Game Developer in The Works

New Horizons

2010-02-22T18:16:00.013+02:00

Lots has apparently changed since the last post, oh about 6 months ago.

First of all, I'm no longer a part of 0 A.D. it's been a particularly short run on that project.
I did do some changes in the code, really small ones, someone even told me I breathed new life into the project.

But then some friends of mine from college called me up, and asked me to help them do some server coding for a project they have been working on over at Dream Farmer.
I felt like it was something I could really do, based on my previous history with them and the what I was suppose to do.
So currently I'm working on a Facebook app with them, should be cool, should be released soon.

Again, I find myself really surprised at what I'm using to create these apps:
PHP knowledge I gained from an instruction video I watched during my college project, and Data Base knowledge I gained in a minor course at the university.
It just goes to show you how sometimes the small stuff also count, and become important.

On other things, I'm still studying some gaming stuff, but in a less intensive manner, meaning less courses than last year.
Did not attend Global Game Jam this year, since I haven't fulfilled my conclusions from last year.

I also want to add a new feature here, "Cool Game I Saw", I'll try and post it with every post.
So here it is:
Shank, a side-scrolling 2D platformer, very much like Metal Slug, but with a really cool visual style and really cool moves.
Check out the gameplay demo here.

Keep following, reading...

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Now playing: John Petrucci - Damage Control
via FoxyTunes

It's Online Project Time!

2009-08-31T01:28:00.003+03:00

Again, it's been too long since I've written anything down here.
and a lot has happened since I've last written.

The big project I've been working for the last months has in fact imploded, I won't go into details since I don't want to take any sides in the matter.
I'll just say it's a damn shame that it didn't see the light of day, it could have been a very interesting game to play.
But, what can you do? you can't win them all, and you can't make everybody get along.
It was an ambitious project indeed, and we just couldn't make it work, no matter how hard we tried.

Aside from that I finished my Breakout game, it came out pretty good, it still has some bugs and things missing, but I don't think I'm gonna continue hammering it out.
To tell you all the truth, it's a pretty limited game, and I don't see how I can make it a whole lot better, so I'll just leave it for the time being.

The big news is that I joined another online project, I hope this one takes.
The name of the project is 0 A.D., it's an historically accurate RTS, that recently turned open-source.
a Friend of mine sent me a link and I thought, "what the hell?".
It seems like this project is running for quite some time (a few good years), and I know what it takes to run a project like this for that long.
It seems well managed, a good example of that is that I got the head version of the game complied it and it just ran, no problems, which is always a good sign.
Anyway, I'm currently "employed" as the GUI programmer of the game, since that's my field of expertise at the moment, but I hope to get some gameplay coding experience as well, sometime in the future.

That's it for now...

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Now playing: Miles Davis - So What
via FoxyTunes

Knights of Honor Review

2009-07-04T21:15:00.006+03:00

It seems I'm making up for lost time, here's the second post for today.

In a recent surge of nostalgia I got the itch to play Knights of Honor (KoH), I played this game when it was released, about 2 years ago, and I really enjoyed it.
Then time passed and other games came along and I kinda forgot about this game, but now I'm back.

KoH is a real time strategy game, which simulates you being a king of a European country in the middle ages.
This is not a C&C or Warcraft kind of strategy game, it focuses more on the ruling, diplomacy, population control and war strategy part of ruling a country.
The goal of the game is to become the most powerful county in Europe and the most powerful ruler.

As always this is an opinion review and not a specific details review so here are the categories.

The Good:
Unit control - In this game you control 9 units at most, as you progress through the game, these units come and go for some particular reasons.
This is a great design choice, since it limits the player with the amount of control he/she has on the game, and it raises the level of difficulty of the game.
But it also lets the player choose their game style, if your goal is to conquer every country you'll invest in marshals, on the other hand you can win the game with trade alone (merchants), etc.
So this way you're both challenged and intrigued at the same time.

Recourse Collection - Finally a strategy game where you don't have to micro-manage all the resources.
In this game you control provinces, each province has some areas it controls, and on these areas a farm or church or mine can be built, and these structures give you the majority of resources in the game.
The good thing here is that you don't control the construction of these structures, I believe it's auto-generated by the computer, you can only affect the already existing structures in a minor way, by building structures in your province.
The only resource you control entirely is trade goods, which includes money.
Now some people will say it's a bad thing, but as you play the game you understand the meaning of the sentence "Heavy is the head that wears the crown".
You will quickly understand that you do not have the time to micro-manage every little detail in your kingdom, especially when you conquer a lot of provinces and you have to control them all simultaneously, with limited personnel.

Spies - one of my favorite features in the game.
Spies are done in a very clever way in this game, since each country can only control 9 units, you have to constantly hire and fire these units, here is where the spy comes in.
You hire a spy and wait for him to be hired by the country your sent him to in a certain position, each position has its advantages, for instance if the spy is hired as a spy in another country, you can actually assassinate the king, which is really cool.

Sound - a really nice feature in the game is the soundtrack, it is pretty loopy, but you get into the game's ambiance.

The Bad:
Graphics - for a game that was made in 2007, you'd expect a bit more finish to the graphics.
It's basically a 2D game, with 3D models used for sprites.
Although this does not affect the gameplay, it could have been nice to get a bit more animations even in the 2D world.

Computer Power - since I played mostly against the computer, I can honestly say, the computer tends to take advantage of its position.
As you start the game, the computer randomizes the diplomatic relations between the countries.
Sometimes you can start the game when you are at war with all the countries around you, and the computer starts sending troops instantly, before you even had the chance to breathe, let alone buy some decent units.
This could have easily been solved with some imaginative coding.

