Author Archives: Gregg

IGDA Detroit: August Meeting

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An IGDA Detroit social gathering will be on Monday.

April SocialIGDA Detroit, the Michigan chapter of the International Game Developers Association, will be having its August meeting on Monday [August 22].  Every other chapter meeting (even months) is a social event, or “pure networking” if you prefer, at an area establishment.

This month’s meeting details:

Monday, August 22, 2011
6:30pm to 9:30pm [or later]
Dick O’Dow’s
160 West Maple Road
Birmingham, MI 48009
[click here for map/directions]

 

For the first time in memory, this IGDA Detroit meeting is on a Monday (which, thankfully, means that I have no time conflicts, as I have for the last few meetings).  I look forward to seeing a good turnout.  Find me or Sherry and mention this blog entry and Digital Gamecraft will buy you a drink.  As always, one can also follow IGDA Detroit on Facebook.

Moving forward in 2011.5

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Digital Gamecraft continues on.

Despite the loss of a founding partner, Rick Tumanis, we at Digital Gamecraft are still committed to making fun, high quality games, following the vision that he helped refine.

While Rick’s artistic talents will surely be missed, his guidance and friendship cannot be replaced.  When I last saw Rick in person, I joked about how our plans for the year, and even the annual company meeting, had slipped to the point that we were actually setting our 2011.5 goals.  However, we did establish our goals for the next year and planned the tasks to achieve them; despite the serious setback, we aim to maintain our decided course of action.

Interestingly, in the requisite reassessment in the wake of our Art Director’s sudden and unexpected death (of natural causes), I found that there was no need or desire for any significant course corrections, professionally or personally, as we were already moving toward what we wanted (i.e., “what is really important”).  The only change may be my level of commitment: I am extra focused on development (and spent a lot of time on that this past week), somewhat less likely to blow off a workout, and still grateful for time I get to spend with my family (including a nice vacation day in the very near future).

We still have a game in the development pipeline with Rick’s artwork, plus another at Goodsol Development, so look for those to be released before the end of the year.

 

RIP: Rick Tumanis (1956-2011)

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Our good friend and Art Director has passed away.

Rick Tumanis (1956-2011)Last Friday, Richard A. “Rick” Tumanis, my long-time business partner and longer term friend, died unexpectedly in his sleep.  Rick served as Art Director for SophSoft, Incorporated and Digital Gamecraft, of which he was a founding member.

Raised in Battle Creek, Michigan, Rick received a degree in English from the University of Michigan, followed by a law degree from Cooley Law School, but he chose to pursue a career in video game artwork, as well as his personal love of making music.  Rick began in the video game industry in 1987 when he joined Quest Software and provided artwork for the classic title, Legacy of the Ancients (Electronic Arts); he followed that up by creating all of the artwork for its quasi-sequel, Legend of Blacksilver (Epyx).

In 1995, Rick joined up with (then) Sophisticated Software Systems, contributing to games such as Mission Critical (Legend Entertainment), ZPC (Zombie), Vegas Fever (Encore), Card Crazy 2 (Encore), Slot City 2 (Encore), and MVP Backgammon Professional (MVP Software).  He was lead artist on Bicycle Card Collection (Microsoft), included in Microsoft Plus! Game Pack: Cards & Puzzles.  This led to a collaboration with Goodsol Development, for which he provided almost all artwork for more than 10 years, on games including Pretty Good Solitaire, Most Popular Solitaire, Action Solitaire, FreeCell Plus, and Pretty Good MahJongg.

At the time of his death, Rick was working on a couple of upcoming iOS games and completing work on his most recent solo album, Earfull.

Services were held 1:30pm, Thursday, August 4, at Farley-Estes & Dowdle in Battle Creek, with visitation an hour prior.  Click here for Rick’s obituary page.  [edited 08/08/2011]

Rest In Peace, Rick.  It is a shame that you did not see all of our big plans come to fruition.  You will be greatly missed.

U.S. Supreme Court supports video game freedom of speech

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Video game restrictions ruled unconstitutional.

