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.
Side effects have made their Houdini software package available for free in an apprentice version.
The Apprentice Program gives you access to the same creative power used by the best animation professionals in the industry and provides a look at the latest Houdini work of companies like Electronic Arts, Sony Pictures Imageworks and Disney Feature Animation, among others.
Equipped with a non-commercial edition, a CD full of documentation, easy-to-follow tutorials, online videos and sample files…
There's an interesting article on why games and their studios fail. The author gives a fair few case studies on some games that have flopped, and where they went wrong. Read the article here. Slashdot has it covered.
John Passfield, co-owner of Krome Studios, and recent interviewee on Sumea, has made available a few games on his website.
"In 1999, Steve Stamatiadis and I developed a type of software that we coined ?Screen Opera?. The first one we developed was ?The Chronicles of Jaruu Tenk? and was my attempt at creating a living, persistent world similar to the one I experienced when I first played David Crane?s Little Computer People on the Commodore 64."
I loved Little Computer People! Also available for…
There seems to be a playable, early build of Doom 3 floating around. Planetcrap has it covered, and it's on the Tribal discussions board. Here are a tonne of pics. **Chat about it in our forum!
Tito the Bouncing Alien is the work of Queensland developers, Dimsdale and Kreozot, and thanks to Louis Dimsdale, we've been allowed to host the demo at Sumea.
"This game is a labour of love, we have had zero funding for the entire project.
The full game is almost finished and we are looking for a publisher."
They have a few interested publishers, but they're always looking out for more! You can find all about Tito on the Tito webpage here.
It's really small in size, so get downloading!! (5mbs…
Gamespy has an interesting article on where games are heading. It looks like more polygons aren't the answer, and engines will concentrate more heavily on lighting, physics, AI, and more effects. Definately a good read. Hey, whaddyaknow, Slashdot has it covered. Oh wait, there's more. The future, according to Peter Molyneux.
For those of you who love to have a geezer at cool character models and awesome concept art should definately head on over to Avault where they have the first images of an upcoming game called Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It will contain work from none other than fantasy and comic book artist legend, Simon Bisley! Have a look at their hell level concepts. It makes Quake look like a nice place in comparison :) Avault has the goodies.
** Gamespy has an interview with the man himself!
Electronic Arts Australia has recently announced the development of another Rugby game, following the release of Rugby for PlayStation 2 in 2001. Named Rugby 2004, the game will be the first in what's likely to become another continuing sports franchise from EA Sports, updated annually.
Just a note that it's Rugby Union, and I'm not sure if EA Australia is developing it locally, or it's to be developed overseas (EA Sports V8 Challenge was made by Dice, the Swedish developers who made…
Nintendo fined 149 million euro for attempting to control the prices of it's games in Europe.
Anti-trust officials in the EC found Nintendo, as well as seven of its distributors, guilty of attempting to keep prices artificially high in various EU countries between 1991 and 1998.
Nintendo's fine was the fourth highest ever handed out by the EC. Company officials stated that they will appeal the verdict.
Full article found on the gamasutra website here.
