Where have I gotten off to? I didn’t feel like spamming the IRC channel with constant updates, so all of my news is on twitter.com/oldtopman. The same as last year, I will be offering free hosting during the end of the competition. I’ll be on IRC during the very end, so PM me and I’ll see what I can do for you. I want to give all you people working on flash games a place to upload your stuff do people can play them without downloading it PM oldtopmanserver and I’ll check on it about once a day, PM oldtopman if I’m on. Best of luck to all of you in the competition and may the best game win!

Cheers,

oldtopman

P.S. I’ll be hosting the games until the next Ludum Dare.

EDIT: You can post a reply here too.

So, how many of you make web games, but have to pack it into a .zip file and have people download it?

NO MORE! I have a server that I run myself (no jokes please), and I’d be more than happy to host your game for Ludum Dare. Just to note, you might want to keep a spare download *just* in case.

If you’re intrested, send me an email with a link to the zip, and I’ll have it up on my server. My email address can be found here, though you’ll need to fill out a captcha first. Of course, I may be busy, so I may not get the links up until just after the compo.

tl;dr

I’m hosting webgames. Email me with your games and I’ll send you a link to your game. My email address is here.

Well, I’m on an epic quest to rate 100 games and get that gold star. Now that I’m halfway through, I’m going to share my favorites in no particular order:

Blackbird and joekinley’s “Cracked” – A new take on gameplay typically reserved for RPGs or tower defense games.

emveyh’s “70 Seconds Left” – Not sure what this has to do with the theme, but it’s some of the best fun I’ve had here.

Fireblend’s “Disregard All Humans” – Kill all the people and crush the cities before the world shrinks into nothingness!

Tompudding’s “Giant Wizards from the Outer Rim” – A multiplayer game that has a lot of potential and is fun to play as it stands.

Last but not least:

josefnpat’s “Pocket Strife” – A real time strategy where you have to build up a city and defenses as quickly as possible.

Since you’re still reading this, don’t forget to try my game out.

—

oldtopman

With the October announcement just behind us, I’ve been looking at three payment processors. Paypal, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments. Deciding between them is extremely difficult, and information is sparse. All I want to do is release my game as donationware, nothing fancy.

PayPal:

Paypal has it’s problems. That being said, it has the easiest way to do what I want it to do. A neat little donation button that I can just paste into any old website (more on that later). No bank accounts required, no complicated payment options, no funny math on monthly paychecks. I’ve used them before for other things and they’re alright. But the question remains, are they worth using when I risk all the money I’ve made.

Google Checkout:

Google Checkout, like other Google services, has a motto of “Don’t be evil”. While I have no doubt that it’s not perfect, they don’t have the reputation of PayPal. I’ve used Google Checkout a few times, and it’s pretty good. Unfortunately, they require a website that you own the root directory to (no xxx.no-ip.org/xxx.bitbucket.org domains). How you are payed is delightfully unclear, and I’m continuing to research this for what I can get. Furthermore, the whole setup seems to be configured towards selling physical products, which I won’t. I’ll simply be charging $5 for the same download that everybody else gets for free. On top of that, there is no Pay What You Want setup, like there would be with the PayPal donate button.

Amazon Payments:

Amazon Payments is run by the same people that run Amazon Inc. I have no doubt that they know how to process a lot of money quickly and efficiently. The “one click payment” option sounds pretty good for what I want, but hardly anybody uses them, and as such, there is even less information than on Google Checkout.  Amazon does not have a PWYW button either.

Conclusion:

PayPal has been in business the longest, and knows just how to make a deal, sell goods, and pay people. Unfortunately, they also know just how much they can get away with, so using them is a gamble.

Google Checkout seems to be a decent payment provider, but they are fairly new to the scene, and as such, there could be some bumps going down that road.

Amazon Payments is unknown. While they have a great deal of experience selling things, they are unproven in the indie sector.

Of course, this is just donationware, I don’t need download links or DRM or anything of the sort. I’d have no idea how to even begin on website development anyway! If any of you have used these, or have ideas on what to do, I’d appreciate all of your advice.

…maybe I’ll just take bitcoins instead

Tags: amazon payments, compo, google checkout, october, october challenge, oldtopman, payment processors, paypal

I’m here to participate in Ludum Dare 25, and as demanded by my adoring fans (requested by one person on IRC), I will be making another console game. The emphasis on my game this time is not in the game itself, but in porting it to Windows, which I’ve struggled with in the past.

You can find the libraries that I’m using (in addition to ncurses) here.

I am proud to announce to the Ludum Dare community that I have finished my entry in the 2011 October Challenge.

The game is “Project: Wheatgrinder” and can be had for the unbelievable price of $2 here!

Tags: ASCII, OctoberChallenge, oldtopman, SuccessStory

For my 6th Ludum Dare entry, I will continue my long lineage of ASCII games.

My tools will be simple:

• Protobuf – Savecode
• ncurses-menu – Menus and dialog boxes
• ncurses – Screen handling
• mxe – Windows
• Code::Blocks – IDE of choice
• Git(olite) – Source control
• OCRemix – Music (Prevent “Coder’s Madness”)
• Rainwave – Music (See above)

Should any musician be crazy enough to join me with my endeavors, I will also be using SDL_mixer.