Interesting on Steam
Let’s look at another week (more or less) of new things on Steam… Pix the Cat – looks like a new 2D action game where you collect ammo and use it to shoot your enemies (or you buddies in multiplayer) and it kind of reminds me of Towerfall, as far as the basic loop is presented, but I’m not entirely sure. Available now for 10$. Life is Strange – is an episodic story with a twist of a time-rewind mechanic. Considering it’s from the studio that made the critically panned Remember Me, it looks very interesting and very promising. Episode 1 is available now for 5$ or the season pass for 20$ (1$ discount per episode). Besiege – seems, so far, as a simplistic physics based game about building siege engines and attacking castles. It doesn’t look like much right now but it’s just a very Early Access title right now. Down to One – is a multiplayer only first person shooter but it seems like it’s playing on the hardcore angle and main idea is that 42 players go into a match, no respawns, and one player comes out. So it’s an interesting idea but is aiming in the entirely different direction than what I want from multiplayer games. Now in Early Acess. Fahrenheit Remastered – is the HD remastered version of what is now, probably, the GOOD Quantic Dream game. Since I wanted to play it for forever now, here’s a good reason to bump it up the wishlist. Available now for 10$. Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, Less Interesting News by Eran with comments disabled.
פיגוע תחת השראה חזותית
יש לי הרבה דיונים על מוסכמות קוד. יש לי שיטה מאוד מוגדרת וקפדנית לאיך אני כותב. אני לא עושה את זה כי ככה למדתי. אני לא עושה את זה כי זה נראה לי יפה יותר. אני עושה את זה כי זאת הדרך היחידה שבה הקוד נראה לי מסודר. כי אם הקוד מבולגן, זה מפריע לי לחשיבה. וזאת דרך עדינה להסביר את זה. חשבתי על זה עכשיו אחרי שהסתכלתי על הכיור. אין לי בעיה עם כיור מלא כלים. יש לי בעיה עם כיור מבולגן. יש סיפור ישן של דיוויד לנגפורד בשם “סוגים שונים של אפלה”. הוא מתאר משהו שנקרא ‘פיגוע תחת השראה חזותית’. מדובר בתבנית מתמטית ששוברת את האזור החזותי של המוח וגורמת לסוג של שבץ מוחי. תבניות מסובכות מאוד גם גורמות למוות. אז אני לא מקבל שבץ מכיור מבולגן או קוד מבולגן אבל זה מאיט ומסבך אותי. ואני לרוב לא מסוגל לקלוט אותו או לעבוד איתו אלא אם כן אני מסדר אותו שיראה כמו שצריך. בגלל זה אני עושה את זה. לא בגלל חשיבות עצמית או התנשאות. אני עושה את זה כי אני לא מסוגל אחרת.
Posted in IT, No Category, Programming by Eran with comments disabled.
Steam Complete
I recently did, what I call, “The Steam Exploration Challenge”. The point of which was to use the front page carousel of Steam and it’s Explore section everyday, perhaps several times a day, to go through and mark down every game and piece of software on Steam. With the addition of the Discovery Queue and the “Not Interested” button, I could make it so an app page appeared to me only once and never showed up again. Currently I have 4,500 apps under my belt. Which is but a fraction of the 8000+ games, software and DLCs on Steam but I do think I covered more than 90% of the Games + Software section. This gave me three distinct things: (1) A great sense of accomplishment, (2) A very clean Steam frontpage; and (3) an almost immediate knowledge of games that are added to Steam. Now, let’s discuss the 3rd thing I mentioned. Since I have a clean Steam frontpage, every new thing that is added or unblocked, I notice almost immediately. So, why not use my powers for good and share in the bounty that I see, as long as it’s interesting and not a fan servicy boob simulator (The link is just for reference. Please, do not click it). Let’s start with some backlog.
Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with comments disabled.
Global Game Jam 2015
During the writing of the previous entry, a strange woman approached me and asked me if this is an event where people played games or just developed them. I said that, sometimes, people would stop to play a game to relax or give the brain a break. Then she asked me what is “That game that all the kids are playing”. I said I don’t think there is such a thing anymore. She said, of course there is. And she finally remembered she meant Minecraft. I can understand why she would think what she thought. Then she asked me if I knew anyone who was really good at it. Against that I was speechless so she walked away. Normals are weird. Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled program. Shortly after I finished writing, Jeremie arrived and then everyone started waking up and showing up and we got back to work. As our games were mostly done from yesterday, this day was was spent on integration, bug fixing, polishing, balancing and adding just a few more tidbits for the fun of it. And when it came time to present, our game looked like one of the most polished games there and, I think, it’s one of the, if not the, best games of this Jam location. I’m not discounting the possibility of another team like “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes” somewhere around the globe but I think ours is a prime candidate for mentioning. Just need to wait for this year’s Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, No Category by Eran with comments disabled.
Global Game Jam 2015
Because the Italy posts are still under review, it’s time to write something new. Well, it’s a good thing it’s the end of January because Global Game Jam! I think my illness messed up my sleep schedule because I feel just more tired, especially in the mornings, and so it took me more time than I intended to just get out the door. I eventually got to the new site (Beit Ha’eer) in time to sign in and hear the opening statements. After the announcements, I mostly walked around as I didn’t really have ideas popping out of every whole. I ended up at the Room where Amit took over a table and so I listened to him and Jeremie and joined the conversation with them and some others and after 15-20 minutes of back and forth, we had an idea for a game. We gathered the remaining personnel and got to work. Our idea was to combine three games into one but have them all controlled by one button (hitting that diversifier, maybe Stephen Hawking will want to play our game). And, quite surprisingly, we had somewhat fleshed out prototypes and even a combination of all three by the end of the first day. Which is quite nice. Now, it is the beginning of day two and we should be wrapping up, fixing bugs, polishing, tweaking and getting some sounds and music in. We could do that in 9 hours. No problem.
Posted in No Category by Eran with comments disabled.