Wogger Mini #120 is online! Today, the bouncing nail! Wogger Mini is a Point’n’Click Adventure series created by Bernd Mattiebe from Germany. Help Wogger and his family on their never-ending journey in a surreal world full of danger. Have fun!

Update: Wogger Mini 120 walkthrough in comment #2 (thanks effcia!)

Thanks to all of you who voted for their favorite developers for 2007! The vote is now over, and the undisputed winner with more that one-third of the votes is… Bernd Mattiebe!

As I’m writing this, Bernd’s most famous site, Woggerworld, has been hacked and has been temporarily taken down :-( This is a bad news for the whole Wogger community and we should give him all the support we can and hope his site will be up and running again soon!

Paskapet finished second in the competition and Mateusz Skutnik and Rodrigo Roesler are third ex-aequo!

Congrats to all our winners and to all the nominees!

Final Results:

1 – Bernd Mattiebe	37.9%
2 – Paskapet	19.6%
3 ex-aequo – Mateusz Skutnik / Rodrigo Roesler	9.3%
5 – Bart Bonte	7.1%
6 – Stephen Harris	3.7%
7 ex-aequo – Federico Rutenberg / Yoshio Ishii	2.9%
9 –Joel Esler	2.7%
10 – Shawn Tanner	1.9%
11 – John Cooney	1.4%
12 – WeCreateStuff	1.1%

A big thank you to everyone that cast a vote in the 2007 Best Developers of the Year.

We are pleased to announce that nearly 5000 votes have been cast since you started voting for your favorite developers.

Without further ado, here are the 12 finalists you picked as the Best Developers of 2007 in their category, ranked by total votes received!

Paskapet (Russia) – Best Developer 2007 (Room Escape games)

Paskapet is a very prolific Flash game developer from Russia, who has released six Room Escape games in the last eight months! After the release of Escape Library, Paskapet made five games in the “Colored Rooms” series, Escape Pink Room, Magenta Room, Green Room, Orange Room and Turquoise Room.

Rodrigo Roesler (Brazil)

Rodrigo Roesler is a Web designer and a Flash game developer from Brazil. He released Trapped – The White Rabbit last September, the first installment of a very promising trilogy of Point’n’Click adventure and Escape games. The second installment, The Dark, is now live!

Shawn Tanner (U.S.A.)

Shawn Tanner is the author of several popular flash games and the Webmaster of Afro-Ninja Productions. Shawn released three Room Escape games this year in his very popular Escape series: Escape the Car, Escape the Closet and Escape the Phone Booth.

Bernd Mattiebe (Germany) – Best Developer 2007 (Adventure games)

Bernd Mattiebe is a German artist and designer. He is also the man who gave life last year to Wogger, a cute red alien. Since then, he has created over 100 chapters for the Wogger Mini series that more and more people enjoy playing every week.

Federico Rutenberg (Argentina)

Federico Rutenberg released the first chapter of Esklavos last April. Esklavos is a Point’n’Click Adventure series involving two young aliens. Since then, he has created 9 more chapters and Esklavos is quickly becoming popular series.

Mateusz Skutnik (Poland)

Mateusz Skutnik defines himself as a Flash games architect and a graphic novel artist. His best known adventure/escape series so far is Submachine (with two new chapters this year, Submachine 4 and FLF). He also started two new adventure series this year, Covert Front and Daymare Town. The author is now developing “Submachine 5: the Root” that should be released in January.

Bart Bonte (Belgium) – Best Developer 2007 (Puzzle games)

Bart Bonte is a Flash developer from Belgium who has already developed successful games. More well known for his Room Escape games (the Bonte Room series, A bark in the Dark, Loose the Moose), Bart released several puzzle games in 2007, such as Fields of Logic, Chicken Grow and more recently, Factory Balls.

Yoshio Ishii (Japan)

From japan, Yoshio Ishii has been designing Flash games for several years now. He is well known for his Neko Series, a series of games involving cats. In 2007, he decided to focus on creating puzzle games, and released some very creative games such as Plupon, the amazing Hoshi Saga series, and more recently, Slidon.

Stephen Harris (New Zealand)

Stephen Harris is the author of the Bloons series and many other successful games. The original Bloons game was released last March and became an instant hit. Since then, Stephen has created Bloons World, a site dedicated to Bloons fans, two “Bloons” Tower Defense games, and a few other puzzle/skill games!

John Cooney (U.S.A.) – Best Developer 2007 (Action/Skill games)

John Cooney is very well known in the Flash gaming community for his Ball Revamped and Four Second series. He released many new games this year, such as Scribble 2, Luminara, Ball Revamped 5 or Ocean Explorer to name a few. Now working full time at ArmorGames, you can expect more creative games from this guy!

WeCreateStuff (Israel)

WeCreateStuff defines itself as a group of (young) nerds with way too much free time. They released Portal: The Flash Version last October, a awesome Flash 2D version of the first person action/puzzle game developed by Valve.

