GAME.minder Sponsors NASL Season 3

The North American Star League is pleased to announce that GAME.minder by Handelabra Studio, the only mobile platform dedicated to tracking video game release dates, has come aboard as an Associate Sponsor of the NASL and its upcoming Season 3, which is scheduled to begin in April 2012.Developed by Handelabra Studio, the GAME.minder mobile app enables gamers to track and manage video game release dates they don't want to miss. This way, users can receive convenient and customizable push notifications letting them know when the status of an upcoming anticipated game changes.

“It is the faith and support of organizations like Handelabra that allows the NASL to provide quality content with constant availability. We are looking forward to a long and prosperous partnership,” said Mark Brown, Chief Operating Officer of the NASL.

"GAME.minder's sponsorship of the North American Star League just made sense. I can't imagine an audience more attuned to what GAME.minder provides than the NASL's viewers,” said Jeremy Handel, owner of Handelabra Studio.

Based in Southern California, the North American Star League is the premiere eSports broadcaster in the world. Its goal is to expand and elevate eSports awareness and participation worldwide. The NASL is renowned for broadcasting high-definition, high quality eSports league events involving competitive games such as StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty™. With broadcasts 5 days per week during seasons of competition, live events, and several seasons of content per year, the NASL provides viewers with a multitude of viewing opportunities. Information, videos, and other eSports content regarding the NASL is available at http://www.nasl.tv.

Handelabra Studio is a mobile software company centered in Cleveland, Ohio, with satellites in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Salt Lake City, Utah. The company currently has eight products available for download on the App Store including the presidential boxing game "Uncle Slam".

GAME.minder is available on iOS via the iTunes App Store and the mobile web at http://game.minder-app.com. To learn more about Handelabra Studio and its products, please visit http://handelabra.com.

Building The #PAX booth for Uncle Slam

Well PAX is over and done and what a great weekend!  We took tons of pictures and will be posting them over the next few days. For everyone who stopped by to play Uncle Slam: THANK YOU! We gathered so much great feedback that will be invaluable in polishing Uncle Slam for release. But you couldn't have played it without a cool place to sit, so here's a look at the construction of the Oval Office at booth #6014.[gallery link="file" columns="2"]

Uncle Slam: the road to PAX

It's been quite a while since I last posted about Uncle Slam -- the game has a new name and everything now!After we got a good response to our impromptu demos at PAX East, we decided to go full bore on the game. So this summer we've been working hard to get the game built and ready for a real showing at PAX Prime. We're setting up an awesome booth where people can try out Uncle Slam, compete in tournaments, and talk to the developers and artists who put the game together.

Here's what you can look forward to at PAX, by the numbers:

• 9 Presidents of the United States, including but not limited to: George Washington, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and Abraham Lincoln
• 5 stages, including the White House, Mount Rushmore, and some other surprises..
• 7 Handelabra representatives, including developers and artists, to chat with about Uncle Slam and our other projects
• 3 big screens showing all the action and keeping track of the Presidential Standings

Now this is still a Developer's Corner post, so I'll mention some of the technical bits.. we've come a long way since our prototype we had at PAX East. This is our first game at Handelabra, so it's been a learning experience setting up a pipeline for art process, scripting and packaging game assets, integrating with game engines and other technologies, and so on. I'm hoping to get some posts up after PAX Prime talking in more detail about how the project has been going. Uncle Slam has benefited hugely from open source libraries like cocos2d, Box2D, and RestKit, as well as useful tools like PhysicsEditor, TexturePacker, and Particle Designer.

How about some screen shots?

Uncle Slam is due out later this year, so keep an eye on this space. Better yet, set a RE.minder in GAME.minder! Even better yet, visit us at PAX Prime from August 26-28 -- we'll be in booth #6014.

Post Pax Pix Pax Post

What an amazing weekend!  Thanks to everyone who tried out GAME.minder and a special thanks to those who played Presidential Pugilism and gave us feedback.  Time to set your sites on PAX Prime in late August for another look at a (hopefully finished) Presidential Pugilism!Until then, here's some pics from PAXEAST 2011

And finally, some shots of playing the presidents:

Thanks for a great PAX East and we'll see you in August for PAX Prime!!

...and how do you know you've won?

What is a game and how do you know?

We've been asking ourselves this question a lot as we develop GAME.minder 2.0.  My trip to the dictionary tells me that a game is "a form of play or sport, esp. a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck."

• Some games are defined by victory conditions (you finished building the spaceship first!)
• Some games are defined by defeat conditions (the blocks got stacked all the way to the top of the screen).
• Some games pit the player against other players
• Some against the computer
• Some against the clock
• Some against themselves.

But can a game be a success without a true "victory" or "defeat"?  Can it be fun even without any real opponent?  And can it be fun while also being a useful tool? For better or for worse, we'll try to find the answers to these questions with GAME.minder 2.0.  So mark your calendars ladies and gents - barring any App Store snafu's, GAME.minder 2.0 is scheduled to drop on Friday, March 11th, 2011.

Or maybe just pop open GAME.minder and set a RE.minder.