Dungeoner: December 2009 Archives

Indie Game Design Do-s and Don't-s: A Manifesto

By volsung on December 31, 2009 2:45 PM

Source: IndieGames.com

[Veteran indie game creator Edmund McMillen, known for his work on 2005 IGF Grand Prize winner Gish, Time Fcuk, and Super Meat Boy for WiiWare, shares his opinions and manifesto on making indie games, with 24 clear do-s and don't-s to make your art thrive.]

One of the most common questions I'm asked in interviews is, "Do you have any advice for independent game developers who are new to the scene, or tips for developers in general?" Well, I actually answered it this time: I came up with this list of indie do-s and don't-s.

Now, I'm going to make clear that I'm not perfect and I'm sure as the years go by this list will change. But from where I stand right now, having made independent art/games for a living for the past 10 years, the advice below is crucial to all indie game designers, and all artists for that matter.

Also note that when I refer to a "designer" or "artist," I include programmers. All aspects of art have a fine balance of the technical and creative; just because programming is viewed as a technical field does not mean it is void of creativity. The creative is visible in the work as a whole rather than in the specifics. Light and shadow are vital technical aspects of illustration, but without creativity the piece is nothing more then a photocopy of the subject, void of any personal touch or presence.

This is a list for the creative designer who strives to be independent. This isn't advice on how to monetize your Flash game or survive financially by copying existing trends and juicing the public for their cash. This is a list for artists who are driven by the desire for creative freedom and/or to "just make some cool shit people will love."

Anyway, here's the list. Take what works for you and leave what doesn't:

1. Be honest.
When I say "be honest" I mean to speak from your heart. Don't be manipulative or condescending in your work; treat the player how you'd wanted to be treated. Honesty is extremely valuable when making art.

2. Realize you're making art.
Game designers are artists and have advantages over non-creative jobs; think about what they are and exploit them. Your goal shouldn't be to make tons of money. If it were, you would have gone to business school or become a doctor. This is a creative field and should be treated as such first and foremost. Financing your art comes later. This is probably your greatest advantage as an indie designer.

3. Design from the heart.
Write / design around things you're passionate about. Put yourself into your work and show the world who you are. What do you love? What do you hate? Why? All notable film makers have a stamp, something that appears in their work and speaks to who they are. These themes will always come through to your audience, giving your work a sense of your self.

4. Take big risks.
Try to innovate the hell out of anything you make. From how your game plays to how it looks, be unique and you'll stand out. Push your personal limits, try new genres, mechanics and aesthetics. Experimentation and risk are the keys to growing as an artist. Don't be scared of failure; you don't have much to lose and you'll only learn from your mistakes.

5. Don't bite off more then you can chew.
If you're just starting out, think small, then think smaller. If you start on something big you won't finish it and if you do you'll be burnt out and probably won't make another. A filmmaker never starts his career with a blockbuster movie. One of the easiest mistakes to make starting out is letting ambition drive you down a path you're not ready to travel. Slow down, take your time and start simple. Prototyping is crucial for all designers.

6. Practice (make lots of small games).
Make lots of small ideas quickly; build on the ones that work. If you look at any successful or "fully realized" game in the indie scene you'll note that it began as a simple prototype. If you get an idea that feels right, simplify it. Strip it to its core element; this element will become the glue that holds your work together. The stronger the glue the more you can add. On the opposite end, if the glue isn't holding, move on. Don't waste your time trying to fix something that won't work. If it's not interesting or fun in its primitive form, it's not going to be when it's finished.

7. Make the games YOU want to make.
Go with what moves you. If you're no longer feeling something, put it down and work on what you want. I've found that all of my best games were ones I made quickly and felt passionate about. The ones that sucked were ones I lost interest in but forced myself to finish. If things have gone sour and you feel yourself losing interest in a project, try looking at it differently. A simple change of perspective or reinvention of an existing mechanic can make all the difference when you're losing motivation.

8. Stand out.
Don't make something that looks or feels exactly like an existing work. When people experience something new they're more forgiving of its design, and in the end your creation will get more attention. This should be obvious, but somehow goes over the heads of most designers. If you notice a trend in aesthetics or play mechanics: DON'T DO THAT. Avoid trends; innovate and break new ground. Stop making goddamn ninja and zombie games and if you're making a shooter don't put it in space. Seriously.

9. Think critically.
99% of game design is critical thinking. Try to find holes in your designs: if you can't fill them, move on to something else. Before you set out to work on your project you should have already given plenty of thought to how it might NOT work. Start asking how these core elements cpi;d be exploited and how might things come back to haunt you in the future. Thinking critically is the key to avoiding later conflict; always look before you leap. Take a step back from your project. Consider it the same way you would someone else's work. If you hadn't made it, what would you see as its strengths and weaknesses?

10. Play games.
You can't expect to learn anything if you aren't playing what's out. Even if they suck, games that sell well in the mainstream do it for a reason: pick them apart and find out why. If you don't play them, you won't know what NOT to do when you make your own.

11. Dissect existing formulas.
All game "genres" are formulas. Level design, teaching rules, jumping patterns: it's all according to a formula. Pick apart those formulas and see how they work. Play a shit load of games: find out what elements you like, decide why you like them, then redesign them. It's as vital to be able to deconstruct a game's formula as it is to be able construct one. In most cases you'll learn much more from deconstruction. You already have thousands of existing formulas at your disposal.

12. Grow up.
Chances are you're not a fucking kid anymore, so if you feel like making a more adult game, do so. When you're indie you don't have to answer to anyone, so stop designing games like you have to have to pass ESRB. I'm not saying everyone should make porn games, but why do all video games seem to have immature themes? People aren't stupid: stop treating them like they are. Speak through your work like you would to your friends, design for yourself and don't censor your ideas.

13. Go outside.
The world outside your room is important. It can also be very inspiring. Go take an adventure, then come home and write a game about it. That's what Miyamoto did. I believe that you can't be inspired without living. Life is what every artist pulls from; how could you pull from something that wasn't there? We all strive to be great, and most of us tend to obsess over our work, but it's important to have balance. Go do things that don't involve video games and computers. Don't become stagnant.

14. Stay balanced.
Many designers are prone to depression or other mental disorders. Take care of your brain and, most importantly, yourself.

15. Stay Grounded.
No matter how good you think you are there'll always be someone better. stay humble and accept that you're not perfect. A designer's ego can easily put up walls that will stunt his growth just because he doesn't want to admit he might be wrong. The moment you think you have nothing to learn is the moment you should quit. Be honest with yourself, admit your flaws and shortcomings and accept that you're probably wrong.

16. Be open to feedback.
If a bunch of people say your game is lacking in some area, but you insist it's perfect, chances are you're wrong. It's hard to take critical feedback, especially when it's right. Loosen up, stay humble, remember you're not as great as you think you are. If players agree that something's wrong, you should probably take a step back to reconsider what you're doing. But don't make the mistake of just doing what your audience expects. If they have an issue with something, figure out why. If people don't like how your game controls, this could mean one of hundreds of things, from how things move in the game to what buttons it uses. When responding to feedback, ask specific questions and try to find the root of the problem. Don't attempt a quick fix by just cutting out the problem.

