Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:02:00 GMT
De Blob, one of this year’s IGF Student Showcase finalists, is heading to the Wii thanks to publisher THQ and their development studio Blue Tongue. In the game you play a giant blob of paint trying to cover the city in… yourself. It’s fun, it’s original, it’s pretty, and apparently even Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov praised the game highly at this year’s IGF.
The original game can still be downloaded for free here.
Congrats, fellas!
(Source: GameSetWatch, Image Source: GoNintendo)
Posted in Community, Wii, Developers, Action / Arcade | 3 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:23:00 GMT
Squidi has ended his “300 game ideas in 300 days” project at 50 ideas, citing irreconcilable differences with his audience as the cause.
I feel for him, I really do, but hey, if you’re going to make something legendary, you have to be willing to put up with people. No matter what, there’re always going to be the ones who don’t like what you do or don’t think you did it right… that’s the nature of art and it will never change! You gotta have a thick skin in this business.
In the end, for every person who criticized him about the project, there were probably hundreds that really got a lot out of it and were excited to see him reach 300, myself included. It’s too bad.
EDIT: Squidi’s reply in the extended…
Read more...
Posted in Games and Art, Community, Developers | Tags Squidi | 23 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:37:00 GMT
This month’s issue of Games for Windows has an awesome 3 page article dedicated solely to Dwarf Fortress. YES! I love the layout, too.
Zach, for his part, isn’t all that interested in how it works. “If I didn’t have a brother who could program… I would have taken it upon myself to fill his shoes,” he explains. “But as I do have that brother, I am blessed with the opportunity to make my computer-game dreams a reality.”
Very interesting to read about the dynamic between Tarn and Zach Adams and how they work together to create the Roguelike monster that is Dwarf Fortress.
Scans: Pages 1, Page 2, Page 3
(Special thanks to the DMac for the scans!)
Posted in Roguelikes, Community, Windows, Developers | Tags TarnAdams | 14 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:13:00 GMT
No, it’s not a new line of clothing for babies. (Well, unless you want your babies to wear games produced for download onto Nintendo’s Wii Console.) We’re talking about Nintendo’s answer to XBox Live Arcade, baby.
“Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit,” says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. “WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners.” (
Link)
Thanks for the heads-up, Tennis!
Posted in Community, Wii, Developers | 21 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:30:00 GMT
(Link)
“Popcap games’ lawyer replied my mail and the one from my lawywers’ office. In essence, they don’t give a shit. I think they knew what they were doing from the start and they are bad businessmen. You know that to think of a game and to actually make it takes a lot of energy and money. Ripping off someonelse’s idea is bad; they don’t belong in the game business.” -Roy Ozaki, President, Mitchell Corporation (
Link)
(Source: Indygamer)
Posted in Community, Casual, Developers | Tags PopCap | 34 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:18:00 GMT
I think a lot of would-be game developers have heard the hallowed name of Andre LaMothe, author of “Tricks of the Game-Programming Gurus,” “Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus,” and “The Black Art of Seducing Women Through Game Programming.” (Followed quickly thereafter by a less popular 3-page pamphlet titled “The Not-So-Black Art of Seducing Men Through Game Programming.”)
In 2005 (or so), Andre released XGameStation, an old-school “a do-it-yourself video game system,” created for engineers to tinker with to learn the ins and outs of hardware and software development for games.
Jump forward to a few months ago, and apparently Andre has put out a new console, called Hydra, that’s more focused on software development and geared toward novices.
Now that’s kinda nifty! (Goes back to writing inefficient code that gobbles up memory the way that dude from Stephen King’s 1996 horror movie Thinner gobbles up pie.)
(Source: Sensible Erection [NSFWish])
Posted in Homebrew, Developers | 4 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:06:00 GMT
Videos of the Independent Games Summit are starting to go up! Here’s a postmortem from Gastronaut Studios, the creators of Small Arms, which, contrary to my belief, is not a game about Tyrannosaurus Rexes trying to slap each other.
“The creators of Xbox 360 Live Arcade stand-out title Small Arms, previous veterans of XBLA from their work with Fuzzee Fever on the original Xbox Live Arcade, talk about what went right and what wrong during the development of the frenetic multiplayer shooter, giving plenty of insight into developing indie games on console.”
(Source: GameSetWatch)
Posted in Community, Developers, IGF / GDC | Tags Gastronaut | 6 comments
Posted by Lorne Whiting
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 00:53:00 GMT
Aquaria, that unholy and sexy beast child of Derek Yu and Alec (... Yoo, maybe? What’s his last name?) released THIS:
And it is hot like magma.
(On a side not, I hate having to go through the categories here. I’m just gonna put anything remotely related.) [Too many categories! -Derek]
Posted in Videos, Developers, Action / Arcade, Previews | 27 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:53:00 GMT
Good ol’ Dan Paladin sez: “Online, the sky is the limit, that’s what so exciting as an independent. That just sounds so much more appealing than a publishing deal; they’re a big mess. I would like to see the traditional publishing deal change. I would like to see publisher act more as distributors than publishers.
All developers will tell you the same thing – a publisher has taken away something of theirs that they felt really needed to be there, or they changed something in a way they didn’t agree with because they own the money and the IP. That’s why we risk everything up front, so we can take it in and it’s all there; we trust our own judgement.” (Link)
(Source: Kotaku)
Posted in Community, Developers | Tags TheBehemoth | 3 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:17:00 GMT
For the next 10 hours, Immortal Defense will still be available for free at Game Giveaway of the Day. There are a few restrictions, however, according to the developer, rinkuhero:
“Although it’s the full version of the game, there are some restrictions: they tell me (I haven’t actually confirmed this) that it can only be installed once.
Also, anyone who gets it free from that site will not have access to future patches of the game (which will include new levels, a medals system, level modding, new music, a graphics upgrade, and so on).”
Just another step in rinku’s ongoing experiment with indie game marketing, the results of which you can read about here on his forums.
Update: It’s over, y’all.
Posted in Community, Windows, Strategy, Developers | 10 comments
