Ideas...
Tue, 07 February, 2012 - 13:02:13
I made a minor change to the site today, renaming the "widgets" section to "ideas".
When I first created the widgets section, my intention was to have a page where I could upload bits of Flash that weren't necessarily whole games, but were work that I wanted to display. I considered a few names for the page; misc, flash, stuff, etc and finally settled on widgets. However, thinking about it again recently, I realised that the widget title wasn't really appropriate. I think ideas is better because it more accurately describes the content there. In particular I can use the page to upload half finished game ideas without having to polish them up as "finished" games. Expect to see a few posts appearing in that section soon.
Yanmania... Website troubleshooter
Mon, 30 January, 2012 - 9:59:07
In the last week I have run into problems with two otherwise stable websites. What was the source of these problems? People of course!
The first problem was with this site, It was a sneaky one that must have appeared sometime since my last post on Jan 17th. I didn't notice it until I tried to upload a new image to the art page. I found that I just couldn't publish. I knew the site had been working correctly. I checked the form fields, checked the templates, cleared my cache and tried different browsers. Then, when I tried modifying a template, I found I couldn't do that either. At this point I wondered if my expression engine installation had corrupted somehow and considered updating the version of EE that I was using. However, it turns out that the free version of EE that I use is no longer available and that I would have to upgrade to a freelancer license. I considered this for a while and am in fact still considering it despite having fixed the issue. The free version I am using does not entitle me to support and does not allow me to use the current features. Though I don't have support, I was still able to google my way to another user's post on the EE forums. He had the same issue as me and, it turned out, the same solution. My hosting company had tightened up the security on their servers, preventing malicious scripts from running. This had the adverse effect of preventing the submission scripts within EE from running as well. I contacted them and they were able to add an exception there and then and I was able to continue posting my images.
The second issue was with a MODx website I created for a colleague. In his case he had created a second site hosted on the same webspace. He had moved the files for the site into a sub-directory and this of course broke everything! The front end was missing all of the text and images, which are loaded from the CMS, leaving only the theme. Once I connected to the FTP I could see that he hadn't moved the associated MODx files and folders, so I moved those into the new subdirectory. That fixed some of the images as the relative file paths were now correct but the content still wasn't appearing. Also the back end wasn't accessible. I knew there must be a further issue with file paths but I didn't know where to look. Once again google saved the day. Searching for my problem I found a guide to moving a MODx site to a sub-directory. I went through the steps, updating the config files and performing a reinstall to be safe and the site was aback up and running. My colleague was very happy (and so was I).
Happy 2012!
Tue, 17 January, 2012 - 15:15:15
A belated happy new year!
I'm hoping to be a little more prolific this year. Last year I only completed one game (Thirty!) so that shouldnt be too hard to top. As mentioned before, with so many games half finished, if I can make time I should be able to see a lot of them through to completion.
Finding that time might be difficult however as I'm getting married this year and have so much to sort out! Also, if I'm honest, a fair bit of my time right now is being taken up playing the awesome Skyward Sword. As mentioned in my top 5 games post I'm a huge Zelda fanboy so it will come as no surprise that I'm loving the game.
Another great game that I mentioned in the same post was XCOM:Enemy Unknown. A remake has been anounced for the end of the year. Some great screenshots here. Wonder if my five year old box will run it!
Also, this week, Lee Brimelow posted a couple of video tutorials about creating Finite State Machines for controlling the flow of your games. As a user of Flixel and its FlxState functions, I have become used to using states to control games. This tutorial provides a neat way of setting an FSM up for yourself and your non Flixel games.
Ludum Dare
Mon, 19 December, 2011 - 10:40:12
After seeing what people had achieved during Ludum Dare 21 I decided that I would definitely enter the next competition. Ludum Dare 22 was held this weekend (16th - 18th december) and despite my best intentions I just didn't have time to produce anything. I had a work Christmas party on friday night, a friends birthday on Saturday and more friends round for a pre-christmas dinner on Sunday. I should count myself lucky that I have an active social life but I was a little dissapointed that I didnt get to participate. Ludum Dare 23 will be in a few months time, but with my wedding fast approaching I may miss that as well!
On the plus side, I have started to trawl through the 700+ entries and there is some inspiring stuff. Not least of which in notch's minicraft. If I didnt know he streamed its development live I'm not sure I'd believe that it was created in 48 hours! Its really interesting to see what can be achieved in a short space of time. As has been said before, a game may take a long time to build and polish but making the "toy", the essential mechanic of the game, can be done relatively quickly. With that prototype you can quickly tell whether the game is fun or not. That is what I will take away from the competition as a "spectator".
How successful the 700 entries are remains to be seen. Games are rated only by fellow participants which makes sense. Only those who have also spent the last 48 hours staring at a screen, chasing out bugs and avoiding sleep will truly be able to appreciate the effort that will have gone into each game.
My top 5 games!
Fri, 25 November, 2011 - 15:49:11
Just a few days ago, a colleague asked me what my top 5 games of all time were. I managed to think of three off the top of my head but I found I couldn't decide on a fourth of fifth. I sat down with paper and pen and listed all the great games I really loved playing. I came up with a list of 21 games! After agonising over the list I eventually managed to trim it down...
