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I can't tell if you're trying to be funny or not. The person reporting on his experiences is one of the developers of Aaaaaculus! which is essentially an Oculus compatible version of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!. In addition, they've worked on several sequels and ports of that game with the original developers.

I can't tell if you're trying to be funny or not. The person reporting on his experiences is one of the developers of Aaaaaculus! which is essentially an Oculus compatible version of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!!. In addition, they've worked on several sequels and ports of that game with the original developers.

Sooooooo! So. We're Dejobaan Games, a small indie (redundant?) studio responsible for a game called AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity. If you've used OnLive, you've probably seen the damned thing listed at the top of their games selection because they sort alphabetically. Our next game will probably be called something annoying like !!!00000LoL and be even higher on the list.

I digress.

I like OnLive; I like the guys I've met that work for OnLive; I'm also the Hair Club President. I want them to succeed, because the more ways for folks to get games, the better. Here's our guarantee: If you pick Aaaaa! up on OnLive, and they stop carrying our game in 3 years, we'll give you an offline copy. I'm not sure if folks are having tech issues, but honestly, the licensing issue is really easy for us to fix. :)

I'm an indie developer, and I see our games pirated all over the place

Those torrents have very few seeders and leechers - even on meta-engines like isohunt there are only 12 seeders/leechers in total. Can hardly blame that for your lack of sales.

I'm an indie developer, and I see our games pirated all over the place despite their being available for roughly the price of a fast food value meal. It feels sorta sucky to be pirated, and while I can't prove it, I suspect that my studio would gain at least little more money if people didn't pirate it.

That said, I don't forsee us ever taking draconian DRM measures to prevent people from playing our games. Piracy will change the way we design them, but I think what will end up happening is that we start creating games that make use of online content. Some examples:

* Level of the Day -- Log in and download your free level right here.
* Matchmaking/Leaderboards -- Pick up the game, and you'll have an account to taunt other people with your mad skills.
* Server-Side Content/Collaboration -- Co-build a level with a friend, online, and make that available to everyone else.

My thought is to offer additional, online-only content that gameplay into having an account. Sure, you can probably still pirate the game, but by picking up a legitimate copy, you have access to all this other neat stuff.

We've entered with our 12th title, The Wonderful End of the World in the competition, and this year, we have 172 competitors. Some of them have an interesting visual style going for them, such as The Night Journey , and others like Understanding Games are of note because they focus on ludology.

One thing that strikes me about this year's competition is how polished many of the titles are. Indie titles are generally associated with programmer art . But while I doubt Crysis has much to worry about, games like Globulos have clear, attractive art direction, and Penumbra: Overture looks pretty sleek.

One complaint is that interesting IGF entries often don't have websites up by the deadline . I always want to see more screenshots and videos. Indie developers can be such teases.
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Dejobaan Games - Bringing you quality video games for over 75 years.

We've entered with our 12th title, The Wonderful End of the World in the competition, and this year, we have 172 competitors. Some of them have an interesting visual style going for them, such as The Night Journey , and others like Understanding Games are of note because they focus on ludology.

One thing that strikes me about this year's competition is how polished many of the titles are. Indie titles are generally associated with programmer art . But while I doubt Crysis has much to worry about, games like Globulos have clear, attractive art direction, and Penumbra: Overture looks pretty sleek.

One complaint is that interesting IGF entries often don't have websites up by the deadline . I always want to see more screenshots and videos. Indie developers can be such teases.
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Dejobaan Games - Bringing you quality video games for over 75 years.

"Great Works" in video games will come about as a result of natural evolution in game design. Right now, we're strongly focused on visual aesthetics -- we haven't yet achieved photorealism, so every step towards that is exciting. (That's not to diminish the importance of gameplay -- but I liked UT2004 over UT because it was prettier, for one.) But once we achieve that goal, gamers will say, "hey, it's time for something new." Designers will likely branch out and try to create interesting games in other ways -- compelling unrealistic/surrealistic aesthetics; new and interesting modes of gameplay; and (why not?) attention to "serious subject matter with cultural implications."

But I don't think we're through with the "flash" phase yet. Photorealism is still new and interesting to most of us -- and players still buy games for their graphical splendor. Once that stops happening, developers will really start experimenting -- after all, how else are we going to get your money?

(BTW, did anyone see Ernest Adams talk in Worcester yesterday? I missed it, but it must have been great.) _______________________________
Dejobaan Games - Bringing you quality video games for over 75 years.
Indie Superstar - A video webcast bringing you news about games you won't hear about in mainstream media.

One of the largest benefits of many of these programs is that they bring a student through the entire development process, from concept to polishing.

