Greetings Assassins and Assassinettes!
Before I go back to the Unity recap or talk about my anger on game designers in the modern era, I have to say this:
INDIE OF THE YEAR is in action and Little City (my game) is trying to get nominated! So take 2 minutes, jump over to: http://www.indiedb.com/games/little-city and Vote Now!
2011 Indie of the Year Awards via Indie DB
I'm not about to let some polygons try and keep Little City down! Let's get it nominated to the top 100! Tell your friends and family, coworkers and bosses, hide your kids and your wives cause we voting everyone up in here!
-POOF-
Monday, December 5, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Unite 2011 Conference
Greetings Assassins and Assassinettes!
So at the end of September I was sent to the Unite 2011 Conference in San Francisco. I was to scope the place out and look for any potential polygons that needed assassinating. Instead, I was assaulted with a level of awesome that I rarely experience. Below is my tale and a summary of the event. Hope you enjoy!
Day 1 - Sept 28th - Arrival
I had a specialist assigned to me for this mission, he goes by the name MajorFX but don't let that fool you, he can throw down against some polygons if need be. We flew into Oakland, snagging a rental car so it would be more difficult to track us, and drove to Frisco making it to the conference with just enough time to catch the Key Note and see what was coming for Unity3D 3.5. Let me tell you, this set the mood for the rest of the trip. The LOD Technology that is super intuitive, fully integrated AI tech (this really blew my mind!), the rewritten Occlusion Culling system, the directional lightmaps, crazy new particle system and so much more! Here is a link to the Key Note speech video. Watch it and come back... or I will find you!
http://unity3d.com/unite/keynote
After the keynote, MajorFX and I split up to cover more ground. I went to a lecture titled: Substance in Unity. Mind Blown. Substance is a stand alone application that has also been integrated into several 3d softwares and now Unity that deals with shaders and the creation of materials. The company responsible for Substance is Allegorithmic (http://www.allegorithmic.com/) a bunch of super intelligent guys that are revolutionizing how shaders work. Just to illustrate this, watch this video: http://youtu.be/wNrKjhO5tHg?t=4m26s
Is that not insanity? I thought some polygons were messing with me. Nope, just awesome techniques!
Their Bitmap2Material software is worth it alone to automatically generate intelligent Normal Maps, Specular Maps, Height Maps, and so many more!
The conference went a little off of schedule after this lecture, things got shifted around and lectures got pushed back. This was fine by me because I had found a polygon that needed dealing with. I just didn't want to disturb the guests there so I went stealth mode. I managed to catch the polygon slurping down the drinks that Unity3d provided for the attendees. A quick flash of my weld tool and that polygon vanished without a sound.
Drinks for everyone!
I attempted to go to an AI in Unity lecture... I don't think I have ever experienced something like this. I wrote a ton of notes, yet, as I read them now, they make no sense to me. I showed the notes to my programmer and he nodded thoughtfully and went back to programming. I still have no idea what I wrote. I must have channeled an inner spirit and wrote something I could never grasp in my conscious form...
OKAY!
Next was the last lecture of the night. I don't even want to say which lecture it was because it was horrible. Polygons were all over the place messing with cameras, changing the subject matter completely from the title. The presenter changed his mind about what he wanted to talk about 3 times while lecturing. It was just bad. The polygons definitely destroyed this one. I went on a cutting spree. I even detached polygons a few times just to outright delete them. I rarely pull that skill out.
This left a sour taste in my mouth. Ah well, dinner outta clear that up and then Day Two made up for it!
Day two coming soon with some other great info and also some very cool people. Keep your eyes out for it.
-POOF-
So at the end of September I was sent to the Unite 2011 Conference in San Francisco. I was to scope the place out and look for any potential polygons that needed assassinating. Instead, I was assaulted with a level of awesome that I rarely experience. Below is my tale and a summary of the event. Hope you enjoy!
