Fri, 23 Sep 2005

2005 SIC, trip, games and more!

Hello everyone,

It has been a long time since I wrote in this blog. Time gets away from you when you are very busy. I decided to cut back on a few things I was doing, and [ummm] well... started a few other things. [sigh] I can't help it. It's just the way I am.

But here I am tonight, taking it easy, with only the gentle sounds of my cat snoring (I think she has a cold) to keep me company, so I thought I'd share a few thoughts about everything that has happened lately.

We attended the Shareware Industry Conference in Denver, and it was great! Cherokee Trails won the award for best educational software or game. We are truly pleased and feel so honored to have received this award.

You can see some pictures from the event, and our also eventful (and fun!) drive out to the West Coast and back by clicking here.

We've added a lot of products to the Great Mind Store website and these are also featured in our store on Amazon.com.

We've also got some fantastic new games on our site, including Dr Germ and Pretty Good Solitaire .

I can't help be downhearted tonight though, as I think of the problems from the hurricane that devastated Louisiana, and now another class 4 hurricane threatens the coast of Texas. My thoughts and prayers are with those people who are trying to get out of the path of this storm. It looks as though the storm has veered away somewhat. I hope and pray that somehow hurricane Rita will not do the damage that is predicted.

Stay safe, everyone!

Kathy
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Sun, 6 June 2005

Waxing Philosophical - Backgammon Thoughts

If I might, I will wax philosophical for just a moment. Come to think of it, waxing philosophical is much easier than waxing just about anything else I can think of.

I was just thinking how life is like a game, and this led to another thought: this would be a good blog entry. This led to yet another thought, but I valiantly made my way back to the blog idea.

The other day we were playing backgammon, and I rolled double sixes five times in one game. Five times!

Now you would think this would be incredibly lucky, fortuitous, and maybe even thrilling. But you see, I was "on the bar" for three of those five lucky rolls, and couldn't use the move, since the "six spot" was blocked..

What does this mean? Was I unlucky because I rolled double sixes three times on the bar? Was I incredibly lucky to roll them twice more after I was off the bar? Does the bad luck cancel out the good and just make me "average" lucky?

Well, I think it means that you simply must be ready and able to use good luck when it comes along. This could mean that you continue to learn, and add skills so that when you have a chance to use them, you're ready!

It could mean that you continually think positive thoughts so that when your "good luck" comes along, you can recognize it and take advantage of the situation.

Or it could simply mean that I should learn to play backgammon better so I don't end up on the bar so often!!

Have a great day everyone. I'm going to go get out the backgammon board!
Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 13:49
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Wed, 25 May 2005

More Systems Thinking

I mentioned systems thinking in an earlier blog entry. When I first read about it, I thought that systems thinking was just about the best thing since sliced bread. It was one of those special moments - what do you call them? - epiphanies?

Ever since then, systems thinking has been my catch phrase, my mantra, my joi de vive (wait that's something else!)

At any rate, it has helped me - at least I think so... I've been working on the premise that everything should have a system, and every system should have a place. I have faith that it's all going to work out in the long run, but now I have systems for my systems, and complexity upon complexity, not quite resolved, but mostly just piling up in my office, not to mention my brain. I used to happily ignore these things, and go blithely about my business. Though admittedly that business wasn't doing so well.

Not since I am a systems thinker.

Before systems thinking I would never have had the nerve to tackle so many projects. But it's getting really crowded in here. Do you know what this means? I am a real honest-to-God entrepreneur!

It also means we need to remodel the office area, if I have any hope of creating more systems. This means we are becoming a real two room business! Growth!

But I promised that my next blog entry would have something to do with gaming. Well, it's about time, isn't it?

The cell phone problem resolved itself, with a land line being installed for the office. We also have a nifty antenna which brings us up to 3-4 bars most of the time, and an unverifiable rumor that Verizon will put up a new tower in the near future. Maybe we are clinging to straws, but this rumor was enough to make us decide to keep the service.

Not only that, but I could hook my laptop USB adapter up to the serial port of the cell phone, and that is just too cool.

Oh yes... back to gaming...

