

Programming difficulty: I think there is a glitch if you shoot too close to a pirate, your Bod won’t hit him… :( 1/5

Dawn of the Bod 2009: Bods return in this horror game… kill all Bods shooting at their heads

What I liked: finally a cute splatter game

Programming difficulty: just some hit tests. 1/5

Wake Up the Box: Great physics game… wake up a sleeping box in this puzzle game

What I liked: Great concept… really nice

Programming difficulty: physics joints aren’t programmer’s best friends… 4/5

Night Balloons: Catch the balloons with your hook without popping them, don’t kill butterflies.

What I liked: A game with balloons, and you don’t have to pop them…

Programming difficulty: see something similar here. 2/5

Helio Adventures Reloaded: Sequel of Helio Adventures already featured on Triqui’s Picks #1.

What I liked: the graphics and the level design

Programming difficulty: Not that harder than the original… just a couple of new features like fans 2/5

Galaxy Wars: for the Sake of the Universe: Really interesting space adventure claiming “a unique control scheme that puts a new spin on a classic genre”, but you can see the concept in Build a game like Sproing with Flash.

What I liked: The graphics!!!!!!!!

Programming difficulty: Not that hard, not that unique… 3/5

See you next week

I always wondered how people react to this feature, that can be quite an interesting way to drive traffic to your site, where you surely placed a lot of ads.

This is the story of Alexander V. Trukhin and his first Flash game, Bomb Digger

It is remake of old Boulder Dash style game, inspired by old ZX Spectrum Down to Earth game.

Alexander loved this game, made a remake, designing his own levels and graphics.

Talking about level design, Alexander is afraid the game is too hard… anyway this is his experience:

« People say some portals don’t like limited versions, and maybe full version might have a more successful distribution. Unfortunately I learned it after distribution already started…

The idea was allowing players to play only demo levels unless they play the game on the official site. It was my mistake.

The game was found too hard for most people… Only 4 players of 155 score submitters passed demo levels!

So, most of them had no reason to go and play it on the official site.

Many players lost all lifes in demo levels, it is absolutely impossible to understand… I have several interesting levels for a sequel, but with nobody who can pass them, I think… :)

I have 500 plays and 50-60 visitors to my site per day.

I think about 1000 site visitors per day would be good result. I have ideas about new levels and features, but I think it have sense to make a sequel only if first version will be successful.

Inspiration comes from handdrawngames.com – they have a site with several versions and a community.

The plan was to make versions 2, 3, and so on… with new levels and features, but if people can’t pass learning levels…

Eh, in “eighties” players were more… hardcore.

And a bit about programming.

I had a problem with perfomance when I tried to make first prototypes.

First prototype used an object for each non-empty cell in the game field. It worked well for small one-screen (15×15) fields, but I wanted to use large levels with scrolling.

Optimization included:

- Painting unmovable objects as static graphics (bitmap): walls, green area
- All objects are objects, but also use bitmaps and their rotation is simply rotation of clips
- Destroying static objects painting a black square over them (some bugs exist…)

Maximum field size is 96×96 = 2880/30 (cell size). It is enough and I don’t need to use several blocks.

Unlike all Boulder Dash games I saw, there is smooth movement of objects instead ‘jumps’ from cell to cell.

At a first sight it wasn’t a problem, but it requied to remake collision algorithm.

I think it looks significantly better.

All in all the game engine is quite simply: array maps, onEnterFrame loop for all movable objects and many small codes for each type of object to describe its behavior.

P.S. The interesting fact is I had no ActionScript experience and first prototype was written using JavaScipt and worked in a browser. :)

Porting to Flash worked without big changes (except small input and output functions). »

What’s your experience with games fully playable only on their official site?

There was a doubt about putting a secret key in the swf file.

