President's Blog

What is RSS?

Sunday, December 31, 2006 - The Measure of Success

A new friend of mine from Linux Gaming World e-mailed me a link to an adorable audio review of Dirk Dashing by a father named Dann and his daughter, Paige. You can find the program here: http://www.thelinuxlink.net/lager/?p=17. The program itself is two hours long, but they discuss Dirk Dashing right at the beginning. You can download it in MP3 or OGG format. If you have a high-speed internet connection, check it out.

This broadcast was a big morale booster at My Game Company today. Sometimes we read comments left on various gaming web sites from hardcore gamers, adult gamers, or other game developers who think our games are too simple or childish, and that can be disheartening. But when we hear feedback like this from parents and occasionally from the children themselves, it helps remind us that adults are not our target audience: children are. Our games are designed and written specifically for children, though some adults enjoy the games too. But regardless of what the adults think, as far as children are concerned our games are a hit! And that means one thing: success!

My thanks to LaGER for sharing Dirk Dashing with their audience and reminding us of our purpose. Happy new year!

Friday, December 29, 2006 - Gotten Edgy

Before we begin working on our next big project, namely Fashion Cents Deluxe, we're making some upgrades and improvements to our computers. The first big change we are making is to switch over to one single operating system: Linux.

For the past year, we have been running the business on two different operating systems. All game development has been done on Linux (SUSE 10), while web site management, order fulfillment, bookkeeping, and other office-related tasks have been done on Windows XP. There were two main reasons for this: 1) we were using programs that would not run on Linux nor could we find suitable replacement programs, and 2) I could not find a Linux distribution that completely satisfied our requirements - SUSE 10 was close, but I could never get the networking configured so we could share printers and files over the network.

Then two things changed toward the end of this year. First, during the testing of the Linux version of Dirk Dashing, I had an opportunity to try out a dozen different Linux distributions. I came across one distribution in particular that I think is probably the best desktop experience ever: Kubuntu. Their latest version, 6.10, also called Edgy, contains the latest desktop applications and technology that Linux has to offer. I have been really impressed with the way everything "just works" (the way you would expect it to). Even though the installation did not automatically configure everything, like the printer or the networking, the Kubuntu web site has some of the best documentation I've ever seen, and getting everything configured myself was pretty easy. It took roughly a day to install Kubuntu and configure everything. That's quicker than it takes me to reinstall Windows XP from scratch.

Second, I discovered a new version of Crossover Office had been released that finally allowed me to run most of the Windows programs I need under Linux. I was already able to run Microsoft Office 2000 and Quicken under the older version of Crossover Office. Now, I can also run Microsoft Project 2000 to manage our project schedules. I can run FrontPage to manage our web sites, and I can run FeedForAll to update our RSS feeds. In fact, this is my first blog post made directly from Linux using FrontPage and FeedForAll.

With these changes and improvements, I felt the time was finally right to switch our business operations completely to Linux and away from Microsoft Windows. We will continue to support Windows versions of our games, but Windows will no longer be used at My Game Company except for testing. This will reduce our operating costs significantly in the near future because 1) we will no longer be jumping back and forth between computers to do different day-to-day tasks, 2) we will no longer need to pay for expensive copies of Windows XP Professional nor upgrade all of our machines to Vista next year, and 3) we no longer need to worry about spyware, adware, and viruses crippling our computers.

We have already switched our first computer over to Kubuntu, and so far, it has been running quite well. I expect we will finish the rest of the computers some time during January. I'll let you know how it goes.

Now all we need are more games for Linux. Don't worry - we're on it!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006 - Back on Track

I've been doing a lot of traveling this past month, first for my grandmother's funeral, and second for the Christmas holiday. But I'm back in the office now, and I plan to continue working on the Mac OS port of Dirk Dashing tomorrow.

Fortunately, I have gotten into the habit of leaving notes for myself on my Palm Pilot, so it shouldn't be too hard to remember where I left off. As I recall, I had learned enough about Mac OS to finish setting up our new MacBook.  I had also downloaded and installed the developer tools, loaded the Dirk Dashing source code onto the hard drive, and had started to work on compiling the code. Hopefully, this will go fairly quick and I can get a beta of the Mac version on the web site soon.

In the meantime, I spent so much time in airports and on the road that I started working on Fashion Cents Deluxe. I'm excited about this long-anticipated sequel to our flagship product. We have a lot of really cool enhancements planned, and I can't wait to get started working on it! The game design is already complete, and I have almost finished laying out the production schedule. I can't give any details yet, since we are still finalizing our plans, but I'll be posting more about it here in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Friday, December 22, 2006 - Dirk in the (Linux) News

Linux.com has posted an article today about commercial gaming on Linux, and one of the commercial games it highlights is Dirk Dashing. You can read the article at http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/12/20/1830250.

There was also a brief review of Dirk Dashing on Linux Gaming World a few days ago. You can read it at http://www.linuxgamingworld.com/2006/12/dirk-dashing.

Thursday, December 21, 2006 - Dirk Takes the Fifth

Fifth place, that is, on Game Tunnel's Game of the Year Awards, in the category of Quest/Adventure/Platform Game of the Year. They only choose the top five games in each category, and we made the list! You can read about it on Game Tunnel at http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=562.

Saturday, December 9, 2006 - Dashing Around the Web

I frequently surf the net to see what others are saying about our games. I found a couple of interesting sites where folks are discussing our latest game, Dirk Dashing:

• Linux News Podcast - the October 30th broadcast discusses the Linux release of Dirk Dashing (you'll find it at time index 6:33 in the broadcast).

• Curmudgeon Gamer - in responding to a recent article on the state of gaming on Linux, one poster mentions Dirk Dashing in a positive light!

• VH1 Game Break - Dirk Dashing is a "Hot Indie Game" according to this site

Thursday, November 30, 2006 - The Nativity Story

I know this isn't related to computer games or our company, but I wanted to share this anyway. And since this is my blog and I'm the president of the company, I can pretty much write about whatever I want, huh?

We just returned from an advance screening of the new movie, The Nativity Story, which is officially released tomorrow. The movie tells the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph and the birth of the baby Jesus. The script is very faithful to the Biblical record, and even the creative license that they took with certain parts of the story was consistent with the Jewish culture and tradition of the time. The film gave me a new appreciation for what Mary and Joseph endured and the overwhelming challenges they faced.

I especially enjoyed the way they wove the instrumentals for many Christmas hymns throughout the story. The music was masterfully done - they chose the perfect tunes to play at just the right place in the story, and at times the music was so subtle that you wouldn't notice if you weren't paying attention (or if you were too engrossed in the story itself).

I would highly recommend this film to anyone. Even if you are not a Christian, I think you will enjoy this movie. We plan to add it to our collection when it comes out on DVD, and I'm sure this will be one film we will watch each and every year at Christmas time.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006 - SiteAdvisor: Green Light

McAfee SiteAdvisor has finally updated their web site, and our site is now GREEN.

Their prediction was right - it took three weeks for them to fix their web site. I have no idea why it should have taken them that long to correct their problem. That is just ridiculous. But at least it is fixed, and I'm relieved. Now we won't be losing any more visitors because of our site was marked RED for stupid reasons and without them first notifying us and giving us a chance to address it.

