We’re delighted to announce the release of Solitaire Freecell, now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. We have made this beloved classic card game to round out our catalogue of intuitive and engaging solitaire experiences for players of all skill levels.

Key Features:

– Classic Gameplay: Enjoy the timeless challenge of Freecell Solitaire with a modern touch.
– User-Friendly Controls: Tap or drag-and-drop cards with ease.
– Multiple Difficulty Levels: Choose from easy and classic modes.
– Convenient Features: Benefit from unlimited undo, auto-complete, and detailed statistics tracking.
– Relaxing Design: Experience beautiful visuals and smooth animations.

Whether you’re a seasoned solitaire enthusiast or new to the game, Solitaire Freecell provides hours of fun and brain-teasing challenges.

Download it here.

Classic Flash games have made a mild resurgence in the last few years now that high quality emulation is available. Kongregate, a stalwart of online games portals is one example where they’ve done a great job of making all their classic games playable. With this year being a new games year for us, I wanted to look through our catalogue of previously created and sponsored games to gain ideas for conversions, new products and find any lessons from the past.

Looking at these ancient games makes sense for us as a small company because they were created quickly, usually cheaply and with an emphasis on immediate gameplay. As a small company we always must be efficient and scale our ambitions correctly. In all we had at least 52 games that we created or sponsored for our online games’ portals. First, I checked which games we’ d already converted to mobile. We’ve converted thirteen of them, with eight remaining on at least one app store. I’d forgotten how many of them we’d converted, it’s a very high proportion if you only include the games we made, rather than the ones we bought in.

So out of the remaining games are there any that are worth converting or adapting to mobile? The collection of our tri peaks styles games like Tower Solitaire and Tripeaks Reserve won’t add much to our catalogue as standalone games. However, Tower Solitaire (https://www.solitaireparadise.com/games_list/tower_solitaire.html) might well make a nice additional level in one our games and the artwork is in a vector format that should work well in modern resolutions. It looks so cute and I’m enjoying linking to our old games’ portal Solitaire Paradise (owned by someone else these days, but under obviously good stewardship).

One of our other interesting solitaire games is Chief Eagle Solitaire – https://www.solitaireparadise.com/games_list/chief_eagle_solitaire.html. It’s a variation of our popular Pyramid Solitaire games with no deck cards to deal and three different level layouts. It offers us a few lessons in making future variants or improvements to our Pyramid Solitaires https://www.glowingeyegames.com/game/pyramid-solitaire-ancient-egypt/

The first important lesson is that card clarity is paramount! The imagery is stylised and looks good, but when playing it feels busy and the text is fairly small. This means it loses some of the intuitive understanding that we see all users rely on while playing.

Next, each level has no cards that can be dealt out. Although the levels are well balanced, the game feels less fun because the player’s attention has more elements to focus on at the start, and the player has no tools to improve their chances. The Pyramid Solitaire style of game feels better if the player has cards to deal. However overall Chief Eagle is still quite enjoyable and if online games were still a thing, I would happily consider an update to enhance it.

The action games we created weren’t financially successful. However, our simple shooting game Rebel Fortress and the quick sequel Rebel Fortress survival (https://www.kongregate.com/games/accoladegames/rebel-fortress-survival), show a nice development trick that can be a benefit! You can make a sequel quickly, if you iterate on the previous game with a small set of gameplay changes. It’s a cheap example of a principle we’ve used several times. This option has changed with modern games, because updates are so engrained into development, if the improvements aren’t big enough players might feel shortchanged having to obtain another game.

Our puzzle game collection has previously been converted to mobile. Sadly, despite success online when it came to mobile market, they just didn’t find traction. It’s a shame really, as Brilliant Blocks (https://www.kongregate.com/games/glowingeyegames/brilliant-blocks) is still an enjoyable game, albeit one needing some honing, in the modern age. I’d love to revisit it again, but it would need a strong prototyping phase.

