For the last several months we are working on a new iPhone game. By combining together the familiar match-3 gameplay and unique device features, we create something truly amazing. A brand-new match-3 experience that you have never played before!

We took all the best ideas from our successful game Caribbean Treasures, and then we add the gravity.

The idea of gravity was never used in match-3 games before. And it completely changed the game experience by adding more ways of searching for the best solution for every level.

As soon as we come to beta, I will make a video to show how the gravity works. But those who already had a chance to play the alpha version says that it’s so natural and amazing, that they doesn’t imagine how the game could ever be without it!

We are looking for more beta testers, especially with iPhone 4 / iPod 4. Drop a note in the comments if you are interested. And when the beta version will be ready, I will contact you with further details of how to download it from the iTunes store.

This week we had a first simple challenge for our followers and subscribers at Twitter and Facebook. And the winners was asked to choose a game from our website, and they got it for free. We liked this experience, so more challenges will be announced soon. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to not miss a chance to get your favorite game for free!

And by the way, do you know that every registered member get 2 our games completely free? Don’t forget to register an account at our website to get them.

Summer is the vacation time. And for the next 10 days we’re going on vacation. Actually I hate it because it means no progress on our new game, “Knight and the Princess” (its the working name that might be changed upon release). read more »

I believe that at least some of you would really like to know what’s going on inside Emotion Rays right now. Well, the retirement of Reflexive become the worst thing I could imagine. Because Big Fish Games partnership program sucks and developers still prefer to live in the imaginary world where their games costs $19.95. So I have to delay some plans on contests and website development until the income from the EmotionRays.com website will become more or less clear to plan the expenses. And in the meanwhile I finally can focus all my attention on the game development.

Shame on me, no new releases from Emotion Rays since 2004.

I have several game ideas to do, including the Caribbean Treasures 2. And its really hard to make a choice because every idea still have many weak sides. I think there will be lots of close alpha tests and then some beta tests until the new big game will be announced.

But first I’d like to make a small game for iPhone/iPod to restore my game development skills that I haven’t used for 5 years. It will be a simple game about a knight.

I believe that its hard to be a knight. There’s too many dragons to slay and too many prinesses to save… And the worst thing is that almost all of them want to get married on you. But as long as dragons will kidnap princesses, there’s always a well-paid job for a true hero.

In the game you’ll have to use different items and stuff to help the knight to get to the princess and to save her from the dragon.

I hope that the first playable level will be done in 2-3 weeks and of course I’ll post more details as soon as they’ll come.

And now a few words about user accounts, comments, rewards and free games…

There was an idea to give a virtual medal for a useful comment or good review. At the end of each month a user who earned the highest number of medals should be awarde with several games on his choice. However, everything have rapidly changed when Reflexive announced their retirement – they was the main partner and the primary source of income. And right now EmotionRays.com might not make enough profit to fund such contest.

Anyway, I have some marketing plans for the nearest future. So please cross the fingers and wish me luck with them.

If they’ll work as I expecting, this contest will be up and running. And also some other activities with free games as a reward. But first, EmotionRays.com should become slightly more popular. That’s why I can’t give any terms or dates right now.

While most portals sell games for $6.99, most of the developers still hold the prices at $19.99. And in most cases they offer the same games without any additional features or bonuses.

Of course it has a sense if they are not going to sell their games through big portals. If there’s no way to get a favorite game on such a low price, you have no other choice than to buy it on the price that was set by the developer. For example, there’s a game Asguaard which costs $28.99. And you can’t buy it for $6.99 because the developers believe this price is too low and they don’t give their game to big portals to sell.

But for most games presented on our site that has the developers edition, you also can get them from Big Fish Games for a $6.99. And I bet that when you see a choice between $19.99 developers price and $6.99 portal price, you’ll not get an overpriced developer’s stuff.

So what is the reason to keep the prices so high?

I’ve tried to discuss this question with the game developers. And you can see their arguments here:

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=20889&highlight=vendor+prices