Take De Blob, created by nine Dutch students for (I believe) the city government of Utrecht, in The Netherlands. I think it's a fine game; not perfect, but well-polished and (most importantly) complete. This means that the team has seen both the great and nasty aspects:

* "Let's create a great concept! This is going to be so rad!"
* "Prototype's done. Let's kick the tires."
* "I know we have the same machine. I'm saying it's not working on my machine."
* "That prototype sucked. We need to re-design our core game mechanic."
* "What do you mean we created our art assets too early and have to discard them?"
* "Time for the alpha. Our programming lead just left to become a nun?"
* "This game is so much fun that we play it for hours on end instead of working."
* "We have a bug where the game crashes if you move the mouse too much."
* "Why does everyone outside the dev team not like our game? We love it."
* "I want to quit. I want to quit. I want to quit. Rrrrr!"
* "Okay, now more artwork. Someone tell the artist to stop using 4096x4096 textures."
* "Everything's running smoothly. Beta time! This should be cake."
* "What do you mean, 'nobody can run the beta'?"
* "It's finally done! Hahaha!"
* "Wait, what do you mean it's not done?"
* "I'm so freakin' tired. Damnit, if I quit, I'll fail the course. Can't quit. Gotta keep going."
* "Finishing the final 10% should only take us 10% of our total dev time, right?"
* "Our playtesters are smashing their controllers against the walls."
* "Okay, our playtesters are finally happy."
* "Time to ship. That wasn't so bad. What's that yellow thing in the sky called, again?"
* "I need a drink."

Presumably, folks who have been through a project of any reasonable size have some idea of how development goes, and can recognize some not-so-obvious mistakes. And the ability to stick with it through a grungy project (and they're all grungy at one point or another) is a plus.

While that's not enough to recommend these programs outright (and there many be many other points that make them not worthwhile), I view it as a big benefit.
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Dejobaan Games - Bringing you quality video games for over 75 years
Indie Superstar - Indie games news in an exciting video webcast. Woo!

That's an interesting thought. The article makes it out to be a bit like a magical cure, but some aspects of it sound good to me. You can often improve the "wow" factor by tossing in "more" of something. Denser foliage; more of the tiny rocks that make up the detail; and so forth. Procedural generation would mean that these wouldn't have to be placed by hand, so this could make it easier to scale the visuals with system power. Similarly, particle sprays are often done procedurally, so being able to tweak those "up" to create more complex fireworks for mysterious future hardware could also work.

Some games are still played for years after they've fallen behind the curve on graphics; this might mitigate the future ugliness, adding longevity to a popular title. Keeping gamers interested in (and talking about) your game makes sense, whether you'll be producing different titles in the future or will be focusing on sequels.

Ultimately, though, my hope is that algorithmic content generation will bring game development costs down for indies. Maybe I'm dreaming. :)

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Indie Superstar - A video webcast for gamers who play indie games
Dejobaan Games - Indie games for people who watch video webcasts

• Shot #1 - This is screenshot from our prototype running in realtime. That's a shot taken at 80x60 (4-bit color), but it can go as high as 100x80 with 32 colors on higher-end machines.
• Shot #2 - This demonstrates the engine's realtime shadowing. Every single pixel has its own shadow, which is something no other platform can say. Further, it's done without pixel or vertex shaders, making it compatible with older systems. (However, they must support the Photoshop "emboss" plugin.)
• Shot #3 - In 1998, lens flare was all the rage. 2005 is the year of the bloom. Or maybe it's a glow effect? I can't remember which one it was -- I'll check with our marketing department and get back to you on that.
• Shot #4 - You're thinking, "Hey, that's nice, but I bet you can't do all three effects at once." Well, we can, and we did.

• Shot #1 - This is screenshot from our prototype running in realtime. That's a shot taken at 80x60 (4-bit color), but it can go as high as 100x80 with 32 colors on higher-end machines.
• Shot #2 - This demonstrates the engine's realtime shadowing. Every single pixel has its own shadow, which is something no other platform can say. Further, it's done without pixel or vertex shaders, making it compatible with older systems. (However, they must support the Photoshop "emboss" plugin.)
• Shot #3 - In 1998, lens flare was all the rage. 2005 is the year of the bloom. Or maybe it's a glow effect? I can't remember which one it was -- I'll check with our marketing department and get back to you on that.
• Shot #4 - You're thinking, "Hey, that's nice, but I bet you can't do all three effects at once." Well, we can, and we did.

• Shot #1 - This is screenshot from our prototype running in realtime. That's a shot taken at 80x60 (4-bit color), but it can go as high as 100x80 with 32 colors on higher-end machines.
• Shot #2 - This demonstrates the engine's realtime shadowing. Every single pixel has its own shadow, which is something no other platform can say. Further, it's done without pixel or vertex shaders, making it compatible with older systems. (However, they must support the Photoshop "emboss" plugin.)
• Shot #3 - In 1998, lens flare was all the rage. 2005 is the year of the bloom. Or maybe it's a glow effect? I can't remember which one it was -- I'll check with our marketing department and get back to you on that.
• Shot #4 - You're thinking, "Hey, that's nice, but I bet you can't do all three effects at once." Well, we can, and we did.

