It is currently 16:17 as i write this post and I have had a working Internet for about... Oh I don't know 2 minutes now.
So here I am to assure you all, I am nether dead or in space. I was however, for five days, in Herefordshire, if you don't know where that is don't worry parts of it are probably marked "non-existent" but, that's for security reasons. Anyway my net died while I was away and was unable to access the great webs while away so, I must now apologise to both Iced and Tetris for my delay in answering E-Mails. Hope that cleared a few things up...
Also this post was most definitely not sent form anywhere near Ganymede just so you all know.
Monday 29 December 2008
Friday 26 December 2008
I may be the only one still alive
It is quite possible that Balai has fallen off of our green earth and into the dark void of space. I wouldn't worry about him too much though, unlike like most humans he has evolved a system similar to a plant's photosynthesis, only backwards, utilising power from a lack of sunlight and Carbon Dioxide to generate Oxygen, so it is not only likely that he is fine out there, but he is quite possibly having the time of his life.
That, or he is enjoying some well deserved time off with his family, celebrating whatever twisted holiday that Cthulhu cult of theirs has designated to this time of year, to serve as Christmas' grotesque analogue.
Most likely the second option, still, it would be nice if he could take time out of his busy schedule to return my emails, even Tetris has been showing me that courtesy.
To everyone else, happy yesterday, if you celebrate one of those festivals that has persisted through the night, happy today aswell.
Since this is what some may call 'the season of giving' and I have been, shall we say, behind on my quota for distributing gifts, I thought it would be a good idea to share with you, the questionably loyal readers, what the initial draft of the design document for zombietopia looked like. I would show you the current one, but that currently exists in the form of an entire wiki, and is less likely to qualify as a quick read. I hope the following helps show that we at Space Walrus Games have more than enough quality ideas to assemble a game full of both interesting mechanics and humor, even despite the fact that one of us, not at all unlike Bowie, is possibly in space.
That, or he is enjoying some well deserved time off with his family, celebrating whatever twisted holiday that Cthulhu cult of theirs has designated to this time of year, to serve as Christmas' grotesque analogue.
Most likely the second option, still, it would be nice if he could take time out of his busy schedule to return my email
To everyone else, happy yesterday, if you celebrate one of those festivals that has persisted through the night, happy today aswell.
Since this is what some may call 'the season of giving' and I have been, shall we say, behind on my quota for distributing gifts, I thought it would be a good idea to share with you, the questionably loyal readers, what the initial draft of the design document for zombietopia looked like. I would show you the current one, but that currently exists in the form of an entire wiki, and is less likely to qualify as a quick read. I hope the following helps show that we at Space Walrus Games have more than enough quality ideas to assemble a game full of both interesting mechanics and humor, even despite the fact that one of us, not at all unlike Bowie, is possibly in space.
- Will be a first person shooter, with certain RPG like mechanics
- Will feature 1960s influences in the architecture
- To be set in an under water city named wrapture, ruled by Ryan Andrews
- City is patrolled by beings called 'big sisters' and 'little daddies'
- To be named 'Shockology'
- Everyone has a french accent
"But Iced, there must be a mistake, this basically describes Bioshock with the names changed. And french accents." You may cry. I admit a significant proportion of our good ideas at the time weren't so much ours as 2k's, but what better source of interesting mechanics than Bioshock? And we cannot forget that everything is hilarious when people are talking are talking in french accents.
Obviously it doesn't look much like this anymore, it has progressed on it's own, growing organically. Now it resembles Little Big Planet instead.
Sunday 21 December 2008
It's that time of year
This will likely be the last post made before the coming of the man in red, so I wanted to take this opportunity to wish people a merry crimbo on behalf of everyone here, and also a happy new year, may we pray that the Space Walrus can resist the urge to melt the moon for at least one more.
Thursday 18 December 2008
Sorry
Ill again, everyone seems to be, just when I thought I'd managed to get over it. I think it is safe to say that very little has been accomplished this week, and very little is likely to get done until after Christmas now. If we're lucky a couple of things might get done tomorrow, but only if my intestines are cool with it, I wouldn't want to annoy those guys right now.
PS. Destructoid have just posted their game of the year nominees. The inclusion of both Castle Crashers and Braid excites me in ways that legal counsel has advised me against describing.
PS. Destructoid have just posted their game of the year nominees. The inclusion of both Castle Crashers and Braid excites me in ways that legal counsel has advised me against describing.
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Our ever inflating ranks
Whoa man, I was so drunk that i fell on my guitar and made this kick-ass sound.
Due to this Tertis229's services are now obsolete, soon I will be arsed to figure out how to model and animate stuff and Balai will be little more than fat, prime for trimming.
