As of of today Pixel Dash 2 is officially out of pre-production!

But what does that mean exactly? Well it means that the initial brief is written, the concept thought through and I know exactly (more or less!) what I'm going to build and how I'm going to build it. The original Pixel Dash was built using Phaser, however this time I'm going to be using Godot as it offers better tools for exporting to mobile.

The first thing to do is is do some rough design mock-ups which I can use to build the initial prototype. As you can see from the sketch below there's going to be over 80 levels spread across 5 game modes! Exciting, right?

Once the demo is built, it'll then be time to refine the artwork, test it and finally release it! So while I'm busy doing all that you'll just have to make do with original Pixel Dash:

Or if you're completely bored of that why not give COLLECT! AVOID! a go?

No one's managed to beat my high score yet though, maybe I should give out a prize if someone does?

Today is very exciting day here at Blit Blat HQ - our new game, CAPITAL DASH, is out now on Android and iOS devices!

And it's free!

Capital Dash is a simple quiz game about identifying capital cites before the time runs out. Featuring two difficulty modes and over 200 countries, this is the ultimate test for any trivia fan!

This is the first game we've released for iPhones and it was quite a journey! For a company that prides themselves on producing intuitive UX, the process for releasing for iOS is an uphill struggle! That said, we got it over the line and are over the moon with the result!

So please do go give it a play and as always please do leave feedback (it's the only way we'll get better!). We love reviews! Oh, and before anyone asks, be sure to watch this space - we're hoping to launch Capital Dash: USA Edition soon!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blitblatgames.capitaldash

https://apps.apple.com/app/capital-dash/id6444105226

What a month it's been here at Blit Blat HQ! I released FIVE new games this month, including these two for the Godot Wild Jam:

If you're a Game Dev and haven't used Godot yet you should really check it out ASAP. Not only is it completely free and open source, but v4.0 is now in beta and looks to be a real game changer. As well it as exporting to web & desktop, it's also supports exporting to Android & iOS. Now, I've not published anything to iOS as I don't have a Mac (yet) but the Android publishing is a breeze. I really can't recommend it enough! </plug>

Work never stops though, there's still lots of games I wanna try and build this year! I currently have 7 projects on the go, all in various stages of development. The one that has (most of) my attention for now though is Lucky Knight, a luck based adventure and my love-letter to old-skool RPGs. Of course, by this time tomorrow I might have moved onto something else completely (focus man, focus!) but for now I'll wrap up what's been an amazing month with this little glimpse from Lucky Knight...

It’s been a busy week here at Blit Blat HQ, with the release of not one, but two new games, one of which made the front page - thanks, @TomFulp!

As a solo developer it’s always an exciting time releasing a game, not least of all because you start to get real feedback from real players who have chosen to play your game, instead of the family & friends you’ve cajoled into being beta testers for you.

Game reviews, and critiques in general, can be a fairly daunting thing to read. No one likes being told something that they worked hard on sucks. “You can’t please all the people all of time” the old adage goes, and that’s certainly the case with this satisfied customer.

Fortunately, for my own self-esteem at least, you can please some people some of the time.

Now while these reviews are at polar opposites in terms of favourability, the do have one thing in common; neither of them are particularly helpful. Now don’t misunderstand - I love getting reviews like this and could happily read reviews like @MrHippoPL’s all day, and while they would give a much appreciated ego boost they wouldn’t improve my games or me as developer.

So what makes a helpful review? This one from @larrynachos on Pixel Dash is a great example:

Starts on a positive ✔

Politely explains the negatives ✔

Offers examples of how it could be improved ✔

This review and a couple of others, such as the one by @JarranX, immediately made my head rush with ideas, and development is already underway on Pixel Dash 2.

I also received excellent reviews from @AnAutisticHegehog and @BillyBobtheFarmer on A Spaceship Called Stability about how the lack of I-Frame after taking damage makes the game brutally hard. Now, for many, when someone complains a game is too hard the immediate reaction is tell to them to git gud. However, I listened to the feedback and quickly implemented a small cooldown after taking damage, and honestly the game is much better for it. It also lead to players coming back, replaying the game and leaving an improved score. This meant more plays for me and a more engaging experience for them. That's what we in the biz call a Win-Win.

So my takeaway is this - Game Reviewers, please be specific in your feedback. It's fine to tell us our games suck, but tell us why it sucked. And Game Developers, listen to and engage with your reviewers. They often offer up insights and ideas that are worthy of your time.