Bloo Notes

Map Test

2009-05-31T00:24:00.000-07:00

Testing google maps iframe.

View Larger Map

Reading Is Fundamental

2008-10-23T10:40:00.000-07:00

Why do we have acronyms like RTFM (read the f^@%!#& manual) and RTFA (read the f^@%!#& article)? Because too many people ignored R.I.F. - Reading Is Fundamental.

These days, I can't even get the honesty of a "tl:dr" (too long; didn't read) when people COMPLETELY IGNORE information. Information that would answer their questions. Actually, better than that - they obviate the question because there would be no question if they would JUST. READ.

Reading is not the same as Scanning. Scanning is bullshit. READ IT.

This is a system problem in our society. Even at law school, a professor needed to remind students of the primacy of reading. He would do this by asking us: "What is the first rule of statutory construction?" (which means interpreting a statute). "Read on!" Imagine that. A law professor reminding a room full of law students, who have already graduated from college with a bachelor's degree needing to be reminded that they have to read things to understand it.

I'd like to redub a scene in Pulp Fiction:

Jules:
"English, muther fucker.  Do you read it?"

So, a suggestion for when you encounter new information in text form:

READ IT
READ ALL OF IT
If you have any questions, READ IT AGAIN
If your question was answered, move on.
If you still have a question that was not addressed, ask it.

And pay attention to D'Mite, he has several good points.

Don't Embrangle me with your abstergerent efforts to expurgate your dictionary, Collins.

2008-10-08T11:18:00.000-07:00

Fubsy, olid, niddering, nabobs.
24 Words the CED Wants to Exuviate (Shed)

And the hits just keep on coming.

2008-10-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm very surprised that this orphaned blog still gets some hits.

The list of 100 best sci-fi movies, which I copied from somewhere, seems to be the most popular thing of late, and there are rather a lot of mentions of something called "spark notes".

Maybe I should post more often. I dunno.

The 90% Solution to Most Customer Support Issues

2008-03-07T09:13:00.001-08:00

The solution to 90% of all account financial issues, i.e., complaints:
DON'T ENTER INTO CONTRACTS WITHOUT READING THE CONTRACT. You're giving us your credit card, for Thor's sake!

The solution to 90% of all login problems:
RECORD YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD SOMEWHERE YOU WON'T LOSE IT. When one account has the login name "foo" and the gamename "bar", but you also created an account when you were drunk one night and couldn't remember the other password with the login name "bar" and the gamename "foo", do not be surprised when you can't login to the first account with the password of the second account, nor that when you unsubscribe one, the other continues.

The solution to 90% of all technical problems:
HIRE A TEENAGER TO FIX/UPGRADE YOUR COMPUTER. Scratch that. Teenagers don't know crap about computers anymore. Hire a burned out PC gamer in his 30s.

So, We announced some news...

2008-02-25T14:54:00.001-08:00

...I'm not going to get into the merits of the announcement of the newly announced Playnet deal that will license the game in China.

But I am damned embarrassed by all the racism, ignorance and racism I see on our forums. Good thing I'm not a mod or the banhammer would be scarred from heavy use. As it is, I'm thankful I have an ignore feature for the forums. Lot of names added to that recently.

Monster Haiku

2007-08-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

(I'm not entirely happy with this, but it's going in the right direction)

Longing Zombie

my life now simple
all desires gone but one
brains Brains BRAINS BRAINS BRAINS!

Frankenstein's Monster

the bolts on my neck
delivered the spark of life
the itch I can't scratch

The Mummy

Tanna leaves wake me
Not the afterlife promised
Must kill you all now

Vampire

Blood far too salty.
Atkins diet eternal
Vegans, my salad.

Rolling Eyes

2007-08-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

Old, but neat. It's a wireless camera ball that rolls around under your control. The Eye Ball R1. And tough enough to throw into places.

I'm sure the next version will actually be on a little hover rotor so you can have your own school of flying camera-copters, just like Mike McQuay predicted in Hot Time in Old Town.

Rotten Tomatoees 100 'best' sci-fi movies.

2007-07-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

This list is shite. But to spare you 100 clicks:

