The World Loves TAG

Besides this blog, my YouTube channel, my dev-log at The Daily Click, and Twitter I haven't really done much marketing for TAG. Even so, many other blogs, and websites have been posting about the game. It's been very encouraging to see other people's interest in the game and it's also made me realize that as I get closer to release I will need to start ramping up my marketing efforts. My ultimate goal is to take any and all hype from TAG and spin it into a KickStarter (or other social fundraising site) campaign for my next project. Therefore I'm going to try hard to tie the two together somehow. Hopefully I'll have more information to share regarding the next project soon.

In the mean time, I am going to use this post to aggregate all the press TAG has been receiving from around the internet, and literally around the world. 

The Daily Click - This is the site where I started my dev-log. Besides all the help I've received on the forums, the admins have featured TAG on the front page news feed. 

8 Bit Horse - I've been a regular visitor of 8-bit Horse and was pleasantly surprised to see TAG made it on the list of noteworthy upcoming 2D games. TAG is featured near the end of the list.

GameSideStory (French) - GameSideStory let me know via Twitter that they have featured TAG on their website. Thanks to google-translate I could soak up all ego-boosting goodness.

GameSideStory - Update (French) - They also posted an update with some new screen shots recently.

Nivel Oculto (Spanish) - This is actually a little daunting - Title of the post? "GOTY INCOMING" That's a lot of pressure. 

Retro Maniac (Spanish) - This Spanish-language game magazine has excellent taste - and that's not just because they gave TAG a gushing write-up on their blog.

Nations of Videogames (Spanish) - Gave me a nice little write up early last year back when the game was still in it's infancy.
Nations of Videogames (Spanish) -Update 1 - Just alerted me via Twitter that they have updated the blog - Again, I had to translate using google, but it's a great write up from what I can read. 

Pixel Prospector - Pixel Prospector has been a believer in TAG from the early days. I can't thank Simon enough for the press and for keeping the site updated with my latest trailers. 

Pixel Prospector - Update 1

Pixel Prospector - Update 2

I love reading other people's impressions of TAG. If you have a blog or website and want to do a write-up on TAG, feel free to leave a comment here, hit me up on twitter or email me. I'm more than happy to chat with you and I will link your article or blog post right here!

Virginia is for Gamers.

I am now a resident of the beautiful City of Staunton, VA! Our move went about as smoothly as could be hoped for. My Volvo is making a slight whining noise which is concerning. But, on the positive side: people here are ridiculously friendly, and I haven't seen anyone picking through our garbage (how novel!).

My job situation is still uncertain. It looks like I may be doing remote-access work for my previous employer, but things are still up in the air.

Now, on to what really matters: Treasure Adventure Game. I started a long over-due spread sheet to track bugs.

 

The bug count started out at 161 but I've already dwindled it down to 72. (And to be honest, these are not all bugs, some were things I left intentionality unfinished due to laziness). There's not a single thing on the list that in unexplainable, which is also very reassuring.

In music news: I believe TAG is now up to around 20 original tracks, all from the talented Robbie Ellis (follow him on Twitter). He's currently working on a track for the factory - think 16-bit SNES music meets heavy metal guitar.

Until my job situation figures itself out I'm trying to use my extra free-time to get TAG as far along as I can. I'm still optimistic that a end of August release is possible. The game has been getting some positive internet hype lately (which I'll talk about in the next post), and I really don't want to disappoint by having to delay the release.

Nearing the end... but also new beginnings!

I spent today celebrating my girlfriend's success in the world of academia. She received her PhD after 7 years of dedication and hard work... and it paid off! She got a job at a prestigious university in Virginia. So... after spending the majority of my life in the Rochester, NY region I'm going to leave my full-time job, pack my belongings and relocate to the beautiful city of Staunton, VA. This could mean great things for my life as an indie game developer. While I will be job searching in VA, at least for the time being, I'm going to have a lot more time to dedicate my games. TAG is getting close to completion, and although it will still be released as freeware I have bold plans for a future commercial project. Of course, a lot of my plans are based upon how well TAG is received by the public. I hope you all love it as much as I do.

Here's to a fresh start in Virginia!

On another note. I discovered how to do some more interesting 2d dynamic lighting effects in MMF2 and decided to revamp the entire game with this new knowledge. It took me about a week of work but the results were worth it. Here are some before and after shots. What do you think?

 

New Trailer!

game design 101