The Stupid:
Lead the Fight - in this game you have the option to get into a certain fight and control the forces by yourself, warcraft-style.
This feature is stupid, I've must have used it once or twice.
Since the game has so much to offer aside from this, I couldn't even muster the power to lead a fight, and when I finally tried it my results were a lot worse than the computer's.
It seems like the studio put a lot of effort into that portion of the game, and it seems as though they shouldn't have.
It's like a friend that brings you a gift and you say "oh, you shouldn't have", but in this case you actually mean it.
I imagine that the studio did not want to alienate the RTS core gamers, but I think those gamers are not the target audience for this game.

In conclusion, I give this game a 9 out of 10.
I really enjoyed trying to conquer every country in Europe, and I suggest you do the same.

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Now playing: Dream Theater - A Change Of Seasons
via FoxyTunes

Status Update

2009-07-04T21:03:00.003+03:00

It's been a month+ since I've posted anything in here... my new years resolution is slipping away :)

Anyway, not much to update...
Lots of work was put in to my Breakout project, this is another project that I'm doing as a part of my studies.
The whole thing is written in Java, using the LWJGL implementation of OpenGL.
It's a project that's done as a part of a course in OpenGL, its goal is to help me learn OpenGL.
The project started as a 2D implementation of the game, and now I'm building a 3D version on top of that.
The project itself is reaching the end soon, as the school year is coming to a close.
It really opened up OpenGL for me, and it gave me some desire to learn XNA.

About the big project, it's currently on the verge of imploding, so I won't update the status of that project right now.

Aside from that, I've finally put up a financial goal for the studying abroad thing.
It's a pretty large sum, but I hope to gather the cash for that in an acceptable period of time.

Have a good week

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Now playing: Dream Theater - Lines In The Sand
via FoxyTunes

Crunch Time for Us

2009-04-01T00:07:00.003+03:00

Well, we've handed in our alpha of the game.
It was a miserable defeat, our standard for the alpha was not even close to the teachers' standard.
But we promised ourselves, that this won't deter us from completing the game, or a good portion of it.

The alpha was due Monday (of this week).
All through the weekend before the alpha, I worked my ass of and the backend code, it was finally finished Saturday night.
I checked it in to my nifty little SVN, and uploaded the code to the actual site, where the game runs.
Then I went out for a drink and went to sleep a happy camper, not aware of what's going to happen the next day.

Sunday came along, some of the classes were canceled so, we had a good head start on the integration of the client and server, at that afternoon.
We started connecting stuff together, messages from the server were getting in and everything looked pretty good.

At about midnight, we uploaded the offline-working client to see how it works online.
It had some bugs to say the least, some stuff we haven't considered, etc.
Fix the bugs, re-upload, more bugs, rinse and repeat.
At about 1AM we actually made some really big changes to the code, it wasn't a really good idea, but things seemed to work after that.
At about 2:00AM we decided to try and access it from all 3 of our computers, simultaneously.
It didn't work, well, some of the computers works, others didn't, a pretty shitty situation considering this is an online multiplayer game.
We bashed at this problem until 3:30AM with no solution, we then wisely decided to leave it and come back to it in the morning, the hand in was at 11:00AM...

On the morning of the alpha hand in, we checked the game in the computer lab...
Same thing, some work some don't, eventually we just gave up, we decided to show the game from a computer that the game worked on and that's it.
As I said before the it wasn't pretty...
We were not very pleased with the outcome, it was pretty depressing to see all that dedication go to waste, but we will soldier on...

As for me, a few lessons were learned:

Don't leave the integration and deployment for the last day
I have to learn how to deploy a site
Put the goals of the project in relevance to the time given
If the project's milestones are not reached at their time, remove some features, don't continue as if nothing happened
Showing the core gameplay is very very important

anyway,

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Now playing: Silje Nergaard - Beachcomber
via FoxyTunes keeping on...

Actual Work Being Done

2009-03-15T01:22:00.003+02:00

I'm glad to say that, the development on my game project for this studying year has commenced.
We (the team) have divided the work into parts, currently we have the following positions filled:

Project Director
Designers
Art Director
Server Programmer
Client Programmer

Of course since this is a no-budget project, most of us are wearing multiple hats.
And let me tell you, it's not easy balancing those hats on top of your head.

a Little bit of History
We were 3 guys at the beginning...
We all started out as designers, trying to put the main game concepts in place, that took a couple of months worth of sessions.
Then we built up a work plan, already divided up into the relevant parts, and we started working at those parts.

Since we're all new to online-development, we started out by learning our subjects and consulting with our teachers on the best approaches to the game.
As we were studying (me and the client programmer), the 3rd guy was busy recruiting and directing the whole thing.
Later, our art department came to be with a 4th guy joining in the fun.
As he began getting art assets out, we actually started to see the real game, and all of a sudden we were in it.
We cut our studies short and we dived in, everybody had their niche and we began to really work (that was about two weeks ago :) ).

My Two Cents
My main position is the Server Programmer, so when I say coding was done, I don't mean I was programming any cool 3D graphics.
No, it was a pretty basic user access module, that I've written.

But I have to say that, even though it's just a boring little module, I was excited when I was writing it.
The reason being, it's our project, the same project that started as a thought, that we talked about in cars driving home from college, the same project we tinkered with weeks at a time.
And now, it was getting its first lines of code, that will eventually make it a reality.
The game we wanted, the game that will be!

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Now playing: Chorus of Tribes - Inception
via FoxyTunes

AAA Dreams

2009-03-03T23:03:00.002+02:00

Recently I've been thinking of ideas for new games.
Just something I tend to do recently, probably all the inspiration and mind opening, I get from studying the subject.

The problem I'm facing, is that I can't stop thinking in AAA titles concepts.

What do I mean?
Every game I come up with has to be a AAA title, or it'll never work. It has to have the graphics, the sound and the environments in order to sell/succeed.
And that's a problem, mainly since in my little country, there're no resources for these kind of games.
But let's leave that aside, let's say I moved and I get the money for this AAA title.

