KernoWeb Network » Blog http://www.kernowweb.co.uk Helping People Start, Build and Promote Their Web Businesses Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:47:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Another Hasbro game in the bag http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/another-hasbro-game-in-the-bag/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/another-hasbro-game-in-the-bag/#comments Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:11:10 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=467 It’s been a loooooong month with lots of late nights, but it was worth the effort. Our latest game, Kreon Chaos, launched this week and was an instant hit!

The game was developed for Hasbro to promote their Transformers “Lego” toys, Kre-o.

Launch of the game instantly doubled the average time users were spending on the kre-o site (and there were already games on the site) and the feedback we’ve been getting from both kids on the site, and the executives at Hasbro has been excellent!

It’s always great to see a game get past the finish post, and with some exciting projects lined up for the coming months (including a deal with Disney and Pixar!) it’s going to be an exciting time, but probably with lots more late nights ;)

Check out Kreon Chaos over at the official Kre-o site.

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/another-hasbro-game-in-the-bag/feed/ 0 Introducing Frosty Pixel Games http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/introducing-frosty-pixel-games/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/introducing-frosty-pixel-games/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:45:26 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=436 Since founding Kernow Web Designs in 2002 a lot has changed. The Internet is a very different place now than it was 9 years ago, and it continues to evolve.

Kernow Web has also evolved during that time. What started as a web design business servicing small local businesses with web design and e-commerce solutions has become primarily a games and multi media development studio working with clients all around the world.

Over the past 12 months more and more clients have been asking about mobile app and games development, especially for the iPhone (iOS) and Android platforms. As such, we’re pleased to announce that after retooling the studio and retraining we are now able to offer design and development services for iOS and Android platforms!

Since this is a new direction we decided it was worthy of new branding, so we have set up a sister site. FrostyPixelGames.com will offer iPhone Game Development including design and development for the iPad and iPhone Touch, and also Android app and game development.

If you’re interested in finding out what a mobile app could do for your business, or in getting a quote for bespoke game development or porting to the iOS or Android platforms, please get in touch for a friendly chat!

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/introducing-frosty-pixel-games/feed/ 0 New Worldwide Yoga Directory http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/new-worldwide-yoga-directory/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/new-worldwide-yoga-directory/#comments Mon, 04 Jul 2011 11:15:28 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=432 As a welcome break from coding Flash games, one of our currect projects is the development of a large directory of yoga sites and studios.  The idea for creating a worldwide directory of yoga teachers came about when searching online for yoga teacher training courses earlier this year, and struggling to find the information I was looking for.  When I realsed there was a need for a decent yoga directory Yogaly.com was born.

The first 3 months of the project have been spent doing market research and collecting the relevant data.  We hired 2 researchers who have scoured the web and put together a database of several thousands yoga teachers, studios and web sites across the globe.  We have now built the framework CMS for the site and entered phase 2 of the project as we start to populate the site with the data listings.

This phase is likely to take several weeks, as we are manually checking every link and ensuring accuracy of information but by mid-summer we expect to have the world’s largest human edited yoga directory.  We’ll then move into phase 3 with the adding of more articles and videos, and integration of user generated content.

In the meantime, if you have any interest in yoga please feel free to visit the site.  If you know of a teacher local to you, you can submit your own listings, and you can rate and review any listing on the site.  Check back soon for another update.

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/new-worldwide-yoga-directory/feed/ 0 Latest projects roundup http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/latest-projects-roundup/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/latest-projects-roundup/#comments Sat, 18 Jun 2011 10:49:12 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=421 The beauty of working as a freelancer developer is the variety of projects you get to work on.  While Kernow Web Designs is now firmly established primarily as a Flash games development studio, we still get our hands dirty with web design, e-commerce and even print design.

In fact, we’re not even half way through 2011 and already we’ve successfully launched a number of new games including 2 games for Hasbro, 1 for Lucasarts, a very unique multi-player ethics game for business, a remake of a classic betting game and many more, while also developing a new yoga directory and building a selection of sites for local businesses AND doing several print design projects…

…while that’s all well and good, the second half of 2011 is shaping up to be very different.  We’re taking on fewer clients, and focusing on bigger and higher quality projects.  We have the highly anticipated sequel to our successful Viral Flash Games pack to launch in the summer, and a number of really exciting games in the pipeline.