Well, you should never give away your secret key, but let me point on two things:

1) You can encrypt your swf file, obfuscating the secret key… and just in case you think nothing is encrypted enough… surprise…

2) My Facebook application works without api and secret keys. That’s it… I tested it with more than one account, and everybody was able to use the application even if my keys are stored this way:

var api_key:String="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
var secret_key:String="yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy";

I am not hiding them, they are really a series of x and y… probably when you render a swf in canvas mode, they aren’t mandatory.

I have to say, I did not find docs about it, so take it as it comes.

The feature introduce this time is showing all your friends… there was a reader that was unable to populate a list with friend names, so here it is.

I didn’t create any list, but I’m simply showing them in a text area.

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package {
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import fl.controls.Button;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.text.TextField;
	// facebook libraries
	import com.facebook.Facebook;
	import com.facebook.utils.FacebookSessionUtil;
	import com.facebook.commands.notifications.*;
	import com.facebook.commands.friends.*;
	import com.facebook.commands.stream.*;
	import com.facebook.commands.users.*;
	import com.facebook.events.*;
	import com.facebook.data.users.*;
	import com.facebook.data.friends.*;
	import com.facebook.net.FacebookCall;
 
	public class facebook_demo extends Sprite {
		var vars_field:TextField=new TextField  ;
		var friends_field:TextField=new TextField  ;
		var my_button:Button;
		var fbook:Facebook;
		// these are the api and secret keys you should be used to
		var api_key:String="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";
		var secret_key:String="yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy";
		// starting a new facebook session
		var fb_session:FacebookSessionUtil=new FacebookSessionUtil(api_key,secret_key,loaderInfo);
		// in this object I will store all variables Facebook will pass to the movie
		var passed_vars:Object;
		// this variable will hold all facebook API calls
		var fbcall:FacebookCall;
		public function facebook_demo() {
			// just placing some buttons...
			place_buttons();
			// just creating a text field...
			create_vars_field();
			// initializing the session
			fbook=fb_session.facebook;
			// this function will just print out all variables Facebook is passing to the movie
			get_vars();
			// getting friends uids (unique ids)
			fbcall = new GetFriends();
			fbook.post(fbcall);
			// function on_get_friends will be called once the post is completed
			fbcall.addEventListener(FacebookEvent.COMPLETE, on_get_friends);
		}
		// function to be called after GetFriends has finished
		function on_get_friends(e:FacebookEvent):void {
			var friends = (e.data as GetFriendsData).friends;
			var friends_num:int=friends.length;
			var uids:Array = new Array();
			// loading all friends uids into an array
			for (var i:int=0; i<friends_num; i++) {
				var user=friends.getItemAt(i) as FacebookUser;
				uids.push(user.uid);
			}
			// retrieving informations for all uids contained in the uids array
			fbcall=new GetInfo(uids,[GetInfoFieldValues.ALL_VALUES]);
			fbook.post(fbcall);
			// the function on_friend_list_loaded will be called once the post is completed
			fbcall.addEventListener(FacebookEvent.COMPLETE, on_friend_list_loaded);
		}
		// function to be called after GetInfo has finished
		function on_friend_list_loaded(e:FacebookEvent) {
			var friends_data = ((e.data as GetInfoData).userCollection);
			var friends_num=friends_data.length;
			// scanning all friends array and printing name and last name of each one
			for (var i:int=0; i<friends_num; i++) {
				var user=friends_data.getItemAt(i);
				friends_field.appendText(user.first_name+" "+user.last_name+"\n");
			}
		}
		// this is the core function, the one that will handle clicks on buttons and publising notes or stories according
		// to the button I am pressing
		function onclick(event:MouseEvent):void {
			// retrieving the user id (it's one of the variables passed by Facebook)
			var uid:Number=Number(passed_vars["fb_sig_user"]);
			switch (event.currentTarget.label) {
				case "Publish a note" :
					// publishing a note
					fbcall=new SendNotification([uid],"just sent a self-notification using <a href = \"http://apps.facebook.com/flash_demo/\">Facebook Flash Demo</a>","user_to_user");
					fbook.post(fbcall);
					break;
				case "Publish a story" :
					// publishing a story
					fbcall=new PublishPost("is using Facebook Flash Demo",{'href':'http://apps.facebook.com/flash_demo/','name':'Facebook Flash Demo','description':'that\'s it','caption':'this image was published by a Flash Movie','media':[{'type': 'image','src':  'http://www.gamemummy.com/facebook/flash_demo/api.jpg', 'href': 'http://apps.facebook.com/flash_demo/'}]},[{'href':'http://apps.facebook.com/flash_demo/','text':'Visit Facebook Flash Demo'}],uid.toString());
					fbook.post(fbcall);
					break;
			}
		}
		function create_vars_field():void {
			addChild(vars_field);
			vars_field.width=340;
			vars_field.height=320;
			vars_field.x=0;
			vars_field.y=10;
			vars_field.text="DEFAULT VARS PASSED BY FACEBOOK:\n\n";
			addChild(friends_field);
			friends_field.width=340;
			friends_field.height=320;
			friends_field.x=350;
			friends_field.y=10;
			friends_field.text="YOUR FACEBOOK FRIENDS (scroll with mousewheel):\n\n";
		}
		function get_vars():void {
			var varname:String;
			var varvalue:String;
			passed_vars=root.loaderInfo.parameters;
			for (varname in passed_vars) {
				varvalue=String(passed_vars[varname]);
				vars_field.appendText(varname+":\t"+varvalue+"\n");
			}
		}
		function place_buttons():void {
			var bnames:Array=new Array("Publish a note","Publish a story");
			for (var i:int=0; i<2; i++) {
				my_button=new Button  ;
				addChild(my_button);
				my_button.label=bnames[i];
				my_button.move(225+150*i,350);
				my_button.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,onclick);
			}
		}
	}
}

