1
NWR Forums Discord / !Read before posting!
« on: February 15, 2008, 10:18:39 PM »
No posting in the Funhouse.
Fun is banned at NWR.
Fun is banned at NWR.
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
Pages: [1]
2
General Chat / Education in Game Development
« on: February 02, 2008, 01:29:10 PM »
I meant to make a thread about this topic the last time I mentioned that I'd transfered out of DigiPen but never got around to it. Essentially, I thought a lot of their professors weren't very good, and I got the impression that their curriculum wasn't very well developed.
Anyway.
Regarding the curriculum, one thing that stood out was when they moved a second-year class (game implementation techniques, I think it was called) to the second semester. The first day of class, the guy who was to teach the class, Ian Lewis, I think his name was, from the XBox team, learned from us that while we had learned C, we had never actually written anything in it yet. This was obviously a shock to him, and he had to completely change the content of the class.
Besides that we were never really taught anything about programming games in our game programming labs. Instead, we had one suit and two designers ramble on about various documents, reports, and idiotically obvious things about game design (your menus should be user friendly, hur hur). Occasionally we'd be given vague engine design advice like "Make it modular" or "Make it data-driven," but were never given any guidence as to how one might go about doing these things. I think object factories were mentioned in passing a few times in the fourth semester, but were never actually explained.
Your point about experience not necessarily leading to being a good teacher is a good one. The majority of my professors seemed like they were perfectly knowledgably in their field, but many of them were terrible teachers. One of my professors actually got fired half-way through the semester because he was so incompetent.
I also understand your point about personal efforts. However, I didn't feel like I was getting my money's worth out of DigiPen. Figuring things out on your own is one thing. Paying money to have someone tell you to figure something out on your own is another. So now I'm persuing a regular ol' computer science degree and casually experimenting with SDL to write a 2D game engine on my own. We'll see where that takes me.
Also, since you brought up drop rates, DigiPen's is apparently pretty high, too. One of my roommates my first year actually left before school even started. I can't really blame him; orientation seemed like it was aimed at purposefully driving people away.
You can read some random junk on my DigiPen projects, as well as download them, at the games section of my website. I don't have anything up for Silhouette Apparatus right now. It really didn't turn out as we had hoped. Explore the rest of my site at your own risk.
Anyway.
Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
That's interesting to hear coming from an established place like digipen smoke. I expected a growing program and a develop curriculum at a place where games majors are newly implemented, like the DeVry I'm going to, but to hear that Digipen itself is still working out kinks makes me quite curious. Of course, industry professionals are preferable in Games teachers, and we have some good ones, but in addition to experience in the field they also need to be good teachers on top of that, which makes it doubly hard to find great mentors. I'm looking forward to next semester when one of my teachers I really enjoyed from first semester will be teaching us again.
But yeah... I'd love to read more about your project Smoke. The one thing I've decided upon in all this time is that no matter how good the education plan or teachers around you, it's your own efforts above and beyond what's asked of you that'll dictate your success. More than 50% of the new games students we get are gone before their first semester is over.
Regarding the curriculum, one thing that stood out was when they moved a second-year class (game implementation techniques, I think it was called) to the second semester. The first day of class, the guy who was to teach the class, Ian Lewis, I think his name was, from the XBox team, learned from us that while we had learned C, we had never actually written anything in it yet. This was obviously a shock to him, and he had to completely change the content of the class.
Besides that we were never really taught anything about programming games in our game programming labs. Instead, we had one suit and two designers ramble on about various documents, reports, and idiotically obvious things about game design (your menus should be user friendly, hur hur). Occasionally we'd be given vague engine design advice like "Make it modular" or "Make it data-driven," but were never given any guidence as to how one might go about doing these things. I think object factories were mentioned in passing a few times in the fourth semester, but were never actually explained.
