Sunday, December 4, 2005 - Merry Christmas!

What is happening to Christmas?  Have you noticed how nobody even mentions the word "Christmas" anymore.  Nobody greets you with "Merry Christmas"; in fact, the lady at the store wished me "Happy Holidays".  When I responded "Merry Christmas", she told me she wished she could say that, but she would be fired.  I've read things recently and seen on the news how Christmas is little-by-little being taken out of our culture.  Everyone is worried that celebrating Christmas might offend someone.

Well, I'm offended that Christmas is slowly being taken away from us.  I have fond memories of Christmas when I was growing up.  I remember wonderful times with my grandparents and relatives, fireside conversation with egg nog and apple cider, delicious holiday dinners, fresh baked Christmas cookies, carolers singing special music at your door, children participating in pageants and musicals, etc, etc, etc.  Some would say that you can still have all that, but without the name "Christmas" and without all of the religious symbolism.  But what made it all special was the very thing they are trying to remove from it.

So we are bound and determined to celebrate Christmas for what it is, no matter what other people think.  We've hung the Christmas decorations on the front page of our web site, as well as our home.  And we're going to celebrate Christmas the way we love to celebrate it, the way we remember celebrating as we grew up.  And if other people are offended... well, that's their problem.  I'll just wish them a Merry Christmas, the same as I do everyone else.  They can either take that in the spirit of love and joy in which it is intended, or they can be a Scrooge and ignore it.  It's their choice.  Merry Christmas!

Monday, November 28, 2005 - Dirk Dashing Production Updates

We have returned to work, after a week off visiting family for Thanksgiving.  The first thing I noticed this morning was that my blog had not been updated in several weeks.  So I have updated our Dirk Dashing production page with additional behind-the-scenes material, including a photo of my workstation (where I produced much of the artwork for Dirk Dashing) and a section about the game music.  The game music section features several live recordings of Jordan Davis playing his acoustic guitar as we brainstormed ideas for the Dirk Dashing theme.

Currently, I am working on a couple of new spy gadgets that I came up with during the holiday, as well as some new characters for the game.  The later levels needed some additional challenge, so I have created some robot characters that are immune to the stun gas from Dirk's grenades.  It should make things more interesting, as you will have to find alternative ways to get past the robots.

Tuesday, November 8, 2005 - Dirk Dashing Screenshots and News

I have added two new screenshots from levels we recently completed for Dirk Dashing.  The new screen captures are available on our Dirk Dashing product page.  We have finished around one third of the game so far.  As I said before, progress is much slower than I would like, but the levels are looking great and are a lot of fun to play.  I had been hoping to be able to release the game before Thanksgiving, but that isn't going to be possible.

The game story consists of five parts.  I've been toying around with the idea of selling the first two parts, and then releasing each subsequent part every 4-5 weeks... sort of like the old 1930's and 1940's movie serials.  But I'm hesitant to release an incomplete game.  Besides, we keep going back to older levels to make minor improvements, and that would be more difficult to do once the game is released.  So I guess you'll have to be patient for awhile longer.

Thursday, October 20, 2005 - "Gaming Grannies" Article

I came across an interesting article today on the Business Week web site, called Attack of the Gaming Grannies.  What intrigued me was this statistic that the author referenced from Peter D. Hart Research Associates: "19% of gamers are over 50".  My first thought was "no way"!  But after I reflected on the letters and e-mails we have received from customers in the past, I reconsidered and thought to myself, "way"!

We originally wrote Fashion Cents with a particular target market in mind: young girls, ages 6-14.  We were surprised to discover that the game appeals to women of all ages. In fact, there are a lot of older women who bought Fashion Cents and/or Word Play for themselves, and they are frequently up past midnight playing our games.  We thought this was unusual, but the statistics in the article suggest that this is not so unusual after all.  The article even referenced research that suggests that gaming may actually have benefits for older folks: it improved their reaction time, vision, reflexes, and mental abilities (by keeping their mind alert).  They even said it was good for arthritis!  How about that?

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - Dirk Dashing Progress and New Screenshots

I know many of you are anxiously awaiting the release of our upcoming game, Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent!  I thought I would take this opportunity to bring you up to date with the latest developments.

The game programming, artwork, music, and sound effects are largely completed.  The only thing remaining is to construct all of the game levels.  I am discovering that it takes a quite a while to construct an individual level.  Everything has to be strategically and precisely positioned in a level, with just the right balance of treasures, traps, bad guys, stun grenades, and hidden/secret areas.  It takes time to design a good level, build it, fill it up, try it out, and then tweak it to get it right.  Sometimes there is custom artwork or sounds that are needed for a level.  Progress is slower than I would like, but our goal is to produce a high-quality game.  So we are taking our time to make sure we get everything right.  In the end, I'm sure you will agree that it was worth the wait!

