[one month of pay]

Aw damn... Of course the Chinese would beat me to it! 3 years ago I had the idea for a pocket-sized mini-computer that was specifically for console emulation. It's primary function would be to run exe's and emulators, which could be flashed to the drive along with any necessary roms or resource files. Then you could output the video to a TV and connect USB controller to it to play your favorite emulated classics or freeware indie games in console format.

Then the Wii was released shortly after wards, with WiiWare that did just that. Looks like this device is even closer to my idea. Like many of my unexpressed ideas, I've never spoken of it until now... But it's pointless to hide it since I'll probably never be able to create such a device myself 

Dude, the GP2X beat them to it, and did it better. (I'm surprised I'm the first to mention this.) But this does it cheaper, which as we all know can be the thing that will pull them out a win.

You know it's funny because when I saw yours was the last post I was thinking "maybe I should mention the GP2X to them since I doubt this guy will and nobody else has" but then you ninja'd me. 

On-topic, I think the device is probably a necessity. I mean, that article Paul linked to said the man being interviewed made like 23 dollars a week. If you consider that games like Fallout 3 cost $60.00, it would take you 3 weeks of pay just to buy one game! And that's not even paying tax. With taxes that's basically the equivalent of 4 weeks, or one month of pay, just for a game.

That's why the piracy market is so big. It's the only way games can sell. When it comes to portable systems, the cheapest possible route is how you're going to go, because anything else is just ridiculously expensive.

BTW, great article as well. The things the man being interviewed says are a sharp reminder of how well-off we actually are.

No, that's assuming the point of the game is to knife people. But there are plenty of other things a game's primary action could revolve around other than knifing. For instance, you could be a detective trying to solve a crime by collecting clues, and see someone knifing someone in the distance, rather than a madman going around knifing people.

This brings to mind a scene from the Adventure Game adaptation of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. One of the guests gets killed by being chopped in half with an axe. When you find the body, the torso is behind one end of the long wood pile and the legs behind the other end. It's somewhat shocking and unnerving, but you never actually see it happen nor do you see the blood or the "wound" itself.

I don't think being against killing animals in games necessarily means you're not against killing people in games. They're an organization specifically about animals, it wouldn't make sense for them to complain about killing people, there are other organizations for that.

Actually, they should, based on science. Humans are part of the animal kingdom, and therefor if they are opposed to animals being killed in games, they should be opposed to people being killed in games, seeing as how there is little difference between us.

I mean humans are actually relatively weak animals. The only thing that makes us "strong" is that we have technology. If you get in a bare-fisted fight with an elk YOU ARE GOING DOWN.

So yeah. Give the dogs technology and PETA can't complain anymore.

Meh, I can't be bothered to draw anything right now, but how about this little piece I did a month ago?

You're a real game maker only if you code everything from scratch in assembly. Any use of high-level programming or ressource someone else made are shortcuts wanabees use.

Elitism for the win! 




EDIT: Oh, that IS sarcasm, BTW.

Oh, got another one.

#17. Dying in PREY after getting the ability to spirit walk. This is what really made me hate dying in video games, because this made dying feel organic and part of the game, not a jolting stop to the experience.

[I care not if I died due to my own "fault" or because the game threw something "unexpected" at me. I just get annoyed by dying at all in games.]

I dunno, ever since I played the demo of PREY death of any type in games annoys me, except in games like Nethack in which case I'm more surprised when I survive. I guess I just dislike how I can't beat most games without Quick-load and Quick-save. Even though it is my own ability, it also isn't. Let's take Assassin's Creed for example. If I fail a sword fight and get killed, did I die due to my own ability? Yes, but only for pressing buttons, not for sword fighting. So why should the character in my game be penalized? It doesn't make sense to me because we've already thrown realism out the window when I picked up the controller.

Sorry, that may have gotten a bit off-topic. Basically I hate death of any sort in games since they're all so meta anyways.

Eh... what?

