Tag Archives: gaming

This thing on?

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Switched to P2 theme, hoping that maybe this frontend post editor will help me write more than one post a year.

To sum up the past 12 months:

  • Unity of Command, the game I’ve made sound effects and composed music for, is out! It’s a pretty awesome turn-based WWII strategy, and a demo is available if you’re interested. Check it out at http://unityofcommand.net/
  • File Gallery‘s download counter is almost at 100 000, and v1.7.5 could be out sooner than you think. I’ll try to answer some of the more urgent e-mails and forum posts next week.
  • I’ve become very intimate with Javascript and I kind of love it.
  • I’ve been reading a lot about game development, game physics, best practices, etc. in the past few months. It’s… complex. So much ground to cover, so many different approaches, so time-consuming. It’s frustrating, but I enjoy it (most days o.O).
  • Brlog related: we’ve won some awards, created our first iPhone app, helped create an exhibition and pushed a few new websites out.
  • nothing new on the music front, but I’ll post a Unity of Command preview mix soon

Gotta go to the store, brb.

Rescue: The Beagles

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Today, with great pleasure, I present to you yet another game that began as an electric spark in the brain of 16×16.org’s own, Mr. Nenad, and ended as a notable part of the future’s gaming history :)

"Rescue: The Beagles" is a side scrolling platformer that relies on procedurally generated content to deliver some great gameplay.

You can see a screenshot of the game in my site’s header. Yes, that’s you parachuting down, ready to kick some pharmaceutical ass and save the poor doggies. Have I already mentioned that you use owls to attack the enemies? Excellent.

It was made for TIG Source procedural generation game competition and, so far, people seem to like it.

For example, LaughingCrow reviews the game on Lithium Leaf and mentions that one of the more enjoyable moments of the game was the first appearance of the enemy known as Vivisector, because when he enters the screen, he says "Doggieeeess…" in a creepy voice. I’m particularly proud of that, for that is my voice. Ha.

I’ve also created the sound effects and half the soundtrack. The credit for the other half goes to Rich Vreeland who composes awesome, very enjoyable (sometimes even addictive) C64- and ZX Spectrum-inspired music. Check for more on RichVreeland.com.

All the sound effects (except the enemy voices, naturally) and music were created using the incredible "Unknown 64" C64 synth by Odo Synths – do check it out, please – it’s pure fun :D

I’ve tried to do my best with limited time and I hope it sounds decent, at least :)

Now go download the game and enjoy ;)

Getting off

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One more year and I’ll have my diploma. I’ll be free to do whatever I want with it, even burn it if I feel like it. Not that I plan to do that. Although, I have considered the option.
Unfortunately, that would just piss some people off — my parents, for example. But the thing is – I don’t really need a diploma. I have knowledge. And I got that knowledge by reading, working, messing around with computers, with software, by learning from other people on and off the net — by doing stuff in real-world situations. And it seems like I need a diploma from some third-grade "school" to prove it. I don’t. I don’t plan to work for anyone but myself. But… You never know what kind of shitty old chocolate you may find in that box, so you better be carrying guns. Or a diploma. Get it if you can. Knowledge is power, especially if it’s certified. Nerd power.

A comforting thought: life sucks even if you’re a billionaire.

Mr. Nenad "16×16" Jalsovec ".org" of Counterclockwise fame is one of the few sad, little people who have applied for some public ass-kicking in the beginning of 2008. And paid a small entrance fee for it. I’m, of course, talking about the IGF – Independent Gaming Festival, and this very paragraph’s first sentence is what people refer to as sarcasm. It’s that kind of a day today, so please bear with me.
While Nenad is crunching the numbers code, I’m learning how to fart working on the sound effects and music, but it’s all still very messy at the moment. The game is addictively playable and very kick-assy old-school in a way and it’s gonna be universally awesome. This is, of course, a hyperbolic statement – but truthful, nevertheless. You’ll get a chance to play it yourself in a couple weeks, anyway.

No new music from me. I’ve had no inspiration lately. I hope this year will go by and be forgotten as fast as the new "Bionic woman" will should be.

Love, peace, beer, no kids.

This is Dexter I’ve got a 2 month old kitten with me. I named him Dexter. Quite appropriately, I must say, as it’s a flesh-eating killer cat. I’ve got worse scars on me than Amy Winehouse had after she got in a fight with her own husband last month (or maybe it was back in September?). But I like him. I freaking love this allovermycables-peeing little piece of fur. But I’m sadly aware of the fact that I’ll have to find him a new home soon. I’m one of those ever-worrying freak-people. Unfortunately. Fingers crossed for a great new home for little Dexter? Yes, please :)

Also: I’ve played Half-life 2 Episode 2 and I liked it a lot. I’m going to play Portal over the weekend, it looks promising. I still have Minerva to finish (very cool).

