What a year it’s been in 8 Ball Pool! We’ve seen new features, amazing trickshots, cool Pool art, and over ten billion games played of classic 8 Ball action. So, here we are, at the end of 2013. We’re already looking forward to plenty of exciting stuff in 2014, but here’s everything you need to know about 8 Ball Pool as we enter the holiday period!

Last week, we released an update for 8 Ball on web and Facebook, and we’ll have a new version on mobile devices in the next couple of weeks. What’s new in these updates? Read on!

Play Facebook Friends in 8 Ball

We’ve fixed a bug that was preventing some users from being able to challenge their Facebook friends to a game of Pool. You may now see the game asking you to confirm access to your Facebook Chat contacts: you’ll need to confirm this in order to challenge friends. Most of you will have done this when you installed the app, in which case you’ll already be able to play your Facebook friends!

New Christmas Cue

The new Christmas Cue is available for a short time only!

There’s only one way to play 8 Ball this festive season and it’s with the brand new Xmas cue. You may already have noticed the cue in the Pool Shop on web and Facebook – it’ll be added to mobile very soon too. Shot of the season!

Double-value Coin Packs

Look out for a special offer coming soon to 8 Ball over the Christmas period – double-value top-ups on selected Coin Packs in the Pool Shop! The offer will run from the 23rd to the 26th of December – keep an eye on our Facebook page or the @poolbyminiclip Twitter feed for the latest info!

Trickshots Masterclass – Part 2

Epic trickshot inbound.

We’ve just published our second collection of your amazing trickshots! We had an absolute ton of entries emailed in, so we’re already working on a super-size edition of shots for Part 3. Again, we’re just amazed by the incredible creativity and skill shown by some of our players. Some of these shots we had to watch again and again to try and work out how they’d been potted. Thanks so much to everyone who has sent one in so far. Remember, if you’ve got a trickshot for us, email social at miniclip dot com. And if you missed Part 1, it’s right here.

In the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy these awesome shots!

Localized versions coming to mobile

8 Ball on mobile is being localized into multiple languages.

We know that 8 Ball is played by gamers all around the world, so we’re taking steps to ensure that the game is even more fun for everyone. The next update to 8 Ball on mobile devices will include localized language versions of the game in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. We’re working on bringing out some other language editions soon too!

“No guideline” mode in elite mobile tiers

We’re also introducing a new feature in the top tier of 1v1 and Tournaments on mobile: a “no guideline” mode. It’s the ultimate test of skill; we’ve seen quite a few players request a gamemode like this so we hope you’ll enjoy it. If you’d rather play with guidelines, there are plenty of other tiers to choose

What next?

Well, that just about wraps it up for 2013… but what have we got coming in 2014? Well, there’s a ton of top-secret stuff that we’ll share with you in these updates when we have a little more detail. In the meantime, why not tell us what you’d like to see in 8 Ball next year?

That’s all from us, so all that’s left to do is wish all our players a happy holidays and a very happy New Year, and all the best for 2014.

Thanks for playing!

The 8 Ball Pool Team

Making money by playing games? It sounds almost too good to be true… but it is true.

We’ve always been happy for our players to make videos of themselves playing our games and then upload them to YouTube – who wouldn’t be? There isn’t much that we enjoy more than watching people having fun playing Miniclip games!

We’re also happy for users to make money from those videos, on any broadcasting service – especially YouTube – by having adverts running alongside them.  We were delighted to see Vlambeer, another games company, taking up the baton on this and bringing it into the public eye.

So, we at Miniclip wanted to be 100% clear on this:  we’re totally happy to give you full legal permission to make videos of you playing Miniclip games and to make money off those videos. All our games. Literally every game on Miniclip. Yes, even 8 Ball Pool. In fact, we’ve recently been using some of your 8 Ball Pool videos to make some totally awesome trickshot collections.

This permission extends back to the dawn of time and will continue until the end of eternity. It transcends all spatial boundaries; users can upload and monetize gameplay from any country, including the bottom of the ocean and from the moon if they so desire.

The only tiny thing we would like to add, which we’re sure you know already, is that Miniclip is a family-friendly site. So, we’d be very grateful if you could bear that in mind when making videos of our games, or using them on your own channels. Keep it clean and fun and you might even find your stuff shared on our official Facebook page or Twitter feed.

Other than that, we wish you all the best with videos of our games. Seriously, we hope you become super-rich off the back of them. If that does happen, and you’re at a loss as to how to spend it all, perhaps you would consider buying us a small island in the Bahamas, or, failing that, something for our next Cake Friday.

If YouTube or someone else says that you can’t do this, then please direct them back to this blog post.

As always, have fun!

The Miniclip Team

Happy New Year from all at Miniclip! To kick off 2014, here’s our monthly update with all the latest on the games you should be playing this January. Grey, dreary January: the perfect month for gaming.

This is Black Sun in Survival Mode. It’s crazy.

New games out now

As you may know, we ran our Best of 2013 poll at the end of November (won by 8 Ball Pool) – but then we went and released some other great games a few weeks later! One of them is quite breathtakingly brilliant – one of the best-looking Unity games we’ve ever seen, and a serious amount of fun. We’re talking, of course, about the explosive space shooter Black Sun. If you’ve not played it yet… well… the link’s right there, people.

If you’re currently thinking “I don’t quite feel like playing a game right now, but what I would like to do is watch a totally awesome trailer for the game you’re talking about” then that’s cool, we can roll with that. *ahem*

Only the toughest cowboys and cowgirls will make it through Saloon Brawl 2.

Raft Wars 2. Mind the shark.

But enough about Black Sun (play it play it play it) – December also saw the release of wild west beat-em-up Saloon Brawl 2. In this sequel, your only weapons are your fists – but when you’re this tough, what more do you need? Use your special attacks to keep those darn cowboys at bay, and stay light on your feet to beat down the big bosses. We also released Raft Wars 2 – a kooky little turn-based game where you have to try and knock your enemies into the water before they do the same to you. This game has a slightly odd sense of humour and proved very popular on Miniclip in December.

A game that proved even more popular in the Miniclip office last week was Ski Safari. Someone (mentioning no names *cough Big Rob cough*) managed to set a ridiculously high score in this game, which led to many of us trying to top it on our lunchbreak. Much penguin-skating and yeti-riding later, most of us were Ski Safari experts and had broken the 200,000 points barrier. For a little while there, all we could hear were the sounds of chirping penguins.

Can you top that score? One of our Twitter followers, XeroTheSage, posted an awesome 298,202… which one of our team has just gone past (330,290). Good luck on the ski slopes! Ride those yeti!

New games coming soon in 2014

Yup, we have some really cool new stuff coming out this year – in fact, two of them, Quantum Patrol and Western Front 1914, are out already. But you can check out a showcase of some of our forthcoming games in this video. Can’t wait for Total Wreckage!

Total Wreckage is coming soon to Miniclip. Destruction Derby!

Motocross Nitro – a brand new update

Motocross Nitro has been updated: new levels, new vehicles!

We rocked out a massive update to Motocross Nitro a few weeks ago, including new vehicles (skimobiles! yay!), new tracks, and a ton of awards to win, leaderboards to top, and unlockables to… um… unlock. Grab your bike (or skimobile), switch out the colours, pick your number and your decals before hitting the slopes. Oh yes, you can customize your rider too, not to mention upgrade your ride with extra power, nitro and control. There is an absolute ton of new features to explore – plus, of course, the game is awesome. Don’t miss out.

YouTube videos of our games

You’ve probably seen that there’s a bit of a YouTube controversy going down at the moment, with lots of YouTubers being hit with copyright claims over the games that they’ve made videos of themselves playing. We know that lots of our players like making videos of themselves playing Miniclip games, so we wanted to clarify: Miniclip will never stop you from making videos of our games. We love watching those videos, and we’ve even featured some on our site and on our social pages.