PREY had a feature where after you died you played a short minigame to regain health and then were plopped back in the game where you died. It made sense based on the context. After getting used to that concept though, I found that in many other games, when death occurs, it feels unnecessary. I feel that it breaks flow and realism. If you die in a game, you can load your game again. Death isn't anything more than a setback. By why even make it a setback? Why not push forward the game some other way?

Okay, and let's say you simply must allow death/game over in your game. I can see a few instances where it's necessary. One game that pulled this off very well was Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. When you died, the game would automatically reload to just before whatever challenge you died in. Yes, this is basically checkpoints, but the thing is that the checkpoints were stepped much more frequently to prevent more setbacks than necessary. But then again, this game was set up to play with basically no HUD, and realism and immersion were very important.

But how about Assassin's Creed? The entire game takes place inside memories, so why not simply do a temporal rewind instead of resetting to before the objective was complete. It does this to some extent but takes an annoying amount of time to load and places you somewhere which sometimes isn't even near where you were before.

Now the one that annoys me the most is Half-Life 2. I play that game while pressing quicksave every 30 seconds, and quickload about every five minutes. The problem here is that it stops, reloads, then places you back in the game. Again, flow is removed. I don't really know a solution in this case except maybe g-man saving your ass. I mean hell, he could if he wanted to.

To reiterate: I care not if I died due to my own "fault" or because the game threw something "unexpected" at me. I just get annoyed by dying at all in games.

(Exceptions being arcade-y/retro games and metagame exercises like RPGs, because all realism is out the window and I suck so hard at those games that I'm surprised by victory.)

I dunno, ever since I played the demo of PREY death of any type in games annoys me, except in games like Nethack in which case I'm more surprised when I survive. I guess I just dislike how I can't beat most games without Quick-load and Quick-save. Even though it is my own ability, it also isn't. Let's take Assassin's Creed for example. If I fail a sword fight and get killed, did I die due to my own ability? Yes, but only for pressing buttons, not for sword fighting. So why should the character in my game be penalized? It doesn't make sense to me because we've already thrown realism out the window when I picked up the controller.

Sorry, that may have gotten a bit off-topic. Basically I hate death of any sort in games since they're all so meta anyways.

GameSpot gave Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder a 3.5/10, while IGN gave it a 5.1/10, and even Adventure Gamers gave it a 2.5/5, and on metacritic it got a 5.2. ...apparently I'm a minority in thinking that this was one of the most amazing recent adventure games.

Actually, for games that I've loved with crap scores, pick pretty much any adventure game. That's not to say they aren't deserving though. There's a lot of bullshit in adventure games that I'm willing to put up with.

This receives my official "All Kinds of Awesome" Seal

[back on topic]

i think the RPG/shmup has been done. Someone here will probably know it, and if they don't I'll ask my friend Leon tomorrow, he's the one who told me about it.

Tyrian (or Tyrian 2000) was effictively this, with using the points you got from battles to upgrade the armour and weapons of your ship, but different weapons behaved differently, such as the constant stream of the laser versus the overwhelming fireball that moved through enemy armor of the... well I don't remember the name. There was even a pretty neat story in there too, and it's a very subtle mix of the genres, which was possibly not even intended.

It's officially free to download now too, so huzzah.

Anyways, back on topic, I've had this idea kicking around for a hack'n'slash RPG rhythm game, aptly named Anime Music Fighters. It basically involves swords that vibrate in response to streams of sound, so they are used to fight with to cause more damage (in a Tesla-esque fashion of resonance) by a "bardic" guy playing music nearby. Basically musical tracks given by the player would be analyzed, and then your main stats (Attack, Defense/Armor-Class, Damage, Damage Taken) would vary depending on the timing of the song. The storyline would be very pseudo-scientific, and would probably take place in some sort of steam-punk world.

[at all]

The Experience

5 Culture, 12 Feeling, 9 Story, 4 World, 4 Rules and 5 Tutor!

You have a clear vision of what your game should be like, it is made of Marvellous environments and moving characters. you seek to provoke emotions within the player, and seek innovative ways to convey them.

