machai-umno

I have just finished uploading the final version of Purple Mountain I: Temple of the Locust Lord to Paizo's site. I'll put it up at Rpgnow in a day or so after I finish some non-Purple Duck work. It has been a long haul getting this product out but I am very happy with the results and cannot wait to tear into level two. Hopefully, it will be cleared by Paizo staff and available for purchase tomorrow.

People for the Ethical Treatment of 'Monsters'   (PETM) PETM focuses its attention on many areas where so called 'monsters' suffer the most intensely at the hands of the sentient species of this land.   Our goals are: - to free the minions/denizens of the many villains that are used as human shields and fodder in battle; - to stop the unfair and cruel imprisonment of all magical familiars; - to put an end to the sacrifice of countless beings to uncaring and capricious Gods; - and to once and for all end the outright slaughter of free/wild monsters in their natural habitats(dungeon/Lairs) by so called 'Heroes' PETM works through public education leaflets, protest campaigns at local dungeons/lairs, animal rescue from hidden villain lairs and special events like hot dog sales and other non-meat events. People who support monster rights believe that monsters deserve consideration of their best interests regardless of whether they have claws or teeth, spray poison in...

Hello IGF friends... I know, I know... I have no business entering my little game in your contest, but my boy Andy said it might have a chance. So what the heck, it's only $95. My name is Adam Spragg. I'm a life-long gamer, and have been trying my hand at developing games for quite a while now. It wasn't until I discovered the Xbox Live Indie Game platform that I was actually motivated to complete and publish a game. This latest one is my third (after "Bad Golf" and "Battle for Venga Islands"). When I'm not developing games, I'm a dad, husband, and software developer. In case you don't already know, Hidden in Plain Sight is a local-multiplayer-only game where players are trying to win by accomplishing goals, but also given the means to eliminate each other from the game. This puts the player in an immediate state of conflict: should I try to touch all the statues to win, or by doing so, does that give me away as a player character? In ...

I made a new trailer video... Also, since the last time I wrote, Ninja Party has been updated sort of significantly. The real problem with Ninja Party was that it was impossible to determine who the players were. Players could easily just wander around and look exactly like the NPCs. Basically, you just needed to wait until someone got impatient and start taking swings at everyone, and it just turned into a duel. So I needed to add something that the players would react to, but that the NPCs would ignore. I added statues. You can win the game if you touch all five statues. This gives the players something to do, and something to guide their behavior, and therefore something to give themselves away. The addition, I think, is a good one. It allows for multiple levels of strategy. You could just go for the statues straight away, but that would probably be pretty obvious. You could camp a statue, but you'd have to be careful, or you'd look suspicious. The statues also have t...

Looking around the web, the most common suggestions, complaints, what have you, is that the figure appears top heavy. Rightfully so, this is caused by the legs not being true to scale and the shoulders being too wide. The arms and shoulders need to clear the chest projections so that you can pose the figure, I can however make some changes to the arms and changes to the legs so that the figure has a much more “correct” form. After polling my project supporters, there was a strong consensus that we use the more “correctly” scaled miniature for the final production models. I would like to extend a heart-felt thank you to all the supporters that have graciously given to make this project a reality. Although we have met and exceeded to project goal, I would like to encourage you to take part in the project. The cost to manufacture the prototypes and make the molds has still not been fully paid for. The project will need to reach roughly $7300.00 to be in the black and completely self-sup...

Well folks, I need your help. If you enjoy my models and would like to see this product line launch, please head on over to Kickstarter and add your support to the project. If you're not familiar with the Kickstarter model, the way it works is you receive a reward for an accompanying pledge in support of my project. The more you pledge the better the rewards and the greater contribution you will make to this and future projects. Your positive participation will help a small independent company to grow and thrive and you gain the satisfaction of knowing you made this happen. And what you have been waiting for....Here are a few shots of the actual prototypes for the Kriegsmarine and Sturmtruppen soldiers. NEW PLASTIC STORMTROOPERS New plastic figures proportion change and scale change (above) nothing went untouched for the new plastic line, the size scale and proportions were refined on every component! These will be produced as lead free pewter miniatures. Project rewards you s...

A while ago I played through Limbo for the first time. I thought it was quite an interesting experience for many reasons and been thinking for it on and off. Now that I have collected most of my thoughts on the game I thought it was time to write a little post about it. Starting off, I thought the game had really nice visuals that really added to the mood. Small things, like the change in light level and tilt of the camera heightened the mood substantially. Another thing I really liked was the variety of activities and lack of puzzle repetition. Too many games just try and extend play time as long as possible, and it is nice to see games going in the other direction. All this has been said before though and is not what this post will be about. Instead I want to discuss some other things I realized when playing the game. Limited Interaction I think the biggest take-away from Limbo is how you do not have to give the player lots of actions in order to make a fresh and interesting experie...

After a few nights of just playing around and testing and tinkering and tweaking, I'm ready to stand back from the canvas and say that I've painted my last stroke on this masterpiece of a game. The ONLY thing left is to wait for Eryn to finish up the title/loading screen image for me.  As I've said, I'm not in any hurry to release, and this extra time has given me some opportunity to do some extra polishing and stuff.  So that's all good. I made a YouTube video introducing the game.  It's a subtle game, so just showing silent gameplay footage wouldn't really sell it, I don't think.  The video ended up being 10 minutes long, but I think it does a decent job explaining each of the game modes, and showing why it's a fun game.  I was hoping to get some playtesters together tonight and record some actual game footage, but plans fell through.  Maybe next weekend. I emailed out some websites with a link to the video.  I have no idea how to do marketing, and...

Getting closer!  Am I done? In the last week or so, I’ve upgraded the menus so that they somewhat match the tiles theme that Eryn introduced in his title artwork.   I also added in the Trial mode stuff (two game modes free with trial, the rest you get with purchase), and a credits screen.   I’m pretty much done, I think. Eryn emailed me today and said that he has some work and a timeline at his job, so he won’t be able to do more work on the title screen for a little while.   This is kind of a bummer, as I’m eager to get this to market, but also a blessing in disguise.   There absolutely no reason I need to rush anything, and having some extra time for playtesting and tweaking is always a good thing.   So I can put on my QA hat and look for bugs.   I could also try to do some marketing, but I don’t really know how to do that. I did spam out some emails to gaming sites with a link to a pre-release version of the game.   I think one or two might h...

The Forest of Gora sits between the kingdoms of Illaya and Grismor and serves as their border. Trade routes circle either side of the far stretching forest. Outposts can even be seen within sight of the forest, but none are ever directly next to it. Both kingdoms have learned nothing built near Gora will last the season without being ransacked or razed by those living in it. Both nations have tried on numerous occasions through the generations to lay claim to the land, either by force or in cooperation. Ill prepared for the guerrilla tactics of those that reside in it, they were held back every time. When the native occupants took out their building hostility on the private trade caravans that passed near their borders a quick, unofficial truce was quickly made with the impending threat of economic collapse a lack of trade would cause. Ecology Much of the flora and fauna of Gora is what one would expect from a temperate forest. A mix of broadleaf and evergreens provide a balance of wax...