Like everybody, I think it's a good idea to do a wrap-up now, and after this, I'll post a look to the year ahead. So let's see what happened this year...
A lot, actually! Much more than usual. The year began with the official release of
Loonyland 2 in February, though many many people were already playing the beta version which released in December 2006. That was my first foray into allowing people to buy a beta game. I think it works well for both sides - I get paid sooner, you get a game sooner, I get free testing and lots of it (thanks!), you get input into the finished product. That seemed to be a big hit, so I guess I'll be doing that more in the future!
A couple of months later (in May) saw the release of the Loonyland 2: Collector's Edition, my first experience doing commentary. That was a lot of fun all around, and people do seem to like it!
Then the middle of the year was very quiet. I spent almost all of it working on the new website and Dumb Accounts. I was also clicking away at Loonyland: Titan Tunnels, but not a lot of progress actually occurred.
Then, blammo! The end of the year came! In rapid succession, we had the new website arrive, the release of
Sleepless Hollow (I began working on that at the end of August in secret, deciding that for once, I needed to
successfully create a Halloween surprise), the release of
DumbWords, and the release of
T.A.G., and the release of Short Fuse (well, not entirely released yet, but you can play it). We also had
The Best Halloween Ever, which indeed was pretty best.
Other highlights of the year:
- Loonyland 2 and NPC Quest both mentioned in Games For Windows magazine
- many glowing LL2 reviews around the web
- Summer Silliness, Halloween Horror, and Winter Wackiness as usual (still count as highlights!)
- Switching to 'glorious' satellite internet here at the Hamumu HQ... well, it's vastly superior to dialup as long as I'm not gaming on it, anyway.
- The scary California wildfires which we got to find an alternate backwoods way to drive around when we returned from a trip. Within hours after we got home, we learned that the roads we took were no longer open!
- Netflix's new Watch Instantly online feature... it may not mean anything to you, but it's been awesome for me!
- A trip to the emergency room for a fainting spell brought on by the most intense back pain ever, followed by a month of physical therapy and another month of just plain recovering. Maybe we'll say this is highlights & lowlights. Memorable moments.
- My wife's launch of her own business, Escuela Del Sol (after-school tutoring - I helped on the website!). I absolutely love that she is also doing her own thing. I believe everybody should run their own business, and we can all buy indie things from each other! Down with big corporations!
That's really all there is to 2007. More releases than I can recall of any previous year, and some of our best games ever. A whole new website paradigm, and as you can see with Sleepless Hollow, gradually more website integration going on. Future games will do even better with that. And now that I've played Steam games, I've got more ideas on how to swing that (without being as annoying and intrusive as Steam is...). Now I just need to get an XBox 360 to see what Live achievements are like too! It's
research, people!
I'm calling 2007 our best year yet, so we'll have to figure out how to top that. I've got ideas. See the next journal entry!
