Dev Links: A Mod To Remember
For the technically-minded, today’s Developer Links include articles on coding efficiency and graphical effects. And for the less technically minded, Drunken Robot Pornography. Something for everyone.
Getting to the Core of Drunken Robot Pornography (Dejobaan Games)
“We have once again called upon the artistic talents of Amy Mazzocutelli to add some titillating tones to our Titans in Drunken Robot Pornography. As seen in the photos here, she is focusing on designs for the “core” pieces now. In each fight, players must ultimately destroy a core to topple each Titan. The Titan’s core becomes exponentially weaker as players pick off its limbs.”
Gratuitous Space Battles Is A Modding Juggernaut (And I’m Slow To Catch On) (Cliffski.com)
“I am a big fan of supporting modding. I love the mods people make. Mods are why PC gaming is the best kind. Some of the ebst games out there started as mods, and many games exist purely on the backs of some incredible mods. I recall that when I was a firm Call of Duty 2 addict, we NEVER played the boring standard maps…”
How to Make a Video Game on Laser Time Podcast (Lost Decade Games)
“Were you sad that there was no Lostcast yesterday? Us too, but this might help: I was recently on an episode of Laser Time, a podcast run by games journalogist Chris Antista. The episode’s called Make a Video Game and we talk about things that might be familiar to Lostcast listeners, like HTML5 and independent game development.”
Martin Jonasson and Petri Purho on Juicing and Tweening (IndieGames.com)
“‘Adding juiciness to your game makes your game better 100% of the time, guaranteed,’ insists Crayon Physics Deluxe developer Petri Purho in a talk given at the Nordic Game Indie Night 2012 last week. Purho and jesus vs. dinosaurs creator Martin Jonasson spent 15 minutes describing how to make a bland Breakout clone into something more enjoyable, without changing its core mechanic.”
Operation: Eradicate Financials Three Months In (Tech-Wanderings of Greg Holsclaw)
“Operation: Eradicate, has been in the AppStore a bit over three months now, and I wanted to give a report of the ups and downs regarding the financial outlook of the game. Eradicate was a great game for us to create, laying a good foundation for our studio both from production & technical standpoints for which we can launch our newly announced game: Sheepo (A Kickstarter just started to help our artists).”
In Praise of Idleness (AltDevBlogADay)
“In the past few years I have encountered many examples of code that spins in a busy loop, doing nothing useful for dozens of milliseconds. I’ve looked at dozens of xperf traces from customer machines that show both busy waiting and CPU starvation. There are many misconceptions about the costs and benefits of busy waiting, and I want to explain emphatically why busy waiting is rarely a good idea, is a worse idea now than in the past, and will become an even worse idea in the future.”
Why I Play, Why I Create (AltDevBlogADay)
“I force myself to purchase, play and dip into the latest game for research and to stay on top of the curve like a responsible designer. At first I thought my lackluster enjoyment was simply gaming fatigue from the industry, but then I started questioning gaming as a past time. Examining films, television and interactive storytelling such as Pottermore and HomeStuck. Why do I feel enriched by certain novels but feel dirty when logging off a few hours of Diablo? Why does sketching for hours feel satisfying, and building a blocky Minecraft world with my partner fill my heart with joy?”
Deductive Depth Jamming, Beta Balance, and Megabuild Todo List (SpyParty blog)
“Recently, a small group of us did an intensive game design retreat we called the Depth Jam, during which I dug into the deductivity of the Sniper gameplay. I want there to be some deductivity on the Sniper side, so the player has some method or process he or she can step through to eliminate suspects and not just completely drown in information, but I don’t want you to be able to completely grind out who the Spy is by a series of rote operations, like in a game of Clue. Since one of the aesthetic themes for SpyParty is about “making consequential decisions with partial information”, it’s very important that the Sniper not be able be 100% sure of the Spy’s identity, unless the Spy screws up and the Sniper sees ahard tell. There are a lot of places where deductivity comes into play for the Sniper, but an important one is the highlight/lowlight mechanic.”
