January 2010
1 post
November 2009
2 posts
Aiding discoverability of XBL Indie Games
An interesting thought occurred to me while reading about the tepid sales of SYNSO! on XBL Indie Games. (See http://www.xnplay.co.uk/2009/11/19/squid-yes-not-so-octopus-sales)
XBL should provide a Twitter-like stream of updates from your friends, which would include things like “FriendX bought SYNSO! and rated it 5 stars! (X) to see SYNSO!” There could tremendous...
Going Rogue(like)
What is your favorite Rogue-like?
October 2009
7 posts
Gameplay Concepts
Gameplay concepts I’d like to explore or see explored:
Maintaining emergence in spite of simplicity/low time commitment — e.g. how can we get the emergent gameplay of something like UO or Eve Online in a more casual milieu. (Bonus thought: why are “social games” so anti-social?)
Play with exploration for exploration’s sake at its core. There is something very...
WatchSince I hand rolled my physics, now I can start to do some fun stuff, like walking over uneven (bitmap-based) terrain. Basic collision detection with arbitrary sprites (happens to be a simple ground here but could also easily have had a floating irregularly shaped sprite to interact with as well) where the movement code will properly step you up - within a certain limit of height. Also implemented...
WatchHand-rolled physics are working well inside GameMaker. More tests are in order, but no major glitches to be found in the first basic test. Plenty of features to add of course. :) Mental note: Get a better screengrab program, preferably something without mega watermark from hell.
“Simple Syrup is a pleasant combination of uncomplicated elements. Scratchware...”
– Symple Syrup