The Code Zone Bargain Basement Blog

Emailed high score reports update

2009-04-21T11:33:00.002-06:00

I've been having a lot of problems lately with the emailed score reports. And the problems, for once, aren't really my fault. Fact is, if you have a bot that sends people emails, you'll be accused of being a spammer. This is despite the fact that:

1. There are no ads in the emailed reports (not even ads for my own products).

2. The system is entirely opt-in.

3. The default is to NOT receive emails, and you have to check the "send me daily reports" box to get reports.

Still, I get complaints from people that I'm spamming them, and my IP address seems to come and go on the "this is a spammer domain" lists.

I long-considered removing the emailed reports entirely with the motivation that they're more trouble than they're worth. But I'm going with a bit of a simpler solution for now. . .

I cleaned house.

That's right. All 338 of you who previously received emailed reports have had your daily emails shut off. If you want to continue to receive the daily emails, then you can head over to the account manager, click the "Edit Existing Account" tab, and turn your emails back on.

Given my number of daily players, I figure the large majority of those 338 emails were getting automatically filtered into trash cans anyway. This way the few of you who still want emails can get 'em, and I won't have to tangle with the "you're a spammer" crowd for a couple more years.

I hope.

Changes to twitter

2009-02-04T08:35:00.002-06:00

I've made a change to the way scores are posted to twitter. One thing I never really liked (and it's really a deficiency in Twitter rather than this site) is that I needed your twitter password to post scores to Twitter accounts. And storing passwords used on other sites is just bad form in general.

So I've made a minor change to things. I now have a new Twitter user named "thecodezone". The bot that tallies the scores will now be notifying any twitterers with an @ response from that account.

So the upshot is, if you want to receive Twitters of your daily rankings, you can do one of the following. . .

- Follow user "thecodezone" from http://twitter.com/thecodezone

- Allow your twitter account to accept @ responses from users you're not following. Setting this up is simple. Just go to your twitter account, go to "Settings", then the "Notices" tab, then choose "all @ replies" under the "show me" section.

The upshot is that you should still be able to receive your daily rankings via twitter, just in a bit more secure way.

The Code Zone Facebook group

2009-01-23T09:33:00.002-06:00

Despite a few requests, I'd purposely avoided having any kind of web forum or comments-section on the site. And the reasoning was simple -- if I added such a thing, then I'd have to come up with a policy on profanity, and I'd have to do some kind of bogus age-check and such. As it stands, The Code Zone is a G-rated place, and I don't have to worry about being contacted by angry parents because their 8 year-old is a fan of the games but found objectionable content.

But I guess it wouldn't be a problem to allow such things elsewhere. So I added a Fan-Group for the games on Facebook, and it's at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115026820690. If you're a fan of the games or you want to discuss solutions to Bulldozer levels or anything like that, feel free to join up there. I'll try to keep an eye on the place, so your requests won't just end up echoing into cyberspace.

Enjoy!

Holiday Reminder

2008-12-09T14:45:00.002-06:00

Just a quick reminder. Code Zone gift cards are ready to ship and make great stocking-stuffers. Each card is good for one fully-registered game.

Give the gift of puzzles this holiday season!

Learn more here.

We are widgetized!

2008-06-02T08:44:00.004-06:00

Here's some good news if you're a fan of putting web-widgets on your personal pages. Thanks to the folks at WidgetBox, all of The Code Zone's Flash games are now available as web-widgets for your favorite homepage and social network. Every game page (as well as the Play-n-Share page) now has links with one-stop installation to your blog, Google Homepage, NetVibes, FaceBook, Bebo, and a half-dozen other platforms that support widgets.

Note that while the daily puzzle games are included, they're not running in "daily mode", so your users or readers don't have to have an account at The Code Zone if they want to play. And you can play the games over and over, which makes more sense if the games are installed on a homepage.

Enjoy the games, and if you find a particularly creative way to use the game widgets, be sure to contact me.

Big News - Duck Tiles is now free!

2008-05-06T14:27:00.002-06:00

Well, mostly free. After looking over my existing games, I decided that Duck Tiles could better serve the community (and make more money) if it was ad-supported. Therefore I have re-tooled the game a bit and I'm releasing it 100% free.

As it stands, not all 216 levels are currently available. Like Bulldozer, I decided to re-deploy the game as a three-parter, and each part will be free. Currently I have a 77-level version that's available for free here. In the coming months, I will be releasing Duck Tiles 2 and Duck Tiles 3, also with 77 levels each.