• Shot #1 - This is screenshot from our prototype running in realtime. That's a shot taken at 80x60 (4-bit color), but it can go as high as 100x80 with 32 colors on higher-end machines.
• Shot #2 - This demonstrates the engine's realtime shadowing. Every single pixel has its own shadow, which is something no other platform can say. Further, it's done without pixel or vertex shaders, making it compatible with older systems. (However, they must support the Photoshop "emboss" plugin.)
• Shot #3 - In 1998, lens flare was all the rage. 2005 is the year of the bloom. Or maybe it's a glow effect? I can't remember which one it was -- I'll check with our marketing department and get back to you on that.
• Shot #4 - You're thinking, "Hey, that's nice, but I bet you can't do all three effects at once." Well, we can, and we did.

• Torque2D - GarageGame's upcoming 2D tiling engine SDK. This looks promising, but is in its early-adopter release. Not yet ready for primetime, according to GarageGames.
• Pygame - Python-based 2D engine. My feeling is that Python is a great language to start game development in.
• Orbforms Designer - Why limit yourself to the PC? PDA games can give you a greater return on your time than Windows games do. (Per man-hour, our PDA titles bring us more revenue than our PC titles do.)
• Game Editor - For those who want to go even higher-level than an SDK.

• 3D Gamestudio - The engine of choice for our latest games. I love it, and hope they'll extend to the Xbox 360 platform when it comes out.
• Torque - Maybe the single most popular 3D engine among indies and hobbyists. Focuses, in part, on cross-platform compatibility (Windows/Linux/Mac).
• OGRE - An open-source package. Frequently updated. Some nice projects using the engine.
• DarkBASIC - A popular package among new developers and independents.

• Game Tunnel - Previews, articles, and reviews of indie games.
• DIY Games - Covering the latest independent/shareware titles.

• Torque2D - GarageGame's upcoming 2D tiling engine SDK. This looks promising, but is in its early-adopter release. Not yet ready for primetime, according to GarageGames.
• Pygame - Python-based 2D engine. My feeling is that Python is a great language to start game development in.
• Orbforms Designer - Why limit yourself to the PC? PDA games can give you a greater return on your time than Windows games do. (Per man-hour, our PDA titles bring us more revenue than our PC titles do.)
• Game Editor - For those who want to go even higher-level than an SDK.

• 3D Gamestudio - The engine of choice for our latest games. I love it, and hope they'll extend to the Xbox 360 platform when it comes out.
• Torque - Maybe the single most popular 3D engine among indies and hobbyists. Focuses, in part, on cross-platform compatibility (Windows/Linux/Mac).
• OGRE - An open-source package. Frequently updated. Some nice projects using the engine.
• DarkBASIC - A popular package among new developers and independents.

• Game Tunnel - Previews, articles, and reviews of indie games.
• DIY Games - Covering the latest independent/shareware titles.

• Torque2D - GarageGame's upcoming 2D tiling engine SDK. This looks promising, but is in its early-adopter release. Not yet ready for primetime, according to GarageGames.
• Pygame - Python-based 2D engine. My feeling is that Python is a great language to start game development in.
• Orbforms Designer - Why limit yourself to the PC? PDA games can give you a greater return on your time than Windows games do. (Per man-hour, our PDA titles bring us more revenue than our PC titles do.)
• Game Editor - For those who want to go even higher-level than an SDK.

• 3D Gamestudio - The engine of choice for our latest games. I love it, and hope they'll extend to the Xbox 360 platform when it comes out.
• Torque - Maybe the single most popular 3D engine among indies and hobbyists. Focuses, in part, on cross-platform compatibility (Windows/Linux/Mac).
• OGRE - An open-source package. Frequently updated. Some nice projects using the engine.
• DarkBASIC - A popular package among new developers and independents.

• Game Tunnel - Previews, articles, and reviews of indie games.
• DIY Games - Covering the latest independent/shareware titles.

Her name is Slave. After I created her I started by hitting her constantly for about 5 minutes. Then I taught her all the words(using the SST) so it would be easier to make her scared of her surroundings. After she knew all the words, I placed her in a small area, surrounded by the FF Cob, with 5 Grendels. I left her there for about 20 minutes, beating her when she attempted to defend herself from the Grendels. After she was sufficiently traumatized, I put her back in the garden. In the Garden I forced her to Get, Look, Push and Pull everything around her, all the time, constantly beating her. I made her fear running so I wouldn't have to deal with that little problem(you fellow torturers out there know how annoying it is to chase them down once they get away). I also forced her to eat weeds, rewarding her when she did so. At the time I exported her, she's a quivering mass of fear. She might eat, if you're lucky, but she probably won't survive long enough for food to do any good.