Rail Rush is one of our most-downloaded games, available on iOS, Android and Windows Phones.

On top of that, we’re also very happy for users to make money from those videos in the form of YouTube adverts. Seriously! Check out our blog post on this for more info.

Miniclip hits 250m downloads

If you’ll allow us a small moment of self-congratulation, we went past the landmark of a quarter of a billion downloads of our mobile titles a few weeks ago. Our top titles have been Rail Rush (34m downloads), iStunt (25m) and Fragger (24m) – thanks everyone for playing! You can read more about this achievement here. Achievement Unlocked!

Christmas Jumper Day

The Miniclip London office joined in with national Christmas Jumper Day to raise money for the charity, Save The Children - we’ve never seen such an impressive array of festive knitwear. A couple of the more… well, interesting jumpers even featured fairy lights. Truly it was a sight to behold. And behold it you may with this great picture.

Beat us at our own game

Soon you’ll have the chance to take us on at our own game!

You may have seen this mentioned on our Facebook page, Google+ or Twitter, but we’ve been planning something fun with 8 Ball Pool. Yup, we’re going to give you the chance to take us on at our own game in special 8 Ball events. Look out for more details very soon – and don’t forget to follow us (if you’re not already) to make sure you don’t miss out.

That’s all for this month – have a great, game-filled January!

Happy New Year, 8 Ballers! We’re super-excited about some of the new stuff we’re working on for 8 Ball Pool in 2014, and these updates are the first place you’ll hear about them. In the meantime, here’s what we’ve been up to since our Christmas update.

Beat The Boss

As we’re sure you’ve seen, Miniclip chief Big Rob took to the tables of 8 Ball Pool last week to play against some of the 8 Ball community. He took on as many challengers as he could squeeze in – maybe you were one of the people he played! Out of ten games, he won 4 and, er, lost the other 6. Big thanks to everyone who logged in to challenge him, and congratulations to our boss-beaters Edvinas, Loayh9, Humayun, Bo, Denizarikan12 and Chaddy111222!

Look out for details of when Big Rob is online!

Were you logged in, but didn’t manage to get a game? Don’t panic – we’re looking to make Beat The Boss a regular event. But remember that you’ve got to be quick – there’s a lot of people who want to take him down…!

So, how do you go about joining the action? Keep an eye on our Facebook page and Twitter feed for announcements of the next event, and make sure you’re logged in to the game on Miniclip or Facebook (not mobile) at the time given. Hit Play Friends and search for Big Rob’s player profile, RobertMiniclip, and add him – if you’ve not already done so. In the Play Friends page, you’ll be able to see when he’s online, and when he’s in a game – it’ll show his status as “Busy”. The moment that “Busy” disappears, hit the challenge button to send your request!

To make sure that all players have a fair chance of playing, Big Rob will accept the first challenge he receives - get ready to click that mouse button!

If you have any ideas that you think may improve our Beat the Boss event (live-streaming? exclusive awards?), please let us know either in the comments below, on Facebook, or by emailing us on social at miniclip dot com.

8 Ball on web – updated

It’s now much easier to see ALL your achievements in the game, from your Player Profile page.

We released a new version of 8 Ball on web and Facebook last week, mainly focussed on improving the game’s interface to make it cleaner and faster to navigate. We’re sure some of you have already noticed the new nav bar on 8 Ball on Facebook which gives you easier access to your friends, items and more.

We’ve also changed how your achievements are displayed in the game: in your player profile is a new button which shows all your unlocked achievements (and the ones you’ve still got to win), so all you completionists can accurately check your progress!

Finally, we’ve also put your friends list in alphabetical order to make it quicker and easier to find your friends for a game. We’re working on a way to display your friends by how often you’ve played them to make sure your favourite opponents are at the top. Less scrolling through lists, more playing 8 Ball!

No guideline, no problem

No Guideline mode is coming to elite tiers on mobile.

Looking ahead, we have new updates in store for 8 Ball Pool on mobile too. One of the bigger changes is something that we’ve had plenty of requests for – a no guideline mode. Yup, this means that in the highest tiers, 8 Ball will be played without a guideline and you’ll have to use your own skill and judgement to beat your opponent. We’re looking forward to a few games of this ourselves – it should be the ultimate test of 8 Ball skill!

We’re also continuing to roll out new language versions of 8 Ball on mobile. The next update on all platforms will contain Russian and Turkish translations, and iOS users will also now have the 6 languages included in the Android update at the end of 2013.

Cool stuff from the Community

We’re not even a month into 2014 and we’ve already been sent some great new trickshots by our players. Huge thanks to Arvind, Amruth, Kunal908, Kilkiju and plenty of others for their incredible creativity and 8 Ball skill – we’ve been loving your videos and we’ll include as many as we can in our new Trickshot Masterclass #3! It’s already looking pretty sweet – we’re putting it together at the moment.

Remember, if you want your trickshot to make it into our masterclass, email us at social at miniclip dot com. This bit of showboating from Amruth is our current favourite!

That’s all for this month’s update! As always, we love hearing your feedback and suggestions on new features and improvements to 8 Ball. We look forward to hearing what you guys make of the no guideline mode, and any ideas you have for making Beat The Boss even better!

Enjoy the game,

The 8 Ball Pool Team

So you’ve started on your journey to become a Motocross Nitro champion… but unlocking all the tracks, bikes and achievements is tough! Fortunately, our in-house team of Motocross Experts have put together this tips and tricks guide to help you on your way.

1. Wheelies are key

Wheelies are the best way to build up nitro throughout a track. It’s a lot safer than trying to do a Can Can on a small jump! You can also do a standing wheelie by holding the left and down arrows at the same time, while your bike is stationary. This comes in handy during Freestyle events, especially if you near the end and you still have a bit of time left – you can balance a wheelie for some extra points.

If you can perfect the art of doing a wheelie on every bike, then you’re well on your way to being a Champion.

2. Don’t be afraid to use an older bike

All the bikes have different stats, which makes them better (or worse) for certain events and for going after certain achievements. Just because you’ve unlocked a shiny new ride, doesn’t mean it’s going to be the ideal vehicle for the next event. The Spark bike is very light and easy to do tricks on, so it’s perfect for Freestyle events – but useless for higher tier races where you need a bit more raw power.

3. Use nitro tactically

Nitro can be used to get the edge on your opponents: it can give you more height or distance on your jumps, and that oh-so-cool slo-mo effect when you’re pulling off tricks. Using nitro is essential to getting the bonus objectives on each level. The best time to trigger your nitro boost is just as you hit the top of a hill or ramp: this’ll ensure that as you leave the ground, your boost is fully engaged.

4. Don’t button mash

It may seem like you don’t have much time to execute the trick you want, but if you press the keys quickly (and in the right combination) then you’ll be able to put off a string of high-level moves without a fuss. It’s also good to be aware of how long each trick takes to complete… so you don’t end up face-planting in the middle of a Superman. Practice until you’re familiar with them all.

5. The “R” key is your friend

Don’t be afraid to hit the “R” key if things aren’t going your way, and restart the level. Trial and error is the best way to figure out what techniques do and don’t work on a particular track or bike – even the experts won’t hit the jumps perfectly on their first run. Experimentation is a key skill of a Motocross Nitro Champ.

6. Use brake when pulling off a frontflip

You would think frontflips would be quite easy, seeing as they’re just backflips in a different direction. Think again: a frontflip is a true pro move. Be sure to brake during the frontflip - accelerating will actually slow the flip which looks cool but you’re more likely to crash.