We needed this ...ahem... "system" for the cell phone/laptop because we are planning to attend the Shareware Industry Conference in Denver this year. We're making a long road trip out of it, and although we'll have our young assistant keeping an eye on the 2 room (wheee!) office, we do need to stay connected, just for our peace of mind. OK, MY peace of mind...

And what does it have to do with gaming?

Much to our shock and surprise (since we didn't even submit the game for consideration) Cherokee Trails has been nominated for "best educational software or game" !!!

If I may be uncharacteristically serious for just one moment, I will say how honored we are to be nominated for this award. A big thank you goes out to everyone in the shareware industry who voted for Cherokee Trails!


Have some fun today, everyone!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 11:59
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Sat, 14 May 2005

Going Wireless

Everyone else on the planet has a cell phone but me, or so it seems. Normally I like techie gadgets, of course, but I didn't seem to get the hang of using cell phones. Maybe it was because I was so attached to my old gadgets.

I have fond memories of working for Verizon years ago, when it used to be GTE, and when I started there as a technician the equipment was still electromechanical. They were still using the old step-by-step (or stepper) switches that had been around since approximately 1945!

I survived the conversion to all-digital equipment, and that was pretty cool too. But the phones were still the same. They were heavy, and tough, and fit snuggly over your ear. You didn't worry about signal levels. (Actually I did work on digital microwave too, and we were a tad concerned about that, since it carried ALL the long distance traffic!)

But at home, unless some act of God knocked down a pole (or a hungry squirrel chewed through your phone line!) that good old 48 volt talk battery got through every time.

But we needed a wireless connection, since we'll be traveling this summer -- so reluctantly we ported our old phone number over to wireless. We live in a hilly area (Amish country) just on the verge of the Verizon service area.

So Fedex delivered this teeny tiny little toy telephone last week, and before we knew it we were forced to learn to use it, when our old phones (SOB) quit working. It does look pretty cool, I will admit. But it's so tiny!

Our signal strength was not anything to boast about. Things weren't looking good for our decision to go wireless. We were able to call Verizon from the old phone (although nowhere else) and a very nice sales rep at Verizon switched us over to Verizon Wireless.

The Verizon sales rep could not understand this strange concept "land-based phone line." Apparently I was speaking Greek, not English, because he couldn't understand anything else I said either.

I put my husband on the phone, and he also failed to make any headway. At one, the VW rep remarked that talking to us was "like talking to his parents." This little comment didn't exactly endear him to my heart, as you might imagine.

Anyway, we finally gave up, and decided to try again another day. Turns out the signal levels are pretty good today, the phone is pretty nifty, and we may keep it after all.

In my next entry I'll tell you why we will be traveling this summer, and yes, it does have something to do with games! I promise!


Take care, everyone!
Kathy


Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 16:17
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Fri, 13 May 2005

To Carlos - Not to worry

I just received a wonderful email. As a result, I have to write a special entry in my blog dedicated specially to Carlos.

Now I don't really know Carlos, but he said he has bookmarked my blog and every time he sees it lately he feels bad for me, because my last blog entry was entitled "Worry."


Where have I been?

I'm not still worrying!!! Well, at least no more than usual anyway. Hanging my head in shame, I admit that have not done a very good job of keeping up my blog.

It's a well known fact that computers will, if you let them, invent new tasks for you, of ever-increasing complexity, that take up ALL of your time.

This is what happened to me - I was assimilated. However, it is not completely the computer's fault. Most of the problem was due to the fact that I took on too many tasks for too many people. These were all fascinating tasks, mind you, and accomplishing the most frustrating of them helped me to learn the most. Therefore, I don't regret doing them.

In fact one of these tasks was creating an ebook. I agreed to do it mainly to learn about ebooks, with my primary goal being to publish them. In the process, however, I learned that I do not communicate well with non-geeks. Non-geeks prefer to converse via telephone - how quaint! Not me. If I can't read it on a computer screen, I can't absorb it. Yes, I have been assimilated all right. Sad, but true.

Have a great weekend, Carlos, and everyone else!

