My game, Fairway Solitaire, got a small mention on Penny Arcade (scroll down to the bottom) a couple of days ago.

Some people told me that this would result in a sales spike but I was dubious because I didn’t know the “power of penny arcade”. Well I monitored the game’s position in the BFG Top 100 and it’s gone up 20 places in 3 days (from 43 to 23). That’s DEFINITELY a spike! It’s also gone from around position 20 to 7 on the Mac games page, which is nice

I’ll be watching the top 100 for the next few days and will report any more changes. I’ve also been given some sales figures by BFG (which I can discuss I’m afraid) but I gather there was a one day increase in sales of 400+% which is pretty cool, plus it’s remained high since then.

So there you have it folks, the power of Penny arcade!

I recently had a minor hernia (probably caused by holding a sneeze in - I’ve snapped a belt before when sneezing!), which I’ve just had repaired by keyhole surgery. I paid to have the surgery performed privately instead of waiting for an operation on the NHS. Why? Read on…

2nd dan grading

I’m training up for my 2nd dan grading in Aikido which is in September. This is the culmination of 11 years of training and teaching - so it’s pretty important to me. Having a hernia meant that I couldn’t carry on with my hard training in case it got worse, so I needed to get it operated on ASAP in order to resume training.

Health Mind and Body

Aikido helps to keep my mind and body healthy, and when my general health drops I get more tired, ill more often, and less motivated to do stuff (like work). Also, when not training, I notice that my mind thinks about work all the time and starts to get paranoid about dumb stuff. Aikido really helps because when I’m there I’m doing something totally different - so I don’t think about work or my day to day life. The breathing and meditation also helps a LOT of course, so I’ve tried to keep that going.

Waiting around is not good

If I waited for an operation on the NHS I would have missed my 2nd Dan grading and had to wait for a whole year before I could take it again. Furthermore I would’ve been walking around for months knowing that I had to be really careful not to make my hernia worse. Plus my health would have suffered and, ipso facto, my work would have suffered. Therefore I decided to take action and pay to have the operation done privately.

Spend more for a better result

I was given a choice of two types of operation: open surgery and keyhole surgery (which cost more). Keyhole surgery is less invasive and so there is a quicker recovery time. Thus I opted to spend the extra money on keyhole surgery because:

a) it meant that I could get back to work sooner and thus earn money sooner (the extra cost of the operation would be offset by increased earnings by getting back to work days earlier)

b) it meant that I could start training for my 2nd dan again quicker and harder (and as a side effect my work motivation and output would improve)

c) in theory there would be less pain (well it still bloody hurt!).

Your body is like your car

So there you have it. Let me make an analogy: if you had a car that you needed for work, you’d spend the money to get it fixed ASAP rather than waiting around for a friend to fix it for free several months later. Also if you had a choice of two repair methods and one method cost more but you’d make that money back through your ability to work sooner, you’d do that too because it makes business sense right? Well that’s what I did with my body.

Now spend some money on yourself!

As an aside, people would often PREFER to spend money on their car than themselves, when maybe they need to see a dentist, or get some new glasses, or have a massage or some acupuncture, or even just join a gym. This is quite amusing, but it’s a common trait. So, I challenge you to think “how could I spend money on my body or some holistic treatment that will improve my life and work?” and then go and do it!

P.S.

I want to say two more things:

One is that I think the NHS is great and we are very lucky to have it. I just needed things to move faster this time which is why I went private. I’m considering health insurance so that I can have more choice in the future - this seems to make sense if your business can be affected by your health; after all, you insure pretty much everything else right?

Also, I didn’t have enough money for the operation. I used all my savings and also asked for money gifts from relatives for my birthday which helped (thanks all!), and then I got a thing called a BMI card which is basically a medical credit card that has 0% interest for 6 months - bargain! I put the remainer of the cost on the BMI card and will pay it off before the interest kicks in. There’s always a way if you look for it!

Helen and I recently visited the US and Canada for a business trip which included visiting the Big Fish Games studio in Seattle. We had a great time and met some really nice people! I posted some reports on the Blitz forum whilst I was over there, and I’ve collated them here as follows:

Monday, Hotel Max, Seattle

Hi all, I’m currently lounging around in Hotel Max in Seattle using the exorbitantly priced wi-fi.

Helen and I flew over on Sunday from London Heathrow, it was a 10 hour flight and was fine, although I found some glass in my melon! I got some free travel vouchers for not suing. Also I watched some sub-par movies. It’#s a real shame that airlines can’t get awesome movies for their media systems.

So today I went to the Big Fish Games offices on 4th Avenue. They have a whole floor on this big central skyscraper with nearly 300 employees.

I finally met John Cutter, the designer who I’m working with. I also met Adrian Woods, the developer of the highly successful Mystery Case Files series (the one which kick-started the Hidden Object genre). I met the guy that made Blood (an old Duke 3D era game where you could play football with the heads of your victims). I saw Azada 2, and heard that Hidden Expedition Amazon has broken all sales records in the last 4 days - it’s sold a pretty crazy number. Met some other developers, designers and nice people. There’s this cool bit of the office where all the artists are working on huge TFTs displaying really lush graphics from up and coming games - some if which I got to see in action. Also everyone gets around on scooters!

