Short bump- We just got a new website, and announced a variety of speakers!
Let us know what you think.
http://futureisgames.com/

Hey everyone! I am part of the organizational committee for the Future Is Games conference, and would love to see you there. The conference will be held on October 9th-11th in Phoenix, AZ. The topic of the conference is the future of games, game development, and the game industry. We are planning on hosting an indie track, with speakers including Rob Jagnow,  Asher Vollmer, Kyle Pulver, and more.

If you are interested in attending, please consider signing up for our mailing list on the website.
We are still looking for speakers & sponsors, so if you are interested, check out our website.

Website- futureisgames.com
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/FutureIsGames
Twitter- @FutureIsGames

Thanks!

I posted something from this project in this thread yesterday, and this is my progress in the past 48 hours (from scratch). Its not so much a game at this point, as it is a complex data set. Gameplay to come in the near future.

Randomly generated games, with themes and genres. Sorry if the gif is a little jerky.

Hey everyone! I'm working on a project in which we need a better definition of video game terminology, and I created a survey to help us get feedback. All of these questions are subjective, and require no previous knowledge of development to answer. I would really appreciate it if you could take this for me. Thanks!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QP3MKJF

Retora Game Studios is currently looking for a Unity C# programmer. We are a team of one full time designer and one artist. The programmer will be responsible for all game programmer, including but not limited to development of the game engine, UI programming, network programming (client-side), and support of the project beyond release. The position will start as a per-contract position, but can lead to a full-time role in the near future. If interested, please send your resume to [email protected]

Hey guys, I'm posting on behalf of the Palio Project, a game dealing with the Palio di Sienna. We are currently running a Kickstarter campaign, and would love to have your support.

Check it out! http://kck.st/H820O8


The Palio Di Sienna is a centuries old bareback horse race that takes place several times a year in the city of Sienna, Italy. The original race was conceived as a way for the dominant families of the city to gain political control for one year, without the need for fighting and bloodshed. Over the centuries the Families came to represent districts, and are known as Contrade.
Originally there were 59 contrade but it has been reduced to 17 contrade at this point in time. To reduce injuries and death, only 10 of them compete each year.The other 7 compete the next year and 3 of the last participants are chosen by lots to bring the number up to 10.
The rules of the Palio are very simple. The Jockey does not win. It is the horse that determines if a contrada wins. A horse without a rider that finishes first is still the winner. Originally this rule was created in an attempt to stop Jockey assassination. Tradition does not let another jockey take the chosen ones place after they have been blessed, so an assassination would have eliminated that family from the race. This rule still applies today because this is a bareback race and several sharp hairpin turns are known to cause not only injury to the jockey, but also the horses as well.
Another rule prevents the use of any other tools besides the bridle and their riding crop. However there is no rule about physical contact during the race. Many times Jockeys will whip their opponents horses to get them to speed up in sharp turns in an attempt to dehorse that jockey.



Our goal is to create a fun an accurate representation of this historic race set in the Renaissance era. This multiplayer racing game will allow players to experience the Palio di sienna without the need to travel to Italy to witness this exciting event.
Remember this race is oriented around physical contact between riders and their horses. Not only will you be racing your horse, but your job will be to remove other players and AI riders from their horses as well.
Our game engine is the Unity 3d engine, and retail price point is expected to be competitive with other indie games of this scope upon publishing.
Why we need your help

First off, this team is led and composed of junior and senior college student who are paying for the majority of the games costs out of pocket.
We want to take several of our team members to Italy to witness this incredible event.
While there we will record audio of the real crowd, and Professionally film the race.
Take high resolution pictures of the actual textures and building materials that make up the Piazza del campo to create the most accurate representation possible.
Interview the contrade and get valuable cultural information and views from the different contrade/districts.

We will also require your help in the fees and licenses actually associated with publishing the game. So far all the money going into this is coming from our pockets and as students we would love your help.

And if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Thanks for the feedback! We will have a trailer and demo very soon. Keep an eye on the IndieDB for more information.

[A quick summary of the game:]

Hey everyone! My team and I recently announced our upcoming title, Merchant. You can find the majority of the information on our IndieDB here- http://www.indiedb.com/games/merchant

A quick summary of the game: Merchant is a tycoon style game based in a fantasy RPG. Instead of the player controlling the hero of the story, they control the merchant from which the hero buys and sells their goods. The player will be responsible for helping the heroes by selling them items they need and upgrading their equipment, while buying all of the items they do not want. The heroes are persistent characters in game, so they will return to the player if they received a fair deal previously.

