QuakeCon 2010: iPhone Rage Demo Video from GameVideos
more on gamevideos.1up.com
Carmack shows off his latest engine, running on iPhone. Yes, Rage on the iPhone.
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Aug 7 / 7:39pm
StarCraft 2: help us mourn the death of content freedom
StarCraft 2 comes with a powerful set of tools for making your own maps and game modifications, but there is no local storage; you have to upload your content to Battle.net and let users grab that content from Blizzard's servers. If your content is considered inappropriate or obscene, Blizzard can take it down. The story is making its way around the gaming press, but this shouldn't be a shock... gaming content has long fallen under the control of the company that created the tools.
more on arstechnica.com
This outrage reminds me recent discussions about Apple's tight grip over its App Store. Apparently others realize as well that owning popular distribution platform can be very very profitable.
Jul 31 / 12:31am
Preserving games comes with legal, technical problems
When it comes to preservation, video games are problematic. Hardware becomes outdated and the media that houses game code becomes obsolete, not to mention the legal issues with emulation. In short, one day, there may not be a way to play Super Metroid at all, and that's a scary thought.
more on arstechnica.com
Some people may still laugh at it, but video games have become part of the cultural heritage. But how to preserve work that is so volatile and bound to quickly aging technology? Somebody wrote a 27-page paper on it.
Jul 27 / 10:45pm
Old School Color Cycling with HTML5
This was a technology often used in 8-bit video games of the era, to achieve interesting visual effects by cycling (shifting) the color palette. Back then video cards could only render 256 colors at a time, so a palette of selected colors was used. But the programmer could change this palette at will, and all the onscreen colors would instantly change to match. It was fast, and took virtually no memory. Thus began the era of color cycling.
more on effectgames.com
1990's techniques make their way back with HTML5 and mobile devices.
Jul 25 / 12:45am
Analysis: Is The Game Industry A Happy Place?
Two decades making games. I've seen a computer fly through a window, I've seen an ex employee trying to sledgehammer through from one companies adjoining wall to ours so he can get to his office and get his "stuff" back, I've seen one of my friends, a long time game vet kill himself on his birthday because nobody would listen to his brilliance
more on gamasutra.com
Disturbing comment to a good article on computer game industry. Great material for a book indeed.
Jul 6 / 1:03am
Interview with Mark Morgan - a legend behind Fallout music
As for other composers, I would love to collaborate with Clint Mansell, Paul Haslinger or James Newton Howard. As far as performers, it would be long time dream of mine to play with Peter Gabriel’s band and with David Sylvian. I would also love to write or perform with Lisa Gerrard. I really think she is incredible.
more on game-ost.com
Rather dull interview with composer of one of the greatest game soundtracks ever.
Jun 27 / 9:58pm
Shadow of the 16-bit Beast: an Amiga gaming retrospective
It was about the type of people that were attracted to it—their "can-do" attitude. When I started consulting on PC projects after the Amiga, I was surprised that developers were not eager to try something unless some other developer had already done it. With the Amiga developers, it was almost pointless to try for an effect unless NOBODY had done it before.
more on arstechnica.com
The romantic retrospective of Amiga game industry.
Jun 13 / 11:57pm
Fallout Developers Profile - Jesse Heinig
In your opinion, what are the key ingredients that every RPG should have?
An RPG is a role-playing game, so you are playing a role - that is, you are making choices about the protagonist. In some RPGs the only choice you make is which stat to increase when you level up. A good RPG, I feel, gives you more meaty choices. To do that, you must do three things:
- Establish a setting with versimilitude. It doesn't have to be a simulation of reality, but it needs to have enough internal consistency that the player buys into it. Then the player can feel "grounded."
- Create groups or individuals about whom the player has a sense of investment. In Fo3, you are trying to find your father, and since the entire tutorial section has interactions with your dad, this establishes a tie and a sense of character investment . . .
- Give the player choices that impact that setting and that investment. The "slideshow" at the end of Fo1 (and now at the end of many an RPG) gives you a sense of closure . . .
more on nma-fallout.com
Interview with one of the people who made the first Fallout such a great game.
Jun 13 / 1:29pm
Fallout’s Forgotten Revolution
Against the choices you had as a player a decade ago, RPGs today are miles away from offering the same freedom and lack of narrative restriction as the aforementioned Fallout. Of course, not every game was like this. Fallout was one of two games offering this much freedom. The other was Fallout 2.
more on hellmode.com
Ah, memories.
Jun 4 / 11:51pm
Video Games: Time not Included
Many other games I’ve only played for a few minutes or haven’t loaded at all. All of the best intentions to play them have fallen to other daily tasks.
So what gets in the way? I’m sure the list is different for everyone who has grown past their teens. I don’t have any kids to take my time, and my wonderful girlfriend doesn’t mind me playing as long as I don’t completely neglect her. Yet, life isn’t as open and sparse as it once was.
more on whatisnoise.com
Today's games are awesome. But who has time to play them?