Your idea of the game is hard to put into words, so you probably need to check on your collegue's work regularly : it is posible to work endlessly without ever reaching your expectations. You pay attention to details, how they can affect the player, and seek an intense game Feeling.

I copycatted (holy shit that's apparently a word) with the color-scheme thing.

Yeah, that's pretty right, except it's also pretty wrong. A lot of the questions didn't have a "all of the above" option, and were basically story vs gameplay, though my theory is that the best game has no division between the two at all. That being said, I have low expectations, so I couldn't work endlessly because I'd doubt my ability to improve on my failures, eventually.

I have a ton of them really. WARNING LOTS OF SPOILERS FOLLOW.

1. The death of Lavitz from Legend of the Dragoon
2. The final boss fight from Legend of the Dragoon

EDIT: ...okay, I thought I pressed "preview" Gah!

3. The soldier in the intro to Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions, who does this awesome slide-dash while firing a machine-gun at a giant alien.
4. The cutscene at the end of Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions, when you shoot the main villain.
5. The climb into the well and subsequent escape during the first day of Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder.
6. A ton of moments from the John DeFoe Quadrology, specifically the endings of Trilby's Notes and 6 Days a Sacrifice.
7. When you fight the T-Rex in Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. (God I hate that title...)
8. Myst. Just, all of Myst. It was like the first adventure game I played and had a huge impact.
9. The beginning of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars, when the bomb goes off in the café.
10. When Arthur turns into a virus to save your life in The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time
11. Fighting Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts II. That battle is really intense and is just awesome to even watch.
12. Entering Ravenholm in Half-Life 2, as well as Father Grigori's introduction and death, which are just plan epic.
13. 7 Minutes. That whole game was interesting and inspiring.
14. Cactus's Mondo series has always been really neat and I love the ending to Mondo Medicals.
15. Killing any of the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus.
16. Escaping the exploding ship in Advent Rising, as well as the epilogue fight and cutscene.

There's probably more but those come to mind immediately.

Oh I missed the second part, which is what we can learn from each of these. Numbers line up and so forth. Oh yes, and more spoilers follow.

1. Lavitz was established as being an important main character. He was characterized well and his death came as a surprise because it was so unexpected. (Hey I never played FF7 so I didn't know about the Aerith thing until about the release of Advent Children. >_>)
2. This was simply epic because he had 4 freaking stages, took like 40 minutes to beat, and you fought him AS HE DESTROYED AND RECREATED THE WORLD.
3. Again, moment of epicness. It may also have something to do with the soldier then screaming at the top of his lungs in a totally authentic voice "Die you sons of bitcheeessss!!!!" as he shoots at a monster like 10 times his size. I mean that's just unnecessarily badass, and this guy isn't even an important character! Lesson: Make random soldiers badass, so then EVERYONE is cool.
4. The build-up to this was great and it was an excellent climax. The epilogue ruined it though. Lesson: Epilogues can screw up something awesome.
5. Again, build-up was great. It was described as if the well was a source of something dark and evil, and when you finally got down there the tunnel in the side was caved in. But then as you're ready to turn away SOMETHING STARTS DIGGING THROUGH. So you run the hell out of there as the screen is shifting up and down and a blur affect comes in while your character starts breathing heavily. Lesson: Tension, after being brilliantly built up, CAN be brilliantly used to make things scary/creepy. (Though I'm a pansy so that may explain a lot.  )
6. Can't really explain much here. It was just epic and unsettling on some level.
7. The T-Rex is simply unbeatable. The entire fight just sets mood and you're just trying to stave this beast off and distract him as the other two guys open the gate for you all to run through. Lesson: Sometimes an unbeatable boss can be used to increase tension and anxiety.
8. Lesson: Games at an early age can be wonderful and inspiring to later life.
9. The setting was peaceful and quiet, and everything looked so cheery and happy. And then the bomb goes off and you're just thinking "SHIT". Somewhat unnerving. Lesson: Atmosphere is key, and you can make sudden chaos more interesting by establishing order ahead of time.
10. The emotional attachment to Arthur built up through the game due to his wit and commentary. When he leaves, you feel like you're losing the one friend who was with you through the whole thing. And he's essentially sacrificing himself to save you. Lesson: Characterization is key, and sacrificial events can actually have an emotional impact if the proper connection with the player has been established.
11. Yeah I got nothing else to say here.
12. Atmosphere. Lesson: Atmosphere is very helpful.
13. The point of the game was to escape death, and you couldn't. The point of the secret ending is that you shouldn't waste your last minutes of life trying to escape death. Lesson: Deeper meanings can make things more interesting.
14. I'm not gonna explain this one, but it was mainly atmosphere and a "WTF?" moment.
15. These monsters are HUGE, and you have to kill them with your tiny sword, all to save someone's life. It's epic, it's emotional, it's dangerous, it's scary, and it's powerful. What we will do to save someone we love. Lesson: Again, deeper meanings.
16. Just plain epic. Lesson: Epicness is cool.

