Demolish! Pairs 1.0 for iOS

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Gregg

Our arcade/puzzle game has been released!

Digital Gamecraft has published Demolish! Pairs on the App Store, where you can now buy it for only $1.99 (for a limited time only).

Demolish! Pairs represents a true milestone. This is the first truly self-published title we have released in more than 23 years, and at the same time, it is the very last title on which we worked with our late friend and partner, Rick Tumanis, who did most of the artwork, and all of the sounds, for this game prior to his passing in 2011.

We are providing a limited number of free review copies to press (traditional or online) and, indeed, to the first three people who send an email to us at support@digitalgamecraft.com and tell us you read about Demolish! Pairs on this Gamecraft blog. [Editor note: Press copies are still available, but the giveaway codes are gone.]

Please… Download and Enjoy!

Goodsol Solitaire 101 Touch Edition 1.0

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Gregg

Our latest iPad Solitaire game is now available in the App Store.

Goodsol Solitaire 101 was approved, last week, by Apple, so it is now available in the App Store for only $5.99!

Goodsol Solitaire 101 Touch Edition includes (not surprisingly) the same 101 Solitaire games as the Windows and Mac Editions. Additionally, this version includes 34 bonus game variants, as well as all of your favorites from Most Popular Solitaire Touch Edition and A Little Solitaire.

So far, all of our reviews are 5 stars, including:

“Without a doubt, this is the best solitaire app on the market.”
“A great variety of games, some challenging, some soothing but all well presented and easy to work with. And fun.”

Aside from extra games, Goodsol Solitaire 101 Touch Edition adds new features not available in any other Goodsol product. The deal selection has been adjusted to allow players to select any of more than 2.1 billion deals, which are compatible with Windows and Mac products, but a player can also select to replay a game, and the new result replaces the older one. Additionally, a player can arbitrarily delete individual results, which is a capability often requested by customers. Both of these two features can be expected to make appearances in Windows and Mac OS X products at some point.

Before that, though… Pretty Good Solitaire Touch Edition is on its way!

Most Popular Solitaire Touch Edition 1.0

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Gregg

We have another Solitaire game for iPad in the App Store.

Apple approved Most Popular Solitaire, our third Solitaire game for iPad, yesterday; it is now available in the App Store for only $3.99!

Most Popular Solitaire is a collection of 30 of the most popular Solitaire games, exactly as the title implies. These games include Klondike (a.k.a., “Solitaire”), FreeCell, and Spider, as well as more unusual forms of patience such as Crazy Quilt. There are games of many different types, including Pyramid, Forty Thieves, Aces Up, Canfield, Golf, La Belle Lucie, Cruel, Scorpion, and Yukon, plus 17 more games, and “if you act now” you will also receive 13 bonus variations of these games.

The initial release of this latest app has the same basic features as A Little Solitaire Touch Edition and FreeCell Plus Touch Edition, albeit with many more games. The next two Solitaire apps from the Goodsol Solitaire for iPad page will add some additional features, based on customer feedback from the earlier releases.

What our customers are saying:

“Awesome. Best solitaire anywhere. Am looking forward to all the new fun you’ve planned for updates.”
“This is an excellent group of Solitaire games. I enjoy the ‘touch’ autojump feature. Graphics are excellent on the iPad.”
“I have been playing both their solitaire and mahjongg PC games for years. Love their products. [The iPad games] they’ve loaded are excellent.”

Get your copy from the App Store today!

FreeCell Plus Touch Edition 1.0

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Gregg

Now our second iOS title is available in the App Store.

Yesterday, Apple approved Goodsol FreeCell Plus, our second Solitaire game for iPad, and it is now available in the App Store for only $1.99!

Goodsol FreeCell Plus is a collection of 12 different FreeCell variants, including FreeCell itself, as well as some other very popular games, such as Eight Off, Penguin, and Sea Towers, plus 8 more. The title also includes 3 different card sets, 16 back designs, and features all of the quality gameplay you expect from us. As a bonus, free of charge, you also get the cherished “Goodsol” branding because, oddly, Apple does not allow both iOS and Mac OS X games to have the same name, even from the same developer.

FreeCell Plus is just starting to climb the charts, and we anticipate a decent spike when the next Goodsol newsletter announces it. Last week, A Little Solitaire climbed to #1 in Card Games, with a 5-star rating, and I expect that FreeCell Plus will perform similarly.

You will see on the Goodsol Solitaire for iPad page that “App 3” is being prepared for beta testing. If you think you know what that title will be, you are probably correct. 🙂

A Little Solitaire Touch Edition 1.0

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Gregg

Our first iOS title is now available in the App Store!

On Friday, Apple approved A Little Solitaire, our first Solitaire game for iPad (of several), and it is now available in the App Store for only 99 cents!

A Little Solitaire is, as suggested by the name, a small collection with 9 of the most popular computer Solitaire games. This includes Klondike (a.k.a., Solitaire) [4 variants], FreeCell [2 variants], and Spider, with its Spider One Suit (easy) and Spider Two Suits (average) variants. The product includes 3 different card sets, as well as 16 back designs, and features all of the quality gameplay you expect from Goodsol Development (and our implementation 🙂 ).

Over the weekend, A Little Solitaire has hovered just outside the Top 50 in its category, Card Games (i.e., Games->Card), where it remains (for the moment) on the front page. It has a few reviews, but I am particularly pleased by this 5 Star review:

“Wow — I have been waiting so long for this app for the IPAD. Nicely done as I would not expect anything else from this developer. I have the Mac games and THANKS for the IPAD version. Will look forward to more apps and graphics are nice, game play is like it should be played. THANKS!!!!“

This makes me feel that the effort to make a quality game was appreciated. A mediocre review based solely on games that a reviewer would rather have… not so much.

