Hey, guys!

So, I'm sure some of you may have been wondering over the past couple of years why I have practically fallen off the face of the earth. The reason for that would be that I've had to put most personal projects on hold as I work towards one of my career goals: game development.

Since 2007, I've been working for a small start-up company named Island Officials, and we've been attempting for some time to get one of our projects off the ground. In about a month, that will finally be a reality. Our first title is a puzzle game for the Nintendo DS called "Hands On! Tangrams," and it'll be available to purchase in the US and Canada on November 17th. (Oh, and since it's as standard DS game, it's region free, in case anyone outside of the US is interested!)

Currently the only confirmed major retail outlet we have is Amazon.com, where the game will be available for $14.99, though hopefully we'll be able to get some actual shelf space at other stores in the near future. But for now, any interested parties are encouraged to preorder the game on Amazon. You can do so here!

[link]

(Any support would be greatly appreciated, of course!)


Now, about the game...

Well, it's a tangrams game for the Nintendo DS. You may remember tangrams from your elementary school days. They're a set of seven pieces that are put together to form pictures. In our game, you will be given the outline of an image and are challenged to fill it in correctly using all seven pieces. You can also challenge yourself to complete each puzzle within a certain time limit in order to earn star medals.

And since this is DA, I'd like to say a few words about the art. Our goal was to create an aesthetic reminiscent of playing with blocks and doing crafts as a kid. The main interface is modeled after a desk with crayons and construction paper. Each individual level of the game is supposed to represent something like a different picture book that you're putting together. Imagine playing with Colorforms, almost. You'll be given an empty background image, and with each puzzle completed, the shape you just made out of tangrams becomes a moving illustration, and that illustration is then added to the top screen to help to complete the picture. We wanted to go with a different art style for each level, and most levels were done by a different artist (including some others here on DA!). My personal contributions were for the first and last stages (Zoo and Fairy Tale), as well as some collaborative effort on the Park level.

The release of this game is very exciting for all of us, and I sincerely hope that we are able to bring others enjoyment with our first published title. ^_^