17. Work with people.
People are nice. Some are good at things you aren't. Game design uses your whole brain; chances are you're lacking in some area. Find someone who can fill your hole. In my experience, there's a yin/yang dynamic between a person with a technical mind and one with a creative mind. I've found in this a perfect marriage of ideas and approaches. That's not to say this will be everyone's experience. But I do think it's important to work with at least one other person. The indie game designer can easily become a hermit and having someone else in the room to validate an idea can be the one thing that stops you from becoming that recluse who bathes with bleach.

18. Network.
Talk to other designers, fans, the media about what you're doing. You might gain some perspective on how others view your work, maybe even make a few friends. There's no shame about wanting to talk to people about your work. The biggest misconception is to assume that people don't want to hear about creative folks. They do. Writers love to write about you, fans want to know about your next project, and designers want to share their ideas and experiences with you. Talk!

19. Be excited about your work.
If you can't get excited about something you've done, how can you expect others to be? Talk about your work and sell yourself as well as your game. If your work doesn't excite you, why are you doing it? If you're not happy doing what you do, stop. It's impossible to be properly motivated unless you love what you're doing; don't be scared to let that passion spill into the press. Being indie means making your own rules: if your own rules don't excite you, rethink them.

20. Join communities.
Indie game communities are booming: join one. You don't have to post anything, but reading them will give you an understanding of the dos and don'ts of beginning game development, as well as insight and opinions about design in general.

21. Learn a little about business.
Business sucks ass, but it's important to know something about it so you'll know if you're getting fucked over. This goes hand-in-hand with networking: ask like-minded people about business situations they've been in. Find out how much things go for, percentage cuts, sales numbers and the best places to sell your wares. It's easy to get caught up in a seemingly amazing publishing deal if you have no perspective on how things work, and just as easy to get totally fucked over and lose your intellectual property in the process.

22. Don't worry about being poor.
Indie game designers are starving artists. Be frugal and humble. Again, your goal shouldn't be financial gain first and foremost, If it is, you will most likely fail. A profitable indie game designer is a rare thing. If you value money over "a job well done" then this isn't the field for you.

23. Try to make money.
Selling your work, getting your games sponsored, using online ads or asking for donations are all means of making money from your work. You need money to eat, so try to make some.

24. Have fun.
If you're not having fun then quit. You only live once; there's no reason to keep doing something if it's not making you happy.

[Edmund McMillen is an independent game designer & illustrator based in Santa Cruz, CA. Best known for his work on Gish, Braid and the upcoming Super Meat Boy. Edmund has also spent the past 6 years working on honing his craft by releasing smaller, more personal online projects like Coil, Aether and Time Fcuk.]

Death Raiders - A new point of view

By volsung on December 29, 2009 3:37 PM

Evil lurks in the shadows more than ever after the latest update (v'us'uspe). With the new powers, we needed a line-of-sight mechanic (so you can't throw fireballs through a wall). Twisting the code a bit, we managed to get a first Alpha version of the new field of view system. Behold!

So, now, you won't be able to just foresee what's inside that room on the other side of the wall, and, at the same time, the enemies won't be able to see you (they share the same field of view code, although they have different ranges, of course). The tests we've been running have been quite satisfactory, although there are some small glitches with corners and thin walls (less than two squares of thickness) as you can see in the following pic:

It also means, that if the wall is thin enough, you'll probably be able to attack through it (or be attacked), so, we still need to work a bit on the code, but in general, the first experience has been quite positive.

I mentioned the new powers before. Soon I'll be posting something about that. Just a small preview so you can start salivating:

Awesome, isn't it? Stay tuned for more!

To Spam or not to Spam, that's the question

By volsung on December 28, 2009 4:17 PM

Image by davidâ¢° via Flickr

I've been deleting some of the comments on the blog, as most of them were basically spam. I usually just removed the url, leaving the comment, but I think there's no point, really, in doing that. I mean, the comments are just random praises to my blog, explaining how good my writing skills are, and that shit, while leaving a link to some obscure jewelry online shop. Or to World of Warcraft's Quest Helper.

Anyway, the non-trusted users have, by default, a nofollow attribute on the urls they leave, which reduces the "profit" for the spam sites. And there's also Movable Type's spam filter, quite good, I must say, as roughly one out of ten spammy comments make it to the end. Been looking through these comments, and it doesn't seem to be filtering non-spam comments, but, if it ever happens to you, just tell me!

I don't want to re-enable the CAPTCHA, as it's basically something that only bothers the actual users, quite like the anti-piracy warnings before the movies. Hell, I've never seen any of those on downloaded rips, have you? Well, this is the same. Maybe I could add one of those karma systems for the comments, so they can be moderated, but, well, maybe that's a bit too much for the amount of comments this blog gets.

The point here? I'm glad I'm at least being spammed. That means I'm getting some traffic already, doesn't it? :P

And, for the next entry, something that is actually interesting, I promise.

Death Raiders - The new random dungeon generator

By volsung on December 26, 2009 2:35 PM

(Click for full size)

What we have here is a sample of how the new dungeon generator for Death Raiders works.

Remember, some days ago, I showed the results of the first generator. They weren't really awesome, and, although they allowed some interesting games, the dungeons were a bit crude. Why?

Well, first, we'll need to know how dungeon generators usually work. Basically, they split the whole map into rectangles of different sizes, filled with rooms. Then, the paths between them are built. Usually, there are a couple of rooms that must be there, or that at least, could be there. These rooms are commonly very specific, as in basically being pre-made.

Our system, is, in fact, more similar to this approach. All the rooms are "tilesets"; this is, squares of 20x20 tiles. What our software does is basically use these tilesets as if they were Tetris blocks. It turns them and puts them in a way they fit with their surroundings. It's the same system we were using before, but previously the tilesets were much smaller (6x6).

Does this mean dungeons will be basically the same 4 or 5 pieces put together again and again? Well, by looking at the image above, it could look like that, but that was one of the first attempts and features just a couple of tilesets (you can probably discover them yourself). Currently we have more than 50 basic tilesets, and creating more is a really fast process. This tilesets can be from big rooms to long corridors, from mazes to simple dead ends. Maybe it's not the most random system around, but I can tell you, it's going to be good.

Just don't stop running!

By volsung on December 26, 2009 1:14 PM

When I played Canabalt a couple of months ago, I noticed it was something good. I didn't have a blog back then, so couldn't really spread the word. Now that everyone seems to be finding this small pile of excellence (that got a High Definition version) I can't but recommend you all to play it.

The premise is simple. Run, and get as far as you can. You can jump by pressing X or C, and the more you run, the faster you get. Jumps will also be getting harder over time, so, you'll need some good reflexes. If you still haven't played the game, you know you should. Just look at how awesome it looks.

The game has just been released for the iPhone, although for that version, you will have to pay a couple of bucks.

We have a situation here...

By volsung on December 25, 2009 9:25 PM

And Kaljim is still alive after beating all those rotting undead to dead! Or to not-undead... or... whatever.

Even if there's a lack of updates recently, I'm still alive, and working on Death Raiders. New cool systems have been included in the latest build (v'us'uscaran), such as keyboard input, loot (that chest over there), and a completely reworked dungeon generator, using bigger tilesets now. Plus, we changed the appearance of some of the enemies (see the new pale ghouls in the image, with their claws and everything?). White carcasses and specters are now in-game!

