Hello from Paris

I'm in Paris doing some promotional work for So Blonde. The original intention was to combine this with a short holiday with June, but she had a fall before we came away and wasn't up to the trip. So I find myself alone in my hotet room with some time to spare so I thought I would post another entry in the old blog.

I'm actually staying in a hotel called Le Chat Noir, which I booked online and thought was a cool sounding place and has connections to the Montmartre area of Paris. Only, when I got here I found that it was situated on the same street as all peep shows and other red-light district kind of places. Still, the hotel is pretty good and it's not very far from Montmartre.

Last night I met up with Stefano Collavini, the artist who's currently doing the art for the Mr. Smoozles comic strip. We spent the evening in a small cafe and had a great meal and lots of interesting conversation. Stefano wants to get into designing and developing his own games, so it's probably only a matter of time before we start seeing something from him and his team.

Today's interviews went very well and no one fell asleep through boredom. :) One of the things I like most about doing interviews is the way that thinking up answers to the questions helps to crystalise my thoughts on game development. It's kind of like the idea that there are times you can learn more from teaching others than you can from being taught.

Which reminds me that I was again asked by a university in the Netherlands if I would join their teaching staff. I remember that last time I was asked I very nearly considered doing so but now I'm doing so many different things that I couldn't possibly take on a teaching post without all of that exciting stuff being left behind. I'd like to teach in some small way, but taking up a post at a university is not the way to gor me right now.

Now I need to go and find something to eat. I'm suddenly surprisingly hungry...

Player Reviews of Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso

Reflexive Arcade are hosting Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso and there are some interesting reviews on their player review page for the game. Most of them appear to be positive:

"It’s lots and lots of fun. I might even buy this game." (LOL to the last part)
"This is one of the best games I have played in a long time!!"
"I love games with story and this one have everything."
"I wasn't sure I'd like this game. But after 10 minutes I was hooked. It has a nice story line. It's one of the best puzzle games I've seen. Great fun."

There are a couple of reviews where I wonder what game they were actually playing:

"As it turns out, Mr. Smoozles has been injected with an alien "drug" by his friends Zoran and Grik, which makes him behave as a rabid animal." WHAT?!
"its a vey violent game! not for children and i am very discustting about this kind of games, i will never expend my money in this abomination"
I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but these last two made me laugh. I don't expect everyone to like the game, but to see it as something that it clearly isn't is just weird.

Thanks to the reviewers who were so positive and defended the game against the two negative reviews. My favourite line from the reviews is this one:
"if you've taught your children the difference between reality and fantasy..they, and you..will enjoy it." Well said!

York Writers - new URL

I am a member of York Writers and we recently changed the URL of the group's website, which can now be found at this link.

Mr. Smoozles Goes Nutso - online distribution

Nutso has just been picked up by Merscom for online distribution and the game is popping up on many casual gaming portals at the moment. Some of the first ones I've seen are:

Reflexive Arcade

Harmonic Flow

Myth People

Shabu Games

BD Studio Games

Logler

Game Socks

These are just a few I've seen so far. On Game Socks the game has an average rating of 9/10!

Please let me know of any other portals you spot the game on.

Panel - Writing for Games

I've been invited to sit on a panel on the subject of Writing for Games. I'm really excited by this and am sure that it will be a fabulous evening. If you're anywhere near London why not come along?

The event even has it's own Facebook page, so it's sure to be a roaring success. :)

Great review score for So Blonde

There are times when I'll be glad when the current project I'm working on comes to an end. I'm putting in so many hours that I'm no updating here as often as I'd like. Anyway, on with the reason for this post...

I can't add a link this time because the review is in a print magazine and I can't quote from it as it's in French, but the score given to the review was 8/10, which is a great score from a general magazine, particularly as it appeared in one of France's top print gaming mags, Joystick.