5. Hot Doggin'

Engines, Middleware, and game makers/kits are great.  I would love to use them.  The problem for me is portability.  If I can't share code from the PC and go to the Mac, the Playstation 3, the Nintendo DS, or some new unreleased system/platform, then I'm missing opportunities.

That's why I use C++.

I'm somewhere between the extremes.  I think the best way to describe my mindset is, "I want no limitations, so I can set limitations".

Budget is a common limitation that's tough to get by, but I'm of the opinion work flow is worse.  I'm an oddball, in that I will invest as much as is needed in to the work flow.  Mind you, I do my homework first, so not to waste my money.

My book library is extensive covering all game related disciplines, my game and DVD libraries as well, and more recently my sample/virtual instrument library has grown significantly.

I suppose I've worked with limited tools long enough, that if there's a better way, I try to find it.

New DROD.  DROD: The City Beneath.  Quality.

's not bad either :D

Yeah.  That ones almost tragic.

I think anybody around here should be able to appreciate this.

Rampart

A beautiful example of game trailer overkill.

Side effects may include drowsiness, loss of breath, irregular heart rate, loss of temper, runny nose, headache, uncontrollable flatulence, or the aftertaste of banana.  Do not take Jack Thompson if you are pregnant, or have a history of heart problems.  Ask your doctor about Jack Thompson.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/hardball/clip-jack-thompson-gets-hardballed-253501.php

Thompson on Hardball.  The last moment is bizarre.  Apparently claiming some kid trained for a shooting on Super Columbine Massacre.

Isn't Super Columbine Massacre an RPG?

It's just an FPS, but it's trying to be the FPS, with all this cinematic greatness and a bunch of different environments.

Yeah, I love the mindset.  Thinking that, because I want to:

A. I'm going to make the next big FPS, though I've never worked on a game.
B. I'm a cinematic genius, though I have no camera or film experience.
C. Content is free and infinite.

:D

Yeah, sadly Fost is right.

Cloud wouldn't have had the exposure without being free.  Same with fl0w, and while I can't vouch for the PS3 game, the complete lack of public success stories doesn't say anything positive.  Rag Doll Kung Fu had exposure, via Steam, so it did better than most.  Though it's my understanding Media Molecule's Big Little Planet is being partially funded by Sony (See Indie GDC and Media Molecule presentation).  And it's been said in a few interviews that the Alien Hominid guys still haven't broken even (I forget where this interview was).  And Gish, the other one people like to talk about, didn't do all that well (See Cronic Logic interview on Indie Podcast Show).

I hate to point out that we are still fighting the uphill battle, but we are.  Indie games are becoming more accepted, and will continue to for years to come.  Sadly, we're still establishing the ground rules, and the market.  A sad truth of things is the more business savvy are the only ones that can and are taking advantage of the situation right now.  On the one side, it's the consoles.  On the other, there's portals including Steam.  Retail is fair game too, but you're not targeting the same people as EA, the same way.  At least that's the case for those of us without a booming website or community.

Paul, you are the king of kings.

Cool, but a practical composing tool?  Probably not.


Here's a cool one.  Physics based desktop.

I wish I had just a quater of the knowledge required to pull off some of this stuff:

Outside the per pixel lighting (I'm not even sure there were any shadows), you have HDR color space effects (overblowing colors, with the idea overblown colors glow), fullscreen blur or depth of field blur (probably just be a fullscreen blur that doesn't toy in the Z buffer), Subtle focal length tweaking in the camera for the dirty pans, and a slew of procedurally generated things (clouds, all or most of the geometry).

Not to mention the metrics of the fact that they don't need interactivity.  So like film editing, they can cheat and only show what's cool.

Don't get me wrong, it's a brilliant display in the tradition of the scene.  Just depending on your 3D knowledge, you're just shaders, full screen effects (with shaders), fancy use of 3D camera, and some effective experiments with procedural content away.

* WHaT? TigSource had a joke, wasn't it about a new dicknose game or something?

Hush.  Dicknose is in private beta.  There'll be no leaks on my watch.

I didn't get to the matching stuff, but I saw it in the videos.  To contrast my seemingly negative post, I don't think your decisions of the platform clicking were bad.  I actually wanted to point out the game because you took this angle.  It's something I hadn't considered, and think it's an excellent point of reference and analysis for those interested in doing more with platformers.

The concept of a freeform clicking platformer is one I've toyed with myself, specifically the idea of simplifying a complex control scheme.  In your case, walking along platforms, jumping to targets, and clicking on enemies to jump on them, all reduced to pointing and clicking.  Nice.  In a traditional platformer, this is something done with complex D-PAD controls and a jump button.  But if clicking on enemies to attack them resulted in some sort of gunfire, and suddenly we're on our way to Casual Contra.  A D-PAD plus 2 buttons of complexity, down to the exact same simple scheme of mouse and 1 button.

I could very well be wrong with the idea that a free click anywhere scheme is easier.  If I remember correctly Wik does this.  One mouse button jumps you to the spot, and the other uses your tounge.  With both of those combined to a single button, without the platform click restriction, there's a very good chance you'll be jumping right beside the enemy (probably being hit) instead of shooting them.

I'll 2nd that motion.  Obviously in game design you'll want to work on more than 1 concept, but more than 1 game at the same time requires some real management discipline.  But even then, the more projects you're involved in, the less attention to detail each of them gets.  So for projects outside your main project, take notes instead of working on them.  Exhaust all the thoughts running through your head, and get back to your main project.  Or if there are practical reasons to change projects (new concept is smaller, significantly less content, can be built of engine tech at this stage, ...), then evaluate doing that.

Yeah, I'm just picking on it's legacy (crazy slow startup).  It's probably not too bad by today's standards, with a modern PC that is. 

[clicking platformers]

I don't know if this one deserves the prime time, but an interesting concept for design people.  I'm calling them clicking platformers.  Everybody's played Wik, so I wont talk about Wik.  But I found this by accident on the IndieGamer forums.

Snakey Jake (

)

It's your usual casual game fare as far as graphics and polish are concerned.  What I was expecting was a "click on a spot" sort of game and he'll move to that spot, but it's actually click on the platform and he'll move to the nearest place on the platform.  Either by slithering or jumping, where appropriate.  It's a good example of an intelligently simplified control scheme, as I expect several designers will be toying with more in the years to come.

Personally, I don't like this variation of control.  True, it's harder to make mistakes since you can't click anywhere, but it annoys me as a player.  Mostly because I'm a core gamer, and I'd imagine you could do some really interesting things with this gameplay style without the platform restriction.  It also imposes a restriction of "you can only click on platforms that you can safely jump to from this platform".  Good for casual gamers, but not so much for me when I'm in the mood for a suicide jump.  I'm also totally missing the opportunity for a conversation with myself about how I could or should have sooooo made that jump.  Boo.

If I was still doing the roundup, I'd be bouncing back and forth between 6 and 8.  Higher because of design merit, 'cause I think it's a notable game as far as game design for casual gamers, and the only other game I can think of to compare it to is Wik.  Lower because I personally didn't like the decision to go with platform clicking, as a personal gamer preference.  I'd muddle over that for a day if I wasn't behind schedule, or an hour if I was the one holding us back.

So... uh, school is cool?

Stay in School.  Winners don't use drugs.



See?  The image says so.