Suicide Prevention Day: You’re Not Alone

Hey everyone, Michael here! I was hoping to get this blog post out a few days ago, but I’ve been a bit under the weather. Sorry for the delay! Anyway, I’m super excited to share all the work I’ve been doing on Defend from Candyland! I’ve got a huge update coming your way in the next few weeks. Ready for some spoilers? First off, check this out:

Hey everyone, I wanted to share a bit about my weekend with you. I was showcasing Defend from Candyland! at the Medway Gaming Festival at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham. It was my third time exhibiting the game, but my first time at the Medway Gaming Festival. Big shoutout to Stuart De Ville for all his help and for giving me the opportunity to be part of the Indie Showcase. The festival was spread over two days, and I met so many awesome people. I got to chat with other game developers, and met loads of folks who were there to enjoy the festival. I received some fantastic feedback on Defend from Candyland!, and I’ve already started making changes based on what I heard. One bit of feedback was about the enemy waves board and title being too big and too high up. As you can see below, I’ve resized and repositioned it, and it’ll be included in the next update!

In today's blog, I’m excited to introduce you to a new character in *Defend from Candyland!*: Iasmin the Language Tree! The creation of Iasmin the Language Tree started with a spontaneous moment on Twitter/X. I came across a tweet from a generous young woman named Iasmin Egidio, who was offering to translate games into Brazilian-Portuguese. I decided to reach out and ask if she would be interested in translating Defend from Candyland! . To my delight, she agreed! I quickly got to work, compiling a document with all the text from the game. It turned out to be quite a task – there was a lot more text than I initially realized! Once the document was ready, I sent it over to Iasmin. As a token of appreciation for her willingness to help, I decided to create a special character for her in the game: Iasmin the Language Tree. I designed the tree based on the existing characters in Defend from Candyland! and a picture of Iasmin from her website. She was thrilled with the character, and in no time, she sent back the translated text. With the translations in hand, I dove into Unity to implement them. This was my first time working with Unity's localization tools, but I had recently learned about them, so I felt prepared. I added all the translations, set up the localization features, and incorporated Iasmin the Language Tree with her language options.

Hello everyone, It's been a while since I last wrote a blog post, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things and do this more regularly. We'll see how it goes! Today's post is about my Discord server! Some of you might remember the "Defend from Candyland!" Discord server where fans could chat about the game, share their let's plays, and give feedback. Unfortunately, I didn't do much to promote or even use that server, so it’s been mostly dormant for the past year. But now, I’ve decided to give it another go. I’ve revamped the server and transformed it into the **MI Pixel Discord server**. My vision is to create a vibrant community where gamers, developers, artists, and other creatives can come together and chat. "Defend from Candyland!" is still there, but it's now just one part of a larger, more dynamic community hub. Here’s a quick overview of the main channels in the MI Pixel server: General This is the place for everyone to hang out, chat, and have fun. Drop in and say hello! Retro Corner For those of us who love nostalgia, this is the spot to talk about old games, consoles, and all things retro. Creative Works This channel is for creatives to share their projects or seek help with their work. As the server grows, it might even become a place where people can find contract work! Support Corner We all have bad days, and sometimes it helps to have a place to vent or ask for support. This is a safe space for anyone who needs to talk or seek help. The server has only been up for a day, but we’ve already had new members join and great conversations start. Seeing this activity brings me a lot of joy, and I’m excited about the potential for this community to grow and thrive. So why not come and join us? I look forward to seeing and chatting with all of you there. Discord. Have fun, everyone! Michael “MI Pixel” Ingram

Hello everyone, Michael here, and I'm thrilled to bring you an exciting update! In the world of Defend from Candyland!, there have been some behind-the-scenes developments, and I'm excited to share them with you. I recently had the privilege of collaborating with a talented artist named Millie Elsdon-James. You know how I've always been enthusiastic about game development, but when it comes to creating intricate artwork for larger images, I must admit, it's not my strong suit. That's where Millie stepped in to save the day. But before we dive into the artistry, I want to give a huge shoutout to Millie and her incredible skills. You can explore all her work through this Linktree link: Millie's Linktree . If you're in need of artistic expertise, don't hesitate to reach out to her! Now, let's talk about the fantastic journey we embarked on together. Millie was an absolute gem throughout the entire process. We had a seamless flow of ideas and concepts, making this collaboration a breeze. First, Millie presented me with four initial concepts to choose from. Each one had its unique charm, but ultimately, one stood out as the perfect fit for Defend from Candyland!

