gamecron – from interviews, more contests, prizes, history to news and back
Feb/101
Yet another day, more news and more interesting things to share. I hope all you got a chance to play Today I die. So today, Catch an interview with Daniel Benmerg, the creator of the game at GameSetWatch.
Mochimedia and SPIL are along with others are throwing a game development contest with a lot of nice prices. There would be five winners and the last date for the contest is April 30th 2010.
When you look at the past, you see that its quite an amazing array of people who have shaped the electronic and entertainment industry through their will, sprit and ideas to what it is today. So take a look at the people, events and companies that shaped the industry through a videogame history timeline. More information here.
Speaking of History, Here is a Google tech talk by Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari and the man who sold the game. From Atari, Pong, Chuck E. Cheese, He talks about how and where he sees opportunities, from needs to sci fi and the future of games and a lot more. So do check it out.
One more bit of news before I go, @photonstorm said that he would be releasing a new game tomorrow! :D How awesome is that, so keep a watch on him and the website for more updates :) If you are into making games in flash, he has a nice Open Source game framework out there you might want to take a look at too.
Sorry to cut short on today’s post, Do come back for more updates on what’s going on tomorrow.
gamecron – looks at Today I die, TRAUMA, Sydney GGJ winner TENTACLE, Strangers and news
Feb/100
Today was not such a great day, that is my excuse for being so late with today’s updates :) My day turned out to be pretty nice after I played a very beautiful, brilliant and tiny game called ‘Today I die’. No I’m not being sarcastic. Today I day is an IGF Finalist in the “Nuovo” category by Argentinian game developer Daniel Benmergui.
I can’t help but simle and be happy at finding the most awesome games around. All you needed to do was look for them :) and there are these brilliant people out there who keep making them :) Yet another game that was nominated for the IGF, TRAUMA looks very very promising.
TRAUMA tells a story of a young woman, who survives a car accident. Recovering at the hospital, she has dreams that shed light on different aspects of her identity – such as the way she deals with the loss of her parents. TRAUMA lets you experience those dreams in an interactive way, reminiscent of Point-and-Click Adventure Games. It builds upon this established formula by introducing a gesture-based interface, real-time 3D technology for dynamic level layouts, unique photographic visuals and a level design philosophy that focuses on creating a rich experience rather than an elaborate puzzle challenge. Combined with the unconventional story, it is aimed to be a compact and deep game for a literate and mature audience.
TRAUMA will be released by the end of 2009. For more details, visit http://gamedesignreviews.com/trauma/
Yesterday you saw the awesome Gnilley from Sydney Game Jam and as things went there was more awesomeness to follow. Those guys down under made quite a lot of games and here we are going to see another, from Bit Battalion and Soap Creative – its TENTACLE!! :D and guess what, they won too :) Read about it
Something else from Bit Battalion that you might like to take a look at.. Kinda reminds me of (Super )Meat Boy though.. mmm..
As for news, @gdevnet is going to give us screens of the much awaited awesome new web design for gamedev.net!! :D so follow @gdevnet for all the goodies!! :D /me still grinning. GDC keeps heating up by revealing new talks by huge people :) This year looks awesome and interesting. Keep checking Gamasutra for updates. I hear that DigiPen, somewhere I wanted to go a long time ago, is moving to a bigger campus. So many new things happening today I just can’t keep up with. Top 30 Great Gaming Geeks :D.. yes like I said, news keep on falling on my head. *grin*
I was reminded by a friend that we are all probably in the same boat, miserable at times, holding on, working towards things and tryting to find happiness. I think I did good for today :) Hope you stick around to catch me rant tomorrow; so till then, stay happy and see you soon.
ps: I know I’m not doing justice to this game, but check it out :) – http://www.56kmodern.com/timeray/368/strangers/ – Author’s website for more – http://slordig.thepoppenkast.com/
gamecron – a lot about game designs, postmortems, Contests, Boryokudan Rue, GAMMA4, GGJ and RWAAAAAAAAAR!
Feb/100
Its been a crazy day and the craziness continued into the night so I decided to get some sleep and hence this late post. The good thing about writing in the morning is that everything seems so fresh and it was fun reading about what was going on and getting a fresh pot of ideas in the morning itself.
Soren Johnson’s Column for Game Developer magazine(Aug2009) is posted on his blog and worth looking at. In his article titled Game Developer Column 8: Turn-Based vs. Real-Time, he breaks down the differences in designing Turn-Based and Real-time games, and also what factors affect these type of games. A very nice read.
