' It made me re-experience my whole life in just 2 hours... '
Birth, the innocence and joy, youth, trials of life , the impending inevitable loss of body and beyond ! I am sure everyone must have had a different experience with Journey, to me, somehow it reminded me of my whole life in 2 hours ! Without any events in the game, or minimal events, lets say, it managed to make me feel every emotion or feeling I have had since childhood to now and how I feel of the life ahead ! The feeling I had at the end really felt that I have just been through my whole life and I just knew at the end that there will be nothing at the end of the light but a rebirth, it is life. But there was no expectations and no frustrations at that point ! The feeling of getting satisfied or being in a state where achievements don't matter before reaching the end, the feeling of having accomplished something without getting a reward, is exceptionally difficult to be conveyed to someone. Journey did that to me . This is something I have felt only when I meditate regularly, but a game ,an experience did this to me......is just exceptional ! Jenova Chen knows what he is doing too well. For me, it is ....life encapsulated in 2 hours !
It is just ........needs to be played and played in one sitting ! I hope everyone has a unique experience of it !
Beautiful, blissful and sublime !
For the first time since "Shadow of The Colossus" I have felt so mesmerized by a game ! Very short but exceptional ! Not just aesthetically, but even technically the game is marvel. I won't spoil anything for you, just play it and feel good...it has made me proud to be a part of this gaming culture again ! :)
Hi guys ! How are the holidays going? Did u guys get time to game a lot ? :)
In CM+ news, the winning streak of Christmas Magic + continues with number of downloads increasing each day and the buzz around the game getting more electric as each holiday passes. We are even getting requests to translate the game into Chinese and a few European languages. Also, as the trailer is spreading over the internet and being hosted on multiple channels, we are getting requests from all over the world to port the game over to PC, Mac, iPhones and Android devices. Though we can't promise an alternate version right now, technically we can port the game over to Chrome store, thus covering Mac ,PC and Linux in one go, and we can port it to some Android tablets. But, that will require funds and if we earn enough from the iPad version, we can do it. Phone versions will not be possible as the game's puzzles require a larger screen. So, in that regard, the game cannot be brought to iPhones and remains an iPad exclusive for this Holiday season.
Christmas Magic + , our little baby on the Appstore, is climbing strongly on the ladders of the AppStore ! We are getting steady downloads of around 500 per day (ain't that su-weet !) and steadily climbing. Also, its interesting to see the game performing equally well in non-english speaknig countries too, eg. China seems to like our game as much as the US, which is a surprise to us considering that a major chunk of the game is a storybook in English !
Add to that we have been recieving encouraging reviews and fan mails too.With the festive season in the air and Christmas cheer all around, we are getting messages from fans proclaiming the game as
"The Best Christmas Gift !"
Needless to say, we are feeling very proud of our game these days :) ! Hoping and praying it conquers more milestones as each day passes.More news and surprises will be out soon before the new year arrives !
Yes ! Yes ! Its fun quality time for all family this Christmas ! The best Christmas game on the iPad is free to play and ready to be enjoyed right now ! Welcome L'il Pono and his friends into your iPads and spread the Christmas cheer to one and all !
The best game you say! "Says who ?"
Well, say the players who are enjoying it immensely :
“The perfect gift this Christmas ! “ –Rajn287
"Awesome game, Fun to play, Recommended."
-Sorties
"Excellent game. Kids liked it most. Very mesmerizing. Puzzles are well
made." -Rubinder
"Just found this by accident, and after having it for a couple of days
...thus is the most popular app in the household right now. It's easily as good
as the other 5$ books I have bought for kids, and the puzzles are fantastic as
well." - Jivtesh
"it indeed is magical ! mesmerizing graphics, avatar like tree, fantastic
puzzles......whats not to like there ! waiting for another of your releases.
totally recommended." - sunnymanya
See there guys and fellas ! Thats the world enjoying the pretty game ! If you don't believe it, here, watch this mesmerizing trailer in HD:
So, yes, now it feels a bit special, doesn't it ! :^)
why not try it out yourself? Its Free to play and available right now !
L'il Pono , the Magical Tree and all of its wonderful twinkling Fireflies wish you a very very Merry Christmas ! Enjoy, smile, spread love and warmth tonight and forever after ! Let there never be a home without light, without food and without love.....Let it be Christmas cheer all year round !
