User blog:NOBODY/A year in review for Nitrome and its wiki

Well all, at the time of me writing this, the year 2012 will fade away from existence, and 2013 will takes its place. Well, its been a good year. Nitrome made big jumps, Nitrome had its first public relations issue, other stuff.

This blog will cover events related to Nitrome and the Nitrome Wiki that happened during 2012.

Nitrome
A chronicle of everything Nitrome did across 2012.

January
Nitrome blog pages: http://www.nitrome.com/blog/?page=13 Nitrome is nominated for something in Edge. As friday January 6th rolls around, Nitrome writes the first Friday update of the year. A little while after, Nitroem reaches 100,000 likes on Facebook. Jay is Games posts an interview with Nitrome, this interview talking about Nitrome's past, present, and future.

It is soon after that Nitrome announces a short teaser for the update for their site - search bar and accounts! For those of you present around December 15th, Nitrome brought the search bar, but the accounts and (even older) comments haven't come yet. Nitrome introduces readers to SOPA and PIPA, the two words which have entered everyones swearing vocabulary (What the PIPA is the SOPA PIPA trying to SOPA the epic non-PIPA internet?! PIPA PIPA SOPA SOPA PIPA SOPA PIPA PIPA SOPA SOPA SOPA!) due to SOPA and PIPA being infamous for their attempted murder of the internet.

January the 13th brings the Jay is Game's game of the year award. Nitrome asks fans to come every 24 hours and vote for their favourite Nitrome game. Nitrome also reveals an upcoming Lockehorn multiplayer game. It is on the 19th that Mat Annal spins the wheels to determine whether a Nitrome game will be released. As the arrow lands halfway between the section "Game", Mat Annal picks to release the Lockehorn Multiplayer game. 14 levels, a multiplayer game!

On Friday January 20th 2012, Nitrome creates a long blog post explaining some of the cool features of 2.1 (most which relate to accounts). This explains more on how accounts allow you to keep track of friends, your game saves, game high scores, avatars, and other stuff. Everything for Nitrome to start up Cuboybook.

On January 25th, Nitrome finally brings out their new block section - Memory Lane. A section dealing about unused game objects (what we all love), Nitrome talks about Square Meal 2. Square Meal 2 went unreleased because Nitrome forgot about it. After discovering this game, Nitrome explains how an enemy called the Weresquare would have functioned. It would become shy and run away from you. Then, it would transform into a beast and hunt you down. It's a shame Square Meal 2 didn't exist... you don't suppose an artist at Nitrome hid it because they thought it was some sort of rare food, do you?

January 27th rolls around, and Nitrome announces the three Nitrome finalists: Steamlands in strategy, Rubble Trouble in puzzle, and Mega Mash in action! Who wins? All is revealed in February.

February
Nitrome blog pages: http://www.nitrome.com/blog/?page=13, http://www.nitrome.com/blog/?page=12 , http://www.nitrome.com/blog/?page=11 On February 2nd, Nitrome releases Cuboy's take on making a better Pac-Man - Ranbogeddon! Unfortunately, Rainbogeddon wasn't bought by any Arcades and Nitrome goes bankrupt. Nitrome, seeing that another company has gone bankrupt, buys themselves and renames the "Nitrome" (I know, that doesn't make sense).

7 is a number of completeness, which is why Nitrome picks February 7th to announce that Canary - a science fiction side scrolling shooter game set in a mine, that has to do with penguins not canaries - wins best Action/Arcade of 2011! I loved Canary, it had an epic story, great graphics, and some  thought it was based of a Wii [video game] shooter notorious for its bad graphics, terrible story, and an average online multiplayer system.

Anyway, the week Ranbogeddon was released, it was featured in the week's Free Indie Rapid Fire. Nitrome takes another walk down Memory Lane to show fans some images of Twang. We are shown that Twang was originally supposed to look like Kirby, how Twang went through many revisions, the game's unusual plants, and how Twang was meant to be set in a volcano area with bubbles.

The day after, Nitrome announces a "cryptic sequel". What could it be? Well, you have to wait some time until that is revealed! A day later, Nitrome announces something very interesting - a sequel to Skywire VIP, made by fans! Yup, a fan made sequel to VIP! Basically, two guys made a sequel to a Nitrome game, and Nitrome picks it up to release it.

The next day (I was so happy during this week, a Nitrome blog post for mostly every day!), Nitrome releases a screenshot and announces the name of the Nitrome game with the slimy green who descends down levels. The game is called Swindler, and its going to be released soon. Nitrome is true to their word and releases it within 5 days. Nitrome updates the game the next day, fixing a few glitches and a typo.

The next day, Nitrome introduces a slight change to game pages. The next day (it seems as though Nitrome is more happy to post when the end of the week nears), Nitrome announces that the cryptic sequel is Cave Chaos 2! However, no picture. Nitrome on Monday posts a round up of all the Swindler reviews, how people are praising the game in various places.

March
Nitrome blog pages: http://www.nitrome.com/blog/?page=11, http://www.nitrome.com/blog/?page=10 Nitrome highlights in a blog post how Double Edge ed reviewed Swindler. 3 days later, Nitrome releases a pear with wings an enemy sprite of an enemy from an upcoming game. When you look at it, you wonder "What sequel is this from?". The enemy has a frown on it. What series is famous for its scowling enemies through the series?

Finally, on March 9th, Nitrome releases their version of Skywire VIP - Extended. This version is different than the Scratch version, the Nitrome version featuring different characters. It is on the Monday following the Friday Extended was released that Nitrome removes a character. There is this really good anime movie called "My Neighbour Totoro", which was featured in the game.

For all of your Americans, in Canada and the UK, neighbor is spelled neighbour. Thus, to not cause confusion amongst all the Americans, and to not thwart the Canadians and British who play the game, they removed the character. The next day was the day Mega Mash was distributed, and Nitrome reveals that the pear enemy is from Hot Air Jr (we all guessed that, where else do we see so much angry enemies?).

2 days later, Nitrome announces demos. Basically, demos are beta builds of games, early builds released for Nitrome to see what the reaction of fans are. This is to improve the game, so that Nitrome doesn't create a game and arrive the next day with an angry mob of fans yelling "NITROME MUST DIE!!!".

Nitrome walks back down memory lane to show fans beta images for the main character of Twin Shot. Who would believe a cut little kitty evolved from a various monsters and helmet characters. Nitrome reveals more on Hot Air Jr, stating what the game's name is and the game's new engine.