Hi guys! I know I’ve neglected to update this blog but since the new year, things have been very hectic. I’ve gone back to school to get my degree and with the amount of snow days we’ve been having (which means having to entertain the kids at home), let’s just say I’ve not had the time to play games.

The good thing about this is that I now have a deluge of new games. Wow, those casual game makers sure can crank out the stuff. I’ll be posting some video game reviews soon for games like Vogue Tales, one of my favourites, Chocolatier 2 and more. Stay tuned!

Where I got mine: Bigfishgames.com
Developer: Game Lab
To own: $19.95 (free trial for 60 mins available)
Size: 32MB
Score: 8 red staplers out of 10

Game Lab’s rather innovative, if not entirely original, casual game about running an office is another time management-cum-strategy, do what where first game with a rather colorful cast of characters and a storyline that will resonate with those of us who have worked – or are still working – in an office.

With obvious throwbacks to the popular TV series, The Office, Miss Management is Denise, the new office manager to a motley crew of office workers; each with their own sets of likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses in four skills: technical, financial, art and writing. Your job is to match the workers based on their skills to the jobs piling up on your desk. And as every office manager worth his or her salt knows, ultimate success lies in color-coding!

As in real life, the delegating is the easy part – it’s the workers’ personalities and behavioral quirks and the office politics that mess you up. For instance, you will first meet Mahavir, the self-proclaimed Harvard-grad lady’s man from India, who is able to perform all skills acceptably well, but would rather spend his time napping or chatting up the lay-dies.

And then there’s Pearl, the middle-aged know-and-do-it-all company fixture who was passed over when you were hired, so no prizes for guessing who her ‘favourite’ pet will be. She will try to overstep her authority whenever possible, maybe even stage a few coups when you’re not looking, while filling the office with her cancerous smoke.

And then there’s Luke, your hippie writer friend with the overactive bowel.

These are but three of ten such characters that you will soon meet throughout your life as Miss Management. So instead of just delegating work, your REAL job is in making sure that not only are these clowns keeping productivity up, but also that their morale is maintained by meeting their individual needs, without pissing their colleagues off.

For instance, you have to make sure Mahavir gets his 100 second a day nap, without stressing out the stickler for productivity Miss Pearl, whose need to chain smoke must be kept at a manageable level or risk sending eco-sensitive Luke home sick. And that’s just what stressed out employees will do – turn around and head on home. Risk stressing yourself out from not churning the task treadmill fast enough, and the stage ends, because you are, after all, Miss Management.

To aid you at your task, you are given cash to purchase a number of items to appease your colleagues or to help them work faster or better improve their skills at a particular task. From chocolate-covered doughnuts to tech manuals to big red staplers, these items greatly help even the most organized multitaskers keep things under control.

As mentioned, this is a rather new premise for a game. These days, we have games about being a waitress to a cook to a gardener and even a nanny, so why not an office manager? Kudos to Game Lab for having come up with a fun and playable (or should I say workable?) approach to even the most boring of environments.

The graphics in Miss Management are cute and fun, although it does seem a little dated compared to some of the art out there for casual games. Gameplay is medium-paced point and click, although one may find it a little annoying having to click exactly on the character or his/her desk and not two pixels to the left. Playing it full screen rather than windowed might help.

One other complaint I have are the looooooong dialogue sequences. Miss Management has a much more interesting story to it than your usual casual game, but man, these little cartoons have a lot to say. You can skip them, but I feel that it defeats the point of the game since there isn’t really another mode you can play. I say stick to the comic panels other games employ, or make them move a little if you like – just tighten it all up a little as to move things along at a more brisk pace.

All in all, an interesting game, very fun – and funny at times. I give it eight red staplers out of ten.

Where I got mine: RealArcade.com
Developer: Zylom
To own: $14.95 for GamePass members, $19.95 standard (free trial for 60 mins available)
Size: 21MB
Score: 8 foamy lattes out of 10

Hi and welcome to another Gamer Mom Casual Game Video Review.

The first Delicious Deluxe was one of the prettiest restaurant games of its time. So although it was a clone of Diner Dash with fancier graphics, it garnered quite a bit of praise from a largely female audience mainly because of its cutesy graphics. However, Delicious Deluxe offered more than just looks. It had the few features Diner Dash and games like Snowy’s Lunch Rush did not – like the ordering of different types of food, the making of the foods like the banana and strawberry shakes and it also had customers who wanted takeaway, which brought a slightly different gameplay to the table, so to speak.

