Some cool D3 (Diablo 3) fan art.
Posts Tagged ‘gaming’
Wizardess
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011Gathering dust
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011This place really needs to be cleaned up…
Ah well, one thing at a time.
And the first thing seemed to be reuploading HD version’s of some of my videos.
Here’s one of my animation projects from uni 
Snakes Alive
If that didn’t do it for you, here’s a few of my favourite videos since I last appeared.
Some nice portal related ones seeing as my last post was portal.
Want you gone – Portal 2 fanmade video
Fan Animation film clip for Want you gone
Portal: No Escape
A nice fan film re-imagining of portal, not just some game story clone
What’s been happening (start rambling…)
What I’ve been playing:
- BF3
- Minecraft
- Portal 2
- Deus Ex
- SWTOR beta (almost)
- LIMBO
- Voxatron (great indie game) and a bunch of other great humble indie bundle games.
Recommended listenings:
- The Getaway Plan – Requim
- Sum 41 – Screaming bloody murder
- Blink 182 – Neighbourhoods
- Jezabels all the EP’s
What I’ve been working on:
- …
- does trying to setup a VPS for minecraft count?
What I want to do:
- Start prototyping new game ideas
- Work on intro animation for DoubleJump
- Play around with ZBrush or Mudbox
- Start a 1-drawing-a-week routine
- Start a 1-simple-game-a-week routine
- Overhual this site… (i.e. upgraded and integrated, none of this lazy default template and separated website business)
..end ramble
I’ll end with the this, probably the greatest cat on youtube:
Portal 2 & Valve Store Purchases
Saturday, April 30th, 2011Portal 2
So Portal 2 came out last week, and thanks to all those who contributed to the potato sack indie bundle (http://www.aperturescience.com/glados@home/) to release it early, it was also an awesome birthday present 
(Thanks Gabe). Last week I also finished both the single player and Co-op stories of the game, and it indeed was an awesome game, definitely living up to the Valve standard of games.
My verdict? Co-op is fun, and a great addition to the portal gameplay, and surprisingly has its own story to it too (which follows after the single player campaign). Not so sure on replayability though, once you complete the puzzles, how are they challenging the next time round? And there are some nice communication elements (ping tool) for people playing online, but if your playing with strangers who haven’t beaten a stage yet, or you haven’t, and they’re rushing you, wont that ruin the experience? Fortunately I was playing with a mate, and we got to play through its entirety, consistently.
As for single player, it’s definitely a different beast to its predecessor. Portal 1 was simply a puzzle game, showcasing Valve’s awesome innovativeness, but Portal 2 was to become a full game, with its own box, and its own sales count. It definitely delivered, and at times it felt almost as epic as playing HL2. The environment, story, setting and characters were all great, and a times also felt a bit reminiscent of bioshock, which isn’t a bad thing. Unfortunately, I felt because there were so many new gameplay elements like gravity streams and bouncy goo, there was too much focus in explaining these new elements, and not enough levels where it exploited them. Even though some puzzles were actually quite hard, after you solved them, there wasn’t as much “OMFG THAT WAS AWESOME”, as there was in Portal 1. The beauty of Portal 1 was its simplicity, using only 2 portals, a few cubes and buttons, there were plenty of levels which used the same elements, but in completely different ways, and that made for really satisfying puzzles. Now it sounds like I’m dissing Portal 2 a little, but that’s only because there is nothing else to complain about, the other elements of the game are just perfect! And Valve really made another awesome game (do they ever not?).
What I would like to see though is access to all of Portal 2′s new stuff, for the community to get there hands on and exploit them (I didnt see any level importing like the first one :S). So in summary, Portal 1 had better quality puzzles, but everything else was stellar (oh FYI Portal 2 didn’t have any bad puzzles, they were still good, it’s just Portal 1′s as you know were just mind bending, could also just be as a result of expectation though).