So, being ill was fun, I think that neither me nor Balai are entirely over it, but work is now once again in progress.
There was a point where I was so tired, and so ill that it culminated in a mild delirium. By which I mean I spent a good half an hour lying in bed hallucinating. I conversed at length with our patron saint of sorts, the great Space Walrus. He reported to me that the Nether Whale sent his regards, but couldn't make it, he was apparently busy 'nudging Rome'. Neither me nor the Walrus could decipher what that actually entailed. Being British I then had no choice but to steer the conversation towards complaining about the weather.
Realising that this communion was quite likely taking place within the imagination of my rapidly evaporating brain, I decided that the only thing for it was to scale the very highest of Hogwarts's many towers and drink from the goblet of fire, in hopes of finding a cure. Our story, believe it or not, becomes even more convoluted at this point, but, short version, I emerged victorious. I still have a horrible sore throat though, I'm thinking that tonight I should be able to get a Phoenix feather to clear that up.
I haven't had time to fully explore Power Up Forever's depths, but what I have played so far compels me to delve deeper. This is strange, I'm normally the kind of person who wouldn't be interested in this kind of game, I can't stand geometry wars for example, yet despite this and a complete lack of skill, I will be giving it at least a second look.
Due to this Tertis229's services are now obsolete, soon I will be arsed to figure out how to model and animate stuff and Balai will be little more than fat, prime for trimming.
So, being ill was fun, I think that neither me nor Balai are entirely over it, but work is now once again in progress.
There was a point where I was so tired, and so ill that it culminated in a mild delirium. By which I mean I spent a good half an hour lying in bed hallucinating. I conversed at length with our patron saint of sorts, the great Space Walrus. He reported to me that the Nether Whale sent his regards, but couldn't make it, he was apparently busy 'nudging Rome'. Neither me nor the Walrus could decipher what that actually entailed. Being British I then had no choice but to steer the conversation towards complaining about the weather.
Realising that this communion was quite likely taking place within the imagination of my rapidly evaporating brain, I decided that the only thing for it was to scale the very highest of Hogwarts's many towers and drink from the goblet of fire, in hopes of finding a cure. Our story, believe it or not, becomes even more convoluted at this point, but, short version, I emerged victorious. I still have a horrible sore throat though, I'm thinking that tonight I should be able to get a Phoenix feather to clear that up.
I haven't had time to fully explore Power Up Forever's depths, but what I have played so far compels me to delve deeper. This is strange, I'm normally the kind of person who wouldn't be interested in this kind of game, I can't stand geometry wars for example, yet despite this and a complete lack of skill, I will be giving it at least a second look.
Friday 12 December 2008
a new guy dragged into this mess
So here we go with the infamous, introductory blog. I am Tetris229, the dude that was hired by these two rambling dudes to make some moosik for their Vidja game "Zombietopia". This of course means i love video games and play them all the time and love music and write it all the time but when it comes to coding I'm about as useful as a paper-paperweight. To conclude this matter i will by posting with stuff like "dude i got so baked last night and made this awesome tune" or "whoa man i was so drunk that i feel on my guitar and made this kick-ass sound". Further more you will only hear from me once Iced and Balai actually start making this game...exactly so see you in the next life.
PS: almost forgot I'm also making the SFX, (that's sound effects for those special people that couldn't guess), and I made a delightful mathematical discovery last lunchtime: plastic tray + refrigerator = Gunshot noise.
Expect all handgun noises to be made from my Fridge.
PS: almost forgot I'm also making the SFX, (that's sound effects for those special people that couldn't guess), and I made a delightful mathematical discovery last lunchtime: plastic tray + refrigerator = Gunshot noise.
Expect all handgun noises to be made from my Fridge.
My internal organs: A life story
There haven't been many posts this week, and what has been called forth to this bleak manifesto has been posted when I have been... improperly equipped to make fair or impartial judgements. There has also been a total lack of relevant content, which is not to be unexpected when I am the sole poster for a week.
For all of these things I blame Balai.
You see, Balai has been ill for the whole week, the local news indicates that his dwelling has been infiltrated by a modern day analog of mustard gas. Not so much that he couldn't make a public appearance yesterday, but enough to put him out of commission for the rest of the week, today included. Then the bastard had the cheek to take the time I saw him yesterday as an opportunity to propagate his foul lurgy, so now I've spent both today and yesterday groaning and clenching my stomach.
