Everybody knows of Tim Schafer for his contributions to stuff like Grim Fandango and Full Throttle. And he’s big in the news nowadays because everyone’s gotten their metal horns and amplifiers all tuned up in anticipation for Brutal Legend. I count myself among those mindless hordes, of course. Who can say no to an unholy [...]
I spent some time yesterday playing around with Higher!, a charming Flash game which has you trying to lift a house with balloons. “Definitely worth a mention in Dev.Mag,” I thought. “I’m totally going to be the first person on the Internet to talk about this. Everybody will love me forever.” Then I checked my [...]
I feel like I’m begging to get my ass kicked by Valve for showing off all of these distinctly unofficial fan games, but if they can take a Guard Dog “fan update” in stride, then maybe — just maybe — the humble Comp 23 entrants won’t get torn apart by Saxton Hale. Of course, being [...]
For me, game AI is interesting not in the way that one must make it smart (though this is, undoubtedly, a godlike feat at times), but in the way that one must make it convincing. I like to call this “stupidity coding”. With that in mind, I found this column on GameSetWatch to be relevant [...]
There have been many games that would have ended up on the “games that kicked my ass”-pile if I hadn’t taken to keeping a notepad beside my grubby keyboard. After spending a fair number of hours on them, and even aided by walkthroughs, many old point-n-click adventure games and interactive fiction titles would often leave [...]
Chippit recently posted an announcement about Game.Dev’s Comp 23 (which, in Internet time, might as well have been years ago). The competition is focused on how well an entrant’s game gets marketed, rather than focusing on the game itself: an idea which some may well raise their eyebrows at, but which I personally deem to [...]
It would seem that I’ve somewhat made a name for myself around her for being the wordy, story dude – because every time something pops up involving stories, epic narrative tales and, well, words in general, it gets passed on to me. Luckily, I really do enjoy these kinds of things, and that’s why I [...]
So. Hot on the heels of my previous ShellBlast review comes this humble opinion of its new, Xbox-based cousin: ShellBlast HD. Vertigo Games was kind enough to supply me with a review copy for this sprightly bugger, so of course I latched onto it . And hey, guess what? It’s just as good as the original.
It is truly my greatest regret (at least in game development terms) that I’m a little too far removed from the first world to attend some of the awesome game development conferences that keep cropping up. The 2009 GDC Austin serves as a prime example of what I’m missing out on, and I can only [...]
The oft-discussed Xbox Live Indie Games platform has been through its fair share of growing pains, but this GamerBytes report seems to indicate a recent improvement in game sales. Which is nice, of course. Apparently a quick name change, new pricing models and a fresh community rating system are precisely the measures needed to boost [...]
I’ll waste no time in dropping the hammer: I really don’t like World of Warcraft. The grinding bores me, the mentality upsets me and the game world just doesn’t engage me enough to warrant the odd five gazillion hours that you need to pour in just to get… well, anywhere. I’ve tried it out, honestly!
So. Fez. No, not the hat; it’s that Paper-Mario-but-not, 3D-but-2D platformer with voxels. Um, I mean trixels. Yes, the one that won the Excellence in Visual Art award in last year’s IGF. Everyone’s waiting for it, and 2010 can’t come any sooner for XBLA customers who want to get their head around crazy perspective shifts. [...]
Pretty much everyone is familiar with the concept of six degrees of separation. And, of course, with any widespread concept there are those who will twist such concepts into different contexts, such as is the case with Six Degrees of Wikipedia. Similarly, there’s somebody who is going to try and make a game out of [...]
A while back, our very own Danny “dislekcia” Day appeared on a local gaming TV show to talk about Game.Dev and what we do; in the process, both Xbox titles to have come from our community were featured on the show. Just recently, we’ve discovered a recording of said show, where you can have a [...]
Semi-procedurally generated music, beautiful visuals, and 8 levels of bullet-hell-like mayhem; this is Everyday Shooter, and it’s not ordinary.
So a little while back — less than 3 weeks, actually; these guys work fast – we mentioned Zombie Cow Studios’ plans to Go Episodic. Well, two interesting pieces of news have surfaced since then. Firstly, you can expect Ben There Dan That Episode 1 – otherwise known as Revenge of the Balloon Headed Mexican [...]
{ I find that the essence of great indie games comes from knowing their core rules. If all gameplay adheres to the core rules, then emergent... } – May 11, 9:11 PM
{ Insanely detailed, well written and an interesting read 
Being in the process of developing a game that has a web of interconnected rules and... } – May 11, 5:17 PM
{ Great article! Very informative. } – May 08, 9:51 AM
{ Nothing to beat a simple tutorial with Actual Screen shots. } – Apr 26, 9:44 PM
{ Thanks for the feedback Ben, max and cool math 
Glad you found it useful. } – Apr 23, 8:56 PM
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