We also extensively sponsored puzzle games; my favourite is GemClix Blitz (https://www.kongregate.com/games/glowingeyegames/gemclix-blitz). Sadly, I can’t find a link to developer anymore, but in its day the particle effects were quite impressive for a flash game! The emulation suffers quite a bit of slow down, so it doesn’t feel as good as the original. However, I’ve often thought this puzzle experience could do with a mobile variant.

We went through a phase of sponsoring physics-based games, mostly puzzle game variants. They work best on larger screens, and although enjoyable aren’t really right for small screens without a lot of work. I forgot how interesting physics-based games feel. Doodle Roll is our best one (https://www.kongregate.com/games/accoladegames/doodle-roll)

We experimented with other genres (e.g. visual novels, spot the difference, sports and tower defense) but where Glowing Eye Games seems to have done best over the years, is board games, card games and solitaire games. Of course, that doesn’t mean we should only make these kinds of games, but adding variety to our range should be done gradually.

It’s that early part of the New Year where us game developers are returning to work. It’s a good time to take stock and double check that plans for 2024 are still reasonable!

In 2023 our company focus was ‘Improve’, which meant that most of our efforts went towards to enhancing the games in our catalogue. We did well in many ways with great updates to our catalogue especially multi-player support for The Golf Card Game (LINK) and our new content for Magic Towers Solitaire (LINK).

Our technology base is now more efficient, our support for advertising providers is greater, our games have increased stability, and we overhauled our GPDR Consent Manager for our games which worked out better for both our players and our bottom line. It’s got to be said that 2023 had all the hallmarks of an industry correcting after pandemic and revenue was starting to drop. For us to reverse declines when the mobile games advertising revenue throughout the industry went down as much as 20% is something we can take heart from. It points out that sometimes the best thing a game developer can do, is to work on what they’ve got.

Supporting our previous games and making that our main mission in 2023 was a good choice even if all of us here agree it meant our workdays were a bit on the dull side. However, we’re all in the games industry to make games, not just service them! That means that our focus for 2024 is to ‘Create’. We’ve got one game in art development, and several more designs and concepts that we can move forward with once we’ve wrapped up the tail end of our work from 2023.

Our Pirate Themed Hidden Objects game is continuing to progress, but having course corrected early in 2023 we find ourselves discovering an epic art requirement to do this game justice. With some hurdles overcome the game is certainly shaping up and should hopefully be released by the end of 2024.

Next, we have a solitaire game. We know how to make good ones (our reviews average close to five stars for a reason) and we expect this to be an easy-ish game for us to make which will round out our catalogue further. It won’t dilute our art efforts much from our pirate themed hidden objects game, so timing wise, it’s a perfect fit.

After the solitaire game, we have a word game (or actually, maybe two to choose from). Although our previous word game Word Play World, sadly didn’t find an audience, we learnt a great deal from making it and we’re hopeful the next one will resonate with the players. Of course all game developers say that, who wants to make a game that no-one plays?

Finally, there is our biggest improve effort that still needs to be completed, which is multiplayer support for our Mexican Train Dominoes games (LINK). It’s well loved by its fans, but multiplayer support in time for the seasonal holiday moments where many families spend time together would be an awesome addition. If we can expedite the delivery of that, we have another game idea for a dominoes variation.

The idea is that 2024 is the Create year, meaning that in 2025 we will be back to an Improve year. Even though these overlap somewhat in our small company, this demarcation of focus and effort is one that seems to be working for us. We’re excited for this year, and maybe one of those new games will be another hit, something that our players will keep on returning to play.

Greetings, fellow golf enthusiasts and card game aficionados! We’re thrilled to announce a game-changing update to the The Golf Card Game. As the autumn leaves fall and the crisp breeze sets in, we thought it was the perfect time to tee off a new chapter in the game’s journey on the App Store.

iPhone and iPad – https://apps.apple.com/app/the-golf-card-game/id1114415982
Android – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=glowingeye.the_golf_card_game

What’s in the Bag?

1. Multiplayer

We’ve often been asked to for a multiplayer version of the game and now you can play against friends and family connected to your home WiFi. If there’s only two of you can even add additional computer players to enhance the competition!

