Hey, everyone. If you haven't been following my blog or haven't looked at the "about me" section on the side of the page, I am a Game Design student at SCAD. This also means that I make games, but I haven't really posted anything about that on the blog yet...so...why not start now, eh?
Over the past month, I've been helping with a senior project that a few of my friends were doing. We were making a mobile game using UDK. My job on the team was the Technical Artist. As the Technical Artist, I was in charge of some of the more complex materials like water and others that involve glowing, moving, pulsing, or anything else really cool. Along with that, I was also in charge of the particles in the game. Particles are basically the special effects in a game including fire, water spraying, explosions, and other similar things. Rather than describe all of these, I have posted a video of the particles I did to make it more interesting.
Also, Dead Island releases on the 6th...which is actually in about an hour. And that's when it unlocks on Steam. I am personally pretty excited about the game because its a zombie game on a tropical island. Since tropical islands are awesome and zombies are fun to kill, this game sounds like it might be promising. But you can't judge a game until you have played it, so I will post later with my review of it.
Another thing that needs to be pointed out is a new "project" I'm going to be working on over the next few weeks or so. It can be found here http://thezombievacationjournal.blogspot.com/ . So keep an eye on that page for an update in the near future.
That's all I have for now. As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to let me know in the comments. Also be sure to follow the blog and twitter. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!
Showing posts with label dead island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dead island. Show all posts
Monday, September 5, 2011
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Owning Words?
Hey, everyone. To start off with, I would like to remind everyone of Dead Island coming out in about two weeks. The trailer's are making it look like plenty of good zombie-slaying action, which is two thumbs up from me. Another few upcoming games I want to mention are Stronghold 3, Battlefield 3, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Bethesda, the company developing Skyrim, is actually the main course of this post. I'm sure if you have read any previous posts of mine, you can see that I'm a fan of Minecraft. The endless digging in hopes of finding something other than dirt and stone never seems to get old. And recently, Bethesda (the owners/developers of The Elder Scrolls Series) are trying to sue Mojang for making a game that they plan to call Scrolls.
I personally think this is ridiculous! To me, it sounds like a big company is getting jealous or feeling threatened because of a smaller company and is looking for a way to calm their nerves. Mojang has even specifically stated that their future game is not related to The Elder Scrolls Series in any way.
That's all that I have for today. I just hope that everything works out fine with both companies. I have nothing against either company and think that this is all just a big misunderstanding. I, myself, respect both companies and their games and wish the best for both companies in the long run. Good luck to both sides.
There's not too much other news going on right now that I feel everyone should know about. If you want to share some news, please do so in the comments at the bottom of this post. Also, let me know what you guys think about this whole situation between Bethesda and Mojang in the comments. Until next time, happy gaming!
Bethesda, the company developing Skyrim, is actually the main course of this post. I'm sure if you have read any previous posts of mine, you can see that I'm a fan of Minecraft. The endless digging in hopes of finding something other than dirt and stone never seems to get old. And recently, Bethesda (the owners/developers of The Elder Scrolls Series) are trying to sue Mojang for making a game that they plan to call Scrolls.
I personally think this is ridiculous! To me, it sounds like a big company is getting jealous or feeling threatened because of a smaller company and is looking for a way to calm their nerves. Mojang has even specifically stated that their future game is not related to The Elder Scrolls Series in any way.
That's all that I have for today. I just hope that everything works out fine with both companies. I have nothing against either company and think that this is all just a big misunderstanding. I, myself, respect both companies and their games and wish the best for both companies in the long run. Good luck to both sides.
There's not too much other news going on right now that I feel everyone should know about. If you want to share some news, please do so in the comments at the bottom of this post. Also, let me know what you guys think about this whole situation between Bethesda and Mojang in the comments. Until next time, happy gaming!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
An Incredible Indie Game - Terraria
Hey, everyone. It's been far too long since my last post. I usually get busy with school but right now is the summer so there is no excuse for taking so long to post...and for that, I apologize. I keep saying that I will keep posting more often but that always ends up making me post less, so I'm gonna skip that part this time around.
Before I get into the main topic of this post, I'll start out with my list of upcoming games I'm looking forward to.
1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Dead Island
3. Battlefield 3
4. Star Wars: The Old Republic (Which has also recently been available to pre-purchase...and has a release date for THIS year!)
In other news, Dungeon Defenders is still not out yet. And there is still no release date set in stone. Maybe it will come out before November, the month that it was originally supposed to come out last year.
Also, for those of you who love cheap games, Steam is a great way to get a variety of games for cheap. Especially since they started having a daily sale that changes each day in addition to their usual weekly sale and weekend sale. Sometimes they will even have special sales events (like a summer sale) in which many different games are on sale for a week or two. In the summer sale that just passed, I bought an incredible indie game for only $2.50 (it was actually supposed to be a $5 sale but someone goofed when it went on sale.) Some of you may have heard of this little game called Terraria.
When I say little game, I mean in terms of hard disk space. But this game has an enormous amount of content packed into a little package. It's even more incredible when the game took less than 6 months to make and has been one of the most played games on Steam since it's release. Another added bonus is the free content updates that the developers have promised.
I like to describe Terraria as a mix of 2-D Minecraft and the old side-scrolling Castlevania games. It's also, in my opinion, really well designed because it rewards the player for exploration at just the right intervals to keep the player interested and satisfied without getting bored or tired. There are also events that happen throughout the game, some by chance and others by using certain items, and these events also keep the game exciting and, at times, intense.