The main problem in my opinion, is the fact that I can't come up with a novel concept or even a good one.

What does this have to do with the title?
This has everything to do with it, since in my opinion a good concept works with any graphics be it 2D or 3D, cheap or rich.
If the concept is fresh and good, then you don't have to distract people with shiny graphics, since the game itself is fun.

What are the conclusions?
Well, first of all, finding a new idea, innovating, is difficult and is not done very often.
What most designers do is iterate an old idea, and make it look new.
That's nice, but also requires a new mechanism inside the new game, that makes the new iteration better than its predecessor.

So I think I'll settle on thinking of a new mechanism on an old game concept for now, as an exercise, see where it leads.

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Now playing: Chris Botti - Back Into My Heart
via FoxyTunes

Thoughts on Online Projects

2009-02-22T01:17:00.004+02:00

Recently I learned that the leaders of a long running project, I was a part of for a short period, openFrag, have stepped down due to lack of productivity.
Although the project is not officially closed, my experience tells me that, without the leadership it won't live on, and that's a real shame since the project was in an advance stage.
(if there's anyone out there interested in leading a great group of people, head on here).

I also learned that another project I was following, Project Wish, has closed its doors after 4 years of development, again a real shame.

All these events have triggered a post in my mind.

I'm a veteran of more than 4 projects like these, most of them ended in the same way.
I always looked to other projects to see if they are fairing better than my failing projects, and yes there were some that were still out there fighting to survive.
But now when I look at these projects and see, that they have crashed and burned just like all my projects it makes me wonder:
Do these kind of projects have any chance of making it?

Well, the answer is complicated, it all depends on your definition of "making it".
If your definition is creating a game and making money of it, than the answer is mostly "no".

On the other hand, if your definition is creating a finished product, then the percentage is higher.
We just have to look at The Silver Lining project, a project to create continuation to King's Quest, which is looking at a release date soon.
Is there a key to their success?
Well, I don't know, but form a purely observational point of view, their key to success is their project management, the project is lead by some very motivated individuals.
They put emphasis on community and from what I understand keep a tight shift and schedule, which gives its results.
Not to say that the team hasn't got anything to do with it, they're too motivated and passionate about the game's origins and it's current route.
But since the team can change during the lifetime of the project, it's important to keep a motivated and dedicated leading staff.

Getting back to our discussion...
I think that the best way to define "making it" in these kinds of projects, is by the learning experience.
Because let's face it most of these projects don't make it to a final product, the project depends on so much people form all corners of the world, it's tough keeping them in line, so they stop participating, they stop communicating and the project just stops.
So, I think these projects are a learning experience at best, if you get out of the project with a new thing learned, then you've made it.

So go out, find a project and join it, it's fun, you meet new people, and you learn new things.
Just keep the expectations from the end result low.

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Now playing: Norah Jones - Sunrise
via FoxyTunes

Global Game Jam 2009 Impressions

2009-01-31T11:49:00.002+02:00

It is now 12:00 and I officially quit the global game jam.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about an explanation follows.

The global game jam is a worldwide event, in which game developers meet in different parts of the world, for a 48 hours session of game development.
The objective is to make a working prototype/game in the said amount of time, utilizing no sleep what-so-ever.
This is the first year it is held worldwide and in turn the first time it's held in Israel.

I decided to join this event thinking, I can really make it and have a finished game by the end of the jam.
Here's the problem, I don't know Flash or any other rapid prototyping platform, which is a problem when your are trying to create a game in 48 hours.
The only thing remotely similar to that which I know is Silverlight.

So innocently I tried to make a game in Silverlight, I had a graphical designer on my "staff", but that didn't help since Silverlight sucks at creating games.
There were a few problems I encountered:

Silverlight doesn't have any movie clip component, that means that key frame animation is out of the door.
Although eventually I did find an open source code that gives that ability the other problem killed me.
Silverlight doesn't have an absolute coordinates system, another important feature for a game, especially the one that I tried to make which was a platform game.
a Gaame like that involves a lot of collision detection, which is hard to do when you have no normal way to know where your objects are.

After battling with the game for about 27 hours, I finally decided to quit (the graphical designer quit a long time before I did :) ).
I'm still gonna hang in there till the final stretch, completing some homework I have, just to see the end results of some other people.

What did I learn in this event:

I have to learn Flash
I hate Silverlight
Creating a game in 48 hours is tough
Not sleeping in that time is tougher

In coclusion, the event was really cool, about 50 people came, a really large group for such a small country.
But, it was really frustraing not to get any real game done.

Maybe next year...

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Now playing: Dream Theater - Erotomania [Instrumental]
via FoxyTunes

SVN hosting, why not?

2009-01-17T17:03:00.005+02:00

So lately I've been working a bit with my OpenGL project, it's pretty simple, compared to other projects I worked on.
But since I'm working from my laptop and my main computer simultaneously, I find the task of synchronizing between the two PCs every time a bit too boring and time consuming (yeah, I'm lazy).

So I thought:
- "Why not have the project source controlled?"
but then I thought:
"It's such a small project, why should I use a great big hammer like source control on it?"
But I also thought:
- "What the hell, I'll look for a free one if it's out there I'll use it, plus it gives me time to stop working" (did I mention I was lazy?).

I had some experience with looking for a free source control site, and I knew it wasn't easy, but things change.
I also knew to search for SVN hosting, since it's the most popular form of source controlling these days, overthrowing CVS.
Right off the bat I found this link, that sums up the top 10 free SVN hosts, and the coolest one was xp-dev.com, 1.5GB storage, issue tracking, and project management all for free, plus everything's private (not that trivial). That's pretty cool for a free service to say the least.
Anyway, I'm just starting to use it but it's pretty easy to use, so giddy-up!

