Music

Music has really been the name of the game for me lately. Not only am I producing audio for our games but I'm preparing to release an EDM album soon as well. I've really been head first into learning Reason. And with the purchase of an Axiom 25 midi controller it's been all music ever since! Today it's all about the sample packs. See you when I emerge from the sound banks!

Back At It!

After a long time of being out of commission, I am finally returning to the workforce! Slowly but surely I am resuming my old responsibilities for Aeternus Studios as well as beginning an EDM production career. I apologize for how long it's been since my last post, but I look forward to posting a lot more often again. Videos, music, opinions; Ahhh. It's gonna be a blast!

Sickness and Maintaining a Schedule

Being a lead on a project and finding yourself in the hospital can be detrimental to your team and your project. However, there are ways to make sure that your business doesn't come to a complete standstill in this type of emergency.

1. Make sure that there are tasks that anyone on the team can accomplish. That way the only thing that comes down to the lead and the lead only is the final word. This final word can be given from anywhere considering the ease of communication and cloud. If there is a submission process that you and you alone can handle, then it will simply have to wait for your return... Which leads me to

2. Have other projects that are a lower priority that the team can work on simultaneously. If, by miracle, the top priority project was completed in your absence and simply awaits your submitting it, it's worthwhile to have secondary or tertiary projects that are SMALL in scope that can be finished quickly and without much micromanagement. These projects might keep your company afloat in a serious emergency. They could also be that 1/1,000,000 intellectual property that just happens to strike a chord with the gaming community!

When you're Indie, your not confined by publishing dates, but you are confined by your own strengths and weaknesses as a person who starts and finishes things. Teams like to finish things! Give your team something to finish and take your time working on that "big idea".

Oozi Does It Earth Style

The first thing you will notice about AwesomeGamesStudio’s “Oozi: Earth Adventure Ep 1” is the great hand-drawn artwork. The levels and characters are colorful and stylized which makes this stand out as one of the better looking platformers on XBLIG. The comic book style cinematic approach goes well with the genre and brought me into the story quickly.

The gameplay is sweet platformer goodness, of which I am a fan. Oozi doesn’t have anything in the way of weapons. His only defenses are jumping on baddies heads and a stomp move that he can do in mid-air. But this is all you need to have some really great platformer gameplay. My favorite level is “Dude... Where’s My Spaceship” where the vines with spikes on them are introduced. Climbing around and jumping from vine to vine is great!

I had the most fun playing the Challenge levels that you unlock by completing Story mode levels. Challenge levels have specific goals and sub-goals (i.e. collect all the starts, defeat all baddies) and you have to do it in a specific time limit. I liked the pace that I had to keep to stay on top of the clock. And some of those stars are really hard to get to!
Apart from the fantastic name and the ear to ear grin of awesomeness (does he have ears?), Oozi as a character was a little annoying. The mouse-esque voiceovers get repetitive after only a couple of level retrys. Other than that the SFX and Music are really good. They create the vibe of the crazy foreign world on which Oozi finds himself(Earth); and do it in the proper style.

Physics in this game were really good. I felt like Oozi had just the right amount of hang time to have proper control over his jumps. I also really liked the camera programming for the game. When moving and stopping the camera softly moves to its “home” position and when looking up and down, the camera also compensates softly. This makes the whole game feel real smooth.

Oozi: Earth Adventure Ep 1 is on my list of must-haves. If you like platformers the $1 (80 Point) price tag should put this one securely in your collection.

---

Game Reviewed @ xblaratings.com | Oozi: Earth Adventure Ep. 1 Review

I Accidentally... All Day

I had a hard time tearing myself away from this game to write the review!
I Accidentally... In Space! Ep. 1 is fantastically fun and Lethal Martini put in a great sense of humor. The concept is super original, mashing together a platformer and a shooter a la Space Invaders.

In “I Accidentally...” you are a space miner out to collect all these gems that have been scattered around due to a mining “accident” and are now being guarded by the aliens who’ve found them first. The aliens hover around near the top of the play area and shoot at you in a familiar style. The twist is that you’re climbing through this level from platform to platform all the while trying to vanquish the waves of aliens and collect your precious gems. There are lots of great powerups to make your mining adventure a little easier, and they always come when you need them most! I thoroughly enjoy the gameplay in “I Accidentally...”

