Visual Studio Image Library

Remember that pack of icons in Visual Studio 2010 that you could use in your projects?  I noticed them missing in Visual Studio 2015.  Apparently in order to save space Microsoft now has them as a download now.  

You can download these icons [HERE].

Cross posted at http://steamunderground.blogspot.com/

At the core of any game application is going to be a random number generator.  I found out that using .Net's base random class is fine for a one off or limited set of random numbers needing to generated, but once you start beating on the .Net random class you start seeing some funky results.  So for a little game demo I'm working on I put together a static class that generates random numbers based on the System.Security.Cryptography.RNGCryptoServiceProvider which seems work well even if it is a tad slow.

Here is the class.  Note the static method GetD6Successes.  This is meant to mimic the "exploding" D6 die pool mechanic used in some table top RPG's.  I like the concept as in theory a lone peasant has a chance, though a very very very small chance, of slaying a dragon with this mechanic.  Let me know what you think.

Blizzard Goes User Based Micro Transactions

Very interesting...I like this model.  Diablo III will build it's revenue stream by taking a cut of micro transactions between players. The future is coming.

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2011/08/blizzard-invents-new-business-model.html

8 Bit True Color Cycling in Javascript

Remember that retro 256k Ultima 4 esque bit animation? Well, it is back, and in the browser with out a plugin.

Direct link here-

http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/?sound=0

Discussion here-

http://badassjs.com/post/861221670/8-bit-color-cycling-with-html5-canvas

Worth the look. I can easily see how to use this in games.

Well, I could have kind of guessed this. Men play more online, but women spend more cash when they do play.

gamasutra gaming article

I'd expect this to be (my guess, not anything proven) due to men, especially younger men, wanting the full triple AAA 3D immerse experience, while I would take a guess that many women play the more casual "spamware" Farmville type games. Interesting, I will post links like this here when I stumble on them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a MCP or anything, just my past gaming experience and the little bit of research I've seen but don't have handy would indicate this.

The question is, how to get more women playing games and different type of games if they really are mostly still playing casual games, and how to get men to drop more cash online, or better yet, hook them on casual games that tend to suck money out of wallets. That is if you are a game developer wanting to work through Facebook to have wheel barrels full of money delivered to your door step each month. People are doing it all the time, many of the "spamware" games on social networking sites aren't even that good, but they have the psychology of the spontaneous buy down.

It would be nice to get a slice of that casual gaming pie huh? Not that money is everything, but I wouldn't mind trading in my set of problems for a rich person's set of problems for a while (yeah they have plenty of problems too), if for nothing else just a change of pace. Then I can go back to being broke :)

Pushbutton Flash Game Maker

This looks promising, a Flash game engine that supports isometric views, tile maps, and more.

Check it out here-

http://pushbuttonengine.com/

Update: Looks like IE doesn't like blogger, as the past in link doesn't work anymore. Oh well. Also, the pushbuttonengine is by the same guys who made torque.

Kick @ss, Unity 3D for Windows Released!

Finally, the true progeny of Director, Unity 3D, is available for Windows! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. Download the 30 day trial here-

http://unity3d.com/unity/download

Thanks Developmag.com for breaking the story-

http://www.developmag.com/news/31482/Unity-now-avaiable-for-Windows

Also announced today is the release of Silverlight 3 Beta...yawn.

My New Kick, Browser Based Games

I found an excellent browser based MMO called Fallen Sword-



I didn't think just HTML and PHP could pull off a game that is very fun but they have done it. Best of all it is expansive, offers many features, and is free. Plus it is easy to jump in and jump out of the game, making it a great game for more casual players like myself.

Check out http://www.huntedcow.com/ , they make quiet a few BB games, all of them look pretty good.

Silverlight vs. Flash...Silverlight 3 May End The Battle

I like Flash, though I've only used it to do progressive video streaming and a few other minor text spins on a page. I don't like Flash's IDE. Flex's eclipse might be better, but I did one check of it and it didn't offer full intellisense (even though it is advertised as such), so at the time I decided to back burner learning Flex.

Well, I'm glad I did. Flash 10 supports quasi 3D, but it looks like Silverlight will support full 3D. Read towards the end of Scott Guthrie's Blog here-

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/11/16/update-on-silverlight-2-and-a-glimpse-of-silverlight-3.aspx

Very signifigant. I've been looking for the holy grail platform to do browser based game development for a long time. Flash works, but you have to hack at it. And you don't get true 3D. MAYBE, just MAYBE, Silverlight 3 will be the killer web game app, as well as business RIA creator, that I've been waiting for.

After Christmas it is time to start diving in to Silverlight.

Note From an Old Dog

I found this post on a game forum, but I feel it applies across the whole programming spectrum.

http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=25748

Great Game Demographic Site

I stumbled upon the daedalus project today -

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/

There is an RSS feed, and there is some pretty interesting data. I hope Nick continues to add more.

GameQuery?

Check out GameQuery, a jQuery based javascript framework for game development.

http://gamequery.onaluf.org/

CGI Advancement

CGI takes another huge step forward, pretty cool.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4557935.ece

Interesting Article about Rapid Game Prototyping

Some stus somewhere protyped some 50 games in one semester. Worth a read. Read on here-

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051026/gabler_01.shtml

Gary Gyax Dead

I missed this one during the move, but I guess Gary Gyax, the co-founder of TSR and co-creator of dungeons and dragons, died recently.

Read more here-

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2008/03/gary-gygax-1938.html

Serious Gaming...Why People Don't Get It

In my past job I worked a little bit and thought a lot about Serious Gaming. Here is a quick rant for today about that. I think the the Holy Grail for Serious Games is not about learning reinforcement. As I told my former boss today.

"The game should be the textbook."

I think there are different markets for different serious games. Ultimately the more serious the game, the less free time your target audience tends to have. Tacking on a game or a simulation as an extra task isn't going to be well received and almost always doomed to failure. However, if a game or simulation is subtractive rather then additive, that is where user acceptance will go up. What do I mean?

Typically training involves learning a competency, and then practicing that competency. If you think about it, that is all games do. You learn a competency, say how to zap an alien, and then you exercise that competency continously.

So, often Serious Games focus on exercise and reinforcement of a competency. Unfortunately, no one really trust Serious Games enough to have them fully replace other traditional methods of competency learning and practice. So Serious Games, often at this point poorly implemented, give users a new task without reducing their over all training work load. This is bad.

What needs to happen is Serious Games need to become good enough so that they subtract from traditional training method work loads. In academia, Serious Games need to replace text books. In corporation, Serious Games need to replace conferences and training pamphlets.

Then Serious Gaming will have arrived.