It actually feels like the left side of my brain and my small intestine have been having an affair with each other, and have now decided to run away. My large intestine has given chase of course, that's what he does, it is all he knows. Meanwhile, the remaining, right half of my brain is busy sulking in a corner, and constantly reporting to my consciousness that is actually on fire, regardless of what my eyes are telling me, because 'Screw them man, our eyes have always been liars'. He does have a point there, I will give him that.
We had hoped to have a rough outline of zombietopia's tutorial done by the end of this week, this hasn't been achieved, I'll leave the details down to you guys.
For all of these things I blame Balai.
You see, Balai has been ill for the whole week, the local news indicates that his dwelling has been infiltrated by a modern day analog of mustard gas. Not so much that he couldn't make a public appearance yesterday, but enough to put him out of commission for the rest of the week, today included. Then the bastard had the cheek to take the time I saw him yesterday as an opportunity to propagate his foul lurgy, so now I've spent both today and yesterday groaning and clenching my stomach.
It actually feels like the left side of my brain and my small intestine have been having an affair with each other, and have now decided to run away. My large intestine has given chase of course, that's what he does, it is all he knows. Meanwhile, the remaining, right half of my brain is busy sulking in a corner, and constantly reporting to my consciousness that is actually on fire, regardless of what my eyes are telling me, because 'Screw them man, our eyes have always been liars'. He does have a point there, I will give him that.
We had hoped to have a rough outline of zombietopia's tutorial done by the end of this week, this hasn't been achieved, I'll leave the details down to you guys.
Wednesday 10 December 2008
Uh...
I just re-read that last post I made, it was a lot harsher than intended. I mean, I went in there intending to be an arse hole, but I let it go way too far. For this I apologise.
In other news, trying to come up with instrument based weaponry is actually quite hard. Instrument weapons isn't zombietopia related, I was recently contacted by the military to work on a secret program. That isn't secret now, I guess.
In other news, trying to come up with instrument based weaponry is actually quite hard. Instrument weapons isn't zombietopia related, I was recently contacted by the military to work on a secret program. That isn't secret now, I guess.
Sunday 7 December 2008
An open letter to the developer of 'RPaints'
Dear Mr/Ms/Mrs Remyremrem
Could you please explain this to me? Because the whole thing in general boggles my mind. Because it appears that you are asking 400 Microsoft points for your product, I just want to double check if this is the actual case, you see, I haven't had the prescription for my glasses updated for a while, so I cannot be sure that I am not completely misreading that page.
Price point aside, I do still have a couple of enquiries to make. Is the shitty MSpaint half-arsed rip off the entire game? Do you understand the concept of a game? Or is it just a sordid joke reserved for those playing the trial game?
Look, I'll be fair, I am not opposed to people using the Xbox Live community games feature to make interesting apps instead of games. I would go as far as to say I welcome it, but not only is RPaint's presentation shoddy - at best - someone had the cheek to set it the undeserving price of 400 Points, the same price as small arms, which is far from a perfect game, but it is, at least, a game, and one that can be pretty fun to play with friends.
Feel free to come back though, should you get an equivilant of photoshop running on an Xbox.
This is why even community games should either be free or have at least some quality control.
-Iced Inferno
Lead Complainer, Space Walrus Games
Could you please explain this to me? Because the whole thing in general boggles my mind. Because it appears that you are asking 400 Microsoft points for your product, I just want to double check if this is the actual case, you see, I haven't had the prescription for my glasses updated for a while, so I cannot be sure that I am not completely misreading that page.
Price point aside, I do still have a couple of enquiries to make. Is the shitty MSpaint half-arsed rip off the entire game? Do you understand the concept of a game? Or is it just a sordid joke reserved for those playing the trial game?
Look, I'll be fair, I am not opposed to people using the Xbox Live community games feature to make interesting apps instead of games. I would go as far as to say I welcome it, but not only is RPaint's presentation shoddy - at best - someone had the cheek to set it the undeserving price of 400 Points, the same price as small arms, which is far from a perfect game, but it is, at least, a game, and one that can be pretty fun to play with friends.
Feel free to come back though, should you get an equivilant of photoshop running on an Xbox.
This is why even community games should either be free or have at least some quality control.
-Iced Inferno
Lead Complainer, Space Walrus Games
Thursday 4 December 2008
I'm not sure
I'm sitting here in another one of mine and Iced's conferences, now you may wonder why then I am making this effort to talk to the world and not Iced. This, as I will now enlighten you is because, we have discussed the tutorial and it's inner workings. This may not seem like such a great deal but, when quotes such as "you seem to have misplaced your gender" are thrown about we know that we've got an excellent character creation screen.
For now though I'll leave you with the lingering feeling that I should probably be working harder that I am now.
PS. Remember kids the spell checker button exists for a reason.