7. Control that skimobile

With great power, comes great responsibility – and the skimobile has a lot of power. However, you must wield that power with a lot of control. When you start a race, lean forward (right arrow key) to steady the skimobile. This also applies after small jumps as the skimobile is liable to flip itself (and you) over if you jam down the accelerator without getting your balance right. Also, be aware that the skimobile is much bigger and heavier than a bike, so flips take a lot longer to perform.

8. Master the trick combos

Motocross Nitro has tons of tricks to learn and master. Some of them are straightforward, where others require precision timing and very big air. Luckily for you, we’ve put together this sweet video showcase of all the tricks. You’ll soon know your Electric Doom from your Hart Attack – check it out and get practicing.

9. Get the awards and pass the Challenges

Passing challenges and earning awards is a great way to get extra cash and to unlock upgrades for your bike. Pay special attention to the challenges that are set for each track, and don’t forget that you can race a track as many times as you want in order to pass them. As always with Motocross Nitro, the better you know each track, the better chance you’ll have of getting that 90m jump distance, or pulling off a long wheelie.

These tips should be everything you need to unleash your inner speed demon on the courses of Motocross Nitro. All that’s left now is to get on your bike, hit that nitro boost and get some big air! Good luck – and try not to face-plant too spectacularly…

Got a top tip for other Motocross Nitro players? Post it in the comments below! We’ll pick out the best ones and add them to the list above.

You may have heard about the Beat The Boss events we’ve started running in 8 Ball Pool – you may even have been one of the people lucky enough to take him on so far. We thought we’d put together some answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Beat The Boss to bring you all right up to speed. Let’s go!

What is Beat The Boss?

Beat The Boss is a special event on 8 Ball Pool where Miniclip chief Big Rob takes time from his busy schedule to play Pool with you, the players. He’s usually online for 30 minutes to take on as many challengers as he can.

When is it? How can I find out when the next one is?

The next Beat the Boss event will be announced on the 8 Ball Pool Facebook page and on Twitter. Keep an eye out for details of the next event.

How can I join in?

Getting set for Beat The Boss is easy. First, you need to be logged in to 8 Ball Pool on Miniclip or Facebook. Click Play Friends from the main menu, then search RobertMiniclip to find him. Remember that he’ll only turn up in search when he’s online – so try searching during one of the events. When you’ve found him, click that challenge button like your life depends on it!

Help! I can’t find Big Rob!

Are you playing on a mobile device? Because you’ll need to be logged in to 8 Ball Pool on Miniclip or Facebook. Mobile users won’t see him online, so get on the web version to make sure you don’t miss out!

Logged in on Miniclip or Facebook, but still can’t see him? That’s because he’s currently offline! Search again when one of the events is underway, and you’ll be able to find him. Plus, once you’ve added him as a friend on 8 Ball, you’ll have him saved in your friends list for future events.

Can I play Big Rob on mobile?

Just in case you haven’t read the last two questions, sorry, but you can’t play Big Rob on mobile. However, we are considering running extra-special mobile-only events in future, so stay tuned. But for the time being, you’ll need to be playing on Miniclip or Facebook.

Big Rob didn’t accept my challenge request

Big Rob receives hundreds if not thousands of challenges when he’s online – there’s a lot of 8 Ball Players out there! To keep Beat The Boss fair, he always accepts the very first challenge he receives when he returns to the game lobby. Even so, there’s only so many games he can squeeze in per event – if you don’t get to play him, try again next time! Remember, he’s not ignoring you, he’s just winning.

What do I get if I Beat The Boss?

You win a prize greater than gold, greater than the rarest gem or jewels. You win what many have tried to achieve, few have come close to and even fewer have accomplished. You become part of the special ones that can say they’ve beaten the Boss.

Hey! He only played 1 game against me and then left, what gives?

Big Rob tries to get through as many opponents as he can, so he only has time to play 1 game per challenger. It’s definitely not the case that he doesn’t want to play you any more because he’s worried he might lose.

Who is this Big Rob guy anyway? 

Big Rob is the CEO of Miniclip (so yes, you really are playing the Boss). When he’s not playing 8 Ball Pool he’s usually determining the fate of world, or playing real pool (and winning at that too).

Is he any good?

He is unlike any 8 Ball Pool player you’ve ever seen. His focus and determination have been forged in the fires of a thousand suns. His abilities were honed under pressures greater than a hundred black holes. He has been compared to a force of Nature, a constant of our universe, like gravity or Time.

Tl;dr – yeah, he’s alright.

Wait, don’t go, I have more questions!

Got another question about Beat The Boss that wasn’t answered above? Click that comment button and ask away and we’ll help you out.

News! Updates! Fun stuff! Yup, it’s our monthly Miniclip roundup post!

A new update to Rail Rush will unlock a new world: Amazonia.

As we’re sure you know, we love games. So, we’ve decided to gamify this blog post. Hidden on this page is a cake. The first person to find the cake and announce its location in the comments section gets a prize of indeterminate value.

While you’re looking for the cake, we recommend reading the post. Perhaps a clue to the cake’s location is contained within. Perhaps the words themselves are full of awesome stuff that you need to know. Find out for yourself.

New Games

2014 has started with a literal bang on Miniclip – a common theme shared by two of our most popular games so far this year has been “cars” and “destruction”. Total Wreckage has brought high-speed pile-ups and spectacular crashes to your screens, with its stylish total-wipeout traps adding an even bigger element of vehicular violence to the mix.

Our other new favorite is Crash & Burn, which takes place in an open city packed with stunt jumps, cash stashes, hidden secrets and lots of things to destroy. Go where you want, leap off buildings, plow through sports cars, drive up (and off) cliff-sides – it’s totally up to you. Unlock new vehicles – the rocket-launching fire truck is a personal fave – and tons of upgrades to make yourself faster, tougher, and more destructive. Check out our video to see it in action, or, if you’re already convinced, play it right now.

Bob The Robber 2

Hot Rod Racers is out now on iOS, Android and WP8 – and on Miniclip.com!

Another game you should definitely check out this month is the super-sneaky Bob The Robber 2. We’ll let one of our YouTube commenters, CrimsonFury606, summarize this one for you as we’re not sure we can do any better: “Robin Hood, Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil all in one. Bob the Robber (technically burglar) is one heck of an anti-hero. He truly does fight for the 99%.” Bob The Robber – what a guy.

Mobile news

This month saw our first big mobile release of the year, with the awesome Hot Rod Racers hitting iOS, Android and WP8 devices. It’s a free racing game that requires perfect gear-shifting timing to squeeze every last bit of speed out of your car as you try to get over that finish line before your opponent. You earn coins and crowns as you complete challenges,allowing you to upgrade your hot rod – or even get your hands on a new one if the style isn’t to your liking. But it’s not just about who’s got the fastest car: your opponent will also try to ram you to slow you down. Solution: get him before he gets you. You can also play it on Miniclip.com.

Total Wreckage has been one of our most popular games so far this year.

Hot Rod Racers is out now, but we’ve also got something cool coming very soon to Rail Rush. We’ve got a whole new world (okay, now you’re going to be singing that for the rest of the day), plus a new character, swinging through the jungle and onto your phone or tablet in the next few weeks.

The latest version of 8 Ball Pool on mobile also included a brand-new feature: a no-guideline mode on the highest tier. Yup, this means that for the really big bucks, you’ll need all your 8 Ball skill to win – only the top players need apply.

We’ve got some more cool stuff coming to 8 Ball soon – there’s a sparkly new Valentine’s Cue in the shop right now – make sure you follow our Facebook page to get the latest info.

Beat The Boss

On the subject of 8 Ball Pool… have you seen our Beat The Boss events? Beat The Boss is YOUR chance to take on Miniclip CEO Big Rob on the 8 Ball Pool tables. So far, each week seems to follow a similar pattern: Big Rob loses most of the first five or six games, but then gets his act together for the home straight, rattling off three or four quick wins that take him back into the safe water of respectability. Beat The Boss is still a new event, and we’re always looking to improve it – and we’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments section.

