CHAPTER 21 – The Miracle

True to their word, the Liwans did have wings.

Nightshade looked down from atop his blackbird and watched the scenery racing by below him. It still amazed Nightshade how quickly the birds had come to the Liwans’ aid. The shrill chitter sound the Liwans were able to produce from blowing across a single blade of grass pinched between their cupped paws was incredibly effective.

Now, Nightshade and a flying squadron of ten other riders were in an all-out race to intercept the distant Mothship; the red and yellow markings on their wings a blur of color. Despite the extreme efforts of the Liwans, Nightshade knew the grim reality was that these birds had little chance of catching a rocket-powered airship – let alone one with as big of a head start as the Mothship had on them now. (more…)

Well I tend to suffer from analysis paralysis when making game design decisions. For the past couple months I have been struggling with how to calculate Mech Mice weapon damage. Should every attack deliver a set number of weapon damage? or should every attack have the chance to miss? Both have endless pros and cons.

This week Russ has started to code the Mech Mice unit stats for the game. I must decide. My answer came from a fantastic tweet by Markus Persson (Creator of Minecraft)

“If you can’t decide something important, flip a coin. Your immediate reaction to the result will tell you what your innermost feelings are.”

So, I finally rolled a dice. “Even” Mech Mice would have a set number of damage per unit and weapon. “Odd” Mech Mice would have a random chance to miss.

I rolled a FOUR.

Immediately I shouted. “But, I want tension, I want the player to risk!”

So, I finally decided to make the damage a little more random. This decision has created a couple very unique features for Mech Mice. It is possible to miss, and it is possible for a perfect shot.

I plan to flip more coins, and roll a couple more dice.

Are you a Codebearers fan? We partnered with the Millers to write the Mech Mice book, because of the Codebearers series. Below is the latest news from Chris and Allan Miller:

A New Codebearers Book?

If you’re one of the tens of thousands of fans who have read and enjoyed our Codebearers novels we want to personally thank you for joining and supporting us on that journey. When we set out to write Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow, we had no idea how much the story would resonate with our readers. We always knew it was a story that needed to be told, but never in our wildest dreams would we have imagined that in just a few short years the trilogy that we started out to write in 2007 would have travelled around the globe, been translated into nearly a half-dozen languages and would have won three consecutive awards for youth fiction fantasy. Thank you for sharing your love of the Codebearers books with a friend, it is because of you (our readers) that we have been blessed with so much success.

It has been quite a ride…and we’re happy to announce we’re just getting started.

If you haven’t yet heard, Allan and I have been hard at work plotting out our next big Codebearers adventure. This spin off series is called “Codebearers Continuum” and is in many ways a continuation of the adventures that unfolded in the previous three books with one major twist. What is the twist, you ask? It will be unveiled in the very first chapter of the book which we hope to release online for FREE very soon. The first book (still untitled) will set the tone for the rest of the Continuum series and will make room for a few new characters to play the leading role in the adventures for awhile. The story is too big for one hero alone.

“Ears up, Mice!”

We’re also very proud to announce that last month marked the launch of our first novel since Hunter Brown and the Eye of Ends. The new book is called “Mech Mice: Genesis Strike” and it’s a fun romp through the imaginative world of Megiddo where intelligent mice fight for survival armed with blasters and heavy armor. Think Band of Brothers with mice instead of men and you’re almost there. This particular story focuses on a misfit squad of rookies who are hoping to prove themselves in the field. They get their chance but after a crashed transport leaves them stranded in a wasteland and a myriad of savage beasts attack the young squad it becomes clear that the young commander and his squad are likely in over their head. That’s when the real fun begins.

What you might not know about the book is that it is part of a larger property that is currently being developed as a video game, toys and even an animated series of shorts. You can read more about it on my most recent blog post at TheMillerBrothers.com.

The book is currently available on Amazon and Kindle formats (iBooks and Nook formats coming soon).

But the best part of all is that you can even read the book for FREE online simply by visiting our publisher’s site at SpearheadBooks.com and clicking on FREE READS.

Get you free Mech Mice Patch!

LIMITED TIME: The first 500 people who order a copy of Mech Mice from Amazon.com and/or post a review of the book online will be given their very own Mech Mice iron-on patch. All you have to do is fill out the form at the bottom of this blog post before April 17th and we’ll mail a patch directly to your doorstep.

• Buy the Mech Mice Book
• Read the book online (Click Free Read)
• Learn more about Mech Mice

The amazing team at RocketSnail Games has just finished porting “Box of Snails” to the iPad. We plan to launch this app in a couple months.

• Play Box of Snails
• Learn more about RocketSnail Games

Mech Mice is moving along quickly. Cale has been in New Zealand for the last couple weeks working with Oktobor Animation on the artwork for the Mech Mice game. Russ has been busy porting our Mech Mice Weapon Test to the iPad. (We hope to post a new video later this week) The Millers are planning a book tour. Screenhog is busy working on a new top secret project. And I just ordered 1000 Mech Mice patches. What do you think we should do with the patches?

• Learn more about Mech Mice
• Learn more about RocketSnail Games