So what does Delicious 2 Deluxe have to offer that’s new and improved over the old Delicious Deluxe? Let’s see.

You play Emily once more, who’s trying to save her uncle’s chain of restaurants from a certain mafia-type guy. Simple enough. As with these games, the storyline isn’t really important. You start with a lemonade/ice cream store at the park and go through five types of different restaurants, ten levels each. Along the way, you earn money to make cosmetic improvements to the store.

Now what’s new and improved with Delicious 2 Deluxe is first and foremost, the graphics. As with the first game, they really have put a lot of effort into making the game as pretty and, I hate to say it, as girlish and cute as possible, and it works. I mean, this is truly a game that sets out to attract its target audience: women, young and old, and perhaps even a young child or two. The graphics are very well drawn, the colours well coordinated and the game looks very polished from this standpoint.

Also new in Delicious 2 Deluxe is an expert score, which the old version did not have, as well as some well placed fixes. For example, customers don’t just walk out anymore especially when you’ve just finished cleaning a table in time. They actually circle around and then if on the way out, find an empty table of appropriate number seating, will seat themselves.

Now instead of chocolates to placate waiting customers, Delicious 2 Deluxe now offers entertainment to keep your table customers happy. This is nice, but the chocolates worked better since they can be used on takeaway customers as well, which the entertainers in this version cannot.

One nice improvement to the game is that now you can make food items ahead of time. In the old DD, items that were not ordered could not be made. Now, if you make a mistake and click on, say, mushroom soup, you can keep it for later, and if tray space is a problem, you simply delete it by clicking on it.

Talking about tray space, Delicious 2 Deluxe is surprisingly stingy with the five or six slot trays. I managed to reach a five slot tray only at the end of the Bistro (second restaurant), and then it went back to four at the start of the Italian restaurant (third).

There are a greater variety of different characters that walk into Emily’s eateries. Besides the usual impatient business woman and nondescript man and sweet old granny, Delicious 2 Deluxe now features skaterboy sans skateboard with girlfriend(s), nondescript man with girlfriend(s), and sweet old grannies with creepy old fogies. Very charming.

And now I come to two most interesting observations about the games, one good and one bad. The good is that the decorations you buy, although serving a cosmetic purpose to the game at the initial stages, when combined properly at the later stages, yield bigger tips. This is pretty innovative.

And now we come to the bad: where are all the tasty little chain bonuses we casual gamers so love to rack up which were in the first version of Delicious Deluxe? Gone is the chain bonus for making the same type of food in a row, gone is the chain bonus for serving two or more customers consecutively from the same tray. The only bonuses remaining are the speed bonus and the pay-together bonus. Of course, this makes making the goals at the end of the day more challenging. I say bring back those sweet bonuses and hike up the goals!

One thing I have to make a note of to those new to Delicious Deluxe: this is NOT Diner Dash in that the game pace is MUCH slower. However, things do pick up and I guarantee you a few retries before you get to the third restaurant. And that, my friends, is good level development.

Delicious 2 Deluxe comes in two game modes, with the second one, called The Happy Customer, playable only if you go through the story mode, thus unlocking the restaurants.

All in all, I would have to give Delicious 2 Deluxe an eight out of ten. I deduct two points as protest to all the bonuses that have been so heartlessly struck out. Otherwise, a beautifully crafted, well put together casual game well worth $20.

Delicious 2 Deluxe is downloadable from RealArcade for $14.95 for GamePass members, and $19.95 at Gamehouse.com, although Zylom itself charges $29.95 for it, so don’t go there.

Next up, Miss Management – a game about managing an office? Is this a cry for help from Game Lab? Stay tuned.

Addendum: I forgot to mention the very authentic sounds the game had, from the gentle clink of dishes when they were bussed to the tables to the beep beep of the pizza ovens to the choo-choo whistle of angry customers to the hiss of the espresso machine. The different tunes that go along with the different restaurant formats are also a nice touch. Kudos, Zylom!

Why my five-year old daughter prefers Delicious 2 Deluxe to Diner Dash: “Because the customers can pick tables by themselves!”

