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.
Some sad news for the local industry. Brisbane developers, Evolution Games have closed it's doors. Details are, however, unknown at this time. Evolution Games were awarded for Best New Start-Up at the Australian Games Developer Conference 2002, and released Rocket Power: Beach Bandits for the Gamecube in Sept 02.
AustralianIT has a great interview with Adam Lancman (president of the Game Developers Association of Australia and managing director of Infogrames). They cover the local Australian games industry, the challenges they face, advice for a game career and what is expected of applicants, amongst other things..
"When we're interviewing for new employees, the first thing we want is to identify that this a game player, then we can look at the technical qualifications.
In terms of technical…
Blue Tongue has revealed their Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis website. You get to find out all about the game there, view screenshots, concept art, and download the demo, screensavers, movies, music etc.. Head on over there now!
A few months ago, we had a thread on Sumea on the subject of video game prices, and Fairplay, which was a campaign for cheaper video games. You might remember their plan for a video game sales boycott between 1 - 8 December, 2002. Apparently, Fairplay are throwing in the towel.
With E3 coming up fast, Micro Forte today announced that it would in fact be at this year?s show. Running from May 14th ? 16th, this year?s E3 will have the company displaying at booth 436 in the South Hall. Those recalling news earlier this year will no doubt remember Micro Forte and Microsoft recently signed an agreement that had Microsoft using Micro Forte?s BigWorld technology for an upcoming Xbox title from the company. While if the title is set-to-be shown hasn?t been revealed either way…
Discreet has made available the '3ds max? 5.1 Service Pack 1 with DirectX? 9 compatibility update'. They also recommend you get the Max 5.1 compatible Nvidia drivers. Make sure you have DirextX 9 as well ;) Get Max 5.1 here.
Submitted by Droogan
Just trying to spread the word about Project Smiey, a weekly gaming parody news magazine designed to make gamers take a break and laugh it up a bit.
In spite of the nay sayers we've gotten up to issue 6. Project Smiley is available each monday at: http://www.projectsmiley.com
-Droogan
Charles Randall's guide to starting down the path of the game programmer. Fear.
If you're just beginning to think about games programming, you might want to read this article for a few tips on what languages and API's you'd need to learn. There's also a few links to some resources, and 2D tips too.. www.thereisnocharles.com.
All the mail forms on Sumea seem to be broken - you can't send comments to Sumea through the contact page, or write comments to others in their Sumea profiles, and you might not even be able to send an email through the forum. Trying to get all that sorted asap.
Seems to be all ok now.
There's a two minute trailer of The Sydney Mystery, an adventure game by originally Sydney-based, Twilight Software.
"The Sydney Mystery, offering a bit more than two minutes of footage from this recently unveiled (story) adventure game from Brendan Reville. The game will "immerse the player in a mystery in which a kidnapped uncle has disappeared in a grim underworld of treacherous characters and plot twists". A demo will also be available soon."
Download the trailer at Gamershell.