2. Performance Boosts and Bug Fixes:

Our team has been hard at work optimizing the game for a smoother and more enjoyable experience. Say goodbye to pesky bugs and hello to improved performance. We’ve fine-tuned every aspect to ensure that your golf card journey is as seamless as a perfect swing!

Fore-ward Into the Future:

This update is just the beginning of an exciting journey for our games. We’re now hard at work bringing this delightful multiplayer experience to our Mexican Train Dominoes games!

Stay tuned for future updates, and in the meantime, enjoy the new and improved game on your phone or tablet.

iPhone and iPad – https://apps.apple.com/app/the-golf-card-game/id1114415982
Android – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=glowingeye.the_golf_card_game

The Trademark Mistake that Almost Doomed Us

With our recent, beautiful update to Magic Towers Solitaire I got to thinking about the history of our longest running game!

Before you continue and learn how to be careful with trademarks you might want to play it!
Android Version – link
iOS Version – link

The early history of Magic Towers Solitaire included one of the biggest mistakes I made in the early days of Glowing Eye Games. Freshly moving on from being a producer at Glu mobile, I made a mistake that almost sank the game and the company in its tortuous beginning.

Originally, I named the game Tri Towers Solitaire. It was released back in the days of online games created using Adobe Flash. In internet time that feels like ancient history, back in a time when mobile games on tiny screens had only just started to begin their rise to completely dominate the casual games industry. Despite respectfully managing several licensed and trademarked games in my previous job, my naivety and lack of forethought trampled on the toes of a trademark held by a multimillion-dollar entertainment company! That was not a happy place to be, especially when you’re struggling to pay rent.

A thumbnail of Tri Towers Solitaire.

I distributed the original Tri Towers Solitaire as far and wide as I could in a desperate scramble for revenue to finally start making Glowing Eye Games profitable and stop the impending doom of the company. Despite the game being more casual than the popular online games of the time, it had started to bring in advertising revenue. Maybe, just maybe, this was the game that turned my little one-man company into a viable business.

For a few weeks I saw the number of players rising, with reviews varying from solitaire haters wondering why their beloved games’ site was being polluted with such software to the surprise acclaim of players saying they were glad they’d given it chance. It started to look like that there’d be enough revenue that at least for this month the company might be able to pay me. Finally, I thought I’d found the first sun rays of a bright new dawn and maybe the chance of a buying a new laptop.

However, the sun faded when the lawyers of the legitimate owners of the trademark for Tri Towers Solitaire sent an email. Now if you’ve never received a letter or email from a lawyer, then you might not know how terrifying these pieces of text can be. There were demands for the removal of the game (my only real income at the time) from everywhere it had been distributed and talk of financial damages and compensation. That night was a horrid night, the feeling of finally turning a corner, had been wiped out. Visions of calamity and disaster haunted my dreams.

By the third cup of tea in the morning, in my naivety I had convinced myself it was just a misunderstanding. I emailed the lawyer back and suggested talking to the boss. I don’t remember the exact words that their lawyer used, but it I remember it was beautifully polite. However, it all boiled down to the idea, you’re out of your depth, get a lawyer. The first lesson to pass on is that when a lawyer writes, get your own lawyer immediately.

I liked my lawyer, again he was polite and kind enough to guide me through the process of discussing what was happening. It helped that I bolstered my knowledge with reading around the internet. It was an epiphany to realise how little I knew about trademarks, and at least in the future I’d have a process to work through to avoid problems.

Once their lawyers had a trained counterpart to talk with, it became clear that what they really wanted to do was protect their trademark and demanding compensation was standard. If a company doesn’t protect its trademark, then it can lapse, and if that ever happened to them, there’d be a free for all where anyone could make a product with the same name.

For the record it’s easy to avoid this problem. Simply use the free US government website to search US Trademarks. Although trademarks can exist independently in any country, for most products the USA is a huge market, and most likely if an (English) trademark doesn’t exist over there, it *should* be fine globally. If you aren’t sure then you can search further, but it’s not as easy as checking trademarks in the US alone. I hear the distant echoes of my past lawyer telling me to write that this isn’t legal advice, and you should do your own research, although this has worked for us, so far. It’s worth saying that this is for name trademarks rather than trademarks of logos, they’re a different issue, and I am not commenting about those!

