Branded Quiz Games

Date: 9th June 2009 at 12:23 pm | Filed under: flash, portfolio | Author: Sam Burdge | Tags: , , , ,

I have developed a quiz game engine based on this original multi choice quiz by animike. The improvements I made to the original flash file are:

  1. Removed the need for an external XML file, which makes it easier to distribute virally as a stand-alone file.
  2. Added the ability to add infinite arrays of questions, so the quiz will have a different set of questions each time you play.
  3. Added the potential to build arrays of questions based on statistical data, perfect for sports quizes.
  4. Added the potential to plug the game into various scoreboard and in-game advertising APIs such as MochiAds.
  5. Added brandable features such as a 'More Games' link and a preloader screen.

To test the quiz engine I released the first version of my football quiz, with 12 questions drawing from an array of 120 possible questions. It got mixed reviews on newgrounds.com, but seemed to do reasonably well on football / sports specific games sites thereafter. You can try out the first version of the quiz game here: Football Quiz

More recently I have released the first sponsored / branded version of the quiz called Premiership Football Quiz, which is sponsored by one of the UK's leading football websites - FootballFanCast.com. I have plans to work with the FootballFanCast team to develop other football quiz games, relating to specific teams, competitions, etc.

I am also hoping to branch out now into quizes relating to other sports, and to other subjects entirely, such as Pop Music, Movies, TV, Celebrities, Arcade games, World Geography, etc.

If you need a quiz game for your site, or wish to distribute a branded quiz game across a range of games sites please feel free to get in touch. I can quote on a per quiz basis, prices will depend on the level of branding, the number of questions, whether the questions are provided, whether you want me to distribute, etc. So there is no fixed price as such.

1 Response to “Branded Quiz Games”

  • Comment by Jimmy
    Date: September 19th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    I use latest wordpress what do I do wrong? I get each column one row lower, whatever I do it still does this. Is it a bug with newest Wordpress? Ive followed everything step by step.

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little bits of mischief website

Date: 23rd April 2009 at 2:25 pm | Filed under: portfolio | Author: Sam Burdge | Tags: , , , , , ,

lbom-screen2

A simple 5 page site built for music composition, sound design and music searches company 'little bits of mischief'. The site is built in php / XHTML and features Flash audio and video players. It's always a pleasure for me to build simple, classic designed sites. I particularly like the red, white, blue colour scheme in this design.

Check it out: www.littlebitsofmischief.com

2 Responses to “little bits of mischief website”

  • Comment by Lynette
    Date: June 13th, 2009 at 1:26 pm

    Please how do I just rotate a simple circle in flash on mouse over and stop on mouse away.

  • Comment by Sam Burdge
    Date: June 14th, 2009 at 4:42 pm

    Hi Lynette
    I don’t see how this question relates to this article, but:
    1. Draw a circle
    2. Convert your circle to a button
    3. Create a keyframe on the over state of the button
    4.select the circle in the over keyframe and covert it to a movie clip.
    5. edit the movie clip to include a motion tween
    6. on the first frame of the motion tween edit the frames properties - setting rotation to either clock-wise or counter clock-wise

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Games Arcade Website powered by WordPress

Date: 28th February 2009 at 4:04 pm | Filed under: blog, portfolio, wordpress | Author: Sam Burdge | Tags: , , , ,

I have recently been working on a highly versatile premium theme for WordPress which is due for release soon. As part of the project I wanted to test how the theme (and WordPress itself) could work with sites of various different genres. My intention was that the theme would be configurable enough via it's Options Menu that it could easily be styled to suit corporate sites such as recruitment, blue chip company, technology site  & product portfolio, media sites such as magazine, news, image & video gallery and also youth oriented sites such as music / band website,  games website.

The theme also features simple integration for banners and advertising,  so creating a couple of  'working example' sites was not only a good way of testing the theme's versatility but also a potential source of a few extra quid!

I had been wanting to do a games & videos website for a while, and I had built the theme's default settings around a 'corporate magazine' look & feel, so I decided the games site would be a great way to test the theme. Here is my wordpress games arcade site so far:  Zap Gamez

I decided to look around and see what articles I could find about creating a games arcade website with wordpress, or if there was a plugin that allowed you to easily insert games into your WordPress blog. I found this article by Emanuele Feronato:

It describes a method of populating your WordPress blog with games via a feed from MochiAds (A source of free games for websites) using custom fields. However, for my site I wanted to be able to integrate games from various free content suppliers and host games on my own server as well as embedding games hosted by content suppliers. What I really wanted was a plugin that could embed games into posts or pages using shortcodes.

THE PLUGIN

The prototype plugin I have built includes the following features:

4 Different views:

  1. Grid view - a grid of thumbnail images linking to each game (can be restricted to a single category or parent category)
  2. Category view - this view includes a medium sized image and a written description of the game
  3. Single page view - the page where you play the game itself
  4. Featured Game view - a page with a list of featured games

Different embedding modes:

  1. iFrame embedding - embed iFrame content using code provided by free games sites, or use this method to display games from your own server where an html file has been provided with the free game download.
  2. Flash embedding - embed Flash content using embed codes provided by other sites, or embed flash games directly from your own site. You can even upload them easily using the wordpress 'Add Media' tool.