Have a great weekend, y’all.

Retro Remakes concludes its voting – CounterClockWise wins ‘best sound’, ‘Heroes’ leave us with a cliffhanger

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It’s taken them a while (3 months), but the Retro Remakes crew has finally managed to go through all the submitted games and tell us what they think. To be honest, I’ve expected CCW to win, or at least find its way into the top 3, but it seems that the accessibility has decided that fourth place is…the place to be. I’m just a little bit disappointed, even after playing the games that won, but those are some great remakes – congratulations to the authors. I’m well aware that I’m being subjective, but I really can’t do anything about it :)

I won’t speak in Nenad‘s name, but I do believe he’d agree that the fourth place rocks, the ‘best sound’ award is something we both can be proud of, people love the game and I’m glad I was given the opportunity to be involved in a part of its creation. We won, wooohoooo! :D

Alright.

I’ve watched the 11th episode of “Heroes” just a couple of hours ago, I love that show. After “Buffy” and “Angel” had ended, I was in a dead zone for a while, looking for some great new show(s) to watch. First, I stumbled upon “Battlestar Galactica” after a friend had recommended it — whoa, I was hooked instantly and I still am. Then there were “Joan of Arcadia” and “My name is Earl“, for example, and “Lost“, which had me going for a while, but come on… Now I’m anxiously waiting for January 1st (or 22nd, says Wikipedia), 2007 so I can continue watching “Heroes”. Cliffhangers are something you gotta love and hate at the same time, especially if they’re as great as this one at the end of “Fallout” (11th episode of “Heroes”) was. And this Friday, BSG will leave us with cliffhanger too (most probably), and it’s coming back on January 21st.

Got any shows to recommend? Please, don’t be afraid and fire away at the comments, I need something good to watch until January :)

BTW, Masi Oka, the actor who plays Hiro Nakamura on Heroes — please check his biography on IMDB, the guy is incredible! Respect ;)

Lately

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I’ve watched the first 5 episodes of “Battlestar Galactica” season 3 and, so far — I like it. It’s still very “on the edge” and very intriguing (as opposed to, I don’t know, “Lost”?). But the fifth episode (“Collaborators”) kind of annoyed me. Of course, it all had to happen, it’s a plausible consequence of war, yadda3, but it just seemed a bit…weird. I can’t put a finger on what exactly bugged me, but I know that I don’t usually shout “Oh, come on!” every 5 minutes when watching my favorite TV show.

After reading about “Heroes” on Blogography, I just had to see the show (not because Mr. Simmer didn’t like the first two episodes, but simply because it’s SF — I felt obligated, you know?). So I sat down and watched the first two episodes. And then, a couple days later, I watched the next four in a row. I guess the conclusion is obvious: I like it a lot. And yes, it’s not exactly a fast-paced show, but I feel it’s got just the right tempo. It kept me occupied for 3 hours without even thinking about the time and I’m really looking forward to the next episodes. Hopefully, the creators won’t blow this one.

What else… Oh — it seems that I’m not the only one with a poor purple monkey. Here’s a post on B3TA boards that clearly shows another case of the, ahem, eye disorder.

Industri has entered a beta phase and I’m looking forward to testing it out. Tig has ported it to Doom3 engine and I just hope he’ll find time to finish it one day.

I’ve coded the HTML for Up&Underground magazine’s website. It runs on WordPress 2.0.4 with some minor tweaks. The site is in Croatian. It was designed by my friend Lina Kovacevic.

I’ve ported my own site to WP (locally), but I have yet to find the time and the will to upload it and replace the current version. I didn’t touch the design due to lack of time (I’m back in ‘school‘ once again) and ideas. That also means that I’ve skipped the November CSS Reboot, but it seems I’m not the only one. I guess the event has lost its charm, and it probably takes a B. Adam Howell (where’s he hiding lately?) charisma to pull it off properly.

James Brown performs in Zagreb today. I didn’t want to go. I just don’t like him. He is the funktastic break-the-beat-and-hit-me daddy-o, but I’m not really a fan. I know who he is, and I’m thankful for the beats and inspiration, but that’s it. Also, I must say that I was quite disappointed by Public Enemy’s performance last month. They were so bad that I had to get dead drunk and bow down to the porcelain god the next morning. Their comic sucked too.

Regarding my previous post:
In my own humble words of conclusion, Microsoft’s Expression Web designer (why not stick with Frontpage, eh?) is a solid copy of Dreamweaver, but with standard Office look. It’s a good tool (as far as I can tell, from my brief encounter), but it’ll have to be half the price of Dreamweaver when it comes out, if it’s to succeed. Time will tell.

And my time tells me it’s time to watch TV now ;)