<- White Carcass

<- Specter

Aren't they cute? The first one is full of acid, and the second is full of nothingness, so, they basically make two pretty interesting enemies to fight. More to come soon!

My adventure game - Starting the design document

By volsung on December 22, 2009 3:10 PM

So, finally I decided I should really begin the adventure game series I've been mentioning these past weeks ([1],[2],[3]). It's just a side-project, so, don't expect anything professional grade. I'm still trying to animate Zarna's walk-cycle, and won't have that finished until I rebuild my rig (currently spread into two different bags, I really hope nothing's broken!). I'm probably waiting a couple of days tho, as I don't have any case at the moment. I was flying with Ryanair, and the bags I used were already heavy enough to add the ~7KG of the Antec Nine Hundred and not pay more than the case's price for the extra weight. Hilarious.

Anyway, I started the first draft of the design document while on the train to Bilbao. I really would like to post it, but I think, it would be like releasing the walkthrough even before the game was made. I will probably be publishing it at some point, maybe some months after the game is available. If that ever happens, of course.

Death Raiders - Alpha Testing

By volsung on December 22, 2009 3:08 PM

I'm proud to announce that Death Raiders has gone officially Alpha. The game is already playable!

We've implemented the basis of the experience system, some very basic enemy AI and the game manager (you can now create parties, join them to go adventuring, and finish the games when you think it has gone far enough).

I'd like to explain some of the different points I have briefly mentioned. For example, I'll start with the AI. Right now, there's a fairly straightforward behaviour for the enemies. Zombies and ghouls will just walk towards the closest enemy and punch/kick him until either the player or the mob dies. It's not that the final behaviour ghouls and zombies will have should differ much to this, but right now the pathfinding mechanic is... hm... inexistent. We'll be implementing the classic A*, but until then, mobs will bascally get stuck in every single corner of the world, and totally ignore that they can also attack in diagonal (which basically turns most of the combats in a series of 1vs1 brawls). Improvements to this should be arriving very soon. Also, more enemies. I'm looking forward to creating the White Carcass, an acid-filled zombie that will explode when killed. If you played Killing Floor you probably are thinking of bloats. If you didn't, you probably played L4D, so think of boomers. If you played none of them, just imagine a 2 metre tall grotesquely fat zombie willing to explode and give everyone a lethal acid shower. I promise it will be as fun as it sounds.

About the game manager; now, depending on the leadership attribute, your character will be able to create parties for a certain amount of people. Basically, it's using the total level, so, if you didn't spend a single point on leadership, you won't be able to host games for anyone else than yourself, although you can still join some higher leadership character's party without any problem. Of course, as you level up you'll be able to host games for more people, but, if you remember how the xp system works, you'll need up to 9 whole points of experience to reach even the possibility to lead a couple.

Also, now it's possible to actually finish the dungeons (which wasn't an option before). Dungeons are big. Really big. In the first games you probably won't be adventuring more than a couple of rooms far from the entrance. And even that may be hard. However, as long as there are no enemies in the surroundings, you'll be able to simply finish your quest. It's the only way to start a new dungeon/party/game, and if you just close your browser or get disconnected for some reason, your character will remain where you left him, waiting for you to come back. If you were fighting, he (or she) will keep attacking the target until either your character or the mob dies. However, there won't be any auto-attack for the following enemies. This means that players will only be able to leave their missions either actively, by finding a safe spot and "finishing" the dungeon, or passively, this is, dying. At this point, I should add the "perma-" prefix to that. So, if your character starts to look more wasted than the zombies you're fighting, maybe it's time to say good bye and rest.

There are some things scheduled to be done in the following days. A better pathfinding system (for both the AI and the player characters), a loot system, more enemy types, a sprite caching system (to fight the current flickering problem players experience until every possible character image has been shown once), and many other things I'm forgetting at this moment.

Back to battle

By volsung on December 22, 2009 11:03 AM

So, I'm writing this post (and the following one) while listening to The Absolute Power, by Manowar, in a train travelling to Bilbao (where my parents live). But as soon as I get any kind of internet connection, I'm going to publish a couple of posts. So, stay tuned!

On a side note, I bought Mystery Dungeon for Nintendo DS on the airport the other day. It's basically Rogue to the Awesome (in this case, starred by Shiren the Wanderer). Once I get a bit deeper into the game, I'll probably post something about it. Just the enemy creatures leveling up during the game deserves a honourable mention.

Packing my stuff

By volsung on December 19, 2009 9:22 PM

I probably won't be writing much in the following days, as I'm packing all my stuff right now (moving to a new position in a different company).

Flying tomorrow, will be spending these Christmas with my family, so that will probably reduce the amount of updates. Plus, I won't have my computer for at least a couple of days.

So, just as a reminder, I still love you all.

XOXOXO

Volsung

The secret lives of your browsers

By volsung on December 19, 2009 2:28 PM

This is what your browsers do when you're not watching them.

f you want to experience the intense gameplay of pong using only browser windows (and I know you do!) now you can, here!

Trust me, it's funnier than it may sound. And, also, it's nice to see how the browsers' capabilities have increased over the past few years, in terms of javascript/drawing speed, for example. With HTML5 quite close already, the Internet as we know it right now, may have it's days counted, contents being able to be presented in such ways we don't realize yet.

Animating Zarna

By volsung on December 18, 2009 4:38 PM

So, here am I, animating our favourite barbarian chick's sprite. I'm still working on the first stages of the walk cycle, and even if I can see this is going to take quite long (I don't think I'll be able to do it this weekend) it doesn't really matter if it doesn't finally become the main character of the small adventure series I was thinking of.

I mean, if these adventures weren't made, I'd still have the animation prepared for the uncertain future. Maybe I could even make her star in her own adventure game! Oh, wait...!

I'm using Manning Leonard Krull's awesome walking cycle tutorial, even if it's not the first time I work on animating the walk cycle for a sprite (In fact, it's the second time!). The arm might look a bit funny in the picture on the left. Well, it's not where it's meant to be, but, as I will be animating the legs first, I wanted to see them. So, the arm works as some kind of placeholder.

Will Jon be able to finish the animation? Won't he? Stay tuned to see how everything ends!

Death Raiders - Another Small update

By volsung on December 18, 2009 3:46 PM

A new update on Death Raiders! There's a very basic splatter system (showing how much damage you inflicted), the more wounded you are, the more wounds you'll be showing (look at the zombies surrounding Jakarte, the hot halberd-wielding red-haired chick), and a "status" update on your own character, looking quite weird in the image (that square thing covering her).

In the next update, you'll be able to see if a character is moving, charging an attack, or actually attacking, by a nice "arrow" system (8 directions for attacks, 4 for movement). Also, more monsters incoming, including all sort of undead creatures, such as the terrible acid-filled exploding white carcasses, the heavy armoured death knights, the chilling banshees, and many, many more!

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - New Trailer

By volsung on December 17, 2009 7:42 PM

And man, is it hardcore. I'm one of those rare persons who played the first one until the end, and enjoyed every single piece of it. I will always remember the bank or the disco missions as some of my best gaming experiences ever. And now, after watching this, I cannot wait to put my hands into this game.

