Hey everyone! Some of you may know me as the creator of the Swords & Sandals series.

I had actually posted to Newgrounds today my latest game Heroic Sports Football... but there's been some last minute trouble getting it to work on this site, so , to my embarressment I've had to take it down.

Anyway it's a fast paced soccer game. I'll post it here in the next few days, in the meantime, you can play it at Fizzy.com or check out the youtube link below.

Cheers all, Oliver

Greetings all,

Just a quick post to let fans of the Swords & Sandals series know that we've upgraded the multiplayer server this week , meaning that those who have tried to play the multiplayer version of the game in the past, but couldn't log in, now's your chance to play the game as it was intended.

Swords & Sandals III: Multplae Ultratus

The server is much more stable now - if you haven't played Swords & Sandals III:Multiplae Ultratus in a while, come check it out and let me know your thoughts. You'll still want a broadband connection.... dialup will just be too slow.

In other news, I'm currently hard at work on a football (soccer) game - part RPG, part Speedball, part NBA Jam . Lots of cartoon blood and action , should be out later this year, then I'll be back working on another Swords and Sandals game.

For fans of ExMortis, my mate Ben Leffler tells me ExMortis 3 will be dropping in a few weeks so keep your eyes peeled for one of the best horror adventure games in the indie world.

Cheers Oliver!

Morning all, just letting you know another chapter in the Swords & Sandals saga is out!

It may only seem like a short time ago that I released Swords & Sandals III: Solo Ultratus (and its multiplayer brother) , but it's that time again. This game took just under 4 months to build, largely because I used the S&SIII engine.

Play Swords & Sandals 4

This is a bit more of an experimental direction for the series to go, rather than just being straight up combat, it centers around a bunch of gladiators playing board games in a tavern. Gladiators create characters, roll dice and move around a fantasy board playing minigames, fighting each other and having adventures.

Think "Mario Party" with a lot more blood and guts. :) You can play this "hotseat" multiplayer, so gather a few friends around your computer and give it a go , I think you'll have a good laugh , certainly more so than playing against simply computer opponents.

Anyway not everyone will like the direction the series has taken, but like all good things it evolves and I always try to listen to the fans ... let me know your thoughts and what I can do for the next game.

Speaking of which, I'm about to embark on a sequel to Swords & Sandals Crusader - the spinoff wargame ... this one will be more RTS focused, ala a mixture of Warcraft/Dawn of War and Heroes of Might and Magic ( in my head that works anyway... haha ) , I'll get back to you before the end of the year :)

Cheers and have fun. Oliver Joyce

Morning friends... I trust this email finds you well and free of the dreaded porcine plague that is Swine Flu!

My buddies and at work were just talking about the hysteria surrounding the virus on Wednesday night, and we began speculating about the (excuse the pun) viral games that will follow in Swine Flu's wake.

There's already been one game out, Swinefighter - totally amateur game , it would get blammed here - but it's done huge traffic around the world because the media picked up on it.

Anway, we thought we'd try our hand at making a viral game. Started Thursday morning, finished Friday lunchtime, and voila , here it is. Nice and simple premise, you're on the US / Mexico border, chucking pigs into the desert.

So I've just submitted it to the portal, have a play and shoot yourself some deadly swines. Needs Flash Player 10 and a fast machine to get it to run smoothly, I went a bit overboard on the blur effects!

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
493797

Good times , good times :) anyway, have fun, if you like it, send it round and we'll see how viral we can get it.

In other news, Swords & Sandals IV due out next Friday !

Cheers Oliver

For fans of the Swords & Sandals series, the latest one is about to roll out the door next month. Swords & Sandals IV:Tavern Quests is a bit different from the previous games and may polarise the fans.

Swords & Sandals IV:Beta gameplay video

Basically it's a cross between the gladiator fighting of Swords & Sandals and the minigames/boardgame aspect of Mario Party/Talisman etc. You move around a board, having adventures, fighting and playing minigames such as horse riding, platforms, puzzlers etc.

You can play up to 4 players "hotseat" style on one computer, or against up to 3 computer opponents.

For those that aren't a fan of the new game, rest assured the next game will be back to arena combat and there's also a seuel to Crusader on the way. It's important to keep some variety in the series, keep people on their toes ;)

Look for the full release next month. Cheers Oliver

Morning all ! Congratulations to our American friends on a) the addition of Barack to the Whitehouse and b) the subraction of Dubya from the Whitehouse! I watched the speech live here in Sydney at 3.30am ... powerful and inspiring stuff.

