I just have to say thank you to Adam for sending me a link to a great article about BioShock. Here's another site that I check out about once a week about the game and what's going on in its world. One very cool point they have talked about is that they will be releasing a limited edition version of the game, with a bunch of extras. I'll definitely be picking that up, mostly for the "making-of" DVD that will come with it! How cool is that?
Also, the site that the article on BioShock is on looks great - it's one I've never been to before, and one that I will be watching from now on!
The director at my job is taking us (the department) all out to lunch in town today! You can't go wrong with a free lunch, especially when it's delicious.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Game Dev
Just read an article on independent game development with Jonathan Blow, and he had some great things to say. His blog is loaded with information about game development in general, and his current game, called Braid, looks quite amazing. I'll be watching this guy for a good time to come - he seems to really know quite a bit about making video games.
Also, I'm currently listening to an old Cosmosis album from 1996, and wow! Even after over 10 years, it still sounds just as recent as anything released now. You can tell that the hardware used was not as sophisticated as it is now if you really pay attention (limited range of effects and sounds), but that doesn't matter anyway if the person using it is talented enough - as Cosmosis is!
Also, I'm currently listening to an old Cosmosis album from 1996, and wow! Even after over 10 years, it still sounds just as recent as anything released now. You can tell that the hardware used was not as sophisticated as it is now if you really pay attention (limited range of effects and sounds), but that doesn't matter anyway if the person using it is talented enough - as Cosmosis is!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
It's been a while
so I thought I'd make a post. This one isn't about anything in particular I suppose, just some interesting goodness!
I've been regularly (once a week) listening to a podcast called The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. I added a link on the menu to the right there. They've always got something interesting to talk about - news items, some kind of interview, and then at the end they have a challenge and a good skeptical quote. In my recent years I've grown a much more scientific and skeptical mind - no doubt because of people I've mentioned here before: Scott Adams, Penn and Teller, and Carl Sagan to name a few. The Skeptics's Guide is a great way to keep up with recent events and ideas related to that sort of thing.
On a completely different note, Blender 2.44 came out a few weeks ago and added a great new type of texture that does sub-surface scattering. It allows, among other things, the ability to make very realistic looking snow - an awesome notion because much of Omnivore takes place in Antarctica.
On a somewhat slightly different note, my macbook pro now triple boots! I have Mac OS, Windows, and now Ubuntu Studio all working. Ubuntu Studio is great - I've never had such an easy time getting into Linux, and I'm loving it. I can do nearly everything I do in Mac OS, and with free software! Speaking of free software, a great site for anyone to check out is osalt. This is exactly the kind of website I've looked for in past years. I've always wanted to know what open source software I can use instead of the commercial stuff, and now I don't have to do tons of searching google results to find it.
That's it for now, and I know I've said in the past that I'm going to post more often, but I'm going to say it again: I'm going to post more often! I'm getting used to it anyway, because I started a work blog. I read in a game development magazine about a guy who started a work blog, and it really makes sense. I take the last 10-15 minutes of every day to go over what I did, and I write it down in a private blog. Not only will it make me better at estimating time spent on projects, but it kind of gives me my own "watchdog," because I won't want to write down that I didn't do anything on a particular day. Also, I can finally answer questions like, "when did I do that?" or "did I do that?" So far it's worked beautifully - I recommend it to everyone.
I've been regularly (once a week) listening to a podcast called The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. I added a link on the menu to the right there. They've always got something interesting to talk about - news items, some kind of interview, and then at the end they have a challenge and a good skeptical quote. In my recent years I've grown a much more scientific and skeptical mind - no doubt because of people I've mentioned here before: Scott Adams, Penn and Teller, and Carl Sagan to name a few. The Skeptics's Guide is a great way to keep up with recent events and ideas related to that sort of thing.
On a completely different note, Blender 2.44 came out a few weeks ago and added a great new type of texture that does sub-surface scattering. It allows, among other things, the ability to make very realistic looking snow - an awesome notion because much of Omnivore takes place in Antarctica.
On a somewhat slightly different note, my macbook pro now triple boots! I have Mac OS, Windows, and now Ubuntu Studio all working. Ubuntu Studio is great - I've never had such an easy time getting into Linux, and I'm loving it. I can do nearly everything I do in Mac OS, and with free software! Speaking of free software, a great site for anyone to check out is osalt. This is exactly the kind of website I've looked for in past years. I've always wanted to know what open source software I can use instead of the commercial stuff, and now I don't have to do tons of searching google results to find it.
