Who is still here?

I've been extremely busy for the past year which explains my absence. Now that I have less to do, I've been able to check a lot more things including this forum.

The forum seems quite inactive right now, so I'm making this thread to see who is still checking. If you do, make a post in here!

The CEO of Digital Chocolate, Trip Hawkins, stepped down as CEO in May and since then, 180 employees were laid off according to this: http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/28/digital-chocolate-lays-off-180-people-hawkins-stands-down-as-ceo/

Since Sandlot was acquired by Digital Chocolate, have we heard anything from them? And is support still going on?

Kaotika: Jeremiah has posted on this ( Sandlot servers ). To find out who has been checking in you may go to the Memberlist, doesn't mean the folks always post. Jere wrote Kat and I have written to Big Fish to find out if they have any word on SL games, servers and support. Would be a shame to find out the last promise of the SL folks (not only that games would be marketed on other sites but also continue to be supported )was broken; but that is the gaming business.I bought most games with back-up CDs so I may be regretting the investment.

Hello, nice to see a fast reply. I feel you, I've bought lots of Sandlot games and it would be terrible if there is no support for them. As things settle, I'll reinstall them and see if I can activate them.

I'm still here (of course). ^_^

Not really much going on during the past several months. Then again, I really don't think there will be much ever happening here. I'm saddened at the loss of the original forum, and nothing can ever replace it. But at least some of us can still touch base here, rather than wonder 'What ever happened to...'.

Anywho, glad to see there's still interest in the forum. Cheers!

matthias720 wrote:I'm still here (of course). ^_^

Not really much going on during the past several months. Then again, I really don't think there will be much ever happening here. I'm saddened at the loss of the original forum, and nothing can ever replace it. But at least some of us can still touch base here, rather than wonder 'What ever happened to...'.

Anywho, glad to see there's still interest in the forum. Cheers!

I don't expect much activity on this forum. Unless Sandlot's employees have been already laid off, I expect them to support development on Digital Chocolate games.

I feel so sad when I think that we could have 2 new Cake Mania games by now had Sandlot existed.

Still stop by to see if anyone knows anything (about SL) No reply from anyone official re redownloading games on new computer. I did buy discs for some stuff -and they still work - I think L) Grandmahelen

Grandmahelen:If you have the games already downloaded from discs you're fine;however if you try a new ( or re- ) download the game/s will install but may not unlock ( a window will come up citing the problem as being due to internet connection or busy servers ). Hoping to hear from someone else here whether they have encountered the problem.

Where can you download the games again? I think I've saved some installers on a CD, but I can't find it.

I bought back-ups with my original game purchases,but if you don't have these the only other options are an exe link from Support or re-buy from another site ( Big Fish has been running some good deals lately ). The problem hasn't been with installs but unlocking them.

I'm still here too. Must admit I haven't been around much and can't remember when I last signed in. I have peeped in every few months but didn't have anything to add until now.

I still miss the Sandlot forums. I'll maybe try to come by here more often instead of just tending to discuss games where I buy them instead.

(I had forgotten what a lovely avatar I found here - I will definitely have to post more ).

Well it's good to see you back, MJay.

MJay:'Allo,'allo and glad I stopped by to find you visiting!Hello to you as well Master of Redwall.

Nice to see everyone too - should have said that when I was here before but I was struggling to stay awake then.

MJay:You must have your super-blocker/filter on when you visit here as it never registers.YOU ARE THE GAMING QUEEN !!!

TURIN the Terrible wrote:MJay:You must have your super-blocker/filter on when you visit here as it never registers.

There's an option in the profile here - 'hide my online status'. I automatically set it to yes when I first signed up because, if I want to show myself, I will post .

It wouldn't have shown you if I was just lurking anyway, which is how I visited during my rare visits over the last few months. (I rarely, if ever. leave myself signed in anywhere).

MJay:That is one duhhh... to me for not recognizing the Profile Preferrence exception rule, but at least I follow your example concerning logging in & out.Read the bit about your new PC purchase and SL downloads; talk about being spot-on,sounds like you had the foresight knob full-on for that one. I however am still caught between and and not sure about trusting any site "purchases".May go the Gamehouse Unlimited route if any thing.

Hi all,

Thought I'd drop by and say hi. Doing some online maintenance, so to speak. XD

It's been quiet here as well. I do ghost but don't log in much. Most of my online time nowadays is on Facebook and a couple of other sites. But I am trying to make more free time so thus, the reorganizing on my end.

I heard about the news with Digital Chocolate as well. I think there was some mention about it on Gamezebo. I'm not sure what the whole story is but I think that Digital Chocolate hasn't been that well on the Facebook scene, although I could be wrong about that. But they have put their games on other platforms and those might be doing all right.

Hi Scarlet (*waves* ), nice to see you again .

Turin - I have not tried any unlimited sites - sometimes I don't get much time for playing so a membership would be wasted and, anyway, TM games last so long that I feel a $6.99 price is fine (although TBH, I tend to be canny about it and rarely pay full price on BF what with Daily Deals, sales,BOGOFF sales , punchcard coupons and so on).

I think if I played mostly HO games then it would be different - those are usually short and mostly not worth the purchase price to me so I'd trial an unlimited membership somewhere then.

I'm here - it's been awhile. Sorry to hear about DC's layoffs - I had a bad feeling when they merged. Too bad my worse fears have come true.

Even though Sandlot Games weren't the same after Andy Megowan left, they still made the best casual games in the business.

That's the problem with chasing 'the next big thing' instead of sticking to what you do best. Social gaming is tanking - it was not the sunshine and moonbeams folks seemed to think it was.

Sigh.

khalleron wrote:I'm here - it's been awhile. Sorry to hear about DC's layoffs - I had a bad feeling when they merged. Too bad my worse fears have come true.

Even though Sandlot Games weren't the same after Andy Megowan left, they still made the best casual games in the business.

That's the problem with chasing 'the next big thing' instead of sticking to what you do best. Social gaming is tanking - it was not the sunshine and moonbeams folks seemed to think it was.

Sigh.

Let's see what happens with UpTap, which is basically the next incarnation of Sandlot Games, and will focus 100% on tablets.

Katey: What made Andy's contributions special to you or has it more to do with certain games? I don't know if by tanking you mean there are no more quality producers ( though I'm not a fan of HOs as you know;they seem to have evolved well )or that the gendre is losing market share.It is said that gamers are the only ones keeping desktops moving but I believe both these entities will survive for some time.It may take individual effort and grit to design and market good games in the present atmosphere

Andy created the Westward concept and vastly expanded on the Tradewinds gameplay (adding story and humor) to the games, beginning with Tradewinds 2 and carrying on with Tradewinds Legends, generally regarded as the best of the Tradewinds series. He brought a sense of humor and a creativity that I don't believe has been matched since he left.

Sadly, he's no longer doing games, having been laid off from iWin and not having any success becoming an independent designer.

HOs aren't social games - social games are the kind of stuff you play on FaceBook, which thrive on microtransactions and blackmail (trying to get players to force all their friends to play, too). Zynga was the big player in that business (although they copied pretty nearly all their games from other companies), but they've lately taken a big loss. IMHO, it was a fad that people are quickly growing tired of. I'm really sorry that we lost Sandlot because they decided to chase that rainbow (there's no pot of gold there, guys!) rather than sticking to making fun casual games that didn't rely on blackmail to work.