I want to spread the word about my games - I want people to play and enjoy them. I'd love to make loads of money out of them but at the moment that's unlikely, so just getting people to download the demo version is good enough.
I also like feedback. Most of the feedback I've had for my games has been from other game developers so getting the opinions of gamers - my actual audience - would be great.
Combining these two things, the desire to get people playing my games, and the quest for usable feedback, I have decided to start the 'Free Video Games for Bloggers' intiative.
Free Video Games for Bloggers
The idea is that people download a game from Binary Sun, and post a review on their blog. As a thank you I will give the reviewer a full version of the game they post about. I don't mind whether the review is positive or negative, as long as it's either constructive.
Rules?
I don't want to place restrictions on what you say but feel there should be some rules for acceptance.
- The review should be constructive - I can only improve the games if I know what's wrong with them
- The review should contain a link to the game you are reviewing on Binary Sun - hey, others may want to play it as well
- The review should be linked to in the comments for this post - I will send the free game to the email address supplied
PC or Mac?
I'm a pc developer so unfortunately none of the games I have developed are available on Macs. The good news is that I didn't make all the games on Binary Sun.Dr Germ wasn't made by me and has a Mac version available so there is something there for you Mac users to play with. Sorry the selection isn't larger, I hope to improve things in the future.
Restrictions
I intend to run this promotion for 31 days - from the 1st until the 31st of March indefinately. It'll be interesting to see if anyone reviews anything 
I'm of two minds about the next restriction, I don't want to limit things too much, but would like to make some money out of this - so you can only get a maximum of two games for free (review as many as you like though ).
The Games
The games that are for up grabs are...
- Bubble Blitz- Match the coloured bubbles against the clock in this family friendly puzzle game.
- Bubble Bomb - Match the colours to pop the bubbles in this fast paced puzzle game
- Super Gerball - Gerry the Gerbil loves playing in his ball - he would play all day long if he could. Unfortunately though, the house in which Gerry lives is not safe - if he is not careful, he will fall and hurt himself.
- Dr Germ - Dr.Germ is looking for a new assistant! Are you up to the task? Comes in both PC and Mac flavors.
- Seths Puzzle Boxes - Help Selena rescue her parents by competing against the evil robot 'Seth' - in this fiendish brain bending puzzle game.
- Rocket Boards - Can you master the Rocket Board? Find out in this fast paced cartoon racing game. Inspired by Nintendo classics like Super Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing; Rocket Boards brings the cartoon racing formula to the pc.
Rocket Boards is a super fast 3D rocket boarding action. My first "commercial" (shareware) product. Didn't do amazingly well but was a good learning experience
Bubble Bomb is a polished update of a game originally built by Warren Marshal (who works at Epic games - developers of Unreal and Gears of War)
My own update of Bubble Bomb, Bubble Blitz was almost a total rewrite adding loads of new features and a shiny new look.
Seths Puzzle Boxes is a puzzle game with a surprisingly enjoyable story line, unfortunately it's quite short so won't take long to complete, but while it lasts is great fun.
60 Responses to “Free Video Games for Bloggers”
Do we send a trackback to this post? I just downloaded one, I'll have something up Thursday or Friday.
Anthony - It would be easier if you leave a comment so that I have an email address to send the game to. Otherwise do a trackback and contact me through the about page so that I know where to send things over.
Thanks
You can get some 'indirect' feedback by posting your game to Millionsofgames.com.
People will play it, tag it and rate it which should give you a good idea of what they think about it.
Dr. Germ Review
I'd love to do this however my blog is officially dead until May 1st, how irritating! I may review one when it's back up (prize or no prize).
http://coastersandgames.blogspot.com/...gerbil-ball.html
Super Gerball review
-nesdude
Rob and Chris - thanks a lot. Your copies of the games have been sent out.
