score 11184 and all the 27 steps are cleared
thanks.

I guess I didn't read the info about MyPlayCity closely enough. I "assumed" it would be okay since it was suggested here. Unfortunately, I have been searching the internet about this since it has hijacked all my browsers' home pages and search engines. From what I am finding on the internet, many sites are saying this is a virus. I may have gotten rid of it but not sure at this point. In order to "fix" Firefox, I had to uninstall it removing all my information and then reinstall it. So far it seems to be okay. Does anyone know if this is really a virus or just a PITA? I will not be going to MPC ever again. Too bad because they had at least a few games I would have liked to play.


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

Hi TopazMystique,

no its not a virus. The toolbars and home page changes are part of the deal when you install games from any of the big free game sites such as MyPlayCity, Gametop, FreeGamePick and JenKat Games. You can easily change your home page back to what it should be and toolbars can be turned off via the view drop down menu (select toolbars then uncheck the ones you don't want to see. I do give a warning about these toolbars and home page hijacks (though strictly they aren't hijacks because you are given the opportunity to not install or change then by unchecking the check boxes.

sorry you missed my warning. The games are absolutely fine to play and you can avoid getting all the rubbish easily. MyPlayCity are at the moment the most insidious because every time you want to play the games, you have to uncheck the check boxes. with the others you don't have to. Some recommend JenKat games.

Ugh. I tried it, don't like it. I played on easy, and by level 4, I already was over my head. Lost two lives on level 4 - one because I didn't catch any instructions not to let the spells touch the lock - and was hard pressed to keep up. No thanks. Too much like a TM game for me, with all the multitasking you have to do.

Mmh... Maybe it's just me, but this is kinda fishy.
I downloaded, installed and ran the program (twice) and as it did not respond, I opened my task manager and what do I see?
The applications name is SexyApp and the process is called balls...
Doesn't sound like a family game to me.
As I mentioned, it won't start properly (which sometimes happens in the VM I'm using), so maybe it's just some weird name accident and the game would play normally.
Just thought I'd mention it though, in case there's more to it.

Rolling Spells for FREE is HERE: http://www.myplaycity.com/rolling_spells/



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

Technically its not free. These 'FREE' game sites work on the principle of paying the developer to give the games away, drawing in the user to their sites. They get paid for every visit by a user. The games on these sites are stiull being sold by reputable distributers such as Alawar and Playrix. Its why you are always directed to their home page when you close the game down and they try to change your browser provider and home page as well as install toolbars.

By the way, I'd already linked to the free version from MyPlaycity in my review at comment number 1.

That's a CUTE lil ol snail with the purple shell. But the cartoonyishness of this game makes my head give it a great big shake shake no. Maybe next week we can get some games for adults after four straight games for the kiddies.

I posted yesterday that some games like Annie’s Millions, I couldn't use the full screen on my tv that is connected to my computer. I could only use the "windows" selection. Today, I can use the full screen with Rolling Spells. I guess it depends on the game. Thanks to the people who tried to help me yesterday.

Thank you so much for the "countless" repost. Sorry I annoyed you.


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

You didn't annoy me Leslie.

How do I uninstall this game? It doesn not appear on my add or remove programs list. I cannot find it in the registry under:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\currentversion\Uninstall
where I would normally find something not on the add or remove programs list.


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

Hi Leslie, if you are new to this project, then it is understandable why you may be confused. If you've been coming for some time, I've posted countless times that most game giveaways are free standing, which basically means to delete you just delete the installed folder.

I check here every weekend for new games and appreciate the informative reviews by White Rabbit. I do not have the dexterity to play using keyboard controls (did not grow up in the 'digerati' generation) and I am wondering that in the initial description of the game if you could specify if it is a mouse controlled game or if arrows and hot keys are required for game play.
Thanks as always GAOD!!!


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

I usually do state if they are dual controller. If I don't mention it, its usually becasue they aren't mouse controlled. ;)

This looks different. Cant wait to try it out. Thanks GGAOTD and Whiterabbit for a wonderful review as always.

@Stephen (comment #4) I was still showing Sprill as Alawar's free game, so I uninstalled/reinstalled the gamebox. Now it shows Fashion Craze as the free game.
Thanks game giveaway for your good work!

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

Thanks Em. Reinstalled last week and was still seeing Sprill. Haven't bothered reinstalling this week.

Ok Win 8 x64 Pro. 2 screen size option tho not Full screen (small side borders); not prob on large monitor. Plays well. Just did first of the many. Gotta like the theme of rotating small platforms to steer failing coins to right one of 3 bottles. Gaining spells helps.
3 Options Easy, Normal, Hard. Don't know how much variety unfolds ahead but worth a shot. Thanks.

