Firstly I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I have a few articles planned out which have been delayed slightly for reasons I’ll go into in the near future, but they will be forthcoming.

Secondly, I’m immensely proud to say that Cletus Clay has been nominated for the IGF Excellence in Visual Arts award. It feels amazing to have one of our games nominated, but I feel it important to point out that the nomination is particularly down to Anthony Flack, not just as designer, but who’s work formed the bulk of the submission (a lot of our effort is still very much work in progress).

There’s some interesting games in the IGF Nominations this year, and I really can’t predict who is going to win out.

You know how there are some games people can never agree on? One of those is Peggle. I really don’t like it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a beautifully crafted project and it’s about as polished as you get. The visuals are great, the interface super-simple, and audio just what was needed. It’s just that it feels like a game of luck to me, and that just isn’t fun. At least not for more than a few minutes.

Our creative director, Andy Crawshaw, has written a great article about why he loves Peggle and he also (probably correctly) suggests why people like me don’t get it. To find out more you’ll have to go and take a look.

Aspiring designers should definitely pay attention.

Tags: design, peggle, peggle nights

Grubby Games have just released My Tribe, their take on the casual sim genre that was lead by the surprise hit Virtual Villagers. I’m a big fan of Grubby’s work, especially the almighty Fizzball, and this game looks like another decent effort with some good reviews appearing.

Still, I’m a little bothered about the space they are in. Two years ago we were working on our own casual ideas. We’d spotted the casual scene before the big publishers but in the end it was too late to enter a market which was becoming very competitive, particularly with cheaply developed but reasonable quality Eastern European content.