tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2010:/blog//1 2009-07-02T22:10:30Z Design, Games, Reviews and such Movable Type 3.31 tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2009:/blog//1.86 2009-07-01T21:27:41Z 2009-07-02T22:10:30Z

Codename: ULTRA is a game concept that I entered into the game design competition at SXSW this year. The game was selected as one of the casual game semifinalists, which means I won a free pass to SXSW Interactive....

 _Codename: ULTRA_ is a game concept that I entered into the [game design competition at SXSW](http://sxsw.com/interactive/screenburn/competitions) this year. The game was selected as one of the casual game semifinalists, which means I won a free pass to SXSW Interactive. I didn't make it into the final round, but I got to meet the judges at the event and got some good feedback on the game from them. Here are some screenshots from my presentation:  _Codename: ULTRA_ is a logic puzzle game. You play the role of a secret agent attempting to discover the identities of a group of enemy spies. To complete each mission you must match each of the enemy agents with his or her photo, code name and home country. The main interface for the game is this view of your desk. On your desk is your message inbox, shortwave radio (which can receive transmissions from the base), and your Mission Kit. The Mission Kit contains all the information you need to decipher the identities of the enemy spies (maps, photos, agent dossiers, and clues). You play the game by reading the clues from your Mission Kit and using deduction to piece together information about the spies.  You can also get encrypted clues from your short wave radio. You can write down the codes that are being broadcast and decode them using your code sheet.  As you discover bits of information you mark them down on the agent dossiers to keep track of your progress. As you work through the game the missions will get more difficult (increasing the number of agents involved as well as the number of elements that need to matched with each agent). The main idea for the game comes from classic [logic grid puzzles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_puzzle), but with a more interactive and graphical interface. _Codename: ULTRA_ is still just a concept at this point. I would like to actually build the game at some point, but it's a much bigger project than the games I typically make. tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2009:/blog//1.82 2009-04-30T22:53:04Z 2009-04-30T22:57:12Z

I still get asked about what happened with the Olympics stealing my game last year. I'll try to bring everyone up to speed here.

 I still get asked about what happened with the [Olympics stealing my game](http://www.thepencilfarm.com/blog/2008/02/snow_day_at_the_beijing_olympi.html) last year. I'll try to bring everyone up to speed here. **What happened?** [The Olympics stole my game](http://www.thepencilfarm.com/blog/2008/02/snow_day_at_the_beijing_olympi.html). I made a blog post about it here, and was later contacted by a reporter from the Sydney Morning Herald who wanted to write [an article about the story](http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/olympics-site-accused-of-game-theft/2008/03/10/1204998335702.html). Apparently the reporter also contacted the Olympic Organization. While they didn't comment for the story, the pirated game was quickly taken off the site. **Did you sue them?** No. My intention was never to sue. The only damage I suffered was the cost of a license for the game which would be at most a couple thousand dollars. It wouldn't have been worth the effort for such a small matter. I was told though that had I registered the copyrights for the game, I wouldn't have had to prove damages and could have gotten a large settlement just by proving they stole my game (which would have been incredibly easy). Let this be a lesson to you kids--always register your copyrights. **Did you at least get some publicity from it?** I got a fair amount of traffic to my site for a couple of days. Something unfortunate happened with most of the major coverage of the story though. Ars Technica wrote up a nice [article about the story](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2008/03/new-beijing-summer-olympics-event-software-piracy.ars) and contacted me for comment. Unfortunately, for some reason they neglected to put any links in the story to my site, my games, or my blog entry even though they mention all three in the article. So I got virtually no traffic from that story. To make matters worse, most of the other sites that picked up the story were either summarizing the Ars Technica story or simply posting a snippet from it, so none of these articles (like [this one on Kotaku](http://kotaku.com/367907/beijing-olympics-website-pirates-flash-games)) brought me any traffic either. Beyond just being disappointed that I wasn't getting hits on my site, I felt the Ars article misrepresented the story. Even though they neglected to link to any comparisons of my game to the stolen one, they *did* link to the other games that were much more nuanced rips of the Orisinal games. So anyone reading the story checked out those games which are pretty similar, but not blatant copies like the one they made of mine, and concluded that I was just being whiny that someone made a game similar to mine. I wrote to Ars Technica about this and they put up [a new story](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/03/update-regarding-beijing-olympics-game-piracy.ars) with links to my stuff. I thought that was nice of them, but it doesn't really correct the problem that anyone who comes across the original story is going to be misled about what really happened. **Did you ever hear anything from the Olympics?** No. I sent letters to both the BOCOG and Sohu.com (the company that made the web site) asking for a public apology and received no response. **Conclusion** The stupidest part about this whole thing is that if they had just contacted me, I would have been thrilled to license them the game, or to create something custom for the Olympics. It would have worked out better for everyone involved. tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2009:/blog//1.80 2009-04-29T14:36:35Z 2009-04-29T14:39:06Z

Body Mailin’ is a game I made based on some jokes from a podcast I listen to called You Look Nice Today. It would be too difficult for me try to explain the nuances of the game concepts here,...

