Games for the Brain Damaged

There are already games for the blind in the market, and games for the lame, but what about games for the brain damaged? Games for the weary souls who exhausted all their brain juices at work, and have none left back home for gaming purposes? (sounds like me and you)

Worry no longer! Here are two for you.

1. Hold The Button at HoldTheButton.com - A no brainer, hold the left mouse button as long as you can! Ever complaint that time spent on sleeping is wasted time because it could have been better spent on gaming? Here's one that you could play and sleep at the same time! Hmmm...someone actually held it for 6 days?

My results: I held the button longer than 3.2% of other users! Beat me!

2. ProgressQuest - A massive fantasy themed RPG that plays... itself! I'm not kidding you! It features both 3D graphics(shaded buttons) and massive multiplayer mode(it only updates its database once in a while) - an absolutely hillarious poke at the direction the game industry is currently heading.
The best part of it is, you get a kick out of reading the absolutely hillarious TEXT. Did I mention that the game is absolutely hillarious?
Heck, I even "played" the game continuously through sleep and meals for one whole day already, I don't remember myself playing other games continuously for so long!

My results: I am currently a level 28 Bastard Lunatic(class) Talking Pony(race) at Act III, with a world ranking of 34069. My favourite spells are Rabbit Punch, Slime Finger and Seasick, and I killed an Undead Stone Giant(how is that possible?), an Undernourished Dryad and an Oxygen Golem not long ago.

Thanks to lukeleow for the link to the ProgressQuest, and the affectionately addressed "fruitcake creators" of the game.

Did you play the games stated above? Post me your results!

Interviews - Survival Skills in the Game Industry

HeteroSapiens a.k.a. BuZz, a first year(in MMU its called beta year) software engineering majoring in game design student posted some interviews with his seniors. Check out May Ling's, Jeevan's, Ee Xiang's and my answers.

The reason of starting the blog? Its an assignment that is to be graded! How cool can that be? He was given task to create a blog which provide information about “skills needed as game developer in game industry”.

Have a tip or two for the guy? The questions are here, help him out!

Ideas Not Implemented are Worth RM0.00

Was browsing through my pass work in preparation of my job application when I came across the very first game I made, using Macromedia Director.

In this particular assignment, Hilmy, my Game Applications lecturer wanted us to show fun through plain text. I was 20 and my hormones were in full control, so it was inevitable that I slapped a dating game on the Leisure Suit Larry Franchise. For your information, I grew up with the series, watching my brother play the games while having invaluable sex education.

killarkai's GameWorld presents The Adventures of Larry Jnr!


No flashy intro screen? Text only, remember.


Pick your victim.


Places you could go in the tiny gameworld.

additional information: Total play time is about 5 minutes

I got a 10/10 for that assignment, probably because Hilmy was a hot blooded young man back then too!

Just a thought: the new Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude, which centers around the adventures of Larry Laffer's nephew, instead of his son in my game, generated millions of dollars. Not sure if they made a healthy profit though, as the reviews for the game are just fair. I didn't play the game as a protest for the original creator Al Lowe not being involved. Check out his take on Magna Cum Laude.

My game, The Adventures of Larry Jnr generated... RM0.00.

Another thought on the thought: Larry Laffer has a son? Who was the mother? Kalalau? Fawn? Dewmi Moore? Drew Baringmore? Captain Thygh?

Another thought on the first thought: Magna Cum Laude on the PC scored an average of 62.7% in gamerankings.com. My game would have scored -62.7%.

Have a great idea? Go out and do something about it! Otherwise, it is worth nothing. (However, in some cases, it is worth a standing ovation)

Lizards

As I was about to go to bed yesterday night, I wanted to close my bedroom door. The door was exceptionally hard to close, and I gave up after one try. Right before I go to bed, I went to have a peek at the door gap, chewing gum, I supposed.(illogical thoughts during my low-powered moments) There it is, a lizard struggling with death, wagging its injured tail furiously, and *CENSORED FOR VIVID VIOLENT CONTENT*.

That night, I didn't sleep well.

This morning, I had to collect its carcass. It was an extremely uneasy job. Its body was still... SOFT. Its blood and other internal organs dried up and managed to stick its owner against the wall despite of the death. It was given a proper burial at my mom's garden, may its remains blossom beautiful flowers.

Something is just not right. The media and reports claim that video games like Doom and GTA makes serial killers, or at least, trains people to enjoy the look of death. I played and enjoyed them games, but I felt bad over the death of a LIZARD?! Something must be wrong with me. Going for a mental checkup.

My prayer: Why can't God make them lizards smarter?

