Hi there!

My name is John and you found my website! I make Flash games and do other things. I have this website as a sort of homestead for myself and my work. Thanks for visiting :).

Latest Projects

  • TITOL3

    TITOL 3


  • Chuck the Sheep

    Chuck the Sheep


  • Coinbox Hero

    Coinbox Hero


  • Exit Path 2

    Exit Path 2


  • Soviet Rocket Giraffe

    Soviet Rocket Giraffe Go Go!


  • Elephant Quest

    Elephant Quest


  • Flock Together

    Flock Together


  • Treadmillasaurus Rex

    Treadmilla- saurus Rex


  • Anglebeat

    Anglebeat


  • Achievement Unlocked 2

    Achievement Unlocked 2


  • Exit Path

    Exit Path


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Recommended Sites

  • Mar29

    The Mighty Mute Button

    Flash Notes

    ssm

    “9/10 I removed a point because there was no mute button”

    Okay, I think we need to take a step back here and take a look at this.  Sorry for blowing steam here but I think this needs to be addressed.

    Muting is not my job.  It’s yours.

    I put a mute button in a majority of the games I make.  I only do it because I get a lot of flak for not doing it.  Besides the mute I usually put in a quality toggle too, even though most people won’t actually use it.

    When people complain about mute buttons they are telling me they are too lazy to actually adjust their computer’s audio.  According to my calculations, it takes all but a couple seconds to change the audio settings on a personal computer.  Even faster is to turn off the speakers directly.  Nonetheless, I still get tons of complaints about audio.  On my keyboard (and a lot of modern keyboards) there’s even a mute button there!

    It might be just me, but it’s much easier for me to locate a mute button on my own computer settings then it is for me to hunt for a mute button in a Flash game I’ve never played before.  Is it in the game settings?  Is it on the navigation bar?  The process of finding a mute button is already set, so why set it again?

    “BUT JOHN!  I’m at work or school.  I might get in trouble!”

    I understand people play at work and school.  In that case if they are gaming they should have turned off the speakers or computer audio to begin with!

    “BUT JOHN.  Big name computer games put mute in their games!”

    I can handle that.  Most big computer and console games take up the entire screen so there is no real good way to get back to your system settings.  But Flash is an in-browser experience; your access to audio is super close to wherever you are.

    “But John!  What about the music?  I hate the music!  I want sound effects but not the music!”

    Very well.  Then instead I would love you to tell me, “John, your music sucks.  I hate it.  Techno makes my ears bleed!”  This means so much more to me than complaining about a mute button.  It means I’ll adjust the audio genres and music selections in future games.  I want people to enjoy my games and if I am making ears bleed I’ll find compromises to make people happier.

    I also think there is some integrity to being in an “experience” when playing a game, in that the music and sound is specifically chosen by the artist… but I won’t get into that.

    But anyway, I’ll give.  I’ll put in mute buttons.  But if I start seeing that you don’t like the colour orange or that elephants make you nervous then I’ll let it go.

    Posted by John @ 7:41 pm

    Tags: ,

  • Captain Canuck

    No John keep the mute button regardless because I use it often instead of my pc’s volume because usually im listening to something else on a different tab and I just want to mute one particular tab.

  • interpolarity

    agreed… but people are just wankers sometimes…

  • soapaintnice

    I totally agree. Some games have sound to complete the experience, while others use sound to enhance it. When rating a game, it should be based on the complete experience. Hitting the mute button subtracts from that. I completely understand wanting to listen to your own music. But you can’t rate a game fairly without including whole experience in that rating. Good post!

  • Zhu

    I like sound control because nearly all flash games have pretty loud sounds and music, which overpower everything else you’re doing. I’m constantly on ventrilo with my friends when I’m on the computer, and if I play a flash game I usually can not ever hear anything from my friends. Same with every other game in the universe. My volume is always set to about 10% for games, so I can hear ventrilo.

    I remember a few years ago my friends and I were having a flash game competition, and every time we’d find a game that didn’t have a mute button, we’d skip it because we like talking to each other while playing.

    It’s not so much a big deal when I’m on my Windows Vista machine though, because I can just mute firefox and keep everything else on, but my XP one (as far as I know) doesn’t have that feature.