To Wright, one of the most memorable albums told the story of a woman's abusive relationship and how she eventually got out of it. But a search on the Sims Exchange of the word "abuse" reveals that Sims albums have become a common therapeutic tool. All told, 63 albums deal with abuse issues.

• America's Army
• Battlefield 1942
• Call of Duty
• Doom 3
• Far Cry
• Half Life and Half Life 2
• Unreal Tournament 2004

• Cube, which allows players to create their own maps.
• Nexuiz, under GPL, allowing everyone to download the source and modify it.
• Inago Rage, own indie FPS, which allows players to create environments from within the game.

We recently released what I like to call a casual RTS/Action hybrid for Windows called Epidemic Groove. It's a single-player game written to be played over a lunch break, (with matches typically taking 10-20 minutes). In it, you alternate between Construction and Invasion phases. In the former, you have 60 seconds to build defensive walls, medical lasers, repair pylons, and electrified fences to create an impenetrable structure. In the latter, you have to use those defenses and your reflexes to fend off pathogenic attack. Here are some shots:

GIF animation of Construction Phase

Shot of infected red blood cell attacking

It's an indie title, but it's been well-received by those who have played/reviewed it. Give it a try!

We recently released what I like to call a casual RTS/Action hybrid for Windows called Epidemic Groove. It's a single-player game written to be played over a lunch break, (with matches typically taking 10-20 minutes). In it, you alternate between Construction and Invasion phases. In the former, you have 60 seconds to build defensive walls, medical lasers, repair pylons, and electrified fences to create an impenetrable structure. In the latter, you have to use those defenses and your reflexes to fend off pathogenic attack. Here are some shots:

GIF animation of Construction Phase

Shot of infected red blood cell attacking

It's an indie title, but it's been well-received by those who have played/reviewed it. Give it a try!

I've long thought that software developers will eventually make software piracy impossible, (or at least difficult or irrelevant), by relying more on online content.

I'm not referring to online copy protection, but in actual value-added content. For example, it's not always meaningful to pirate the client of a MMORPG, since the meat is in the subscription content. Similarly, the developer of a first-person shooter might offer server-based content -- maps and tournaments -- that's not available on the client side.

Most folks who copy media seem to do so casually; might this provide them an incentive to pick up a full copy, making the argument about end-user piracy moot?
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Epidemic Groove - A casual RTS/Action hybrid for Windows

1. Give us A.I. that will actually outsmart us now and then.

This is not really what we want; it's actually not always fun. What we actually want is AI that will a) surprise us, or b) do something that appears clever. In some of the better, faster-paced games, there a decent amount of intelligence on the part of the enemy -- (ever see how enemies in Half Life 2 will try multiple doors to get to you?) but we're so busy running and gunning, that we don't notice it.

2. Give us a genre of game we've never seen before.

I'll be -1 Redudant and point out, say, many of Will Wright's offerings, (PA notwithstanding). Hell, they even bring up Katamari later on in the article. I was somewhat agog at the article's next complaints:

Why isn't a there a spy game where we actually get to be a real spy rather than a hallway-roving kill machine? ...Where's the game where we're a castaway on a deserted island and the object of the game is to find food and clean water...

Games such as Thief and, to a lesser extent, Splinter Cell, fulfill the former; and the underrated (but difficult-to-play) Robinson's Requiem and (again, to a lesser extent) Notrium are among the latter.

5. And on the opposite side of the nipple coin... Developers will be shocked one day when they notice that the world is full of women. It's true! More than half of your potential customer base are penisless.

Absolutely; I think companies will flock to that as the "next-big-thing" eventually. Here's my timetable for buzzwords:

2004 - Shadows and Lighting
2005 - Realistic Physics
2006 - Emergent Gameplay
2007 - Appeal to Women

10. And while we're at it... Let's rid games of all arbitrary barriers.

Again, I agree; and I wonder if, should we start building games differently, (e.g., if more elements are handled by simulated systems rather than scripted events), will we see more of this? I care less about this from the standpoint of immersion, and more from the standpoint of the ability to solve problems as I want to solve problems. This seems less a matter of horsepower and more a matter of game design. It's not slow CPUs preventing us from doing this. Is it?
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Epidemic Groove - A combination of real-time-strategy and action on a cellular level.

"Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a model at E3?"

Have you ever wondered what it is like to watch Seung-Mina and Xianghua fight in a live action performance on stage? Sure you have! But wonder no more: Kali-Yuga will show you the way (mirror) in a short, but entertaining video clip.
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Play Epidemic Groove - A unique hybrid of real-time strategy and action created by an indie studio.