Your point about experience not necessarily leading to being a good teacher is a good one. The majority of my professors seemed like they were perfectly knowledgably in their field, but many of them were terrible teachers. One of my professors actually got fired half-way through the semester because he was so incompetent.
I also understand your point about personal efforts. However, I didn't feel like I was getting my money's worth out of DigiPen. Figuring things out on your own is one thing. Paying money to have someone tell you to figure something out on your own is another. So now I'm persuing a regular ol' computer science degree and casually experimenting with SDL to write a 2D game engine on my own. We'll see where that takes me.
Also, since you brought up drop rates, DigiPen's is apparently pretty high, too. One of my roommates my first year actually left before school even started. I can't really blame him; orientation seemed like it was aimed at purposefully driving people away.
You can read some random junk on my DigiPen projects, as well as download them, at the games section of my website. I don't have anything up for Silhouette Apparatus right now. It really didn't turn out as we had hoped. Explore the rest of my site at your own risk.
3
Nintendo Gaming / Quake Arena DS
« on: August 03, 2007, 03:39:20 PM »
Apparently John Carmack wants to make a Quake Arena game for the DS.
Here's the relevant stuff, from his QuakeCon keynote:
Personally I prefer the thought of a simpler control scheme to more MP-style pain.
Here's the relevant stuff, from his QuakeCon keynote:
Quote
7:32: On other systems: "It'd be great to do a Orcs & Elves on Wii, I'd love to do that, but of course we won't be seeing something like Rage on Wii. With the wand it's clearly not the 'end all, be all' interface, but it's a great concept that Nintendo has." He then remarks that on the business side id and Nintendo don't really get along, but that on DS it has been fun. Maybe EA has acted as a buffer between the companies. Mentions that he thinks there will be a Quake Arena game on DS. Wow?
7:36: Continues about Quake on DS. He remarks that Metroid Prime looks "totally cool," but it doesn't hold up due to fatigue issues. He wants to build a game that is Quake-themed, but play it like Doom 2 with the D-pad, and not touch-controlled. He wants it limited-motion as far as vertial view goes. That's the next DS title to be expected. Editor's Note: He also mentioned the beauty of wireless download, as well as Wi-Fi; obviously an aspect to consider for future Quake DS...
Personally I prefer the thought of a simpler control scheme to more MP-style pain.
5
NWR Forums Discord / MGS2 Review
« on: June 24, 2007, 01:59:16 AM »
I bought the game for my computor because it was less than five dollars and I actually enjoyed the first game. It's basically the same as MGS1, only the main character is hotter. Ironically, the similarity to the first game is actually part the story.
+ Raiden's skin-tight outfit
+ Mr. President groping Raiden to determine his gender
+ Raiden performing cartwheels naked
- hour long cutscene at the end
- completely obsurd story
- Rose is whiny and annoying
Overall Score: 8
Recommended for anyone who likes effeminate men with nice bottoms or ridiculously convoluted conspiracies. The first game's better, though, even without Raiden's ass.
+ Raiden's skin-tight outfit
+ Mr. President groping Raiden to determine his gender
+ Raiden performing cartwheels naked
- hour long cutscene at the end
- completely obsurd story
- Rose is whiny and annoying
Overall Score: 8
Recommended for anyone who likes effeminate men with nice bottoms or ridiculously convoluted conspiracies. The first game's better, though, even without Raiden's ass.
6
NWR Forums Discord / I'm getting sick of Unreal.
« on: June 03, 2007, 12:04:27 AM »
I think I've played through it like 23019238754983 times in the last month, testing a mod for balance. That's a lota times. I think it's even more times than I've played through Deus Ex, let alone in a month. (PS the mod is the first I've ever finished in ~8 years of modding :D).
I'm putting this rant in the funhouse because I don't expect anyone to care.
