GarageGames / InstantAction / TorquePowered Closing Doors?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 11, 2010

Looks like InstantAction – including The Company Formerly Known As GarageGames – is now shuttered and looking for buyers. Don’t think I can afford it. 🙂 InstantAction Ceasing Operations, Looking For a Buyer… Dang. Kind of a bummer, but not totally surprising. I blame Unity. That sucker is pretty much taking over indie development (the […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: 13 Comments to Read

Zombie Ultima

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

Confession time, here. My secret shame. I’ve been playing… Lord of Ultima. I don’t know why. I guess I’ve always been a strategy game fan, especially the more “builder” oriented ones, and I’ve even been a developer on an indie “MMORTS” where we did something similar (but with much more interesting combat, IMO, and probably […]

Filed Under: Free Games, Retro - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

DLC – It Sells Games…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 10, 2010

Cliff Harris has a very frank discussion about the role downloadable content (DLC) has played in his latest hit indie game, Gratuitous Space Battles… Ad Stats, and Why People Make DLC I know I kinda miss the days where games just had “expansions” and “sequels.”  But while the bite-sized chunks of additional gameplay DLC often […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 5 Comments to Read

Weapon Stats in RPGs

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 9, 2010

My education on medieval weaponry began with the Dungeons & Dragons weapons tables.  My education on modern weapons began with the Twilight: 2000 weapons tables and supplements. I say began, as since then I’ve come to own quite a few medieval weapons of my own, study books on weaponry and warfare throughout the ages, and […]

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 9 Comments to Read

Cryoburn

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 8, 2010

I’m gonna shift gears for this post from games to another form of high-quality geekly entertainment, science fiction novels. I just finished Cryoburn this weekend, by Lois McMaster Bujold, and was quite impressed.  I felt like sharing. I feel that one of the main purposes (if any be needed) of science fiction and fantasy is […]

Filed Under: Books - Comments: 6 Comments to Read

Game Design Evolution – Yeah, That’s About The Size of It…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 7, 2010

I don’t know who is originally responsible for this image, but it pretty much sums everything up nicely, and not just for first-person shooters or map design:

Filed Under: Design - Comments: 54 Comments to Read

Killing XBox Indie Games, Slowly…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 5, 2010

Some alarming articles about Microsoft’s landmark indie games offering for its console: Microsoft Slowly Euthanizes XBox Indie Games Commentary by former XNA / XBLIG developer Well, I say “alarming” but I can’t really say “surprising.” It does illustrate why my preference is for truly open platforms, but the crappy state of downloadable indie games on […]

Filed Under: Biz, Indie Evangelism - Comments: Read the First Comment

Making Games: Adding Role-Playing to Computer Role-Playing Games

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 4, 2010

Continuing from yesterday’s discussion, I thought I’d provide a concrete example of how process might be applied to  a creative endeavor (like a game). While I’m really talking about the general idea, I figured I’d focus on a specific trait near-and-dear to many CRPG fans’ black hearts, role-playing. One point repeated from The CRPG Addict’s […]

Filed Under: Design, Production - Comments: 11 Comments to Read

Making Games: Lubricating with a GIMLET

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 3, 2010

Not too long ago, I read The E-Myth Revisited. While not the final word on why businesses survive or fail, it was packed with a lot of ideas. And I immediately used it as a yardstick to measure every video game studio I have familiarity with. And explains why so many fail. Unfortunately, the principles […]

Filed Under: Biz - Comments: 8 Comments to Read

Dice and Paper RPG Licenses – Still Useful?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 2, 2010

Once upon a time, back when dice & paper RPGs were (relatively) “big,” there were tons of them actively being marketed. Everybody wanted to be Dungeons & Dragons. Nowadays, that’s died down a bit, though there are arguably more of them available now than ever before. Including some funky little indie RPGs (which, like indie […]

Filed Under: Dice & Paper - Comments: 22 Comments to Read

The Greatest PC Game Developer of All Time?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on November 1, 2010

Kotaku has a nice piece discussing the awesomeness that was, once upon a time, Origin Systems. It proclaims Origin the be the greatest PC game developer of all time. Long gone, but still a fond memory for many old-school gamers. I figure the point is pretty debatable, but the Ultima and Wing Commander series were […]

Filed Under: Retro - Comments: 17 Comments to Read



top next »