Kathy


Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 21:37
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Tue, 12 Apr 2005

Worry

Worry wears you down, it gives you gray hair, it ruins your health. So why do we worry? I'm pretty convinced there is a genetic component. My Mom is the champion worrier of all times. She can worry about things that most of us can't even imagine, and then invents new scenarios to give herself even more things to worry about.

So I come by my worrying honestly. I even worry that I worry too much. Then I quit doing that, and start to worry that I'm not worrying enough. What is the antidote to worry? Action!! But sometimes you find yourself in a position where you really can't do anything but wait for things to get better. So then what do you do? The answer is simple - play games!

Playing games relieves stress, it relieves boredom, and even better - it relieves worry! Especially my worry -- if you buy our games! If everyone, or even half the people, who come to this website, will buy our games, then I will have no worries at all. Ok I'm just kidding... I think(!) Anyway, don't worry - be happy! Play some games - euchre, backgammon, cranium, trivial pursuit, monopoly, scrabble [don't groan] or crosswords. These are my personal favorites.

Have a great day, everyone!


Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 11:37
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Wed, 23 Mar 2005

Yipes, I've become a marketer!

Life is a game. I think that when you realize that, you're one step ahead of the crowd!

I hope folks wiIl forgive my ramblings about marketing lately, because I've been looking at it as a big game that I am playing. I started looking at everything that is being marketed, and wondering why people like what they do.

Sometimes it's the name. Right now I'm taping the National Geographic Special HogZilla! so that I can watch it later. What is interesting about a giant wild hog, and the hunt to prove its existence? Maybe it was the name "HogZilla" that really piqued my interest.

Sometimes it's not the product so much, but the delivery, that is important. The classic example is the McDonald's hamburger. Is it better than a hamburger you make at home? Probably not, but McDonald's is great at the delivery, with restaurants everywhere, advertising, and promotion.

Uh-oh... I believe this qualifies as more rambling. I promise my next blog entry will be focused on gaming. Marketing might be a game, but it's a lot more nerve-wracking than the games we usually play around here.

Back to play - ummm I mean work!!
Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 14:33
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Sun, 20 Mar 2005

Multiple streams of income

Oh the life of an entrepreneur is not all fun and games, you know. Well, in my line of work it is actually (mostly, maybe about 99.9%). But making games does require a lot of effort. While I love making games, trying to make money with them does not come naturally to me. This does seem to be changing a little, however, as I realize more and more that marketing really is like a big game, and it starts becoming fun to play it. See my blog in a few days for my next entry: "Yipes, I've become a marketer!

Being a successful entrepreneur requires something called multiple streams of income. This mainly consists of having ideas, never a problem for me. Sometimes I just wish for one day, I'd quit getting ideas. But then I'd be a vegetable, and there might be no turning back. Oops, off on another tangent aren't I? mmmm...vegetables...

My ideas range from making posters, to selling Amish spices that really turn out to be from Hungary (it's a long story). Some of these ideas pan out, and some of them die in Szeged.

The other day I looked into merchant accounts. I researched for hours and hours and hours to find the best deal. It was like a treasure hunt. But I did eventually grow quite weary, trying to figure out all the various options, and what was really, when you get right down to the nitty-gritty, the best deal.

In the process it occurred to me, hey maybe our company could become an authorized reseller of these credit card gateways. How hard could that be? Did a little more checking, and found we don't really qualify for this. Since I didn't even know what an ISO or an MSP was, that should have been my first clue. :)

Seems you need to develop a pretty close relationship with a bank, and pay the bank something like $10k per year. That would be a pretty close relationship all right. I get nervous even thinking about that much intimacy.

Well, anyway, the long and the short of it is that we just got our very own merchant account... and an authorized gateway - ooooh! Maybe we'll become an "Associate" reseller, since we can probably handle that. Soon the order pages on our website will be a bit easier to navigate, and I'll be able to sell my Hungarian Amish spices at the flea market too.

Hope you are having a great weekend, everyone, and greetings to Szeged!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 13:19
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Fri, 18 Mar 2005

Not So Sick of Spam

Mon, 14 Mar 2005

No SOAP

Is it just my imagination, or is a new computer language written every day? Then of course comes the inevitable next question: WHY?