I'm currently still selling the full 216-level version if you just can't wait for the sequels to arrive. This version will remain available on the site until Duck Tiles 2 and 3 arrive. At that time, I'm going to phase out the commercial version of Duck Tiles, and it'll be completely ad-supported.

I hope you enjoy playing the new Duck Tiles, and please tell your friends about it. If you want to embed Duck Tiles (or any one of my other games) in your blog or web page, check out my play-n-share page here.

Happy playing!

New games and improvements

2008-03-26T10:06:00.003-06:00

First off, for everyone who had trouble submitting high Meltdown scores, that should be fixed. Note that the little playback gizmo in the Meltdown high score table might be broken for a day or two until I fix that to match, but I figured it was more important to ship the fix rather than frustrate you anymore than I already do with the games.

Second, I have two new games! These are "play-n-share" games, so you're encouraged to add 'em to your favorite blog and/or game portal and/or homepage.

Or you can just play 'em here. They're pretty good.

ConFusebox 2

Worm Sojourn

Enjoy!

Welcome welcome!

2008-02-14T15:57:00.001-06:00

Welcome to all new viewers who learned about The Code Zone from Games Magazine!

I hope you enjoy your stay and have fun with some games!

Holiday cards still available!

2007-12-20T15:35:00.000-06:00

Okay, not "Holiday Cards" per se, but I still have plenty of Code Zone Gift Cards available for holiday gifting for puzzle-solving friends. Go here to get some.

If you're within five days' first-class shipping to Texas (and that covers pretty-much all of the US), I can still get you a gift card in time.

Three things

2007-12-06T11:12:00.000-06:00

(apologies for the double-post, but the news-pod on The Code Zone's front page doesn't render columns of pictures that well)

1. The Code Zone Mobile site is now officially in beta at mobile.thecodezone.com. This should be much friendlier for platforms with small screens and/or low-performance CPU's and/or low-end browsers. The games can be sized for your particular handheld. The pages take up minimal bandwidth and have no scripting and barebones HTML.

If you have any suggestions or new platforms or comments, by all means email them to support@thecodezone.com.

2. Congratulations to Brain Bones, which clocked in as Kongregate's second highest-rated new game for the first week of December. Feel free to check out the game and its feedback on the Kongregate site here.

3. With the sudden "viral" popularity of a couple of my games, I've gotten a few email requests from folks who want to embed my games in their blog or website or game-portal. Since that's a lot of information to convey in an email, I put together a page with all you need to know about putting my games on your site. It's here. Thanks for your support, and keep the Code Zone virus spreading ;)

Spam

2007-12-03T17:09:00.000-06:00

I recently received a message from a user who insisted that the recent influx of spam to his Yahoo account was due to my selling his email address to spammers.

Two comments about this:

1. It is spelled out very clearly in The Code Zone's Privacy Policy that I absolutely will not sell your email address or reveal any part of the list except under court order.

2. Your email address is also not shown on the site in a way that spam-bots could read them. The only thing shown in the high score tables is your handle. Do a "view source" on the tables if you don't believe me.

Trust me, folks. I find spam every bit as annoying as you do. If you get an influx of spam, it didn't come from here. I swear.

Gift Cards!

2007-11-23T13:32:00.000-06:00

Yep, just in time for the holidays, the hardworking hobbits down at The Code Zone game-mines deep in the heart of Texas have put together a fine fine gift for gift-giving times.

Yep, it's The Code Zone Gift Cards. Each card is good for one fully-registered download of the recipient's choice (Bulldozer, Duck Tiles, or the Puzzle Pack).

They make great gifts (hence the usage of the word "gift" in the product's name) and they'll keep your puzzle-loving friends busy for quite some time.

Learn more about 'em here.

And, since this is the season for giving and suchlike, we're slapping on a discount of ten percent if you use the coupon code "tenoff" in the "coupon code" field on the buy page.

Site updates!

2007-11-08T08:02:00.000-06:00

Okay, it looks like things are pretty stable now. The server move is complete and everything seems to be working. That being said, here are two site updates.

1. New Daily Puzzle! If you haven't noticed, a new game is up. It's an old classic called Brain Bones. It's an addictive game with an interesting mechanic. I know it can be frustrating because your score goes gigantically negative at the beginning, but the object is to make up that negative score!

2. Twitter updates! If you have a Twitter account, you can now have your Twitter-feed automatically updated with your latest rankings. To enable this feature, head over to the account manager page, choose the "Edit Existing Account" tab, and update your account with your Twitter information.

Hope you enjoy the new stuff, and we'll have another big holiday-themed update next week!

