Adding A Bunch of Indie Links To The Sidebar

The list of weblogs on the left has expanded quite a bit. At first I wanted to add a seperate header for them, but since I'm still using the default Blogger setup there's a limited number of "gadgets" that will fit over there.

(I really need to learn Wordpress one of these days, since all the cool kids seem to be using it for their weblogs. But I digress.)

Anyway, IndieGames.com The Weblog, TIGSource, and Play This Thing are all general Indie games news sites. IndieGames.Com The Weblog and TIGSource are particularly focused on the "news" aspect, reporting interesting events as well as developments of individual games. Play This Thing is a series of game reviews that all (usually) link to the games themselves.

The Experimental Gameplay Project is a site run by The World of Goo Guys for game developers to show off their quickly-developed prototypes. Some actually play well, and pretty much all of them are interesting. The site recently came back from a hiatus, and they've started a new contest for people to submit their shoot-em-ups.

Classic Lucasarts Games on Steam! AHAHAHAHA!

YEAH! Lucasarts is releasing their Classic PC Adventure games on Steam as well as The Secret of Monkey Island remake! It's about time. I mean: what does one have to do? I bought most of them at full price back in the day, I bought a bunch of the Telltale stuff (those are "the bomb", take it from me), and was even considering buying the allegedly awful* Staff of Kings just to get The Fate of Atlantis again.

I was originally hoping they'd go for Good Old Games, since GOG specializes in bringing classic Win/DOS games to XP/Vista. But Steam? Oh HECK YES, just as good.

I hope they get Grim Fandango and Outlaws on Steam soon too, but really, I just want ALL of the classic non-Star Wars Lucasarts adventures on Steam. And maybe a few of the Star Wars ones too.

*Metacritic does fail some times, but is usually mostly reliable. Thus the "allegedly".

The Ultimate Food

After seven years (with the occasional multi-month break in there) of working at Subway, I've come up with some pretty creative stuff. Yesterday I tried something radical, even for me, and it exceeded expectations, but I decided to refine it slightly today and managed to achieve transcending deliciousness. I have come up with the recipe for The Ultimate Food, with both American/Carnivore and Indian/Vegetarian variants:

The Ultimate Food (Meat Eater Version)

1) Place flatbread onto a deli paper sheet. Pour at least two ladle-fuls of marinara sauce onto it.

2) Place a tray of Philly cheesesteak (minus cheese, but we'll get to that) into the microwave. Set it to a low setting or short time: you don't want it too hot yet. Substitute a chicken patty or something else if you're being cheap.

3) When the steak is done, put it on the flat bread. Sprinkle a few red onion slices over the steak.
4) Take a Cool Ranch Doritos packet, open it and dump the Doritos on top of the steak.

5) Pour one or two more ladle-fuls of marinara sauce, sprinkle green peppers and olives, and sprinkle cheddar and mozzarella cheese, all on top of the Doritos.

6) Top off with Chipotle Southwest, Ranch, and Buffalo sauce, in a cris-crossing pattern.

7) Stick it in a Subway Toaster on the 6" Patty setting. The outlying Doritos should be slightly crisp and the cheese and sauces melted throughout the whole concoction.

8) Serve with drink of choice (beer or wine if you're super-super lucky/careful, unsweetened iced tea if the store has it, or just soda).

The Ultimate Food (vegetarian version)

As the meat eater version, but substitute veggie patty for cheese steak, and substitute (or add) yellow peppers and jalapenos for the olives and green peppers.

Now if you think I'm being arrogant to label this as the "Ultimate Food" of every food there has ever been so far, think of it this way: I have successfully combined nachos with cheesesteak. It's technically just a Cheesesteak Flatbread Meal Deal prepared in a very esoteric way, which means it's feasible to actually order it at a Subway, except they won't be able to wrap it.

Beware of adding bacon to The Ultimate Food. Current string theory hypothesises that adding the Ultimate Ingredient to what is already the Ultimate Food will collapse the concoction, the Subway store, and everything in a five-mile-radius into a 9th dimensional hyper-tunnel leading to another universe. Also: bacon is extra.

Prime Numbers & Such

I should have known better than to read a book titled "Music of the Primes" before bedtime. Now I'm obsessed with pursuing a particular prime-related number sequence and can't sleep.