The result as usual is on the application page and there is no need to download anything since you can just try it by just cutting/pasting the code on the example you can find at this link.

Can you all make the application work without api and secret keys?

Read steps 1 and 2, then continue with this post.

One thing I missed in Stabilize! was the “next” feature, something showing the block we are going do drop after the current one.

The first time I saw this feature was in Tetris… now try to imagine yourself playing Tetris without the “next” piece displayed somewhere on the screen. What a lack of strategy!!

So we are going to introduce the “next” feature in this game.

In order to do this, we must have different crates. So now each crate has a random color (from 1 to 5) and a random weight (from 1 to 9).

The principle of this feature is to randomly generate both the current and the next crate when we start the game, and give the player the current one.

When the player drops the current crate, give him the previously generated “next” one and randomly generate the next “next” one, that will be given to the player once he drops the old “next” one, and so on.

So here it is the commented script:

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package {
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import Box2D.Dynamics.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.*;
	import Box2D.Collision.Shapes.*;
	import Box2D.Common.Math.*;
	public class stabilize extends Sprite {
		public var m_sprite: Sprite = new Sprite();
		public var m_world:b2World;
		// the_crate is the crate sprite
		public var the_crate:crate=new crate();
		// next_crate
		public var next_crate:crate=new crate();
		// droppable_area is the sprite representing the area your mouse
		// must overlap to drop a crate
		public var droppable_area:drop_area = new drop_area();
		// this is the weight of the current crate I am dropping
		public var cur_drop:int=Math.ceil(Math.random()*9);
		// this is the color of the current crate I am dropping
		public var cur_color:int=Math.ceil(Math.random()*5);
		// weight and color of "next" crate
		public var next_drop:int=Math.ceil(Math.random()*9);
		public var next_color:int=Math.ceil(Math.random()*5);
		public function stabilize() {
			var gravity:b2Vec2=new b2Vec2(0,9.8);
			var worldAABB:b2AABB = new b2AABB();
			worldAABB.lowerBound.Set(-1000,-1000);
			worldAABB.upperBound.Set(1000,1000);
			m_world=new b2World(worldAABB,gravity,true);
			m_sprite = new Sprite();
			addChild(m_sprite);
			addChild(droppable_area);
			addChild(the_crate);
			// assigning the crate current weight and color
			the_crate.weight.text=cur_drop.toString();
			the_crate.gotoAndStop(cur_color);
			addChild(next_crate);
			// assigning "next" crate weight and color
			next_crate.weight.text=next_drop.toString();
			next_crate.gotoAndStop(next_color);
			next_crate.x=250;
			next_crate.y=385;
			debug_draw();
			AddBox(250/30,350/30,10/30,10/30,0,false);
			AddBox(250/30,350/30,200/30,10/30,20,false);
			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,Update);
			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN,mousePressed);
			stage.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_MOVE,mouseMoved);
		}
		public function mousePressed(e:MouseEvent) {
