#strangemasks

My friends from SpeakFabrik released a few days a ago some nice photos for the upcoming Strange Masks Trailer. You can see them there!

You can also follow them on tumblr :)

Hi everybody !

What's new?

v1.0.5 desktop is ready since Monday. But I am late on my planning.

iPad + Android is there waiting for me to compile and push it to my bêta testers. But I didn't find the time to do it yet.

Strange Masks got a some good coverage last month but a very thin audience and I didn't take time to push a real decent trailer...

So from these experiences what is going to happen?

Strange Masks Extended (1.0.5) will be released mid-March or maybe in April.

The Tablet version shall be released into the same time window.

Why so late? Because I want to take time to make a real promotion campaign, something worth the energy I put into Strange Masks. Because although I want to start a new project right now, I believe in this game being great for a very large audience and not just a niche. Hence the new version :)

This will allow me to take some time to think slow and stop rushing. After all ThinkSlow was created with this idea in mind and not just for game concepts.

This I realize now from my very first mistake: to make a game known I have to speak about it earlier... 

Yet, my second mistake is to speak about unfinished things too early. Being Indie, my current planning is not solely based on my will to work but also on my personal / family planning which can interfere in many ways (not for bad though:)). So I have to learn to speak about things when things are ready. So that I don't end up announcing stuff without releasing them and then become a vaporware reseller ;) Because I know that trust is hard to get but easy to lose.

So in case you haven't followed my thoughts: from now on I will share earlier but announce later :)

I wanted to share these thoughts with you because who knows? It may help you too!

Pomodoro Power!

Hi, while enjoying a sunday finishing Strange Masks, I wanted to share with you the Pomodoro technique which can be found here. (all this of course during my pomodoro pause ;))

It was my friend Laurent who introduced me with this technique last year. And I must say that it has proven to be very reliable so far. I don't use it every day but when I need to rush and yet have a very clear mind, it works like a charm.

I don't want to spoil the thing because the guys of the Pomodoro team deserve to be known that's why i invite you to spend at least a few minutes to learn more about it on their web site.

Hi all,

so it has been a very looonnng week and obviously it is not finished yet.

What have I been working on this week? Strange Masks, again, for a final run, adding enough content and making it open so that players will be able to add their own content. Yeasss. 

Strange Masks will now allow user content made with famous open source map editor : Tiled. Yessss.

I have also worked a lot on the game to make it more easy to grasp so that this version will be considered as 'ultimate' - meaning, no more refactoring but only DLCs (free of course).

This version will also make its way to the tablets since thanks to Haxe + NME, it will be the same.

Although it will not share the generous sales system (pay what you want). Rather I am going for a 100% free to play game with in-app purchases. I won't bother making a free + paid app since it is now obvious Apple won't support this anymore and customers don't like it anyways. As for the android tablets version, it will use exactly the same mechanics.

I hope it will help me fund the upcoming projects.

So in the end, the desktop game will be the most generous offer you can have for Strange Masks and my favourite too. Although, I won't ruin you on the tablets and the game will run maybe in a better way since it will allow for gestures.

But the market is different so I am just adapting myself to new constraints.

So once this new version is out and hopefully it will be next week,  I will have a way to push new content in a more friendly way from time to time. I have already this funky addon which I want to work on featuring IndieStatik's Chris Priestman's funky music ;) And I want to work on other free DLC with other people as well, so don't hesitate to contact me!

Anyway, starting from March, I will switch to my new project : codename Echo. Another very strange game. And yet another threat for your minds. Of course. You know me. I love playing with one's mind ;)

Last but not least, I will share more data about web stores soon and I plan to make some indie store matrix to allow every indie player to know how much efforts are needed to publish games nowadays (and how much money you accept to share...)

Being Honest...

So a new review about Strange Masks was done on OMG Ubuntu. I am happy with this one too even though the game scored 2.4 stars out of 5 which is quite low if you take a look at the very recent 8/10 of the praise from the other reviews.

But what interests me most is that every reviewer actually played to the game and gave his very own subjective feelings. And JOEY-ELIJAH SNEDDON, the reviewer took time to do this too.

Strange Masks being a very special game it is interesting to see the mixed feelings. I have experienced this when I was doing the bêta testing with players enjoying puzzles and others just disliking the whole concept.

In the OMGU review I can see that the author enjoyed the game but thought it was kind of deceiving because let's face it: Strange Masks is very unique but there's no grappling story no shiny visuals with lots of sparkling things and one may not like the soundtrack which I can very much understand. This is also not a AAA game nor is it a highly visually stunning game nor has it been marketed like other indie *stars* ;)

Like the author says : "But as fond as I was of the game during my time playing it I am not blinkered. Strange Masks is not a classic in the making; it’s not an undiscovered indie gem; nor is the game going to redefine any genres."

And obviously this was what led to the low score.

But the hardest part is that even if you enjoy the game you have to struggle to find a way to explain to the player that he may either love the game or really hate it. And I think this can be amazingly difficult. How can you praise and warn in the same time? JOEY-ELIJAH SNEDDON actually did it.

So, it is a very fair review and really send the good message to the players: this game is peculiar and can be frustrating, And the most important thing is: it is a memory game! So if we remove the packaging ( sfx, gfx ) you may not enjoy it.

Hi everyone,

I'm on the verge of releasing the latest version of Strange Masks. But before everything is finished I wanted to tell you that Mr Dull mask will be hiding in the Game. Finding him will allow you to unlock new features...

Also, the classical game mode is now named Brain Ache, after the hilarious Strange Masks gameplay video from 0Bennyman and a new easier mode named TOP SECRET will be featured as well as a very hard one for hard core brainers who manage to unlock it...

That's all :)

Don't forget to enjoy your Week-end

Hi guys, the French Team from game-pad.fr just published an interview where we discuss about Strange Masks and indie development.

Strange Masks reviewed on The Indie Shelter! Me so happy! Another great review, another very interesting point of view. Thanks to the Indie Shelter team!