Beneath a Steel Sky

Well, this is old news, but classics never grow old. So I'll just link to a site where Beneath a Steel Sky is downloadable with ScummVM in a handy installer, so it's just to install and run. If you don't know about this game, the more reason there is for you to download it.

Beneath a Steel Sky

The Making of Deus Ex the Story

Well, after playing and reading alot of Shadowrun, I started to think some about the story in Deus Ex, and wanted to find out more about that to. After a little googling, I found a few really good sources for the entire story of Deus Ex and the making of it.

DX1 Continuity Bible
Nuwen.net - Deus Ex Story page
Behind the Scenes Look in the Making of Deus Ex
Michael Abrash and even more post mortems

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - Beta Levels

The Legend Of Zelda Wind Waker BETA Levels 1-9


The Legend Of Zelda Wind Waker BETA Levels 10-14


More videos...
Action Replay Codes

Shadowrun - Genesis

Wow, this game was really hard. Either that, or very very time consuming. Well, atleast I've completed it now and I've started reading some Shadowrun: Fourth Edition (the RPG rulebook) to get a even broader perspective of the Shadowrun universe and history.

Man, this is only making it even more disappointing that FASA Studios new reincarnation of the game series, turns it into a mindless CS clone with capture the flag gameplay. Shadowrun is like made to be a MMORPG...

FASA Studios "You're dead to me"

Prey 1998

System specs: 266mhz with a Voodoo 2 card

Cooking skill -2

Yes, I ate it all... now I got a aftertaste of burnt in my mouth
Might be a good time to buy new batteries to the fire detector

Game Idea #4: Trapped

Game Idea #4: Trapped
Trapped in a gigantic maze, filled with booby traps and nothing to protect yourself with except from your own cunning.

High Concept:
Trapped is a 3D, platform, puzzle game, where you're trapped inside a huge maze where every room is booby trapped, or is built in a way that will require you to have good jumping precision skills, to survive. Using portal techniques, makes so the exits of each room can lead absolutely anywhere, even back into the same room.

Platform:
Any

Why it needs to be made:
This game isn't about kill or be killed, but to use caution, stealth and cunning to avoid/disarm/take advantage of the traps that placed out in your way, as well as you need to figure out the right path out of the maze. It takes a different approach that most games neglect or just have it as a sideshow.

Description:
You wake up in a empty room with several exits. You choose one of them which leads to another room with different colored tiles that varies between white, green, yellow and red. You step on a green one and it goes to yellow, and you step on a yellow one and it turns red, and as you step on another tile which is red, the floor breaks beneath you and you fall down to get impaled by spikes.

The screen blurs in and out, and you find yourself back in the starting room. You go back into the room with the different colored tiles, but this time you avoid stepping on the red ones and chooses the exit acroos the room. But this is weird, you're sure that this is the same room as you started in, and walks across the room to find that the exit leads back to the different colored tiles room. You decide to not go back in there and choose another exit.

This time you end up in a furnitured room with a very high ceiling and seemingly no exit. Just for fun of it, you jump onto the sofa, from the sofa to the fireplace, from the fireplace to the bookcase and from the bookcase to the chandelier. Now you see that that the exit is bit further up towards the ceiling.

You manage to climb all the way up, and sees that one of the exits leads yet again back to the different colored tiles room. You take another one and ends up in a hall of mirrors. And the game continues like that, with leading back and fourth through different kind of puzzles and traps until you finally mange to find your way outside... or is that really safer?

Why it will be fun:
The tension of knowing that at any moment you might trigger a trap if you aren't aware enough, combined with curiosity of exploring and the satisfaction of outwit the dangers is a mixture of several different kinds of enjoyments.

Final thougths:
I was close to choose a alien ball similiar to Gish, and turn it into somekind of Marble Madness mixed with Rube Goldberg devices, and where you can alter you apperance into a rubber ball, bowling ball or water.

If I would've gone with this idea instead, I could've choosed to develop it for Wii, PS3 and DS with tilt sensoring to roll the ball around the game field, but I wanted to stay true to the original concept of this instead.