Freedom of design: A dynamic development architecture equally accommodates both big-budget, high-profile game "masterpieces" as well as indie games conceived by individual developers equipped with only a big idea.

• 1 Happ Joystick - I prefer the Happ Ultimate; it's very reasonably priced at about $11 apiece.
• 8 Happ Pushbuttons - Preferably each in its own color. They carry Red, White, Blue, Green, Purple, Yellow, Black, and Orange, so at $2/apiece, you have no choice but to get one of each.
• Optionally, get them with the fancy dimpled variety.
• A box. If you're cheap enough, you can actually make a viable controller out of a pizza box. Eat the pizza first.
• Yes, you can go the whole nine yards and get the stand-up case; the vertical screen; and the coin slot. But isn't something missing?

• Man does not play Pacman in a vacuum. While you're chomping away at those dots, consider a set of these attached to your home computer. Oh, no. They're not for your game. They're for pumping out ambient noise: a) Asteroids, Galaxian, et al., and b) That angry guy that's always yelling at the machine because he keeps losing at Mr. Do.
• I never actually saw anyone with hair like this in an arcade, (and I admit I may be blocking it out), but you'd see them on signs and TV screens everywhere. Your home arcade is not complete without a few posters of Debbie Gibson. NOT to be confused with "Deborah Gibson."
• If your pants are fancy enough to spend a few thousand on a replica arcade device, you probably have a posh gaming room. What's under your feet? Is it that nice, solid oak flooring? Not so fast, bucko! Cover that high-price floor of yours with -- yes -- office carpeting. It's cheap. It's durable. And, most importantly, it's so crummy, you won't notice when you drop that oily slice of pepperoni pizza you got from the consession stand.

To me, the most interesting tidbits in this article are about women in gaming, and the implication that their influence on design will bring about new styles of gameplay. There's some interesting literature out there about how women play games:

Killing Like a Girl (PDF)
The Norrathian Scrolls: A Study of Everquest (PDF)

I get the impression that this is one area where independent studios really have a chance to innovate. But given how conservative we can be, maybe the larger studios will figure it out first.
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Epidemic Groove - Our casual/action/real-time strategy hybrid about curing a worldwide epidemic by constructing nanomechanical defenses. You know, the usual stuff.

Where is everyone? The thread on the 2004 Indie Games of the Year brought about hunrdreds of comments! It's Star Wars, isn't it? Everyone's out watching the midnight showing of Episode III. By God, I blame George Lucas.

Damn you, Sir. Damn you, and such.
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Epidemic Groove - Our casual/action/real-time strategy hybrid about women curing a worldwide epidemic by constructing nanomechanical defenses. You know, the usual stuff.

An upcoming SCI-FI MMORPG from the BBC will allow you to buy "a hundred tacos for a hundred dollars," which "should provide adequate sustenance for the Dr. Who Marathon."
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Buy "fresh" sushi from within an FPS, with Inago Rage.

You can be sure that at Gamers.com there are no bought reviews. In fact, in certain situations we've even received hate email by developers and publishers for not praising their game. We report what we consider to be fair and just, despite all the buzz.

The upside to that is if you don't get angry when a game is poorly-received, it means that you weren't passionate enough about making it. :) Of course, yelling at your reviewers may not work out so well in your favor, either. I'm always reluctant to contact reviewers asking them for more insight, but I do try to send a note of thanks.

From the outside, it seems that Rockstar did a good job in this respect -- the second-in-series, Grand Theft Auto II received low marks in various reviews, but they seem to have taken them as feedback, and produced a winner with GTA III.

Between reading a review and following up on other gamers opinions, one should have a rough idea if the game is worth purchasing.

I might twist that slightly -- given the number of games available these days, I'd say that professional and player reviews most often give me an idea as to whether it's even worthwhile to try the demo.
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Inago Rage - A demo worth downloading(!)

We've used Python in a few projects, from a relatively simple action/puzzle game, TapDown, to a larger, multi-user game. As jericho4.0 points out, it binds well with C, so for both projects, we wrote C/Python binders for the Fastgraph graphics library and the BASS audio library. I find that it's much easier to prototype in Python than in C, so, for example, when we wanted to implement a modified Perlin Noise algorithm for the larger project, we modelled it in Python first, then optimized the processor-consuming bits by implementing them in C.

I'd jump at the chance to use Python as a the scripting language in a first-person shooter. The Conitec engine uses something called C-Script, which is nice, but not nearly as sexy as Python is. Some drawbacks come to mind, (just off the top of my head, it may be tricky to have an entity sit around in the middle of its script), but its ease-of-use, combined with the simplicity of dropping down to C for the lower-level stuff makes it very appealing for all sorts of games.
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Inago Rage - Create, fight, and fly in a first-person shooter.

