Sunday, September 30, 2007

Going Up In The World

Yesterday I was added to Ryan Shwayder's bloginati. With bloginati people such as Raph koster and Richard bartle being part of it. I'm very happy i'm being recognized to a industry standard and beyond. Also happy to have my name with the bloginati group.

www.bloginati.com

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Adobe CS3 Tour

It was nice to mingle with some movie and games industry people at the conference. I found Adobes new line to be very productive towards many graphical industry's such as the game industry. Some products stood out from the rest. Sound Booth and Premier are one of my favorites along with photoshop's new element of supporting 3D in it's interface. Also the vanishing point has be re constructed so we are now able to build virtual sets and the example we were shown of putting a flat plane CD cover on a 3d model all in photoshop.

My highlight was me winning a In Class Room book from the prize draw, shame it wasn't the actual creative software line which was first prize.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Virtual ME - Revised









Today I'm announcing a small project i've been working on for a-bit.

Virtual ME is a Virtual World Inside A widget. For those of you who don't know what widgets are, they are small handy little icons/flash/apps that can be placed on your desktop. Many give you live weather, news, and game info.

Virtual ME is the first Virtual World in Widget form, and anyone can create there own Virtual World using it! Virtual ME runs off a 2D Tile based format although in your personal virtual world you can link objects and portals to your blogs, websites, wikis, videos, audios.

You need some small experiance with editing via a text pad to create your very own world. Although I will be supplying tutorials for everyone to get started.

Currently Virtual ME is in Alpha Stages. BETA will be announced soon so keep your eyes pealed!


---- Revised ---

Virtual ME 2.0 is now a project name for a MMO (IDEA) based on my theory of MMO 2.0. The project supports many prototypes and thoeries in development for a unamed MMO title i'm currently working on.

Virtual ME 2.0 currently supports any device that can harness the power of flash. Meaning you will be able to play "Project X" on Mobile, Laptop, Blackberry, iFone, PC.

More infomation comming soon.

The Old Classics

The Games That Started It All Off!

These are all widgets. Follow the links to the source site were you can get the classics for your site/blog or myspace.

Space Invaders

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/102

Asteroids

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/107

Pong

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/127

Pac Man

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/126

Frogger

http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/125

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Virtual Game Conferences










The Side Project -

I recently founded a small group called "VGC" (Video Game Conferences). What VGC is intended to do is bring the games industry conferences to virtual games such as Metaplace, Second-Life, Multiverse Community Worlds.

VGC conferences will allow developers from Indie and Commercial ventures to show off there games and technology within virtual space. Also there is added sections for invited speakers to come along and perform live tracks for Design, Art and Programming. Targeting the virtual world as a venue is a brilliant choice due to there being more people will be able to attend from all over the world without leaving there computers. Developers won't have to travel to present there games. Plus it's open to Independent developers as-well as commercial ones.
VGC plans to give virtual venues the makeover venues with booths, Stages, Conference rooms, Lobby areas.

Currently VGC has it's first conference planned. Although there is no information on targeted virtual world yet.

More to be announced soon...

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Areae Inc Announces Metaplace

Some fine news we have today on Raph Kosters company Areae Inc. They have just announced there new project Metaplace. Below is a bit about meta place from the official site:

Metaplace! That's what!

Build a virtual apartment and put it on your website. Work with friends to make a huge MMORPG. Share your puzzle game with friends. We have a vision: to let you build anything, and play everything, from anywhere. Eventually, anyway. We have to finish it first. www.areae.net

More to come soon..

Revisiting Classics

Recently I've been looking at some of the old games i used to play to see how they were and still are enjoyable to this very day. I've been mostly looking at the mechanics of each title and assessing on there "Fun Factor" as-well as other things among the design elements of the games.

Crazy Machines
Developer:
Pepper Games
Publisher: Viva-Media
Site: www.crazy-machines.com

Firstly I looked at Crazy Machines. Although many of you may of thought I was talking about major old games I still am but old compared to me. Crazy Machines is named the wacky contraption game. The game incorporates PyshX with its genre Puzzle game. The aim in the game is to solve the puzzle to complete each objective.

An objective may be get the ball from one side of the screen to the other. Then you get given a set of all sorts of crazy items to get that ball from one side to the other. Below is a level screenshot from the game.

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My Overview:
Game Type: Puzzle
Game Play: Open Ended
Play Time: 10hours Max (Depending on Player)
Design: Medium (Physics Part Makes Is Hard)

Conclusion:
Although a simple idea its a real classic in my books, keeps any player boggling there brain for hours on end.

Clonk Planet
Developer:
Clonk.de
Publisher: Self Published
Site: www.clonk.de

Clonk planet is still one of my favorites. Made by Clonk.de starting off indie they have now brought Clonk into a complete franchise. Clonk Planet is one of the famous 2D building games in my game collection. Clonk Planet is now freely available on there site. There new Clonk game is turning Clonk 3D.

