In this episode of Designer's Playbook I focus on Dragon Age 2.
The key topics I look at in this episode are:
- Pattern recognition and its impact on user interfaces
- Mechanical Chaos in combat
- Habituation and its effect on repeated environments
If you have any comments or topics you'd like to see me investigate in future episodes please let me know.
Lastly, I will be releasing a new episode on the 1st of each month as fortnightly releases proved to be a little too ambitious with my…
Developer of Doodle Find, Little Things and KlickTock founder, Matthew Hall, has been featured at the blog of Jordan Mechner. You may know Mechner as the creator of the original Prince of Persia.
Hall recounts missing the 'golden age' of the bedroom developer during the 8-bit era, where a lone person could create their own games and make a living out of it. I'm sure there are a lot of us who had an 8-bit computer (perhaps a Commodore 64 or Amstrad) when we were in primary school or just…
IGDA Melbourne is gearing up for another big Christmas event for their local chapter, and they need your help. If you're planning to come along or want to help out, they've started a crowd funding initiative to cover the costs of this event.
Check out the levels you can contribute and the awards you receive with your contribution at the page they've set up here. The folks at IGDA Melbourne put in a whole lot of effort and stress organising awesome events like this, so your support is greatly…
Ahoy there!
In theme of International Talk Like a Pirate day (September 19), Team Pok Pok would like to share with you a preview of their new indie mobile game, Captain Skyro.
You can check out the preview on Youtube here: http://youtu.be/iZoyUrBirSc
Captain Skyro takes you on a swashbuckling adventure of pirates, treasure and challenging enemies as you climb your way into the sky.
This game is a mobile release of Team Pok Pok's early Flash game, Captain Skyro: Cloud Climber. The original…
The developers behind the hugely popular iPhone footy game “Specky: Mark of the Year” have announced that this Saturday September 17, all proceeds from the games sales will be donated to Unicef Australia.
“It’s footy finals time and while most people are wrapped up in the drama and excitement on the field, its also a good time to remember those who are less fortunate than ourselves.” said 5 Minute Siesta’s CEO, Mick Solomons.
“Specky’s been a great hit on the app store and we’re really happy to…
We're hearing numerous reports via Twitter and other sources that Visceral Games in Melbourne are closing down. First noted via Screenplay's tweet, and followed up via further Twitter correspondences from @IGDAMelbourne...
@screenplayblog
Visceral Games Melbourne studio has closed its doors according to a Screen Play poster. #morebadnewsforozgamesindustry
@screenplayblog
Just got another message that @VisceralGames Melbourne studio closing on Monday. Seems legitimate.
@IGDAMelbourne
@…
Have never done that much database/php stuff, but was currious if you could make a game using javascript/canvas rather than flash.
this seemed fine till trying to get Internet Explorer to work, in which case i would like to think flash works as canvas, even with various script emulations, has rather poor canvas support.
so anyway, tested it out and hit a dead end, to continue this project, would need to port it to flash, make a php and database backend, as well as ballance/ improve content.
or…
These videos probably won't last long, considering how fast THQ pulled offline the previous sneak peek, so check them out while you can!
An anonymous ex-THQ Studio Australia developer has given Kotaku AU the tip off that they have just uploaded three videos onto youtube which showcases the Avengers movie-tie in game that they were working on before THQ pulled the plug on their Australian studios.
The videos consist of two trailers which shows off the superheroes, the first-person brawler…
During some sickness timeout, Alistair Doulin (Doolwind) has written a 2011 games industry retrospective, describing what has been working and what needs to be improved this year for his Brisbane based indie start-up, Bane Games. Alistair heaps praise on the new markets and the availablility of high quality game engine tools, from Unity to UDK and CryEngine for indpendent games developers. His studio has taken specific advantage of Unity for the application's ease in muti-platform publishing…
Tony Albrecht, founder and Director of Overbyte and veteran programmer with past stints at studios such as Ratbag, Midway, and Pandemic, has written a fantastic entry for AltDevBlogADay detailing his unusual journey into games development.
It seems like an unlikely choice for a lad who grew up in a small country town in South Australia where most aspired to drive trucks or work on the farm for a living, however, when Tony was first introduced to a Apple II computer, he knew right away what he…