Just ahead of Christmas day, Christmas Magic +, our beloved little game for the iPad, has got the honour of being featured on the front page of the "Puzzles" section of the Appstore !
Here's the screenshot straight from my iPad :
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, thats the second category where CM + has got featured on the front page, after the "Kids" section. It feels like a dream run to us, out efforts finally bearing fruits :) ! The game is being received extremely positively all over the world and it getting front page treatment from Apple, shows its attention to quality !
Christmas Magic + has been featured on the front page of the "kids" section of the Appstore !!!
That is a massive achievement :^) ! We, at P.L.A.Y.-Games, are overjoyed and humbled by this special treatment from Apple ! It feels ecstatic to see our charming little game performing well and winning hearts all over !
Don't miss out on what everyone is talking about, download the game now ! its free to play and wins over everybody's hearts in a jiffy ! Let the magic spread around this christmas !
Yes, the well received and widely loved adventure of L'il Pono is back on the Appstore this Christmas. We have worked hard and revamped the game's systems to make it work effortlessly on all iPads. The game also sports new effects and graphical improvements over Christmas Magic. Also, fans will notice new unlockables and re-vamped in-app purchases. Oh, and yes, there are free gifts for everyone and extra free gifts for Twitter users :) !
Christmas Magic has been featured in the "Whats Hot" section of many countries and with Christmas magic +, we intend to spread the Christmas cheer to every home out there ! Here's hoping every proud iPad owner enjoys Christmas Magic + as much as we loved creating this beautiful little tale. Let this Christmas be warm and glowing not just with light, but with Love, cheer and happiness !
Merry Christmas everyone, from L'il Pono and everyone at P.L.A.Y.-Games ! :)
Christmas Magic celebrates the #BecauseWeMay sale ! A group initiative of Indie developers to celebrate our independence to price our games as we wish ! The Base game is FREE and all in-app items are upto 70% off from 24th May to 1st June !
We have already hit MASSIVE download numbers on the very first day of the sale : more than 30 times normal ! and we are already featured on the "Whats Hot" section of multiple AppStore's, under the categories "Puzzles" and "Family" ! Its time to celebrate and rock the world !
So, its parties, Free stuff and Celebrations all this week !
Grab'em all this weekend ! Don't miss out on any in-game item at all ! Go..Go.. GO !!! :D
Hey guys ! Just a quick update before the weekend strikes us all ! Like I said in my previous post, our most awesomest game , Christmas Magic, has been featured on the front page of "What's Hot " on the Indian AppStore and we beat "where's My Water?" and "Cut the Rope" to the front page ! So, after our celebrations faded off a bit, we decided that we need to give something back to our awesome fans who made it all possible. After its because of your massive downloads that we are famous today !
So, Here we Gooooo.........
Yes, we are giving away free stuff inside the game all this week, starting this weekend right now ! :D Ain't that cool ! But cooler are our fans who made our game a hit !
So, just follow these simple steps to claim them :
If you already have the game, make sure its the latest version. Check once for updates.
Launch the game and you will be greeted by a message informing you about your free gift !
Log-in with either your Facebook or Twitter account to claim it there and then !
Enjoy the game ! Sprinkle some magic around with your latest free items you just got :D !
Spread the news to your friends and family while you have a great Weekend !
So, there you go, free stuff was never so easy ! :) In case you have been to buried in your life and have no idea about what I am talking about, check out the most awesome trailer ever made :
See that ! Now get that Magic into your homes ! Grab it while the magic is still fresh ! Though, Magic never really gets old, now does it ! :)
A MASSIVE good News : Christmas Magic has been featured on the front page of "What's Hot" under the "Puzzles" and "Family" categories, on the Indian AppStore ! Just found out while browsing the store ! We beat "Where's my Water?" and "Cut the Rope" to the front page ! :D !!! WOW !!! The game is being shown right next to Angry Birds, Snoopy's Street Fair and TinTin ! Our little game has made it big ! I hope it conquers other stores soon ! We are one step closer to world domination ! Ha Ha!
Here's the awesome trailer that is doing wonders for the game ! :
Its free to play, so that makes it even more important to download it right now !
