ClickPLAY! Rainbow

Working on this latest instalment was a blast, especially when crafting some of the more devious physics puzzles, but after spending the last week of the production fighting bugs into the early hour of the morning, I feel like I need a vacation. This is one of those weird things us designer/creator time people do. We first we get REALLY exited by an idea, then we proceed to make it, while often tearing our hair out and vowing never to do it again! However, after a good night sleep, we forget how many times we insulted the computer and promised it was going out the window and the whole cycle starts all over again.

Anyway, the weather this weekend turned out to be absolutely wicked, so part of my post game creation recovery process included going for a cool beach run followed by weights at the gym. Just as well I have my girl Charlie to spot me and stop me from dropping weights on my head! Every gym session needs to be followed by some good nutrition, so this one was followed by good-old fashioned burger face stuffing at the local Burger Fuel.

Puzzle Agent

I also finally got around to playing some games that I bought quite a while ago. If you’ve never heard of the Puzzle Agent games from Telltale Games, then you should definitely give them a go! Being into puzzles, adventure games, cartoons and X-Files type story lines, I must say that these games are just my cup of tea. I especially love the simple newspaper style cartoon art with rough outlines and the funny conversations the characters  have. Right, gotta go finish Puzzle Agent so I can start on a new game … until next week!

Camera Chick Charlies day job, has the sort of title that is kinda hard to understand and trying to explain it just confuses people even more. Anyway, she’s recently been asked to fly to Melbourne, Australia on business and asked me if I would like to tag along. I was a little hesitant as I was just about to start on a new game and hate working on my slow laptop, plus I’m not a great flyer and the last time I was on a plane, I almost pulled off my armrest because of turbulence. After being told that I was a wuss and should harden up, I realised this was a valid point and decided to come after all.

Sharing a hotel room and not having my studio meant that I could no longer stay up till the early hours of the morning. Understandably, random mouse clicks, keyboard tapping and the occasional cursing outburst can be quite disruptive to somebody having to wake up early for work. Not wanting to have sharp objects thrown at me in the middle of the night, I decided to go to sleep early. Needless to say, getting up was not pretty, but a few coffees later I felt somewhat de-zombified and attempted to embark on my new project. It didn’t take long for me to realise that my laptop is a complete dinosaur, incapable of handling any real work. After wrestling with my computer for a few hours, I decided that my time would be better spent exploring the city instead.

In the 10 days we spent in Melbourne, not a lot of work got done. It was not all in vain tho, as I’ve gotten most of my planning done for my next game. Sadly, I’ve left the post-it notes I used, stuck all around the hotel room mirror and forgot to take them with me ( I bet housekeeping will be somewhat baffled by the random 20+ sketches they have to remove). Luckily, on a good day, I have a half decent memory and don’t think it should be too hard to re-doodle all the ideas.  I also got to explore the local markets, found a couple of cool comic/pop culture shops, ate at “Il Gusto” – a sweet Italian restaurant with a very entertaining host called Fernando and most of all, got to hang out with my girl Charlie and go tram hopping!

While I didn’t quite manage to finish it before last weekend,  a couple of days ago  (at about 4am) I finally released “Bustabrain 2 – The Dice of Doom”.

I spend the last couple of days recovering from my zombie like state, but a few days and numerous cups of coffee later, I finally mustered up the strength to post an update. So far, I’ve only had a couple of small bug reports (nothing too major), so I will get onto those ASAP and patch the game up. I’m very happy with how the sequel’s turned out and I hope you guys have fun playing it. The ideas for my next day are coming together quite nicely and an update will be up as soon as I have something a little more substantial together.

Have a cool weekend and happy puzzle solving!

So, I’m nearly done working on Bustabrain 2.  And this one nearly has!  Busted my brain that is. I’m kind of in the bug fixing stage, so finding myself sitting at the computer at 3am wondering how I’m supposed to fix something is doing my head in!

I’ve started talking to myself and occasionally I answer back (most of the time I’m not too kind either!!). So really, I think I might be slipping into a stereotype here.  But enough of that – this post is meant to whip you into a frenzy of excitement around the release of Bustabrain 2 – The Dice of Doom.  I’ve decided to add something a little different to the 2nd Bustabrain game. Not only will you have to complete the puzzle, but for extra click reducing points, you need to find camouflaged things.  Like it says in the name of this one, you will have to look for the dice faces.  I’m hoping it will add an extra bit of “involvedness” (i know, its not a word, but sometimes needs must!) to the game! Keep your eyes peeled (but not too much, cos that would hurt!), as the game should be out before the weekend!

So tonight I decided to make Mrs Ninjadoodle, burgers for dinner. See, she can be a little clumsy and I thought a good helping of Ninja goodness might be somewhat helpful to help keep her reflexes “ninja like”.  So, here is the recipe – if you need help cutting stuff up and using the stove top, just ask your parents – who knows, giving them ninja burgers might make them that much cooler!

Put the following stuff in a bowl – makes about 4 big patties

• 500 grams ground beef (beef mince)
• 3 Tablespoons Tomato Sauce/Ketchup
• 2 Tablespoons Sweet Chilli Sauce
• A big dollop of minced garlic
• Salt and Pepper

Now, wash your hands first – coz who knows where they have been right?! – and then, use your hands to squish all the stuff together so it’s nice and squished – tip – DON”T LICK YOUR FINGERS!!  Then, get a hunk of stuff and make it into a flat circle like thing.  Burger patty ready to cook!

Heat your pan, put a little oil in it then cook it till its a little brown on each side.

While you are doing this, cut your burger buns in half, chuck them under the grill for bout a minute – watch them though, those things burn fast!  Burnt stuff does not rock!  Then when they are done, whip ‘em out, squirt some more tomato sauce on the bottom half, chuck some cheese on top of it, then put the cooked burger pattie on top of this goodness.  Rip up some lettuce (wash it first, this recipe doesn’t include bugs!) slap it on the pattie, cut some onion rings and tomatoes (if you like ‘em), throw them on too, then top it off with some blobs of mayo.  Put the top on and squish it down!  Your ninja goodness is ready!  Have a napkin on hand to mop up the stuff on your face, and you are good to go!

Enjoy, Ninjadoodle.

p.s – our “nightfury-esque” cat tried to eat mine, so watch out!  They are really that good!

Well, trying to decide on what format I’d like my website to take, has been a bit of a roller-coaster ride. I’ve attempted to start up many “regular” bits and pieces, but being a one-man band, whose main focus is game-design, keeping to a regular schedule never really worked out.

The good news is, I’ve finally decided that the best way to update this section would be randomly and whenever I have the time. This means that soon, you’ll start getting a whole bunch of fun and random stuff from the Ninjadoodle end.

There’s still a bit of tweaking and tidying left around the place, but  I am really exited about the cool things I have planned, so check back often and remember …

“It’s all fun and games until somebody gets a shuriken in the eye!”.