I have a ton of them really. WARNING LOTS OF SPOILERS FOLLOW.

1. The death of Lavitz from Legend of the Dragoon
2. The final boss fight from Legend of the Dragoon

EDIT: ...okay, I thought I pressed "preview" Gah!

3. The soldier in the intro to Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions, who does this awesome slide-dash while firing a machine-gun at a giant alien.
4. The cutscene at the end of Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions, when you shoot the main villain.
5. The climb into the well and subsequent escape during the first day of Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder.
6. A ton of moments from the John DeFoe Quadrology, specifically the endings of Trilby's Notes and 6 Days a Sacrifice.
7. When you fight the T-Rex in Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. (God I hate that title...)
8. Myst. Just, all of Myst. It was like the first adventure game I played and had a huge impact.
9. The beginning of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars, when the bomb goes off in the café.
10. When Arthur turns into a virus to save your life in The Journeyman Project 2: Buried in Time
11. Fighting Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts II. That battle is really intense and is just awesome to even watch.
12. Entering Ravenholm in Half-Life 2, as well as Father Grigori's introduction and death, which are just plan epic.
13. 7 Minutes. That whole game was interesting and inspiring.
14. Cactus's Mondo series has always been really neat and I love the ending to Mondo Medicals.
15. Killing any of the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus.
16. Escaping the exploding ship in Advent Rising, as well as the epilogue fight and cutscene.

There's probably more but those come to mind immediately.

Games should be taken more seriously, and even if it means some people take it to the extreme, that's not a problem with me. I'm surprised you guys aren't congratulating him instead of bitching about the article itself.

I think the problem more is that nobody except people in the modern art scene takes modern art seriously, so the effect of this is basically null, if not harmful. People could now have two negative perceptions to make about the game:

1. It's a game so isn't worth the time.
2. It's modern art so it's laughable bullshit.

Really, games don't need MORE negative stereotypes right now.

Now as for my own opinion, I don't really like it, and I think it's bullshit. The people calling it art have way too narrow a definition of art to have any credence in their claims of things being or not being art. Now if they picked up the adventure game Outcry and called it art I'd have to agree with them because it feels very much like a mix of art form, including modern art. I've never played Flywrench so I can't say if it's art or not but I really don't like the idea of "modern artists" claiming things about it when they honestly don't know what the hell they're talking about.

[/pretentious rant]

I want to say "congratulations" but everyone else already did.

Heh. Wii boxing is a bigger workout than going to the gym. My arms end up being sore for days after I play a couple of matches on that.

Indeed. I think it has something to do with you not actually hitting anything, so you stretch your muscles more.

Speaking of which, I'm really out of shape...

...you know the irony was that I came on here with this in my mind:

"Man, I'm getting bored. I'm gonna go check the TIGForums before I go play some Wii Boxing."

How has Wall-E not been mentioned?

I was considering it but I didn't think the thread title was "What's your favorite pixar movie?" 

Ah, I loved this series. When I was younger we used to borrow them from the library. It's thanks to that and Myst that I got hooked up with computers. Huzzah indeed.

Oh yes, and it also lead me to the demoscene, which is made of just as much awesome (if you can stand techno music).