Since the project is written in Java with Eclipse, I had to integrate the SVN source control into Eclipse, quite an easy task right now, thanks open-source community!
Anyway, the plugin I use is Subclipse and it does the job for me.

I'll be happy to hear about other services/plugins you might have for me.

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Now playing: Silje Nergaard - Diner
via FoxyTunes

Happy New Year 2009!!!

2009-01-02T18:37:00.006+02:00

Well, I did it, I made it through another year of blogging.
I looked back a little and found out I started this blog in 2006, wow, that seems like ages ago.
Although 2007 wasn't a very bolgy year (no posts at all), 2008 was year of the blog in my book, I've made the most posts in this passing year.

The Reviews
The reviews started pouring from my keyboard this passing year, already 2 reviews in a non-reviews blog, that's quite an achievement.
It's a real achievement for me, since I'm quite a lazy person. So to write a review, not even a lengthy one, is quite an achievement for me.

And what about my goal? becoming a game developer, remember?
Well, this year I destroyed some more internet-based game development projects, with my bare hands!
Just joking, I did participate in some new projects this year, although none of them really took.
The major break in this direction is me going to study game design, although it's not the "MSc abroad" I wanted to go for, but for now it's OK, I'll take it slow.
Now I'm working with other people on a game, in person I might add, and I'm writing a mini-game of my own.

Game of The Year
Well, a lot of games have been made this year, I only covered two of them in my blog, but I played a lot more, and choosing just one for this year is a bit hard.
I know GTA:IV just came out and I just started it, so I can't judge it.
So up until now I can say that the best game was Call of Duty: World at War, I won't elaborate, it was just beautifully executed, that's all.

Blog Music Artist of the Year
I don't know if you noticed or not, but I keep putting the FoxyTunes tag at the end of each blog post, that is to keep track of what I'm listening to, and to give some publicity, to FoxyTunes and the artists (like they need my publicity).
So the artist most listened to while posting is.... Dream Theater, congrats.

New Years Blog Resolution
Well, for the new year, I want to keep blogging at least at the currently achieved rate, which is not that high.
Plus, I'd like to get some audience, I keep thinking that there are people reading this blog, although I'm pretty sure there aren't any, well if you are out there, sound off damn it!

From me to you, have a great New Year!!!

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Now playing: Foo Fighters - On the Mend
via FoxyTunes

Wiki for the Masses

2008-12-30T13:41:00.007+02:00

I've just created a wiki for the project I'm working on.
This is a very useful tool I picked up on the Assyira project.

The new host I've found is Netcipia, it's a free wiki host (or wiki farm as Wikipedia refers to it for some reason), it gives a 2GB storage in the site, unlimited collaborators, a decent WYSIWYG editor and private wiki support.
And that's the key, the private wiki, there are many free wiki hosting sites out there, some even give you more storage, but most of them are designed to give access and share information.
But, since this is a private project, whose data is not for sharing, at least not at this point, private wiki is a feature I was looking for.

As a project tool, a wiki can be very useful, it's mainly used as a place to put all your thoughts in and collaborate on documents and ideas.
I believe it's a must, when the project is internet based, like most of the projects I worked in up until this point, since people are not in the same place and need to collaborate in some other manner, think of it as a virtual office space.
When people are in the same place, like the current project, it's a great advantage, since all meetings are written down in the wiki and there's no need to keep track of constantly updating documents, no need to send the documents, just log-in and get all the updates.

I find the wiki helpful especially in the design phase of a game, it gives you a place to store all design ideas, design documents drafts and finally the design documents themselves in their final form.
After the design phase, the design part of the wiki can give you a great start for the public wiki, a place where people can get more information about your game.
This public wiki is created for some games, that usually contain a lot of information that can't be all put inside the game.

Anyway, from my current experience a wiki can be a great tool for every project that has a team of people working on something all together, and I recommend it.

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Now playing: David Gilmour - Cruise
via FoxyTunes

Projects a Popin'

2008-12-17T22:58:00.004+02:00

Studying kicks up a gear, every class has some kind of homework set up.
Most of the classes I take have homework related to actually creating a game.

The first project is creating an Arkanoid clone in OpenGL, which I already started, it's always fun starting a mini project.
As I am a programmer, I do get caught up in designing the code right, and stuff like, but it's my kind of fun, so it's OK, although not entirely necessary.

The other main one is a big game project, which is done in teams, our team consists of 4 people.
I'm actually doing this as a resume thing, because I don't take that course this year, I'm just helping out, and getting some credits in the game.
Anyway, this is a totally different thing, since the project is in a group it gives a kinda grass-routes-company feel, like a start-up, everybody dreams of fame and fortune in those design sessions.
In reality it's just a school project, but I don't cancel out the possibility of it being something more.

Anyway, it's the firs time in my life I can honestly say I enjoy studying :)

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Now playing: Jane Monheit - Too Late Now
via FoxyTunes

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-11-28T21:54:00.003+02:00

Hey all, had a birthday few days back, just wanted to add a post before the month ends.
Everything else is the same still studying, still playing stuff.
Fallout 3 review in the works? maybe...

Anyway, birthday to me, nothing new.

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Now playing: SarcasticGamer.com - Episode 64: The 12 Days of Lono
via FoxyTunes

Call of Duty: World at War Review

2008-11-16T22:03:00.022+02:00

As I promised in the previous post, I'm putting a bit more effort into reviewing games as a learning experience (and it doesn't hurt that I just finished a game).

This time around I'll be reviewing Call of Duty: World at War (CoD:WaW) for the PC, like my last review this is from a designer/player standpoint, not a buy me/don't buy me guide.