No Guideline mode is now out on elite tiers on 8 Ball Pool mobile.

To find out more about Beat The Boss, check out our Frequently Asked Questions post.

8 Ball Pool – Trickshot Masterclass

We’ve recently published our new 8 Ball Pool Trickshot Masterclass, featuring 14 of the very best shots sent in by 8 Ball players over the last month. We think this collection has some of the finest shots we’ve seen to date – make sure you watch them all as we saved one of the best ’til last!

Don’t forget, if you’ve got a shot you want to share with the world, send us a message on Facebook or email social at miniclip dot com. In the meantime, sit back and be amazed at this world-class display of 8 Ball Pool skill.

Big Rob during one of our Beat The Boss events

Tips & Tricks

We’ve recently published a load of new tips and tricks videos on our YouTube channel for some of our most popular games, including a full walkthrough for Bob the Robber 2 and a guide to all the tricks in Motocross Nitro. If there’s a game that you’re stuck on, let us know and we’ll look at putting together a walkthrough vid for it!

Alternatively, if you’ve made your own walkthrough video of one of our games, share it with us! It might end up on Miniclip where thousands of others can benefit from your gaming skills. Just email us a link to social at miniclip dot com. 

Team Miniclip

Our growing Lisbon team have just moved into a shiny new extended office, complete with an awesome chill-out area with fussball tables, sofas and game consoles. You also get a cool view of the Atlantic ocean out of the window (now, we just need the sun to start shining again). We also took the opportunity to upgrade our entrance hall with some Miniclip artwork – check it out!

The London office Pool Tournament was won by… Big Rob

In London, between battling tube strikes and weather that actually washed away the ground underneath the train tracks that one of our team uses to get home, we also held a real-life Pool Tournament. As we’ve learned in the past, being good at 8 Ball Pool bears no relation to your ability on a real pool table. No relation at all. Having said that, the eventual winner was none other than Big Rob himself, although the overall standard would probably cause some of our 8 Ball players to turn their nose up in horror. Anyway, here’s the winning moment (right).

Meanwhile, our team in Neuchâtel – in between sending around photos showing just how sunny Switzerland is right now – recently enjoyed a chocolate making (and tasting) session. Possibly there was more interest in the tasting than the making.

We’re Hiring

Want to be a part of Miniclip? We’re always looking for new people to join our team, and we’re currently hiring for a wide number of roles in London, Lisbon and Neuchâtel. Positions include Software Developers and Web Designers, but there’s plenty more too – take a look at our Vacancies page for more information.

And Finally

Did you find the cake?

Time for us to lift the lid on what the 8 Ball Pool team are working on this month, and give you some insight into what’s coming next to the game.

All-in Mode

Our new mode in 8 Ball Pool: ALL IN!

We’ve got an update coming to 8 Ball Pool on mobile in the next few weeks – and the big new feature is the Monaco All In Lounge. This means that you’ll be able to stake all your Pool Coins on one match of 8 Ball. It’s a mode for the most confident of players, or those that like taking risks! The All In Lounge unlocks at level 10 and above.

Some important things you need to know about going All-in:

1. In order to win a Monaco Lounge match-up, a player needs to win two games in a row against their opponent. With so much at stake, we know that there’s always an outside chance that your opponent might make a good break and then clear the table without you taking a shot. So even if that happens in the first game, you’ll get a break-off shot of your own to stay in the game.
2. The prize for All In will be based on an equal amount of coins from both players, like going “all in” in a game of poker. If, for example, Player A has 100,000 coins and Player B only has 10,000, then Player B’s coin total will be used for the match (10,000 coins from Player A + 10,000 coins from Player B = 20,000 coins total prize).
3. There are no guidelines in the Monaco Lounge.
4. The minimum stake is 1,000 coins.
5. This sounds obvious, but we wanted to make it super-clear: if you go all-in and lose, those coins are gone! There’s no way to choose who you’re going up against when you play All-in mode, so it’s best to assume that you will be staking every last Pool Coin on the match. Good luck!

   Make sure you’re ready to go all-in before you click that button!

Monaco All In Lounge will be a special tier on mobile that you choose from the main menu. Make sure you’re ready to play before you pick it!

Beat The Boss

Our Beat the Boss event sees Miniclip chief Big Rob taking on you, the players, in a series of special 8 Ball events. We’ve seen some awesome skill on display (mainly from you guys rather than Big Rob, admittedly). We put together a short highlights video of a Beat The Boss event from a few weeks ago.

Want to know how to get involved? We’ve put together a blog post of Frequently Asked Questions – check it out. We’ve recently made this shiny scoreboard too – who’s gonna get their name on there next week, and will it have the “Boss Beater” mark next to it?

Limited Edition cues

The Limited Edition Valentine’s Cue in all its glory.

You may have noticed that there have been some exclusive Limited Edition cues hitting the Pool Shop recently, including the Chinese New Year cue and our most recent addition, the lovely Valentine’s cue (nothing says “I love you” like thrashing someone at 8 Ball). You’ve still got a few more days to pick up the Valentine’s one, but then it’s gone for good!

However, we’re already working on another very special cue that’ll be coming your way in March… make sure you follow @poolbyminiclip on Twitter for a sneak peek in the next few weeks.

What kind of cue would you like to see in the game? Tell us below and we’ll try and make it happen!

Click To Claim Reward – disabled

Some of you may have noticed that the “Click to Claim Reward” links on Facebook have recently been disabled. We discovered a small bug with these links recently which we’re now working to fix. In the meantime, they’ve been disabled while we work on it.

Top-tier Tournaments

Top-tier tournaments are currently closed to all players.

One of the most frequent questions we get asked is: when will the higher-tier tournaments open again?

We hope to reopen all tournaments to all players soon – when we have a firm release date, we’ll let you all know. But just to clarify, these tournaments are currently closed to all players – no matter how high your level. More news soon.

Trickshot Masterclass #3

We were blown away by the response to our last trickshot video, made up of brilliant shots sent in by you, the players. We had so many new shots sent to us that we had to make an extended video – and we’ve already had plenty more breathtaking shots emailed to us since we published this new collection.

If you’ve got a shot to show us, just email it over to social at miniclip dot com, and maybe you’ll be appearing in the next video. In the meantime, sit back, relax, and enjoy this supreme display of 8 Ball awesomeness.

That’s all for this month 8 Ballers – enjoy the game!

We’re very proud to announce a campaign with Sport Relief, starting today, in our hit game 8 Ball Pool! We’re including a special limited edition Sport Relief coin pack in the game on Miniclip.com and on Facebook, which is being sold on behalf of the charity.

A minimum of £2.10 from every special coin pack purchased goes straight to Sport Relief.

A minimum of £2.10 from every special coin pack purchased will go straight to Sport Relief for the duration of the campaign, which will run from March 19th to March 26th 2014.

We’ve been inspired by the epic, world-record breaking Battle of the Backsides, in which UK soccer stars Alan Shearer and Robbie Savage raced each to be the first to sit in on 45,000 seats at the iconic Wembley Stadium, all to raise money for the charity.

“Miniclip is very proud to be supporting Sport Relief 2014 and raising awareness of the outstanding work they are doing,” said Jeremy Wadia, Chief Operating Officer of Miniclip. “It’s not quite as physical as Shearer and Savage’s ‘Battle of the Backsides’ Wembley event but by playing 8 Ball Pool, fans can have great fun from sitting in the comfort of their own homes and still be supporting Sport Relief!”