I love computers. I love working on them; It's fascinating to see all the amazing things you can do with the aid of a computer and the proper software. When I got my first computer I was intrigued by every little bit and byte of them. Once I even took apart a worn-out console from my son's Odyssey 2 game (remember those??) and rewired it using a regular PC keyboard. It didn't work too well, but that's not the point. It was fun!

But I've long passed the point when I think things like that are fun. I'm a "do" junkie now - I want to see results!

So late one night I got up my courage, and decided I'd delve into the back end of Amazon.com's web services. I wanted to see if I could make a remote shopping cart work for third party merchants, since I (coincidentally enough) am an Amazon third party merchant.

Fascinated, I successfully carried out the steps in the Amazon SDK, inserting my product codes into mile long strings (I'm not exaggerating - these strings nearly ran off notepad and onto the floor!) If that ever happens, I'm quitting the business, btw.

Almost blind by then, I did glance up long enough to see the clock above my desk. I rubbed my eyes - it can't be 3:00 a.m. already! But it was. And I had not even discovered SOAP yet.

No, no, no... I don't mean Ivory, or Irish Spring, or whatever other cleaning aid you might enjoy. (haha - yeah right - I love cleaning, I'm sure you do too.)

If you google SOAP, you'll find that it is something like WSDL and UDDI that will "enable system-to-system integration that is easier than ever before"! Wow, now you're excited, aren't you? As I read on, I couldn't make much headway with SOAP. I read about other languages and protocols, like REST, Jini, EJBs, and RMI. They all claim to be easy to use, extendable and powerful. heehee Why does that make me laugh? Some of them even use semantic data integration and are model-driven (wheeh!), but I wasn't quite up learning these at 4:00 am.

Maybe I'm just set in my ways. I'm an old C programmer from way back, like the gun-slingers of the old West, not ready to turn in my six-shooter and take on the office job just yet. Just a burned out neophile, who is growing tired of change. Maybe change is becoming the norm, and I want some change from that. Yeah -that's it.

Around 5:00 am. I finally stopped babbling to myself, and somehow clicked on the PayPal site. I set up the PayPal shopping cart in about 10 minutes. PayPal's commission is really low compared to our old payment processor. We had to find a solution because our payment processing and other costs were sometimes taking most of our profit. Don't get me wrong - we love our work! But money is one of those pesky things that comes in pretty handy if you want to keep your computer fired up and making games!

Have fun, everyone!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 14:31
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Saturday, March 5. 2005

Dreaming of Eagles

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Saturday, February 26. 2005

What is a Geek?

My previous blog entry made me wonder, "What exactly is a geek?" I also wonder if anyone is actually reading this blog, but that's another story altogether. heh heh.. I know you're out there, because every now and then I talk to somebody who quotes it back to me.

So anyway, I looked up the definition of the word "geek" and found out that it means (according to die.net) "A person who has chosen concentration rather than conformity; one who pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance. Geeks usually have a strong case of neophilia."

Okay, that's fair. But then I had to go look up "neophilia." Apparently geeks aren't strong on vocabulary. Or maybe it's one of those words which have recently sprung up in response to the new technologies. Oh dear, now I have to look that up.

Neophilia, according to MSN, was first found in print in 1932, meaning "interest in new terminology." It appeared in its present form around 1947, meaning "love of or enthusiasm for anything new or novel." Now that makes sense, right after the war with all the new technologies. But the opposite of neophilia (neophobia) meaning "an aversion to novelty" has been around since 1886.

So what happened in 1886, to cause such opposition to change? That, my dear readers, I'll leave you to ponder, since I must get some work done today. (I'm playing a new game: I of the Enemy.)

Some of us geeks have it made, don't we?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 1:46 pm return to top

Thursday, February 24. 2005

Childhood Memories

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 12:33 return to top

Saturday, February 12. 2005

Systems Thinking

My main problem is I love to do everything. I think a lot of game makers are that way. When you work on a game, you get to learn to do a lot of things.

