Sunday, 31 October 2010
hordes underfooT!
Met several people at Yaoi-Con who wanted to (or were working on) make their own games, most of whom already knew about RenPy, some of whom I pointed that direction.
Friday, 29 October 2010
in honor of Yaoi-Con
... which I am to be appearing at Very Shortly Now, a bit of Linds/Rafael love:
Date Warp (click for bigger)
Date Warp (click for bigger)Thursday, 28 October 2010
Monday, 25 October 2010
grumpypants
... why are there BATTLES in my music game?
... why is the cheat code to unlock all songs (so i don't have to deal with the above) SO LONG?
... why is the cheat code to unlock all songs (so i don't have to deal with the above) SO LONG?
Friday, 22 October 2010
ow, fingers
Hey, look, someone threw out a PS2!
And two guitar controllers!
And a copy of Guitar Hero 3!
And they all work!
Strangely enough, this is true.
Not so strangely - Picking up new game and immediately playing a few songs (on medium) has resulted in my pinky going "OW!"
That being the case, I'm not going to play it any more until we find a memory card so that I don't have to start from scratch every time...
And two guitar controllers!
And a copy of Guitar Hero 3!
And they all work!
Strangely enough, this is true.
Not so strangely - Picking up new game and immediately playing a few songs (on medium) has resulted in my pinky going "OW!"
That being the case, I'm not going to play it any more until we find a memory card so that I don't have to start from scratch every time...
it comes in boxes
So, our little print run of Date Warp discs arrived!
(And I am terrible at marketing speak and had an awful time trying to make these up and figure out what to say on them. I think they look pretty good, but it's still embarassing to think about, I hate trying to sell myself. There is also an image on the disc and the inside cover but I'm not scanning that, you'll just have to get one yourself.)
These are intended to be sold at Yaoi-Con. The leftovers (and I'm sure there will be plenty; it's not like we have experience at selling hard copies!) I will offer up after the event (or pass on to a Certain Someone Else to resell, depending on how many there are).
(And I am terrible at marketing speak and had an awful time trying to make these up and figure out what to say on them. I think they look pretty good, but it's still embarassing to think about, I hate trying to sell myself. There is also an image on the disc and the inside cover but I'm not scanning that, you'll just have to get one yourself.)
These are intended to be sold at Yaoi-Con. The leftovers (and I'm sure there will be plenty; it's not like we have experience at selling hard copies!) I will offer up after the event (or pass on to a Certain Someone Else to resell, depending on how many there are).
Thursday, 21 October 2010
RAIN OF SHARKS!!!!
Have you ever had an idea so stupid that you had to immediately drop everything and prototype it?
This is one of those.
There is a (somewhat) playable demo but there's not much to it at the moment. If I get that far before getting too bored to keep going, play will quickly unlock multiple turrets ala Missile Command, and there will be different enemies and possibly different projectiles. However, I should get back to proper projects...
This is one of those.
There is a (somewhat) playable demo but there's not much to it at the moment. If I get that far before getting too bored to keep going, play will quickly unlock multiple turrets ala Missile Command, and there will be different enemies and possibly different projectiles. However, I should get back to proper projects...
sigh
So, yeah, Blizzard apparently officially evil. No Starcraft II for my husband for Christmas then. (Not that he's shown that much interest in it anyway.)
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
shrinkproof??
... after I carefully created a witch and gave her a shrink gun, it turns out the PC is now IMMUNE to shrinking??? Why???
Sophie's Witch Game
A potentially interesting action-RPG in development - buying now at super-cheap gets you beta access to ongoing releases.
scribbling
Super Scribblenauts seems awfully easy... I'm not really being drawn into it as much as I'd like. I'm afraid I'm going to run out of levels within a week of getting it.
pop star love
Quite late on posting this, but noticed this discussion elsewhere of a "real life" dating sim - licensed games about actual famous idols and the like.
If marketed at squealing thirteen-year-olds, it's... potentially cute, I guess, and not all that unlike normal fanclub activities.
But it also triggers some thoughts about very creepy stalker types who already have this bizarre tendency to decide that they're In A Relationship With a famous person, and break into their house or get angry with them for failing to turn up to "dates" or the like.
Of course, anyone not batshit shouldn't think that the existence of the game entitles them to real-life romance... right?
If marketed at squealing thirteen-year-olds, it's... potentially cute, I guess, and not all that unlike normal fanclub activities.
But it also triggers some thoughts about very creepy stalker types who already have this bizarre tendency to decide that they're In A Relationship With a famous person, and break into their house or get angry with them for failing to turn up to "dates" or the like.