“Sport Relief is all about fun and games, so we’re thrilled to have Miniclip’s support,” added Sarah Whitley, Fundraising Development Manager for Sport Relief. “The money raised from each Sport Relief coin pack purchased could feed 4 children, living on the streets in India, for one day. Every single person who participates will change lives for the better.”

You can donate to Sport Relief by purchasing the limited edition Sport Relief Bundle in the Pool Shop.

Sport Relief takes place from 21st – 23rd March and it’s already shaping up to be an unmissable weekend with more than 1,000 events taking place across the UK. Money raised through Sport Relief will help people living incredibly tough lives in the UK and across the world. You can find and enter your local events at www.sportrelief.com.

Let’s play 8 Ball Pool!

Zero Gravity is a brand-new space shooter/runner coming soon to Miniclip, created by our very own Associate Producer Jamie Joseph. In his role at Miniclip, Jamie oversees development of our games – he works closely with developers to produce games like Crash n Burn, Bow Master Japan and Guns of Anarchy. We sat down for a chat to find out how he went about getting his game made.

Survive on your dangerous trek back to Earth

Could you tell us a bit about Zero Gravity?
It’s a shooter set in space inspired by endless runners. It has several levels and we added in side objectives to each one to increase replayability. Your character has to avoid obstacles on the way to the end of the level but you also have to shoot enemies to survive.

What were the influences for Zero Gravity?
Dead Space 2 was one of the main things that influenced Zero Gravity.  A section of the game has you guiding Isaac’s descent to a space station whilst flying through and around space debris and that was a definite inspiration.

What was the process you went through to get Zero Gravity produced?
After coming up with the game concept, I pitched it to our in-house games team to see if they liked the idea and to get it approved. The team talked about whether or not Zero Gravity would make a good game, the key features and any areas they think could be improved. After that I made amendments to the game design document and pitched the concept again. Once everyone was happy they gave the game a rating on how successful they thought it would be. Finally, I contacted the developer to get started on the creation of Zero Gravity, in this case it was the studio Silent Bay.

Shoot robots and dodge debris

Were there other things you’d like to have included but didn’t have time/budget?
We wanted the game to have an endless runner mode too. We also wanted to include an oxygen meter which would double as an energy bar, and an end of game boss. These are features to include for a potential Zero Gravity sequel.

Is this the first game idea you’ve pitched?
I’ve pitched a few concepts before but the scope of those game ideas was too big so needed to be refined. Even if you have a great idea, there is still time constraints and a budget to consider. It’s always great to see an idea that you’ve created become a game, and in my time at Miniclip I’ve been lucky enough to see many games become reality.

Any plans to port the game to mobile?
If the game is successful then it’s an option we’d definitely look into. It would be interesting to see how we’d work out a shooting mechanic alongside the movement controls.

So what advice would you give to someone if they got lost in space?
Always be prepared for any situation, have lots of food and oxygen to survive! Make sure there’s a nearby planet to land on and hope someone comes to get you soon.

Blast your way through hostile territory

Zero Gravity is coming soon to Miniclip.com. Check out the trailer below.

Hey guys, we’re back again with more news on 8 Ball Pool’s recent updates. Lets jump right in!

Match three and win big!

Scratch & Win

Scratch & Win is a recent addition to 8 Ball Pool on Web, you may have seen it already if you play 8 Ball Pool on mobile. It’s been pretty popular so we decided to put it Web too!

It’s a scratch card mini-game, similar to lottery tickets. The aim is to match three of the same squares to win that prize, e.g. Match three 500 coin squares to win 500 coins. Not every card is a winner, but the prizes are bigger than Spin & Win.

Just like Spin & Win, the higher value prizes are rarer and harder to win. You can win scratches from Spin & Win and also buy them from the Pool Shop.

Sport Relief

Help us raise money for charity!

As we’re sure you’ve noticed, there is a promotion for Sport Relief in 8 Ball Pool Web and Facebook. We’re donating a minimum of £2.10 from every purchase of the 7K coin bundle to the charity. The campaign is running in-game from March 19th to March 26th 2014!

Sport Relief takes place from 21st – 23rd March and it’s already shaping up to be an unmissable weekend with more than 1,000 events taking place across the UK. Money raised through Sport Relief will help people living incredibly tough lives in the UK and across the world. You can find and enter your local events at www.sportrelief.com.

10 million Facebook fans!

Massive thanks to all our users!

Just over two weeks ago, the 8 Ball Pool Facebook page passed 10 million likes! This is all thanks to you guys and the love and support you have for 8 Ball Pool. Thanks for being the biggest and best Pool community in the world!

Beat the Boss

We’ve been doing the Beat the Boss event for a while now and it’s becoming a pretty big deal! We’re now livestreaming the event on Twitch, so the world can see you win (or lose). We’ve even added a Beat the Boss award into the game so you can brag to your friends about how you’ve beaten Big Rob, the Miniclip CEO. Don’t forget, you have to be playing 8 Ball Pool on Miniclip.com. Check out the Beat the Boss FAQ for more info!

The last event was one of the most successful to date: Big Rob came out ahead with 7 wins and 4 losses. You players need to brush up on your skills before you take down the Boss! He had a few close matches: one of his opponents, Domingos, was on the black but fortunately missed his final shot, so Big Rob took the opportunity to clear the table and win the match. Better luck next time!

You can find us on Twitch and also watch past Beat the Boss broadcasts. We will announce all new Beat the Boss events on the 8 Ball Pool Multiplayer Facebook page.

Are you good enough to Beat the Boss?

A few reminders…

One of the big updates to 8 Ball Pool Mobile was the All-In mode where you have the chance to double your coin balance – just so long as you win two consecutive games. Another point to be aware of is that the winnings are the total of the player with the lowest balance. For all information on the All-in mode check out last months blog post.

Cairo has also made a reappearance as the top tier 1 vs 1 room with a whopping 500,000 prize pot. Tokyo Warrior Hall is now the highest ranked tournament to enter, with an amazing 60,000 coin prize awaiting the victor!

Trickshot Masterclass #4

We’re working on the 4th edition of the Trickshot Masterclass compilation. We’ve received loads of trickshot videos from you guys already but keep on sending them in. We love watching them and might even share them on Facebook or Twitter.

The Tokyo Tournament, and a brand new Cairo 1v1 tier, are coming with the next mobile release.

Check out Trickshot Masterclass #3 below.

Remember, you can email us at social at miniclip dot com or message us on Facebook.

That’s all for this month’s update. Leave your questions in the comments section or you can message us on Facebook or Twitter.

We went to Casual Connect Europe to look at some great new indie games and talk to the developers behind them. But as we’re quite a nosy lot at Miniclip, we also ended up talking to each of the developers about how creativity and freedom of choice are some of the best things about being a game developer. We also wondered what existing game franchise they’d like to work on if they were given the chance (Grand Theft Auto and Dark Souls were popular choices). We also asked: if you could only play one game for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Oh, and finally, we wondered what their high scores were in Flappy Bird. “Not great” is probably the politest way of summarizing it.

The new games on show included the spectacular adventure The Last Tinker: City of Colors, which Johannes Roth from Mimimi Productions walked us through, and the action-packed baseball fighter Lethal League from Reptile Games, which has already become a popular choice in the Miniclip office at lunchtimes! We also chatted to Arpita Kapoor from Mech Mocha, makers of Puppet Punch, about her funky fighting game, and spoke to Dissident Logic‘s Christopher White about their crazy, gravity-defying multiplayer game Paperbound.

Francesco Maisto from Cellar Ghost showed us the innovative mechanics of his new puzzle game, Quad, and Nadav Bar Kama of NAFNA Games talked us through the endless-runner hack-n-slash Asslay Gore, and his concept of hardcore-casual – games that are easy to pick up and play, but difficult to master. Finally, we also spent some time with Mathias Johansson of SkyGoblin, chatting about his adventure game The Journey Down, building playgrounds, and that he’d love to work on Lego games one day.