I still stand by what I wrote before - I will never use SiteAdvisor. Ever. I don't trust it. If you're using SiteAdvisor, be very careful. It marked our site RED simply because we happened to link to other sites that are also marked RED, even though search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN link to every web site on the planet and they're still marked GREEN. Plus the RED rating had nothing to do with our downloads - McAfee itself confirmed all of our downloads are free of adware, spyware, and viruses, and yet big web sites like download.com and others are marked GREEN even though they host hundreds of unsafe downloads. It is this kind of inconsistency that makes the SiteAdvisor ratings worthless.

If you're trusting SiteAdvisor to tell you whether the sites you are visiting are safe, then you need to know that SiteAdvisor could be lying to you. Be careful.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - My First Mac

I finally received the MacBook that I ordered through CompUSA this past weekend!

I found it interesting that CompUSA had lots of floor models, but nothing in stock. And neither did any of their other stores in Southern California. They had to ship my Mac from a store in Arizona. It made me wonder whether or not this is a normal experience for a Mac buyer. If so, it might help explain why there aren't more people switching to Macs - it's a bit of a challenge to get your hands on one!

Anyway, this is my very first experience with a Mac computer. As much as I hate to admit it, I've never even seen one before, let alone used one. It feels quite different from Windows or Linux. The system menus are organized much differently, and I was confused at first by the way the menu kept changing each time I selected a different application.  I like the Dock at the bottom of the desktop - that is slick.

I've been reading a lot about Mac OS and Mac programming while I've been waiting for my MacBook. Now that I finally have it, I'm looking forward to getting Dirk Dashing up and running on it!

Thursday, November 9, 2006 - SiteAdvisor Update

After sending the folks at McAfee SiteAdvisor yet another e-mail (basically rehashing the same arguments I had made in previous e-mails), I received a response yesterday from them that finally contained an apology:

Our web site is still marked RED. If they reran their online affiliations test yesterday, as they said they would, then they obviously haven't updated their site yet. It still says we have links to softsland.com, even though I removed all such links from our web site two days ago.

I just hope it doesn't really take three weeks to get this fixed. While I appreciate the apology, it would mean more if they expedite this matter and resolve it quickly.

Tuesday, November 7, 2006 - SiteAdvisor: Don't Trust It

We received an e-mail from one of our customers last night, who informed us that our web site was marked RED by McAfee's SiteAdvisor.

When I went to their web site to check it out, I discovered the reason they marked us RED. It wasn't what I expected. Their own download tests indicated that our game downloads are free of adware, spyware, and viruses. And they didn't mark us RED because they thought we sent spam e-mails (we don't), use excessive popups (we don't use any), or cause anything on their list of "annoyances". They marked us RED because we happened to link to another site that is marked as RED:

"When we tested this site we found links to softsland.com, which we found to be a distributor of downloads some people consider adware, spyware or other unwanted programs."

Guilt by association, it seems.

In fact, they state as much in their own FAQ: "When SiteAdvisor visits a Web site, we examine how aggressively the site tries to get you to go to other sites that we've flagged with red verdicts. It is a very common practice on the Internet for suspicious sites to have close affiliations with other sites. The primary purpose of these affiliations is to get you to visit the suspicious site. A site can receive a red warning if, for example, it links too aggressively to other red sites. In effect, a site can become "red by association" due to the nature of its relationship to red flagged domains."

Sounds impressive, but here's the problem with it.

McAfee never bothered to notify us to let us know they were marking our site RED, or to give us an opportunity to correct or address the so-called "problem" they found.  They just automatically marked us RED. Their assumption is that their little automated bots that crawl around other peoples' web sites are never wrong, and anyone that happens to link to a RED site must obviously have underhanded motives.

In our case, we have no association or affiliation with softsland.com, or any of the other RED sites they mentioned. All we did is post award images for awards our games received from those shareware sites, and we linked those images to our product pages on those shareware sites as evidence to visitors that we did indeed earn the awards we claim to have earned. We have no "close affiliation" with these sites, nor are we trying to "get you to visit the suspicious site". Nor are we in any way responsible for the thousands of downloads you might make from those shareware sites.

So our web site has been RED for who knows how long, and there is no telling how much damage this may have caused to our business because we didn't know about it.

When I contacted McAfee and sent a very long e-mail to express these concerns, I received a very cold response.

"Mr. Hepfner,

Thank you for your e-mail. What is your domain?  I will investigate the rating.

Kind regards,

Jonathan

McAfee, Inc."

After I e-mailed him back, giving him our domain name and informing him that we had already removed some links (not really knowing for sure everything that we need to correct), I get this e-mail a few hours later:

"Hello Mr. Hepfner,

Thank you for your e-mail and we are pleased that you have taken action to mitigate the Web safety threats our automated crawlers detected at your site.

We have manually queued mygamecompany.com and dirkdashing.com for an online affiliations retest. Outgoing links from this domain were cleared and a retest will take place within 24 hours. Please allow at least 3 weeks for results to propagate through our system.

Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns during the process.

Kind regards,

Jonathan

McAfee, Inc.

Three weeks???

I guess I don't need to tell you how upset and disappointed I am with McAfee. Nobody asked them to perform this so-called "service" for the online community. They undertook this on their own. I think their cause is good, but their methods leave much to be desired. They operate with impunity, accountable to no one. They blindly rate web sites without forewarning or notifying the owners, and without any consideration to the negative consequences of their rating system on sincere web site owners who may honestly not realize that linking to other web sites can be such a "Web safety threat". They take no responsibility for the damage their rating system can cause to honest businesses. And they apparently have no sense of remorse or regret for their practices: I haven't read anything yet in their correspondence that even remotely sounds like an apology or an admission of error on their part. Instead, they're treating me like I've been proven guilty of some heinous crime.

And I'm not the only one. Searching around on Google turned up lots of other online businesses and honest web sites that have experienced the same problem.

As it turns out, I don't use any McAfee products. And now I never will. These folks are very rude, in my opinion, and they don't seem to care about what they're doing. I have a feeling there are a lot of honest web sites whose business is being ruined because of this so-called "service". Maybe SiteAdvisor does a great job of identifying genuinely dangerous sites, but if they are rating honest sites as RED, I have to wonder how many sites they are rating GREEN that are actually dangerous.

One might argue that for a free product, it does a pretty good job. You know what they say about free advice. You get what you pay for.

Monday, November 6, 2006 - Dirk Explodes onto Linux!

We released Dirk Dashing for Linux 10 days ago, and we are simply stunned by the results!

To set the frame of reference for the following statistics, I should remind you that the Windows version has been out since October 6 (31 days ago).

As of today, 33% of our total Dirk Dashing sales have come from the Linux version. For the month of November so far, we've sold more copies of the Linux version than the Windows version each day. This surprised me, especially since the initial feedback on happypenguin.org came from unhappy laptop owners who couldn't play the game on their slow machines. If this trend continues, I expect the percentage of Linux sales to Windows sales to go up significantly.