In a decision affirming two lower court rulings, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that states do not have the right to restrict or prohibit video games sales based on violent content.  Video games are now a legally recognized form of free speech.  The case in question is known as Brown [originally Schwartzenegger] (Governor of California) v. Entertainment Merchants Association, or just Brown V. EMA, docket # 08-1448.

The case was originally argued on November 2, 2010, and although a ruling was expected by June, it was something of a surprise that it took this long to publish. The Court calendar indicated that today was the last regularly scheduled day for making a ruling, and apparently the end of June deadline for decisions, though not inviolate, it taken fairly seriously.  (It would, however, have been amusing if a video game decision had slipped.)

The wait was worth it, as the decision was clear and unequivocal.  It rules, explicitly, that “Video games qualify for First Amendment protection.”  Further, it rules that the proposed law in California (and, by extension, any similar law) does not “satisfy strict scrutiny”, so the original (correct) decision was upheld and the law has been completely struck down.

Read the full decision here (PDF, 485K) [includes 2 page summary]

Additional commentary to follow.

New Goodsol Solitaire Forum

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Newsbrief: A new web forum is launched.

This week, Goodsol Development launched its new/improved Goodsol Solitaire Forum, now available at http://www.goodsol.net/forum (same old address).

After a short transition period, domain name propagation time, and the requisite teething issues, this forum is (again) the primary source for discussion and support of the following titles (of ours):

My profile name is Seelhoff; I hope to see you there.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.21

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First, the Good News…

PGSME 2.21Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.21 is now available in the Mac App Store.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.21 is essentially the same as Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.20, including all 350 games (including bonus games), with the alterations required for MAS inclusion.  Mostly, this is just the elimination of any registration codes or acknowledgment that Apple is not the one and only possible source of this product.

Click here for PGSME 2.21 on the Mac App Store.  (We would really appreciate decent reviews, too.)

 

… and then the Bad News.

Apple, in its myopic wisdom, has determined that updated products should not be shown at the top of the various product lists, so PGSME 2.21, despite having 50% more primary games than its MAS predecessor, PGSME 2.14, which itself helped make the initial Mac App Store launch successful, is not listed on the first (visible) page of ‘All Card Games’ (nor under ‘New and Noteworthy’ on the general ‘Games’ page).

I can understand and appreciate the concept of not automatically bumping up minor updates and bug fixes, thus encouraging spam-like behavior and regular submission of inconsequential changes, but when one of the launch day products adds 100 new games (plus another 10 bonus games), after being trouble free for 5 months, it seems genuinely unfair to penalize it with keeping its (now) almost bottom of the list position.  In fact, it is actually counterproductive, as it encourages us to bombard them with releases of “different” titles using our internal product names (GS200, GS300, GS350, GS400, etc.).  Apple needs to review this policy.

Fortunately, despite the lack of attention from Apple itself, our customers recognize the quality of our product and, somehow, have managed to find out about the new release.  Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition is (as I write this) back to #3 on the ‘Top Grossing’ chart in ‘Card Games’, so we have been voted onto the page anyway.

Nice.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.2

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What is your profession? Fun! Fun! Fun!

After half a year in development, the latest version of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition has been released by Goodsol Development this week.

300 solitaire games for Mac OS X

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.20 adds one hundred new solitaire games to the product, and also makes some significant interface improvements, including customizable game groups, to allow players to arrange games just the way they desire.  The 300 games in this title are joined by 50 bonus games (in the full version), to make PGSME the ultimate solitaire game for Mac OS X.

You can download a trial version of the product, or buy it for only $24.95!  (That is not even a dime per game for hours upon hours of relaxing enjoyment; where else could you get that much fun for less than 10 cents?)  This version is a free upgrade for all previous PGSME customers, and new customers will get free upgrades through the end of 2012, including PGSME 2.3 later this year.

In other news…

By popular request, our RSS feed has now been updated to display each article in its entirety.  (Thanks, Rich, and you are very welcome.)

