tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75616795246922003262024-02-19T09:03:19.355+00:00NALGames BlogThe Blog About The Games That Will Make You Want To Erase Your MemoryAllison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-4043838757154376152010-04-28T03:13:00.002+01:002010-04-28T03:16:13.999+01:00SplitI thought I'd let you all know, incase you were unaware, that I've now turned this blog purely into one about my game development. This will likely include news in the area as well as new game/update announcements.<div><br /></div><div>I will be blogging on life, thoughts and everything else at a new site - "Musings". It can be found here: </div><div><a href="http://asrmc.wordpress.com/">http://asrmc.wordpress.com/</a></div><div><br /></div><div>With this change I'm hoping I can make it so if you're not interested in one or the other, you need not follow that one. But I'll be trying to make Musings posts as interesting as humanly possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until a game announcement comes up, see y'all!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-64729798922433106272010-04-20T00:10:00.004+01:002010-04-20T00:36:48.818+01:00Chat RouletteI've heard about this website's popularity lately. For those unaware, it's Omegle with webcams. You get paired with a random person who could be doing anything. So here's a rundown of what I experienced, simply by hopping into and out of conversations.<div><br /></div><div>1. Chavvy looking guy, normal</div><div>2. Chavvy looking guy, normal</div><div>3. Normal looking guy, normal</div><div>4. Someone holding up a piece of paper with an MSN address and cybersex offer</div><div>5. Naked guy masturbating, head and... parts... off camera, thank god</div><div>6. Pakistani normal looking guy</div><div>7. Assumed normal looking guy, laying down, most of him was offcamera but he was clothed</div><div>8. Normal looking guy</div><div>9. Some guy's torso, clothed</div><div>10. Spambot - just showed a screen capture for a website</div><div>11. Normal looking guy</div><div>12. Normal looking guy, but with sunglasses on and a really stupid light (angled camera)</div><div>13. No webcam, just a sound feed, which consisted of someone presumably fiddling with the mic</div><div>14. Normal looking guy</div><div>15. Top-half-naked guy with sound feed, wasn't sticking around to find out his intentions</div><div>16. Normal looking guy (kinda hunky actually - not gay o.o) in black and white</div><div>17. No video or audio feed</div><div>18. No video feed, audio feed was just someone crackly playing crap music</div><div>19. No feed</div><div>20. Two wiggers and some crap rap music</div><div>21. Normal looking guy who needs to learn how to zoom with his camera - I could see his chin and part of his jumper</div><div>22. Same sort of shot again but different person</div><div>23. A hand holding up a piece of paper asking (kindly, I might add) for boobs on the webcam feed</div><div>24. Normal looking guy but awful sunglasses</div><div>25. No video feed, crackly audio</div><div>26. A cock</div><div>27. Another cock</div><div>28. Bored looking guy, normal</div><div>29. Man in briefs but not doing anything bad</div><div>30. Bored looking guy, normal</div><div>31. Someone just out of shot</div><div>32. Bored looking guy laying down</div><div>33. Bored looking child</div><div>34. Guy that was top-naked (at least), only head and shoulders in shot</div><div>35. No video, crackly audio</div><div>36. Nobody in shot, was a cam pointed at a dark area</div><div>37. An actual woman! Japanese origin too, woo! Quit on her, couldn't be bothered</div><div>38. Guy with backwards baseball cap, glasses and tank top. Muscly, looked a lot like wrestler Batista</div><div>39. Naked guy masturbating. Cat sitting in the background... poor cat</div><div>40. Someone's elbow</div><div>41. Nothing</div><div>42. Naked guy masturbating. Disturbingly included audio feed. Actually missed the close tab and hit Imageshack's thumbnail out of shock - same closing effect</div><div>43. Video feed was pointing at light, audio crackly</div><div>44. Naked guy masturbating. Wasn't very well endowed.</div><div>45. Girl looking very bored. Crackly audio feed</div><div>46. Girl looking very horny. Desperate kind of horny. Looked Hispanic too</div><div>47. Normal looking man but appeared to have a spliff going on</div><div>48. Guy top-half-naked, bottom half was off shot</div><div>49. Two guys blatantly stoned</div><div>50. Boring guy with baseball cap</div><div><br /></div><div>So, yeah. And you thought the premise and trollability was bad enough with Omegle!</div><div><br /></div><div>A total of three females in 50 goes. In comparison there were about six penes. Thanks, male gender. Thanks a load. (Not literally.)</div><div><br /></div><div>See y'all!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-71894751357836305692010-04-19T00:03:00.003+01:002010-04-19T01:20:11.289+01:00An Autobiography, In One BlogOkay, so this is my unexciting life as it stands. Eighteen years, compressed into what I'm sure will be a depressingly short, unexciting bit of text. I won't edit this being said, so if it turns out to be super-long then I guess that's stopped that.<div><br /></div><div>I was born on May 15th 1991, at about 10am, in Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. According to my parents, during my birth a radio was playing Nessun Dorma, as performed by the late Pavarotti, and the doctor was singing along to it. I guess now would be a good time to make note that everything I say in this entry will be 100% true, with no fabrication.</div><div><br /></div><div>My earliest memory is a tiny snippet when I was around one, in my father's arms, who thanks to his lack of parenting ability was taking me to a toilet. My mum began shouting at him due to my wearing of a nappy.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was able to write my full name (Andrew McCluskey) unhelped before I hit two years of age. Furthermore I could interpret basic signs and was considered by many at the time to be a genius in the making.</div><div><br /></div><div>In those days, a very popular gameshow in the UK was "Bullseye". As a youngster I was scared of the bull in the programme - it would start me crying if the TV was running in the background with it on and it showed up.</div><div><br /></div><div>We moved out of that house when I was three and a half due to ongoing wildlife somehow getting in. Despite being so young I still remember the layout of about half of the house, including the living room and the spare room (though not my bedroom, oddly). I also have a couple of very sketchy other memories such as me and my cousin using the spare bed as a trampoline, and a home-built piece of outdoor goodness dubbed "Swingboat", which, as suggested, was a boat-like item attached to a swing system. The house we moved into is the one in which we remain today.</div><div><br /></div><div>In nursery or whatever it was (playgroup or something, I believe), I remember several activities like playing with Stickle bricks, making pizza and learning how to write</div><div><br /></div><div>I remember thinking, prior to the beginning of primary school, that I would have to move and sleep there. The prospect frightened me and I became rather scared of it. My mum set my mind right, however. I also remember standing against the kitchen door in newly-clad school uniform (including a dull burgundy jumper) just before I was to go to school for the first time, for a quick photography session.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was told off in my first year for use of relatively profane language. Amusingly, the person I'd learnt it from was caught quickly because he had a strong Northern accent and I'd learnt to say one of the words his way (we say bar-stard, he said bAH-stard, with the "ba" from "ban").</div><div><br /></div><div>I was sworn at by a teacher when I was five or six because I wanted a go with the "end of lunch break" bell (a literal metal bell), so went ahead and pilfered/rang it. She was not best pleased, but I later learnt she was told off for the swearing part.</div><div><br /></div><div>(Please understand with this point that at a young age I had no idea of the acceptable boundaries when doing stuff) I was once dared by a "friend" to drop my trousers in the playground. I was strongly punished by one of the wanderers of the playground, who was incidentally the guy that dared me's mother. </div><div><br /></div><div>I did very well in some subjects - English and Maths, in lower years, even taking a Year 9 SATS paper in Year 6. But I despised, and was bad at, both History and Handwriting (which, back in those days, had its own lesson). The former, I was actually stood up infront of the entire class at one point as the teacher read out what I'd written, with the opportunity for anyone in the class to point out when something read out was false. The latter, I just sucked at. I can't join up letters for the life of me and really, even back then, saw no point whatsoever when my normal handwriting was perfectly legible.</div><div><br /></div><div>People often joked about putting others' shoes in the school toilets. I, of course, was the goon that went and did it. I had to apologise to the poor lad's mother in person after school for doing it. I actually got in trouble with the headmaster a lot - due to my outcast status even at that age I guess I was just destined to f*ck about.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, I was often regarded as being kind. A friend's eardrum burst once at primary school, leaving him in tears. I went, gave him a manly man-hug and went to call the nearest dinner lady to help him out. On a separate occasion (about the same age though - we were probably 8-9) I noticed someone who I wasn't massive friends with, sitting on the allotment opposite our house, crying. I actually went out to have a chat and shared some of my sweets with him. I actually distinctly remember the sweets, down to their very taste - a small box containing a large amount of miniature candy letters, that tasted rather sickly but were still nice. Bought in a shop in Bury St Edmunds about 200 metres away from the bus shelter that later folded.</div><div><br /></div><div>Throughout Year 5 and 6, there was a chap called Karl Huck. The oddest thing about him was that we were great friends outside school... and bitter enemies IN school. I can't recall how many times we were confined throughout lunchtimes due to misbehaviour over arguments. During either Y5 or 6 I was actually given control of the small library, including its box of K*Nex, due to my trustworthiness. The trouble I had with Karl meant I was demoted from the position.</div><div><br /></div><div>Year 6 held a four day excursion to a grotty little village called Aylmerton. I won't go into that because I despised it - it was basically a foray of bullying, depression and, in a slightly more positive twist, losing my scarf then finding it wrapped around a tree the day after, having been really upset about its disappearance (my mum had hand-knitted it and I was distraught it was gone).</div><div><br /></div><div>I was tipped to win the Best of the Year award at the end of Y6 (the final year of primary school). Two days before that we (the Year 6s) were, as a going-away fun thing, put into groups and "sold" as slaves to other years. The group I was in were bought by the Nursery, so while other groups were doing work, we were constructing a play area out of giant Meccano-esque pieces. That was superb fun. The day after, however, was disappointing. Having spent my entire primary school years at that school, with rather a nice collection of achievements, not to mention some of the best SATS scores in the year, I actually lost the award to a girl who had joined in Year 5. Dang.</div><div><br /></div><div>The prospect of high school was scary. I'm sure most of the people reading this will know how daunting it is to go from being the oldest in school to the youngest in the space of a couple months. I didn't fare well. Three days into Year 7 I lost a tooth. I basically spent the entire of that year being a living joke due to an odd noise I could make (prompting so, so many people to shout "Do the thing!"). It took until Year 8 for the "laughing at you, not with you" philosophy to sink in, so I stopped doing it, much to the disappointment and resulting insults from older students. One thing good did come out of Year 7 though. In January 2003, a new program popped up on the PCs... a little program called "Game Maker 5.0". Though that discovery itself was good, it was supposed to be, but was never, taught during ICT lessons. My best achievement for about half a year was a clone of the Asteroids game it comes bundled with, albeit with all the asteroids turned into swears.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Year 8 I went abroad for the first, and currently only, time in my life... of all places, to Normandy, France... for around a week. It was mildly interesting, and I have plenty of memories from it. The kid that retorted to the teachers offering him ratatouille with "Rats? I don't want RATS!", followed by his being kicked out of the cafeteria with no food and an angry old cow of a teacher I still don't like. My purchase of a French-language-only copy of Pokémon Gold for €10. The photographs I took, including an amazingly-timed one of a friend jumping off his top bunk (caught him in mid-air). Infact, the four guys I shared the dorm with remain friends to date. I also remember the evenings playing football, and the guy that was urinating on the side of the mall I got Pokémon Gold in. He reacted to the sight of a class of tweens/young teens by simply returning his head to face the wall. The whole bloody town stank - I'm not kidding. Seriously unpleasant. Must've been worse for Matt White, who, being a vegetarian, was furious when all the vegetarian packed lunches contained fish.</div><div><br /></div><div>Year 9 was mostly uneventful. A trip to Swansea (I think), with the opportunity to climb a wind turbine from the inside and see what it was like about 200 metres up. That was a flight of stairs I'm enemies for life with - my poor, unexcercised legs were like jelly when we got to the top, so the should've-been-easy descent needed mastery of the technique of not falling forwards and plummeting to certain death. It also featured the final SATS tests, which I did fairly well on (Maths - Level 8, English - Level 6 (killed by literature), Science - Level 7). It was also Year 8 or 9 in which I hit the limit for a spelling test which determines your age, by getting an unprecedented 100% on it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Year 10 was just a bit boring. Plain and simple. However, its end signalled the start of what would be the most up-and-down six months of my life... starting in June 2006. Work experience. Those ten days of doing what my father does were the slowest of my life. I spent two nights in tears and I very frequently passed the time while doing it by calculating how many thousands of seconds were left before the end of the work day... then counting down. You can't squeeze saying "7,213" into one second so after a hundred or so I'd recalculate and express pleasant surprise that the number of seconds that had actually elapsed was about double those I'd counted. Please, please take note that this was MORE FUN than doing the job. Only three things good came out of doing this stuff - it's where my love of Bovril began, I got £80 for doing it (I was never told about this beforehand so there was no "ooh, I'll get paid" motivation for it), and I now know never, ever to enter the mechanical industry. I'd also mention having Mr Hewitt, the high school headmaster that was leaving that year making it the last time I ever saw him, as a high point, but it was kinda saddening really. He was an amazing bloke.</div><div><br /></div><div>The summer holidays made up for the woe of that lot. I was invited to spend a week on holiday with a friend. This was amazing fun and once again spawned a nice little handful of anecdotes. The time when we were both hungry at 11pm so jumped out of the caravan window and ran to the nearest 24/7. The swimming pool, which contained a very spoilt brat that wasn't getting anything she wanted (yay for sadism). The actual getting to the resort and the going to ASDA on the way there, in which it rained so, so horrifically ASDA was evacuated due to flooding and my parents had to give me £20 to buy myself a cheap new pair of shoes for the holiday to make up for the newly ruined pair I was wearing. The time we accidentally spent our bus fare on rides at Pleasurebeach and had to walk the five miles back to the resort, with no money for drinks (it was a scorching day). The time we walked to some of his relatives, another multiple-mile trek, had KFC there, watched Dora the Explorer, then tarted about in a nearby playground like a pair of thugs. The list goes on. Sadly, later that year, I lost contact with him. My only hope in reaching him again is his sister's Netlog account. I'm not a stalker, I promise.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then came something I'd never have expected, given my social status, looks and personality - I got a girlfriend. Just to skim the gruesome details, we did... things... but I think my nasty, nasty "have to please this girl or I'll end up unhappy and single again" reflex kicked in, it drove us apart, and, woe and betide, I ended up single again, a status I've maintained now ever since. Do I regret it though? No. It taught me things I never would have otherwise learnt, and when I do find another girl I want to be with who, of course, wants the same thing back, I'll hopefully be readier.