Design Tour Series

Design Tour - Knytt Stories from David Rosen on Vimeo.

David rosen, developer of indie title Lugaru and its sequel Overgrowth has started a series of videos dicussing the design strengths of various indie games. The one above is from Nifflas' Knytt Stories which is an excellent exploration-based platformer that comes with its own level editor allowing for the creation of ones own levels and an easy way to load third-party levels.

The previous one he did was on the physics puzzler World of Goo which is available on the PC, Mac and Wiiware.

He sounds a bit like Stephen Hawking which I actually find kind of cool and funny at the same time, but he does a good analysis so have a look at the one embedded above and you can see the previous one here.

Post Xmas Glut Reading

The end-of-year gaming glut has come and hopefully is done with for yet another year, but it also means that the gaming blogosphere in general has settled down and started writing about other things not related to any of the games that have come out recently or at least thoughts on these games without all the hype associated with their releases. Obviously Some Kill Giants is not part of this trend as I have a mega Left 4 Dead post coming up from our experiences with four-player co-op and unfortunately only four-player versus, which WILL be filled with hype, but I digress.

Anyway, been hitting up the ol' Google Reader and going through some of my feeds that I have neglected and I have unearthed some serious gems.

First up is a post by Jim Rossignol on rockpapershotgun on the PC gaming scene in Korea and how it has literally made the country like no other place on Earth in terms of gaming and player culture. It has always fascinated me that they have been able to take computer gaming to the next level and have it as a cultural institution in its own right. I guess the equivalent in America for example would be...uh...er...reality TV stars? Uh...yeah. Anyway, go read the article, it is quite awesome and makes me think that my mad idea to make a nationwide Nigerian gaming intranet for high-speed gaming would be a great idea!

Secondly, over on Ludus Novus, Gregory Weir talks about games that are from parallel dimensions where gaming technology evolved along different lines. I wish I lived in the one where games like Odin Sphere were the norm instead of the exception. He also provides a link to a modern Mode 7 game and coins a new term that I really, really want to see gain traction - pixelpunk. Cool eh? I am sure that you want to see it gain traction too. Let us push it out there and make more games that fit the description.

Cactus, who I have written about before on here made a list of games that he hadn't finished developing, but were playable. The ideas behind them are awesome and messed up as always. You should check out the link if you are tired of high end gaming and looking for something interesting.  The rate he comes up with and discards ideas is quite frankly oppressive!

I think that should be enough for now. Need to go finish working on that L4D multiplayer article. I can give you a text-based trailer though.

Two people die a lot and get incapacitated even more! An example is made of traditional FPS players. Two make a run for the helicopter on the roof, Niyi cries for help as a hunter gouges out his insides. About 100 litres of Boomer vomit was spilled. A witch shrieks and burns as the world goes black and white. Left 4 Dead.

Links

Here are some more things to keep you busy while we wrap up on the podcast post-production.

1. via gamesetwatch an interesting animated music video featuring Space Invaders which I am embedding below.



2. The Interactive Fiction Competition for 2008 is over and here are the winners! I am hoping to enter the next one as by then I should be properly conversant with Inform 7. Who knows? Might be able to submit Mindstar by then.

3. Also via gamesetwatch, an article on the state of the shmup by Edge Magazine.

While you wait

While progress on editing the podcast is going smoothly, I decided that I wouldn't leave you all without posts until we get the podcast on here. So, here is a link to a very awesome stop-motion video of mega man.

The Great War

Just read an awesome article about the player-versus-player conflict in EVE Online. It was written by Jim Rossignol over on rockpapershotgun and was originally written for PC Gamer.

Just reading about something like what occurred in his write-up is so overwhelming and cool at the same time that I want to know more, but I doubt I would ever go and play the game. The amount of dedication required just sounds quite frankly scary, even though the world has fascinated me ever since I heard about EVE and I used to lurk around their website and the forums before the game launched.

Links

Just a few links of some game-related things

First, via rockpapershotgun a story about an 18-hour boss fight from my former addiction, Final Fantasy XI. This is an online game for the PC, PS2, and xbox 360 in which you explore the world of Vana'diel and lose a lot of time.

I remember enjoying it very much when I first got into it and spent many days doing nothing but playing it, but after a while, I couldn't take the endless grind and dependency on other people in order to progress and got out. But wow. I didn't know players hardcore enough to keep at a fight for 18hrs were still playing the game...whether or not having an 18 hour fight in a game is even a good thing is a whole other topic and there are loads of comments on both rockpapershotgun and the source article discussing it.

I think that a huge epic boss fight can really add something to people who are willing to 'invest' in the challenge, but it doesn't have to be a continuous non-stop grind battle. But wow, 18 hours...that's just wrong unless the boss was attacking the entire server, now that would just be awesome and you could contribute your quota to the fight and leave after an hour.


There's a very interesting article on Gamasutra about the art of braid created by the awesome David Hellman.


Cactus also put up a video showcasing some of the work that he is currently working on. All of it looks awesome and the music is pretty nice.


Via kotaku. Capcom has released screenshots of the bosses in Mega man 9 and they are all looking awesome! Yet another game that I am trying to figure out how to get on either my PS3 or Xbox360. This I definitely need.

Linkage

Okay, so it's been a couple of days. Got caught up with work and trying to sort out my IF game-in-progress. I think I need to set myself a deadline of some sort to at least have the first scenario done. I am also working on a post regarding a kind of manifesto of what kind of games I want to make under the 'some kill giants' moniker. I am also working on a review of Rescue the Beagles which is still on my hype banner.

In order to tide you all over until I am done with those, here are some interesting links from my RSS feeds and the web in general.

1. The Last Guy. This is an upcoming game for the PS3, and although I have no clue what the heck it is about and whether it is for the Playstation Network or a physical release, the teaser, and the name, has me hooked. The website itself is a mystery, but they just recently released a teaser vid showcasing something that I do not understand but like a lot! You can find that embedded below:



news via GamerBytes

2. Speaking of deadlines in game development, Codear is having a single-screen RPG competition. More details can be found over on the ludomancy blog, but basically, the competition is what it says on the tin. Design a single-screen RPG before the 15th of August. The owner of the ludomancy blog designed a single-screen RPG a little while back called Hunter RPG which you can find here.

I think I might try and enter this one and I already have an idea for one as well. Time to break out Game Maker.

3. And this, I found out via GameSetWatch. They have just released the free version of their annual career guide magazine. So, if you are interested in getting into the game industry, or just an interested observer, it is worth having a look at either online or via download.

That's it for now, but hopefully I should be able to deliver on my promised posts pretty soon.