I've added a bunch of new screen captures to our Dirk Dashing product page, so you can see the progress we are making so far.  Enjoy!

Saturday, October 8, 2005 - The State of the Company

Once again, I want to thank each of our customers who took the time to write us and share their suggestions, opinions, and thoughts.  Your letters have been a source of great encouragement to us.  I have tried to respond to each letter personally, and I think I have answered them all.

The variety of the letters we received was amazing.  We heard from parents, single moms, grandmothers, teenagers, single adults.  We read lots of stories about friendly competitions, family rivalry, slumber parties, mother-daughter times, and visiting grandchildren - and every story involved Fashion Cents!  It has become clear to us just how much our customers and fans love our game, and what kind of positive impact it has been making in homes around the world.

While we were discussing our options going forward, we took some time to review the state of the company and how we are doing.  First, our sales volume has been steadily increasing, and if the forecast holds, we will come close to doubling our sales from last year.  That is phenomenal!  Second, we continue to find many positive game reviews from independent sources on the web.  Fashion Cents has also been reviewed in printed magazines - it was featured in the August issue of Parenting Magazine, and I am told it was featured in the October issue of Girl Power magazine in Australia.  If anyone can verify this and send us a copy, we would appreciate it.  Third, the feedback we receive from customers and the public continues to be mainly positive.  We still receive letters each week, and our contests continue to be very popular.  Many people have downloaded our Dirk Dashing beta and provided feedback, and that is encouraging to us.  God has blessed our little company, and our prospects for the future continue to look good.

As disappointing as it was to find our Fashion Packs being illegally distributed on the internet, when you put it in perspective with everything that has been happening this year, we're doing well.  And as your letters have reminded us, our company and our games are making a difference in the world.  That is something the thieves can never take from us.

While we continue working to complete production on Dirk Dashing, I will start posting our plans for the coming year.  I'll share our plans for securing our existing games, as well as plans for new games.  Stay tuned!

Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - Dirk Dashing Beta #3 Posted

I've just finished uploading an update to our Dirk Dashing beta.  This update addresses some more bugs that have been found so far, including the sound and music cutting out on some systems and some crash bugs encountered on some AMD machines.  Also, we incorporated some of the constructive feedback we have received by resetting enemy positions when going through doors, adding some enemy reactions when they see you (allowing you time to react), and removing the continuous jump feature when you held down the jump key.  As a bonus, the beta now includes levels 1 through 4.

Thanks to all for the feedback we have received so far - keep it up!

Friday, September 30, 2005 - Overwhelmed by Our Customers' Response

The outpouring of support from our customers and fans today has been overwhelming.  We have received many e-mails of encouragement, as well as questions and concerns over what will happen to our software as a result.  We are still discussing our options and thinking about what we are going to do.

One thing I know for sure is that we will honor our commitments.  We will continue to offer free add-ons for our customers, as we have promised in the past, although the method for distributing those add-ons is likely to change.

Also, we have been planning to do a major upgrade to Fashion Cents next year, which will introduce some brand new features.  We are considering what kind of features we could build into the game that only our paying customers would have access to, such as an online high-score table that will allow customers to submit their best scores to our web site.  I have some other ideas, but I think our goal should be to add value for our paying customers and make it worthwhile to purchase the game rather than steal it.

Thursday, September 29, 2005 - Hackers Spoil It For Everyone

We discovered today that someone has been illegally distributing our Fashion Packs on a certain hacker site.  It frustrates me that we pour our hearts into making a good game and go above and beyond other developers to continue to support our game with free add-ons and upgrades, only to have people ruthlessly steal it from us.  To go the extra mile, and have it make no difference to some people - it blows my mind.

And I bet the thieves don't even give it a second thought, or even think about the fact that they are robbing someone.  It's not like we're a huge corporation that can afford to lose a few sales.  Our small company depends heavily on the sales we generate to keep going.  Any drop in sales is a serious problem for us.

The hackers claim that they love our game, but the funny thing is that they are ruining it for themselves and everyone else.  And they don't even understand it.  Or they don't care.  Because of what has happened, we now have to consider alternative business models.  For example, we may have to stop distributing our add-on packs for free and start charging for them.  We may also have to think about using stricter licensing on our games, so that they are essentially locked to one particular machine.  These things frustrate me as an end user, as I am sure it does to many of you.

What are your thoughts on this?  E-mail us and let us know.