Pardon the dust, big changes being made

2007-11-03T08:59:00.000-06:00

Just letting you know that this weekend (Nov 3), thecodezone is making some of the most extensive changes it's made in its short history.

We're moving everything to some new hosting, we've completely replaced the underlying network code, and we've made small changes and improvements to every page on the site.

That being said, it'll take a bit for things to settle down. The games will probably be down for all of Saturday. I'm hoping that by Sunday everything will be playable again.

And after that, I promise to have a couple of things to make the trouble worthwhile.

So bear with me.

Three new games

2007-08-20T08:40:00.000-06:00

Okay, "new" is a relative term. Two of these are games I wrote on contract a while back and the third is one I licensed. I'm calling them Play 'N Share games because you're encouraged to play them here or embed them into your own website and/or blog. Each page includes a piece of HTML code so putting the game on your site is as easy as cutting and pasting.

Have fun with 'em!

Ballistic Balloon Baboon Bounce!
Olive War!
Elementris

Updates O Plenty!

2007-05-15T09:20:00.000-06:00

First, there's a new Daily Puzzle on the site. It's called Meltdown and it's a lot of fun. Enjoy!

Second, all of the standalone games have been updated to fix minor bugs. For a full list of changes or to download the updated version (if you're an existing game owner), go to the following pages:

Bulldozer 1.03
Duck Tiles 1.03
Puzzle Pack 1.02

New Daily Puzzle!

2007-03-21T09:18:00.002-06:00

The Double Twelve Daily Puzzle is now up and playable. It's a domino game. It's a fairly leisurely-paced game compared to other efforts. Hope you enjoy it!

Yet again, still another site update

2007-02-02T17:01:00.000-06:00

Actually, there are several new things. First off, Daily Puzzle 9 is now up. It's a dice game that's based on an old favorite risky-strategy game. It's called Countdown Dice.

Also, there are a few "behind the scenes" changes to better accommodate future expansion. The account manager and registered download page should behave better. Also, the Google Checkout shopping-cart code has been improved.

Enjoy!

New Daily Puzzle!

2006-12-30T06:42:00.000-06:00

Daily Puzzle 8 is now up. It's a bit different from existing entries. It's basically an experiment to see how one can blur the lines between a puzzle game and an arcade game. Zombie Kitten Attack, at first glance, looks like an action game, but you'll find that it requires a bit more thought than a typical "twitch game".

Enjoy!

Pardon the dust

2006-11-28T09:55:00.000-06:00

I just put up an extensive update to the daily puzzles. I think everything is in place, but it might take a day or two to get the remaining bugs out. If you see anything unusual, email support@thecodezone.com and let me know.

Unfortunately, I had to clear the daily high scores for the week.

Three more updates for today

2006-11-07T09:54:00.000-06:00

One big one and two small ones.

Version 1.02 of the games are out. And this means. . .

1. The Mac games are now available as Universal Binaries! That means that they now run at native speed no matter what kind of Mac you have (Intel or PowerPC).

2. Some users have been having some difficulty downloading, so the download process has been streamlined a bit to (hopefully) eliminate this. It did require a minor update to Bulldozer and Duck Tiles to support this.

3. A bug in Bulldozer was fixed that allows you to beat levels that have more rocks than targets (specifically level 103).

If you own an existing copy of Bulldozer or Duck Tiles, simply click "check for updates" from the setup menu (the little gear in the lower-right of the game).

There are several updates today

2006-10-27T08:53:00.000-06:00

First off, a scant two weeks after the release of Bulldozer and Duck Tiles for Windows, the Mac versions ship! Also the Puzzle Pack is shipping for Mac.

They're all available in the store.

Next, the development of the Mac version uncovered a couple of minor bugs in the Windows versions, so the Windows versions of Bulldozer and Duck Tiles have been updated to version 1.01. If you're a registered user, you can download the latest versions here.

Finally, you can now purchase The Code Zone games entirely via snail-mail here.

Bulldozer and Duck Tiles are shipping!

2006-10-10T08:53:00.000-06:00

At long last, Bulldozer and Duck Tiles are ready!

Try 'em out now. Buy 'em if you like 'em. Enjoy!

New commercial games are imminent

2006-10-02T08:52:00.000-06:00

I promise. Until then, I posted a little piece of game design history as a free download.

Google Checkout now!

2006-08-17T08:50:00.000-06:00

The Buy Games page now supports Google Checkout at a payment solution. Stay tuned. There'll be two major games available within the next two weeks