I love working on the art, and the beautiful 3D models. I'm not great at music, but with the help of my talented son, I'm learning to work with sound. Lately I love making posters!

I really like programming, to an extent. I have to qualify this statement because, while I love the logic of working on a programming puzzle, my eyes will quickly glaze over if the conversation turns to DX3 headers, getting pointers, calling Flip, returning E_FAIL, E_NOTIMPL, E_TISMONDAY, E_ETC. (My apologies to Wazoo in the ASP's indie gamer SIG).

I am so impressed by the knowledge of most indie game developers that I wonder sometimes, "How can I hope to keep up with it?" In truth I can't (at least if I want to keep my sanity) so I don't try. Sanity is very valuable to me.

So, back to the main point. I read an interesting article by Michael Gerber about system thinkers.

It all sounded very philosophical, and not like real work, so of course I loved it! Now I must learn to actually do it. I'm turning it over to my subconscious mind, where I sure it will start working very soon. I made a great effort to work more systematically this week, so maybe next week, I'll know why I spent so many hours in front of a computer, but only got to spend a couple of hours playing games!

Have fun, everyone!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 08:21 return to top

Tuesday, February 8. 2005

Game Reviews - Crossdown!

I've been remiss in my daily reviews for a few days. Time gets away from me sometimes.

One reason is that I've been quite busy reviewing games and other software. At Pharos Games, we are interested in finding good family fun games. Last month we featured Jr Vet, a great game for the younger kids. The creator of Jr Vet (Abe Merchant) tells us that he is working on a new game called Jr Einstein. Abe's goal is to get kids thinking about career options early in life while entertaining them at the same time.

Another great game I've had the pleasure of reviewing is Crossdown - Game Edition. I've become quite the crossword puzzle addict, and the puzzles in Crossdown game Edition are very entertaining ones. They are designed by puzzle master Sam Bellotto Jr, and are very addictive. I was working on one for about 2 hours the other evening, and I tried to escape, but had to keep going back until I had it under control. I actually only had to look up two answers on the internet, but I didn't feel too bad about that. Plus I learned something. Do you know the name of Falstaff's assistant, or who said, "Call me trimtab" ?

Anyway, today I was playing (errr I mean, "reviewing") a fun game for girls called Fashion Cents. But I haven't written the review yet. I was too busy playing. I suppose I'll have to get back to work one of these days, playing my own games!

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 14:53 return to top

Monday, January 24. 2005

Painfully Honest News From Pharos Games -January. 2005

Today's blog is taken from our newsletter:

Painfully Honest News From Pharos Games

New Version of Ally's Adventure Through the Glass!

After many long days and nights spent updating the graphics and adding new puzzles, we're proud to announce version 4 of Ally's Adventure is off the drawing board (so to speak) and available at a computer near you. We've gone the extra step, and put a pretty complete walk-through on-line for the game too. Even though I say "we" there's actually only one of us here. Maybe we (hehheh) shouldn't admit that, but what the heck, this is painfully honest news after all..

We hope you enjoy the game, because it really looks a lot better: www.pharosgames.com/ally1/

Ally in Wonderland posters

We are also having lots of fun these days creating beautiful posters, which have definitely spruced up our office, and could do the same for yours, if of course you're willing to part with $10 or $15! The Mouse in the new "Ally in Wonderland" game is such an adorable critter that we had requests for posters featuring the little guy.

You can judge these posters for yourself by visiting our website here: www.pharosgames.com/posters/

You might notice that we are also selling NASA Hubble Space Project posters. This has nothing to do with our games, although someone (seriously!) did suggest we should have "a great adventure where Ally finds herself a stowaway on the space shuttle (with her mouse friend) on its way to do a repair job on the Hubble..." We won't mention who suggested this (Charles) but we aren't really entertaining the idea very seriously at present.