For now though I'll leave you with the lingering feeling that I should probably be working harder that I am now.
PS. Remember kids the spell checker button exists for a reason.
Tuesday 2 December 2008
A post tangentially related to game design
I said it was coming.
To quickly get anything you may actually be interested in out of the way, I promised publicly viewable work would be released at the end of last week, and I would be able to unleash such a thing upon the world right now, sadly I'm waiting on some stuff from Balai. Admittedly I have only communicated this need to him today. Within the last hour or so. This may mean that the delay is, in fact, still of my own doing, but I digress.
Now that is out of the way, have some incredibly one-sided opinions. Enjoy!
Over the last handful of years EA have been trying their very hardest to remake, repackage, reinvigorate and resell my childhood to me. To be honest, I'm cool with it. Kane's Wrath I especially enjoyed, a game all about a bald, charismaticmadman prophet? Sign me up!
Their latest news may have made me pee a little.
I grew up on a diet of 'Command & Conquer' and 'Dungeon Keeper', I spent many a cold, lonely night weeping over their demise, so needless to say I am ecstatic about their Resurrection. Dungeon Keeper not only as an MMO, but an MMO made by a chinese developer - as opposed to it's original country of origin, our very own Britain - does make me more than a little nervous, but if EA continue their current trend of, you know, making games, rather than sticking to their age old tradition of releasing disc-based bowel movements, then maybe, just maybe it could work.
I played the demo for Red Alert 3 this week. If presented with this game with no prior knowledge of it's name, I would most likely believe it to be C'n'C Generals 2, a copy modded to feature Red Alert inspired units admittedly. Although unlike the original Generals, this is a game that I actually enjoy, I'm not sure why but I never did manage to get into that game. The controls to the previously mentioned 'Command and Conquer 3: Kane's wrath' were surprisingly good, and yes, I am refering to the Xbox 360 version of the game. With Red Alert 3 it immediatly feels like it was developed by one of EA's different studios (regretably, I can't be bothered to check if that is actually the case), they are aware of the interface used in Kane's Wrath, they have probably even had it explained to them, but the controls in RA3 feel very... different. I would like to stress that I do not mean worse, I merely find it a little jarring to find that most of the buttons have been re-mapped and have to completely re-learn allot of tricks I previously learned, heck, as far as I can tell certain features, such as setting waypoints, no longer exist. I have to say though, between the absolutely awesome new duds for the Tesla Trooper and the ability to have an attack dog and an attack bear go at each other's throats, I'm sold. God, I am such a consumer whore sometimes.
To quickly get anything you may actually be interested in out of the way, I promised publicly viewable work would be released at the end of last week, and I would be able to unleash such a thing upon the world right now, sadly I'm waiting on some stuff from Balai. Admittedly I have only communicated this need to him today. Within the last hour or so. This may mean that the delay is, in fact, still of my own doing, but I digress.
Now that is out of the way, have some incredibly one-sided opinions. Enjoy!
Over the last handful of years EA have been trying their very hardest to remake, repackage, reinvigorate and resell my childhood to me. To be honest, I'm cool with it. Kane's Wrath I especially enjoyed, a game all about a bald, charismatic
Their latest news may have made me pee a little.
I grew up on a diet of 'Command & Conquer' and 'Dungeon Keeper', I spent many a cold, lonely night weeping over their demise, so needless to say I am ecstatic about their Resurrection. Dungeon Keeper not only as an MMO, but an MMO made by a chinese developer - as opposed to it's original country of origin, our very own Britain - does make me more than a little nervous, but if EA continue their current trend of, you know, making games, rather than sticking to their age old tradition of releasing disc-based bowel movements, then maybe, just maybe it could work.
I played the demo for Red Alert 3 this week. If presented with this game with no prior knowledge of it's name, I would most likely believe it to be C'n'C Generals 2, a copy modded to feature Red Alert inspired units admittedly. Although unlike the original Generals, this is a game that I actually enjoy, I'm not sure why but I never did manage to get into that game. The controls to the previously mentioned 'Command and Conquer 3: Kane's wrath' were surprisingly good, and yes, I am refering to the Xbox 360 version of the game. With Red Alert 3 it immediatly feels like it was developed by one of EA's different studios (regretably, I can't be bothered to check if that is actually the case), they are aware of the interface used in Kane's Wrath, they have probably even had it explained to them, but the controls in RA3 feel very... different. I would like to stress that I do not mean worse, I merely find it a little jarring to find that most of the buttons have been re-mapped and have to completely re-learn allot of tricks I previously learned, heck, as far as I can tell certain features, such as setting waypoints, no longer exist. I have to say though, between the absolutely awesome new duds for the Tesla Trooper and the ability to have an attack dog and an attack bear go at each other's throats, I'm sold. God, I am such a consumer whore sometimes.