First of all, I'd like to mention the developers Treyarch, they are veterans in the Call of Duty franchise, but as I understand Call of Duty 3 the game they developed wasn't all that good.
Well Treyarch, let me congratulate you on a job well done, CoD:WaW stands in the ranks of CoD and CoD2, as a WWII shooter, I was skeptic at first but they pulled it off.

So, to the review:

The Good:
The graphics, well not much of a surprise there, CoD4:MW had some amazing visuals and since CoD:WaW is utilizing the same engine, it's not a surprise that it provides some great visuals of its own, the things that stand out:

The German cities in the Russian campaign, especially Berlin, they recreated the battle-ridden Berlin and the ruined Reichstag building, things you could have only seen in old photos up until now.
Fire, there's a lot of emphasis on fire in the game, it looks very cool and it spreads out as you'd expect it to when burning grass.

The location, well as you might know (or not) the game takes place in the pacific theater in the American campaign and in Russia/Germany in the Russian campaign.
The idea to set it in those locations was great, since most of the WWII games take place in Europe it's really overdone, taking it to those locations was a very good change of scenery.
And it allowed you to fight a "new" enemy, at least in the American campaign.

The Flamethrower, that's an awesome weapon, burning people was never as fun :)
Plus, as I said before, the fire seems to spread realistically over the grass.

Another small but very cool part, the cut-scenes, they are shown in a very cool, modern, cell-shaded manner, which really stood out for me, from other games and other titles in the franchise.

The famed zombie level, this was just a rumor among the gaming community, but it's true.
If you finish the single-player campaign, you get a bonus level where you fight wave after wave of Nazi zombies. This is a very fun level and you can find yourself playing it for hours, it's no Left 4 Dead killer but it's pretty good for a mini-game in a game.

The Bad:
Length, the game is pretty short (4-5 hours of gaming, max.), although most of the CoD games are short, this felt a bit shorter for some reason.
Either it was because it was too much fun or too intense, but it was over way too quickly.

Script triggers, this is a problem in every CoD game, the game runs on script points that you have to trigger in order for the plot to move on. Well, for some reason those script triggers were really evident in some of the points in the game.
There were some places in the game, that you could literally stop all action in the game and make all the AIs just stand around and do nothing, they just keep waiting for you to pass somekind of line.
Obviously the action should have been so intense that you wouldn't even notice those script triggers, and in most places you don't, but there were some, that were really badly done.

Tank level, this was one of the most frustrating control schemes for a tank that I've ever experienced.
Most of the times I died just because I used the control scheme wrong.
Plus, what am I doing in a tank anyway, the main character is a rifleman, where the hell did he learn I how to drive a tank? maybe that's why it drives so awkwardly...

The Stupid:
Plane sequence, this was one of the only stupid moves they made.
This was a total filler level, it wasn't really related to the main character or the main plot, it was just a level so they'll be able to say that the game has a plane level.
Losing this level won't take anything away from the game, they should have just thought of more plot twists and levels in the confines of the plot, instead of thinking about filler levels.

Well, that's it for me, although there are some flaws in the game, this game is great, I had a lot of fun with it, and it deserves to be up there with CoD and CoD2.
I definitely recommend playing it, especially if you're a CoD fan, I give it a 8.8 out of 10.

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Now playing: Gary Moore - Checkin' Up On My Baby
via FoxyTunes

The return to studying

2008-11-08T21:42:00.004+02:00

I haven't posted for a while since I was busy setting up my studying year.
I finally decided to study gaming in that school I mentioned in previous posts.
The school year seems to be promising with many cool courses. I hope it'll go well.

On the other hand, I'll have to "quit" the online development scene for now, and focus on the studying, and the personal projects that will ensue.
So openFrag will have to lose me for now, I hope I'll get back to it soon, because they really seem to have a cool project going.

As for the blog, I'll keep updating and posting reviews for now.
I'm sure I'll have some development stuff soon.

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Now playing: Vladimir Vysotsky - Utrinaya Gimnastika
via FoxyTunes

Not posting again

2008-10-06T23:53:00.004+02:00

No real updates yet, I've been so busy with work that it's eating up my entire free time.
But as it's been said, "All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy".

Soon I'm going on vacation for two weeks and I'll have some time to put into OpenFrag.
It's really annoying I can't multi-task as much as I would like.

Aside from that I'm still is the sign-up process fro the gaming study program, fingers crossed.

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Now playing: Coldplay - Viva La Vida
via FoxyTunes

More real then game

2008-08-06T00:50:00.004+03:00

WOW, long time no posty...
That's mainly since I was busy doing some RL stuff, which obviously do not interest you.

On the OpenFrag front, I'm trying to get back into it after a short recess, nothing new here.

On the RL front, I'm currently trying to sign up to a college in Israel, that provides a Game Design studying program, hope I get in.
It might be a good starting point for a gaming career, I should've done it ages ago, but better late than never, right?

Anyway, hope to keep blogging soon, for now, cya.

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Now playing: Dream Theater - Pull Me Under
via FoxyTunes

Work Work

2008-06-21T18:15:00.003+03:00

Just a quick update...
Still working for openFrag, if you were wondering, which is pretty fun.
I've been largely working on designing and inserting GUI elements that are needed in the game, which is probably the best thing I can offer at the moment, sort of an out-of-the-box experience :)

But I'm planning on moving on to different bits of code, soon, I hope, as soon as I finish up the rest of the much needed GUI elements.

I can honestly say that, I was really happy when I got to commit an actual change into the openFrag game.
This is probably due to the fact that up until now, I wasn't really programming/developing a game, I was researching, leading, planning and probably every possible thing except actually developing a game.

Anyway have a good week...

