No man is an island. I’ve long known and admitted that my games could stand the touch of someone with visual arts skills greater than mine, and that in general, my games would be better if I had a couple of collaborators to work with to balance out my “particular idiom”.
This year, I’ve partnered with Phil Peer of Dioram to bring the “Deus Penguin” series to Vintage Pachinko. Phil did an excellent job with the first installment of the series, and this partnership will continue for the foreseeable future, as we have plenty of new theme ideas to bring to Vintage Pachinko.
I’ve also enlisted the services of Marc Gegner of 10×12 Productions to enhance the original Dehoarder music for Dehoarder 2, and I must say, he knocked it out of the park. I can’t wait to release the new music, I just need the rest of the game to catch up to it!
Now, a very interesting opportunity is presenting itself. It looks like I may be joining forces with some local peers in 2015 to work on brand new projects from start to finish. Again, this is all very preliminary, and no firm commitments have been made yet, but I am very excited about the opportunity.
I’ll be sure to post updates with the who, what and when once things are more congealed and I ensure that I have clearance to talk about all of that, as well as what it will mean for Smiling Cat. Hopefully it will mean a new beginning, where Smiling Cat becomes part of something bigger, better, and more bad-ass.
In the meantime, I continue to work on Dehoarder 2, and continue to prepare for OGDE. More has happened for the latter than the former this week (not a creative week due to some external stresses), but I figure if I get the expo all sorted, then I can dive into Dehoarder 2 in the run-up to the expo.
I did decide some things about the feel of Dehoader 2. Expect some pretty absurd scenarios to unfold over the course of the game. Things like an alien invasion, demon summoning, or zombie scourge are not outside the realm of possibility (not promising any of those particular scenarios, just providing examples, though all three sound fun). Heck, right now, the game starts with an earthquake. In most cases, though, the answer to the problem will lie within your hoard.
Last weekend, Breaking Block hit 4,000 installs. I’m still getting a slow but steady stream of downloads every day, and a few people have even purchased Silver Coins and ad blockers (Thank you!). Reviews still continue to be pretty good, and it seems most of the small amount of hate is due to tilt controls. I have been experimenting with a touch-based control scheme for Breaking Block, and hope to release an update sometime soon.