http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?t
if you play indie games, go vote for the indie games you're most looking forward to. currently fez and the undersize are in the lead
if you play indie games, go vote for the indie games you're most looking forward to. currently fez and the undersize are in the lead
something i miss about old jRPGs -- in the old days, you had to "talk to everyone!" in order to figure out where to go or what to do next: today, they just tell you in cutscenes, and sometimes even provide a big arrow pointing which way to go (like in Final Fantasy X) -- pleasantly, at least atlus games retain some of the "talk to everyone!" mechanic, even if no other jRPGs do
Haha: "NOBODY likes Iji. People may think they do, but it's not a fun game." -Overman on the Game Maker Community forums
the best let's play ever; clysm linked me to it
jason rohrer and chris crawford documentary trailer
too much game design power in one room
i'm going to sleep now but just had a sadistic idea: you know how faqs and walkthroughs ruin games? how it's not as fun as figuring stuff out yourself before the age of the internet where you could just look a puzzle up to solve it? imagine if the game itself had algorithms to detect when you seem like you know exactly what to do without having to experiment or figure stuff out, and then punish the player for it? (or even just say: you used a faq to solve this, right? try experimenting next time ;_;) haha
reminds me of my idea to detect when the player is skipping textboxes too quickly without reading them and punish them for not paying attention to the story
of course, i don't really think serious games should do these things, but it'd be fun for joke / experimental games
reminds me of my idea to detect when the player is skipping textboxes too quickly without reading them and punish them for not paying attention to the story
of course, i don't really think serious games should do these things, but it'd be fun for joke / experimental games
copied from a tigsource thread, this is the list of games i've worked on and whether i finished them or not, so far
01 gobbler [1995] [finished]
02 ____'s kingdom [1995] [unfinished]
03 seeker [1995] [mostly done but unfinished]
04 2nd seeker [1996] [mostly done but unfinished]
05 untitled egypt rpg [1997] [unfinished]
06 nhnt 1/5 [1998] [unfinished]
07 wingedmene [1999] [not finished but released and ~15 hours of gameplay]
08 and [2000] [finished]
09 harlock and rinku's game which includes the game never go west [2001] [finished]
10 rulers of the seven wonders [2001] [finished]
11 ziggurats for red turtle [2002] [unfinished]
12 knight of the ages [2003] [finished]
13 kinder der alter / alterpoint [2004] [unfinished]
14 troublespot [2005] [unfinished]
15 alphasix [2006] [finished]
16 immortal defense [2007] [finished]
17 fedora spade series [2007-2008] [finished]
18 saturated dreamers [2007] [currently in progress]
19 new detail [2008] [unfinished]
20 valentine's contest game [2009] [finished]
21 rainshine [2009] [currently in progress]
success rate (only counting 'finished' and counting everything else as unfinished): 9/21 or 43%
01 gobbler [1995] [finished]
02 ____'s kingdom [1995] [unfinished]
03 seeker [1995] [mostly done but unfinished]
04 2nd seeker [1996] [mostly done but unfinished]
05 untitled egypt rpg [1997] [unfinished]
06 nhnt 1/5 [1998] [unfinished]
07 wingedmene [1999] [not finished but released and ~15 hours of gameplay]
08 and [2000] [finished]
09 harlock and rinku's game which includes the game never go west [2001] [finished]
10 rulers of the seven wonders [2001] [finished]
11 ziggurats for red turtle [2002] [unfinished]
12 knight of the ages [2003] [finished]
13 kinder der alter / alterpoint [2004] [unfinished]
14 troublespot [2005] [unfinished]
15 alphasix [2006] [finished]
16 immortal defense [2007] [finished]
17 fedora spade series [2007-2008] [finished]
18 saturated dreamers [2007] [currently in progress]
19 new detail [2008] [unfinished]
20 valentine's contest game [2009] [finished]
21 rainshine [2009] [currently in progress]
success rate (only counting 'finished' and counting everything else as unfinished): 9/21 or 43%
commercial for derek yu's new iphone game
more indie games need commercials
what's sad is that as hilarious as this design for a game is, it's a better design than most i see
why does game design seem to attract the most terribly polluted people; or is it just that u.g. is right about the pollution being so pervasive
to point out a few things i dislike about that design (even though i don't have to since it's obvious from reading it):
- the writing speaks for itself ("breaking the line between logic bound decisions and emotionally incentivized choices")
- the domination of thought over sensation
- telling people that the game will be great ("heart-stopping")
- intending to change the player ("events that not only challenges the player’s own modern perception of life, but also the player’s own morality, fortitude, endurance, loyalty, diligence, and problem solving skills")
- generic 'newsflash: morality is subjective, fools!' message ("For many reasons, VHEL was meant to serve as a game with an indiscreet point of view about good or bad, saintly or demonic, morality or logic, etc.. People, in truth, aren’t branded as pure evil or never being the type to do bad things")
on the other hand, what i liked about the design:
- "using alien tactics and strategies unique to this world alone."