The previous trailers were a bit weird, but this one is -insane-.

Just a quick note

By volsung on December 16, 2009 5:44 PM

Today I just finished Downfall. I think nothing will be the same again.

Seriously, it was good, but also so disturbing, grotesque, creepy and raw, I think it's the reason behind some of my recent nightmares. Horrible nightmares. Having seen the ending isn't going to help me get any brighter dreams, especially.

Still, I regret none of my minutes looking at it's pixelated characters. However, if you want to preserve your sanity, just stay away from that game.

Death Raiders - Splatterhouse

By volsung on December 16, 2009 5:22 PM

So, we've just added a new awesome feature to Death Raiders: Blood splatters! Now, the more wounded the character is, the more wounded he'll look. The sprites are very simple, and a bit messy at the moment, but will probably be improved a bit soon.

(zoom x2)

Some of them are for the head, others for the torso, arms and legs. Right now there's nothing such as localized damage, but who knows what will the future bring? Creating the content with that possibility in the future doesn't look like a bad idea, does it?

On a side note, we've also improved the dungeon generation algorithm, adding some awesome stuff, such as predefined rooms (randomly placed). The game is improving quite quickly!

Note: the green colour is just a reference to surgeon coats. Y'know.

Funcom does the Mythic

By volsung on December 15, 2009 1:57 PM

Image via Wikipedia

So, Funcom has decided to go the Warhammer way with Age of Conan. In the first one, players are now able to play for free on tier 1 as long as they want; in the latter, anyone who registers a trial account before the 1st of January will be able to play to level 20 (basically, Tortage), for free, for ever.

Might this be the new way to maintain a stable "customer" base? I mean, even if those players aren't paying, they are paying, thus they count towards the stats. Age of Conan might have, let's say, 10k or 20k new players playing on White Sands, some of them finally subscribing (I'm being quite optimistic with the numbers here, I know); if there were 100k accounts before (which at this very moment, I doubt), it would mean a really big increase in the player number, but players wouldn't really be playing the game, but just a very anecdotal part of it.

I'm pretty sure, that this movement only tries to get as many players as possible to subscribe, but the MMO market has become a place where numbers speak for your game better (or at least "more") than anything else. Do you think we'll see more offers like this in the future in other MMOs? I certainly do.

A Shield with an Iron Face

By volsung on December 15, 2009 1:21 PM

I've been working a bit on what started as a mockup a couple of days ago. It's still in an early stage of design, and most of what I've been doing is trying to get an easy to replicate style, so I won't spend my next 4 years creating assets for the game. So far, I think I got something going on.

I have already a rough, unpolished version of the story behind the game, where our heroine has to escape a dungeon where she's been jailed due to a mix of circumstances.

While the idea is to create a rather short adventure (maybe one hour of gameplay, at maximum), sprites and backgrounds could be re-used later on more short episodes.

I've always been a fan of graphic adventures, particularly of those with a good sense of humour. Being able to die (the more hilariously, the better) was always a plus.

I'm now also considering which middleware to use. I've already done something with WinterMute Engine, but I've been also looking into Adventure Games Studio. Both of the suites look more than enough for this project, WinterMute being more 3D oriented (something I don't really need). The only problem AGS has is its kind of bad reputation, based on some of the adventures people made with it, apparently. Crawling through its documentation these past two days did show a quite robust engine. Again, probably more than I need.

There was another option; using Construct. Adventure games are just another option of this Open Source 2D-oriented middleware, but, considering there are suites specifically prepared for point-and-click adventure games, it wouldn't make much sense.

Anyway, for now, this is just something floating over my head, it will probably take some time to settle to something serious.

Defence Alliance 2 for Killing Floor, released

By volsung on December 14, 2009 3:27 PM

So, I was shown yesterday a trailer of what happens to be the first mod for Killing Floor, our favourite infected shooting game (some prefer L4D, but in my country, that kind of people isn't welcomed). So, I played a couple of quick games and must say the idea is awesome.

The game features two game modes, one of them being two teams of players fighting each other and completing some objectives, and the other one consists in up to 32 players containing hordes of zeds from the original Killing Floor. Overpowered versions, but the same behaviours. The idea is quite cool, isn't it?

The game, however, features some of the most plastic-feeling weapons, and some mediocre models for the soldiers. However, none of these are aspects that can't be improved in future versions. The problem is, until that moment, I will be playing a cork-shooting commando.

Oh, well, if you already have Killing Floor, you might give Defence Alliance 2 a run. The game isn't really bad, just some parts of it. However, it's not a mod that will sell Killing Floor, at least, at this very moment. Maybe in a couple of months it will be as good as it can get, because, again, the idea of playing a marine holding the ground against wave after wave of zombies, in the finest World War Z style, is just brilliant.

On a side note, Killing Floor itself got some love, and Tripwire also 4 new official maps were released (winners of the Grindhouse Custom Map Making Competition).

Adventure Game Mockup

By volsung on December 13, 2009 6:47 PM

Just another spin-off featuring our favourite barbarian adventuress and 16 colours.

A book full of faces

By volsung on December 13, 2009 2:19 PM

Image via Wikipedia

So, after reading Nic's reply to "no, I don't have a Facebook account yet" on Twitter the other day, which, just for the sake of it I'll reproduce: "omgwtfbbq welcome to 2009 Jon!", I've decided to enter that terrifying dark world everybody seems to find strange I wasn't in yet.

So, from now on, you'll be able to directly share your kitten videos with me using this evil tool here!

Long dungeon is long

By volsung on December 13, 2009 1:37 AM

First tests of the new random dungeon generator are satisfactory. I'm looking forward to explaining how it works, but for now, take a look at an example of its results (click to view full size):

Yes, it's huge, and, although the width/height ratio will probably change, being huge is part of the idea, as in not wanting the dungeons to be able to be finished... why? Just keep an eye on the webpage ;)

It just won't stay dead!

By volsung on December 13, 2009 1:17 AM

This evening/night has been quite special; without entering much into minor details, there was Filipino food involved, and a karaoke battle against an Irish Gospel choir. My throat still itches a bit, and, what is more important... this:

A Whack-a-Zombie stress reliever! It even came with a book explaining the history of zombies and book suggestions (World War Z by Max Brooks is there, so the list might actually be worth a look), and, of course, instructions on the use of the inflatable punchable thing.

Been punching it for twenty minutes now, and he keeps coming for more. Seriously, who designs these things?

Ludum Dare #16: Ready, Set...

By volsung on December 11, 2009 4:23 PM

Tomorrow, 12th of December, Ludum Dare #16 will begin. During 48 hours indie developers from all around the world will work against the clock trying to bring their awesome ideas, for a yet uncertain theme (out of these), to life.

And man, am I looking forward to it.

Lot's of great developers have registered already, and surely lots of amazing pieces of art will see the light during the following two days. I wish I could participate, but my skills are lacking too much, yet, for that. It's not that my game would be horrible, but that I wouldn't be able to finish it in time (if I actually got to finish it).

But I do like to watch.

Blood Frontier: Gib them all

By volsung on December 11, 2009 10:00 AM

Good news for all the fast-paced Quake-like action shooter fans! Blood Frontier just reached the second stage of its Beta phase!

