Topics

1

General Chat / Looking for some advice.

« on: August 18, 2013, 05:56:37 PM »

I guess I have lurked for long enough so I'm coming up to post something for the first time in while, so I'm looking for some advice on a youtube channel, I'm thinking on doing; and wanted to get some feedback before I do so, to see if there is any interest in it.
The videos would be about how to cheaply get into gamedevelopment. I would cover the basics and point the users to free resources to get more. I will also show them free-to-cheap legally obtained development tools. I would maybe latter go into more depth on some topics.


I was also planning to something like a series of story telling videos where I would sit there and tell a story using just an outline. Plus maybe some video game editoral etc, which I think a  little overdone on youtube so I wasn't considering making it the focus of the channel.
So what do you guys think?

2

Nintendo Gaming / Like niche game? Support the eShop

« on: December 20, 2012, 02:53:49 PM »

I wrote this a bit ago, but I will post it here. Didn't see a related topic so I made a new one.

With Nintendo first loss in decades it seems that Nintendo is less willing to take risk when it comes to localizing titles especially with physical media. A good example of this would be the project Rainfall titles. The titles were translated and localized for Europe why did NoA bulk at localizing it for the US and Canada, the biggest reason is the investment that was still involved. Nintendo as a whole is a conservative company when it comes to taking risks. And profits were falling because of the rising yen and the long console cycle taking it toll. The media involved is the single biggest investment outside of originally developing a game for a publisher. Once it is made you cannot unmake it, and if you have a game were you expect it do a certin amount and it doesn’t cover the investment especially if they are only expect 100,000 titles the investment may not be worth it, since if it doesn’t sell you will be sitting on the unshipped discs. And the ET incident and more recently the Gamecube over production incident may be in Nintendo’s mind.

With the advent of their new machines they are also having digital copies of their game along side of the physical copies which softens the investment to localize titles, since there is an option of having it all digital in nature. So games like Project X Zone may see release outside of Japan, in the form of a digital release. More examples could be Radient Historia, if the digital version could of been offered the supply issues could of been avoided since they don’t run the chance of under-estimating the needs of the market also.
The problem is support where the support of the 3DS/WiiU eShop is better than the WiiWare it still not totally there yet, though there are promising results. So if there is a digital version I suggest buy it. It will show Nintendo and other publishers that there is a market for these games, and there is a market for games that may or may not originally see the day of light from the bigger publishers since the investment to bring them out will be lower so less games may be canceled because they are not considered projects that would make back the money.

Also promotions such as Nintendo’s Digital Deluxe Promotion may see an extension, which I would very much like to see since it is effectively reducing the price of the digital games 10%.
There are other benefits to supporting digital like helping smaller developers prove their worth so they can fund more ambitious titles.

3

General Gaming / Now is a good time for E3 to change.

« on: June 11, 2012, 12:00:02 PM »

 It seems that this E3 was the last E3 in LA; with renovations being done to the expo center moving them out next year and the issues currently with the construction of Farmer's Field it seems that the ESA is looking for possible new locations for the show. The current locations being considered are rumored to be New York, Chicago, New Orleans or San Francisco.

 
With them changing locations now would be a good time for them to reevaluate the show and it relevance to the market. The glorious E3 of days past use to be as some put “Christmas for gamers” with a barrage of announcements and new sights on the expo's floor. Now the bigger developers and console manufactures prefer using their own channels and platforms to introduce new titles so they can control the message and the exposure the games get the last two E3's have been for lack of a better word flat and unable to recapture the excitement they lost when they “slimmed” down the show.

 
Since the show is now not a place for the “hot new” announcements they may want to change the show from industry only to a more accessible format such as Gamescom or the Tokyo Game Show has. Where the first few days is industry only with a day or two for gaming enthusiasts to get a first look of what is going to hot in the next few months.

 
And they may be leaning towards the direction the location of E3 was chosen because it was an industry only event and with the majority of developers and console producers having their headquarters on the west coast and west coast location was the way to go. But only one of the four rumored location are located on the west coast.

