tl;dr – i continue to make concessions for a non-word-gamer crowd in my latest word puzzle/adventure game Spellirium. Check the poll at the bottom if you think that’s a good idea or not. Here are the FACTS that i’ve learned about game pricing: If your game has a broad appeal, you can charge a relatively [...] Keep Reading

The challenges in Spellirium are ever-changing. Sometimes success will be based on the length of the words you spell. Other times, it’s all about colour. In another challenge, the direction of the word might be the key. Here’s an early production example of what we call a “word quality” challenge: spell words that have to [...] Keep Reading

As any word game fan knows, big words aren’t always big point-earners. You can drop a six-letter word like “TETHER” in Scrabble and, even though it’s somewhat interesting and will eat up a good chunk of the board, it’s not a spectacular move because: It’s one letter short of a 50-point BINGO (Scrabble’s point bonus [...] Keep Reading

It’s always exciting to look back across the lifespan of a project and marvel at how it’s evolved. The development cycle of Spellirium is close to three years now – not a steady three, but three years of struggling to move the project ahead while putting food on the table, and working through economic and [...] Keep Reading

It’s not enough that my daughter Cassandra created the artwork, puzzle design and voice work for her first video game at the tender age of five. Now, Backbone Magazine has named her as one of the Top 15 Canadians in Digital Technology. Wanna know who else made the list? Legendary Civilization game developer Sid Meier, [...] Keep Reading