</div><div><br /></div><div>So this is now January 2007. Put into GM perspective, YoYo Games was a splash screen, Game Maker was newly 7.0, and I was a dipshit. My best game was a boring (but quite long) maze/platformer hybrid with substandard racing and flying levels about 70 levels in. (It's called "Gamanstake" if you want to get hold of it.) Skipping several months because I didn't release much noteworthy bar Elemence Gold, the predecessor to AuX which is still on YYG today, and schoolwise nothing happened other than awkward encounters with my ex in corridors and the GCSEs, which I frankly didn't revise for and passed all ten anyway. That was basically where I should have said "okay, that's enough. Education, I'm done with you.". But I didn't.</div><div><br /></div><div>And, in the single most regrettable thing I've ever done, I spent two years in Sixth Form. Two years I could have used to actually be productive. But nope, I threw away two years of my life, which is probably about 1/40 of my entire life (less if I'm being pessimistic, given the amount I've been sick lately and how unhealthy I am anyway), when as little as the first week in I knew it was a massive mistake. The only subject I passed (and it was a poor pass) was in design & technology, which Hartismere basically used for "woodwork". I will never do woodwork in my life. I did do a computering course but it was utterly leftfield to what I WANTED from a computering course, and I ended up failing it due to my inability to work the devil's own PC program, Microsoft Access.</div><div><br /></div><div>Since leaving, I've been very lazy but also a lot happier. Two years of shite, proceeded by what is now nearly 11 months of actual productivity. It was a non-starter to begin with - my mum went into hospital for two weeks in June '09, leaving my drunken father with the opportunity to basically degrade me in every way physically possible and put me into a genuine depression that took about a week of my mum returning to start going away. What did keep me a little cheery during those tough few weeks was that I'd just released Innoquous 3, probably one of my best, if not my best, game to date. Since then, I've basically had the ups (madnessMADNESSmadness), the downs (1n23g4r), and the centrals (It Only Takes A Second).</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, I'm hoping that I can get this job with YoYo Games, move to Dundee and give my life a little kick up the arse. It's what I've been needing for a long time.</div><div><br /></div><div>That's by no means comprehensive. I've left hundreds of details out, either accidentally, non-notability, or in a couple of cases secrecy. But I hope it's been enjoyable to see my rather banal life, with all its points fit quite easily into a single box. Anyway, I'll see y'all in the next blog!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-28160140321726461732010-04-18T12:08:00.003+01:002010-04-18T13:23:25.171+01:00Musical Tastes & Down With the SicknessKinda related segments to the title but not in the sense I'm planning on using 'em.<div><br /></div><div>Recently I've noticed my musical tastes changing. I've got into a few bands I've heard and disliked in the past. Here's a few that I've become a fan of in the last month or two.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>3OH!3</b>: First heard of this band as a band from a friend. He has a taste for stuff like this - an odd fusion of indie rock, rap elements and electronicky bits and pieces. Upon first hearing one of their songs as he was listening to them, which was about two years ago, I immediately took a dislike to it and dismissed the band. However, recently, another friend mentioned them and linked me to another of their songs, which I recognised from the radio (I don't like the radio much, my mum does though and car journeys are always accompanied by it). I took a chance on their album, "Want", and slowly grew into even the rappier of songs on it. Personal favourites, excluding the two singles Starstrukk and Don't Trust Me, are Colorado Sunrise, I Can't Do It Alone, and Photofinish.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Crystal Castles</b>: Same again. Heard it from the same friend, dismissed for exactly the same reason, and picked up a day or two again and started loving. I actually had a sub-stage in which somebody else tried to recommend me to them and I still wasn't a fan. But particularly their track Courtship Dating I now adore, and have their album, though have not really listened to it yet. Having said that, I still don't like the song I initially heard of theirs, Alice Practice. Also, I point blank refuse to get into Hadouken!. Just... no. o.o</div><div><br /></div><div><b>22-Pistepirkko</b>: Though this isn't really one for the whole "musical tastes changing". Royksopp is a testament to my love of European pop rock. This one's mainly one track too - Just A Little Bit More. Or, in the band's Finnish accents, "Jus' a Leedle Beet More".</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Black Eyed Peas</b>: I gotta feeling... that every time I listen to this band I feel guilty for betraying myself. As well as I Gotta Feeling, I also regretfully enjoy Pump It. My enjoyment of the former song originates from a CollegeHumour parody of it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Infact, it seems parodies get me into the original songs even when I don't like them. I've found the following songs (well, found I like them) from parodies also:</div><div>Tech N9ne: In The Rain</div><div>Jay-Z ft whoever: Empire State of Mind</div><div>Owl City: Fireflies</div><div>(Can't remember her name - Estelle or something?): American Boy</div><div>Plain White Ts: Hey There Delilah (another one I hate liking - ex related!)</div><div><br /></div><div>So as my brain descends/ascends/goes leftfield/goes less leftfield/whatever into the enjoyment of what I can't really place so will simply call "scene music", as in "seems to be enjoyed by people into the scene style", I move on to the second part of the title.</div><div><br /></div><div>Earlier today (FYI movement, cover your eyes) I was rather sick. As in, the literally keeled over being sick into the toilet. Worryingly, this has been mildly commonplace recently - I think I've probably been sick more during 2010 than I have 1991-2009 put together. I think my life really needs a reboot or something - less inactivity, better diet, less drinking that f*cking milkshake, less dwelling, more future. Not that I want to stop making games or anything.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'd love to go to IGF one year - depending on whether the age limit is 18 or 21 (I've heard both) it's a goal for either 2011, 2012 or 2013 (the year I'll be 21 for March-April, my birthday's in May)... at least. That also gives me a good 10-11 months to improve, because at the moment I don't consider myself skilled enough in game development (ideas - probably, skill - nah, effort levels - pathetic). Perhaps a nice break from having this 17" screen sitting a couple feet away from my face all day would help my motivation... but I don't know. The village I currently live in is absolutely crap for getting out because you exit the door, and you're presented with nothing. Well, I could go and play on the toddler swings or walk around the nature reserve about a mile away and watch a bunch of horses do absolutely nothing. But that sucks. Lack of transport (it's an awful place for catching a bus) means I can't readily get anywhere better either. I'm hoping like crazy I can get that job in Dundee and start life new. If it doesn't happen, guess my best bet is to find something similar somewhere close but not Redgrave.</div><div><br /></div><div>But, yeah. I think that's it... oh right... to be relevant to the very purpose of the blog for just one sentence, <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/games/124067-confusion-readily-achieved-perspectively-through-unrealistic-relative-dimensions">I made a game</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>See y'all.</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-73540545923558194892010-04-12T13:37:00.002+01:002010-04-12T14:09:51.149+01:00The Purchase of the Weirdest ThingsSo, as I mentioned yesterday, today I went out. Me and my mother went to a town around 12-15 miles away called Thetford... and we bought things. Well, she bought things for me. Being completely skint I can't really afford my own stuff, just borrow money from her and eventually pay it back when I'm less moneyless.<div><br /></div><div>So, here is the stuff I got today. Don't judge me.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>PC Gamer May 2010 issue 213</b> [£5.99] - this isn't weird, I get it every month. Thought I'd list it for the hell of it though.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Rise + Fall of ECW</b> [£2.99] - from a charity shop, a 2-DVD set covering six hours of what happened to the old wrestling promotion ECW. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Persepolis</b> [£2] - a DVD of a film just a couple of years old, which I've been wanting to watch for quite a long time now.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Red Sky crisps</b> [£2] - two big-ass bags of crisps, Cheese and Bacon flavour, which will be stored for later consumption. This is only the start of the edibles.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Bovril drink cups x24</b> [£3] - three packs of eight cups which you stick some hot water in to make an awesome drink that tastes nothing like the spreadable Bovril but is yummy nonetheless. It's kinda like beef gravy.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Smarties Easter egg</b> [£1] - why be on time for Easter when you can be late and get an extortionately-priced hollow piece of chocolate for a fair alternative price?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Coconut Ice</b> [50p] - the same shape and even the same colour as your standard piece of nougat. I'm not entirely sure if I'll like this or not but it looks yummy. I spent most of my life not really liking desiccated (sp?) coconut but recently I kinda got into it, so yeah. Plus it's full of sugar so it's automatically awesome.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Spicy Balti Mix</b> [49p] - a packet containing a spicy version of what is essentially Bombay mix. Bombay mix + spicyness = my drugs.</div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b>Chilli Tortilla chips</b> [79p] - will be saved until I can get my mits on some guacamole. That is the only way these can be consumed.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Mint Chews</b> [50p-ish] - a four pack of mints that are basically Mentos - same shape, same flavour, same tube length - but not quite as good. Still good though.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Complimints</b> [£1-ish] - a two pack of mints that are nothing like Mentos. These are more like those ridiculously expensive Smint things, but each pack is in a nice tin and contains rather a lot of mints that are small but powerful. Niiice.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Chilli-coated peanuts</b> [79p] - self explanatory. Just to be "cool" and "original" they're branded as "Nutz". With a Z.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Milk Chocolate Mini Delights</b> [50p] - one for the packaging gods, a card outer layer containing ten individually-wrapped chocolate "sticks" that are filled with a strawberry and cream kinda filling. Very tasty.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Disco Biscuits</b> [49p-ish] - Biscuity bit. Chocolate bit on top. Then with some UK-Smarties-like sweets on top. From memory they get sickly fast but when they're not sickly... mwah!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Super Long Drinking Straws</b> [£1.49] - 50 one-metre-long straws for long-distance drinkiery. Mum suggested they ought to be cut to size. I said no, I'll be using these puppies at full length!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Blow Bubbles</b> [£1] - One pound, six thingies of blowable bubbles. They even have a wand each. I mean, seriously, sweeeeeeeeeet! Child at heart and PROUD.</div><div><br /></div><div>So that's my little excursion's worth. Enough food to last weeks, enough toys to last days, and enough DVDs to last, like, as long as I like them. Will return to relative relevance with the next blog... maybe. See y'all!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-26424812417048151382010-04-11T22:59:00.003+01:002010-04-11T23:16:46.699+01:00Mad Once MoreThought I may as well blog since I've released an upgrade to the game which became a play count whore, madnessMADNESSmadness. This upgrade features a number of new modes and a few other features to make the game, in all, more enjoyable. I'll simply link to the Game Maker Community topic for it as that describes it perfectly adequately. <a href="http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=470867">The link</a><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, there's some other stuff I'll say since my last two blog entries have been fairly mundane reviews of things. Therefore I'll try to make this more about both me and my GM usage.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm now not working on anything. However, I've plans, which I'm as yet unsure on whether I'll follow through with or not, to make a game which crosses gambling (not real money) with a game similar to Voltorb Flip from Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver. I have the puzzle itself, along with ways to implement online multiplayer, up and running, I just need to work out if it'd be worth making or not. If nothing else I'll probably knock up a single-player engine for it at some point and see what y'all think about it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lifewise, thinks have been a tad topsy turvy. Both my parents have had this week away from work, which has meant that I've been going out a lot to different places with them. I've another one to go to tomorrow, though now my dad will be returning to work it'll just be me and mum. Although I'm happy with my computer, it's been generally fun and it feels healthy to have such an abnormal-for-me level of fresh air as that. I hit a fairly low ebb about a week ago too, when something that really shouldn't've bothered me a huge amount (though it did) actually triggered the single worst mental breakdown I've ever experienced, leaving me completely inanimate for quite a while in my room on the floor doing something I refuse to admit I was doing, being male. But hey, it's all in the past, I'm okay now and can laugh upon looking back on it... kinda.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've been watching the Matrix trilogy today and yesterday, which is fun. I haven't managed to watch Revolutions yet, nor the Animatrix which I got yesterday during a day out on DVD for 75p, but I'm not really sure if I want to. I have seen Revolutions - it was a bit crap. Mind you, Reloaded was crap and I still enjoyed it. With the help of my mum's purse I've got several other DVDs, videos and things in the days out, including a set of four films on DVD including the Shawshank Redemption for 75p (the lot), a double VHS about "A history of Football" for 20p, and my personal favourite, a Mega Drive game called "Strider Hiryu" that's entirely in Japanese. It won't play in my old MD but it's funky to own, given my love of Japan and its language.</div><div><br /></div><div>And coming in last, I've been playing a lot of LittleBigPlanet recently. Being a fan of odd vehicles and robots, particularly things like in Robot Wars, I've been trying to make the "perfect" vehicle, that can get across any terrain and survive anything. There's still hope, but I've not managed it yet. I can get something to drive up walls and across ceilings but things always manage to break themselves during the "course" I've set up. At some point I'll probably publish a load of the failed attempts (and, God forbid, any successful ones) so if you're interested, keep an eye on my LBP profile - my PSN ID is NAL-Games.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, yeah. That's all for today/night. See y'all!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-61595489951029073862010-04-06T17:30:00.002+01:002010-04-06T17:59:21.341+01:00My Thoughts: GTAIV vs Saints Row 2For this My Thoughts I'd like to compare two oft-compared games, released in the same year on the same platforms and with many, many similarities. I'll split it into several sections too. Grand Theft Auto IV, not the fourth in the series, is the numerical sequel to the game considered revolutionary in its popularisation of the entire 3D sandbox genre. Saints Row 2, the multiformat sequel to a 2006 Xbox 360-exclusive game, is a series that attempts to do pretty much the same thing.<div><br /></div><div><b>Graphics</b></div><div>Both have good graphics, though they seem to take alternative directions. GTAIV's realistic graphics, Saints Row 2's cartooniness. Given GTA's fairly poor sixth-generation graphics it's a pleasant surprise that its graphics are so, so good. Although less colourful and slightly more dreary than Saints Row 2's graphics, GTAIV's to me are better.</div><div>Winner: GTAIV</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Setting</b></div><div>Saints Row 2 features the city of Stilwater, upgraded but in many ways unchanged from its predecessor. It's a well-designed location with plenty of different locations. GTAIV features a renovated Liberty City, in the style of New York (with many familiar areas, including its own rendition of Times Square and the Statue of Liberty). Though GTAIV's location had to be researched thoroughly, costing millions of dollars, Stilwater's brighter atmosphere just about takes it.