Thursday, September 22, 2005 - 2006 IGF Entries Posted

The Independent Games Festival has posted the list of entries for the 2006 competition on their web site at http://www.igf.com.  As I wrote earlier in the month, we submitted our beta of Dirk Dashing to this competition.  So if you want to see who our competitors are, head over to the IGF web site and take a look.  I'll warn you though, some of the entries this year are pretty sick and twisted, in my opinion - not family-friendly at all.  Please pray with us that Dirk Dashing will be a shining gem, a clean game amidst the rubbish, that will demonstrate that a game doesn't need controversial elements in it to be considered fun or to get people's attention.

Saturday, September 17, 2005 - Preview of Fashion Pack 10... in Dirk Dashing

We're doing our best to build a lot of humor and interesting things into our upcoming game, Dirk Dashing.  I'm sure many of the people who have downloaded and played our beta version have discovered some of the interesting things we have added to the town in the second level.  For those of you who may not have noticed, or perhaps have not yet downloaded the beta version, I wanted to call your attention to the fact that there are some items from the upcoming Fashion Pack 10 on display in one of the shops in town.  So if you want a sneak preview of December's winter-themed add-on pack for Fashion Cents, check out our Dirk Dashing beta!  And be sure to share your thoughts and opinions about our latest game with us!

Monday, September 12, 2005 - Letter from a Happy Contest Winner

As you may or may not know, we receive a lot of fan mail from girls and women each week regarding our popular game for girls, Fashion Cents.  We recently received a humorous letter in our post office box from a recent contest winner, Ruth Sutherland, who you may recall won the award for the Cutest Outfit in our recent Fashion Dos and Don'ts Contest.  Ruth gave me permission to share this letter with you:

You can click on the thumbnail picture for a larger version.  We had quite a chuckle when we received the photo!  Thanks to Ruth for sharing it with us, and allowing us to share it with our fans!  It never ceases to amaze me how this simple little game we created finds its way into the hearts of so many people.  Enjoy!

Friday, September 9, 2005 - Dirk Dashing Update Posted

I've just finished uploading an update to our Dirk Dashing beta.  The update addresses some of the performance issues that have been found so far.  The side-scrolling is now much smoother and sharper, at least on all of our computers here.  We also changed the rate at which the music is streamed, so it should fix the problem that some have reported about the music cutting in and out.

Thanks to all for the feedback we have received so far - the response has been very positive, and we've already found some bugs that we didn't know about.  Keep it up!

Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - Dirk Dashing Beta Released

Last night, we uploaded the first two levels of Dirk Dashing to the Independent Games Festival competition.  As some of you know, we entered Fashion Cents in that contest two years ago, and it made into the distinguished list of top ten finalists!  We're hoping that Dirk Dashing will do just as well, if not better!

To celebrate this milestone in the development schedule, I decided to make these first two levels available as a beta version to our customers and fans.  As I mentioned when I first started this blog, it is my desire to involve our customers in our development process.  So we want your feedback - what you liked about the game, what you didn't like, any bugs or problems you may have encountered, suggestions for improvements, or ideas you may have for making the game better.  We want this game to be as good as it can possibly be, and we will seriously consider all of the feedback that we receive.  Obviously we have to weigh your ideas against the overall design goals of the game, balance them against other ideas, and then decide what we can feasibly do - so we may not incorporate all of the feedback we receive.  But we will listen carefully to your feedback, because we want to create a game that you will enjoy.

The official release for Dirk Dashing will be sometime in November, although the free shareware version may be available sooner.  So please send us your feedback as soon as possible, so we have time to consider it and possibly incorporate it into the game!

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 - Dirk Dashing Soundtrack Completed

Last night, Jordan delivered the final version of the Dirk Dashing soundtrack.  I am very pleased with how the music has turned out for the game.  This is our first customized soundtrack, and it is great.  There are seven different music loops in all, so there will be a good variety of songs for the game.  The Dirk Dashing theme was recorded with a real guitar, as were several of the other music loops that play off of the theme song.  I've already converted most of the music into the ogg format and added it to the game, and the music works very well with the cartoon graphics and sound effects.  All the pieces are coming together nicely, and it's exciting!  Stay tuned!

Tuesday, August 30, 2005 - New Dirk Dashing Screenshots Posted

I have posted two new screenshots from our upcoming game, Dirk Dashing.  These new screenshots illustrate the uniqueness of each level in the game.  You can view the new pictures by visiting our product page.

Sunday, August 21, 2005 - The Rising Problem of Credit Card Fraud

This year we have seen a huge increase in our sales, which has been great for getting our business going; however, we have also had an unprecedented number of fraudulent orders.  In the past couple of months, we have had at least three fraudulent orders that we are aware of.  This has led us to make some changes to our shopping cart system in order to better protect our customers and ourselves from the rising problem of credit card fraud.

