GDR

Interesting Kickstarters

Author: PoV
Subject: Interesting Kickstarters
Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:38 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 6

Lots of interesting game projects have been popping up on KS lately, from Double Fine's Adventure Game, to InXile (Ex Interplay's) Wasteland 2. So lets talk about ones we like.

* * *

A new 2D Shadowrun game.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns

I'm still somewhat concerned about the project, but I still backed it. Apparently they have the musicians from the SNES an Genesis games on board.

Ends in a couple days. The "updates" section has more update video.
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Mike Kasprzak
Sykhronics Entertainment | Smiles + HD - 2008 | Nook, ?? - 2012 | Alone, The - 2013 | Blog

Tasker

Author: Bean
Subject: Tasker
Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 12:27 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 3

I don't know how to describe Tasker for Android. It does a lot! You can setup scripts to run on your phone, automation, location based tasks, create widgets, monitor phone states which trigger other things to happen, etc etc..

Apparently it's been out for some time, it's nicely polished at this point. It's got a bit of a learning curve but nothing anyone here would have trouble with. I highly highly recommend it to anyone looking to do more with their phone. The website has examples and profiles that you can download if you want an idea of what this thing can do.

I'm using it to automatically enable/disable Wifi, silent mode, password lock etc based on my location. i.e. When I get to work it silences the phone, when I'm not somewhere trusted it enables the password lock. You can setup various tasks when you enter and/or leave a location.
Locations can be based on cell towers, Wifi, network location(s) and/or GPS position.

Even if you don't buy it (it's about five bucks) it'd be worth browsing the site just to know something like this exists. Perhaps sometime in the future you'll realize you could use it (and even replace a bunch of apps you won't need anymore).

My only complaint is I just bought WheresMyDroid a week ago and Tasker can be scripted to do the same shit I was using that for. Although WheresMyDroid is still an excellent app for those who want a simpler method of setting up a phone locator.

http://tasker.dinglisch.net/

-Bean
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Nuclear Playground

PoV made a little platformer game (Was Ludum Dare 23 Thread)

Author: PoV
Subject: PoV made a little platformer game (Was Ludum Dare 23 Thread)
Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 11:40 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 36

Hey guys. I thought I'd share since I'm heavily involved in both.

Ludum Dare 23 is next weekend (April 20th-23rd). It's our 10 year anniversary, so apparently we've been jamming and making games in weekends for 10 years now. Yikes! Details:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/

Also, thanks to some e-mail magic, we scored some Unity Pro keys specially for the event. Each key is good for 3 months, so if you've been considering Unity, it may be worth checking out/participating.

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/2012/04/13/ludum-deals-for-ld23/

There may be a Unity Pro discount to follow, but that's still in the works.

Ta!
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Mike Kasprzak
Sykhronics Entertainment | Smiles + HD - 2008 | Nook, ?? - 2012 | Alone, The - 2013 | Blog

Cool Looking Games and Trailers

Author: PoV
Subject: Cool Looking Games and Trailers
Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:25 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 9

Okay. We have a thread for what we are playing, but how about one for what we want to be playing?

* * *

To quote Ben on Twitter "Who needs an indie metroidvania when you can have an indie metroid?".

* * *

Grimrock. F yeah.

Embedding the final trailer did not work, so I embedded the old one. Here's the link though.

http://youtu.be/xmSJ1iFx5zA

But whatever, it comes out today. I can't wait.
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Mike Kasprzak
Sykhronics Entertainment | Smiles + HD - 2008 | Nook, ?? - 2012 | Alone, The - 2013 | Blog

Offtopic - Spring 2012

Author: sonrisu
Subject: Offtopic - Spring 2012
Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 4:16 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 74

2012
Winter 2012 Off Topic

2011
Fall 2011 Off Topic
Summer 2011 Off Topic
Spring 2011 Off Topic
Winter 2011 Off Topic

2010
Fall 2010 Off Topic
Summer 2010 Off Topic
Spring 2010 Off Topic
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2009
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2008
Fall 2008 Off Topic
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2007
Winter 2007 Off Topic
Fall 2007 Off Topic
Summer 2007 Off Topic
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2006
Winter 2006 Off Topic
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Spring 2006 Off Topic

2005
Winter 2005 Off Topic
Fall 2005 Off Topic
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loomsoft | Zep's Dreamland | "Why don't you go play Super Mario Deus Ex Galaxy Kart" (Ep 9)

April Fools 2012

Author: PoV
Subject: April Fools 2012
Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 8:00 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 12

Off to a good start. Google added a "Quest" view to Google Maps.

Here's a video about it.

http://www.youtube.com/googlemaps

Such sillyness. :)
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Mike Kasprzak
Sykhronics Entertainment | Smiles + HD - 2008 | Nook, ?? - 2012 | Alone, The - 2013 | Blog

BrowserQuest

Author: Sirocco
Subject: BrowserQuest
Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 4:00 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 17

Here's a cute little MORPG done with Javascript and HTML 5 from the decidedly weird doods at Mozilla. Pretty impressive effort, too. There's no setup... just give your character a name and start playing. No login/out, etc.

It's a short deal, so you can fully explore everything in a lunch break or two, and it saves your progress automatically. I ran around. I groped loot. I bopped things over the head.

:P
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Then I replaced a projectile sound effect with Bon Jovi and had it flying past my head with doppler and everything hehe - Bean

Wing Commander Saga

Author: Sirocco
Subject: Wing Commander Saga
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:05 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 5

Before you get too excited, this isn't official -- Wing Commander Saga is a total conversion using Freespace 2. It's set during the events of WC3 and on a path that's parallel to the main story. There's 55 missions.

I can't say it's outstanding, but it's a fine effort nonetheless, and the only new... decent... Wing Commander stuff we'll get any time soon. The voice acting ranges from acceptable to hideous. Asking non-professionals to get good voice acting rounded up is a stretch, so I won't ding it for trying. Graphics look close to what I'd expect, although consistency is a little off at times. I think there's a mix of new and old textures. My gun sound effects seem to drop out on me frequently, only to return later. This is probably a side-effect of the OpenAL usage.

I'm not really sold on it, although I've made it through mission six. Wing Commander was always unique in that it seemed to have just the right math to make space dogfights fun and a little bit arcade-ish. Most other games go for a more realistic movement model, and that makes guns impossible to use. By the time you've closed to gun range, you blink once and you've overshot the dude by half a mile. This mod is close to nailing that feeling, but there are times when it still seems off. I find myself resorting to launching missiles far more than I would in a true WC game. Especially in WC 1 and 2, I almost never used my missiles. 3 and 5 were so-so... some of the missiles were useful to keep outliers busy while you racked up close kills. WC 4 was actually pretty bad in that respect -- even at lower difficulty levels I struggled to hit anything with my guns.

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Then I replaced a projectile sound effect with Bon Jovi and had it flying past my head with doppler and everything hehe - Bean

Entity/Component Systems

Author: xegnma
Subject: Entity/Component Systems
Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2012 2:09 pm (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 18

I have stumbled upon Entity/Component systems a few months ago and find that I really like this not-so-new approach to game architecture. Figure I would bring it up here for discussion.

Here are a few articles on the topic for the uninitiated:

http://www.richardlord.net/blog/what-is-an-entity-framework
http://www.richardlord.net/blog/why-use-an-entity-framework

http://t-machine.org/index.php/2007/09/03/entity-systems-are-the-future-of-mmog-development-part-1/

So, what are your thoughts?

"When the Consoles Die" presentation

Author: PoV
Subject: "When the Consoles Die" presentation
Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:38 am (GMT -8)
Topic Replies: 24

Lots of mobile guys have assumed the Consoles are a dying breed for a really long time (me included), but here's a presentation that includes some realistic data:

http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/when-the-consoles-die-what-comes-next
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Mike Kasprzak
Sykhronics Entertainment | Smiles + HD - 2008 | Nook, ?? - 2012 | Alone, The - 2013 | Blog