Another great aspect of the game is the social aspect. This game can be played completely in single-player, but the developers really wanted it to be experienced as a multi-player game. The multi-player can support up to 8 people on the same world by default and as many as 24 or more if server mods are used. Lately, I have been playing with a few of my friends and have had a lot more fun than I probably would have if I had stuck to single-player.
The whole point of the game is to mine (or dig), explore, create, and fight monsters. The creating can be anything from buildings to furniture to weapons and armor and many other things. It's these different activities in the game that all work together to make something that feels very rewarding when you play it.
I recently had an event happen in the world that my friends and I play on called a Goblin Army in which we received a message at the bottom of the screen telling us that a Goblin Army was approaching. After a few minutes, we were surrounded by goblins on both sides of our house (that we built) and had to defend ourselves until we had defeated the entire goblin army. It's events like this and others that really keep me from getting bored quickly.
The screenshot below is one that I took while fighting the goblin army.
(click on picture for larger size)
If, after reading this post, I have given you any interest in Terraria. I highly recommend checking out this piece of indie gold. The original price of the game is $10 which is very cheap for a project of this quality. Until next time, happy gaming!
Before I get into the main topic of this post, I'll start out with my list of upcoming games I'm looking forward to.
1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Dead Island
3. Battlefield 3
4. Star Wars: The Old Republic (Which has also recently been available to pre-purchase...and has a release date for THIS year!)
In other news, Dungeon Defenders is still not out yet. And there is still no release date set in stone. Maybe it will come out before November, the month that it was originally supposed to come out last year.
Also, for those of you who love cheap games, Steam is a great way to get a variety of games for cheap. Especially since they started having a daily sale that changes each day in addition to their usual weekly sale and weekend sale. Sometimes they will even have special sales events (like a summer sale) in which many different games are on sale for a week or two. In the summer sale that just passed, I bought an incredible indie game for only $2.50 (it was actually supposed to be a $5 sale but someone goofed when it went on sale.) Some of you may have heard of this little game called Terraria.
When I say little game, I mean in terms of hard disk space. But this game has an enormous amount of content packed into a little package. It's even more incredible when the game took less than 6 months to make and has been one of the most played games on Steam since it's release. Another added bonus is the free content updates that the developers have promised.
I like to describe Terraria as a mix of 2-D Minecraft and the old side-scrolling Castlevania games. It's also, in my opinion, really well designed because it rewards the player for exploration at just the right intervals to keep the player interested and satisfied without getting bored or tired. There are also events that happen throughout the game, some by chance and others by using certain items, and these events also keep the game exciting and, at times, intense.
Another great aspect of the game is the social aspect. This game can be played completely in single-player, but the developers really wanted it to be experienced as a multi-player game. The multi-player can support up to 8 people on the same world by default and as many as 24 or more if server mods are used. Lately, I have been playing with a few of my friends and have had a lot more fun than I probably would have if I had stuck to single-player.
The whole point of the game is to mine (or dig), explore, create, and fight monsters. The creating can be anything from buildings to furniture to weapons and armor and many other things. It's these different activities in the game that all work together to make something that feels very rewarding when you play it.
I recently had an event happen in the world that my friends and I play on called a Goblin Army in which we received a message at the bottom of the screen telling us that a Goblin Army was approaching. After a few minutes, we were surrounded by goblins on both sides of our house (that we built) and had to defend ourselves until we had defeated the entire goblin army. It's events like this and others that really keep me from getting bored quickly.
The screenshot below is one that I took while fighting the goblin army.
(click on picture for larger size)
If, after reading this post, I have given you any interest in Terraria. I highly recommend checking out this piece of indie gold. The original price of the game is $10 which is very cheap for a project of this quality. Until next time, happy gaming!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Interesting Trailer
Hey, everyone. Normally I would talk for a while in this section but I'm just going to skip to the meat and potatoes of this post because it's just that good.
Cinematics in games are getting better and better all the time. BioWare is a company that has been making their games cinematic for a long time. And cinematic trailers have been around long enough to have advanced to the point of almost being movie trailers.
Usually cinematic trailers get me interested in or really excited for a game (even though the actual gameplay will look completely different). However, it is rare that a trailer, cinematic or not, can evoke such emotions as this trailer. You are probably confused right now, but just watch it and you will understand. Please note that this video is a bit graphic and emotional.
Note: I do not own this trailer, nor do I claim to.
From what I have read, my thought's on this game are similar to everyone's. Part of me thinks this game will be really emotional and will make me think for a while after playing it, but another part of me thinks that it will be an awesome, tropical, Zombieland vacation with plenty of fun zombie-slaying action.
The developers really did their homework on this trailer, though. If you will notice, they want the viewer to just watch and think that these people are all just survivors, while still leaving a little bit of confusion about their identity. Then they really make sense of it all at the end. This is how they give the viewer that lasting emotional effect that will stay on your mind for a little while. If they had showed that these survivors were a happy family on vacation at the beginning of the trailer, the viewer would have been sad but only for the length of the video...maybe a little longer. By putting it at the end, they allow the viewer to just watch the trailer and then think about what they saw instead of thinking about it while they watched.
Did the developers go overboard with the presentation of the trailer? I don't think so. They took a risk and presented it a bit differently than what we normally see. And their risk was rewarded with a lot of publicity, which is something every developer wants. This just shows that sometimes risks need to be taken to get something quickly.
What did you think of the trailer? Tell me your thoughts on the whole matter. As always, thanks for reading my blog. If you have any suggestions, I'm always open to ways I can improve my blog. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to leave me a comment and I will try to answer it. Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter.
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