- that at least the designer is taking design somewhat seriously, putting some attention onto it
- "Trade and Value, as mentioned, is a dynamic system that changes as the player does from each, in-game day. For example: if the player is more inclined to use one item regularly, then the odds of finding or trading for said item increases in general value. This makes it tougher to spam a general tactic and encourages frequent item allocation for accessibility reasons, later down the line."
why does game design seem to attract the most terribly polluted people; or is it just that u.g. is right about the pollution being so pervasive
to point out a few things i dislike about that design (even though i don't have to since it's obvious from reading it):
- the writing speaks for itself ("breaking the line between logic bound decisions and emotionally incentivized choices")
- the domination of thought over sensation
- telling people that the game will be great ("heart-stopping")
- intending to change the player ("events that not only challenges the player’s own modern perception of life, but also the player’s own morality, fortitude, endurance, loyalty, diligence, and problem solving skills")
- generic 'newsflash: morality is subjective, fools!' message ("For many reasons, VHEL was meant to serve as a game with an indiscreet point of view about good or bad, saintly or demonic, morality or logic, etc.. People, in truth, aren’t branded as pure evil or never being the type to do bad things")
on the other hand, what i liked about the design:
- "using alien tactics and strategies unique to this world alone."
- that at least the designer is taking design somewhat seriously, putting some attention onto it
- "Trade and Value, as mentioned, is a dynamic system that changes as the player does from each, in-game day. For example: if the player is more inclined to use one item regularly, then the odds of finding or trading for said item increases in general value. This makes it tougher to spam a general tactic and encourages frequent item allocation for accessibility reasons, later down the line."
today one of the featured videos on youtube was this video. i think this is the first time an indie game has ever gotten a featured video spot on youtube. the guy who created the first version of this game used game maker, although he later remade it in flash with new levels. the idea is that the goal of each level is to figure out how to kill yourself (which gets increasingly harder and trickier as you go through the game).
btw, for those who don't read tigsource regularly, i've been reviewing classic indie games for it for 'classics week'
http://www.tigsource.com/
my reviews include tower of the sorcerer, the way, the exile trilogy / blades of exile, photopia, and zeldarius. derek yu and a few guest reviewers also reviewed a bunch of classic indie games.
http://www.tigsource.com/
my reviews include tower of the sorcerer, the way, the exile trilogy / blades of exile, photopia, and zeldarius. derek yu and a few guest reviewers also reviewed a bunch of classic indie games.
so let's say that games can be grouped into two types, games that appeal to hunting instincts (male ones), and games that appeal to caretaking instincts (female ones) -- (and yes i know this is a terrible simplification blah blah but just grant it)
hunting often involves aiming, throwing/shooting, following things (often dangerous things), sometimes sneaking carefully so they can't detect you, working together, forming strategies, and similar stuff. fps games, platformers, shmups, strategy wargames, and so on are all games that appeal to the hunting instincts
games that appeal to caretaking instincts are rarer but still popular -- the sims, neopets, harvest moon, and so on -- games where you take care of something or cultivate something, nurturing it as it grows
if this is true, are games forever doomed to be either female games or male games? or can a game do both?
one game that i think does both is the rpg genre -- you both cultivate something (carefully building up a party and taking care of it, equipping it right, keeping it healed) and use it to hunt (kill monsters, go in dungeons in search of treasure or other goals). this may explain why rpgs seem to be the genre most popular with females but also not a genre that males overly avoid.
