Book Impressions: Dungeon Hacks

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 31, 2015

Except for a fairly lame mail-order game from Aardvark Software, my first computer role-playing game was Telengard for the Commodore 64. We didn’t have the modern taxonomy of games like we do now… I don’t know if “role-playing game” had really caught on then. “Roguelike” certainly hadn’t. Both words would have applied, but at the […]

Filed Under: Books, Roguelikes - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

The Hugos: The Kindergarten Bestest Friend Award

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 28, 2015

I was going to write a big article about the 2015, and the travesty that went down this year with the Hugos.  In fact, I did write not just one, but two articles about it. But I wasn’t happy with either one. In the end, I wasn’t really contributing much, in spite of both of […]

Filed Under: Books, Events - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

That Old School Feeling: Forgotten Realms and Divinity: Original Sin 2

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 27, 2015

I’m gonna post a two-for-one today, because it’s all so cool. Number one: A great article from PC Gamer about how GOG.COM rescued thirteen Forgotten Realms D&D games from licensing hell. It’s both fascinating and a little disturbing as a retro-gamer. You think, “well, gee, why haven’t these guys gotten around to licensing this game […]

Filed Under: Game Announcements, Retro - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

How “Old School” Graphics Worked

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 26, 2015

Oh, man. This brings up some memories. I worked with the Commodore 64 graphics for years. Never produced anything commercial, but I certainly struggled with these challenges. There’s something he doesn’t bring up in the video about the Commodore 64’s sprite mode. Each sprite had its position dictated by two bytes – one for X […]

Filed Under: Art, Programming, Retro - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

The Easiest and Most Challenging Songs in Rocksmith 2014

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 25, 2015

Rocksmith 2014 has a pretty huge library of songs at this point, particularly if you include imported songs and DLC from the first game. It fortunately includes songs with a wide range of difficulty levels, although in many cases that really depends on what part you play. The “average” song is easiest on bass, harder […]

Filed Under: Guitar Games - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Video: Indie Game Devs at Salt Lake Gaming Con 2015

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 24, 2015

Salt Lake Gaming Con may be a couple of weeks in the rear-view mirror now, but some interviews and reports are still coming out. Here is a set of interviews conducted by From Beggar’s Canyon with the Utah Game Guild folks. If you want to skip to the part with Yours Truly, you don’t have […]

Filed Under: Events, Frayed Knights, Indie Evangelism - Comments: Read the First Comment

Good Crunch and Bad Crunch

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 21, 2015

Crunch is when people working on a project put forth the “extra effort.” It’s long hours, late nights, sacrificed weekends, and often heightened tempers. I’ve done my share of crunch, both inside and outside the games industry. I’ve done crunch as a game developer both as a full-time employee and as an indie. I could […]

Filed Under: Biz, Production - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Li’l Snarfquest Crowdfunding Campaign

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 20, 2015

The truly “old school” among us may remember SnarfQuest, the humorous fantasy comic that graced the pages of Dragon Magazine back in the 80s, created by legendary fantasy artist Larry Elmore. As I mentioned many months ago, there is an actual game in development featuring the beloved zeetvah. As Larry himself has explained, any resemblance […]

Filed Under: Game Announcements - Comments: Comments are off for this article

RPG Design: Granular Experience Points

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 19, 2015

Some people I know have dropped the concept of experience points from their D&D / Pathfinder campaigns. They simply allow the players to level up their characters at appropriate times. Is this a revolting idea to me, as an “old school” D&D (Dungeons & Dragons) player? Nah, not really. Sure, I think the game is […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: Read the First Comment

The Windows 10 Game Denial Scenario

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 18, 2015

I haven’t upgraded to Windows 10 yet. I will have a laptop with Windows 10 in a few weeks, and I may eventually upgrade my desktop. I avoided the Windows 8.x fiasco entirely. I don’t particularly trust Microsoft, though I don’t harbor any resentment towards them. I’m still of the opinion that Windows will no […]

Filed Under: Mainstream Games, Tech - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Plan: Finishing Up August, and a Frayed Knights Question

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 17, 2015

Now that the two conventions are done (WHEW), the remainder of August… well, remains busy, but a little less so. Here’s what’s going on… This week, my daughter gets home from South Carolina, where she’s been serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the last 18 months. We’re […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights, Rampant Games - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Utah Unity User Group Meets

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 14, 2015

Last night was the inaugural Utah Unity User Group (with the rather amusing acronym UUUG). I found it even more informative than I expected. The group included experienced Unity users as well as interested newcomers, so the skill level was pretty varied. Jeff Postma’s formal presentation on Unity’s new 2D tools was  valuable as expected, since […]

Filed Under: Events - Comments: Comments are off for this article

“Cold Spot” 777 Challenge

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 13, 2015

I was tagged by Nicole Payne for the “777 Challenge.” The challenge is to share 7 lines from page 7 of one of your manuscripts and tag 7 other blogging authors to do the same. Okay, I’m game. Although next time, I should probably make sure that I have more action-packed scenes on page seven. […]

Filed Under: Books - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Rocksmith: The Bands I’m Waiting For (But Not Really)

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 12, 2015

Time to get away from conventions, Frayed Knights, and even RPGs and indie games for at least one post… My at-least-a-half-hour-a-day Rocksmith 2014 habit has taken some hits recently, mainly due to preparation for the convention. At a half-hour a day, I find my skills don’t really increase much from week to week (but they […]

Filed Under: Guitar Games - Comments: Comments are off for this article

Another view of Salt Lake Gaming Con

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 11, 2015

While I’m still recovering from basking in the fading glow of Salt Lake Gaming Con 2015, I thought I’d share a link from Josh Sutphin of Kickbomb Entertainment and co-founder of the Utah Games Guild. He had a somewhat bigger view of the whole event than I did. Utah Games Guild: Salt Lake Gaming Con 2015 […]

Filed Under: Events - Comments: Read the First Comment

Frayed Knights Adventures at Salt Lake Gaming Con 2015

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 10, 2015

Three days of Frayed Knights 2: The Khan of Wrath?  Yeah. It was a party. A three-party that left me exhausted and without a voice, but a party. Over the weekend, I ran a booth at the inaugural Salt Lake Gaming Con. I was with the Utah Games Guild Arcade, which was really an awesome […]

Filed Under: Events, Frayed Knights - Comments: 3 Comments to Read



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