The beta version of the WP Game Embed plugin can be found here.

39 Responses to “Games Arcade Website powered by WordPress”

  • Comment by ashish
    Date: March 17th, 2009 at 7:58 am

    good article, thanks for this useful info, I have dug and stumbled this article. I will keep visiting for more useful information.

  • Comment by alex
    Date: March 27th, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    great article. thank

  • Comment by fencze
    Date: April 21st, 2009 at 8:03 am

    this game is so good I have played it several days ago

  • Comment by Budi
    Date: April 23rd, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    Keep it up man! Now, when I need useful info I’ll come here.
    Smarter than an average blog…cheers

  • Comment by Steven
    Date: May 19th, 2009 at 1:52 am

    Nice Kindly visit my site

  • Comment by Games Arcade Website powered by WordPress Sam Burdge | Cast Iron Cookware
    Date: May 26th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    [...] Games Arcade Website powered by WordPress Sam Burdge Posted by root 19 hours ago (http://www.samburdge.co.uk) 4 responses to games arcade website powered by wordpress comment by ashish date march 17th 2009 at 7 58 am good article thanks for this useful info Discuss  |  Bury |  News | games arcade website powered by wordpress sam burdge [...]

  • Comment by kansas city bbq
    Date: May 29th, 2009 at 3:48 pm

    This is a great game. Great info

  • Comment by Games Arcade Website powered by WordPress Sam Burdge | Paid Surveys
    Date: May 29th, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    [...] Games Arcade Website powered by WordPress Sam Burdge Posted by root 6 hours ago (http://www.samburdge.co.uk) 5 responses to games arcade website powered by wordpress comment by ashish comment by budi date april 23rd 2009 at 1 34 pm keep it up man reliable web hosting linux amp windows hosting starting at just 1 99 per month Discuss  |  Bury |  News | games arcade website powered by wordpress sam burdge [...]

  • Comment by free business advertising
    Date: June 15th, 2009 at 2:42 am

    wow i think wordpress just for blog, but im wrong, good idea bro

  • Comment by pikachu
    Date: June 16th, 2009 at 8:04 pm

    visit mine i have lotz of free games too -yay-

  • Comment by eaonflux
    Date: June 19th, 2009 at 7:05 am

    Nice plugin, made myself also a mochiads wordpress plugin, its still in decelopment.
    i heavily cusomized a video theme for the layout.
    you might wanne check it some times.
    god job…
    grts,

    chris

  • Comment by Dave Smith
    Date: July 10th, 2009 at 5:18 am

    Hey, this is cool free stuff

  • Comment by fred bennett
    Date: July 17th, 2009 at 2:58 am

    Awesome post. Very informative :)

  • Comment by Sam Burdge
    Date: August 3rd, 2009 at 3:49 pm

    This post must contain keywords that are attracting too many spam bots. Sorry but comments are now closed on this post.

  • Comment by Jambo
    Date: August 18th, 2009 at 7:37 pm

    i am new to wordpress but i like this site, good article… and i like the sound od the flash arcade….

  • Comment by bayu
    Date: August 30th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    i have downloaded your beta plugins, nice plugin mate, thanks

  • Comment by Neo
    Date: September 13th, 2009 at 1:12 pm

    So, this is interesting for me, I will translate it and post to my saite http://grang.info Thanks, Alex

  • Comment by LacnyWebHosting
    Date: October 2nd, 2009 at 2:14 pm

    Great article, adding it to my bookmarks!

  • Comment by blackhatguide
    Date: October 12th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

    Great work with the blog mate let me know if you want to partner up with my blog as well! =]

  • Comment by Jocuri barbie
    Date: October 22nd, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    Nice your beta :) I’ll gonna translate in romanian language this post and i will put a direct link to your site. Thank you

  • Comment by Kwik Games
    Date: November 5th, 2009 at 9:35 pm

    Very cool. I finally got around to changing my own games site, http://www.kwikgames.com over to Wordpress earlier this year. After years of updating static HTML pages it was high time I made the switch and was thoroughly worth it…

    I love your thumbnail “grid”! You might want to use a rating plugin, there are quite a few good ones, so you can show most popular games and encourage more user interaction, but overall it looks great. And to anyone thinking of using WP for a games site I highly recommend it!

  • Comment by kral oyun
    Date: November 6th, 2009 at 2:29 am

    that is what i need :) thanks!

  • Comment by Arcade
    Date: January 29th, 2010 at 10:08 pm

    Very nice articles. Thanks men.

  • Comment by idic
    Date: March 14th, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    Nice article. But there are other sides which are based on wordpress and use mochi games: http://highscoregaming.net
    Cheers idic

  • Comment by Nick
    Date: June 15th, 2010 at 1:16 am

    The wordpress site looks good. I especially like the huge thumbs.