hunting often involves aiming, throwing/shooting, following things (often dangerous things), sometimes sneaking carefully so they can't detect you, working together, forming strategies, and similar stuff. fps games, platformers, shmups, strategy wargames, and so on are all games that appeal to the hunting instincts
games that appeal to caretaking instincts are rarer but still popular -- the sims, neopets, harvest moon, and so on -- games where you take care of something or cultivate something, nurturing it as it grows
if this is true, are games forever doomed to be either female games or male games? or can a game do both?
one game that i think does both is the rpg genre -- you both cultivate something (carefully building up a party and taking care of it, equipping it right, keeping it healed) and use it to hunt (kill monsters, go in dungeons in search of treasure or other goals). this may explain why rpgs seem to be the genre most popular with females but also not a genre that males overly avoid.
this comes with a stuffed animal. atlas is only making a limited number of copies of this game (perhaps to increase demand?). nice style.
looks good. it's the third ico game
this is my favorite atari 2600 game again, fathom. found a video of it on youtube. first gameplay video i've ever found of it. they finish the first level.
the box cover of guardian legend, japanese version
background: that's ed mcmillen (an indie game designer)
http://tigsource.com/articles/2009/01/1
so there was this indie game a guy spent 5 years making, and it's about feeling powerful and shooting stuff, and the dev was a mormon who wrote a blog post supporting prop 8 in california (which changed the state constitution to define marriage as between a male and female) -- reading the comments there was entertaining. both sides are pretty virulent. some were saying you shouldn't buy the game cause of his politics, etc.
i wonder what it'd do to the sales of my game if my controversial opinions were known? i mean, i believe (for instance):
- sensory reality exists, and it is all that exists; other things exist only by analogy, extension, invention, extrapolation, imagination, or illusion, all of which are less reliable than the senses
- governments and the police and jails are harmful, a scaled-up equivalent of the mafia (although organized crime is actually far less harmful), even though they are unavoidable and will be unavoidable for the foreseeable future (see voluntaryism for more on this)
- the fda and the drug industry are harmful and preventing the cures for many diseases by creating a small monopoly of people who are allowed to treat disease; and the cause of most disease are the types of food we eat, our lifestyle choices, or the toxins we are exposed to, and most disease is preventable (see life extension magazine editorials for more on this)
- public schools are harmful, and people would be more intelligent without them (see john taylor gatto for more on this)
- psychoactive prescription drugs are harmful and we'd be better off dealing with such problems without drugs most of the time (see anti-psychiatry for more on this)
- thought, concepts, categorization, and mental effort in general is harmful, and takes people away from their natural mode of being. most ideation (from religion to science to theories or ideas of any kind) are harmful to believe in and should be used only with restraint and care, like heavy construction equipment (see u.g. krishnamurti's writings for more on this)
- art in excess is harmful, since it creates a hyperreality; and yes it's kind of ironic that i believe this and am a game designer, but the key word is in excess, in minor doses as a rare treat art can be okay, much like candy; listening to music too much or watching movies too much (etc.) is not only unhealthy but dangerous and a tragedy since it moves attention from sensations of natural reality to sensations of artificial reality: there is no clear distinction between art and mind control, and plato may have been onto something when he wanted to exile all artists to the wastes (see hyperreality on wikipedia for more on this)
- that most beliefs about reality are based on thought or on art, neither of which often holds up against reality. there are an unending barrage of false beliefs people hold about reality due to those two factors, i'd say that almost everything anyone believes about reality (including me) is completely false just due to the ill-effects of the almost inherent irrationality of thought and of false sensation (i.e. art)
- telling the truth is the primary virtue, lying (even if it's just white lies) is worse than torture and killing, because if you torture a person to death that's just a crime against humanity, but to lie is a crime against reality itself (see the radical honesty books for more on this)
- determinism (in the sense of all actions being caused by other actions and proceeding the way they do due to natural law) is not just real, but obvious: to believe in free choice is no different to me than to believe in the afterlife or reincarnation, and it's only those who do not believe in choice who can truly act ethically, since the basis of morality is acceptance
- eliminating cancer, heart disease, and aging all would be possible to achieve in about ten years if we had a manhattan project for each and spent as much money on them as we spend on things like the iraq war. and that it would be a good thing to extend human lifespan as much as possible.
