There was a thread on Hacker News lately from someone that made their first sale. I mentioned that my email client was set up to play a sound when a sale is made. This was easy to set up in Outlook 2007, but the default installation of Mozilla Thunderbird doesn’t support playing sounds for filters.
All is not lost though. There’s an addon called “ToneQuilla” which fixes this problem, so you can play all the sounds you want!
Here’s an example of how to set up a simple filter that plays a custom sound when a BMT Micro affiliate sale is made.
Creating the filter
Look under Tools -> Message Filters. Click “New” button to open the filter creation dialog.
Click image to view full size
Set the filter to run on messages that have a subject with “BMT Micro Affiliate Order” in them. You can also add extra conditions for other sales emails, depending on who emails you.
Under “Perform these actions”, add a “Play Sound” action and link to your favourite sound. There’s plenty of cash register sounds at freesound.org, although personally I prefer the cash register noise from Sonic the Hedgehog :)
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This article is part of the ProBlogger group writing project “Reviews and Predictions“. Instead of predicting the future directly, I decided to predict things in the form of a retrospective of 2007. Talk about forward planning…
As 2007 draws to a close, it’s time to pour a glass of brandy and take a look at what the year brought us.
1] A surge in online game sales
With the PS3, XBox 360 and Wii becoming more integrated into homes around the World, there was a surge in the amount of people buying games online. New gamers who wouldn’t normally buy online were more confident with the idea of downloading games instead of buying them in a regular store.
2] Indies experimenting with subscription services
None of the big three consoles display prices in a regular currency, but use “points” instead. Several large indie publishers experimented with this method with varying degrees of success.
3] More success for indie developers
Despite the continuing myth that indie developers can’t be as successful as they once were, the full time indie club had plenty of new additions. There are still plenty of developers that don’t quite make the cut, but the overall picture was much more positive.
4] More diverse games
Although clones were still produced by the bucket-load, there was a glimmer of hope as more original games were high sellers. Games like Grimm’s Hatchery helped to show that developers could follow their creativity and still be rewarded for it.
5] Production values rise
This has always been the case, but thankfully it’s nowhere near the commercial scene of million dollar titles.
Developers started to realise that they could no longer rely on “programmer art” for their projects, and 2007 saw a large increase in developers outsourcing their art. The overall standard of indie games rose as indies moved away from the programming mindset and towards a more general “game producer” one.
Consequently, it was a good year for freelance artists.
6] Less programming, more design
Game development toolkits such as Ogre, RPG Maker start to become more popular as developers realise they must move away from re-inventing the wheel. This rise in toolkits really springs from the need to spend more time on production and less time on coding the perfect 3D engine.
7] The World didn’t end
Vista was released to the public, using consoles to purchase games online became more popular and development costs continued to rise. Despite all of this, the indie game scene failed to die the horrible death that has been predicted since time began…
Here’s to an even more prosperous 2008!
This article is part of the ProBlogger group writing project “Reviews and Predictions“.
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If you read blogs regularly, you might have noticed the “5 things you didn’t know about me” posts that are springing up all over the place.
If you haven’t seen one of these posts before, it’s a very simple idea. You must write five things about yourself that not many people know, and then nominate five other bloggers. I’m not really one for chain letters, but apparently it’s the season to be jolly. Humbug.
Katy Whitton over at Flipping Heck! has recently been tagged, and has passed on the virus to yours truly. Brace yourself for five of the least fascinating facts you’re ever likely to read.
- I had my appendix removed when I was 5 years old. This was an important life lesson for me, as I found at that eating nothing but cream crackers is not as healthy as it sounds.
- Despite being quite an analytically minded individual, I studied art for two years at high school (14 – 16). Unsurprisingly, it was my poorest subject, as you can probably tell by the stunning piece of artwork that adorns this page.
- I run a local Scout Troop. I’ve been a uniformed leader for nearly six years, and before that I was a member of the same troop since the age of 12.
- The first game I ever wrote was a text adventure called “Sonic’s Adventure”. It had 100 locations, each with a stunningly detailed description such as “you are in a field”. Perhaps one day I’ll re-release it as a “director’s cut”…
- I’ve served on a jury. I’m always surprised at people who want to skip jury duty, because I found it to be a very unique and rewarding experience. You’re guaranteed to leave with a different perspective on things, and I know from my experience that you will see the best and worst that society has to offer.
So there we have it. For those of you that are still awake, it’s time to nominate the people I shall be tagging. 99% of people on the blogs I read have already been tagged. If you’re reading this and haven’t had one of these messages, consider yourself tagged.
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Here’s a few indie developer blogs that I subscribe to:
I promise not to write another list post for a while!
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It’s a none software development related post today. Hurrah!
Over the weekend, I created a new template for my brother’s blog, “The Collected Writings of James Newton“. I’m rather pleased with how it turned out, especially considering the fact that I’m not much of a designer.
It wasn’t exactly how I’d imagined it, but I think I got the overall “feel” of the site right, and that’s what matters. Creating a good atmosphere for a blog is important, and something I should probably take into account with my own blogs.
There are a few things about the design that I quite enjoyed:
- Wooden Background — My designs are usually quite clinical, and although it’s not real wood, I think it gives the design a more “organic” feel.
- Rich Footer — They’re all over the place, but I’ve never used one in a design before. Now I have. Grabbing random photos from TinyWebGallery was very simple, and they add colour to the site.
- Sidebar — It’s not too different from most sidebars, but I still like it. I like the highlighted images in the RSS and article links, and also the “About” section.
If you’re interested in video games, writing or a host of other things (including Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon), then hop on over.
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