 Tips and tricks:

• Always try to pay together
• Use the entertainers on seated customers constantly to keep customer satisfaction on the high because takeaway customers can’t be placated. ‘Catch’ them at the end of their performances and click them on the desired table to save a trip back to the counter.
• Make two batches of pizzas. You can stack them to a max of eight.
• There are no tray bonuses but using up all the slots can mean saving serving time.
• You can clear tables even before the customers leave. When you have the services of Francois, the gay bus boy-cum decorator, make sure to use him to the max.
• I find saving your money and buying the more expensive items that ‘fit’ the format of the restaurant usually works. For example, the convertible and jukebox for the diner, and so on.
• Other than the pizzas, you can try to anticipate what comes next to make them ahead of time since they don’t cost anything to delete and saves you some time. The beverages are usually quite popular so try to stick with those. This works best if you bigger trays since you need the space to ‘keep’ these pre-cooked food.

Sorry for the lack of posts. Have been traveling a bit.

I got an email today from RealNetworks announcing a sequel to Delicious Deluxe, simply named Delicious 2 Deluxe available from RealArcade and Gamehouse. As usual, GamePass holders get a $5 discount from the usual $19.99 regular price. My video review of the game will be out tomorrow.

I’m also playing Miss Management (which I will be video-reviewing soon) and Burger Island, and discovered a a HUGE problem with Burger Island end game, which is why I’m adjusting down the score THREE points. Towards the last leg of the game, loading a game takes forever (at least 20 minutes, I kid you not). You will not discover this playing just the trial. Which, of course, sucks.

I’ve also been spending whatever time I have at the Great Game Experiment. I love, love, LOVE this site. Here, you can sign on to test out new indie games and post your reviews, games from your every man. So if you like that sort of thing, head on over there although I have to warn you – it’s very addictive.

They’ve also just announced their first game development competition in conjunction with GarageGames and Combustion. The competition has begun, and will continue for two months ending September 18th. Details:

The contest theme is comedy, so developers are encouraged to incorporate comedic elements into their game in which ever way they wish. The contest site is up and running with forums which contain all of the necessary contest info such as rules and guidelines. One of the guidelines for the competition is that all games must be uploaded to the Great Games Experiment, so be sure to check GGE for new games that are part of the competition.

Entrants will submit their entry and at the end of the deadline ten finalists (chosen by a group of judges) from each category will go into a public vote to determine the category winner. Then, the winners are put in for one final round of voting to determine the grand prize winner. The overall winner will be awarded the complete Torque Suite (TGB, TGE TGEA), and winners of each category will receive the Torque Game Engine. We hope many people will enter and are looking forward to seeing the great games that are produced.

Have news? Send them to me and I’ll be more than happy to post them here for free. Until tomorrow, happy gaming!

Where I got mine: Exclusively at RealArcade
To own: $19.99 (free trial for 60 mins available)
Size: 19.1MB
Score: 5 mullets out of 10

Where I got mine: Gamefools
Developer: eGames
To own: $19.95 (free trial for 60 mins available)
Size: 34MB
Score: 7 4 milkshakes out of 10

Addendum: I discovered a huge problem at the end game of Burger Island. At the last leg, loading times went up abysmally to almost 20 minutes to load each stage. It reminded me of the old save games problem with Fallout where as the game progressed, each save game just became heavier and longer to load. Is this the same problem? I don’t know since I’m not a programmer. But for a gamer – and a paying customer – this just is very annoying.

Gamasutra has a report on how Seattle-based Pop Cap has launched a new web-based Bejeweled that iPhone users will be able to play on their devices. Beginning today, iPhone users will be able to play the game for free by simply visiting PopCap’s web site from their mobiles.

Pacific Crest Securities analyst forecasts that the US online casual market will nearly double in the next two years, hitting US$725 million in 2008. Gamespot has the report. Sony’s President and CEO Jack Tretton begs to differ.

GameDailyBiz reports that veteran developers at MumboJumbo have set out on their own to form a new company called Slapdash Games.

Shigeru Miyamoto: We don’t look at casual versus the hardcore. Words of wisdom from this Nintendo legend. More at The Mercury News.

Mobile Entertainment churns out a “20 hot trends in mobile gaming” piece. Gotta love Item 20: We love journalists.

It’s taken a while, but with a Wii bit of technology and some really pretty casual games, publishers and big money advertisers are gearing up for the push towards games for women. But wait a minute. Where are these women gamers?

If one can come away from the recent Blogher07 in Chicago with just one lesson, it is that when over 700 women congregate, there’s money to be made.

HUGE money.