 Body Mailin' is a game I made based on some jokes from a podcast I listen to called [You Look Nice Today](http://youlooknicetoday.com/). It would be too difficult for me try to explain the nuances of the game concepts here, but if you want to try to get caught up you should listen to the episodes [Aunt Nancy](http://youlooknicetoday.com/episode/aunt-nancy) and [Truck Spank](http://youlooknicetoday.com/episode/truck-spank). Although completely unrelated to the game, by far my favorite moment in the history of YLNT is the Cosby dream in [Episode 1](http://youlooknicetoday.com/episode/ep-2-morning-powder). I made the game as quick afternoon project, so it's not quite up to the standards of my other games, and therefore not officially listed on the site, but it does have a permanent home here: **[Play _Body Mailin'_](http://www.thepencilfarm.com/games/body_mailin/)** If you've never listened to YLNT, the game is guaranteed to make absolutely no sense to you. tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2009:/blog//1.79 2009-04-28T22:17:56Z 2009-04-28T22:21:14Z

I have a backlog of unfinished blog entries that I'm going to try to push out over the next week or so. Some of the stuff is quite old, but I'm going to publish it anyway. So don't be surprised when you start seeing posts about things that happened over a year ago.

I have a backlog of unfinished blog entries that I'm going to try to push out over the next week or so. Some of the stuff is quite old, but I'm going to publish it anyway. So don't be surprised when you start seeing posts about things that happened over a year ago. tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2008:/blog//1.73 2008-07-02T23:21:16Z 2008-07-03T01:38:40Z

I recently had the pleasure of working with the nice people at Little Lives on a reskinned version of Witchcraft to celebrate the Singapore National Day Parade. In addition to all new graphics and sounds, we added a game...

 I recently had the pleasure of working with the nice people at [Little Lives](http://www.littlelives.com/) on a reskinned version of [Witchcraft](/games/witchcraft/?id=1) to celebrate the Singapore National Day Parade. In addition to all new graphics and sounds, we added a game timer and high score system to keep track of who could solve the puzzle fastest. [Play 'Unleash the Singapore Spirit' at LittleLives.com](http://littlelives.com/games/ndp_game). tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2008:/blog//1.72 2008-05-12T23:58:27Z 2008-05-13T00:03:09Z

You may have noticed I've been on hiatus for a bit, but I'm back and I'm starting on a new project. I don't want to give too much away but it should be good. Stay tuned.

 You may have noticed I've been on hiatus for a bit, but I'm back and I'm starting on a new project. I don't want to give too much away but it should be good. Stay tuned. tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2008:/blog//1.71 2008-05-07T19:13:03Z 2008-05-07T20:13:44Z

I had a bit of trouble getting my new Airport Extreme (802.11n) wireless router to work with my Nintendo DS when I first set it up. Hopefully this post will help others who are having the same problem.

I had a bit of trouble getting my new Airport Extreme (802.11n) wireless router to work with my Nintendo DS when I first set it up. Hopefully this post will help others who are having the same problem. ***The Problem*** The Nintendo DS can only connect to a wireless network if it is secured with an older (and less secure) WEP password (or no password at all). It also uses the 802.11b spectrum. This shouldn't be a problem because the Airport Extreme is 802.11b+g compatible, and it lets you choose a WEP password during setup. But even when I setup the base station with a WEP password my DS still complained that my network used an incompatible security mode. The problem seems to be with the type of WEP that the Airport uses--something called _Transitional Security Network_. This would seem to be a great thing to have as it claims to support older WEP-only devices, but allows other devices to connect via WPA. Unfortunately the DS will have none of that. ***The Solution*** I began to panic when it didn't seem that the Airport had any options to use straight-up WEP. Did I just blow $200 on a new toy that won't play nice with my other toys? After some frantic Googling I stumbled upon a little secret: Open the Airport Utility app and select your base station. Choose _Manual Setup_ from the _Base Station_ menu (or double click the base station). Select the _Airport_ icon and then the _Wireless_ tab. Here comes the kicker: Next to _Radio Mode_ __option-click__ the drop down menu. Suddenly there are 4 new options in this menu. Choose _802.11b/g compatible_ [not _802.11n (b/g compatible)_--confusing, I know]. With _802.11b/g compatible_ selected you can now choose _WEP 128_ bit next to Wireless Security. Enter a password, update the base station and you should be good to go. ***The Downside*** The downside of this setup is twofold: 1. WEP security is far inferior to WPA, and can be easily broken. Not a big deal if you're just trying to prevent the upstairs neighbor from hogging your bandwidth, but could be an issue if you care at all about real security. 2. The base station is no longer 'n' compatible. You're 802.11n devices should still be able to connect via b or g, but you'll not get the benefits of an 'n' network. tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2008:/blog//1.70 2008-02-26T02:17:39Z 2008-03-14T15:07:25Z