  • http://minimalbeat.newgrounds.com/ SUPRA

    I mean, who cares about the freakin’ mute button?!

    Even if the mute button is there, I still criticize the music and sound effects. Even though I don’t make another one of my reviews for a very long time, as I feel that making one for Super Mafia Land is too late.

  • Kable

    “BUT JOHN, I WANT TO LISTEN TO MY OWN MUSIC ON iTUNES! I CAN’T DO THIS IF I JUST TURN OFF THE SPEAKERS”

    maybe flash player needs a default context menu item that toggles the sound, or someone can make a firefox plug-in to do it.

  • Nico

    I agree that there should be a mute button, because sometimes I listen to youtube or something like that, and I don’t like annoying sounds disturbing me.

  • EvilRebel

    75% of all gamers toggle off the in-game music and run iTunes or windows media player in the background.

  • Flamedude

    But John! I don’t care about any mute button! I like the music! :D

  • tectonindustries

    Most people iek to play their own music in the background, which is why people put in mute buttons. You can’t do that by turning down the computer volume!

  • Focus

    Ehmm… yeah. That was what I going to say. What if you are listening to music on your computer? On Vista you can mute Firefox, for example, but us XP users can’t. So…

  • Tobias

    I got an idea, someone email adobe and ask them to build a mute button into the next flash player. That way developers lives are easier and user experience is improved? Just a thought ^^

  • http://jmtb02.com John

    Okay, so you listen to your own music, fair enough. I never thought about that, to be honest. But I would have wished someone was like, “oh hey, I listen to Mariah Carey while I play Light Cut and I need to mute.”

    But on the otherhand I feel like your experience with a Flash game shouldn’t be judged with use of an external source. It’s like saying it’s hard to pet your dog while you play a game because it requires two hands and it’s your fault because of it. But most people won’t see Flash games as something they’ll dedicate their 100% attention to… there’s some characteristic of a pick-up-and-play Flash game that makes it very much the same experience as reading a witty article on the Onion or looking at some lolcat photos.

    But like I said, that’s a whole other argument. Thanks for all the interesting feedback.

    And EvilRebel, your statistics are 55% made up on the spot.

  • http://www.todaysfreegame.com Justin

    Very surprised by this blog post. The people that want a mute button want it so they can listen to something ELSE while playing the game. Not so they can sit in silence and play.

  • Anonymous

    Oh hey I listen to Mariah Carey while I play Light Cut, so I need a mute button.

  • Nameless Coward

    “75% of all gamers toggle off the in-game music and run iTunes or windows media player in the background.”

    That. Well, in my case it’s Spotify, but same point.
    We don’t want a mute button so we can play in silence. We’re clever enough to turn off our speakers, y’know.

  • Nameless Coward

    Hey John, missed your post earlier – so sorry for repeating the criticism.

    “But most people won’t see Flash games as something they’ll dedicate their 100% attention to…”
    I have to disagree – at least for me the music (save some remarkable exceptions) isn’t needed to understand or enjoy a game, which doesn’t mean that I’ll pay less attention to it.

  • elpenguino

    people often use the mute button in flash games so they can listen to other music while they play.
    personally i think this detracts from the game experience, but others apparently don’t.
    i agree with them that a mute button is usually a good idea, but detracting marks because of it is a bad thing. instead of a friendly suggestion, they’re saying “you should have done it first time, but it’s too late now. i’ve already marked you down”

  • http://timeslip.hu ave

    As long as you tell me how can I make a skype call while playing, I don’t need your mute button.

    Also I like to listen to Radio Paradise (online radio) I would mute that as well, as the flash game.

    WAKE UP!! Every flash content should be either silent, or offer a mute function! IT’S A MUST!

  • Liam

    Seriously? I didnt even know computers had sound :(

  • http://none.com Pedochu

    I understand your complaints but mute buttons in games are often used to mute out the music while listening to seperate sound, like a video or a different song while still keeping the game open.

  • Ed

    I’ve opened multiple flash games in different tabs (from a list of games or a games site) and will mute the ones I’m not playing until I get to them. It’s beyond annoying to have an unmutable tab in your browser when you’re not even on that page.