Found a interesting reading from a link posted in indiegamer forum. They say

Five years ago, those same people were making millions telling
everyone how their new dot com alone was going to have a 30% market share.
Digitally distributed games today account for one on-hundredth of that one
percent. Is it growing, sure. Will it be much bigger in five years? You bet.
But the reality is that customers will be downloading Madden 2010 from a
retailer’s website, not the developers.

Well, I partly disagree. If you take Madden for sure, but because is developed by big software house. But in future I see more chances for independent developers. Fun how anyone seems to have forgot what happened with Doom first and Quake then… those games were first ESD and then came to retail…!

I just finished a new version of my game The Goalkeeper. This new update introduces players/team editing using an external csv file (hopefully this will be easy enough for anyone, while I’m making the player editor).

Here’s the official press release:

What’s New in 1.1.7

• Added possibility to change team names and players. To change team names edit the teams.ini file under the data subfolder
• You can now change players editing the file players.csv which is a standard csv file. A separate editor is under development, but you can already edit your players using this popular format, knowing that the final editor will be able to use it.
• Fixed a button placement bug in the Statistics Screen

No, not the Star Wars movie, but the casual games clones war 🙂 recently my friend svero, runner of Twilight Games was very pissed to know that Realarcade is finishing a game very similar to his Beetle Bomp (which is a Zuma clone).
Seems really that even in the casual market we’re running out of new ideas, right? 🙁

I wasted almost 3 days trying to find a good way to draw the maps on the game.
I tried to render some terrains with Bryce 5 (I bought it almost 8 months ago and never used it for anything useful so far…), the final effect is nice enough but don’t know if would fit well with the rest of the graphics.
I am also considering using simple “old-style” maps, drawn only with a single ink (color) on a old paper map…

Today I’ve written the final rules for Magic Stones 🙂
I’ve spent quite a lot of time on those, trying to balance every faction (or school) present in the game. Read more about the magic schools available:

Fire Magic: The druids of fire invoke the terrible destroying power of flame on the battlefield: from this, they draw strength and benefits, in them burns the desire for victory. In the past, it had been banned to teach this school because of its excessive dangerousness, but recently the Great Council of Magicians decided to reinstitute it as a discipline of study. This is definitely the most feared school in the entire world of Aravorn, filled with powerful magics of attack that inflict the most damage of all the schools.

Air Magic: The air druids invoke the invisible force of icy mountain winds to help them crush enemies on the battlefield. This school has its origins in the remote peaks of Meridian, and has been practiced mainly by hermits or old sages of the place. Recently, it has spread to the rest of the kingdom. This requires great concentration and has a very interesting line of magics, including healing, attack, and mana regenerating magics.

Earth Magic: The earth druids draw strength from the life forces of nature, and are among the heartiest and strongest in the kingdom. This magic school is the most common because of its easiness to learn and its popularity among the rural villages. Crowded groups of druids practice in clearings in the forest, where they can find an abundance of stones and trees to evoke the typical creatures of this school, characterized by powerful defensive magics.

Water Magic: The water school: this magic school, once popular, has now fallen into oblivion. This was also defined as meta-magic, the mother of all other magic, since it was able to activate or prolong the effects of all other magic. Given that it has been almost entirely forgotten, it is impossible to create a new druid with a knowledge base of this magic. Nevertheless, you can find Water artifacts, magic formulas, runes, stones, etc. in the most remote (and dangerous) places in Aravorn, and with time your druid could learn to use the power of water magic.