Archive for category Games
A lot has happened since the last time I posted
Posted by Malcolm Micallef in Electronics, Future, Gadgets, Games, General, Smart Phones, Technology on August 8, 2010
It’s been around 2 months since I last posted a post on this site.
So the world is still around. Nothing much has changed. I am officially a 23 year old and having back problems. That has more to do with the horrible chairs at work than my age but I am still going strong. My half life 3 announcement was completely wrong but hopefully it will still happen since its one of my favourite FPS games of all time.
The buzz word in technology is 3D has I predicted in a post some time ago. It seems that one in every 4 or 5 movies can be seen in 3D at the cinemas. So far the only good 3D movie I have seen is Avatar. It was obvious that for Clash of the Titans the 3D version was just added to try encourage people go to the cinema. Right now I will always prefer HD over 3D.
Though the next 3D movie I will watch will be Piranha 3D. It will probably be a stupid movie with a very bad story line but I expect it to be full of funny scary scenes so it might be worth watching it in 3D. The nudity and all the bikinis are just an extra positive (Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT1XUWMqQq0).
When the porn industry backs a technology that is when the technology becomes mainstream. Happened recently with Bluray disks and now 3D has their backing. This is bad news for Flash because they are embracing HTML5 but that is a whole other story. Probably right now I seem like a porn addict.
3D is also popping out in the wild. Samsung and Panasonic pushing their very expensive 3D home solutions which require glasses. Nintendo releasing their new DS which is 3D, requires no glasses and most importantly affordable. You do not need to sell and organ or your first born to buy this gadget. The screens have a poor viewing angle but that is not a problem since to play you need to look directly at the screen. The screens the DS uses is produced by Sharp. Sharp realised that they are leading the way with this technology and hence are now releasing the first 3D smartphone by the end of this year.
Chelsea just lost against Manchester United in the Community Shield so not the best start of this year season but it could be worse and there was a spark from the Chelsea team not like the other boring games from preseason. They should be able to beat WBA next week. Even Sky now are showing the games in 3D. Maybe the next TV I buy will be a 3D flat screen…
Once work dies down I can start working on my side projects again 
Want to learn how to develop games…
Posted by Malcolm Micallef in Games, Guide on June 12, 2010
I original went into computing because I wanted to develop games. I have had this desire since I chose computer science in Form 3. I don’t even want to calculate how long ago that was.
During my studies I have managed to create some games for several different reasons. Most of the reasons were to learn a specific language or to learn new skills in that particular language. The first game I ever produced was a clone of master mind. I had created the game for my A-level practical project. I developed the game using the then antic Turbo Pascal; not sure how you would describe it now.
I had even developed a simple AI for the game so that it could have a single player mode. However, it was intended mainly for multiplayer support. Obviously I did not build any network support into the game.
I have built clones of many games. I decided to build clones and not original games for two reasons:
- No unique idea for a game (well at least anything feasible).
- Developing clones is the best way to learn basic and advanced game development techniques.
I have developed games on machines of all kind each with their unique challenges. One of my funniest projects involved developing a map for Enemy Territory. The map used the Sliema Balluta front as the war zone where the allies and axis team battled each other for gold. The map involved using a tank to blow up the doors of Ballutta church to gain access to the gold. This involved building a map which was capable of running on a Celerons which had 256mb of RAM and looking good on dual core computers with a stunning 512mb of ram.
I have even developed a game for my Symbian mobile. The game, named Speed Ball, was a single player version of pong. Imagine your pong paddle stuck in a 3 sided room. The object of the game was to keep the ball in this room. Every time the ball bounces off the paddle you get a point. The more points you get the faster the ball moves. Also once you get a high score the ball also stops travelling in a straight line. The game also had an online high score system.
Anyway now to the reason why I decided to write this article. If you want to start developing games I suggest you start making clones. Clones will allow you to learn the basic skills you will need to develop more complicated games. Each of these games come with their own set of problems.