Within a few days I’d changed the name of the game to Magic Towers Solitaire, which along with my apology was a great first step to getting the other side to appreciate that I’d made no real attempt to profit off their trademark and that I wanted to set things right. The thornier issue was that online game distribution, was a bit of a wild west where online games portals just did their own thing. I attempted to the redistribute the retitled game and managed to get a few websites to take down the old ones and replace them with Magic Towers Solitaire. Unfortunately, we had to explain that we needed them to accept that we couldn’t get rid of Tri Towers Solitaire totally. Rumblings of damages, reappeared, but my lawyer came to the rescue with a very simple explanation, yes, I was in the wrong, but in coded lawyer speak, he explained that Glowing Eye Games had done everything in its power to remedy the problem and could barely afford his services. He welcomed their lawyers to go after each of the remaining, offending websites individually.

At that point they relented and once again I was blindsided by their politeness. They accepted my efforts and thanked me. I was utterly relieved. I had a final conversation with my lawyer. I told him that I’d expected this to drag on for a long time. He explained that between my obviously sincere efforts to resolve the problem quickly and the fact that we were a new business their lawyers didn’t really have much to gain by continuing to pursue me. He said fixing the problem quickly was particularly important with them, because it meant they and their bosses could see that I wasn’t trying to profit out of the trademark even though my efforts to resolve all the problems they highlighted weren’t completely fulfilled.

So, for all those game developers who want to avoid this kind of stress, remember to make sure that the name of your shiny new game doesn’t copy the trademarked name of another product. It might be the most important five minute job that you can do! You’ve also got to make sure that it isn’t even close enough to be confused with a trademarked name. I promise you, even though you won’t know it, you’ll have avoided weeks of stress and costs that could have been spent on making and marketing your game.

It’s taken a little bit longer than we hoped but our gorgeous and more magical than ever before Magic Towers Solitaire is now available for iPhones and iPads. This update is so good it should be a sequel!

Our wizards of code, art, design and testing bring you the biggest and best Tri Peaks Solitaire game we’ve ever made. Featuring 30 levels, more beautiful backdrops and host of other improvements we’re delighted to release such a significant upgrade. With this update we’re hoping you will all agree and be one of the players that helps this game reach it’s next BILLION rounds completed!

The Android upgrade is coming soon, but for now all you iPhone and iPad players can get it from here.

https://apps.apple.com/app/magic-towers-solitaire/id403274099

As we gear down for Xmas, I decided I wanted to find out what DALL-E would do with some of our game names if they were used in a description for an art. If you don’t know then DALL-E is an Artificial Intelligence picture generator that creates original artwork using descriptions that you’ve typed in! It’s pretty amazing stuff and fast, there’s tons of amazing tech that’s accessible to everyone in the last couple of years.

The results are weird to say the least but fascinating. The images and their descriptions are below.

Forty Thieves Solitaire Gold, surreal

Magic Towers Solitaire, oil painting

People playing Mexican Train Dominoes Gold, cyberpunk neon

A woman playing Pyramid Solitaire in ancient Egypt, surreal

A giant llama playing solitaire during a snowstorm, oil painting

Christmas Solitaire Tri Peaks and Santa, abstract pencil

Happy Holidays!

Magic Towers Solitaire is Glowing Eye Games’ most long-lived game. The two games that came before it are lost to the mists of time. However, this game is still going 14 years later and was big enough online that Glowing Eye Games could actually hire people.

It’s an example of a simple game doing one thing really, really well. Even now after years of gradual decline and fairly small updates it gives us a meaningful amount of revenue despite the competition for tripeaks solitaire games being absolutely bonkers these days. In comparison to other games out there its incredibly basic, it has one level. Yet players have kept on coming back year on year. I’ve questioned why in the past, and really it just boils down to a few things.