We have plenty of screenshots and concept work on the IndieDB, and will be announcing our demo very soon. I would love to hear any feedback regarding the game's style, art, or mechanics from the TIGSource community. Thanks!

I disagree; if you can tell a computer how to make good levels, you can make good levels by hand.

I concede that if someone has a better understanding of developing levels by hand, then they will do a far better job at procedurally generating levels. However, there are skills required for both of these tasks that are not dependent of each other. For instance, an amazing programmer may not understand the softer skills of level design, or a great level designer may not be a programmer. The point is that there are skills of implementation for either of these. (Personally, I find that I am terrible at level design)

You can use PG-style tools to assist manual content generation too, you know.

Of course! The point I was bringing up with the CrazyBump paragraph in my article was trying to point that out. Other examples would include CityEngine, SpeedTree, and Natural Motion.

PG used in context of design is good.
PG used in PLACE of design is bad.

I agree, to an extent. The question that I am posing within the article is when to procedural generate, and what parts of a game? So, in Minecraft's case, they generate the maps. Borderlands, the weapons. And the list goes on. I would like to some some structure and decision process as to what is going to be generated, and why.

As for the Touhou/bullet hell games...
The system I had mapped out was rather simple- I would generate the player path, then generate the enemy spawns and firing styles based on that. In other words, there would always be at least one right path in the level, and it would be up to the player to find it. I am not versed in bullet-hells(as stated in the article), but it seems to me like that formula would allow for one to at least be playable, maybe not fun? I don't know.

Randomly generated levels (if that's what you mean by "procedural generation" here, it seems to be what you're talking about in your blog post)

While the article was focusing on levels for the sake of convenience, I was attempting to look at PG in a broader sense. The idea behind the post is to have basic guidelines as to when/why you would PG content in a game.

Also, don't try to randomly generate a level if you know you'd not be able to make a good one by hand, you're not going to be able to write an algorithm which can generate a half-decent danmaku level if you can't make one yourself.

How else is one going to learn, but to fail early/often? I understand your point, but it should be stated this concept was only just a concept. I have no intentions on making bullet-hells commercially, it was just a exercise in design/code. As for the point made about hand crafted skill -vs- PG... I don't believe there is a direct correlation between being a level designer, and someone who can PG content. Its in my opinion that those are different skills with a different mindset. Both roles require an in-depth knowledge of the game mechanics and play style, but level design mastery is not needed to be an expert at PG'ing levels.

Hey guys/gals! I recently posted an article on AltDevBlog regarding
procedural generation, and would love to get some feedback from fellow
designers. The topic is "When should something be procedural?", and it
delves in to the various things to consider before committing to the
procedural generation of a system or content. Please let me know what
you think!

http://altdevblogaday.com/2011/12/02/procedural-generation-cost-analysis/

Perhaps it would make sense if you had a game which, even if it didn't get picked up by XBLA or PSN (or Steam for that matter), you could still sell for PC from your own site. Maybe if it showed good sales figures from that you could re-pitch it to them with the evidence that it could be a big seller.

I agree with this wholeheartedly, and think that it is a route rarely traveled. I know this discussion is primarily console -vs- mobile, but PC is a great option to get your initial buzz and find an audience. With the XBLA path, it would be very easy to develop in XNA, release the PC version first, and hope that you can receive enough buzz before sending in your Xbox360 version.

Also, there are a lot of good examples of games that have done just that (Meat Boy, Spelunky, Fl0w, etc). This may not be a good direction to go with a mobile but, but definitely has its benefits on console.

/My two cents.

And I hope all the artists know how to import their own assets

Rumors that I will spread about myself...

One of my favorite books is Atlas Shrugged.
Liked & beat both Two Worlds and Too Human.
Play "social" Facebook games regularly. I enjoy it.
Loved my Dreamcast, and Seaman was my favorite game on it.
Thinks the "Beiber 500% slower" videos sound awesome (

)
Regularly listens to Klaus Schulze, Liquid Mind, and other ambient music.

No GML?

An oversight on my behalf. I added it.

We've already got one active topic about Super AIDs we don't need another.

Agreed, I do not want this to revitalize any of the 300+ page shenanigans from before, I am just disappointed that I missed out on the hilarity.

You can still read his articles for free though.

Google Cached pages still works.
Maybe someone should be an internet archivist and save some of the juicier bits before its impossible to find them?

you can still read the forum. you just have to pay to post to it

Really? I can only see that post.

I am very saddened to know that I will not be able to view the other side of the debate that garnered 300+ pages here.

Trade Secret's art competition is going on now, check it out here- http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=18808.0
or here- http://www.indiedb.com/games/tradesecret/features/trade-secret-art-competion