50% off Democracy today

Love him or hate him, the UK's Prime Minister Tony Blair steps down from his job after 10 years today. One might consider that in a 'Democracy', this would be cause for a general election so the British people could choose a new Prime Minister, but no.
To encourage British Politicians to remember what Democracy means, I'm offering the game for sale at 50% off today, to mark the day when the country I live in changed it's leader, and we didn't have a say in it

If you have no idea what game I'm talking about click here:
http://www.democracygame.com

If you have no idea who Tony Blair is, click here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_blair

Update on all things

Wow I haven't updated in ages. I've been VERY busy.

Firstly, I finished the retail build for Democracy, which added some sound files the publisher wanted in it, and hopefully at some stage it will end up in US and even UK stores.

Secondly, I finished the patch (1.1) to Kudos: Rock legend, which vastly improved the game, and made all sorts of improvements and changes that should have been in the original really. That paves the way for the game to go on sale through various other websites at some stage.

Thirdly, I started work on Democracy 2 \0/ Yay etc. Of course I've started work on games before (Starship tycoon 2), even spent a lot of time and money on them, and then given up, so this is no guarantee. However, I'm pretty motivated about it. So far, I'm just tidying up the GUI of the original, which is the foundation for the new version. My current plan is for the game to not use real world countries, but to have a virtual country you can configure. This opens the way to more stuff regarding foreign policy, wars, terrorism etc. Should be fun!

KRL is selling pretty well, which is a relief. when you work for yourself, there is no guarantee of being able to pay next months bills, so getting a few weeks of good sales is really welcome.

Stock Photo Fun

I'm doing some work on extra content for Rock Legend. One of these things is to swap the game from having a single "relax alone" option to three new ones (you get to choose them from a list if you select relax alone)

Relax at home (reduces stress a bit)
Relax at a bar (reduces stress more, costs money, and slightly boosts hype as you chat to people)
Relax in expensive luxury spa (reduces stress tons, costs a lot).

So far, so good, needs balancing, but that's no big deal. The current problem I have is background graphics for these choices. Because I use jpgs now, filesize isn't so scary, and each option has a full screen image to show the player what he chose, plus the effects (and a summary of how each band member feels).
I've chosen a lovely luxury image of a spa for the 3rd one, but I'm having real trouble with the other twop. Searching stock photo sites takes AGES, and is very difficult. Ideally I'd like some rock n roll people in a bar, drinking, and an image of a rock star type person asleep on a chair / sofa with a can of beer. Such images are not plentiful (at least not royalty-free ones on stock photo sites, where you buy the right to use the image).
I've spent hours searching for good ones...

Show me a decent MMO

I love the idea of MMO games, but currently I'm not playing any of them. I've played Eve and Star Wars Galaxies in the past, and I really badly want to get totally obsessed with a new one. Currently, I pin my homes on Pirates of the Burning Sea (www.burningsea.com)
The trouble is, that's not out yet, and I want to play one NOW!

Things I hate in MMOs:
Level grind
People talking in l33t and generally wrecking the atmosphere
Really insular stuff that assumes you have played loads before (talking about buffs and instances etc)
People who are 100% obsessed on leveling up and getting points, but not actually enjoying the experience

Things I Like:
Non fantasy settings
ability to freeform explore, rather than just go from quest to quest
Immersive environment with cool NPC AI
Ability to get somewhere as a solo player, without a guild etc
lovely graphics (have l33t machine, no worries)


I tried Guild Wars and hated it (its a single player game linked by a graphical chat room basically) I tried LOTRO and hated that (seemed half finished, with people obsessing about level grinding), I've had enough of Eve and SWG.

Any ideas?

Back from holiday

BEN NEVIS IS VERY HIGH

But I did manage it...
Anyway, shock horror, somehow I uploaded a Kudos : Rock legend demo that only lasts 3 turns. what a dolt. I'm fixing it now. I returned to 481 emails. what joy! In retrospect it was mad to go on holiday just after releasing a game, but it's never a good time when you are a one man business. I did a lot of planning in my head for future games whilst away, and sales have been pretty l33t while I've been in bonnie Scotland.

I also return to a barrage of reviews of kudos, such as this one:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=77342
(which i quite like)