Saturday 16 May 2009
Architecture of evil
http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/evil-lair-on-architecture-of-enemy-in.html
Tuesday 12 May 2009
User-generated Content
Does anyone here play City of Heroes or have any experience of the kind of exploitation mentioned? Do you think it really counts as exploitation or should it just be thought of as a 'rules are meant to be broken' scenario.
Personally, I maintain that when game developers loosen their grasp on the reigns of a project, they have to expect that players will find all sorts of other ways to have fun in-game, ways which aren't necessarily envisioned by the design team. I think Barry Atkins covers an aspect of this in an early chapter of More than a Game. On the flip-side, the kind of ultra-easy/cheat quests being set up in City of Heroes don't sound like they will remain 'fun' for long, in which case they should die out naturally. Games also require a healthy dose of challenge.
Monday 11 May 2009
Interviews
Have a look at this round up of interviews with game developers of de Blob, Samorost, and Zen Bound fame. Enjoy...
Friday 1 May 2009
Make a game during your lunch break
I have found this website that is still on its beta phase at the moment; but looks like one to watch in months to come. The website is called Sploder and gives any web surfer the ability to create a basic computer game and share it with people on the community page.
There are two types of games availible to create at the moment; FPS and Platformer. But I think there will be more to come when the following becomes bigger and tools get better. Some of the titles that people have made are rearly good and worth a small 5 minute play during a break.
You can find the site at www.sploder.com and see what you think
Cheers
Monday 20 April 2009
Nintendo DSi -- defective by design
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All this adds up to making up and coming free/open consoles like OpenPandora and the Fuzebox all the more attractive for game hackers and hobbyist developers. By supporting systems that actively go against the grain of locking users into proprietary development platforms, we encourage the development of free software games.
How can you fight this? Not buying the Nintendo DSi would be one way. By not buying it, we send a message to Nintendo and the game companies that this is unacceptable. Namco Bandai is the first third-party developer to support DSi -- contact them, and Nintendo below.
* Nintendo: nintendopower@futureus.com and Nintendo's online support
* Namco Bandai: support@namcobandaigames.com
Sunday 12 April 2009
Referencing Images
So... how do you use images?
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figure 02 Kane & Lynch: Dead Men nightclub level in panic - www.msxbox-world.com
Thursday 9 April 2009
Second Life on the Move
I have been listenng to some podcasts this afternoon and have came across a japanese company which makes apps for the ipod touch and the iphone called Genkii.
They have been around for about a year and have just brought out Sparkle which I think is going to be a killer app for the platform called Sparkle, it is basically Second Life for the Ipod Touch and Iphone, which potentially boasts many of the features that Second Life has, but portable and can be played anywhere (Well for the Iphone at least, Ipod touch will have to find a wi-fi point)
But as they are also bring out some interactive mediaas well soon, they might be worth keeping an eye on the company to see what they do next.
The link to the side is
http://genkii.com/index.html
Just hope they will do one for Google Phones soon, as don't want to miss out
Cheers People
Resident Evil Essay - 1st Draft
You can find it at the link below and any feedback (if you do read it would be gratefull)
The link is http://www.box.net/shared/h2jhz5ssrb
Cheers
Luke
The Evolution of Gamer and Gaming Culture
Gamer and Gaming culture has never been at the foreground of society but still plays a large part in todays’ world.
In this essay I will be looking at the evolution of Gamer and Gaming culture from its roots in the old school arcades to its modern day living room counter part in order to document and analyse the changes that have occurred to it over the last few decades.
In order to fully understand the evolution of a new culture I will look into several aspects of it which include the people involved, the taboos & commandments, the effect on popular culture and the rate of change.
Due to the industries growth and the application of high end technology and innovative interaction methods gaming culture has changed to span a broad spectrum of peoples some who take part intentionally and some who are a part of it just by starting to enjoy games.
Essay Structure:
Research and define key generations of gaming culture where the most impact was made
Find statistics describing the average amount of people in the
Compare each advancement in culture and technology for each generation and how these two areas affected by each other.
Research on advances in technology and gameplay.
Describe how gaming culture has merged into todays popular culture
Compare taboos within society from today and several years ago. Describe how the changes in general society occurred and give opinion on why it happened.
Conclusion
Conclude with overall findings and come up with a fact based opinion about the evolution of gamer and gaming culture.
Sunday 5 April 2009
Casual Gamer: True or False
History and Analysis by Ravelle Leacock
I am going to discuss the impact of the gaming industry today, and the innovations which have paved the way for easier accessibility for the unconventional gamer. I shall be asking the question: (Casual Gamer: True or False)
Within the essay I will be identifying the notion of fads that gaming may have had, and whether those fads still exist.
From the past ten years, the way that gaming has evolved has been extremely positive, a lot of that success was due to technology progressing, whether it be graphical and processing power or hardware interfaces.
Structure of the Essay
Main points to focus on
- Look at and research all consoles which have been released within the past 10 years.
Compare each console from old gen to next gen, and highlight each consoles’ demographic.
- Look and research major titles for each platform.
Compare major titles for each console and highlight each games’ demographic.
- Research Technology within the industry
Look at technology used for gaming and look at technology used for non-gaming i.e. films CGI.
- General thoughts of consumers
Take out a survey between hardcore gamers and causal gamers and identify a general consensus between each.
Video Games As Art - Nintendo Style
- Orbient
- Rotohex
- Cubello
- Decode
- Picopict
- Somnium
- Hacolife
- Nalaku
Friday 3 April 2009
GAMES GRADS CANCELLED
Friday 27 March 2009
Thursday 26 March 2009
When I grow up, I want to go to Youtube University
I was just reading Lifehacker and their top story of the day is that Youtube has launched their own educational protal from their website called YoutubeEDU featuring lectures from Universitys and Colleges from all over the world.
Going to have a propper look through the channels they have up at the moment, but they are part of lectures and even some full ones, all of them can be put on the ipods or Mp4 players as well for your convenience.
The Link is:
http://www.youtube.com/edu
Cheers Dudes
Games & Learning
Link to the video from this article.
The Point and Click strikes back
Charles Cecil talks Broken Sword Directors Cut and why point and click adventures are back
Tuesday 24 March 2009
Ready Set... Point and Click
Monday 23 March 2009
Unraveling Xi (Well trying to)
I hav just logged onto Playstation Home and have found some weird grafitti on the walls, I thought that it was a piece of promo for a game but actually is a launchpad for a new game for the Playstation Home and possibly Network too.
It is an alternate reality game called Xi and apparently is like a real time scavenger hunt much like The Lost Experience and Perplex City discussed at the beggining of the course.
The servers are at bursting point at the moment, but when it quietens down should be good to have a look at.
There is an artical on Kotaku at the moment about it, so have a look and see what you think.