Traffic to both of our web sites (mygamecompany.com and dirkdashing.com) spiked big-time on the last three days of October. On each of those days, we received about 20x the amount of daily traffic we had received on any previous day. Ever.

We've been swamped with lots of supportive e-mails from Linux users who have tried the game and enjoyed it. Almost all of them thanked us for porting the game to Linux and supporting their favorite OS. Many of them told us they had forwarded our web site address to their friends and family. We also had a lot of inquiries about Fashion Cents, and if/when we expect to make a Linux version available.

This past week also saw a spike in Fashion Cents and Word Play sales, and a number of customers entered various Linux news sites as the advertising source when they purchased the game. This also surprised me, since these are Windows-only games right now. But I found out a number of Linux users have their systems configured to dual boot, and they currently use Windows for gaming (since the gaming scene on Linux is so poor right now).

I must say, I was stunned by these all of these results.

I guess the moral of the story is that it doesn't always pay to follow the crowd. Nearly all of the advice and feedback I have read in ASP forums, Indie forums, etc. is that Linux is a dead-end and should be avoided like the plague. What really bugged me is the blanket statements that are made by people and the general perception of the Linux user base as a bunch of people with radical views who refuse to ever pay for software - it also bugged me that such ideas are never challenged and are just blindly accepted by everyone. Dirk Dashing was an experiment to test these statements for myself, and find out what the Linux market was really like. What I am learning is that the Linux user base is actually very diverse, and there are a lot of people who use Linux simply because they don't like Windows and want an alternative - at the end of the day, they don't care about the ideals of the FSF or the GPL, they just want something safe and reliable that they can use. And they are very hungry for commercial-quality games!

While Linux may not be a viable platform for every kind of application, I think it is certainly viable for games. And I am so glad we tried a Linux version of one of our games - this has turned out to be a huge shot in the arm for our business!

Sunday, November 5, 2006 - Fashion Sis

My sister sent me this picture.  She's playing Fashion Cents with her 3-month old daughter, Allyson, on her lap.  I think Allyson might be our youngest fan!

Isn't she cute?

Sunday, October 29, 2006 - The Linux Challenge

The Linux version of Dirk Dashing was released yesterday afternoon, and we've already sold a couple of copies. We also had an e-mail today from a Linux customer asking us when we expect to have Linux versions of our other games. I'm encouraged and excited to discover that there is interest among Linux users about our games.

Creating the Linux version of Dirk Dashing was quite a challenge. Linux isn't quite like Windows. There is only one Windows (though there are multiple versions like 98/ME/2000/XP) because Microsoft is the only one who produces it, and the source code is not freely available. But with Linux, the source code is available, so multiple companies have picked it up and created lots of different flavors of Linux (called distributions).

It was very difficult to create a version of Dirk Dashing that could install and run on multiple distributions. Every distribution is a little bit different from all the others, as far as what version of the Linux source code was used, how the "Start" menu is organized, and how the operating system is configured. There are standards, but not all of the distributions follow all of the standards. And unfortunately, finding information about all of the standards and what one has to do to create a program that will run on most of the distributions is a challenge. It isn't documented very well, and there isn't one place where you can go and find all the answers you need.

I've learned a lot about Linux in the past two months as we have prepared for this release, thanks to a number of individuals within the Linux community who have helped me. And I've decided that I will write an article (or more realistically a series of articles) to share this information with other developers. Hopefully, they can benefit from what I've learned and it will be easier for them to create Linux versions of their games.

Thursday, October 12, 2006 - Catching Our Breath

We're now six days past the release of Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent, and so far the game is doing well.  We've had hundreds of downloads, and the download count grows rapidly from day to day, as the game finds its way onto more and more shareware sites and download repositories.  Our download-to-sales conversion ratio is very good - in fact, it far exceeds both Fashion Cents and Word Play combined!  Yesterday, we broke our all-time record for the most sales in a single day - you should have heard the whoops and cheers!  The game is also beginning to earn some awards, which I have posted on both of our web sites.

We're taking a break before starting our next project.  We have worked very hard this past year to complete the game, and we need a little time off.  We haven't stopped work completely, however - we're wrapping up testing on the Linux version of Dirk Dashing within the next few days, and will be releasing it very soon.  We're also starting to port the game to Mac OS.  But the big deadline has passed, so we're not working as hard as we were.  It's nice to keep normal working hours again, and have some free time.

I'll keep you posted as to when the Mac OS version of Dirk Dashing will be available, and when we start working on our next project: Fashion Cents Deluxe!  Stay tuned!

Saturday, September 30, 2006 - One Week Left!

Actually, only six days remain until the official release of Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent!

At long last, game development is complete. All of the game levels are finished, including the levels we wanted to revise. We added a lot of finishing touches to the game this past week, like additional AI enhancements, some special effects, and usability improvements.  We also added some last minute features that were recommended by our testers. And we finished our runtime analysis, which helped us find and plug several memory leaks. In short, the game code is very solid, and we feel the game is stable, feature-complete, and ready to ship!

In preparation for the official release, we are now busy assembling all of our game marketing materials. We are collecting fresh screen captures, authoring web pages, writing press releases, developing ad banners, lining up ad placements on various shareware sites, and working on a whole host of other activities that need to be done before we can release.

We are also in the process of creating and testing the final installer for the game - this includes both Windows and Linux. There is an outside chance that we might be ready to release the Linux version along with the WIndows version on October 6. The Linux version of the game itself is definitely ready for release; however, creating an installer that will work on most distributions has proven to be quite a challenge. Our two beta testers for Linux have been very patient with us as we have been learning and figuring out some of the quirks of the Linux operating system. Now that we think we have the installer issues resolved, we want to take time to test out the installer on as many distributions as we can prior to release. If we can test it on enough distributions before next Friday, we might decide to release it along with the Windows version; otherwise, we'll hold back the Linux release until the following weekend.

We're also starting to look into porting the game to Mac OS. Hopefully, it will be a relatively easy process. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, stay tuned to our web site for the big premiere of Dirk Dashing!

Friday, September 22, 2006 - Two Weeks to Go!

Only two weeks left until the official release of Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent!

In the past week, we have made significant progress on the game. The full version beta test has gone very well on Windows so far.  No major bugs or issues have been found, and the testers have only reported a handful of minor problems, most of which we have already fixed. The game has been tested on a wide range of computer hardware now, from 1.2 GHz machines to 3.2 GHz machines. The testers report good game performance on all computer configurations so far.

On the development side, we revamped two older levels, bringing them up to par with the quality of some of our newest level designs. We made some additional performance improvements to the game, some of which resulted in significant gains, so the game should run even better than the testers have reported so far. We started doing some runtime analysis of the game to discover and fix any memory leaks that might be present in the game. And we added a few new features to the game, including some AI enhancements and some new interactive cartoon gags.

A draft of the official Dirk Dashing Hints and Tricks Sheet was written this week, which will be given to players who purchase the full version of the game. The Hints and Tricks Sheet will help players maximize their enjoyment of the game by revealing some of the larger secrets of the game levels. The sheet also tells you how to set up all of the interactive cartoon gags, so you can have the most fun with the dimwitted red-shirt thugs.