Joel Esler (Australia)

Joel Esler is a Flash game developer from Australia. Last September, he uploaded at Kongregate his first game, a physics-based platformer named Manifold. Even though Manifold was only a demo, it was an instant hit. After a few weeks, Joel released Fold, a full version of his previous game with much more challenging levels!

Here at FreeGamesNews, we love free browser-based games. The end of the year is coming soon, and it’s time for YOU to cast your vote for the Best Developers of the year in our first annual FreeGamesNews Awards.

Here are the 10 nominees in the category Best Adventure games Developers of 2007, in alphabetical order:

Aztec (Japan)

Aztec is a Flash Adventure/Escape games designer from Japan. Between June and December 07, Aztec released four unique and superbly crafted games, Shrine (Jinja), Escape from Island, Escape from Octlien and Dr Dokkoy.

Anders Gustafsson (Swede)

Anders Gustafsson is an independent developer from Swede who mainly works with film and game production. He is well known in the Flash games community for his very popular Point’n’Click Adventure series Gateway. The second installment in the series was released last March.

Gionatan Iasio (Italy)

Gionatan Iasio is a Flash games designer from Italy and the brilliant mind behind the Warbears series. Warbears Mission 2 and Mission 3 were released this year, and the author is already working on the upcoming fourth installment in the series, “Underwater”.

Makibishi Studio

Makibishi Comic is a very creative and original Point’n’Click adventure game created by Makibishi Studio of Japan (their site really deserves a visit!) Makibishi Comic is loaded with fascinating artwork and the overall quality is impressive!

Bernd Mattiebe (Germany)

Bernd Mattiebe is a German artist and designer. He is also the man who gave life last year to Wogger, a cute red alien. Since then, he has created over 100 chapters for the Wogger Mini series that more and more people enjoy playing every week.

Dan Russell-Pinson (U.S.A.)

Dan Russell-Pinson has been programming since the early 80’, but he only started learning Flash a few months ago. Last August, he released the first chapter of Tipping Point, a very promising series of adventure games, and the second chapter went live a few weeks ago.

Federico Rutenberg (Argentina)

Federico Rutenberg released the first chapter of Esklavos last April. Esklavos is a Point’n’Click Adventure series involving two young aliens. Since then, he has created 9 more chapters and Esklavos is quickly becoming popular series.

On (Japan)

On of Eyezmaze, the creator of the hugely popular Grow series has released several games this year, with major hits like Dwarf Complete or Grow Island, along with a few others like Neighbours, Grow Nano vol.2 and Galves Adventure.

Mateusz Skutnik (Poland)

Mateusz Skutnik defines himself as a Flash games architect and a graphic novel artist. His best known adventure/escape series so far is Submachine (with two new chapters this year, Submachine 4 and FLF). He also started two new adventure series this year, Covert Front and Daymare Town. The author is now developing “Submachine 5: the Root” that should be released in January.

Trickysheep (New Zealand)

Trickysheep is a digital publisher based in New Zealand. The 21st of November, they released Anika’s Odyssey – Land of the Taniwha, “a magical adventure deep into a lush and enchanted land”. The game was coded by Jeff Nusz, the author of another original adventure game released this year, Sprout, with art by Tom Robinson.

The long wait is over: Wogger Mini #100 is online!

Congrats to Bernd Mattiebe for making such an amazing work! That being said, I wonder if we will play Wogger Mini #200 next year same time?

Will you be able to complete this 100th episode?

Have fun!

Wogger Mini #67 is online! After a short break, Berd Mattiebe and the Wogger family are back with new adventures! My advice: don’t play with the crab…

Will you be able to complete this 67th episode?

Have fun!

The next levels of Wogger are almost here (release date: December 1st). Wogger, for those of you who missed it this summer, is a cute red small alien, main character of a Point’n’Click adventure game developed by the German artist and designer Bernd Mattiebe from Stuttgart. The first two levels were released around mid-July: a lot of people enjoyed that game and then a lot complained that it what too short!

Well, the two levels released in July were just the two first of a series of 12, and what was supposed to be a short story is just the beginning of a complete journey: why did Wogger decide to leave his home and start exploring space? And what does he look for? So far, nobody knows, and I won’t spoil the surprise, but the answer lies somewhere in the next 10 levels to be released in coming days…

But first things first – You will be able to enjoy soon and for free the third and fourth levels of Wogger’s journey. The next eight levels will only be available for download at a price tag of $9.99 (USD) or 7.99€. For this price, you will receive a zip 8MB file including the 12 levels, a readme.txt with short instructions, a start-wogger.html and some additional files to let you play offline on your computer (PC and MAC). The game will also be available on CD, for 9.49€ + shipping costs (all prices have been confirmed at the time of writing).

When I first played the game last July, I was impressed by the surreal ambiance created by the author, so close from what Jakub Dvorsky did in his super famous Samorost series.