</div><div>Winner: SR2</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Arsenal</b></div><div>An easy victory to Saints Row 2. While GTAIV's is more than adequate - a series of guns based on real life ones and the ability to throw things like coffee, hot dogs and other sidewalk debris, it's an overall step down from San Andreas' pool cues and brass knuckles. Saints Row 2 not only covers the realistic front, it also adds a fun factor to weaponry, with weapons such as defibulators, satchel charges (another item San Andreas had that IV didn't) and the "pimp slap", a big pink glove that sends its recipients flying into the air. Smashing.</div><div>Winner: SR2</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Story</b></div><div>And an easy victory for GTAIV. SR2 was never about the storyline - it has some nice missions and a general story to go with - but GTAIV's is movie-worthy. It features twists, turns, user choices, and a real feeling of progression. Smashing stuff.</div><div>Winner: GTAIV</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Online</b></div><div>Both games feature adequate online multiplayer minigames which are great fun to play, but SR2 also allows two people to play the entire story mode, and even wander entirely independently around the city, online together. Great stuff.</div><div>Winner: SR2</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Cheats</b></div><div>Not the game-breaking health refillers, the ones which make playing about more fun. The PS2 GTA games were particularly brilliant at this, including cheats such as the ability to drive into other cars and watch them float away before your very eyes. Yet again though, GTAIV stripped a lot of these, leaving mainly the game breakers. SR2 has a number of funny cheats, including UFO spawning, low gravity, and pedestrian weather (where random civilians are spawned and subsequently drop from high in the sky, landing with a sickening thud). You can combine these with online two-player city exploration to create a number of unofficial minigames, including a personal favourite - low gravity grenade wars (low gravity + infinite health + give grenades + infinite ammo, find a nice high roof and chuck grenades at each other until someone falls off it).</div><div>Winner: SR2</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Messing About</b></div><div>SR2 has an absolute plethora of outside-mission activities to do. These are generated from all the weapons you can toy with, the minigames, and all sorts. But GTAIV is slightly better thanks to its stunning physics engine. You can push people over things and watch them stumble/trip (even going so far as to pushing them down flights of stairs, Porrasturvat-style), into cliffs or anything of the sort. You can anger taxi drivers by slapping their car then run around toying with their angry selves, perhaps getting a few more, having them accidentally hit their angry companions and watching the ensuing fight. You can get yourself a helicopter, carefully back it into a building until its tail end falls off then try to land it as its damaged, smoking body rotates angrily in the air. You can go to the strip club and buy yourself a dance, or slightly more fun, jump onto their podiums and watch all the strippers become frightened and the guards become angry. You can log onto a computer, look up some child... naughtiness... only to be redirected to a police website and, off-computer, five stars added to your wanted level. You can get yourself a girlfriend on a dating site and take her for a booze-up, ending the date by drunkenly driving home and showing her what your interpretation of "coming in for coffee" is (hint - no sugars). Heck, you can even go and watch Ricky Gervais, voiced and motion-captured by the man himself, perform a genuinely funny stand up show!</div><div>Winner: GTAIV</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Overall</b></div><div>In short, GTAIV takes it. SR2 is still cracking fun, especially when you've an online friend to play it with. But GTAIV continues its sandbox crime game dominance by providing a game which, amidst all the controversy and media stupidity, is genuinely brilliant fun. Yes, you can park up to a prostitute and watch her bang you one off in animated splendour. Yes, you can go on killing sprees. But yes, ignore all the shit around it and you're left with something that, in one word, is stunning. Oh, not to mention, but Saints Row is <i>totally a rip off of GTA</i>. ;)</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-86416846122998873802010-04-03T11:32:00.002+01:002010-04-03T11:35:25.215+01:00My Thoughts: GMIndie Magazine Issue 8<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Welcome to a new segment I call "My Thoughts". Every now and then I'll post my thoughts, either in a little summary or, in this case, as a review, on a non-game item. This will be a little like my old website "Talast". Reviews of games made in Game Maker will continue to be posted on the <a href="http://www.gamemakerblog.com/">Game Maker Blog</a> instead.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Despite earlier statements that the magazine would be coming to an end to make way for one of a new purpose by the same team, GMIndie Issue 8 was released earlier to the public. At 18 pages it’s much larger than previous instalments, which have generally clocked in at around eight. Given a note at the start of the magazine claiming a new release schedule of “Every 3 weeks” it would appear the move is permanent.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The magazine contains reviews of RC Aerobatics and The Wizards Apprentice, which are kind of well written, though hold the occasional misspelling/grammar error. Oddly, the introduction to the review for “The Wizards Apprentice” is the same size as the rest of it, and contains no capital letters whatsoever. Something that made me giggle was <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Frederick</st1:city></st1:place>’s statement embedded in that review: “My favorite is the snow level with the snowmen that throw snow balls and ice at you.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Following the reviews comes a slightly poor full-page advertisement for self-rating system TIGRS, then a page devoted to an eBook called “Game Maker Geek”, which did nothing to catch my attention other than perhaps nicking the avatar YoYo Games moderators use for banned members.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Another review afterwards, for “Western Shootout”. Just noticed that there’s no mention on the page of who made the game, though it clearly states who wrote the review. Again, it’s a fairly simple affair that gets its point across with some unnecessary mild swearing and no conclusion.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p>Then comes the interview with Landon Podbielski (superjoebob on the GMC amongst other places). The interview is thorough and well written, which makes a change from some of the previous segments where all the interviewees’ text speak and misspellings were left unedited. It’s a two pager and covers a lot of interesting ground.</o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Following the interview is a massive seven page tutorial in learning online multiplayer. Knowing absolutely nothing about creating this I took a look at the tutorial – it seemed complicated but in general will surely benefit some people. What I didn’t like is the way they announced it would be continued in the following issue – they did it mid-sentence. The beginning of a chapter was just four lines before the cut off point so it would’ve made sense to end it a tad earlier.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">A small segment comes after this, which is poorly written (whoever wrote it needs to learn that, being a name, “Game Maker” takes capitals, and that calling something a “nice cool feature” really doesn’t work). On the other half of the page is a fairly unfunny comic in which whoever is writing demonstrates exactly why emoticons have no place in a written publication. The final page is an outro where said emoticons become abundant (all but one of the paragraphs have one in) and a final statement “Much regards from the GMIndie team” before a nice chunky GMIndie logo is put in.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">On the subject of the magazine’s design – although it’s generally consistent and looks good enough, I find the constant use of seemingly random WordArt effects for titles ugly and unprofessional. Although the magazine is very, very Calibri-heavy it’s superior to slapping fonts around like crazy. In my opinion, if they ditch the odd and inconsistent titles the design will be very pleasant.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">On the whole, GMIndie Magazine Issue 8 is definitely an improvement over its predecessors. It appears to have greatly benefitted from the lengthened development time and, though still certainly holds room for further improvement (no emoticons, proper English at all times, fix the design of article/review titles) it’s a magazine worthy of your download. Hopefully in three weeks’ time Issue 9 will be released and take the torch from the seemingly finished bodies of GMTech and MarkUp.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://gmindie.org/magazine/GMIndie_Magazine_Issue_8.pdf">Download GMIndie Issue 8</a></p>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-82609186747294784022010-04-01T00:10:00.005+01:002010-04-01T00:32:13.662+01:00I Won't Forget To Sleep If I BlogTitle comes from something I mentioned in the <a href="http://sinfullydelicious.synthasite.com/chatroom.php">Sinfully Delicious chatroom</a> (I'm there a lot so if you fancy a chat with me or one of its several other frequenters feel free to come), where Rebecca (needs no introduction to anyone that's been reading this blog for a while) suggested I should sleep then blog when I wake up, to which I basically replied "I'll forget to blog if I sleep. I won't forget to sleep if I blog...".<div><br /></div><div>Anyways, a few things have happened since the last entry, which was a week ago thanks to my severe laxness in writing stuff.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most relevant one to the blog is that I released a new quickie game, created in 1-2 hours (it was within the space of two hours - 10pm to midnight, but I was chatting during that period so it wasn't all game work). The game name is Acid R[ai/eig]n - a play on the fact it contains acid rain, which ends up reigning. You prolong the life of your plains by growing a curly, branchy tree, which should cover as much horizontal ground as possible. There's more description given on its YYG page, which you can find <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/games/120918-acid-rai-eign">here</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>In other game making news, Ne Touchez Pas IV on YYG is a downrating magnet. Many of these people are actually entrants into the competition. I'm not so much angry at the fact they're hurting NTPIV's rating (temporarily - my YYG moderator friend is always on hand to tell me who did it, remove the downratings and punish as necessary) as I am disappointed the human race simply can't play fair.</div><div><br /></div><div>Offshoot topic - about Competition 05. I maintain that I'm not in it to place. A "best of the rest" or whatever mention would be nice, but I'm not one for high hopes so if I don't make the list I'm not too concerned. But another thing I dislike - the cockiness of many entrants. I've seen so many people that seem to think their entry is definitely going to place. The vast majority of these are games that clearly <i>aren't</i>... even some of those that must've taken a lot of effort pale in comparison to some of the better entries. My personal favourite entrant is Blackfoot, though.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've designed the cover for the second of Rebecca Clare Smith's <i>Jocasta Lizzbeth Moonshadow</i>. This is a rare instance of me doing something graphical - I keep what little design skill I have away from game making because the two always seem to clash horribly. You can find this piece of graphical design <a href="http://rebeccaclaresmith.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-book-cover-new-entry.html">here</a>. If you'd like to comment on it I'd recommend posting on that blog entry, not this one, as she's likely to reliably tell me about the comments. I'm forgetful and my brain is mushy. Of course, if you want to post it on both entries then a virtual cookie your way. Even a real one if you're willing to go out and purchase it yourself.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wednesday = shopwork, and I spent most of the day, having had my iPod touch suffer from an odd problem that now means it won't accept any applications (bastard), playing Pokémon HeartGold on the Nintendo DS. My verdict of it so far is that it's average. Gold and Silver were so long ago I've forgotten all the bits and pieces from it, so the nostalgia factor is gone. All that's left is a passable Pokémon game. Come on Game Freak, I'm sick of all these half-assed games with only about 60% of the roster actually catchable in-game. Release one with all the areas, all the Pokémon and all the awesome you COULD get out of the franchise!</div><div><br /></div><div>Wrestlemania 26 was on Sunday, and despite most critics calling it average, I still loved it. Bar the odd slightly poor match (Bret Hart vs Vince McMahon, that freaking pathetic diva tag team match ft. Eddie Guerrero's widow, a pot-bellied pig) it was stunning stuff, particularly the final match of the show. I'm also loving their NXT program, though I'd like to see four of the rookies get into the main WWE roster (Daniel Bryan, Wade Barrett, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater). Mind you, that may still happen, despite them only saying one would.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, it's 12:30am. That's half an hour later than I'm normally awake, and the last thing I want is to return to my old stay-up-to-7am days. Feeling crappy thanks to sleeping fail - does not want. Gotta be up as early tomorrow to witness the failure emanating strongly from all the weak, predictable, boring April Fool's jokes on all the GM websites.</div><div><br /></div><div>G'night all!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-13604256151964839252010-03-24T10:28:00.002+00:002010-03-24T11:17:09.423+00:00Top Ten Music VideosFor something a little different, I'd like to post this to show you all what my top ten music videos are. Should probably have mentioned "favourites" but these are chosen because, to me, they enhance the music they're played to, and are very original.<div><div><br /></div><div>#10 Beck : E-Pro</div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIrG6xBW5Wk">Watch</a></div><div>Kicking off the list, a strange yet brilliantly done music video in which Beck is in a world full of vectors. Cue what must've been either incredibly embarrassing or freaking hilarious for him to film as he navigates the world, doing many different things such as digging and jumping atop a series of musical notes. The ending is fairly unexpected too.</div><div><br /></div><div>#9 Gorillaz : Stylo</div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9vAOzYz-Qs">Watch</a></div><div>The first of two Gorillaz music videos to make the list (they've always had excellent music videos), Stylo sees the crew in a newly CGIed form, which manages to stick amazingly faithful to their cartoon forms, being chased by first a large policeman, then a Bruce Willis. Amazing stuff.</div><div><br /></div><div>#8 Fischerspooner : Get Confused</div><div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-w-2FFFyvE">Watch</a></div><div>There's always a brilliant quality to Fischerspooner music videos, I find. Unfortunately, some of them tamper with the songs a bit too much in the process (Emerge is particularly affected by this). Get Confused remains relatively intact, though, and the music video itself is great.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>#7 The Prodigy : Out Of Space</div><div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qriH-8yeqcE">Watch</a></div><div>Some of The Prodigy's videos are kinda samey - Liam Howlett shouting at the camera and doing an odd dance, occasionally with added black & white. Out Of Space benefits from being an old song. The music video, which is about as '90s as '90s can get, is different... and a couple of dances performed in it are to die for!</div></div><div><br /></div><div>#6 Gorillaz : 19/2000 (19-2000)</div><div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXR-bCF5dbM">Watch</a></div><div>The second of the two Gorillaz music videos in my top ten shares some stuff in common with the first - the band is in a vehicle on a single road. Yet this and Stylo are ten years apart. 19/2000, possibly Gorillaz's most well-known track and often misquoted as "Got the Cool Shoeshine", "Shoeshine" or similar thanks to its distinguishable Noodle-sung segment, has one of the most memorable music videos out there. It even has a flash game made after it!</div></div><div><br /></div><div>#5 Fatboy Slim : Weapon Of Choice</div><div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Ky5R-vxns">Watch</a></div><div>Christopher Walken dancing in a deserted hotel. Yeah. As a sidenote, "Right Here, Right Now", also by Fatboy Slim, would have made the list had it been a top 11. Had it been a top 12 "Praise You" would probably have also made it.</div><div><br /></div></div><div>#4 Franz Ferdinand : Take Me Out</div><div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZGcw9HHOkU">Watch</a></div><div>AKA "how you make an entrance". Stupidly addictive song, stylistic, memorable music video. Obscure, yes, but brilliant nonetheless.