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.
I did check the Auran Trainz website yesterday, but it was down. I should've known that Trainz sp3 was finally released (after a week long delay), and all the train 'nutters were overwhelming their servers downloading it!
"Trainz Service Pack 3 has arrived and is now ready for boarding. This service (pack) will take you to new heights, at greater speeds and allow you to experience Trainz in a whole new way with new content, SCENARIOS and layouts."
Uninformed train 'nutters please go here.
Salon has an article about a subject matter that I'm interested in, which is the amount of MMORGs in the market. It makes a startling claim.
"Most of these games will fail for several prosaic reasons -- not the least of which is an unavoidable fact of life: The hardcore gamers who make these games successful can usually obsess over only one game at a time. There are only so many hours in a week, after all, and MMORPGs are nothing if not massively time-consuming."
Read the article over at Salon…
Vocanson.com have 1200 800x600 pixel texture maps for free on their site. The website is in French, so you might want to run it through babblefish. Or just click here.
Game Developer Association of Australia (GDAA) Victorian Government sponsored PS2 Developer Kit Program.
"The GDAA Victorian Branch in conjunction is happy to announce the formal request for applications for the Sony Playstation2 Devkit program.
This program is open to all Victorian Game Development companies with 3 or more employees, regardless of whether they are currently members of the GDAA.
Applications are requested to be submitted for first round consideration by August 2 2002. The…
Some interesting tales and tips from various studios on animation, like not upgrading 3d programs mid-production, organising your files, and using motion capture. A good read none-the-less :) Read it here.
You have to check this out! Wolfenstein in 5k's of javascript! :) Read more about it here
"Blow the heads off the monsters in this texture-mapped, first-person shooter crammed into 5K of JavaScript."
Blender3d is a modelling and animation program that's been around for some time now, although it had face some bankruptcy fears recently. Some good news though:
"Today the shareholders of NaN Holding have reached an agreement on the outlines for a new future for Blender. In general it means that a non-profit organisation (the Blender Foundation) will be enabled to execute its plans, including Blender development as an 'open source' or 'free software' project."
So if you ever want to delve into…
Zdnet has an article containing some comments by Mark Bracken, vice president of marketing and business development for Rat Bag, on Vivendi Universals recent slump. Vivendi Universal are the no. 2 publisher of PC games worldwide with titles such as the Half-Life, Diablo, Warcraft and Tribes series, and movies such as "The Scorpion King" and "A Beautiful Mind."
Publishers need to keep product in their pipeline for future sales,? Bracken told ZDNet Australia. They need to keep the money coming in…