Of course, anyone not batshit shouldn't think that the existence of the game entitles them to real-life romance... right?
Monday, 18 October 2010
Quit school, start your own business
Although I doubt that any video game developer will be chosen for this program.
Slate is appalled by the notion, I'm not. What has my university education done for me, exactly? Not much that I can think of, directly anyway. I had a good time there, I'm not saying I definitely shouldn't have gone, but it wouldn't really have been a great loss if I hadn't. University didn't teach me the skills I use now to make a living, and it didn't get me a great job either. It made me someone who was most comfortable IN a university and just wanted to stay there forever!
Of course, if the huge cost of my university education had just been handed to me as a bulk sum seed money to get started in the world, I wouldn't have had a clue what to do with it at the age of 18. But if I'd been *expected* to take that seed money and get out there, maybe I would have thought more about it ahead of time and had some sort of plan?
Slate is appalled by the notion, I'm not. What has my university education done for me, exactly? Not much that I can think of, directly anyway. I had a good time there, I'm not saying I definitely shouldn't have gone, but it wouldn't really have been a great loss if I hadn't. University didn't teach me the skills I use now to make a living, and it didn't get me a great job either. It made me someone who was most comfortable IN a university and just wanted to stay there forever!
Of course, if the huge cost of my university education had just been handed to me as a bulk sum seed money to get started in the world, I wouldn't have had a clue what to do with it at the age of 18. But if I'd been *expected* to take that seed money and get out there, maybe I would have thought more about it ahead of time and had some sort of plan?
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Magical Diary characters
Introducing some the major characters for the first game:
Ellen is one of your roommates in Horse Hall. A sweet girl, slightly shy, and as new to magic as you are.
Virginia, your other roommate. Exuberant, athletic, and born into a magical family.
Donald, one of Virginia's two brothers (Donald is the middle child, Virginia is the youngest). He's a troublemaker in Wolf Hall.
... And this is Damien, a senior in Falcon Hall, and he's trouble of a different sort...
---
Plotwise, the election has finally been held in-text, moving on to the next week! Also, I'm starting to put together a Magical Diary webpage but it's pretty much placeholder at the moment.
Ellen is one of your roommates in Horse Hall. A sweet girl, slightly shy, and as new to magic as you are.
Virginia, your other roommate. Exuberant, athletic, and born into a magical family.
Donald, one of Virginia's two brothers (Donald is the middle child, Virginia is the youngest). He's a troublemaker in Wolf Hall.
... And this is Damien, a senior in Falcon Hall, and he's trouble of a different sort...
---
Plotwise, the election has finally been held in-text, moving on to the next week! Also, I'm starting to put together a Magical Diary webpage but it's pretty much placeholder at the moment.
scribblenauts 2 words of fail
whelk (mentioned earlier)
skein
It acknowledges 'honeysuckle' as a word, but it creates a featureless lump instead of what it should be.
On the bright side, cesium now explodes when it hits water.
skein
It acknowledges 'honeysuckle' as a word, but it creates a featureless lump instead of what it should be.
On the bright side, cesium now explodes when it hits water.
Saturday, 16 October 2010
The Metro
This isn't entirely a 'game', since as I understand it, it's going to be a pure graphic novel in computer format, no decisions or gameplay elements. But cool still. :)
super scribblenauts get
i've only barely begun, but so far my most irritated complaint about a word not in the dictionary: whelk
Thursday, 14 October 2010
behind the times
Just caught up on the new changes to the IGF judging system.
On the surface, I like them a lot. I have long been opposed to numerical rating systems as any sort of judge of quality (People who knew me Back In The Day on the GMC may remember me going into huge rants on the subject when people were all so eager to give or receive feedback in terms of X/10) and it's especially meaningless when spread across multiple judges who have different tastes and are not playing the same games, so they can't even establish a baseline.
Results should be MUCH more consistent if it instead becomes a matter of the initial mass of randomly-assigned judges simply doing a make-the-cut pass to look for games they think might be competitive in the various categories, and then having a category jury play all the games that make that cut so they can be properly compared against each other.
At least, that's the theory. Will it work out? We'll see! Systems rarely function perfectly as designed when you throw people at them...
On the surface, I like them a lot. I have long been opposed to numerical rating systems as any sort of judge of quality (People who knew me Back In The Day on the GMC may remember me going into huge rants on the subject when people were all so eager to give or receive feedback in terms of X/10) and it's especially meaningless when spread across multiple judges who have different tastes and are not playing the same games, so they can't even establish a baseline.