This Open Source shooter developed using SDL+OpenGL, featuring the Cube Engine 2 (Sauerbraten, anyone?) is meant to appeal that particular market of hardcore Quakers.

The included game modes bring me memories of those years; deathmatch, instagib, last man standing, duel, capture the flag... and of course, mutators!

So, if you're bored, stressed, or German, you might want to give it a try. Plus, being built with open technologies above an open source game engine gives this plethora of options to download it! Windows, Linux, BSD, MacOS... There are no excuses!

Death Raiders - Small Update

By volsung on December 10, 2009 1:47 PM

Just a short note on the status of the game:

OK, it's yet on its first Alpha stages (even pre-Alpha, being realistic), but the server has been running flawlessly for millions of turns already, holding a couple of games without any problems.

Of course, it's still far from being playable, and characters can attack themselves (with erotic consequences). Also, the procedural dungeon generation needs some (important) attuning. Will talk about it at some point (when we've make up our minds on how we want to proceed, I guess).

Oh, and while the text on the log is in Spanish now, it's just for debug purposes; game will be released totally in English, or something that will look like it.

Death Raiders - Weapon Table Alpha

By volsung on December 10, 2009 10:49 AM

Just a sneak peak on some of the weapons we have created for Death Raiders so far, and their attributes. You can notice some weird numbers:

Reach is self-explanatory, I hope. The higher the number, the further your character can attack.
T_dmg stands for damage type (slashing, blunting or piercing).
T_weapon is the basic "famility" the weapon belongs to.
Cost means how many action points it takes to do a basic attack with that weapon.
Attack represents how easy it is to impact an enemy.
Dmg means damage, and represents how much damage the weapon can inflict.
Req. stands for requirements, and basically states the initial attribute points the weapon takes when you equip it.

You may notice the attack and damage show also a letter D. It stands for dice, and every pen and paper roleplayer probably has at least a rough idea of what it means. Numbers may look a bit strange, especially when it comes to damage.

For example, Halberd's 0D3 means 0 dice of 3 faces. "That doesn't look too dangerous, it could as well be 0D200, couldn't it?". Well, your own strength will, of course, add dice to the equation.

This is only the first approach, and again, this table is subject to future changes and adjustments.

Name	Image	Reach	T_dmg	T_weapon	Cost	Attack	Dmg	Req.
Halberd		3	Sls	Halberd	4	2D3	0D3	Str:4 Acc:2 Agi:2
Light Halberd		3	Sls	Halberd	4	2D3	0D2	Str:3 Acc:2 Agi:2
Heavy Halberd		3	Sls	Halberd	4	2D3	0D4	Str:5 Acc:2 Agi:2
Heavy Sword		1	Sls	Sword	4	2D3	2D3	Str:2 Acc:1 Agi:1
LongSword		2	Sls	Sword	4	2D3	2D2	Str:1 Acc:2 Agi:1
Short Sword		1	Sls	Sword	3	2D3	2D2	Str:1 Acc:2 Agi:1
Bastar Sword		2	Sls	Sword	4	2D3	2D3	Str:3 Acc:1 Agi:1
Dagger		1	Sls	Sword	2	2D4	2D1	Str:1 Acc:2 Agi:1
Greatsword		2	Sls	Sword	4	2D2	2D4	Str:4 Acc:1 Agi:1
Heavy Greatsword		3	Sls	Sword	4	1D2	2D4	Str:5 Acc:1 Agi:1
Hand axe		1	Sls	Axe	6	1D3	6D2	Str:1 Agi:2
Battle Axe		1	Sls	Axe	6	1D3	6D3	Str:2 Agi:2
Two-handed Gunear Battle Axe		1	Sls	Axe	6	1D2	6D5	Str:4 Agi:2
Two-handed Battle Axe		1	Sls	Axe	6	1D2	6D4	Str:3 Agi:2
War Spear		4	Prc	Spear	6	1D3	1D3	Str:4
Heavy Spear		4	Prc	Spear	6	1D2	1D4	Str:5
Spear		3	Prc	Spear	6	1D3	1D3	Str:3
Gangratic Sledgehammer		1	Bln	Mace	8	1D2	0D6	Str:5
Sledgehammer		1	Bln	Mace	8	1D2	0D5	Str:4
War Hammer		1	Bln	Mace	6	1D2	0D4	Str:3
Combat Mace		1	Bln	Mace	6	1D3	0D3	Str:2
Light Mace		1	Bln	Mace	6	1D3	0D2	Str:1
War Flail		1	Bln	Flail	3	0D2	0D4	Str:4 Acc:2 Agi:2
Flail		1	Bln	Flail	3	0D3	0D3	Str:3 Acc:2 Agi:2
Flagellant's Flail		1	Bln	Flail	2	0D3	0D2	Str:2 Acc:2 Agi:2
Combat Scythe		1	Prc	Pick	5	0D2	0D4	Str:4 Acc:2
Pick		1	Prc	Pick	5	0D3	3D3	Str:2 Acc:2
Tirtic Pick		2	Prc	Pick	5	0D3	3D3	Str:3 Acc:2
Dormenian Longsword		3	Prc	Fencing	3	0D3	0D3	Str:4 Acc:3 Agi:2
Aglacian Dagger		1	Prc	Fencing	1	0D2	0D2	Str:1 Acc:3 Agi:2
Fedder Sword		2	Prc	Fencing	2	0D3	0D2	Str:2 Acc:3 Agi:2
Trilbanson Sword		2	Prc	Fencing	3	0D3	0D3	Str:3 Acc:3 Agi:2

All this pictures where made using the RL Tiles (either by using them directly or by re-working them or using them as base).

Sam and Max Season 3 incoming

By volsung on December 10, 2009 10:19 AM

Or that's what one could think after watching these 6 artwork teasers Telltale has posted: (Click for full size)

Source: Joystiq

Fallen Earth - Conflict Towns

By volsung on December 9, 2009 4:50 PM

Image via Wikipedia

It's been a while since I played Fallen Earth for the last time. While the game was certainly appealing, I couldn't really get through the fighting, mostly because of the lag (which was, in fact, quite bad). It featured some nice ideas, and somehow I felt like I was missing something that could be, in fact, good, but in the end, I just set it aside until it was more polished. And now, after a couple of months since the release, it might be that moment.

I've just read that they are planning to release "Conflict Towns", which basically are conquerable cities full of PvP action. It's kind of like the keeps from Warhammer, but this time, with usefulness: special merchants, special goods. In a game where it's possible to craft almost anything, controlling resources is, actually, important. Plus, having 6 factions, things get very interesting.

For now there are only 3 of these cities, Tinkersdam, Windfarm and Park City.

Maybe it's time to dust my rusty crossbow and check how the game is doing...

Design - Death Raiders' character system

By volsung on December 9, 2009 12:20 PM

Death Raiders is the new provisional name for the formerly called Treasure Hunters online roguelike project. Today, I'm bringing you one of my favorite aspects of the game: the character creation and development systems.

As I already stated on previous posts, the game is based on the yet to be released table-top RPG Argen Adapse, and it features a character customization system that takes many of the aspects of the original pen and paper version, although containing some differences that there's no point on explaining yet. So, let's dive directly into the mechanics themselves.