This is the coolest thing ever ! All our efforts to get the game noticed are showing results now. Of course, this shows that the game is being loved by the audiences as there's no other way it could beat "Where's my Water?" and "Cut The Rope" to the front page !
This warrants a party , ladies n gentlemen ! I think I smell some home made cakes tonight :D ! Aha ! Off I go, with a spring in my step and smile mile wide :) ! I think I'll draw something cool, cooler than ever before to celebrate this moment of glory and triumph ! It isn't easy for indie devs like us to make it to the "Whats Hot" page, and when we do its only because of a good game and not any paid marketing ! Makes the moment of triumph even sweeter to savor ! :)
I don't know how many of you have heard about Zurker, the new kid on the block in a sea of social networking websites. Right now on an average, it is attracting around 8 to 10k new users each day ! Yes, I know there are already too many of those networks, all trying to steal away our precious time and new ones spring up each day since FB decided to go the IPO way. So, why should we care about another one touting to be the best?
The thing is that Zurker is different, I know they all say they are, but this one is different because you own it ! Let me say that again :
"You Own Zurker! By joining you become an owner of the Social networking company ! You own your data and you own the website too! You can be the next Mark Zuckerberg!"
Lets pause for the "what?"s, the "What do you mean?", the "No Way"s and "Tell me more!"s here ! :) Is it another of the get rich quick scams?
Well, it doesn't seem so and I am not here to promote it ! For one, you cannot get rich quick in it, it will take time for you to earn from it and two , you don't invest any money in it ! All you do is what you are already doing on Facebook or twitter but do it here and you can be the next IT Mogul! (Well, if you wanna dream, dream BIG ! :) What it does is that it creates a unique situation where it makes each user a part owner of the company, so as Zurker grows, you grow along with it. How is that ?
Well, I am not a financial whizkid or someone who can understand economics much, but when I was sent an invitation by a friend to join Zurker, I did my own sweet research on the mighty interwebz and what I found seemed to satisfy my curiosity that it isn't a scam or a fraud....(and I thought people might have similar doubts and why not do a post about it !)
To me Zurker more like : "This kid looks really smart! Lets do what he says and wait what comes out of it ! "
It wasn't easy for me to understand or find ,so, I thought lets make some bullet points about Zurker, so its easier for you to understand :
It must really annoy Zuckerberg: I mean really, it sounds just like his name ! Zurker is just like Zucker-berg ! I am sure its an inside pun on the FB owner and it also sounds like "sucker". Maybe the whole thing is to make fun of Zuckerberg and company ! Who knows ! Lets join the fun ! :) Just kidding ! Couldn't help it !
Zurker treats each member as an owner of the company: You get vShares for joining the network and as the company grows, the worth of your share grows with it and over time you start getting returns on your shares. If, lets say, Zurker grows to FB proportions, imagine the worth of your shares in it ! Zurker is giving away 10,00,000 of these vShares in the beta phase. These vShares will become real shares when Zucker is restructured as a public corporation. So, these are not real money right now, but when Zucker hits 1 Million users, they will turn into real money. I am sure it will happen soon as Zucker has already gone viral !
The only investment is your time !: When you use Facebook and Twitter, you spend your precious time in spreading these networks and their total worth. Yes, you enjoy the process but the only ones becoming richer are Mark Zuckerberg and company ! Now, switching to Zurker means, you spend the same time on the network, enjoy your stay and your time spent on it increases the worht of the company and you gain in terms of the value of your shares in it ! Recreation and chatting with friends was never this rewarding :D !
You got the Power! :) : Your ideas decide the content and services of Zurker ! Zurker takes your ownership seriously, that is, you are not a sleeping partner with no say in the on-goings of your company. You have an active participation in it ! Since the users are the owners of the website, everything is decided based on voting. Every user gets to decide what should stay, go or be added to Zurker ! So, if you got an idea for the next big thing , Voice it ! and it will be heard and incorporated into the website !
