I just submitted my 500th change to my SVN server (I was refactoring some stuff on Planitia in preparation for adding the network code). I guess that’s some kind of accomplishment!
Searches
And in this post, Viridian steals yet another shtick.
One thing that Sol likes to do every once in a while is go through his referring searches and post humorous and/or strange ones and respond to them. I think I’ll do the same!
anthony salter+viridian games
Yep! This is the site you want. This is the search that produces the most hits on my site. It’s a bit of egoboo to see it, honestly.
+populous +beginning +level +format
Oddly enough, Populous: The Beginning still has a dedicated multiplayer fanbase. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them, so I can’t help you here.
powermonger source code
Dear Lord, I wish. I can only imagine the things we could do with the older Bullfrog games if the sources were open.
front mission ost
Oooh, somebody’s got good taste in music. Look here.
dreamfall 2
Not yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
crazybump crack
Um, NO.
games that havent been freken filtered
Ummm…what?
sorry ff was stupid action of mine yes, i had also known that itself may ff mind, sorry what ff stupid action by me
What the hell page of mine did THIS hit?
noctropolis boobs
Dear God. Someone is actually trying to find the boobs of Noctropolis. Well, I wish them luck. I have seen the boobs of Noctropolis, and let me tell you, I wish I hadn’t.
syndicate wars for mac
Unfortunately there never was a Mac version of Syndicate Wars. There was a PlayStation version, however.
“dungeon keeper” clone
Yes, please!
“dungeon keeper” resolution
Press Alt-R to switch between low and high resolutions.
“hold! what you are doing is wrong! why do you do this thing?”
Ah, Star Control 2. You’re not just a great game, you’re literature.
3d rpg games where you have babies and get married
Frankly, I don’t know of one where you actually have babies. Sega’s Phantasy Star series had a feature where you would play with one group for a while and then that group would stop adventuring and pair off, and then you would start the plot again later as their children. But that wasn’t a 3D RPG. And it’s possible that I took this search far too seriously.
barbarian warriors in search of wisdom demo blog
Barbarian Warriors in Search of Wisdom is actually a band, not a game. Though that would have been the coolest name for a game ever.
atanua torrent
Again, NO. And besides, you don’t need a torrent. It’s free for non-commercial use, just download a trial version from the official site.
create lot in sims castaway
Unfortunately, you can’t. There were just too many problems getting all our new systems and objects working with terrain we couldn’t control. You can do anything you want to the existing lots in the free play community, but you cannot create new lots. Sorry.
do anyone still play dk2 multiplayer
Unfortunately, since I can’t patch the game and play it on XP, I don’t play it multiplayer any more.
dungeon crawl speed run
I’d certainly like to see that! But I’m pretty sure you got my infamous Game Voyeur post instead.
dungeon keeper ii stuttering sound
As I mentioned, this comes from patching the game when you’re running on Windows 2000 or XP. Doing so actually introduces a speech stuttering and crash bug.
games were you bread and mace fight
Hmmm…you could make bread in Ultima VII and that game had maces, so that’s obviously the game you were looking for!
good ways to level up in oblivion
i don’t understand the leveling system in oblivion
oblivion how to raise levels quickly
You would not believe the number of hits I’ve gotten from people trying to figure out Oblivion’s levelling system. What it boils down to is this: make sure you gain at least ten stat points every time you level. You can gain up to fifteen, but it’s not necessary to do so (unless you’re a perfectionist like someone I know). You should also try to gain as much Endurance as you can every level, hopefully the full five points. The best way to gain Endurance is to improve your Armory skill, and the best way to do that is buy a whole bunch of repair hammers and repair every piece of armor you come across. Every time you loot a body, repair all the armor you get even if you’re not going to sell it.
he toutched my ass
I can’t believe someone actually searched on this phrase. That person got this page, of course.
how can i generate a real lightning bolt from the sky
Stand in a rainstorm and point a long pole straight up in the air. (Note: do not stand in a rainstorm and point a long pole straight up in the air.)
how do i watch warcraft 3 audio replay?
That’s a darn good question – it can be a bit tricky. Typically the page you download one from will tell you to “pause at” a certain time. So load the replay into Warcraft III and then pause it at that time. (You can just double-click a replay from anywhere on your hard drive and Warcraft III will load and run it. I love that feature.)
Now with Warcraft III paused, alt-tab away and start the MP3 that came with the replay. Switch back to Warcraft III once it’s started and wait for the host to tell you to unpause. The replay and the audio should then be synched.
how does the rock paper scissor setup work in age of empires 3
I hope that lead you to this post; it explains things in nauseating detail.
how to become a game programmer
A writer writes. A painter paints. A game programmer programs games. Start as small as you feel you need to in order to be comfortable, but always be learning. Always be expanding. And post all your stuff on the intertubes so I can try it out! Oh, and this is probably the post you were looking for.
how to change village color on age of mythology
You can’t. It’s so annoying. You’re assigned a color based on the order in which you joined the multiplayer game.
how to get starflight 2 to work on new computers
make starflight 2 play slower for faster computer
One word: DOSBox. Oh, and nice taste in games, by the way.
how to get the bars up over enemies in wow
Hit CTRL-V. Hit it again to turn them off.
information and basic facts on the ankh
Um…all I have are game references, and you’re probably looking for something more historical. Try Wikipedia.
is mgam a good company?