The Olympics stole my game! They downloaded the swf file from my site, decompiled it, swapped out the little guy for the Fuwa characters, took my name off of it and republished it as their own.

\* Thanks to Alex at [Miniclip](http://www.miniclip.com) for bringing all of this to my attention. **UPDATE 3/10:** The game has been removed from the Olympics site. Also, read some nice coverage about the ordeal in the [Sydney Morning Herald](http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/olympics-site-accused-of-game-theft/2008/03/10/1204998335702.html). Pretty much the same story as here, but with better writing... **UPDATE 3/14:** Additional coverage of the story on [Ars Technica](http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080312-new-beijing-summer-olympics-event-software-piracy.html), [Joystiq](http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/12/chinese-olympics-web-site-accused-of-game-piracy/).]]> tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2007:/blog//1.69 2007-11-29T17:20:52Z 2007-11-29T17:34:05Z

I've posted a prototype version of a new game called Bug Lab.

 I've posted a prototype version of a new game called Bug Lab. This is a Zendo-like puzzle game. The object is to determine which characteristics make up each type of bug. You earn points by guessing if you think each bug belongs to a particular bug family. Once you think you have figured out the rule(s) that make up that type of bug, you can choose to solve the puzzle. To pass the level you must identify 5 bugs as either belonging to the bug family or not. If you get them right, you move on the next level. If you get even one of them wrong though, you'll fail the level and lose the game. The game gives you incentive to attempt to solve the puzzle early though, as you earn bonus points for each level based on how soon you were able to solve the puzzle. Ultimately, Bug Lab will be a downloadable desktop game. In addition to the game mode you see in the prototype, it will feature a time-attack mode, and possibly a bug-creation mode, that allows players to create their own playable bug levels. Right now the game is still a little buggy (no pun intended), and a long way from being finished, but it should be playable (and hopefully fun) for the most part. [Play the Bug Lab Prototype](/media/0711/BL_alpha.php) tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2007:/blog//1.65 2007-10-09T23:02:04Z 2007-11-29T17:07:20Z

Yin Yang is a new game from Nitrome that appears to be based on one of Sean Howard's 'Three Hundred Game Mechanics', Negative Space.

 Yin Yang is a new game from [Nitrome](http://www.nitrome.com/) that appears to be based on one of Sean Howard's 'Three Hundred Game Mechanics', [Negative Space](http://www.squidi.net/three/entry.php?id=1). I immediately recognized the game mechanic from The Three Hundred, and was impressed that someone had actually taken one of the ideas and produced such a polished game from it. There was a lot of buzz about The Three Hundred a while ago, and while I noticed that Sean stated on the site that anyone could use the ideas, I wondered if anything would ever come out of them. The concept is brilliant. A white character lives in a world with black sky and white ground. The white ground from that world is actually the sky for another character, who is black and walks on the black sky from the other world. In Yin Yang the player controls both characters, alternating between the two by pressing the space bar. This inversion becomes really interesting in later levels where the gravity of the two worlds is also transposed, so a deep valley in one world becomes a giant mountain when the character is changed and the worlds flip.  Nitrome keeps most of the elements described in Sean's outline: movable boxes, ladders, and a goal flag that each character must reach to complete the level. They also do a great job of adding new elements. Moving boxes create a tricky platform for one character and a sliding tunnel for the other (above). There are portals for transporting a box from one world to another, and even switches that will flip the gravity for the current character. Some levels also feature switches that one character must stand on in order to open a door for the character in the other world.  It's interesting to see how Nitrome addressed some of the problems that Sean pointed out in his description of the idea. Sean expressed concern that the objects in one world would create an impassable barrier for the other character. He talked about giving the characters the ability to pass 'in front' of certain objects, like ladders, to get around this limitation. One of the greatest things about the finished game is the ability to create a passageway through one world by strategically placing boxes to create a solid barrier/passageway.  The game features really great character designs as well. Yin and Yang look like big bald babies that will get bored and fall asleep if you play as the other character for too long. When switching between the two, the current character announces himself with a high-pitched 'Yin' or 'Yang'. I only have two real gripes about this game: First, if one of the characters dies during a level, you have to start over from the beginning of the level. I see this game mainly as a puzzle game; the challenge is trying to figure out the correct sequence of actions to move each character to the goal. I don't like that even if I've figured out the solution to the puzzle, I can be thwarted by a poorly timed jump, and have to repeat the entire level. Second, the game is really buggy. Often, jumping on the worms will not kill them, but will instead harm you. Weird things can also happen if you allow a box from one world to fall into the hole created by a box from the opposing world. Nevertheless, the game presents an interesting mechanic and gives me a lot of good ideas for my own world flipping game concept [Donut Drop](/blog/2007/03/game_idea_donut_drop.html) [Play Yin Yang](http://www.nitrome.com/games/yinyang/index.php) tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2007:/blog//1.67 2007-10-04T23:09:37Z 2007-10-04T23:14:32Z