Kathy Salisbury's Blog

We are doing our best to keep up our daily blog. The discussion might be centered on just about anything, but it usually has something to do with either software or games. Today we are using this newsletter as the content for the blog! So if you go there from this newletter, you might find yourself in an endless loop of newsletter-blog-newsletter-blog. Nah! We're just kidding! But it's something to worry about, isn't it? www.pharosgames.com/blog/

Pharos Games Affiliate Program

We've tried to be as helpful as we can to the nice people who want to help us sell our games, by setting up a program with RegNow. RegNow has a new system, with which you can embed your affiliate ID right straight into the download. We hope this works a lot better than cookies, because cookies didn't work... Anyway, we did our part by doing all the work to put the code inside the games that allows the RegNow wrapper to be placed around it, thereby embedding your ID firmly in the download - whew!! and are we ever tired after writing that long sentence.

Find out more by visiting our affiliate section: www.pharosgames.com/affiliates/

Pharos Games on Amazon.com

We took the plunge - got bar codes and did all the stuff you have to do to get products listed on Amazon.com. We listed the products a few different ways there. We have a package called "Games For Girls" and a package called "Wizardry and Magic."

We only have 6 games, of course, so these are really just different combinations of the 6 games. This is known as a "marketing ploy."

Game Review: Jr. Vet

Pharos Games is not only a game company in itself, but it is also an affiliate of other game companies. Okay, well actually just one so far that we are actually promoting - Curiosity Games!

We checked out the Jr Vet Game and found out it's a really nice game that will appeal to a slightly younger audience than our games usually do. The author has a really great idea that you can encourage your younger kids to start thinking about career options. It's really good to have goals, and we mean that sincerely. You wouldn't want your kids to end up being wisecracking freelance game writers, now would you? Heaven forbid!

Check out our review of Jr Vet online here: www.pharosgames.com/reviews/jr-vet/

Coming Attractions

Our next big project is Ally In Wonderland. We've already recorded the singing cat theme song for the game. We loved it, but in clinical trials, most people felt that it should be sung an octave lower. In our opinion, anything that Ashlee Ryan sings is always perfectly wonderful, but we're arranging to have Ashlee back here to rerecord, and see if we can improve her already beautiful rendition.

We are however taking some time off from game development this month, in order to concentrate on doing some promotion and marketing. After all we are really only one person. Ssshhh! Don't tell anyone!!

Stay tuned for further adventures, and take care!

Painfully yours,
Kathy Salisbury

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 22:45 return to top

Sunday, January 23. 2005

Comfort Zones

I spend a lot of time in my comfort zone. I bet you do too, if you’re like most people. A question I am asking myself today is, “Is that a good thing?”

Yes, there is a lot less stress when you are at home in your comfort zone. But I think that we are really happier if we push ourselves to the limit from time to time.

It’s easy to get into a rut with your work, even creative work like writing games. My habit has generally been to let the email and forum messages rule me. I was always reacting to whatever task jumped into the queue. But, you see, that way I didn’t have to think about it. Oh, I was thinking… constantly… but not planning anything.

One way I am striving to leave my comfort zone is by writing 1500 words everyday. That might sound like a lot – and it is! But this self-imposed task is forcing me to do some things I always wanted to do, but never seemed to have time for. One of them is this daily blog.

I have a goal of someday writing the stories from my games into books, so writing 1500 words a day is just a warm-up. Most of the writing I am doing is for the history site right now (www.teachkidshistory.com).

I’ve also agreed to write some book reviews for Al Harberg (www.dpdirectory.com). In order to accomplish this, I also have a lot of reading to do. This pushes me further out of my comfort zone, since much of the reading material has something to do with business, and [shudder] selling.

Selling is not something that I am naturally inclined to do, but something I must do, if I am to stay in business and create more games. The arena of selling is way, way out of my comfort zone, but I’m attempting to learn. I find that the world of selling is much different from what I expected. It is a positive world, where people encourage each other, and where they learn to provide good products and services for others. Now that I could get comfortable with!

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 11:20 return to top

Saturday, January 22. 2005

Indie Game Developers

It occurred to me the other day that not everyone knows what is meant by an indie game developer. Recently, the ASP decided to create a new “Indie Games SIG.” More than a few jokes were made about the group being for game developers from India, or American Indian game developers, or even games about American Indians.

