Careers (February Update)

Posted on February 2, 2011 by Gregg

Decent progress was made in January.

In order to enhance accountability in this productivity game based on Careers, I plan to post monthly updates to my 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: 3
Happiness/Health: 6
Money/Finances: 0 (or 0.7)

I certainly have a way to go on the last one, but my deadline for that is Thanksgiving, and the nature of the challenge is such that that momentum should build throughout the year. (Anybody truly concerned can, of course, send me large checks or just wads of cash in an envelope.)

Happy Groundhog Day (and Imbolc)!

Today our local groundhog was not able to come out from his burrow without a shovel, so he slept in (rather than looking for a shadow); I think that means that we just got most of our winter at once.

Careers Revisited

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Gregg

Productivity inspiration from a retail board game.

Health / Finances / Accomplishment

In order to measure my progress on my obligations for 2011, and to (literally) make a game out of it, I decided to adapt the old Parker Brothers game, Careers, first published in 1955 (and now available from Winning Moves).

The feature of Careers that makes it appropriate for my purposes is that the object of the game is to “succeed” by earning a combination of Fame, Money, and Happiness, but the exact “Success Formula” is determined by each individual player. The formula is determined by assigning a total of 60 points to the three categories.

In my 2011 version of the game, I have selected to play a balanced strategy, with 20 points to be earned in each of these updated categories: Happiness/Health (), Money/Finances (), and Fame/Accomplishment (). These correspond to my individual, family, and business goals, respectively. Of course, I will make progress towards success in the real world, rather than moving around a game board. No dice involved.

At the start of the game, I assigned 20 points to each of my goals and then broke that down further into points for measurable milestones along the way. Since each goal has a specific deadline, I assigned 5 points for meeting each deadline, and the remaining 15 points (in each category) were divided into at least five different parts. Additionally, to indicate that simply reaching the goals was not the ultimate desire, I determined three “superwin” targets to pursue as I (hopefully) I blow right past my committed goals. I want the overall SuperWin by December 31, 2011.

So far, as of the middle of January, my scores (in deadline order) are:
Fame/Accomplishment: 0
Happiness/Health: 5
Money/Finances: 0

Hey, it’s a start. For those familiar with the game, my Occupation Record has “Game Developer” checked (for decades), though I missed the College path the first time around the board.

Mac App Store (times two)

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Gregg

Apple launches the Mac App Store with titles including two of our products.

Last Thursday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.6, a free update to Snow Leopard, and the primary change is the addition of the (much anticipated) Mac App Store. The Mac App Store is an online store for direct purchase and installation of software, modeled after the App Store for iOS; it replaces Apple Downloads, which officially closed on the same day.

At launch, Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.14 and Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 2.01 were both in the Mac App Store product lineup. Pretty Good Solitaire is currently #5 on the ‘Top Grossing’ list for card games, and Pretty Good MahJongg is #100 (with a bullet!) on the same list for puzzle games. Our other three Mac products (Most Popular Solitaire, Goodsol Solitaire 101, and FreeCell Plus) should be available there in the near future.

The launch of the Mac App Store is the culmination of months of work and waiting on our part (though mostly the latter). We began the process of getting into the store on November 1 last year, and after numerous automatic failures, then a full month wait, one rejection, and ultimately two dozen application changes, PGS was given the green light (on Boxing Day). Having properly documented all of the required modifications during the process, we were able to produce the store version of PGMJ in less than a day and submit it successfully with no rejections or rebuilds. (It spent 3 days in the queue, and only 2 hours in review before final acceptance.)

If there is interest (i.e., comments left to this effect), I can document the various obscure and undocumented problems we faced during the initial submission process in another post.

FreeCell Plus 4.03

Posted on December 21, 2010 by Gregg

Mac/Windows FreeCell Solitaire (Twelve Different Ones)

Goodsol Development has released an update to our premier FreeCell solitaire product, FreeCell Plus 4.03, which contains the classic solitaire game FreeCell, plus 7 other games in the same category and 4 more bonus game variants (in the full version).