 
New York and Chicago are great places to locate to since both are fairly accessible Chicago boasting one of the biggest international airports and a more “tourist friendly“ and New York while not as cheap as Chicago is located in one of the highest population densities in the US.

 
Also by opening it up to the public can also boost potential exposure to titles shown at the show, which may help give the show a better chance to be the place that new hot titles get announced at.

4

Nintendo Gaming / The possible reason for Nintendo's "lackluster" E3.

« on: June 07, 2012, 12:25:32 PM »

 I sat down last night after Nintendo's 3DS software show case to digest the information that had been presented the last few days. I took time to ask myself the question: “If I was Nintendo why wouldn't I show next to no new content?”

 
It really wasn't that they had a bad show, it was more like they avoided to reveal that much new information. The answer sudden came to me, Nintendo doesn't need to use E3 as a platform to announce new content. It benefits Nintendo more to show off the content that is coming in the next few months to the press as a why to advertise those product.

 
I the past year Nintendo has been nurturing it own information dissemination channels Nintendo Direct and various Press and fan events around the globe. These are better platforms to announce new titles as their release date draws close.

 
There was a study of sorts down a few years ago that came to the conclusion that the “sweet spot” as it where for a title where the two months before the release upto two week after where the title would be in the collective conscience of consumers, before the the “next big thing” takes the spot light. So the titles that would benefit the most from showing at E3 are the ones that are going to be released this summer. And this is what Nintendo has concentrated on, the 3DS titles that will be out this summer into early fall.

 
Sure they also released information on the up coming WiiU console but they main worked on keeping titles that had already been announced fresh in the market's mind, and these are the titles that will be launching in the two-to-three month period of the launch window. The few “new” titles we learned about where ZombiU, SiNG and P100. But since the WiiU is still a little over 5 months away, according the rumors, there will be a better time to show off the WiiU and it's launch titles. Which is what Nintendo intends to do since an event that only announces the release date and price would be a little short on content.

 
So we should be hearing more about the WiiU, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem and a lot of the other items that we had hoped to hear something about at E3. And the fact that after the 3DS show Reggie accidentally leaked that Fire Emblem is in localization, should be proof enough that Nintendo is no longer using E3 as a platform for announcments.

 
Nintendo also made news a few months ago when the decided not to attend Gamescom but instead hold evens themselves, we much remember that going to these events cost the company money and it may have been decided that it would be cheaper to this route. Also the new information platforms they use also don't cost very much to use, so from this point forth I doubt that Nintendo will have a “big show” in any of the old expos.

5

General Chat / A Nintendo reference on google.

« on: March 17, 2012, 08:46:28 AM »

Search either "do a barrel roll" or "Z or L twice" and google does a trick for you.j

Sorry if this was already covered I didn't see it so I posted it.

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Nintendo Gaming / Snail mail letter campaign for Last Story, Xenoblade and Pandora's Tower.

« on: June 25, 2011, 09:29:40 AM »

I guess someone at IGN is organizing a letter campaign to have people send a letter begging for the games to come out, included with an optional gift. I guess this has worked before for TV shows. Where the fans snail-mail spammed the CEO of the networks.

http://boards.ign.com/nintendo_wii_lobby/b8270/203345328/p1 - Contains sample letters for each game and when they should be sent so they arrive at the same time. (Three letter mailings, one for each game.

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/save-our-show-a-history-of-tv-fan-campaigns - The story on metacritic about the shows this type of campaign saved.

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General Chat / McDonalds to have Pokemon Toys starting June 17th.

« on: June 10, 2011, 09:24:10 AM »

McDonald's will have a set of 8 toys from Black and White. (Though Pikachu is toy #1) They will include a random card from a set of 12 for the TCG.

http://imgur.com/SzLTT
A pic of the toys.

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Nintendo Gaming / Sega Announces Sonic Colors for the Wii.

