flarb.com

Haven’t posted in awhile….what’s been going on? FLARB have been consulting on a few projects for clients as well as working on some exciting new platforms. Exploring more possibilities of cloud deployed multiplayer web experiences. Or something like that. Stay tuned…

A minor update to Rune Stone Reader is now up on Android Market. It now works properly on Verizon’s Droid handset, and has an option to delete the diary entries.

Well, that’s because Android Market is filled with bugs! Because of this, sometimes your download can get stuck. Never fear! There are some things you can try to get it to download.

Oh, and you can try these tips with any Android app you’ve bought that won’t download from Market. Here they are:

1. You might have to wait up to 24 hours for your download to be delivered. Sometimes it can be delayed.

2. Using the IM application, sign into GTalk. GTalk and Market use some of the same network resources and thus GTalk can sometimes trigger the download from Market. Weird, I know.

3. Restart the phone (an old classic, but this does work sometimes).

4. Cancel the download, refund the purchase, and try to buy it again after verifying your credit card info on the Google Checkout site.

The fantastic logo

What do you do when you have no social life, a *LOT* of free time, and a bad idea? You write an MMO, of course! Here it is, BraveBalls! It’s sort of a pseudo MMO…perhaps an mMO with a lower-case m. Right now you can hack through dungeons with a complete stranger in co-op random instances, or trade items with people via the in-game chat or mail system.

I’m sure hardcore Diablo 2 fans won’t be impressed–but it’s designed for a more casual audience. BraveBalls is a randomized dungeon hack experience melded with an AdventureQuest or Sherwood Dungeon twist. We’re trying to bring a more action-oriented dungeon hack experience to the same crowd that plays stuff like Epic Pet Wars etc.

This represents a long saga of immersing myself in Flash, cloud computing, multiplayer game development, social media, web technology, and lots and lots of Trader Joe’s microwave dinners. It may be rough around the edges, but BraveBalls is an important experiment for Flarb in social gaming, virtual goods, and advanced hamster wheel design.

Please email me with any bugs you may find. More content is on the way including new items, monsters, and worlds to hack through. Not to mention some upcoming mini games and other enhancements.

Also note that you may have some problems playing this through a firewall–I’ll have that fixed shortly. We’re also looking on bringing it to MySpace and a possible mobile component. Our cloud deployment is pretty small now, but we’ll scale to meet demand.

Play it on the web with your Twitter account, or the Facebook version. We’ll open the open web version up once we get the email verification process sorted out.

Just a quick note, we’re a fully licensed PSP developer at the moment. We’re preparing our plans for PSP Mini development/publishing and beyond. There hasn’t been an announcement in awhile so I figured this is as good an excuse as any. We’ve got some other stuff to announce soon……stay tuned!!!

At this moment, you can find Rune Stone Reader in the “Lifestyle” section of Android Market. (Hey I didn’t know where else to put it) Of course, there’s no web catalog for Market (why?!) so I can’t provide a link. If anyone knows otherwise, let me know.

Anyway, this app has been tested on both the G1 and HTC Magic…so it should work on all current Android phones. Enjoy!

Oh and a big shout out to Todd Sjolander at Awesome Unlimited who did the conversion from the iPhone original!

Oh, BTW, this is the closest thing I can find to an Android catalog for the web: check it out!

Ok well it didn’t come out when we said it would…but it does exist! We’re currently fixing an issue with orientation we discovered on my shiny new HTC Magic from Google I/O. Don’t believe me? Well here’s a picture!

Here it is--it's real!

Well I’ve got my hands on a release candidate for the Android version of Rune Stone Reader. We’re trying to get it out to Android Market this week. We’ll see how that goes.

Until then, here are a few screenshots!

The port was done by my friend Todd at Awesome Unlimited. Pretty much the most skilled Android ninja I know. If you need some Android work done, I highly recommend him.

Yeah, we decided to get all hip and re-do the FLARB site as a blog.  We’re slowly bringing online all the old content and history to this new format.  Stay tuned to this site for the latest developments from FLARB  LLC.  Until then, maybe you should go buy Rune Stone Reader for the iPhone, eh?