Month: February 2011

Wangst

OH GOD WHY AM I DOING THIS WHAT MADE ME THINK I COULD GET THIS OUT IN TIME THIS GAME IS SO BUGGY AND I’M ADDING TOO MUCH AND THE DEADLINE IS LOOMING AND THE GAME IS WAY OVERENGINEERED AND UNDERDESIGNED OR UNDERENGINEERED AND OVERDESIGNED I HAVEN’T DECIDED YET AND BASIC FEATURES DON’T WORK AND THE SPECIAL ABILITIES AREN’T IN AND WAAAAAAHHHHH!


Music, Professor!

Inaria now has a musician in the body of one H. Arnold Jones! The first tracks he has delivered are great, and I think fit the game well. Check out his stuff at http://www.cfxmusic.com/site/.


Another Great Development Vid

Again, these things simultaneously delight and depress me.

This is three guys from Cryptic Studios (two programmers and one artist) making a game in about 28 total hours (not counting sleep time) for the 2011 Global Game Jam (which I guess is as close to my Iron Gamedev dream as I’m going to get).

Now, it’s really unfair to compare myself to these guys. They were using a very well-designed framework (Game Library of Victory, which you can actually download here). There were three of them and one of me.

But still…look at them pump that stuff out! I’m starting to feel like I’m doing something wrong. It seems like it’s so much harder for me and takes so much longer than it does for many other people. Maybe my framework just sucks.


Happy First Birthday, CRPG Addict!

The CRPG Addict, who turned his inability to stop playing RPGs when he “grew up” into an absolutely fantastic blog, is one year old today!

Actually, it’s his blog that’s a year old. I think he’s in his mid-thirties or so. He divulges surprisingly little personal information; indeed, all I know about the man is that he loves himself New Orleans and a vodka gimlet.

ANYhoo, head on over and check out the holiday celebrations, and if you haven’t been reading his blog, please start. It’s the best one I’ve found in ages.


Holy Crapledo!

Inaria now has $140 of funding on 8-Bit Funding! I never expected that much!

Putting Inaria on 8-Bit Funding was absolutely the best thing I could have done for the project. It really motivates me to know that so many people are willing to donate just to see the project finished. I expect to get a lot done this weekend. Plus…anyone know of a good chiptune composer? I might actually be able to pay one now!


Gameloft

Okay, game producer Gameloft has been in the news in the past for ripping o…er, copying other people’s games. I don’t mean copying in the physical sense, but in the “look and feel” sense. But things have really come to a head with their recent trailer for Starfront: Collision:

A bit on the nose, dontcha think?

And yet…I like Gameloft. I like the fact that they are cheeky bastards. If you want an iPhone/iPad/Android version of your hit game, you can go to them and they’ll make you one. And oddly enough, it’ll probably be pretty good.

But if you don’t and you just leave that money on the table…well, they’ll pick it up. And I’ve no doubt that everything goes through the lawyers to make sure they aren’t infringing.

It would be different if the games were krep, but they aren’t. By all accounts, the games have high production values and are fun to play. Plus a lot of them have multiplayer, which is not trivial to do on handheld devices.

So kudos, Gameloft! Keep doing what you’re doing, and maybe game companies will realize how much cash they are missing out on by not entering the handheld market.

Maybe then you can make the real version of Starcraft II for the iPhone.


So Where Ya Been?!

Sick. Quite, quite sick. And also not working. But not because I was sick.

There was some kind of snafu with the paperwork at GM. I didn’t start last Tuesday; in fact, for about a week I didn’t know when I would start or if I would start at all. But that’s apparently all been worked out and I allegedly start tomorrow (I’ll believe it when I get my badge).

I know, I missed a PTFSD update, but because I’ve been tracking my weight daily on a spreadsheet I can give it to you now.

Previous Weight: 357.4
Current Weight: 357.4
Delta: none

Wow, that was eventful, huh?