"Not Whiterabbit" Stephen, how do we get the free game from Alawar?


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

If you go over to the forums (I think I've provided a link in my review above) and look in the Game Discussion forums sticjy section, you'll find a post dedicated to alawar. there's a link to download the game box, which is required to get the free games. Whiterabbit here not 'not whiterabbit' ;-)

I enjoyed playing this game last time it was offered. Lots of fun and no problems with installation. Well done GAOTD.

Hello, can anyone tell me what the minimum screen resolution for this game is, I need something fun like this to put on my 10.1inch laptop that I use when we are off in our campervan and that only has a max resolution setting of 1024 x 768.
I installed spirit of wandering which also was a gamegiveaway but couldn't play that on the mini so I would like to know in advance now :)
Thanks

(I am another Stephen, NOT Whiterabbit) My Alawar monthly game changed from Sprill several weeks ago. I keep mentioning this ...

The current game is Sheep Quest. It's pretty good. I would hate you to miss it.


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

I already have Sheeps Quest. thought it had already been given away. Thanks, :)
Mine still shows Sprill.

Rolling Spells:






In Brief:




Rolling spells has a vague connection to Pachinko games, so if you like Peggle Deluxe or Dachinko you’ll probably also like this game. It’s not really a pachinko game but the pins with movable platforms gives it a look of a Pachinko game; however, there the resemblance ends. Basically you have a steady stream of colored balls called spells falling from the top of the playing arena. You have to direct these into various colored containers that match the colour of the spells that are falling from the top of the board. Once you’ve created the Magic spell (which is made from a combination of spell ingredients) the level ends. Using the magic spells collected from the side areas of the gaming arena can significantly help your progress.







Installation:


Rolling Spells downloads to a 95.1 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 MB in size. and installs to:

C:\Games\RollingSpells

by default but can be changed to suit whatever your wishes are. There is no uninstaller, but this game is free standing so to delete just remove the installed folder from your hard drive. No shortcuts are installed so you will have to create your own which as most of you know is easy an easy process (right click on the games executable then select ‘Send to’ then from the drop down menu select ‘Desktop (create shortcut) ’). If you want to create a start menu/programs folder you’ll need to find the appropriate folders via your account. Once the game is installed you can delete the giveaway setup files.















I've only tested the game on Win 7 this time around, Anyone running Win 8, Vista or XP, please confirm whether this game works Thanks.


If you miss today's game or have problems running it, try the free version which you can download 24/7 from GAMETOP HERE or from MyPlayCity HERE










Introduction:



Rolling spells was given away previously almost 2 years ago on the 16th April 2011. It received a positive 68% out of 270 votes with 44 comments which can be seen HERE

Rolling Spells offers you the new and original gameplay, bright graphics and intriguing plot. The action takes place in the Fairyland that has been invaded by a strange creature, the mighty Elephly. And you’re the one, without whom the Good Fairy would never be able to defeat him. It’s only your skill and smartness that can help the Fairy to prepare magic potions and defeat the Elephly and his cunning companions. You’ll have to pass through 35 levels and fight with eight original monsters. A detailed adventure map and useful tips from the Fairy are always there to help you not to get lost. The map allows you not only to see the way you’ve already passed, but also check out how it has been passed. For each victory, you’ll get a prize – gold, silver or bronze. Although true heroes would content only with gold! Therefore, having taken a rest, you can repass the level and get the highest scores. Besides the map and Fairy’s tips, there’s also the indispensable “Book of Knowledge”. This short encyclopaedia will help you to remember how this or that spell works, how you can get a prize, what you should do and what you should fear.
Well, happy trails! Defeat all the monsters, set the Fairyland free and get all the golden prizes!

Reference accessed HERE 15th April 2011


Useful comments to read from the last time this was given away: Mike comment no 6, GMMan comment 21, Jibaro comment no 24, nanex comment 30 (if you have problems with audiere.dll). Also if you're using XP, then make sure your Direct X is up to date. (You can't use DX10 or 11, only DX9.0c which you can get from Microsoft if needed)











The Game:




There are two modes, Adventure and Survival. In adventure mode you use a map to follow a path through the kingdom, fighting various boss monsters on your way. Survival mode is basically a never-ending level that only ends when you’ve lost your lives. You lose a life when you miss placing a spell ingredient into the correct container. This has to be unlocked by finishing the first 10 levels from Adventure mode. You can replay any level in Adventure mode so long as it’s been unlocked first.

There are three levels of difficulty; easy, normal and hard, that can be selected via the buttons (left and right arrows) just below the players name. You can set up multiple profiles which makes this a great family game because you can allocate a profile to each family member and progress will be saved for that particular profile.