- overpopulation is a myth: humans are underpopulated; the world could easily support a hundred billion people if it had to; there is an illusion of overpopulation because certain resources (oil in particular) are limited, but if we switched to renewable resources like solar and wind etc. there'd be no limit to the number of people which could exist; and that filling the universe with as much life (as many people) as possible is not only a positive thing but should be humanity's primary goal, it is the goal of all life, and can't be fought and there's no reason to fight it so it should be embraced
okay, i think that's about it for now. hopefully i've included enough points so that anyone reading it will find at least one thing that make them think "he's crazy!" -- but that was the point, everyone has some belief that'll make other people not want to buy their games, so even though i think it's a stupid belief for that guy who want to use the force of law to define marriage as between a man and a woman, it's his crazy belief, everyone has a crazy belief here and there, and we shouldn't hold it against his game or even against him as a person.
so there was this indie game a guy spent 5 years making, and it's about feeling powerful and shooting stuff, and the dev was a mormon who wrote a blog post supporting prop 8 in california (which changed the state constitution to define marriage as between a male and female) -- reading the comments there was entertaining. both sides are pretty virulent. some were saying you shouldn't buy the game cause of his politics, etc.
i wonder what it'd do to the sales of my game if my controversial opinions were known? i mean, i believe (for instance):
- sensory reality exists, and it is all that exists; other things exist only by analogy, extension, invention, extrapolation, imagination, or illusion, all of which are less reliable than the senses
- governments and the police and jails are harmful, a scaled-up equivalent of the mafia (although organized crime is actually far less harmful), even though they are unavoidable and will be unavoidable for the foreseeable future (see voluntaryism for more on this)
- the fda and the drug industry are harmful and preventing the cures for many diseases by creating a small monopoly of people who are allowed to treat disease; and the cause of most disease are the types of food we eat, our lifestyle choices, or the toxins we are exposed to, and most disease is preventable (see life extension magazine editorials for more on this)
- public schools are harmful, and people would be more intelligent without them (see john taylor gatto for more on this)
- psychoactive prescription drugs are harmful and we'd be better off dealing with such problems without drugs most of the time (see anti-psychiatry for more on this)
- thought, concepts, categorization, and mental effort in general is harmful, and takes people away from their natural mode of being. most ideation (from religion to science to theories or ideas of any kind) are harmful to believe in and should be used only with restraint and care, like heavy construction equipment (see u.g. krishnamurti's writings for more on this)
- art in excess is harmful, since it creates a hyperreality; and yes it's kind of ironic that i believe this and am a game designer, but the key word is in excess, in minor doses as a rare treat art can be okay, much like candy; listening to music too much or watching movies too much (etc.) is not only unhealthy but dangerous and a tragedy since it moves attention from sensations of natural reality to sensations of artificial reality: there is no clear distinction between art and mind control, and plato may have been onto something when he wanted to exile all artists to the wastes (see hyperreality on wikipedia for more on this)
- that most beliefs about reality are based on thought or on art, neither of which often holds up against reality. there are an unending barrage of false beliefs people hold about reality due to those two factors, i'd say that almost everything anyone believes about reality (including me) is completely false just due to the ill-effects of the almost inherent irrationality of thought and of false sensation (i.e. art)
- telling the truth is the primary virtue, lying (even if it's just white lies) is worse than torture and killing, because if you torture a person to death that's just a crime against humanity, but to lie is a crime against reality itself (see the radical honesty books for more on this)
- determinism (in the sense of all actions being caused by other actions and proceeding the way they do due to natural law) is not just real, but obvious: to believe in free choice is no different to me than to believe in the afterlife or reincarnation, and it's only those who do not believe in choice who can truly act ethically, since the basis of morality is acceptance
- eliminating cancer, heart disease, and aging all would be possible to achieve in about ten years if we had a manhattan project for each and spent as much money on them as we spend on things like the iraq war. and that it would be a good thing to extend human lifespan as much as possible.
