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About Colin Jones
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Blog postI dunno, you get a bit jaded sometimes. Austerity Farm is a series of (ahem) satirical animations I'll be releasing on Youtube. This is Episode 0, the trailer, which I am assured is the way to do things.
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Blog postHere we go, getting busy again now.
Here's an animation I made for the Cadw Sŵn Welsh course. Funnily enough it's in 4k, although I haven't actually seen it in that resolution yet.
If you like it, please like it! -
Blog postYou'll have to excuse me, but this sort of thing doesn't happen that often, and I do get a little excited.
My second Welsh-language novel, 'Coed y Brenin' has just reached number one in Amazon Uk's Welsh-language ebook charts. Woohoo! -
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Blog postOoh look, it's Cwm Gwrachod - my new novel for Welsh learners. Bois bach!
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Blog postI wish I knew what to say when people ask me what I do.
Sometimes I'll say I write video games, other times I'll say that I write books, or that I help people learn Welsh. Of course I do all three. Even that's getting too complicated, as I'm starting to write books about different things and in different languages.
I thought it'd be nice to have some way of tying everything together. Linking stuff if you like.
colin.cymru is the result. It's not so much a w -
Blog postAt last - something to look forward to. The Nintendo Switch reveal made me realise just how much we've missed the gaming giant's presence over the past few years.
Will it be powerful enough to compete with the big 2 consoles? Will the battery last long enough for a decent gaming session? Will those little controllers get lost on the train?
Yes, too many questions right now. But just one question from me:
Do we want Mario back in all his gameplay glory on a decent console, or do -
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Blog postHe wouldn't do it for money, he wouldn't do it for fame, but the total recluse formally known as the PiMan has been coaxed out of retirement. Why? The video explains all.
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Blog postWhat's the hour, you ask in rhyme - on your Pebble, it's Slightly Magic time!
Potassium Frog. Official watch designer to Bigwiz the Wizard.
Big day today. As well as Deus Ex Machina and Slighly Magic on Steam, we've got a third launch at the Pebble appstore. -
Blog postBack, way back through the mists of time, when I was young and... oh, I dunno, let's not get maudlin.
Twas a dark and smokey night in Cardiff's Top Rank when Madness took over the timeslot with their blend of music hall, Ska and nutty storytelling. We never knew, that's the thing. We never could have known, who could?
Listening to their new track Mister Apples has made me realise - you never can tell. If you'd have asked me to predict which group from my youth I'd be listening to in -
Blog postIt's been a funny few months, with a slew of new releases lined up for the Frog.
We'll be putting Deus Ex Machina and Slightly Magic on Steam, in their almost certainly final versions. Deus is down for 30th September release, and I'm toying with the idea of releasing Slightly Magic the same day, which happens to be my birthday.
I'd go so far as to say that both games are now the definitive versions, and that my two years or so programming them have mainly been well spen -
Blog postQuite a nice surprise this morning; an email letting me know that Deus Ex Machina, Mel Croucher's classic video game, had been accepted for inclusion on the Steam store. I programmed the C64 and MSX versions of the game in the 1980's and then agreed to do the same for the Anniversary Edition, which Potassium Frog released very recently.
It feels like we've finally got a proper release for the full desktop version - PC, Mac & Linux. Maybe the world's finally ready for Mel's dystopian ni -
Blog postA very strange feeling came over me last Friday afternoon; a mixture of melancholy and release.
I was uploading Slightly Magic to Steam for late summer release, when it struck me that this would be nearly the last time I'd be working on the game. I do have another format to program, about which I'm sworn to secrecy for the next month or so, but things are starting to feel pretty final.
Slightly Magic is 25 years old this year, and it seems very odd to be working on the game so long a -
Blog postHow fast does 25 years pass? In the blinking of an eye, I fear. For it really was 25 years ago that my game Slightly Magic was released. I'm always a little nervous when I release something new, but in Slightly's case I needn't have been.
He's done me proud over the years, and so I couldn't let this anniversary pass without throwing a magical bean feast. Actually there'll be more than one magical event this year, but I'm sworn to secrecy on the others for a while.
However, as a -
Blog postYou'll have to bear with me on this, but it's been a surprising few weeks at Potassium Frog.
A couple of quite wonderful things have decided to come together which have almost made me squeal with delight. However, due to the nature of games design, secrecy pacts and the Time Flux Paradox I can't say anything about these things for quite a while yet.
