Yes I know we are quite far into 2009 now (well 23 days) but I thought it would be a good idea to post a summary of my best articles from 2008. I wrote quite a lot last year and some of the articles were excellent (pah! who needs modesty? ;-)) So without further ado, here they are:

My Big News

So a few big things happened to me in 2008, some good and one not so good. In the summer I found out that I’d had a minor hernia which I then promptly got repaired. You can find out why I think it’s worth spending money on your body here. After my hernia was repaired, I trained in earnest and got my 2nd dan black belt in Aikido, which I’m very proud of.

Also in the summer Big Fish Games offered me a job in Vancouver, and Helen and I flew to Seattle to meet everyone in Big Fish Games, and then travelled up to Vancouver to check it out. In the end I accepted the job offer and moved my family here from the UK. It’s really great here and I’m learning many new things and meeting many new people.

As a matter of interest I also made a post called who am I? so that people can get to know me better. Of course some of the information is out of date now that I’ve moved to Vancouver.

Most Popular Blog Post

A post about Fairway Solitaire Cheats was my most popular post based on the number of comments it’s received. The game was a huge success and naturally people google for cheats and my site is at the top of page 😉

Motivation and Game Development

For me motivation is a key factor in developing games. Without good motivation, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever finish making a game. So I’ve written quite a lot of articles about motivation and game development that have been enjoyed by many readers who have been posting positive comments or emailing me with thanks, which is nice, so please keep it up! 🙂

I enjoyed writing this article about visualising goals, positive thinking and taking action and this one about getting better at making games by practising more.

How can I overcome game development obstacles proved very popular although its no-nonsense tone irked some people 😉

And I also explored the topic on everyone’s mind: Is it possible to earn a living making indie or casual games?

There was some practical advice on getting your resume looking good and working as a contractor and how to supply art for programmers as well as tips on improving conversion rate.

After I came back from the Casual Connect event in Amsterdam in February (was great btw), I posted an interesting article with some photos from a slideshow called Passion vs Profit. This is something that really interests me because many people seem to think it has to be one or the other instead of BOTH 🙂

Finally here’s a bit of info about portals/distributors including: Oberon, match-3s on BFG and portal game submissions.

Sales Stats and Affiliate Schemes

Early in the year I wrote about two portal affiliate schemes that I was talking part in: Reflexive and BFG.

I also posted some information about the amount of money I’ve made per hour from my products, but keep in mind that this is now out of date as all the figures have gone up since then – I’ll make a new post soon once the Christmas royalty reports are in.

In May I posted some Holiday Bonus Sales Statistics but again I’ve done quite well since then and will post some new stats soonish…

Also at the start of the year I made a post containing tips for finishing a game which was a summary of some of my best articles from previous years. It’s well worth checking out.

Funny

I also made a couple of funny blog posts that you might find amusing. I hope to post more like this just for fun. One is about Stinky Boots and the other is about Scone Management. On and this article about classic 90s marketing prompted some interesting discussion.

And there we have it, I hope that you found this summary useful.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 6:16 am and is filed under Grey Alien Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.