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>#3 OK Go : Here It Goes Again</div><div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTAAsCNK7RA">Watch</a></div><div>Single shots are always gonna be impressive. OK Go's "Here It Goes Again" is a music video filmed in a single shot in which the band do an impressive "dance" on a set of treadmills with alternating directions. Apparently it took them 17 takes to do right - a figure that's actually fairly good. Another one for the memorable pile.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>#2 Röyksopp : Remind Me</div><div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBvaHZIrt0o">Watch</a></div><div>A video displaying a woman's average day in the style of an informative/instructional video/booklet/whatever. The video is done axonometrically and is, in general, fantastically made. Either a downside or upside depending on which you prefer, though - the version of the song is actually a remix, not the original tune. Whereas the album version of the song (and presumably the single version too) is a fairly downbeat, sad song, the video version is upbeat and jolly.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>#1 Coldplay : The Scientist</div><div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmjPrdTNxQ0">Watch</a></div><div>Sometimes when making lists I'll struggle to choose a #1. Not here. The Scientist is a saddening, perfectly-done look at how a couple, driving in their car, had to swerve to dodge oncoming traffic, were swept off a cliff, the woman killed in the accident and the journey of the man, played by Chris Martin, subsequently. The catch is that the entire thing is shown backwards. Martin learnt how to sing the<b> entire </b>song backwards so that, in the reversed video, he was still apparently singing along to the proper track. A beautiful song with a perfect, fitting video. For a slightly haunting take, but to also make full sense of what exactly is happening, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49LeXfhUynI">here's a reversed version</a>, which of course shows the actual shot footage the right way round.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, that's it. Feel free to comment on my choices, music videos you personally love etc. Until the next entry.</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew </div></div></div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-17808203556493297172010-03-21T13:06:00.003+00:002010-03-21T13:55:43.610+00:00This 'Box Ain't Made For Walking<div style="text-align: left;">This morning, I went to the Banham car boot sale. Was supposed to go last week but there was a Formula 1 match on. I couldn't give a crap but my dad always watches them. Seriously, I don't "get" F1. So much monotonous "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEHHHW!".</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I both love and hate Banham. My hate comes purely because I never leave the place with any money. I love it for pretty much the same reason though - as well as being cheaper for stuff than eBay or second hand shops, I always find stuff I want, even though most of the time it's on impulse and turns out to be utter junk. Today, that was not the case.</div><div><br /></div><div>Around a year ago, I got a Gamecube there. It cost £10 with two controllers and was the lovely black model, not the icky purple one. Since then I was looking to complete the sixth-generation set with an Xbox. And today, I found one.</div><div><br /></div><div>As with the Gamecube it's not the original colour - this one is a lovely transparenty silvery one. Came with two controllers, one official and one unofficial wireless piece of crap that will only ever be used if I'm wanting to play with someone else. It also came with a DVD remote which will likely go unused, since DVD watching will remain a PS3 thang. All that cost an acceptable £15. I then also, not wanting to go without something to play on it, got a dodgy copy of Fable: The Lost Chapters for £2. It stutters every few seconds and, every now and then, throws up an error about how the disc is dirty or damaged. It works though, albeit with the need to save regularly, and is worth the £2 it cost. It also provides a nice stopgap untiiiiiil...</div><div><br /></div><div>...the other six games I just bought for it arrive. Costing a grand total of £19.95 (I had £20 left from Banham somehow!), I got the following:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Burnout 3: Takedown</b> because I obsessively love Burnout. I used to own 2 on PS2 (want it back), and I still have Revenge on PS2 and the absolutely stunning Paradise on PS3. I've borrowed Takedown on PS2 from a friend in the past and feel that, if I'm going to complete my Burnout collection, I may as well simultaneously bulk out my Xbox library.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Crazy Taxi 3</b> because Crazy Taxi has a place in my heart. It was the first game I owned for my PS2 (I sold it stupidly but have since rebought it). It's also attached to one of my all-time favourite memories from my entire life - going to a motorshow in Birmingham in 1999. When I was a kid I was absolutely mad about cars, and seeing all these stupidly awesome futuristic things in real life was like a dream come true. They also had a bunch of Dreamcasts with Crazy Taxi set up on, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But yeah, s'why I got Crazy Taxi 3.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Halo</b> because it was under £3. It's enjoyable, though I don't see the big fuss, so thought I may as bloody well!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Midtown Madness 3</b> because, as with Crazy Taxi, I have good memories of the original. The original, which I still have on PC CD, was once upon a time installed on all the computers at school. Cue multiplayer city wandering every lunchtime, with swear words scattered randomly in the chat box to start off giggling around the room. I was unaware there was a third instalment (I wasn't even really super-aware of a 2) until it was mentioned by a friend... all the memories came back and, when I finally got the Xbox (MM3 isn't available on any other console) I knew I had to nab a copy.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>SSX On Tour</b> because, as with Burnout, CT and MM, I love the series. I have Tricky and 3 on PS2, and used to own 1 (want back) and On Tour (wanted back until I got it again). They should really bring it to Generation 7... specifically PS3 (no, that crappy Blur instalment for Wii doesn't count o.o).</div><div><br /></div><div><b>XIII</b> because it was £1.21 and brought my total up nicely to £19.95. Plus I own it on PS2 - I guess it's handier playing it on Xbox because of the whole hard drive thang it has going on!</div><div><br /></div><div>Apart from the Xbox and stuff mentioned before the six games, I didn't get much else from Banham. I wanted a quick drink though, so I... I impulsively bought 24 cans of cola for £3. Sigh!</div><div><br /></div><div>My dad's also an impulsive spender at Banham. He bought a Polish Scalextric knock-off and a violin. Quite a nice violin too. Not that he can play it... and he'll not ever bother learning! He'll just pick it up now and then and deafen anyone in the vicinity of its screeching.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, apart from a few piccies of the Xbox and stuff, that's all I have today.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtllugGZAlUFQaxX76OZ03aalVRud1I0jS_3mXvsa2n42LX0RPGy40GrvyvpDpZLmRIMeWjrWQOYZoJFkdo-qCG_MtsllbOodzWnzKQvKL71viuijyjKebTBBY1wEUcEUVAH2YSHsUbw/s1600-h/DSCF1683.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtllugGZAlUFQaxX76OZ03aalVRud1I0jS_3mXvsa2n42LX0RPGy40GrvyvpDpZLmRIMeWjrWQOYZoJFkdo-qCG_MtsllbOodzWnzKQvKL71viuijyjKebTBBY1wEUcEUVAH2YSHsUbw/s320/DSCF1683.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451085189221108002" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YHm0cPzK4yMlYdGHmbXFPs9jSfAyozC9zxCaQXqTYo5SyTzl3aS9P1Ag1h1d5x0ZV6cneiEuHLyjJCUeOhdCZrxC6Ah1fkOOiC1sp_yNsCNY62JzMoS442Bl2n8vOGrfzzV0NJcs0w/s1600-h/DSCF1682.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YHm0cPzK4yMlYdGHmbXFPs9jSfAyozC9zxCaQXqTYo5SyTzl3aS9P1Ag1h1d5x0ZV6cneiEuHLyjJCUeOhdCZrxC6Ah1fkOOiC1sp_yNsCNY62JzMoS442Bl2n8vOGrfzzV0NJcs0w/s320/DSCF1682.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451085186998766050" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlc736Bj_1kRe_iyLd6cpodHkVYAzosgjPyk8OvZZOBni1LyCkn1zmNqT92fjvBCuftIHPtLEXdP0vronzT0PpcaUVL7iF9Az0P0KsyDaSGqi3yawWvHtIThe76XjIT5OlG4oYq1cJOA/s1600-h/DSCF1681.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlc736Bj_1kRe_iyLd6cpodHkVYAzosgjPyk8OvZZOBni1LyCkn1zmNqT92fjvBCuftIHPtLEXdP0vronzT0PpcaUVL7iF9Az0P0KsyDaSGqi3yawWvHtIThe76XjIT5OlG4oYq1cJOA/s320/DSCF1681.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451085181044888706" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>See y'all!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-37486690910734625382010-03-17T12:30:00.007+00:002010-03-17T13:16:07.810+00:00Pushing People Down Flights of Stairs... Repeatedly<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89Xd0lDDfM2Oagw_6aWTzPQ4kdIf3gwFHaz7sz7phyphenhyphenvRqVUjdvwd2Q3pFkmzWuK1No_ZrwOtY7CUVOpbKWZ7JymPgAnLLrMDg2ROCgHA9jAjDtDa7msP_AAJ-sCT97Q4Q769zAtCKNQ/s1600-h/Maya-Bed2.PNG"></a><div style="text-align: left;">11 days since my last blog? I'm returning to my lazy ways, goddamnit!</div><div><br /></div><div>So, this is a blog a little about me but mostly about an aspect of game making, similar to a blog entry I made several months ago, highlighting some ideas I have. If you want to provide feedback on any of them, feel free to - I'll be more motivated to make one/some of these if I know there will be fans, and conversely will be happy that I'm steering clear of making them if everybody would hate them. So, here goes:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Beelzebox</b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2K56RJs8sfQUWQRC3RLzKEsPHPJV2O3BL0LFNX3YahT14tWZXSCp1BAytlHgJ7XoiE_0cganVsicGLZazotBbuLN3bpfGsofaSMdVsBfxm7EMxNuLGjpNgtckAxvWihy_7KYIH43tuA/s1600-h/Maya-Beelzebox.PNG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2K56RJs8sfQUWQRC3RLzKEsPHPJV2O3BL0LFNX3YahT14tWZXSCp1BAytlHgJ7XoiE_0cganVsicGLZazotBbuLN3bpfGsofaSMdVsBfxm7EMxNuLGjpNgtckAxvWihy_7KYIH43tuA/s200/Maya-Beelzebox.PNG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449582799923037714" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 136px; " /></a></span></b></div><div>This is an idea I had which goes with my wanting to improve my 3D modelling skills (see below this segment). Basically, it'd be a first person lighting-powered shooter with a freaky red dude, Beelzebox. It'd include elements from bullet hells, with Beelzebox shooting fire from all orifices, with other FPS-like devices put into place. As well as furthering my modelling skills it'd be nice for it to also help my FPS-making grow. Both of these will be needed for when I start the coding aspect of Frosted Glass, basically a game in a novel, of which the novel and all of the design direction is provided by <a href="http://rebeccaclaresmith.com/">Rebecca Smith</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Bleed</b></div><div>This is one I came very, very close to making/starting today. This is bullet-hell-esque action in which numerous maroon-coloured patterns would fill the screen in a very pretty manner, their colours sticking to the screen with either surfaces or the old Don't Draw Background Colours trick. Collisions would not be measured in the standard way; instead, the colour of the pixel behind the player (who would likely just be a 1x1 pixel, PixHell style) would be found and if it was maroon, death. You could, of course, happily run over colours that aren't maroon, including slightly lighter or darker shades of it. It would be eye candy, yes, but I think it'd be kinda fun too given the potential for tens of different patterns (it wouldn't just be bullets, there could be lines, geometric shapes and even sprites getting in on the action).</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Dreaming On N</b></div><div>Ugggh, I'm torn between making this and not making it. Dreaming On E basically split people down the middle - I was surprised there were some people that really liked it. But the idea of a sequel is that it would look better, incorporate new 3D skills I've accumulated in the last year, and perhaps even tie all or some of the scenarios together (the plan is to start the game with a revisit to Scenario 1 from DoE).</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Remaddening</b></div><div>Or mMm2. I'm wanting to do this some day to, as with the first Innoquous, correct the wrongs. This would mean including more than one level, a procedural generation mode, other types of gameplay, and a far greater level of polish. I'm unhappy with quite a few aspects of mMm, but I really wasn't expecting it to take off quite so rapidly so I never bothered perfecting it.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Trivia Giants</b></div><div>This would be a cross between a boss rush and a trivia game. The idea is this - you're on a 5x5 grid. Somewhere either in this grid or out of it (more likely out of it) is the boss. The boss asks you a question, gives you a few seconds to think about the answer. Then, as you move about the grid, giant letters appear on it that spell out the answer. So, for example, if the question was "7+3", a vertical line of squares would turn red or whatever on the grid (1) then that would clear and the outer squares (0) would do the same. The idea is to either avoid, or get into, the lit squares. After each question or whatever you'd take an automatically-handled swing at the boss and, after a set number of questions, the boss would be replaced by a better one that asked more complicated questions.</div><div><br /></div><div>So they're a few ideas I've had. Really not sure what to do about them - knowing me I'll come up with a new idea in a few days and make it in two hours! Here's some other stuff I may as well mention while I'm in the blogging spirit though.</div><div><br /></div><div>I finished Ne Touchez Pas IV. It made some people very happy, others very sad. It contained no new levels and was generally seen as very uninnovative, but others (mainly those new to NTP, I think) really enjoyed it. It was mostly made for YYG Competition 05, in which you're allowed to use old stuff in your entries - perhaps I would have been better calling it 3.5 or something. Either way, though, it's not the worst self-cloning in the competition, I've seen at least one entry which is simply a downscaled port of a previously made game.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another thing I've finished, but in a different way, is Shadows & Ghosts, the second instalment of the Jocasta Lizzbeth Moonshadow series written by somebody I've already mentioned in this entry, <a href="http://rebeccaclaresmith.blogspot.com/">Rebecca Smith</a> (this time I linked to her blog). I won't go too far into how absolutely freaking awesome it was, as I don't want to seem too ass-licky, but... well, all I'll say is that there are some blind book publishers in the world today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, to the blog title. I've been playing a lot of GTAIV recently. I've finished most of the game, though I've still got Brucie's secondaries to do (boring) and a lot of stunt jumps/pigeons to find (o.o). I'm having a ton of fun with it, partly thanks to its physics engine, which is pure brilliance. The guns are boring in the game when you can simply push somebody down a flight of stairs or off the kerb of the pavement (which shows how good the engine is - pedestrians' feet are two separate entities so if one slips off something they fall over sideways, or if you trip them up in the same way they may stumble or trip). You can also have fun throwing things at people, which does very little damage but does look funny. There's the art of going to the second island, where taxis are abundant, and hitting the taxis to annoy the drivers. They get out and start trying to attack you. If you do this multiple times without harming the drivers, then jump onto one, they start angrily hitting the car. Sometimes they miss, hit EACH OTHER, then start fighting. Childish, but fun to watch! Then, my achievement on Monday - I ran around Alderney, the leftmost island, in its entirety. It took three real-life hours, during which I got a wanted level twice (was not caught on either occasion), didn't die (though had to divert to a hotdog vendor now and then), and never took a mode of transport other than Niko's own feet. You'd think it was tedious, but to be completely honest I enjoyed it due to the game's prettiness (my favourite experience of its prettiness is waiting until it's dark and very rainy, going to the GTA version of Times Square and seeing all the lights perfectly reflected in the wet roads).</div><div><br /></div><div>Last subject - the wanting to get better at 3D modelling. As earlier mentioned I'm making a game with Rebecca Smith (third mention o.o) called Frosted Glass. This will require me to kit out a house, at minimum, in 3D with stuff like beds, sinks, sofas, chairs, chests of drawers etc. So, in an aim to prepare myself for this, I've started getting properly into the program Maya. I've not much else to say on the subject, so I'll end this blog entry on a different note: a picture of the bed I made in the program.