FreeCell Plus 4.03 is only $9.95 and can be purchased here (and an optional CD-ROM is available for $7.50). Of course, evaluation versions can be downloaded for Windows 7/Vista/XP and for Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.

The full version of FreeCell Plus is our only Mac product that currently contains the FreeCell variants, Three Cells and Two Cells, though these will be added to Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition with the next update.

In other news, the Mac Editions for three of our other products, Goodsol Solitaire 101, Pretty Good MahJongg, and Most Popular Solitaire, all currently occupy positions among the 20 most popular titles in the Cards & Puzzles section of Apple Downloads. [Domination: 15% complete.]

Goodsol Solitaire 101 version 2.02

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Gregg

More than 100 Solitaire games for less than $20.

Goodsol Development has released Goodsol Solitaire 101 version 2.02 for both Windows and Mac OS X. This maintenance update fixes every reported bug on both platforms.

Goodsol Solitaire 101 is a collection of 101 of the most popular types of computer solitaire, plus another bonus 34 games as a bonus for customers. The editions for each platform are functionally equivalent, the game deals are identical, and the saved games are even interchangeable. You can get both the Mac and Windows software for only $19.95! Buy now!

Pretty Good MahJongg 2.40 / ME 2.00

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Gregg

MahJongg Solitaire for both Windows and Mac OS X.

Last month, just before I attended Meaningful Play 2010, Goodsol Development continued its intense autumn release schedule, publishing updates to its award-winning MahJongg Solitaire game, Pretty Good MahJongg, for both the Windows and Mac OS X platforms.

Pretty Good MahJongg 2.40 [for Windows] adds five more tile matching layouts, for a total of 300 layouts, plus the ability to have the program minimize to an icon in the task bar (a.k.a., “tray”) with just a keystroke.

Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 2.00 includes 32 original solitaire games, and it adds 23 puzzle games, as well as 140 more tile matching layouts, bringing the Mac OS X version up to the same number of games and layouts as the Windows version (which turned 8 years old in October).

Download a trial version of PGMJ for Windows or PGMJME for Mac OS X now, or buy it today for only $24.95 (plus an optional $7.50 if you want it on CD).

Most Popular Action Solitaire

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Gregg

Two more product updates were released.

Over the past few weeks, Goodsol Development has published updates to two more of our titles, Most Popular Solitaire and Action Solitaire.

Frankly, we have been so busy lately with programming and development of projects on four different platforms that I have fallen a bit behind the release schedule with these blog updates, but this particular posting brings me current (at least until next week, when yet another product update will ship for both desktop platforms).

Most Popular Solitaire 2.03, a Solitaire title for Windows and Mac OS X with 30 different varieties of games (plus 13 bonus game variants in the full version), was released on September 14. This update was a maintenance release to fix every reported bug in the project. Just about a month later, as I write this, Most Popular Solitaire still holds the #2 position on Apple Downloads‘ Card & Puzzles category, and still ranks #5 in the overall Games category.

Action Solitaire 1.40, an arcade Solitaire product for Windows (only), was released last week. This is a significant update, adding 5 more games, bringing the total to 70 games, while also reducing the price to only $19.95. The new version is free to existing customers. The new games are Classic Scorpion, Sea Towers Kings, Baker’s Game, Klondike Free, and Black Hole (and only in the latter game has anyone bettered my high scores yet). Honestly, I am hoping that many more people buy this addictive software so we can justify porting the game to our other platforms.

We still have three more releases for desktop platforms (Mac OS X and Windows) scheduled for the coming weeks, plus the first of our iPad titles is due before the end of the year.

FreeCell Plus 4.02

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Gregg

Our package for FreeCell enthusiasts is updated.

As mentioned in my previous post, FreeCell Plus 4.02 was released at the end of last month, continuing the Goodsol Development autumn release party (which should continue into November).