1 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
2 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
3 Metropolis (1926)
4 Alien (1979)
5 Minority Report (2002)
6 The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
7 Children of Men (2006)
8 The Host (2007)
9 Star Wars (1977)
10 Aliens (1986)
11 The Road Warrior (1981)
12 The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
13 Galaxy Quest (1999)
14 Brazil (1985)
15 The Terminator (1984)
16 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
17 Solaris (1972)
18 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
19 Frankenstein (1931)
20 Mad Max (1979)
21 Repo Man (1984)
22 Back to the Future (1985)
23 Sleeper (1973)
24 Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
25 Gojira (1954)
26 Young Frankenstein (1974)
27 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
28 Men in Black (1997)
29 Ghostbusters (1984)
30 Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
31 The Invisible Man (1933)
32 The Matrix (1999)
33 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
34 Forbidden Planet (1956)
35 Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
36 Blade Runner (1982)
37 Them! (1954)
38 Time Bandits (1982)
39 The Fly (1986)
40 THX 1138 (1971)
41 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
42 2046 (2005)
43 Re-Animator (1985)
44 12 Monkeys (1995)
45 A Clockwork Orange (1971)
46 Delicatessen (1991)
47 Donnie Darko (2001)
48 Serenity (2005)
49 District B13 (2006)
50 Things to Come (1936)
51 Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)
52 Save The Green Planet! (2005)
53 They Live (1988)
54 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
55 Fantastic Voyage (1966)
56 Westworld (1973)
57 Planet of the Apes (1968)
58 The Brother From Another Planet (1984)
59 Altered States (1980)
60 Robocop (1987)
61 Open Your Eyes (1997)
62 Jurassic Park (1993)
63 The Thing (1951)
64 Pi (1997)
65 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
66 Escape from New York (1981)
67 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
68 The Abyss (1989)
69 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
70 Time After Time (1979)
71 Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
72 Seconds (1966)
73 Alphaville (1965)
74 Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)
75 The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
76 X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)
77 Videodrome (1983)
78 Gattaca (1997)
79 Total Recall (1990)
80 The War of the Worlds (1953)
81 The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
82 Dark City (1998)
83 Signs (2002)
84 Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
85 Innerspace (1987)
86 Starman (1984)
87 Return of the Jedi (1983)
88 Flash Gordon (1980)
89 War of the Worlds (2005)
90 Death Race 2000 (1975)
91 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
92 It Came From Outer Space (1953)
93 Dreamscape (1983)
94 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
95 Dark Star (1974)
96 A Boy and His Dog (1975)
97 The Thing (1982)
98 Primer (2004)
99 Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
100 Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971)

Wax On, Mutherfrakkers!

2007-06-17T00:32:00.000-07:00

Cobra Kai Never Dies. Must appreciate Karate Kid to enjoy this video and song from No More Kings.

London Called

2007-05-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

...and I answered.

Great place. Pub. Imperial War Museum. Pub. British girls. Pub. Japanese food (Don Katsu). The British Museum. Turkish food (Haloumi grilled cheese and mixed grill). Pub. British food (Sunday Roast at the pub and fish and chips). Hampstead Heath. Smoked Salmon. Kenwood House. Scones with Devonshire cream and strawberry jam. Pub. Being just in front of Critical Mass and escaping in a tiny car. The bridge at the Embankment Pier. Jazz concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Pub. Homemade biscuit topped Chicken pot pie and chili. Almost more walking than my busted ankles could handle.

Not necessarily in that order.

Jokur007 wants a post

2007-05-21T13:29:00.000-07:00

Con's over and I'm going away to recover.

I'll be posting videos of the roundtable discussion (which features several questions from Jokur007) as soon as I'm back and find my firewire cable.

I suck at Texas Hold 'Em, but then, maybe if I knew what beats what, I'd do better.

The blocks of the ancient Egyptian pyramids were probably made like cement, cast into blocks from a limestone concoction (though there are still some actual quarried granite slabs involved. The ceramics and materials scientist talked about in the article believes that recreating that material would make an excellent building material for the future: cheap and loooooong lasting.

Fun With History: Bayeux Tapestry

2007-05-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

JoeMac showed me this. I thought this was pretty awesome. Reminds me of reading 1066 And All That.

Easy To Do Lists With Google

2007-05-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

My mom needs/wants an online To Do list. It makes sense for her, since she travels a lot and things can easily get missed. I could use one myself, but it has to go a loooong way to beat paper. I didn't have a precise list of requirements, I assumed I'd know it when I see it.

I've tried one of the small Google home page gadgets, but it isn't good for printing, so that wasn't right. I asked for some suggestions and tried these:

Tada List
StikiPad
Remember the Milk

Tada List was the early favorite.

But all of these suffer from a similar problem: they are Yet-Another-Website-To-Remember-And-Login-Too.

Leaving aside, who are they really, and if these services are free, how are they going to make money, which are fair questions, to varying degrees, they are a bit over-engineered for my unexpressed requirements. Full-featured GTD (Getting Things Done) integration, not needed (I've got the book but I haven't been able to finish it - no pun intended).

Ultimately, I found a solution that will work better, at least I hope. The winner, for now, is Google.

Google Home Page ("iGoogle" I guess it is now)
+ Google Docs
+ Google home page gadget that displays Google Docs list on your home page
= FTW

So now the upper left corner of my google page looks like this:

Although Google Docs isn't as over-featured as Word for printing things, it prints just fine and is great for web reading as well.

This is how a blog dies....

2007-04-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

...not with a bang, but with a end of posting.

I've pretty much decided to kill this puppy.

Until I do for sure: unmoderated comments!

RTFE

2007-01-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

Would you notice this if it were in the EULA (End User License Agreement) that you click through when you sign up for an account on a website, or install software, or, say, login to an online game?

By accepting this agreement, you admit your public support for and endorsement of the following statements: "baby seals should be clubbed," "puppies and kittens are for eating," and "Wookies can't dance,"as well as other statements that we, in our sole discretion, decide to attribute to you in the future. You furthermore consent to have your name, likeness and personal information (and that of your immediate and extended family, existing now and as may come into existence in the future), including but not limited to your address, personal email, phone number(s), place of employment, income tax statements, social security number, spending habits, itemized list of all pornography purchased, borrowed, stolen, downloaded or otherwise viewed, all credit cards and bank accounts, sexual preference, blood type, criminal history report, history of illicit drug use, personal sexual history (or lack thereof), and personal hygiene and grooming habits) made public in any form existing now or that may be developed in the future, including, but not limited too, town crier, hand bills, car windshield flyers, book form, displayed on the side of a large building in l0 foot size letters, silkscreening on t-shirts, painted on coffee mugs, shown on massively huge tv screens at sporting events, television scolling text 'crawlers', read over loudspeakers at places of public transportation and aboard airplane flights, inclusion in fortune cookies, emailed to everyone in the world, displayed on orbital blimps, laser-painted on the face of the moon, spelled out in asteroids or transmitted into the aether via Morse code).