Day 1 - Sept 28th - Arrival
I had a specialist assigned to me for this mission, he goes by the name MajorFX but don't let that fool you, he can throw down against some polygons if need be. We flew into Oakland, snagging a rental car so it would be more difficult to track us, and drove to Frisco making it to the conference with just enough time to catch the Key Note and see what was coming for Unity3D 3.5. Let me tell you, this set the mood for the rest of the trip. The LOD Technology that is super intuitive, fully integrated AI tech (this really blew my mind!), the rewritten Occlusion Culling system, the directional lightmaps, crazy new particle system and so much more! Here is a link to the Key Note speech video. Watch it and come back... or I will find you!
http://unity3d.com/unite/keynote
After the keynote, MajorFX and I split up to cover more ground. I went to a lecture titled: Substance in Unity. Mind Blown. Substance is a stand alone application that has also been integrated into several 3d softwares and now Unity that deals with shaders and the creation of materials. The company responsible for Substance is Allegorithmic (http://www.allegorithmic.com/) a bunch of super intelligent guys that are revolutionizing how shaders work. Just to illustrate this, watch this video: http://youtu.be/wNrKjhO5tHg?t=4m26s
Is that not insanity? I thought some polygons were messing with me. Nope, just awesome techniques!
Their Bitmap2Material software is worth it alone to automatically generate intelligent Normal Maps, Specular Maps, Height Maps, and so many more!
The conference went a little off of schedule after this lecture, things got shifted around and lectures got pushed back. This was fine by me because I had found a polygon that needed dealing with. I just didn't want to disturb the guests there so I went stealth mode. I managed to catch the polygon slurping down the drinks that Unity3d provided for the attendees. A quick flash of my weld tool and that polygon vanished without a sound.
Drinks for everyone!
I attempted to go to an AI in Unity lecture... I don't think I have ever experienced something like this. I wrote a ton of notes, yet, as I read them now, they make no sense to me. I showed the notes to my programmer and he nodded thoughtfully and went back to programming. I still have no idea what I wrote. I must have channeled an inner spirit and wrote something I could never grasp in my conscious form...
OKAY!
Next was the last lecture of the night. I don't even want to say which lecture it was because it was horrible. Polygons were all over the place messing with cameras, changing the subject matter completely from the title. The presenter changed his mind about what he wanted to talk about 3 times while lecturing. It was just bad. The polygons definitely destroyed this one. I went on a cutting spree. I even detached polygons a few times just to outright delete them. I rarely pull that skill out.
This left a sour taste in my mouth. Ah well, dinner outta clear that up and then Day Two made up for it!
Day two coming soon with some other great info and also some very cool people. Keep your eyes out for it.
-POOF-
Monday, September 26, 2011
Great Article on the Mobile Marketplace
Greetings assassins and assassinettes!
On www.indiedb.com there is a great article on the Mobile Marketplace and I wanted to share it with everyone if you hadn't seen it yet. Below is the direct link to the article but some amazing excerpts from it our:
'You may think the iPad is a mobile device, but you’d be wrong.
'Developers are flocking back to the iOS platform
According to a blog post by Flurry, in the first quarter of this year, about 65% of new projects were for iOS compared to a respectable 35% targeting Android. However, in the second quarter, iOS accounted for 75% of new projects, leaving just 25% for Android.'
This tasty quote is followed a pretty graph chart!
'iOS has served 15 Billion downloads compared to Androids 4.5 Billion
Given that the iOS App Store has been around for so much longer, this is not a bad showing from Android. However, the vast majority of the iOS downloads occurred in the face of competition from Android. The nail in the coffin: a greater proportion of those iOS downloads were paid.'
Wonder were the money is? Also check out this interesting article on iOS sensation Tiny Towers. It's a free to play tycoon-ish game close to breaking $3 million in it's first year of being available. http://tinyurl.com/3jhjrd5
So here is the article folks, take a look and enjoy it! http://www.indiedb.com/company/the-voxel-agents/news/the-mobile-market-place-how-does-it-look-today
-POOF-
On www.indiedb.com there is a great article on the Mobile Marketplace and I wanted to share it with everyone if you hadn't seen it yet. Below is the direct link to the article but some amazing excerpts from it our:
'You may think the iPad is a mobile device, but you’d be wrong.
- 43% of iPad owners use their iPad more than their desktop computer
- 28% say it’s their primary computer
- 34% use it more than their TV
- 83% use it primarily while at home. Only 11% use it on the go.'