FreeCell Plus is a Solitaire game program available for both Windows and Mac OS X. It includes the best version of FreeCell, one of the most popular types of computer Solitaire, along with 11 similar games (8 of which are playable in the trial version). This free update fixes a few minor bugs on each platform and updates it to using the latest engine. FreeCell Plus 4.02 is still available to purchase for the low, low price of only $9.95.

So, where have you been for the last three weeks?

Me? Well, first of all, I have been recovering from a bad cold. Perhaps it would not have been nearly so bad had I taken the time to actually get over it, but one disadvantage of working at home (and having a heavy release schedule) is the opportunity/pressure to keep working through illness. Fortunately, the outcome has been positive. (See below.)

Secondly, in a quirkily parallel situation, our server had some issues in presenting the blog. Disappointingly, a system upgrade downgraded our copy of WordPress, effectively reversing all of the recent improvements, and caused some difficulty. When I thought I had the problems fixed, it turns out that in my foggy state I missed one important file, so the blog was actually broken until this week. (The fact that comment spam completely stopped should have a been a clue…)

Finally, and most importantly, I was working on a version of FreeCell Plus for a popular touch device developed by a company on Infinite Loop in Cupertino. Internally, we have a playable version in the prototype phase, and we are now actively working on our recliner-based test methods. Stay tuned to find out more in the near future.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.12 (and more!)

Posted on September 2, 2010 by Gregg

A new version of our premier Solitaire for Mac OS X is released.

The autumn release schedule at Goodsol Development was kicked off with the release of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.12 on August 17th.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition is a Solitaire program that (currently) supports 200 different solitaire games. PGSME 2.12 is a maintenance release that fixes a number of minor issues that have been reported by users. You can download this free update here. All registered users will be eligible for a free upgrade to PGSME 2.2, with 300 games, when it is released later this year, so Buy Now!

There is something for Windows users, too.

Of course, the flagship product is Pretty Good Solitaire (for Windows), so the same day also saw the release of Pretty Good Solitaire 12.4, which increases the total number of different Solitaire games to 750 (adding 10 new games). You can purchase a copy here or download an upgrade/trial version here. This release is the special 15th Anniversary Edition.

Unlike other Goodsol titles, these two versions of Pretty Good Solitaire are built from completely different code bases, in different languages, by different programmers. I developed the Mac OS X version, and Thomas Warfield has been writing/improving the Windows version since 1995! The dual release turned out to be almost double the usual work for a single “SKU” release (for Thomas, not me) so the upgrades are likely to be staggered going forward.

Even more is yet to come.

In the coming months, there are going to be releases every couple of weeks, with upgrades to all of the other major titles in Goodsol’s product lineup, including Most Popular Solitaire, Goodsol Solitaire 101, Pretty Good MahJongg, and even Action Solitaire. Those who are paying attention will note that a “couple of weeks” have already passed, and true to this schedule, FreeCell Plus 4.02 was released two days ago. I will write more about that next week.

Enjoy!

Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 1.0

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Gregg

A favorite product is now available on a new platform.

This week, Goodsol Development released Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition 1.0, our very first published Apple Mac OS X version of this award-winning title. Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition is a MahJongg solitaire game which has 160 different tile matching layouts, but also 32 original solitaire games played with MahJongg tiles, as well as a custom layout editor (only available in the full/purchased version).

The develoment of Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition took longer than originally anticipated, due at least in part to working on three different products for three different platforms simultaneously. The end result, though is very satisfying, and this Mac Edition has all of the same gameplay features as the Windows version, including downloadable tile sets. The next major update of PGMJME will bring the number of solitaire games (and tile matching layouts) even with its 8-year-old sibling, but that is in the (not too distant) future. For the moment, I am looking for the expected 50% productivity gains on the other two major upcoming releases.

You can download a trial version of PGMJME 1.0 from the Mac Edition web site, and you can purchase Pretty Good MahJongg Mac Edition for only $24.95. (Registered users of the Windows version can find a link for a discount coupon on the Goodsol web forum.) What a deal!

I challenge anybody to catch me in Free Klondike (one of the original solitaire games in PGMJME, and my favorite) playing in climb mode.

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