No. Probably not.

Light at the end of the tunnel

2007-01-10T11:08:00.000-08:00

Support flood ebbing
I'm cresting the hill of support issues as a result of our annual December patch crisis and all its follow on. Still some slogging to go, but should be back to normal very soon.

Damn Ghosts!
There's a fix test for a memory leak from the corpses now (damn ghosts!) in open test now: see the Production Notes.

SSE2 is the way
Looks like very, very few players (much less than 1%) are still on non-SSE2 processors. So don't be surprised if we soon stop supporting them entirely. Doing so will let us save some time on creating multiple architecture executables and, much more significantly, fixing things when they break for one but not the other (to say nothing of diagnosing correctly which one a player was using when they encounter a problem).

Idea for next MMO: You buy the box, the game is free.
You pay us $2000. We ship you a good box and give you access to the game for at least 4 years. You install any other hardware - your deal is void and No Refund. You can install approved software only.

The box itself won't be the $2000 cost, we have to cover the costs of game production of course. We'll open it up for people who don't buy the box, after release, but if you want support, that's extra.

Overtime, we could probably decrease the cost of the box+game, or upgrade the box.

Actually, for $300 year, we'll send you a new video card every year.

Blogger's idea of bold is strange
Select some text in blogger and press the b button, and in the HTML you get

[span style="font-weight:bold;"]this[/span]

Yet [b]this[/b] works fine if you enter it manually. Neat, huh. (No, not really).

And the [pre] function does not.

Aside: Reading I Should Have Done
I picked up Melville's Moby Dick the other day and started it. I think I heard someone talking about this on National Public Radio not too long ago, and how it was very innovative, etc.

Fart jokes and mentions of bloody fighting in Afghanistan in the first short chapter! Who knew? Some phrases that catch my mind:

...[I]t is a damp, drizzly November in my soul...

With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

...[A] purse is but a rag unless you put something in it.

...I always go to sea as a sailor.

Hello, Kungsbacka!

2007-01-05T10:36:00.000-08:00

I occasionally check my Google Analytics report on viewership of this here pseudo-blog.

According to it, most of you few who visit here, at least recently, have been here before and are coming via Toto's blog (Chamfering). At least most of the visits.

Kungsbacka, Sweden is the top visitor at 16%, followed by Vancouver, BC. Then it drops a lot, but Scandanivia (26) beats out the USA (23) with Falun and Sundbyberg Sweden, Tromsø, Norway and Kuopio, Finland. Sweden alone ties America, so I'm gonna call that a win for Sweden!

I think Bangkok, Thailand is most distant but Gladesville, Australia and Palmerston North, New Zealand are also in the running given the flat map is a distortion of reality, and 'great circle arcs' and such make it hard for me to estimate (and I'm too lazy/busy-with-other-things to look it up). Rugby Union fans, I wonder?

I don't have much to post. We think we've fixed a few things with the game that should go out very soon, such as the ATI disappearing bushes and a memory leak.

Ugh.

2007-01-01T16:40:00.000-08:00

(no text)

Here it is

2006-12-15T12:41:00.001-08:00

WIKI.WWIIONLINE.COM

For now, you can only read. Soon, we'll let all premium subscribers have editing access.

It's here

2006-12-15T09:47:00.001-08:00

For those that see, it can be seen.

It's coming

2006-12-14T10:35:00.000-08:00

Not today, but probably tomorrow.

Not here, but somewhere close.

It's coming. And it will be good.

Console-Ation

2006-11-29T09:32:00.000-08:00

The impulse to get a new console is growing. Even though I just finished GTA: San Andreas on my PS2 a couple of months ago, and blazed through Okami on it more recently (ok, I didn't get quite to the ultimate end because it got boring - but it's a beautiful game!). Looking at all the consoles that are out now, I've only done a casual analysis of them. And calling it an "analysis" is a stretch - it's more like "Oh shiny box!", "Ohh different shiny box!", "Ohhhhh other different shiny box with a weird angle and nunchucks!"

Based on what I've heard from others, this is how it seems to me (tell me if I've got this right - or wrong):

Wii: ideal for playing games with friends who are in the same room as you (and for adorable little girls early adventures in cursing - maybe I can borrow a teammate's kid to play Wii for me and curse at the game, so I can giggle like an idiot all day). But caution for the slippery handed and flailing maulers.
XBox 360: ideal for playing console games with friends who are somewhere on the intralix, with a good UI, good online features, media center type features, background downloading of files and updates, easy to take your controller and play at a friend's house (but why would you want to do that?). But, you can do all that with a PC...
PS3: ideal for... line gnomes selling to Ebay speculators?

Hmm. Maybe I can resist the urge to get a new console. My PS2 still works fine.