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Now playing: Grand Devil Opera - Survivalism
via FoxyTunes

Quick Plug

2008-06-10T23:32:00.002+03:00

Aside from being a part of openFrag, I'm also a part of a small team with a guy from work, in the development of a cool LAN based WPF poker game.
This game utilizes .NET 3.5 and it's new GUI framework named WPF.

In this game I dabbled in my other passion, graphic design, it's also a part of my game design craze, but a smaller part.
Anyway, I did the graphic design for a lot of the stuff in the game, especially the card designs and the main game screen design.
I think it looks pretty good, and we put a lot of work into it.

We are trying to win a contest with this project, so if you are reading this go and download the game, it's totally free. This way you'll help yours truly and help me win a contest.
Thanks in advance...

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Now playing: David Gilmour - Out Of The Blue
via FoxyTunes

Open Frag

2008-05-22T20:16:00.002+03:00

I joined the openFrag team two days ago (didn't take me long to move, huh?).

The fact is I found this project some time ago, when I was looking for help with Yake.
I contacted those guys, as they are probably the only project that really uses Yake.
I was watching the progress of the project ever since, and they had quite a progress.

Anyway, the openFrag initiative is a really cool place, they have quite a lot of projects going simultaneously.
The main one being an open source game engine and the first game on it will be their own Broken Alliance.

The entire project is open source so it's a bit chaotic, not really structured like I'm used to, but they manage, as they told me.
I'll start by helping them out with GUI stuff, which I probably can help most in, but I hope to branch out later on.

Anyway, that's the update for now, have a good weekend.

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Now playing: Eric Clapton - I Ain't Gonna Stand For It
via FoxyTunes

I QUIT!

2008-05-11T23:37:00.003+03:00

Well, not entirely, but definitely from Assyria.

As you might have noticed, I haven't been really working in the project lately, and to tell you the truth the entire project wasn't moving all that much.
Anyway, a few days ago the project leader announced he found the funds to open up a real studio in the UK.
The plan is to put Assyria on hold, create a casual game, to pay for more stuff there and then continue with Assyria.

Personally, I don't really see myself participating in that, maybe if I was in the UK, I might have gone for it.
So, I wished them all the best sent in my leftover code, and parted ways.

Now I'll be looking for the next project, I already have some projects in mind, but none that hired me yet.
Wish me luck...

Assassin's Creed Review

2008-04-23T19:52:00.008+03:00

As promised, I give you the Assassin's Creed (PC version) review.
As a prelude, I just want to mention that I'm not a professional reviewer, these are just my thoughts on the game, so bear with me.
Plus, you pretty much have to play the game to get what I'm talking about, lets say that this is more for game designers/enthusiasts and less for buyers.

OK, so I'm gonna divide the review into three parts: The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid.
The parts reference the design of the game and its features.

The Good:
There are many good things that Ubisoft Montreal did with this game, that it's no wonder it's such a success.

The graphics, they came out with a great graphics engine for this game.
Things to notice about the graphics:

Realistic sunlight, throughout the game, sometimes you can even see ugly building models (especially in the office level) that seem real only because of the lighting.
Cloth, it looks like they put a lot of work into making the cloth move realistically, especially in the main character.
The cities, the cities you visit a huge and you can walk thorough the entire city eventually, but we've all seen huge cities before, in open world games, like GTA, etc.

Character design, the main character has so much Cool-Factor™, that he can sell the game by himself. Nonchalant kinda guy, means business, and an assassin of course, which is by itself a great idea for a character.
The character's hidden blade is of course the cool, silent, signature assassin weapon of the game from others, like the garrote wire was the signature weapon for Hitman.
You'll find yourself using it more and more as the game progresses.

The story, has a lot of interesting points in it, and above all has ties to real life events, which is always good, in my opinion.

Climbing mechanics, they really put an effort into this one, the climbing itself looks cool and feels controlled by the player, plus the level design is that good that you can practically climb everything in the level, which is really cool.

Addictive way points, there are a couple of things here that are genius design-wise.

Through out the game you have to get a high vantage point to get a glimpse of the city, and find out things in it, this is quite a tedious task to perform, something along the lines of:
Find a high place -> climb it -> look at city, rinse and repeat.
To make it interesting to do, since it is an integral part of the game, they reward the player for doing that with a really cool overview of the city from that high point.
And after you finish the look, you drop from this high place into a big haystack, it feels like falling off a 10-story building (not that I know how it feels).
You got to see it to understand, but it's cool enough to make you want to find those high places over and over again.
Saving civilians, throughout the game you see people in need, that you can save to gain bonus points. I'm a pretty lazy player and I don't really like to gather bonus points, but they made it a bit more fun to do.
Since the entire game is pretty much sneak attacks and hiding, you don't get to fight a lot of people in the open, pretty much the only time you get to do this (without getting in trouble) is when you save civilians, so you just seek them out, to get some fighting action and bonus points.

The Bad:

Camera angles, really shoddy camera angles all along the game.
The most frustrating of them all is the in-battle camera angles, you might miss someone attacking you completely, because the camera decided it wants to show you the really interesting innocent by stander and his stand.

Repetitiveness, I can say that the entire game is repetitive, you end up doing the same thing over and over, the loop is something like this:
Go to a city -> investigate the case (do 3 "special" things) -> find the main guy -> kill him -> run away and hide, rinse and repeat.
The whole ordeal can be quite tedious, but the shiny graphics, cool features and story keeps you in the game, which is all they need from you.

Fighting engine, I don't know if it's just the PC version, or is it all versions, but I found the fighting system a bit off.
Although it gives you a lot of options, remembering all of them and using them in real-time is a bit of a problem, and it can get confusing. And the lock-on system can mess up at times too, but most of the time it's OK.

AI, the AI in this game is simply stupid, or less than what I've come to expect from a game.
For example, an enemy soldier can be on the same rooftop as you, see you, suspect you and then you move two meters aside, effectively hiding you behind a roof fixture, and he doesn't even follow you he just keeps going on with his day, as though you never existed.
I've just seen better AI in other games.