One might ask what you can learn from developing a Pong clone. From developing Pong you will learn how to make graphics move on screen and how to update the screen. You will also be required to create a very basic AI and/or how to make a game multiplayer. One can then start adding advanced features to this game; such as developing a network enabled multiplayer system, etc, etc.
The list below shows the games (starting from the simplest to create and finishing off with the most challenging) that any budding game developer should really consider making:
- Tic Tac Toe – Simplest game to create and hence why the perfect starting point. This game involves very basic graphics and user interface development. What great about this game is that the user can really experiment with developing AI. One can create a very simple AI (random play or simply an AI that always blocks a winning move) to an unbeatable AI (MinMax tree to scripted moves).
- Who wants to be a millionaire? – User interface important in this. Also can be modified so that it works online. Developer has to decide on how to store and access the questions. A simple data file can be used but features such as downloading new questions from online and allowing users to contribute new questions into the game.
- Pong – Simple game to create. Allows you to create your first game engine. Teaches you to take user controls into consideration and graphics. Many AI possibilities and has room to grow as I explained before.
- Tetris
- Pacman
- Bomberman
- Mario
- Overhead shooter
As for a starting language anything really will suffice. Flash would make developing the graphics easier but I would recommend either C++, Java or C#. Using these languages you can learn skills which can be applied any almost any other language. The skills you will gain from using flash will not be easily transferred to other environments but Flash is a very powerful tool to develop games in. Most games online are created using flash and flash does run on all computers and most mobile devices (apart from the flash hating Apple products).
Half life Fans read this…
Posted by Malcolm Micallef in Awesome, Games on June 11, 2010
My super secret sources have handed me so exciting news. At first they told me that Half life 2 Episode 3 was going to be announced next week. Unfortunately that fell through.
The rumors are now saying that Valve are going to be announcing a new source engine and so Half Life 3 is coming out. Half life 3 will be episode 3. These rumors coincide with the rumors that episode 3 was going to be too large to release as just an episode.
Watch the inter web guys for the announcement of HL3 next week.
Dating Service for Gamers
Posted by Malcolm Micallef in Games, General, Rants, Technology on March 24, 2010
Today is a sad day (or a good day for all the lonely gamers out there). Today a new online dating service has been launched targeting hard-core gamers. GameCrush, is a service which aims to connect paying customers with game-playing ladies. GameCrush only supports Xbox360 at the moment, but they planning on expanding to other consoles such as the Wii, Playstation 3 and also moving into the virtual world of World of Warcraft.
Gamecrush works by dividing their community into two categories boys (known as Players) and girls (known as play dates). The players buy credits which can be spent on time playing with the girls, while the ladies are paid to play with the boys. Outside the games players can chat to available play dates for free and spend time browsing profiles.
Supposedly there are around 1200 play date profiles available on the site right now. I cannot confirm or deny this though since I do not own an Xbox 360 but it seems that the site is a big success because it has been overloaded with traffic as of writing this article.
According to IGN the actual dating is divided up into 6 to 10 minute slots. The GameCrush site also supports a few casual games and videochat. Supported Xbox 360 games include Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War 2, Halo 3 and GTA IV. You get to see the play date biting her upper lip while you are fragging the enemy away or just stealing a car and causing trouble around Vice City.
Dates cost 400 GameCrush credits. Predictably though you can only purchase batches of 500. Play Dates keep 60% of the money from each date. 500 credits cost 8.25 US dollars. GameCrush has decided this value by determining how much it would cost to buy a drink for a girl in a bar.
The 1200 girls currently on the site were recruited through a Craigslist ad asking for girls who want to get money by playing games. Not sure if they are component gamers or not. I don’t think it is fair that the guys have to pay. Doesn’t that sound sexist?
Me thinks it’s a rip off. However the site was overloaded with traffic so I guess their business is going well…
Was that the last Computer/Console you will ever purchase?
Posted by Malcolm Micallef in Awesome, Future, Games, Technology on March 16, 2010
Recently I have ran into a new technology being developed by Unlimited Detail which is such a great leap in technology it is hard to imagine. If this company has their way not only do they stand to make an unimaginable amount of money but they would have changed the game graphics forever.