So anyway it’s been a good day although I feel very tired due to the time difference. I wanted to go to sleep after I finished at the office but Helen said we needed to go out and get some more sunlight to help us adjust. So we took the ferry over to Bainbridge island. It was really nice and the Seattle skyline looked cool. We ate vegetable burritos, yum. Reminds me, for the first time I had U.S.-style pancakes with maple syrup on this morning. We made the mistake of ordering a “high stack” which was just impossible to eat - tasted great though!

Naturally Helen’s been shopping and bought some nice things whilst I’ve been busy. All the people are really nice here.

On Wednesday we are catching a train to Vancouver, Canada, to stay there for a few days and then we are flying back to London on Saturday. We heard loads of great things about Vancouver so are really looking forward to the visit.

Tuesday Morning, Hotel Max, Seattle

I woke up at 5:30 am today and I’m wide awake. Must be not quite used to the time difference yet. The flight was actually just under 10 hours and the time difference is 8 hours. I watched some inflight movies but the system crashed a few times when I tried to play games (Bejewelled was on the list of games!). Apparently going back is the killer due to jet lag.

Today I’m going over the powerups and enemies for my current game with designer and the artists which should be good fun. Then I’m meeting the CEO, CFO, CTO etc, all the C-level bigwigs. Helen is going wine tasting!

I’m currently debating if I should have pancakes again for breakfast…or eggs.

Tuesday Evening, Hotel Max, Seattle

Phew another crazy busy day. Met loads of people today including the artists for the Mystery Case files and other games. I know what the next Mystery Case files game is going to be and some other secret projects too. I got taken up to the 20th floor which has all the email and phone support staff on it. It has an incredible view of the city and the sea - just amazing. (One helpdesk guy I stood next to whilst I looked out the window must have the best view in the entire company!) They have 300 staff there and are soon moving to new premises. I met people in quality control who I worked with and also the Spanish, French and German translators who did the localisation for Fairway. Then this evening the VP took us to dinner, which was nice. I’ve spoken to so many people and been feeling the jet lag quite a bit so that everything has just been a blur.

In the morning we are catching a train up to Vancouver and having a look around. On Thursday night we are meeting a load of Indie programmers from Vancouver (from the Indiegamer forums), including the programmer of the Professor Fizzwizzle games that my kids and I love playing.

Friday, Hotel L’hermitage, Vancouver

So anyway, we traveled to Vancouver by (slow) train on Wednesday morning and went to the hotel which had only just opened on that day and so we couldn’t check into the room. That was OK though because we took a nice walk through downtown to Granville Island and then over to Kitsalano (where I found a lovely community garden on the old railway tracks). Later that night we ate a meal in Robson street. The weather was great, really sunny.

Yesterday we were taken on a tour of Vancouver by someone who knows it really well and then we had lunch on Kits beach (well in a restaurant there). Then we took a sea bus over to North Vancouver and had a stroll around - it’s nice a peaceful in the residential areas.

In the evening we went to the Indie developer meetup at Earl’s restaurant. It was organised by Ryan Clark of Professor Fizzwizzle fame. I met some interesting people there. Most people weren’t making casual games but were in fact making games for XBLA or iphone or were making MMOs etc. Met some guys who used to work for Relic Entertainment including the programmer of N and N+, he was about my age and on my wavelength about making core games easier and more accessible because when we kids games were just waaaaay too hard. Also met the programmer of Eets who has given up on casual games and is now making an “mmo-thing” as I called it and they were horrified.

Yeah so lots of successful programmers here doing varied things.

Today we will go for a walk around Stanley park as the weather is really great, then it’s a bus back to Seattle for one more night before we fly home.

Monday, Home, Dorset, England

I planned to post about my last day in Vancouver in a Starbucks but was disappointed to find out that the wireless is not free, bummer. There was wireless on the bus, but it didn’t work, arg.

The walk round Stanley Park in Vancouver was great. We only did a short walk round a lake but the weather was awesome - I nearly burned my forehead. We also sat on the beach English Bay which was really cool. What topped it for me was the vegetarian hot dog I bought!

Just as the bus was leaving Vancouver (for Seattle) there was a huge bike rally. Loads (and I mean LOADS) of people brought the city to a standstill as they cycled along a major route, it was cool, and luckily our bus was not delayed and the border crossing was fine.

Back in the U.S. on our last day we went to the Pike St. Market and bought a Zelda Ocarina for my eldest son, way cool. Then we visited the Japanese gardens which were really peaceful. It was a REALLY nice hot day so I bought a “life is good” cap (btw, I ate pancakes AGAIN for breakfast, couldn’t resist).

Flight home was long and movies were still sub-par, but we made it back fine! It’s nice to be home and see the green English countryside.