I, of course, would qualify, according to the latter two definitions, since I purportedly have some American Indian blood (although the details are sketchy) and I have also written a game about American Indians (Cherokee Trails).

But, alas, the term really means “Independent Game Developer.” I absolutely hate it when people throw a lot of initials around (what do you call them, acronyms?). So lest I have been guilty of this, I will also explain that ASP stands for “Association of Shareware Professionals,” and that a SIG is a “Special Interest Group.”

Anyway, the new SIG seems quite promising. I have been expressing the opinion for sometime that the ASP members newsgroup is too big, and overwhelms me. Now it doesn’t take very much to overwhelm me, mind you, but the ASP members group could overwhelm most anyone, I think.

The ASP is an association of more than a thousand (probably close to two thousand by now) independent software developers. It’s funny… they don’t usually call them “indie developers” though. Maybe it’s because the term “indie” sounds very renegade, like Indiana Jones or something, and indie game developers are usually young guys with a lot of energy (that’s a nice way to say testosterone).

I’m one exception to the rule. But that’s sort of the story of my life. And actually, my son did get me into this business many years ago, and he continues to inspire me constantly with his incredible music. I’m rambling again, aren’t I?

Ok, back to the topic at hand: the ASP and the new Indie Game SIG. Yes, the ASP members newsgroup is too busy for me. Small wonder, with that many people participating. There are many more who lurk, and only search for specific information as they need it. The danger with doing that is that sooner or later you start feeling guilty about always taking and not contributing, and then you get caught up in the long threads, and before you know if half the day is gone.

But the ASP Indie Game SIG is a small group so far, very friendly, and a great place to share truly relevant ideas and inspire each other. So I am pleased. In case anyone cares. [Big smile and hugs to all]

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 10:29 return to top

Monday, January 3. 2005

Sick of Spam

The amount of spam I am getting these days is simply unbelievable. I'm even overlooking important messages sometimes because of it, and I've just about had it.

Why do spammers propagate this stuff? I can't imagine they are making money that way.

Spam is potentially very embarrassing, when friends or relatives are looking over your shoulder, and you open the box to look for a message, and the email says "Sex, sex, sex" in big red letters. Grrrr! I don't need this.

Please, anyone who reads this... never, ever buy anything from a spammer. My feeling is that you can't trust them anyway, and every sale they make simply encourages this reprehensible activity.

That, my friends, is my rant for this day.

God bless (all you non-spammers)!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 11:53 return to top

We've had a few new ideas around here during the holidays, and we're tossing those around. The main thing for me right now is the finishing up of some websites. I love to write about history, would you believe it? So I've been enjoying the work, although slow, on our new website: www.teachkidshistory.com

I've already learned a lot in the process!

I hope everyone has a fun, but safe, New Year's holiday this upcoming weekend.

I also hope everyone will send lots of prayers out to the people in Asia who were devastated by the recent earthquake and tidal flooding.

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 14:39 return to top

Friday, December 10. 2004

Our Games on Amazon.com

Here at Pharos games we are very excited about our products now being available on Amazon.com!

The new Ally's Adventure is listed, plus some of our gamepacks.

Soon I will be getting ready for the holidays. I must admit, I really hate shopping in crowded stores. I suppose that's why I am so drawn to online shopping. It's like the whole world is at your doorway, and searching for a gift is really fast too!

Of course, there's also the matter of 35 or so relatives coming here for a holiday visit in a little over a week!

Happy holidays, everyone!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 08:38 return to top

Friday, November 19. 2004

Association of Shareware Professionals Award

I've been volunteering a lot for the ASP over the past few years. If you really, really want to do something, then it's always a good idea to hang out with other people who are trying to accomplish the same thing.

The ASP is a great organization that helps people get started in the software business, and helps everybody keep up with the changes in the industry. Since so many programming jobs are outsourced these days, many software developers are finding themselves changing jobs frequently or going through periods of unemployment. Many developers have taken the opportunity to start up their own businesses.

Not exactly being business-oriented myself, I figured some of this entrepreneurial energy might rub off on me. But once I started, I couldn't stop... I volunteered for the ASP for nearly 4 years! It was a great experience, but I finally realized that I would never get my games updated if I continued to devote so much time to it.