			// look at hitTestPoint... the final true value says it's going to to check against the actual pixels
			// instead of the bounding box
			if (droppable_area.hitTestPoint(mouseX,mouseY,true)) {
				// notice the cur_drop parameter, I am passing the weight of the current crate to the AddBox function
				AddBox(mouseX/30,mouseY/30,0.5,0.5,cur_drop,true);
			}
		}
		public function mouseMoved(e:MouseEvent) {
			the_crate.x=mouseX;
			the_crate.y=mouseY;
			if (droppable_area.hitTestPoint(mouseX,mouseY,true)) {
				the_crate.alpha=1;
			} else {
				the_crate.alpha=0.5;
			}
		}
		// function AddBox
		// px: x position
		// py: y position
		// _halfwidth: half of the box width
		// _halfheight: half of the box height
		// density: density of the box (0: static)
		// is_crate: if true, it's a crate (and you should render the proper movieclip
		public function AddBox(px:Number,py:Number,_halfwidth:Number,_halfheight:Number,density:Number,is_crate:Boolean) {
			var bodyDef:b2BodyDef = new b2BodyDef();
			bodyDef.position.Set(px,py);
			var boxDef:b2PolygonDef = new b2PolygonDef();
			boxDef.SetAsBox(_halfwidth,_halfheight);
			boxDef.density=density;
			boxDef.friction=0.3;
			boxDef.restitution=0.2;
			if (is_crate) {
				bodyDef.userData = new crate();
			}
			var body:b2Body=m_world.CreateBody(bodyDef);
			body.CreateShape(boxDef);
			body.SetMassFromShapes();
			if (is_crate) {
				addChild(bodyDef.userData);
				// assigning current weight and color to the Box2D sprite bound to the box I created
				bodyDef.userData.weight.text=cur_drop.toString();
				bodyDef.userData.gotoAndStop(cur_color);
				// updating current weight and color with the next ones
				cur_drop=next_drop;
				cur_color=next_color;
				// changing current crate movieclip according to its weight and color
				the_crate.weight.text=cur_drop.toString();
				the_crate.gotoAndStop(cur_color);
				// calculating next crate weight and color
				next_drop=Math.ceil(Math.random()*9);
				next_color=Math.ceil(Math.random()*5);
				// updating next crate movieclip according to its weight and color
				next_crate.weight.text=next_drop.toString();
				next_crate.gotoAndStop(next_color);
			}
		}
		public function Update(e:Event) {
			m_world.Step(1/30,10);
			for (var bb:b2Body = m_world.m_bodyList; bb; bb = bb.m_next) {
				if (bb.m_userData is Sprite) {
					bb.m_userData.x=bb.GetPosition().x*30;
					bb.m_userData.y=bb.GetPosition().y*30;
					bb.m_userData.rotation = bb.GetAngle() * (180/Math.PI);
				}
			}
		}
		public function debug_draw() {
			var dbgDraw:b2DebugDraw = new b2DebugDraw();
			var dbgSprite:Sprite = new Sprite();
			m_sprite.addChild(dbgSprite);
			dbgDraw.m_sprite=m_sprite;
			dbgDraw.m_drawScale=30;
			dbgDraw.m_alpha=1;
			dbgDraw.m_fillAlpha=0.5;
			dbgDraw.m_lineThickness=1;
			dbgDraw.m_drawFlags=b2DebugDraw.e_shapeBit;
			m_world.SetDebugDraw(dbgDraw);
 
		}
	}
}

And this is the result:

The “next” crate is the one under the bar. Download the source code

Next time, we’ll see how to remove crates when three or more of them have the same color and collide

Games with this size cannot be published on Facebook, and since I am porting triqui.com on Facebook, I won’t consider them, until Facebook raises the maximum width allowed for an application.