The centerpiece of our changes is a new fraud detection system that we have added to our online store.  The system goes above and beyond the current address verification and card code checks that are made, and performs a whole host of tests to verify that the customer is the legitimate owner of the credit card being used.  And it does so without disclosing a customer's personal information or collecting any additional information from the customer.  This system has been online for approximately one week, and it has already intercepted four potentially fraudulent orders.

Now, there is the possibility of false positives, meaning that the fraud detection system could mistakenly mark a legitimate order as fraudulent.  All potentially fraudulent orders are routed to a holding queue for review.  I personally review each of these orders, and if I have any doubts as to the legitimacy of it, my policy is to reject the order.  This is the safest course of action, or our customers and our company.  Of course, for those who are concerned about using their credit card online, we still accept PayPal in our online store, and U.S. residents can mail us a check to purchase our games.  But we are confident that this new system will significantly reduce the problem of credit card fraud here at My Game Company.

One parting word regarding our upcoming game: Dirk Dashing's first mission will be to recover some stolen items from an international jewel thief.  But the game also has some other stolen items that you can recover for bonus points.  The biggest of these stolen items, which is worth the most points, used to be a treasure chest.  But yesterday I changed it to a credit card.  It just seemed appropriate.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - New Dirk Dashing Screen Capture

We've added a new Dirk Dashing screen capture to our product page.  This one shows one of the many barns that Dirk will encounter as he travels through the Bavarian countryside.  Dirk is able to run through the open door and explore inside the barn.

Monday, August 15, 2005 - 101 Ways to Defeat a Bad Guy

One of the interesting challenges we have faced in the design of our upcoming game, Dirk Dashing, is the question of how Dirk will defeat the bad guys he encounters.  Most spies in the movies, television shows, and books that we are familiar with either carry guns or are trained in some form of hand-to-hand combat.  So naturally, someone who plays our game will expect Dirk to be able to defend himself in a manner that is consistent with the secret agent persona.

This has posed an interesting problem for us: what level of violence is acceptable for children, since our games are written for children of all ages?  Obviously, we have no intention of portraying graphic violence like that found in most mainstream games, so there will be no blood or gore.  But what about guns or other weapons?  If Dirk had a gun, how should the "bullets" dispatch the bad guys?  Would they just fall down and lie still when hit, or fade away into nothingness?  What if the "bullets" were non-lethal - how would those work?  In Commander Keen, an old side-scrolling DOS game that has heavily influenced how Dirk Dashing looks and plays, the "bullets" were energy discharges that stunned an enemy, leaving them sitting or lying on the ground with a circle of stars over their heads.  While we like that cute approach, we don't want to make our game look like an exact clone of Commander Keen.  So we looked at other old side-scrolling games.  In one game, the "bullets" caused the bad guys to disappear and be replaced with a tombstone that said "RIP".  In another game, the "bullets" caused the monsters and bad guys to disappear in a red poof (like a miniature explosion).  There was no blood or gore in either of these solutions, and they conveyed the idea without depicting violence, per se.  But would either of these solutions be acceptable to families today, who are hyper-sensitized to the problem of violence in computer games?

Or what about hand-to-hand combat?  Hand-to-hand combat would mean that Dirk would defend himself by blocking and hitting/kicking.  If we allowed Dirk to punch or kick, would that be considered too violent for children?  Many cartoons over the last 50 years have had heroes that defeated bad guys by hitting them, like Batman and other super heroes, Kim Possible, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, and even Mickey Mouse (in his older cartoons).  But in each case, a viewer always watched the hero hit or kick and never initiated that behavior themselves.  That makes a computer game a little different.

If not hand-to-hand combat, what if Dirk defended himself indirectly, like dropping something on the bad guys from above or triggering something in the game environment that dispatched the bad guy for him?  Would that make any difference, or would that still be considered too violent for children?  Again, there are many cartoons that have shown this sort of thing over the years, like dropping anvils on someone's head, placing rakes for someone to step on, causing someone to fall, etc.  I definitely remember times where parents expressed concern over this sort of cartoon violence.

We struggled with this question for a long time, before Victoria finally came up with an interesting, non-lethal solution.  We decided to equip Dirk Dashing with knockout gas, in the form of grenades that Dirk can throw.  When the grenade strikes something like a wall or a character, it will emit a puff of gas that will render a bad guy unconscious.  This gives us the non-violent solution that we were looking for, but is still consistent with the secret agent persona.  It also gives us a very unique and interesting weapon - instead of shooting a bullet in a straight line, which is what hundreds of side-scrolling games do, Dirk will throw a grenade in a curved arc.  And the longer you hold down the fire button, the farther Dirk will throw the grenade.  It will take some practice and skill to learn how to use the grenades effectively, but it will be a fun and non-violent weapon to use.

Thursday, August 11, 2005 - Jordan Davis Joins Our Team

I would like to welcome Jordan Davis to our team.  Jordan is our new musician, and he has been working on the soundtrack for our upcoming game, Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent.

