Add me if you can, both of you: Roach Puppy Games 

Meh, the article lacks substance IMO.  It's an interesting idea but not very well supported, probably because it falls apart due to "bad" being completely subjective.  This argument requires that some agreed upon definition of "bad" and "good" exists in some medium when that clearly isn't the case.  Furthermore, someone or a large group of people can think something is terrible or the best thing since sliced bread but don't become fanboys of that something.

I also have a hard time buying that Halo is "monumentally awful" THEREFORE it's the most(or at least was?) played game on Live.  Opinion is obviously subjective, but there are good and bad aspects of a game (or movie). For Halo, the linear nature of the single player or derivitive mechanics might be seen as bad, but the accessibility of the online matchmaking, game modes, maps, vehicles and flow of the multiplayer make it good.  Point is, just because you aren't fan of something doesnt mean its terrible and that it's fans or people that do enjoy it have terrible taste.

Fucken Monitor (ball) in Halo 3.  As I played through I thought for sure it would've been that massive Gravemind from after the Prophet of Truth scene. 

Yes I know people hate Halo, but all these bosses you guys are mentioning are incredibly badass next to a metal ball so I had to bring it up.

Actually, what excites me about this comp is doing some 2D on 3D.  My modelling skills are way better than my drawing skills (comparatively at least) so I haven't made sprite based games since DX7.

I will probably be in and producing 3D assets
What kind of 3D stuff would be more suitable for the TIG community ? Low spec low poly ?
I guess next gen heavy models would hardly been usable ...

I doubt many people will use the actual 3d models, but you might want to create pre-rendered 3d images that can be used as backgrounds and sprites.  I myself would like to do something like this, although TigSource seems to really like the pixelated, NES-type of graphics.  I hope we'll be allowed to create a thread, as usual, showing our work in progress, so when in doubt, just post your work and see what people think.

Personally, I would love to see more 3d games and stuff done at TIGsource. There doesn't seem to be enough of that around here (probably because it's time-consuming and perhaps difficult).

We are 3D aliens in this community. 

I was thinking the same about creating 3D assets and offering them up as prerendered sprites along with the models/textures.

This idea could be good as long as too many people dont use the same assets.  Unless each one is super creative about using them and they dont all make a similar game out of them.  Also, I think using your own stuff if you participate in both phases kind of defeats the spirit of this compo, but at least other people can still use your stuff.

No, no, that's not what he said.  It's rude to put words in people's mouths.

The problem is too much specular, makes things look to glossy or bright especially with low poly models.  Lack of texture is ok depending on the game and art style. 

I'd add some notion per character of how much specular contributes to the final lighting, it can just be a [0..1] value in your shader that's multiplied by the specular component.  You can go crazy and have materials that describe all sorts of things of course.  Within Blender/Maya/etc. you can control how much specular light a material absorbs as well.

HAHA he really was getting ready for hibernation.  The pics were priceless.

After Nov 1 please 

I'm not sure why people think C++ is that much more difficult or painful than other languages.  Is it working with pointers or memory management that makes it tough or not having goodies like the .NET Framework or Java libs?  If it's the latter then what does that have to do with the language?  I'm using C#/XNA now but I've worked mostly with C++/DX native in the past at home and currently/always at my day job.  The only advantage I get now is .NET and the content pipeline but I never find myself thinking "Ugh thank goodness I don't have to deal with C++ any more".  Obviously everyone has their preference but I'm more curious about the reasons for this preference other than "C++ sucks".

I used Maya for a while for animation but recently switched to Blender.  IMO Blender is a lot less wonkier than most commercial products for a lot of things, including UV mapping, rigging, and weight painting.  The "Generate from bone heap" option when binding your skeleton to the model sets the weights correctly in 90% of the model.  Of course this depends on what you're used to but I feel a lot more productive in Blender.

I usually export to FBX since it's pretty complete and supported by a lot of libraries.  I used to use .X and wrote my own importer in my DX9 engine, now I use the content pipeline in XNA to import FBX and my own code to map the skeleton and animations to a structure used in my code.  There are a lot of examples of this on the web, including a good sample on the XNA site.  

In general, don't be scared to try 3D because of skeletal animation.  You'll write or integrate the loading code once and not worry about it.  Rigging and animation can be overwhelming at first but once you animate a couple of models in your tool of choice it will become second nature and you won't have to refer to tutorials anymore.

Preordered, can't wait! 

Some training tidbits that may or may not be useful:

The Gnomon Workshop has excellent DVD tutorials, most of the instructors are very thorough and make things easy to understand.  They cover almost all industry tools but it can get expensive unless you can get them from a corporate/school/public library.  I watched a lot of the Maya and ZBrush ones from the library at work and I found all of them to be extremely practical.

The cheaper routes are Vimeo and YouTube video tutorials, there are quite a few to wade through that obviously range in terms of quality and content.  I learned Blender this way when I switched to free tools and it wasn't too bad, then again I had a lot of Maya experience under my belt.

Crazy how easy it is to follow.  Then again, maybe not for someone who is not familiar with the game.

Liking the Alternate History and Hardcore ideas so far.

I second Programming Game AI by Example, it's a lot more practical for games than other AI stuff I've read and the writing is good and easy to follow IMO.

Hey now, I write engines and games!  The trick is to work on both at the same time.  This requires some experience with writing engines and games in the past so you don't step on yourself, but it's possible.

As far as books go, don't look for an all-in-one for the topics you're interested in. Those usually suck.  In fact, there aren't too many engine specific books.  Here are my usual recommendations:

Real Time Rendering
Real Time Collision Detection

Haven't read this but it's recommended and one of the few books on the subject:
3D Game Engine Architecture

All my recent wallpapers have been something from Orioto's DA, I second the badass nomination.

Cosign.  When I was recording my timelapse for LD #15 it made me very aware about checking my usual forums and slacking in general, almost guilty.  Plus, timelapses look really cool so you get that out of it.

A friend of Tim Langdell is no friend of mine.