Heartwild Solitaire Giveaway

imageI’ve written about Heartwild Solitaire a few times, both here and on Twitter, and a few of you have downloaded the free version and yelled at me for allowing you access to such a huge timeslurp. It’s very pretty, this game, and the storyline is more than just your free version from that software company that comes installed on your PC with that other game with the mines that I suck at.

So Darek, mastermind of Heartwild, has offered me five free download coupons, good for the full version of the game, to give away to those of you who might need to take a soft, relaxing, click-click-click brainbreak while at your computers. Interested? Easy to win: just leave a comment, and tell me about how much time a day you spend playing games on your computer. I’m curious – because I suspect women play more than many people might think. Comments close in 24 hours.

Disclaimer: I’m not being compensated for this giveaway, although I might be bugging Derek for pointers on snowboarding. The data contained herein is for informational purposes only and is not represented to be error free unless I haven’t had enough caffeine. In which case your mileage may vary. This message is confidential. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is intentional but purely coincidental. Do not remove this disclaimer under penalty of law. Machine wash cold, tumble dry on low.

I had some questions for Sir Darek, and he was nice enough to answer:

Why a romance storyline? How’d you come up with that?

Darek: Back in the days, when we were doing shoot’em up games (you know, stuff teenagers play), I was longing to work on a game with more story and deeper emotions. We grew up on old school adventure games, which were just starting to get somewhere, but then the market died in late 90-ties.

Later casual games started exploding and it brought lots of new players. What was weird—mainly women. And I thought this could be our chance to do something new. We first considered various half-assed ways of testing the waters, doing me-too projects, but then a crazy idea dawned on me—romance games.

This was a pretty much non-existent category and I thought it shouldn’t be this way. I mean, I know why it isn’t popular with teenage boys šŸ˜‰ but now that women were getting into games as well things could finally change.

Romance novels are a perfect mix of exciting story with strong emotions and that’s something I’d really love to see in games. So we decided to go all in—focus on romance and keep making games until we get the mixture right.

Heartwild Solitaire is just a first step in that direction. We already have few more titles planned ahead so you should expect more romance from us… shortly šŸ™‚

How exactly did you figure out that more casual gamers were women?  Demographic studies or self reporting?

Darek: I’ve heard casual gaming portals saying that the split between male/female for them is about 60/40, with most women being between 30 and 60.

Wikipedia cites sources that claim 74% of women: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casual_game

I haven’t ran any stats on our site, but from a quick glance at first names on our orders I’d say that at *least* 90% are women. Or men cleverly hiding behind female names šŸ˜‰ Maybe it’s because we just assume that our customer is a woman and we design our games, website and everything for women specifically. That probably doesn’t make us too attractive to men, but hopefully it’ll fit with women more. I hope.

So here’s a big question: have you read some romances? And if so which ones?

Darek: Good question šŸ™‚ I haven’t really read any typical romance book, but that’s on my todo list. Maybe you could recommend me few titles I should start with?

To be fair though, I am a sucker for emotional stories. Especially in the cinema. I love what French people do here, at least the old school. Do you know Andre Techine or, recently deceased, Eric Rohmer? They had some great relationship/romance themed movies and French… ah, they are so good in portraying subtle, fragile emotions. I also loved the 50-60’s in American cinema. Tennesee Williams’ days of Fugitive kind, Can on a hot thin roof, Streetcar… etc. Good stuff from Newman, Brando and others. And of course my dearest Bogart in Casablanca – all time best romance movie! šŸ™‚

With books it’s mostly Polish stuff so I doubt you’d know Hlasko or Lysiak šŸ˜‰ And for the last 8 years or so I’ve been reading pretty much only non fiction (I’m a sucker for pop psychology, personal development, spirituality as well as business and marketing), so yeah, I’d appreciate any good book recommendations.

Ok, then: got any recommendations for emotional stories Darek might like?

Comments are Closed

  1. Elise says:

    I probably play about 3-6 hours of computer games a day. World of Warcraft is my main source of gaming fun although I’m also working my way through Mass Effect and play some Left for Dead from time to time.

    Throwing in another For the Horde!

  2. Star Opal says:

    How much time I spend on computer games depends on my moods. When I’m just really in the mood to sit and game, it can be hours.

    Count me among the World of Warcrafters. My brother and sis-in-law got me started on it. I’m about to level my first 80! Whee!

    Back when I worked an office job I used to fill the lulls with Spider Solitaire, Free Cell, Chinese Checkers, Bejeweled and Pinball. (Yes, I occasionally fit in some actual work) Oh and Word Whomp. For a while I was completely and totally addicted to Word Whomp.

  3. Heather says:

    Oooh, the game sounds fun.

    I go through spurts where I play games and times I don’t. Right now, I’ve rediscovered Majong on my computer and will obsessively play until I win. (Same for my Solitaire and Free Cell spurts, too. lol)

    Other games that have sucked hours from my life are PuzzleQuest and GalaxyQuest. Love, love, love click-y games.

  4. Jess says:

    Around 6 hours a week. Thought that was a lot but glad to see others are spending around the same amount of time;-)

  5. Kelly S says:

    Does Wii count?  It’s my exercise method of choice and I like playing the balance games as well as some others.  I go in spurts otherwise.  I was playing about 30 min. of various games on pogo.com for a few months.  I prefer to play games than start a novel when my to do list is very long.  This allows for a little down time without the commitment.