Here they are:

Running free: Interesting stick platform game with a “Fancy pants” feeling… you just have to run and jump.

What I liked: the “just one more try” feeling

Programming difficulty: There’s no physics, just some hit test I presume…. 2/5

Calculate Genius: This is a “brain” game with a lot of minigames to test your ability to calculate.

What I liked: considering myself a genius, I love these kind of games, just to prove I am smarter than you :)

Programming difficulty: each minigame is quite easy, but there are a lot of them… and they are very well designed 3/5

Pixel Vader: Yessss, a good shoot’em up with powerups and achievements. Blasting away aliens is always fun.

What I liked: the overall feeling

Programming difficulty: collisions, powerups, alien waves… 4/5

Bubba Time: It’s not a complete game at the moment, but just a demo. Great platform game with a lot of features, from creating your own platforms by building/removing blocks to rewinding the time to avoid enemies

What I liked: Great concept

Programming difficulty: a good platform is always difficult… 5/5

Green Bomber: Remake of one of the oldest game ever (destroy buildings with your plane) with a phyisics twist and a campaign environment. A great one-button game.

What I liked: I love original physics games

Programming difficulty: Just some Box2d 2/5

Hans Coldy and Emma Qualdy: Interesting platform, you are something like a “spiked sponge” and must collect coins and avoid enemies saving its mate through 42 levels. You can climb or hang to some walls thanks to your spikes

What I liked: The idea and the pixel graphics

Programming difficulty: a good platform is always difficult. 4/5

Unsucceful Test: I think the author meant “unsuccessful”… you are a mad doctor trying to make an antidote for his unsuccessfule experiment. Great physics

What I liked: The concept and the different shapes the doctor can have, each one with its features

Programming difficulty: Quite hard. 5/5

See you next week

My old server, aruba.it, simply had too much problems to host a blog with high traffic, and as you probably experienced during the last days, the blog was hacked too much times.

The funny thing is every time I reported the problem to the customer care, they replied (normally after 24 hours, from monday to friday) it was my fault.

If I have a fault, is waiting that long before migrating (but I prefer to say “running away”)

Now I am hosted on HostGator and finally I am back to life!!!

Since moving more than 6,000 files and about 25,000 queries can lead to some errors, I would like you to report any missing file or strange behavior to info[at]emanueleferonato.com

It was a Flash Game contest held by Mochimedia, and the staff awarded one game a week a $100 prize for being awesome. There were no other rules and no theme. It was simply the staff choosing something they really enjoyed.

Now things changed. The original Flash Game Friday has now become a monthly contest!

Developers will have one month to develop a game based on a specific theme, and the monthly prize is $500.

Winners will be chosen from the eligible games by the Mochi staff.

The first monthly contest is 60 Seconds to Fame.

Rules: Your game must be over/finished and ready for a score submission in 60 seconds or less. It does not matter how good you are in the game, it will still end in 60 seconds or less. The goal in these types of games is to push a user to get better, not so they can last longer, but rather get more points within that same time limit. It’s to spark the “oh, I get it,” or, “Maybe if I tried this…” in the player. Also, it’s to force a developer to stick to their idea without the fear of feature creep, which is often times a key factor in causing your game to not be completed.

Deadline: December 4th, 2009 – 11:59PM PST

Prizes: $400 for the winner, $50 each for two honorable mentions.

If you need some inspiration, on the official page you can find six examples of games built around this theme. You will find all additional rules too.