Current happenings
Seeing as Iced decided it was time to post I have decided that it is high time that I let you, the outside world, know the inner workings of our company.
Firstly, Iced and I congregate every Tuesday in order to discuss how much Mr. McNeill—a friend/criminalmastermind/acquaintance—will get banned from every site that we own.
Also, Iced is convinced that we go on Kongregate to 'level up our character or something'.
This congregation is at our main office, although some may disagree as to its likeness to an office.
We proceed to the main points of our discussion very quickly; we entertain stupid and wacky ideas while fending off many an attacker.
Most of our ideas hit the recycle bin faster than light is capable of travelling in a vacuum; however, some ideas scrape through the rigorous process of elimination, and have the honour of meeting our design page.
The design page/pages are a wondrous site to be sure, as a marvel of modern technology and utter stupidity.
And well that's about it, well of course there's the creation process but, that rarely done in office mostly because of the lack of facilties, or programs.
So now you all are somewhat enlightened as to our design process, and I'm also sure you're all slightly madder for it.
Firstly, Iced and I congregate every Tuesday in order to discuss how much Mr. McNeill—a friend/criminal
Also, Iced is convinced that we go on Kongregate to 'level up our character or something'.
This congregation is at our main office, although some may disagree as to its likeness to an office.
We proceed to the main points of our discussion very quickly; we entertain stupid and wacky ideas while fending off many an attacker.
Most of our ideas hit the recycle bin faster than light is capable of travelling in a vacuum; however, some ideas scrape through the rigorous process of elimination, and have the honour of meeting our design page.
The design page/pages are a wondrous site to be sure, as a marvel of modern technology and utter stupidity.
And well that's about it, well of course there's the creation process but, that rarely done in office mostly because of the lack of facilties, or programs.
So now you all are somewhat enlightened as to our design process, and I'm also sure you're all slightly madder for it.
Some more elaboration
Considering I've spent the best part of a week trying to figure out what I'm going to put for this post, I'm surprisingly unprepared. +1 Unprofessionalism. I'm just going to type and see where this all goes.
So, Zombietopia then. The plan is to make it either a sandbox or at least very sandboxy, think GTA with zombies, there is a plot if you want to follow it, but if you just want to spend all day bowling with your cousin you can just go with that. We plan to do something similar, just with less Roman. Maybe a little less serious too.
Really, expect a bad pun or a pop culture reference to be fired at you at every turn. There will be multiple endings, each as ridiculous as the last. We have a veritable legion of weaponry, ranging from the modest combat knife all the way up to the appropriately named 'Satan's Toaster'.
In our current, mangled semblance of a design document, RPG-style elements are being stirred in for flavour, we're not sure how much these will affect, whether they will just be in there for crafting or if they will govern your every move is yet to be finalised.
I think that is enough for now, expect me to make a post only tangentially related to game design later.
So, Zombietopia then. The plan is to make it either a sandbox or at least very sandboxy, think GTA with zombies, there is a plot if you want to follow it, but if you just want to spend all day bowling with your cousin you can just go with that. We plan to do something similar, just with less Roman. Maybe a little less serious too.
Really, expect a bad pun or a pop culture reference to be fired at you at every turn. There will be multiple endings, each as ridiculous as the last. We have a veritable legion of weaponry, ranging from the modest combat knife all the way up to the appropriately named 'Satan's Toaster'.
In our current, mangled semblance of a design document, RPG-style elements are being stirred in for flavour, we're not sure how much these will affect, whether they will just be in there for crafting or if they will govern your every move is yet to be finalised.
I think that is enough for now, expect me to make a post only tangentially related to game design later.
Thursday 27 November 2008
Unrelated news
Balai basically stole half of what I had in mind for this next post, but this teaches us all a lesson, check the body, don't always assume the first shot killed.
I could add to what he said right now, but I won't because I've been hard at work and need to lie down for a very long time, I'm just not used to it, I need do one thing explained first though. The last month and a bit I've been writing an essay on World of Warcraft for a project I've been working on, I even spent a week of this time taking part in the Wrath of the Lich King beta just to inspire me, and during this time I've been fine. Yesterday someone mentions the words 'Line of sight', in the context of physics I might add, and then I spend the next few hours thinking about how much it makes me want to play WoW again, then I discover that 'The Guild' season 2 is on Xbox Live, which, naturally, does nothing to help alleviate my current predicament. What the hell is wrong with me? A month working on an essay and dabbling in the beta leaves no affect on me, but a phrase and a 6 minutes short and I feel the old pangs of addiction kicking back in?