- overpopulation is a myth: humans are underpopulated; the world could easily support a hundred billion people if it had to; there is an illusion of overpopulation because certain resources (oil in particular) are limited, but if we switched to renewable resources like solar and wind etc. there'd be no limit to the number of people which could exist; and that filling the universe with as much life (as many people) as possible is not only a positive thing but should be humanity's primary goal, it is the goal of all life, and can't be fought and there's no reason to fight it so it should be embraced
okay, i think that's about it for now. hopefully i've included enough points so that anyone reading it will find at least one thing that make them think "he's crazy!" -- but that was the point, everyone has some belief that'll make other people not want to buy their games, so even though i think it's a stupid belief for that guy who want to use the force of law to define marriage as between a man and a woman, it's his crazy belief, everyone has a crazy belief here and there, and we shouldn't hold it against his game or even against him as a person.
this game won the tigsource cockpit contest, it is pretty funny, though i think the bear doesn't actually look much like a bear
http://www.kiva.org/community/viewTeam/
$4000 loaned now by the indie game dev team
$475 of that is me
but that's not as much as some guy named maupin, who has loaned at least $1225
other people who loan a lot are clysm, cliffski, jeff of wolffire games, and a few others who i don't know who they are
$4000 loaned now by the indie game dev team
$475 of that is me
but that's not as much as some guy named maupin, who has loaned at least $1225
other people who loan a lot are clysm, cliffski, jeff of wolffire games, and a few others who i don't know who they are
cactus's presentation at the GDC (multiple parts, this is part 1)
Yay cactus!
http://golbygolby.mybrute.com
This is a pretty hilarious game -- you don't actually do anything, it fights automatically, and you gain levels and such. Reminds me of Progress Quest, except for a fighting game. It automatically generates a character (random colors etc.) when you put in your name. Anyway try it out and try fighting my character.
This is a pretty hilarious game -- you don't actually do anything, it fights automatically, and you gain levels and such. Reminds me of Progress Quest, except for a fighting game. It automatically generates a character (random colors etc.) when you put in your name. Anyway try it out and try fighting my character.
I know, I'm not supposed to be watching YouTub, but TIGSource embedded it and I was curious what it was. It's hilarious.
apparently I was shown twice in the GDC, once by cactus and once by tale of tales. haven't seen either yet but that's kind of funny.
i started working a bit on new detail (my fedora spade / tomato engine game) yesterday, will continue today. always wanted to finish that game. some parts of it are too obvious, some parts not well written, and most of it isn't written, so will need to finish it right-quick.
this new image of me in the avatar is taken from "lin ku" from fedora spade, drawn by orchard-l.
i started working a bit on new detail (my fedora spade / tomato engine game) yesterday, will continue today. always wanted to finish that game. some parts of it are too obvious, some parts not well written, and most of it isn't written, so will need to finish it right-quick.
this new image of me in the avatar is taken from "lin ku" from fedora spade, drawn by orchard-l.
Of all the reviews of The Path (a game by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
womanonfire that you should all get), I like the regular user-generated reviews the best, rather than the reviews of jaded journalists, since the former are just reports on how they liked the game. Here's one I liked:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/th
Also playing this game and seeing people's positive reactions to it actually makes me want to finish Saturated Dramers, since it kind of means that games that focus more on exploration and atmosphere and not so much on rules and gameplay can still find an audience, even if that audience tends to be silent a lot of the time.
womanonfire that you should all get), I like the regular user-generated reviews the best, rather than the reviews of jaded journalists, since the former are just reports on how they liked the game. Here's one I liked:http://www.gamespot.com/pc/adventure/th
Also playing this game and seeing people's positive reactions to it actually makes me want to finish Saturated Dramers, since it kind of means that games that focus more on exploration and atmosphere and not so much on rules and gameplay can still find an audience, even if that audience tends to be silent a lot of the time.
Your result for The (video) game designer style Test...
The Experience
1 Culture, 13 Feeling, 5 Story, 7 World, 8 Rules and 5 Tutor!
You have a clear vision of what your game should be like, it is made of Marvellous environments and moving characters. you seek to provoke emotions within the player, and seek innovative ways to convey them.
Your idea of the game is hard to put into words, so you probably need to check on your collegue's work regularly : it is posible to work endlessly without ever reaching your expectations. You pay attention to details, how they can affect the player, and seek an intense game Feeling.
