Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso - First Screenshot

I have just posted the first screenshot on the website, which can be accessed from the screenshots page, here, or viewed directly, here.

Design a level for Fireball

Chris Bateman - in his blog, Only a Game, is discussing the design aspects of a new puzzle game he's creating called Fireball. Not only is it an interesting read, it also looks like it will be a really fun game. He's also inviting people to design a level for a credit and a portion of the royalties.

Go check it out.

To clarify the situation further...

I have been asked by Randy, over at Just Adventure + to clarify the situation and to categorically state that JA is not boycotting my games and he's happy to cover them.

Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso - Game Difficulty

I've been thinking about the idea of difficulty for the game. Although I'd already started implementing differing degrees of difficulty in the game, I had the feeling that something wasn't right.

My initial thought was to have three degrees of difficulty presented to the player as a choice when they chose to start a new game: Easy, Normal and Hard. I've already implemented objects so that they vary their speed according to the difficulty and set up Mr. Smoozles so that he behaves slightly differently depending on the setting, too. Which all works fine.

Then I implemented some additional clues into the game so that on an easy setting you would get to see these, which worked well enough in testing and felt very good without over-doing it.

So what was the problem?

I'm classing the game as an arcade adventure, for want of a better term. The adventure interface has been simplified from what you'd expect in a "pure" adventure (though the puzzles are still as valid) but in many ways it is layered on top of the arcade gameplay. While not being completely separated, they are different aspects of the whole gameplay experience. This meant that I should be offering more choice in the settings to the player.

So in addition to the Easy, Normal and Hard settings for the arcade gameplay, there are also two settings for the adventure gameplay - Normal and Additional Clues.

What this means is that players of a number of dispositions and abilities will be able to tailor the game settings to match how they want to play the game. Hopefully, this will make the game as accessible as possible to a larger number of potential players.

I was wrong

It turns out that I wrongly assumed that a second adventure games site was not covering my games. I should have checked a little more deeply before making the assumption, but I missed the page on which they posted my recent press release.

The situation is therefore not as dire as I thought.

I apologise, without reservation, to all those concerned at the second site and to its owner, who was very gracious in the e-mail he sent when he had every right to be angry with me.

It's snowing like crazy

I hope it stops soon. I'm hoping to visit my mother again later.

Death of the Adventure Community

Further to my last posting, I've since found that the boycott extends to more than one adventure gaming site. For the moment, I'm still going to refrain from naming names, but considering that they have said they no longer intend to cover my games, I'm not quite sure why I should do so. (For those who like a bit of detective work, look for a couple of adventure sites that have not covered my recent press release.) I've also found out that there are at least a couple of other games not being covered for similar reasons.

The situation got me thinking some more. Potentially, this could have an affect on my earnings. Maybe not substantially, but while I'm trying to establish Juniper Games, anything could tip the balance between success and failure. If the latter is the case, it will be hard not to see this lack of professionalism as contributing to the problem.

Of course, I could give in to it and perhaps give myself more chance of a success, but as I've already stated, I'm going to stand by my friends.

I also think that, because of this strange attitude, the adventure gaming fans who are loyal parts of the community are being treated very unfairly - the sites and forums they frequent are no longer going to cover all of the adventure games being created. When the people behind these sites see their own trivial differences as more important than providing a service to the community they've built, then I think it heralds the death of that community.

For a long time now, the various adventure game sites and the community forums have been a real power behind keeping the adventure genre alive. If the communities of loyal and valuable fans are allowed to decay from within like this, then I fear for the whole of the adventure genre.

Let's all work hard to prevent the death of the adventure community. The adventure genre needs a vibrant community!

Standing by my friends

I just received the following in an e-mail:

"I apologize for the bad timing to tell you this, but we here at ******* have decided to not cover your games as long as ****** works for your company. I have explained the situation to the ******* staff and they agreed." (Names removed to protect the innocent.)

While the site is not a big one, I find this attitude very unprofessional. Do they really expect me to change the people I work with because of a withdrawal of coverage? I'm sorry, but I will never turn my back on people I respect because of anything like this.

The person in question has been very supportive to me and though they have views that are a little forthright for some people, I find them refreshing and helpful in giving me perspective.

