LOL @ #5 postulator ;) (I have a feeling that's a diablo reference :D)

Very easy levels. Understanding what you were supposed to do on some of them was the only challenge. And level 14 hung for me too.

@Makabaer:
The GOTD wrapper cloaks the installer and emulators like Wine probably does not handle such "hacks" as the wrapper uses. Copying the unwrapped "Find the Cow.exe" from the Windows computer to Wine is probably the best way to go and if it's done during the 24 hours it's within the GOTD rules.

@Whiterabbit:
The Wheemplay games are Flash games but they are embedded in their own Flash players. You don't need any other player installed.


.............................Moderator Comment...........................

:)

I somehow like the little Wheemplay games, but indeed this one is only there for a very short time. It is very simple, too simple I might add. Once played, for ever ready.

A strange thing happened to me though. Every time some game pops into my immagination. I really don't know what it has to do with this Wheemplay-game today. I tried to find the game in my mind at BigFish Games and I did succeed, but still I don't know what is keeping me reminding of this game.
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/7342/magic-maze/index.html

I do think this is a great game though.


........................Moderator Comment.....................

Are you a mind reader ALF? ;)

I know my 4 year old grand daughter will be very happy tomorrow when she comes to visit and discovers that grandma has a new game with all her favorite things in it: Balloons, jigsaw puzzles, bright colors and an animal. And I won't have to give up a meal in order to give her a new game so I for one am very glad to see this.

Thank you for offering this and I truly wish there were more available for the younger set. I love the games for us, but a nice mix would be greatly appreciated too.

Had no problems downloading, installing and opening.

Ila in Maine


..........................Moderator Comment.........................

Hi Ila, check out the games over at MyPlayCity (MPC), although you have to make sure you uncheck the boxes during installation so that you don't get toolbars and your browser changed, they are easily avoided and the browser opening when you close any of their games down is innocuous. MPC have over 800 games, some of which will definitely suit the younger child. For example Funny Yo 2, 1 Penguin 100 Cases, Adventures of Fox, Alex Gordon (previous giveaway), Anka, Antiquity, Aqua Park Tycoon, Arctic Quest 1 & 2 (previous giveaways), Azangra, Baby Blimp, Bunduster, Turtle Lu, Old McDonald had a farm, Pestering Birds, Turtix and Turtix Rescue Adventures, Tower Builder, Snowy: Space Trip plus other Snowy games, Rax: The Painted Dog, Puzzle Mania, Robbies Unforgettable Adventure, Jungle Boy, Jigsaw BOOM, plus loads more. There's a kids section with over 300 titles:

http://www.myplaycity.com/free_kids_games/

Thanks for answering on my comment about Unbuntu-Problems. Didn't help but still appreciate the try :-) Will have to allow my son to use my PC then from time to time ;-)

....................................Moderator Comment...............................

there may be other emulators that enable your son to install and play this game?

Nice to have a game for the little ones. I think my 2 year old grandson would like this so I will keep it for when he comes to visit. He's used to touch screen things so a bit of mouse practise will be good. The game does freeze at level 14 and needed a couple of game restarts to get it going again but after that it works. Look forward to tomorrow now for a game for me.

this is really cute! as others mentioned, it took about 15 minutes to play through the whole thing, and it froze on level 14 (exit and relaunching fixed it). level 23 seems disproportionately the most difficult level, unless i missed how to fill a space of one or two blocks. not sure about replay value, though i at least want to show it to my banjo-playing sister. :) thanks, wheemplay, ggotd, and especially whiterabbit!

Oh come on man; it's a children's game. So why give it such low ratings. If you don't have kids then let it go and move on. If you do have preschool or elementary age children then download it, install it, and let them play. Then ask them how they like it. Then rate it.


........................Moderator Comment.............................

I write for the majority. But I do agree that this is a nice little game for the young ones.

my granddaughter loved it!!! ad i must admit I had fun when I had a few minutes between wash loads!



..............................Moderator comment............................

:)

not my cup of tea , was entertaining for a few minutes , the music will drive u crazy I don't know if u can turn it off or not but I just turned down the volume. smaller kids will have a lot of fun with it so I gave it a thumbs up...

I start the game on my PC and nothing work?
What's that?


.........................Moderator Comment.......................

Do you have flash installed? The game won't play until you've got flash player installed. :)

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Awwwww! Ain't that one adooooorable lil cow! I want to protect it from a violent and bloody cannon ball death right now. Got to download it quick.

I'm so curious about this last "secret" level that takes more than 60 seconds to complete! I bet we get to butcher the cow with knives and pitchforks and then eat steak, hamburger, and beef roast. Yummy!