Writing games is a funny business. Anything I'm working on now won't generally see the light of day for a few months, year -
Blog postYes, it took me by surprise too; one of the perks of occasionally writing in Welsh, I guess.'Coed Y Brenin' is a book I wrote a while ago, for Welsh learners. I'd never published it until 2016 as I wasn't happy with the format. It was originally Welsh and English side-by-side, but I thought that people were in danger of becoming a little lazy.Anyhow, the book seemed to fill a need, as ten days or so after release it found itself at the top of the Amazon UK Welsh-language e-books chart.Croeso i A
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Blog postThe future is an unwritten country. I think that's what Timmy Flux said on the Deadpan Channel last night.
Me, I've got a ton of unfinished business to trifle with and a collection of papers to rifle through which claim to be my diary. Like they say, if you can even remember there was a Tranquil Generation you are almost certainly confused. Even way back then, in the Endless Summer of Tomorrow.
So where does the future go to die? And how come there are people in my diar -
Blog postWent to a taxi-driver's funeral yesterday.
The hearse double parked outside the house and beeped the horn to let the mourners know it was there. -
Blog postI don't believe in Astrology, but apparently that's because I'm a Libra. Anyhow...
Squirrius, the NutcollectorYour cusp is on the ascendant. Prepare to meet thy matchmaker.
Lucky Fish: Pollock
Scabies, the ElephantYou enter the room, but everyone ignores you.
Lucky Dog: Ralph, the Spaniel
Doorbell, the DebtcollectorBeware of falling marionettes.
Lucky Skin Condition: Dandruff -
Blog postSomething struck me the other day when looking through the comments for Cheshire's Cheese Nightmares on Steam Greenlight. Some people seemed to be implying that it was a lazy game.
That statement probably sums up the game quite well, I thought, but probably for different reasons.
What's wrong with lazy?
We wouldn't call a musician lazy for recording a song with a single guitar and vocals. We wouldn't call an artist lazy for producing a sketch or a quick wa -
Blog postI am 'putting myself out there' again. Always a little stressful.
The reason? Steam, I've found out by handling Deus Ex Machina 2, is an invaluable platform for getting your games in the public eye.
To get one of your games on Steam it needs to go through a submission process, Steam Greenlight. Games players vote on whether they'd like to see your game available on Steam.
I'd been wondering about submitting Slightly Magic to Steam, but to be honest thought it -
Blog postIt seemed like a good idea at the time. I spent over a year of my life programming various versions of Deus Ex Machina, probably the wierdest game of all time.
So, a mere 30 years later, and the game is now packaged neatly with the sequel, the ebook and the soundtracks. How much? To you $2, if you get there fast enough. I kid ye not.
https://groupees.com/deusexmachina -
Blog postProgramming? Nope. Programming's easy. There are a even a number of middleware systems you can use to reduce your programming to a minimum. No, that's not the difficult bit. That's much easier than when I started coding in binary and hex in the 80s.
Ideas? No, ideas are everywhere, waiting to be plucked out of the ether.
Appstore Submission?Yes. Appstore submission is hard. There are Bindle IDs, icons of various sizes, screenshots, descriptions, international descriptions, -
Blog postWe're changing the potassiumfrog.com website, servers and email today.
Just in case you're trying to get in touch today by email. Seems to take around 24 hours for dns settings to propagate throughout the planet (earth) apparently. I personally don't see what could go wrong.
Oh yes. If you've emailed today with no luck it might be worth you trying again tomorrow (Thursday) when everything should be tickety-boo. Probably.
Here's a top secret photo of Slightl -
Blog postDon't ask me how it happened, but Potassium Frog is launching both Deus Ex Machina and Deus Ex Machina 2 on desktops. Now. www.potassiumfrog.com
Not to mention the bumper package The Book, The Game & The Sequel, but they told me not to mention that. -
Blog postI wonder if this has ever happened before? After 30 years an 8bit computer game has entered the top 20 in Europe. As I write, Deus Ex Machina is no 11 in Amazon Italy's and number 20 in Amazon Spain's Android games charts. Which currently might not be a blockbuster, but it's not bad considering the game's only been out a few days and we have absolutely no publicity budget.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot. We're out on OUYA this Saturday. Home TV plugged into the hifi makes the game a comple
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