Paper Dragon Games - Board games designed for the computer

Constellation 1.2.8 released

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:55:13 -0500

Hi folks,
Its been a long time coming, but Constellation 1.2.8 is finally released. Not much ground breaking. I just resolved a few niggling bugs like the applause sound still happening when the sound effects are turned off etc. I also finally added the names of the 3 people who participated in the refer-a-friend program to the credits.

I’ve closed the “adding your name to the credits” incentive, as this will probably be the last update to this incarnation of Constellation. I have been very unhappy with how Adobe has treated Director, the development tool I used to create the game. Bugs in the latest versions of their software have made it extremely painful to work with, and I had to do many work arounds to keep Constellation bug free. Its very sad, as Director used to be such a fun tool to work with, and one of the quickest ways to go from concept to a playable game.

The good news is that I have been learning Unity, another game development platform, at my day job. Although, its primarily a 3d game engine, Unity is a joy to work with, and allows publishing to mobile devices as well. I have several new ideas for games using it, so maybe we’ll see a second game in the future.

Thanks so much to everyone for playing Constellation. I’ve loved getting emails from you all. I am very fond of the game, and I’m glad others have enjoyed it as well.

Cheers,

-The Paper Dragon

uDevGames 2010 contest

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:42:17 -0400

I thought I would let folks know that the uDevGames contest just finished. uDevGames is a great indie game contest for mac. The first version of Constellation was originally written for that contest. Sadly, I didn’t have time to enter a game this year. There were some great entries this year though. My favorite was a game called “Flying Sweden” which made me laugh maniacally while blasting helicopters and trying to earn enough money to upgrade my Ikea. Other notables were “Kung Fu Kill Force” a very polished fighting game, “Convergence”, a Zelda style fight game, “Extendaword” a fun little word game, and “Felinity” an inventive Final Fantasy style cat RPG. Hint: If you find yourself fighting a car, run away.

If you have a mac and want to try out some great free indie games check out the contest at:
http://www.udevgames.com/

Constellation wins an Ernie Award: “Best Coffee Break Game”

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 18:02:30 -0400

I was very pleased to find out today that Constellation has won Best Coffee Break Game in the 2010 Bytten Ernie awards.

Bytten is a terrific blog dedicated to reviewing independent computer games. They were one of the first sites to post a review of Constellation. Every year, around Easter, they award Ernies in a variety of categories to the best games they have reviewed over the past year. Here is what they say about Constellation:

“Best Coffee Break Game - Constellation by Paper Dragon Games
The classic example of a game that's easy to learn but boasts a great deal of thoughtful gameplay and diverse strategy. One game can last as little as a few minutes, and an entire series can be played in the time it takes for you to finish your sandwich at lunch.
Make no mistake though that the game is addictive and the AI is competent enough to stretch those coffee breaks out to a lot longer than you might have planned. A simple and attractive looking game that can be played entirely with the mouse. Arm yourself with a hot beverage in the non-mouse hand and you're set to go!”

You can see the other winners, and read some other excellent reviews here:
http://www.bytten.com/article.php?id=16&page=1

Thank you to Steve Blanch, Mark Sheeky, and Andrew Williams at Bytten for the reward, and their excellent reviews.

- The Paper Dragon

First referral sale

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 16:09:45 -0500

Looking over sales for the month of January, I see I finally had a referral sale. Thank you to Travis Boudreaux for referring his friend to Constellation. I will be adding your name to the credits when I next update the game.

I’m still thinking about removing the credits/incentive “refer a friend” feature because it hasn’t worked out as I hoped. If you want to get your name listed in the credits in this fashion, do so soon.

Cheers,

- The Paper Dragon