The Stupid:

This section is dedicated to the stupid features in the game, that don't make any sense.

Eagle Vision, this is a mode you can enter to distinguish between friend and foe, which sounds really great at first.
But after a few minutes of playtime, you know which is which, since all classes wear basically the same clothes, in some variations. This is specifically stupid in the case of enemies, they are the main reason for this feature i guess, the enemies are soldiers they all wear the same clothes, how can you not know they are enemies?

Control inside a cut-scene, in the game during a cut-scene, which is shown in-game and not as a movie, you can move your character around to get different angles.
When I first saw this feature, in a preview movie it seemed really cool, but it's actually really unnecessary, at first I thought I can change stuff by moving, like the camera angles of the cut-scene movie, or actually performing some actions while in the cut-scene, but nooooo.
You can't do anything, you just move to different places, while in the cut-scene, I prefer to watch a dramatically "filmed" cut-scene, than to just move around inside a cut-scene, because you're effectively inside a cut-scene.

In conclusion, this game has its share of problems but overall it is a very good game with good looking graphics. I give it a 8.5 out of 10.

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Now playing: DragonForce - Cry of the Brave
via FoxyTunes

Time for reflection

2008-04-21T00:33:00.004+03:00

Hey all...

It's a va-ca time, it passover this week, and I have a week off.
Happy holidays to everybody.

Project Assyria is not progressing at all, and I'm quite worried about it.
But, it gives me time to reflect on my current situation, maybe look over some possibilities for a new project to participate in.
Definite candidates I'll be looking into are: openFrag and Project Wish.
Two very promising projects, which I've been following for quite some time.
They both are in very progressive stages, so it's time I kill those projects :D
Just joking, of course, I'll be looking into them, because they'll give me a good chance to just get some experience under my belt.

Plus, lately I've been tossing around some game ideas in my head, so I want to look into those too, see if there's a real game in there somewhere.
Maybe it's time for me to start my own project, maybe, I don't know yet.

Aside from all that, I've been obsessing over Assassin's Creed lately, a really good looking game, and an interesting one as well.
I might throw in a game review for that one on my next post.

Anyway, cya around...

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Now playing: Eva Cassidy - Bridge Over Troubled Water
via FoxyTunes

There is a gaming industry in Israel!

2008-04-18T11:24:00.003+03:00

Yesterday I went to GameIS, which is probably the closest thing to GDC in Israel.
To tell you the truth I expected a lot less, but got a lot more.

I can now honestly say, that there is a gaming industry in Israel, which is great.
Although, it's still a grassroots movement, but a movement nonetheless.

The lectures themselves were worth the trip, most of them were interesting and informative.
The lecture given by the CEO of Funtactix, was definitely inspiring, it's great to see somebody so excited about the gaming industry in Israel, and about Israel in general.
I just hope he doesn't get let down by our small country, because it can do that to a man :)

The lecture given by the co-founder of Invasion Interactive, was probably the closest thing to a GDC-like lecture, which I've heard so much times before in GDC/E3/DICE online lectures.
Which is quite obvious, since they were the AAA title representatives in that conference.
The greatest thing about it was that it was in Hebrew, which was pretty cool, in my opinion.

A lot of the other lectures were about casual gaming, and it growth in Israel.
Not that interesting to me, specifically, but informative nonetheless.

Other really interesting lectures and talks, were about designing games and why people like games, in the psychological aspect of things.
Maybe a bit too scientific, but there were definitely some things there I haven't really payed attention too, when I was looking at games or playing them or trying to make them.
Some of the points that were brought up in those lectures, I will keep in mind when designing/playing/programming my games.

Anyway, to sum up my experience in the conference, I can say it was a great experience, the community itself, Israeli game developers, seems like a great community to be a part of.
And I wish success to all the people that were there, and I also hope I can contribute to the effort.

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Now playing: Pat Metheny Group - The Heat Of The Day
via FoxyTunes

Small Update

2008-04-17T00:15:00.002+03:00

Well, today I got the notice, that I did not qualify to become a beta tester in The Silver Lining.
Oh well, never mind that then.

On to newer and better things.

Game Conference AHOY!

2008-04-15T23:04:00.004+03:00

Get ready for a quick post.

I got an invitation to the Israeli game developers conference, GameIS, a few days ago.
I don't really know how they got my details, maybe from my IGDA member's info, but I'm glad they did.
The conference itself has some great lecturers, and it sounds fun and interesting, it might also be an opportunity to handout some CVs.
So I'm taking a day off and I'm going to the conference.

Although it's no GDC or E3, it's still pretty cool...
To think that some 3 years ago, the Israeli gaming industry, was practically non-existent, and now we have our own little gaming conference.

Anyway, hope it's gonna be fun, I'll post my impressions from it, when I'll return.

G'day, Cheers

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Now playing: Dream Theater - Another Day
via FoxyTunes

Hard Times

2008-04-14T20:29:00.004+03:00

I'm tired...
Assyria has been in a stuck state for about 2 months now, wow, time flies.
Anyway, I've seen this state before, too many times :)
This is the sound, a dying project makes, I know, I've been through a few as you can tell.

The main problem, as I see it, is miscommunication (the usual).
The problem is that, the management thinks they can communicate in IM all the time, and everything will be alright, but timezones definitely don't allow that to happen.
The obvious solution is to use e-mail, but although I tried it some times, it's not catching up.
I hope the project is not dead, but it might be dead to me, since I can't just sit around doing nothing.

I did manage to create some scripts for the project, but it seems like it's not going to be used.
Another strike and I'm out.