You can check out the full interviews in our exclusive video from Casual Connect below.

Hey Miniclippers! We’ve been as busy as ever this month, and we’ve got plenty of new things to tell you about.

We’re developing a game based on the amazing Beast Quest fantasy books.

Miniclip News

Let’s kick off with BEAST QUEST! We’re very pleased to announce that we’re going to be developing a game based on the hugely-popular Beast Quest fantasy adventure books. We’re going to be bringing the amazing world of Adam Blade’s books to life in a mobile game later this year. We’re already sharpening our swords in anticipation, this one is going to be awesome.

Also this month: we were proud to support the charity Sport Relief by creating a special Pool Coins bundle in 8 Ball Pool, and donating a minimum of £2.10 from every bundle sold straight to the charity. The money raised from each bundle could feed 4 children living on the streets in India for one day, and we were delighted that over £2,000 was raised in total for the charity. You can find out more about the campaign in this press release.

Oh, and one other thing we did this month: we went to Casual Connect Europe, and interviewed some awesome indie developers and got a little showcase of their games. We chatted about the high points of being a game developer, what their favourite-ever games were, and what their high-scores were in Flappy Bird (not much, sadly). Check out the interviews in our exclusive video!

Over £2,000 was raised for the charity Sport Relief through 8 Ball Pool.

New games

Ninjas, big swords, and hundreds of zombies. Yup, that’s Ninja Slash.

One of our favorite games of this month, and the subject of our company-wide score contest, has been Ninja Slash. A mission-based hack-and-slash runner, with an awesome art style, Ninja Slash is a game for those with lightning-fast reflexes as you slice-and-dice your way through hundreds of kooky zombie enemies. To rack up the highest scores you’ll need to complete missions to boost your multiplier – our current leader in the Miniclip offices has over 900,000 points (!). Apparently he spent all weekend playing the game. It is kinda addictive.

We also released a new basketball game to get you all in the mood for March Madness. Basketball Jam Shots has you shooting hoops with a difference…with fiery backdrops instead of packed stadiums, and some very sneaky defenders who aren’t averse to lowering the height of the rim or even flipping it round 180 degrees to stop your shot. But if you can get round their tricks you’ll get a chance to sink a shot from the halfway line to really up your score.

Bait and Switch has been one our popular releases this month. You play as a warrior worm defending yourself from waves of hungry fish who won’t stop until they’ve taken a chunk out of you! Upgrade your weapons and gain poison, time and freeze abilities to get the upper hand over your foes. Even with an arsenal of weaponry and your special abilities, you’ll still need to keep on your toes to survive the ever-increasing waves of enemies that will be coming your way. Wait, do worms have toes?

Lego CHIMA is one of our newest massively-multiplayer online games. Once a pristine, natural paradise, the world of Chima has become a battleground for eight animal tribes, and you can build and customize your own Lego kingdom. There’s a huge open world to explore, with missions to complete and secret areas to discover. Completing missions allows to you to develop and improve your character with new skills and even better equipment.

Build and battle in Lego CHIMA.

Crash & Burn walkthrough video

With Crash & Burn proving to be one of the most-played games on Miniclip in March, we’ve had a few questions from our players about where they could find those 25 hidden packages. So, we put together a video walkthrough to guide you to them all. We’ve also thrown in the location of the super-secret trophy, and a quick demonstration of how to take out the high-flying zeppelin. Boom!

Twitch

Come join our growing Twitch community! If you didn’t already know, Twitch is a video platform and gaming community where gamers from all over the world broadcast streams of themselves playing games. Unless you’ve been living on the moon for the past few months, you’ll have seen our Beat The Boss events in 8 Ball Pool, where you – the players – can take on Miniclip CEO Big Rob.

We’ve recently started livestreaming these on Twitch so you guys can watch the event live and join the conversation in our channel’s Chat Room! In future, we will be looking to stream more than just 8 Ball Pool, so keep an eye on this space to see what else is in store!

Zero Gravity is our explosive new space shooter.

Zero Gravity interview

Zero Gravity is our newest game on Miniclip.com, and was created by our very own Associate Producer Jamie Joseph.  He took some time (out of his very busy schedule) to have an interview about how the idea for Zero Gravity came about, and how it went from concept to a full game on Miniclip. Find out all about it here.

Winner Takes All in 8 Ball Pool

All In mode is the newest mode for 8 Ball Pool Mobile, allowing players to win big in the highest of high-stake games.  To win an All-in match you have to win two consecutive games, so no pressure guys! For more info on All In mode, and all the latest developments in 8 Ball Pool, don’t miss our monthly community updates.

Finally

Are you ready to go All In?

Now that the weather is getting warmer, don’t forget to take your gaming outside and enjoy some sunshine while you play :)

See this soldier? He needs a voice!

Get your name in a game

Ever wanted to be in a game? We are looking for a sound effect to go in our new game Calabash Bros, and YOU could be the one to provide it!

Calabash Bros is a tactical tower defence game, where you try to throw back the forces of darkness using your own armies. We’re looking for a short sound effect to give voice to the footsoldier unit, to be played every time that another soldier enters the battle – could you be the one?

Not only will you get the awesome feeling of knowing that every time you play Calabash Bros, that it’s YOUR sound effect playing time and again – we’ll also add your name to the game’s credits. Special Sound Effects created by Your Name Here – sounds good, right?

How to get in the game

All you need to do is record a short soundclip and email it to social@miniclip.com with the subject line Calabash Bros.

Remember, it needs to be a SHORT sound effect! The footsoldier is the most common unit in Calabash Bros, so the sound will be played a LOT of times. Sixty-second battle cries are not the sort of thing we’re after, no matter how awesome it may sound. The ideal sound effect should be no longer than one or two seconds.

It’s entirely up to you as to what you think this SFX should be, but try and think of something that would work well with a soldier turning up for battle, ready to rock. Maybe it’s a voice recording of you shouting “Atten-SHUN!” or “Bring it on!” But it doesn’t need to be a voice – it could be the sound of marching feet, a crashing cymbal, a ringing bell – whatever you think is best.

You can record your clip using a microphone on your computer, or on your mobile phone using recording apps like Voice Record Pro (iOS) or Smart Voice Recorder (Android). Once you’re happy with it, email it over to social@miniclip.com. The deadline is Monday 14^th April – don’t miss out!

The best sound effect we receive will be included in Calabash Bros, AND you’ll see your name in the game’s credits – not many people can say that!

Get recording - we look forward to hearing from you!

Calabash Bros in action!

Are you a man… or a monster?

Do you want to smash buildings to bits with your bare hands, crush your enemies between your mighty feet, and blow helicopters out of the sky with your fiery breath? Or are you the kind of person that wants to command tanks, grab your gun and soar high above the city in your jetpack, taking on giant, skyscraper-sized monsters?

Soon you’ll be able to, in our new game Man Or Monster, coming exclusively to Miniclip.com!

Man Or Monster is set to be one of our biggest titles of the year: a 3D action game with big city environments, massive monsters and retro visuals. It’s two games in one: you pick your side, man or monster, and then your mission is either to save the city… or destroy it. There’ll be multiple colorful, destructive environments for you to fly/stomp around, plus a host of power-ups, side-missions, collectables and customization options.

As you’ll see, Man Or Monster has a voxel art style with great chiptune sounds and lots of nods to classic video games. We’ve had a lot of fun making it, trying out new ideas and seeing what works to make the game look and play as awesome as possible.

Man Or Monster is still in development, but over the next few weeks we’ll be bringing you regular blog updates from the game’s developer, as well as giving you exclusive behind-the-scenes access to how the game is shaping up. Make sure you subscribe to our blog and follow the @miniclip Twitter account so you don’t miss out on the latest monstrous news!