No Ads or Spams ! My primary concern : The way I see it, Facebook is just a data mine for advertisers ! Sure its enjoyable, but all that you put in your profiles, photo albums, all that you share on it is used to just target advertisements on you. It is a database maintained by users themselves which saves the costs of conducting surveys and market researches for the advertisers and makes it even lucrative for them to catch you via your FB profile ! I mean, for the love of the world, I can't understand why I am shown ads of female underwears everyday when I visit my FB page ?!?!?!? I am not even a female ! I am not exaggerating, its true and sometimes becomes a hindrance when I try to show pics of our activites to my family ! Thankfully, Zurker promises that there will be no Ads and no Spams and that is the main reason I joined Zurker ! All the promises of owning the company came later.
Privacy: You control the privacy regarding everything you post there. Your "Street", the equivalent of timeline, shows content related to you and the tags you specify and similarly, your content is shared only according to your tags.Your tags are visible only to you ans stay private, so you can tag stuff according to your liking and thus tailor your own "timeline" without anybody knowing what you tagged them as ! :D Now that gives me some fun ides for tags for people that are annoying ! Ha ! Can I tag something as "stinky"? obnoxious? slimy? Its Zurker !Yes, you can ! :D
There's more stuff one can keep writing about it, but frankly this, up there, is the gist of the matter ! Its an open community, somewhat akin to the open source community (a loose analogy),where everyone has a say in it. Since you also own the service you are using, its growth reverts back to you. So, it feels like a Win-win situation to me. I get an ad-free, private environment to socialise and if it gets me some money later on in the future, well, good for me ! :)
If you had been trying to decide on Zurker, I hope this post of mine helps you a bit. Join it if you like the concept as they are giving away 1 million shares, don't if want to wait n watch. I saw no harm in joining it now getting real shares when it crosses 1 million users.
If you do wish to join, it is invite only for now, so use this link:
Download Here and Be Cool :) ! : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/christmas-magic-+/id587804888?ls=1&mt=8
So, guys n gals, how do you like it ? My new comic strip dedicated to Christmas Magic ! This was the awesomesauce that I had been cooking on my lightbox for a few days now and I feel delighted to present it to the world now :) ! The response on Facebook has been superb, with people sharing them around on their walls ! I'll have more of these coming for your wholesome consumption soon , while I also work on my new concept alongside ! Yes ! A brand new game is cooking in the hot hot oven of my head ! Hope I can share some details soon :) !
In other developments, our game, our beloved Christmas Magic was featured in the most popular iOS youtube channel called "TouchGamePlay"! :D Now thats a great development and people in the comments section sure seem excited there !
Check it out here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuAeC1_KeQo
Christmas Magic was also featured on "MobileGameFAQs" Twitter channel recently and on another youtube channel called "bbkbest" ! No idea who these guys are but " Guys ! Thanx a lot !" if I could meet you all, I would personally bake a super warm, super sweet home made cake for you guys and deliver it at your doorstep myself ! We need all the visibility we can muster for Christmas Magic ! Every little share counts ! The magic seems to be spreading on its own now as these are impromptu features not influenced by me or anyone in my team.
Also, in gaming news, the new COD has been unvieled, Yes ! Yes ! The BO 2, the much awaited , much touted sequel to BO, and boy ! after ages of rinse and repeats of the same formula, Treyarch has decided to take a leap of faith and introduce something new here ! A breath of fresh air in a severely claustrophobic room ! He He !
Here's some interesting info I could find out about it :
"For the first time," he says, "player decisions will impact the story."
He explains that this will work in two ways:
Key decisions will have significance from a narrative point of view,
but so will skill. How well you do will influence the narrative's
outcome. Main squad members and villains' henchmen will live or die
depending on what you do and how you do it.
Now thats cool ! Atleast that will bring in some incentive for re-playing the campaign !
Strike Force missions are sets of levels that will shape the outcome
of the Cold War between the United States and China. They are
non-linear, sandbox campaign missions.
They exist within the single-player campaign's main story.
Strike Force missions are like team-based multiplayer scrimmages —
played by one player. The player is able to shift between all available
soldiers and robots on his team on a battlefield. You could hop from a
rifleman's perspective to a drone to a C.L.A.W. in a matter of seconds,
and omniscient overhead view will allow you to give, what looks like,
real-time strategy commands. Send this guy here, direct this drone to
flank from the right.