We've used Python in a few projects, from a relatively simple action/puzzle game, TapDown, to a larger, multi-user game. As jericho4.0 points out, it binds well with C, so for both projects, we wrote C/Python binders for the Fastgraph graphics library and the BASS audio library. I find that it's much easier to prototype in Python than in C, so, for example, when we wanted to implement a modified Perlin Noise algorithm for the larger project, we modelled it in Python first, then optimized the processor-consuming bits by implementing them in C.

I'd jump at the chance to use Python as a the scripting language in a first-person shooter. The Conitec engine uses something called C-Script, which is nice, but not nearly as sexy as Python is. Some drawbacks come to mind, (just off the top of my head, it may be tricky to have an entity sit around in the middle of its script), but its ease-of-use, combined with the simplicity of dropping down to C for the lower-level stuff makes it very appealing for all sorts of games.
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Inago Rage - Create, fight, and fly in a first-person shooter.

We've used Python in a few projects, from a relatively simple action/puzzle game, TapDown, to a larger, multi-user game. As jericho4.0 points out, it binds well with C, so for both projects, we wrote C/Python binders for the Fastgraph graphics library and the BASS audio library. I find that it's much easier to prototype in Python than in C, so, for example, when we wanted to implement a modified Perlin Noise algorithm for the larger project, we modelled it in Python first, then optimized the processor-consuming bits by implementing them in C.

I'd jump at the chance to use Python as a the scripting language in a first-person shooter. The Conitec engine uses something called C-Script, which is nice, but not nearly as sexy as Python is. Some drawbacks come to mind, (just off the top of my head, it may be tricky to have an entity sit around in the middle of its script), but its ease-of-use, combined with the simplicity of dropping down to C for the lower-level stuff makes it very appealing for all sorts of games.
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Inago Rage - Create, fight, and fly in a first-person shooter.

I'll actually be at the Tuesday, February 22nd lecture, talking about development of our latest title. Come up and introduce yourself after class; I'm also a WPI alum.
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Fight, fly, and create in Inago Rage.

I'll actually be at the Tuesday, February 22nd lecture, talking about development of our latest title. Come up and introduce yourself after class; I'm also a WPI alum.
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Fight, fly, and create in Inago Rage.

You have a good point. I also think it would be a larger studio that would be most likely to go up against The Sims. However, where I disagree with you, (and apparently you're already in the right, here, because we don't see more such followers!), is that, just as larger studios see the success of FPSes and pour lots of money into creating their own, I would have expected more of them to see the success of The Sims and pour lots of money into creating their own, as well.

Again, what you're saying may be entirely true. I'm still surprised that there aren't, at least, more attempts at Sims-like games. Even if they fail. :)
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Build. Fight. Fly. Enjoy Inago Rage

The Sims is a fantastic series for a number of reasons, most notably its unique gameplay and the resulting cross-gender appeal that has led to sales of over 50 million units. Given this success, I'm surprised to see that few studios have attempted to go up against it and create an even better "society simulator." When Doom came out, it brought forth literally hundreds of followers. Some were clones, but many advanced the genre; there's no question that today's most popular first-person shooters came about by standing on the shoulders of its predecessors.

Maxis created a new genre in The Sims, but at this time, only two "followers" come to mind -- Singles and Playboy Mansion. Given the vast amounts of money The Sims series has made, why aren't more companies trying to one-up them? Is there an inclination towards pushing (say) the first-person shooter genre because most game developers are first-person shooter fans?

I'm a fan of The Sims. And I want to know who will beat Will Wright at his own game by making an even better game in the genre he created.
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Inago Rage for people who like to create things

The notion that a game in development may one day spawn a sequel can have a positive effect on development of that game. Knowing that we don't have to fit absolutely everything into that initial game makes it easier to focus on providing a solid product without feeling that we're trashing our great ideas forever.

By way of example, during development of Inago Rage, it was clear to us that players might enjoy a multiplayer mode. This is natural for an FPS, but in Inago, since players also create their own arenas, the idea of collaborative building made it doubly interesting. But it was not something we felt we could do in the time we had. A half-assed multiplayer compontent would disappoint players and diminish the single-player component. So, we didn't add it. What kept this from becoming a disappointment to us (enthusiasm counts for a lot in game development) was the knowledge that we could always add it as part of a sequel, an expansion, or even a version update.

During the development of a game, there always comes a time when you lock down the features and put the pages of brilliant concepts and great player suggestions away. I think that some of the greatest elements in a sequel come about when developers are given the chance to implement ideas they were passionate about in the first game, but had to tuck away for later.
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Inago Rage - A first-person shooter where you build and fly

The notion that a game in development may one day spawn a sequel can have a positive effect on development of that game. Knowing that we don't have to fit absolutely everything into that initial game makes it easier to focus on providing a solid product without feeling that we're trashing our great ideas forever.

