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Earlier, Brianna Wu posted this Twitter thread about figuring out the stats of one of the secret characters in NBA Jam Tournament Edition: In that thread, she linked to this video on how NBA Jam's stats and rubberbanding system works: Worth reading the thread and watching that video, if you've ever played any version of NBA Jam. (Tournament Edition on the Mega Drive was my Jam!)

Hi All, Sorry for the shameless plug! I've cleared this with the mods Anyway 12 months ago I left my job to start my own games studio. Right now it's mostly just me and my good friends at Sunna Entertainment collaborating on a number of projects. Our first release went out last week on iOS and Android. This game is unique as it's was entirely funded by the charity On the Edge Conservation who are trying to raise awareness of some of the weird and wonderful species out there that are on the EDGE (Evolutionary Distinct Globally Endangered) yet not in the public eye, like the snow leopard or tigers and rhinos etc are. The first game is to raise awareness of the plight of the Kākāpō the worlds largest flightless parrot. Also a well known meme as 'Party Parrot'. "Watch out, watch out. There are stoats about... And they’re hungry for a kākāpō - a parrot so large that they can’t fly. Your mission is to get the kākāpō to safety by navigating across New Zealand to Sanctuary Island. And hungry stoats are just one of the challenges that face you as you jump, dodge and slide through forests, shorelines and cities to reach Sanctuary Island." The game itself is totally free to play, no ads, no IAP All we ask from the player is to share the game on social media (when prompted to to skip a level they are stuck on after 3 KO's) and pledge their support via social media to save the Kākāpō and access the final level and get the Kākāpō to safety. The charity briefed us to create an infinite runner, we wanted to make something that felt premium and matched the competition like Minion Rush, Subway Surfer and Jumanji Epic Run. Whilst created for kids the social sharing aspect is certainly more for adults. The idea here being that you pass your phone to your kids as you do on a long journey or as a distraction, they then pass it back for you to pledge on social. Obviously whilst designed for kids it also appeals to adults as well As part of 'raising awareness' the game also has loading messages with key facts about the Kākāpō and info points along the way through the game. We also included a clever Twitter CMS system where On The Edge can tweet curated news directly into the games globe view keeping players up to date on the latest environmental issues faced around the world. What can you do to help? Please download and play - crucially 'share' and 'pledge' when the game asks you to, We support twitter, Facebook and instagram for sharing and pledging. This is really important as it's our measure of success. https://tinyurl.com/kakaporun-android https://tinyurl.com/kakaporun-iOS #SavetheKakapo

To any indies that have released an iOS or Android game, have you got any advice or stories about your experiences? I'm about 3 months away from release of my indie sports title T20 Card Cricket which has been a struggle as I've worked on it part time for the last 2.5 years, had a baby a few months ago and had a licensing deal appear and fall through within a five month period. Not only that, my coder tore of part of his thumb in a mountain-biking accident, and one of my artists started going blind but although I say it every year, this time it really looks like the finish line is in sight. If you feel like sharing your experiences, how you got noticed, download numbers, mistakes you made, soft launches, monetisation strategy, I'd love to hear them. Also, if you have any advice/theories that go against the conventional wisdom that you read on Gamasutra and other development sites, I'd love to hear that too. I'm of the opinion that to get noticed you have to do things differently. As T20CC is quite niche (cricket x puzzle), I'm thinking of approaching sports writers and the games/sports section of publications rather than the traditional games press (I don't see a lot of crossover between cricket followers and traditional gaming press). Not that I'd compare T20CC to the mighty New Star Soccer, but I think getting featured in sporting publications of non-gaming press was a big part of its success (feel free to correct me, SiRead). Right now, as I wait for the next build, I'm cutting my trailer and looking to get that out in the next few weeks. I'm of the opinion that mobile games don't need the months and months of lead-in marketing that say Steam or console games require as the attention span of mobile gamers is very much 'can I download this now?' Put a link to your game site if you can. I'd like to check how you did your trailers and website as well. (mods - I put this in here instead of development for visibility purposes)