1. It feels good, the graphics and setting are calming. The green countryside and the magic of the castle appearing is a reward that seems to hit the spot.
2. The cards, and I sound a little bit nuts for saying it, move right. The amount of solitaire games where the cards don’t move fluidly, or too slowly, or too quickly annoy me so much!
3. The game difficulty is beautifully balanced, so when you start you always feel like you can win, but it’s not necessarily easy or too hard!
4. It isn’t pay to win. Sure, that’s the most profitable model for making a mobile game these days, if you can get the players, but by its nature it forces players to decide if they just want to give up every time they need to pay! At some point we do need to add more ways of monetising beyond adverts and an upgrade, but the advert supported business model has its own advantages. The most important being that as long as your game has short play levels, you really can do whatever you like in terms of progression and fun.

In the years since it was made, we did one great thing that didn’t work out financially but forced us to look at our own games. We made a variant for Skillz, and the talented folk there pushed us to make the best Tri Peaks Solitaire game we’ve ever made. In particular the project forced us to create new levels and increase the variety. Finally, we’ve been ready to roll that back into Magic Towers. The trick with such a big upgrade is to do everything to make sure that current players feel they are 100% getting their beloved game, but even better. It’s what Apple has been doing with iPhones, each iteration almost without exception looks and feels like an evolution of the last one, sometimes they even gave us a revolution.

On the art side we’ve added more relaxing locations. They’ve been beautifully made by Katie our artist, who didn’t make the original, and yet the graphics feel like they fit perfectly.

The game’s got 30 levels now, so it’s thirty times bigger 🙂 We’ve also made sure the classic game that players know is still there as an easy to find option on the main menu. I hope that they’ll vote with their fingers and the majority will be playing the all new and improved version, but if it’s too far out of their comfort zone they can return to what they love.

The final change is that the new game mode with all those juicy levels, saves your score for a week before challenging you to beat last week’s top score. We know you’re going to come back, so how about you try and out play last week you? I’ve got to say I’m slightly worried by that change, but I wanted that particular challenge to be friendly to players who come back after a gap. The advertising supported mobile games model, means that people are going to try other games. You’re doing incredibly well if after they try something new, they want to come back. That’s the hallmark of a classic and hopefully this update to scoring mechanism facilitates that in a way that the fans will enjoy.

On a lovely company note, Evie our Head of QA was playing with (I mean testing!) the level designer and created some great levels to the point where we expanded the game to fit them in. That’s a great thing that I hope Glowing Eye Games allows for the team, maybe not often enough, but a chance to do something that’s enjoyable and doesn’t quite fit the job description. The kind of projects that allow for personal growth. She’s got two lines in the credits now, and I got the chance to register a bug for her to fix for a change!

Now it’s nearing completion and should get released first on iOS in November we can only let the players decide but we’re really happy how this one has turned out. With our customer support set-up we’ve also got a great way to capture feedback, maybe they’ll tell us we’re doing things right, but if they don’t, we can make further improvements. With all this work, I trust that Magic Towers Solitaire will be enjoyed for another 14 years!

We’re happy to announce the release of a great new update for our game Solitaire Classic Gold.

Get it here! https://apps.apple.com/app/solitaire-classic-gold/id1272057723

The biggest improvement is the addition of our Daily Double Solitaire Challenge! We know that lots of you start the day with a game of solitaire to kick start your brain into action in the morning. Our classic solitaire game is rarity that puts an emphasis on letting you build up winning streak by finishing several rounds of solitaire in a row.

Our daily challenge focuses on using your skill to complete two rounds in a row, with every other player that day enjoying the same the challenge. You can compete against friends by sharing your results!

Of course, no self-respecting update adds just one thing. The new Solitaire Classic Gold plays more smoothly and fixes several issues. It’s the best it’s ever been and will only keep getting better.

Have fun! https://apps.apple.com/app/solitaire-classic-gold/id1272057723

Jasmine kindly wrote the previous blog post giving her thoughts and tips from the time she spent at Glowing Eye Games as she rose through the ranks. With a small company like ours, her departure for new pastures leaves us at a crossroads. Even in these short weeks she has been missed, but it’s not the end of the world and we owe it to ourselves to look to the future.

