Mysteriously, Teenagers Prefer Friends Over Games…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on April 5, 2012

I really have a tough time feeling alarmed about this latest survey. I guess my biggest point of alarm would be seeing publishers panic and rush to the “social gaming” side of thing and abandoning traditional gaming. Like they always do whenever they detect the hint of a breeze in the marketing winds. I guess […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Didn’t Like Ending, Please Change.

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 20, 2012

There’s a lot of sound and fury around the ending of Mass Effect 3 right now. I haven’t played it yet, and I probably won’t be playing it for a while, so I’m simply commenting on secondhand information for part of this. And I’m not worrying so much about keeping myself spoiler-free (I’ll also warn […]

Filed Under: Biz, Geek Life, Mainstream Games - Comments: 19 Comments to Read

A Game Dev’s Story, Part VI: Indie Before Indie Was Even Uncool

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 27, 2012

My dad had an overdeveloped sense of my skills as a game programmer when I was whipping out adventure games and simple arcade-style clones. He owned a tiny holding company – which are sometimes derogatorily referred to as “shell companies.” Mainly it was there to be a “parent” company to for the entrepreneurial idea of […]

Filed Under: A Game Dev's Story, Geek Life, Retro - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Blades & Booms – How Games Can Spark Real-World Interests

Posted by Rampant Coyote on February 20, 2012

Most of my knowledge of historical weaponry originally came from games. Not that game stats are the primary source of my knowledge anymore, but the games are what set me on the road. I don’t know why I get intrigued by the subject, but I do. Maybe it started with an article in Dragon Magazine […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Participating in the Peanut Gallery

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 23, 2011

While Markus “Notch” Persson (of Minecraft fame) livestreamed his progress during the Ludum Dare competition last weekend, one guy (Mister Speaker) spent some time seeing what people were talking about in the accompanying chat channel.  The results are funny and sometimes sad. Think about it: One person (Notch) is doing the project, oblivious to the […]

Filed Under: Game Development, Geek Life - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Thailand

Posted by Rampant Coyote on December 6, 2011

I’m not much of a world traveler. In fact, I haven’t been out of the United States since I was a teenager. But my day-job does sometimes involve travel, and I was tapped to go to Thailand to oversee the software side of a simulator installation and to do the training on its operation. So […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 7 Comments to Read

Giving Thanks

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 24, 2011

My apologies for all my readers (approximately half) for whom today is simply “Thursday.” Here in the U.S., it’s a holiday where we count our blessings, feast, and watch football. (Er, American Football, for the entire rest of the world who play a sport by a similar name which we in the U.S. call “Soccer.”)  […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Joust A Minute!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 15, 2011

The National Geographic Channel (for those who have it) is running a reality mini-series about real jousting that premiers tonight: National Geographic: The Knights of Mayhem Okay. I love watching the real jousts. They’ve had them here in Utah for several years now at a couple of different medieval / renaissance festivals. Over the summer, […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 4 Comments to Read

Hardware Woes and Evolution

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 3, 2011

My secondary hard drive has been showing symptoms of failure for the last several days – freezing up for several seconds while reading or writing data. It hasn’t returned any corrupted data on a read yet, though one game did end up with a corrupted save after it took three whole minutes to complete the […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Guns, Phones, & Magic

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 20, 2011

No, this isn’t a post about mixing guns, phones, and magic in the same fantasy setting. Though as a fan of urban fantasy – I’m 100% for it! This post is actually about attitudes towards magic in fantasy worlds. Specifically RPGs. It’s something I’ve touched on before, and will again. It’s about the impact of […]

Filed Under: Design, Geek Life - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Office Space

Posted by Rampant Coyote on October 12, 2011

A peek into indie game developers’ offices. Which in some cases means, “bedroom.” Ars Technica: Where the World’s Best Indie Games Get Made For those who might wonder, the Rampant Coyote Fortress is a spare bedroom in my basement. The previous homeowner build a nice wooden deck which now covers over the window.  In order […]

Filed Under: Geek Life, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Gamers Solve Virus Protein Problem in Three Weeks that had Eluded Researchers for a Decade

Posted by Rampant Coyote on September 20, 2011

Okay… I understand the headline somewhat overstates the case. But it’s still frickin’ cool. FoldIt Players Outperform Computer Models on Viral Protein Problem I have no clue as to how much of a milestone this is in the hunt for a cure to AIDS. But every baby step counts. And I don’t know if this […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Revisited: “How Do I Get Past the Harpies?”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on July 4, 2011

Word from testers have been coming back over the last couple of weeks. Seeing other people enjoy a world that you’ve created is a tremendous feeling. It’s also motivating – you see parts that aren’t working well (these guys are testing the game, so I get a lot of that), and want to fix them. […]

Filed Under: Adventure Games, Geek Life, Retro - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

My Kobayashi Maru Moment

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 27, 2011

“I need all the power you can give me to the engines.” “What about shields?” “Shields are dead. If we don’t get power to the engines, so will we.” That’s how that dialog plays out in my mind. I don’t think I was quite that clever most of the time when I was the captain […]

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 14 Comments to Read

Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure: The Saga Continues

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 2, 2011

Wherein young game developer Cassie brings her father to kindergarten to verify her tales of game-making to her incredulous classmates. The Ponycorns Come to Kindergarten Yes, game developers at game jams do often stay up waaaaaay past bedtime…  

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 3 Comments to Read

Roll a D6!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on May 6, 2011

This is pretty much the video of the week. Yeah, we could nitpick the details (like why is the DM fighting alongside the players?!?!?), and I might ding them a point for playing 4th edition because I’m opinionated and petty. But really, it’s just a good, fun geek parody music video. And no, I’d never […]

Filed Under: Dice & Paper, Geek Life - Comments: 22 Comments to Read



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