Yeah specify genre pls time management games are very different from business simulation games. Mixing them could be interesing, but many biz sim fans would not like it.

1. bear
2. siren
3. necro neko or just neko

A barely-working prototype of a physics puzzler can be fun. I haven't found a way to make a barely-working virtual economy that's fun. Any hints?

I think management games are heavily theme based, since they are usually completely driven by decisions regarding their simulated domain. I would say, choose a fun promising theme first, extract decision/administration processes and look if they can be fun. This can be done by very simple prototyping e.g. just some instructions how to play with an excel sheet or a console based transaction system. For more action you could select some micromanagement tasks too (transport route creation/selection, placement of production facilities etc.). These tasks can be prototyped like normal games.

"Die Fugger II", "Die Gilde" and "the Settlers 2" (is mixed with rts) are some german management games worth looking at.

Arr i thought it was AS3/flash sorry ^^

did you try sth like this?
each parcel in the grid has a (evenly distributed) key that can be calculated via position. these parcels are stored in a hashtable by this key. each parcel performs collision detection (with a secondary broadphase algorithm) in an isolated manner. when an object is on a border of multiple parcels it is assigned to all parcels it overlaps.

also this should be better than my proposal: http://www.bulletphysics.org/mediawiki-1.5.8/index.php?title=BtDbvt_dynamic_aabb_tree via http://bulletphysics.org/mediawiki-1.5.8/index.php/Broadphase you should be able to find java and cpp sources for this.

That is true. The headline might be a bit misleading. But imo donating, contributing or giving credit is a matter of good manners when you earn so much money with something free. Imo it shows how people forget that these free projects dont grow on trees or fall from the sky - they are made by people. IMO this is one of the threats to "free culture".

me 2.

looks great!

AFAIK Dictionary isn't that fast. Implementing something own with a preallocated Vector.<Bucket> may be much faster.

remixing can be outstanding http://www.youtube.com/user/kutiman
for code there are several open source licenses, why should art be treated different?
as you said even free BY works get stolen. also there is often some kind of ignorance when it comes to using free works. GDC11: How the Box 2D hero caught Rovio out may be an interesting example regarding this.

"Yo dawg, we heard you like pixels so we put pixels into a pixel so you can pixel within a pixel of your pixels."

inception

btw @Parrotrd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_depth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_density

combining quadtrees with a grid or sth. like that should work too.

Hey anyone interested in closed beta of glitch? i can invite 2 more people through facebook. so when you want to get invited we have to become friends for a while...

Exactly. By respecting the way people publish/license their work there is no need for draconian laws. Intangible goods are often seen as of low value, because they are easy to copy. But people forget how hard it is to create them. Respect creations and their creators

it can only end in a total topic derailment and yet another one of THOSE discussions.

sorry

thx for the nice summary

I prefer the tall one. But imo he seems inferior to the small one regarding his "rockabillity".

Mmh ic, so why do people make games independently?

Imagine you make a HTML5 game. An artist who needs that nifty rope script you use in your game (which actually gives your game much personality) rips it from your sources and uses it in a similar game with professional art by himself and this copy-paste-sourcecode from your game. Wouldn't this upset you?

For test purposes borrowing art is ok as long as you don't make it public.

When I see somebody using somebody else's IP I report them to the IP creator (when it doesn't seem to be fair use and the ip creator is not a big company).

@Paul Has Magicka a CCG game in it 0_o? But anyway I agree that art quality usually does not depend on educational degrees.

Isn't indie all about wabi-sabi like imperfection, trying new things and making money with authenticity rather than polished quality?

I second this, but you need an idea for the prototype first. At least for business simulation games paper prototyping may work too.

Are we talking about business simulation or time management games? I think these are quite different genres.

I am only a game designer in theory and didn't finish any game beside some rough prototypes, so be aware of this when reading my thoughts...

I would try to think like your target group. Analyze their playstyle, interview them about their favorite games in the genre, read customer reviews for management games at amazon and adapt to your target group like a good actor. Think as a management game lover. Then you may be able to figure out where they get the fun from and what the perfect management game is made of. After this you can modify the vision and innovate. Then interview genre lovers about your innovations and adjust them. Repeat this until you feel good with the game...

edit: Well, after thinking about your post, I guess you are already doing what I recommend by asking in this forum etc. I believe that game developer forums aren't that good for understanding other's fun in games, because many of us have visions of ideal games we want to make, while disconnecting from the average player. The need for innovation and creativity often even affects our way of seeing fun in games. While making "indie" games looking into indie game forums makes sense, but you should explore other communication hubs for other target groups. We as developers often can only share our observations.

My girlfriend loves time managment games (e.g. Cake Mania). I think she gets fun from recognizing patterns of action and timing in combination with the pleasure of upgrading and medium to fast paced action that requires some level of concentration (in a way that you can still listen to an audiobook but enough to distract you from the real world).