That's it for now, and I know I've said in the past that I'm going to post more often, but I'm going to say it again: I'm going to post more often! I'm getting used to it anyway, because I started a work blog. I read in a game development magazine about a guy who started a work blog, and it really makes sense. I take the last 10-15 minutes of every day to go over what I did, and I write it down in a private blog. Not only will it make me better at estimating time spent on projects, but it kind of gives me my own "watchdog," because I won't want to write down that I didn't do anything on a particular day. Also, I can finally answer questions like, "when did I do that?" or "did I do that?" So far it's worked beautifully - I recommend it to everyone.
Friday, May 11, 2007
What a Day!
None other than the Dalai Lama himself was on campus for a couple days this week, so my job has been revolving around that. He did a huge talk to over 5000 people that was videotaped and streamed - and you can even watch it right now! I ended up watching it on the big TV in the lobby where my office is so I could relax with my laptop.
The huge news for me, however, happened on the next day. He gave a talk to the Tibetan community of western Massachusetts, which was quite large (about 1000 people, and lots of kids). I had to be at work at 6 AM to do the audio checkout in the building before the FBI did their sweep. We had this really cool microphone that attaches to your ear and comes around to your mouth with a very tiny piece. You almost can't see it.
I should mention that the security around the Dalai Lama is nothing short of incredible. I don't think I've ever really seen the FBI doing their jobs in real life, and I have to say that a lot of what you see in movies is pretty close. They had their ear pieces and black suits, and came in black vehicles to the scene.
So, the best part of the whole day was that I was able to put the mic on the Dalai Lama! He comes in, surrounded by FBI and security, and instead of going into a little special room they had set up so he could meditate and have tea before talking, he goes straight out onto stage. I was kind of following behind holding up the mic and being like, "ummm, wait, I have to put this on." This FBI agent says to me, "Stick with me, bro," and so I did. I walk out on stage under the lights with the whole crew, and the agent gives me the ok. I walked up to the Dalai Lama in front of everyone and put the mic on his ear. He takes the transmitter unit, and I almost didn't get a chance to turn it on, but then he said thank you and I turned to go off stage.
It was great! And, one of the best parts about it is that it's all on video! Since he walked right out on stage and I put the mic on there, the video cameras were rolling and the whole thing was taped. I'm going to get the video as soon as I can and put it on the web so you can see me putting a mic on probably the most world-famous person I've ever seen in real life.
Maybe it's not that exciting to others, but it was quite a day for me :-D
The huge news for me, however, happened on the next day. He gave a talk to the Tibetan community of western Massachusetts, which was quite large (about 1000 people, and lots of kids). I had to be at work at 6 AM to do the audio checkout in the building before the FBI did their sweep. We had this really cool microphone that attaches to your ear and comes around to your mouth with a very tiny piece. You almost can't see it.
I should mention that the security around the Dalai Lama is nothing short of incredible. I don't think I've ever really seen the FBI doing their jobs in real life, and I have to say that a lot of what you see in movies is pretty close. They had their ear pieces and black suits, and came in black vehicles to the scene.
So, the best part of the whole day was that I was able to put the mic on the Dalai Lama! He comes in, surrounded by FBI and security, and instead of going into a little special room they had set up so he could meditate and have tea before talking, he goes straight out onto stage. I was kind of following behind holding up the mic and being like, "ummm, wait, I have to put this on." This FBI agent says to me, "Stick with me, bro," and so I did. I walk out on stage under the lights with the whole crew, and the agent gives me the ok. I walked up to the Dalai Lama in front of everyone and put the mic on his ear. He takes the transmitter unit, and I almost didn't get a chance to turn it on, but then he said thank you and I turned to go off stage.
It was great! And, one of the best parts about it is that it's all on video! Since he walked right out on stage and I put the mic on there, the video cameras were rolling and the whole thing was taped. I'm going to get the video as soon as I can and put it on the web so you can see me putting a mic on probably the most world-famous person I've ever seen in real life.
Maybe it's not that exciting to others, but it was quite a day for me :-D
Friday, April 27, 2007
Labyrinth
Well, after reading this article about making one's own game, I decided to start with something simple. It really does make sense to start with something small, since I indeed have zero experience in creating a game from scratch. What I decided is to make the game Labyrinth as a computer game. No, not the movie, but the old wooden board game with the marbles.
The possibilities are endless! I could have dynamically generated boards, holes and walls that move around, and add some other obstacles as well. A co-worker suggested I make it pinball-style, with bumpers and things to bounce the marble around, which would be great. I could have so many extra things - ramps, jumps, you name it!
It will be the perfect project to gain some experience with creating my own computer game. If I did it so that I made the boards in Blender, I'd learn to import them with some code into the game. I'll certainly need to put some realistic physics into it, so that the ball moves accordingly depending on how much you are tilting the board. It'll be good experience using the Bullet physics library. Graphics-wise I have free reign, so I'm going to make it look good.