By way of example, during development of Inago Rage, it was clear to us that players might enjoy a multiplayer mode. This is natural for an FPS, but in Inago, since players also create their own arenas, the idea of collaborative building made it doubly interesting. But it was not something we felt we could do in the time we had. A half-assed multiplayer compontent would disappoint players and diminish the single-player component. So, we didn't add it. What kept this from becoming a disappointment to us (enthusiasm counts for a lot in game development) was the knowledge that we could always add it as part of a sequel, an expansion, or even a version update.

During the development of a game, there always comes a time when you lock down the features and put the pages of brilliant concepts and great player suggestions away. I think that some of the greatest elements in a sequel come about when developers are given the chance to implement ideas they were passionate about in the first game, but had to tuck away for later.
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Inago Rage - A first-person shooter where you build and fly

You're right! September 2001, it is.
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Inago Rage - Fight. Fly. Create.

Trip Hawkins is an interesting choice, in that the other inductees were all heavily involved in game development, whereas he was more of a facilitator. There's also a great deal of debate on whether Hawkins is to be villified or celebrated. I'll throw in with the latter category, because he pulled together the "electronic artists" who created my favorite games of the early '80s.

An article written by the Dot Eaters does a good job of describing how I think of Electronic Arts when it was just a small studio. I'm still fond of those LP-style packages. And their toolbox-titles, such as Adventure Construction Set, Pinball Construction Set and Racing Destruction Set brought about my own interest in creating games with a strong building component to them. There was nothing in the world like M.U.L.E. before Dan Bunten/Danielle Bunten Berry created it. And I think it was Hawkins that made these things possible.

He may deserve the harsh scrutiny he receives -- and, certainly, he's not going to win any points with anyone for his comments earlier this year. But somehow I can't hate the fellow who brought together so many bright folks under one roof. Electronic Arts has recently published some of my favorite games, but it's the early ones I remember best.
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Inago Rage - Create and fight within your own FPS arenas.
Try the new demo for Windows!

Trip Hawkins is an interesting choice, in that the other inductees were all heavily involved in game development, whereas he was more of a facilitator. There's also a great deal of debate on whether Hawkins is to be villified or celebrated. I'll throw in with the latter category, because he pulled together the "electronic artists" who created my favorite games of the early '80s.

An article written by the Dot Eaters does a good job of describing how I think of Electronic Arts when it was just a small studio. I'm still fond of those LP-style packages. And their toolbox-titles, such as Adventure Construction Set, Pinball Construction Set and Racing Destruction Set brought about my own interest in creating games with a strong building component to them. There was nothing in the world like M.U.L.E. before Dan Bunten/Danielle Bunten Berry created it. And I think it was Hawkins that made these things possible.

He may deserve the harsh scrutiny he receives -- and, certainly, he's not going to win any points with anyone for his comments earlier this year. But somehow I can't hate the fellow who brought together so many bright folks under one roof. Electronic Arts has recently published some of my favorite games, but it's the early ones I remember best.
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Inago Rage - Create and fight within your own FPS arenas.
Try the new demo for Windows!

You're playing tennis with Billy, when a pair of attractive women walk onto the court. What do you want to do?
1. Go all out and win to impress the women.
2. Throw the game to make Billy feel better.

] 2. You throw the game. You end up looking like a chump, but Billy ends up looking like a champ! He puts a good word in with your boss, and you earn a promotion! Meanwhile, the women laugh at you.

IGN has a number of videos, from which you can glean single-player gameplay. They also have footage of Nintendo's conference presentation, which talks about the multiplayer aspect. The latter is more interesting, as the former seems similar to other games in the genre. (Tap the controls in time with the music.)
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Inago Rage - Fight in 3D arenas of your own design.

Isn't it obvious? ...if you're not producing it from scratch with a specific intention in mind you're going to get bad performance and poor consistancy and the players will notice it.

Well, if you're saying that bad content will diminish my game, and that not all content is appropriate for all games, I agree with you. Still, people sell texture packs or music libraries or sound effects libraries which aren't specifically created for a particular production, but are used in artwork, film, and games, to good effect. So, I'd say that there exists the potential for certain types of content to be re-used.

Wow, 800 polys for a plain straight backed chair. Yep, that's gunna be great for my FPS or MMORPG.

I agree, again -- bad content does me no good. But I do think that some of the good stuff may be (as Jonathan Clark put it) rotting away needlessly.
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Inago Rage

...to compete with WoW and Evercrack 2 you need to be at least on par with their fees and ideally less.

Underpricing is more important for commodities and less so for something like an MMORPG. I don't think that (say) a game with a monthly fee of $5 less than WoW's would entice anyone to switch to them. There's also the matter of perception-of-quality -- I would guess that most people, upon seeing a $4.95/mo MMORPG would turn their noses up at it.