First of all, there are no classes. Classes killed my father and raped my mother. Fixed, immovable character classes are a poor modelization of reality. Of course, people have advantages and flaws, but also carry perks with them that make them different from other people. I always found stupid that a warrior couldn't carry a quarterstaff or that a rogue made more damage than a properly trained soldier with the same short sword just because of the class. The worst part is that in the end, the roles are always the same, and the only way to be something close to "unique" is brought by the mere cosmetics.

Enough with the rant, as I think I already cleared my point of view on character classes =P

Most roguelikes, however, don't feature proper classes, but characters start with some fixed attributes that may increase (or decrease) during the gameplay based on your actions. While this is a much more appealing way to do it, it still wouldn't totally fit in our vision of the game, and, of course, wouldn't fit at all in a pen and paper RPG unless simplified a lot. "So, Jon, what the fuck of a character system are you using?". OK, OK, I'll proceed to explain it.

The Stats

Initially you're presented with a blank character; 7 main attributes, Strength, Accuracy, Agility, Toughness, Will, Leadership and Supernatural. These attributes are basically what limit what your character can and cannot do.

You get a free point on all of them, and 14 to distribute, capped at 5 per attribute. For once, this distribution will have a huge impact on your character, and it's important to think before assigning the points. Why? Because the initial values will basically define the rate at which your character gains attribute points. Also, the initial values are the ones limiting the gear the adventurer can use. I'll speak about the latter after explaining the first part.

Stats level up. To do so, they require a certain amount of experience points. The amount required varies for each attribute, depending on its initial value. The higher the initial attribute is, the faster it levels up. The formula is as follows:

XP_to_level_up = 10 - Initial_value

So, each time your character reaches 10xp on an attribute, he (or she) will level it up by one point. The higher the initial value, the easier it is to level the attribute, as, for example, with 5 initial points, only 5xp are needed to raise the attribute by one point, while it takes 9xp to level up an attribute with only 1 initial point. Observe that we're always using the initial value, so, even if you level up the attributes, it will still take the same amount of xp to gain another attribute point.

These extra attribute points will, of course, add benefits to our character. For example, more strength points will allow us to do more damage, but won't allow us to carry better weapons than those our initial value allowed. This makes the character creation a very important step towards the game itself.

Speaking of equipment requirements, most items have low requirements. For example, the Eridian War Armor requires 2 points of accuracy and 3 points of resistance. However, these are cumulative, and we'll need at least 4 points of accuracy to equip also a Longsword (which requires, amongst other things, 2 points of accuracy).

The equipment won't require better stats the better it is, so, a wooden Buckler will have the exact same restrictions a Magic ultra-steel Buckler + 8. Or almost the same, as we might bring some extra "bonuses" to the items that might make them, for example, lighter. This last part is still under discussion, however. Oh, and no +8 equipment either, that was just an illustrative example.

Right now, the character creator already gives your avatar the better combination of items he (or she) can carry. Or, at least, one that uses as many points as it's possible. Players will be allowed to change it once in game, of course, and maybe during the creation itself.

Gaining XP

So, I've explained that XP will basically allow our character to progress by giving him extra attribute points. In fact, attribute levels would be a much more appropriate term. Anyway, how will players get XP? Usually the mob spanking is the basis; however, we're trying to go one step further and reward overcoming challenges, in general. Killing a zombie isn't a challenge per se, cleaning that dungeon room filled with them is.

Challenges will have different difficulty levels, the deeper players are into the dungeon, the harder they get, and the more experience (and rewards, in general) they give. A common challenge may be a random room with some zombies on it. Overcoming it may give 1 or 2 experience points. Of course, the more powerful the characters are, the less experience they get, as the challenge will also be considered easier.

Experience points are then assigned to every attribute. So, after winning 9 experience points, all your attribute levels will have increased at least one point, and one or two of them might actually be getting close to getting their second level.

The idea is to follow a somehow logarithmic approach to leveling up, where it's easy to get to a certain soft cap, where experience starts to be harder to get, until it takes quite a lot of time to continue improving. However, there's no hard cap at any point, and players will be able to level up for ever... until they die. Death is permanent, at least when it comes to players being allowed to directly control their characters. We were already thinking in funny things that could happen afterward, but that belongs to a totally different entry :P

Of course, all these points are still subject to change, but the game is being developed around them, with a very specific objective in mind.

More info about the game design and development soon!

Guild Wars 2 to be played more like other MMOs

By volsung on December 9, 2009 10:31 AM

Image via Wikipedia

Guild Wars wasn't considered a proper MMO by many, as it was some kind of improved version of, for example, Diablo's Battle.net system, with a lobby a gaming rooms. The lobby was in 3D, but the idea was the same: totally instanced gameplay. Obviously, considering ArenaNet (the developers) where basically ex-Blizzard employees, it makes sense that they got it right.

The over-instanced content brought obvious pros from the technical perspective, starting from the lack of need of ultra-powerful servers, and an easier development and deployment of new content. The lack of a monthly fee is, somehow, another consequence of this design decision.

Anyway, times changed, and the people at ArenaNet apparently have decided to bring Guild Wars 2 more in line with the rest of the market, or at least, that's what I understand after reading MMORPG's interview to Eric Flannum and Ree Soesbee. This means a more open world, probably filled with grinding spots where player groups can farm without writing a single word until they get enough experience to move to the next zone. OK, that was a bit exaggerated, but you get the idea underneath, I hope.

Just for the sake of fidelity, I'll quote the exact paragraph:

We use a lot less instancing than we have in the past. The game is structured much more like other MMOs, with the world consisting almost entirely of fully persistent areas. That being said, we have a number of different ways in which we use instancing. Dungeons, for example, are instanced areas designed for group play. We also use instancing very heavily in the players' personal quest chain to reflect decisions that the player has made on those quests. For example, Logan Thackeray, captain of the Seraph, has an office located in Divinity's Reach; his office is instanced because we need to update his status based on choices the player has made.

It looks good enough on paper. Or on my computer screen, at least. Can't say much still about how it's going to perform in the end, tho, and I guess only time can tell.

Tetrises, the Tetris God

By volsung on December 9, 2009 9:53 AM

Who didn't feel his evil wrath at least once in his lifetime? Click on the image to see the video at CollegeHumor!

Going asynchronous

By volsung on December 8, 2009 5:33 PM

I was checking some problems the archive pages had on Firefox, already fixed, and noticed some performance problems apparently related the Google Analytics Javascript execution. Even if it was at the end of the webpage, it seems to show this kind of behaviour, and what is worse, sometimes a possible reader could just click on some link before the script actually loaded, thus making it useless.

Luckily, I found that Google just released the Beta (of course) asynchronous version of the code, that basically should speed up the loading times of the page by -a lot-.

This was the previous code:

And this is the how the new code looks:

var _gaq = _gaq || [];

_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);

_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);

(function() {

var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true;

ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js';

(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(ga);

})();

</script>

It did improve the loading speed of the website by an epsilon and a half at least. If you're using the previous version on a webpage, you might want to consider moving to the asynchronous one. You can find more information about it on Google Code, as it implies more changes (like where to put the code).

Online synths

By volsung on December 8, 2009 2:46 PM

Image by Penningtron via Flickr

I've just read on IndieGames about these two amazing tools, SiON140 and MMLTalks, which happen to be chiptune synthetizers where users can create and share their awesomeness (or horribleness, in my case).