I'm still miffed that the PSP wasn't just a little bit larger (I thought it was originally planned to be able to play DVDs - but noooooo, must.have.proprietary.memory.format. The bastards.).

Favorite Words in Spam

2006-10-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

Occasionally, I see a neat word in spam email subject lines. A real word, not a made up one. Words that I would be impressed to see someone use in a casual conversation.

Today's word:hebephrenic.

A person who suffers from hebephrenia - A type of schizophrenia characterized by foolish mannerisms, senseless laughter, delusions, hallucinations, and regressive behavior.

I first encountered the term in Philip K. Dick's Clans of the Alphane Moon. A neat story about an asylum/sanitarium for those with strong mental problems, but so many of them that they formed clans along the lines of their conditions. There were the "Manses" (manics), "Heebs" (hebephrenics), and various others. A "normal" person is sent there for reasons I don't recall, and the others considered being a "Norm" just another mental illness.

Manifesto Propaganda

2006-08-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

Greg Costikyan 's Manifesto Games has launched its beta. It aims at being an independent online game publisher. It started as a rant and it became a business plan.

I registered today as "bloo" and got a free download of Plasmaworm.

His blog is pretty insightful and worth a gander or three.

Who will be first against the wall, now that the revolution has come?

The revolution will be downloaded.

Top or Bottom?

2006-08-24T10:30:00.001-07:00

Ok, people. It's getting to be rigoddamndiculous. Pick one: Top or Bottom!

A Top looks like this:

And the horse you road in on!
-Bar

> Foo said:
> This, that and the other thing

A Bottom looks like this:

> Foo said:
> This, that and the other thing.

And the horse you road in on!
-Bar

If you're a Switchhitter, just stop using email altofreakingether, ok? All you're doing is making a mess. Here's what happens with a switcher gets involved.

First, a nice 'All Bottoms' exchange, with chronological (numbers) indicating order in time:

>>> Foo said:
>>> This, that and the other thing. (1)

>> Bar said:
>> And the horse your road in on. (2)

> Foo said:
> Help me find me keys and we can drive out! (3)

That's what she said! (4)
-Bar

Now with swishy switching:

That's what she said! (4)
-Bar

>>> Foo said:
>>> This, that and the other thing. (1)

>> Bar said:
>> And the horse your road in on. (2)

>> Foo said:
>> Help me find me keys and we can drive out! (3)

Bar set the pattern with an initial Bottom approach. Foo followed suit. Then bar swivelled on his swishy ass and went Top.

Now make each exchange two or more paragraphs and have a couple of interstitial responses, add one Switchhitter and watch them make an email discussion HORRIBLY BROKEN!

When you switch, you're telling me that nothing discussed below is important or relevant anymore. You might as well not include any previous text so that I won't have any idea what you're talking about and I can jump right past potential confusion and start ignoring you immediately.

Blog or Brant?

2006-08-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

I don't think I'm cutout for this blogging thing. It is just talking in a vacuum mostly, and I do enough of that in my own head - most of which is not for publication.

Hypothetically, I could start making outrageous statements all the time, to get people to look, and have a lot of ads and affiliate programs and the like. Some people are able to make a little money at that. But...eh. Why bother?

Some popular blogs, particularly related to gaming, are really just weBRANTs against others. "Look how special I am, 'cause I tell you how other people are asshats!"

One often encountered element is the 'creative' insult. Usually seen in the form of verbose new combinations of insulting phrases and cursewords, which I can't be bothered to give examples of at the moment. While appreciation for a good insult is often seen as a trait of the intellectual elite, and maybe it is, it is also a pretty cheap path to go down. Take one thesaurus, grind sprigs of Wilde, Shaw and other 19th century British wit in a mortar, a dash of vinegar and bile, a pinch of pepper, simmer over envious heat, serve piping hot.

But after Stephen Fry's indictment of Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" as "so much loose stool water" and "assgravy", the bar has been set too high for amateurs.

Muddied Waters

2006-08-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so, 11, 12 days without an update? Can this even be called a 'blog'?

Nothing major I want to post on really. I have been playing around with Mud 1, a bit. But more in my head than in the game. Going back to the old school, has really got me questioning a lot of game design, or maybe it's world design. And a lot of specific ideas that might be interesting to do in a game have been coming to me lately. Many hasty chicken scratches on notepads. Something's stirring, but it isn't soup yet. Just muddy water with some shiny stuff in it.

Masochistic Devel's

2006-07-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

JWilly commented:

Of course, then one looks at the latest Bruce Woodcock data on the combat-sim genre's share of MMOLG subscriptions (as opposed to fantasy, sci-fi/superhero and social genres) being only 0.3%, and the idea of targeting an underserved sub-segment of that 0.3% seems kind of masochistic.

Oh, well.

I think it is more a question of costs of creation, maintenance, and on-going development. If you can keep the costs down, much smaller subscriber bases can be profitable.

When you compete in the same 'attention space' as the behom-o-crafts, you're not going to hit the top of Bruce's chart. But those charts don't show profit.

Think about hollywood movies and their opening weekend box office gross: if you're not number 1, you're viewed as a failure. Look at Clerks II which just came out. According to Mr. Smith, the movie cost $5 million to make and grossed $10 million on opening weekend (marketing costs not in that, but still, the point is there).