The goal is to kill the opposing A.I.-controlled team and complete a
series of objectives in any order. When a person dies or a bot is
destroyed, it is gone, and you inhabit who or whatever remains. Run out
of people or time, and the mission is lost.
We see a Strike Force mission on a shipping dock in Singapore. The mission is to capture the A, B and C points.
The Treyarch employee running the demo makes quick work of the
opposition. One moment he's a soldier, the next he's a C.L.A.W. He's
flying a drone, now he's a mobile rocket launcher called the Autonomous
Ground Robot, or A.G.R.
I found the above part particularly interesting ! THis brings amazing amount of variety in gameplay of a single mission. All these optins of play exist inside a single mission and every player can play it in his own way, working out his own best soultions. Of course, all of this depends on how well the missions are set up and frankly, who knows, all of this might fall flat as COD fans usually might just want to shoot through the mission and get over it ! So much for ingenuity ! Ha !
I hope people like the changes and the game works out for everyone , because I would love to see a COD that's not a replica of the COD that came before !
The mulitplayer, the oh-so-loved MP, will have its own reveal and we'll dwell on it later. The only reason I am even mentioning a COD game in my blog is cos this one doesn't seem like a COD game ! Hows that :) !
Okay ! So time's up and me has got to get back to his lovely life of plucking flowers and tending to farm animals and singin with the wind....tra la la...la..la ! Nothing can be farther from the truth but I have got to get back to working out my next game's concept and what can be more exciting than that ! C- Ya !
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. IS BACKK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES ! ITS TRUE AND TRUEST
EVER ! :D (jumps all over his house, his garden and limps back after hurting his foot !)
yes, yes, yes .......oh ! the glee and the smug feeling and the ouch in my foot :) !
But that will come later, this post is first and foremost about
indie devs ruling the world and as true as the above statement might be,
it will have to wait. So, lets start again !
Hiya guys,
I know I promised something awesome from my drawing table, but thats not ready yet as I was busy with Christmas Magic's promotion, or shall we say trying to promote it ! Basically, I am being ingenius and trying everything I can to get it talked about on the internet!
Yes, but all that work does not stop me from checking around gaming sites, discussing on B3D forums and watching videos ! Like all internet denizens, somethings need to be done even during crunch times, that includes checking your Facebook and Twitter too, consiudering how important the have become for online promotions these days.
So, here I present to you, my mates and fellas, my unknown readers, and known firneds who never put a comment under my posts :P, the latest gaming news from around the net !
To start with , I present an awesome tech demo/trailer by an indie group who have created such magnificent wizardry with their keyboards and mice that my programming partner can't stop eating his nails out of his fingers and his fingers out if his hands and his hands out of his arms.........until he just regrows them all and can create this himself for our next game !
The trailer for RESET, a co-op puzzle game, it says, but I can't see any of that here, all I see is unbelievable realtime shaders and a cool art style for the robot and the car :
Big evil corporations gotta watch out cos new indie groups are moving ahead of them, even with their miniscule budgets! Human spirit, I say, can achieve anything with any kind of budget ! Love the tech shown here , lets hope these guys make it big and lets hope I make it big too, someday !
Second up is this total conversion mod for Crysis 2 ! Yes, I know Crytek has announced Crysis 3 recently, but frankly speaking, the trailer did not get me that excited for it. It shows small, constrained spaces and (seemingly)linear fights with thoe same stupid looking mechs and squids we had to drudge through in Crysis 2 ! Don't get me wrong here, I loved Crysis 1 and still play it sometimes, cos the game is just superb in its gunplay and freedom it provides in tackling a situation means unlimited replays are still fun. But Crysis 2 didn't match up to Crysis 1 in any way. It had worse art direction and limited gameplay areas. I was wishing they would bring back the matrix-like-sentinel-aliens of Crysis 1 in Crysis 3, but sadly that isn't the case.
