100th Blog Post: Escape a Tower Box Art

For a Psychology assignment, I chose to study the effects of video game box art and how it can persuade people to purchase games. To illustrate my research, I decided to take one of my own games, Escape a Tower, and draft potential box art for it. Below are the two covers, one which appeals more to Americans and the other to the Japanese.

Escape a Tower Box Art (US)                        Escape a Tower Box Art (JP)

 

The idea is that Americans prefer visual action in box art to better stimulate their brains, while the Japanese prefer artistic representations of games. That's why the US version features a more evocative kidnapper and a determined protagonist while the JP version puts the environment at center stage.

My class audience during my presentation looked attentive, which probably means these self-created images brought the point effectively. Coincidentally, they also serve as an excellent way to celebrate the 100th blog post on this site. Thank you guys for motivating me to reach this far!

The Mouse Swipe Strategy Guide

Time for the next strategy guide! If you've utilized my tips and tricks for Button Masher and Keyboard Masher, welcome back. And If you've ever felt like you've needed some extra swiping assistance, you've made it to the right place. So without further ado, here are the Mouse Swipe strategies straight from the game creator.

Achievement Star Requirements

• Blue star - Beat one of the beat the creator scores.
• Green star - Beat every single beat the creator score.
• Bronze star - Reach 1000 swipes (Experienced Swiper).
• Silver star - Reach 5000 swipes (Stunning Swiper).
• Gold star - Become a prestigious swiper (10,000 swipes).

The green star overwrites the blue star, and the gold star overwrites the silver star, which overwrites the bronze star.

Tips and Tricks

• Use one hand. This should be self explanatory, but in case you thought you should use two hands because of Button Masher's two finger tactic, that logic does not work here.
• Relax your swipes. Some players think they should make the shortest swipes they can to reduce the total swiping area. The problem with this is that it tenses up their hand more quickly, sometimes causing them to miss the vertical line. So while it is important to make short swipes, you should make expand them to the point when your hand feels comfortable.
• Mouse or trackpad? Find the controller that works best for you and stick with it. Personally, I find the mouse easier to use, but your opinion could be different.
• Play fast-paced music in the background. I've noticed when I do this, it makes my hands want to shake to the rhythm, boosting my scores. Give it a try!
• Square Mode Tips - Relax your hand, especially in hard difficulty. The less tense your hand is, the more likely you'll be able to slide through the squares with ease.
• Triangle Mode Tips - Here's a little secret: the triangles are actually squares. Here's a screenshot of what I mean:
  
  
  As you can see, the orange area is all your cursor needs to hover at to score points. The triangle is just for decoration. Why did I make it like this? That's how the code works, and there isn't a way to restrict the hover spot to the triangle without some crazy scripting.
  So use this secret to your advantage. Instead of moving your cursor in a triangular fashion, make small circular movements near the center of the triangles. Once you get good at this, your cursor could never touch the left or right triangles ever again.
• Motion Mode Tips - My advice is similar to Square Mode: relax your hand. Stay focused on your target, and remember that the squares speed up every 10 seconds.

You can install KB3097877 now.

So Microsoft finally got their act together.

After reinstalling KB3097877, I can now confirm that my PowerPoint games are working again. Therefore, you SHOULD install the update now to get the latest security fixes.

Let's hope this fiasco never comes to us again.

*The above image was taken from Windows Update.

Don't install KB3097877 (Updated)

Has PowerPoint been crashing on you every time you try to open one of my games? That's because of a recent Windows Update, labelled KB3097877. Intended to be a security update for Windows Vista, 7, and 8, KB3097877 crashes not only PowerPoint but all supported versions of Outlook as well.

Until Microsoft gets their act together, please uninstall KB3097877 if you want to play my PowerPoint games. Here's how:

1. Open Windows Update.
2. In the bottom of the left side bar, click on Installed Updates.
3. On the top right search box labelled Search Installed Updates, type KB3097877.
4. Right click the update that shows up and select Uninstall.

