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Null Engine - My hopes for the Android

Mar
201019

The Open Source community benefits greatly from free tools. That being said, I would hope that we can eventually have a game maker engine similar to the Unreal Engine for the Android platform. When I say similar I mean in functionality/intent but not necessarily a 3D game platform. Eventually, I would like to see 3D full implemented but the cost of battery life, longer asset turn-around and cost among other things makes 3D gaming on the mobile platform frivolous if only for the small developer.

NOTE: For proof that 3D is not an essential technology when making a game you need look no further than Pop Cap games as well as a large number of best selling titles for the most popular platform (the Nintendo DS; New Super Mario Bros anyone?). Sure, 3D can enhance a games look, but you need at that point 3D artists and you’re also isolating users without 3D capable hardware, good job…. JERK! ;-D

So that being said, I am looking to create my first game project for the android and as the project progresses I hope that I will develop a set of tools that will eventually enable any user to create their own content and explore ideas that maybe I haven’t ever thought of. After all, I can’t be everyone’s paint brush, but I can make a brush for everyone to use and if a Rembrandt happens to make something with it then all the better.

The Null Engine: a game maker for the masses. Maybe then I can work for Google! Come on guys! Google “Games and Educational Tools Division”! Go go go! :-D

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Turba Release Date!

Mar
201013

Maybe we need to reintroduce ourselves but Turba is being made by two graduates of Fullsail University. Some of the things we wanted to do with Turba was a little ambitious for the platform but we can now say that we are going to polish what we have and set an actual release date.

We are happy to announce that Turba has been selected to appear at the Boston Indie Showcase

We feel this is a great chance to finish the game, so without further ado. Turba will be released on March 26^th at PAX East for 10$ USD. We will be making around 1,000 hard copies of the game. If we can’t sell all of the copies at the convention then we will be selling the remainder on the site. We want to thank everyone who has been following Turba and we hope you get a chance to play the game once it’s released.

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Alternate Reality Games and Mobile Phones

Feb
201016

One of the untapped markets of gaming at the moment is Alternate Reality Gaming. For those who are not familiar with ARG’s (as they are also known) they are basically games that exist along side your day-to-day “reality”. Perhaps a walk-through of how an ARG works would be better to help people understand the concept….

Imagine that you are playing a mystery/detective game and your current mission is to find the murderer of a particular crime among a set of suspects currently in custody. In your normal game you would be staring at a monitor with keyboard and mouse in tow but in an ARG the crime scene, suspects’ homes and haunts as well as how you interact with the game are all in reality; you can visit the crime scene in your neighborhood, find clues at particular locations that indicate GPS coordinates which lead to real landmarks (such as payphones), where a real phone call will lead you to the next leg of the game and characters will communicate to you via text messages and e-mails.

This is, admittedly, a niche style of gameplay in the eyes of some but I personally feel that this is an untapped market waiting to explode. ARG’s had first come onto the scene with RPG’s of yesteryear through the D&D players who would don costumes of their game persona as well as “murder mystery” dinner parties where the guests would be given roles to play through the evening. By the turn of the century/millennium however there had arisen a new type of ARG that involved embedding clues in images, clever hints in the content of a “fake” website (even nested in comments of the page’s source) or in e-mails sent to the participant’s address leading them to solutions to the challenge they were to overcome.

While the early ARG’s (dinner games, D&D with foam swords, etc) were quaint and certainly immersive to the participants it would seem that the latest incarnations were terribly limited due to technology; the only avenues for making the game “reality” came via e-mails or phone calls which the player was required to catch or via websites they were expected to visit. In short, your interactions were limited to your computer (which at the time was most likely in your home). With the advent of GPS guided phones with constant access to the internet and built-in cameras it is likely that a new age in ARG’s has arrived.

These games are not limited to simple “mystery” games but also to racing games. Imagine a game that gives you a track that you are expected to run/drive through and you can get achievements by beating other players’ scores. Scavenger hunt games are also more interactive as well with the ability to give players the ability to create their own “easter eggs” to be found.

But you don’t have to take my word for it…

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My favorite games like, ever: A Top 10 List

Feb
201015

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After writing this and seeing how long it became, I figured I should do this at the beginning:

TL;DR: Scroll through and look at the bold text and pretty pictures :P

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For my first post, I wanted to do something somewhat simple that would tell a little about me. Since anyone reading this obviously enjoys games, I think telling you some of my favorites could tell you a lot. I should probably throw in some notes before I get into this though. First of all, I know that most peoples’ fondest memories begin in the 8-bit era. I can recall having a Nintendo and a Super Nintendo as a kid, but I have almost no recollection of actually playing the games themselves. Instead, my nostalgia is deeply rooted in the days of the Nintendo 64, which just so happens to be my favorite console ever. Gaming will never be as incredible to me as it was then, being 12 years old and having nothing to do but being up with my friends until 8 AM every weekend, splitting the screen 4 ways on a 19” television, squinting to see everything but not caring in the least.

Another thing to note is that I have never been much of a PC gamer, mostly because up until a few years ago I never had a computer that could dream of running most games. As such, my PC gaming history is almost nonexistent. That does not bother me in the least though. Consoles have given me all the good times I could have ever needed.

Finally I just want to say that my favorite games are my favorite because I have strong memories from playing them, and obviously because I played these games more than most others. Soldier of Fortune II for the Xbox almost made the top 10, and I doubt you would ever hear anyone else say that. When you are young and a game lets you literally slice someone’s face off with a knife, how could you everforget that? ;) Anyway, everyone has their favorites, and here are some of mine:

10. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Xbox)

Games that require you to be stealthy are among my favorite and I consider the Splinter Cell series to be the very best in this genre (the Hitman series is pretty close though). Chaos Theory is by far the most impressive in the series. The graphics were second to none at the time, which was a staple of the series. This was also the first one to be rated Mature, and I attribute a lot of my love for this game to Ubisoft going with a darker and grittier theme in the game. The other huge hook for me was the co-op. There were only a few missions, but man were they amazing to play. Here’s to hoping that Splinter Cell: Conviction will become my new favorite come this April. It certainly looks like it may.