So, downed and disappointed I sat down to look for things that are Crysis but could excite me more than the new Teaser and Voila ! Look what I found :
Aha ! Ain't that exciting ! A total conversion mod for Crysis 2 which seems to blend the jungle gameplay of the magnum opus with a sci-fi space twist to it ! Frankly, this has me more excited than the Crysis3 teaser and to imagine that this is by a smaller group and we won't need to shell out $60 for it ! I wonder how such groups get money for their food and rent ? I am sure there are no benevolent kings in any part of the world anymore, who would patronise art-forms like these and give the group a palace to stay in and food to eat while they rummage through their brains, hallucinating new experiences and materialising them inside computers ! Wish I could find such a patron ! From my own experience, making Christmas Magic for the iPad has been an excruciating 8 months of pen, pencils, papers, erasers, keyboards, swollen eyes in front of monitors, sleepless nights while my fiance waited for my calls which I forgot to make,...etc,....etc....! And now it turns out that we need to market it too, so which has turned into even more months of pencils, papers, keyboards, swollen eyes.......you get it ! Atleast our trailer has generated super buzz on the internet
and the game itself has generated a lot of word of mouth publicity for itself and hopefully it will pay for our bills now and help us fund our next project for the PS Vita. But working on total conversion mods which has no hopes of bringing any money to our homes and requires me to work full time to achieve a vision at par with a full game release !!!!!!!!! I have no idea how these guys do it !
and the third news I wanted to share with you guys is for all the S.T.A.L.K.E.R fans like me who were shell-shocked and heartbroken when S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2 was cancelled .....the game is still dead, its not been continued, but, and its big BUT, its spirit has resurrected from the underworld and is readying up to shine on the world again !!!!!! YES ! S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is coming back , but as another title. The guys from GSC Game World which was closed midway in the development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2, have regrouped to form Vostok games and are continuing the legacy of STALKER with a new game called SURVARIUM ! Yes, it sounds strange, but just to confirm, lets hear it from the devs themselves :
So, its a new online shooter, presumably free to play , set in an apocalyptic environment like Stalker but may include more than just post apocalyptic Russia. ALso, the devs are even open to ideas from the gaming community and want to actively involve us in the development of the game ! THats awesome news and would be wonderful to see the inner workings of this group of guys I have admired so much over the years ! I, for one, have subscribed to their youtube channel and I advise that you should too, but its a free world, do what you like !
Have to sign off now, as my lightbox is screaming at me with its all its silence to come back and finish the awesome amazing work I have started and which needs to be shared soon with the whole world wild web ! Before it starts creaking towards me and gobbles me up raw and fresh, I need to end this post and get to work!
"creak...creaak..crrreeee...aa...k.k....! "
"Whats That ?"
"squee.aa.k..cre...ee..a..k... ! grrrrrr..r.r.r.r.....r.r"
"Its alright Mr. Lightbox, I still love you more than my computer ! Look, here, I come with my pencils and pens ! "
Hey ! I am back with some behind-the-scenes concept art of Christmas Magic and some b-r-r-r-r-reaking news !
So, lets roll ! This image you see up there was pivotal in the development of the concept of the magical tree. Before this we had tried many concepts, some were very unique indeed, but it was this image where, for the first time, we felt we were nearing the vision for the tree. A simple tree, not too high fantasy, not too alien or spooky.....a sense of mystery around it, yet charming and inviting ! Of course, this is not what you finally see in the game, cos we went through numerous revisions and little corrections before finalizing the tree's concept art. The final image will be featured some other day, some other time ! A little mystery is fun :) !
Otherwise, we have been busy working on the first update for the game. Finally, the update got done last night and has been uploaded to Apple for review. Hopefully it will be live soon !The main changes that have been made are:
We have made graphical improvements so that it runs better on iPad 1, as we were getting reports it was crashing on first gen iPads. We are still not sure if the crash is fixed or not. I hope it is.
Also, added support to earn in game goodies like Magic Pots for free by sharing the game on Facebook and Twitter
Fixed some text errors ! Yes ! Even after taking so much care that the game is perfect on launch, a small textual error crept in and has been fixed ! Now, you can enjoy the game ni all its dictionary-perfect glory :D !
and numerous other little fixes which only programmers would care about, so lets not talk about them !
Thats that, as far as updates are concerned but what you need to wake up and notice for now is this :
"Christmas Magic has taken the top spot and "Breaking" into the "News" section of GamingXpress.com ! "
Need I say more, just have a look at the shiny, glossy, squeaky clean screenshots on that page :D !:
Yes ! L'il Pono's mission to take over the interwebz is working out neatly. Soon, he will be more famous that all those famous celebrities no one cares about and only likes to read about (wink wink !) ! Pono's innocent face and the warm smile shall conquer every heart, mart, bits, bytes and websites out there !
