...but it's not. tesl8 is puzzle game with a simple premise: you flip adjacent rows of tiles in an attempt to re-order them to match a specific pattern.



A few years ago me and a couple of friends (Andy Meadows and Brian Wills) decided we wanted to build software that is completely different from the kind stuff we developed at our day jobs. With comfortable careers (well-paying and stable) and adult responsibilities (mortgages and families), we decided to start of with something small -- miniscule, in fact -- just to test the waters and see how we worked together. A puzzle game seemed the ideal choice as they are usually pretty easy to write and don't require a lot of art assets. The point was to get something out as quick as possible and see what kind of response we received.

Since I was just becoming interested in Mac development at the time (OS X being just the sort of 'something different' that I needed), we decided to develop the game for both Mac and Windows. With a vague idea of what we wanted, we divvied up the workload: I designed the puzzle and rules and wrote the Mac version, Andy ported that code to Windows, and Brian did the artwork for the user interface. We called our little venture Alien Sands.

tesl8 was a fun project and taught us a lot about the shareware marketplace, but ultimately we decided to go our separate ways (amicably, I should add). Brian is still working in the corporate IT world, I started Binary Formations as a side project to indulge my love of developing software for the Mac (something I hope to one day make a full-time career), and Andy runs a consulting company specializing in web and Windows development called Meadows Design (if you are in need of any ASP.Net web or Windows development work I couldn't recommend a better person for the job).

When we dissolved Alien Sands we agreed that we should make tesl8 available for free. That's why I'm offering the OS X version, re-compiled as a Universal Binary, as a free download. It's my first OS X app and the first puzzle game I've ever designed, so keep those two facts in mind if you decide to give it a try.