Below are two videos which show case and explain the situation with computer graphics. In my opinion it’s a great demo and explanation of the pitfalls of polygons. If you have no understanding of how computer graphics work and you care how your games will look in the future you will still understand the video and get a good vision to the future.
I don’t think this technology can be over looked for long. Could you imagine a Nintendo Wii playing games which have better quality graphics than a PS3 or XBOX360. They solved the problem using search engine techniques. Humans have developed very powerful search techniques. The best example of these techniques would be Google. They are capable of going through a ridiculous amount of data in a very short time.
Only problem there is with this solution would be that if it had to be implemented on current technology it would mean that the console or gaming rig you just bought will be your last one. This obviously is not bad for us but bad for the hardware manufacturers who depend on the sales of these products.
The only thing that would improve the graphics of this system would be buying a monitor which can support a higher resolution (higher than FULL HD). Currently I believe that some hardware giant (might be Panasonic) released a television which supports 4000×2000 resolution. They developed techniques which receive full HD feeds and up scales them to the required size.
Video Games might never be the same again
Posted by Malcolm Micallef in Future, Games, General, Technology on March 13, 2010
On the 17th of June a new service will go live allowing poeple to play high end games on any PC or TV in the world with any kind of computer. Imagine playing a full HD game on your 6 year old PC. Imagine playing the latest version of Halo on your PC without having to buy the console.
This technological wizardry might change how video games are played in the future and even maybe cut down on piracy. The OnLive streaming game service takes console and PC games, renders them server-side, and then streams it to your MAC or PC. This service costs 15 US dollars a month.
Here comes the bad news. Since we live in Malta I highly doubt that we can use this service. One reason would because of bandwidth limitations of the connections . However, I think the biggest problem would be the latency issues. For the ones that understand what I just said here is a quick explanation.
The game is being played on a machine somewhere in the world (most likely USA), the video feed of the game is then being sent to you through the net, like a youtube video. You view the video feed and play the game on your own computer. Your controller movements are sent to the computer playing the game. This data takes time to travel across the net. This time delay would ruin your gaming experience. Hence this service will probably not work in Malta unless the servers are moved closer or just set up here. Maybe they get an office in SmartCity Malta.
From what I have read about the service it seems that the service is working well in USA.
Looks like even video games are moving into the cloud. Save games would be stored on their servers, and multiplayer should be easier. Your game would be available to you anywhere in the world where you have internet access.
Portal 2 Confirmed for Christmas 2010 Release
Posted by Malcolm Micallef in Awesome, Games, General, Technology on March 8, 2010
This is a good news, bad news post. Sorry I know its Monday and we all need to be cheered up but I had to tell you the catch about Portal 2. For those who don’t know Portal is a great game with a very simple concept. Its simplicity is not its down fall. The game is executed so well that if you play games and you haven’t played Portal then you should go out and get a copy. You won’t be disappointed.
Anyway back to the bad news. Portal has been purchased by Valve. Portal 2 will not be bundled with other games (as Portal one was). It will be released as a standalone game, meaning it will cost the standard price for a full standalone game. I am assuming around 30-40 Euro. Also there probably still won’t be cake.
Now for the good news. Portal 2 will be released December this year (take note people who buy me gifts for Christmas). Portal 2 will take the series in a slightly different direction. Valve is promising “new game play mechanics, storyline, and some surprising new twists”. One of the new features is co-op gameplay. Co-op will work online and locally, with new weapons such as a tractor beam being worked into the feature list.
Story details have been leaked by retailers (SPOILER ALERT!) which reveal that players will explore new areas of Aperure Science and be introduced to two new characters in a separate co-op campaign. The new characters will be bi-pedal robots (one an enhanced Turret, the other a mobile GlaDos unit).
The singleplayer campaign will take place hundreds of years after the first game, but will still star Chell. Aperture Labs has been ravaged and overgrown in the time between the two titles.
Also for people who played the game awhile back ago, Valve has released an update which adds an extended ending to the original game. The ending can be seen in the video below (or you can use this as an excuse to play the game again, I know I am).
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