So anyway, not only am I sick of the bloody game (Whoever designed the Titans sucks. They're not fun to fight, they're just tedious. And they suck.), but I've noticed a bunch of broken junk. Like the stupid Krall carcasses. Their collision height is the same as living, upright Krall. Do you realize how irritating that is when fighting groups of Krall? It's like, you shoot one down, then you go to shoot another one, but your missile rocket hits a big pile of nothing above the other Krall's carcass and blows up, and then you're like, "@#?$! stupid carcass collision settings!" because you just wasted a rocket on a carcass, which is pretty irritating.
And the rabbits. They're programmed stupid. Instead of giving them a reasonable amount of health and letting them take damage all normal-style, they gave it 50 health and overrid the damage function to do nothing if the amount of damage taken was less than five, otherwise it would unconditionally die. Not only that, but it wouldn't die in a normal manner, it'd just fling a piece of bloody meat out and disappear, bypassing the normal death procedure that informs everyone else that it died, so if you kill bunnies in my mod, you don't get any money, even though the targeting computer says they're worth ¥100. Stupid.
And be careful with crates. I was trying to stack a bunch so I could climb up onto this box thing because there was a shield belt up there that had my name on it. So I'm grabbing these crates and flinging them around with my harpoon, and some of 'em go flying over my head, at which point they disappear for no reason. No reason at all! So I'm left without enough crates to get to the top of the box thing to get the shield belt which is worth like ¥10, and I don't wanna spend any money on a pair of wall jump boots and stuff to climb up the wall, so I used a cheat to fly up to the box instead. Because the crates are stupid.
And the melee code in Unreal is lousy. In the amount of time it takes an enemy to prepare to punch you in the face, you could easily get behind them if you'd sedated them a bit, or at least jumped to the side to dodge the attack. But nooooo, as long as you're still within range and not behind a wall, the attack will succeed. Not only that, but the hit location the attack passes to your damage function is meaningless. Instead of aproximating the actual point of impact, it just feeds you your center. This was causing a shield I'd made for my mod to work incorrectly, since it was supposed to only protect a certain region. So I had to put a dumb hack in your damage function to aproximate the hit location itself. That didn't solve the problem of being unable to dodge, though. And then I ended up taking the shield out, which caused me further frustration. I left the hit location aproximation hack in anyway, out of spite for the stupid melee code.
Also, the AI doesn't properly honor your visibility. If it's set to 0, they'll ignore you. But if you shoot them while invisible, or if you go invisible after shooting them, they'll be able to see you fine, and start killing your head off. Stupid. If I want my invisibility item to decloak you when you attack, I'll reset the player's visibility! So I had to implement another hack that forced enemies into some passive state while you were invisible. Which shouldn't be necessary. But it is, because the AI is programmed in a manner which is stupid.
That's all I can think of to rant about right now.
I'm putting this rant in the funhouse because I don't expect anyone to care.
So anyway, not only am I sick of the bloody game (Whoever designed the Titans sucks. They're not fun to fight, they're just tedious. And they suck.), but I've noticed a bunch of broken junk. Like the stupid Krall carcasses. Their collision height is the same as living, upright Krall. Do you realize how irritating that is when fighting groups of Krall? It's like, you shoot one down, then you go to shoot another one, but your missile rocket hits a big pile of nothing above the other Krall's carcass and blows up, and then you're like, "@#?$! stupid carcass collision settings!" because you just wasted a rocket on a carcass, which is pretty irritating.
And the rabbits. They're programmed stupid. Instead of giving them a reasonable amount of health and letting them take damage all normal-style, they gave it 50 health and overrid the damage function to do nothing if the amount of damage taken was less than five, otherwise it would unconditionally die. Not only that, but it wouldn't die in a normal manner, it'd just fling a piece of bloody meat out and disappear, bypassing the normal death procedure that informs everyone else that it died, so if you kill bunnies in my mod, you don't get any money, even though the targeting computer says they're worth ¥100. Stupid.