This idea mostly came from discussing about how to make WoW dungeons more exciting than they currently are, along with some inspiration from the Cube movies.

Yahoo! Music selling DRM-free MP3s

It's great that atleast someone is doing something against the Digital Rights Management plague.

Read more...

GameProducer about Open Development

The pros:
1. Public development means publicity: If nobody doesn’t know about your game, then you can rest assured it doesn’t get the publicity it could have before the release. Different people will talk about it… tell their friends… news etc.

The cons:
1. Financial risk: somebody might steal your idea, patent it… or run to market before you. I think this is the case with “smaller” indie games (development cycle less than 3 months) where time-to-market has a bigger meaning. In larger (indie!) games I don’t this is the issue… I just don’t believe people could steal your idea and do it. It would take huge time. Besides - aren’t there games like World of Warcraft, Battlefield, Sims or Half-life to be cloned?

Pros and Cons of Opening Development to the Public

Twin Kingdom Valley - Post Mortem

Solipsism was clearly the philosophy of early adventure game design. The belief that only you exist, and that everything and everyone else are just products of your own mind, seems reasonable when the dragon never moves until you attack it, the guard never leaves his post and no one ever gets to the treasure before you do. Now try doing that again – but this time you’re not so special.

The making of... Twin Kingdom Valley

Portals before Prey and Portal

Except from Descents use of portals, the probably most portal like system closest to Prey and Portal, must be the student developed one for Narbacular Drop.

Narbacular Drop was created by a bunch of students from DigiPen Institute of Technology, and was submitted for Independent Game Festival, Student Showcase Competition 2006, which they also won.

Actually, their success landed them a deal with Valve, and they're actually the ones that's developing Portal for the source engine.

Wikipedia - Narbacular Drop
Download - Narbacular Drop
Narbacular Drop - Gamasutra Q&A

Portals in the Source Engine

Along with Half-Life: Episode 2, you'll not only recieve the expansion, but you'll also get both Team Fortress 2 (I thougth that project was dead?) and this new mod, heavily inspired by Prey's use of portals, called just that, Portal.

Download hi-quality version...

Real Life Gaming

Secret Project Progression

Alright, the secret project is coming along fine and we've it locked now, so no new ideas will be added to it and we just crunch to complete the last stuff. On the other hand, my other secret project I did for school and a game company, isn't going as smoothly. It's gone more than 20 days since I recieved the last mail where he said "We'll discuss it tomorrow...".

Bigfoot announce: Killer Network Interface Card

The card host a 32-bit processor at 400Mhz with 64MB DDR PC2100, and is a 10/100/100mbit network card. It would be interesting to read the reviews on this one once it's released.

Lag and Latency Reduction Technology
Bigfoot Networks, KillerNic
KillerNic Tech Specification

Cooking skill, food for the masses!

Chorizo, Croquette, Colors

And a replay on the chicken with red curry paste

Prey

Guess it's time to uninstall then...

Independent Game Festival Competitions

The 9th Annaul Independent Game Festival will host three competitions this year.

• IGF Competition, deadline September 8, 2006
  Seumas McNally Grand Prize ($20,000)
  Excellence In Visual Art ($2,500)
  Excellence In Audio ($2,500)
  Innovation Award ($2,500)
  Technical Excellence ($2,500)
  Best Web Browser Game ($2,500)
  Audience Award ($2,500)
  
  
• IGF Mod Competition, deadline October 13, 2006
  Best Singleplayer FPS Mod ($500)
  Best Multiplayer FPS Mod ($500)
  Best RPG Mod ($500)
  Best 'Other' Mod ($500)
  Best Mod ($5,000)
  
  
• IGF Student Showcase, deadline November 10, 2006
  IGF Student Showcase Winner ($500)
  Best Student Game ($2,500)

Read more...

Game Idea #3: Game Buisness

Game Idea #3: Game Buisness
The game buisness is a weird place to be, and getting into it is a true challenge.

