Games

Karoshi version 1.1.0 has now been submitted for approval to Apple, and is now already out on Android from Friday!

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.yoyogames.droidkaroshi

The iOs release is imminent for release hopefully later this week.

This update includes the following;

• OpenFeint implementation:
  • Android: Achievements (11 new), Leaderboards
  • iOS: Achievements (11 new), Leaderboards, Invitation and Social Notifications

Sandy was in the house last week, cracking the whip in all directions! All projects are into schedule and we're hitting our targets to make sure all projects of YoYo are updated, improved and keep pushing new content out there. Hopefully the next time he's up there's going to be a curry in our near future :)  Sandy also started a new (personal) twitter account @lordoftheyoyo - go add him!

Educational

Dare to be Digital (for those not familiar) is an acclaimed video game development competition for students in the UK held in Abertay University, Dundee. For 9 weeks in the summer, teams develop a prototype game and showcased to the general public. Those who compete are usually 'ones to watch' in the industry and an ideal platform for aspiring game dev students to flex their talents.

Dare Academy is a new initiative developed under the Dare to be Digital umbrella. The aim of the Academy is to provide learning and skills for anyone who wants a career change or for continued professional development. We are pleased to promote that they are running a GameMaker course  http://www.daretobedigital.com/dare-academy/DareAcademy_GameMaker.php A project based course, producing your own game, to be ready for release on the Android market. Aimed at anyone with a game idea and wants to publish it.

Community Interest

A hard working team in our community have worked very hard on a game they are going to release that you might be familiar with called Wanderlust: Rebirth.

Wanderlust: Rebirth Trailer

This game, made entirely on GameMaker 7, is a 4-player co-op arcade RPG and the team were voted in as a top 100 indie project for 2010 on indieDB.com. Jason Gordy and Matthew Griffin met through the GMC and have been working together on this game for 4.5 years and must have taken a huge amount of effort and dedication! We are really proud to get behind these guys to show just what kind of quality that is possible with GameMaker :D

Cracking job lads, well done, round of applause here!!

SCREENSHOTS: http://www.wanderlustgame.com/media-screenshots.shtml

GameMaker

Small reminder that GameMaker Standard 8.1 will only be on sale for $25 until June 1st 2011 - then it will go up to $39.99! This will not affect upgrades which are free to those who have GameMaker 8 (with a valid purchase reference).

Still working away providing new updates, thanks to all those who provide feedback so we can fix, debug, improve. Keep em coming!

YoYo Activity

Mike, Russell, Sandy met Mark (Overmars) last week in his hometown of Utrecht. Very quick visit but really useful for YoYo to get together and brainstorm face to face. As you can see Mark is happy (or laughing at one of Sandys bad jokes) and actively involved with YoYo in future projects :)

New team member this week is Darrell Flood (better known to some of you as Dadio - http://www.yoyogames.com/users/dadio)  who will be working with Geoff on the art side of things.

He'll be handling the polishing of artwork for future games as well as some gameplay mechanics and level design. Darrell has been in Japan for the last 9 years doing online art contact (& survived the earthquake and radiation) has a large interest in Anime and claims to be a serious games junkie! Please say hello :)

The website is still at the early designing stage. Some of the google analytics are proving interesting and thought we would share some of what we see recently on our homepage.

From 16th April to 16th May 2011;

• We have had 1.5 million visits.
• 56% of these are new visitors.
• We are up 8.43% on our visitor count.

We won't bore you with the endless details but in all, it's not too shabby but we reckon we can improve this significantly with some improvements to content and clearer navigation. Looking forward to sharing an outline of this with you very soon..

Game Releases

Teaser alert! We've been very busy lately updating a couple of popular games with some NEW content. We expect these to be ready in the next month (or even sooner) if we can test these out without too many problems. Watch this space for when we can reveal what and when... Remember to follow us on Twitter @YoYoGameMaker and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121109091254730 for up to the minute release info as and when it happens.

As promised, cast your eyes on the latest team members in our ever expanding busy team!

Paul Cosgrove has joined us (Realtime Worlds, MTC Media) and will be working with Lee on various web related projects within YoYo. He plays games pretty well, guitar pretty badly and takes web design far too seriously. As you can see, he is delighted to be here..

Chris Harrison comes from a long background in the Scottish games industry (Visual Sciences, Cohort Studios, Realtime Worlds, eeGeo) which is why he has that pained developer scowl but he is really just manly hiding his joy (or just hates being photographed) :) We are delighted to welcome Chris as YoYo's new Senior Programmer who will be working closely with Russell and Mike.