I was a little disappointed in the visuals of the game. The UI does nothing to stand out and most of it is just text on the screen. The backgrounds appear to be photographs which can at times make the screen a little to busy and cause the foreground to get lost. The gameplay tips that pop up in the middle of a level also get lost in the background and I missed what most of them said.
I did like the effects of the bullets and powerups. I also thought the death animation was hilarious!

Tips:
Take advantage of the practice levels even if you have already beaten the level. Try out the more difficult settings. Some of them are really challenging.
Don’t be afraid of a tactical retreat! The impulse may be to keep climbing but there’s a wise proverb that says, “He who climbs fast, doesn’t climb long.” If it starts getting thick, drop down to a safer platform where you have more room to move and take out those aliens.

Conclusion:
Buy this game! The graphical limitations are not enough to keep it from being an awesome fun game that you will lose hours to; And at 80 Points you can't pass it up!

---

Game Reviewed @ xblaratings.com | I Accidentally… In Space Ep 1 Review

Explode This!

TriLinea ReAct from indie developer, Tendi, is a competitive puzzle game in which the players must line up tiles of matching colors to EXPLODE their neighbors’ tiles, use spells to switch their controls and reverse gravity, or compete against yourself in challenges of strategy and skill.

Right from the splash screen, I was impressed with the presentation of TriLinea ReAct. The menus are aesthetically pleasing and the music lets you know that you’re in for some fast paced competition! There are even little pop-ups that make suggestions for first-time players. I want more games on XBLIG to be of this quality.

I started by following the advice of the first pop-up and doing the Challenge Mode first. This mode is great for learning the different gameplay goals. As an experienced player you could use the Challenges to refine your strategy or sharpen your skill. When I moved to the Quick Play Mode, I found whole new layers of gameplay! You can duel with the CPU using all your skill and additional spells to change the rules of the game. Or you can compete in Missions that give you changing goals based on a time limit. The spells are a unique addition to a game in this genre that I thought was a nice touch. The missions are also quite fun because you have to change up your play-style so often depending on which mission goal is up.

The Multiplayer mode caused me to lose hours to this game. The competitive gameplay is addictive and well balanced. My favorite moves were reversing the gravity and trying to catch my opponent waiting for me to drop a color so that I could wait, and it would cause this lull in tiles being placed that would really throw off their timing.

The environments for the levels are done really well. Everyone in the office had to stop and look and the level designs when they saw me playing it. They appear to be fully 3D levels with consistent themes and music to keep the pace going. The programming also felt solid, even for the board wipes when the Pumpkin eats all the tiles or when the Pharaoh uses his bony arm to swipe them away.

I tried hard to find something critical to say about the game itself and came up short. If I had to find one thing it would be the 400 Microsoft Point($5) price tag. While the game is well worth it, it could deter more people from realizing that TriLinea ReAct is a great game.

---

Game Reviewed @ xblaratings.com | TriLinea ReAct Review

A Little Blog Restructuring

I’ll be starting by posting my newest game reviews from http://www.xblaratings.com/

@TheOnlyProphet

HootSuite and Ping.fm

I recently started using HootSuite and Ping.fm. The combination of the two web apps is amazing!


HootSuite can manage multiple social networks at once, allowing you to put each feed into a separate column onto tabs. I have Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and LinkedIn all feeding into HootSuite. I no longer have to go jumping around the web to visit all of my social networks just to see what's going on.

With Ping.fm, I can update all those networks at the same time. Or I can send a message with a simple tag that I have designated to send it to a specific network or group of networks. Ping.fm also connects with HootSuite, allowing me to ping straight from my HootSuite dashboard.

One Ping to rule them all!

Get HootSuite here!
and Get Ping.Fm here!

I Used To Be A Video Game Snob

Ok,

If you haven't been at GDC or paying attention to the market for the last year, you might not know that Farmville (a game on the popular social media platform Facebook) has between 75 and 80 mil monthly users. You might not know that iPhone apps and iPad apps have become the "big" market to reach. I used to scoff at those games. When Mafia Wars hit MySpace I was like, "No way am I going to play that, let alone try to design something comparable." Now, anyone who ignores the success of the Social Media platform would be foolish at the very least.

There are plenty of developers that want a piece of the social media or mobile media gravy train. Most industry leaders have cautioned against an independent developer spreading their focus across too many markets. Simultaneously, producers of AAA titles are trying to figure out how to remain relevant in the modern gaming market.

I tend to agree with Andy McNamara, Editor-in-Chief of Game Informer magazine, "Hollywood delivers both blockbuster movies and low-budget TV programming. So can games."

