Play, Live, Work, Enjoy.

If you read the title of this blog post and thought… "Wow! Now that's a combination I could really get into!" Then you're right there with us. If not, read on, and at least you'll get where we're coming from. We were more than psyched when Roadrunner Records came calling looking for a metal twist on the casual game.

I pride myself on listening to all kinds of music, and although my earliest memories were of The Beatles and Bob Dylan; the first records I got on my own included Holy Diver, by Dio and Mellissa, by Mercyful Fate (an early Roadrunner Records act). Incidentally, one of Roadrunner's artists, Killswitch Engage does a killer cover of the (Holy Diver) title track…. magical rock lives on!

Anyhow, the news is that we're working on a series of casual games for the Roadrunner Records website. The first game recently launched and we're happy to see that the site's users are already begging for more. Photo Moshup is basically an online adaptation of the barcade classic Photo Hunt where users have to identify differences between two images. All of the games we're making for Roadrunner feature dynamically generated content and quality music clips of the bands featured in the game.

Keep an eye on the Our Work and Games sections of our website for links to more games as they launch. Works in progress include a tile swapping game with an arachnid twist to it and a Legend of Zelda style adventure in support of Madina Lake's upcoming release Attics to Eden.

Play PHOTO MOSHUP on RoadrunnerRecords.com

Wishing all of you a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year from all of us here at JRVisuals LLC.

As has been our tradition since the founding of our company we have released a holiday game as a gift to our clients, friends, and family.

Ease back into your work-flow by taking a little break and playing this unique and original Penguin Panic Flash game… and thing about the environmental impact of our society while you're at it.

Help the penguin stave off the effects of global warming by pushing magical ice cubes into the water. Catch fish to keep your penguin healthy. Try to avoid getting hit in the head by falling cubes. Don't let too many pile up or you will sink.

Play Penguin Panic IV : Penguin Pusher

What can I say… FlashPitt was awesome! I had a great time with some great people and saw some interesting Flash and non-Flash presentations.

This was a one day show… and a long day it was. The key note by Lee Brimelow of Adobe was very cool. A lot of what we had already seen here and there with some new bits. The fact that the new drawing API allows for 3D triangles just seems to open the doors for all sorts of 3D enhancements. One of the samples Lee showed was a super slick first-person-shooter style interface. Julian Dolce's physical computing presentation inspired me to work on my "Soma Room" project. Stacey Mulcahy did not fail to impress… she speaks the truth and has some wicked funny slides to back it up. Golan Levin had some amazing non-Flash tech to show… very inspiring as well.

My presentation on Flash Games in AS3 went pretty well. I've posted the source code for the Space Invaders game I used as a case study here: http://www.jrvisuals.com/content/flashpitt08/ and plan to pretty up the page a bit as soon as I get some time. I'll also be posting my slides and updating the SI source code soon.
As always the conference wrapped with a dinner and drinks… many drinks. The next day, after a few cups of coffee, Val, Julian, Stacey, and PaperVision guru John Lindquist and I got to hit the local Apple Store and a cool art museum called the Mattress Factory.

I love the buzz of these industry conferences… meeting new people… hearing what's new and coming up directly from Adobe staff… comparing notes with other Flashers… not to mention partying with all these folks. Good times. These "smaller" one or two day conferences are nice too since they are much more affordable and don't require so much time away from home. Kudos to the FlashPitt organizers… I hope to be invited to speak at next years show!

How many times have you wanted to take a printer out back and beat the %#@ out of it? Today, my friend, it’s payback time. Use your weapons to give your plastic nemesis a good talking to.

Destroy A Printer, is a game design and development collaboration between JRVisuals and RTCM, a branch of Y&R. This one is really a blast! Bash three different printers with three different weapons (bat, crowbar, chainsaw!). In case you don't have time to wreak havoc right now - here's a gameplay video.

JRVisuals' most junior (6y/o & 2y/o) and most senior (36y/o) game designers have teamed up once again to remind us all what spring is all about… BEES!

Take a look at a very early version of what is sure to be one of our most fun and educational original flash games: BEE GAME

Use your mouse to guide our busy little friend from flower to flower. Gather (blue dots) nectar and return it to the hive… gather (yellow dots) pollen to get flowers to their seeded state. The final version will include various flower types and a couple of different modes of play (multi-player?!) as well as the much needed instruction and score screens. Now buzz off!

Check out this cool new game BUBBLE ISLANDS from Dot-Invasion. I still have to give it a good solid playing… but aside from the loading times (apparently it was meant to be an download/install rather than online) this game rocks… and I guess I'm not the only one that things so since it has been named a finalist in the BEST WEB BROWSER GAME category at this year's Indepentent Games Festival.

Its great to see someone take a Flash game to such a level of polish and depth:

• multiple play modes (arcade, puzzle, etc.)
• various fully animated characters to play
• online instructional manual