High Concept:
Game Buisness is a comical, retro point & click adventure game. You start out as a aspiring teenager in your parents basement, and dreams of one day being able to create your own game. The choices you make along the way will be crucial if you succeed or not.

Platform:
Nintendo DS

Why it needs to be made:
Alot of gamers dreams of designing their own games, and most of them don't know which path to follow to make that dream come true. The purpose of the game is to be enjoyable, the same time it's meant to teach young people some of the harsh reality of the buisness. Also, the point & click adventures need to be brought back to the industry.

Description:
It's the middle of the night. The computer screen softly illuminates your face as you chew on a slice of pizza. You're running low on Cola, but you don't care, because this is the breakthrough you've been waiting for. You've figured out the holy graal of gaming, the best game ever. You fall asleep on the keyboard.

You wake up the following morning by the beep sound of the keyboard, and tiredly removes the slice of pizza from your cheek. It's time to deliver the news papers around the neighbourhood to earn yourself the money you'll need to travel to Game Developers Conferance and try to convince someone to give you a job.

After you're done with the paperboy mini-game, you'll need to buy yourself a Expo Pass and a plane ticket to San Francisco. From there you'll have a little adventure to find your way to the conferance where you foolishly try to convince Peter Wright to endorse your game.

After being drowned by his fans, and some failed stunts to gain his attention, the event is over and he's since long gone. But you unintentionally caught the attention of a more unknown developer that offers you a job in the quality assurance department. The game continues from there as you work yourself up in the buisness.

Why it will be fun:
If you've ever played a LucasArts adventure game, you'll probably get a twinkle in your look for a moment, as you dwell in the memories of those games, since long gone. It's a relaxed gameplay that's easy to take to heart and very story driven. The cartoonish animations, weird details in the backgrounds, stereotypes and overall comedy of it all, is entertainment in itself.

Then you got the puzzle solving, decision making, the mini-games and the games ultimate goal. Progression and to be able to overcome the obstacles that's laid out before you. Also, the story about a young man in pursuit of his dreams makes it easy for the players to resemble themself in the avatar.

Final thougths:
A bit late this week, but a game brewed together today while reading the Game Developers Career Guide 2006. The idea went somewhere from being abit more uncommon to a classic point & click adventure, and I relize how important this exercise really is.

I've played ALOT of games in my days, more games than most people, to that extent that the genres have been embedded into my blood, and learning to easily think beyond that will be my goal with these game ideas.

Nogg-aholic Forum - Now with 3000+ members

We got our 3000th member yesterday, and the list continues to steadily grow. As of this writing, it's up to 3015 members.

Nogg-aholic Forum

NES IS ART

Cooking skill +1

Spaghetti, suger peas, chicken, red curry paste and garlic sauce

Sun Burn

I knew that broad daylight was bad...

Sola & Bada

Fabian, where were that pizza?

Hellgate London Source Code Likely Stolen

It's likely that Flagship Studios source code for Hellgate London have been compromised by a chinese hacker. Even though that Bill Roper agree that he also have heard the rumors about this, he couldn't as of this moment neither deny nor confirm it. It's weird though that the rumors claim that the hacker would be selling the source from his personal website. I hopefully don't have to specify in detail of why that could be a bad idea...

Hellgate: London Source Code Stolen?

First Chimpanzee to be Addicted to Gaming

I would also play bad if someone would sit behind me, shouting annoying comments and trying to tell me how to play the game, I even bet that the chimp played better than she would've.

Jack Thompsons comments was only those of that this would only turn the apes to our rulers, in a future caused by Ms. Pac-Man brainwashing them to hunt humans and to steal our cherries.

Super Barbeque Summer

I won't let the sun go down on me, Cruel Summer and Beautiful Day. Hamburgers and kebab. Turtles in Time, Super Bomberman and Super Probetector (Contra). That's the recipe for a great day with the friends :)

The Boss of Bosses

Gamespots Matt Rorie got a new video feature filmed in noir style, and Matt Rorie as the private detective that solves the cases he get about hard game bosses. Really cheesy, but entertaining.