Blue Sky in Games Campaign

I love it! :)

Go to the site, here. This is what gaming should really be about.

Juniper Games site re-design and two new games announced!

Press Release

Juniper Games – New Site Design and Two New Games Announced

YORK, UK (November 16, 2005)
Game developer, Juniper Games, is pleased to announce a complete site and logo re-design along with two new games, Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso and Mekapods. Along with Juniper Crescent – The Sapphire Claw, it now means Juniper Games has three games in various stages of development which will be released over the next two years.

“A fantastic opportunity has come along that will allow Juniper Games to take advantage of a number of game ideas in fairly rapid succession,” said Steve Ince, MD of Juniper Games. “By taking an independent route to market I will build on my ideas for rich, character-driven gameplay with plenty of fun and high interaction density.”


About Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso

“Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso” is an arcade adventure game based upon the online comic strip, Mr. Smoozles.

Play as Ed and help him avoid the now dangerous Mr. Smoozles, who's been turned completely nutso by the evil Goragons – dark creatures from another dimension, who have totally messed up reality.

Will Ed defeat the Goragons, free his friends, restore Mr. Smoozles' mind and put the world back to normal?! And all while protecting his valuable collection of Geeks Monthly?! Well, of course he will – but only with your help!


About Mekapods

“Mekapods” is an Adventure RPG featuring a group of fun robots in a quest for the ultimate secret that will change their world.

The main character is a robot built from re-cycled parts, who discovers tantalising hints of a dark secret buried in the deepest corners of his mind. In a bid to discover how to access these strange memories, he uncovers a conspiracy that has existed for thousands of years.

Gathering a group of battered but loyal robots, he sets out on an epic quest to discover the true nature of these secrets and to change the world that they know.


About Juniper Crescent – The Sapphire Claw

Play as Scout the One-Eyed Cat as he sets out on his quest for the fabled cat artefact, The Sapphire Claw.

Helped and hindered by his friends, plotted against by Big Mog and his henchmen, Scout must find the ancient device that will save the day.

Employing a style that features high quality, painted backgrounds and utilising an intuitive, mouse-driven interface, this humorous and exciting game will draw the player into the engaging and compelling story filled with a variety of fun characters.


Additional details can be found at the Juniper Games website: http://www.juniper-games.com/

Juniper Games can be contacted on info@juniper-games.com

Some updates...

Visiting my mother in hospital is still occupying a lot of my time, but I'm mostly managing to keep on top of things. I even managed some time to create a new Mr. Smoozles strip.

Progress is very slow on my mother's recovery and she's still in the intensive care unit. When we visit, she comes around for a few seconds, has a look at us and gives us a weak smile. Then she drifts back to sleep again. We'll all be a lot happier when she's fully conscious for more extended periods.

The book on writing is going pretty well and I'm finding that I'm writing more for each chapter than I expected. Some serious editing will have to take place one the first draft is completed.

I've also been working on something else, on which I hope to make an announcement in the next couple of days. Keep your eyes peeled.

Mr. Smoozles is missing

Those of you who regularly follow Mr. Smoozles will have seen that there was no strip on Friday and again today. I'm sorry that I've been unable to find the time to create the strips. I've had a lot of writing and game development work to get on top of and something had to give.

Not only that, my mother had a serious fall down the stairs and has been in the ICU at the hospital for a week and I've been visiting every day. Obviously, this is very serious and a worry for us all and it's difficult to write humour with this in the back of my mind. Fortunately she seems to be back on the mend, but progress is very slow at the moment.

I'm not quite sure when I'll be back to publishing Mr. Smoozles on a regular basis. Please bear with me.

Perhaps I should do what others do and ask for some guest strips. Anyone fancy trying their hand at creating a Mr. Smoozles strip?

Da Vinci Code, the game

Over at Adventure Gamers they have this piece about the announcement of the game based on the film based on the book. I'm not quite sure how they're going to create an action based game without straying from the strengths of the book. Surely a fairly straight adventure would have been better? Perhaps as we already have Broken Sword and Gabriel Knight, a Da Vinci Code adventure might have been too similar. :)