Speaking of Turn based games and multiplayer, Come2Play has a contest running for Flash game developers called The Games That Challenge the World Competition. You are required to make a turn based games using Come2Plays multiplayer API features. The entries will be judged based on originality, gameplay, design and use of the API. The contest has been running for some time now and the last date for submission is March 31st. Winners get a lot of monies. do check it out :)
There is an interesting blogpost over at wolfire games blog talking about the ying and yang of design. Its a nice long read speaking about game design in general and on balance in design. So do check it out.
Learning from your experience or other’s experience is always a good thing. Eric Peterson, President and CEO of Vicious Cycle, recounts the ups and downs of making the PSN and XBLA parody video game Blood Bath and Beyond. The article posted on Gamasutra speaks of what went right and wrong for the game and concludes with what they had learned in the whole process of making Blood Bath and Beyond. The postmortem is worth checking out.
Ah.. what brings more joy than just flying around and shooting, while ignoring everything about physics and simulations Sega’s new After Burner Climax makes me feel like I am flying my car and shooting at stuff. I wonder.. I keep wondering and forget what I was wondering as I bump into yet another awesome showcase of awesomeness, which is Boryokudan Rue(I feel funky just saying that, so I’m going to say it again!). Boryokudan Rue is an adventure game that mixes sci-fi and film noir and presents it in a nice package, Joshua Nuernberger, finally released a video for the game showcasing a rather nice amount of stuff happening in the game. This game was selected recently to be part of the 2010 IGF Student Showcase Winners.
Boryokudan Rue is a full-length game spanning over 80 rooms with hand-painted backgrounds, dozens of characters with animation, a neo-noir soundtrack by Nathan Allen Pinard, and featuring 4-8 hours of gameplay. The game was developed over the course of nearly two years with additional help by Nathan Allen Pinard on music. (Read more here)
Cut & Paste is an interesting looking game based on a very simple idea. The game was submitted to the Experimental Gameplay Workshop as well. Check this very different and simple looking game out.
Kokoromi-GAMMA4 has around 144+(I heard @phil_fish tweet 154) submissions. lol, at least they don’t have to worry about the controls :D
The Global Game Jam has finally come to and end and It just feels awesome to see the amount of games made over the weekend. GNILLEY was a game made during the Game Jam, I’m leaving you with a presentation of the game at Game Jam Sydney. See you soon and RWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!! =^_^=
gamecron – GGJ’10 Keynote from Ste Curran, IGM Valentines day offer, a post apocalyptic racer, some numbers and Gnop
Feb/100
The Global Game Jam ‘10 slowly comes to its close at many places. You can find the lot of games that has been made during the jam at the ggj website. The other thing you have to do is to go and watch this the awesome keynote by Ste Curran for GGJ 2010.
Things keep getting better and better. The guys at IndieGameMag or IGM for short are having a pay-what-you-want offer on a non-renewing premier digital subscription of their magazine. The subscription includes downloadable copies of the magazine, special insider blog posts, and a complete access to IGM’s entire back catalog of issues in interactive digital formats for 1-year. You can get a subscription for as low as $1 or pay anything you want. We got ours, go get one, its worth it :)
Aftershock from LiquidRock Games is a post apocalyptic racing game. You apparently will be racing for your survival through Aftershock looks nice. I guess since its post-apocalyptic, there won’t be anything much to race for. You would be racing futuristic hover jets through ruins and destroyed cities. You will also need to work with your team and strategically use of the terrain to win races. The game will also feature multiplayer and team battles for up to 8 players. It would be available on Windows, Mac and Linux. So I’m waiting for a demo to hit us soon, till then, take a look at a video
Didn’t you know that indie games are taking the market by storm? Be it the idea of having no middle men or the fate of many a developer to end up jobless these days; whatever the reason maybe, many have not given up on their dreams to make games. Here is a look at XBox Live Indie Games Sales for 2009. Now, why XBox? The XNA Indie community is relatively young compared to other platforms. It had its rough beginning late 2008 and the change in numbers gives you a good insight into what’s going on in the market. So do check it out.
I am going to leave you today with an interesting remake of an old game called Gnop. Remember the first game ever made? Pong, its just the reverse of that, literally as well. Do give it a try, I’m pretty sure you will like it.
That’s it for today, catch you guys again tomorrow with more interesting stuff.