As you can see we are building up a fantastic team here and while we may still be small, we are mighty! More staff updates to come very soon!

The YoYo Team

The new update for the very popular Solitaire game is now out!

iTunes link - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simply-solitaire-hd/id404016931

We’ve added OpenFeint!

We’re very excited to bring you the best features from our friends at OpenFeint…

• Unlock 38 all new Achievements in-game, in Game Center and now in OpenFeint!
• Think you’re the best? Challenge your friends to beat your time! They’ll receive the same hand you just played!
• Climb the global Leaderboards and become #1 across the entire world!
• As if that’s not enough, you can now Invite and keep in touch with all your friends through Twitter & Facebook!

We’ve also made some changes to our Options, and added a few new features too…

• New Options Layout makes it easier for you to navigate and use
• All new Card Backs to choose from! Make your game your own!
• Not getting the cards you need? Take it out on our Stress Toy!

Update today and make sure you don’t miss out! Remember, its still FREE!!

The YoYo Team!

GameMaker News

There is a new update for to GM Standard 8.1 this week!

In brief this means if you are a school, its easier to install by no longer being a requirement to install as Admin only.

You also now need to install from the installer to get the fix for the file association. The correct URL that takes you to the installer is - http://store.yoyogames.com/downloads/gm4win/GameMaker-Installer-8.1.exe

I know a few of you still have had problems upgrading despite having valid keys, we apologise for any frustrations in this and we have resolved this by adding a new screen that shows up when you load GameMaker Standard. For upgrading, it requires your license key only (additional email no longer required). For any doubt, make sure you follow the instructions below;

*Make sure you update (you must be online).

*Enter license key (this can be found on the email sent to you from YoYo Games). Enter the full serial number NOT the purchase reference.

*If you do not have a license key then you need to go to the store and enter your purchase reference (from softwrap). The amount will go to $0. You will be sent an email from YoYo Games that will provide you with a valid licence key.

This should do the job, but if you still have any problems contact us at the helpdesk -https://yoyogames.mojohelpdesk.com and NOT by email. We do not have any contact emails that we can deal with the amount of queries we get so please make sure to speak to us through here.

All of latest upgrade info can be found listed in glorious technical detail here http://store.yoyogames.com/downloads/gm4win/release-notes.html

Game Releases

Simply Solitaire is simply one of our most popular games to date, and we have some added juicy features being added for your gaming pleasure! This will include the introduction of OpenFeint and a host of new achievements with new cardback designs.


OpenFeintAchievements (36 Achievements)
Challenges
Leaderboards
Twitter & Facebook integration


Options updateNew Options layout
New Card backs
Stress Toy



Game Center Achievements36 Achievements


In-game Achievements36 Achievements



This will available on iOS and Android hopefully next week.

We are aiming to have some fresh new game releases out the door as well which we are currently tweaking, fine tuning, adding, etc til we get them good to go.

YoYo News

What's the latest buzz at YoYo Towers? As you already know, Sandy has said we have a few new recruits to the office which we will intimately reveal one by one once we have them chained at their desks :)

Some of the YoYo boys are off to Utrecht next week to plan world domination (or perhaps just a curry) with Prof Mark Overmars. Good things can only come of this :) More to show and tell next week if they let me...

The Game Creators Academy in nearby Kirkcaldy are running a games competiton, which are all GameMaker based, on Thursday 23rd June. The Adam Smith College http://www.adamsmithcollege.ac.uk/relations/public/pressreleases/default.aspx?prid=20110221N01 run courses for school pupils aged 14 – 18 where young people will get the chance to learn simple programming techniques. Over 150 entrants to the competition are going to be shortlisted into categories with a panel of guest judges (Guess who). We're going along to give our tuppence worth (and some YoYo swag) seeing as its just down the road from us. Expect to see photos of our grinning mugs amongst the next gen designers of tomorrow soon!

We've not had the time to dedicate to the website as we would have liked until now. Now we've been able to turn to it and see it in the cold light of day; there's a lot of dust isn't there? There's a lot things we are doing and want to do with GameMaker and YoYo and the site needs to show that. So, we are in the EARLY days of plans for this, and will looking to you nearer the time for some input into getting the most from it.  You will get your chance to have your say but we'll direct that over the forums, just be patient til we have something to show you :)

Cheers,

Kirsty