Sam - that's a shame. I may continue the promotion in the future, am waiting to see how things go - but you might be able to get free stuff anyway
As a newbie to casual games, this was my first game under the igLoader technology that I played for a prolonged amount of time. It reminded me of Bejewelled and as such, I would expect this game to do really well. A few things that count against it compared to the highly acclaimed competition would be that the action stops when you run out of strings, where the game could have been engineered to keep the player locked in to progressive (all be it slow for poor players) curve, this way to draw in the gamer and not let them leave without finishing one-last-level (in the case of Bejewelled). The graphics are nice, and a few extra on-screen effects would make all the difference such as sparkles at random, fades in and out and perhaps a little more shine and polish to the menu buttons and text. The game itself does not allow you to 'easy' plan a sequence of victory 'pops'. That is to say, you have to play a while before you get the hang of how to do it. A casual game makes discovering the sequence much much much easier, almost obvious. This again draws in the player by rewarding them early for thinking ahead from the very first click. The music is repeating over and over, which would normally be fine, but it's too short and their is a noticable gap when it loops, this can become annoying in an indirect sort of way. It is amazing what sound does to your player, without the player even noticing! I think it would only take a few more weeks of tweaks and polish to propel this little game into the limelight. I really do. I am bias of course, as I love these type of pattern-finding games. I make so many critical observations only because I like the game so much
Great stuff, well done.
http://techknows.exsoftgames.com/...e=article&sid=11
Rocket Boards review.
Great game!
http://techknows.exsoftgames.com/...e=article&sid=12
Super Gerball Review, plain and simple
Lee - really I wanted a review on your blog but since it's you i'll let you off. Wouldn't do that for anyone else though
Steven - thanks a lot
I have sent Rocket Boards and will send over Super Gerball soon.
http://tcrei.blogspot.com/
I reviewed Dr. Germ, only game I could play on my Mac. I really enjoyed it, I love puzzle games. Keep up the good work, I wish I could try the others too, especially that Super Gerball one.
Hey Ben,
I didn't get the email yet. You're slacking off.. :p
I'm not slacking off. I just wrote that comment then went away for a weekend
They're sent now. Thanks peeps.
http://www.binarysun.co.uk/free-games/super-gerball/
This game caught my eye... I think because it reminded me of Sonic from Sega. Super Gerball was my favorite casual game download of the bunch.
Hmm, I couldn't find the trackback link so I type my blog URL here.
Announced about your marketing system.
http://www.gameproducer.net/.../free-games-for-bloggers/
Might get some traffic to you. It would be nice to hear how this experiment goes. The results would be most interesting.
I reviewed Rocket Boards.
http://frem.wordpress.com/...03/27/rocket-boards-review/
Not sure you'll even *want* to give me the game, after that.
At least I was honest.
I asked for honest feedback - and that's what I expected. Enjoy your game
BTW it looks like someone at the underdogs forgot to renew their domain. I wanted to check out that game you mentioned but it didn't work. Will have to google it instead.
I reviewed rocket boards
http://www.homicidal.co.uk/_blog/archives/00000077.htm
Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. HOTU should be up soon. If not, I'll probably host the game myself.
OK, the first of the two reviews are up... Power Boards of course. Yeesh open office says it's 2000 words and it isn't even the one that my family is most excited about. My son has asked me 5 times to day if I've posted the review of SuperGerball yet and I haven't even started writing it up yet.
Here's the link for the first review:
http://www.thecodecave.com/?p=71#more-71
I reviewed Power Boards first because with some simple changes, mostly outside the game, I think this could be your cash cow. However, the two games that most excite me and my four kids are SuperGerball and SETH's puzzles. I just wish the free game limit was three and not two.
(AND NO! That isn't a hint. Two games is very generous and a GREAT idea.) I'll be reviewing SETH's simply because I want to. It is a VERY good unique game and I want to reward unique.
Review: Binary Moon's Super Gerball
http://www.thecodecave.com/?p=75
Also entitled "You had me at Smeg"
10 seconds to spare...