The game is set for an early summer release – in the meantime, here’s a few screenshots of how Man Or Monster is looking in its current build, and a couple of views of the monsters themselves…

Each level has a different location and a different monster – here we are, chilling out in Moscow.

You can either tower over each city as a monster, or zip about it as a man in a jetpack.

We’ve gone for a very distinct retro look and feel.

Jetpack in action in Berlin.

The monsters really ARE huge – fortunately you can fly up to their eye level and perch on buildings to get a good shot at them.

Evil Easter Egg Hunt

Easter comes to Miniclip with a twist this year! Some evil Easter bunnies have stolen all the good eggs and replaced them with bad ones – and it’s down to you to hunt them out and return them to their rightful home.

We should point out that these are some particularly bad bunnies: there’s the zombie bunny, the chainsaw massacre bunny, and the evil general bunny. And, being the evil critters that they are, they’ve hidden these good eggs in some of our games.

There are 10 eggs, and each one is hidden as an award in a different Miniclip game. To get the eggs, you have to find the game and then win the award! Which games are the eggs hidden in? Well, that would spoil the surprise… but you’ll know if you’re on the right track when you see this award banner across the top of the game page.

We will also be dropping a few hints on our Facebook page and Twitter feed, so keep a close eye out for clues!

Last week we unveiled the massive Man Or Monster, a huge retro-style action game that we’re developing at the moment. In the first of our new series of developer blogs, we spoke to two of the brains behind the game, Adam Campbell and Diederik Groesbeek, about Man Or Monster’s visuals.

One of the earlier concept designs for Man Or Monster.

Building a world, one block at a time

“Man Or Monster uses a retro voxel graphical style. We’ve been big fans of the style for a long time, so we thought: why not try and build our own voxel world? We spent a lot of time looking at some other games that use voxels, like Minecraft, Cube World and 3D Dot Game Heroes, but we knew that we didn’t want to just copy the look. So we investigated how we could make it more our own thing.

“We thought it’d be cool to stomp on landmarks like Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower.”

We grew up on 8 and 16 bit games, so a big goal for us was to try and create something that evoked those days – only in 3D. Similarly, the thing we love most about Minecraft is that ability to create and destroy game elements: that’s how the idea of a big monster destroying a city came about! So we decided to keep to a cubic style, but add a bright, colourful retro-feel to our game.

We also decided that we wanted to add some real-time strategy elements to the action, so  opened up the scope of the art style to include military units and other cool features while playing as the Man (if you’re the Monster, you can have fun trashing these units instead!). We also worked on a ton of customization options for your Monster, as well as planning out some of the ones you’ll go up against if you’re the Man.

I think probably one of our biggest influences here was Midway Games’ Rampage series. If you’re not familiar with it, check it out on YouTube – it’s super-awesome.”

Landmark design

“Once we’d decided on how we wanted the game to look, it was time to start building! We soon decided that we wanted multiple monster and multiple units for the man to build. We imagined that it would be so cool to stomp on famous landmarks like Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower. So we thought we’d need at least a couple of cities to bring some variation in size and difficulty. Of course we went a bit overboard so we ended up with ten completely different ones, each with their own layout, buildings and landmarks!”

“One of the biggest problems with the creation of the cube-style assets (besides that it was totally new to us!) was the scale differences between Man, Monster and the city background objects. You cannot give everything the same amount of detail. Not only is this technically not feasible, but it’s also a lot of work for the artist. In the game, you can see that the cubes used for the Monster are quite a bit bigger than the ones used for Man. We think it still looks good, though – we hope you agree!”

Protect or destroy famous landmarks. You decide.

Watch out for next week’s developer blog, when we’ll be taking a look at one half of Man Or Monster – the jetpack-equipped Man. In the meantime, don’t forget to follow this blog to get all the latest Man Or Monster news delivered straight to your inbox.

Read the Man Or Monster launch blog post right here.

We sat down to talk game development, art and surfing with Jay Armstrong, creator of Zombinsanity as well as Miniclip favourites Rocket Pets and Bearbarians.

You say on your site that you started making games by accident. Could you tell us a little more about this? What did you learn from creating your first game? Was it a lot harder than you thought it’d be?

Before I made games I was in a band for about 5 years, but when it broke up I went from having this exciting, life-consuming commitment to nothing. I decided to get back into drawing and animation and due to the ease of combining animation and basic coding in Adobe Flash, this casual pastime soon snowballed into an ambition to create a full game!

“It’s fun to have bright cute things running around shooting each other.”

There was joy for me in conquering technical challenges and a real curiosity sparked in me. What I didn’t expect was the sheer volume of work that is required to make even a simple game. I would say though, that if you love what you do and are dedicated to finishing it, even people who have never done it before can create great things!

You’ve spent time as an artist, a musician, and you’ve designed tattoos and clothing - where did all this creativity start?

The earliest creative thing I can remember was when I was still in Primary School. My friends and I would draw our own cartoon strips. We all came up with our own characters and wrote stories for them. Then as I got older I discovered music and from the age of 13 to 24 I was at all times in at least one band! Being in a band taught me the importance of teamwork and the most important thing of all; that a good idea is worth nothing until you put in the hard work to make it become real. Ultimately, everything is in the execution.

Your games have a very distinctive art style – lots of color and expression to the characters and environments. Was this style inspired by anything in particular?

I’m a huge fan of artists like Dan Paladin and Jimp. I love the bright and cute colorful art style of those guys. Everything they draw is full of vibrancy and excitement. One of the reasons I think it appeals so much is that the juxtaposition inherent in cartoon violence is just innately funny. Its just really fun to have big bright cute things running around shooting each other – that’s just science and you can’t argue with science.

We’ve all been looking forward to Zombinsanity landing on Miniclip – what are you working on next? Could you tell us a bit about it?

I’ve got a load of different projects at the moment! I’ve just recently released a game called Epic Time Pirates. In it you take on the role of a captain of a time ship and have to plunder and do battle across the space-time continuum.

What are the best and worst things about being an indie game developer?

The best thing about being an indie game developer is that you get to be an indie game developer! I feel so lucky that I get to wake up every day and be a full time creative and have my work reach millions of people! I love coming up with ideas and seeing them come to life – and I love seeing how people react to them. Its such a thrill to get that spark of inspiration and then through hard work see it come to life on awesome website like Miniclip!

The only downside is the insecurity. While you get to choose your own hours, there is no guarantee that a game will be successful. It can be scary when no one owes you a living!

Are there any other developers or development studios that you particularly admire?

Yes, definitely. I’m a huge fan of Juicy Beast, Pestoforce, Toge productions, Jimp, ChrisJeff, Joey Betz, Con Artist games and Bad Viking. They all create awesome games and I’ve been lucky enough to get to know most of them as well – so I guess you could say I am biased!

“I love coming up with ideas and seeing them come to life, and how people react to them.”

If time and money was no option, what would be your dream game? What would the setting be, what would it involve?

I’d love to make an online multiplayer Bearbarians. It would feature leagues, teams and championships – like a proper sport! It would be great to be able to hire people to help make the multiplayer aspect of it possible and to spend long enough on it to get it absolutely perfect. And of course… Oculus Rift support!

Have you ever looked at another game and thought, “dang, I wish I’d thought of that!”?

That is my reaction to basically every game that wasn’t made by me.

We’ve just had GDC in San Francisco, and one of the things that got a lot of press was virtual reality: Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus. Do you think VR will gain mass appeal or end up like the Nintendo Power Glove?

I really hope the Oculus Rift takes off, I was absolutely blown away the first time I used one. I think the levels of immersion it can create when used well are absolutely staggering. I don’t know if VR will change everything, but it will definitely open up a new field for developers to create amazing experiences. I don’t think we’ve got another Nintendo Power Glove on our hands! (Pardon the pun…)

If you could do any job in the world (besides game development), what would it be and why?