There are so many doors into the industry for independent developers that a company could find themselves unable to choose one door to go through. Although the future of gaming as an industry may be wide open, the future of each developer will be more of a singular path. This market or that. Do too much and you'll lose your ass. Too little and no one will take your company seriously. Focus on the market you have access to, and the games your team will enjoy making.

Social games may be making a lot of noise as a new market, but don't forget that Modern Warfare 2 made 1 billion dollars last year! There is a place for you in the market. Take it! Decide what need your company can fill and fill it. Now more than ever is the time when developers can decide to whom, exactly, they want to cater. I say cater my friends, cater! Demographic is the name of the game and your game just got a whole... lot... bigger.

Just a Note

Sorry for dropping of the face of the map for awhile.

I've had my head buried in all kinds of research from software development to business management to market metrics to games to... You get the idea.

Game research has been my favorite of those of course.

My next few posts will be about the stuff I've been researching, starting with social media games.

Thanks for reading! I'll see you soon.

The Banality of Evil Characters

I rather enthusiastically entertain the notion of a game that lets you play as an evil character. The concept of strolling into your favorite RPG village and laying waste to all those familiar yokels is appealing. Playing a power hungry megalomaniac also has a nice ring to it. However, when playing an evil character your acts become banal when you've slaughtered the same village 10 times, or chopped the head off of every passer-by, or even gone on several rampages against the authorities(i.e. police, guards, etc...)

For an act of atrocity to truly feel atrocious, it has to be being observed from the perspective of someone who considers themselves good. They also need to see the one committing the act as good prior to the act.

If you go along robbing and killing everyone you meet, everyone will expect that behavior and in time come to accept their plight as the oppressed.

So how do you create a world for an evil character, where the acts of evil mean something? How can an evil character be seen as anything but evil? And how do you create things for an evil character to do that don't become boring after the first couple times the player does it?

The game industry has yet to satisfy these questions with any current games. Maybe you or I can find them.

The Unavoidable Niche Market

Games, movies, television programs, music, and even websites, are all designed to be seen or heard by us; The Target Customer. What kind of music do you like? Rock, Hip Hop, D&B? Any music that fits into those categories was designed to be in that category. Although artists don't always like the idea of being "pigeonholed" into one category, it is unavoidably necessary to decide beforehand what that category is going to be.

Gamers are seperated into three categories; "Objective based", "Competition based", "Personal Challenge" (i.e. breaking your previous high score). Gamers have been even further divided into "hardcore" gamers and "casual" gamers.

Objective based gamers like to see progression. They will often try to complete every achievment in a game even after they have played through the storyline. Or they might try to "max out" their characters by leveling up. These players tend to like open world, sandbox, and RPG style games, in which a certain amount of choice is given to the player to complete those objectives in their desired order.

Competition based gamers love to go head to head with other players. Often the only reason they will play through the storyline is to get "good enough" at the game to feel confident going up against other players. Multiplayer capabilities are a must for this demographic. They want to see public leaderboards and killboards with their names on them, and might set their sights on knocking the person off the top.

Personal Challenge based gamers like to best their own high scores. They like to challenge themselves rather than other people. Arcade games and Strategy games are popular amongst these gamers.

Even if you feel like you may enjoy a little from all three columns, as I do, there is still one group to which, you predominantly belong.

Why does this matter?

If you are designing a game, you have to consider the possibility that the ONLY ones who will buy it, are the ones you designed it for. Which also means; if you designed a game for yourself, you might be the only one who buys it. :)

Decide who your target customer is before you ever start brainstorming an idea, and your pre-production phase will go a lot easier. :)

What Happened to Storefronts?

Recently I started a modest BPO store on mygamescribe blog. I'm excited about having it open, even if it is only a couple of items.

This got me thinking about one of the things I don't like about selling on the open market in EVE. There's no real way to know what corporations built and/or created the sell order, outside of creating a private buyer/seller relationship with another corporation.

The ability to develop a public image is essential to a corporation. A corporation's public image determines its life or death.

There was talk of the implementation of "Storefronts" in EVE. In the end it wasn't fleshed out enough to put it in-game. While a full on "Storefront" sounds nice on a lot of levels, I would at least like to see a simple way to show the public what your corp provides.

A market order tab on a corporation's info menu would provide an easy way for a potential buyer to see what your corporation has on the open market. It would also provide better opportunities for corporations who want to create an identity for themselves as a supplier of a particular constellation or region.