Anyway, currently I'm waiting for this situation to resolve itself, or get resolved by the management.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to get into the beta test of the highly anticipated (at least by me) game, The Sliver Lining, hope to get in, maybe that will be my next project.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I hate moving all the time, it sucks.

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Now playing: Gary Moore - Left Me With The Blues
via FoxyTunes

Alot Has Happened

2008-02-02T20:36:00.001+02:00

Wow! as a read the previous blog post, I realized how much ahas happened between that post and this one.

First of all, I'm sad to say this, but FarFallen is no more.
We started working, but it seemed like no one was really into it, so it just fell apart.
Everybody started dropping out, there was no communication, eventually the project just stopped.
We said, our goodbyes and everybody went their separate paths.
It was sad to see that happen, since it was a really good idea, in my opinion, and it could have been a great game.

After that, I took some "time off", since it looked like every project I touch falls apart.
I looked around to see if there were successful Indie game projects, and to tell you the truth, I found just a handful of projects.
Apparently, this way of producing games (via the internet in different locations over the world), is not that easy, duahhh.
So I figured, I can give it another go.

For my next project, I looked for a project, that was already underway, so I can just join in and not be in charge there.
The project I went to, was a project that I watched closely before that, a game named Assyria.
It was already on the right path, so it looked like the right place.
Fortunately, they had room for me, so I joined.
So now I'm a Gameplay Programmer, in the Assyria game project, and I hope this one sticks.

On the real-life front, I'm now searching for a place to study abroad, for a M.Sc. in gaming.
There are a few places that offer that degree, and I'm trying to look into getting into one.
With luck, I should be able to study and work in the gaming industry, abroad.

So that's it for now, laters.

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Now playing: Frank Zappa - Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar
via FoxyTunes

Document Finished!

2006-10-01T14:13:00.003+02:00

Finally I've finished the Yake Document I was working on all this time...

When I finished it I looked at the start date, and I came to the conclusion that I've been working on this document for a month which seems like a pretty long time to me.
It's probably due to the fact that I only work on weekends and I don't have much time, but I should do something about it if the project is going to go anywhere...
Btw, the finished document is 34 pages and a pretty interesting read, I know it was interesting to write it...

Aside from that, other things happened over the course of the week...
First of all I found out that there's going to be a meeting of the Israeli IGDA chapter later this month and I'm definitly planning on going.
Other than that, I came to the conclusion that I have to get another programmer on board, but not a regular programmer to strat working on the game, cuz it's still far of, but a co-Leader that will help me design the game from the programming aspect.
Because, that seems like a great deal of work for just one guy, in a slow pase, if we devide the work it'll be easier.
I'll have to pass this through the project leader and start looking for that person, I think it'll be tough finding someone like that...

Well, now that I've finished the document I'm going to start testing the Yake Engine, see what cool things I can do with it, back to work...

Delay in Development

2006-09-23T23:52:00.001+03:00

This weekend I didn't get a lot done...
That was mainly because it's holiday season here in Israel, and I celebrated the coming of the new jewish year all weekend with my family.
It was fun, but as I said before I haven't got much done.

I did manage to create some logos for our company, only to find some logos were already created...
Well, I'll see what will come of that.

Anyway, tomorrow I have a day off work, so I'll try to get as much things done as possible, so I'll keep up with the schedule I've set for myself...
Hope to have another post tomorrow.

Trainging Continues

2006-09-16T16:51:00.001+03:00

When I joined the FarFallen team, my first task was to pick a game engine that will suit the needs of the game, the engine that I picked out, from the vareity of open-source engines out there, was the Yake engine.

One major flaw in that engine, is the fact that it's relatively new and does not have proper documentation and manual.
Due to that fact, I started learning about the Yake eninge and how it works through different examples and its code, which is a rather tedious work.

The first task I set for myself, was to learn everything I can through one of the examples provided with the engine and write it up in a document.
Meaning, I don't just go through the example and see what it does, but I also try to go as deep as possible into the core of the engine and see what makes it tick.

Although the example itself is a pretty basic one, it's taking a long time to finish it, since everything in it is new to me, and everything has to be looked into in-depth.
The writing of the document itself is also taking quite a while, since I want the document to be as informative as possible and yet easy to understand.
I'm writing the document that way, since I want it to serve as a first reading material for any new programmers that will join the team, plus it might serve some purpose for the Yake community.

Yesterday, I continued my work on the document and made some noticeable progress, I hope to finish it soon, since it's taken a long time already in my opinion.
Well, I'll go back to work now... ;)

First Post...

2006-09-15T14:33:00.001+03:00

Hello to all readers...

This is my first post in my Blog, I just wanted to say something about this blog and myself...

I called this blog "Game Developer in The Works" since this what I consider myself to be at this point in my life...
Recently I've graduated from University and got my B.Sc. in Computer Science, and I didn't know what to do next.
Up until that point, my life was pretty planned out, "go to school, got to university, get a job" and now I actually had to think about what I'm going to do with my life...
Well, I decided to merge my interest in video games and my profession and decided to become a game programmer...
As I found out becoming a game programmer is harder than I thought, especially due to the fact that I live in a country where games are just not developed, that's a problem right there...

But I decided not to give up on my goal, so now I'm working at a full time job as a programmer in a mainstream company, gaining experience and cash, hopefully I will eventually
have enough knowledge and cash to move to a place where I can pursue this goal...

Meanwhile, I'm not just sitting around waiting for the game industry to come up to me and ask me to join them, I'm trying to do the best I can from where I'm at...
I've recently joined an Indie-Game development company named FarFallen, I'm a Lead Programmer in that company and I hope to learn as much as I can while I wait for my opportunity...

So this blog will follow me in my attempt in making it as a Game Developer, it will also serve as an inside look into my side in the development of FarFallen (without disclosing any inside info of course :) )

I hope that some readers will stay along for the ride...