I'm not a very successful game developer yet. Since I started in May/June 2011, I've created six games. Of those, I feel three of them have merit. Those would be:

- EscapeOut
(a breakout clone with a twist that I'd rather not spoil; just play it and you'll get it eventually)

- A Game For Ana
(made for my wife for Valentine's Day; a super basic platformer with heart)

- Apocalypse Later
(made at the Toronto Game Jam, and the only game I've ever made with a team; a point 'n click adventure of dispocalyptic proportions)

The others are okay, but I feel they expose my failures more than my successes. These three really mean something to me. Recently, two of these games passed milestones; I host them on Newgrounds, you see. As of now, both A Game For Ana and Apocalypse Later have over 10,000 views each. "Views" are an admittedly nebulous statistic: they just mean the game's page was loaded by a browser. Still, 10,000 each... I mean, wow. A Game For Ana got a boost back in April because it was, without my knowledge, briefly featured on the Newgrounds front-page. Apocalypse Later wasn't out by then, so it had to claw its way up without any more exposure than Twitter and random Newgrounds user stumbling.

As an interesting sidenote, none of these games are monetized. Not even with preroll ads; I haven't made a red cent from my games to date. In October, this will change.

//cue Mortal Kombat theme

I've never been a very active participant in the Newgrounds community. I'm not about to start, because it's just not the thing I do these days. If I want to socialize online, I'll use Twitter. So, I'm not very diligent about checking my game's reviews or responding to feedback. As you can tell from my previous post, I was taken by surprise when A Game For Ana got a front-page feature (a fact that my wife continues to rave about).

Every so often, I check my pageviews and reviews. I'm not sure how I missed this one until now; It's a review of EscapeOut, the second game I've ever made, courtesy of NG user axel-wolf:

My god. You really are not very good at this game thing. I thought I'd try this one before I completely lost my faith in you as a designer. Sadly to say you didn't deviate from the usual crap you've churned out before. You keep saying watch this space? I'm watching all I'm seeing is a hell of a lot of crap. I'd give up, no dignity lost by accepting you're really bad at it.

Inspiring words. I mean, to know that someone had faith in me to lose is an amazing thought.

In any case, new game soon. Perhaps even later today.

I'll be honest: I don't visit Newgrounds regularly enough. Imagine my surprise when I logged in to upload my latest game, Apocalypse Later, to find that A Game For Ana had over 10,000 views! It took some digging, but eventually I found out the game had been featured on the Front Page sometime back in April.

Holy freaking cow! How does that even happen?

Er, hi.

I've lurked Newgrounds for over a decade, and I also started making Flash games nearly a year ago. I don't know what took me so long, but here I am.

I'm noob, my stuff right now is shit, I know it. But seeing my work on this site, getting feedback and views, is one serious kick in the pants to get better. So, hello. Nice to meet you all. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think, ESPECIALLY if it's negative feedback. I need as much as I can get, trust me.