The music is coming together nicely.  Jordan and I spent a couple of hours this evening brainstorming some additional music ideas for the game, and I think we have finally found Dirk's theme song!  And it rocks!  The game will have a variety of musical loops, and several of them will be based on the new Dirk Dashing theme.

I've added a short bio on Jordan to our About Us page.  Welcome aboard, Jordan!

Friday, July 29, 2005 - Two More Full-Size Dirk Dashing Screen Captures

I've posted two more full-size screen captures on our product page.  This is a nearly completed cave scene that comprises one of the hidden areas on Level 1.  There are two versions of the cave scene - the normal version, and the version you see with the x-ray glasses (one of the many fully-usable spy gadgets in the game).  More to come - stay tuned!

Thursday, July 21, 2005 - First Full-Size Dirk Dashing Screen Capture Posted

I've posted a full-size version of one of our Dirk Dashing screen captures on our product page.  It is the snowy woodland scene, which is the very first scene you will see when you begin Level 1.  Just click on the thumbnail to view the full-size version.

I also plan to have a full-size version of a completed cave scene for you in a few days.  This will be one of the hidden areas on Level 1.  For now, you'll have to make do with the thumbnail image.

Game development is progressing nicely.  Most of the basic game mechanics have been coded, such that Level 1 is almost fully playable.  It is really exciting to see the game in action!  In another couple of weeks, the programming portion of the game will be nearly finished, and then we start building levels and putting all of the pieces together.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - Fashion Cents is... Educational?

It's amazing to me how many schools have recently purchased our games for their computers.  I can understand why they might purchase Word Play because it can be used to help teach and enlarge one's vocabulary.  But many of these schools are purchasing Fashion Cents.  I had not thought of Fashion Cents as an educational game.

Because of letters we have received from teachers and parents, I am beginning to understand the educational value that they see in Fashion Cents.  First, it teaches basic computer skills to girls.  We have been told by some parents that they had no trouble getting their young boys interested in computers - they just gave them some games, and in no time, the boys were learning how to use the computer.  But they just could not get their daughters interested in computers, and they were concerned that their girls would be behind other children in terms of computer skills.  But then they found Fashion Cents, and in no time, their girls had learned how to use the mouse, how to do drag and drop, and how to do other basic operations on the computer.

Second, Fashion Cents makes you think.  When you play the game, you have to pay close attention to the pieces you are given and all the colors that are on them.  A careless move can cost you the game.  In addition, there is an element of strategy to the game.  You have to plan ahead in order to score big combo bonuses, and you have to play your pieces wisely in order to maximize your chances of completing the level (particularly in later levels where the game gets progressively harder).  The strategy element of the game is something that many other girl "games" lack.

Third, Fashion Cents inspires the girls in a way that other games do not.  When the girls see a computer game made just for them, with their interests in mind, some of them begin to think about what it might be like to create games like it.  Fashion Cents is sparking their imaginations.  Because of this, perhaps some girls may choose to pursue a career in computer science or engineering because they have seen that it can as much fun for girls as it is for boys.

So Fashion Cents does have some educational value, after all.  We didn't plan on it when we made the game - we just wanted to make a game for girls that was fun.  But kudos to parents and teachers who have figured out how to use the game to teach their girls!

Friday, July 1, 2005 - Plans for the Future

It occurred to me the other day that customers and fans of our previous puzzle games may be looking at Dirk Dashing and wondering where My Game Company is going.  We started our company by producing two great puzzle games, but our third game is very different.  Have we abandoned puzzle games?

For those who may be wondering about that, I want to lay your fears to rest.  We have not abandoned puzzle games.  In fact, once Dirk Dashing is done, we have two new ideas for puzzle games that we plan to work on next, including another game for girls.

It has always been my vision to produce two different kinds of games.  I want to make games that appeal to boys and girls.  And let's face it, boys and girls are different and they enjoy different kinds of games.  While there are some boys who do play Fashion Cents, most probably won't even consider downloading it - let alone playing it (unless their mom or sister happens to download it and they see how fun it is).  Our first two products were not designed with boys specifically in mind, so when it came time to develop our third game, we felt that we needed to start developing our action/adventure line of games.

I've always been partial to adventure games, and classic side-scrolling action games in particular.  That's how Dirk Dashing was born.  I have lots of ideas for other such games, which we will be working on in the coming years.  Victoria, on the other hand, loves puzzle games.  So rest assured - we will be producing both kinds of games in the future.

I've also been asked by various customers when we will be producing another game for girls.  We are working on some concepts for such a game, and we welcome any ideas you may have.  In the meantime, I think girls will enjoy Dirk Dashing every bit as much as the boys will.  The cartoon nature of the game makes it fun for everyone!