  • Comment by kız oyunları
    Date: June 20th, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    Very cool. I finally got around to changing my own games site

  • Comment by love games
    Date: June 20th, 2010 at 1:05 pm

    i heavily cusomized a video theme for the layout.
    you might wanne check it some times.
    god job…

  • Comment by anime and games
    Date: July 16th, 2010 at 4:09 pm

    I like playing Games..So I make blog and include many games..In order that if I want to play game just open my blog.

    Regard
    Ali Mustika Sari

  • Comment by Ricky Davis
    Date: July 29th, 2010 at 3:18 am

    How has this theme been going? any updates on this one? There has been lots of game themes now and I`m hoping you were successful on this.

  • Comment by kız oyunu
    Date: September 6th, 2010 at 7:15 am

    I love your thumbnail “grid”! You might want to use a rating plugin, there are quite a few good ones, so you can show most popular games and encourage more user interaction, but overall it looks great. And to anyone thinking of using WP for a games site I highly recommend it!

  • Comment by Free WWE Games
    Date: November 23rd, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    I think is a great idea, keep up the great work. Looking forward for some updates on this.
    Thanks.

  • Comment by snooty
    Date: January 1st, 2011 at 8:45 am

    Nice article. But there are other sides which are based on wordpress and use mochi games: http://www.ccymx.com/
    Cheers idic

  • Comment by Jenny Stalker
    Date: January 15th, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    wow, I rarely ever have to scroll down this much just to comment on a post before. Great post, keep them coming!

  • Comment by Tanja Brociner
    Date: January 18th, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    What will they imagine next? In many instances, They’ll guarantee you

  • Comment by cubetz
    Date: January 25th, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    yep. still waiting for some new info. A game theme would be great adition to all of us.

  • Comment by Multiplayers Games
    Date: March 22nd, 2011 at 10:08 am

    Awesome, im testing this on my site, thanks for making it!

  • Comment by Nickelodeon Games
    Date: April 3rd, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    Thanks alot mate, this is a really nice info about WordPress game :) I’m bookmarking this page!!

  • Comment by Play Ms Pacman
    Date: April 21st, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    My website http://playmspacman.net is also powered by Wordpress and I can say that it is doing very well.

  • Comment by Dem Managment
    Date: May 25th, 2011 at 8:23 am

    i love this thing wordprees is now in games also

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Growing Userbase for my Simplistix Theme for WordPress

Date: 12th February 2009 at 10:25 pm | Filed under: blog, themes, wordpress | Author: Sam Burdge | Tags: , , ,

After releasing my WordPress theme Simplistix into the wild a few weeks ago I have been very happy, and somewhat surprised by it's popularity. It has received hundreds of downloads from my site and over 700 downloads from wordpress.org in the last 12 days. I knew that there was a niche for simple, text based blog themes as I had seen a few sites such as www.plaintxt.org that are entirely devoted to these type of themes. But, with all the sophisticated and complex wordpress themes on offer, Simplistix feels like quite a humble little theme — perhaps that's part of it's charm.

Anyway, seeing the download stats made me feel curious about who was using the theme. I had already seen it being used on a couple of blogs because, as with most wordpress projects, I had received some suggestions, ideas, support requests and constructive criticisms from members of the wordpress community. I did a bit of further research on google and instantly found loads more bloggers using my theme. The main thing that struck me was the diversity of subject matter that these blogs covered – science, computer programming, economics, movies, music, art, fashion and many more. It was also nice to see instances where people had modified the theme, adding in their own site headers, sidebar widgets, google advertising, etc.

I felt so inspired by seeing all these sites using Simplistix as their theme that I decided to write this post featuring some of my favourites. So here they are:

TOP PICKS

www.flyhypersonic.com – The seatbelt sign is illuminated
www.thewherewithal.org – Blogging about credit, debt, money, economy, theory
nicolasulloa.com/blog – Music, Animation, Graphic Arts and Illustration
www.ianthewebsite.com – If you could be any blog, what blog would you be?
2chicksblogging.com – Blogging for Change Training since 2008
feedingme.com
blog.nakedsteve.com – Oh hey is that a monome?

THE BEST OF THE REST

phoward.com/blog
ponasniekas.nespalvotas.lt
www.bigtechcenter.info
www.bletherskite.com
blog.xieer.com
www.bestmusiccenter.info
www.businesstechnologytimes.com/wordpress
likeitreallymatters.com
hasibul.info/blog

I am planning an update to the theme in the near future where I will add an options menu which will allow you to control colours, fonts etc.

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ARTANOID WEBSITE

Date: 4th February 2009 at 2:17 am | Filed under: blog | Author: Sam Burdge | Tags: , , ,

Artanoid is a Flash remake of the original classic arcade game Arkanoid. It was created by 76 Creative web design studio. Complete each level to reveal a different fine art masterpiece, while enjoying a library music soundtrack and old-school arcade sound effects.

Check out the new Artanoid Game webpage. www.artanoid.com

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