Utah Indie Night – March 2012

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 30, 2012

The Utah Indie Night went bi-monthly instead of quarterly a few months ago. On top of that, the venues have changed considerably. It’s kept things interesting, but it’s also brought us new members each time. This month’s Utah Indie Night took place in the Entertainment Arts & Engineering lab in the Film and Media Arts […]

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Turning Down Zynga

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 29, 2012

Going indie isn’t easy. Staying indie isn’t, either. This article at Gamasutra brought a tear to my eye. Well, almost.  Okay, maybe not, but it was still pretty cool. So this dude’s company hits the big time, and gets bought out by a fabulously wealthy game publisher known for… well, known for being kinda nasty.  […]

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A Game Dev’s Story, Part VIII: Learning the Ropes

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 28, 2012

My first day at SingleTrac was chaotic. They had not received a shipment of computers for the expected new hires, yet. So I had no computer. The main development “bullpen” was a bunch of folding tables and thrift-store chairs, with some developers using their own computers brought from home. My first day was a lot […]

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Movie: John Carter

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 27, 2012

Evidently, the original books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (more famous for his “Tarzan” stories) about John Carter and Mars were a source of inspiration for James Cameron for his movie Avatar. Avatar had stunning and beautiful 3D graphics (and IMO not much else going for it), and the movie went and sold a gajillion tickets. […]

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Age of Decadence – Public Beta Demo Available

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 26, 2012

Iron Tower’s upcoming ancient-rome flavored turn-based RPG, Age of Decadence, has had a lot said about it over the years. Now you can check it out yourself and see if it’s been worth the wait, and if it should be on your shopping list in the (hopefully) near future. Here are several places to download […]

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What Endings Would YOU Change?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 23, 2012

Okay. So Bioware will be changing Mass Effect 3‘s endings (probably) by popular demand. I jokingly added a new ending to Frayed Knights in response (though I like the new ending better). Apparently some more indies are jumping in and doing the same, now. It’s a silly stunt, but it’s fun, and hey… isn’t that […]

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Frayed Knights Gets a New Ending!

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 22, 2012

So in the spirit of a dare, and the whole Mass Effect 3 ending / protest fiasco, some indies (of which I only know of two – ourselves and Frozen Synapse creators Mode 7 Games) decided to have a little fun with the whole thing. We, like Bioware, caved to external pressure (mainly each others’ dares) […]

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How Wizardry Was Made

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 21, 2012

Ever wondered the story behind the making of the original Wizardry game? I eat this stuff up. I really do. I always have – long before I was a game developer.  The behind-the-scenes stories of the people making these games is a big deal for me. I guess I’m weird that way. Of course, I […]

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Hanako Games on Endings…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on

My post yesterday was more about the relationship between game designers and the players over the unsatisfying stories (or story endings) in games. Georgina Bensley (Hanako Games) more specifically talks about story endings… of books, film, TV shows, and of course games. Why they sometimes End Badly. It’s an enjoyable essay: I Whine About Games: […]

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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

How To Ruin the First Fifteen Minutes of Your Game…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 19, 2012

I’m not going to name names, but there’s a particular indie game I picked up last week that I was pretty excited about. It was a huge game, so I ended up having to download it overnight. But it looked cool and sounded fun. I was excited to try it out. Unfortunately, the day I […]

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The New CRPG Heyday…

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 16, 2012

I’ve talked about how 1991 was a wonderful year for discovering PC games. And I talked about how 1991 was kind of the center-point of what I’d consider the “Heyday” of CRPGs. +/- 2-3 years on either side. I think one could make the case that we’re in a new one now. Pardon me while […]

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Indie RPG News, March 2012

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 15, 2012

Okay, I’m way overdue in doing this, so it’s gonna be quick and to-the-point. Well, okay, maybe not as quick as I’d like, because I’ve got a hairy backlog. Hopefully my next installment will release news while it is still new. But in this world of indie RPGs, so much is “undiscovered” that what is […]

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A Game Dev’s Story, Part VII: Wouldn’t It Be Cool If…?

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 14, 2012

Okay, I had a short hiatus with this series simply because there were far too many interesting and newsworthy things to post about over the last couple of weeks. I’ve got a small backlog of blog posts to go out, and topics to discuss, which is actually a pleasant change of pace for me.  Usually […]

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Better to Burn Out Than Fade Away: The Heyday of the CRPG

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 13, 2012

Joystiq has an article about the year RPGs transitioned into their more “modern” form…. 1995: The Year Role-Playing Games Broke. (H/T to RPGWatch for pointing it out to me). While my knee-jerk reaction was to jump to the defense of earlier-era RPGs, the article is actually pretty straightforward with the facts and not too far-reaching […]

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Unicorn City

Posted by Rampant Coyote on March 12, 2012

Over the weekend, I saw the indie film, “Unicorn City.” Unfortunately, it’s near the end of its local theatrical run already – being a tiny indie movie – and the only show offered was 10:30 PM at a nearby theater. But since it was (A) indie, (B) locally produced, (C) rated PG and “family friendly”, […]

Filed Under: Movies - Comments: 10 Comments to Read



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