Dragon Artist On Board!

So sorry about the long hiatus!  As you can guess, times have been busy.

However, I'm happy to announce that we now have an artist on board; in fact, she happens to be my sister!  She goes by Kyo-katt on the internets, and you can see more of her work here:  kyo-katt.deviantart.com  We'll be working together on this project and see how far we can take it.  In addition to freeing me up to focus more on the coding, this will be a valuable exercise for me to work together on a game project with somebody else and actually bring it through to completion.

We're still honing in on how exactly we want this game to look and feel.  However, here's a couple of concept sketches she's done so far.  Keep an eye on this space for future updates!

Big scary dragon. Go up and poke it!

A much smaller, much cuter dragon!

Who knows; it could be fun to go this direction.

Dragon Poking Tunes

So far, Poke the Dragon has been the prototype that has received the most positive feedback.  It's looking very likely I'll be taking it to the next stages of development and putting others on hold... for now.

I have another prototype of Poke the Dragon ready, this one with a couple bug fixes, and also with a few music tracks to listen to while you play.  Please click the link below to play the prototype and listen to each track.  It will start you on a random track (there are six total) and you can click the "Next" button to listen to the next one.  Play for as long as you like and play through the tracks as many times as you like, but please make sure that you (1) listen to all six tracks for at least a few seconds and (2) that you try playing the game while listening to the music.  Pay attention to which music tracks you like best and write down the track numbers for your favorites.  When you're done playing, click the link to the survey (or it may be useful to have the survey open while you play).

Here's the link to the prototype.  (Due to the format the music is currently in, you must play in Internet Explorer or else the music won't play.  If you're not a fan of IE, I humbly apologize for this inconvenience!  Safari may work as well, but I haven't confirmed this.)
http://bit.ly/pokedrgn_music

And here's the link to the accompanying survey:
http://bit.ly/pokedrgn_musicsurvey

Poke That Dragon!

Yet another prototype for you to play with.  This one is, I think, even simpler than the other two I've worked on.  It's called Poke the Dragon!  And that's really all there is to it.  Poke that dragon as many times as you can in sixty seconds without getting caught!  Kinda silly, but may be worth a giggle or two.  Even though the artwork was done very quick 'n dirty, I'm actually kinda of proud of it.  It's neat to see the dragon moving, even if the animation is rather crude.  But enough patting myself on the back.  Here's that link:
http://bit.ly/pokedrgn_p1

Feedback!  How was it?  Did you find it fun at all, or just boring?  What would make it funner?  Were you able to figure out how to tell when the dragon is waking up?  If I were to run with this idea, I would first of all get some better looking art, then maybe include more clues to tell whether the dragon is stirring and how close he is to waking up, etc.  We could even get more ridiculous and let you "level up" by getting different "poking tools," maybe power ups that make him fall asleep more, etc.  *le shrug*  Does that sound like it would be entertaining?

I know, I know...  Why another prototype?  When am I going to sit down and work on a real game?  Turns out I'm in discussion with a potential artist right now who could help with one of the ideas I've had so far.  In the meantime, I figured I'd try out a few more ideas and pick the one people seem to enjoy the most.  I was also curious to see just how simple I could make a game and still have it be fun.  I figured for my first "published" game, the simpler the better.  Then I can work my way up.  But that also depends on what sticks.  So, of the three prototypes I've posted here (Elemental Tiles, Overflow, and Poke the Dragon) which one do you like best?  Which shows the most promise?