« on: May 26, 2010, 01:02:11 PM »

With Sonic 4 being pushed back I guess they Sega was thoughful enough to scrape up some more sonic road kill. (sarcasm) Judging from the video they finally figured out that people didn't want another storybook Sonic game and decided for another shot at an Adventure type title.

http://kotaku.com/5548219/sonic-colors-streaks-to-the-wii-and-ds/gallery/

(video)

http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=80145

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Nintendo Gaming / Pokemon Platinum Rotom Codes Insert

« on: April 01, 2009, 04:03:19 AM »

Shamin isn't the only Pokmon getting a new form in Platinum. Contained within the game is an insert that contains one of five codes to get one of the five new forms of Rotom. It says you can share the code the with friends. I have the code for the Grass type. (Mow Rotom)

The code is 7W6O3M5. (The O in the middle I'm guessing is the letter. I haven't redeemed mine yet since I have to get the mystery gift option working and input the code on the games offical site.)

The other new on is Garintina and the origin form.

10

General Chat / All call for help.

« on: December 21, 2007, 09:52:32 AM »

For one of my first projects I’m planning on making a board game. The game will be modeled after Trivial Pursuit, Scene It and a few others. The object of the game will be to prove how much knowledge you have in Video Games, Anime and Manga. I am planning on calling it Otaku-ban. The problem is I need questions and research that needs to be done. So I’m asking for help, since if I use the material I have at home it will be primarily slanted to the tastes of my siblings and I. So I need questions that range the gambit of easy to very hard.

For example one of the questions I’m planning is to take pictures of Master Chief from Halo in each installment run on the 360 but Displayed on a SDTV and pit plays to id which game each frame is from.

Once I am done I will offer this up as freeware since there is way too much red tape to release it as a commercial game.

As a token of my gratitude for helping me with the research I will put the names (or screen names if you choose) in the credits of the game. I hope to have this project done in at least beta form by time No Brand Con comes around in April so I can test it out.

You can either PM me or send me the questions to my e-mail at blkpaladin@hughes.net .
One more thing make sure you include references and what game, producer, creator that the question is from so I can give them proper credit for their work or else I cannot include it, and so I can do back research to verify the questions correctness. Please do not submit anything dealing with hentai in any of its forms.

Here is the planed divisions for the questions.

Main Topics

Manga
Video Games
Anime

SubTopics

What Happens Next?
People
Places
Things
Music
Misc

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Nintendo Gaming / WiiWear Middleware Software Found.

« on: August 30, 2007, 12:55:39 PM »

The people at Garage Games are offering their Torque Game Engine optimized for the Wii and WiiWare. Though this is a commerical solution, as Nintendo usually operates you need to be approved before being able to buy any liscensed middleware.

I found this while doing an assignment.

12

Nintendo Gaming / Prime Easter Egg - Need Help In Japanese (Voice)

« on: August 29, 2007, 08:26:49 PM »

There is an easter egg my brother uncovered but it is in Japanese. If you reacitvate the secure keycode input device you use at the begining of the game and reinput the sequence. There is some Japanese dialog. I think it may be Iwata but I miss the where he introduces himself for those who don't remember. The sequence is the symbol second from the top, second from the bottom, the one two left of that then the top one.

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General Gaming / The extent of the problem driven home. (Xbox 360 Red Rings)

« on: August 02, 2007, 05:10:48 PM »

My 360 recently died due to the problem with the Red Rings, well I called and they sent me the information and stuff needed to send my console in. I have heard that the 360 had as much as 33% failure rate which high but it wasn't until I went to the UPS store to send it off to Microsoft did I get a sense of how much of problem it is. The UPS store I went to is Janesville WI which is a city with a little over 60,000 people in them.

For those who haven't had the fortune of sending out the 360, Microsoft sends you a very plain white mid-sized box to send the system back in. As soon as I entered with the box the clerk behind the desk said "Oh, so you are sending your 360 in to be repaired." I had to go out to the vehicle to get some change. (I had to reopen the box to afix the reference number so I needed to buy some tape.) The reason he knew it was the 360 is that he has handled so many and infact it was 7th 360 that day to be returned due to the red ring problem. (There was another one or two sent back for other reasons.)

Even though 60k people are a lot of people not all of them own consoles, and there are several places to drop off UPS packages for pickup and you can call to have them pick it up so I found it increadible that 6 other consoles were returned that day.