</div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89Xd0lDDfM2Oagw_6aWTzPQ4kdIf3gwFHaz7sz7phyphenhyphenvRqVUjdvwd2Q3pFkmzWuK1No_ZrwOtY7CUVOpbKWZ7JymPgAnLLrMDg2ROCgHA9jAjDtDa7msP_AAJ-sCT97Q4Q769zAtCKNQ/s1600-h/Maya-Bed2.PNG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89Xd0lDDfM2Oagw_6aWTzPQ4kdIf3gwFHaz7sz7phyphenhyphenvRqVUjdvwd2Q3pFkmzWuK1No_ZrwOtY7CUVOpbKWZ7JymPgAnLLrMDg2ROCgHA9jAjDtDa7msP_AAJ-sCT97Q4Q769zAtCKNQ/s320/Maya-Bed2.PNG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449590782354117650" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 270px; " /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2K56RJs8sfQUWQRC3RLzKEsPHPJV2O3BL0LFNX3YahT14tWZXSCp1BAytlHgJ7XoiE_0cganVsicGLZazotBbuLN3bpfGsofaSMdVsBfxm7EMxNuLGjpNgtckAxvWihy_7KYIH43tuA/s1600-h/Maya-Beelzebox.PNG"></a></div><div><br /></div><div>Until the next blog, goodbye!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-27644776709233285102010-03-06T15:43:00.006+00:002010-03-07T02:39:34.636+00:00What I Bought On eBay<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Firstly, no. I do not condone "Weird Al" Yankovic. While his music raises a slight giggle upon listen number one they quickly grate. There are only so many laughs you can get out of an average vocal talent, an accordian and a list of meals. o.o</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">But recently I've been hooked on eBay. I had £20-odd lurking in my PayPal longing to be spent. Also, I have a page of games I want (all of which are no longer available generally, a few of which are EXCEPTIONALLY rare - we're talking £400 for mint copies of a couple of these). Suddenly, I had a brainwave - combining the two goals. Crossing off some of the games on the list, and spending the money. So, here's what I got.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Rolling, PS2, £3</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">One of many "Used to own, wanted back" in the list. To extend, "Used to own when readily available, sold, then it got really bloody hard to find". eBay was a godsend for grabbing another copy of Rolling - on play.com it was being listed second-hand at over £32... in bad condition. Just to make myself look bad when I could've skipped this sentence and covered it up, the main reason I wanted Rolling back was because its soundtrack contains an uber-rare song... called "I Just Farted".</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Overboard!, PS1, £5</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">By far (well, two quid) the most expensive game I bought, but well worth it. I never owned Overboard!, but it induces a level of nostalgia that I couldn't match unless I was sitting in my old house again in a nappy getting scared of the bull in Bullseye (sigh o.o'). Overboard!, a 3D-but-2D-engined pirate simulator, was one of a handful of games a relative leant to me for a few weeks, along with his PlayStation, before I owned my own. That would make the last time I played Overboard! </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">12-14 years</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> ago. Some things from it I remembered perfectly, others came fast back into memory with a replay of the game. It's not a great game, but somehow it's perfect. Part of the price was probably its intact case with the instruction manual and all the doodads, something most PS1 games I got can't claim.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The Italian Job, PS1, £1.20</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">All there except a front label. This was bought due to a mix of mild nostalgia and mild bloody good fun. I got it originally the Christmas it was out. Had a lot of fun with it, no idea why I got rid. But yeah. As a random note - when I owned it before I got stuck about two missions in. I spent the vast majority of playtime in the game cheating my way to unlocking Turin and the police car and tarting about with it in there.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Killer Loop, PS1, £1.50</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Disc only. Crap WipEout clone. I never owned it but I played a demo of it several years ago and retain fond memories, including a very catchy music track I've yet to locate in the full game.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Urban Chaos, PS1, £1.50</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">As above - disc only, memories of a demo version of it. Not getting along with the main game though - I'm being forced to do a driving mission (when I just want to toss about and fire weapons aimlessly) and the driving engine is, without a shadow of doubt, the worst I have ever experienced. X to accelerate, fine. Outdated but fine. But down to reverse? Seriously?! And the turning? Jesus. You're either turning too little to do anything or taking 90 degree turns in split seconds!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">V-Rally, PS1, £1.50</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Disc and instruction manual. Used to own this, it was one of the first PlayStation games I owned. I remember getting three when I got the console - I can remember two but not the third (to great mental agony). V-Rally is the likeliest candidate though I still doubt it was. It was also one of a handful of games I'd played before owning my own PlayStation. Anyways, I have a lot of memories of tarting about in V-Rally, as well as being very, very good at it. As I've now discovered, this skill has seeped away over the ten or so years since I last played. Now I just drive into scenery and run out of time.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Grand Theft Auto 2, PS1, £2.50</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The second of three complete games. I think it was my 11th or so birthday I got my underaged mits on GTA2. I'd played it previously, having been friends with someone who both owned it and got me into it. But GTA2 is amongst my favourite GTAs (a group of three - 2, Vice City and IV) for a number of reasons, including its memories, its great exploration (something I wasn't used to at the time, but still great fun), and its absolutely ace in-house soundtrack. I have it on my PC and iPod touch and listen to it often to this day. It's a free download on PC, btw. If you've not experienced GTA prior to its jump to 3D I'd recommend it.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">MoHo, PS1, £2.00</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Instructions/disc only. MoHo, joining the clan of remember-the-demo-disc games, is one set in the near future in which you play as a robot with a ball where its legs should reside. Throw in a load of deathmatch-like modes, obstacle courses and levels which frequently dynamically warp before your eyes, and you have a game which is still very, very good. If I'm correctly informed it was called Ball Breakers in NTSC territories. Their name may've been more relevant, but ours was totally cooler.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Spiderman 2: Enter Electro, PS1, £1.99</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Instructions/disc. Used to own, got back, still love. Completely playable and enjoyable, it's a game that's aged remarkably well. Having said that, I now also want the rarer predecessor, which to f**k up most hope of finding copies is simply called Spiderman. Sigh.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Loaded, PS1, £2.00</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The final of the three complete PS1 games. This was a game I was given by a relative who had found it sitting in his attic for some reason. Though gruesome and repetitive Loaded is fun in short bursts. This is one of the games I didn't sell, though. I temporary-ish-borrow-traded it with a then-friend for Tomb Raider 2. A few years later, when said then-friend was an arrogant, thick, drug-dealing little piece of scum, I sold TR2, and now I've finally got my game back.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire, PS2, £2.63</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Played this game before I owned a PlayStation 2. Was in Big W (which turned to Woolworths, which turned to dust... RIP :<) in Norwich if I correctly recall. But one of the best, if clunkiest, FPSes I know of. Got a lot of multiplayer fun out of it and went through the first half or so of the game several times (I got stuck as I'm bad at FPSes :P).</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Metal Arms: Glitch In The System, PS2, £2.70</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Really quite nice 3rd-person-FPS-controlled game which, despite ripping the vast majority of its elements out of more popular games including a blatantly huge influence from the Ratchet & Clank series, manages to be a very solid, enjoyable bit of gaming. Includes an addictive offline multiplayer mode which I got several hours out of. Coincidentally I got this first from Big W in Norwich - I remember it was with a friend. I had £15 to spare and wanted to turn it into some gaming, but couldn't decide what on. He pressured me into MA:GITS (yeeeah), and turns out it was a good choice. Sold it because I got stuck. This time I'll simply keep it and slap it until I complete it.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">WWF SmackDown!: Just Bring It, PS2, 99p</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I like WWE/F, as you may know. The games induced my interest in wrestling, starting with a copy of SmackDown! 2 on PS1 that I bought a long, long time ago for £5 from a car boot sale. This was bought simply because it was 99p and I don't have it yet. It's not very good, but there's always the novelty of pitting Eddie Guerrero against Chris Benoit and simply telling the game it doesn't matter who wins. Heartless, I know, especially since Benoit's death was... well, less than calm... but eeh.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The League of Gentlemen Live, VHS, 16p</span></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Presumed to be absolute crap. I've no intentions of watching it. But 16p with free P&P? Sold!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Anyways, I'm now also in possession of £30 from an old bank account I initially opened to store PS3 funds a few years ago. I'm tempted to shove it in my PayPal and cross a few more games off my list, but I think I'll save it. There are better things I could use it. For example, in a diverting topic...</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I found a really old friend on Facebook and we got chatting! When I say really old, I mean it's been years since I spoke to her, not she's in her 90s or something. Must be around eight years. Prior to that we were barely separable. Oddly, we dove straight into conversation and it was like the gap hadn't existed. She's only 5, 6 miles away so one day we'll probably hang out for a while, catch up etc. Now that WILL be strange (for me at least), but worth doing, especially given the possibility of buggering off in a couple months.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Guess I'd better update on the GM status. As mentioned in the last post, I'm taking a hiatus from mad game creation/releasing. This is for a few reasons. Firstly, I'm currently inspirationless. Everything I have ideas for has a 2, 3, 4 or 5 on the end. I really want to cut down on sequels and try to make some genuinely awesome original games. SohoPogoHo, 1n23g4r and La Rolloux fell well short of that. mMm's the only success story in the past year that's not a sequel, and I'm still determined it was a fluke. I cannot get addicted to it, I get bored after the three minute mark and quit out!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">What I have been, and plan on continuing, doing though is learning more. I've been using Maya lately, which I crafted a sparse speedboat .obj out of and developed a dodgy Hydro Thunder engine out of. If you want to give it a try, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><a href="http://tr.im/QKee" class="tweet-url web" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(20, 140, 2); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">http://tr.im/QKee</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> to download. It contains the Game Maker 8 Pro editable, the .obj, and an executable if you don't have GM8P but are still interested. I tweeted about it but didn't go in full - you're welcome to use parts or all of that engine, including the speedboat model, as you please. It was a learning process for me, feel free to benefit from it too if it's of any. It's far from perfect but it just about works. I chose LiQid as a name because it describes the stuff the boat floats in and could be turned into an ananym with a logo.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Anyways, I intend to swot up on my GML, learn stuff I didn't previously know and get better on stuff I'm shaky with, as it would be beneficial in the future. Also means I can improve my own personal output too. As good a year as 2009 was for my own creations (I3, NTP3, mMm, mMm's explosion, I3's smaller explosion, also IOTAS which was a public failure but I still like it) I really don't feel like I learnt much. That kinda frustrates me - once upon a time I was learning at least one new technique, be it big or small, with every game. Now it's once every five-ten games. Perhaps learning 3D modelling will let me get better with realistic 3D. DoE looked crap, I'd quite like to work on its sequel and make it less laughable.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">One final topic - 750 (ex 1001) Freeware PC Games is coming along slowly. I'm currently filling in the author, genre, link, screenshot etc details for all the games. This is long-winded and repetitive. If you want to help, feel free to let me know and offer your services. I could do with both cell filling in ( </span></span><a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AkcsqZag4d-xdExPc0h0aHNGZ2I5Qlp6eWp5Z2JmQ1E&hl=en"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AkcsqZag4d-xdExPc0h0aHNGZ2I5Qlp6eWp5Z2JmQ1E&hl=en</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> ) and screenshots for each and every game, which two people are already kindly helping with. If it's any incentive, you'll get your name in a book and if you help out a substancial amount, a cut of the profits.</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Anyway, that's all for now. See y'all in the next blog!</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">~Andrew</span></span></div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-3076869260213151832010-02-27T00:10:00.004+00:002010-03-17T13:22:15.608+00:00750 Free PC GamesHello all, I have a favour to ask.<div><br /></div><div>I'm compiling a list of 750 freeware games for Windows systems and I would like as many suggestions as you're willing to give. I'd like to keep my reasoning hushed for now, but let it be known that anybody that helps won't go unnoticed. You'll be credited for your contribution if all goes as planned.</div><div><br /></div><div>Please see this Google document for the list I have so far. <a href="http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddg6wwzm_0fd889dhg">http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddg6wwzm_0fd889dhg</a> You may suggest games already shown there as it'll reinforce their inclusion.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you want to help out, please leave a list in a comment below. Games should be separated with a line break and no other separators, with the names cased/spaced as their creators do so. Games starting with "The" should have that word put at the end separated with a comma (eg The Game becomes Game, The).</div><div><br /></div><div>On another note, SohoPogoHo is now complete. You can play it on Game Jolt or YYG. I will likely be taking a break from solo game making - I've a couple of duo projects on the go. Otherwise, I've lost the desire to make games myself. It'll come back one day I'm sure, but for now I'm done.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last thing: a friend have almost finished writing the third instalment to her unpublished book series Jocasta Lizzbeth Moonshadow, and is contemplating changing its subtitle. Its current one is "The Secrets Were Spilling at the Seams" but she is thinking of shortening it to "Secrets". If you have any opinions on the matter, please leave a comment on her journal here: http://rebeccaclaresmith.blogspot.com/</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, that's it for now. See y'all next time. Please, please, please leave a comment with as many freeware PC games as you know!</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-40473532107513271832010-02-19T04:27:00.006+00:002010-02-19T04:56:09.520+00:00Integers, Nostalgia & GitarooQuite possibly the oddest blog entry name I've ever extrapolated from the murky depths of my brain.<br /><br />So, anyway, part one. Integers. Yesterday I participated in NT in a friendly "make a game within a set hour" competition. Amazingly, he actually bloody finished. His game was a jet pod-esque game by the name of Poorple (a portmanteau of his opinion of the game and the colour of the majority of objects in it). Mine was a game originally to be called 1234. I decided against that, it was boring. So I made it rhyme: "1234 LMV in Ecuador!". It's a kinda outright lie, I lost it in some empty village, but eeh. Anyway, I liked the concept of the game but wanted to make it just a little bit bigger. So I made it longer, added a tutorial/title and a finish, and a speedrun mode. Accompanying this, I renamed it to 1n23g4r - 1234 embedded near-legibly into the word "INTEGER". You pronounce the game name "Integer", not "Onentwothreegfourr", by the way. You can play it on <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/games/116143-1n23g4r">YoYo Games</a> or on <a href="http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/puzzle/1n23g4r/1627/">Game Jolt</a>.