Fate is, as they say, a cruel mistress.
I could add to what he said right now, but I won't because I've been hard at work and need to lie down for a very long time, I'm just not used to it, I need do one thing explained first though. The last month and a bit I've been writing an essay on World of Warcraft for a project I've been working on, I even spent a week of this time taking part in the Wrath of the Lich King beta just to inspire me, and during this time I've been fine. Yesterday someone mentions the words 'Line of sight', in the context of physics I might add, and then I spend the next few hours thinking about how much it makes me want to play WoW again, then I discover that 'The Guild' season 2 is on Xbox Live, which, naturally, does nothing to help alleviate my current predicament. What the hell is wrong with me? A month working on an essay and dabbling in the beta leaves no affect on me, but a phrase and a 6 minutes short and I feel the old pangs of addiction kicking back in?
Fate is, as they say, a cruel mistress.
Wednesday 26 November 2008
For the masses...
Given that when we started we may have started somewhere around the middle I am presenting to you all a possible ending that we are deciding on.
Filling the River
You are tasked by a toaster with filling a river with either honey or Marmite.
Now you may ask yourself
"What the hell, a TOASTER!?"
and I can fully understand your desire to know the reason for this ridiculous quest but, I assure you Ridiculous is part of our plan... No it really is.
"Our Game:
Filling the River
You are tasked by a toaster with filling a river with either honey or Marmite.
Now you may ask yourself
"What the hell, a TOASTER!?"
and I can fully understand your desire to know the reason for this ridiculous quest but, I assure you Ridiculous is part of our plan... No it really is.
"Our Game:
- Must be a sandbox game
- Must include zombie
- WILL be ridiculous" - Taken directly from some conversation me and Iced had
TBA
I'm about start working on the big 'explanation post', expect it within the next couple of days, it won't take that long to write but I want to make sure that Balai see what I put down before it gets posted, so that he may point out any changes to be made, IE. where I have made a ton of shit up, which I will unconsciously do.
I partly wanted to make a post now to break the two day radio silence (as if that is really a big deal) and also force my thoughts about the Xbox 360's new 'community games' feature upon you all. Think of it as mental surprise sex.
As per usual, Microsoft is unmoving on their pricing policy, which is something that is, finally, going to bite them in the arse. They got away with it on arcade games because, lets face it, when the strenuous mental exercise of figuring out the actual, real world price of these games they were selling was completed, you generally ended up with a figure you would expect to pay for the product that was being delivered, a middle ground between the 400 and 800 price points was not as necessary. It is now. Indie games are hard enough for developers to price, on the PC most devs stick to around the £5 mark, but there is allot of deviation even there, the problem with Microsoft's nebulous space bucks system is that 400 points is roughly £3, I don't want to spoil too much about how much money the 800 points mark roughly translates into, but suffice to say that it is double that of it's compatriot.
The minimum price point on community games is 200 points and rather sadly almost everything sitting at that number would require significant budgetary adjustments before I even considered buying it. It's a shame really, this was the feature I was most looking forward to in the NXE, but most of the content is either unplayably bad or lacking enough polish to justify the entry fee. The main problem with these releases is that most of them focus on a single aspect of game play way too much on a single aspect of game play, 'Bad Atom Episode 1' for example, may be a modern day messiah of innovation, but with a UI as incomprehensible as its', I may well never know.
'Artoon' is another example of being overly focused on a single aspect, although unlike most of its' comrades it focus almost solely on presentation, this means that it is playable, sadly the game play, which is OK at first, prevents it from being replayable. To elaborate, I was bored before the end of trial screen was summoned forth to boot me off, and that thing kicks at after only five or ten minutes. Pretty looking game though.
I promise we'll get down to business soon.
I partly wanted to make a post now to break the two day radio silence (as if that is really a big deal) and also force my thoughts about the Xbox 360's new 'community games' feature upon you all. Think of it as mental surprise sex.
As per usual, Microsoft is unmoving on their pricing policy, which is something that is, finally, going to bite them in the arse. They got away with it on arcade games because, lets face it, when the strenuous mental exercise of figuring out the actual, real world price of these games they were selling was completed, you generally ended up with a figure you would expect to pay for the product that was being delivered, a middle ground between the 400 and 800 price points was not as necessary. It is now. Indie games are hard enough for developers to price, on the PC most devs stick to around the £5 mark, but there is allot of deviation even there, the problem with Microsoft's nebulous space bucks system is that 400 points is roughly £3, I don't want to spoil too much about how much money the 800 points mark roughly translates into, but suffice to say that it is double that of it's compatriot.
