Your favorite event?

Learning to ride your bike, collecting daisy chains or catching fireflies are some of the favorite events that happened in Delicious - Emily's Childhood Memories and they were fun to play. At least according to some of the people over here in the studio.

Now, we're curious. (and I heard some of us are already willing to bet...) What is your favorite event from Emily's childhood memories?

Quote of the week!

"All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it."
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Enjoy your week!

In the spotlight - 1

We thought it would be nice if we gave our posts a more personal touch by introducing a new series. We call it "In the spotlight".

We asked someone whom you're probably not very familiar with, to step into the spotlight and share with you some of his feelings about the project. The writer of Delicious, Mr. Ed Kuehnel.

I don’t have nearly as many good childhood memories as I’d like. This was my thought as I sorted through the multitude of fond ones related to me by the good folks at Zylom Game Studio, who had just hired to me to work as a writer on the sixth installment of their beloved Delicious series, Emily’s Childhood Memories.

The anecdotes were gleaned from employees, friends, family members and other fans of Emily’s. They spoke of chasing fireflies, roasting marshmallows, summer vacations and happy holidays and were largely ones I had never experienced firsthand. I’m thirty-eight, and I am not by nature very nostalgic, but I had signed on to the project was determined to do my best. You see, I pride myself for my work on lighthearted titles, and the Delicious series was tops on my list of games to work on after finishing up another project for Eindhoven called Heart’s Medicine, a game with a decidedly dramatic theme but with similar gameplay.

As part of my preparation for working on Heart’s Medicine I played most of the Delicious series over the course of a day or two. I fell in love with its whimsical characters, absurd situations and endearing message of family and friendship. Truth be told, I’m not only a fan of Emily’s, I’m also a little jealous. Her parents, while not perfect, are supportive and loving. Francois would do anything for Emily, and Angela…well, Angela is Angela.

Ernest Hemingway once said that, “The first draft of anything is…” Well, I won’t repeat the exact quote. Suffice to say that my first attempt at shaping the stories and dialog in Emily’s Childhood Memories did not reflect the tone one felt reading the anecdotes that helped to inspire it. So l tried again. And again. Eventually, (and I can’t take all the credit) the game took shape into what you see now.

Everything happens for a reason. I have a loving, caring wife and two small boys. My mother lives in farm country and my father, now retired, is anxious to spend time with me and his grandsons. Exploring Emily’s past was a wonderful experience, on that I’ll treasure always. More importantly, the flood of memories, while not my own, have inspired me. I can chase fireflies with my boys at my mother’s house in farm country. I can (and have) taken my children camping to roast marshmallows over a campfire. We can make daisy chains with in the backyard and my wife and I are taking our children to Ohio in the summer to see her family. As with Emily’s Childhood Memories, everything has come full circle and for that I am eternally grateful.

-Ed Kuehnel

14,6!

This is our confidential paper disposal box. Out of frustration someone glued an "idea box" sticker to it. This might look like a joke to you but in reality it was one of the most visited places on the floor during development of Emily's Childhood Memories (number one is the coffeemachine).
We counted (we really did) the amount of ideas we threw away on an average day. For every idea that ended up in the game 14,6 ended up in this box. That's on average!

It's one of the burdens of working in a creative environment. Dealing on an hourly basis with your ideas being canned. Being rejected. To illustrate what we mean; Here's an example of something that we thought could work very nicely with a younger Emily, but eventually didn't make it in the game.



Of course, I'm exaggerating a little bit, but to tell you the truth, a lot of people find it very difficult when their ideas are not being used, end up in the game or worse that they are taken out because for some reason they didn't seem to work out.

So if you're having this romantic idea of working in a creative environment, you might want to think twice (or 14,6 times;)

Happy Valentine!

First I would like to say thank you to all the creative ideas everybody contributed the last couple of days for the next Delicious installment. One of our artists took the time to visualize some of the ideas and we decided to say thank you by sharing with you this piece of concept art of Emily on this very special day.

If by any chance you might think: “Hey! She doesn’t look like Emily at all!” Then you’re right. As we often do to keep our creative juices flow and to keep an open mind, we treat our brands with various graphic styles when we’re in the middle of brainstorming sessions and pre-production.
Anyways, this one's for you! (And your secret lover;)

We wish you happy valentine and again, have a fun day!

And the number one is....!

With all the overwhelming positive comments and reviews childhood memories is receiving these days, we would almost forget a game we released not so long ago. Although we got quite a few remarks about it being too short, we were glad (or should I say relieved?) that it got such great reviews!

I'm glad in times like these I can quote my friend Winston Churchill who once said: "In victory, you deserve Champagne, in defeat, you need it." I say: To the Zylom Game Studio! Good work guys! Cheers!

Best of 2010, in the category Time Management:
From the developers of Delicious Emily's Holiday Season comes another gem of a time management game every casual gamer needs to experience. Heart's Medicine: Season One takes place in a hospital where the newly-arrived Allison Heart is just beginning her residency. Help sick patients by tending to their needs, shuffling them through the hospital as efficiently as you can, never forgetting to take good care of each person. The storyline is fantastic, the presentation is superb, and both the variety and the game's pacing are perfect. Heart's Medicine is simply one of the most well-balanced and entertaining time management games you can find!

http://jayisgames.com/best-of/2010/download/time-management-or-simulation-results/

if you haven't tried Heart's Medicine, season one before, you just have to try it for free right here:
http://www.zylom.com/uk/download-games/heart-s-medicine-season-one-deluxe/?dsgid=6074

HERE WE GO!

We're Live! Delicious - Emily's Childhood Memories is now officially part of history!

Have a fun day!