After chatting with Bernd last week, I had the opportunity this weekend to test a full beta version of Wogger, and what I saw was beyond my expectations! I spent several hours (expect an entire afternoon to finish the game) visiting this unique and wonderful world, with no dialogue, no inventory and just a basic goal: solve each new puzzle and progress through this incredible adventure.

With 10 all new enchanting levels and dozens of animated scenes, Bernd Mattiebe did a remarkable work: Wogger’s world is full of bizarre creatures and unusual shapes created using a collage technique from various nature pictures and videos. The puzzles in the game are nicely varied and imaginative: some of them consist of clicking an object to activate or a location to move. Some others will require to pickup an object and use it. A few of them will require a bit of timing or simply moving your pointer over a particular spot to perform a new action.

There are no dead-ends in the game, but several puzzles need a specific sequence of actions in a particular order to be solved. If you don’t succeed in your first attempt, don’t worry, the scene will reload and you’ll be able to try again, as many times as needed.

There are also a few simple mini-games in the commercial levels that add a nice touch and some variety to the gameplay. A level code system was also implemented to save your progress: you can check at any time the name of the current level and then resume playing at the beginning of this level at any time.

If I didn’t notice any bug while playing with this version of Wogger, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of music in the game; this was an intentional decision of the author, who only looked for “some natural or digital sounds to create a certain feeling”. Another downside could be that a few items are really hard to see, which can require frantic pixel hunting. That being said, Wogger usually looks in the direction where he wants your attention, so you should always keep an eye on him!

Overall, Wogger is a new exceptionally charming and imaginative adventure game, offering a highly immersive experience. Despite the fact that we focus on free games here at FreeGamesNews, it’s really difficult not to recommend the commercial version of Wogger to any Point’n’Click adventures fan. The world you will explore is so enchanting and the story behind the 8 commercial levels is so adorable that nobody will blame you if you give yourself an early present for Christmas.

Levels 1 to 4 are available for free here: have fun!

I got in touch with Bernd this weekend and asked him a few questions.

FreeGamesNews: Where did you get your inspiration to create Wogger?

Bernd: I love Nature. Nature is my best source of inspiration. You may want to talk about Samorost? I consider myself as an artist first and I’m not a gamer. I really like the Tomb Raider series, and I like Lara Croft as a character! Samorost is a great game: I played the first level and then I stopped. I never finished Samorost: I decided to create my own game instead! Playing Samorost was simply the starting point for Wogger’s development.

FreeGamesNews: How long did it take to develop the two first levels of Wogger?

Bernd: I would say around two months. At first, I made the game only for myself, as an artwork; so I didn’t really keep track of how much time I spent on them. Creating a game like Wogger is not only about development: you have to find fresh ideas, take a lot of pictures, videos, create animations, etc.

FreeGamesNews: And what about the next ten levels?

Bernd: About four months, full time! Just sleeping and working: everything was about Wogger, Wogger and Wogger!

FreeGamesNews: Any plans for the future?

Bernd: Well, if Wogger is successful enough, I have some great ideas for a sequel, may be a non-linear adventure: it would add a significant replay-value to the game, but it’s a lot of work!

Disclaimer: Bernd was kind enough to advertise for free in our new “Coming Soon/Just Released” section, offering a link back to FreeGamesNews on his own site. FreeGamesNews does not get any commission for promoting games. We only review games we like!

I received today an email from Bernd Mattiebe, the author of Wogger:

“On December 1st, it will finally begin – Woggers brand new adventure will be finished!
I hope you will like it!”

To the question, “are you 100% sure about the date?”, Bernd replied:

“I’m 99.999999% SURE!”

Conclusion: less than three weeks to go before the release of the new adventures of Wogger!

Here are a few new pictures to help you wait…

Update:
Read our exclusive preview of “Wogger: next levels” here

Wogger is one of the most successful summer ‘06 Point’n’Click game. And the news is now official. I received this morning an email from Bernd Mattiebe, the author of the game:

“You might be curious of what new adventures Wogger has to pass next. I send you some pictures enclosed (attached) of the new levels to let you stay in touch. Until autumn, Wogger, hopefully will be back from his long adventure journey, so the game can go on…”

The countdown has begun! Until its release, here are some screen shots of what is waiting for you this fall…

Update:
Read our exclusive preview of “Wogger: next levels” here

Wogger is a brand new Point’n’Click adventure game designed by Bernd Mattiebe.

The feel of the game reminds me the Samorost series, with the same high level of details and gorgeous graphics. This game shares also this particular and so unique mysterious atmosphere which has contributed to the success of Samorost.

Puzzles are easy to solve and progressing through the different levels is quite natural even if you will have to think different, just because Wogger takes place in an onieric world: it looks like the author has decided to take care of moderately experimented adventurers or busy people at work;)

Simple, delightful, highly recommended: have fun!

Source: Stebu.

Update: a complete walkthrough in the comments.

Update 2:
Read our exclusive preview of “Wogger: next levels” here