This post was originally posted on the author’s blog
gamecron – today we look at the Indie Developer Showcase from the escapist, 2nd Global Game Jam and the local event aftermath, Sfxr and Sculptrics from DrPetter and the Art History of Games
Jan/100
Day five of the escapist magazine’s Indie Developer Showcase comes to a close today with an interview with Edmund McMillen, who gave us games like Meat Boy, Super Meat Boy, Time Fcuk and Gish to name a few. The showcase highlights some of the most influential indie titles to have come out recently. The five games showcased are Captain Forever, VVVVVV, Flywrench, Mondo Agency and Meat Boy. Check out all the interviews at the escapist magazine :) –
The 2nd Annual Global Game Jam that started yesterday comes to an end today with developers from around the world jamming to make games in a period of 48 hours. NSIT Campus in Delhi played host to a Jam here in India; The last I heard was that the jam took a detour into game testing and design review for a game called Deducto? More info on the local game jam here.
48hour gamedev compos always remind me of Ludum Dare. DrPetter has made some awesome tools any game developer would find useful, especially in a tight spot like a 48h gamedev compo where its all about managing what little time you have. Sfxr is a tiny little tool that lets you generate sound fx for use in your game. It was developed in connection with the 10th Ludum Dare. Recently, DrPetter has come out with an awesome mesh sculpting tool called Sculptris, which lets you easily sculpt meshes, providing additional detail where ever needed. Check out these awesome tools and much more at DrPetter’s website.
Just when I thought there are conferences relating to almost every feature in gamedev, and bam, comes this new event called The Art History of Games. Its a three day public symposium in which members of the fields of game studies, art history and related areas of cultural studies gather to investigate games as an art form. Do check out the impressive set of speakers who are coming to the event to give a talk.
That will be all for tonight, till next time, happy gaming.
gamecron – a look at game design, igf student showcase winners, freeciv.net and indie games from india
Jan/100
As most of you (or none of you) know, we are planning to aggregate a ton of news and blogs related to gamedev, indie games, and games in general so that you have all that goodness in one place ~ Which will make my job easier, since I really can just go on ranting..
As I surfed the interweb and pretended to work all day(no, my boss doesn’t read my blog) I bumped into an article by David Perry called Game Design: A Brainstorming Toolbox – Game Worlds, which was an excerpt from his similarly sounding new book. The excerpt focuses on game worlds, and the author goes on to dissect game worlds, explaining design mechanics and onto what drives awesome designs in general. If you feel like reading, go check it out
I was going to give you a run-down on all the 2010 IGF Student Showcase Winners, but since I ran out off time today and am spilling on to the next day, this will have to wait. But do check out the winners, I assure you that you won’t be disappointed :)
If you love strategy games and the like, I’m pretty sure you have come across Sid Meier’s Civilization.. and if you have dug deep looking for more awesome games like Civ, you might have heard about this really awesome Open Source Game Project called Freeciv! Freeciv is a multiplayer, turn-based strategy game very similar to Civilization II. Freeciv has been around for almost thirteen years now, so what’s new? Now you can play it in your browser! That’s right, login with your id, make a new one or use your facebook account to connect and play Freeciv alone or with others online through your browser. Check out http://www.freeciv.net for the prototype and take a look at the project on Google Code.
I can’t help but lament, is Streets of Mumbai ever coming out? Lets all send a mail and ask the people at Trine Games about what’s going on over there. I wonder when they will realize that the IP they are sitting on will sell like hot cakes unlike Yoga on the wii.
Speaking of games from India, I found two brothers, Pallav and Gaurav Nawani, based out of Dehradun who founded a company called Ironcode back in 2003 and has been making games ever since.. Short and sweet eh? Well yes, and so are some of their games. While I didn’t focus on their previous releases, what really caught my eye was this point and click adventure called Pahelika. The game instantly reminded me of other games in the same genre like Scratches or Dracula Origin. This is an interesting game with a very Indian back story to boot; yes, it might have its kinks and loose ends, but it tries to do things really nicely as well. Take some time to check out the Video, download and play the small demo of the game as well. You can read an interview with the brother’s regarding the development of Pahelika and about work at Ironcode here in an interview with gamezebo.com.
That’s it for the time being, Hope to catch you all soon with more interesting stuff form out there!
Oh.. On a side not, do check out the thread where you can add links to your favourite developer, journo or artist talking about games(indie) in general. I’ve added some to get the list going, but feel free to drop more and we will get them all aggregated at one place so I possibly can stop writing and actually make some games. Yesh!! with that thought in mind, off I go yet again, hoping to give you more thoughts and what nots on games and gaming and anything else I remotely care about.
On yet another side not further down, go watch some Zero Punctuation ppl!
