…and posted it somewhere else.
See, Jay Barnson (aka the Rampant Coyote) was going on vacation (to New Orleans, also the favorite getaway spot of the CRPG Addict) and he needed some guest posts. So I submitted something that had been kicking around in my head for a while.
And he published it. Head on over to read it.
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.
Blizzard is rolling out four new Starcraft II custom games. They are all in beta, but you can still play them. One of them is called StarJeweled.
The gameplay is pretty simple…you gain energy by making Bejeweled matches, then you spend that energy on spawning units or using special abilities. The game goes on until one side loses their base.
Notice how the team I’m on has WAY more energy than the other team. Notice how their base has far fewer hitpoints than ours. And notice how we won the game!
Okay, you can’t see that in the screen shot, but we did! It was my first multiplayer Starcraft win ever. Of course, it didn’t count because it was a custom game, but still.
Also, notice how, once again, what Blizzard calls a “beta” is equivalent to what any other company would call “a month after launch”.
PS on a completely different topic: I am moving PTFSD updates to Fridays, which will put them right before my “off” day (Saturday) I think this will more accurately represent my gain/loss for the week.
Megan: Are you on Steam?
Anthony: No, you can play something.
Megan: Good, ’cause I’m $70,000 in the hole.
So last night I bought the Saints Row double pack (and no, there is no apostrophe in Saints Row). I bought it specifically because I heard that the mechanics were far better than Grand Theft Auto X’s. I resisted the urge to start with the (by all accounts superior) second game and popped in the first. I then played it until my eyes basically wouldn’t focus any more.
The good: Holy Toledo, this game fixes just about every problem GTA has. Let’s go down the list.
Driving controls are tight; it’s possible to actually make a turn without a) having to brake down to 1/4 speed or b) hitting anybody or anything. This is aided by the fact that the streets are wide and both cars and pedestrians are less common than in GTA cities. Following another car is actually possible in this game. Plus, this game had a GPS system that would lead you to your target years before GTA IV.
You have a lot of health, and it regenerates when you’re not actually taking fire. Not only that, but you can carry around with you four health-restoring items at all times. This mechanic by itself means that I’ll almost certainly be able to beat this game.
Shooting is good (but not great). There is no lock on (though once you get the cursor over an enemy, the game will help you keep it there). There is no cover system (though you’ll rarely get into a situation where there’s nothing to hide behind). But like I mentioned above, you’ve got tons of health and multiple opportunities to break contact and recover. I’ve already played missions where I’ve fought through 35-50 enemies, and while I got smoked a couple times, perseverance and taking things slow and cautiously has always paid off.
The game uses a territory system like San Andreas; the more territories you take, the more money you find in your stash every morning. And yes, rival gangs can try to take back territories, which means you have to run over there and shoot their lieutenants so that the takeback fails.
Plus HOLY TOLEDO IS THERE LOTS TO DO IN THIS GAME. But I’ll get to the downside of that in a minute.
The cons:
This is one of the most puerile, juvenile games I’ve ever played. Penny Arcade was right. This is a game for 12-year-old gangsta wannabees.
The storytelling in this game is weak, even by GTA standards. Of course, if your story is weak, it helps to get someone like Keith muthafuckin’ David to narrate it for you. Don’t know who he is? Here, have a taste.
In order to progress in the story-based missions, you must perform activities that raise your respect bar. Once it fills up, you have one “charge” of respect and can then play one story-based mission. Of course, this is a good/bad, because most of the activities are actually pretty fun, although most of them are absolutely amoral (no “gangstas with hearts of gold” here). My favorites are drug trafficking, taking hostages, insurance fraud and mayhem missions. This was a dealbreaker for Sol_HSA, who just wanted to do the story missions, but I think of it kind of like the leveling system in Oblivion, which, while deeply flawed, forced me to try some skills I never would have before, which is where I discovered that I loved alchemy.
The story-based missions are also varied and fun. In one, you street race with three members of another gang…who are unaware that their cars have been fitted with bombs. Your goal isn’t to beat them, but to get your passenger close enough to them so that he can taunt them into using their nitro…which blows them up. In another, you attack a garage owned by a rival gang so that one of your fellow gang members (who has gone undercover with the rival gang) can “save” the garage owner and thus get in good with the gang’s leadership. And in a third, you help a singer who is locked in a terrible record contract (with a label that just happens to be owned by another rival gang) fake her own death.