He explains that Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was the model for his latest release. It generated $30 million in box office, but $36 million in DVD sales. You've just got to "plug lower numbers in the equation", as Mr. Smith says. A comparable result with Clerks II will allow Mr. Smith to keep making his movies for a long time - without requiring significant distributor investment.

A similar principle can be adopted in gaming, and I suspect that it is in casual games.

Create a game that will be successful and viable at 5,000 annual subscribers. Your annual gross revenue would be $600,000 [5000 x $10/month x 12 months/year]. With a planned minimum lifetime of 2 years, (hopefully longer but let's be conservative at this point): $1.2 million.

That has to fund: pre-launch dev, post-launch maintenance, and post-launch dev. Pre-launch dev time is hard to predict precisely, but let's say 18 months, for a total time horizon of 42 months. Since you want to take some money off the table, you need to do everything for an even million, giving you a return of 20% if all those numbers play out. In an oversimplistic view, that would give you a monthly budget of $23,000/month, or $285,000/year.

Can you create, maintain and continue to develop a game for $285,000/year?

Yes, you can. But this does describe the shape of the world of what you can afford to spend money on. It would have to be a very small staff and a small game, but if you accidentally end up with 7,000 or 10,000 subscribers, then things start to get very profitable.

It may not be the game you're dreaming of, but it is viable and can be successful. A gaming example, though non-MMO, is Combat Missions. Made by a small team, they made the game they wanted to make, and 'published' it themselves via mail order. When I first heard about this game in 2000 I think, I bought 4 copies for myself, my brother and friends. I spoke once to one of them (memory fails me), because I was curious about how effective the mail-order system had been for them. While I couldn't get any details, it was very clear that they were very happy with the results.

Illuminated Elders

2006-07-28T14:34:00.000-07:00

Lessons from the Old School
by Steve Jackson, Viewer of Fnords, Illuminator

Evil Stevie! If you don't know who Steve Jackson is...you should. Illuminati, Car Wars, Ogre, GURPS, Killer, Toon...you wouldn't have heard of these without Steve Jackson Games (and note Mr. Costikyan and Mr. Spector, the two keynote speakers, co-authored Toon - read it and understand why your game does not need to be as complex as you think it does).

Disclaimer: I'm an SJG fanboi and receive royalties from them for GURPS Traveller: Far Trader, which I freely admit to beng a junior partner on.

No power points here. Mr. Jackson even did it without the microphone that other speakers had used. He used a Mac laptop to track his outline, and did an excellent job of incorporating audience comments and questions into the discussion.

The point of this presentation is in the title: lessons that computer games can learn from non-computer or 'unplugged' games.

Digital games make the same mistakes of unplugged games, particularly in design and financial aspects. However, they are making mistakes that unplugged games have already solved!

There are, of course, huge differences between digital an non-digitial games. Sales of paper games are around two orders of magnitude less than digital. And paper game teams are always very small, and can be as small as one individual. However, the significance of these differences diminishes in the context of indie digital games.

I think the most important point Mr. Jackson made regarded playtesting. Previous speakers had stressed the point that when designing your game, it must be fun! "Well, duh," said Mr. Jackson. But he elaborated, "If the game is supposed to be fun - then test for that!" His fear is that digital game companies don't test for fun, and audience comments, including my own, reinforced that conclusion. I remarked that most game companies I'm aware of do not even use the term "playtest", only "QA", and often their ownly interface with developers is through bugzilla emails. This, and other similar comments, neither pleased nor suprised Mr. Jackson.

There were other valuable points, which people forget all too often:

"Do not apologize for size. A hummingbird is just as neat as a Tyrannosaurus Rex. But giant publishers can't do small."

"Originality is overrated" when trying to make a monster hit. "Bit hits are not original - they are extremely well executed."

This reinforces Mr. Pedersen's recounting of the history of top selling games from the day before.

Mr. Spector mentioned that at Junction Point, he reports they have a test every Thursday at 2PM and the whole staff must watch it, or the video of it. Whatever they have, they test as soon as they can, whether it is 30 seconds or 5 minutes. However, "it is stupid to make decisions based only on users tests because gamers only know what they have liked in the past." Mr. Jackson responded that playtest feedback "is not gold - it needs to be filtered and interpreted."

Mr. Spector then asked why Mr. Jackson hadn't done more in the digital realm. "Torque made my head hurt," answered Mr. Jackson. Mr. Spector went on to explain many of the tools for making games are much easier to use now, such as the Aurora engine of NeverWinter Nights, saying "A Steve Jackson Neverwinter Nights Module would be great!", at which there were many approval sounds from the audience.

As the discussion concluded, there were cries for other digital realizations of classic SJG games, such as "Ogre on mobile phones," which was requested by Don Gilman.

Promises, Promises

2006-07-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

The Promise of Indie Games
Roundtable with

Billy Cain: Critical Mass Interactive
Raphael Colantonio: Arkane Studios
Shannon Cusick: Orbis Games
Paul Trowe: Pulse Interactive

A casual roundtable that started slow but picked up some steam. Difficult to recount the ebb and flow of the discussion. There were some points to draw from it though. Mr. Trowe with much experience within different major publishers, remarked that working for publishers is a great way to "make millions of dollars for someone else, if you're lucky enough to get there in the first place."