Thursday, June 30, 2005 - First Dirk Dashing Screenshots Posted!

The first screenshots from our upcoming game, Dirk Dashing, have been posted on our product page.  There are three: at the top of the page is our final title screen, and at the bottom of the page are two screen captures showing our new DynaPaint graphics engine in action!  I think you will agree... it looks awesome!

I know many of you have been waiting to get your first glimpse of our new game, and we are pleased to share these screenshots with you.  More to follow... enjoy!

Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - Dirk Dashing Escapes From Windows!

For a long time, Microsoft Windows has dominated the personal computer market as the most commonly used operating system.  Part of this is because manufacturers sell computers with Windows pre-installed on it, and part of it is because there has not been an alternative operating system for PCs that is as user-friendly and easy-to-use.

Until recently.

We have been following the growth and development of the Linux operating system for the past couple of years, and we believe it is nearly ready for prime time.  There are a number of user-friendly versions of Linux that are inexpensive (or even free), and can be installed on a PC with almost the same ease as Windows.  And best of all, it never crashes, collects spyware, or suffers from nasty viruses.  It is very safe and secure, and we love it!

Linux is becoming more and more popular, so we have decided that our latest game will run on both Linux and Windows.  Therefore, our next game will not utilize Microsoft's DirectX.  We have decided to write the game using cross-platform technologies like OpenGL for the graphics and OpenAL for the audio.  This will allow the game to run on either Linux or Windows.  We could even decide to port the game to Mac OS X in the future.

I plan to update the Dirk Dashing page with some preliminary screenshots of our new DynaPaint engine (implemented in OpenGL) by the end of June.  Stay tuned!

Sunday, June 5, 2005 - Fashion Pack 8 Accessories Added to Resource Center

In preparation for the upcoming release of Fashion Pack 8, I have added the new accessories to our Fashion Cents Resource Center so you can get a good look at the new items that will be available shortly.  We have had many compliments from fans on the cute puppy, as well as some requests for other pets like kittens.  We have added that request to our list, and we are considering the possibility of doing a "pet pack" next year.  Stay tuned!

Saturday, May 21, 2005 - New Voiceovers for Fashion Cents 2.0

We just spent the afternoon with Hilary Burris, the talented young lady who gave us the original voiceovers for Fashion Cents.  She helped us record dozens of new voiceovers today for the upcoming release of Fashion Cents 2.0.  The new voiceovers will add a lot of variety to the game, so players will not have to listen to the same limited number of comments during gameplay.  Almost all of the new voiceovers came from her ideas and suggestions, and they are absolutely delightful.  I think players will be pleased with the quality and quantity of comments that will soon be available.

The only problem is that Hilary's voice has changed since we recorded the original audio tracks two years ago.  This means that we will not be able to reuse many of the original voiceovers for Fashion Cents 2.0.  We know many of you will be disappointed about that, but it can't be helped.  The two sets of audio tracks just do not work well together because her voice has changed too much.  However, I think you will enjoy the new comments every bit as much as you did the original comments.  And for those who enjoyed the original comments, we did rerecord them in her new voice.

The new voiceovers have a much more mature and sophisticated quality to them, while at the same time maintaining that youthful valley girl sound.  The comments are very contemporary and filled with humor.  In addition to adding new comments for wrong moves or cute/ugly outfits, we also added comments for lots of new events where we felt comments were lacking in the original game, like when you take too long to make your next move or when you use a bleach bottle, scissors, or credit card.  There are also some comments specific to certain add-on packs.

No release date has been set yet for Fashion Cents 2.0, but it will one of our next projects after Dirk Dashing has been completed.  Stay tuned!

Sunday, May 15, 2005 - DOSbox: a Wonderful Discovery

I recently discovered a wonderful new freeware utility called DOSbox, which lets you play older DOS games on modern operating systems like the newer versions of Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.  Thanks to this great little program, I have been rediscovering some of my favorite games of years gone by.

In my excitement, I wrote a short review of one of my favorite games of all time: Commander Keen!  Actually, Commander Keen consisted of a series of games, and each one gave me weeks and weeks of enjoyment.  I played and replayed these games so many times, I have them all memorized!  And now I get to play them again!

The Commander Keen series of games was what got me excited about developing computer games.  In fact, in the coming months you will discover that the design of Dirk Dashing was heavily influenced by Commander Keen and other side-scrolling games like it.  So if you want a little preview of how Dirk Dashing will play, take a look at my review and maybe download Commander Keen and try it out.  Despite the dated graphics, I think you and your kids will enjoy it!