I noticed something spooky today while checking my web stats for my new Halloween game Witchcraft.

I noticed something spooky today while checking my web stats for my new Halloween game [Witchcraft](/games/witchcraft/?id=1).  I'm not sure if that is a good omen or a bad omen. tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2007:/blog//1.66 2007-10-01T23:05:54Z 2007-10-01T23:28:47Z

I posted a new game for Halloween called Witchcraft. Witchcraft is a Mastermind-style puzzle game. The object of the game is to discover the secret spell that will lift the witch's curse. You cast spells by placing your five cards on the table in a certain order. After you cast your spell the Spirit will give you hints by lighting candles next to your cards. An orange candle means one of your cards is right, but it is in the wrong position. A white candle means one of the cards is in the right position. Unfortunately, the Spirit cannot tell WHICH card is right. You have to deduce the correct pattern of cards by trying different spells. If you can find the right spell within ten guesses, you'll break the witch's curse.

I posted a new game for Halloween called *Witchcraft*.  *Witchcraft* is a Mastermind-style puzzle game. The object of the game is to discover the secret spell that will lift the witch's curse. You cast spells by placing your five cards on the table in a certain order. After you cast your spell the Spirit will give you hints by lighting candles next to your cards. An orange candle means one of your cards is right, but it is in the wrong position. A white candle means one of the cards is in the right position. Unfortunately, the Spirit cannot tell WHICH card is right. You have to deduce the correct pattern of cards by trying different spells. If you can find the right spell within ten guesses, you'll break the witch's curse. [Play Witchcraft](/games/witchcraft/?id=1) tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2007:/blog//1.63 2007-09-21T20:10:03Z 2007-09-21T21:17:32Z

The idea for Freeze Pop Frenzy came to me while riding the subway one day. I wanted to create a summer-themed game, and I thought it would be fun to make a Tapper-style game with you as the ice cream man, having to drop ice cream on the kids as they climb the side of your truck.