The different main categories in which you could fall are : The CopyCat The Experience The StoryTeller The WorldBuilder The SysAdmin The Skill Builder
Was this result good for you? Did a question confuse you or not propose an appropriate answer? Have any comments? I'd love to hear it from you. Send Feedback
If you are interested in the topic and care about reading the original descriptions and discover a few extra categories, visit the original article on Danc's Site, Lost Gardens!
Like the It Crowd? Try my It Crowd Trivia test based on that series!
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?t
There are all the entries to the tigsource valentine's game contest. My entry has also been updated (title screen, etc.). I haven't voted yet since I want to play them all first. I hope tigsource continues the tradition of unorthodox contests like this, it leads to some interesting games.
There are all the entries to the tigsource valentine's game contest. My entry has also been updated (title screen, etc.). I haven't voted yet since I want to play them all first. I hope tigsource continues the tradition of unorthodox contests like this, it leads to some interesting games.
http://digg.com/nintendo/Nintendo_Updat
The comments to that story are hilarious:
"I can't believe Nintendogs has sold over 20 million - what is wrong with everybody?!"
"Kids like it. Don't worry, when they grow up they'll migrate to violent and bloodier games just like the rest of us."
"Man the wii is such a letdown. You'd think a good title like zelda or mario would be selling the most titles... just goes to show a good portion of wii gamers don't really care about games, they care about having the newest thing."
The hatred of casual / non-violent games there is incredible. It's worse than any hatred of violent games from moralist wackos that I've seen (excepting Jack Thompson).
The comments to that story are hilarious:
"I can't believe Nintendogs has sold over 20 million - what is wrong with everybody?!"
"Kids like it. Don't worry, when they grow up they'll migrate to violent and bloodier games just like the rest of us."
"Man the wii is such a letdown. You'd think a good title like zelda or mario would be selling the most titles... just goes to show a good portion of wii gamers don't really care about games, they care about having the newest thing."
The hatred of casual / non-violent games there is incredible. It's worse than any hatred of violent games from moralist wackos that I've seen (excepting Jack Thompson).
I finally found some pretty nice playing partners for Starcraft. My apm (actions per minute) has been going up from the horrid 40-50 range to the depressing 50-70 range (the average apm for a professional Starcraft player is around 200-300). Still need to learn to hotkey more :D
But I'm still learning Flash, so I should focus on that. It's going okay: I made rain and am gradually learning to mentally convert Game Maker into AS3. Learning OOP is interesting though: I've never used an object-oriented language before, so it's a bit of a jump.
Thinking: two scales of quality in games is the game experience itself on the one hand, and how the game changes a person on the other hand, and the two aren't always cooperative. For instance, a lot of games are fun while you play them and then you forget about them and never really think about them again. Whereas with other games, they might be just as fun or even less fun, but they inspire people to make fan art or fan fics about it or to otherwise carry the game with them in their actions and thoughts. For instance, Final Fantasy 7 wasn't a very good game, or at least no better than most jRPGs in terms of gameplay or play experience, yet it has tons of fan art, fan fics, and so on, while other jRPGs typically do not. In other words, some games you enjoy, but other games you love, even if you don't enjoy them. Starcraft is like that, it's not a very enjoyable game, but it became a professional e-sport and has a seemingly immortal player community, whereas other RTS games, just as enjoyable and just as high quality, have faded and disappeared. So what is it about a game that can get a player to love it even if they don't enjoy it? Is it like how one can love one's family even if you don't enjoy their company? Is it that those games had a stronger impression on their brains, that the intensity had peaks, even if the quality wasn't too consistent?
But I'm still learning Flash, so I should focus on that. It's going okay: I made rain and am gradually learning to mentally convert Game Maker into AS3. Learning OOP is interesting though: I've never used an object-oriented language before, so it's a bit of a jump.
Thinking: two scales of quality in games is the game experience itself on the one hand, and how the game changes a person on the other hand, and the two aren't always cooperative. For instance, a lot of games are fun while you play them and then you forget about them and never really think about them again. Whereas with other games, they might be just as fun or even less fun, but they inspire people to make fan art or fan fics about it or to otherwise carry the game with them in their actions and thoughts. For instance, Final Fantasy 7 wasn't a very good game, or at least no better than most jRPGs in terms of gameplay or play experience, yet it has tons of fan art, fan fics, and so on, while other jRPGs typically do not. In other words, some games you enjoy, but other games you love, even if you don't enjoy them. Starcraft is like that, it's not a very enjoyable game, but it became a professional e-sport and has a seemingly immortal player community, whereas other RTS games, just as enjoyable and just as high quality, have faded and disappeared. So what is it about a game that can get a player to love it even if they don't enjoy it? Is it like how one can love one's family even if you don't enjoy their company? Is it that those games had a stronger impression on their brains, that the intensity had peaks, even if the quality wasn't too consistent?