Thursday, May 5, 2005 - Spyware/Adware Targeting Kids

I came across an article today on the c|net news site about a 25-year old Harvard law student named Ben Edelman who has been researching spyware and adware and documenting how it all works on his web site.  For those of you who may not have heard of these terms before, spyware and adware are programs that can install themselves on your computer as you browse the internet.  Sometimes this happens without your knowledge, but usually the spyware and adware makers disguise their programs as a different program like a search tool or a browser add-on.  Spyware/adware programs track the web sites you visit and what you do on your computer, and many of them report these statistics back to their makers.  Some malicious spyware also scans your computer for personal information like credit card numbers, back account numbers, and so forth.

Apparently the spyware/adware makers are very upset with Mr. Edelman for exposing how their technology works, because they use it to target internet users with ad banners, popup ads, e-mail spam, and other advertisements.

After reading this article and visiting Mr. Edelman's web site, I discovered two disturbing pieces of information that I felt I should share with you.  First, I learned that adware makers are targeting kids sites.  According to Mr. Edelman, "I've been trying to figure out how these programs have such a large installed base: Who in their right mind would agree to have their computer become a vehicle for pop-up ads? It turns out that many of these programs target kids. They advertise their software at kids sites. They bundle it with video games. They use advertisement images like smiley faces."  On his web site, Mr. Edelman also stated, "Lots of companies want to take advantage of users who may be a bit confused, a bit naive, or a bit too quick to click yes."  This is the first thing that I learned that bothered me.

The second thing I learned is that the spyware/adware makers are able to produce these programs as a full-time business because they sell advertising to companies.  This is what Mr. Edelman had to say about it in the c|net article: "There's just a huge amount of money changing hands here. The biggest, richest American companies are buying advertising through spyware. The biggest, richest venture capital firms are investing in those who make this kind of unwanted software. That's names like American Express, Sprint PCS, Disney, Expedia, ..."

I'm not one to spread information like this to help foster paranoia or to denigrate other companies.  I want to assure you that isn't my intent.  My intent in sharing this with you is twofold: first, to point you to this information so you can better protect your kids and your computers, and second to assure you that My Game Company will never bundle spyware/adware programs with our games.

It is my pledge to you that any game you download directly from our web site will never include any other software bundled with it.  One of the ways we guarantee the integrity of our games is by our membership in the ASP (Association of Shareware Professionals).  As an ASP Member, our software is developed in compliance with ASP standards.  Also, the ASP works with many shareware sites on the internet to ensure the safety and security of shareware, and as a result, many shareware sites now provide download links that come directly to our site rather than hosting the files themselves.  Therefore, you can download our games directly from us and be safe.

Sunday, May 1, 2005 - Dirk Dashing: A Sneak Peek into our Next Game

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of our release of our second game, Word Play.  I've had several folks e-mail me in recent months, asking when we are going to be releasing our third game.  I want to assure you that we have not been idle.  In addition to regular updates to both Fashion Cents and Word Play, we have been working quietly behind-the-scenes on our next game.  It has taken awhile to produce, but we have finally come to a point where we can begin to unveil what we have been working on all this time.

I have updated our Preview page with the official name of our third game - "Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent!"  I have also created a product page for it and posted some interesting production notes and behind-the-scenes information.  If you are curious what we have been working on in the past year since we released Word Play, take a look and tell us what you think.

Thursday, April 21, 2005 - Preparing Our Next Contest

After the tremendous success of our first contest, where we asked our customers and fans to submit ideas for names for Fashion Pack 7, I have decided to repeat the exercise with our next Fashion Pack.  Fashion Pack 8 will be released in early June.  So I have been putting together the contest details and getting it ready to start running in early May.

Fashion Pack 8 will provide a whole new set of accessory items for Fashion Cents, including rimmed glasses, a new pair of sunglasses, jackets, necklaces, and more.

Saturday, April 2, 2005 - Update on Game 3

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted, and I thought I would bring you up to date on our progress for our third game.

The game is an action/adventure game, and it is our first story-based game.  The basic storyline is complete, and Victoria has given it her stamp of approval.  It will be an interactive story, which means your decisions in the game will influence the outcome of the story.  We have spent a lot of time working out the logistics of the story, so that the game will give the player as much freedom as possible.  There will be multiple paths through each level and multiple ways to solve each puzzle, and each decision you make will have an impact on what happens next in the story.  I will reveal more about the story at a later time, but for now I will say that it follows the adventures of a secret agent as he tries to save the world.

I have been busy working on the artwork for the game, consisting of various objects, animated characters, and scenic backgrounds.  The game art has a definite cartoon feel to it.  All of the animation is being drawn by hand in a traditional animation style.  Also, the background elements are being painted by hand using a combination of acrylic paint and watercolors.  It is a painstakingly slow process, but the results are terrific.  And it is a lot of fun too!  It has been a long time since I have painted anything, and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed it.