"
L'il Pono is all set,
To conquer the mighty internet !
Tra La La...La La !
.....
"
:D
and dispelling the mystery right now, here's what the final art looks like :
Ain't that suweeeet !!!!!
Will be back soon with some awesome stuff i have been cooking up on my drawing table ! Hoping you guys will like it and it will set the internet a-blaze !
This is Renegade Singing out !
:)
L'il Pono is getting famous(see the new shades he got !) and is in the news again ! Our dearest App Store gem "Christmas Magic" featured as the main story on AnimationXpress.com ! Woohoo ! :D Chk it out !
L'il Pono is going places and is destined for big things in life ! Pono's current mission is total dominance of the App store and the
interwebz .........and he will use every weapon of mass communication possible ! Including his killer shades !
In case you still haven't checked out Christmas Magic , here you go:
Christmas Magic has completed a splendid 2 week run in the wild wild web and me and my mates are going head over heels over the achievement ! We have learnt a lot regarding the patterns of downloads on the App Store and the power of "Word of Mouth" publicity. We have not put into action any marketing campaign as of yet and still the game is being downloaded each day, surprising us and positively delighting us each day ! Soon we'll have reviews and articles on various websites. At least we are trying to get them on websites, when they'll finally appear is God's own free will. We are doing as much as we can, but being Indie has its own limitations. Not having an evil corporation funding you means you gotta believe in the motto "Slow n Steady wins the race !" :)
Another amusing fact that has emerged from the download stats is that China is a huge market for iPad games. We had no idea about that and since our game has a story book in it in english, we were surprised to see the number of downloads in China rivaling those of the US of A. Guess the gameplay rules above all and the relaxing Zen gameplay and the charming ambiance of the game is breaking cultural barriers and sweeping everyone off the floor !
Good for us, makes us float with glee :D !
So, while I was floating around in thin air, smelling sweet perfumes of the fresh spring season, I came up with a song ! Yes ! A song :) ! A song about us gamers, about us game -makers ! Our thrills, excitements, bravado's and laziness !!! Yes, the master of Zen gaming says we must encompass all aspects of our existence in one perfect song of celebration and present it to the mighty world !
Lo and behold ! Get glued to your monitors, touch your touchscreens and clickety-click your rodents, cos here I present :
The P.L.A.Y. Song !
(Or the song of the gamers n devs !
BTW, the song is to be read in viking voice, complete with all its hoarse sound and proud pronunciations! it has a wonderful effect on the perception of the song ! wink wink !)
Pirates and Princesses
Legends and Lore !
Aliens and Archstones
Yikes and Roars !
We sail for the distant lands,
Treasures and Shores,
We slay mighty Monstaars,
We sail some more !
We sail through the hardships,
" All Hands to the Oars !!!"
We date sweet Mermaids,
Their beauty so pure
!
We are Messy, Ho !
Grimy, Ho !
Grumpy and sore ,
Loot Magic from Everland,
We are hungry for more !
HO ! Ho ! Ho ! Ho !
Rawr ! Rawr ! Roar ! Roar !
Swing ! Swing ! Bang ! Bang !
Swish ! Swish ! Snore ! Snore !
We are denizens of Everland,
We never do our chores,
We are gamers , game makers,
Level up n Xplore !
Level up n Xplore !!
C'mon dear Pirates,
My grumpy Ol' mates,
Let’s conquer this Everland,
Let’s claim our Fates !
OMG ! Meh ! meh !
Woot Woot ! For the Win !
let’s unleash those pranky little
devils from within !
We are pirates, we are zombies,
we are soldiers, we
are kings,
we are anything thats fun,
we are ideas with wings !
We are denizens of Everland,
We never do our chores,
We are gamers , game makers,
Level up n Xplore !
Level up n Xplore !!
C'mon dear Pirates,
My grumpy ol' mates,
Let’s conquer this Everland,
Let’s claim our Fates !
Level up n Xplore !!
Level up n Xplore !!
