I am participating in the Blogs of the Round Table for the first time in many months. May’s topic:
A Game Is Worth a Thousand Words: What would one of your favorite pieces of non-interactive art look like if it had been created as a game first? May’s topic challenges you to imagine that the [...]

Game Design | 2 Comments »

Stephen over at Unobserved Musings wrote about an ambitious plan he tackled with a colleague: creating an iPhone app in 8 days. It’s not 8 days of straight development for this project, either. He and his colleague have other obligations, too.
Is what we are attempting even possible? Can two individuals really give up all [...]

Game Design, Game Development, Marketing/Business, Personal Development | No Comments »

For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 120.75 (current year) = 696.75 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
I wrote some test code to see if I could create my own static library. This way, when I create a game, I [...]

Game Development, Personal Development | No Comments »

It’s almost 9:30 PM as I write this post. The significance of the time is that it is hours after I expected it to be. The reason: I’ve been playing the demo of PopCap’s Plants vs Zombies and didn’t notice the passing of the hours.
If you’re a game developer, the first question on your mind [...]

Game Design, Games, Marketing/Business | 4 Comments »

Jay Barnson of Rampant Games reported on yet another abuse of the DMCA. This time, the abusers are car manufacturers.
Modern cars are equipped with computers, which means repairs and auto work now require more than just hitting your engine with a hammer. It seems that in order for non-dealership service shops to fix your [...]

Geek / Technical, Politics/Government | No Comments »

For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 118.5 (current year) = 694.5 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
Ugh. Another slow week. And actually, the increased numbers represent two weeks. I’m doing a horrible job of focusing on game development. [...]

Game Development, Personal Development | No Comments »

Thanks to Scott Macmillan of Macguffin Games, I learned about an article by Cory Doctorow called Digital Licensing: Do It Yourself.
Doctorow suggests a fascinating idea: self-service licensing. Let’s say you create a game, and someone wants to create plush toys of the characters and sell them online. Technically, it’s illegal unless they get your [...]

Geek / Technical, Marketing/Business, Politics/Government | 1 Comment »

The Business Software Alliance, which is made up of mainly larger software companies and claims to be the “voice of the world’s software industry and its hardware partners on a wide range of business and policy affairs”, sponsored research by IDC. Their findings were released in the 2008 Global Software Piracy Study.
I take issue [...]

Geek / Technical, Marketing/Business, Politics/Government | No Comments »

I’ve been playing Metal Gear Solid with some coworkers, and we’ve been having fun making fun of a lot of the silliness: Genome soldiers are genetically engineered to be the best except for the side-effect of extreme myopia. And an inability to store long-term memories of the fact that someone just shot at them. Or [...]

Games, Geek / Technical, Marketing/Business | No Comments »

Thanks to @juggernautco, I learned about A Message for 2K Australia, the best resignation letter from an indie game developer ever. Apparently from the creator of ROM Check Fail and Fishie Fishie, it’s a fantastic way to tell your day job that you’re moving on.
Good luck, Farbs!

Games, Geek / Technical, Personal Development | No Comments »