Welcome to the official blog of My Owl Software, creator of the excellent Apple Jack games!



Saturday 18 January 2014

A proper website!

Hello,

I finally got around to making a proper My Owl Software website! It can be found here:

www.myowlsoftware.com

As you can see, it's nothing special, but it gives information on the games and includes links to Twitter and this blog, which should do well enough.

PS. Unity is weird. Being a complete game engine, it takes many of the tasks you would normally have to write code for, such as displaying textures, hit detection, physics etc. and implements them as options in a menu. It's also quite 'bitty' in that everything has its own parameter menu and you have to connect the different 'bits' (textures, sprites, sounds, scripts and so on) together or nest them inside each other in order to create a complete program.

This clashes somewhat with the way I usually program, which is to have a single, central list of code that runs everything. You can probably do something like this in Unity if you want, but it doesn't seem to be designed that way.

Oh well. It's easy to forget that XNA was unfamiliar and daunting when I first started messing around with it, and Unity is probably more user-friendly.

Friday 10 January 2014

Price cut and other stuff

Hello!

It's been a while since my last post since there hasn't been a lot to report of late; I'm currently getting to grips with Unity (XNA RIP) and will begin programming the new game shortly. It's pretty well planned out now and shouldn't require too much fancy coding, although I'll likely hire a proper artist this time since nice graphics make all the difference.

In the meantime why not buy Apple Jack 1&2 on PC?

What's that?

Because it's too expensive?

Nonsense! As of today you can buy both games on Desura for a paltry £2, half what it was previously! Non UK prices have also been similarly slashed. What are you waiting for?
Click the button below for 160 levels of instant pleasure!


 Desura Digital Distribution

Saturday 14 September 2013

Apple Jack 1&2 now available on Desura

Hello again,

Just a little message to say that Apple Jack 1&2 is now available on Desura:

Apple Jack 1&2

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Apple Jack 1&2 in Indie Royale bundle.

Hello!

If you mosey on over to the latest Indie Royale bundle situated here:

http://www.indieroyale.com/

you will find none other than the PC versions of Apple Jack 1&2! See!

Needless to say, the more of these bundles that are sold, the more money I get from them, so if you haven't already got them on Xbox now will be a perfect time to pick them up! You even get four other games absolutely free. I actually don't know very much about them but I'll have a guess based on their names:

Thunder Wolves - a game where you play as a pack of wolves caught in a thunder storm.

Stellar Impact - a game set in 2008 where you play as Stellar McCartney whacking Heather Mills over the head with one of her false legs.

DIVO - a rhythm action game starring operatic pop vocal group Il Divo. 

100% Orange Juice - a game where you play as the quality control manager for Tropicana as he tests batches of orange juice to ensure that they comply fully with the trades description act.

And all of that for the price of a good-quality frozen pizza!


PS - Apple Jack 1&2 have also been accepted by Desura and should be available there very shortly. If I have promised you a code for the game they will be sent as soon as it is up.

Saturday 17 August 2013

Apple Jack 1&2 on Steam Greenlight

Hello!

The PC release is now on Steam Greenlight, so please vote for it:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=170273921

Frankly, I've put it up more as a cheap way to advertise the game ahead of its release than in any expectation of it getting greenlit, but I certainly wouldn't complain if it did make it on to Steam proper. You never know, stranger things have happened (like when it rained frogs that time in Brazil).

Anyway, if all goes to plan you should be able to buy it somewhere else sometime in the beginning of September. There may even be more than one way to get hold of it at release...

Friday 2 August 2013

Apple Jack 1&2 demo

Hello!

I've stuck Apple Jack 1&2 info on IndieDB and uploaded 8 level demos of both games.Get them here:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/apple-jack-12

All that's left is to email various game distribution services to see if they are interested.

Wish me luck!

PS. I forgot to add the names of all the testers who helped out with the games last year to the 'credits' menu. Rest assured I will fix that for the release and send out download codes for all testers when  the full games are up.

Friday 26 July 2013

Apple Jack 1&2 Advert/poster

Hello!

I did a quick advertisment / poster mock up for the PC releases. Not sure if I'll get much use out of it but I was reminded of the old game ads you used to see in magazines in the 90s, where a piece of original artwork (in this case by Kate Willaert) is superimposed with a number of little screenshots.

I should probably redo it with Jack himself as the central image but then I wouldn't be able to use the 'lumbering' pun, so bugger that.

PS. That release date is only a guess, but hopefully an accurate one.