Armed with her insightful exit interview, along with discussions internally it’s become obvious Glowing Eye Games is changing once again. Our aim is to find future colleagues that have the same beneficial impact to the company that she provided while continuing to avoid the political backstabbing that we’ve enjoyed throughout our history.

Before I start discussing the trials and tribulations that we’re looking to overcome, it’s worth saying that whenever we’ve had new joiners it’s always brought something into the company. Although ideas generally are cheap, having the opportunity to talk and more importantly listen to a colleague and then between you implement and execute them is vital. These collaborations have led to great improvements within the company over the years, and we must be doing something right to survive 14 years now. Our systems and procedures have improved and although I am Director of the company, my previous calling was as a producer. The changes that Jasmine and the rest of the team implemented over the years are better than the working methods that I had used previously. While I temporarily take the reins of our producing efforts, it’s immensely gratifying that my faith in Jasmine has been repaid with an improvement in my knowledge and the evolution of the way we work.

It leads to one thing that’s important to me, personally, while running the company. I get immense professional fulfilment from seeing improvements that we have made over the years. In particular I love facilitating the growth and development of our team, and although I’d prefer if Jasmine had stayed, it’s great that we have the company culture where progress is possible. It makes me want to hire an assistant producer or someone earlier in their games industry career and facilitate their development to a fully-fledged producer. Although I think we all work in a company where growth is possible, on the production side I can be a greater part of the solution of offering a framework that gives feedback and experience in an area where (I believe!) I know what I am doing (mostly).

In the exit interview, Jasmine obviously felt that she was being asked to provide real thoughts to our future, and she absolutely made it clear that marketing is one area where we could greatly improve. It’s something we as a team have thought for a while, but unfortunately, I’ve never quite resolved that issue despite our ever-increasing marketing budget. I don’t want to go into specifics too much, but we currently spend a five-digit amount in advertising every month, just for our games to remain relevant. This is a significant part of the company’s budget that has grown over last few years. With the Covid dividend for digital creators fading, it’s something we need to concern ourselves with again.

The problem stems with me, I’ve effectively coordinated the majority of the marketing operations, and I’m not a natural marketeer. Basic PR elements such as newsletters, social media and cross promotions have been implemented, but could be further refined. Getting our games noticed in general seems to be a weakness for us. Technically our marketing budget is almost completely spent on advertising rather than the time and skillset needed for PR.

Our advertising effort only really uses two sources, we’ve worked to optimise them and based on recent estimates with admittedly a varying quality of data, I have better idea of where we’re successful. Further optimisations are possible. We haven’t tested enough variations of our marketing packs and advertising efforts. One of the reoccurring themes is that digital advertising offers a great deal more options for testing different marketing material. We made a little progress here, but someone who has time to focus on this area could find a host of things to make even better and of course work out what tests we should perform next.

Recently I had a conversion with a friend who is far more marketing orientated, and the vagueness in my answers to his questions horrified me! So, a marketing hire is a must. How I do that is an interesting question and for me I’ve still got to work that out. The goal is in effect simple, to hire someone who can take that budget and improve on our results while fitting into our work environment. If they can’t get through the probationary period, then I failed on the hire. So, the questions I need to answer before proceeding all revolve around working out what is needed to move our promotional efforts to a higher level. That will involve some figuring out, and to start with I’m writing a job description of our current marketing and advertising efforts. That will shine a light on where we are today, the step after that is to research further and see what other competitors are doing, especially those who are similarly sized that appear to have been gaining success.

Now of course with two potential hires, it’s quite easy to have grandiose ideas, but one of the reasons Glowing Eye Games works on smaller projects, is that on a personal level I’ve always preferred working on games with smaller teams. I have had the good fortune to work on a couple of larger projects in my career, but they were never quite as enjoyable to me. So, one thing that always stays in my mind is that Glowing Eye Games has a maximum size, at least while I am running it! For me, I think we’ll start with two and then we’ll see how we get on before considering future options. Of course, if our hires are successful, then more options will present themselves. Hopefully we’ll make it another 14 years!