The minimum price point on community games is 200 points and rather sadly almost everything sitting at that number would require significant budgetary adjustments before I even considered buying it. It's a shame really, this was the feature I was most looking forward to in the NXE, but most of the content is either unplayably bad or lacking enough polish to justify the entry fee. The main problem with these releases is that most of them focus on a single aspect of game play way too much on a single aspect of game play, 'Bad Atom Episode 1' for example, may be a modern day messiah of innovation, but with a UI as incomprehensible as its', I may well never know.
'Artoon' is another example of being overly focused on a single aspect, although unlike most of its' comrades it focus almost solely on presentation, this means that it is playable, sadly the game play, which is OK at first, prevents it from being replayable. To elaborate, I was bored before the end of trial screen was summoned forth to boot me off, and that thing kicks at after only five or ten minutes. Pretty looking game though.
I promise we'll get down to business soon.
Sunday 23 November 2008
P.S
There should be a seperate leaderboard on 'Audiosurf' for people playing using graphics tablets with the pen sensitivity jacked right up. It seemed like such a good idea at the time.
Edit: for the unenlightened.
Edit: for the unenlightened.
My field notes
I know that I don't have to post daily but I can't help myself, but within a week or so the novelty will wear off, this is a good thing, it means that more of the posts made here will be, you know, relevant to game design. For now though...
So I've spent a few hours with Left 4 Dead I've come to some conclusions. First off, if you plan on playing through entire campaigns in one go then don't play co-op, unless it's just with someone physically sitting next to you, I say this because so far it seems that co-op tends to either devolve into a team killing match, or have everyone else leave shortly after starting.
Second, if you do play single player, then you are doing it wrong. Left 4 Dead is okay as, at best, when played single player, yet it truly shines when there are three other people there screaming bloody murder into their microphones at every turn.
Finally, if you are playing in co-op, you are, once again, doing it wrong, why so? Because there is only a single thing more terrifyingly hilarious than watching a hulking tank punch a helpless survivor off the top of a building, which is being said tank and roaring with blood thirsty glee the entire time.
Actually, forget what I said earlier, consider this research, what better way to figure out how to make a zombie game than play one? See? Totally relevant.
So I've spent a few hours with Left 4 Dead I've come to some conclusions. First off, if you plan on playing through entire campaigns in one go then don't play co-op, unless it's just with someone physically sitting next to you, I say this because so far it seems that co-op tends to either devolve into a team killing match, or have everyone else leave shortly after starting.
Second, if you do play single player, then you are doing it wrong. Left 4 Dead is okay as, at best, when played single player, yet it truly shines when there are three other people there screaming bloody murder into their microphones at every turn.
Finally, if you are playing in co-op, you are, once again, doing it wrong, why so? Because there is only a single thing more terrifyingly hilarious than watching a hulking tank punch a helpless survivor off the top of a building, which is being said tank and roaring with blood thirsty glee the entire time.
Actually, forget what I said earlier, consider this research, what better way to figure out how to make a zombie game than play one? See? Totally relevant.
Saturday 22 November 2008
Work? What is that?
Actually did a little work today, including something that may be worth showing here in a week or so. Nothing too exciting, I'm afraid we're miles away from even an early gameplay video, I'm sure we'll band together and get round to explaining, well... anything, soon.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to watch some more Heroes before re-entering my Fallout 3 Haze.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to watch some more Heroes before re-entering my Fallout 3 Haze.
Friday 21 November 2008
Nvidia release 180.48 driver patch
Some despise Nvidia, I on the other hand am very much a fan boy and am happy to annaounce that not too long ago Nvidia released the 180.48 patch for their Geforce 200 series cards.
Now this may not seem like something to jump around about and if you're an ATI fan I'm sure you're curently sitting there plotting my death, but I must say that this patch is rather excellent.
Not only did it make most of my games run around 10% faster (thats quite a lot) it also cooled my graphics card by around 5 degrees C.
So, like Iced, I'm sitting here cotemplating player S.T.A.L.K.E.R. clear sky again and am unlikely to get anything done for some time (especially as it's quite possible that I may aquire fallout 3 soon).
Now all I have to do is hope my skin isn't see through by the end of this gaming marathon...
Now this may not seem like something to jump around about and if you're an ATI fan I'm sure you're curently sitting there plotting my death, but I must say that this patch is rather excellent.
Not only did it make most of my games run around 10% faster (thats quite a lot) it also cooled my graphics card by around 5 degrees C.