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My Overview:
Game Type: God Game
Game Play: Free form with limits
Play Time: 5hours Max (Depending on Player)
Design: Medium

MAD: Global Thermonuclear Warfare
Developer:
Small Rockets
Publisher: Self Published
Site: http://www.smallrockets.com

My all round favorite out of the three. MAD: GTW was one of the most addictive games I've played. It's a shame though it was left at just a one off release. It had big potential and all the upgrades ect. It could of undergone more options. MAD:GTW had no game play flaws the only problem i see fit was it wasn't big enough. You could reach top with all upgrades on around 2hours game play.


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My Overview:
Game Type: God Game
Game Play: Has around 3 different tracks to take
Play Time: 2hours Max (Depending on Player)
Design: Has some complexity

Well although this post isn't relevant to many I've posted it any way. Maybe it will get some of you trying out these titles or give you inspiration to go back to your old classics and start playing. Makes a change from the high tech generation games.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Next Week - Adobe CS3 Tour









Next week myself and Chris will be attending the Adobe CS3 tour in Cardiff at Cineworld. The Adobe tour is mainly for myself to meet up with a few contacts, but also to learn some new techniques for adobe design and photoshop. I will be taking my camera and also doing a short term write up of how the event went. I'm sure Chris will be having some fun with Blue Screens and CGI. Look out next week for the blog post.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Nano - The Short Story

Heres an extract from "Nano". Nano is a game idea written by myself. I started it off as a novel then brang it into the gameing world. Nano has still yet to have all of its infomation released. Heres the start of the short story. Mostly the introduction:

It’s been ten years since the Templar have stepped foot on Earth. My people are forced to live in hope of there return. At this time I sense the stars have yet to re align for seeing our future is impossible. We can not live in fear anymore. It’s time to rise up against the Coretex and regain power and then, yes then we can cry out for our saviours to support us on this journey to freedom.

As I walked to my writing desk I caught a glance of a transport vessel appear out of the thick black clouds. Horrible events flashed before my eyes, all I could feel was pain in my head. I held my hands over my eyes trying to stop these terrible mind tricks. It must have been a few seconds after all I can remember was waking up against a large crate. I remember having the feeling of dirt in my eyes, I started to rub them, they started to bleed. I screamed out in pain, “my eyes” I cried “my eyes”. Blood dripped down my face like tear drops, something had happened “I know” I said to myself. Something must of happened, I suffered serious pain to the back of my head, all I remember was my daughters voice. She sounded distressed. I tried to delve deep trying to remember but my mind wouldn’t let me. I knew if I let it heal, in time I would be able to regain some part of my memory.

After two minutes the bleeding from my eyes stopped. My eyes were still sore but something just wasn't right. I could feel something growing at the back of them. I was paralyzed in pain for a few seconds, It felt like sharp thick needles growing inside my head. Ripping and curling through my skull, it started to die down after a few minutes. My left arm was bruised and I didn’t have much feeling in it. I looked down at my clothes, my red robes which were once rich in colour were now tattered and ripped. What I did worry about was my hands. Then didn’t seem normal, they had a metallic feel to them. I clenched my right fist but my hand started to hurt. I quickly opened it back up and held it up to the sun. Suddenly these huge wires shot out from my wrist, up into the air and into my shoulders. My eyes started to burn, I shut my eyes in terror of pain. The flash backs started again. It was like a electrical surge running through my body which i couldn't control. I opened my eyes and stepped forward, in-front of me lay my home city in ruins. It was as if a sand storm had come and taken away its beauty. I stood on the ledge looking down at the place I once called home. I wondered to myself would I ever find out what’s happening to me? And then I woke, what a terrible dream. Then my eyes started to hurt…

Thursday, September 13, 2007

MMODesigner.com Podcast

I got asked to join the unofficial Multiverse talk cast. I'll be talking about teams with MMO production and also the Multiverse toolset and how we can look to the future for a ultimate editor or still have the tools separately which can be time consuming at the best of times.

You can listen or download the podcast using the link below:

Download Multiverse Podcast 4

Click Here

Monday, September 10, 2007

Update on Behind Cover Design

I've been all over the place with different projects, helping people out and my own hobby projects. I've now started to draft up the design of the whole Beach Landing level. Below is 3 design maps showing overal gameplay and placement of items such as ammo and medic packs.

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Brushing Up On FPS Level Design

I've recently been looking into level designer positions for various companys arround the UK one struck out was a company in london doing a MMO FPS. I had an interview last friday and hopeing to get some good feedback from them. Recently i've be submerged into this FPS design frenzy. Here are some shots of a level in progress.

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Gamedev.net Article

I have recently had my article published into the articles and resource section in gamedev.net. It's a big step forward as I know gamedev only publish articles from high end designers. I'm happy to have made it that far. Heres the link (scroll to MMO Guidelines By James Allsopp)

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/list.asp?categoryid=23

Thursday, September 06, 2007

New Article Contribute

I've recently had my article on "The future of game mechanics" published on www.mmodesigner.com. I'm also pleased to announce i'll be doing some podcasts with them as-well. More to come later next week.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Behind Cover - Little WW2 MP

Behind Cover is a small Multiplayer project i'm doing just to brush up on level design skills and also unite my texturing skills back with me. As you can see from the screen below it's in very early stages, but hopefully within a few weeks will have the "Black Sands" map finished.

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