The settings menu is very basic with sliders to adjust the volume of music and sound effects plus toggles for changing the game from full screen to windowed mode (the game starts off in full screen by default). You can also toggle the game cursor back to a windows cursor if you wish.





There are 35 levels in the Adventure mode roughly divided up into 8 sections. Each area ends with a boss fight, which differs from the main game in that you have to direct a pink ball onto the monster associated with that level. To make the boss fight more difficult the boss moves along the bottom of the board and you have to work out where the boss will be when the ball gets to the bottom. you can hold balls on the platform by clicking on the platform until you wish it to drop; however, if another ball touches the ball you are holding, both balls are destroyed.

You can earn Bronze, Silver or Gold awards for each level which will show up on the map as a coin placed over the level marker. There are also several awards which can be accessed from the main menu or from the playing arena if required. These awards are separated in to Bronze, Silver and Gold categories, include not losing a life during a level, killing 10 bees or getting a specific number of the same ingredient into the correct container during a level as well as others.





At the start of the game you are given a short tutorial that talks you through all the new steps (which you can see via the slideshow that I’ve posted below).

The playing arena is made up of rows of movable platforms that pivot on a central pin. Clicking on a platform will turn the platform to the right or left enabling you to direct the falling spell ingredients to the correct container, or occasionally to direct a gold coin onto one of the golden pointers which unlocks a useful spell that helps you attain certain objectives. There are six golden pointers, each containing a magic spell. Once accessed a spell is stored at the bottom of the playing arena until needed, at which time you just have to click on it to use it. You can see what each spell does by looking at the book of knowledge which is accessible via the book button above the life indicator (to the top left of the playing arena). You have three lives to start and you can store up to four spells at any one time. If you want to collect different spells you will have to use one of the spells filling the four containers. Some examples of spells include the mallet which can be used to remove ice from the platforms. Ice can be annoying because it freezes up the movement of the platform making it impossible to change the direction of the falling ingredients until the ice has been passed; there are different strengths of mallet, the weakest of which will only free one platform and the strongest which frees all the frozen platforms. . Another spell, called ‘Collect all Red spells’ will move all falling red spell ingredients immediately to the red container. apart from platforms freezing you will find other obstacles appearing such as bees who steal the ingredients as they fall, and which you get rid of by clicking on them a few times. As already mentioned, whenever something new appears you will be given instructions on how to cope with it.
















System Requirements:


• OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8
• CPU: 800 Mhz
• RAM: 256 MB
• DirectX: 7.0
• Hard Drive: 97 MB



Video & Images:


You can see a slide show of around 50 images, that include all the initial instructions on how to play the game HERE


You’ll find videos of game play HERE, HERE (survival mode), and HERE, (there are two videos accessible from this page, one of which is a boss fight)






Music:

You can change the music by swapping the music files via the following path. You will need to rename each file and convert them to the .ogg format. (I suggest backing up the original files).


C:\Games\Rolling Spells\Music







Conclusion:


This is an entertaining game that should keep the whole family happy for short periods. I don't think it's a game you could spend hours playing as there's not a lot of variability in the actual game mechanics and it does seem a little slow; that said if the falling spell ingredients fell any faster i think you'd be hard pressed to complete past the few levels following the 2 level tutorial. I thoroughly enjoyed what game play there was, but i rarely play arcade games for more that 10 to 15 minutes at a time a s I use them to give me a break from bigger titles like Dragonage II, Shogun II: Total War, or Crysis II. The overall look of the game is quite professional and fairy tale cartoon in style and more importantly, it plays well.

Instructions on how to play the game are clear and concise. I reckon there’s also quite a lot of re-playability in this game due to the different difficulty levels and the various awards that can be attained plus the ability to go back and replay unlocked levels so as to improve on your score and perhaps attain a silver instead of bronze or better still a gold award. There are also incentives to carry on if only to win the various awards that are available. It’s quite a simple game with some variability (via the boss levels) and it has some original ideas (as far as I can remember from the many thousands of games I've played over the last 30 plus years.....I've been buying games since 1980), so I think this game is worth a reasonable 6.6 out of 10. (The audio lets it down somewhat, but if you are really bothered by the music, you can change it). :)





Scoring

Gameplay – 7
Graphics – 6
Audio – 5
Re-playability – 7
Originality – 8

Total = 6.6















Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting today's game to work please go HERE for help, there's a list of FAQ's with answers.



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). Though, so long as you have the download, sometimes its still possible to activate an hour or so later.

If you do miss the giveaway, or find it won't work, it’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity has the most with over 600 games to choose from. Today's game IS available from GAMETOP HERE or from MyPlayCity HERE .