9. Half-Life 2 (PC)

You could probably count the amount of real PC games that I have played on a couple of hands, but that just so happens to include this incredible game. Half-Life 2 is universally loved, so I do not really need to say much about it, other than I love physics and shooting people.

8. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Xbox 360)

I put well over 100 hours into this game. Would you like to guess how many main story quests I made it through? If you said two, you would be correct! This is how I wish all games could be. Give me a world. Let me explore it. Make it fun enough to entertain me for an eternity. **** off with your story. The end. (I have to admit that I probably liked Fallout 3 more because I like guns better than swords, but Oblivion makes the list instead.)

7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360)

As dumb as this could sound, I suppose this was my “World of Warcraft” (a game I have proudly never played mind you). This was the game I played for hours every day. I ended with around 32 days played online. For the mathematically challenged, that would be 768 hours. There was just something that kept me coming back for more. Crack in digital form if you would. Like everyone else I have moved on to Modern Warfare 2, but only time will tell if I come back to that as much as I did Call of Duty 4.

6. The Legend of Zelda: (wait for it…) The Wind Waker! (Gamecube)

Let us get the shock and awe out of the way right now: this is the only Zelda game making the list. Sure I played and loved Ocarina of Time, but I really do not have any memories of it to be honest. From the first second I played the Wind Waker, I knew I was playing something special that would stick with me a long time. I would honestly have to say it was mainly because of the art style. It was stunning. It was gorgeous. It really made the game for me. It probably also helped that it was one of the most fun games I had ever played.

5. Banjo-Kazooie (Nintendo 64)

When I think of the platformer genre, nothing comes to mind faster than Banjo-Kazooie. The lovable cast of characters and the humor throughout really made this game stand above other games of the time. I recently went back and played through the XBLA version, and I loved every second of it as I did some 12 years ago. If that is not the mark of a truly great game, then I’m not sure what is.

4. Grand Theft Auto III (Playstation 2)

I will just go ahead and admit right now that I did not know about Grand Theft Auto until this one came out. I still have never played any of the 2D ones. This certainly does not bother me, though, because stepping into 3D is when GTA began revolutionizing video games. I logged countless hours driving around aimlessly, beating up hookers, and hopelessly trying to pilot any Dodo I could find. This game began my profound love for open world/sandbox games, and was the beginning of my huge crush on Rockstar as a developer.

3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Playstation 2 & Xbox)

I consider this to be the jewel in Rockstar’s crown. This is my favorite game in my all time favorite game series. I would love to see someone write out a bulleted list with every gameplay feature in this game. It is incredible how much there was to do and to see in this game. This was also my favorite setting and theme in a GTA game. Early 90’s, southern California gang culture has always been intriguing to me, mostly watching it in movies. Rockstar nailed this setting so very well in pretty much every way. I loved walking down the street with a posse just looking for trouble. Getting 3 guys with you to slowly roll up on a rival gang in a 4-door was just too much fun. Add in an amazing soundtrack and an awesome cast of characters highlighted by Samuel Jackson, and this game hits you with the total package. This is another game that I came back to years later and still immensely enjoyed, playing the Xbox version on my 360. I was still never able to find Bigfoot, though.

2. Conker’s Bad Fur Day (Nintendo 64)

Oh my goodness, where to even begin. This has to be the most ridiculous, downright absurd, over the top and mature game I can ever remember playing. It is also by far the funniest. The fact that I was fairly young when I first experienced it certainly made it more impactful. I really want to know how the hell the people at Rare thought up this game. The parts of the game where they spoofed Saving Private Ryan and The Matrix were so incredible to play. Helping a bee “pollinate” a busty sunflower was priceless. The giant ball of poo that you must destroy with equally giant rolls of toilet paper is still to this day the greatest boss fight I have ever taken part of in any game. I can still remember his jingle: “I am the Great Mighty Poo, and I’m going to throw my **** at you.” Every moment in this game was classic. When you add to the incredibly memorably single player an amazing multiplayer that kept my friends and I split-screening for countless hours, it is a no-brainer as to why Conker’s Bad Fur Day ranks so highly on my list. Rare was the absolute best developer for so many years.

1.  Perfect Dark (Nintendo 64)

Well here we are at last. This is the third game from the N64 on the list, all of which were made by Rare, and my favorite game of all time. I feel bad for kids growing up today who are playing Halo or Call of Duty and who may have not even heard of Perfect Dark, let alone have had the chance privilege to play it. For all of you wondering where Goldeneye may be, I feel there is really no reason to list it when Perfect Dark is essentially the same game, made by the same people, but beefed up so far beyond what Goldeneye had to offer. You had a great single player campaign, co-op, counter-op (something I can’t recall ever seeing in a game since), and a 4 person multiplayer with an amount of options that was just unheard of at the time. This included some very creative weapons that are still some of the best I have ever seen in any shooter. There were even 30 or so challenges to complete with your friends that themselves provided hours upon hours of fun. This game offered more content a decade ago than A LOT of games offer today, which is both a travesty in some ways (referring to games of today)and a testament to how far ahead of its time this game really was. If you have never played this game and own an Xbox 360, I implore you to buy this game when it comes out on XBLA this March. If you are a fan of shooters and do not like this game, I would openly question your humanity.

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