Tag Archives: video games

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Soul Bubbles

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One of the awesomesauce people I met at Project Horseshoe was Olivier Lejade of Mekensleep. When he told us about his company’s game, Soul Bubbles, on the van ride to the conference I became instantly intrigued. It sounded cute and fun, and the more I got to know Olivier and his cleverness, the more I was curious about investigating his design work. One Amazon gift certificate later, I finally got a copy into my DS.

The game is delightful and super-elegant, and I’m really enjoying it! The world of the game is very strange: You act as a spirit herder, putting spirits in little bubbles and blowing them around to transport them, using the bubbles to solve puzzles to make your way through the level. But the weird concepts are very smartly introduced, so that by the time you start herding spirits, all the weird stuff feels natural.

Part of the delight of this game is simply the core interaction: using the DS stylus to blow around a bubble, slice it into smaller bubbles to squeeze them through small spaces, bouncing bubbles back into one another and combining them back into one big bubble, etc. The interaction makes wonderful use of the stylus and touchscreen and is a perfect fit for the DS.

Above all, Soul Bubbles just feels very, very polished. Everything is “just-so,” and is not bogged down with too many features. It is very simple, but very polished, very elegant, and very fun! All the better, too, for my poor DS was stowed away and gathering dust, only coming out for long travel trips. Now I have a reason to tote it around with me more regularly.

Huzzah for awesome games! Well done, Olivier 😀

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Decemberball

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I adore the Tuesday Night Ballers, and I often think of them fondly at various times in my most recent adventures. The times when we are able to get together have been more and more adventurous as time goes on.

Tonight, everyone was “on,” and it was brilliant. Not 2 minutes would pass without laughter or wit or some clever exchange sparking another clever exchange. I love them all! Scott, Will, Ian, Brendan, Maria, Matt, Kyle, DC, Beth, and I had dinner at the Mayan Gypsy and launched the night with much gaming. Reviews!

Lots of games…

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Simultaneous Attraction and Repulsion

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Yesterday, Jesse and I were chatting about a Civil War game he picked up out of curiosity. We were speculating on what a Civil War FPS might be like*. Jesse figured a lot of bayoneting, and I figured a lot of gangrene.

“Oh!” I said suddenly, “what if there is an amputation mini-game with a hacksaw?”

IMMEDIATELY after the words fell from my fingers, I recoiled in horror. UGGGH!! Ew!! EW!

“Undo, UNDO!” I shouted, but alas, once an idea is birthed into the world, it cannot be forced back from whence it came. It is here to stay.

Even though I shuddered at my horrible idea, it kept coming back up in conversation, both then and again tonight.

At one point I even said, “I want someone to make a BVW World about it. NO I DON’T!”

But it wouldn’t leave my brain! Imagine the sound design on that. Bits of bone…..no..ew…EWW!! UGGH!! STOP IT.

Jesse laughed and said that there’s no word yet for those mysterious things which attract and repulse at the same time. And he’s right. Attempting to google it only brings up some science journal article titled “Independent functions of slit-robo repulsion and netrin-frazzled attraction regulate axon crossing at the midline in Drosophila.” Which, of course, is not helpful at all. Do scientists publish these things and then giggle behind our backs? Netrin-frazzled, indeed.

Anyway, my poor, horrible Civil War FPS amputation mini-game may as well get logged away on my great list of ideas. Perhaps writing it down will cast it away for good. And who knows, perhaps it will come in handy someday. Poor little idea. Uggh….*shudder*

*apparently it’s pretty terrible.

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

I has a hunger

Let’s be honest. For a long time now, I’ve been scraping by on other people’s consoles, nibbling at new video games as a good-natured jackal might nibble bites of other kills, and have been happy doing so. I’ve sustained myself as such since, well, since Halo, I suppose, and fun times on the XBox back at Rhodes 2 in undergrad. There have been a smattering of purchases here and there, but for the most part I’ve been scavenging.

It’s been frugal living, and for a long time it’s been quite an acceptable means for me to absorb enough gaming to keep myself going.

However, things have been changing. I’ve grown hungry to own my own games again, and to feed off of my own consoles. With the recent wave of November releases, I become restless and jealous every time I read a twitter or a status update about some such game that some such person has been enjoying. It makes me twitchy and antsy and fuels a desperate hunger to play and learn and consume and shove games into my brain as I do so often with books. Can I hold out against this craving? Should I?

I haven’t felt this way, really, since back when I purchased my Playstation 1 in high school, which is pretty much when I began sustaining my gaming crave with my own money. It began in a similar way…I remember scraping by on the consoles of friends, playing what I could on visits, and slowly growing hungrier. Then Spyro the Dragon came and I was like “okay, that’s it,” and I happily devoted the meager income of a high school student to support my gaming hobby in full with a fresh new console.

I suppose, if I’m going to be a game designer, I could write off the investment cost as research and not worry about it. Still, it’s so much money! Even if I became a devoted GameFly user, I still have to get the consoles and a TV to play them on.

I think the best happy medium would be to take advantage of the ETC library and lounge in the time I have left, but students on co-op can’t borrow games from the library, so I’d have to have someone else get them for me. It is not quite the same, I know, but it might help sate my appetite for a bit longer. We shall see!

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

A Poll

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Internets, I need your help! I require input for decision-making.

Do I…

1) Go to Gamestop tonight to pick up my pre-ordered copy of WotLK and see all the fun costumed people and bask in the camaraderie of nerd-ism and have fun and a party.

or

2) Go to freakin bed and pick up WotLK tomorrow because I’m tired as hell and I won’t install it tonight anyway.

Discuss!

Edit: After handing over my decision to the coin of fate, I went along. It was quite well organized and they gave us free pizza! No one dressed up in crazy costumes though. I still haven’t installed it, as I went to bed immediately upon my return.

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Why Highlander the MMO will be AWESOME

So here’s another thought tangent that came out of Horseshoe, even though it was not directly connected to a workgroup.

Back in Bandology, we often joked about how we were going to make Highlander the MMO, and how it was going to be AWESOME. It was entirely a joke, as the “there can be only one” nature of Highlander doesn’t really mesh with the concept of a massively multiplayer game.

OR DOES IT?

Highlander the MMO WILL be fun…

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

Resistance Trailer

Yesterday at work, we all crowded into the conference room to watch the Sony bit at E3 to see them show the Resistance 2 trailer. It was very exciting!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dIfX1tIut2M

The best thing about this was being able to see a vertical slice of how awesome this game is going to be, it made me very excited to get back to work. I’m going to have to get a PS3 when this is all over with, so I can get the game and show it to people and say “hey, hey, see that setup? That one there? That’s mine!”

Best internship ever.

Games and Game Development, Personal Blog

LA Week 1 = success!

Well, my first week in Burbank has wound to a close, and I’d consider it a success so far.

Insomniac is great. It’s a very busy time there, so it’s going to be challenging but fun. My supervisor and mentor are very kind, and the whole team is very friendly. Due to the NDA, I can’t talk about what I’m doing. But since it’s been announced, I CAN say I’m working on Resistance 2, and I can say that this summer is going to be awesome fun and learning.

Meanwhile, I’ve been being social as well. My roommates, found randomly through craigslist, are very cool. One of them has a cat, which will make my summer all the better!

There are also lots of ETC alums and ETC first-years doing internships in town, so plenty of people to hang out with. On Friday, the alums took the first-years to Santa Monica for a welcoming of sorts. There was dinner and bowling. Photos follow…

http://picasaweb.google.com/wertle.dragon/SantaMonica

There’s also been Rock Band with Rob and Evan, and exploring adventures and bike rides. So far so good!