Interesting: It turns out the founder/ceo of 3D Realms (of Duke Nukem Forever fame) is a member of the Immortality Institute: http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.p
So -- the joke is too easy: someone known for a game that is super-long in production is one of the leading figures in immortality research as well? :D
This is a video about the founder of that institute (and also a great documentary in general about immortality research):
So -- the joke is too easy: someone known for a game that is super-long in production is one of the leading figures in immortality research as well? :D
This is a video about the founder of that institute (and also a great documentary in general about immortality research):
BTW, for those who haven't heard, all of LJ's US employees have been fired and it's now operated by a few guys in Moscow. Some people are backing up their LJ's in panic, and I would too if I had actually written anything worth saving since I last backed it up 2 years ago.
I played Civilization 4 for the first time yesterday, mainly because Civilization 3 on Steam doesn't work on Vista (and they don't tell you that, so I wasted $5 on it!). Civ 4 has a pretty horrible GUI. I mean the GUI of that series has always been bad, but at least it was somewhat usable and the elements were somewhere you'd expect them to be. In Civ 4 you have mouseover help appear on the opposite corner of the screen, you have go forward and go back miles away from the stuff you're going forward or back through, it's an indescribably bad GUI setup. And this is the latest in the series? They should hire a designer specifically for the GUI, since it feels as it was designed by those people who design those horrible MySpace pages where you have to scroll to see anything and things are flashing everywhere. Other than that the game isn't bad, it's just a slightly modified version of Civ 1 (same with the rest of the series).
I played Civilization 4 for the first time yesterday, mainly because Civilization 3 on Steam doesn't work on Vista (and they don't tell you that, so I wasted $5 on it!). Civ 4 has a pretty horrible GUI. I mean the GUI of that series has always been bad, but at least it was somewhat usable and the elements were somewhere you'd expect them to be. In Civ 4 you have mouseover help appear on the opposite corner of the screen, you have go forward and go back miles away from the stuff you're going forward or back through, it's an indescribably bad GUI setup. And this is the latest in the series? They should hire a designer specifically for the GUI, since it feels as it was designed by those people who design those horrible MySpace pages where you have to scroll to see anything and things are flashing everywhere. Other than that the game isn't bad, it's just a slightly modified version of Civ 1 (same with the rest of the series).
Been playing Fallout 3, my sister bought it for me.
So far I like that the game's setting is convincing, it's immersive and detailed. Creatures which were just some sprites moving around in the first two games now feel more real in 3D -- I normally hate 3D games and FPS games in particular, but the 3D does make the setting seem more real than it did in the first two games. It made me think about what it'd be like to live in such a world.
I think there's too many exploding heads though. It's like, whose idea was it to make heads explode in slow motion? Bleh:
So far I like that the game's setting is convincing, it's immersive and detailed. Creatures which were just some sprites moving around in the first two games now feel more real in 3D -- I normally hate 3D games and FPS games in particular, but the 3D does make the setting seem more real than it did in the first two games. It made me think about what it'd be like to live in such a world.
I think there's too many exploding heads though. It's like, whose idea was it to make heads explode in slow motion? Bleh:
Square-Enix just made a tower defense game for iPhone. Weird!
"Which reminds me of an anecdote. When we were working on The Witcher, we had a request from ESRB to somehow cover the nipples on vampiress' breasts for the USA version of the game. So we covered them with blood splatters, and everything was fine.
"Covering breasts with blood, gotta love USA's moral values." -TeeGee
"Covering breasts with blood, gotta love USA's moral values." -TeeGee
Les Miserables: The Game is supposedly going to be released soon, it's been delayed and delayed but looks really great, so I'm looking forward to playing it.
