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.
Selling beta versions of games as full fledged copies at Retail stores ? Tell me it isn't so, PlanetCrap!
"Earlier this week Canadian publisher Strategy First published a run of its new flight-sim, Strike Fighters Project 1 and issued them to Wal-Mart for sale. Although the game is not scheduled for release until at least August 6th (according to EBWorld; later according to other sources), the game was packaged up and released as a full-fledged finished game on July 20th."
There sure is a lot stirring concerning Citizen Zero, by Microforte.. and I'm not even referring to the developement side! Basically, even though no official announcements have been made, fans and media are a bit up in knots about where they presume Citizen Zero is heading, and developers having to try and calm things down. This article sums it up pretty much (warning, some real cheesy Aussie talk in there). Click here for Citizen Zero forum where a lot of the nuttiness can be seen..
Wow!! Any of you remember playing Rygar in the arcades a decade and a half ago? I spent TONNES of coins on that game, and yes, I finished it lots of times too :) But hey, look at this! Rygar: the legendary adventure, coming out on the Playstation2 this year!! The characters look very Final Fantasy like, but they look absolutely outstanding.
Since we're talking old sk00L, here's a review of Monkey Island. :)
For those of you who don't know discreet has started shipping the latest installment of the acclaimed modeling package 3d Studio Max 5.
Boasting various new features from a new UVW Unwrap modifier to a new Set Key system to streamline pose-to-pose animation.
however it doesn't look like character studio 4 is available as of yet.
For full information including a complete list of new features, price and a demo cd check out discreet, home of max here.
Ok, this news item is a bit redundant seeing as it refers to a conference held under 2 weeks ago (doh!), but there was a National Screenwriters? Conference in Victoria during the 12th to 14th of July. Some of the sessions included talks from games industry people, including those from Beam, Infogrames, Blue Tongue, and Ratbag. It's too big to post here as a news item so I've chucked it in the forum, so click here if you want to find out more.
An interesting article over at www.xbitlabs.com describes how current desktop graphic cards are handling anti-aliasing in 3d. It may not be something a game artist needs to know about, but it's interesting anyway (with lots of pictures and doodles! ;)). View the article here.
3DFM.COM has some interesting screenshots of Character Studio 4 (for 3D Studio Max 5). Unfortunately the site is in French so you'll have to run it through babelfish. I've saved you the trouble if you just click here. It should be shipping with 3D Studio Max 5 on July 31st.
www.itnews.com.au reports:
"Microsoft's latest Windows version, Windows XP, continues its torrid sales pace, with over 46 million licenses sold since the product's launch last October."
Now if they could only sell as much Xboxs..
Sony, IBM and Toshiba will team up to develope "advanced semiconductor technologies based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and other IBM materials advances" for future electronic products, one being the Playstation 3. Of course, it'll take 4 years to develope, and we won't get to see anything until after 2005. Wake me up when it's here, ok.
Just a note I've posted a link to two GREAT tutorials by David op De Be?ck, which you might have not noticed otherwise. Click on the links 'creating a nose' and 'creating a mouth' on your right!