And, I plan on adding a special feature for macbook owners :-)
The possibilities are endless! I could have dynamically generated boards, holes and walls that move around, and add some other obstacles as well. A co-worker suggested I make it pinball-style, with bumpers and things to bounce the marble around, which would be great. I could have so many extra things - ramps, jumps, you name it!
It will be the perfect project to gain some experience with creating my own computer game. If I did it so that I made the boards in Blender, I'd learn to import them with some code into the game. I'll certainly need to put some realistic physics into it, so that the ball moves accordingly depending on how much you are tilting the board. It'll be good experience using the Bullet physics library. Graphics-wise I have free reign, so I'm going to make it look good.
And, I plan on adding a special feature for macbook owners :-)
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Bioshock
Speaking of System Shock 2 it seems that its developer, Irrational Games, has begun work on a new game called Bioshock. It is being created "in the spirit of System Shock 2" and looks absolutely amazing. At last year's E3 conference, Bioshock garnered three Best of Show awards - no small feat I'd say!
I read an interview of a person involved with the creation of the game, and he said some interesting things about it. I was most surprised to hear that there would be no multiplayer mode: the game will be completely single-player and heavily story-based. They are certainly thinking outside the box in terms of first-person shooters with this one, and it will be a game that I plan on following closely! Like System Shock 2, there are superhuman power ups, an inventory, and even an overseer type entity watching your moves.
Omnivore certainly won't be as violent as Bioshock (just check out the videos... wow!), but I plan on my story being just as good and important to the game. I have a lot to figure out in terms of graphics quality, as Bioshock looks incredible. Of course, they are using the Unreal 3 engine, heavily modified (and I'm really interested to see the water effects they added), so they didn't start from scratch like I am. They also have 60 people working on the game and a budget in the millions of dollars, but I digress. I'll certainly be picking up Bioshock when it is released (they say Spring 2007, which is now, but you never know with these things...), and using it for ideas and inspiration. It is as close to the "kind" of game I am creating as can be.
It all just really gets me excited about my own game. I look forward to all that I will learn in creating my own game from scratch. Hey, if John Carmack can do it, so can I!
I read an interview of a person involved with the creation of the game, and he said some interesting things about it. I was most surprised to hear that there would be no multiplayer mode: the game will be completely single-player and heavily story-based. They are certainly thinking outside the box in terms of first-person shooters with this one, and it will be a game that I plan on following closely! Like System Shock 2, there are superhuman power ups, an inventory, and even an overseer type entity watching your moves.
Omnivore certainly won't be as violent as Bioshock (just check out the videos... wow!), but I plan on my story being just as good and important to the game. I have a lot to figure out in terms of graphics quality, as Bioshock looks incredible. Of course, they are using the Unreal 3 engine, heavily modified (and I'm really interested to see the water effects they added), so they didn't start from scratch like I am. They also have 60 people working on the game and a budget in the millions of dollars, but I digress. I'll certainly be picking up Bioshock when it is released (they say Spring 2007, which is now, but you never know with these things...), and using it for ideas and inspiration. It is as close to the "kind" of game I am creating as can be.
It all just really gets me excited about my own game. I look forward to all that I will learn in creating my own game from scratch. Hey, if John Carmack can do it, so can I!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
The Game
Well, it's been a long time since I've posted! I've got a moment, so I thought I'd write more about Omnivore. I haven't worked on it in a good while, so this will also get my brain moving again. This time, instead of writing about the story, I think I'll put down a bit about the technical parts of the game.
For inspiration in terms of other games, I'm looking closely at the Final Fantasy games, Anachronox, System Shock 2 (one of the best games ever in my opinion), the Thief games, the Max Payne games, and the Half-Life games. What makes them great? Story, gameplay, characters, and just plain quality. I'm trying to get aspects of all these games into Omnivore, and if anyone has any other games like these that they absolutely love, please tell me about them!
I'm going to write it in C++, using OpenGL for the graphics. I've been regaining my knowledge about OpenGL by moving through the tutorials at NeHe, which is a site I used in the past. Great stuff there. I also need to re-learn quite a bit of C++, since I've been spoiled these past few years by Python and PHP. Also, doing it in C++ and OpenGL will allow the game to be cross-platform, which is something I'm going to work towards from the very beginning. Anyone with Mac OS, Windows, or Linux should be able to play Omnivore.
