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Hi Koonsolo fans,

Recently I came across this great opportunity, but it forced me to make a tough decision. I hope you will understand, and will keep supporting Koonsolo as you did before.

As you might know I started Koonsolo because I love creating games. Mystic Mine was the first game that I created entirely by myself, and I planned the same for the next one. But doing the programming, graphics and marketing all by myself is very hard and time consuming.

As I was working on my upcoming game, I got a request from another indie game company to work on a project together. This project isn’t a game, but a tool to create games. It will allow anyone without programming or artistic skills to create cool video games. And it’s powerful enough that when you do know how to program, you can write your own code. Or if you are an artist, you can include your own graphics.

I’ve been programming games since I was a kid, so this is the ideal opportunity to share my technical knowledge, and make it available to anyone. Doing this together with another company allows me to focus on the development and the things I’m really good at.

Because this game creation tool is going to be released first, it also means that my next game won’t be released in the near future. I hope you can understand my decision, and I certainly hope that you’re interested in creating your own games using my tool .

If you have any questions or remarks, just leave a comment below.

Thanks!

Koen.

As you might already know I’m using Blender 3D for creating the artwork of my games. It’s a free 3D modeling tool with a lot of features and possibilities. A few weeks ago I received a request from Packt Publishing to review a new book that teaches you how to work with Blender 3D. It’s called ‘Blender 3D 2.49 Incredible Machines‘, written by author Allan Brito. Since I’m going to model some machines myself, I thought it might be interesting to see what this book has to offer. Read the rest of this entry »

Do you remember playing with toy cranes, dump trucks or wheel loaders when you were a kid? I certainly remember having great time with those! Recently I bought some CATTERPILAR toys for my son to play with (dump truck, excavator and crane), and it just amazes me how much appeal it got.

Strangely enough there aren’t many computer games which let you control these heavy equipment machines. There are some realistic simulations, but nothing really fun.

Therefore Koonsolo is going to release a series of games where you control bulldozers, excavators, dump trucks, wheel loaders, cranes and other heavy machinery. We will call it our ‘Big Machine Games‘. Don’t expect realistic simulations, because it’s going to be fun, entertaining, and something completely unique, just like any other Koonsolo game. It’s the perfect excuse to relive the fun you had as a kid, but this time packaged in a challenging game.

And as a matter of fact, we’re already working on the first game in the Big Machine Games linup. It’s our Big Bulldozer Game, a fun and challenging puzzle game.

Mystic Mine now has an online version, which also includes online highscores! So you think you’re one of the best Mystic Miners out there? Prove it in the highscore tables! Click here to play it.

It’s official, Mystic Mine has entered the Indepenent Games Festival competition. In the past some weird artistic games have won, so let’s hope this time the jury loves M.C.Escher, and has a soft spot for fun, innovative gameplay (with an old-school feel).

Wish me luck!

When I released my indie game Mystic Mine, I had no idea if the Linux version was going to sell. But 7 months later, I must say the results are quite surprising.

Recently I got interviewed by Linux Gaming News about my indie game Mystic Mine, and one of the questions was how many Linux copies I sold. I looked into it and saw that I sell the most copies for Mac OS X, then for Linux, and the least for Windows. I didn’t make much of it, because as an indie game developer it’s easier to get noticed on Mac OS X or Linux than on Windows. And selling games is all about exposure. But after people started to ask questions on this, I looked further into it, and what I discovered really surprised me. Read the rest of this entry »

Our game Mystic Mine has gotten some improvements, and we are making the update freely available. Here are the most important changes:

• The multiplayer game now tracks the overall scores for all played levels. This means that you can organize a tournament with your friends, and at the end see who won the most games.
• Mystic Mine is now running faster, so slower machines are now better supported.
• The first levels of adventure mode are now even more fun.

If you bought the game and want to receive the latest version, just mail me at koen@koonsolo.com and I will reactivate your download. And for those who don’t have the full game yet,  play the new demo and have fun!

I’m currently doing some improvements on Mystic Mine. The first few levels are going to be more challenging, and it will run better on slower machines. A few tweaks here and there, but the most important thing will be that the multiplayer game will feature a ‘Totals‘ score board!

I received feedback from players who sometimes organize little ‘Mystic Mine Tournaments’ among their friends. But in the current multiplayer game you only see the scores of the last game. A totals score board would be a great help to keep track of who won the most games etc. This way you can see at the end who the ultimate Mystic Miner is . I’ll keep you updated on the progress of this new version, and will definitely let you know when it becomes available.

If you have more suggestions for small improvements, now is the time to let me know. Because I could still include it into this update. Just comment below or mail me at koen@koonsolo.com.

In our last post we told you that we’re now working on our next game. But as you might know this can costs a lot of money, especially for a small game developer. So to gain some funds quickly we’re going to do this crazy promotion and sell our current game ‘Mystic Mine’ at a huge price discount!
On Monday, June 1, we’ll send out a mail to all our newsletter subscribers, which contains the promotion code to take advantage of this deal. This promotion will then be available for a week, so you will have to act fast.
Only our newsletter subscribers will receive this code, so make sure you’re one of them! Subscribe at http://www.koonsolo.com/newsletter.php (Unsubscribe at any time you want ).