Everyone on the panel commented that success as an indie requires you to learn how to do a lot of business stuff to be viable. Reading contracts and understanding them, learning about payroll and teaching yourself QuickBooks (with a licensed copy, naturally). If you make your own game company, you're becoming just as much a 'businessman' as a 'game developer', and perhaps more so.

Ms. Cusick, who has created Virtual Horse Ranch with just two other people commented that one of her goals is to replace herself as CEO of her own company so that she can focus on the games and less the payroll, reports, etc. This is actually a pretty enlightened decision and one major innovators in other businesses have done over the years.

Mr. Colantonio explained that you have to read the contracts because you can understand a lot more of it than you think if you focus on it, which is a good point, I think.

I don't mean to ignore Mr. Cain, he had several good points and information, but my note taking was rather weak at this point.

In-Spector Veritas

2006-07-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

'Just Live': the Importance of Indie Development
(Or 'Why you shouldn't follow Greg Costikyan, Part II')
by Warren Spector

Executive producer of of Deus Ex, which I confess, I never got past the training level of - I think it was a bug of some sort which frustrated me to the FTG ("'Forget' This Game") point. But I'm a fan of many of the other games he has worked on, particularly Thief, Ultima VII: Serpent Isle and Underword. Yeah...maybe I'll just go install Deus Ex and give it another shot right now.

Mr. Spector (dibs! on "Mister Spector" for a supervillain name), had a power point, which is to be expected, and there were a lot of points on it, but he flew over those faster than Mr. Costikyan speaks. But that was fine. By this time, the points were more reinforcing key points than introducing them to the uninfected.

Important to note is that Mr. Spector, like Mr. Walton, is a self-described non-independent. His current game company is Junction Point Studios working on we know not what.

Quick points:

Gaming Must Change
Need something new
Need alternatives
Won't be easy
Won't come from the mainstream
Will come from the margins

Mainstream products rarely have any significant impact on innovation [except perhaps to stifle it?]. Agents of change are the avant garde.

EA exec. in 1992: "The future is in big budget blockbusters."
Mr. Spector: "He was right."

"20 years ago it was cooler. No one knew what they were doing but they all thought they had the answer. There were small teams. There were no genres." [That last terms be an error, my handwriting isn't always discernible].

Calling on his film history education, Mr. Spector pointed out that most media follows this trend. In the first 15 years, stuff is created, but then it is conventionalized and made factory style. Next, perceived threats from other media (such as television in the context of film). But then, eventually, the rise of the independents occurs when the cost of creation drops.

An independent movie is one written and produced without studio interference with a very limited budgets and is usually character or personally driven. For games, the developer is essentially the sole creator and financer and there is no external control.

Goals of being an independent:

Own your own work
Create you own goals
Do what you want
Reach your own audience

"Commercial success cannot be the driving force." If you aren't motivated to change things, you don't have a vision, and you don't hear the 'call to arms' (aren't willing to battle for you game', then the indie movement isn't right for you.

In response to Mr. Walton's statement the previous day that "it is a waste of time to make a game that no one plays", Mr. Spector argued that this isn't true. In the case of Facade, it is important because of its ideas and these will influence other games, which will be commercially successful.

"You should want to write your own manifesto. You should want to destroy something."

The mainstream isn't evil - it is misguided.
Mainstream publishers are usually driven to the answer of the question: "Will this generate maximum profit?" But sometimes, the question is a little different: "Will we lose this prima donna if we don't keep him happy?"

Taking a a few lines from George Bernard Shaw, Mr. Spector reminds us that 'Unreasonable people adapt the world to themselves, so progress needs unreasonable people.'

Indie games may be at a crossroads, about to make the same mistakes as the mainstream with 'virtual shelfspace' in the form of 'Top 10 Games' lists on game aggregation sites.

To succeed in indie games, you need to make a new obligation to the medium and to yourself and your company. You need to make enough to make your next game, and feed yourself first.

You might need to go into Survival Mode: do some ports, build an Adver game, make a deal with the devil, build your resume. But be subversive, sneak in something new. Play in your free time and plan your escape.

Then there was a lengthy quote from Aleister Crowley and becoming a Devil about acting on standards your form within, rather on those forced upon you from without, but I think you get the point.

Remember 4 out of 5 games fail.

Become a serial con artist to get people to give you money, time, labor, etc.

Recommended Reading:
Organizing Genius
Peopleware
The Timeless Way of Building

Pwned by 'Poon

2006-07-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

War Stories From Texas Garage Startups
(or "How to get screwed by publishers")
by Don Gilman

Mr. Gilman has been scuh-rewed by publishers in significant and life-lesson-teaching ways. He made the computer game version of Harpoon, which was originally a board game by Larry Bond (the oft-unmentioned co-author of Red Storm Rising).

His day job is not games, it is a bit more important than that. His team is working on the Texas Energy and Emissions Calculator, which is designed to help governments and builders save energy costs on buildings. If you consider how much available energy goes to power buildings that are empty for half the day, you'll see that is very valuable research.

You can read the twists and turns of Harpoon's history here. Harpoon is most recently available through Matrix Games, who also makes Battleground Europe (my employer) available. He decided on them after first sending out a Request For Proposals to various publishers with the following three important statements:

We don't trust anyone
First contract will be of *very* short duration
We will have guillotine clauses in the contract if you are ever late with, or cause any hold up in, payments.

