Back when I was in DigiPen, we had a very hard time thinking up a project for our senior year that we were all excited about. One of the ideas I had was an M.C. Escher type world that the player got to move around in. It was a combination of gravity not behaving like it normally would and the eye not being able to tell how stuff worked without experiencing it since it was slightly “off”. I could never articulate a gameplay mechanic out of it though, so it was eventually scrapped. I also couldn’t imagine how to get the engine to work correctly to show what I had envisioned in my head. I mean, how do you turn something like this into a game?
Apparently you do it like this:
It’s certainly not exactly what I had in my head for gameplay, but it’s pretty close. It also looks utterly bad-ass. I love the style of it and the music that goes along with the trailer. I can see this being very, very fun.
I’ve been playing and watching GTA 4 now for several hours and while I absolutely love certain aspects of it, something has been really bothering me as I’ve played it. Gamespot, IGN, Gamespy, Game Informer, Eurogamer, 1UP, Games Radar, and god knows how many other websites have given the game perfect scores.
I don’t mind when a game gets a good score, especially when it deserves it, but are you seriously telling me that GTA 4 is groundbreaking and amazing enough that it deserves perfect scores across the board? I highly, highly doubt that. I may be nitpicking a bit, but just in the couple of hours I’ve run around the world (and not particularly doing any missions), I’ve noticed a TON of bugs and poor quality on some things (mostly the camera, but also the animations/character models).
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m going to play this game and I’m probably going to love it, but come on, this is getting a bit ridiculous. I guess this also explains why I never look at scores as to whether I’m going to like the game or not. I haven’t bought a video games based off of a score in at least 5 years; I much more prefer to trust friend’s opinions and judgments.
I finally realized today why I hate all video blogs. It really comes down to the fact that these people are acting, but they’re absolutely terrible at it. Take the review of Noitu Love 2 over at 1UP for example.
I really like the information talked about in it, but my god I want to punch the people in the face. They’re not actors, and yet that’s exactly what they’re trying to be by doing this. I would much, much, much rather they have a camera in their office and then you can see them talk about the game when they learn about it for the first time. This whole back and forth deal just makes me nash my teeth. I don’t mind when news anchors talk about the news because they’re dictating, but this, this is nothing like that. Also, the camera SHOULD NOT MOVE CONSTANTLY. Arg.
It all seems completely rehearsed and totally fake.
Also, that game looks amazing. I’m going to have to check it out soon!
I’ve been working on a configuration/settings utility for making games for a couple of months now. I started off strong like I do with a bunch of my projects but then didn’t touch it for almost a month. I’ve picked it back up again and finally gotten to the point where I could consider it working for floats with no error checking! What this means is you can do this.
Turn a config file like this:
// Settings.cfg
windowWidth = 640.0 // Sets the width of the window
Into a header file like this:
// EcksSettings.h
class EcksSettings
{
float windowWidth; // Sets the width of the window
};
extern EcksSettings *SETTINGS;
and a cpp file that automatically reads in the correct file and values whenever you want it to.
Long before I started getting deeply into indie games (by searching them out, going to websites dedicated to them, lurking forums, etc), I had fun with them because they were just… well… awesome games. I saw over on Hard Casual a review of one of my favorite games of all time from my childhood, Escape Velocity. It brought back memories of good times trying to take over planets for hours at a time (seriously, try to take over Sol, it takes FOREVER), running from aliens (and trying to take over their biggest ship, but always failing), and also dodging Captain Hector since I never paid for the game.
It made me realize that I’ve been playing indie games my entire life, I just didn’t really know about it. All the way back to the first video game I can ever remember playing, Lode Runner, I’ve been enjoying people’s indie games.
I’ve spent a LOT of time playing indie games over the years, and I think I’ve come to the realization that it’s probably a lot more than I thought previously. Thank you awesome people. I’ve much enjoyed my time of playing your games.
Braid is on Partner Net now, which means I’m able to play it for free at my work. I’ve only tried the first couple of worlds as I don’t want to spoil the entire thing, but I have to say I absolutely love it so far. It twists my brain in a way that no other game has, including portal.
I’ve been blown away by the art style as well. The particle systems coupled with the almost painting look is magnificent. I love 2d games probably more than 3d games (due mostly to what I grew up on), so seeing this as a traditional 2d platformer makes me squeal with glee.
I certainly don’t want to ruin it for anyone else, so I won’t speak of it much except to say that it is a game everyone is going to be talking about playing. Already people are discussing it in my office in the halls if only to trade secrets and tips about how to complete certain puzzles. It’s going to be one of those games that everyone has on their development console similar to N+.
I can’t wait for it to come out if only because I’m waiting to play the full game then. As much as I like playing it early, I like playing the full game more, and so I wait.
I’ve been wanting to write about games on a blog dedicated to it, so I figured it was about time. I somehow came up with the name, and it’s catchy, so it stuck.
I’ve also been wanting to do an indie game for a long time, so now that I do have some free time, I’m going to try to write about it as I go along. I don’t know if anyone will ever read this, but if they do, hey, spiffy!
I figure I’ll also talk about games in general and things I like/dislike about them. You know, a gaming related blog. As if there aren’t enough of those already…
