The MGC Times

February 2012 Newsletter

Dear customers and fans,

Last month I completed a major upgrade to my forums! They have a shiny new look and lots of new features, so if you haven't been by there in awhile, stop in and check it out.

I also installed some new anti-spam tools that have helped automate part of my daily task of managing forum spam. If you want the details, you can read my recent blog post about it. I used to receive 20-30 spam threads and posts per day, and it took me at least 1/2 hour each morning to delete them out of the moderation queue and ban the users. Plus I checked the forum multiple times throughout the day just to make sure things were ok. But last month after I upgraded the forums and installed my new anti-spam tools, I've only had to deal with 2 spam messages - and that's for the entire month! So now I can spend that extra half-hour doing more productive things for my business. Hooray!

I also created a brand new home page for Rick Rocket, which you can view here. Eventually I will be doing a makeover for all of the home pages for my games, but for right now I need to keep working on Dirk Dashing 2!

- Troy Hepfner

New Year, New Prices!

I've reduced the price of The Adventures of Rick Rocket and Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent! to $9.99 USD. All of my games, except for Dirk Dashing 2, are now available for that nice low price. So if you haven't purchased your copy of these games yet, now is a great time to do so!

Dirk Dashing 2 Production Update

I'm halfway finished with the Part 4 levels, which means that I'm on schedule for releasing the next beta update at the end of the month! It also means that 70% of the game's content is now done!

Part 4 is titled "The Hunt for Agent Dashing", and it picks up where Part 3's cliffhanger ending leaves off. This part of the story is very action-oriented, so with the exception of Chapter 4-1, there aren't many puzzles. The levels are fast-paced, and filled with a variety of tactical situations and intense battles. Well, I guess tactical situations are puzzles too - just a different sort of puzzle. You'll need sharp wits and quick reflexes to get through these levels, and you'll definitely need all of the gadgets you've been collecting in your inventory!

The levels for Part 4 are coming together quickly. Most of Part 4 takes place outdoors on a bright, sunny day, so I don't have any lighting to configure, furniture to place, alarm systems with cameras and laser tripwires to hook up, etc. So I've been able to build these levels more quickly than previous ones.

The new levels haven't required much new art either. We did generate a nice blue sky background, and Mike drew some fluffy cartoon clouds to float in the sky. Other than that, I've been able to reuse all of my existing art. Showing a different sky and setting the lighting system at full intensity for daylight conditions gives a nice, fresh look to the existing art.

I'm also working on the graphics glitches in Chapter 1-7, and I hope to have that fixed in the next update. Stay tuned!

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