"If you don't pay on time, you loose the right to carry the product immediately upon notification - with no recourse." [sic] [The "loose" thing may be intentional, I've noticed a lot of wargamers and fake-fighter pilots do use that spelling on purpose.]

Advanced Gaming Systems is now developing Harpoon on a 'cash-flow' basis. What has happened is that some clients of Harpoon Professional, like the Australian Department of Defense, request a certain feature to be added that will help them use the game and they pay for it. But AGS structures the agreements that anything they develop they get to keep the rights to and can keep in the game. So what is happening is that different military companies and agencies (the only ones that can purchase Harpoon 3 Professional) end up providing the investment needed to continue developing the game. Ultimately, Mr. Gilman hopes that this will allow AGS to package a true Harpoon 4 without the entanglements of an invested publisher.

With Harpoon's long existence, Mr. Gilman pointed out several things which help keep the game alive, and really help a small team and a community achieve more than they might be done otherwise. Collaboration tools such as Wikis and bug tracking software like Mantis, allow non-devs to contribute greatly. As do configuration tools that allow players to 'mod' you game. The work of two moders was very significant in keeping Harpoon a viable project.

Other main points of his were to keep your day job and realize that the tortoise wins.

Recommended Reading:
How to Win Friends and Influence People
E-Myth Revisited
E-Myth Manager

Triggers and Retreads

2006-07-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

Designing Great Games
(or "How many indie game folk does it take to plug in a projector?")
by Roger Pedersen

This was less than exciting. Awkward start, awkward finish. For 90% of the presentation, Mr. Pedersen simply read his powerpoint slides in his Donald Trump-like accent. But to be fair, he appeared somewhat tired and perhaps under the weather. Nonetheless, Mr. Pedersen made several good points and food for thought if you could focus on what he was saying.

After pointing out that best selling games for many years have been retreaded sequels of existing games and licenses, he recounts conversations with famous game innovators on what makes a great game. The concensus was replayability.

Then he spoke to how you can enhance replayability within a game with what at first seemed a routine example, but given more thought, is actually an excellent point.

Say you have an action game and there is a coffin or something with a zombie in it. The first time you play, when you touch the coffin, the zombie rises and you shoot the zombie's head off with your shotgun. A simple thing: trigger -> event. But if you give the same event multiple triggers, replay is enhanced. The second time through the game, the zombie might be triggered after you leave the room, or only if you touch the other side, or perhaps even before you enter the room, etc. Thus, the game environment appears to be much more dynamic. This makes it much harder for the player to train himself to the optimal, and eventually boring, path to completing the game.

Mr. Pedersen also discussed designing games for specific conditions and markets, providing the example of a game he is working on to teach women internet users how to make mixed drinks of all varieties through playing a 'Coyote Ugly' styled game. The focus on appealing to women because a huge percentage of people on the internet are women (and he wanted to teach more women how to make drinks).

He also stressed the importance of playtesting the game by observing players who haven't been trained to play the game they way you think they should, a point reinforced my most of the speakers at the conference - I think they mean it.

Penis Monsters

2006-07-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Techniques of Procedurally Generated Content
by Tom Roberston

A general overview of the applicability of procedural content generation systems to gaming other than terrain creation, which is extensively covered on the internet.

ProcGen (apologies for the concatenation but I'm tired of typing the whole phrase out) is good for:

lots and lots of fairly similar things
objects when you don't have an artist
user created objects (it is a creativity multiplier/amplifier)
futuristic or alien appearing objects
lightening the workload
reducing data footprint

It is NOT good for:

unique or interesting content
replacing artists
humans, especially human faces
specific objects from the past or present (like a '57 Chevy)
simple, known-quality objects

Basic Concepts of ProcGen content:

Bilateral symmetry is required
The Uncanny Valley is dangerous (things that look almost human are very troubling to humans). The stuffed animal look is about the sweet spot on the likeability scale.

"You're guaranteed to get penis monsters if you give [a creature generator] to users."

ProcGen won't work the way you expect. Is that OK?

Generating Stories?

There was a brief discussion about generated stories. Mr. Robertson mentioned that if a computer algorhythym gets good at generating stories, isn't that getting close to sentience?

[I don't think so, at all, but then, it depends on how you generate stories. I think what is meant by procedurally generated stories is closer to generated plots, which seems more tenable, particularly given such works as the Thirty Six Dramatic Situations, by Georges Polti (which happens to be on my bookshelf). It isn't exactly a very accessible book, but it is somewhat interesting. I think 76 Patrons and 101 Patrons give some ideas on how plot generators can create interesting, or at least viable, plots.

Disclaimer, I was a contributor to 101 Patrons and also 101 Religions (Beware Monadin and also the Battle Chaplains!). I think I need to pick up 101 Plots.]

Brain Sucking

2006-07-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

Winning as an Independent Developer
by Gordon Walton (a non-independent developer)

Mr. Walton presented some valuable insight from a non-independent view point.

The differences in the game markets:

PC/MMO: low cost of entry, downloadable/viral distribution
Next Gen console: *brutal* resource and expertise requirements
Web Games: low cost of entry, ideal for viral distribution/marketing, but fierce competition
Handheld/Mobile: low cost of entry, but First Party distributors/manufacturers and fierce competition.

"There are easier ways too make money than games."

You must iterate when making a game. Find people who think your game sucks and listen to them.