And be careful with crates. I was trying to stack a bunch so I could climb up onto this box thing because there was a shield belt up there that had my name on it. So I'm grabbing these crates and flinging them around with my harpoon, and some of 'em go flying over my head, at which point they disappear for no reason. No reason at all! So I'm left without enough crates to get to the top of the box thing to get the shield belt which is worth like ¥10, and I don't wanna spend any money on a pair of wall jump boots and stuff to climb up the wall, so I used a cheat to fly up to the box instead. Because the crates are stupid.
And the melee code in Unreal is lousy. In the amount of time it takes an enemy to prepare to punch you in the face, you could easily get behind them if you'd sedated them a bit, or at least jumped to the side to dodge the attack. But nooooo, as long as you're still within range and not behind a wall, the attack will succeed. Not only that, but the hit location the attack passes to your damage function is meaningless. Instead of aproximating the actual point of impact, it just feeds you your center. This was causing a shield I'd made for my mod to work incorrectly, since it was supposed to only protect a certain region. So I had to put a dumb hack in your damage function to aproximate the hit location itself. That didn't solve the problem of being unable to dodge, though. And then I ended up taking the shield out, which caused me further frustration. I left the hit location aproximation hack in anyway, out of spite for the stupid melee code.
Also, the AI doesn't properly honor your visibility. If it's set to 0, they'll ignore you. But if you shoot them while invisible, or if you go invisible after shooting them, they'll be able to see you fine, and start killing your head off. Stupid. If I want my invisibility item to decloak you when you attack, I'll reset the player's visibility! So I had to implement another hack that forced enemies into some passive state while you were invisible. Which shouldn't be necessary. But it is, because the AI is programmed in a manner which is stupid.
That's all I can think of to rant about right now.
7
General Gaming / Half-Life 2 "Black Box" cancelled
« on: May 18, 2007, 09:40:36 PM »
The "Black Box" would have had HL2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. The "Orange Box", which has those plus HL2 and HL2: Episode 1, will be the only available option now. Valve had the following to say regarding those who already own HL2 and Episode 1:
"Those who purchase the PC version of The Orange Box will get three separate Steam product codes: One for the three new games, one for HL2, and one for Episode One. This way a PC Orange Box owner can give away their Half-Life 2 or Episode One unused Steam product codes if they don't need a copy of those games."
Does this strike anyone else as being kinda stupid? Maybe they'll make them available seperately on Steam.
"Those who purchase the PC version of The Orange Box will get three separate Steam product codes: One for the three new games, one for HL2, and one for Episode One. This way a PC Orange Box owner can give away their Half-Life 2 or Episode One unused Steam product codes if they don't need a copy of those games."
Does this strike anyone else as being kinda stupid? Maybe they'll make them available seperately on Steam.
9
General Gaming / Deus Ex 3
« on: May 17, 2007, 02:40:06 PM »
Eidos says their Montreal studio is working on a new Deus Ex game.
link
I would be excited, but after Invisible War I have to wonder how much life is still left in the franchise.
They should totally continue from where the Omar ending left off.
link
I would be excited, but after Invisible War I have to wonder how much life is still left in the franchise.
They should totally continue from where the Omar ending left off.
10
Nintendo Gaming / Ghost Squad
« on: May 10, 2007, 05:10:42 PM »
link
Some Sega lightgun game that allows for four players (doesn't say if this mode's co-op, but there is at least 2-player co-op). Apparently it's a lot like Virtua Cop.
This makes two lightgun style games for Wii now, yes? I am pleased.
Some Sega lightgun game that allows for four players (doesn't say if this mode's co-op, but there is at least 2-player co-op). Apparently it's a lot like Virtua Cop.
This makes two lightgun style games for Wii now, yes? I am pleased.
11
Nintendo Gaming / They Hunger Coming to the DS
« on: April 01, 2007, 05:12:24 PM »
Seems Black Widow Games is working on porting their Half-Life mod trilogy, They Hunger, to the DS. It's using Valve's Goldsource engine. You can read more about it at Planet Half-Life.