I've always admired people able to create music, mostly because I cannot (and I tried!), and chiptune is one of my weaknesses, maybe because it reminds me of the good old days. I can't but deeply respect people like Anamanaguchi or Pornophonique.

That said, I've been messing with these two marvelous tools for a while. SiON140 is especially designed to create short sequences. That 140 isn't random, but the amount of text you can enter on some micro-blogging sites (Twitter, for example), thus giving the artist the possibility to share their compositions quickly, and save them as simple plain text files too.

MMLTalks is a bit more complex, but also gives far more freedom. There are already lots of songs, mostly versions/covers, on their databases. I wish I had the time to learn how to do it. If you do, you can find the SiOPM MML reference here, which might come in handy.

Why CCP? WHY!?

By volsung on December 8, 2009 12:00 PM

Every time I see how awesome Dust 514 is getting, I can't but ask myself "Why CCP? Why won't I be able to play this piece of win on my PC?".

OK, first of all, I spent quite some time playing EVE Online back in the days, and even if I don't play anymore, I still think it's basically light-years ahead of most of the MMOs around, remaining faithful to its sandbox origin even after all these years.

For a while now, CCP has been developing a shooter spinoff with some interesting mechanics, the most interesting of them (at least from my point of view) being the link with the MMO universe; what players do in Dust 514 is reflected in the EVE Online, such as planet conquests and resource control. This symbiosis can basically make Dust 514 a shooter where games do have an actual impact and relevance after the game itself.

And what's the problem? Well, it won't be released on PC, but only on consoles. Consoles I don't have. That means I won't be able to experience this glorious stuff:

And man, that sucks monkey balls. Why CCP? WHY!? Is it because of something I said?

Havok goes indie

By volsung on December 8, 2009 9:31 AM

If you've been following the physics engine war this latest years, you probably know what Havok and Ageia are. The first one has just released an independent developer oriented license that will allow them to use all of their middleware products (Physics, Animation, AI, Behavior, Cloth and Destruction) for a "flexible and affordable" rate.

However, there's an annual contract with Havok involved, so it might not suit every small team around (as it does still cost some money), but it might be worthy for indie developers with some budget for their projects.

This appears to be somehow a response to Epic releasing UDK and Unity going free for indie developers. Let's hope more companies will join this trend in the near future.

Source: Business Wire "Havokâ¢ Unveils Independent Developer Program"

Aquaria's OST available for purchase!

By volsung on December 7, 2009 2:41 PM

Image via Wikipedia

Aquaria is awesome. Seriously! For those who don't know it, it's yet another twist to the Metroidvania style, like mixing the former two with Ecco the Dolphin. We play as a siren called Naija in search of her own past. Bit Blot did an amazing job bringing this underwater world today and even if I was never able to get through all the game (it has some really hard parts and I lost my savegame during a format), I keep some great memories from the game.

Anyway, this is not a review of Aquaria, but just a small news; the OST featuring some of the most beautiful chill-out songs ever made for a videogame is available on bandcamp, including the Limited Edition 2 Disc Collector's Set and a Signed Edition. You can check it here. Plus, there's an interview with Alec Holowka (who basically IS Bit Blot, along with the pixel master, Derek Yu) in Gamasutra, about this same OST release, you might want to check too.

I'm totally getting my copy. Fanboy? Just if it wasn't good :P

So, you want to remake a game?

By volsung on December 7, 2009 1:03 PM

Then probably you want to know a bit more about how legal that is. Or maybe you just don't care at all. Still, if you do, you might like to check this article from Gamasutra where Mona Ibrahim* gives some clues about what to take into account when using a copyrighted IP.

Just because ;)

Mortal Online - Thievery Skill

By volsung on December 7, 2009 12:35 PM

Image via Wikipedia

I've written a bit about Mortal Online before, when I spoke about griefing in games nowadays. The other day I went to StarVault's site to check the latest build of the Beta client (which I've been testing now and then since day 0) and found that finally the Thievery skill had been implemented in-game, or at least, its skeleton.

Players will be able to rob other players. Isn't that awesome? It was, some years ago. Today it's almost a basic no-no in MMO design (griefer lure?) and, in the best (and rarest) cases, it's relegated to an interaction only towards NPCs. However, in Mortal Online's particular scenario, where there's free-for-all PvP and full-loot, it kind of makes sense. I mean, at least you're not killing the other guy.

The mechanic is rather simple, there are two skill checks: first, your character tries to see the inventory of his victim, then there's another roll to see if he (or she) is able to grab something without being seen. Unlike the classical Dungeons and Dragons approach, it seems it's not possible (at least, at this very moment) to grab something AND still be detected.

What can I say? While I love to see features like this implemented into MMOs (where they do belong, dammit!), a wrong way to do it may mean the quick dead of the game. Apparently gear won't be hard to get, or very relevant for the basic gameplay. If you don't go all powergamer, most of your equipment will be easy to replace with not much effort.

At least, it's good to see a developer trying to do the things the way they want. I'd also like to write a bit about Mortal Online's slavery and genealogy systems at some point, but hadn't really seen the first yet, and the second has been implemented quite recently. So, soon!

Review - Igneous

By volsung on December 5, 2009 11:19 PM

Yet another game showing up this year at the Independent Games Festival, Igneous, is described as "[...] an action platformer where you play as a tiki totem trying to escape from a raging volcano. By running and jumping, players have to navigate their way through dark caverns, forge raging lava rivers and cross crumbling bridges to make it out of the inferno alive. With stunning graphics and intense physics, each level is a new challenge to overcome. Easy to pick up, but hard to master, Igneous is an adventure you won't soon forget! Escape!". Couldn't have explained it better myself.

As the team behind it (Going Down in Flames) decided that $0 would be a nice price for the game, I proceeded to download and test it. I regret nothing. If I had to choose right now whether to play Rogue Warrior or Igneous, I'd go to the latter without any doubt. Thankfully, I already removed Rogue Warrior, so I don't even need to choose!

The game looks damn good, and the mechanics, while simple, are really challenging. Tried with both the 360 controller and keyboard+mouse combinations, and the first is certainly the way to go. The game is rather hard, even if you can only run and jump, and the action is really intense. Considering it costs you nothing, you should at least give it a try.

Plus, it's only a roughly 100MB download.

Moar changes

By volsung on December 4, 2009 9:23 PM

As you might have noticed, I'm already changing some stuff on the visual design of the blog. If not, you should refresh your cache (as the files are keeping the same names and the CSS file should be cached too).

I'm trying to keep the initial idea in mind, this is, keeping the basic line of the blog simple and light (the current background is a tiled ~36KB image).

I'm probably changing more in the upcoming days, so, as always, if you find that something is looking awful, please, just come back a bit later, or comment on it! Don't be lazy, there isn't even a captcha and you can comment even using your Google account if you want ;)

Games and Censhorship

By volsung on December 4, 2009 5:34 PM

Brazil could be also entering the list of videogame banning countries soon, denying the manufacture, distribution, importation, trading or even custody of videogames considered offensive. And by offensive, it means those that "affect the customs, traditions of the people, their worship, creeds, religions and symbols".