"Every great game is an unreasonable proposition."

"Do crazy things". Publishers have filters they apply when looking at game proposals.

"Can it be marketed?" is one of the most important questions. "If we don't know how to sell it - next!"

"Know how to con other people into doing stuff - very important."

"You've revealed the secret that dare not be spoken!" - Warren Spector.

Specific advice (Take aways):

read Blue Ocean Strategy
read Secret of Word of Mouth Marketing
Shotgun development approach (My handwrititng is unclear here). Make games that are fun. ("Well, duh," says Steve Jackson the next day in his presentation).
build a like-minded team
Don't be an asshole. Play well with others
Educate yourself on marketing and business
Just do it. Make a game.
Focus on your 'super powers', but eliminate/minimize your weaknesses so they don't cripple you.
Make your own playing field.
You'll win big or die.

For appealing/marketing to non-Western/Anglo cultures: read The Geography of Thought

Steve Jackson asked, what changes in the next 10 years, particularly with regard to internet's effect on gaming. Mr. Walton explained that bandwidth isn't the problem, latency is. Someone in the audience commented, "You'll be wired into a game all the time."

Mr. Walton: "We compete for people's free time. Our job is to suck every cycle we can out of every brain that we can."

Music/Sound is the most cost effective way to grab a player.
GW is looking for a book that doesn't exist: "The history of martial music and its impact on militancy."

"We do this to mess with people's heads."

"We humans are story creatures. Gaming is more than story. It is the about the illusion of creation/control."

I think the most significant point in Mr. Walton's presentation is that if you try to do battle with the big publishers on their terrain, against their weapons, you're dead before you know it.

Genre Generation

2006-07-28T13:00:00.000-07:00

Games, Genres and Why Independent Games are Vital
by Greg Costikyan

I'm a fan of Mr. Costikyan's and think most people interested in game design should read just about everything here: http://www.costik.com/writing.html . Fair warning: this may color your thinking about games forever more.

As Mr. Costikyan says in his own blog about the subject, his talk was mostly a combination of things he's said before.

You can read Mr. Costikyan's Power Point presentation yourself. But I'll highlight a few points.

Mr. Costikyan speaks very quickly but very calmly. Pay attention or you just missed his explanation of exactly how badly you are screwed, indie game maker. He also has a deep and thorough knowledge of this history of games.

Genres in other media are defined by different things.

Novels - themes (sci-fi, western, mystery, etc.)
Music - nature of the sound (choral, emo, drums & bass, gangsta, the Blues)*
Film - emotion (horror, romance, comedy)

* [I think the point he's made here is essentially right, but there is more than that going on. The blues isn't about the nature of the sound, it is about the structure of the music, following the "1 4 5" chord structure. I think music lends itself to multiple genres, for instance, there is a difference between Mississippi Delta Blues and Chicago (electic guitar) blues, just as there is a difference between big band swing and 'hard bop'. But this is quibbling. I don't know what "emo" means]

Game genres are best defined by their primary game mechanics. Thus, the "shmup" ("SHoot 'eM UP" - often in a space setting). Creating new game genre/game mechanics creates a whole new category of game. Innovation in games is led by new styles of play - this creates new audiences.

Nothing new in video games since 1996 (Rhythm games, Parappa the Rapper.)

There are many comparisons between Hollywood and the video game industry, but with rare exception, gaming doesn't have stars that can drive production of certain movies.

What's the future of gaming?
Genres will narrow, budgets will rise.
New titles need "sales velocity" to be successful in retail distribution and you've only got a two-week window.

"The game you've been working on for three years, if they don't nail the marketing right, you're fucked."

If you're trying to make a game of the type that the big guys do (FPS, RTS, etc), you're dead.

What to do? The things that EA are not.

What aren't they doing?

Adventure
Wargaming
Sim/Tycoon style
Non-FPS shooters
4X
Shmups
Tunr-based Strategy (Lase Squad Nemesis)
Sports Management

Some old style games have no current analogy:

Balance of Power
7 Cities of Gold
MULE

Examples and Areas of Genre Creation:

Technology Improves
Physics
AI
Social Networking (Which current MMOs don't do really)
Cross platform/marketing ubiquity
Proceduraly generated content
Subject Matter (SimCity, city management, etc.; however - marketing challenges)
Business Channel (Magic the Gathering sold in comic book stores)
Cominations (Dune II combined already existing game play elements into the first true RTS)
UI (the Eye Toy)
Evoked Emotion (Cloud)
Actvitity (Crawford 'verbs are the allowed activities'; Play With Fire = "to burn")
Mathematical Ideas (Scram)

Most experiments will fail. So fail cheaply and experiment a lot.

State of Manifesto Games: About to launch, probably in the next few weeks.

Recommended Reading:
Blue Ocean Strategy
Patterns in Game Design

Texas Indie Con

2006-07-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I went down to Austin for the first Texas Independent Games Conference.

Overall this event was very casual. Rantish thoughts expressed were calm and relaxed - war-weary veterans explaining the lay of the land. Fatigue? Resignation? Imperturbable calmness in the face of troubles?

Many things were repeated between the two keynotes and other major presentations. And they all said so.

I'm going to post my notes and comments from the sessions I attended, one per post. I hope it is clear when a comment is mine and not the speaker's.