Kitsune Software

OK, after a bit of work, I think I have something cool, geeky, and handy for board gaming. I have created a set of dice whose behaviour is consistent with the Gambler's fallacy: The dice remember what has been rolled, so that previously-rolled numbers are less likely. (It also supports normal dice if you prefer them).

And here it is.

( Read more... )

Needless to say, a downloadable Widget version will be coming soon.

Hello all,

To help get back into the swing of MacOS X development, I have just written a screensaver. If you want to experience the joy of fractals with the Lorenz Attractor, you can download LorenzScreenSaver now — it's free!

Tested on Intel and PowerPC based macs, though I suspect most people no longer care about PPC...

As one part of your life is concluded, so another begins. As I didn't get the start-up grant I was after back in 2006, I had to put Kitsune Software on hold for two and a half years, working a normal job at a games company. It started off fun... but now I'm coming back to self employment.

Let's just say that the games' industry has a well-deserved reputation, and when I expand enough to hire people, I hope to permanently change that for the better.

Advanced warning for anyone who needs to contact me; I'm moving house on the 22nd of November. Broadband internet takes 10-15 days to transfer, so I may be a little slow to respond between the 22nd and the 29th.

Shisen-Sho is a traditional Chinese game whose origins have been lost in the mists of time, but is said to have been inspired by Mahjong. Absolute Shisen-Sho for Mac OS X tastefully combines high-quality graphics, sound and music together into the perfect way to relax after a long day. Absolute Shisen-Sho is easy to learn, but with three difficulty settings it remains a challenge to master.

The principle of the game is simple enough: you have a grid of tiles arranged on a wooden board; your goal is to match pairs of tiles and remove them all... the catch, is that you can only remove a pair of tiles if they can be connected by a vertical or horizontal line with no more than two 90-degree bends.

These simple rules have entranced people the world over. To avoid frustration when no more moves are possible, Absolute Shisen-Sho also gives you some super powers to use when you are stuck: Zap will remove a random pair of tiles; Magic wand will remove any pair you select, even if you couldn't normally remove it; and Hint will find a pair (if any remain).

Absolute Shisen-Sho also has two modes of gameplay: Against-the-clock lets you pit your wits in arcade-style race against time, while the Traditional mode gives you all the time in the world to mull over your next move.

Until now, Mac OS X users have had a hard time finding this addictive puzzle game — but Absolute Shisen-Sho brings the search to an end! This challenging and fun game is available now as a universal binary, making it a perfect companion for your new Intel-based Mac. Download the free trial now; the full version is only $14.99!

• Traditional graphics for an authentic experience
• Addictive, non-violent fun makes it suitable for all ages
• Free trial version*

* Trial version nags between every few games, and only allows against-the-clock games.

Download it today!

My big plan, indeed entire reason, for being in Aberystwyth after finishing my degree was to start a business with aid from a fund called KEF (Knowledge Exploitation Fund, I think). Originally, my intent had been to work on the business in my spare time while keeping down a normal full time or part time job, but KEF was supposed to give me the freedom to work full time on the business for 9 months. A few days ago, I was told their answer: "No". If the criticisms they had given had been sensible, that would have been fair enough — you can't go round throwing money at poor plans, after all. Given what they said, however, I just can't believe they even read my business plan.

On the plus side, I've convinced the university to let me do a presentation to the students for which I will get £150, and a few people already seem interested in me making websites for them.

Here's a new thing I've been working on, called Fast Morse.

For only $4.99, Fast Morse will convert any text you enter into the original Morse code equivalent, and play it on your speakers. The speed can be adjusted to anything from 1 to 35 words per minute if your computer can keep up, allowing you to send Morse signals at a rate your friends and fellow Morse enthusiasts can follow!

For the next day or so, it's available exclusively from macupdate.com

On Thursday, two 2GB memory sticks arrived in the post, which I am now using for backups. Brilliant timing, because my file-server's power supply died some time between midday Friday and early morning Saturday.

Even if this business doesn't end up making enough money to live on, I'm getting loads of valuable experience in many different areas of IT and business...

OK, my minesweeper-inspired game has been updated with all new graphics:



You can download it from macupdate: http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/21295

I'm in the process of getting the shop ready for some newly finished products; I'll update again when it's all sorted.

I had forgotten how bad BT were until today, when my internet connection died. It's not so much the problem itself, as how they (fail) to deal with it.

I hope Kitsune Software never ends up like that.

As promised, here is a screenshot of the game I'm working on:

Though I'm still waiting for the new hardware to arrive, I've gotten bored and have started work on yet another mini-project. This one is a game in the vein of Bejeweled. Screenshots soon...

While waiting for the hardware for the RAID-to-be, I've decided to see if I can progress a little further with a pet hardware project of mine: a 3D printer. I've been working on this for nearly a year and a half now, on and off, but I've not put many hours in over that time.

If it works, I think it will be the cheapest 3D printer ever made, at about £400 (UK) instead of the more usual £40,000... but on the other hand, I'm basing it on a CNC machine with a linear speed of only 1cm/second, so at it's maximum resolution of 0.1mm, and without a parallel printing head, it will only print at 0.36 cubic centimeters (about 0.02 cubic inches) per hour.

To simplify things, the first version will only print in chocolate (nice low melting point), and use either sugar (yum!) or sand (yuck!) to fill any gaps. Sand will be easier, as it has a much higher melting temperature, but given how low the melting point of chocolate is, either should work OK.

New domain name... check
New web host... check
New blog... check

Now I just have to wait for the tower to arrive so I can set up a RAID array, then I'm good to go!