“DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 30, 2010

Well, this wouldn’t actually be the first time something like this has happened. Some dude’s LARP gear was confiscated by police as evidence of violent intent: Weapons Seized in G20 Arrests Not What They Seem Here’s a big hint to those Toronto police officers: Those arrows with the heads replaced by foam and cloth? They’ve […]

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

Casual Games: After the Gold Rush

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 29, 2010

As an indie who came on the scene just before casual games pretty much took over and convinced many in the industry that “indie” meant “casual” (now it seems to mean, “pretentious experimental web games”), I must confess a tiny bit of schadenfreude at seeing the air rushing out of the casual gaming balloon. But […]

Filed Under: Casual Games - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

M&M 6: Why Play Retro?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 28, 2010

One other wrinkle in my little motion sickness issue with the classic 1998 RPG, Might & Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven — I had a bad cold all last week. I’m sure that didn’t help any. I experimented with the game in small doses (all I *should* allow myself, anyway) this weekend, and found […]

Filed Under: Retro - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Heartsick and Motion Sick

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 25, 2010

It’s no secret around here that I do enjoy retrogaming. While I appreciate lush graphics as much as the next gamer, I guess I still consider it non-essential to my gaming experience. I can turn off that part of my brain that goes, “Oooh, pretty!” and still appreciate an indie game or retro experience which […]

Filed Under: Retro - Comments: 15 Comments to Read

Frayed Knights: There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 24, 2010

It’s time for another post about Frayed Knights! When I first got started in game development, I was told of the “80/20” rule. That is, 80% of the work takes 20% of the time… and the remaining 20% of the work takes 80% of the time.  I’ve also come across the expression, “The first 90% […]

Filed Under: Frayed Knights - Comments: 11 Comments to Read

Twisted Metal Lives

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 23, 2010

Sadly, I’m probably not going to spring for a PS3 to play this one. But I’m glad to see the tradition lives on. Twisted Metal and Warhawk were the first two games I ever worked on (I worked on both games simultaneously; For a while, they shared the same code base, and you could fly […]

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

Shareware is Dead – Long Live Shareware!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 22, 2010

Greg of Monkeytime Software sent me this announcement about the organization formerly-known-as the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) finally striking the word “Shareware” from their name: Shareware is Dead – Long Live Shareware! I’m mixed about the change. Yeah, the term “shareware” is pretty much as obsolete and out-of-fashion as the floppy disk and dial-up […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Game Design: All Or Nothing, and Deviants

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 21, 2010

Okay, is it just me, or did old-school RPGs really tend to hit players early with things like diseases and poisons, when they are too low level to afford proper cures? Assuming this isn’t simply a gross mis-interpolation based on a couple of examples, my guess might be that this was simply because there was […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 22 Comments to Read

235 Free Indie Games – In Ten Minutes

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 18, 2010

Two hundred thirty-five indie games – all of them available for free – shown inside of ten minutes – at about 2.5 seconds each. In alphabetical order. It’s like… like going into an arcade in the 1980s and seeing the attract mode of hundreds of games, and knowing that they are all ALL on free […]

Filed Under: Free Games, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 9 Comments to Read

Indie Biz: Collaborative Competition

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 17, 2010

Shortly after I made the uneasy transition from being just-a-programmer to managing a project and running an actual (if not all that profitable, so far) indie business, I read a very inspiring article. I wish I could tell you who wrote it, or link to it, but I can’t recall. But the author pointed out […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 10 Comments to Read

The Seriously Un-Fun Economics of Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 16, 2010

This Escapist’s publisher, Alexander Macris, strikes a note that is all too familiar to many veteran gamers. He’s feeling left behind as a gamer, and explains the simple economics of why this is the case. Why they aren’t makin’ ’em like they used to anymore. While I’m not sure his numbers are entirely accurate, they […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 15 Comments to Read

Cute Knight Kingdom Expansion In the Works!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

I dunno how I missed this – I’ll find someone to blame later (I thought it was only a “deluxe” version!)- but Georgina is mentioning work on an upcoming Cute Knight Kingdom expansion in this blog post… about a lingerie outfit. And no, it’s not quite as titillating as it sounds.

Filed Under: General - Comments: 2 Comments to Read

Avadon – The Black Fortress Interview

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 15, 2010

Jeff Vogel took some time to be interviewed by RPG Codex about his new game and new series, Avadon – The Black Fortress: Avadon: The Black Fortress Interview at RPG Codex

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

Activision’s Indie Contest: Indies Need Not Apply?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

Tom Buscaglia, the “Game Attorney,” took some time to read through the rules for Activision’s independent games competition. To be honest, this thing was always something of a head-scratcher for me, and after reading Tom’s take on it, I’m not sure I’m much closer to understanding the contest. Tom Buscaglia: Some Thoughts on the Activision […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Story and Consequences

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 14, 2010

Craig Stern of Sinister Design asked several indie game developers about the role of narrative in games in an article entitled, “Why Have Narrative In Games.”  Now, they were all RPG developers, which is traditionally a very story-heavy genre, so the answers were perhaps unsurprising. My own answer is probably the biggest outlier, as I […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Prince of Persia Movie: It Doesn’t Suck

Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 12, 2010

Color me surprised! We ended up seeing The Prince of Persia: Sands of Time movie last night after the showing of The Karate Kid we intended to see was sold out. And – surprisingly – I enjoyed it. Really. No, it’s not going to be one of my favorites (though the acrobatic action was a […]

Filed Under: Movies - Comments: 7 Comments to Read



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