12
NWR Forums Discord / Remember, BACK IN THE DAY
« on: January 28, 2007, 12:01:04 PM »
when printers made that AWESOME NOISE?
NYEEEEEEEEEEERRRM
chg chg chg chg chg chg chg chg
NYEEEEEEEEEEERRRM
chg chg chg chg
NYEEEEEEEEEEERRRM
It was like an EVENT every time you printed something! WHY DON'T THEY MAKE PRINTERS LIKE THAT ANYMORE?
NYEEEEEEEEEEERRRM
chg chg chg chg chg chg chg chg
NYEEEEEEEEEEERRRM
chg chg chg chg
NYEEEEEEEEEEERRRM
It was like an EVENT every time you printed something! WHY DON'T THEY MAKE PRINTERS LIKE THAT ANYMORE?
14
Nintendo Gaming / New FarCry info at IGN
« on: November 29, 2006, 08:44:15 AM »
Basically, it's uglier than a 'Cube game, but is a lot of fun and has the best FPS controls on Wii yet. The new videos look fun. 
15
Nintendo Gaming / New Far Cry video up at IGN
« on: November 07, 2006, 07:43:43 PM »
The graphics definitely look pretty lame to me. Some stuff looks okay, but some things barely look textured at all to me. Graphics asside, though, it looks like it might be a fun shooter. It looks like it might be a little more fast-paced and action-oriented than the calculating PC version, though that might just be the video focusing on action sequences. Looks like you can set people on fire with grenades! That's almost as good as having a flamethrower.
16
General Chat / newbie HTML question
« on: October 29, 2006, 11:06:30 PM »
By using "a href" and "img src" tags, I can make images that link to places. But they get frames around them with the link colors I defined. This causes me dishappiness. Is there a simple way to get this functionality without the dumb frames around my pictures?
17
General Chat / My CS200 professor deleted my homework.
« on: September 29, 2006, 02:01:22 PM »
He sent an e-mail saying to resubmit it before school closes today. I probably wouldn't have gotten the e-mail in time if one of my roommates hadn't told me that one of the guys on his game team got the same e-mail. I'm kind of annoyed.
18
NWR Forums Discord / I'll sue the razer manufacturer!
« on: September 29, 2006, 05:50:43 AM »
It's rather embarassing. I cut myself today while shaving a certain part of my body that isn't my face. Parallel blades for maximum damage! I could have bled to death! I'll sue!
19
General Chat / my computer speakers are broken
« on: September 24, 2006, 08:42:52 PM »
The light on the subwoofer comes on, but the lights on the right speaker (the only other one with any lights on it) don't, and none of the speakers make noise. All I need is a headphone jack. Stupid useless fancy sound card with all its fancy pants plugs and no headphone jack. The silence (noisy computer fans don't count!) is gonna drive me nuts. I wonder if Office Depot would have speakers that could interface with my sound card. I don't know where any other computery stores around here are.
Maybe I'll turn my DS on and listen to Goemon DS music all night.
Maybe I'll turn my DS on and listen to Goemon DS music all night.
23
Nintendo Gaming / Bit Generations
« on: August 16, 2006, 10:07:37 PM »
Anyone else import any of these games? I don't understand Digidrive at all. D:
24
NWR Forums Discord / What's been goin' ON in that head o'yours?
« on: August 13, 2006, 09:42:47 PM »
Bop bop bop bop!
Pages: [1]
The entire contents of this Web site, unless otherwise noted, are Copyright © 1999 - 2012 NINWR, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ™ and © for all products, characters, and indicia related thereto which are contained herein are owned by the companies who market or license those products. This Web site is not endorsed, sponsored, nor otherwise affiliated with Nintendo. It has been created for the sole purpose of entertainment and knowledge. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form without consent from NINWR, LLC is prohibited.
