As I wake up to another New Year’s Eve I find myself reflecting on the events of 2017. For me personally it has been a very busy but also rewarding year.  My son started grade 1 my wife started a new job and I decided to focus full time on making games.  As a result of this I was able to complete even more high quality updates to the majority of my games.

As a result millions of new players enjoyed my games, and on average my game ratings went up.  I now have thousands of new followers providing me valuable feedback through 3583 Byte’s Facebook & Twitter accounts which provides a great feedback mechanism to my work.

So once I again before rushing to next year’s goals I want to take the time and review all the amazing things that we did in 2017.

Train Sim

Train Sim had the busiest year out of all my games with 8 updates featuring many of the most requested features. This year I really focused on addressing many of the comments sent to me via Social Media & Reviews to ensure that I responded to as many requests as I could. Here are some highlights:

• Updated Ports of Call Scene with New Train Yard
• New Rain Effect & Windshield Wipers added to all Trains
• New Break Sparks on all Trains & Cars
• Longer Trains
• New User Interface
• New Achievement System
• New Train Decoupling/Coupling & Improved Track Switching
• New Custom Environments (build your own train levels)
• 5 New Trains including:
  • Santa Fe EMC E1
  • Class 66 train
  • ST44-700
  • LB&SCR E2 Class Tank Engine
  • EMD GP9
• New Train Cars including Double Stack & Grain Cars
• New Airport Level
• New Train Drivers

There were also lots of small bug fixes & improvements I can’t remember but one thing is for sure that Train Sim had the busiest year ever with major improvements in all areas thanks to your feedback.

Flight Sim

One of my major goals for 2017 was to improve the overall experience of Flight Sim. In 2017 I did a major overhaul of all the environments, improving their quality & realism. I also improved many of the features such as maps, missions and fixing bugs. I think I can do more in 2018 but this years updates got me a long way to a game I think can be enjoyed by many players.

Dinosaur Sim

Dinosaur Sim still features very high ratings and popularity with almost 1 million players who enjoyed it so far. This year I also focused on addressing some of the feedback I received through social media and reviews. The updates this year brought players a new Flying Quetzalcoatlus, New Winter & Jungle Levels as well as a much requested Hunger & Thirst Indicator.

3 Jewels

3 Jewels had only 1 major requests from players which was more levels.  This year I doubled the amount of challenge levels to 200!  I think we can all agree that it could use another 100 in 2018 🙂

Kids Train Sim

Kids Train Sim received a complete overhaul to match its features with its parent Train Sim.  This was a large undertaking with took over a month but I think we can agree that the result was positive.  Here are some of the new features added to Kids Train Sim this year:

• New City Level
• Improved Interface
• Improved Passengers
• Train Coupling & Decoupling
• Custom Environment (Build your own Train Environments)

Other Games

Kids Car Racers received a new Alternate Reality Level where you can race your cars in your living room (or wherever you are)

Aquarium Sim received an update that allows users to build their own Aquariums

New Games

This year I laughed 2 new games.  A new Match 3 Game which is a sequel to 3 Jewels with 300 new challenge levels.

Jigsaw Puzzle X which allows players to complete Jigsaw Puzzles with up to 500 pieces.  Great for those long flights.

As always I encourage you to try these games and give me some constructive feedback.  I nice rating is also very much appreciated as it is very difficult to launch a new game in 2017 🙂

On top of all this work that is visible by players allot goes into managing a Game Development Company, such as:

• Working with 3D Artists & Practicum Students
• Replying to emails & social media posts,
• Brainstorming ideas,
• Testing updates
• Porting games to different platforms such as iOS & Windows Store
• Doing backups
• Testing new screenshots and icons
• Accounting
• And lots more

For every update you see lots of work goes into getting the game into a place where it could be enjoyed by millions of users.

In conclusion it has been a great 2017!  Thank you for playing our games and all your reviews.  I apreciate it.  I look forward to an awesome 2018!  Most Importantly:

Happy New Year!