So long, 2011 :-)

2011 was a blur… the most packed, sleep-deprived year of our lives. It all comes down to just two things: the birth of our first child, Aria Stella Edery, and the growth of Spry Fox from “fledgling startup” to “awkward teenager” (with six games concurrently in development at most points of the year!)

First and foremost, a few photos of our dear Aria:

And new to 2011’s newsletter… video! Mostly of me being an idiot around Aria. For those inclined to indulge in my idiocy, sound is a must in these:

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Above: This was an ongoing game we played for about two months. Sadly, Aria seems to have tired of it in the past couple weeks. I’m half inclined to crack a joke about kids growing up so fast, and half inclined to sigh because, dammit, its cliche but true!

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Above: Eve and Aria sing mouth to mouth. They’re still doing this. It’s ridiculously cute.

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Above: First time we tried to feed Aria. Her facial expressions are priceless. My parents insist that we made a foolish and costly error by refusing to submit this video to one of those corny “home video” TV shows. Ah well!

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Above: Ummm, yeah, not sure what to say about this. Aria’s name means “lioness” in Hebrew. But I don’t know any songs about lions, and I used to think “Eye of the Tiger” was the most awesomemest song ever when I was a kid, so…..

As for Eve, she has had her hands full raising our sweet-but-attached Aria and easing back into teaching Yoga on a regular basis. She has spent many long hours stuck in bed, holding a baby who refuses to nap anywhere other than in mommy’s arms, reading the news on her iPhone and generally accepting her fate with patience and devotion. And at 10 months, Aria still refuses to accept food from anyone other than Eve! We both look forward to the day when daddy can be a source of more than just horsey rides around the living room. 😉

Regarding Spry Fox, we somehow managed to launch four original games this year; three within the span of a single month! We will never, ever do that again. (No, really, please pinch me if I forget I promised this.)

Above: Triple Town was the first indie game launched on Google+ and has been called Facebook game of the year. For those of you who have played it: my all time high score is 3.6m; consider this an open challenge!

Above: Realm of the Mad God briefly topped Kongregate’s all-time list of best MMOs (currently sitting at #2) and became the subject of an multi-post diary at Rock Paper Shotgun.

Above: Steambirds Survival was developed in partnership with Halfbrick, the company that brought you Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride. We published the iOS version a couple months ago and will be launching the Android version sometime in 2012. It features some of my favorite game music by Eve’s brother and cousin, Gideon and Jeremy.

Above: Panda Poet was launched exclusively on Chrome Web Store and our own website, and has been called best browser game of 2011 by the same lovely folks at Gamezebo who heaped aforementioned praise on Triple Town. It’s a fun multiplayer word game; if you want to challenge me to a match, just click here!

As proud as I am of our achievements, I must admit that this was a challenging year. We’ve had healthy doses of growing pains, team drama, wholesale copying of our games by competitors, months when we weren’t sure we’d have the cash to pay the bills and, in general, too many 80+ hour work weeks. Fortunately, I’ve found in Danc a truly great business partner, and together we’ve managed to push through every stumble, no matter how frustrating or severe. Without a doubt, I’ve learned more in the past year than in the previous three combined. I think we’re ready to kick some serious butt in 2012. 🙂