Almost There...

I really need to do better about upkeeping my internet presence and networking. The last 2 years have been very high-maintenance. Cranking out games at Silent Dreams is challenging, and I've learned a whole lot.

And now, it's finally almost ready: my very own solo-project. A game of my very own. Granted, it's basically an app but it's fun and addictive. Monster Face is complete and ready to play. All it needs now is platform support like leaderboards. With any luck, I'll be putting it on iOS and Android soon, and with a little more luck maybe it will even be greenlit on Steam for PC/Mac/Linux.

Originally the game was extremely simple. You throw food at a monster's face and try to hit the open mouth. If you miss, the game ends and your score is saved. I'm fortunate to have two awesome children ages 4 and 5, and they loved the faces but found the game too difficult and frustrating. It occurred to me that while Monster Face is meant to be challenging, it shouldn't exclude kids. So I added a few modes of varying game-play and difficulty, and viola: The kids love the new Zen Mode.

For the last month I've been looking into all the bureaucratic nonsense involved in selling an app from Germany. It's ridiculous really. They take you for everything you have before you even have a chance to have it. So, I'm looking into other options, but one way or another, this is going to happen.

I'm extremely excited about this. When it's time, I'll be posting updates on the progress of Monster Face, and hopefully on the next game in line, Rocket Potato, for which I've even gone and learned some graphic design and animating. Necessary skills if you're going to make games on our own. The skills came just in line for Monster Face, because I was running out of graphic artist friends with enough free time to make me some faces. A huge thank you to Bea Sucrow, by the way for making the faces of Optie and Bubbles with only my sketches to work from. If Monster Face does well, I will definitely be making a sequel with animated faces, now that I know how.

I don't want to pre-hype, because the game is so ridiculously simple that anyone could copy it with little effort and potentially release before I do, but as soon as it's uploaded, I'll upload a trailer and spread the word in much greater detail.