Unreal No More

YC: "Time to get real, my friend."

OK, enough of word play. Yesterday was my last day at Unrealmind Interactive, my last day working at the GTA(Games, Tools and Apps) department. (Hmmm, our company has heavy game culture influences in terms of naming) However, I am blogging right now at the office PC. Why is that so? Perhaps I am married to work, perhaps I feel empty waking up having nothing to do. Yeah right. The real reason is I have some code to clean up before passing it on. Leaving the project half way is painful, like aborting a baby, but in Ow taking over I believe it is in very good hands.

A last snap shot of my work table which I spent the last 9 months at.


From left:
1. The evil reaper dude from Diablo
2. The barbarian dude from Diablo(some say they are my altar for gaming performances)
3. My monitor with Christie Monteiro wallpaper and Su-San's Yahoo message that I should blog about my last day, which I obliged
4. An ancient relic phone(Sony J5), a brick phone(Nokia 7650), the shittiest phone I ever laid my hands on(Hyundai-I-Don't-Know-Don't-Care-series)
5. A half used toilet roll (extremely coarse :( )
6. My AMD overclocked high performance cup
7. and a Putra monthly travel card.
(what, you expect a comment on the keyboard and mouse?)

Being at Unrealmind's GTA department was a smash. I learnt more things in a few months more than I ever learn in 1 year at the uni, the work atmosphere was close to perfect too.

And the good people, its all about the people.
1. Ow the uber programmer
2. Maki the veggie eater
3. Fabio the c00l d00d
4. David the surfer-cum-player
5. YC the artist turned business man

And the people outside GTA. Su-San, whom we didn't talk for months while I sit beside her, and couldn't stop talking after I left the seat. The gals(grace, bb, meimei) that proved my theory that all female programmers are geeky was wrong.

Thank you all for making my stay at Unrealmind a happy one.

Ow has the pix.

Last thoughts?
1. I hope that Unrealmind will teach a lesson or two to the kiddos at MMU. Time to get real, my friend.
2. My (ex)company is starting to show signs of evil. Giving something free only to charge them RM10 for membership(stated in fine print), that defeats the meaning of the word "free" entirely right? (Go to our Shabox portal and look for the keyword "free")I'm completely baffled. I'm not sure if the people in power of a change actually reads my blog, but I got to admit that I'm a chicken by blogging about this on my last day. Hey, people at Friendster and Google got a reputation out of getting fired! I'm pretty sure if I was fired it wouldn't make headlines.
3. If any of you out there have a job for me in Shanghai, please hire me! I wash dishes pretty well too!

Spotted!

Legendary game designer Sid Meier as...


The bartender in Pirate Haven...


The Spanish bartender...


The Dutch bartender...


The French bartender...


..and the English bartender.

Credit to the Gamefaqs writer Sashanan for pointing it out in the Sid Meier's Pirates! gamefaq.

I'm sure there are other instances of game developers being featured in the game as easter eggs or secret characters.

The most famous that immediately sprung to my mind was...


Doom's John Romero in Doom 2 as...


The evil brain inside the last "wall" boss.

You could only see his face if you enable the cheat code "idclip" and walk through the wall at the spot where the "brain" is supposed to be located. It was supposed to be a joke by the other developers in the team(rumoured to be Kevin Cloud and Adrian Carmack). Feeling amused, John Romero made it 1-1 by including the pitch-shifted and reversed sound clip "to win this game you must kill me, John Romero" that plays everytime you enter the stage.

I'm not sure if I would be amused if it was my head on the stake.

Any other instances of developers featured in the game?

Update:
1. Teddy commented that another legend, Will Wright appeared in the SNES version of SimCity.
2. The Right Hand Man wrote in about Noob Saibot, a character in the Mortal Kombat series. His name is a combination of the names of two designers, John Tobias and Ed Boon in reverse.

Tribute to Batigol

My favourite player, Gabriel Batistuta decided to hang up his boots at the age of 36.



Batigol, also known as "the Lion King", was famous for his clinical and predatory finishing in front of goal.

But what made him my favourite player of all time is his loyalty unmatched by any modern prima donna footballers.

Batigol played in Fiorentina for 9 years. However, the amazing part is not the number of years served, but how he decided to spend a year with Fiorentina in the Serie B to help his beloved club earn promotion after they were relegated, while offers from other clubs were circling around him like vultures.

Nine years passed with only an Italian Cup and an Italian Supercup trophy to show, and he was in the twilight years of his career. At 31, he finally parted ways with Fiorentina to join AS Roma, and got what he deserved: a serie A title.