We still have much to do in the remaining two weeks. Stay tuned!

Friday, September 15, 2006 - Three Weeks to Go!

There are only three weeks left until the official release of Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent! And we are extremely busy here at My Game Company!

We finished the final level of the game on Labor Day Weekend. The final showdown with the nefarious Pique Pockette is very exciting, and I am very pleased with the way this level turned out. It is very different from all of the other levels in the game, and fits the secret agent theme of the game very well. I would love to do more levels like this, but that will have to wait until Dirk Dashing 2.

We started our third and final beta test one week ago. This beta features the full version of the game on both Windows and Linux, and unlike our previous two beta releases, this beta is not open to the general public. We obviously don't want the full version of the game to get out before we are ready. The beta testers consist of customers and supporters of our company who have contributed to the development, testing, or promotion of our games in the past, as well as some friends of mine in the ASP (Association of Shareware Professionals).  So far, the feedback of the testers has been very positive. Most of the feedback has consisted of suggestions for minor improvements, and except for one report of a tester having a problem installing the game, there have been no reports of any bugs or serious defects. This has been very encouraging to us.

Meanwhile, I have been busy working to improve the game performance on older and slower hardware. I've also been adding some finishing touches to the game, including instructional folders on level 1-1, enhancements to the artificial intelligence of the enemies, and little animation flourishes for certain characters.

We still have to produce all of the promotional material for the game, including updated screen captures, press release, advertisement writeups, banner ads, web site pages, etc. Plus we need to create the official install programs for the game, add the product to our online store, purchase advertising spots on various shareware sites so that we have the spots reserved when we are ready to release the game, and so much more. The next three weeks will be very busy for us. But it will all be worth it at the end, when we can finally get this fun game into the hands of our customers! Stay tuned!

Thursday, August 24, 2006 - Two Ends are Better Than One

We're down to the last level in Dirk Dashing, and it's been a challenge to create. I wanted to make sure the game has an exciting, action-packed climax - the big showdown between agent Dirk Dashing and his nemesis... but which one?

If you know anything about the storyline, you know that Dirk's mission is to recover seven stolen diamonds from international jewel thief, Pique Pockette. But the E.V.I.L. organization of spies is also after the diamonds, and along the way, Dirk is battling the forces of E.V.I.L. to get to the diamonds first.

Obviously, there has to be a showdown between Dirk Dashing and Pique Pockette, where the player (in the role of Dirk Dashing) gets a chance to capture the thief. But I also felt there needed to be a showdown with the E.V.I.L. organization, who had been competing with Dirk during the whole game. It seemed to me that E.V.I.L. needed to be included in the final level somehow.

Since I couldn't decide what to do, I finally decided to have two separate showdowns in two separate levels. The climactic battle between Dirk Dashing and Pique Pockette will be in the very last level of the game. But I modified the storyline a little bit to include a second showdown with the E.V.I.L. organization, which is featured in the third and final secret level. If you find the secret level, you have an opportunity to pursue the E.V.I.L. agent who was negotiating with Pique Pockette to purchase the stolen diamonds. But don't worry - we ended the secret level in such a way that will allow those E.V.I.L. agents to return in a future sequel.

We finished the final secret level last weekend, and it is a lot of fun to play. We chose the castle dungeons for the setting, and used a number of dark textures to create an appropriate ambience. Every E.V.I.L. agent you encounter in the game makes an appearance in this level. There is a large variety of characters, traps, and hazards, which makes it very exciting and challenging. This is probably the hardest level we designed for the game, and it requires every trick and skill that you learned along the way in order to get through it. Those of you who find this secret level are in for a real treat!

Saturday, August 5, 2006 - Famous Art

We've been working on decorations for the castle that is featured in the final levels of Dirk Dashing. I wanted to have tapestries or paintings on the walls, to make it look like a luxurious medieval castle. Sounds simple enough, right?

At first I tried drawing some tapestries, but I began to discover how much work goes into producing an ornately decorated tapestry. So I went online to try to find some simpler patterns.  I typed "castle tapestries" into Google, and started looking at tapestry designs produced by others. I found some tapestries that had reproductions of renaissance paintings on them. That gave me the idea that instead of creating some elaborate tapestries, I could use renaissance paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and other famous artists. That would fit perfectly with the castle theme, and I think the paintings themselves are public domain.

After Googling for a couple of hours longer, I found some public domain photos of several of my favorite renaissance paintings, and the pictures were of pretty good quality. I loaded them into my art program, and adjusted the sizes to fit with the game art. I then loaded them into one of the Dirk Dashing levels and tried it out. It didn't look right at all. The paintings were too detailed, and did not fit with the rest of the artwork in Dirk Dashing. Besides, even though I knew I could freely use the art in my game, I had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that I shouldn't use the paintings. It wasn't my artwork. So, back to the drawing board (no pun intended).

Next, I tried painting my own pictures. The problem is that I am feeling the pressure of time and the need to get this project completed. So nothing I painted turned out well at all, because I painted them in a hurry. And I didn't want to spend weeks painting a half dozen or so pictures to hang in the castle. So at this point, I was frustrated and decided to take a break for lunch.

I was halfway through my sandwich when inspiration struck. I suddenly remembered that I had an entire portfolio of drawings and paintings that I did in my high school art class. So I pulled out my portfolio case and spread the art out over the floor. I quickly took inventory of what I had - a painting of Curwood Castle in Owosso, Michigan; a colored pencil drawing of a lakeside dock with some boats, an ebony pencil drawing of a series of waterfalls, another ebony pencil drawing of a beach scene... PERFECT!

But I couldn't scan the artwork because our scanner only handles 8-1/2 by 11 inches. So I had to use my digital camera to photograph the artwork, and then download it into my computer. I sized it so it was consistent with the rest of the game art, and then I tried it out. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. And best of all - it's my own work.

So when you finally purchase Dirk Dashing and you play the final levels in the game, stop a moment to look at my paintings hanging on the walls. My art may never make it into a museum, but it is on display in a castle!

Sunday, July 31, 2006 - Back to Work

The mockingbirds left our yard about a week ago. They left gradually, one at a time, until finally they were all gone. We really enjoyed watching them grow and learn, and we thank the Lord for the privilege of observing that process.

Now that we have had a chance to take a little break and recharge our batteries, we've resumed work on Dirk Dashing. We're in the final stretch, and we're hard at work to wrap up the game production.  We cranked out two complete levels this past weekend (a total of nine individual game maps), fixed a number of bugs in the code, and started sketching out the maps for the final levels. We also finalized the details for the big end battle between Dirk and the villain, Pique Pockette.

We're excited about wrapping up production on Dirk Dashing, so I envision a number of late nights for us over the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Sunday, July 16, 2006 - Baby Mockingbirds

We're taking a break this weekend from Dirk Dashing to enjoy the little family of mockingbirds that God has blessed us with.

We have a cobblestone patio behind our house. Our patio cover is made of white lattice and covered by wisteria vines, which provides a natural shade covering for us. Back in May, a pair of mockingbirds built a nest up there, underneath the green leaves. They laid three blue-speckled eggs, which finally hatched several weeks ago. We've been listening to the babies ever since, squeaking and screeching as their parents bring them food. But we didn't get to really see them until this weekend.

