Check out this awesome Jolly Rover fanart, in 3D!
I never thought Jolly Rover would look that great in 3D, which is why I made the artistic choice to do it in 2D, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and this fan art by Karen Soroe is definitely that. Thanks so much for sending this through Karen, you’re awesome!
What do you think?
Even now, nearly two years after release, I’m so happy to still be able to announce new things for Jolly Rover. First and foremost, is it’s in the latest Indie Royale Bundle (PC/Mac), which is St Patrick’s Day themed. I can’t exactly explain how Jolly Rover fits into this, maybe it’s the green pants?! I was fortunate enough to chat with Simon Carless about it at GDC, and it turns out he’s a big fan of adventure games, which is why you might see a skew towards adventure on the Indie Royale Bundles. No problems there! With Double Fine securing over $3.3M for their next game the future of adventure looks bright!
By the way, the bundle will be on sale for 5 days only, it’s a great chance to check out some of the other awesome games in the bundle you might not have heard of. I particularly like the look of DLC Quest.
Also of importance, is that this is the first legit DRM Free version of Jolly Rover, and after the bundle has finished it will remain on Desura in all it’s DRM free glory! Desura currently has an exclusive on the DRM free version, but I will no doubt be getting a DRM free version available here in the near future, probably some time after MacGuffin’s Curse launches on April 19.
I’ve just received word that I can finally announce some news I’ve been sitting on for months. Ayopa games will be publishing MacGuffin’s Curse on the App stores this April. This includes the Mac App Store!
We will still be handling distribution and marketing for all platforms outside of Apple’s distribution network, but we decided that because the App stores can be very noisy places, that Ayopa, based in San Francisco, and thus with close proximity to Apple and their outstanding history in the industry, would give us a better chance at being noticed amongst the hundreds of apps that launch every day.
We began talking to Ayopa back in September 2011, and at the time we weren’t considering getting a publisher at all. Actually, we were pretty against the idea at first. Personally, I’m a bit cynical when it comes to publishers. But after talking to Johnny, who launched Angry Birds and Cut the Rope while at Chillingo, and Elliott, who was PR manager on World of Warcraft, and previously Executive Editor at GameSpot, we felt they were better poised to operate a successful PR and marketing campaign than we were.
So, did we make the right decision to go with a publisher for MacGuffin’s Curse? I couldn’t tell you that, but so far the Ayopa team have been great, and we wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t feel really strongly that this was the best way to go. Ask me in July if I still feel the same way!
With GDC fast approaching we’ve been hard at work sending out emails to all press, great and small, to entice them into taking an interest in MacGuffin’s Curse, and possibly writing an article, interview, preview or review. Marketing and PR is the other half of indie development (yes, HALF!) and it all starts with good communication to establish that relationship with people who will let a lot more people know about your game than you ever could. We like to tell stories in our games, and when emailing people we like to give them good stories too, as well as good assets and information in our presskit.
I would estimate that of all the people we contact to check out MacGuffin’s Curse we get about 5-10% respond, so it’s important to contact as many people as we possibly can to take an interest in the game. And considering we’re a teeny-tiny developer with a new game, it can be hard to get noticed with some of the more established media, but we try nonetheless and sometimes it pays off.
If you’d like to write something on the game, or do a review, or even bug your favourite writer about MacGuffin’s Curse we would definitely appreciate it. You can point them to our presskit, but please do get in touch for any additional information or assets, we’ve got a pile of beautiful print-worthy assets ready and waiting. And if you do write something, please let us know so we can shout about it here.
Holy crap, I haven’t posted on this thing in ages! I’m sorry. But working 60+ hour weeks to get MacGuffin done and hold down my other contract work and trying to do the family thing has stretched my time a little thin. But enough whining, I hear you snort, what’s going on? Nothing? Probably nothing.
Well, actually, it’s a whole heap of SOMETHING! This GDC is going to be Brawsome’s biggest one yet. Not only am I speaking about what went down in the sales department of Jolly Rover, but we’re also going to be showing MacGuffin’s Curse on a GDC Play Kiosk! And if you turn up soon enough, you’ll get a real life MacGuffin’s Curse achievement badge to do whatever you like with, but we recommend pinning it to your jacket/shirt/vest, or someone else’s, preferably with their permission, but we’re not here to judge.
Goodness! 2012 already? Well, considering we’re talking about dates, let’s start with the most important one: MacGuffin’s Curse will release on April 19th, 2012. Our Steam version of the game, featuring controller support (yes, for PC AND Mac), is pretty much ready to go (but we’re still checking it to make sure no more nasty bugs pop up). From here on, we’ll be starting to focus on the iPad version of the game, to ensure that iPad users get just a fun experience as their PC and Mac friends!
As usual, we’ll also be at this year’s GDC, which of course will be immensely busy, meaning we will barely get any time to go to any talks. Bah!
We’ve been holding our cards close to our chest, but now we’re ready to show off a bit of MacGuffin’s Curse in action. Enjoy this trailer, which should give you a taste of the game:
In other news, we’ve created an Indie DB page for MacGuffin’s Curse, featuring the trailer and some nice new screens. So check it out, and tell your friends!
Breathe a sigh of relief at the lack of a punny headline! And read up on our good news! Earlier this year, we put in an application with Screen Australia for additional funding (along with about seventy-nine other applicants). We received a response from Screen Australia that the round of funding would be “very challenging”, but hey presto, guess what! We were approved, possibly due to all of those musical Christmas Cards I sent them.
But enough of that – this means that we get more time to work on MacGuffin’s Curse (and afford to live – oh, the glamourous lifestyle of independent game development!). In the end, it means that instead of MacGuffin’s Curse being a good game, it can be a great game.
And really, that’s what we’re all trying to do here, now, isn’t it?
It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day again! You may be wondering why I’m not writing this in pirate lingo – well, it says nothing about WRITING. But let’s celebrate anyway!
Effective immediately, Jolly Rover is now available at the lucrative price of only $4.99! That’s cheaper than all of this stuff! Still not satisfied? Well then, here’s a picture of Tim Curry pointing a pistol at Kermit the Gorf Frog:
A while back on the MacGuffin’s Curse facebook page we asked YOU for your best “Odd Spot” to go on our MacGuffin’s Curse profile selection page. We thought it was about time to close this off and announce the winners of this competition and their winning entries.
“The antelope mating ritual includes a macarena-style dance.”
– Jason Hill
“The common mushroom does 24 miles per pint of beer.”
– Caswal Parker
“80% of people are a minority.”
– Trent Gribble
“Tortoises are more likely to eat sushi than turtles.”
– Hunter Marsh Mallow
“Bananas are the only fruit to win the tour de france.”
– Hunter Marsh Mallow
“A lightning bolt would weigh more than lead if it was in a bottle.”
– Jason Hill
The above winners were chosen for their delightful oddness, and will get their name in the credits under the title “Freelance Journalists”. If any of the above mentioned winners do not want their name in the credits (crazy, I know), please contact us at Brawsome and give us what for.
I’d also like to make a special shout out Alastair Craig, who would easily have made this list had he not already contributed an awesome amount of writing to the project and is subsequently getting a coveted “Additional Writing” credit.
If your entry didn’t get through this time don’t fret, you’re a winner just for taking the time to make an entry. Better than all those non-entrants. Jerks.
For a full list of all the awesome people that entered, see here!