First episode features:

• Beret today, gone tomorrow: Krauser from Resident Evil 4
• Death Wind and Fire: Agni and Rudra from Devil May Cry 3
• Pretty in Pink: Alma from Ninja Gaiden
• This is the End: "The End" from Metal Gear Solid 3

Watch the Premiere Episode!

Last chance to meet Engström and Falkvinge

Hej Gotland,

som ni kanske sett så har Christian Engström och jag varit i Visby under Almedalsveckan. Det har, för att uttrycka mig kort, varit fantastiskt.

Innan vi åker på måndag vore det roligt att träffa pirater från Gotland också. Därför kommer vi att äta middag på Medeltidskrogen Clematis i Visby imorgon söndag klockan 1830.

Krogen ligger på Strandgatan 20 (upp från Almedalen och till vänster), och det vore trevligt att få sällskap av fler pirater. Passa på att äta med partiets ordförande och vice dito, och snappa upp de senaste ryktena och de fetaste debattargumenten!

Rick

-Rickard Falkvinge

Deus Ex 2 Trick/Exploit

How to bypass a sentry gun without detection

Cooking skill +1

Spaghetti, chicken, paprika and red curry paste

Piracy Insurance

Not a insurance against pirates, but rather a insurance for pirates:

File-sharers in Sweden, which recently began cracking down on Internet piracy, can now buy insurance to protect themselves from government fines.

Magnus Braath, a 29-year-old architecture student, is offering to pay fines for any Swede convicted of the country's new antipiracy law. People unwilling to give up the practice of downloading copies of copyright music, movies or games can go to Tankafritt.nu and pay 140 Swedish crowns, about $19, for annual coverage.

A convicted pirate will also receive a printed T-shirt that reads "I got convicted for file-sharing and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."

Read more...

Pirates in Almedalen

Piratpartiet (The Pirate Party) will be on place in Visby during Almedalsveckan. The chairman Rickard Falkvinge and vice chairman Christian Engström arrived in Visby the day before yesterday (3 july) and will be heading back home monday next week, july 10th. Due to the outrageous cost of stage time, they'll be meeting people off-stage.

Contacts:
Rickard Falkvinge, party leader

0733-555 293

Christian Engström, vice chairman
070-663 37 80

Game Idea #2: Ex (Within)

Game Idea #2: Ex (Within)
When feeling lost, sometimes you'll only be able to find the path within yourself...

High Concept:
Ex (Within) is a puzzle kind of game, that takes places in a sole box. Your avatar is a faceless robot with a weird antenna that glows in various colors that can be for emotions or something it reacts to. Your mission is to solve the riddle of the box and get out of there.

Platform:
Handhelds

Why it needs to be made:
The market is overflowing with mindless action games and sports games. There's not much competition currently on the puzzle market except from Nintendos Brain Age. The game will be filling a spot where demand is bigger than the available products.

Description:
The game starts out with you as the robot waking up inside the box. Next to you are some crates and you can see red square markings on the floor. There's a door positioned weirdly in the ceiling. By moving the crates to the red squares (ala Sokoban), the room will flip over and you'll be able to access the door.

When entering the door, you disappear and the door moves from the floor up to the ceiling again. The door in the ceiling opens and you fall out of it into the same box again, but this time with another puzzle.

The possibilities of what kind of puzzles you'll be able to create for this, is endless, and the door can be positioned anywhere on the 6 faces of the box. One thing important for the game, is that there shouldn't be any kind of text, but instead utilize lights and symbols to hint the player of what to do.

Why it will be fun:
It's a challenge to go from puzzle to next puzzle, and it's rewarding to figure them out and make progress, to see how far you can go, or even complete the game (get out of the box). It's easy to pickup and start playing anytime, anywhere. You can spend 5 minutes to complete one puzzle and put the game aside to take it back up later, or you can spend several hours just playing through the game.

Final thougths:
This idea was spawned for our "Big Game Project" that was for the end of our last term. Due to the lack of my programming skills, I decided upon making a Oblivion mod instead, but that got quickly overruled and I got to do some work for an actual game company instead.