The Viola(Fiorentina) fans loved him so much that they built him a statue, on the plague it wrote: "To Gabriel Batistuta, indomitable warrior, tenacious in his quest and loyal of heart."



He also got 10 golden balls of various size and value from Viola fans, as an effort to compensate him for the prestigious trophies he could have won had he played elsewhere.

His retirement from soccer also marks the extinction of loyalty in the football world that is populated by merceneries like Alan Smith and Ronaldo.

FIFA2005: Scoring and Yawning

Ever did something great and not feeling happy about it?

Ever scored a great goal in real life only to shrug your shoulders over it? (Mourinho style)

Here's one freekick Seedorf scored (ok, I scored) in FIFA2005.



In freekicks, FIFA2005 implemented a crosshair for aiming where your shot goes, and a bar for shot strength. It takes only a while to master this system, and after that, 10 shots out of 10 goes exactly where you want it to go. The keeper usually saves 6 out of it, and 4 goes in.(I'm still yet to score directly from a free kick in Winning Eleven 8) In real life, its more like 3 balooning, 3 hits the wall, 2 saved by the keeper(or hits the bar) and 2 goes in.

It's a shame saying this, I have no joy whatsoever scoring this.

Top 3 Game Heroines - #1

Lyrics from one of my favourite jazz classic "The girl from Ipanema":

Tall and tan and young and lovely, The girl from Ipanema goes walking, And when she passes each one she passes goes "a-a-ah!"

When she walks she's like a samba that, Swings so cool and sways so gentle, That when she passes each one she passes goes "a-a-ah!"

The lyrics best describe the long legged Brazilian heroine at the top of my list. She is also a master of capoeira, fighting with such tempo and style that sets her apart from the other heroines. Besides, she flirts before each fight, often saying "go easy on me" before kicking the nuts out of male opponents.

Christie Monteiro from Tekken 4 and Tekken 5!



I wasn't a huge fan of fighting games, and playing sessions often involve massive button mashing, but now I am patiently trying to learn all 100+ moves of Christie, that explains why she deserve to be at the top of my list.

Some other notable mentions:
1. Lara Croft - more notable for her exaggerated body shape. The Tomb Raider 2 movie was horrible, horrible, horrible! Hated it despite me being a fan of Angelina Jolie.
2. Blood Rayne - posed for the Playboy magazine, something which I do not agree with. If everything is *revealed* there is no more incentive to explore the chracter. :>
3. Tanya Adams (Red Alert) - Kari Wuhrer playing Tanya in Red Alert 2 was definitely hot, but...shes...REAL.
4. Sylvanas Windrunner the dark ranger(Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne) - pointy ears meet undead with a sexy voice. Could easily be the heroine of my dreams! Unfortunately, she wasn't life sized enough to drool over.
5. Elaine Marley (Monkey Island) - theres just something about governer's daughters, what more female governers?
6. Yuna (FF) - I have a friend that just can't stop talking about Yuna. I suspect he is staying single for Yuna too.
7. The other FF girls (Tifa, Rikku, Lulu) - Final Fantasy no doubt has a high babe count. Too bad I'm quite a stranger at that world.
8. Allyx (Half-Life 2) - knightwalk's vote goes to Allyx in Half Life 2. Alas, she isn't playable, and I haven't play the game yet, which is a shame.
9. Mileena (Mortal Kombat: Deception) - The right hand man's favourite. Almost 10 years had passed since I last played the Mortal Kombat series, now am considering making a return!
10. Tyris Flare (Golden Axe) - The reason I wanted to grow up when I was playing the game as a boy.

Top 3 Game Heroines - #2

It suddenly occured to me that yesterday was International Women's Day (my girlfriend at Shanghai got half a day off), and coincidently I was writing a piece appreciating women in games, I must be possesed by female spirits(the damned Sylvanas Windrunner?)

Yesterday's readers sent in their votes: Lara Croft, Mileena, Tifa and Rikku. None apparently objected to my pick at #3. Today's entry would at least raise a few eyebrows. She doesn't talk much, she doesn't seem to have a unique personality, but hey, you all loved Arnie in Conan the Barbarian too right?

Jill Valentine from Resident Evil



Perhaps its the costume, maybe its just a special liking I have for girls who deal with the utmost evil(roaches in real world, zombies in the game world) with style and elegance.

One thing for sure is, she was the saving grace of the movie, Resident Evil: Apocalypse(apart from zombie dogs and hooker zombies).

Top 3 Game Heroines - #3

Its a challenging week ahead, as I am in the process of making the painful transition of 2D programming to 3D (we are coming out with an original 3D mobile title).