I wonder if other mathemeticians have stumbled upon the sequence I discovered. The annoying thing about it is that suddenly prime numbers have started showing up within the sequence, which means it's quite possibly useless for predicting primes, even if I come up with a simple formula for it. In any case mathematicians probably have known about it for centuries, but I just was never taught it.

Game A vs. Game B

Okay, it's time to reveal part of My Secret Plan. Since the last day of GD2 I've been thinking hard about what I want to do for GD3 & 4. I ended up narrowing it down to two mutually exclusive (because I can't combine them into one project) major ideas I've been mulling over. Ideas which I want to do regardless of whether I can do them for college credit or not. Depending on what Prof Morrison does, I may have to postpone both projects and do an unknown "C" game, but here's A and B:

Game A is a procedurally generated first-person shooter I've mentioned briefly before. I would basically be borrowing the models from FPS Creator, but instead of using the FPSC program, I'd be loading them into my own C++ program via the Dark GDK.

Advantages:

• 3D Roguelike with extremely innovative design.
• I'll be taking Comp Sci I concurrently with GD3, so I'll be learning the next "level" of C++ as I'm making the FPP.
• This is the game I'm making the GM prototype for, so I'm already getting a handle on the essential algorithms I'll need to translate into C++.
• It's territory on the "frontier". Games in the genre have been made before, but not a whole lot. DoomRL is the closest gameplay-wise and Hellgate: London is the closest graphics-wise.
• It's tremendously interesting from a programming perspective. Not just because it would be my first major C++ project outside of a programming class that's not a text-based game, but because the game would be based on procedurally-generated content.
• The FPS Creator modular floors, walls, and room features are perfect for this project. I just need to figure out the algorithms I need to tell Microsoft Visual Studio to make the environments.
• FPS Creator itself can serve to test some of the things I want to try out in the game.
• The source code for FPS Creator is freely available. Although it's in DB Pro and not C++, it's still a head start.
• Since the tech side will definitely be the most interesting part of the project for me, anyone else I work with will have plenty of freedom to figure out the story and some of the design aspects.
• Beyond the class, this would get attention from Indie news sites for being innovative and interesting.
• Possible logical destination: the IGF and/or Indiecade.

Disadvantages:

• Unless I give up on the idea of procedural content generation (which is the whole point of Game A), I can't use FPS Creator itself for the main part of the project.
• The timing of it is such that I'll be far beyond the rest of the class in required tech knowlege, so no one else in the class will be able to help out on the tech side.
• It's riskier because although I can look at the advice and experience of Roguelike developers and Dark GDK developers, nothing quite like this has been attempted before. Especially if I manage to add in some of my wilder and more esoteric ideas like dynamic terrain alteration (digging tunnels, etc.).
• I'd really like to include some really risky stuff like procedurally generated plots, but that would rely on either really good HL2 style companion/NPC AI or complicated RPG elements. (The actual algorithms for the plots would be relatively simple fetch-quest/"Kill Monster Z for me" type stuff, but would require some amount of verbal character interaction which I'd need to have in place first. Easy in a text-based Roguelike, not so simple in a FPS.)
• Short of procedural plots, I'd like to shoot for procedural puzzles. Puzzles wouldn't require any non-peaceful character interaction and I have a few ideas for implementing it, but there's even less precedent for procedural puzzles than for procedural plots.

Game B is a Source Engine First Person Shooter set in the Half Life universe. It's essentially a compilation of various ideas I've had while playing HL2 and other Source engine games, which then evolved into a distinct setting. It's comprised of one huge level: a mysterious island surrounded by a Combine force field. There's action and puzzles, but the emphasis is on exploration, survival, and discovering the island's dark secrets in order to finally escape (the whole island was owned by Aperture Science at one point, and yes, there are plans for portal-based puzzles). Inspired by Myst, The Prisoner, Lost, the Half Life universe, and every story I've read or watched that was set on an island.