At the end of April, I plan to update our preview page with the official title of Game 3, as well as samples of the game art and a paragraph or two about the story.  Stay tuned!

Monday, March 14, 2005 - Screenshot of Fashion Pack 7

Last night I finished working on the screenshot for the next Fashion Pack, which will be released this Saturday, March 19.  Click here to see all of the new ball gowns, tiaras, and jewelry that will be available in this new add-on pack!

Victoria and I are sorting through the list of contest entries to determine the name for the add-on pack.  It is a tough decision, as there are a lot of great ideas submitted by our Fashion Cents fans!  Stay tuned!

Thursday, February 24, 2005 - A Sneak Preview of Upcoming Fashion Packs!

I have just finished creating a bunch of cute new clothes and accessories for the Fashion Packs that we will be releasing this year. There will be four of them, and we will release one each quarter. As usual, the fashion packs are only available to registered owners of Fashion Cents, and we make them available free-of-charge as our way of saying "thank you" for your support.

The themes of each add-on pack were based on suggestions we received over the past year from our customers. We received a lot of great suggestions, and we selected the four most-requested themes. The themes will be 1) a formal-wear/princess theme, 2) an accessories-only theme, 3) a cheerleader theme, and 4) a winter-wear/figure-skater theme.

I spent the past two weeks coming up with designs and drawing some really cute outfits for each add-on. It was a lot of fun! You can see some sample clothes from the formal-wear and accessory-only add-ons by clicking here.

If you have some ideas for add-on packs that you would like to see next year, contact us. We would love to hear your ideas!

Now that this year's Fashion Packs are done, I've returned to work on our next game! Stay tuned for some sneak previews in the coming weeks!

Wednesday, February 16, 2005 - Who We Are and How We Got Started

We've updated our About Us page with some brief biographical information about our staff - all two of us!  We also included photos, so you can see who we are.

We started My Game Company because we have noticed a growing vacuum of clean, family-friendly games in recent years. We have many friends with kids who have lamented over this trend, and the more people we talked to, the more we realized that there is a sizable market here that is being largely ignored by the mainstream game companies.

I’ve always loved computer games, and I created lots of simple little games in college. With the encouragement of family and friends, I decided to see if I could turn my hobby into a viable business. So in the spring of 2003, Victoria and I started our own computer game company. Our purpose is to create clean, family-friendly games for boys and girls of all ages, as an alternative to the trashy titles and grotesque games that are prevalent on the store shelves.

We were trying to decide what our first game would be when Victoria came up with the idea for Fashion Cents.  She had just gone shopping, and had returned with several bags full of clothes.  Naturally, she wanted to demonstrate how all of the different shirts and slacks went together, so she put on a little fashion show for me.  Now, six shirts and six slacks make for A LOT of possible combinations.  So needless to say, the fashion show took some time.  After awhile, I suggested that perhaps she could just hold up the different clothes in front of her, kind of like a paper doll.  So we started to talk about paper dolls, and how much fun they were for her to play with as a child.  And then I asked the magic question, "I wonder how you could turn something like paper dolls into a computer game?"  And Victoria answered with something like this: "Well, you could have some dolls lined up, and you could have the computer randomly select from a variety of clothes.  And you have to match up the clothes in order to make outfits..."  And in the next five minutes, Victoria described the entire concept of the game that would become Fashion Cents.

And that's how it all started...

Sunday, February 13, 2005 - First Entry

I am discovering that one of the perks to selling our games as shareware is the correspondence we receive from our customers. We receive e-mails almost every week from people who have bought our games and want to tell us how much they are enjoying them. I do my best to respond to each letter personally, and I have found that I end up getting even more e-mails!

There seems to be a desire on the part of consumers not only for good quality products but also for involvement with the companies they purchase products from. I think people like it when they can e-mail a company about their questions or suggestions, and get a meaningful response. They like to know that the company actually listens to their feedback and ideas, maybe because that personal touch seems to be rarer and rarer these days.

Case in point: last night, I posted the announcement regarding our first-ever contest, asking consumers to help us name our 7th add-on pack for Fashion Cents. When I woke up this morning, my inbox was flooded with e-mails! I was not prepared for the tremendous response that I would get! I have received over 40 e-mails so far today with dozens and dozens of wonderful ideas! Many of the e-mails I have received included not only title ideas but also notes telling me how much they are excited about this contest and about the opportunity to participate!

This has started me thinking about a new direction for My Game Company. I want to provide opportunities for consumers to get involved with the company. I think there is value for both the consumer and the company in this. So I'm going to start adding personal touches in everything we do. I want consumers to have the opportunity to be involved in our development process and daily activities. I want consumers to think of My Game Company as "my" game company.