IGDA Detroit: April Meeting

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An IGDA Detroit gathering is scheduled for Thursday.

April SocialIGDA Detroit, the Michigan chapter of the International Game Developers Association, will be having its April meeting tomorrow.  As per the recently established custom, every other chapter meeting (even months) is a social event, or “pure networking” if you prefer, at an area establishment.

This month’s meeting details:

Thursday, April 21, 2011
7:30pm to 10:30pm [editor: or so]
Lucky Strike at Twelve Mile Crossings
44325 W. Twelve Mile Road
Novi, Michigan 48377
[click here for map/directions]

 

Attendance has been on the rise for every IGDA Detroit meeting so far in 2011, and I hope for that trend to continue.  The newly elected Board of Directors is introducing door prizes for such things as traveling distance (to the meeting) and new members, so it could pay off in more ways than just the camaraderie, business contacts, and practical game development information.  Come join us!

To keep apprised of the happenings, you can follow IGDA Detroit on Facebook, too.

One topic of conversation is certainly going to be the IGDA stance against Amazon’s new Appstore Distribution Terms (and, specifically, how said terms are potentially very detrimental to game developers).  More about that soon…

Careers (April Update)

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February/March spent some time in the doldrums.

productivity gameIn this periodic update to my productivity game based on Careers (for accountability), I have to admit to slower than expected progress.  As a reminder, the basic goal and object of the game is to reach 20 points in each of the three categories.

At this point, my scores (in deadline order) are:
Fame/Accomplishment: 6
Happiness/Health: 6
Money/Finances: 1

I was expecting to have reached my goal (20 points) in the Fame/Accomplishment category by April 1st, and that would have a knock-on effect for the Money/Finances category, but instead my focus reduced progress in the Happiness/Health area instead.  Bah.

“An explanation, not an excuse.”

Although the tangible progress is less than I hoped right now, I have (with the exception of one bad week) been working hard and long on a number of different projects.  My work on the Goodsol Solitaire Engine (which powers all of our solitaire games) got bogged down in a couple of new features and the associated interface changes on Mac and Windows, but that is almost resolved now, and the iPad version has been making progress, too.  I count five (5!) new titles and major product upgrades due in the next month or two.

Angry Words

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Rovio files trademark infringement lawsuit against Roxio.

Today, Rovio Mobile Ltd., the Finnish publisher of “the phenomenally successful Angry Birds franchise” (according to its own web site) announced a trademark lawsuit against Roxio (Sonic Solutions), publishers of the “industry leading consumer [CD/DVD burning software]”  Roxio Creator.

According to a company spokesman, the move is intended to eliminate confusion between the two similarly named products, and now that Rovio has secured $42 Million in financing based on a fluke success of a significantly derivative title, unlikely to be repeatable to investor expectations, the funding will be used primarily to find other “business opportunities” rather than continue actual game development.

“After the untold effort and expense of assuring that Rovio and Angry Birds were mentioned in every single GDC [2011 Game Developers Conference] session this year, some attendees were still referring to us as ‘Roxio’, and that has to stop,” says Peter Vesterbacka, a US-based executive for Rovio Mobile.

Although Rovio Mobile has discussed its IPO plans, it is not yet a publicly traded company; nevertheless, Angry Birds dropped three positions in the App Store on news of the lawsuit.

This lawsuit could set a new trademark precedent, as Roxio was producing software under that name several years before Rovio even existed; however, the plaintiff is attempting to officially establish the acknowledged “we’re just bigger” exception to trademark law, which makes the timing of this filing essential.

Meanwhile, the media battle continues outside the courtroom.  Roxio’s parent company Sonic Solutions was itself acquired by Rovi Corporation.  In retaliation, Rovio announced an Angry Birds collaboration with Rio; Rio is an animated movie to be released April 15, with an appropriate tagline: “this turkey can’t fly“.  Industry sources indicate that Roxio’s next move to solidify its trademark claims will be a foray into the pharmaceutical industry and associated commercial use of “Rx“.