Development Journal #04

Switched to Unity.  Liking the decision.  Still a programming n00b, but I've gotten farther with it.

Development Journal #03

Progress is slow (though it has only been two weeks since I even created the concept, so all things considered this might be pretty good progress.  Wouldn't know), as the last two weeks have almost entirely been trying to figure out the Unreal Development Kit.  As far as making the game goes.  I've been trying to learn how SQL servers work for a school project.

If anyone happens to know Unreal Script and would be able to help me figure it out, that would be greatly appreciated.

Why Unreal Engine and not Unity?  Because that's the first thing that came to mind.  I have, however, just learned that Unity also supports 2D games and (which I already knew) the free version also supports C++ (or was it C#?) coding for game systems.  So I'm going to look into that.

Development Journal #02 - Still Getting Distracted on Superfluous Details

Still haven't gotten an isometric camera working, but look!  Custom textures on a redesigned Box Canyon!

Still need to work on getting the tiling to be less obvious, but look how majestic that orb is. 
Majesty Incarnate.

So I'm making something in the UDK

Got a game somewhat designed.

Now I'm going to make it.

First I must learn the Unreal Development Kit

So I started with a box canyon.

Then I added an orb.

Time and Media - Losing Your History

I've heard a lot of people in games industry talk about the short life of games.  How games they enjoyed as a child may not even be playable by the time they have grandchildren.  Or how their Steam libraries may be lost someday when the servers shut down.  While I understand that, what I don't understand is when they claim this to be a new dilemma unique to gaming and the digital age.

Sure, there are new ways for the actual process of losing the game to occur.  Last I heard, movies on DVD didn't have to worry about their servers shutting down.  However, books and movies had their early times as well.  Many early films were lost within a few decades, and not all of the first books were written on long lasting paper.  They also bring up how the game we know today may not be the game of the same name in a decade, or even just a year.  Thus is the way of constant updates, but so too is the way of translation and rewriting.

So while we wonder at how long Homer's "Odyssey" has remained a part of culture and worry about whether or not our kids will be able to enjoy Banjo Tooie, do realize that the former still had centuries of progress in its art to build off of.  Games have only been around for a few decades and we've already recognized and go to lengths to deal with the problem.

I'm optimistic that your Atari Jaguar exclusive "Highlander" game will somehow be playable for the decades to come. You'll probably be able to thank The Spoony One for it.

Unless the apocalypse or something like that happens.  Then you can forget about it.