<div><br /></div><div>Part two - nostalgia. This is a short bit. I just find it odd how certain songs trigger an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia, even if they're not really tied to an event. Tracks that do this to me include Kasabian - LSF, Deepest Blue - Give It Away, Jamelia - Thank You (you heard), Dodgy - Good Enough, and the song that triggered it today, one of my all time favourites - Portishead - Sour Times. If Dr Horrible's freeze ray was a real object, then he must've shot me in the back as I listened to it. Odd.</div><div><br /></div><div>Part three - Gitaroo. About a week ago I got hold of a copy of Gitaroo Man on PS2. I have spend six goddamn years trying to get hold of a copy of this game, and it finally happened. As a direct result, I did the impossible. I broke my sleeping pattern even more. I was up until one in the afternoon playing the bloody game. (Subsequently I was down until seven in the evening eating pillow as my poor, decrepit body desperately tried to refuel my energy.) Now I'm stuck on it. God, Japanese studios really don't hold back on the difficulty of their games. Katamari Forever before it was one massive difficult pain in the arse.</div><div><br /></div><div>NALGames.com V4 is finished. Sean Buller finished it off and fixed a few of the bugs, and I've filled in everything I could find. Unfortunately I've lost all trace of the two fonts I made, but they weren't very good so I guess it was just my computer doing me a favour. If you've any bug reports or want to see an editable up that isn't yet, comment with it. I'll forward bug reports to Sean, and I'll be 99% okay with adding pretty much any editable you want to the site.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also in website-related news, me and Sean are creating a website for the somehow-unpublished Rebecca Smith. Her site's been a Synthasite jobbie for a while, and we decided that we'd make her a lovely big custom one to her design. I've also bought a .com domain for it and customised her a Blogspot skin based quite heavily on my own. She's highly appreciative of the work we've done so far which is a great motivation in making it. If you want to see her work, check out her current site at http://rebeccaclaresmith.com/ or her journal at <a href="http://rebeccaclaresmith.blogspot.com/">http://rebeccaclaresmith.blogspot.com/</a> .</div><div><br /></div><div>One more subject to converse about is how Clank needs to go and die. If you're a Twitter follower of mine you may know what that means. Basically, having played all the main Ratchet & Clank games and been in deep love with the series, A Crack In Time is like an OmniWrench to the gut. The platformingy-Ratchety sections were trimmed down in this one. The rest of the game is occupied by space sections (better than previous spaceship levels but there's too much of it), and Clank levels. Oh god, Clank Levels. I've always hated him. His tininess makes levels slow enough as it is, but the fact that all of his levels have the same tedious puzzles, boring location, and mind-blowing repetition just made me go "Oh f***, not again" every time I was thrown into the little isn't-funny-any-more piece of metal's shoes.</div><div><br /></div><div>But yeah, that's all. I shall be entering the Game Jolt Jam tomorrow/in two days (depending on how you look at it), so while it's going on you should be able to find up-to-date information through:</div><div><br /></div><div>Livestream (NALGames)</div><div>Twitter (NALGames)<br />Game Jolt's chatroom (NAL)</div><div>Skype (NAL-Games)</div><div><br /></div><div>And that is all. G'bye folks!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew<br /><br /></div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-6978346405739191472010-02-07T13:56:00.004+00:002010-02-07T14:21:58.109+00:00NALGames V4Those of you reading from the original source of these blog entries (I know they sync with Game Jolt so anyone from there won't have seen it) will have noticed that this blog has just undergone a graphical overhaul. If you aren't a <a href="http://twitter.com/NALGames">Twitter follower of me</a>, it's because my website is being rewritten to Version 4 by Sean Buller (UnknownGamer, often credited as Sean Canadaboner jokily while he was unwilling to publicise his surname as he's Canadian). Originally this was going to keep with the style of V3 (maroon/beige/black, grungy, stylistic). However, I decided that since it'd be so differently (read: better) made I'd fix up the style and make it, in general, better. So, wanting a change from the grunginess, I went with shiny rainbow-on-blackness. Yeah.<div><br /></div><div>On the topic of the new NALGames.com, which should be active within the week (at the moment if you try to access it you'll get slapped in the face by an Under Construction image), there are a number of lovely changes, most of which I couldn't've achieved, as I despise coding websites. Seriously, changing the CSS for this blog to make it as it is was bad enough. It'd be less hateful if all browsers interpreted coding in the same way... but they don't. Half the time, it's Microsoft's glaringly inferior browser that puts a wrench in the works (most businesses have dropped IE6 support now... why not go one better and drop it for 7 and 8 too?), but even the bigguns like Firefox, Chrome and Opera occasionally screw something up. (Incidentally, I now use Google Chrome. Firefox 3.x has been problematic as hell; all the 3.6 update did was break <i>more</i>.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Oh right, the new website. The biggest change for you, the viewers, will be that the Games, Archive and .GMKs sections will all be jazzed up and more usable. All items will start off "minimised" - in a normal list. There's a + on the end - if you click it, a game description, three screenshots, and all the details and various links will swoop in with a pretty little animation. The + turns into a -. Guess what that does.</div><div><br /></div><div>The biggest change for me, which will be passively effective to viewers, is that Sean is incorporating a handy little set of admin tools for adding games, other items, and editing the text on text-based pages like About. Beforehand, I was having to manually alter all the coding on the page then reuploading it. This was a hell of a lot of hassle and meant the frequency of updates was poor. At the time of V3 going down, there had been four games released since its last update. Now, though, I just have to fill in a form and hit a Submit button, which is a lot easier and will mean I'll be much quicker in updating the site.</div><div><br /></div><div>Other minor updates to the site, ignoring the previously mentioned style overhaul, is that the Links page has been switched with a Coverage page (now I've got just about enough to not look like a shit stain on the underpants of my website), the Game Editable and WIP Editables have been merged, Writings has been added to the Archive (so I can share my crappy poems and WIP short story), and Old Games has been merged into the current Games page. There's a tick box in the "Sort By" dropdown that allows you to filter these out or keep them in, so the few decent games I've made don't have to be drowning in a sea of Gemocides, Fight of the Heights and Blokmans (all three being 2005-or-before games).</div><div><br /></div><div>Gamewise, I've nigh-on stopped working on Innoquous Hand Held/The Flip Side. I still plan on making Innoquous 4, but this won't be yet. Due to possible complications (if I take the YYG job I won't be eligible for any of their competitions from then on) I doubt entering it would work out at all. A little disappointing, but I'd rather have a job than a public thrashing by at least 20 people that are better than me!</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, that's the news of the NALworld. Some time soon I expect to make a blog entry listing my all-time favourite 100 songs. This is requiring me to scour my entire brain, as well as my tracklist, for those I know would make the list, and some others which I'll have to processofeliminationify to get it to the hundred. Also, processofeliminationify is a word now.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let me know if there are any graphical glitches on the blog or, when it's out, the website. Screenshot would be preferred.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-72417896103679678812010-01-26T16:16:00.009+00:002010-01-26T16:56:12.133+00:00FKR4, Points of Interest etcThe first bit is, incase you're unaware, FKR's yearly update for 2010 has arrived. FKR4, made for the Game Jolt Rogue contest under the idea that the game itself is the rogue, is a bizarre, bizarre game. Many people don't seem to be able to understand it. Here's a quick explanation:<div><br /></div><div>The room will fill, initially, with red and aqua, with a small amount of green. The colour coding is the same as the other FKRs - red = you, green = your "trojans" (what you hit enemies with), and aqua and other colours are enemies. You'll notice that these colours, bar green, comprise of a number of "stars". The central point is where the actual enemy/you resides, so you must target there. With that in mind, the rest of the game is FKR at heart. Different points are awarded for different enemies, with more for higher-up ones (order: aqua, yellow, magenta, orange, blue, green). So yeah.</div><div><br /></div><div>------</div><div><br /></div><div>I thought I'd add a little point of interest to this: a list of games that started off with different names, either as codenames or genuine names I later decided to change.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>F**kfreak ==> Back in Time to Annihilate People of Past Times<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Originally named as the game is pretty f**king freaky, changed because I couldn't be arsed with bleeping it out and inevitably suffering a slew of YoYo Games reports.</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b>A Stupid Attempt to Win $1000 ==> Zyousbox</b></div><div>With the name change came an orientation change. The game that became Zyousbox was originally to be an old-Celtic-themed exploration game for the second YYG competition. It didn't go well but I didn't want to ditch the engine. Zyousbox was born</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Wolley ==> La Rolloux</b></div><div>Originally Wolley because a) the player was called Wolley and b) it's "yellow" backwards, which is the colour of 70% of the game. Altered it when I gave Wolley a wacky hairstyle which reminded me of Ellie Jackson from La Roux (a band I like, and a band name I like too). Inserted "roll" into it and huzzah - a game pronounced "La Roll-oo" but frequently mistaken as a number of daft, Englicised alternatives (one of which rhymes with "bollocks").</div><div><br /></div><div><b>NAL ==> madnessMADNESSmadness</b></div><div>Partly a codename (I was expecting to change it), partly an ongoing desire to create an eponymously-named game. Changed because, having mentioned "madnessMADNESSmadness" in the Game Jolt chatroom as what a mad person might describe their predicament, and consequently being recommended to give a game that name. Turns out it was a wise decision, though I still catch a few too many people calling it "madnessMadnessmadness", "Madnessmadnessmadness" or, worse, "Madness Madness Madness".</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Elemence Passion Matrix ==> Elemence Switch</b></div><div>Mildly irrelevant, changed just before I canned the game. Changed because, as was informed to me, "Elemence Passion Matrix" sounds like something out of the Kamasutra.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Lite Town Wars ==> The Hilarity of Murder</b></div><div>Originally "Lite" was included to make "lite" of the fact (sorry) that the game was made in the unpaid version of Game Maker 7, changed when I decided to stick it in the Game Jolt Axioms contest by bolting a gimmick onto its arse and wanted to reflect the new gameplay element in its title.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>L'oiseau ==> Ne Touchez Pas 2</b></div><div>"L'oiseau" being French for "The bird", "Ne Touchez Pas 2" being French for "Mooching off the plays the first one got and being a far more obvious sequel. Oh, and not pronouncing the 2 as "deux" but as "two"".</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Puzzle Valley ==> Welcome to Puzzle Valley ==> Puzzle Valley</b></div><div>...Yeah. Puzzle Valley initially held the same name as it does now. Upon upgrading it, adding several features and removing a few bugs, I added "Welcome to" to its name. Finally, seeing that it was a stupid name and preferring the old one, I changed it back.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Infidel ==> Infidels</b></div><div>Initially, you were the infidel. When deciding to switch the roles round and subsequently realising more than one infidel existed from then on, I pluralised the title.</div><div><br /></div><div>------</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm edging towards ditching The Flip Side. My main reason for wanting to enter the fifth YoYo Games competition was for the sake of publicity. However, if I ditch TFS, when I'm more in the mood focus on making I4 a smashing game, then advertise the crap out of it, I could hopefully achieve it by myself.</div><div><br /></div><div>------</div><div><br /></div><div>Lifewise, I'm doing okay. Still thinking about the aforementioned job offer (am seriously leaning towards wanting it), waiting for a little more information which I was told would be given to me at the end of this month. I think, pending the answers, I'll know near enough 100% if I'm going to take it or not.</div><div><br /></div><div>There would be other advantages to doing so. For starters, it'd help my confidence and independence out. I'm too clingy, really - being by myself would hopefully get my head straight and help nail the reality of life into my brain. It would also probably help with friendships and (dare I say it?) relationships. Where I currently live, chavs have basically overtaken. In a 20 mile radius there are about ten people I would be friend and about zero girls I would be even remotely interested in. With a move I would (possibly) refresh that, and meet new people. I could make at least two/three met-in-real-life friends if I stopped by in Yorkshire on the route from Redgrave to Dundee (and vice versa). I plan to do that at some point, I've known all three of the people there for more than a year. It'd be odd, but definitely fun and well worth doing.</div><div><br /></div><div>------</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I think that's enough for one blog entry. I'd quite like to start doing these weekly again instead of fortnightly, as I have a lot I could say but don't, and as I've learnt from a friend over the past couple of weeks, it seems to be beneficial in letting out all these little tidbits of information instead of bottling them up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until next time!</div><div><br /></div><div>~Andrew</div>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-80225207709916405282010-01-18T01:59:00.005+00:002010-01-18T02:58:27.015+00:0032 Things You May Not Have Known About MeI don't have a vast amount to write about, so I thought I'd stray from the norm a little. In this blog, I'll share some stuff about me that you may or may not know. Hopefully it'll be interesting to y'all.<br /><br />1. My nationality consists of around 48% Scottish, 48% English and 4% Irish. My surname (McCluskey) is Irish.<br />2. I consider myself agnostic (I do not stick by a religion and am not entirely convinced on the whole "God" thing), though was baptised, so am listed as Christian.<br />3. One of my bigger traits is curiosity. I've frequently found myself in a disadvantaged state because I had to go out of my way to find something out.<br />4. I'm not afraid of death. This ties in with #3. What happens when you die is of huge interest to me, so to me death will be just another question answered. Having said that, I'm unlikely to go out of my way to find the answer out.<br />5. I was born (well, once I'd grown hair) with a "dirty blonde" hair colour. This has slowly changed to brunette. I've never dyed my hair and have no plans to do so.<br />6. Having spent three years single, I miss relationships. However, I do enjoy certain aspects of single life, and try not to dwell on it.<br />7. I'd consider myself pessimistic/realistic. Despite trying to look on the bright side of things I always convince myself that in the end they won't work. Which leads into:<br />8. I lack self-confidence. Although I eventually grow into the feeling and loosen up, if I walk into a crowd I will suddenly become very shy and try to find somewhere to hide. My quietness in these situations is a contrast from...<br />9. In familiar company, I'm loud and talkative. I often try to crack jokes, with varying success.<br />10. I find life, specifically other people, interesting. I will frequently see strangers and wonder what their life is like.<br />11. I'm a daydreamer. I must spend at least an hour each day thinking about certain people, places and things. I also like thinking about what my life would be like if I were an [insert career].<br />12. My brain is bursting with ideas that I know will never come to fruition. These aren't just for games - I have a plethora of ideas for movies, concept albums, and books (though most of these transform into movies as my mind likes to picture everything).