Tag Archives: Year in Review

Good Bye 2017

Happy New YearAs 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

Flight SimOne 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 SimDinosaur 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 Jewels3 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 SimKids 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)

Kids Car Racers AR

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

Aquarium Sim

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.

3Jewels 2

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

Jigsaw Puzzle

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!

2016 In Review

 

As 2016 ends, we would like to reflect on everything we have accomplished over the last 12 months and also to thank all of the players and fans of our games.  This year has been especially busy with 4 new games launched and major updates to existing games.

Dinosaur Sim

Dinosaur Sim

We started this 2016 with the release of Dinosaur Sim featuring 12 playable dinosaurs, the game was received very well and is the highest rated game in my portfolio (4+ stars).  Throughout 2016 we added 8 more Dinosaurs including:

  • Pachycephhlosaurus
  • Argentinosaurus
  • Styracosaurs
  • Kentrosaurus
  • Troodon
  • Carnotaurus
  • Pteranadon

We also added 2 new scenes to Dinosaur Sim including a Large Tropical Scene and a Desert Scene.  Dinosaur Sim turned out to be a great success for 3583 Bytes and we would like to thank all the players that have stuck with the game over the last 11 months.

Dinosaur Sim Troodon

Train Sim

Train Sim New Farm Land Scene Train Sim is definitely one of our most popular games and has a great fan base that provides constant suggestions on improvements.  This year’s Train Sim updates included a new Indian Scene as well as complete refreshes of the Farm Land & Desert Scenes.  There were many new trains including:

  • Acela Express
  • Southern Pacific 4449
  • Class 91
  • Bombardier Talent
  • WAP-7

If that was not enough Train Sim also got new improved Sounds for each Engine, The very requested Double Engines & Improved Steam/Smoke effects, as well as a new Train Chooser Scene and Controller Support.  Can’t round up the year without also mentioning the awesome Train Sim inspired art by Steve Conway.

Train Sim Art Mountain Scene

3 Jewels

3 Jeweled Icon

3 Jewels is also a very popular game that reached a major milestone of over 4 million downloads.   This year I added a new Challenge Mode with 50 new challenge levels as well as a slide to move feature.

Flight Sim

Flight Sim

Flight Sim also reached a major milestone of over 1 million downloads.  During the year, we spent allot of time adding a new airplanes including:

  • DC-7
  • BeriewA40
  • PZL104
  • PiaggioP180
  • Pitts S1
  • Fokker F27

The goal of having 20 airplanes in Flight Sim has now been reached (just 1 day prior to end of year).  Flight Sim also got a new cloud system as well as a HUD display mode.

Other Awesome Updates:

Kids Car RacersKids Car Racers received a new fantasy themed scene & Car Crashers got a bowling crashing update.  Kids Trains also got a Kids Toy Room Update.

New Game Launches

On top of Dinosaur Sim this year I launched 3 other games, these were:

Aquarium Sim – Aquarium Sim is an interactive virtual Aquarium with 82 fish species & 9 Scenes

Aquarium Sim

Match 3 Candy Blast – Match 3 Candy puzzle game with addictive gameplay. Swap Candy to Match 3!

Math 3 Candy

Kids Atlas – Realistic World Map that teaches kids about Countries, Continents & States.

Kids Atlas

Other Fun Stuff:

 

Most Importantly:

We would like to thank all the players and fans that have enjoyed and supported my games over the last 3 years.  Its been a very busy 12 months, we got allot done, as our twitter fans keep reminding me there is always more to do.  Stay tuned for my 2017 goals post where we will pencil in some plans for the next 1 year.

Thank you,

Adam Berent & Team

3583 Bytes Team