I was recently linked to a Slashdot Games story about a competition to create the best Super Mario Bros AI. In this version of the game, levels are randomly generated and coders will have to find a smart and savvy way to make Mario autonomously negotiate obstacles and get to […]
Yearly Archives: 2009
You know, I would be genuinely intrigued to know if there’s any readers out there who actually haven’t seen or heard of the Zero Punctuation review series on The Escapist. For those who have (and doubtlessly you are legion), there’s a very interesting little competition going on right now. Its […]
Stonking Great Game Contest
This article originally appeared on NAG Online. Code in Python, go to outer space. A simple process, really. Do you really, really want to become a game programmer? Do you really, really have no idea how to start? Try some Python! This easy and simple programming language is not just […]
Easy Programming with Python
Right, let’s see how this goes down with people. Blinkout is a game about visual memory — plain and simple. It’s also got a touch of resource management and some spooky sound effects. The game starts you off with what looks to be a rather average move-and-collect scenario — you […]
Blinkout
I recently followed a link to a Gamasutra feature on the history of South African game development, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was both thorough and interesting. Turns out that Oliver from SAGameDev has been doing a little scribbling under the radar. It follows a similar […]
SA dev feature on Gamasutra
Yahtzee’s become a bit of a household name on the internet recently, what with his fast-talking, hard-hitting video review series that’s making enemies of videogame fanatics everywhere. The sad side-effect is that everyone’s forgotten what he used to do: make adventure games. We haven’t forgotten, and neither has he, apparently, […]
Ramblomatic announcement
In an effort to post a game that Q-man doesn’t hate, I’ve been scouring the Internet for something cool and original. And so I stumbled upon this Rock, Paper, Shotgun mention of an innovative little Flash thingie called You Only Live Once. I first spotted this little gem over on […]
You only live once
Heed is odd. From the moment you start the game up, you get the feeling that it’s definitely not your cookie-cutter point ‘n’ click adventure. Maybe it’s the surreal backgrounds and stylized art, or perhaps it’s the bizarre and moody background music (containing remixed samples from late-19th-century folk music). Either […]
Heed
So we’ve been quiet this past weekend. Not because we haven’t had anything to say, mind, but because we’ve been at the grindstone; excellent articles take time to write, as does maintaining the website to put them on, after all. In addition to all that, we’ve been working on a […]
New features for the weekend
Games are all about challenge; presenting the player with some or other obstacle that needs to be overcome in order to progress. Not everything has to be about fighting though. Aside from the blood, guts, gore and general brutality involved in most games, some games take a, how to say, […]
Fives – Battle Royale
Although I admittedly don’t have the time to look at every single blog post that comes out of Gamasutra (I’m far too busy saving the world), I make a point of scanning the weekly expert blogs roundup to see what the editors have deemed to be the best and most […]
Gamasutra Expert blogs
When Pigs Fly. Everybody and their dog seems to be playing this game at the moment, so I decided to give it a shot this morning. Developed by Anna Anthropy (aka. dessgeega, aka. auntie pixelante, aka. “space invader, game creatrix, pixelbitch, and dot-matrix dominatrix”), this game gives you a pig. […]
When pigs fly
Everything about Use Boxmen says ‘happy.’ The music sparkles in the background, what simple narration exists in the game is silly and smile-inducing and the characters ooze charm out whatever wazoo they might have in their deformed crayoned bodies. It would be such a great setup for a bit of coffee […]
Use Boxmen
So maybe you’re a gun nut. Or maybe not. Personally, I’ve never fired anything more high-powered than a paintball rifle, but the good folks at Wolfire have just become full-blown firearms wizards after shooting it up at their local firing range. On the blog, they make an in-depth comparison between […]
Games vs Life: Handguns
Seriously, somebody just give this guy a freaking medal already. James Portnow is one of those darling industry people who regularly and uncontrollably spouts nice big essays of complete sense and logic for the rest of humankind to benefit from. I’ve always been a little bit peeved about uptight developers […]