 The idea for [Freeze Pop Frenzy](/games/freeze_pop_frenzy/?id=1) came to me while riding the subway one day. I wanted to create a summer-themed game, and I thought it would be fun to make a Tapper-style game with you as the ice cream man, having to drop ice cream on the kids as they climb the side of your truck. **Gameplay** It took me a while to nail down the gameplay model for Freeze Pop Frenzy. The game would be too easy if you simply had to drop ice cream on the kids, as I initially envisioned. I decided that there should be some distance aiming involved, but that didn't make sense with dropping stuff out of a truck, so I changed it to be a top-down view of a park with you tossing the pops out to the kids running across the grass. I still felt that it was missing something, so I added the two flavors. This adds another level of difficulty, because if you give a kid the wrong flavor, he gets mad and starts running faster. It also forces you to decide if you should run across the screen to grab strawberry for the kid that is far away, but running fast, or keep chocolate to give the slower, closer kid. **Artwork** Making the artwork for this game was really fun. This is the first time I've used 3D graphics in one of my games.  I found a [SketchUp](http://www.sketchup.com/) model of a step van online, took some still shots of it and decorated it to look like an ice cream van.  I wanted the ice cream pops to be flipping in the air as they got lobbed out to the kids, so I bought a model of a popsicle on [TurboSquid](http://www.turbosquid.com/) and saved out a sequence of frames for the popsicle animation.  Making the kids was the most challenging part. I found it really difficult to make a top-down view of a kid that looked like anything other than a little blob. Once I finally came up with something I liked, I created a bunch of different options for hair, skin color, and clothing that could be randomized to make a bunch of different kids. **Music** I did a bunch of research on ice cream truck music for this project. I wanted something that had that authentic clink-clink sound. Of course the Mister Softee song is copyrighted (and, curiously, it has [lyrics](http://www.mistersoftee.com/music.asp)), but I was able to find some midi transcriptions of an old tune called Redwing that often gets used as ice cream truck music. Unfortunately, the midi sounded too clean and computery to my ears. I brought the song into GarageBand and changed the instrumentation a little. I really juiced up the bells to give it that nice distorted clinking sound. **Naming** The original name that I came up with for the game was Popsicle Panic. After doing some research I discovered that Popsicle (or should I say 'Popsicle™') is a registered trademark. Not wanting to get into any trouble with a major corporation, I decided to change the name to Freeze Pop Frenzy. **Reaction** Freeze Pop Frenzy has been my least popular game to date. I think this is for two main reasons: First, the game is really hard. It is pretty difficult to time your throws just right to hit the kids, and on top of that you have to make sure you are throwing the right color. Second, I think the game is too similar to some of my other games. The click/press and hold to set throw/jump distance is a great mechanic, but I need to make sure I don't overuse it. tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2007:/blog//1.61 2007-08-01T16:44:31Z 2007-08-01T16:53:44Z

I've made a couple of small changes to the site.

I've made a couple of small changes to the site. I've noticed that if people link directly to a single game, they don't always notice the "Games" button on the side, and don't realize there are more games on the site. Similarly, since I only have the 3 newest games on the home page people sometimes don't know those aren't the only ones. So, I added a large "View All Games" button on the home page under the games list. On the individual game pages I added a small button for each game where the comments used to be. Which brings me to the next change: I disabled commenting on the games. It was great to get people's comments on the games, but I was having to weed through a lot of spam. After I started requiring people to log in to comment, I stopped getting comments altogether. So I decided to get rid of them entirely, at least for now. If you have a comment about one of the games I'd love to [hear it](/contact.php). tag:www.thepencilfarm.com,2007:/blog//1.58 2007-07-25T21:00:17Z 2007-07-25T21:11:48Z

I've been meaning to write about Samorost 2 since way back before it won Best Web Browser Game at the Independent Games Festival. If you haven't seen this game yet, I recommend you go check it out right now. You should be warned, however, that it may take a good 30 minutes to complete the first chapter, and it's incredible hard to stop playing once you start. There are a number of things that I think make this game really great:

 I've been meaning to write about [Samorost 2](http://amanita-design.net/samorost-2/) since way back before it won Best Web Browser Game at the [Independent Games Festival](http://www.igf.com/2007finalistswinners.html). If you haven't seen this game yet, I recommend you go check it out right now. You should be warned, however, that it may take a good 30 minutes to complete the first chapter, and it's incredible hard to stop playing once you start. There are a number of things that I think make this game really great:  * The art is amazing. I love how these little worlds are collaged out of photographs and drawn elements. It really feels like a strange alien world. The design of the little floppy-eared character is superb too. He's simple, but conveys a lot of emotion through his movements and his little grunts. Which ties in nicely to my next point...  * There is no text or dialog to guide you. I love games with no instructions. It makes the game more immersive because you are never taken out of the game world. I also like that the game could easily be played and understood by anyone, regardless of which language they speak.  * The game cannot be lost. Sure, you might get stumped by a certain section and give up, but what I mean is the player can never take the game to a state from which it can't be won. There is no situation where you cannot progress forward in the game because of a previous choice you made. This element of the game is enhanced by the small self-contained levels. The player always knows that the solution to their problem is never more than one or two screens away.  * A lot of little things can be affected. Even elements that are not relevant to the game can often be manipulated. This helps create a feeling that the player is truly interacting with the game world. It also makes the game more difficult, because it makes it less clear which actions will produce a meaningful outcome and which are just for show.  * Very affordable. Only $6.90 for a downloadable version of the entire game. I also liked that they don't skimp on the demo version. You can play the entire first chapter for free online. It has many levels and really gives you a good feeling of the game before you have to decide if you want to purchase it.