    Also, someone has probably mentioned this above me (84 comments) but “can on a hot thing roof”?  Typo or is that what he said?

    I’ve got nothing to recommend.  I like funny more so that drama for my romances.

  6. Mel L. says:

    I always have to do something on my computer while I’m watching TV and its usually playing a game online. Sadly, I spend WAY too much time doing both.

  7. Liz W. says:

    At least an hour of Solitaire. Every day. (I have to play Solitaire before I can write. It’s Zen-inducing.) But lately I’ve been playing this online RPG called Dream World; it’s ridiculously addictive. I discovered it last Friday and I’m already a level 21 Mage with a familiar unicorn. (It is exactly as awesome as it sounds.)

    And I was up until 4 yesterday playing Sporcle quizzes with my friends. But I suppose that’s what you get putting a bunch of former high school quiz bowl team captains in a room together.

  8. ajack0820 says:

    Playing games? About four hours ago, my answer would have been a few hours a week. Now that I’m COMPLETELY addicted to Heartwild Solitaire (thank you very much Sarah) I can’t quite answer the question. Let’s put it at four hours and counting…

  9. Carol says:

    I’d recommend Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereaux. I know it’s an old book, but a male friend once read it and seems to like it.

    As to gaming, on week nights, I play around 2 hours and weekends, I try to limit myself to 4 hours a day. If I don’t restrain myself, I think I’ll play from the time I wake to the time I need to sleep. LOL

  10. Carol says:

    Okay, I forgot to add. I’m in my mid 30’s. I play World of Warcraft as well as casual games such as Cake Mania and Farm Frenzy and Facebook games like Cafe World. I also have Dragon Age but haven’t played that yet. Can’t afford to be addicted right now. šŸ™‚

  11. Most days I spend no time playing games, as the only game on my computer is the sample Heartwild solitaire…

  12. Dana L says:

    I don’t play games all the time, but when I do, I can be on there for hours.  Like others have said, it’s “just one more game.”

  13. Jean T says:

    I tried to download this game three times and I could not get it to download.  I play solitare at least an hour a day—it is such mindless entertainment and allows me to turn my brain off.  Any suggestions Darek?

  14. elianara says:

    Don’t enter me, don’t want the game.

    I spend way too much time on games on my computer or PS2. Farmville (and other like that) and Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, easily over an hour daily, and often the daily Big Fish game. Hidden Object games and swap 3 are favorites there.

    I also like RPGs and Hack ‘n Slash games; Sacred, Morrowind and Oblivion are long time installs on my computer.

    On Playstation I like Ratchet and Clank games, Singstar, Prince of Persia series, and Burnout: Takedown.  I got Trivial Pursuit as a Christmas gift, I have spent hours playing that one lately.

    Counting all that, I estimate I play games in one way or other maybe 3 hours daily, more on days off from work.

  15. SabrinaSassyPants says:

    I play any and everything all day while I’m at work and also when I’m home.  Anything ranging from MindJolt games to GeoChallenge to random games I come accross.  Right now I’m saving up to buy an old school NES system to play some games on.

  16. kaetchen says:

    That is ever so groovy. I’d love a copy!

  17. lilitu93 says:

    Don’t enter me as I already own the game and love it.

    I’m in my late 30s and have been playing games for about 8 years now. I played a bit when I was younger, mostly Tetris or Solitaire, but it was my husband wanting a PS2 that did it for me. He said I’d get addicted, and he was right.

    I play both casual and non-casual games, and I go through phases of playing lots and then not at all. I’ll try most genres except first person shooters (I suck at them and the motion can sometimes trigger migraines) but my favourites are adventure games and hidden object games. I’m also a Big Fish Games member and am looking forward to Dire Grove now that it’s finally out for Mac. I’ve just got a huge pile-up of games at the moment, especially with the new punchcard.

    As for non-casual games, I tend to play them more on the Wii or DS. My favourite game series is the Ace Attorney series, which has some romance in it, both in-game and subtext. (And, yes, I ship Phoenix and Miles, but that’s not the only reason I play the games.) I’ve wanted to try World of Warcraft, but I’m actually scared of it due to the time commitment.

  18. lilitu93 says:

    @SabrinaSassyPants

    You probably already know this, but if you get a Wii you can play some NES games on the virtual console, along with SNES and other classic consoles. Obviously they don’t have every game on there, but most of the famous ones are there.

  19. Amber says:

    Well, are we talking about free to play and pop cap games, or just in general games on our computers?

    If it’s general, then I play World of Warcraft for at least 2 hours any given week night and around 5 hours on Saturday and Sunday.  So, at minimum about 20 hours a week.  (I play with my hubby šŸ˜€ )

  20. Chantress says:

    *gasp* There’s a use for computers besides playing games? Why am I only hearing about this now?

    Seriously, though, I spend more time gaming than I want to think about. Solitaire is my comforting fallback while I wait for stuff to finish loading, but I also spend ridiculous amounts of time pwning Luxor and trying to pwn Luxor 2.

    Also: The Sims 2. For reals. I have to save it for weekends when I’m going to have a lot of free time, because I could spend days playing it without even trying. I know they’re just pixels, but I get so darn attached to the little guys, and I love watching their lives unfolding—admittedly with the help of a lot of sadistic plotting from yours truly. I also spend a lot of time finding nifty downloads for my Sims; you know it’s sad when your pixel people have nicer clothes and hair than you ever will.

Comments are closed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.

↑ Back to Top