Well, in the US at least...
There! Picture and it's about twice as long now!
)
MUCH better! (I'll quit spamming your comment log now.
http://www.webcomments.net
It's on the front page.
Brian - Thanks for that. You should have your game already
LAN - no link? Sort that out and the game is yours.
http://randomwebcomments.blogspot.com/...cketboards.html
I wrote a comment with my review. Does that count?
LAN - the game will be on it's way shortly.
MASA - 'fraid not. Post the review on your website and I will happily send you a copy. Sorry.
Ben: Home of the Underdogs is back, and my "Miko-san's Miracle Board" link now works.
http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?gameid=4448
James- thanks for that. Downloading it now, will be interesting to see what they did.
HELP!
what happened? When I open the game I get memory access violation.
I tried reinstalling, uninstalling and the works and nothing happened.
LAN - all I can suggest is you redownload the game. Maybe something corrupted the install. I'll check the full version to see if there are any problems but if the demo works the full version should too.
Hey here is my Rocket Boards Review :- Act of War I really admire you for making games since thats my ambition too. Hope I've done the review good enough.
I just hope this promotion hasn't ended?
After you install you can run it once when it says: Launch game.
But afterwards when you click a shortcut or run the main exe it will bring up the error
Sorry for the triple comments.
Asish - The promotion hasn't eneded but I am currently on holiday so haven't had much of a chance to send out emails. Check your mail now and it should all work fine.
LAN - try running the exe directly from the instal folder and the game shoudl work fine. I think I know what the problem is and I will look at sorting it out when I get back home.
Hey, I wish I had heard about this earlier. I like your games, and the chance at getting 2 for free is cool. I'll review some soon, and maybe I'll review something other than Rocket Boards and Super Gerball
My friend mentioned this website. If you're still in business, I thought I'd take a crack at the gerbil game. Review to be posted on livejournal.
Long time since I downloaded the full game Rocketboards after giving a review to leave feedback but I was busy with my cybercafe. I must say that's some game you made! The demo doesn't do justice to the game (But you are kind enough to provide a demo unlike some I know) The amateur level is perhaps the best in the whole game.
Could you perhaps port this game to Ubuntu Linux? I know that's hard but this could be one of the best games on the limited games for the Linux platform. Do try since Ubuntu and the Open Source movement is achieving new levels in popularity.
Super Gerball and Rocket Boards look great. Can we still get the full versions?
Thanks.
Hey everyone. You are still more than welcome to post reviews. I decided to run this indefitily so feel free to review away. As long as you post a review on YOUR website and not mine I'll send you a game
Ashish - I'm afraid Linux versions are totally out of the question. All my games are made with Blitz3d which is tied to windows and Directx. Sorry.
Is this offer still available? I would love try this out. Thanks so much.
-Nicole
Absolutely. Anyone with a website is welcome to get free games for reviews.
Hi,
I love your games. I've reviewed two of them on my blog:
Seth's Puzzle Boxes - http://www.my-casual-games.com/?p=138
Super Gerball - http://www.my-casual-games.com/?p=141
I'll probably review a few more, but I love these two!
Great job, and thanks.
Gerball review: http://maybejustonce.blogspot.com/...r-gerball-from.html
I did this for fun so there's no need to send the full version of the game. But thanks for making it and putting it online anywa! ^_^
I thought Bubble Bomb was too similar to other puzzle games (even if I love those games!) but it's gotten me into your games and I'm downloading Seth's Puzzle Box right now.
Hi there!
I have made a little German Description of the Bubble Blitz Game. Hope you like it.
http://free-games.ch/2008/01/21/bubble-blitz/
I didn't do a review of your game on my blog but
I did download and play your demo of gunwing. I
I really liked, it had a classic space fighter look feel and to it.
I have wrote a review on Bubble Blitz
go here to see it.
http://djsizemore.wordpress.com/
Doris