So, like Iced, I'm sitting here cotemplating player S.T.A.L.K.E.R. clear sky again and am unlikely to get anything done for some time (especially as it's quite possible that I may aquire fallout 3 soon).
Now all I have to do is hope my skin isn't see through by the end of this gaming marathon...
Starting off on the wrong foot
Damn whom ever decided that it was a good idea to release a good half of this year's games all at once! I'm still playing Fallout 3 and today Left 4 Dead is released here in the UK, not to mention all the other great stuff popping up left, right and the other one. what am I to do? I sure hope we don't fall into this habit someday.
I have to admit that this means, at least on my part, no meaningful work is going to get done for about a week, I will enter a trance-like state, from which I shall emerge enlightened, and quite possibly uncertain as to what sunlight is. Alas, there are worse fates than death by video games, I guess.
The 'New Xbox experience' launched a couple of days ago and well... it is a marked visual improvement, I'll hand it that. The whole avatars thing has no effect on me what so ever, although I did enjoy changing my gamer pic to a picture of my avatar's ear. I do, however, have two problems with this NXE, as I hear the hip kids call it. The first being that I have no idea where allot of things are located, but this I'm sure we'll all grow to learn, yet seriously, when I don't even know how to add Microsoft points to my account anymore, you have screwed up, no doubt about it. My other quarrel, and this is a slightly larger one, is that occasionally, just occasionally, scrolling through my friends list will cause my box to crash. Nice one guys.
I only now realise that we still haven't publicly conversed in any detail about our game, this is something that will have to be remedied in time, but for now the following paltry details will have to suffice:
Admittedly at least one of those points could be easily divined by knowing it's title, don't get me wrong, there is no NDA, I can, if I so wish divulge our every secret right here, right now, but this post is getting long and my primal need to purchase and then subsequently play Left 4 Dead has yet to have been satiated.
I have to admit that this means, at least on my part, no meaningful work is going to get done for about a week, I will enter a trance-like state, from which I shall emerge enlightened, and quite possibly uncertain as to what sunlight is. Alas, there are worse fates than death by video games, I guess.
The 'New Xbox experience' launched a couple of days ago and well... it is a marked visual improvement, I'll hand it that. The whole avatars thing has no effect on me what so ever, although I did enjoy changing my gamer pic to a picture of my avatar's ear. I do, however, have two problems with this NXE, as I hear the hip kids call it. The first being that I have no idea where allot of things are located, but this I'm sure we'll all grow to learn, yet seriously, when I don't even know how to add Microsoft points to my account anymore, you have screwed up, no doubt about it. My other quarrel, and this is a slightly larger one, is that occasionally, just occasionally, scrolling through my friends list will cause my box to crash. Nice one guys.
I only now realise that we still haven't publicly conversed in any detail about our game, this is something that will have to be remedied in time, but for now the following paltry details will have to suffice:
- It is being developed for Xbox 360 Live Arcade and PC
- Zombies will feature prominently
Admittedly at least one of those points could be easily divined by knowing it's title, don't get me wrong, there is no NDA, I can, if I so wish divulge our every secret right here, right now, but this post is getting long and my primal need to purchase and then subsequently play Left 4 Dead has yet to have been satiated.
That other guy.
Hello,
I'm Balai, that other guy in this Dev blog, and you'll probably notice that I'm the one with very bad grammar.
Now you may be wondering about the display name I have picked... Don't, it's bad luck to think about it... Probably.
Anyway I've gone on long enough now about nothing so...
Actually I don't really know how to end these posts.
Bye I guess.
I'm Balai, that other guy in this Dev blog, and you'll probably notice that I'm the one with very bad grammar.
Now you may be wondering about the display name I have picked... Don't, it's bad luck to think about it... Probably.
Anyway I've gone on long enough now about nothing so...
Actually I don't really know how to end these posts.
Bye I guess.
Thursday 20 November 2008
A new begining
So, what is it that you are meant to say when you start these things?
Hello maybe? yeah, lets go with that one, that sounds good.
Hello all. All one of you (Hey Mum!). I am Iced Inferno, you have never heard of me. I am part of a company called Space Walrus Games, you have never heard of us. we are a small Indie videogame developer working on a game called 'Zombietopia'. You will never guess what it is about.
So I suck at writing first posts, deal with it.
Hello maybe? yeah, lets go with that one, that sounds good.
Hello all. All one of you (Hey Mum!). I am Iced Inferno, you have never heard of me. I am part of a company called Space Walrus Games, you have never heard of us. we are a small Indie videogame developer working on a game called 'Zombietopia'. You will never guess what it is about.
So I suck at writing first posts, deal with it.
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