Hello 64 Digits! How has it been.

I can't believe it has been over 3 years since I last posted here. I see a lot of new faces as well as a couple of old ones. The likes of Polystyrene Man and Kilin are still here. I wonder what ever happened to Cyrus, marbs or Rusky? I hope Jabberwock has been tracked down. He sort of disappeared. But I am back and would like to tap back into my Game Maker Roots.

Where have I been?

Working. Well mostly. Since 2012 I have been pursing a career as a mobile developer. I have been mainly doing contract work, so I get long periods of work followed by brief periods of cool down. My clients have been everything from Fidelity Investments to AT&T. The point of this was so I can see how the world at large uses the technology they thought me in college and learn how proper software development is carried out. Quite a bit of it was honestly no different from how stuff was done in college, but I was exposed to quite a few professional tools. The short list includes:

• Significant amounts of iOS development
• A little android development
• Automated testing
• Java Web development
• Html5 work
• Some Flash

Later I plan to learn:

• .NET development
• Object oriented Javascript (not the same as Java or regular Javascript)
• Xamarin Studio (and Mono by extension)
• Hadoop

What's changed with the site?

On the surface it seems that 64 digits is the same as where I left it. The fonts, the sight design and the colors are all the same as where they were 3 years ago. Kodos to the site owner and mods for maintaining a consistent UX that has stood the test of time.

By looking a bit closer it seems you guys have added more than just Game Maker Games to the mix. There seems to be Unity, HTML5 flash, even enigma (what ever the heck that was.. hehe). I don't know what the shop is for, but the social section does look like a cool addition. I would be happier if user could add their own games or if there was a 64digit game made to take advantage of this.

Speaking of which:

Games Games Games

After all is said and done, the main reason this site was created was to show off the games we create using the various skills at our disposal and this site still delivers on that. While this never matured into the Newgrounds or Gamejolt of GM games, this site still is a good resource to showcase the various little pieces people create once in a while. Back in the day I used to give long detailed reviews on the games I played. Now due to time, I can only give my opinion in a few short sentences. The following are a short list of games which I have played recently on returning:

Walk of Darkness Demo by Mega: Liked the boss fight and liked the gameplay. Wish there was more but it is only a demo. I took a look at Mega's blog and liked his content. I will be keeping an eye on this one.

Magical Castle by Kunedon: I remember this guy. This is the Alexia The rabbit creator. I like the style, but would love to see more improvement. Try using a different program to create sprites and more advanced game design.

Attack of the Fightophere by KyleKubik: This is how adventure time games should look. Liked the gameplay, but got a bit repetetive.

Watching Them Go by FearedMachina: One word, buggy.

DeathXed Reloaded by AlexCromwellVP: We don't get a lot of 3D games, but this one is quite fun to play. This could have been easily made in Unity, but seeing it made with GameMaker put a smile on my face.

Inuit by nap: I like the style of it. The general game design and game play is easy to get into. I will return to it for more fun.

Chao.