Boston Festival of Indie Games 2013 Recap

After countless hours of corralling monsters, practicing spells and building castle walls, we were finally ready for Boston FIG!  We packed up our potion kits and joined dozens of other developers on Saturday, Sept. 14th for a day of play.  

Practicing proper spell-casting form before the doors opened in the morning.

The response was enormous!  BFIG is only in its second year and it tripled in size, with thousands of fans joining us to celebrate indie game development in the region.  We were busy all day with people stopping by the table to check out The Counting Kingdom.  

Every fan, big and small, got a chance to play The Counting Kingdom

Festivals like BFIG bring together game developers, journalists and fans, and we count ourselves very fortunate to be able to participate in such a fun day.  A HUGE thanks to everyone who stopped by the table to say hi and play the game!

Time to show the magic

Just in time for the Boston Festival of Indie Games, we've got a brand new batch of screenshots and a fancy trailer to show off!  Let us know what you think and come say hi this Saturday at the festival!

The monsters are coming! Gather up your spellbook and potions and get ready to defend the kingdom! The Counting Kingdom is an educational iOS game from Little Worlds Interactive, coming soon. 

Crafty Time: DIY Scrolls

We are thorough believers in making things by hand here at Little Worlds Interactive.  Especially when it's time to exhibit the new game I just can't resist rolling up my sleeves and breaking out the glue gun!  This weekend I made bundles of scrolls and wanted to share with you a few quick and easy steps to make your own:

Things You'll Need: 

• Paper
• Tea bag
• Ribbon
• Glue

Step 1: Write with a Flourish

Print or write whatever you would like onto your paper.  I strongly suggest testing out your ink before you invest time into a nice design: let the ink dry on some test paper, then brush water over it to see if it will run.  I printed out my newsletter and found that color ink ran worse than black.

Step 2: Crumple it up 

Take your piece of paper and crumple it into a ball.  This will give it some nice irregular lines and make it look more worn. 

Step 3: Tea  Time

Heat up some hot water and drop in your tea bag to let it steep.  Meanwhile, (carefully!) uncrumple your paper and lay it flat on a baking tray, or another waterproof surface that has edges.  Take the tea bag and dab it all over the paper, dunking it back into the water when you need more and eventually covering the whole page.  Make sure the tea has soaked through to the back of the paper.  If you're making more than one scroll you will need a new tea bag every few pieces of paper.

Step 5: Let it Dry 

There are a few different ways you can do this, depending on your space.  I laid out my papers onto towels on the floor (on top of a tarp so the tea didn't soak through), but it might take a few hours to dry this way.  Hanging the papers on a clothesline is also an option, and would be much speedier.  (Cats are optional)! 

Step 6: Add the Ribbon

Now that the papers are dry we can roll them up.  Find something slim and cylindrical to wrap the papers around, like a candle.  Cut a small section of ribbon, long enough to wrap around your scroll roughly 1.5 times.  Lay one end of the ribbon halfway down the scroll length-wise, and add a daub of glue (I used a glue gun but other types of glue could work as well).  Wrap the ribbon around the scroll so that the glue-free end is pressed on top of the glue.  You should have a small bit of ribbon hanging free - cut a small "V" into it to finish things off.  Slide the scroll off the cylinder and you're done! 

There you have it!  You can make a single scroll or a whole stack.  Have fun! 

Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

It's been a very crafty weekend here at Little Worlds Interactive... We're going to have a lot of fun at the Boston Festival of Indie Games!

Hello World! Little Worlds Interactive debuts at the Boston Festival of Indie Games

We've been busily working away here at Little Worlds Interactive, making sure our spellbooks are dusted off, mixing up potions, and fortifying castle walls.  

We're extremely excited to announce that we'll finally be able to share all this hard work with you!  LWI is an Indie Circle sponsor at the Boston Festival of Indie Games on September 14th.   This free festival celebrates independent game development in New England and will feature video games, tabletop games, an art exhibit, and much more!

We hope you can join us at the MIT Stratton Student Center, at 84 Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge, MA.  Doors open at 10 AM, see you there!