Check it out, and please let us know what you think.

Not-so-Free Agent

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Gregg

There’s a hole in my schedule, Dear Liza, Dear Liza.

For the first time in years, my game development time is entirely my own. Today was the first day of business since late 2001 on which I did not have a time obligation to a consulting client. Feels weird. 😉

Having made arrangements with our largest client to take a short hiatus (while we weather the vicissitudes of App Store reviewers), we did have an interesting quasi-game project penciled into the schedule. Unfortunately, as happens all too often in this industry, as we were warming up the fountain pen, the prospective client proved to be yet another “tire kicker” not actually serious about having the project produced professionally.

So, this means that…

You, yes you, can retain a professional game developer with more than 30 years of industry experience to design, program, or consult on your project.

Currently, I am actively working on Windows, Mac OS X, and iOS projects, with C++ and Objective-C code, though my abilities range far beyond those. I have particular knowledge of quality control, artificial intelligence, and traditional games. For more information [serious inquiries only]: seelhoff@sophsoft.com

Of course, I am actually reveling in having the extra development time for Digital Gamecraft projects, starting with Demolish! Pairs, for which there will be a number of announcements in the coming days and weeks.

The only thing (and the real point of this post) is… I need to get used to having all of my time for these projects. At the moment, I still habitually kick into time management mode, making sure that I stay on top of everything that needs to be done for each client. For now, I suppose, I am my only client. That works. 🙂

Solitaire for iPad… almost.

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Gregg

After months (years) in development, it is nearly here.

Mystery Icon for iPad Today, Goodsol Development (almost) announced our upcoming iPad games in their newsletter (issue #176).

In the “iPad Versions Coming” section, Thomas Warfield indicates that there are now development updates at http://www.goodsol.com/ipad. The first two planned releases are still called “App 1” and “App 2” (not their actual names 🙂 ); for a little bit of intrigue and fun, I have included the iPad icon for the former above. Feel free to submit your guesses for the actual name.

“And, by the way, I think the iPad games are going to be very good.
We’ve spent a long time trying to make them up to the standards of our
Windows and Mac games.”

As another Gamecraft exclusive, I can tell you that the app attached to the above icon has now entered “release candidate” status, as we prepare to run the gauntlet of Apple App Store submission. Stay tuned…

PGMJ on Amazon

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Gregg

Get the best MahJongg Solitaire program shipped to your door.

Now, you can order Pretty Good MahJongg from Amazon.com. For those of you who (like me) prefer a physical product, especially for gift-giving, this is a great opportunity. Not only do you get the full game, with 55 solitaire and puzzle games plus 300 tile matching layouts and a layout editor, but you also get a professionally packaged disc, all for a discounted price. This is a perfect birthday gift for all ages, or you can get a copy for yourself and display the box right next to your other retail games. (Mine will keep company with all of the products I have worked on over the last 30 years. 🙂 )

Get your copies by searching for “Pretty Good MahJongg” at Amazon.com, or you can use this direct link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00BHIPOEG

For a limited time only: Be the first to review this item.

In Stock.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.44

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Gregg

Play 440 different Solitaire games on Mac OS X.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.44, an upgrade to the largest (and growing) collection of solitaire games for Mac systems, has been published by Goodsol Development.

This version of Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition has 20 more new games, for a total of 440 different kinds of solitaire (or 504, if you include the 64 bonus games in the full version). This version is a free upgrade for all previous PGSME customers.

The 20 new games in version 2.44 include the very latest games added to the Windows version (Candike, Single Spark, and Lancaster), as well as 17 more games of various types. This upgrade also includes two more card sets in the main bundle: the Traditional Card Set and the Large Suit Card Set. PGSME 2.44 was featured in Goodsol Newsletter #174; anybody may subscribe to the Goodsol Newsletter (for free) to receive updates, information on featured games, and occasional deals on game software (but don’t tell them I told you 🙂 ).

The new games (in alphabetical order) are:

Alexandria
Applegate
Breakwater
Brown Recluse
Candike
Cleopatra
Crossroads
Eight On
Eighty Thieves
Forty Bandits
Lancaster
Linus
Microbe
San Juan Hill
Scorpion Tail
Single Interchange
Single Spark
Suits in Line
Swiss Patience
Three Blind Mice

This was actually our quickest significant update yet, as there were fewer “oddballs” than usual. However, Microbe was the recipient of our Oddball of the Group Award for this upgrade, accounting for 3 extensions to the Goodsol Solitaire Engine (plus two fixes to the rules in the PGS help file).

Our next Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition update (PGSME 2.46) is scheduled for mid-March; as always, it will be a free upgrade to those who buy version 2.44 now.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.42

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Gregg

Solitaire for Mac OS X with 420 different games

This week, Goodsol Development published Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition 2.42, an upgrade to our largest collection of solitaire games for Mac systems.

Pretty Good Solitaire Mac Edition now has 20 new games, bringing the total to 420 kinds of solitaire, plus another 62 bonus variants in the full version. This version is a free upgrade for all previous PGSME customers.

The interesting thing about the 20 new solitaire games in version 2.42 is that several of these games were selected by customers via the Pretty Good Solitaire page on Facebook, as well as in the Goodsol forum. That’s right! We not only take requests for a game, but sometimes even design original solitaire games for particularly active forum participants (e.g., Richard’s Patience).