Yesterday morning, we saw one of the babies hopping around in the backyard. It had found its way out of the nest and fallen to the ground. It's mom was right there, though, bringing it food and keeping an eye on it. It couldn't go far, though, because our yard is fenced in. The baby mockingbird was cute to watch. It pretty clumsy, occasionally tripping over the grass and falling on its face. It also stretched its wings a lot, trying to figure out how to fly. It tried to hop up on the flower pots and patio furniture, but frequenty misjudged the distance and jumped while it was too far away. And once it did manage to hop up onto something, it would sometimes lose its balance and fall off.

Amazingly, by the end of the day, it had already learned a lot. Victoria and I were surprised by how much growth and development we observed over the course of a single day. It had figured out how to hop up onto things, how to keep its balance while it was perched, and how to hop back down without falling.

Over the course of the day, its siblings joined it. The second one fell to the ground later in the afternoon. It looked a little more developed than the first one. The third one came down about 7 PM, kicking and screaming as its mom knocked him down to the ground.

As the sun set, the baby mockingbirds found places to sleep. The first baby, the one who had been down the longest, managed to hippety-hop its way up to the top of one of the patio chairs, where it slept for the night. The second slept on a trellis in the garden, where we have a small crop of sweet peas growing. The third one slept in the lattice work on the side of the gazebo, which is in the back corner of the property.

This morning, we found all three birds awake and continuing to explore the yard. They are all continuing to grow and learn, and we expect they will be gone within the next day or so, when they finally learn how to fly. I'm sure they will probably continue to hang around our neighborhood, but we probably won't recognize them.

Anyway, we decided to take a break from game development this weekend and enjoy the birds. We are eager to finish up Dirk Dashing and move on to a new project, but sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy the rare opportunities to see something truly amazing. This was one such opportunity we did not want to miss. Our Creator is awesome!

Saturday, July 15, 2006 - Bombshelle

We just finished animating one of our last Dirk Dashing characters this week, probably the most dangerous E.V.I.L. agent Dirk will face in the game.  She will show up in a handful of levels towards the end of the game, and her name is Bombshelle.  I'm sure you can guess what her favorite attack is, but in case you can't, I've posted a screen capture of Bombshelle in action on our Dirk Dashing web site.  Just go to the Preview page at http://www.dirkdashing.com/preview.htm, you can't miss her.

Bombshelle is not the main villain in the game, as you may or may not know.  Dirk Dashing is after an international jewel thief named Pique Pockette.  We're not going to show you what he looks like.  You will have to wait until the game is released!

Saturday, July 8, 2006 - Dirk Dashing Production is Nearing Completion!

It has been a long time coming, but we will be wrapping up production on our newest game, Dirk Dashing, within the next few weeks.  There are just a handful of levels left to build and two animated characters to finish.  Once that is done, main production on the game will be finished.

So what happens then?  First, the game will enter the final phase of development, where it will be rigorously tested by our test team.  The testers will be hammering on all aspects of the game, so we can find and fix as many bugs and problems as we possibly can.  We will also implement the next phase of our beta test program, where we provide the full version of the game to a select group of people.  The goal of the beta test will be to run the game on as many different computer systems as possible.

During this time, we will also be tweaking the game.  One primary area of tweaking is to improve the game performance so the game can run on some older hardware. We will also add lots of finishing touches to the game animation and behavior, to make the game more interesting and visually appealing.

Second, we will be working on our marketing and promotional material for the game. This will include development of the new web site and advertisements that we will run on various shareware and gaming web sites.

I hope to be able to announce the official release date for Dirk Dashing sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Stay tuned!

Monday, June 26, 2006 - Word Play Tops the Sales Charts!

It's interesting to observe how this internet business grows and works over time. Things just happen sometimes that you just can't explain or understand. It's almost as if the business has a life of its own!

Case in point:

Fashion Cents is our flagship product, and has traditionally been our best seller each month.  Word Play does well, but as fun and addicting as the game is, let's face it: there are lots of word games around. So each month when I look at our sales graph, I have become accustomed to seeing the Fashion Cents bar a lot higher than the Word Play bar. That's just the way our monthly sales graph has always looked.

Until this past month.  This time when I looked at our sales chart, I had a pleasant surprise: our Word Play sales have exploded! If you think I am exaggerating, let me elaborate: in the span of one month, the Word Play sales didn't double or triple - they quadrupled!  And for the first time ever, Word Play overtook Fashion Cents on our sales chart. Wow!

It's very interesting, because we did not change the marketing plan or advertising approach for Word Play. In fact, we haven't done any special advertising at all. But somehow the game has suddenly found its way into the hands of many different people that live in many different places, and they have been purchasing it.  I don't know how that happened, but it was a thrilling discovery!

Saturday, June 3, 2006 - So You Want to Make Computer Games...

When I meet some of the kids who play our games, a lot of them tell me something like this: "I like your games.  I would like to make games too when I grow up."

If you want to write computer games for a living, then it will be very important to do well in school.  I think I use almost every school subject when I do my job.

• Math - if you want to write games, you will use math a lot!  Almost everything in computer programming involves math.  Even if you aren't interested in writing programs and instead want to do graphics and music, or get involved in the business aspect of a game company, you will definitely need math skills. Almost every day I use geometry, algebra, statistics, and even calculus.
• Science and Physics - To create realistic effects in games, you will need to understand the basic laws of physics, like gravity, velocity, acceleration, light, sound, etc, so that you can realistically model these effects in your games.
• English and Composition - Believe it or not, I do a lot of writing in my job.  I write business plans, design documents, advertisements, press releases, web pages, and more.  You definitely need to learn to write well so that everything you write looks correct and professional.  Poor grammar and poor writing skills will not earn respect from investors and customers, and can be devastating to your business and your career.
• Art - Even if you can't draw or paint, your should at least learn about colors, composition, and other basic art concepts.  It will help a lot when you are designing a game.
• Computers - obviously.  If you want to program games, don't just learn how to use a computer.  Learn how it works inside, so that you can write games that run well.
• Economics - writing computer games can be fun, but it is a business like any other.  You need to learn about basic economics and how to run a business so that you can succeed.  Otherwise, you won't get to write games for very long before you run out of money and go out of business.  Make sure you learn about accounting, investing, copyrights and trademarks, intellectual property, types of business organizations (sole proprietorship, partnership, corporations), taxes, and so on.
  

These subjects are the ones I use the most, but other subjects are important too. Subjects like geography, humanities, psychology, and religion help you understand other people, as well as other countries... not just yours.  We sell games to customers in many countries, so it helps to understand people so you can write games that they will like, or help them when they have a problem with your game. Subjects like history and sports are great because they can give you ideas for your games.

If you are older and getting ready to start college, and you want to know if there are any schools that teach how to make computer games, there are.  Check out this article on gamedev.net about game development schools:

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/business/features/schools1/

I would recommend a more generic degree, however, like a Business, Computer Science, or Engineering degree.  You can still get into computer games with such a degree, but if you change your mind or decide later that you want to do something different, or if you have a hard time finding a job in the computer games business (which can happen), then the more generic degree will still help you find a good job. People who earn a degree in game development will not be able to use it to apply for jobs in other fields.

