I don't know why but today I had a flashback where I played this game on friend's birthday party and can't get it out of my head.
It was Nes game where player controlled somekind of snake or head of a one in isometric colorful world. It was kinda like platformer but not really since it was isometric. There were some enemies too but I can't remember other than one which looked like toilet's cover. Game allowed multiplayer too where one controlled blue snake and another red snake. I'm not sure what was game's goal except it wasn't regular snake or very warped case of the snake concept.

And "again" speaking of Game Maker, Sandy Duncan, the head of YoYo Games is pissed with the 3th party GM decompiler and threats developers with legal charges.
(http://gamemakerblog.com/2011/01/04/game-maker-ios-compiler-video/#comment-92428)

They should have posted in anonymous and then use the Streisand Effect, they couldn't get credit sure, but I think it was pretty much evident from the beginning that they were going to get sued anyway.  

Wow, this is it?  After hearing about the GM iOs compiler I expected TIGS to have a 20 page thread full of heated debate on the subject.  Instead I find two posts in the "it's not important" thread...?  Weird.

1-I think maybe devs are a bit saturated with IOS engines right now
2-Yoyogames is made of crooks, they want 50% of the dough (that's probably why they are doing legal threats like that, they think they have the perfect cash cow for easy money)

While I don't necessary like the second part, I think it is right now vital for them since I think they can't sustain themselves with regular GM sales. If they increased cost of GM it would lost it's low entry level. And if they release a runner add on with separate higher price, it would end up soon into pirates and their own profit would be too low. I think that is core of their dilemma rather than being purely crooks. This is why I also see this as little threat for existence of GM.

Even then I wouldn't be too sad if third party runner would be published which would force YYG to release their own runner  

Having emotional "impact" because of ending to video game.
It's been like week and I still feel so sad about it.

I love and hate you at same time, JRPGs...

I think that is both awesome and annoying at the same time. I had an experience like this after finishing Baten Kaitos. I think it is that after you have spent so much time with game and it's characters, you feel sometime empty. It is rather rare with games, but much much more common with books with me though.

Yeah, until sometime ago they seemed to be rather quiet, since some things like c++ runner and things took time to show anything to public, I guess.

Last time I checked, so were the people who were involved in the program as a whole.

Do you mean GM or Softwrap? Since company who has in about half year introduced GM games for PSP, idevices, Android, are working on GM 8.1 to be released in few months with some new features for room editor for example and bugfixes and are opening own Appstore doesn't sound too lazy

Managed to program a system for me to add Senfield calendar to my blog.

I can add new cross with spesific program. Would have been nicer to use php or flash, but I don't know them well enough, so I just used Game Maker with ftp dll  Still, works nice.

That's pretty cold, where do you live? o_O Anyway, I'm not expert but I can't really think why they would break, that is, if you keep them dry, warm them slowly when preparing for use and generally avoid fast big temperature changes. Other than those I can't really figure out what could break them since data is magnetically stored and I suppose you don't try to actually use them in that cold? I guess that most dangerous things would be to warm or freeze them too fast since that could break the mechanical components.

But like I said, I'm not an expert


-----------------------------

Someone competent with php or flash really should make free online Senfield calendar which could be put on website for others to see your working. Could kick some momentum in development. Actually I'm quite baffled I couldn't find one.
Someone please... 

So this is 2011?
...
I just reached a hand out to feel it. It feels just like 2010.

They are starting to get even more and more bold with these constant sequels with only minor updates

Haha, I didn't notice that Eres had posted in previous page and there could be a mix up 
Well, I think both of you can hold your indie status since Phuban's explanation was good enough

The Last Window: Secret of the Cape West (DS)
I'm not sure were this game released in U.S. yet, it was released in Europe in September 17.

[and]

I'm interested in game design, both theory and practical side of things. Reading few of the comments here, like Paul's and some other who seem to dislike theoretical articles/books about game design, I have to say I partially agree.

To me game design isn't science but more like art. And like art has lots of theory, so should game design IMO. Some of the best artists I have seen have said to both practice and read theory as a way to hone your skills to max. Lines just don't happen to go as they should, even if you blindly practice and practice over and over again. As a way to great artist requires (or at least helps greatly) the knowledge of various art theories and skills to be able to apply them creatively. I think same about game design.