I think I’d like to do something exciting and active. Something really different to game development, so maybe a professional surfer where you can go to the beach all day – and get paid for it!

Thanks for your time, Jay – we’re all enjoying playing Zombinsanity and we look forward to seeing your other games in future!

Play Zombinsanity now on Miniclip, or check out the trailer below.

This week’s blog is all about the Man, the hero of Man Or Monster. Playing as the Man, your role is to defend the cities being attacked by the Monster, using  a variety of weapons and abilities at your disposal. In the second of our series of developer blog posts, Diederik Groesbeek goes into some more depth about the development of the Man and the tools of his trade.

Update: we just uploaded the first-ever trailer for Man Or Monster! Click here to watch it now, or scroll to the bottom of this post.

Our 3-D defender

“Who’s the Man? The Man is just a regular guy! It’s what you get when you try to make a guy out of cubes. And we gave him a cool cap. That’s it! Of course, it’s the the jetpack that makes him SUPER and gives you a fighting chance against the Monsters. Everybody loves jetpacks. It’s a fact.

As well as being a cool bit of kit, the jetpack was a design necessity for the game. If you’re playing as the Man, you need to be able to get around the city very quickly to set up your defenses and then take on whatever Monster is dropped into the action.

When we started making the game, we’d imagined these huge environments and Godzilla-sized Monsters, and then were faced with the problem of having a tiny little guy running around trying to avoid getting stepped on by a giant foot. So the jetpack was a natural solution: it gives you the maneuverability to zip around the map, placing units and overseeing the action. You can get down to ground level to pick up items, or you can easily fly up to the rooftops to set up artillery or take a shot at the Monster yourself. You can even perch on moving clouds for a nice view of the city.

“We faced the problem of a tiny little guy getting stepped on by a giant foot.”

So the jetpack was in from the start. It’s also in one of the games we used as inspiration: the brilliant Giants: Citizen Kabuto by Planet Moon!

You can place units like tanks, helicopters and even electrified Tesla coils all across the city to help you defend the city from the Monsters. You’ll have some time before the monster arrives to strategically place those units in the Monster’s path.”

The bigger they are…

“We won’t spoil some of the surprises that you’ll face when you come up against the Monster, but it’s likely that you’ll take a bit of damage when you’re playing as the Man. Fortunately, you can pick up heart containers and medikits when you get hurt. There’s also armor to make the Man invincible for a while, so you can really get close to your foe. Besides this, you can upgrade your heart containers, fuel and especially your weapon to do more damage.”

“We tried to give the items a retro feel – we started feeling nostalgic for Gameboy or SNES-era games while we were creating these! The Man has currency to collect so he can purchase upgrades to increase his chances of survival.”

Too many ideas, not enough time

“As with most games, we’re never able to include every idea we come up with. With Man Or Monster, we thought about creating multiple characters to choose from – we even made a few turnarounds of other models, but didn’t have time to implement them properly. One of the coolest features that we didn’t get to include was the ability for Man to directly control the units he builds, like in Grand Theft Auto. Maybe for Man Or Monster 2…!”

“Regardless, Man Or Monster is packed full of content. We’re building in daily challenges to provide loads of replayability even after the main game has been completed, adding fresh new challenges for players to get into.”

Keep an eye out for the next developer’s blog where we’ll be taking on the city destroying monsters. In the meantime, read the previous Man Or Monster dev blogs for more info as we build up to the game’s release this summer.

Man Or Monster: Launch Blog Post

Man Or Monster Developer Blog 1: Building A World

Update: Watch the brand new and exclusive Man Or Monster trailer now!

It’s been a busy month in 8 Ball Pool, with plenty of new features added to the game. Also this month, we wanted to address a popular topic among the community – chat.

Chat Packs can be found in the Pool Shop.

Chat Packs

You can now customize your chat phrases in the game, with the new Chat Packs that were recently introduced. You can ask your opponent “Best of 3?” with the Rematch pack, cheer them on with the Motivational pack (“You’re awesome!”) or even give them a bit of a gentle mocking with the Competitive pack (“In your face!”).

Of course, you could always use the Motivational pack in a sarcastic way (“Best shot ever!” as your opponent sinks the white) but we definitely, 100% do not endorse that. Nope. Really.

Hey, why not just give us free chat?

It’s a question that we’ve seen get debated among players for some time – so we thought this would be a good time to reiterate our thoughts on unrestricted “free” chat.

We want 8 Ball Pool to stay fast, fun and friendly – a game that can be enjoyed by players from all around the world, no matter what their age or ability. It is a competitive game, we recognize that, but we never want that competitiveness to stray away from the fun experience of a quick game of pool.

Just like Blizzard’s Hearthstone, which has adopted a similar “chat phrases” build to 8 Ball Pool, we don’t want anyone’s enjoyment of the game to be harmed by the risks of abuse or offensive language that come with having unrestricted chat. Even a “censored” chat won’t solve that problem as people may find ways to be abusive without using censored words. Similarly, a “report” function is a reactive measure – it doesn’t stop people from being offended or abused in the first place.

Re-order your chat phrases in the Settings menu.

We did want to give you the opportunity to add more depth and customization to the chat phrases that are available to you, and we feel that the Chat Packs are the best way to do this while still keeping the game fun and friendly. Yes, we have included a few “competitive” phrases like “Watch and learn!” because 8 Ball Pool is a competitive multiplayer game – but we wanted to reflect that while removing the risk of people being offended or upset while playing our game.

Remember also that 8 Ball Pool is a fast-paced game where you have seconds, not minutes, to take your shot – typing out custom messages will slow down the game and leave you waiting for your opponent to send you a message and then take their shot.

We know that there are plenty of players out there who recognize these problems with free chat, and we’ve been following the debates on our Facebook page. To all our players, we thank you for your support and understanding – and hope that you’ll find a phrase you’re looking for among the new Chat Packs, and continue enjoying 8 Ball Pool.

Chat Pack Protips

There’s also two things you might not have noticed about the new Chat Packs.

Firstly, you can re-order the list of phrases in the Settings menu. Just head over there and drag the phrases around to suit your personal tastes – this will make it much easier to find your favorite phrases when you’re in a hurry.

Secondly, if you’d rather not hear from your opponent at all… you can turn off the Chat phrases completely. Just set Chat to “Off” and you’re good to go.

Practice your no-guideline skills on mobile.

Sharpen your no-guideline skills

If you play 8 Ball Pool on mobile, you’re probably well aware of the Play Offline mode. We just added a new feature to this: you can turn off the guidelines and practice without them.

This means you can improve your no-guideline skills without having to stump up the entry fee for a high-ranking tournament or 1v1 tier that doesn’t use guidelines. Then, when you feel like going for a big prize, you’ll know that you’re ready for it. Sharpen those skills, 8 Ballers!

New All In awards

This award will be yours if you’ve got the skills to win an All In match.

 There are now a couple of new awards available for anyone who plays an All In match on mobile – Winner Keeps It All and Go For Broke. One you earn for winning an All In match… and we think you can probably guess how you get the other one ;-)

@8ballpool on Twitter

The official 8 Ball Pool Twitter account has had a name-change from @poolbyminiclip to @8ballpool. So if you want to tweet us any questions, suggestions or cool pics/videos – or you just want to say hi – that’s the handle to use.

Double Coins Weekend

If you’re looking to boost your coin stash… this weekend (25th-27th April), we’re doubling the amount of coins you get on selected bundles from the Pool Shop.

That’s all for this month 8 Ballers – as always, hit that Post Comment button if you’ve got anything you want to say about any of the above.