Okay, I’m going to take it back. The storytelling isn’t that bad; it’s just that this game is a summer popcorn movie while GTA IV is trying to be Heat.
Which leads me to something I almost didn’t want to mention about Grand Theft Auto IV…but now I think I will.
WARNING: PSRD BREACH!
While playing GTA IV I got the feeling that the developers…well, they just don’t like America very much. Niko Bellic arrives in New York only to get stuck in Little Vladivostok, doing the same things he did back in Serbia for money – killing, mostly. No other alternative is presented. And of course, Roman’s fascination with America is only skin-deep, with most of that skin being on BIG FAKE AMERICAN TITTIES!
Instead of telling a story about an immigrant who uses the opportunities America provides to better himself, Rockstar chose to tell a story about a man who allows his past mistakes to rule him, to his eventual downfall, while blaming America for everything (and yes, this is in the dialog).
And let’s not get into Weasel News, the Rush Limbaugh satire and the Republican Space Rangers…gone is the political even-handedness of San Andreas (which featured a hilarious talk show where a couple, one liberal and one conservative, literally got off on ridiculing each other).
Here’s hoping for a Grand Theft Auto V that’s lighter in tone, has less political bullshit and, at the very least, has difficulty settings.
Oh, and by the way…I’m going to swear in this post.
So, I can’t stop myself. I’ve got two current home-grown projects – finishing the new PC version of Inaria and converting Planitia to OpenGL. But I will say that I’ve been able to work on my health as well; my current weight is 363, which is down from my starting weight of 375. I intend to start doing more formal PTFSD entries in the future, probably every Friday.
And what the heck, here’s a screenshot of the current PC version of Inaria:
Okay. Saw an article on Rock Paper Shotgun about an application called Evolution Chamber. It’s making huge waves in the StarCraft II community because it uses genetic algorithms to optimize build orders…and it works. It came up with a build order for the fairly standard Zerg seven-roach rush that can have you attacking your enemy with an overwhelming force in under five minutes if you execute it perfectly. It currently only works for Zerg, but Terran and Protoss versions are in the works.
If you don’t play StarCraft II, allow me to explain the above. A “build order” is basically a recipe, a series of instructions on how to build your base and make your units that you follow exactly in order to produce the desired result – in this case, seven roach units that you can then use to rush an unprepared enemy.
Or even a prepared enemy. There’s been a lot of debate on whether a Protoss player could survive against such a rush at all. The answer turns out to be just barely yes, but only if the Protoss player knows exactly what’s coming.
A lot of people are saying things like “Oh, this is no big deal; games like Chess and Go have standard openings.” Yes, but in Chess and Go you see the open happen, you know right away what your opponent is up to, and you get to counter as your opponent opens. Chess and Go also have actual gameplay beyond the standard opening. The combination of extremely fast real-time gameplay, fog of war and the ability to choose a random race means that you could conceivably have no idea where your opponent is on the map or what race he’s playing until those seven roaches come bashing down your front door. At which point, the game is over. The opening was the game.
Which means you didn’t play StarCraft II. You played rock-paper-scissors. You only get to play StarCraft II if one player’s opener doesn’t automatically destroy the other’s (to continue the rock-paper-scissors metaphor, you both pick rock). Evolution Chamber is only going to make that worse. The meta-game is quickly overtaking the game-game. Which is why I don’t play StarCraft II online.
That and I suck.
I had a responsibility that I had to discharge before I could have the time necessary to start on my “Make A Game and Sell One Copy by the End of October” thingy. (Needless to say I’ve already lost the competition; those Ludum Dare guys are ruthless!)
So the game is going to be Inaria. I’ve got the improved version I was making for the iPhone; since I don’t have the hardware necessary to finish that version it’s going to come back to the PC and be my first…commmercial…game! DUNH-DUNH-DUUUNH!
So, I’ve got nine days to finish Inaria and get it up and running. Dreamhost has a free “e-business” web package that I will probably use at first until I inevitably discover that it doesn’t fit my needs and I have to try something else.
Get ready to journey through a new Inaria!
I was hanging out in #ludumdare like I do when a regular there by the name of PoV posited a challenge to us:
Make a game and sell at least one copy (or license it) by the end of October.
Well.
I’ll be taking him up on that, and the game I’ll be making is the long awaited Star Kittens! Needless to say I’ll be blogging the entire process.
And if anyone else wants to join in, here’s PoV’s original challenge post along with tips for success!