Like in visual arts, if you strictly follow theories and guidelines, you may end up with boring, though "correct" piece of art. I don't think it is good idea to in creative fields to take theories as they are but I also think it isn't good idea to dismiss them as crap and useless. I myself used to be like that and it really restrained my skills until I learned what value theory can have. I think it is good to know about other people's thoughs about the subject in hand, and take their thoughs as grain of salt depending how sceptically you think about their text.

tl; dr; version: In creative fields I think it is bad to follow strict guidelines. Still, reading and thinking about theories can give you thoughs, tools and skills to hone your creations and think out of the box.

Paul, considering what you bought for yourself and these gifts, I'm starting to think you may be suspiciously wealthy to be a true indie
Unless of course you took a debt : P

[sucks]

Yes, you can't copy save files from games with online capabilities. It sucks, that's one of the reasons I didn't get a new Wii. I refuse to lose my Brawl and Mario Kart save files.

What is really the problem with online games and saves? Do they fear something along lines that there would be multiple similar looking players using same saves or what? Or why not simply save online things to different blocks or something?

Does anyone know reason why some Wii games' save can't be copied to SDs? I would like to take my Brawl saves etc. to my friends house to play with all characters and so on. Does it have something to do with online-play, since Brawl, Monster Hunter Tri and Mario Kart Wii all have locked saves and have online play? Pokemon games I understand but these...

I tend to first build a game in my mind until I think it works well enough there. After that I write things down and start refining issues I hadn't though in "brain mode". In this part I also tend to add more details into mechanics and write detailed descriptions about how game works. After that I start think it critically and polish it.  After sometime I tend to talka bout it to some of my friends and hear what they think about it and if they have any ideas or suggestions. Some more refining. Creating some to dos etc. and begin actual work.

The problem with this process for me seems to be that the preparations mode seems to drain some of the joy of the creation from me. Or more precisely, the stress I have to think everything before hand. Not a bad strait necessary, but I tend to often lose self-confidence to my idea, even after people have though it were good/fun.

Anyone else suffer from this?

Games:
Wii red bundle
Brawl
Monster Hunter Tri
Though, I didn't wait till actual christmas, but opened these about two weeks ago.

Indie Fantasy pack
Indie Smarts pack
Indie 2d pack
Nimbus

Music:
Anathema: Natural disaster, Judgement

Books:
Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind
Esko Valtaoja's Kotona maailmankaikkeudessa (award winning finnish book about universe and reality. Name could be translated roughly as "In home in the universe".

Other:
Koss Spark plugs
Some candies
Some clothes
Some money

What I was referring to was when you've been enthusiastically coding away for hours, when suddenly your mind and motivation just hit a brick wall and it becomes unbearable to accomplish even the simplest of algorithms. But yeah, yours is even worse  

Oh, okay. I don't recall that happening to me. Usually when I get coding flow, I have to stop it for some other reasons. It is starting which is hard to me. Though, now when I think my motivation problem, I think I have at least matured in vouple of years a bit. I don't anymore just dive into new game and code it hour or two and then abandon it for a new project. I have more perseverance now but I think it is draining more energy.

Also, my life is much more busy now when in college than in the old days and all work takes it's toll. I should exercise more

Thanks. I already find somekind image gallery thing for my site, but I may change it, or at least it is good to know what it is called.

Does anyone know what is that little web imageviewer named people use often on their sites? The one which you click pops up the image, loads for a moment and then expands showing the picture? Working probably with either Flash or Java.

EDIT: Like in Kotaku's comments, except with possibility for "Next" and "Previous" buttons:
http://kotaku.com/5703319/peta-roasts-super-meat-boy-with-tofu

sudden loss in programming motivation

This. Also extended into whole game design. Now weh nI look into my archives I find that in 2007 I seemed to get lot of things done. I wonder if game making is losing it's meaning for me, which is kinda scary/sad since I don't want that happen. Sounds weird yeah but still...