Sorry for posting again, don't mean to spam!
But my 10-year-old-son would like to have this on his own computer too - and he has Ubuntu! We're both quite new to Ubuntu and I wasn't able to install anything that doesn't come with the software-center. I installed Wine and tried to install the Windows setup.exe by opening with Wine, first it starts as usual but then it says the archive is corrupted or empty (which is not the case - so I must be doing something wrong).
Any Ubuntu users here by any chance? Any hints what I should try? And please answer soon, he really wants to have this game!! (So thank you again by the way ;-)



..........................Moderator Comment.............................

I don't know anything about Linux, but you will probably need a flash player as well as this is a flash game. Maybe that is part of the problem?

I think everyone is being a bit unfair on this game. OK, so it's not for us for once. It's for the children, of which many of us have them, or grandchildren. How often do they get a game for them on here?

Kids seem to love it and it is quite well done for a childrens game. It's a fair 4.8 for us, but probably more like an 8 or 9 for younger children. Download it today for them and let them have their day for a change!

....................................Moderator Comment........................

Yes you are right. I should have added a comment to say that this would be ideal your young children. I tend to forget about the younger gamer now that my kids are growing up.

My kids really like it, the youngest (3years) is especially happy that this is finally a game he can win too. So thank you :-)


..........................Moderator comment.....................

:)

In my previous comment, I should have mentioned that the game froze at Level 14. All I did was restart the game and I was able to pick up where I left off and had no further problems. After reading the newer comments, I realize that the Level 14 issue is with the game and not my computer.

Personally, a pretty pointless (and, therefore, typically-Wheemplay) game - though it's obviously not aimed anywhere near a 47-year-old man.. ;-). Still, I've forwarded the email to my sister for her 2 kids.

Whiterabbit, the screenshots above show a big orange 'Hint' button, which doesn't appear on my computer - should it exist? And, if so, does it do any good?

For (hopefully) constructive feedback, I'd suggest Wheemplay give some actual hint(s) of where things (cannon-balls, for example) are actually going/what's happening in general. Basically, I want them to take a more "show, don't tell" approach - particularly when giving away games which seem to be 'out-of-context' (ie., maybe if you visit their site, you'll get a better idea of their raison d'etre(?) than a game just 'plonked' on this site - I haven't, so don't know).

I'd also suggest that the completion of a game (the jigsaw, in particular, this time round) doesn't simply bring up the 'scoreboard' - the sort of age-group this is aimed at will need to SEE the completed picture (maybe with some sort of animation), rather than merely progressing to the next game.


.......................Moderator comment.....................

Hi Lee, no it shouldn't. I had to use the browser version to check the game out becasue there's no demo's available for this game. The hint buttojn didn't work anyweay. :) I considered re doing the images, but am too busy at the moment.

Not a bad game - for a 6 month old baby, maybe. My copy stopped working after level 14, which wasn't really a bad thing. :)

A reasonable simple game, but quote moderator - We will be getting a new game (via Alawar/BigFish) tomorrow that’s far superior to today’s game! With price of beef going at $3 a lb and up, how can you beat getting a whole cow for free, which is hard to beat!! Games from wheemplay are generally pretty good, as this one is! Thanks!!!

That's not fair whiterabbit, give us a clue about tomorrows free game, we can easily go off people you know (lol)

Cool, simple game for younger kids. For the life of me, I could not figure out level 14, Assemble the cow puzzle.

So... you're not going to try claiming that "there is no cow level", are you?

A very, very simple game and a great 15 minute distraction. Any ten year old should be able to complete it quite easily and probably faster than I was able to. Installed without a problem and allowed me to specify what folder to put it in. Only problem was that I got to level 14 and had to stop to resolve a work issue. I didn't get out completely and when I tried to re-enter at level 14 it would not let me. I had to quit the entire game, then go click on the next level to start where I'd left off. Otherwise a cute little Flash game.

I really can't add much to what Whiterabbit has said. (In his unfailingly generous and diplomatic manner ;)) In a word - simple. Too simple. I honestly can't imagine even the most bored child having fun with this after the second level, when it becomes apparent that it doesn't get any more challenging. The jigsaw-type puzzles actually solve themselves if you just move the pieces about the board. I certainly appreciate the offer and the effort, but this is not a keeper.

...........................Moderator Comment.......................

We will be getting a new game (via Alawar/BigFish) tomorrow that's far superior to today's game. No clues though, just will say, its worth checking out. ;)

Find the Cow:

In Brief:

A set of 25 puzzles including matching pairs, sliding puzzles, jigsaws as well as a selewction of other common puzzles. This game can be completed easily in less than 15 minutes.


Installation:


Find the Cow downloads to a 17.7 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup activation file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there's a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that's protected from being hacked. This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive.

The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006. The installed game is 9.04 MB in size.



C:\Games\


As with all Wheemplay games the executable is installed directly into the games folder by default with no folder of its own, though you can create one during the installation wizard.
You can play the game online 24/7 HERE

Levels

Levels

Introduction:

Cows are hiding round every corner! Use your mouse skills to find cows as fast as possible in 25 mini games.