When I left my volunteer positions, the ASP leaders surprised me with an Outstanding Service Award during the ASP Luncheon at SIC 2004.

They've put some links on the website. If you like to hear me hyperventilating as I accepted it (I was completely surprised!) and find out how completely tongue-tied a person can get, then check out the link to the MP3 file here: http://www.asp-shareware.org/audio/SIC04-award.mp3

If you are interested in the software business, you can also listen to some great speeches by Gregg Seelhoff (ASP Chairman) and Jess Dewell (ASP President) http://www.asp-shareware.org/audio/

I love my award - I have it right next to my desk to encourage me, and remind me of all my friends in the ASP. Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 11:40 return to top

Saturday, November 13. 2004

More Horses

Maybe horses are on my mind so much because of my friends, Sharon Housley and Judy Tallman. Sharon runs a fantastic website for software developers (Software Marketing Resource). This site even features a picture of one of Sharon's horses as its logo.

Judy has a stable and has a website devoted to her horses at dancinghorses.com. Check out this webpage for lots of photos of her horse Tesoro de la Danza and foals sired by him!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 09:29 return to top

Monday, November 1. 2004

Horses!

I was looking at the horse models and textures for the artwork over the weekend, and it brought back a lot of good memories from my childhood.

I remember how I loved the Black Beauty book, and read it over and over. My favorite TV shows were horse shows like "Fury" (before your time, probably!) When I was growing up the TV westerns were really popular too.

I don't know what it is about girls and horses. I think maybe because they are so beautiful. I've never been on a horse, and I kind of outgrew my fascination with them, since they seemed so far removed from my everyday life. But I'm starting to feel the old love for their great beauty.

I'm looking forward to doing more artwork with horses!

I picked a strawberry roan for the horse in the game for a couple of reasons. 1. I think they are among the most beautiful of horses. 2. It's amazing to me that the roans change color according to the season. When you see a picture of the same horse in the winter, he looks totally different in the summer!

I liked the idea of rescuing the horse from a magic spell. And then he changes into a chess piece (the Brown Knight). That goes along with the dreamlike state you are in, plus is connected to the roan's ability to change color to match his environment.

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 09:19 return to top

Monday, October 25. 2004

Adorable Kittens

I sent a few of my favorite photos to Charles Edmonds of LANSRAD (FotoKiss) and he put them online here: www.lansrad.com/gallerytest/kittens

You may recognize a couple of these shots, as they were used in Ally's Adventure through the Glass.

I just love kittens, as you can probably tell!

btw, FotoKiss is a really nice program for editing your photos for online viewing. Especially if you are an Ebay user - it's very handy!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 10:27 return to top

Thursday, October 14. 2004

New version of Ally's Adventure Through the Glass

My thoughts and energy of late have been mostly devoted to the new version of Ally's Adventure through the Glass. I felt the game needed some great new graphics, and after finishing those, I decided to add a new level of puzzles. It worked out great, and the game is entering the beta stage tomorrow. If anyone is interested in testing the new version, please drop me an email!

Kathy

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 10:03 return to top

Saturday, September 25. 2004

ISDEF in Moscow

I've had some contact with Sharon Housley and Dave Collins, who both recently returned home after attending the ISDEF conference for shareware developers in Moscow.

This had to be an interesting experiencing! There was apparently no problem communicating. Sharon said she talked to so many interested people that her jaw was sore!

You can read Sharon's blog about the event here: http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/blog.html

And Dave's blog is here: http://sharewarepromotions.com/blog/index.html

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 06:07 return to top

Wednesday, September 22. 2004

My first entry

We attended the Grand Rapids Schmooze last weekend. We had a great time, talked about making games with Gregg Seelhoff, Scott Anderson, and Abe Merchant (CurioSoft).

A small group visited the Meijer Botanical Gardens on Saturday. I took some pictures and posted them here:

http://www.pharosgames.com/events/2004-gr-schmooze/

All in all, a great time!

Posted by Kathy Salisbury at 21:46