Conversely, if there are gameplay elements that make the game worth $14.95, consumers would probably be willing to pay a few dollars more.

There are, of course, limits to this. If you're going to charge $50/mo for a subscription, you'd better either a) provide something pretty amazing, or b) disassociate the subscription fee from actual money. (Ever been to Dave and Buster's? When you walk in, you buy credits, then use arbitrary numbers of credits to play games. They disassociate the cost of playing a game from actual money. So, while you're probably paying $2.50 for a game, it doesn't feel that way.)

As a corrolary to this, in the early '90s, I used to work for a company that charged $6.95 an hour to play its online game, (with a $3/hr connection surcharge). This was pretty standard. We had a few flatrate customers who paid a whopping $1,000/month for unlimited access. Yeeaaaugh!

As a result $14.95 never seemed so bad to me.
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Inago Rage - Our first-person shooter

I'll take a moment to plug our indie-developed first-person shooter, Inago Rage. We tried to make the game different from most by focusing gameplay on short burts of flight (MPEG), but what we really concentrated on was the ability for players to create their own arenas (scroll down) without having to use external mod tools. Basically, we've implemented a drag-and-drop system to allow players to place buildings, towers, bridges, enemies, prizes, and particle generators.

The graphics are not likely to outdo those of this past year's AAA titles, but I'm happy with what we were able to produce. There are a good number of reasonably-priced tools that (I think) make it possible for smaller studios to create visually attractive games.

We're hoping to release a demo by the end of Janary, and have experimented with attempts at web commercials to get the word out. (The holy grail of the Viral Video eludes us, as yet -- we'll keep trying). We're also in the alpha test stage of an overhead shooter using the same technology called Last Man on Mars (WMV video).

Here's hoping Inago Rage will be a contender for the top 10 indie titles of 2005.
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Inago Rage

I'll take a moment to plug our indie-developed first-person shooter, Inago Rage. We tried to make the game different from most by focusing gameplay on short burts of flight (MPEG), but what we really concentrated on was the ability for players to create their own arenas (scroll down) without having to use external mod tools. Basically, we've implemented a drag-and-drop system to allow players to place buildings, towers, bridges, enemies, prizes, and particle generators.

The graphics are not likely to outdo those of this past year's AAA titles, but I'm happy with what we were able to produce. There are a good number of reasonably-priced tools that (I think) make it possible for smaller studios to create visually attractive games.

We're hoping to release a demo by the end of Janary, and have experimented with attempts at web commercials to get the word out. (The holy grail of the Viral Video eludes us, as yet -- we'll keep trying). We're also in the alpha test stage of an overhead shooter using the same technology called Last Man on Mars (WMV video).

Here's hoping Inago Rage will be a contender for the top 10 indie titles of 2005.
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Inago Rage

I'll take a moment to plug our indie-developed first-person shooter, Inago Rage. We tried to make the game different from most by focusing gameplay on short burts of flight (MPEG), but what we really concentrated on was the ability for players to create their own arenas (scroll down) without having to use external mod tools. Basically, we've implemented a drag-and-drop system to allow players to place buildings, towers, bridges, enemies, prizes, and particle generators.

The graphics are not likely to outdo those of this past year's AAA titles, but I'm happy with what we were able to produce. There are a good number of reasonably-priced tools that (I think) make it possible for smaller studios to create visually attractive games.

We're hoping to release a demo by the end of Janary, and have experimented with attempts at web commercials to get the word out. (The holy grail of the Viral Video eludes us, as yet -- we'll keep trying). We're also in the alpha test stage of an overhead shooter using the same technology called Last Man on Mars (WMV video).

Here's hoping Inago Rage will be a contender for the top 10 indie titles of 2005.
__________________________
Inago Rage

I'll take a moment to plug our indie-developed first-person shooter, Inago Rage. We tried to make the game different from most by focusing gameplay on short burts of flight (MPEG), but what we really concentrated on was the ability for players to create their own arenas (scroll down) without having to use external mod tools. Basically, we've implemented a drag-and-drop system to allow players to place buildings, towers, bridges, enemies, prizes, and particle generators.

The graphics are not likely to outdo those of this past year's AAA titles, but I'm happy with what we were able to produce. There are a good number of reasonably-priced tools that (I think) make it possible for smaller studios to create visually attractive games.

We're hoping to release a demo by the end of Janary, and have experimented with attempts at web commercials to get the word out. (The holy grail of the Viral Video eludes us, as yet -- we'll keep trying). We're also in the alpha test stage of an overhead shooter using the same technology called Last Man on Mars (WMV video).

Here's hoping Inago Rage will be a contender for the top 10 indie titles of 2005.
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Inago Rage