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.
Avault has an interesting article about the past, present, and future for game developement. So, what's in store for us? Games increasingly geared towards developing engines and tools for 4th part developers (the modding community), online distribution of games and add-ons to just name two. Read the Avault article here. Slashdot also has a discussion on it.
Eve.stelledanzanti.sm has an interview with ?sgeir J?n ?sgeirsson, the concept artist for the MMORPG, Eve : Second Genesis. Some very creative and inspirational concept designs there. Check out the screenshots as well! Certainly a title worth looking out for :) concept art, screenshots.
I'm updating the database today to accomodate the Sumea mod, and to also streamline and add some more things, so members - don't add any news today or else it'll get lost :) ** Update completed. Carry on!
"The Australian Effects & Animation Festival is proud to announce that a full day of the conference program will be dedicated to the digital creation of Stars Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.
Tuesday, December 3 has been earmarked as a special "Star Wars Day". This is an opportunity to gain an insider's view of the techniques behind the creation one of the biggest effects blockbuster's of the year. The Star Wars Day will be a forum for learning the processes behind George Lucas'…
Zdnet reports that AFL Live 2003 has been delayed.
"We wish to advise that the current delay in the launch of AFL Live 2003 on X Box has been brought about by a unique technical issue.
Microsoft and Acclaim are working closely together to solve this issue and effect the launch of this much anticipated game as soon as possible.
We understand the frustration this situation has caused and ask for the continued patience of our customers with this delay as we cannot and will not release a product…
Steve Stamatiadis (co-owner of Krome) has posted up a picture of one of the first Ty, the Tasmanian Tiger CDs, straight off the production run. It comes with EA's announcement that Ty will be released on October 9th on all formats. Looks like the hard work is finally over! Have a look at the pic at his journal here. Here's a recent-ish interview with Steve at Gamepower.
Gamespy has another developer diary with Krome about Ty, the Tasmanian Tiger. This time it's with their sound designer, George Stamatiadis.
"There are about 35 music tracks in Ty, all streamed off of disc, so we were able to use live musical performances rather than relying just on MIDI like so many platformers do. As the game was going to be Australian in every major way, the music had to convey a sense of "Oz" to a wide international audience without sounding hackneyed to Aussies."
Head on…
If you're bored, and don't mind reading a little bit of history, then look no further!..
"a suite of animation products (was) produced in the late 1980's for the Atari ST personal computer platform. Although the fact is not widely known, this Atari software, published by a defunct computer magazine called Antic, directly preceded and led to the Autodesk 3D Studio and Discreet 3ds max products used by thousands of people today."
Click here for the pre-history of Autodesk 3d Studio and Discreet…
Gamershell provides us the info about Ratbags' Dirt Track Racing 2..
Infogrames has begun shipping Dirt Track Racing 2 to software retailers. Developed by Ratbag and powered by the Company's Difference Engine, Dirt Track Racing 2 "will recreate white knuckle competition on ovals, D-ovals, tri-ovals, egg shape and figure 8 tracks."
Read their summary and Infogrames' notes here.