Valve Merch
So thanks to our awesome $AUD ($1.05USD), I had to buy some merchandise from the Valve Store. Here’s what I got:
And there was also a Aperture Lab’s Vinyl sticker, but that’s a surprise for another day
New SketchBoy Sketch
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011This is a near final sketch of the default player in DoubleJump.
Dubbed sketchboy, he’s the one I’m most happy with since the vector concepts from the first iteration of DoubleJump. Still not sure about the name though, it seems to work perfectly but I really dont want to try and beat sackboy at his game. I’ll work on a different name, but for now it will do
Ninja and Toned versions
I like to grab spongey things
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Also checkout the always awesome Sackboy Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp2YhS0jeCU
More Indie Goodness
Saturday, December 25th, 2010Limbo
Wish this game was available on PC/Mac, seems to be XBL only 
looks absolutely awesome. Kind of reminds me of Max and the Wild Things
Humble Indie Bundle
In related indie game news, I’m having a blast with the Humble Indie Bundle
If you haven’t already purchased/played those games, you should get on the humble bundle wagon (if the promotion hasn’t ended already :S). It’s pay what you can and comes with some of the most popular indie games, plus if you pay over $8 you get the humble bundle pack #1 too. Oh and did I mention there’s steam integration support too 
.
See http://www.humblebundle.com for all the info.
And finally ill leave you with a little treat. Check this out: http://www.gamesbum.com/arcade/275-super-mario-crossover.html
Animation vs. Game Dev vs. Web Dev
Saturday, December 25th, 2010My passion has always been in game design, my natural skills have always been in animation, and my current opportunities are in web development. But which do I pursue?
Games
See my post on Indie Games
So my passion has always been in game development, I love creating an idea, I love imagining it, I love designing the experience the player will have, I love thinking of ways to fill the gaming void of what’s been done, what need’s to be done, and what hasn’t been seen. And I just love making it and seeing what I’ve created.
The only problem is, I don’t believe I’ve actually fully created a game from start to finish (besides the odd pong or space invaders type lol). I would really like to see myself developing DoubleJump fully, but I know its going to be a lengthy process.
At the same time (and I have no experience with this, but I believe that) I don’t think I want to be in the “Games” industry, simply for the fact that if I chose to pursue this, that I would be restricted to only one path, be it modelling/animating, programming, or designing. The issue is that I want to be doing all those things! All at once! In order to create a game that has pure symbiosis. This is the reason why I love indie games so much, because you can subtly tell that the designer, programmer and artist, all had the same idea/goal/intent in mind.
So I guess the question is, Is this really what the game industry is like? Can all my passions be satisfied through normal game studio’s? Or will I only ever achieve satisfaction through the indie scene?
Animation
I’ve always had a natural urge to animate things. I love how a thing, when animated properly, can be given life, character, emotion, and even change your perceptions of that thing, simply by it’s motions and actions.
Maybe it started at an early age when I was making those animated GIF stickdeath animations (wow that brings back some memories of awful animation LOL), or when I watched Toy Story as a boy, subconsciously marveling at how these toys were made to be alive, or maybe it was when I was given a copy of Macromedia’s Flash, giving me the tools to accomplish pretty much anything I desired to create as a kid. Together with growing up watching as many animation/cartoons that I could, always analysing the motion, timing and characterisms, all I know is that, today, I absolutely love animation, all forms of it, as well as the whole process, and finding out how I can use these skills is the next step.
I like designing a character, giving it attributes, features, emotions and a back-story. I love visualising it, drawing it, modelling it, bringing it from conception to reality, taking an idea, an imagination, and making it tangible, visible, something that someone else can see and begin to understand. But I mostly love animating it, and finally being able to express to someone else, the initial character that I designed, and letting them form their own opinions and relationships with them. I love that animation alone, can be used to touch people’s emotions, whether you want to make them happy or sad, comfortable or frightened, it can all be controlled by the way you animate something.