Creating games can be fun, but if you want it to be your career, then you need to work at it and do well in school.  Computer games is a very competitive business, and game companies only hire the best.

Saturday, May 27, 2006 - Nvu: A New View for Linux

Over the past five months, I've managed My Game Company from two different computers - I use my new SUSE Linux system for game development, accounting, managing project schedules, and office-related tasks, and I use my Windows XP laptop for creating game artwork, managing the web sites, and processing orders.

My goal is to manage My Game Company from one computer (my desktop Linux machine), but the problem is finding programs on Linux that can do what my old Windows programs can do.  As I mentioned in earlier posts, I have MS Office and Quicken running under Linux using a product called Crossover Office, and I have found competent replacement programs on Linux for most of the other Windows programs I need, except for two: Frontpage (which I use to maintain our web sites) and Corel PhotoPaint 6 (which I use for game art).

This past week, I finally found a worthy Linux replacement for Frontpage - it's called Nvu.  It is just as easy to use as Frontpage, and it lets me edit my web pages in an intuitive WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) way.  And like most of my other Linux software, it is open source and available for free!  I've been looking for a Linux program like Frontpage for a long time, and I am thrilled that I have finally found it!  In fact, when I updated my blog yesterday, I used Nvu!

The one thing I don't like about Nvu is how it publishes pages.  With Frontpage, I kept a local copy of my entire web site on my hard drive - I could edit pages to my heart's content, and changes wouldn't be reflected on my web site until I published.  But with Nvu, it connects directly to my web site and lets me edit my web pages directly.  I'm sure some folks may like this feature, but I don't.  I'm always editing, proofing, editing some more, changing my mind, etc, so I save frequently.  I don't want intermediate results reflected on the web site.  Nvu lets you save intermediate versions of your files on your local hard drive until you are ready to publish them, but that just doesn't feel natural to me.  Maybe I'm just too used to the workflow in Frontpage.

Anyway, Nvu does allow me to specify a directory on my hard drive and treat it as my web site, so in this way, I can keep a local copy of the web site on my hard drive and use Nvu to edit it.  But I'm not using Nvu to publish pages.  Instead, I am using an FTP program to do the publishing.  And that is working out just fine.

The main thing I needed on Linux was a way to edit web pages WYSIWYG (because I don't want to write HTML code), and I had not found a decent program for that until now.  Nvu fits the bill nicely!

Now, if I can just find a good image editing program for Linux to replace my aging Corel PhotoPaint 6, I can put my Windows XP laptop back in the closet and sail off into the sunset with my trusty new OS - Linux!

Friday, May 26, 2006 - One More Photo from Gull Road Elementary

Mr. Howell, the fourth grade teacher from Gull Road Elementary, which I mentioned in Wednesday's blog entry, sent me one more photo.

He writes: "Here is one more picture.  We were able to get a better shot of Lizzy.  It's Lizzy's turn, and she's on level 9!  As I said, 'All the girls love the game!'"

Thanks again, Mr. Howell!  It looks like you have a fun class!

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 - Playing Fashion Cents is Elementary!

It is interesting to me how many schools have purchased our games for educational and recreational use.  We did not anticipate this when we started My Game Company, because our original vision was to produce clean games for kids that were fun but not necessarily educational.  Because our focus wasn't strictly educational, we did not expect schools to be interested in our games.  But we have been pleasantly surprised at the increasing attention that we have received from schools about our games, and we have enjoyed forming partnerships with a number of schools and after-school groups around the United States.

One such school is Gull Road Elementary.  I received some photos today from the fourth grade teacher, Mr. Howell.  He sent me the following photos of the girls in his class playing Fashion Cents, and gave me permission to share them with you.  You can click on the thumbnails to see the larger version.

In the first photo two of his students, Claire and Amber, are playing Fashion Cents on the school laptops.  The other two photos show Monica and Allie playing on a computer that is connected to a SmartBoard.  The SmartBoard is a touch-sensitive display that connects to a computer and a digital projector.  With it, the girls can touch the clothing pieces with their fingers and then touch a doll or shelf to place the pieces.  The screen they are using is a 60-inch screen.  Very cool!

Mr. Howell tells me that Fashion Cents is very popular with the girls in his class, who refer to it as "The Girl Game."  It is so popular, he says he has to kick them out of the class during recess on warm sunny days!  I understand the boys are excited about our upcoming Dirk Dashing game, and are already referring to it as "The Boy's Game!"

Thank you, Mr. Howell, for sharing these photos with us!

Friday, May 20, 2006 - New Shareware Awards

Both Fashion Cents and Word Play recently received some more shareware awards:

• Word Play received Editor's Pick awards from www.redsofts.com and www.getfreesofts.com!

• Fashion Cents received 5-star awards from the same sites!

• Both games received awards from www.cleansofts.com for being 100% free of spyware, adware, and viruses!

We're always proud of the awards that our shareware products have received, because they reflect the hard work and effort we put into our games!

Thursday, May 18, 2006 - Sneak Peek of New Dirk Dashing Levels!

Over on www.dirkdashing.com, we have posted a brand new preview page where we will feature sneak peeks of recent levels that we have completed for Dirk Dashing.  This is part of our ongoing coverage of the game development process, which will continue right up until the game's release!

We've posted a few screenshots of three recent levels.  Head on over and check them out!

Friday, May 12, 2006 - Dirk Dashing Levels Up!

You may have noticed that my blog hasn't been updated in a few weeks.  We've been busy working on Dirk Dashing, and we've made some good progress.  We completed several brand new levels since my last posting.

We've also received some feedback from Dirk Dashing Beta #2 in recent weeks, and we have been making some updates to the game in response.  For example, we're adding additional mission folders to Chapter 1-1 that will serve as in-game instructions to get the player started.  We're tweaking the enemy AI, and giving some of the E.V.I.L. henchmen the ability to walk around on patrol, rather than standing still and waiting for Dirk to come along.  We have also made some additional performance improvements and bug fixes, enabling the game to run smoother on certain lower-end computers.

We're in the final stretch of the development process, and our goal now is to produce the remaining game levels as quickly as possible so we can get the full game into the hands of our testers.  Stay tuned!

Monday, April 17, 2006 - Super soniK!

In my March 4 blog entry, titled "So How's That Linux Thing Going, Really?", I talked about what I really think of Linux after having used it for several months.  I had said that for the most part, I was quite happy with it, but I mentioned several areas that I found disappointing.  One of them was the lack of a good sound editor, since I had not been able to find a good WAV editor for Linux that is as easy to use as Creative Wave Studio, by Creative Labs.  As a game developer, this is a program I absolutely need.

That all changed when someone recommended an open source program called soniK.  Yeah, I know it's spelled funny.  Don't ask me why.  But it is a handy little sound editor for Linux that is almost as easy to use as Wave Studio.  I can visualize a sound effect file as a waveform, I can edit it using cut/copy/paste, crop it, adjust the volume, convert it to different WAV formats, and apply dozens of effects to it... basically, everything I could do with Wave Studio!  It's great!