<br />13. I have a tendency to be able to remember things of no importance, while useful knowledge is quickly forgotten. In particular, I'm good with remembering numbers (I was once able to tell a friend his mobile number, having only seen it once about a month beforehand) and pictures/scenes. I actually have a memory of a discussion between my parents from when I was one.<br />14. I began school life excelling, I ended it failing badly. Before I was two I could spell my full name unattended. Before I was three I could look at signs and read their text. I hit the 15.6-year-old maximum level in a continuous spelling test when I was 11. I also, on several occasions, corrected teachers in primary school. However, though I passed all 10 GCSEs, some of which were scraped passes, A-level went downhill. In Year 12 I got a C and three Us, in Year 13 I got a D and two Us. After the A-levels were finished (last May) I left education for good.<br />15. One day I want to see the world. Particularly - Tokyo in Japan, Machu Picchu, Coober Pedy in Australia, and Easter Island. I would love to film these adventures too.<br />16. I had wanted to become a video game creator since I was five, though back then wasn't aware I would be able to do so by myself. I had many drawn pictures of mock screenshots of games. So far, I've only actually gone on to make one of these - 2004/5's "Fight of the Height".<br />17. Although I discourage the use of "Nal", it's how it began. I made it up at the age of six as my fictional development company. Aged 12, I decided to use it for old time's sake on the back of a geography essay, though decided I should make it stand for something. "Notalot" became that something.<br />18. I dropped usage of "Notalot" in favour of "NAL" toward the end of 2006 when I decided it looked better on a DVD cover. It came into use as the insignia for a printed-out cover I made for a game dedicated to my then-girlfriend. The game is called "Rabbit Escapade".<br />19. I consider 2006 to have been my favourite year so far. Not only because of the aforementioned relationship (though it played a big part in it), but also because in August I went on holiday with a friend called Tyrone McKenzie. This holiday holds many memories for me (including one of walking five miles back to our resort from an amusement park because we spent the bus fare on the rides without thinking). Shortly after the holiday he moved away with his dad and we lost contact - avid attempts at finding him have proven moot.<br />20. I'm accident prone. I've fallen for plenty of stupid things in my time - slipping on banana skins, walking into French windows, hitting my head on the car door frame as I enter it, stubbing my toes more times than countable, etc. Some of these have resulted from my daydreaming - in Year 13, I caused a horrific, three-day headache when I lost attention to where I was walking and took a metal pole to the side of my skull.<br />21. I consider my two favourite videogames of all time to be Psychonauts and Canis Canem Edit/Bully. The former was simply stunning (particularly a level called the Milkman Conspiracy), the latter was one of the most refreshing experiences I've ever had. This one, in a broken-record-like turn of events, was acquired at my time of being in a relationship. The game deals with high-school relationships so it was incredibly relatable. The game I've probably clocked up the most hours on, though, is Mashed: Fully Loaded, purely for the fact it's the best party game in the world (bollocks to Guitar Hero, Singstar, EyeToy, and anything with a motion-sensing controller).<br />22. My first ever relationship lasted around seven years (though they were young years). I decided to call it a long day when she refused an invitation to my 12th birthday party on account of it clashing with trampoline class. Charming!<br />23. I have been accused of robbery and arson in the past. I committed neither, and luckily neither saw me in any lasting trouble.<br />24. I've been grounded for a total of one day in my entire lifetime - it was for telling somebody to "f**k off" and attempting (but failing) to get a branch into their spokes as they were riding their bicycle. My motivation - the person in question was, at the time, incredibly annoying.<br />25. I've been in love with two people in my life so far - one became a failed relationship, the other never got that far.<br />26. I've been in hate with absolutely nobody so far. Though I've disliked hundreds of people, I've not ever absolutely hated them. Leads onto:<br />27. I cannot hold a grudge. If somebody's rattled my cage, I will want to be pissed off with them for life. It just won't happen. And this, in turn, leads onto:<br />28. I like being at peace with people. I've been into plenty of arguments in my time, some major, some minor. But my reason for calling the argument off is almost always that I simply don't want it. I respect others' opinions; I'd rather shake their hand and make up with them.<br />29. I've never been in hospital for my own medical needs. Doctor's clinic - many times. But never a hospital. I've never broken a bone in my body (at least not to my knowledge, I was once told your little toes break five times a year without you ever knowing - I don't believe it).<br />30. As much as I try to hide it, I'm a very emotional person. Though only two films have actually had me in tears (The Green Mile, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), there are plenty of others that have me fighting it back. I also tend to share other people's emotions, particularly pain. If I see someone upset, even if I dislike them, I instinctively want to help them as I feel bad for them. Connected to:<br />31. Of all the things that make me happy, making someone else smile, laugh or even just smirk, will make my day. In a world where "life is meaningless" (a philosophy I personally find bullshit) and sadness is abundant, making people happy, even if just for a few seconds, is immensely satisfying.<br />32. I deal with stress and sadness badly. I've, in the past, used the metaphor of storing stress and sadness in a tanker inside me. When the tanker overflows, I generally break down uncontrollably.<br /><br />I've tried to cover a piece of everything in writing this. I also thought it would be nice to out a side of me you wouldn't normally see, as my games generally tend not to cover any kind of emotion.<br /><br />I'd also like to take this opportunity to offer an ending to any curiosity about me. If there's something you'd like to know, leave your question in the comments. I will likely answer them all, unless they're serious or they hit a genuinely massive nerve (which is unlikely, I'm open about myself). They can be about anything you like, personal, game-wise, whatever.<br /><br />So, yeah. Thank-you for reading, both this blog entry and my blog as a whole. I appreciate it.<br /><br />~AndrewAllison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-41228450018529296892010-01-04T21:30:00.010+00:002010-01-04T22:00:35.977+00:00Innoquous 4: Early StagesA blog post about my current active project, Innoquous 4, and some information on it.<br /><br />Firstly, it's initially aimed for YYG Competition 05. It's going to undertake the alias Innoquous Hand Held for this. Innoquous Hand Held will lack online functions, be capped to 480x272 as its screen resolution, and be slightly fiddlier than usual. This is a direct result of the competition restrictions. What it will contain will be 100 levels (40 new, 60 from Innoquous 1-3, many of which will be tweaked to accommodate the faster controls). There will also be other obstacles - I'm aiming for timed-shooting guns and pushable blocks, that will debut, and make appearances in both new and old, tweaked levels. I'm looking to add a level editor - this may not make IHH as the control restrictions would make it difficult to implement.<br /><br />Once IHH is released, I will upgrade it to Innoquous 4. This will be the full-on game. 800x600 resolution, mouse-controlled, easy to use level editor (mouse-controlled), improved menu, plenty of customisation options (complete control over block colours, a choice of characters - play as a fish!, and other options), etc. I'll also poke UnknownGamer into making the online for it, which will build on I3's site - you'll be able to make an account on it, share statistics, see your rankings, upload levels you've created and download others', with level ratings etc. Depends on how much he can do.<br /><br />Now, cost-wise. I initially said I was going to make Innoquous 4 my first commercial game. However, with the need to make IHH free, this is now unlikely. What I am edging towards is making the game DONATIONWARE. This would mean you could pay $/£20 (madness!), $4 (what I would've initially charged), or even 1p/cent (*stares*). The reason I want to charge for the game is because I'm about to jump into the world of work, and in all honestly I'd quite like to be able to jump out of it ASAP into commercial indie game production. I know it'll probably be a few years before that provides any kind of income, but hey, the sooner I start making this damn game, the better!<br /><br />Yesterday I released a trailer for the game, showcasing its new IOTAS-style graphics and mentioning some of the planned features. If you're interested, here it is:<br /><br /><center><object height="239" width="389"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hvU6x55A1FM&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hvU6x55A1FM&hl=en_GB&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="239" width="389"></embed></object></center><br /><br />And that's pretty much it, really! If you have any comments, suggestions, or anything else, don't hesitate to comment. Even if I don't reply to them, I certainly read them and take them on board. Thanks!<br /><br />Until the next blog entry.<br /><br />~Andrew McCluskeyAllison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-11775605751257170262009-12-25T13:15:00.002+00:002009-12-25T13:22:58.849+00:00Merry Christmas, All!Merry Christmas or whatever other December holiday you celebrate!<br /><br />Since I'm likely to get asked, here's what I got:<br /><br />WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010 (PS3)<br />Midnight Club Los Angeles Complete Edition (PS3)<br />Smokey & The Bandit Trilogy (DVD)<br />Jackass Film Trilogy (1, 2, 2.5) (DVD)<br />Bruno (DVD)<br />Dara O Briain: Tickling The English (book)<br />Big Beastly Book of Bart Simpson (book)<br />Half a kilo of dry roasted peanuts (food)<br />Thornton's Toffee & Fudge collection (food)<br />Arse/Face soap (novelty)<br />Gaydar (novelty)<br />£80<br /><br />So not bad at all. Feel free to comment with what you got, what holiday you're celebrating, etc!<br /><br />In related news, I've made my first project with Game Maker 8 Pro: a game called La Rolloux. This also implements Game Jolt trophies. You can download it <a href="http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/platformer/la-rolloux/1282/">here</a>.<br /><br />So that'll be it for today - have a good day, and enjoy the season!<br /><br />~NALAllison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-40583927316805300872009-12-12T07:59:00.003+00:002009-12-12T08:11:41.053+00:00The Unfinished Archives of NAL 2004-2009This is a blog entry mainly to mention that, on Game Jolt, I have released a compilation of 40 unfinished games from between 2004 and 2009. They can be found <a href="http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/other/the-unfinished-archives-of-nal-2004-2009/1204/">here</a>. Some information on each game in the pack, pulled from its description on GJ:<br /><br />-----<br /><p>I've dumped a hell of a lot of games in the past. From 2004-2009 (nothing from 2003 worth seeing), I've collected 40 (count 'em) unfinished and (in most cases) abandoned games that are at least in a playable state, and .exe-ed them into one big 60MB zipped folder. They're dated so you can quickly predict how crap they're gonna be.</p> <p><em><strong>2004 -----</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Retroform<br /></strong>A jetpack shooter. Was dumped because my skill at the time was awful and I couldn't get anywhere near what I wanted.</p> <p><em><strong>2005 -----</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Defrag<br /></strong>Platformer styled on the defragmentation graphics on Windows' defrag tool. You have to turn all the undefragmented blocks green with your progression item. Was very dreary - didn't complete much.</p> <p><strong>KOed</strong><br />Poor excuse for a beat-em-up. Never tried making one since.</p> <p><strong>Lost Jewels<br /></strong>The only time I've attempted a movie in GM. This is like one big, naffly-made cutscene lasting about two minutes and erroring at the end.</p> <p><strong>Penalties<br /></strong>Penalty shootouts. Badly made but kinda works. But badly made. This one's near enough complete, though it never got released.</p> <p><strong>Primitivity<br /></strong>Game set in the past. You have a spear. You can throw it, but then you have to get it back to throw it again. Boring.</p> <p><strong>Rigmorol's Platform Adventure<br /></strong>Another that was near enough finished. Might actually be short enough to be tolerable throughout. You get turned into a ball and have to... get yourself turned back into a human.</p> <p><strong>Shotgun, Baby!<br /></strong>Not very done at all. You can run about in a single area and shoot a woman bloodily. Understandably, I dropped work on it very shortly after.</p> <p><strong>Tracker<br /></strong>Basically, GTA1 with awful controls, nothing to do, and nothing much to see. Kinda funny watching your guy get run over though.</p> <p><strong>Vakioum<br /></strong>Pretty much finished, designed as a minigame to a crap, released game. Collect all the hidden coins in an area before time runs out. Again, short enough to be playable, since there's only one level and it takes about half a minute to complete.</p> <p><strong>Way State<br /></strong>One thing I've learnt in my years of game making: I can't do adventure games for shit. This was one I started, got about an hour into then stopped. Has an alright parallax thing going on though.</p> <p><strong>Yarat<br /></strong>More clichéd than a chocolate teapot having sex with a sleeping, lying dog on a blue moon while someone allergic to apples is pursued by a doctor, Yarat was a platformer all about the key-opened gates. About 1/6 of a level finished before I realised it was gonna get crap, fast.</p> <p><em><strong>2006 -----</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Dafyddylle Violent<br /></strong>If it wasn't so pathetically slow this could've worked. Alas. It's a game in which you join the military and go to war. The game includes the enrolment process and training, along with a couple of empty levels in which you blast some enemies with AI less intelligent than a plank.</p> <p><strong>Evaders<br /></strong>Two-player dodgem wars with guns, Evaders tried to be innovative, but ended up a bit meh. First game I ever made to incorporate game options, though, and some things worked okay.</p> <p><strong>Ovmira Racing<br /></strong>Closest I ever got to making a racing game. Not very good. One level, one path-scripted AI car, one wasted minute of your life.</p> <p><em><strong>2007 -----</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Desert Game<br /></strong>Yes, that's a temporary name. Desert Game was my first attempt at a self-made FPS. It never turned into a game but it's alright for titting about in. The engine later formed a city game, which later still became Dreaming On E.</p> <p><strong>Festival For Under Fives<br /></strong>A shooter with nothing to shoot. This came about me editing the Mingitilla engine to try and incorporate weird model distortion. It worked, but it sucked.</p> <p><strong>Nails<br /></strong>Holds a place in my heart. It's a difficult shooting game that I spent a lot of time on before scrapping it heartlessly. To this day a part of me wants to finish it, but then I see all the horrific D&D and run away.</p> <p><strong>Notthemostoriginalgamenamebutupthere<br /></strong>A game designed for a mouse-only contest. Wasn't great so I scrapped it and started a new game instead - Rockit. Never looked back.</p> <p><strong>Robotreq<br /></strong>Yet another platforming game that (for the time) wasn't badly designed, but was axed on the basis it was blander than a piss sandwich.</p> <p><strong>Va<br /></strong>Isometric detective game with two missions made. If I'd applied myself a little more I'm convinced Va could've worked. But I didn't. So it didn't.</p> <p><em><strong>2008 -----</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Cartoon K<br /></strong>Always wanted to make a cartoony game. Cartoon K was satisfaction, as well as realisation that if I wanted it to be fun it would require a lot of work. A lot of work? *chop*</p> <p><strong>Don't Let That Guy Get You Down, Man!<br /></strong>Name is unexplainable, but the game is a 2.5D game that aims to mess with your prespective senses while being a generally spooky game. Got bored of making it.</p> <p><strong>Elemence ZII<br /></strong>One of several (in this pack one of two) games with which I attempted to reinvigorate the Elemence series, a series that carried my best game until I got better, Elemence AuX. ZII was 3D, not very Elemencey, and, to summarise the game in four words, "a bad Ballance ripoff".</p> <p><strong>Flat<br /></strong>Arcade game with flat characters. And flat gameplay. But I made the music for it, so that was a plus! And the blood effects, I've yet to replicate.</p> <p><strong>Halcyon Days<br /></strong>Trippy and crazy, this was my attempt to throw myself back into 2D games after the Febmar Trilogy. It got junked when a Jet Pod contest made me decide to make NAL's Jet Pod instead. Incidentally, this was also to be my first game made 100% in code. NJP took that liberty as well.