You can tell from the swags alone how much a woman is appreciated just for being there. Fashionably green chic notebook carrying totes. Green-tea skincare products encased in a posh faux leather box. A manicure kit here. A plastic martini glass there. Aprons. T-shirts. DVDs and stickers for your children. Yogurt. A carrying case. Another duffel bag.

No IT conference in the WORLD (no, not even E3) can match the variety and quality of some of the freebies that have been given away here, all for the sake of squeezing in some mindshare, a modicum of thought from the Greatest Consumer of All Time: A woman.

I went as a Mommy Blogger because the Gamer Mom in me felt a little out of place in a sea of sundresses and espadrielles. This was, after all, a conference for women and advertising that I’d prefer to spend an hour farming for shards in the Outlands than in the passionate discourse of exclusion/inclusion politics in the blogosphere might not have earned me the many new friends I’ve since made.

Still, these are women who have come to learn how to improve their blogs’ traffic and page ranks, or in the words of Blogher co-founder Joy Des Jardins, get more ‘Google juice’. Women who have come to learn the finer points of better web design. To improve blogging efficiency through better workflow tools. Surely, most, if not all, of these women can get their geek on, at some point. And if so, they and I, Gamer Mom, are no different.

The fact that women love technology is not something the world readily accepts as truth. The business of tech, the making of it, is still considered male-dominant, and perhaps accurately so. Many people believe this of computer games as well, but this is far from the truth.

After all, even Blogher07, a blogging conference for women, has a SecondLife presence.

Seattlepi.com’s Todd Bishop’s recent coverage of Casual Connect reveals that women make up 74 per cent of the paying audience for casual games, whereas men make up only 50 per cent of the non-paying casual-gaming audience. Sure, your teenage son and his friends, your husband and his friends, may have cornered the market on Halo 2 asskicking, but that games are a male domain is fact that is rapidly becoming fiction.

The Entertainment Software Association website has some gamer data that you may be surprised – even shocked – to discover:

The average adult woman plays games 7.4 hours per week.  The average adult man plays 7.6 hours per week. Though males spend more time playing than do females, the gender/time gap has narrowed significantly.  Whereas in 2003, males spent an average of 18 more minutes a day playing games than did their female counterparts, in 2004 they spent only six minutes more each day doing so.  Females spend an average of two hours more per week playing games now than they did a year ago.

As for online gamers, 58 per cent are male, whereas a close 42 per cent are female.

Furthermore, women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%).

Bear in mind these stats may be two years old or more.  

If blogging, a comparatively new phenomenon when compared to gaming, can bring women together, what of casual gaming? Will a ‘GameHer’ ever be in the horizon of women-centric tech conferences , thus drawing the attention – and money – of big brands, tech and otherwise? 

Only – and only if, all 74 per cent of them give credence to their hidden passion and confess to the dorky love they share, with their boyfriends and husbands and sons, for video games.

Only then, can we truly take on the world.

• Casual gamers are key targets, reports eMarketer today. “US marketers spent $150 million advertising in casual games in 2006, from $124 million in 2005, according to DFC Intelligence and the Casual Games Association, cited in an Advertising Age article” and a 2006 Associate Press report and AOL study conducted by Ipsos of gaming types found that close to a third of US players ranked casual games as their favourite type. Full story here.
• This IGN report says that Nokia is getting sweet with Digital Chocolate, announcing a deal today that will see the mobile maker bring its games to the new N-Gage platform come fall. Only DChoc’s upcoming casual games suite, called Cafe, was named.
• Computerworld’s Eric Lai finally jumps in today with its Casual Connect report entitled Turning Play into Profit, a straight up facts and figures report about the casual gaming market in this article. “The archetypal player today, at least in the U.S., is an affluent middle-aged woman. According to a survey of MSN Games players, two-thirds are women with an average age of 43 and an average household income of $68,000 per year.”
• Gametunnel has released a Top 100 Independent Games list, complete with reviews, links to websites and download links. Check it out here. The #1 Indie Game? Moonpod’s Mr Robot, of course. I love this site.
• I’m going to Blogher tomorrow so there won’t be many, if any, reviews/updates until the 30th.

Happy gaming, all!

MacWorld reports that Aspyr Media, a game publisher based in Austin, Texas that ports PC games to the Mac, will be bringing two casual games by Big Fish to stores: Virtual Villagers and Travelogue 360: Paris.

The games are coming in August for a whopping $29.99 each (the PC version is $19.99).

Full report here.