To prevent KB3097877 from installing again, you'll need to hide the update. To do this, right click it in your list of updates to install and select Hide update.

If you don't see KB3097887 when searching for installed updates, that means it's not installed, and you should be able to open my PowerPoint games properly. If you're using OS X or Windows 10, you may disregard this entire post.

I'll update this post as soon as I get more information about the PowerPoint crashes. Let's hope Microsoft doesn't screw things up again.

UPDATE: Microsoft has fixed the crashing issues.

The Buttons are Fixed - I am Thinking of a Number v2.7.1

Some of you guys have expressed concerns about I am Thinking of a Number's redesign, particularly the new buttons. They looked jarring, too Button Masher like, and didn't suit the visual cues of the rest of the interface.

If you were one of those people, rest assured: I fixed the buttons. Here, take a look for yourself.

  

Did you notice the difference? Here's what I changed.

• The button font now resembles the rest of the game's interface.
• The button now has a gradient.*
• Because of the gradient, button clicking looks more realistic.

* If you use Internet Explorer 8/9, Firefox 1-3.5, Chrome 1-3, Safari 1-5.0, or Opera 9-11.50, you'll still see the old button colors.

This should do it guys. The new layout should look a lot more coherent now.

Click here to play!

I am Thinking of a Number Version 2.7

I am Thinking of a Number.

Version 2.7

Welcome to a new update for I am Thinking of a Number, the sophisticated number guesser. In the previous version, I improved on the game's mechanics, allowing players to guess more efficiently than ever before. Now, with this version, I focus on the game's appearance and design. Number guessing has never looked better than before!

So what has changed visually? Allow me to walk you through that.

• New fonts. Out with the boring Arial font, in with the much improved fonts! The font you will see has been optimized for your operating system.
• iOS 9 or OS X El Capitan Safari will use the San Francisco font.
• Older versions of iOS/OS X or using Firefox/Chrome on a Mac will still use the Helvetica Neue font.
• Windows will use the Tahoma font.*
• Android will use the Roboto font.
• Ubuntu will, surprise, use the Ubuntu font.
• All other operating systems will use their sans-serif font.
• New buttons. The game now uses stylized buttons, which should look more consistent than the previous default buttons.
• New favicon. That 1k looks slightly different now.
• New app icon. Shown above. The 1k now uses the San Francisco font and a new gradient background. This should look much better than the previous solid white design.

I hope that you too agree that the new design is a step in the right direction. If you want to reference the old layout, version 2.6.3 awaits you in the Archive.

Click here to play!

* Yes, I know Segoe UI is the Windows system font, but I chose Tahoma instead since Segoe UI is more difficult to read. I didn't want to sacrifice function for form.

Escape a Tower Version 2.3.2 Released

Let's cut to the chase:

• Now compatible with more ancient browsers, including Netscape.
  
  "Are you insane?" "What were you thinking?" "Are you mentally OK?" Yes I'm insane, I don't know what I was thinking, and I'm not sure if I'm mentally ok since I sacrificed exam study time to code this craziness.
  
  Anyway, it turns out Escape a Tower's layout is actually basic enough to be supported on a plethora of ancient browsers, but the game wouldn't start on those browsers since they don't support Local Storage. By making a few tweaks to the Local Storage code, Escape a Tower now works to a minimal level on the following browsers:


• Firefox 1-3.0
• Chrome 1-3
• Safari 3
• Opera 9-10.0
• Netscape 9 (Whoa.)

It might also work on Internet Explorer 7, Safari 1-2, or even older versions of Netscape (seriously?), but I'm unable to test those browsers.


If you're deranged enough to play on one of these browsers, you won't be able to save your progress. There may also be some formatting kinks, but they shouldn't interfere with the gameplay.

I also worked on this in between all this chaos:

• Formatting fix for Internet Explorer 9+
  

Click here to play Escape a Tower!