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General Gaming / What happened to E3?

« on: July 18, 2007, 10:34:20 PM »

Pretty much what has been said but in one place.

   The show has come and gone, the keynotes were bland, the companies mainly stuck to old news and nothing really big came out of the show. So that leaves the question what happened to E3?

   Each company came to show a different idea of how it should be handled: Microsoft used the show to showcase upcoming titles that would be released in 2007; Nintendo used to show to showcase their casual gamer games seemingly leaving the core gamer behind; Sony came to the show to showpiece gamers that the games are coming. In this regard all three companies were successful at what they came to the show to do.
Microsoft came to the show to show off their current lineup that would be releasing in 2007, they did cover a couple games they'll be released in 2000 date unveiling Resident Evil 5 is coming to the 360. They tried in court nontraditional gamers by hyping the coming game Scene It, which is coming to other consoles, and non-gaming items that are coming to their Live services. At the end of their keynoted left many saying that Microsoft dropped the ball, and there is no way that they could “win” the show.  But they're keynote served to be more of a template and what the other two companies for going to do with their keynotes.
Nintendo's show came next and keynote address centered mainly on their nontraditional gaming titles, and how well they did the first year with the Wii, thus treating the keynote more like a press conference instead of the beginning of a game show. Leaving core gamers and some gaming press feeling the company has totally forgot about them. But the traditional press who attended left the show proclaiming Nintendo the best in the show.

   Sony's keynote came last and then bearers were more like the keynotes from E3s of the past. They came and said the games are coming, they showed the games that many had questions about, but they still had no real announcements to make besides the redesign of the PSP.

                                                                                                                               So now why

   The interesting thing about the question of why the show was like the way it was, is also the same reason why the ESA slimmed-down the show in the first place. E3 was originally the biggest game show on the planet. So it attracted crowds and other people that shouldn't have really been there, making it almost impossible to cover the games for the press.  But because it was so big the gaming companies knew that any major announcements made at this show, would be talked about, hyped up, analyzed and reanalyze, by both the press and the gaming community.

   But when it was slimmed-down long depressed to have time with the games it also had the detrimental effect of taking away companies he used to come to the show, but also eliminated it as the number one show in the world, lust making it so major announcements would be better received than other shows. To make a comparison between the old and new show, the old show was hosted in a building with three auditoriums each the size of about 2 ½ to 3 football fields in size not to mention the hallways and entrance ways and sidewalks, and roughly about 600 companies attended. (Most were hosted in the Katina Hall, or pulled for a join booth else where in the show.)  The new show was about the size of GDC, who show floor was a little bigger than a high school gymnasium, and only 20 or so companies attended.
Also the timing of the show was bad, in a few weeks Lipzig will have its own game show. Also in October a show that was made to replace the spectacle of E3, posted on the original site of E3 would be making its debut. And all three major Council companies have already said they would be in attendance, making this show the better choice to release new information on next year and surprise announcements for what will be happening in the future.

   There have been many suggestions on how the ESA could improve the show next year. Some of which are to eliminate the show completely and work with the companies so they can spread out their information over a few months so all titles can be guaranteed coverage. Another would be joining with the organizers of the E for All, to organize a compound show up where both access and spectacle could both be maintained which would make it something like the Tokyo Game show but have a separate place where the game press could easily get there hands on the games while the general public and “gamestop-types” can get there fix and bring something to hype about back home.

   So in the next few months are going to be hearing more about what can happen in the future at the various game shows they’ll be posted around the world. What should have happened at E3 will now happen elsewhere make it necessary for the new E3 to be revamped again, if the ESA wants to have a show with any pull in the market. And the question on whether or not the new E for All will be treated like the old E3 will be answered in the next few months.

15

Nintendo Gaming / A Sony 2nd party going 3rd(?)...