This French-language review of Fedora Spade weirdly has an English commentary in the video. I'm baffled why someone would make a video review with English commentary for a French review.
I also think it's kind of weird (but also nice) that (what seems like) the majority of the reviews of our games are in languages we can't understand.
I also think it's kind of weird (but also nice) that (what seems like) the majority of the reviews of our games are in languages we can't understand.
yes, this scene is overhyped, but I still have a lot of respect for it.
it's weird that it's been like 10 years, and I can't remember another significant "playable character dying in-game" scene that's happened since this one.
I did another Let's Play, this one of Xoldiers, a game by Cactus and Terry. The video quality, audio quality, etc. is pretty bad, so it's probably not worth watching, unless it gets you to want to play the game, which is pretty nice.
Funny description of my day (paraphrased):
Long: sales are down? do something!
Me: they aren't really down, you can't judge this on a day by day basis. you could also help with the marketing, you know
Long: I don't know how!
Me: okay, find me a screenshot from your game 'toothpick tycoon' because I need it for our 'history' page that I'm working right now on the site: http://studioeres.com/games/history
Long: okay!
[full day later, after I gathered 14 screenshots for 14 of the games there]
Me: find one yet?
Long: no, I'm busy!
And I don't mean this entry too mean-heartedly, I just find it humorous/amusing.
As an aside, at that link you can see the history of the games we've created at RPGCreations, going back all the way to 1996. Two screenshots are missing currently, one from Long's game, and one from Tilde. EDIT: got one in for Tilde.
Long: sales are down? do something!
Me: they aren't really down, you can't judge this on a day by day basis. you could also help with the marketing, you know
Long: I don't know how!
Me: okay, find me a screenshot from your game 'toothpick tycoon' because I need it for our 'history' page that I'm working right now on the site: http://studioeres.com/games/history
Long: okay!
[full day later, after I gathered 14 screenshots for 14 of the games there]
Me: find one yet?
Long: no, I'm busy!
And I don't mean this entry too mean-heartedly, I just find it humorous/amusing.
As an aside, at that link you can see the history of the games we've created at RPGCreations, going back all the way to 1996. Two screenshots are missing currently, one from Long's game, and one from Tilde. EDIT: got one in for Tilde.
First read this entry: http://rinku.livejournal.com/1540986.ht
I did download it to try it out, but it's significantly more boring than the trailer indicates. Here's me playing it. And I do narrate it, so you can hear my boring voice.
And yes, I know I also posted this in my site's blog, I'll try to avoid duplicate content from now on, since I imagine it'd be annoying to those of you who also subscribed to my rss feed thing.
I did download it to try it out, but it's significantly more boring than the trailer indicates. Here's me playing it. And I do narrate it, so you can hear my boring voice.
And yes, I know I also posted this in my site's blog, I'll try to avoid duplicate content from now on, since I imagine it'd be annoying to those of you who also subscribed to my rss feed thing.
Someone posted that game on the indiegamer.com forums, and everyone laughed at it. I don't see why, that game looks amazing to me! So what if its art style is crazy? I asked for a free review copy.
"My dreams have the strange essence."
"Sometimes they scare."
"I don't know where to go. I'll go to you!!"
http://www.quitesoulless.com/index.htm
( large images )
I recorded the intro to Boundless Ocean, Orchard-L's surreal adventure game/rpg. It's always been one of my favorite game intros, so I thought I'd share it since there are no videos of that game yet. The audio may be a bit bad because I recorded it with a microphone directly from the speaker, which is a stupid way to do it but it was the quickest and easiest way. The graphical style of this game is part of the inspiration for the graphical style of Saturated Dreamers. Hopefully SD will look like a souped-up BO.
http://forums.indiegamer.com/showth
That thread is a casebook example of something I see a lot of on that board; read the first post and then read Cliffski's (second) response post. Funny, no?
That thread is a casebook example of something I see a lot of on that board; read the first post and then read Cliffski's (second) response post. Funny, no?
"As kids grow, they may trade Dr. Seuss for George Orwell, and Nickelodeon for CNN -- but for what can they trade Super Mario Bros.? In this opinion piece, designer Brice Morrison laments the lack of truly mature games -- and examines what "adulthood" for games might look like."
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/11/opi
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2008/11/opi
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