That's one of my five Linux complaints that has now been resolved!  Four to go!

Thursday, April 13, 2006 - Mine!  Mine!

We finished a brand new Dirk Dashing level today... we've been working on this one for nearly two weeks!  It takes place inside a mine, as you can see from the screenshot below.

This particular level required a lot more custom artwork than other levels we have done.  There are wooden beams that support the ceiling, wooden door frames, mining carts that travel along railroad tracks, new cave textures that complement our existing set of cave walls and floors, and so much more.  There was also some custom programming that we added for a new cartoon gag, which allows Dirk to trick bad guys into running into the path of oncoming mining carts!  Wham!  They go a-flying!

It took a lot of work to create this particular level!  But it is one of my favorites, so I had to share it with you!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006 - Dirk Dashing Production Updates!

The Dirk Dashing production diary has been updated with some brand new material, including a new section called "Fine-Tooning the Game".  The new section expands on my recent blog entry "Fine-Tooning Dirk", and provides some screenshots that demonstrate one of the cartoon gags that we added to the game!  I also rearranged some of the material, and added new material to the "Game Scenery" section.

Head on over to www.dirkdashing.com and check it out!

Wednesday, March 22, 2006 - Stay Tooned!

We're wrapping up the final changes for our second Dirk Dashing beta, which I hope to release this weekend!  The new cartoon interactions that we've added have been a big hit with our testers, and everything is looking good.  The audio problems are gone - the music no longer cuts out, and the sound effects are all working as expected.  We've also made some significant performance improvements in the graphics engine, which should provide for higher frame rates and smoother scrolling.

The first four levels in the game have been completely reworked.  We ended up tossing out the original level 1-4 and replacing it with a brand new level.  Most of the gameplay issues have been resolved, with better item placement, better building interiors, more gadgets, and more hidden areas.  The new timing mechanism speeds up the pace of the game considerably, especially in full screen mode.

I hope you will try the new beta version when it comes out, and tell us what you think.  We have about 4-5 months left before we officially release the game, and your input will be invaluable to us!  Stay "tooned" for the official release of our second Dirk Dashing beta this weekend!

Thursday, March 16, 2006 - How Cute is This?

My nieces (ages 7 and 9) enjoy playing Fashion Cents - they were some of the game's first fans!  Anyway, my sister-in-law found this photograph a week ago on her daughter's digital camera.  Apparently, the girls did this on January 10, 2006, and she didn't know about it until she found this picture.  She sent it to us, with the caption "How cute is this?"

I laughed when I saw how all the dolls were lined up the same way they are in Fashion Cents - five on top and five below, with most of the hair colors and skin tones in the same position as their Fashion Cents counterparts!  Isn't it adorable?

Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - Fine-Tooning Dirk

Our test team has been hammering on our latest Dirk Dashing build, and in addition to the usual bug reports, we have received a lot of positive feedback from our testers.  That is very encouraging!  The snow weather effects are a big hit with the team - it's amazing how little finishing touches like that can make such a big difference in the gaming experience.  Even though it doesn't improve the gameplay at all, it does add a lot to the atmosphere of the game.  The other change that our testers really like is the new and improved level 1-2 warehouse.  It feels more like a warehouse now, and there are several directions you can go to navigate through it.  The testers also like that you can now drop crates on the bad guys - the game is definitely starting to develop a more cartoon-like feel to it.  We plan to add more interactions like that to take advantage of the cartoon aspect of the game.

One of the negative comments we received with the IGF anonymous judge feedback in January was this comment: Dirk Dashing "lacks punch".  So I have been overdosing on Looney Tunes cartoons, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", and other cartoon shows for the past two months.  I've been studying them to learn what elements make an entertaining cartoon, with the goal of introducing more of those elements into the game.  Of course, nobody believes me when I'm watching cartoons and I explain that I'm studying them.  Hey, can I help it if I enjoy my work?

Anyway, I've been learning a lot, and here are some of my findings:

• Visual gags - every good cartoon has them, and if done right, they are funny!  I think we can introduce more slapstick into the game without necessarily making it violent.  Dropping crates on bad guys to knock them out is a good start.

• Variety of gags - I like the non-lethal knockout gas grenades that Dirk already has, and it is fun to use them.  But let's face it, they get a little boring after awhile.  I think it is because they are the only weapon Dirk's had until now.  It's like hearing the same joke over and over again - no matter how good it is, it gets stale after you've heard it the hundredth time.  But if it is part of a collection of good jokes, it lives longer.  I can still watch Road Runner cartoons that I've seen a hundred times, and even though I know every gag by heart, it still cracks me up.  I think it is because there are so many different gags, and they come at you "randomly".  I don't necessarily know which gag is coming next, but I will recognize it as soon as I see Wile E. Coyote setting his trap.  And even though I recognize the gag that is coming, it is fun to anticipate it and funny to watch.  I envision giving Dirk a variety of hilarious attacks, so there are different ways of knocking out the bad guys.  The goal of any game is to entertain the player, and for a cartoon game, I think this is what the average player would expect.

• Verbal gags - a good joke or a play on words can be very funny, especially for adults.  The dialogue in Rocky and Bullwinkle is a great example - need I say more?  This is one area of the game we are already doing well in.  We have clever chapter titles, humorous tutorial pages, and the brief enemy reactions are fun to read.  Also, Dirk has some witty dialogue in later levels, which one would expect from a secret agent.  Still there is always room for improvement, and you can never hurt a cartoon by adding more humor.

I hope to have some of the new cartoon interactions ready for our second Dirk Dashing beta, which is coming out soon.  Stay tuned!

Saturday, March 4, 2006 - So How's That Linux Thing Going, Really?

I started using Linux in January when my Windows system crashed, and it is easy to get excited about something new when you've only just acquired it.  In fact, I wrote several blog entries about my excitement over it.  But I've been using my new Linux system for over 6 weeks now, doing real work.  So what do I think of it now?

Well, there are aspects of it that I really like, and other aspects that need improving.  The parts I really like:

• Web Surfing: I use Firefox as my web browser on both Windows and Linux, and I love it!  But I feel so much safer surfing the net on Linux, because I know I am not picking up any spyware, adware, or viruses.  And even if I did, the damage it would do is minimal because of the inherent security built into Linux.  Also, web pages seem to load so much faster on Linux.

• Office Productivity: Quicken and Microsoft Office 2000 run just fine on Linux, thanks to the handy little program called Crossover Office.  I also have the latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader for reading PDF files - Adobe only mentions Windows and Macintosh on their site, but if you click on the "Get Adobe Reader" button, you can select Linux as your OS.  Excellent!

• Palm Pilot Connectivity: I love the fact that my Palm Tungsten T2 syncs so well with my Linux applications (this wasn't the case two years ago).  For an executive on the go, this is a must!

• CD Burning: I haven't been able to find a free CD Burning program that is easy to use.  For awhile I was using K3B, which comes preinstalled.  It did a good job, but the user interface is not very intuitive.  Then I discovered that Nero makes a Linux version of their popular CD burning software, called NeroLINUX.  It's easy to use, and works like a champ!  And it's only $19.99!  Cool!