Results should be MUCH more consistent if it instead becomes a matter of the initial mass of randomly-assigned judges simply doing a make-the-cut pass to look for games they think might be competitive in the various categories, and then having a category jury play all the games that make that cut so they can be properly compared against each other.
At least, that's the theory. Will it work out? We'll see! Systems rarely function perfectly as designed when you throw people at them...
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Mary Sue For President
You can set your campaign slogan to be "Lady Lampshade Head".
There are about 40 people in the world who know why this is funny, and none of them are reading this blog. :)
(Okay, everyone else will hopefully think it's funny because it's absurd. But someone at my school DID run for student council as Lampshade Head - I think because she lost a bet or something. She won, too.)
There are about 40 people in the world who know why this is funny, and none of them are reading this blog. :)
(Okay, everyone else will hopefully think it's funny because it's absurd. But someone at my school DID run for student council as Lampshade Head - I think because she lost a bet or something. She won, too.)
Monday, 11 October 2010
insanely overcontrolling jerks
Apparently Blizzard is now disabling the games of people found to be cheating... in single-player.
WTF?
And of course this starts up the insistent yells of "THIS IS WHY I ONLY EVER PIRATE GAMES" which is, well, still crazy - Not every game behaves like this. SUPPORT GAMES THAT DON'T DO EVIL THINGS TO YOU rather than refusing to buy anything ever.
There's a proud commenter there claiming that e only pirates games and if games became unpiratable e'd just stop playing them. Guess what? That threat is REALLY not going to bother a company who's investing time and effort into DRM. They would rather have you not play than pirate. That's kinda the point.
Take time to research games.
Support companies who aren't evil.
Why so difficult?
WTF?
And of course this starts up the insistent yells of "THIS IS WHY I ONLY EVER PIRATE GAMES" which is, well, still crazy - Not every game behaves like this. SUPPORT GAMES THAT DON'T DO EVIL THINGS TO YOU rather than refusing to buy anything ever.
There's a proud commenter there claiming that e only pirates games and if games became unpiratable e'd just stop playing them. Guess what? That threat is REALLY not going to bother a company who's investing time and effort into DRM. They would rather have you not play than pirate. That's kinda the point.
Take time to research games.
Support companies who aren't evil.
Why so difficult?
read 'em and weep
Magical Diary
current numbers: 32,305 words, 58 menus. plot progress: Midway through week 6.
I'm currently working on Class Officer Elections, a subplot that most players will probably miss entirely their first time through, because you have to be a student in good standing on to be eligible to run: no demerits. And many people won't have worked out how to gain merits yet that early in the game.
Being a class officer will affect events throughout the year, but it probably won't open up HUGE amounts of officer-only content, partly because it's easy to not even realise this is here, and partly because I was never a class officer myself so I don't have quite as many good ideas for it. :)
.... This would be going faster if I didn't keep playing Avernum. Oops.
current numbers: 32,305 words, 58 menus. plot progress: Midway through week 6.
I'm currently working on Class Officer Elections, a subplot that most players will probably miss entirely their first time through, because you have to be a student in good standing on to be eligible to run: no demerits. And many people won't have worked out how to gain merits yet that early in the game.
Being a class officer will affect events throughout the year, but it probably won't open up HUGE amounts of officer-only content, partly because it's easy to not even realise this is here, and partly because I was never a class officer myself so I don't have quite as many good ideas for it. :)
.... This would be going faster if I didn't keep playing Avernum. Oops.
Sunday, 10 October 2010
casual days
as seen on the rampant coyote:
Okay, the site is like TOTALLY slammed right now with people right now, but until 10:10 PM Tonight Pacific time, Bejeweled 2 is FREE at popcap.com to celebrate the 10th birthday of Bejeweled!
not that I have one
Apparently you can now play Zork on a Kindle.
If they could get all of Inform (or TADS but probably Inform) working, that'd be quite nice.
If they could get all of Inform (or TADS but probably Inform) working, that'd be quite nice.
Saturday, 9 October 2010
well, on the bright side...
... at least anyone choosing to wear a 'Dickwolves' shirt is helpfully labeling themselves to be a bit of an ass so you know to avoid them?
Sigh.
Sigh.
Friday, 8 October 2010
Deathspank
is apparently headed to PC.
Since it wasn't a PC game originally I don't actually know much about it yet, other than having vaguely heard positive things and snickering at the name.
Since it wasn't a PC game originally I don't actually know much about it yet, other than having vaguely heard positive things and snickering at the name.
ow, there's a wall there!