I was inspired by watching the Toy Story 3 DVD and all its special features, and it sort of rekindled my desire to start animating and modelling again. But what is the industry like? Are animators treated like the arse-end of development chain? And as much as I love seeing my creatures come to life, at times it can be a real tedious pain. And there are so many animators out there, is PIXAR always just going to be a fantasy?
Web
So I’m currently working as a Web and Flash developer, and it’s a great job, but I can’t help but feel I’m really neglecting my other two passions. I’ve learnt so much in the last year that I’m grateful for, and I can appreciate how important HTML and the web is going to be in the coming years (integrated into almost every aspect of life?), it’s going to be a handy skill to have.
But how far can I go with it? And with the time its consuming, I’m afraid its hindering my progress, passion and skills from my other two interests. But should I risk the great opportunity that I currently have, to follow dreams that may just flop?
I guess for now I just have to find the time to work on all 3, and eventually find out what I really love or don’t want to do. Either that, or there is always MotionX Dice to make my decision 
Indie Games
Saturday, December 11th, 2010
Every once in a while I get linked or research whats going on in the Indie Game scene, I love it so much because this scene isn’t bound by investors or publishers opinions (*cough* Call of Duty *cough*), but they are able to explore different and innovative game play, as well as re-define what a game is!
I do honestly believe that games can be a form of art, but if the commercial gaming world is constantly putting out the same types of games over and over because that’s what people “want”, then the general public is always going to think of games as just toys, and those that play/develop them as just a bunch of big children with no intellectual merit.
Now thanks to this new wave of causal games, brought about by the mobile gaming market, we have seen glimpses of innovation coming back into games, which was lost during the “console” era and not seen much since the PC gaming’s dominance days, and hopefully will promote indie gaming into the public eye.
Now the indie gaming scene isn’t all that new, but recently I’ve needed to seek it out, as a way to reinvigorate my spirit for gaming. We all know why modern games have lost all they once were, and don’t get me wrong, a lot are still great games because of: their simulation factor, multiplayer capability/social gaming, graphics realism, and sometimes its just fun to shoot a guys head off. But what I used to love about games was:
the challenge, the problem solving, the new worlds, the fun, the characters, and mostly the “OMFG I’ve never seen that before, that was fucking amazing” (innovation).
Some game developers like, Valve Software (Half-Life 2, Portal), are still making great games out there that come with all these things, but really the best place you can find them, without waiting several years “valve time”, is through indie games.
Thankfully, thanks to Valve and the Steam Platform (and the iPhone App Store), indie games are now supplied to the masses, giving them the attention they deserve. Other places like Kongregate, where you can find some pure gems, and a new up starting community called IndieCity are helping to bring more attention to these games, and giving them a place to be found and loved.
So back to Gaming as an Art, here are some games that remind me that this type of gaming isn’t dead.
You Have To Burn The Rope
– Art
Just genious, who said games need to be complex, challenging or long. I know it goes against a lot of what I discussed above, but this is Indie Gaming, there are no rules.
The Company of Myself
– Innovation
Just wow, I love it, the gameplay, the storytelling, the pace, and even the story behind the game. One word to sum it up, “beautiful”. Funnily, it involves a lot of aspects which I wanted in DoubleJump, maybe one day I’ll have the resources to finish it (or even start it for that matter).
OCTODAD
– Innovation
Just plain funny, non-serious, and interesting controls that just support being an octopus so perfectly.
Oh and the games featured in the banner are from Braid and Auditorium
Distractions are Bad Company
Sunday, February 7th, 2010I haven’t been writing many posts lately, or even working on my website much.
It’s most probably due to this!
Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta BITCHES!!!
great game, cant wait for the full game, which comes out March! But i definately need a new graphics card for this one. (as you can tell from the screeny, my detail settings aren’t exactly that high).
Thinking I should wait for the new Nvidia GTX 400 series cards, DX11, 1.5GB GDDR5, and a whole 3 billion transistors. Slated for release in Q1 this year, just in time for BFBC2!