I never had any complaints. Indeed, sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I stayed. I left several years ago, though.
kangaroo and x-tracking
Uh…have I ever used the word “kangaroo” on this blog? Ever? I mean, before now?
legacy of the ancients remake
YES PLZ.
magic carpet remake
Look, people, you’re starting to make me drool.
name the screen shot games
name these games contest
Yep! This is where you want to be. Oooh, that reminds me, need to come up with one for tomorrow.
ready food pouch for school children
I have no idea how this lead to my site. And “food pouch”? Don’t you mean “lunch box”?
what do game programmers do all day
This is actually pretty accurate:
villager games to download
“populous” clone
after you build your village you can raise an army
any games that you can create your own village
build an army and village game
build a base and a army then destroy the computer`s base type games
games with god powers
games were you build a army and destroy your enemy
games where you build your own village and army.
god games that you create your village to play now
powermonger clone
Keep your shirts on, people.
Remember, Folks…
StarCraft is serious business.
My favorite bit is when they are flashing up all the cool, sheksay pics of the contestants and one of them is…pushing up his glasses.
Of course, I’ve been following this competition with interest, and because I am a colossal geek, it’s been real interest, not point-and-laugh interest. One thing I like about these tournaments is that the contestants have to play on new, custom-created maps that they’ve never seen before.
If you want to watch the entire competition, just search YouTube for EVER OSL 2008.
Slacking
Good Lord, I’ve neglected this blog recently. I didn’t really mean to…things have just been kind of hectic. So it’s time for a grab bag post!
First, I did a short video over the weekend about how you can mod System Shock 2 to make it look better.
I am seriously thinking about doing a Let’s Play of either System Shock 2 or Starflight…once the Ludum Dare is over.
And that’s this weekend. And I’m getting seriously nervous because I don’t feel I’m prepared enough. I’ve been working on a little space-based 4X game called Spacesploitation! (yes, the exclamation point is part of the title). Currently it looks like this:
I had expected to finish it before the competition started. That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.
So in the end, I’ll just do my best and see how that comes out.
First Ludum Dare Practice Game – Wizard!
This is something I started a while back but didn’t get too far with. Now I’ve picked it back up and expanded on it in order to get some practice writing platformer mechanics.
Time to Level Up
I’ve been thinking that it’s about time to start challenging myself again. Yes, yes, Planitia…but there’s something else I’ve been wanting to do.
I’ve mentioned the self-confidence problems that I’ve had in the past and while I’m a lot better (look, Ma! I’m writing in public!) there is one thing I still don’t like to do and that is compete. I shy away from testing my skills against other people, because I’m afraid I’ll discover that I suck. Well, it’s time to meet this thing head-on.
Therefore, I am hereby announcing that I will compete in Ludum Dare Eleven, which will be held from April 18-20.
Now, see, in order for this to really work I’m going to need to make a pretty good showing of it. So for the next month I’m going to be making lots and lots of small games. I’m hoping to do at least four and I don’t want any of them to take longer than a week to do. This will get me better at starting out quickly and sand over any edges in my 2D development skills.
So the bad news is that there won’t be any Planitia news for a while. The good news is that there should be lots more news on all the other games I’m doing leading up to the competition.
I’m also going to have to come up with a few good recipes, since one of the categories you’re graded on is food…
The Sims Castaway Stories
All right! It shipped, so I can finally talk about it!
The Sims Castaway Stories is the third in the Life Stories series of games we here at Aspyr have done based on the Sims 2 engine. The Life Stories series fuses traditional Sims 2 gameplay with some more directed story elements to great effect. Castaway Stories takes this even further – it’s actually an adventure game (you remember those, right?) done in the Sims 2 engine.
Reasons why you should buy Castaway Stories:
0. I worked on it. That’s reason enough, right?
1. It’s got a story-driven mode, so if you were never turned on by the completely free-form gameplay of the original Sims 2 we’ve got you covered. Explore dangerous jungles! Collect resources so you can make things! Make animal friends! Make native friends! Find your true love! Solve an ancient mystery! Visit a ruined temple! Appease the volcano god! Use lots of exclamation points!
2. On the other hand, if you’re a Sims 2 fan but you’re not that interested in the story mode you should still buy Castaway Stories because it gives you some things Sims 2 fans have been asking for for years but no other Sims 2 game has given them. In particular, big lots! That’s right, not only do we have lots that are double the size of the largest available lot in Sims 2, we’ve also removed the roads so that the entire lot is buildable! Plus, tons of new objects, all done with a jungle theme!
3. It is, in my opinion, the prettiest game ever made on the Sims 2 engine. I mean, just look at this:
4. See great scripted cinematics, more complex than anything done in the Sims 2 engine before!
5. It’s currently at #4 on Amazon’s top PC game list, which means lots of people are already buying it! You don’t want to be left out, do you? Can’t you just feel the peer pressure?
I personally worked on making the larger lots and creating the scripted camera system that allowed the designers to make all those neat cutscenes. I’m actually pretty proud of this game and I’m glad it’s getting a bit of recognition.
Viridian’s Video Blog – Syndicate Wars
And here’s a new video blog!
I always liked the look and feel of this game. Syndicate Wars was the first Syndicate game I played, so I didn’t suffer from “It’s not as good as the original!” syndrome.
Of course when I saw it, my first thought was, “Bullfrog needs to make an RPG with this engine!”
Iffen you can’t stand the YouTube, here’s a downloadable version.
Surprise!
Well, as some people guessed, the surprise is a new trailer for Planitia!
This is the in-game cinematic that introduces the first mission in the story mode of the game. I’m very proud of this because it’s completely script-driven – all I did to produce this video was turn on Fraps.
This video is a bit “heavier” than my first trailer, but it’s not really indicative of the feeling of the game overall. I do want to keep the game light and funny, but I also wanted to make it very clear why you, the player, are summoned to this world.
As usual, if you have trouble with the above video (or you just want a better version) you can download the trailer here.
Please feel free to tell me what you think!