Wizard of Oz for Mac + more news.

Hi everyone.

The Publisher of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Injoy Games, has allowed me to sell it on my own site and this coincides with the release of the Mac version (Universal Binary for Intel and PPC Macs). I've also updated the PC version so that it's Vista compatible + made a few fixes/tweaks.

You can download a demo of either version here: http://www.greyaliengames.com/oz.php

Please check it out and let me know what you think if you haven't seen it already. Big Fish Games saw this game in Nov 2006 and offered me a job as a contract programmer as a result.

I've also updated the PC and Mac versions of Holiday Bonus on my site which you can find here (few fixes/tweaks):

http://www.greyaliengames.com/holidaybonus.php

Hope you like it. It would make a great present for someone ... hint hint ;-)

Oh and both these games are made with the Grey Alien BlitzMax Game Framework V1.09 which you can read more about here: http://www.greyaliengames.com/framework.php

The thing in Holiday Bonus still looks like a willy, imho. :)

Aw man, first post and it's about that gauge. You wait till you post your new game ... ;-p

Ah well... I thought you might change it.... if I didn't say it somebody else would have. Anyhoo - what's the diff between the last version and the new one? A person of my religious upstanding* would get hit by lightning for playing Christmas games in October. :)

* Not really.

Nothing major, just some minor fixes and improvements detailed in the readme. I don't have time to overhaul it and add new stuff (but it's still classic in it's current incarnation) - last year I wanted to make Holiday Bonus Gold with some cool new stuff but was too busy programming Fairway Solitaire. Anyway, the main news item is about Oz for Mac.

Well the good news is that people do indeed download and buy Holiday Bonus (and Xmas Bonus and Easter Bonus) all year round and sales are good even in the summer :-)

I always wondered how it was OK that you used the name "Wizard of Oz". Isn't that a registered trademark?

Talking about Big Fish Games, since you're now a employee of them: What's their stand on you re-releasing one of your games? Or are you able to do so because you haven't started your job there yet?

The book was written over 100 years ago and is no longer copyright. The movie is still copyright which is why we don't have red slippers (the book has silver) - actually we have NO slippers but we had planned on it.

I'm not starting until November. However, I'm still allowed to keep making money from my old games but I'm just not allowed to make any new games in my spare time.

Not even if you dont sell them? What about as hobby?

Depending on the non-compete clause, it may not make a difference if they're free or not...

What about just for private/personal use (ie not show it to the public)?

"Well the good news is that people do indeed download and buy Holiday Bonus (and Xmas Bonus and Easter Bonus) all year round and sales are good even in the summer :-) "

That's very, very good news. :) :) :)

wow... Big congrats on the updated versions and Mac releases! Keep us posted on the mac sales if you can, would love to hear how your games do on that platform. ;)

Well I guess so but if I ever wanted to make it public I'd have to ask permission and if it was a competitive product BFG would automatically own it. This is pretty normal for a non-competition clause even though it sounds bad.

Of course it still sells *loads* more at Christmas, but I think it's funny how people buy it in the Summer.

Well you know that Fairway did awesome on Mac right? As for Oz I can't talk sales figures (maybe I can hint). I can talk about Holiday Bonus though when I have more data. Part of the problem is getting enough Mac users to my site to download it, but hopefully getting it on Apple.com will make a difference.

Have you ever thought about releasing a version thats EXACTLY the same game, but called 'Vacation Bonus' and see which one sells more?

With your products, imo you should just keep at your own business instead of being controlled by rules and agreements of people who are just as or less capable then yourself.

If you went for a larger project(s), you would probobly do wonders in success.

Well I was going to call Holiday Bonus "Xmas Bonus 2" because I thought a sequel sounded cool. But an American (from Oberon Media) suggested calling it Holiday Bonus and that sounded sensible. Vacation Bonus could work but I don't have time to do any A/B testing right now.

Thanks for your confidence. I'll actually be working on some big projects for BFG in Vancouver so keep an eye out for them...

Congratulations Jake - and once again well done!

You just go from strength to strength and deserve the path before you my friend. Good luck with these additions to your ever building catalogue.

IPete2.

Would you even want to do games in your spare time, if you did that as a job? Wouldn't that wear you out?

Thanks IPete2!

Ross C: Well at least I'll really enjoy my job. But yeah, in the evenings + weekends I plan to be off the PC and see my kids, my partner and play guitar and go out etc oh and play console games :-) So my plan is not to make games in my spare time.

Oz is pretty nice on my iMac, Jake. Just for laughs I tried it on my old 300Mhz G3 iBook (the original one) which has practially no graphics card and no hardware acceleration. It doesn't even get past opening a screen before bombing out. I think from what I remember, it's because this old iBook only has 4 mb of video ram of which more than half is consumed by the time you open a screen other than the desktop. Oh well ;-) Good game though.

Thanks for testing, glad it's good on your Mac. Interesting to hear about your test. I know it works on a 800MHz G4.