How I Roll

It has been quite a while since I posted anything. I wish I could say that I was being productive in that time, but mostly I think I was just being sick and goofing off. "Goofing off" has included limited playtime with Bayonetta, New Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart Wii, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Collapse, and Swords & Poker. It has also included limited research on community theatre history in our region and into backend game server technology. Against my better judgement, I picked up Doom II RPG, so I am sure that my iPhone's battery will fail fast, most likely while I'm blasting baddies in turn-based goodness.

Gaslight

I am enjoying my tiny role in Gaslight at Westside. It is refreshing to get to help out with a show, wear a costume, and not have to learn any lines. It is also a lot of fun to see just how much people are loving Marni in the role. She does a spectacular job of being driven to the brink of insanity by her devious husband. I wish that I was able to see the end, however, since I am told that she shines, but that is while I am waiting to come on stage for my few seconds in the limelight.

She was also recently cast in Westside's next show, Move Over Mrs. Markham.

Things We Have Seen Lately

Marni and I go to a lot of theatre. Since my last entry (Dec 14th), we have gone to A Dicken's Christmas at the Gateway Foundation, White Christmas at Mystique, November at ARTI, Gaslight at Westside (cheating since we're both in it), Avenue Q in Salt Lake, Crimes of the Heart at OTAS, and Old, New, and Broadway Too at Mystique. We also happened to see a couple of movies Sherlock Holmes, Avatar, and When in Rome and quite enjoyed them. We headed to Valentines Day last weekend for...you guessed it, Valentines day.

Doom Classic is out on the iPhone.

There are a number of reasons that I get excited when id releases something; one of the reasons lately is that I get to sift through their iPhone code. As with the Wolf 3D source release, id has graciously released the source code to their iPhone port of Doom. Here are Carmack's release notes on the development process and release.

I have mirrored the initial version's (and build instructions) download at Godsend Productions. I also mirrored the iPhone Wolf source (1.0, 1.1).

Torque 3D is at 1.0.1 and we are full-steam ahead on 1.1. Unity Technology has revamped the "indie" version of Unity and released it for free to the masses; their iPhone and Pro engines are rushing through the marketplace as well. The Game Creators has released their ad-supported version of DarkBasic Pro for free. And the big shocker is that Epic has released the Unreal Development Kit for free. The PushButton Engine is still free and one kick ass little Flash/Flex-based engine. With Adobe's note that CS5 will include deployment to the iPhone, this little engine is a very big deal!

It is a very good time for game developers everywhere!

Now if I can kick this stomach flu that's been kicking me...

That's right. Ferret Powered. You gotta keep your eyes on the little buggers. They might invade California.

Torque 3D is ferret powered.

I am constantly asked about acquiring licensing for console development. From the enthusiasm of these developers and the rather lacking amount of information on the web about it (other than forum posts about prices and speculations and homebrew kits), I thought I would at least toss out the base links for getting information from the official licensing sources.

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Should you be remotely interested, as I am in my dabling state, I have created a group of templates for different handhelds. Mostly, it will help artists think about how their nifty desktop game artwork will work on mobile devices. It can really muddy up your day. First of all, you should check out the technical comparison from Joystiq. Note that the gallery settings are a bit strange when viewing them. Clicking on the individual images will give you the proper dimensions, etc.

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I do not know how many times I have heard the worlds "RPG Maker is too limited for my vision" or some semblance of that sentiment around game development communities. While it does indeed fuel spur-of-the-moment engine license purchases, it also houses a much larger problem: project ineptitude. I do not think that I have seen a finished (or even alpha) project from anyone who has made this claim in any engine. It could definitely be because RPG's are hard to make. Yes, this is true, but even if you have the right tools, could you make it?

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I frequent a lot of game development communities (as well as gaming communities) and often see people who get really excited about new markets (the current really exciting one is the iPhone App store). I can understand that excitement. New markets are by definition pretty exciting, especially to people who like breaking into new markets (ie, indies).

Unfortunately, if you have visited the iPhone game store, there is an awful lot of crap there. I'm not talking about a couple of bad games here or there or games the I just don't like. I'm talking about "I'd rather play Barbie Vacation Adventure on an Emulator than play this shitty excuse for a game"-type crap. There are, of course, some fun games on there like Dr. Awesome, Rolando, Sushi-to-Go, and Vay...but there is a lot of crap as well.

And sadly, a lot of the games that I really don't like come out of the communities that I really do like: the indie game communities. I like the little guy. I am the little guy. I try to support the little guy...and in doing so I have bought some really, really horrid games that should never have been released in the first place. Not just games that I don't like (I've bought some of those, too). But I can differentiate between games I don't like and games that are just plain unworkable messes that make me want to punch the dev's in the throat.

I've played a lot of bad games. Hell, I have written FAQs for bad games. But I really, really wish I didn't have to support indies making bad games.

So how about adding "Make games that don't suck" to your list when developing a game. Make it playable. Make it fun. Even if it's not my type of game, I can recommend it to people who would love it. But right now, I often find it hard to recommend a lot of indie iPhone games to people because they're just not that great.

As posted at Godsend Productions.