Well, I seem to have run out of available demo content in Avernum 6.
Since it took me a while to get there, and I've contentedly played that far, I probably ought to buy the thing.
Now I just have to figure out whether I buy one game or a pack of them.
Since it took me a while to get there, and I've contentedly played that far, I probably ought to buy the thing.
Now I just have to figure out whether I buy one game or a pack of them.
because I'm never going to make this myself
Wizard Fortress - Sort of like Dwarf Fortress, except you build UP. Find rocks. Make a tower. Recruit and train apprentices. Survive earthquakes, windstorms, and attacks from OTHER wizard towers. And the tendency of apprentices to blow themselves up in ridiculous ways.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Galgun
... apparently in this game, you have to shoot schoolgirls. with love bullets. so that they collapse in swooning heaps before they can get close enough to kiss you.
WTF?
WTF?
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Nyxquest
Cool-looking platformer that's made its way from WiiWare to Mac/PC. I haven't tried it yet (I expect my current computer may not be able to run it) but worth peeking at:
Monday, 4 October 2010
Avernum
Still in the demo, still poking at it. Had an entertaining time tonight having gotten myself into a "trap" (well, I knew it was, but) and having to slowly fight my way out, and even use up some of my limited-use items (especially when my mage got eaten by a hellhound.)
planescape mods
If you've just picked up the game, you might be interested in various enhancements and bugfixes which can be found over here. (Not personally tested.)
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Avernum 6
So I figured I may as well try it. While I still have some issues with the clunky interface and occasional hard-to-distinguish graphics, the FLOW of this game is much better than I dimly remember from my having tried one of these titles in the past. I know what to do and where to go and I'm happily following my trail of breadcrumbs along... but then I had to stop or neither I nor the person watching over my shoulder would get anything done tonight.
Friday, 1 October 2010
Automatic Updates
I'm really quite dubious about the idea of games automatically updating themselves to the latest version. I understand that it's necessary in MMORPGs (which I don't play much anyway) but in single-player... Even for a bug fix, I would generally rather know what's buggy and have the choice to fix it myself.
There is, after all, the possibility that a "game rebalancing" issue means "disabling the method I've found to win really effectively and have been having fun with".
And while it's somewhat rare, there HAVE been cases of official game updates being completely broken and ending up making the game unplayable or worse until a fix is released. Even when they aren't actually breaking stuff, the console linux removal demonstrates that companies will happily take features away from users.
So I'm kinda unenthusiastic on the idea of the 3DS silently automatically updating itself without your permission, and possibly when you'd tried to turn the machine OFF.
I've never pirated a DS game or even been tempted - I can't run google ads on this blog because I *know* those bastards are all over the feed and i've had limited results from trying to report them all. If the updates only check for cracks I'm not too bothered. But I don't *trust* companies to do what's best... and remember, it was the "anti-piracy" (region locking) features that prevented me from buying a DSi.
I'm in no rush for a 3DS anyway... 3d and me, not the best of buddies.
There is, after all, the possibility that a "game rebalancing" issue means "disabling the method I've found to win really effectively and have been having fun with".
And while it's somewhat rare, there HAVE been cases of official game updates being completely broken and ending up making the game unplayable or worse until a fix is released. Even when they aren't actually breaking stuff, the console linux removal demonstrates that companies will happily take features away from users.
So I'm kinda unenthusiastic on the idea of the 3DS silently automatically updating itself without your permission, and possibly when you'd tried to turn the machine OFF.
I've never pirated a DS game or even been tempted - I can't run google ads on this blog because I *know* those bastards are all over the feed and i've had limited results from trying to report them all. If the updates only check for cracks I'm not too bothered. But I don't *trust* companies to do what's best... and remember, it was the "anti-piracy" (region locking) features that prevented me from buying a DSi.
I'm in no rush for a 3DS anyway... 3d and me, not the best of buddies.
video games will RUIN YOUR LIFE!!!!
The Daily Mail is now apparently suggesting that playing Nintendogs will make animals attack you.
Spiderweb Sale
So they're celebrating an anniversary and a bunch of things are on sale, especially game compilations.
I suppose someday I ought to actually play the games. I tried one once and couldn't really get into it up-front, shrugged, and moved on. On the other hand, a lot of RPGs that I've loved were equally hard to get into on first try. So maybe sometime...
I suppose someday I ought to actually play the games. I tried one once and couldn't really get into it up-front, shrugged, and moved on. On the other hand, a lot of RPGs that I've loved were equally hard to get into on first try. So maybe sometime...
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