03 Jun 2005, 02:32
Interesting quote from Greg Costikyan: “fostering an independent games movement really requires solving three problems simultaneously: First, creating a desire among developers to do something different; second, finding a solution to the business issue of creating a viable channel for distribution of independent product; and third, changing gamer culture. By that I mean that people who like indie music and film are willing to accept lower production values in exchange for individual vision and creativity.
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02 Jun 2005, 09:01
Browsing through GI.biz, I came across this bit where a UK store is speculating with a retail price of 400 pounds for the XBox 360. That got me thinking into the prices for other territories.
400 UK pounds is roughly US$ 700. However history says a more likely US price would be $500. History also says that the rest of Europe would see a price of 500 Euros. Weighing in the standards of living, average salaries and whatnot, this means gaming in Spain and most of Europe is twice as expensive as gaming in the US.
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31 May 2005, 15:18
I found this discussion very interesting:
http://www.buzzcut.com/article.php?story=20040827160706119#comments
The whole site is quite interesting, actually. Another blog to keep track of!
28 May 2005, 06:40
Nightwish, Slayer, Marilyn Manson along with a few others. Slayer were capable but boring (I just don’t like machinegun metal); Marilyn Manson was effective but a bit uninspired; Nightwish totally rocked the place, with great performance and what I believe to be the best sound I’ve experienced in a live concert since Mike Oldfield.
21 May 2005, 03:31
Will Wright chatted with Wired, and participated in an E3 panel. Great stuff in both articles.
I went to watch Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, and was pleasantly surprised! While the two prequels had been visually amazing, the story, dialogue and character development seriously lacked. Episode 3 – RotS is different: the story is really good, and it certainly has the darker tone that Lucas had promised.
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17 May 2005, 03:52
The first battle, in what will hopefully be a long war, is over. Both have given their first presentation, and Sony has completely stolen the show. Why? Because they have shown a lot of cool stuff and Microsoft hasn’t, that’s why. At the moment theres a certain feeling that Sony has Dreamcasted the XBox 2 (I refuse to call it 360).
Most of the videos are pre-rendered clips, and for those that are in-game footage, when you see the screenshots you notice a lot of tricks which you know will lessen the sense of photorealism and detail.
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13 May 2005, 16:20
It’s official: I’m overloaded with videos, screenshots, announcements, rumours and facts sheets. Everything has become a messy blur of bumpmapped shading, explosions and numbers.
Imperial Glory is finished and I have a final copy. I only worked on it for three months, but (with permission of the dev team) I am as attached to it as to any other game I ever worked on.
08 May 2005, 06:22
If you only ever watch one classic movie (those filmed in black and white, before you were born), you won’t go wrong if you choose All About Eve. Amazing script, great performances and witty dialogue… it really is one of the best movies ever made.
Interesting interview with Paul Verhoeven (from 2002). I really enjoy the unique view of the world he creates in his movies (I even found Showgirls not that bad!
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04 May 2005, 03:09
Gave my lecture at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and the slides (in Spanish) are available here.
I’m not terribly happy with the way the lecture went. To begin with, there were very few attendants; Friday afternoon right before a long weekend with sunny weather? Even I was anxious to hit the road and get to the beach! I also felt that the students were more curious that truly interested in professional and philosophical games development issues.
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25 Apr 2005, 07:47
Their current argument over the encryption system in Nikon’s Raw file format is pretty funny. In the past, Adobe has been just as protective about their own format: Adobe’s font formats were not open, and the Photoshop SDK stopped being freely available around version 7. So, I am the happy owner of two Nikon digital cameras, I dislike unnecessary protection / encryption systems, Photoshop is an amazing piece of software, and my experiences with Adobe’s tech support people have been horribly bad.
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