I’ll take more photos and dig into it a bit once I’m back in town, but for now, here’s a quick preview:
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_8rVJ1Qz8o]Update: I’ve now got a more proper post about the Divers up.
Exciting week, this one.
This is my final week as Community Manager for Petroglyph. No animosity or weirdness with the split, it’s just time for me to move on towards new projects. I look forward to hearing future announcements from Petroglyph, as there are some pretty awesome things on deck at the studio.
I’m also getting married this weekend. We decided on a small affair with family and friends we’ve grown up with, followed by a group dinner at Rosemary’s, where in addition to the whole getting married thing, I’m excited for the beer pairing.
Tina and I will be spending the following week in New York. First time for both of us, so I’d love to hear any geek recommendations beyond the usual touristy bits. So far I’ve got Forbidden Planet and the Nintendo World Store on the list.
PSP developer snowymydog has released Pipeline v0.2, a homebrew version of Pipe Mania, aka the Bioshock hacking minigame.
Don’t let the low version number deceive you, this game is in a very playable state. The current .02 features 35 levels, music, effects, solid graphics, and a high score table. Future versions will include additional levels and a built-in editor.
Demo video after the jump.
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Burma Emergency, a short film by creative agency Shilo. Thank you, Tri-Crescendo, for really introducing me to Chopin.
Also, if you happen to catch this post on Sunday, violinist Paul Dateh is hosting a live performance with Ken Belcher tonight. Show starts at 5pm PST / 8pm EST.
Vince Weller, Lead Designer of the indie RPG Age of Decadence, has put together one hell of a roundtable discussion on the topic of designing CRPGs.
Tapping RPG luminaries from across the industry, his impressive three part series covers setting, story, and character design.
From Chris Avellone‘s piece, on what made the Aliens setting so strong:
Next, the threats in Aliens are actually two-fold. One is the aliens themselves, which are shadowy, nebulous threats lurking in the dark. The other threat is the human factor – routinely in the movies, it’s the human psychological element that causes the secondary, and usually greater, threat. One could argue “the company” is basically another, equal shadowy nebulous predatory representation of the aliens. As an example, Burke’s greed in Aliens is a huge threat. Hudson’s panic is another. Gorman’s arrogant by-the-book incompetence is another, his unwillingness to admit he’s in over his head nor that he is unfit to command. Apone follows stupid orders. Vasquez is recklessly berserk, and her keeping her storm gun in Aliens and opening fire during the first encounter in the Hadley’s Hope nest actually sets the timer limit on the detonation in the colony. Dallas in Alien is clearly apathetic about following the company’s directives, and his apathy puts the crew in danger. Parker in Alien wants his share, etc, etc. All of these human elements serve to create equal, if not more, significant problems for the player. So having the human factor as a gameplay elements is equally important, and it should be tied into NPC and PC psychology.
Now, let’s take Ripley. Ripley is the hero, and her strength is her perspective on the situation (usually the smartest perspective – “nuke them from orbit”), and her ability to take the psychological handicaps of her crew and immediate party members and either course-correct or overcome them (Hudson’s fear, Newt’s catatonia, Hick’s unwillingness to step up and take command, Burke’s sliminess, Ash’s company loyalty, etc.). So this also seems to be an important part of the franchise.
The roundtable starts here.