Glest 3.0 Released

http://www.glest.org/

After some time and quite some expectation, a new version has been released that includes the single most awaited feature in the history of the game: Multiplayer!

At this point the multiplayer feature is reduced to the bare bones, but it works. We are hoping on the community to help us test it 🙂

And, finally, fly


Kurt Busiek is (among other things) a comic scriptwriter. Not so many years ago, Image Comics started to publish a work by him: Astro City. If I can remember correctly, since my memory is made of cork, Busiek had been already working for some time in the human perspective of the super-heroic experience. With his work, he tried to answer questions such as, how does a journalist view super heroes?, or, what are the feelings of someone who suddenly acquires great power? Continue reading And, finally, fly

Game developers spotted!

http://www.gamedevmap.com/index.php

Publishers, development studios with a staff of five or more, studios with previously published games, and studios under contract with a publisher are listed.


Gamedevmap is a growing database of video game companies. For the sake of general curiosity, you can spot at a glance the most prominent areas for video game developing -this is a little tricky though, since the spots don’t give visual information on the number of companies on each one of them-. However, I believe that this link will be most valuable for those interested in entering the business, since it saves countless headaches searching for the companies’ locations and sites. Beware that not every company is covered: the webmasters rely on the readers’ help to complete the list, so this could be your opportunity to add a spot! 🙂

Game design as software engineering

A video game is not that different from any other software development; it perhaps depends more on hardware, but even so it is very similar. When you describe a program you need the client’s opinion and plenty of information to determine how the issue was being taken prior to the new development. In the end it is obvious that albeit there won´t be much relation between the analysis and the final development, that relation will still be more or less recognizeable.

But, what about video games? To start with, Continue reading Game design as software engineering

NetLogo 3.1

http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/

NetLogo is a programmable modeling environment for simulating natural and social phenomena. It is particularly well suited for modeling complex systems developing over time. Modelers can give instructions to hundreds or thousands of independent “agents” all operating concurrently. This makes it possible to explore the connection between the micro-level behavior of individuals and the macro-level patterns that emerge from the interaction of many individuals.

3.1 features a new suite of link primitives, configurable world topologies, randomized agent ordering, and a new tie primitive.

NetLogo is one of those cool, easy-to-understand program languages, like Processing, that I keep in my linkshelf with the hope to learn one day and become a really cool artist.

Based on the famous (at least when I was a kid) LOGO language, NetLogo really IS an impressive programming environment for at least three reasons: it is easy to learn so students can use it; it is written in java, which means that the programs can be executed from within the web browser, like the examples here; and it has a very wide scope of applications, from biology to art. All in all, this is a highly interesting and worthwhile environment that I’ll keep on wanting to try for a long time. 😉

Glest 2.0 released

http://www.glest.org/

In case you haven’t read my previous articles on it, Glest is a Free, open-source 3d Real Time Strategy Game, designed in a way so that it is easy to customize and expand. Glest has been in continuous development for several years, and has received awards in the Art Futura and Mundos Digitales spanish international festivals. Finally we have released the official 2.0 version, which includes many add-ons that we hope will enhance gameplay. Continue reading Glest 2.0 released

Art by Tucho

http://www.artbytucho.blogspot.com/

A few days ago my good friend Tucho Fernández opened his new blog, “Art by Tucho”, where he is regularly posting samples of his drawings and 3D models. Tucho and I worked together in the Glest project and he is now also working for the video games company Traganarion Studios. As for his art, the quality of his paintings is eloquent enough. I would add that he’s especially talented for drawing things of an organic nature, especially fantasy creatures and dinosaurs, but in my opinion that’s only because that’s his preference. I’ve been trying to make him draw robots and spaceships since I first met him, though, and the Battle Machine is the best example that he is equally skillful at drawing almost anything. 🙂

Adrenalin

Masculinity can be defined by two aspects: the cocktail adrenalin+ testosterone added to the liking for shooters.

Shooters, generally on a coin-op platform, were a dominant genre in the realm of early videogames. It’s easy to recall Galaxian, or Tempest, one of the first games to bring deepness to game mechanics. I would like to highlight one among them: Robotron 2084, the first game I ever knew that needed two joysticks to be used simultaneously, one for movement and the other for shooting.

Of course, the genre never died. People everywhere, especially asians as it seems, keep on devouring one shooter after another: Ikaruga, Bangai-O, Radiant SilvergunContinue reading Adrenalin

Game Flyers Galore!

http://flyers.arcade-museum.com/

a repository for arcade related promotional flyers that are used by the coin-operated amusement industry to promote the sales of their games.

The product of a fusion between two already big flyer collections, the Arcade Flyer Archive is, since 1999, an evergrowing showcase of arcade flyers and a paradise for the video game enthusiast.

In wandering through the many images available (usually there are several flyers for a single videogame,) you will find amazing artworks covering the entire story of arcades from 1971 to almost yesterday (the database is constantly updated). From an aesthetical point of view this is enough to Continue reading Game Flyers Galore!

We love kung-fu!

I hate fighting games. My first contact with them was the Street Fighter 2 coin-op, and already then I thought it was a ridiculous game. That’s strange, because I could finish the first Double Dragon without blinking, but there was no chemistry. It was a game without power-ups, where in order to get the control dynamics you had to Continue reading We love kung-fu!