• Software development: I seem to be much more productive on Linux in this area.  Compiling and debugging programs is so much faster than using Visual Studio .NET.  The debugger I am using is not quite as intuitive, but it gets the job done and I think it is actually faster and more responsive.

The parts that I find disappointing:

• Zip Drive: My internal Zip 250 drive only reads 100 MB disks on Linux, and reading and writing is very slow.  This is the only hardware component I have that doesn't work well under Linux.

• Sound Editing: As a game developer, I need a good WAV file editor.  I've been using Creative WaveStudio for years, but I can't find anything as powerful or easy to use on Linux.  So I still do my sound effects editing on Windows.

• Image Editing: I haven't been able to find a good art program for Linux that lets me edit pictures at a pixel level (something I absolutely need to make games).  The popular open source GIMP program is ok, but I don't like the color selector or the way it handles image resizing.  Actually this isn't a Linux-specific gripe because I haven't been able to find a good art program for Windows either, but at least my old copy of Corel PhotoPaint 6 still works on Windows.  I did try installing Corel PhotoPaint 6 on Linux using Crossover Office, and I had high hopes after it installed flawlessly - but alas, the program wouldn't start.  It's too old, I guess.  So I've been doing a lot of my game art on my Windows laptop with Corel PhotoPaint 6.

• Multimedia: SUSE Linux 10 doesn't come with the ability to play encrypted DVDs, Windows Media files, or other proprietary media files/formats.  You can add this capability, but you have to do it on your own and it is not very well documented (for legal reasons).  I was able to do it, and it wasn't hard to do, but this is something that the average home user isn't going to put up with.  From the average user's perspective, there is no reason this shouldn't work as easily and as smoothly as it does on Windows.  However, the situation is changing.  Today, I discovered one Linux distribution called TurboLinux that has legally licensed the official Microsoft WMF codecs so you can play Windows Media files, and it comes prebundled with a Linux version of Cyberlink's PowerDVD software so you can legally play encrypted DVDs.  So I don't think it is long before other Linux distributions like SUSE follow suit.

• Games: There aren't many games available yet for Linux, but that's something My Game Company hopes to start changing!  You can play a lot of Windows games on Linux using a product called Cedega, but it is only available on a subscription basis (which means you have to continually pay to keep using the product).  Personally, I think that is a rip-off, but it seems to work for them - they have been in business for several years.

Bottom line: SUSE Linux 10 is working very well for me.  I still use my Windows laptop for sound editing, image editing, and managing the web site.  But everything else is working fine, and overall I am satisfied with Linux.

Monday, February 27, 2006 - Testing, Testing...

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we are in the process of revamping some of the earlier levels in Dirk Dashing to fix gameplay issues and incorporate new features.  The revisions for the first two levels were completed this weekend, and we're in the process of getting them into the hands of our testers, who haven't had an updated build since before my Windows PC crashed six weeks ago!

The new build contains not only the revised first two levels but also a ton of program changes, including the new timing mechanism, snow and weather effects, soft camera movement, performance improvements, sound engine rewrites, and miscellaneous bug fixes.  I'm looking forward to unleashing our test team on this new build.

If all goes well, we hope to release our second Dirk Dashing beta within the next 2-3 weeks.  Stay tuned!

Thursday, February 23, 2006 - Spam Filter Tips

Spam filters are becoming increasingly more common on home computers, due to the growing volume of junk e-mail (also called spam).  A spam filter is a piece of software that screens your incoming e-mail, using keyword searches and statistical algorithms to identify potential spam e-mail.  Some e-mail programs have spam filters built-in, so customers may not even be aware that they have one.  Some anti-virus products, like the Zone Alarm Security Suite, also provide a spam filtering capability.

Some spam filters are better than others, but the bottom line is this: there is no perfect spam filter.  No spam filter is 100% accurate.  So if you use a spam filter, the chances are that some spam is going to get through to your inbox - and some legitimate e-mails are not.  The only thing worse than spam getting through to your inbox is for you to miss a critical message because it was caught by your spam filter.

This can cause major problems for companies such as My Game Company whose emails you have requested but are being blocked by spam filters.  By far, the most common support question we receive is from customers who have purchased our game but have not received their registration e-mail.  And in almost every case, the problem has been traced to a finicky spam filter.

So what can you do?  Well, here are some tips:

• Some spam filters have the option to automatically delete suspected spam.  Never use this setting!  It could end up deleting legitimate e-mail!

• Most spam filters give you the option of redirecting suspected spam e-mail to a "junk mail" folder.  This is the safest way to configure your spam filter.  Once you do this, you should regularly scan through the contents of your "junk mail" folder to look for valid e-mails.  I do this once a week, and it only takes a couple of minutes.  I usually find one or two legitimate e-mails that were mistakenly classified as spam, which I then drag back into my inbox.  I don't even bother to open the rest... I just delete them.

• A good anti-spam program will have a white listing mechanism, by which you can specify that e-mails from certain addresses should always be delivered, regardless of what "spam rules" they trigger.  Some spam filters call this a "safe sender" list or a "safe recipient" list.  Make sure everyone in your address book is on the white list, as well as companies like ours whose e-mails you have requested (because you purchased software, or signed up for a newsletter, or whatever).

• Some spam programs use your address book as their white list.  So if you want to be sure you receive e-mail from someone, add their e-mail address to your address book.

• Some spam programs have an option to "Block mail containing pictures or files".  Most legitimate companies nowadays send HTML e-mails containing graphics and hyperlinks because it gives their e-mail a professional appearance.  Unfortunately, that means that such a setting would probably block not only spam but also a lot of legitimate e-mails.  It is up to you whether you want to turn this option on or off, but I wanted to mention it so that you are aware of it.  If you setup your spam filter according to bullet #2 above, then it's safe enough to leave this option on.

Hopefully, these tips will prevent your spam filter from intercepting and deleting any legitimate e-mails you want to receive.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - Shareware Awards

Both Fashion Cents and Word Play recently received some more shareware awards:

• Both games were awarded 5-stars from a new shareware site: www.gearsbox.com!

• Both games were awarded Clean awards from www.softpedia.com, which certifies them as free from spyware, adware, and viruses!

• Fashion Cents received an Editor's Pick award from www.softpedia.com!

Receiving these awards reminded me of a topic I've wanted to blog about for some time now.  If you've seen our product pages and noticed the awards column on the right, you may have wondered exactly what all these awards mean.  I'd like to set the record straight about that.  And I'll tell you why in a moment.

Shareware sites receive dozens, if not hundreds, of new product submissions every day from shareware developers and distributors.  If you've visited any shareware sites recently, you've probably noticed the lengthy product listings, and you have probably scrolled down page after page after page of obscure shareware titles.  Many shareware sites provide ratings and/or reviews to help visitors quickly find quality software.

In many cases, the operators of these shareware sites will rate products on their own initiative.  In that event, developers do not have to request a rating or review, nor do they pay to have their product reviewed.  This is great for their visitors and for the shareware developers, you may ask, but what's in it for the shareware site?  Why would they provide this free service?

I've read blog entries and articles from various folk