Please do remember that these free sites have the potential to install toolbars and change your provider. MPC is quite aggressive at the moment. Every time you start a game up, you will need to uncheck the checkboxes if you install the MyPlayCity version.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Games, Games, and yet more Games:




If you're looking for something other than today's game check the Didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals. Also, Kotaku post the best deals from all of the major distributors HERE

e.g. Steam, Origin, Green Man Gaming, Gamersgate, GameFly, and NewEgg with console games included on Amazon, Best Buy, Groupon and Rakuten

Steam games on sale this weekend include free play for Gratuitous Space Battles (with 75% off if you decide to purchase) and free weekend play for the latest Call of Duty game Black Ops II, with 33% off if you purchase, plus other games that you can see if you click on the specials tab.

E.A. Games have a reasonable sale on with 50% off Battlefield 3 and other titles. Gamersgate also has a EA games special on this weekend. There are at least three or four Indie bundles live at the moment, all of which (IMO) are well worth purchasing (GameStar 3 bundle, Indie Royale, Indie Gala and Humble bundle deals) The Humble bundle deal is a three day Mojam, today is the last day, so check it out quick. I think there's also a groupees bundle live.

The 24hr deal is the Tnreal Tournament pack, containing the best of the Unreal tournamnent games (5 games including UT 3 black Edition, Unreal Tournamnent GOTY edition, UT2004 plus 2 more. The whole pack costs only £7.81 or you can buy individual titles (I recommend Unreal Tournament 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004). :) There's a massive modding community attached to these games, with hundreds of gigabytes of free maps and mods to extend the game and add hundreds of hours of extra play time to the deal. The games will be available until Monday at 6pm GMT. You can check the Dollar and Euro prices via the link to Didimatic above, or for a rough estimate for the dollar price just divide the UK price by 2 then multiply by 3 to get a rough estimate, though often the US price is cheaper than the UK price. .


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 (GMG), which you'll find via the Kotaku link). Do check out GMG because they have some excellent deals; for example, you can get 20% off any digital download. At the moment if you pre-order Bioshock Infinite you get two free games one of which is the original Bioshock, plus you can choose one other game from Spec Ops The Line (an excellent 3rd person shooter), Civilization V (though I don't think it includes all of the dlc, which amounts to a sizeable sum), Bioshock 2, Mafia II or The Darkness II all of which are excellent games and worth up to £50, plus I think you may be able to use the 20% off coupon as well. Thankfully, if you've already pre-purchased the game from them, you will still get the free games (phew, I pre-ordered it some weeks ago, pity that I already all of the games already. If they are Steamwork games I'll be able to give them away). :) Also you can get the complete Painkiller pack for 66% off (plus possibly being able to use the 20% off coupon on GMG's front page) that includes the following steamwork games. Painkiller: Black Edition, Painkiller: Hell & Damnation, Painkiller: Overdose, Painkiller: Recurring Evil, Painkiller: Redemption, Painkiller: Resurrection, all for only £13.59. The last three titles were created by some of the original development team working with a group of modders.
Just click on the hot deals for more brilliant deals. not all games are Steamworks.


A couple of weeks ago I managed to get the yet unreleased Ghost Sniper 2 (Steamworks version) for over 66% off from GMG because they had a 25% off token plus I'd got a £10 token for pre-ordering the latest Tomb Raider game. I used that towards the soon to be released sequel and only had to pay just over £8. Every pre-order has a decent deal on it compared to if you purchased directly from Steam or Origin. You'll find the weekend deals HERE.

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. 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 any Indie Game Bundles that are still live.

I've posted images and video of game play for some 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 Indie GameStand offering is 'Adventure Apes and the Mayan Mystery' a retro-inspired metroidvania with an emphasis on exploration. Over 100 rooms, 6 weapons, 5 bosses and hordes of enemies throughout, this game. You can get the game for less than $1 or if you pay the average price (which stood at $1.24 the last time I looked you can get the extras that include music, wallpapers and an instruction booklet.

========================================================

A Request for help:

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

========================================================

There is no installation routine with this game. Instead you merely unzip the game folder to location of your choice. The unzipped game folder is 90.4 MB. I like this type of giveaway as the game can be freely moved and you avoid the unwanted icons being dumped on your desktop without being asked if you want them. The game itself is quite fun and well worth the download. I have not played it for an extremely long time but enough to know I like it and will keep it. Thank you GGOTD team and to Game in Hat.

I looked at the screenshots and then at the filesize: oh man! what makes this program sooooo large?

Gameplay could be funny though, if you can force yourself to forget the wasted ressources.