Don't Mind the Mine - Badges

Some of you asked what the criteria is for particular badges. You already have most of the badges and are eager to earn the remaining ones. But you can't figure it out how to earn them. Which is by the way not your fault - name of the badges makes sense after you unlocked it and read its criteria.

If I had the chance to go back in time and create the game again I would definitely make the criteria discoverable by the player. That makes more sense.

For those of you want to earn the remaining badges and are curios about the required criteria - this post is for you. Tadaam!

Google App Engine Dashboard on Android

We created and published a simple Android application for monitoring applications hosted on Google's App Engine infrastructure.

App Engine Dashboard - runs on your Android device

 
GAE has a decent web-based dashboard but it lacks an official dashboard for mobile platforms. I thought it would be cool if I could check out the details of my GAE apps right on my phone. The result is App Engine Dashboard.

Guide the Sheep released into the wild

Can't wait to guide cute sheep through beautiful, diverse landscapes? Get in the role of a brave dog Bruno and guide large flocks of sheep to their destination!

After a few months of work our new game Guide the Sheep has reached a state where we think it's ready to be released. We know it is far from "complete" and it is still missing some features but we believe in "release early, release often" and would like to collect lot of feedback from you. We're still working on the game and you should expect updates with new maps, dogs, game modes and other interesting stuff over the time ahead. Stay tuned!

Miny @6500

The download counter of Don't Mind the Mine has just crossed 6500. Thank you for all the downloads and feedback - we appreciate it!

Miny had brain surgery

Make the game too easy and players will complain. Make the game too tough and players will complain. It's hard to calibrate the difficulty of Android games because you have such a large audience. You can't tell whether your game will be played by a hardcore gamer or by a casual player mom.

If the game is too difficult then it will frustrate the user and if it's too easy the gamer gets bored. Both cases have the same result: users quit playing our game. I wish there was a way to custom tailor the difficulty for each and every player... The solution is adaptive AI!

New game on the horizon

We are continuously improving our first game Don't Mind the Mine and trying to respond to every reported bug as fast as possible. But if you do the math you might end up wondering: "This is a quite simple game. Does this maintenance work keep you guys busy all the time?" You're right the answer is no. Curios about what we are working on at the moment? Would you like to get a small peek at our next game?

Game modes, percentages and conclusions

As you may know there are three different game modes in Don't Mind the Mine.

1) Time Challenge
2) Against Miny
3) Multiplayer

Which one is the best game mode? Which one is more fun and played by more players? As you might guess we - as developers - are quite interested in the answer. Luckily there are means to answer those questions. If you are also interested just keep reading.