Flash

Flash Games Haiku

browser is open,

no need for dear game system,

flash games are cheap fix.

Update: This haiku was entered into the “Flash Game Summit Haiku Competition” and I won !

My prize? A pass to Flash Gaming Summit 2010 in San Francisco, CA.

Check out Flash Game Summit or follow them on Twitter.

Zenzizenzizenzic

After playing a few games of Balderdash the other night, I came across what I believe to be one of the coolest words I had ever encountered. As much as I enjoy math, I had never seen the word before and it became one of the running jokes for night.

The word is:

zenzizenzizenzic

The zenzizenzizenzic of a number is its eighth power. This term was suggested by Robert Recorde, a 16th century Welsh writer of popular mathematics textbooks, in his work The Whetstone of Witte, published in 1557, although his spelling was zenzizenzizenzike.

The word is obsolete except as a curiosity; the Oxford English Dictionary has only one citation for it. It survives as a historical oddity.

For more information, visit here.

I really wanted to acquire the domain, www.zenzizenzizenzic.com but it was already taken. Maybe I’ll scoop up the .us or .org sites.

So the next time you raise a number to the eight power, just remember, zenzizenzizenzic.

Click here zenzify your numbers. Note: large input values will not be “zenzified” (due to the limits of the unsigned integer).

First Game Posted on Kongregate.com : A Day at the State Fair

A Day at the State Fair has been submitted to Kongregate.com and I am pleased to say that since it has been posted, it has been played 660 times. Not bad for a game that has been posted for only 13 or so hours.

Considering A Day at the State Fair was a 3-week project with a development team of 2, the fact that people outside the classroom have played it legitimizes the time and effort put into this simple point-and-click shooter. This is truly a rewarding feeling.

Just by posting the game on Kongregate.com we have seen a 300% increase in the game’s exposure. I have never dealt with Kongregate from the developer-side but my present experience has been a good one. Implementing the Kongregate API and adding it to the game was a breeze as was adding the code to submit and retrieve scores. Unfortunately at this time, neither of those mechanisms are functional but there is a post in the Developer Forum, so hopefully the issue will be resolved soon.

Another lesson learnt: Kongregate users are very honest and very critical, which is good for any designer. We already got feedback from users who liked the game but weren’t too captivated because of the game’s simplicity. Plus Kongregate users are the perfect batch of game testers for your game. I have already received feedback on in-game issues that will be cleaned up.
This exposure definitely improves upon a 2-person development trying to produce and then re-produce the same bugs all the time.

It truly is a gratifying feeling having the world be exposed to your game. It’s even more gratifying that they like it!

Go play A Day at the State Fair and be kind, rate it !