Hey everyone, It's been a while, hasn't it? I hope you've all been doing well. I've been caught up in a whirlwind of events, work, and the ups and downs of life. But I wanted to take a moment to catch you up on what's been happening in my world. First, let's dive into some exciting news. I recently completed the Launch-it creative-tech accelerator program, and what an incredible journey it was. I've learned so much about running my own business, made valuable connections, and even secured a few potential job opportunities along the way. At the program's conclusion, we had a big networking event where some of us pitched our ideas. I was fortunate enough to take second place, earning myself a Touchscreen laptop from Basildon Council. I'm thrilled about this because it's helping me create new pixel art sprites directly on the computer using Aseprite. It's a bit of a learning curve, but I'm enjoying every moment of it! If you're curious about the accelerator program and the networking event, check out this video with some of the highlights:

Hello everyone! I've been putting in some serious work lately. A while back, I had a bunch of folks express interest in an art pack for Defend from Candyland! To be honest, I never really saw this coming. Between my not-so-confident art skills and a personal preference against making DLC, I was initially hesitant. But hey, these folks enjoy Defend from Candyland! and they asked, so why not deliver, right? After some contemplation, I settled on creating a Halloween-themed art pack. My original idea was to revamp the characters' looks, giving them spiffy Halloween costumes. But as my creative juices flowed, I decided to sprinkle in a bit of retro charm, drawing inspiration from old-school games and classic movies. And I'm thrilled to show you how a few of them turned out!

Heya everyone, it's Michael here, and I've got an exciting update on Defend from Candyland! In this blog post, I'll be delving into the challenges of marketing this game, sharing insights into its development progress, and giving you a peek into my personal quest to conquer the leaderboard. Let's kick things off by mentioning that Defend from Candyland! is currently on a special sale until August 21st, 2023. If you're intrigued by the game, now's your chance to grab it for less than a fiver! Speaking of marketing challenges, I have to admit I made a rookie mistake. When I embarked on creating this game, marketing wasn't exactly at the forefront of my mind. I was purely focused on crafting an enjoyable gaming experience, drawing inspiration from the classic Flash game, Desktop Tower Defence. As development progressed, I excitedly shared the game on Twitter and Facebook, even collaborating with awesome YouTubers like ChaoticFear19 and Ember Shadow for some thrilling gameplay streams. Witnessing others enjoying the game brought me immense joy. I also tried leveraging Steam's Curator system by distributing numerous game keys, but the results were modest, with only a handful of reviews trickling in. While the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, the game's visibility didn't witness a significant boost.

Hello everyone! Kirsty and I just celebrated our wonderful four-year journey together, and for this enchanting anniversary, we chose a truly magical destination: the Warner Bros Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter. While I had visited this captivating place once before, many years ago when it was a novelty with tickets priced around £30, Kirsty had never experienced it and had always dreamt of doing so. We stumbled upon a fantastic deal that included a three-day, two-night hotel stay with breakfast, early entrance tickets to the tour at 10 am, and free parking both at the hotel and the WB Studio. All of this was just £424, quite a steal. As we embarked on our drive from Essex to Hatfield on a Monday, excitement buzzed in the air. Typical us, we arrived at the hotel well before check-in time, around 11 am, so we decided to explore the Galleria shopping centre. A spontaneous detour led us to a TK Maxx, where Halloween decor quickly caught our attention – it’s just normal home decor for us, isn’t it? However, I did have a comical encounter with those pesky Flying Saucers…