Death of Hellgate:London & its Revival
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Death of HGL
In late 2007 a very buggy and overly-hyped game called Hellgate: London was released too soon into the world. Developed by ex-blizzard devs (makers of Diablo franchise), it was said to be the next Diablo, and the next great MMO!
I was fortunate enough to be a beta tester, and found that the game wasnt so much different to Diablo. It had pretty much all the same elements, with simply different skills and items, and set in a post-apocolyptic steam-punk future. Even the randomly generated levels, and transmogrifying cube (a la harodric cube) that you could use to craft items, were all elements grabbed straight from the Diablo series. You could say the game was simply a 3D mmo version of Diablo, although some people would add, a worses, more boring, and unoriginal version. I like to think that if the original ‘Donkey Kong’ with mario, were released today as ‘Ladder Climber: Fallen Hell’ or something, it would too be considered boring and lame.
Although I do admit, the game was very buggy at launch, lacked believability in the animations, and at times very tedious. It also lacked the element of suspension-of-disbelief and a ‘massively-multplayed’ world, because of the ‘instance’ system, which made the charm of ‘grinding’ to get your Char XP up, non-existant. One thing that was present though was the dedication of the fans who had faith in the game and could see past all the problems, these players made it not only playable, but also special.
Six months later, fans prayers were answered, with the release of ‘The Stonehenge Chronicles’ patch, which added a new area to the world and one which was actually damned fun! A whole heap of content was also added which made the game feel a little more complete, and almost great. But by this time many players and subscribers had dropped off, with first impressions lasting too long to make them want to come back. With new content being promised every 6 months, this was a game that was supposed to last. Its hard to think, that if hgl was released just a few months later, how different poeple would have responded..
But die-hard fans werent enough to keep this struggle of an mmo alive, and eventually in late 2008, on the brink of releasing its new expansion patch ‘The Abyss Chronicles’ (which was already in test servers), Flagship Studios (the devs) went bankrupt and had to close down and sell all their stuff. Servers remained opened thanks to Namco Bandai but only until early 2009. HGL officially died (in everywhere but Korea) on 31-01-09 (RIP).
EDIT: There’s a nice blog about the last hours of HGL here
The ‘Revival’
“Remember the dead, but fight for the living!” – Jessica Summerisle
When I thought this game was all dead and buried, some Hellgatians chose to fight! I stumbled upon this when feeling nostalgic and looking for a way/hack to possibly play hgl on your own private server i.e. a LAN.
Keen hellgate fans have banded together to keep this game alive and where it should be! The mod is called ‘Hellgate: Revival‘ and that forum is pretty active with modders detailing the stages of development.
Hellgate: Revival plans to:
- Release ‘The Stongehenge Chronicles’ & ‘The Abyss Chronicles’ from patch 2.0 into MP & SP
- Unlock MP play
- Introduce LAN mode
- New weapons and armor
- Continue patching with new content
full list
Currently HGR team have released an SP mod, which already does a lot to help revive HGL:
- added some old features like the zombot creation and Guy Fawkes day stuff
- changed the UI to match that of patch 2.0
- introduced some new items and ‘mutant’ ranked weapons (i.e. in between rare and unique)
- changed the Halloway voice back to ‘sexy’ LOL
- added features from new MP patches like dye kits and skill retrainers
- various changes and fixes
full list here(1.0) and here(1.2).
I’d like to see how this one goes, adding awesome features that were missing from the original (lik LAN) and adding awesome features that were made but never officially saw the light of day, may just be enough for this game to reclaim its dignity, and become what it should have been, a great action RPG. But with an estimated release of 2011, who thinks we’ll be playing Diablo III instead?
news: HanbitSoft (owners of the HGL IP in Korea) got the rights to HGL in the US & Europe, and therefore may relaunch servers, like they currently are in Korea. link