Of course, the sensible thing would be to use an existing game engine, but after a certain point, there is some curiosity if learning and fighting yet another game engine is really quicker that just writing something from scratch.
Just a reminder to tune in your tv sets to the ABC tonight for the half hour Catalyst special on Micro Forte and MMOG's. I've seen the promo short on the ABC for it where they show a glimpse of what I presume to be in-game Citizen Zero footage and level editing. Very cool! Catalyst will be on at 8pm tonight, on the ABC.
On another note, Paul McInnes (lead designer at Micro Forte) has clued the Citizen Zero fans with some news at the CZ forums.
What has happened to Citizen Zero?
Micro Fort? and…
AustralianIT reports that Queensland based Auran has scored a huge deal with a Korean publisher to develop a Massively Multiplayer Online Game. It's expected to be completed in 2 years, and marketed to Korea before it is unleashed to the rest of the world. Also worth noting is that the MMOG will be using Auran's popular Jet engine. Read all the details at AustralianIT.
Be sure to have your TV's switched on to the ABC at 8pm, Thursday, this week!!
"In this half hour Catalyst special we follow a design team called Micro Forte, as they create the vast virtual game world of Citizen Zero. They?ve got US$4 million invested in the project and, with lush landscapes, underground caverns, and big cities populated by hundreds of thousands of fantasy characters, it will be the biggest and most sophisticated multi-player game ever. But they have just 20 days remaining to…
There's a new game development course in New Zealand, which is being heralded as the first of it's kind there. The course will be specialising in programming and graphic design for games.
"In the first 12 weeks of the 64-week course, all game development students study together as one class.
Over the next twenty-six weeks, students focus on learning their chosen specialisation before rejoining to work together in teams to study advanced games content design and programming. The final 24 weeks…
Nocturnal Entertainment has announced that a updated version of Catapult will be released shortly (V1.22b).
In addition, their website sports a new look - including a new 'games' section. Finally, the Catapult competition has been given a two week extension - the final deadline is now the 31st of May.
See their website for full details : http://www.Nocturnal-Central.com!
Sumea Speed Paint is happening in just over an hours time! Jump into IRC where a few of us are idling in ;).. irc server is irc.uq.edu.au , at the channel #sumea !! I'll be posting the topic at 7pm Australian Eastern Time!!
*** Thanks to those who took part. Have a look at the piccies here!
Tom's Hardware has a very extensive and insightful write up on cheating in online games, running through some of the cheats that are being used in many of the popular online games at the moment (such as Counterstrike, Warcraft III, and Battlefield 1942).
"Cheating is now close to destroying entire gaming communities (Counter-Strike anyone?), and it's gotten to a point where developers are having to spend a large portion of their research and development time creating barriers against the…
IGN has a movie (and screenshots) of Atari Melbourne House's Playstation 2 game, Transformers Armada, straight from E3 2003!.. It's looking pretty awesome, so check it out!
Gameboy IGN has a brief look at Tantalus's Top Gear Rally, for the GameBoy Advance. There are a number of nice screenshots to look at, along with a large movie to download at their media page, so have a look!
Game-Culture.com reports on two seminars on game research in NSW and Queensland..
Ludic Moments - Artspace, Sydney, May 16
"Ludic Moments will examine the current state of the emerging field of humanities-based research into computer games."
From Space War! to the Ivory Tower - University of Queensland, Brisbane, May 26
"This seminar brings together internationally recognised computer game researchers for a ground-breaking event to explore current issues in game research. Questions to be…