Advantages:

• 3D FPS with game mechanics most PC gamers are familiar with.
• The entire Source SDK is free to anyone who owns a Source engine game on the PC made by Valve.
• It would look great. The FPS Creator, and therefore Game A, looks good, but this would look great.
• The current design document is based on semi-modular (in the sense that most of them can be cut if necccesary) areas around the island and a fairly straightforward plot. Unlike Game A, the designers can feel free to add in a lot of specific detail to specific areas.
• Using the Source Engine means a heck of a lot easier job on the tech side of things. Not just the mechanics of moving and shooting, but also lots of neat AI-related things as well as the excellent Faceposer application for NPCs.
• There's a ton of art resources available in the Source SDK for making Source Engine mods with. Even more than I got with the FPS Creator Bonanza.
• The Half Life universe is a nice, established, flexible setting.
• There haven't been any "sandbox" games in the Half Life universe so far, nor many Source engine games where you have to explore a large area and are able to backtrack.
• Beyond the class, this would open up potential opportunities like getting attention from mod sites, and act as an awesome resume-enhancer for anyone who wants to work for Valve specifically.
• Possible logical destination: publishing the game worldwide on Steam.

Disadvantages:

• Some of the things I want to do, such as a very simple conversation system for a handful of freindly NPCs, and a simple inventory system for storing widgets for puzzle-solving, I have no idea if it's possible without access to the source code. Which I certainly don't have.
• While Game A involves telling C++ how to put levels together in an interesting way, this project would require a large island to be constructed by hand. This may actually be an advantage, but I don't know if it is yet or not. I currently have less experience using the Source SDK tools than I do with C++ (though when my new laptop arrives, I'll finally have the option to try out the Source SDK tools again). Because of the above point, I'd probably need at least one other person helping me with the mapping aspect.
• It would impose stricter limitations on the rest of the team in terms of what things look like, sticking to Half Life canon (unless we decide not to), etc.
• We hopefully, maybe could add in some custom models, but that's another area I have zero experience with so far.
• It would require the rest of the team to stop being consoletards and get into PC gaming.

Mutual Advantages:

• Both of these are innovative designs (in different ways) that are likely to get attention if marketed right.
• Both of these are definitely games I would like to spend a whole year developing.
• Both are deliberately designed to have flexibility for the rest of the team to add in their own ideas.

Mutual Disadvantage:

• As I mentioned before, both of these are completely my invention and neither may fit even a little bit with Prof. Morrison's plans for September. This is part of the reason I'm revealing them now: to get them, in this form, out on the web now in case this is as far as I'm able to take them. Some modification would be necessary regardless (no game follows it's design document to the letter), but I might need to put them to the side entirely. Or maybe I'll come up with a better Game C before the semester starts.

What will probably be the deciding factor between them, if both are choices, is how many other students in the class will be working with me and how many will be working on the other project being discussed for GD4. If I end up working with 1-3 other people, or just myself, I'll probably advocate going for Game A. More than that, and I'll advocate going for Game B.

Quick last note: I'll be editing in a bunch of links later. I know there's a bunch of jargon and unexplained acronyms. The links will explain everything.

Math Class & Other Craziness

This week I started a new class, one which is four days a week and finishes in just four more weeks. So it's basically cramming a lot of new and semi-familiar math concepts into my brain in a short period of time. I wish I had taken it as a regular Spring/Fall semester class, but it's a prereq for Computer Science I and I really wanted to take CS1 this fall.

Meanwhile, Gordon Babcock, my biological father who is guilty of Count Olaf level evil, has proceeded to reach a new low in despicableness. Hopefully I won't be forced to move out of state for financial reasons (because the rest of my family may be) before I'm done the Game Design program... But that may happen.

In one sense, the asshole can keep his fucking money*, because he'll rot in Hell forever and it's not like we can do worse to him than that. On the other hand, Mark's medication is expensive, and someone needs to pay for it. Better for someone who can afford to pay for it, to do so, right? Especially when he's the father? Too bad Gordon Babcock doesn't seem to have a soul, or at least a conscience. Too bad the New Jersey courts are too damn corrupt to uphold justice in the case of a rich computer architect vs. his family that he's obviously driving into poverty. (In the past, I assumed our judge was just stupid, but yesterday it became obvious that it's much, much worse than stupidity.)

So anyway, the bottom line is that I'm going to have to concentrate a lot on studying over the next few weeks so updates will be sporadic. I do want to eventually get around to writing a bunch more on E3 and the folks I met there, but math class takes priority.

*This is a polite way of expressing what I really think, which would probably be unwise to publish on this weblog.

EDIT: I'll try to post something more upbeat tonight after work.

PC GameGun!

One day I'm going to get around to making an awesome homebrew gadget like this: