09 Nov 2006, 18:13
I sat down today to check out what’s inside XNA Games Studio, the platform which Microsoft touts as the future of bedroom games coding (well, sort of). It’s still in beta 2, and it doesn’t support XBox 360 executables yet, but it works fairly well. I ported my old C# game experiment without much pain, and you can check the results here. Don’t expect a lot of polish in the code or the actual game: the platform is still beta after all, so I didn’t want to spend more than a few hours with it.
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01 Nov 2006, 01:58
After waking up somewhat early, I sat down and tried Defcon by “the last of the bedroom coders” Introversion Software. The game’s premise and visuals are fascinating: an RTS about global thermonuclear warfare, with a graphical style borrowed from tactical displays (as seen in movies like the inspirational Wargames).
After a simple and clear tutorial, you can start freeform games in a multiplayer-oriented fashion. There are no campaign or missions, but you can make games versus AI.
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24 Oct 2006, 16:00
I just watched the movie El Laberinto Del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth), by fantasy film master Guillermo Del Toro. What a wonderful movie! It is a dramatic and at times gruesome fairytale set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, with stunning visuals and a gripping story. One of the best films of this year, which sadly won’t get enough worldwide attention due to it being recorded in spanish.
14 Oct 2006, 05:18
I just bought Doom on the 360 Live Arcade Marketplace… Ahh the memories! As a port it’s quite cheaply done, doesn’t even properly support 16:9 screens, and they certainly haven’t touched any gameplay, graphics or features. But the old magic is there: maze-y levels, secrets with disguised hints, cheap scares, and LOTS of baddies to rip apart! Raw, unadulterated gameplay, without catering to mundane things such as “story”, “realism” or “coherence”.
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10 Oct 2006, 17:27
Scott Miller used to praise online distribution of games, and Triton as the future king of the hill. I guess he was a bit hasty: Triton has apparently shut down operations, and left Prey (and their other games) buyers out in the cold.
This highlights the biggest issue with Digital Rights Management, online distribution, and the concept of consumers having to buy not only the goods, but the right to use them: to what extent should the law bend to protect the sellers, rather than the buyers?
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05 Oct 2006, 16:48
Via Joel, I ran into this excellent article and discussion: “Good Agile, Bad Agile." It’s long and detailed, but very humorous and energic. It attacks the “official” approach to Agile Development and Extreme Programming, and then moves on to discuss how Google’s process is vastly superior to anything else.
Obviously, what works for Google may not necessarily work for other companies, other products, and other markets. What company could afford to run a beta for over two years, and not be laughed at?
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04 Oct 2006, 16:23
Ars Technica ran an article entitled “How the Wii was born." Nothing earth-shattering, but it’s a nice read with a bit more details about the design decisions and philosophy behind the hardware.
Kim Pallister also offers some doubts about the Wii pricepoints and launch strategy. I can’t entirely agree with the specifics, but I do with the overall idea that perhaps a bit more agressive pricing might help a lot. We’ll see in a few months.
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18 Sep 2006, 15:08
Wonderful article (in Spanish) by Sergio Garcés, in Designostic.
Think about the code you might have to write, but write only the code you know you have to write.
17 Sep 2006, 02:53
Wow, the final details on Nintendo Wii’s launch came out this week, and the gaming world seems to be less than impressed. Every final number is at the high end of the bracket people were considering “reasonable”. In Europe:
– 250 euros for the console (Wii Sports included)
– 40e for extra wiimote + 20e for extra nunchuck
– games priced between 50e and 60e
– release in December so if the console is a success you might have trouble getting one for xmas.
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11 Sep 2006, 03:11
I have Joel on Software linked on the sidebar list but, if you are like most people, you have ignored it. However, if you are a software developer of any kind, there is a recent series of articles that you simply can not afford to miss:
– Finding Great Developers
– A Field Guide to Developers
– Sorting Resumes