'Developers are flocking back to the iOS platform
According to a blog post by Flurry, in the first quarter of this year, about 65% of new projects were for iOS compared to a respectable 35% targeting Android. However, in the second quarter, iOS accounted for 75% of new projects, leaving just 25% for Android.'
This tasty quote is followed a pretty graph chart!
'iOS has served 15 Billion downloads compared to Androids 4.5 Billion
Given that the iOS App Store has been around for so much longer, this is not a bad showing from Android. However, the vast majority of the iOS downloads occurred in the face of competition from Android. The nail in the coffin: a greater proportion of those iOS downloads were paid.'
Wonder were the money is? Also check out this interesting article on iOS sensation Tiny Towers. It's a free to play tycoon-ish game close to breaking $3 million in it's first year of being available. http://tinyurl.com/3jhjrd5
So here is the article folks, take a look and enjoy it! http://www.indiedb.com/company/the-voxel-agents/news/the-mobile-market-place-how-does-it-look-today
-POOF-
Monday, September 12, 2011
Moving Pixels
Hello again Assassins and Assassinettes!
Lately I have been doing more and more pixel art, mainly because they are easier to destroy then polygons which gives me a disgusting god-complex, and also, not as importantly, because my new game is a pixel art based game.
I have been enjoying the process of breaking something down to its tiniest form. It has been a real test to create images that our mind understands out of 32 small cubes. Because of how much fun I have been having, I would like to issue a small challenge to anyone that reads this:
Paint a pixel art robot on a 64x64 pixel image. It can be a front view, side view, or perspective but keep in mind, perspective will be more difficult! Have fun! Tweet your creations to me at: (at)Evilblah.
Good luck all!
-POOF-
Lately I have been doing more and more pixel art, mainly because they are easier to destroy then polygons which gives me a disgusting god-complex, and also, not as importantly, because my new game is a pixel art based game.
I have been enjoying the process of breaking something down to its tiniest form. It has been a real test to create images that our mind understands out of 32 small cubes. Because of how much fun I have been having, I would like to issue a small challenge to anyone that reads this:
Paint a pixel art robot on a 64x64 pixel image. It can be a front view, side view, or perspective but keep in mind, perspective will be more difficult! Have fun! Tweet your creations to me at: (at)Evilblah.
Good luck all!
-POOF-
Thursday, September 1, 2011
The Deus Ex moment
Greetings Assassins and Assassinettes!
When I take a break from creating new techniques to assassinate polygons, or training my pet Dragon Whale, I like to enjoy some games. Lately, I have been enjoying Deus Ex. It's a beautiful game full of atmosphere and stunning designs. I love the voice acting and animation and on top of that, the story is pretty good!
All that aside though, I wanted to tell you about my moment in Deus Ex. Generally every game has a moment for me. It's the moment when you either say, 'Holy S***! This game is amazing!' or 'F*** this game!' It can happen at anytime in the game and it can be something as simple as a secondary animation, or as complex as a beautiful environment that you just walked into.
In Deus Ex, it was close to the beginning of the game. Don't worry, no spoilers. It's the first time you go to your home. Walking in the front door, the music that played, what I saw, it all just made me sit back in my chair and say, 'Wow... This is amazing...' I knew, I knew from that moment on, my polygon assassinating life, would be better.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
-POOF-
When I take a break from creating new techniques to assassinate polygons, or training my pet Dragon Whale, I like to enjoy some games. Lately, I have been enjoying Deus Ex. It's a beautiful game full of atmosphere and stunning designs. I love the voice acting and animation and on top of that, the story is pretty good!
All that aside though, I wanted to tell you about my moment in Deus Ex. Generally every game has a moment for me. It's the moment when you either say, 'Holy S***! This game is amazing!' or 'F*** this game!' It can happen at anytime in the game and it can be something as simple as a secondary animation, or as complex as a beautiful environment that you just walked into.
In Deus Ex, it was close to the beginning of the game. Don't worry, no spoilers. It's the first time you go to your home. Walking in the front door, the music that played, what I saw, it all just made me sit back in my chair and say, 'Wow... This is amazing...' I knew, I knew from that moment on, my polygon assassinating life, would be better.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
-POOF-
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