:)
There, there, I can hear the applause all around me already ! By the way, this song can also be enjoyed inside Christmas Magic in the "Extras" menu. Along-with the song you will also find the best part of the game, our mighty names : in the credits !
Aha ! Its been a long busy time working on Christmas Magic, our mighty game for the iPad, and what do you know : ITS DONE NOW :D ! Yes ! Finally the game is done and out on the App Store now, ready to be devoured and swallowed whole by each and every one of you out there ! :
( There, see, after having seen this amazing painting from the game, you have to click on the link ;) ! if you haven't, don't worry, I'll provide the link at the bottom of the post too.)
and just like every game developer/artist/parent, I was jittery about how it would be received by the world wide web of people from all walks of life : Appreciated/Ignored/Detested/Raised an eyebrow at/ Screamed at like mad men or Worshiped like an Inca Goddess !
Thankfully, the reaction is somewhere between "Appreciated" and "Worshiped like an Inca Goddess" ! Phew! The 1037 people who have played it and others who have seen their friends play it on their shiny iPads(thoughts of stealing the shiny thingie might also come to mind :P) or watched the "oh-so-amazing !" trailer have all appreciated its good looks, great production values, sweet story telling and deeply relaxing and unique gameplay. (A lot of credit goes to Trevor Holms for composing such a mesmersing OST for the game!) A true testament to this appreciation from people, apart from the 5-star ratings, reviews and comments, is the fact that most, almost 50%, of the downloads have happened because of recommendation from friends. Yes ! When we launched the game on the 3rd of April, 2012, we did not have any marketing media ready with us. For the first 3 days, the game was visible in the "New Releases" section of the App Store and we got 600 downloads during that time, but soon it got buried in the flurry of 'newer' new releases. Ever since then, all the downloads have been a result of people telling their friends, their friends telling their friends and so on ! Well, there might have been some who hated the game so much that they recommended it to their arch enemy/nemesis hoping he would die of shock n boredom , LOL , but you get the flow :D ! He ! He !
This is very very encouraging for us, the whole team, as it means that people who have played it are loving the game and find it worthy enough to be associated with their reputation and hence, are recommending it to others. There is no bigger satisfaction than that for a game designer: the fact that the little idea, the thought that once came in my head, which I trusted, banked upon and nourished, shared with my friends and asked them to believe in it, is finally being loved by the world! Believed by the world ! My little walk in the imagination, a stroke of emotions from my heart on an idle afternoon, a moment when an illusion tried to force itself into the real world inside my head has evolved into an amalgamation of shapes, sounds and colours, of names, places, longings and fullfillment, that is as real to players now as any other place and person in this physical world ! People talk of L'il pono and the Magical Tree to each other ! People smile when the Tree surprises Pono, get excited when magic starts to flow from Pono's fingertips! They help him out in fulfilling his innocent wishes for a Christmas night and feel the warmth when love flows on the magical night !
Putting a game out in the App Store is almost like sending your child to school. You have nurtured that little one from when he did not exist to now and now you send him off to the world. Will people like him? what will his teachers say? will his classmates like him? will his teachers like him? will he perform well? Have I brought him up well? Will I be a proud parent ?!
Ah ! The jitters ! but now its all over !All the anxiety, the fear of judgements is all gone... All that has settled around me now is tranquility and a contended smile :) ! The child has turned out to be a prodigy, his teachers love him, his classmates love him and he is performing really well on his own !
What is needed now is more efforts from us parents ! what is that, you say? Well, marketing, promotions and visibility ! Not for the children in schools heh heh ,but for our game. The first step towards that has been taken and I present to you, Ladies and Gentlemen, Guys n Gals and all the hep n happenin' synonyms for males and females ..........
The Launch Trailer !!!!
The launch trailer in all its ridiculously sharp 720pHD awesomeness :) !
Check it out :
Watch it, love it , like it , comment on it and spread it all around the net !!!
My burst of happiness has brought about this magical effluent and opulent post of mine after a long time in slumber. I am generally happy these days and ,well, exhausted, but happily exhausted ! So, you will hear from me again........ and when I am back I will bring around some goodies that can otherwise be accessed only from the game , just for you right here :D ! Till then enjoy the game, if not the game, enjoy the trailer, its just as awesome as the full game .....!!!!!
