Building a Challenge: Introducing Challenge Mode
The original Hands On! Tangrams featured a timer and a simple rating system to reward players for solving puzzles in the shortest amount of time. It added some much needed variety to the game, offered an incentive to revisit puzzles and even rewarded players who achieved the best time on all puzzles. Still, it wasn’t […]
Building a Brand: Introducing Orion’s Odyssey!
Hey everyone! We took a brief hiatus from the blog so we could clamp down on finishing the game. Development has been moving at breakneck speed, and we’re only a stone’s throw away from going gold. It’s been a crazy couple of months that saw some big changes for Hands On! Pattern Blocks. Like that […]
The World of Pixel Lincoln
The world of Pixel Lincoln is ever-changing. One day you might be hanging out in present day New York City (1987 of course), and the next you may be in the Mesozoic Era climbing Mount Everest. Which just happened to be a volcano back then. Remember? And in this world, everyone is out to get […]
Building a Sidekick: Introducing Ryan
Every hero needs a sidekick, and Orion should be no exception. We knew that one character couldn’t carry the whole game by them self, so we needed to come up with an appropriate foil that would play off of Orion’s wacky personality in a natural way. Again, we looked to Hands On! Tangrams for inspiration. […]
Pixel Lincoln: The Conventions
We’ve managed to get out of the studio a few times during the course of the production of Pixel Lincoln, and a few of those times we headed to local conventions. We’ve done a few Too Many Games and Video Game Trader shows, and each time we tried to top the last one. Next time […]
Building Blocks: Introducing Gameplay & The Interface
Guys and gals, I feel like I owe you all an apology. I’ve been so excited introducing you to the characters, the story and world of Hands On! Pattern Blocks, I forgot to introduce the most essential element; the game itself! Pattern blocks are geometric manipulatives, much like tangrams. The objective is still to fill […]
Pixel Lincoln: The Gameplay
After two weeks of describing the initial card game, and the team behind the game, we’re finally ready to discuss the actual game! So what is Pixel Lincoln all about? Pixel Lincoln is a side-scrolling video game, with retro-styled graphics, inspired by such classics as Super Mario Bros. 3 (simplicity), MegaMan 2 (difficulty), and Earthbound […]
Pixel Lincoln: Assembling the Team
When it was originally decided that we were going to make Pixel Lincoln into a video game, myself, George Tagmire, and the Ryans from Island Officials started to assemble a development team. We needed a medium sized group made up of artists, designers and programmers.. and it all started to come together quickly. I was […]
Pixel Lincoln: The origin of Pixel Lincoln
I’ve been working on Pixel Lincoln in various forms for a few years now. Right now, it’s a side-scrolling action/adventure game that’s in development for the Nintendo DS by Island Officials. But a few years ago, things were very different. It all started out as a card game. In late 2008 I decided that I […]
Building A World: From Concept to Creation
You may have noticed this if you’ve glanced at our team page, but we have quite a few artists on our team considering the size of the company. We’re fortunate and thankful for each of them, because it takes a lot of art to make a game. Unfortunately, many talented artists’ work goes unnoticed in […]
Building a Hero: Introducing Orion
Every story needs a hero, and Hands On! Pattern Blocks is no different. From the beginning, we knew we were going to create something zany, light hearted and fun and needed a character who could embody those sentiments. Fortunately, we already had an artist who brought all three of those traits to Hands On! Tangrams, […]
Introduction to Hands On! Pattern Blocks
Hi! I’m Adrian Sandoval. I’m the lead designer for Hands On! Pattern Blocks. My duties included conceptualizing the core game mechanics, designing some of the puzzles and writing the game’s script, and along with Creative Producer Ryan Harbinson, I also help oversee the production of the game by working with the technical and art leads […]
E3 Update
So Harb, Ed, Tyler, myself, and George, Brandon, Tom & Nick from the Pixel Lincoln team descended on Los Angeles for this year’s E3 show. We pitched out two budding titles for the Nintendo DS and showed them off to about 20 or so publishers. Hands On! Pattern Blocks received excellent reviews from everyone we […]