In an attempt to boost work morale, let us talk about Women! No... not any ordinary women, but women that are capable of kicking demon asses, frying Nazi brains and looking darn good doing it. These women do not exist in the real world, and they are a very fine reason for us to escape into the game worlds.

In the following obviously biased top 3 list, the criteria of the judging panel, which consist of GameWorld's weird sole author who chooses to play the role of women whenever he has a choice ( amazon/sorceror in Diablo 2, Tyris Flare in Golden Axe, Cammy in Street Fighter ) are as follow:

1. The candidate must be playable.
2. The candidate must be in a game that was played by the judging panel. (Not many, but not too few either)
3. The candidate must kick hard and look good.

On the 3rd spot of GameWorld's top 3 game heroines, one of the only 3 game heroines that ever graced the author's desktop as wallpaper is...

Cate Archer from No One Lives forever 2!



Now you are curious, why specifically episode 2?

Here is her image in the first NOLF, before the successful plastic surgery. Make your own conclusions.



Who are your favourite game heroines?

The Matrix Impact

Wachowski brothers' The Matrix started quite a ripple in the entertainment industry. The most obvious trait is the implementation of "Bullet Time". Although I'm sure the concept of slow motion had been done in both movies and games way before the Matrix, it wasn't the trend.

I will not cover movies for obvious reasons, now check out the growing list of games that is following the trend. Most of them were released within the timeframe of year 2003-2005, and the integration of slow mo had mixed results.

The Mother of all Slow Mos:

1999: The Matrix

The Games:

2001: Max Payne
2003: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
What do they call it? Simply bullet time.
Max Payne is the oldest of all siblings, utilizing bullet time as the core of its gameplay. And darn, it plays good!
*yc alerted me to these two games, the ones that started it all, how could I have forgetten?

2003: Enter the Matrix
What do they call it? Surprisingly, not bullet time, but "focus".
No need for desperate excuses to include bullet time here.

2003: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
2004: Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
What do they call it? No special name.
Apart from slowing down time, the prince could also freeze and reverse time. The reversing time part is particularly well done because it integrates with the story(the prince has the power to control time), and with it you can finally have an excuse to test out all the pretty death animation sequences without having to break your suspension of disbelief doing the routine quick save-quick load.(yes, you can revert death!)

2004: Spider Man 2
What do they call it? Spider Reflex Mode.
I did not play this game. Gamespot: "You can hit harder when everything's moving in slow motion, and you can see attacks coming in a lot earlier as well. But you probably won't even need to use this mode."

2004: Shrek 2
What do they call it? Its a kids game and I'm too much of a man to know it!
Google shows me that Fiona could slow down time in the game.

2004: Viewtiful Joe, Viewtiful Joe 2
What do they call it? Nothing special
The slow motion mode enables you to do fancy things in the game. For example, in slow motion mode, you can actually see a tank bullet coming out of the turret, and either dodge it or hit it back to the tank, whereas in the normal mode you won't have the luxury of uttering the "s" in "shit" before the shell hits you. Even non living things responds in slow motion mode - helicopter blades slow down and causes the helicopter to fall closer to the land. Apart from slowing down, Joe also have the ability of Mach Speed, which is the reverse of slow motion.

2004: Burnout 3: Take Down
What do they call it? Impact time
If you were "taken down" from driving, you have the option of turning on impact time, where everything slows down and you could control your airborne car to slam onto opponents. Not exactly brilliant and a bit gimmicky in my opinion, if someone just crashed his utmost concern is to get right back to the road immediately. You could totally ignore the feature(as I did).
*Credit to the right hand man for pointing this out

2005: The Punisher
What do they call it? Angry hero, angry name - Slaughter Mode.
Everything slows down and becomes black and white, and instead of guns you have an unlimited supply of knifes to throw at hapless enemies.

2005: Devil May Cry 3
Did not play this too, Ow mentioned it.

More bullet time madness:
2005: (yet to release)Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil
What do they call it? The appropriately namedHell Time

Proof that gamers are suckers for bullet time:
Unreal Tournament mod
Half Life 2 mod

With the imminent release of The Matrix Online MMOG, I am extremely curious on how is bullet time being integrated into the game. So far, all succesfull cases had been single player games. Bullet time in a multiplayer game? Thats potentially a can full of worms waiting to be opened. In this particular interview, lead designer Tony Ragaini said that in The Matrix Online, it would be more of a "visual signifier". No bullet time in the gameplay? We'll just waaaaiiiiiiiitttttt aaaaaaannnnnnndddddd sssssssseeeeeeeeee.

edit: anymore to add to the list?