Bad Jokes Trump Average Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 25, 2014

Maybe I’m taking things way too seriously here, but this kinda saddens me: Rock Simulator 2014 on Greenlight Not only do empty promises get more attention than real, delivered games… but joke projects may trump serious development efforts. In theory, the $100 Greenlight fee was supposed to weed these out, which I’m sure it did. […]

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The Semi-Annual Steam Feeding Frenzy Begins

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 20, 2014

According to Gamasutra, this is the biggest, steepest discount yet on Steam. I’m somewhat emboldened by the fact that I haven’t yet purchased anything, but it hasn’t been a full day yet. And… before it’s over, I’m grabbing some Rocksmith 1 songs (which work for RS2014). But, as usual, I’ve not pulled the trigger yet, […]

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How White Wolf Went Bye-Bye

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 17, 2014

Man. I must be getting old. I remember when White Wolf Publishing was the hot new concept in the dice & paper gaming community. I had friends who playtested an early version of Werewolf: The Apocalypse. Vampire: The Masquerade was the hot new trend in gaming.  The rules were clever but imbalanced, the rulebook was […]

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GOG.COM Summer Sale Begins

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 13, 2014

Like I don’t already have more games than I have time to play? GOG.COM is having a game sale that includes steep discounts, daily bundles, and “flash sales” that are changing every hour. I think they are fundamentally evil. GOG.COM Summer Sale      

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Computer RPGS: The Wallflowers of the Steam Age? Part 2

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 11, 2014

In light of Computer RPGS: The Wallflowers of the Steam Age Part 1, are computer role-playing games worse off in the age of cheap, plentiful games than other genres, and if so, why? What inhibits people from starting them, and once they start, what makes them give up long before the game is complete? From the […]

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Computer RPGS: The Wallflowers of the Steam Age? Part 1

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 10, 2014

I’ve been a fan of computer role-playing games since the days when they were not known by that name, and weren’t much more than a mid-week substitute for a weekend Dungeons & Dragons game with friends. Some of my fondest gaming memories involve me sinking my teeth into a massive, meaty RPG, getting lost for […]

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GOG Galaxy?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 6, 2014

I know, all we need is another game client, right? GOG.COM seems to be going a different direction with their upcoming GOG Galaxy client, though. It’s billing itself as an “optional client” with no DRM and no online activation required. Which is pretty how the Desura client works, so that’s not completely unprecedented. It sounds […]

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Steam Warns Customers About Early Access

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 5, 2014

So it looks like Valve has taken the rash of abandoned “early access” games to heart (and has started worrying about its own exposure to lawsuits). Valve warning: Steam “Early Access” games may never be finished Honestly, I’m kinda surprised Valve didn’t do that in the first place. Were they so far out-of-touch with indie […]

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Indie Gaming – It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 28, 2014

I’ve talked about it. Multiple times. For years. Jeff Vogel has talked about it. And not for the first time, either. Robert Fearon answered Vogel saying, “there is no bubble.” Megan Fox of Glass Bottom Games has weighed in. Gareth Fouche – ready to release his first commercial indie game System Crash – has laid bare his […]

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The Revolution – And Unreal Tournament – Will Be Televised

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 9, 2014

I gotta hand it to Epic – even when they go “small,” they go big. First it was with totally re-pricing the new Unreal Engine so that it was affordable to small indies. And now, they are making the development of their next game in their flagship series, Unreal Tournament, as completely open as they […]

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Make Millions Making Games Without Actually Making Games*

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 8, 2014

There’s a saying in games development that a game is never truly finished, merely shipped. What that really means is that perfection is unattainable, and every game ships with more things the developers would like to do. But eventually, the game has to go out, and whether or not it’s “good enough” is left to […]

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ZeniMax to Oculus VR: We Own Carmack’s Brain

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 2, 2014

Every once in a while, I do discover that I live in bizarro-world. 2013, in particular, was a very bad year for any American who likes to scoff at conspiracy theories. The tinfoil hat crowd were vindicated way too many times that year. So… yes. Yes, I have to admit that every once in a […]

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The Best-Kept Secrets

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 15, 2014

I once heard a veteran of the arcade-game industry talk about how the arcades were a great place for business Darwinism: Rapid turn-around, and the successes quickly rose to the top while the lesser games – and it was implied these were “not great” games though not necessarily bad games – quickly disappeared. According to […]

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Lights Turned Off in the World of Darkness

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 14, 2014

Bummer: CCP Games Halts Development of World of Darkness MMO. I was really looking forward to seeing how they “solved” this one. I guess they didn’t. I think I was always more of a fan of the theory behind the RPG system than the implementation, although I really loved Mage and played a bit of […]

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While I was Gone…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 27, 2014

Man, I’m out of it for a couple of days, and crazy stuff happens. First of all, if you haven’t heard… Facebook is buying Oculus VR (best known for their still-in-prototype product, Oculus Rift), for a total price – if they hit their targets – that could be valued at around a cool $2 billion. […]

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Game Engines Plunge in Price

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 20, 2014

Remember what I said Monday about announcements coming this week about “ways to make / distribute games more cheaply and efficiently?” Yeah. Well, two of the big game engines – Unreal and CryEngine – have dropped their licensing costs through the floor. Following suit with Unity’s subscription model, Unreal is now charging $19 / month […]

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