That said, I will be using as much open source software as I can to put the game together. For physics, I found the incredible Bullet physics library. I was actually able to download the source, compile it, and run it, which is awesome. It even allows you to slow down or speed up time, something that will be featured in the game (for reasons you will soon see!). For sound effects I plan on using free libraries, and also recording my own sounds. The music will all be created from scratch my me, something I'm very much looking forward to!
For cutscenes I will be using Blender (which happens to use the Bullet library in its code for physics simulations). Blender is awesome, and the more I learn about it, the better it gets. I've already begun creating the intro animation, complete with a snowy blizzard! I will put up some renders as soon as I create something that looks really good. For compositing and video editing I'll either just use Blender or try out Jahshaka, which looks like a great project.
I will also use Blender to create all the in-game characters, levels, and objects.
Gameplay will be third-person, a la Max Payne and Tomb Raider. There will not be a huge amount of killing, so, sorry Doom lovers. Much of the game will be exploring, sneaking around, and stun-gunning people. The lion's share of the game will be in the Icebox, and scientists don't exactly carry around much in terms of guns. A large part of the interaction will be somewhat special, but that's for another post.
I plan on having a multiplayer mode, but won't get into the details about it because I don't want to go too much into the background of the game just yet.
Arthur will have an inventory of objects he carries around, like Final Fantasy and System Shock 2. He will gain power as the game goes on, but I won't say what that power is just yet. The game will have multiple endings (I'm thinking three or four), depending on certain decisions you make as you play.
That's a fair amount of the choices I've made so far that I'm going to stick with for the game. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. What do you love about certain story-driven games? What do you hate? Should I program it in a certain way? Should I use a certain library?
And as a finish for this post, the name of the computer that is central to the Omnivore project is Soul. Here are a couple lines from my notes about it: Soul is the first computer ever to have the capacity, the processing power, and the software to be able to accurately keep a copy of a human brain running inside of it. It can simulate all the billions of neurons, their connections, and the electrical signals between them.
For inspiration in terms of other games, I'm looking closely at the Final Fantasy games, Anachronox, System Shock 2 (one of the best games ever in my opinion), the Thief games, the Max Payne games, and the Half-Life games. What makes them great? Story, gameplay, characters, and just plain quality. I'm trying to get aspects of all these games into Omnivore, and if anyone has any other games like these that they absolutely love, please tell me about them!
I'm going to write it in C++, using OpenGL for the graphics. I've been regaining my knowledge about OpenGL by moving through the tutorials at NeHe, which is a site I used in the past. Great stuff there. I also need to re-learn quite a bit of C++, since I've been spoiled these past few years by Python and PHP. Also, doing it in C++ and OpenGL will allow the game to be cross-platform, which is something I'm going to work towards from the very beginning. Anyone with Mac OS, Windows, or Linux should be able to play Omnivore.
That said, I will be using as much open source software as I can to put the game together. For physics, I found the incredible Bullet physics library. I was actually able to download the source, compile it, and run it, which is awesome. It even allows you to slow down or speed up time, something that will be featured in the game (for reasons you will soon see!). For sound effects I plan on using free libraries, and also recording my own sounds. The music will all be created from scratch my me, something I'm very much looking forward to!
For cutscenes I will be using Blender (which happens to use the Bullet library in its code for physics simulations). Blender is awesome, and the more I learn about it, the better it gets. I've already begun creating the intro animation, complete with a snowy blizzard! I will put up some renders as soon as I create something that looks really good. For compositing and video editing I'll either just use Blender or try out Jahshaka, which looks like a great project.
I will also use Blender to create all the in-game characters, levels, and objects.
Gameplay will be third-person, a la Max Payne and Tomb Raider. There will not be a huge amount of killing, so, sorry Doom lovers. Much of the game will be exploring, sneaking around, and stun-gunning people. The lion's share of the game will be in the Icebox, and scientists don't exactly carry around much in terms of guns. A large part of the interaction will be somewhat special, but that's for another post.
I plan on having a multiplayer mode, but won't get into the details about it because I don't want to go too much into the background of the game just yet.
Arthur will have an inventory of objects he carries around, like Final Fantasy and System Shock 2. He will gain power as the game goes on, but I won't say what that power is just yet. The game will have multiple endings (I'm thinking three or four), depending on certain decisions you make as you play.
That's a fair amount of the choices I've made so far that I'm going to stick with for the game. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. What do you love about certain story-driven games? What do you hate? Should I program it in a certain way? Should I use a certain library?
And as a finish for this post, the name of the computer that is central to the Omnivore project is Soul. Here are a couple lines from my notes about it: Soul is the first computer ever to have the capacity, the processing power, and the software to be able to accurately keep a copy of a human brain running inside of it. It can simulate all the billions of neurons, their connections, and the electrical signals between them.
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