Here's a game I've been sitting on for the last 18 months... I ended up shelving it for quite a while while I build Swords & Sandals Crusader and Swords & Sandals III ... in recent weeks I've come back to it just to finish it off ... introducing "Get Off My Planet"

Get Off My Planet

You'll notice the title screen features a character who looks suspiciously like Barack Obama... this is of course , a bit gratiutious of me but also , a bit of fun given I'm releasing the game today. Hell, who's to say Obama couldn't conquer the stars anyway. The whole presidential thing actually came about from the title, it's a pun on Harrison Ford's famous line in the movie "Air Force One".

Anyway, check out the game , it's a variation on the Tower Defence and City Building genres, it can be quite punishing but in my mind it's a lot of fun.

I usually get a lot of grief here on Newgrounds for not releasing free games - this one is 100% free, no demo, nothing. Have fun with it.

Next up , I'm really not sure. I think it will be another Swords and Sandals game but this will be quite different from the last few... no doubt it's also probably a year away :)

I welcome your thoughts! Cheers all!

Oliver

Morning all and happy new year to everyone. I've just uploaded to the portal a new game....

Yum Cha Showdown

What you see above is my first non-"Swords & Sandals" game in quite a while. After Swords & Sandals III I needed a break. The damn thing took me almost a year to build, would you believe. Mainly because of the multiplayer dramas of course, but still a long time no doubt.

So, over November and December I decided to tackle a project originally concepted and built by my old buddy Silas "Sidog" Rowe, a game called Yum Cha Showdown. It's sort of a "worms style" action RPG game where you guide three little heroes across the orient in search of a meal to please their empress.

I had to scale back Silas' original plans due to time constraints. Originally there were going to be a lot more RPG elements, customised magic and armour, much more stats and a deeper story, but I like how this one turned out anyway.

The full version has over fifty levels, this one for Newgrounds has ten, but check it out and see what you think.

As for what's next? I'm not entirely sure... I need a bit of a break from Swords and Sandals before I start on the next one... would love to hear some ideas from where people would like that series to go!

Cheers and thanks everyone for supporting Flash Gaming - you're a great and vibrant community.

Oliver Joyce

Hey everyone, been a while since my last post. Since that time, the multiplayer version of Swords and Sandals 3 went up in beta - it was a huge success. 850,000 loads in a month just on our site, which is pretty good considering there was no advertising or promotion for the game.

So, S&S3 multiplayer will be back with us shortly, but in the meantime I've been working on a single player version of the game with computer controlled gladiators and Arena Champions to defeat. It's not quite the same experience you get from fighting another human, but the story mode is certainly a challenge and the full version has 24 Arena Champions and many thousands of magic items to collect.

I've just uploaded it to the portal today, so have a play and let me know what you think.

Swords and Sandals 3 Solo Ultratus

Cheers Oliver

Hey all, for those who have been following the progress of Swords & Sandals III, it has just gone into live beta on my host site Fizzy.com. If you follow the link you can take part in the beta test.

Play Swords and Sandals III beta

The beta test will only run for a short time while I sort out server loads, balancing issues and fix bugs. ONce it's live and ready, I'll post a version here on Newgrounds and across the greater web community. I'm keeping it local for now until all the bugs are resolved.

Feel free to contact me with any feedback.

Known game issues so far

* Battles sometimes don't connect
* Challenge and accept challenge windows in lobby playing up a bit
* Occasional skipped turn during battle
* Weapons sometimes appear grey
* Game freeze when battles don't connect

All of these are being looked into and should be sorted out soon. Anyway, enjoy and have fun!

Cheers Oliver

Just a quick post today.... about three weeks left until beta release and I've just finished the spellcasting system. There are 50 odd spells to choose from , most of them are your standard fireball / poison blast attacks but there are some nice particle effects as this video shows.

Spellcasting can be a powerful path in S&S3 , it forces melee fighters to close the distance quickly or risk being incincerated or hurled around like a rag doll. The beta test will be all about balancing the game so that one path is not hideously overpowered.

As a side note, this is the last game I'll be making using Actionscript 2 I think :) It really chugs the processor with all the special effects - since I started it last year it was just too much work to recode it in AS3. Have to wait till the next one for that hehe.

Enjoy, not long to wait now I promise !

Cheers Oliver