« on: July 13, 2007, 06:34:04 PM »

I was looking at the the software release list for the Wii in the next year or so. (From the kit leak...) And I noticed something the developer XSEED Games which I see primarily on PSP/PS2 titles is making a game for the Wii (Victorious Boxers Revolution). I find it strange because I thought I heard that Sony owned a portion of them, and they are the makers of Wild Arms and Legend of Legaia. Which brings me to the question if they are free to make games on a rivial's system who accually owns the rights to some of their properties. (Even though I like to make fun of afore mentioned two series I do/did like playing them.)

16

Nintendo Gaming / Here Kitty, Kitty. Tell us your secrets.

« on: January 30, 2007, 07:18:37 PM »

I don't know if this has been covered but there is a cat when you are loading the news channel click on it and it tells you a few "secrets" about the channel, but it also seems there is a simular cat in the Photo Channel that does the same thing. (At least that what the cat told me today.) It also changes the loading bar into a bar with cats.

17

Nintendo Gaming / For anyone thinking of getting Super Swing Golf do yourselves a favor, don't.

« on: January 06, 2007, 07:13:49 PM »

I'm sorry about the orginal post. I had just spent 5 hours getting my butt handed to me by the computer on Silvia Cannon, so I was venting which I sould of done elsewhere. I really do like the game, its just agravating as heck and a lot of it is things that could of been cured.

The gold is really solid, the graphic are good but it nothing great, especially for some of the loading it does.

The difficulty ramps up at a nice level, though I think they souldn't of went with a "reactive" AI because it goes from being what it is programmed to do normal to never making a bad shot, then it becomes Corkey the wonder kid. This agravates me.

Then when you quit out of a game because the computer just did a hole in one is over 1k worth a Pang in front of which you can never make up, especially if you have the tendancy of just beating the computer by one game or by Pang the first time you beat it. Then you are faced first with going to the main menu and not the Pangya Feista menu like it says, the loading for the character information, the loading for the little story line, the loading for the first hole which take about a minute, which feels like longer. Also there are times when the computer player pauses and the graphics bog down noticably.

I have noticed it a few times but on Silvia Cannon the third hole I believe the camera instead of watching your shot because there are two drop offs and the forest OB goes behind the trees so you don't know what you are doing wrong. (I'm just going to be learning this but there is a way to cut away all map based objects to you can see which would of been nice.)

I have been playing this game for about 60 hours now so I don't hate it. It just that there are agravations that could of been removed. I like the customization though it can be touchy when you return to use the player because it handles differently. (The white Pangya target gets smaller meaning you tend to slice or hook more frequently as you raise your strength, adding controll and accuracy help aleavate some of this but being able to up this is small in comparision with being able to play with the strength of the character.)

I can say one thing the game excells at is the complete golfing experience. (Including why some player break thousands of dollars of clubs every now and then, because I sometimes feel the urge to hurt something with my controller.)

18

Nintendo Gaming / Teaser in Super Swing Golf

« on: January 05, 2007, 07:07:10 PM »

Found out what I wanted to know.

19

Nintendo Gaming / Toys for Bob developer says the best ideas are yet to come.

« on: January 03, 2007, 07:18:43 AM »

In the most recent issue of Game Developer, they did a post-mortem on Downhill Jam. He had a lot of prise for the Wii, and unlike some games they did for the Gamecube none of the problems were technical, but time and "legal" related. (They wanted an E10 rating, trouble with liscened music and the art overloaded their art team. (They had 18 level artists, 6 programmers, 5 animators, 11 designers, 8 testers and 1 concept artist) And still they had problems with getting what they want in art in.)

But there was one teaser that caught my eye when they were talking about their brain storming for the game they said that some of the best ideas didn't even get put into the game. (They said something about a chainsaw) and they will be using them in the next game. So it looks like one developer is really happy with making "new" content for the Wii and expects to do it again.  

20

Nintendo Gaming / VC games up early.

« on: December 24, 2006, 07:26:57 PM »

I thought this might be the case with the holiday and people at Akamai and Nintendo probally almost all off today they released the games early. I just download most of them. Enjoy.

21

Nintendo Gaming / Game polling on consoles.