So watch this space, and as each game is released hopefully you’ll have as much fun playing them as we do developing them ;)

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/latest-projects-roundup/feed/ 0 Boppity Bop… http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/boppity-bop/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/boppity-bop/#comments Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:05:38 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=430 I was over the moon when I was given the opportunity of developing the online version of the popular Bop It toy. If you’re not familiar with Boppit, it’s an electronic toy wwith a series of inputs and the game is controlled by sound. The toy gives a command such as “pull it” or “spin it” and you have to react fast with the correct input or lose. The game is played to a beat and every now and then the command is to “pass it” where you pass the toy to the next player.

My niece has the toy and I had played it on a number of occasions so it was great fun to take that offline playing experience and transform it into an online game. There were a few challenges along the way (how to best convert a series of physical movements into interesting mouse/keyboard controls) but the results turned out great. Read all about it here.

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/boppity-bop/feed/ 0 Multi Player Game Development http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/multi-player-game-development/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/multi-player-game-development/#comments Fri, 06 May 2011 18:53:54 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=427 It’s been quite some time since I last turned my hand to multiplayer game development.  Last time it was a quiz game developed for a university as a learning tool, and this time the educational angle comes into play again.  This game however, is very unique…

We were approached by a US based company responsible for teaching ethics for businesses.  Many types of business require a certain number of hours ethics training each year to remain licensed, and they had developed a board game which made the training more interested and wanted it porting to an online version.

Multi-player gaming poses a number of challenges such as security and syncing, but we rose to the challenge and developed a very unique and interesting hybrid game, based around the game board and chat function.

This was our first time using the Electroserver (ES5) socket server from Electrotank (having used SmartFox on previous multiplayer projects) and we found it to be very stable and easy to work with and with much better docs and support than SmartFox, so we’re looking forward to porting some Kwikgames and VFG games to the platform in the near future (possibly for release on the Facebook platform – watch this space!)

You can read more about the game and the project here

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/multi-player-game-development/feed/ 0 New Star Wars Game Released http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/new-star-wars-game-released/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/new-star-wars-game-released/#comments Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:49:58 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=424 Last week we launched a new Star Wars game called Obi-Wan Jedi Attack as a promotional tool for the toy company Hasbro.  It’s a side scrolling arcade/action game for young children, and you can read all about it here.

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/new-star-wars-game-released/feed/ 0 JahJing – Shut The Box Game http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/jahjing-shut-the-box-game/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/jahjing-shut-the-box-game/#comments Fri, 28 Jan 2011 09:44:43 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=364 JahJing is a new game concept based on the classic game of Shut The Box.  We were approached to develop the game from the ground up, and the multi-part development cycle is just reaching the end of phase 1 with the single player version of the game going online this week.

The game, also known as Tric-Trac or Canoga, is dice based.  Players take it in turns to flip all 9 tabs based on dice rolls.  Where JahJing differs from the classic game however is by introducing a betting element.

As the development of the single player version draws to a close, we’re now looking to a multi-player version with real money betting for future release… watch this space!

Check out the JahJing web site and game here

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/jahjing-shut-the-box-game/feed/ 0 Embarcadero Game Launches http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/embarcadero-game-launches/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/embarcadero-game-launches/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:48:25 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=341 It’s been very “hush, hush” but we’re finally allowed to announce that for the past month we’ve been working on a secret game for database developers Embarcadero.  The game is based around their infamous developer, David I, and you can read the full scoop and have a play of the game on our portfolio page here:

David I Underwater XE Challenge Game

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/embarcadero-game-launches/feed/ 0 Duplicatable websites http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/duplicatable-websites/ http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/duplicatable-websites/#comments Fri, 04 Jun 2010 07:09:45 +0000 admin http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/?p=315 Well the past few weeks have been quite hectic, with a mixture of game and web development, working on both existing and new projects.  We have an exciting new Flash game in development, along with a series of game design articles which will be released later in the summer.

Our latest project to be launched however is a new product aimed at the home business market.  We have developed a range of small, duplicatable lead capture websites specifically designed to meet the needs of network marketing distributors.

Speedy Websites offers a range of template based sites (more being added over time) and bespoke websites and CMS systems.  We have also teamed up with Imnica Mail to offer an autorepsonder service on the backend, meaning the Speedy Websites package is a complete solution for lead capture and followup.

The new site launched yesterday and we’re already had some great feedback, so if you’re in the market for a small and effective lead capture website check it out.

]]> http://www.kernowweb.co.uk/blog/duplicatable-websites/feed/ 0