Reference accessed HERE 15th Feb 2013

The Game:
Find the cow is a collection of 25 simple puzzle games. There's no instructions available for any of the puzzles, but virtually all are self explanatory. Check the slideshow below to see images of all available puzzles. The first puzzle called 'Blow up the Balloon confused me initially as there appeared to be no tools to blow it up. I discovered clicking on the balloon pumped it. The aim was to lift the attached cow above the dotted line.

All 25 puzzles are straightforward and most are very easy to beat. I was able to beat on in less than 1 second, some as quick as 3 seconds, most in less than 15 seconds and all took less than a minute to complete apart from the last one.

Rather than describe each puzzle, its easier to direct you to the walkthrough video that's posted below, if you don't want to see the solutions to each puzzle check out the slideshow. I've taken screen captures of every level.

You'll find a walkthrough of the game HERE





System Requirements:

Internet Explorer, Chrome or Firefox




Video & Images:


You can see a slideshow of around 70 images HERE.


You’ll find a video of game play (same as the walkthrough) HERE (Walkthrough of all 25 levels in under 9 minutes).

Conclusion:

A very basic flash based puzzle game with 25 simple puzzles, that for most community members won't take more than 10 to 15 minutes to complete. If you want to save bandwidth allowances its just as easy to follow the browser link I've posted above to play this game via your internet browser. There's really no challenge to this game which is why I've scored it a very low 4.8.





Scoring

Gameplay – 5
Graphics – 5
Audio – 4
Re-playability – 5
Originality – 5

Total = 4.8

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Problems:

If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game discussion section. If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed).



If you have any problems installing or getting to work today's game please go HERE for help.

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Games, Games, and yet more Gamesl>:




If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals.

There are several other deals available from Steam for example there's 50% off Torchlight 2 (£7.49) and Castle Crashers (£4.99). Also, if you've previously purchased Cities XL 2011 or 2012 you can get 80% off the latest version Cities XL: Platinum. There's 60 % off The amazing Spiderman (£9.99) , 80% off Serious Sam 3: BFE (though you can also get this as part of a newly released Indie Bundle for even less) or the Serious sam complete pack for £13.99, 75% off Amnesia: The Dark Decent (£3.25,. There's over 100 games on sale at the moment via steam with deals ranging from 10% to 80%. There's also loads of deals from Gamersgate, Gamestop, Greenman Gaming and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above (apart from Greenman gaming. Check out GMG because they have some excellent deals for example you can get 35% off the still unreleased Aliens: Colonial Marines. You'll find the weekend deals THIS. You'll also find some free games this weekend, Saturday's free game called Ninja Blade is still available, but will end sometime today, Today's and Monday's games are called Unstoppable Gorg and Superstars V8 Next Challenge respectively. What's the catch as there's nearly always one? Well, you have to subscribe to Playfire. :) Click on the free games link on GreenManGamings home page HERE for details of the latest free game



The usual monthly free game from Alawar's game box is still Sprill. You may need to reinstall game box if its still showing the previous game (Finding Doggy). It's supposed to change every month, but some community members are seeing the same game for months on end. Dido suggested that you reinstall game box to fix the problem. Reinstalling game box shouldn't affect any previous freebies. :). (You need to install the free Gamebox from Alawar to access the free games, which for newcomers change approximately every month). If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles or the four day sales at IndieGameStand.



Check out the Game discussion forums HERE for details of any Indie Game Bundles that are still live. At the moment there's at least three bundles still live (Indie Royale Valentines 2.0, Be Mine Anniversary bundle and the Indie Gala Colossus bundle. All three are well worth checking out, especially the Be mine anniversary bundle.

I've posted images and video of game play for most of these bundles over in the forums. Click on the Game discussion forums to find all of the active bundles easily.
These bundles give you the opportunity to get a lot of great games for almost nothing (the price of a cappuccino at your local coffee shop)

The latest game from Indie GameStand (they have a new indie game every four days) is QRTH-PHYL an Arcade documentary of maze/dot/snake mechanic within changing dimensions, axis locks and the corruption of the system. Collect, grow, avoid your past, find new space, wake up... You can get the game for less than $1 or if you pay the average price (which stood at $1.50 the last time I looked you can get the extras that include:

- original unreleased 2004 prototype that inspired QRTH-PHYL

- original Blockade 1976 service manual and "Random Illogic and Elegant Creeps" technical design article by Lane Hauck, the creator of Blockade
Origin have a mystery sale on at the moment , with a new game every day and GreenManGaming have some excellent offers, with 75% off Max Payne and the Rockstar pass. (usual price £44.98, get both for £11.26)

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A Request for helpl>:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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