huh? who’s there?
What? You’re still around? Oh. Well… thanks.
But don’t expect my writing to pick up here anytime soon.
Archive for the ‘game development’ Category.
Been A While
Haven’t posted here for a while. I’ve registered for the 2008 Dream Build Play competition, where they give you three and a half months to make a game for the Xbox 360 using XNA. I have two buddies who will help me, but I’ll need to find someone for the 3D art/animation and someone for sound. I have a good concept for the game now, though.
Persistent Online Worlds
One of the big back-of-the-box feature bullet points that many games strive so hard to check off the list is having a persistent world.
Wholly Crap
Been a while since I posted here, huh? Hmm. : /
Well, an update on what I’ve been doing:
I am starting work on a video game version of Stardust (you may recall that Stardust is the working title of my board game side project—or you may not), using XNA Game Studio 2.0, which I hope to eventually make available on the Xbox 360 (through Xbox Live Arcade or the as-yet-unannounced XNA distribution mechanism, if it is suitable). XNA was chosen because I like the ease of programming in C# and it’s kind of cool to be able to make games that work on the 360 (functionality I have not yet tried, since I don’t plan on paying the $100 for a year of the Creators’ Club until I have something worth testing on the 360). This is the first time I’ve done any graphics programming (I haven’t even done a custom Windows forms control before), so the fact that XNA makes it a bit easier is another benefit. I’m doing the graphical stuff first because it is good motivation when I can literally see the progress I am making. So far it basically just draws the board.
Sex in Games
James Portnow has yet another good article on Next Generation, this one about sex in video games.
I Vote for Physics
Over at Next Generation, a column just went up by Mr. Biffo, which has me riled up enough to respond.
Admirable Humor
Yesterday I read this interview with Valve’s Eric Wolpaw. I had never heard of him before, but now I’m a fan. I did skip some chunks of the interview to avoid Portal spoilers (unfortunately I read some anyway but not much can be done about that now), as The Orange Box is on my Christmas list. This guy is hilarious, enough so that I added four quotes from the interview to my rotating collection for the sidebar. Definitely worth a read (especially if you’ve already played through Portal; otherwise, avoid most of the middle).
Schubert’s Nine
A really good post just went up on Zen of Design about how to avoid misusing Bartle’s Four (Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers) in online world design.
Halo 3 Shenanigans
I’ve been having some fun with the Forge on Halo 3. Unfortunately, though, there’s no support for matchmaking with custom games and maps (yet), which means I haven’t been able to really playtest the stuff I’ve made (I don’t have a full friends list and I usually end up playing when they’re not on). If you have Halo 3, please download the maps and/or game types on my fileshare (gamertag: SharedProphet) and let me know what you think.
Damion Schubert on Metaplace
Over on Zen of Design, there’s a good post about Metaplace, how it takes us where we’ve been, and where it will likely go. I never had any trouble with the name, though; I didn’t even realize anyone might until he mentioned it…
Discussion on Crafting in MMOs
On the Metaplace.info forums, I’ve been participating a little bit in a discussion on crafting in MMOs.
Overtime Pay Litigation Booming
A friend at work just pointed me in the direction of this article.
finished and unstarted games
I finished Fable: The Lost Chapters last night. I enjoyed it… would’ve been nice if there were more than one voice for the wives you can get; the one available is pretty annoying, and if you happen to find a female in the game who doesn’t use that voice, either a) you can’t marry her, or b) if you do, her voice changes to that one. I never got married in the game until the very end, because there was no one I wanted to marry. The characters weren’t real, and didn’t even make much of an effort to seem so. That makes me a little wary of Peter Molyneux’s stated goal of conveying a feeling of love to the player in Fable 2.
Getting back into the “swing” of “things,” or: To Blog or Not to Blog
Well, I haven’t written much here lately. I guess I kind of wonder sometimes what to write about, even though I have things on my mind. There is a fear of having ideas stolen if I reveal too much here, and so, about things I’m creating, I say little or nothing. Mundane things often seem too mundane to write… etc.
Continue reading ‘Getting back into the “swing” of “things,” or: To Blog or Not to Blog’ »
ok, got it
I came up with a codename for the side project mentioned in the last post. It is Stardust. It’s named after the Neil Gaiman novel (and movie, releasing August 10th in the US) which I haven’t actually read. I’m waiting until after I see the film so that the movie can be good and the book can be better, rather than the book being good and the movie being worse. But I know I will enjoy both.
a new side project
Since last Tuesday I’ve been working on designing a boardgame. Haven’t come up with a codename for the project yet, but I’m excited about it. I think it is the first side project I will complete (as progress on the design is going so well… I am hoping to have it playable by next week), and so far I’m really looking forward to playing it myself; it sounds fun to me even though I’m the one who’s creating it. I guess that’s how it should be. I’m also having a lot of fun creating it.
the post with the uninspired title (well, another one, anyway)
Finished Fool Moon (the second Dresden Files book) on Sunday, and enjoyed it as much as the first. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of them, but I’d like to own them (I like to own good things, like DVDs of movies I like and copies of books I enjoy, even if I never get back to watching or reading them again), and I’m going to refrain from buying them until I have more money sitting around.
Continue reading ‘the post with the uninspired title (well, another one, anyway)’ »
cool interview
I haven’t been writing here much lately because I’m recovering from having all four of my wisdom teeth removed on Friday. Anyway, I’m writing now because I wanted to point out this fascinating interview about localizing Japanese games for America.
on game addiction and chronology
So it’s the second day of the blog and I’ve already decided to abuse the chronology of the entries.
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