</p> <p><strong>NeonX<br /></strong>Me playing about with GM7's (I was a late adopter) new effects, specifically draw_line_width. I ended up using draw_line_width in FKR2 and dropping this on account of not being able to find a way to incorporate gameplay without ballsing the graphics up.</p> <p><strong>WTFPMSL<br /></strong>What The F**k? Pissing My Self Laughing! Well... the game has a skateboarding grandad. Not really the high point of hilarity, but it had a nice greyscale aesthetic.</p> <p><em><strong>2009 -----</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Classical Castle<br /></strong>My attempt at laid-back gaming, this featured classical music, simple graphics and puzzling mixed with platforming. Halted when I ran out of puzzle ideas about three levels in.</p> <p><strong>Elemence: Switch / Elemence: Passion Matrix<br /></strong>The other Elemence in this collection. This one instead was 2D and had a lot of bevelgasms. This is one of the games I wouldn't mind finishing - it had a presentation to it I've still not really matched since, and despite only having two levels, was well built and kinda fun.</p> <p><strong>Gamanstake 3D<br /></strong>As with Elemence, this was an attempt to bring an old series into new territory. I made Gamanstake back in 2006 and wanted to turn it into a respectable game. As a note, the title was temporary. I despise putting "3D" in game titles. The planned title at time of axing (though I may still finish this one) was "Hell Has Brick Walls".</p> <p><strong>Lyghtgryd<br /></strong>Ever played the game Aargon Deluxe? Guessing that was a "no", since despite being one of the best puzzlers I've ever played, it was hugely underplayed. I don't like remakes, but this was to be a remake of Aargon Deluxe. Unfortunately, my skill collapsed on me and it was left half-made.</p> <p><strong>Monobrow Cat<br /></strong>A collaboration with Broxter. He wanted to keep this one secret. Bugger him. :D This is an exploration game featuring your friendly neighbourhood |:3. Another one that may well be finished in the future, either as a continued collaboration or with just one of us continuing work on it.</p> <p><strong>Nightmare In Pixel Width</strong><br />Fake 3D, presented with a limited colour pallette. Looks kinda nice, actually, but suffered from "implementing gameplay into this is gonna be a pain in the arse", which ultimately meant demotivation and death.</p> <p><strong>Polybiius<br /></strong>If you've never heard of the urban legend "Polybius" I recommend you go and look it up. Summary - it was a game, created by the government, found in arcades that induced numerous bad effects in players, including nausea, headaches, epilepsy, and narcolepsy. This was my attempt at doing the same thing, though it quickly descended into "making things flash a lot" so I stopped work on it.</p> <p><strong>Rockit 2 (R2CKIT)<br /></strong>Sequel to Rockit. Lost motivation very quickly - some games I can sequelise, others I simply can't. Rockit's a can't, despite numerous requests to.</p> <p><strong>The Hilarity Of Murder Pro<br /></strong>FPS version of The Hilarity Of Murder. Looked crap, wasn't very nice, but here's the basics if you want to see life in the player's eyes. Was also to include online deathmatches and similar, but my online crew bailed.</p> <p><strong>The Inverse Man<br /></strong>A cross between Innoquous, Jumpman and anything with little men and monochrome. This was ditched because of GM's annoying outlines drawn around sprites. GM8's alpha support may end this problem - if so, this could be released in the future.</p> <p>So, yeah. That's all of them! I will willingly give out source codes to any of these games if you're interested in finishing them or pinching bits of code (with credit of course), lemme know!</p><p>-----</p><p>It's a 60MB download, so have fun with that!</p><p>In other news, I've also released a new game, Rainbow Planet 2, a sequel to the predictably-named predecessor from mid-2007. That marks a NALRecord for longest time between two instalments of a series!</p><p>You can play Rainbow Planet 2 <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/106035">on YoYo Games</a>, the special edition Rainbow Planet 2.1 <a href="http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/shooter/rainbow-planet-2-1/1186/">on Game Jolt</a> (which includes online highscores and a Twitter feed that automatically tweets new winners), or if you're interested in its history, the original can be downloaded <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?nnjjqglcyzm">from MediaFire</a>.</p><p>The game itself is nothing stunning, but in a small way this was since I wanted to make it true to the original, particularly with the controls, which may be considered awkward.</p><p>I've noticed YoYo Games have <a href="http://glog.yoyogames.com/?p=634">reupdated the Game Maker 8 logo</a>. Although <a href="http://nalgames.blogspot.com/2009/11/i-like-gm8s-new-logo.html">I liked the original new update</a>, I think I slightly prefer this one. I like the slight reduction in saturation from the original version, and this one seems like it would scale down a lot better to a 32x32 icon. It's still just an icon though. YYG will have the £20 thrown at them for the overdue Game Maker upgrade regardless of whether its logo is a Pac-Man in a G, a communist hammer, a smiley face, or a bell-end with clown make-up on.</p><p>Anyway, it's currently 8:10am. I've been up all night, and plan to see through the all-nighter. Already rather drowsy and keep getting dizzy spells, so I'm guessing in a few hours I'll probably keel over and sleep on whatever happens to be beneath me. But for now, I'm done writing, so I'll see y'all in the next blog. Thanks for reading, as always!<br /></p>Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-26275146598657378542009-11-27T21:54:00.003+00:002009-11-27T22:16:03.777+00:00I Like GM8's New LogoHa! Got your attention!<br /><br />But seriously, I do actually like it. No, I'm not trying to be different. I'm not trying to separate myself from the group of two types of people - those that dislike the new logo, and those that are following the crowd and just <span style="font-style: italic;">saying</span> they don't really like it. I genuinely like it. Why?<br /><br />It's professional. Bullshit to anyone that says otherwise. It is. It looks a little childish, yes, but it's <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> unprofessional. It's very well made.<br /><br />It suits the target audience, as stated by YoYo Games and Mark Overmars. Game Maker pitches itself as an <span style="font-weight: bold;">easy game development platform</span>. Most people that use the program don't evolve their skills past games that use the simplest D&D actions and the resource sprites. Game Maker's popular in schools and even universities as an introductory tool into the world of coding. That is what it is pitched as. The new logo shows this off perfectly. Yes, it can be used for advanced games written entirely in the program's coding language. Yes, many people don't acknowledge this. But the logo shows off what the program is designed for.<br /><br />It's better than the ball and hammer. It's newer, it's nicer looking, it's shinier, it's more modern. It looks like a tool for today's program, not for one from 1999.<br /><br />The logo's haters haven't done themselves any favours in my opinion. The juvenile threats to stop using the program or to boycott the use of the new logo are stupid. The online petitions were an overreaction which Sandy Duncan, YoYo Games CEO, then capitalised on by publicising - that's thousands of people that have just learnt about Game Maker through the "Recent Activity" box on the petition site. Note - I don't have anything against people expressing their opinion if they do it maturely. I respect those that managed to express negativity to the icon's design without having a tantrum.<br /><br />Just to cap it off - it's not a big deal, YYG are still going to get my £20 when they release the final version of the program, and I stand by my opinion. If you want to disagree, you know where the comments go.<br /><br />Game-wise, I've nothing at the moment that's getting my serious attention. That's all on that matter.<br /><br />So, yeah. NAL out!Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-42172790121192688762009-11-21T14:49:00.006+00:002009-11-21T15:06:53.856+00:00The attention madnessMADNESSmadness has been getting is... wait for it... madnessLong blog title. Ah well, it works for me. It summarises what I have to say, too.<br /><br />madnessMADNESSmadness didn't place in GameJolt's Minimal contest. However, any mild disappointment I get from that (not too much, there were better games entered) is more than neutralised by everything else that's been happening.<br /><br />For starters, it got featured on YoYo Games. This makes for my fourth featured game (the first three being <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/14537">Elemence AuX</a>, <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/57232">Innoquous</a>, and <a href="http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/88722">Innoquous 3</a>). It also a couple of days ago replaced the feature with a YYG Spotlight, the first I've had. Then, and this is to me the most important and pleasing one, it got onto Bytejacker's Free Indie Rapid Fire! If you want to give it love, <a href="http://www.bytejacker.com/episodes/063">the link is here</a> - feel free to comment on the video about how mMm is cheesy, or vote for it (when the poll is updated). You don't have to, of course. Last but not least, today it <a href="http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?showtopic=454463">entered the GMC Cagematch</a>. This marks the third time I've had a game in the GMC Cagematch. I'm hoping it's third time lucky too, as the previous two games, EverScrollingHue and FKR3, were both knocked out in round one. I've never won a round!<br /><br />To make matters better, I've had positive comments on the game from quite a few high-up indie developers, including cactus (on YoYo Games) and Joe Larson (on Bytejacker). Both, of course, had criticisms, which I'm seriously considering working on in some sort of spin-offy sequel thing (I won't call it a direct sequel - I'll probably shave most of the name off and re-form the game into something extra. There will still be the ol' get-chased-by-big-wall arcade mode).<br /><br />I collaborated with Jack Brockley (Broxter) on a game for the 14th Mini Ludum Dare. Having spent three days on an entry which turned out to be far too large, we (mostly he) made something completely different in the last 24 hours. It's called GETSUMCOKE, <a href="http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/action/getsumcoke/1103/">and can be found on Game Jolt</a>. I mainly did the trippy graphical background and menu design, he did the rest - gameplay, online highscores, in-game sprites etc. We'll be continuing the game we spent three days on whenever - don't know yet.<br /><br />Anyway, that's pretty much it for now. Until the next, probably-miles-away blog, goodbye!Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-61264736124880785942009-11-09T16:21:00.004+00:002009-11-09T16:36:29.186+00:00This is not Sparta!Has been a while. Oops! Oh well, time to dive straight into the contents of this.<br /><br />As some of the nine or so readers of this blog may already know, a couple of days ago I released a game called madnessMADNESSmadness (capitalised like that for no real reason, and shortened to mMm) for the current Game Jolt competition with the theme "Minimal". It closed a couple of days ago with nearly 50 entries, including quite a few great ones, so I won't be disappointed if I don't win.<br /><br />Having said that, the reception mMm has got is astonishing. It's a small game, made in about the same time as my entry for GJ's first competition, Infidels. Infidels took about a month to hit 100 plays on YoYo Games, and is currently on about 300. Its online highscore list only hit 100 recorded entries about a week ago (taking about four months in total). Compare mMm, which hit 100 recorded online highscores in one day and throughout the four days it's been out has fast approached 400. It's on a cumulated nearly-700 plays on GJ and YYG, more than Infidels, is currently on a respectable 4.1 on YYG and a big 4.4 on GJ, and has nine posts in the contest thread on the GJ forum devoted to how great it apparently is. It's now more played, rated and commented than any of my other games on Game Jolt, and is continuing to rise quickly.<br /><br />This is a game that took 7 weeks less time than Innoquous 3 to make. A three-day-developed game. It has about 45 seconds of level in and is basically a bog-standard platformer with a weird graphical effect. 4.4 by 31 people on Game Jolt. Crazy.<br /><br />And yes, the "Madness?! THIS... IS... SPARTAAAA" jokes have already come. Missed your chance, fans of 300 and/or internet meme followers. Sorry. :P (having said that, if you like internet memes you may as well say it again, because as most people know memes are the most annoying, overused, repetitive thing on the net).<br /><br />I've done four reviews on Game Maker Blog and am unlikely to stop any time soon. As I usually mention before/after the reviews, if you have any games you want to see reviewed there you can reply to this blog entry, PM me on Game Maker Community, etc. Wherever you know I still am. I'll also be reviewing something for the upcoming GMTech issue 18 (the Christmas issue), though that'll likely be something chosen by gamez93 if he can bag an exclusive.<br /><br />I reckon that's it. See you in another hopefully-less-than-nearly-a-month!Allison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561679524692200326.post-74724649459367272212009-10-18T14:13:00.005+01:002009-10-18T14:39:11.494+01:00GMB, Flash, Talast, Lockerz, Commercialism?A few different things to talk about in this blog entry, methinks. I'll go through them in title order.<br /><br />I applied for a position reviewing games on the popular <a href="http://gamemakerblog.com/">Game Maker Blog</a> yesterday. Was surprised to be accepted about 20 minutes after applying! Anyway, I posted my first review and the comments seem to be positive about it, so I'll continue reviewing games for it. You can check out the review, which is of Elmernite's <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rosetta Stone</span>, <a href="http://gamemakerblog.com/2009/10/17/game-review-rosetta-stone/">here</a>.<br /><br />I've started learning Flash. I have a copy of Macromedia Flash 8 (have had it for ages) so figured it may as well go to use. Part of my reason for wanting to learn flash is the playing figures on popular flash site, Kongregate. Loads of games on it top 100,000. Some have even passed 1,000,000. They offer ad sharing on their games too. While not massive, a game with 100,000 plays, with Kongregate's 35% shared ad revenue, would earn about $200. Not too shabby. It'll be a while, of course, before I make anything worth 100,000 plays in the program, but hell, may as well learn now.<br /><br />Talast is going spiffingly. Unknown Gamer recently moved it to its own server, meaning we (he) can now add plugins and stuff to it. There's a fair amount of reviews on it now, too.<br /><br />I recently got invited to an invitation-only service called Lockerz, thanks to Bobhoil. Some people may remember a former post about Swagbucks. Lockerz is kinda like that, but things are cheaper, the site's currency (pointz, with an "edgy" z) is easier to obtain (two pointz for logging in each day, two pointz for answering an opinion poll each day. Sorted), and it's a very calming site design. Upon registration, you also get to play a game which can earn you about 25 pointz. If you want an invite, comment with your email address, or send me a PM or something with it if you'd rather not publicise it. I'll send your address an invite ASAP.<br /><br />Commercialism. Hm. James Rhodes (of Roket-Games) recently asked if I'd like to make something commercial. If I did, and made it Roket-Games exclusive, I'd get $20 from the get-go and 80% of the cost of the game per sale. Therefore, I'm planning on making Innoquous 4. I wouldn't publicise this information due to tempting fate, but I did it with Innoquous 3 and it actually managed to work. Here's some planned stuff on it:<br /><ul><li>40 new levels, with the 60 from I1-3. All 100 playable in all three modes from I3, as well as some undetermined new ones</li><li>Level editor, integrated into Roket-Games for easy uploading and downloading of levels</li><li>Speedruns of the whole game, possibly of the levels from each individual Innoquous, and individual fastest times for each level in Standard mode</li><li>Extra in-game items to keep it fresh. This may possibly include things I tried for I3 but couldn't get to work, like moving platforms. New items may be included in older levels too</li><li>Graphics overhaul. I3's weakest point was its graphics. Colour is definitely still in, but I may ditch the "outline disappears when ball is on floor" thing altogether</li></ul>There may be more (or less) if I do pull this game off. Oh, one thing on it - it will probably cost $5 or £3 to start with, if all of the points above make it into the game. I'd consider that reasonable, taking into account the amount of work I want to put into it. If you have any suggestions on other additions, think the price should be adjusted, or think I should go with something else for commercialdom instead, feel free to comment. I take all comments into account.<br /><br />Anyway, that's all for this blog. Fair amount covered - guess that makes up for the reduction in quantity. See y'all later!<br /><br />~NALAllison Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05567271438114286817noreply@blogger.com2