So, if you'll forgive the horrendous self indulgence, here are my top 5 games of all time!
5. Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (N64)
The first time I played on an N64 was when a friend at school won one on a radio competition. His mum was worried at how much time he was spending on it (we were supposed to be studying for our A levels) so he leant it to me with all the games for a weekend. I was initially disappointed that he didnt have rogue squadron but I soon got over that, playing Goldeneye almost solidly for the entire weekend until it hurt to blink. Years later when working at GAME, the GameCube was soon to be released and the N64 was well past its peak and I managed to buy one for just 2 pounds (with the expansion pack). I then picked up Rogue Squadron for 4 pounds and finally got to play it. It was worth the wait. A game that perfectly captured the feel of the Star Wars movies. Whether you were dogfighting TIE fighters above Mos-Eisley or taking down AT-ATs it was just great fun. I would play the same levels over and over to try and earn the gold medals. I even got into playing the whole game in cockpit view! I didnt have to wait long for a great sequel. A few months later the GameCube was released with Rogue Leader. Rogue Leader 2 however... was pants.
4. Advance Wars (GBA)
I bought my GBA and a copy of Advance Wars when I first worked for GAME at university. Between trading in old games at preferential rates and my staff discount I got a hell of a bargain. Advance Wars is like a cross between Chess and Command and Conquer. Its pure strategy and had a perfect difficulty level. When I wasn't studying or working I was playing this game. I would carry it in my bag at all times and whenever I had spare time I would have a battle. Its one of the few games that I could play for two hours, lose and not be annoyed. It was another great value for money title. Once you had completed the campaign there were dozens of standalone battles to work through, not to mention a map editor in which you could create your own.
3. UFO: Enemy Unknown (PC)
I picked up this game for 4.99 on the Sold Out range and it proved to be huge value for money. My family had a PC that was slow and dated and I used to spend ages searching through the game stores for games that would run on it. It was part turn based strategy game, part rpg. The game built up like a movie, starting with your first faltering steps into investigating Alien attacks, trying to work out why they were attacking and researching their technology. You could name all of your soldiers and choose how to arm and armour them, making some medics, some scouts and some heavies, but all under YOUR control. I of course named the first soldier after myself! All of the others were given the names of friends. This made keeping them alive during the turn based strategy sections all the more important. Losing a player towards the end after you knew they had been with your team since the beginning was actually gutting. One of my favourite features was that you could design the layout of your base and then later, when it was attacked by aliens, you got to defend it as you had laid it out. It took me a few months of playing on and off but eventually I found the key piece of information, the location of the enemy base on mars! The climax of the game was destroying the mother brain of the alien base and guess who fired the fatal shots... the player named after me!
2. The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past (SNES)
A link to the past was one of the first games I bought for the SNES. It blew my 15 year old mind. I had never played such an enjoyable and immersive game before. It took me a month to complete and truly felt like an epic quest. As it was the first Zelda game I played, everything was new. Figuring out the puzzles, conquering dungeons and picking up clues was hugely enjoyable but I particularly loved the feeling of going off the path of the game and just spending a few hours exploring hyrule. Finding an item or an extra heart container that I knew many players might have missed was hugely satisfying. The music alone brings back great memories. I recently attended the Zelda 25th anniversary symphony and when they played the fairy fountain theme which played on the title screen, I got a huge wave of nostalgia.
1. Battlefield 1942 (PC)
I have never before and will probably never again dedicated so much of my time to a game. Battlefield 1942 came into my life at a time when my life was completely carefree. I was on my university placement year working an 8am to 4pm job. I lived in a ridiculously cheap student house with 1GB (so fast!) broadband and when I wasnt at work or out living the student life I was playing. I hadnt played an online game before and I was absolutely hooked. Every evening after work and every weekend morning for hours I would pwn n00bs! I joined a clan and posted on messageboards, something I havent done for any other game. Cooperative gameplay with team mates was as enjoyable as lone wolfing with a sniper rifle and sneaking behind enemy lines. I particularly like flying around the maps in a spitfire or corsair, strafing and bombing ground targets and dogfighting for control of the skies. The rest of the time I would play as an engineer. I loved the accuracy of the old bolt action rifle! Some of my greatest gaming moments came from this game. Firing a naval gun at a spawn point just as an entire team spawned there on a 64 player server, making a last stand with three other players against an entire team and having an epic battle for highest score with an engineer on the other team. Later I played Battlefield vietnam and Battlefield 2, but as good as they were they werent as fun as bf1942. Who knows, perhaps I'll give Battlefield 3 a go.
And the ones that didn't make the top 5?
Broken Sword, Worms, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, SSX:Tricky, Soul Calibur, Final Fantasy IX, Goldeneye, Jet Set Radio, Metal Gear Solid, Spiderman 2, Battlefield 2, Left 4 Dead, Medal of Honor (PS1), Killzone, Halo and NBA Street Volume 2.
Page 2 of 13 pages < 1 2 3 4 > Last »