XNA, Flash and CD-ROM Graphics

I remember a conversation I had in about sixth grade, when CD-ROM was relatively new technology.  My friend Andrew was trying to convince me that “CD-ROM Graphics” was, well, something that only a CD could bring you.  Games like The Journeyman Project and 7th Guest definitely did things that you couldn’t do on 3.5″ floppies, but a graphic is a graphic, whether it’s stored on a CD, hard drive, laserdisc, etc.  Anyway, the dialogue would go something like:

“The background in Diamonds looks good, but it’s not CD-ROM graphics.”

“You know a 1 MB image will look just as good if it’s on a CD as it will if it’s on the hard drive?”

“Well, it’s still not CD-ROM graphics.” (more…)

6 Comments December 15, 2009

A word about Xbox Live Community Games/Indie Games

I haven’t done much with Xbox Community Games in awhile (this will change soon; I just need a break from Super Secret XNA Project 2.0), but that hasn’t stopped me from reading some fun articles lambasting the service for promising wealth, fame, and Princess-Bride-caliber true love, only to turn around and steal candy from orphans.

The main criticisms, as far as I can tell are:

• Microsoft hasn’t done enough to market XBLCG
• Microsoft has not made Community Games visible enough in the dash
• Stupid apps are taking all of the sales

So put your money where your mouth is.  If XBLCG is such a tragic platform, why not release on Windows?

Here’s why: (more…)

15 Comments July 15, 2009

How Not to Promote ZP2K9

This is too funny…

So, ZP2K9 is on the Community Games marketplace.  It’s a side scrolling multiplayer online shooter.  It’s 200 points.  It’s fun.  I like it.  Some random people like it.  Some people like it so much, they saw fit to promote it!  Harmless, no?

Well, one of my XBL buddies thought he’d spread the cheer to the folks at some Soldat forum, using a highly inflammatory topic name of “Soldat vs ZP2K9” and naively postulating that ZP2K9 was better!  I guess the Soldat folks are not keen on fighting words!

Here are some gems:

• “Your walking all the time = Ur opponents will face you from the same hight = no aim skills required = Soldat is better.”
• “Whatever it is, that game can’t be compared to Soldat – Soldat is way superior.”
• “Not even close to soldat LOL”
• “seems like they are desperate to get soldat on them, even if its just a crappy copy of it”
• “Just judging from the video I don’t think there’s any contest-soldat blows it out of the water in my opinion.”
• “anyone realized that the thing when he goes up is actually pretty same as the prince of perisa climbing?”

Heh.

(Ahem… for the record, I played Soldat like once years ago and wasn’t blown away.  I loved Abuse though!  And RuneQuake!  Yeah, I’m a dork!  So what!?)

(Also, this is the video that is used to gauge how terrible ZP2K9 is; compared to Soldat, can we say they both look a little bit like crap?)

Anyway, I’ve learned two things from this:

1. Never get involved in a land war in Asia.
2. Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

Is there hope?  Or is this game doomed because it is not like a game that I never intended it to be like?

Well, it’s not all bad!  XNA Roundup liked it a lot, particularly the flamethrower, Chameleon suit sword trick (I might wanna cut this one), and controls.   Video review after the break: (more…)

6 Comments March 8, 2009

I wrote a book (and some dude hates it)!

I get lots and lots of emails asking how I made The Dishwasher, which is cool, so I wrote a book (with the help of John Sedlak) on pretty much everything I did when making The Dishwasher so that others could benefit from the experience.  The book is pretty straightforward and hopefully a fun read.  It’s available for $26 on Amazon.com.

Some dude already hates it:

I have been developing small footprint games for 9 years and coding for another 11. I wanted a book to get me started on XNA and since I already had the basics I was looking for a practical approach which allowed me to hit the ground running.

Unfortunately this book isn’t it. It provides little substance and leaves a lot of the important details out. I wonder if they just thought of making a quick buck after winning a small gaming award.

Well, you can’t please them all!  My book sets out to explain how to make The Dishwasher, no more, no less.  I probably should have put up a disclaimer somewhere!  Critics…

(For the record, about a year ago APress approached me after I won a small gaming award and asked if I’d like to write a book detailing how I made the game that won the small gaming award, so here we are.)

Anyway, if you want to know how to make The Dishwasher (and use that as a springboard for jumping into all things gaming), buy my book!  If you want a more general overview of all things XNA, don’t buy my book!

9 Comments September 21, 2008

On those crazy XBLA price tags…

So, here we are: Braid‘s on XBLA for 1200 points, and now Castle Crashers has hit XBLA for another 1200 points.  They’re two excellent games (I unsurprisingly gravitated toward the latter, going as far as to dub yesterday “Castle Crashers Day”) and they both embody much of what the indie games industry can do right.  Also, they’re both taking some of the most ridiculous flak I’ve ever heard over their price.

Such gems include:

“$15 for 5 hours of single player?”

“I could get [insert old game name here] for $5 less at Gamestop!”

“If it were $10, I’d pay, but at $15 it’s just too much.”

Probably my first reaction should be to not listen to anything morons say online.

However, assuming I failed to do the first part, here’s my second reaction: (more…)

8 Comments August 28, 2008