colin.cymru

I 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 website (it isn't a website btw) but a series of links, which I can redirect over time. So colin.cymru itself will currently take you to my personal website, while colin.cymru/books will magically whisk you away to my Amazon UK Author page, whereas colin.cymru/us will take you to my US Amazon Author page. That way I can leave links in various places and update their destinations if needed. Brilliant, eh? For those of you who have an interest in such modern alchemy it's all made possible by a free an...

At 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 we want him prostituting his inheritance in a dodgy series of casual games on the fag end of tablet gaming? Where do I sign for that pre-order?

What'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 .

A 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 after its initial release. I remember at the time being a little uneasy about Slightly's future; I couldn't see that the game would be available for more than 5 years. After all, who was going to reprogram the thing after all the 8 and 16bit formats had died? I didn't expect it to be me, that's for sure. So that's a Good Thing - that the game is still available, and soon to be given a shot in the arm by PC, Mac and Linux Steam release. I won't get my life back, because Slightl...

How 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 party-starting taster for the awesomeness that's yet to come, a new full-colour art book is available now on Amazon. It's called 'The Making of Slightly Magic' and features some fascinating insights from myself together with the marvellous artwork of Chris Graham. It's well worth a look if you've an interest in games, retro or modern.

You'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, years, or possibly decades. And even some things which I could talk about are probably best left for now, because it's just too early. The trouble with that box of lice is that I tend to get bored with anything I can actually talk about since I probably finished with that months, years or decades ago. That's the Time Flux Paradox in a nutshell. Ho hum.