The MGC Times

Quarterly Newsletter Issue #3

Special 5th Anniversary Edition!

President's Corner

This month marks the 5th anniversary of My Game Company! I didn't realize it until I went down to the courthouse to renew our business license last month. I was standing in line, looking at the date on the original application, and then it dawned on me that we've been in business for 5 years now! Amazing how time flies!

Because it is our 5th anniversary, we wanted to do something special for our customers and fans. We're offering a 25% discount on Dirk Dashing, Fashion Cents Deluxe, Fashion Cents, and Word Play. When you go to purchase one of these games from our site, enter this coupon code: MGC5YEAR. This coupon code is good until October 31, 2008. And feel free to share this code with your family and friends!

I would also like to announce a change in the pricing of our games for customers within the European Union. The price is now inclusive of the Value Added Tax (VAT), which means we will no longer be tacking the VAT on to the cost of the game. We have to come to understand that this is common practice, which we were not previously aware of. We trust this change will make our games more affordable and accessible to customers in the European Union.

- Troy Hepfner

We Now have Hundreds of New Games!

Because we produce family-friendly games, we are frequently asked by our customers if we can recommend other games that are safe for their children. The answer is now a resounding "yes"!

We have greatly expanded our lineup of games by signing up as an affiliate for Reflexive Arcade!

Our goal is to become the premiere site for family-friendly games. You no longer need to hunt around on the Internet for other clean, family-friendly games. We have hand-picked a collection of Mac and Windows games from among Reflexive Arcade's vast offerings that we believe are appropriate for children and adults alike. We have personally play-tested most of the titles we now carry, and we have screened them for offensive language, violence, and other inappropriate content.

Reflexive offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all of their games, and unlimited game installations on any and every computer you own, forever! And because Reflexive publishes lots of new titles each week, we will be frequently adding fresh new Mac and Windows games to our site. So check back regularly!

If you are a Linux user, don't worry - we are also looking for family-friendly games for Linux, and we are working through the Plimus affiliate system to bring clean Linux games to our site. We've already added several Linux games, and are on the lookout for more.

By purchasing these games through us, you will help support not only My Game Company but also other companies that create family-friendly games. So stop by our web site and checkout our new lineup of games! You'll find all of our new games listed under the Games page, and you'll also find write-ups of some of our favorites on our Reviews page.

Dirk Dashing 2: Production Update

We have been working hard to develop the new features required for Dirk Dashing 2. On August 22, we released an update to the original Dirk Dashing game containing some of the new features, which we ported back from the sequel. We gave Dirk the ability to throw grenades and shoot the grenade launcher while jumping. We gave Dirk's enemies the ability to walk around on patrol instead of just standing still. And we made numerous other improvements and bug fixes to the game.

Since then, we have been working on the new features that are unique to Dirk Dashing 2. One of the most significant new features we have introduced into the game environment are ladders that Dirk can climb. It was quite a challenge to synchronize Dirk's animated climbing movements with the ladder background graphic. We had to make a lot of adjustments to the hand-drawn animation so that it looks like Dirk is really grasping the ladder with his hands and stepping on the rungs with his feet as he moves upward. And we had to do it in such a way that the background scrolled smoothly as he climbed. It took a long time and a lot of work, but it was worth the effort. 

The nice thing about ladders is that Dirk no longer needs to jump in order to move upward. From a level design standpoint, this means we can do a wider variety of architectural styles. We can now have tall, flat wall surfaces that Dirk can climb without having a lot of staggered ledges sticking out all over. And we don't always have to provide elevators or super shoes for Dirk to move upward in a level. As a result, we can create more realistic buildings for our city landscapes.

Rick Rocket: A New Game in Production 

When we realized that this month was the 5th anniversary of My Game Company, and that Dirk Dashing 2 was still a long way from being completed, we were disappointed that we would not have a new game that we could release to coincide with our 5th anniversary celebration. So Troy went back to his desk drawer full of half-finished game projects to see if there was anything he could complete fairly quickly. In the drawer, he found a CD containing a game that he had started 7 years ago and never finished: The Adventures of Rick Rocket.

The story behind this game is interesting. The original game design featured a character who would fly a spaceship around, exploring star systems and engaging in space battles with other ships. He would also be able to land his ship on planet surfaces, get out of his ship, and walk around on foot. The original game design called for two complete engines - a 2D/3D engine for flying a ship in outer space and another side-scrolling engine for exploring planets. Troy finished the space engine after nearly a year of work, but stopped when he realized that it would take him another year to develop the side-scrolling engine and a third year to do the artwork and levels for the game itself. So he backed up his work onto a CD, put the CD in the drawer, and turned to smaller games instead. Coincidentally, Victoria had just come up with an idea for a dress-up game...

Anyway, back to 2008 - because the space engine was already written, we realized we had a good foundation for a space shooter game. We decided to scale back the original design by eliminating the on-foot planet exploration and focusing on action-packed space battles. The new storyline centers around a mysterious alien race that suddenly appears and attacks the Earth. As Rick Rocket, the player will fend off the initial invasion and then embark on a journey across the galaxy to find the alien attackers and stop them from launching another, more devastating attack on the Earth.

All of the missions will take place in space. The initial game levels will take place in our solar system, and as the game progresses, the player will move out into the galaxy to explore gas clouds, nebulas, and alien star systems. The player will have complete freedom of movement, and can take the ship in any direction. Missions will be varied, from intense battles to reconnaissance sweeps to rescue operations, so that each new level is not just a repeat of the previous level. During the game, the player will encounter tumbling meteors and asteroid fields, stationary weapons platforms, small alien fighters of varying speed and skill, huge command ships, and more. There will also be a wide range of weapons and shield power-ups that you can collect to help you out.

While the game engine itself is complete, we still have to build the game levels and the menu system. So there is still some work to do, but we're hoping to finish this game by the end of the year. You can follow our development progress in Troy’s blog at: http://www.mygamecompany.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=17

Stay tuned!

My Game Company