I mean, what the fuck, Brazil? You used to be cool!

Of course, as we all know, videogames are only for kids, and ratings don't exist, plus, most of the murderers in history were highly exposed to these brainwashing evil tools.

And of course, it doesn't mean at all that any other type of media will be banned using the same pretext, as that would be just stupid, wouldn't it? I mean, it's OK for kids to read World War Z, but playing the latest Resident Evil is, obviously, a no-no. They can still watch the movie, though.

The funny thing is that we're talking about 18+ year old kids here, which is the public these kind of games is normally aiming towards. If nobody sees a problem here, with a government deciding what adults should be or shouldn't be able to play, read, or watch, then everything's fine.

Hardcore gaming

By volsung on December 4, 2009 4:27 PM

It's 1999. A man arrives home at Friday evening, after work. Boots his PC while he gets some comfortable clothing and a can of some caffeinated fizzy drink. His 56K modem starts dialing with squeaking (but somehow sexy) noises. The man opens his email client and reads through his emails, then, opens Netscape Navigator, and reads through some of the webpages he usually follows. Frames, tables, horrible gifs. At least he tries to evade those with background music. 15 minutes later, he's completely ready.

He clicks twice on the shortcut on the desktop and a horrible launcher appears on the center of the screen, telling our protagonist that there's a massive 5MB patch on the MMO he's willing to play. 20 minutes later, the game starts.

7 hours later, the game session stops. Our man had dinner while playing the game, and will get into it again not long after he wakes up on Saturday morning. It will be an all-gaming day. He wants to raid two dungeons with his guildmates, or maybe get those horrible to gather materials for his brand new phasor gun. He has fun, he cries, he gets angry... all through a text-based chat interface, because VoIP options are still quite bad (even if Roger Wilco's mic clicks haven't been outstripped yet, 10 years later).

On Sunday, our man rests. This means he enters the same game, but just to socialize for most of the day. He meets some new guild members and flirts a bit with that girl that can only play a few hours a couple of days per week. At least, he hopes she is a girl. She sent him those three pics by Yahoo messenger a couple of weeks ago, and looked darn nice.

22:00 are getting closer. Our man stops for 15 minutes to air the room a bit and have a snack. It seems the guild is finally raiding this night too, or maybe they decided to go PvP against that PK group that killed two of their new members several times during Saturday night. Whatever the case is, the man will go to sleep near 2 AM, maybe with a smile on his face, or maybe with anger, after losing all his equipment.

The following day he'll go calmer. He can only play 2 or 3 hours on normal days.

This short story might sound totally horrific, surreal or simply dumb, but it wasn't that strange in those years. Of course, there were many less MMO players back then than there are now. I mean, "paying each month? Nonsense!". But of all those who did play, this story would be completely true for a nice piece of the whole player pie.

Does this happen nowadays? Sort of, but in a totally different way. Why? Because there are no games like those they played. Of course, we still have time sinks, but they are normally single-player time sinks with some added group content, usually easy enough to beat it with only one hand (even with the left one). But... why?

A game like Ultima Online, or Everquest, would only appeal to a small, niche market, today. However, there were no other options back then. If you wanted to play MMOs, all the possibilities you had could be counted with the fingers of that hand you now use to play Aion. So, the games had to offer something their competitors didn't, such as 3D graphics or more game systems, like housing, mounts, cloaks (yes, cloaks that didn't look like cardboard cuttings) or land conquering and empire building. Players would only pay their monthly fee if they thought it was worthy, and playing more than one MMO was considered kind of sick (even just playing one was, somehow). This games were meant to be hardcore.

And suddenly, the MMO market started to grow, and theme-park games appeared. And guess what, the more casual-friendly these games went, the more players they got. And at some point somebody noticed that players didn't need to play each day 8 hours, if they paid at the end of the month. Maybe it was even better to have they just hanging around 5 to 10 hours per week with easy enough content they could easily hook in to.

And since then, our man from the story above, has seen how being a hardcore gamer changed its meaning, slowly, becoming just a person with no life, rather than a person with a rich virtual life, as games became more and more casual and single-player oriented. Because, of course, if you always needed friends to do the fun stuff... who would play your game?

Just a random thought.

Hellgate London expansion coming up!

By volsung on December 4, 2009 4:01 PM

Only for the Asians, of course, as the game was shut down more than a year ago in Europe and America.

Hanbisoft, the developers running the game currently for the Asian market (as Hellgate: Resurrection) have just released the following teaser of the expansion that will see the light during 2010.

It's a bit sad to remember the rise and fall of this game, and how it didn't manage to keep any of the different market shares it was aiming too. Somehow I feel nostalgic (I played the game for a while) and can but wonder how's the game doing in the other side of the world. Apparently not that bad, if it's still getting love.

WH40K Online - Concept Art

By volsung on December 4, 2009 3:37 PM

Just 8 images of some of the concept art Vigil Games will be using in their upcoming Warhammer 40000 PvP-based online adaptation. Apparently, Kolby Jukes, who has been working recently on Mass Effect 2's concept art was also involved in the creation of these. And hell do they look good, being still in Pre-Alpha stages!

I particularly like the after-battle look of that Ultramarine.

Natural Selection 2 Special Edition Pre-Order available

By volsung on December 4, 2009 12:45 PM

Natural Selection was one of the most famous mods for the first Half Life game, thanks to its innovative mix of genres, style and gameplay.

Unknown Worlds Entertainment, which is how the people behind that mod now call themselves, are about to release the second part as a stand alone game with a new game engine written from scratch that allowed them to create things as awesome as dynamic infestation, that will allow aliens to slowly take over the space stations creating havoc by shutting down the different electronic systems, among other things. Plus, the game will come with an everything-capable toolset.

So, pre-orders are already available, and even if both include Beta access, the Special Edition (which is roughly $40) also features Alpha access and eternal gratitude. Did you ever got something like that?

If you never tried the first Natural Selection, the Half Life mod, it might be aswell a good moment to do it.

Learning how to do it: Unreal Engine 3

By volsung on December 4, 2009 12:31 PM

Image via Wikipedia

With the recent free release of the Unreal Development Kit, many indie and aficionado developers have moved towards the Epic platform to bring some life to their ideas.

While there was already an extensive documentation available for the engine, (and many tutorials on these series of tubes), 3D Buzz has released ~20 hours of video tutorials split amongst 160 videos you can find here. You can also get all the assets used during the footage, so there's no excuse now not to start learning how to use what may be the most powerful game engine, nowadays.

I'm back

By volsung on December 4, 2009 11:41 AM

Crazy days these latest three, but I'm here again. Sorry for the lack of updates, but in the end I didn't have much time to check my feeds and sources during my travels, and wasn't really in the mood to write some deep feelings about design (plus, Internet tickets were 18 pounds each 24 hours at the hotel!).

Anyway, updates will be returning soon, probably today. And maybe some more changes on the visual design of the site, still thinking on that. Now I just need time! TIME!

Travelling...

By volsung on December 1, 2009 8:07 PM

I'm writing this entry from my hotel room in Gibraltar, where I've flown . Just arrived today, and will be here for a couple of days, so probably I won't be able to update Dungeoner during these days (I'll try!).

Anyway, if I cannot, at least I'll give you something to keep you entertained:

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