« on: December 22, 2006, 10:09:41 PM »

I would like to start an open discussion on companies polling your playing habits. Because right now with all consoles being “always on” it opens up the opportunity for companies to poll you systems to find out your playing habits.

Nintendo does this already with the VC. When you originally set up the Wii shop channel it asks you if you want to attach you my Nintendo account and Wii shop account. Nintendo uses this to determine what type of games to bring next and weather its time to release a meaningful release of these games. (This is probably another reason they waited until the 25th to release any SNES games and another Mario title.)

For example when first starting up a game it can search the internal memory to see if there is a save for the game if there isn’t the game can see if the Wii Connect24 is on, if it is then prompt the user if they want to register their product and send some information on you playing habits (by using the Wii messaging tracking) so they can better serve the user base.

I think this is fine but it can be a two edged sword for the industry. Since it can stifle innovation in areas, but by polling your playing habits they find out what you play and how long you play certain genres or games and probably reduce the number of bad games, by telling the company what doesn’t work by your playtime and not your dollars.

22

General Chat / BlkPaladin's "first game".

« on: December 13, 2006, 02:19:59 PM »

Since some on these forum express interess in trying my first attempt to make a 2D game for my classes. I'm posting where to find it. But please bear in mind.

1) This was a class project, though I recieved a 100% on it, its shovel wear. I put in a little less then 4 work days of effort into the programming of the code. Because I had other classes and work. I know where the problems are.

2) Technically the files are none redistrubitable. I used two file I don't have full permission to distribute, but then again the people at OCR, where I recieve the music files don't have this permission either. So use at your own risk.

3) This is only one level.

4) The file is about 10MB in size due mostly to the mp3 files the rest are the sprite maps.

5) You can see my artistic accomplishment in the game (you will know when you see it, I can't draw...)

Sorry but you will more than likely going to have to update DirectX to play the game....Here is the link.

And with out further adue. Here is the link. (Right-click and save target as.)

This is on my site, I'm hosting my family's kennel site, I hope to expand my part soon. (So i.e. please be gentle...)

Oh yeah it based loosly off of Gauntlet. The project was grade with limitation of time in mind. But the instructor is a industry professional so it makes me happy he really liked what I did. Also I hope to have some sort of RPG done or in demo form by March. (And eventually get it published to the VC, if I'm lucky.. Other wise I will use the XNA to get it on Windows or the 360, but it will be published. ) I'm just deciding between an action RPG in the vien of Zelda/Mana or a turn based one like FF, it will be in 2D since that is what I'm currently experienced in. (The turn based one will be more programmer friendly for my first full game. :/ )

EDIT: Added my comments.   Oh and I can be a little harsh on myself I have a slight problem with a bit of perfectionism and it does get at odds with my tendency to be a procrastinator.   EDIT 2: Sorry this late at night engrish gets bad.

23

Nintendo Gaming / Nintendo wins another honorary award for Wii.

« on: December 02, 2006, 06:54:55 AM »

PC magazine gave the Wii their Technical Excellence award for gaming technology. For two things their chip-set, it may not be as powerful but is built to offer high-power with low power consumpsion." And even though the controller isn't the first to use gyroscopic technology it is the first on to do it well. (page 94 of the Dec 26, 2006 PC Magazine.)

24

Nintendo Gaming / Up to 8 players possible in a game.

« on: November 22, 2006, 07:51:36 PM »

I was browsing the virtual console and it seems that you can have eight players (theorically) play on one Wii. I don't know if that would be wise (unless for something like Mario Party). I say this because Bomberman 93 allows for 5 players to play at once (four wiimotes, and one gamecube controller.)

So I guess if the developers wanted to they could make Smash Brothers with eight. (4 classic, 4 gamecube - And just a thought..)

25

Nintendo Gaming / I want to do an experiement.

« on: November 19, 2006, 07:57:02 PM »

I want to see if the messaging feature works yet on the Wii. All I need is someone's Wii number. (Found by going into messages, hitting the create message button, then the address book. On the front of the book it shows the Wii number, it also gives you the option of registering another's Wii number, cell phone or email address.) My Wii number is 3518 4357 4611 1064