The current system relies largely on the market hubs that exist in a handful of Empire systems. A market order tab would spread the economy out, even allowing corporations to establish small hubs in low sec.

Was anyone else really looking forward to the Storefront feature?

Altus Provisio Retires from the Militia

After spending almost an entire year in the Amarr Militia, Altus Provisio has retired from the war.

It was not an easy decision to come to. Service to the Empire is taken pretty seriously by Altus. In the end, we determined that the best way to serve the Empire was to expand ourselves as much as possible, and hopefully instill in those with whom we associate, some of the values that the Empire has given us.

Our time in the war was well served and memorable. Several of our members achieved the highest rank, "Divine Commodore". I myself was present for battles against multiple Minmatar capital ships, and felt the hard grind of the fight for control of militia systems. Altus will be holding a ceremony to recognize the war heroes in the corp where they will receive medals for their individual efforts.

For now, we have shifted our attention to null-sec. Our corp's industrial needs will only be filled by null-sec resources and it has come time to start forging entryways into the frenzy of competition for high end resources.

So we have joined Violent Society Alliance to even further our ability to provide ships and modules to the people of our Empire. Our journeys will be wrought with peril, and the harsh reality of null-sec could prove colder than we have forseen.

But we are capsuleers, immortal and boundless. There is no battle that can take our lives. We will stand at the end of time, as cold as the space that could not claim us.

CSM: Time to Vote!!!

Make sure and cast your vote in this CSM election! You can cast your vote here -

Vote Here

Poster is courtesy of Articulated Sky.

Altus Provisio's Birthday

My corporation, Altus Provisio, turned 1 year old this month. Upon reflection it's hard to believe it's only been a year!

When we started the corporation, we were just mining, building ships, and running COSMOS missions. Our first goal was to have the corporate average standing high enough to anchor a POS in high security space. Soon after constructing the stations, the Minmatar war against the Amarr began. Being loyal to our Empire, and now Empress, we felt it was our duty to join the frontlines.

We knew we needed more people to have combat pilots running and a strong industrial backbone to supply them with a constant stream of expendable ships and modules all in the name of the Empire. So we started recruiting some newer players that would be anxious to cut their teeth in the warzone.

Meanwhile our industrial team began setting up the infrastructure to build tech 2 ships and modules. This required multiple stations dedicated to reactions and a lot of time training invention skills.

Upon the advent of the destruction of Selyin and the appearance of wormholes, our industrial guys are again swamped with a breadth of information to digest, hopefully in time to be competitive in the new market.


On the evening of our corporation's birthday, one of our directors, Darth A30NZ called for all the founding members to join him at our research station for an assembly. He asked that we fly our proudest ships. I showed up in my Omen, Navy Issue.

Darth had spent the days previous running to all parts of space to buy these 'Complex Fullerene' shards. He explained that there was an event years ago, in which a Jovian and been killed in a catastrophic event, while trying to use a special gate that he had employed.

Each of the founding members recieved one of these shards, for which we were grateful and excited! I'm going to spend some time researching the stories about the origin of the shards. In the meantime, Happy Birthday Altus Provisio!

The Skill Plan

The Skill Plan

After recieving my Elite Certificates for both Amarr Executive Commander and Amarr Engineer, I decided I wanted to work toward flying a Damnation. All I needed was Long Range Targeting V and Logistics IV. In 5 days I will be finishing Logistics IV and am yet again faced with a tough decision about what to train next.

I need hull upgrades V to get the most out of its tank.
I need heavy missiles V to utilize the t2 heavy missile launchers.
Positives are that hull upgrades V will affect all my ships

On the other side, I need to get back to my industrial trainings. Reverse Engineering is the next step in t3 production for our corp. We have artifacts and the experimental labs to research them. This in itself will be a very long skill plan. In the meantime, our corporation waits to reap the benefits of tech 3

Ultimately I chose the Damnation path because I wanted something new to fly. I could say a whole lot more but it would really come down to needing a new toy. And I will probably go ahead and do hull upgrades V because I've been putting it off for too long.

This all got me to wondering what other capsuleers consider when choosing their skill plans. It would be interesting to hear what has caused people to take specific training paths in their careers.

What makes you train what you train?

EVE Player Blogroll Lovefest & OPML Download

Thanks to CrazyKinux from CrazyKinux' Musings for adding New Eden According to Prophet to the EVE Player Blogroll Lovefest. The lovefest is a compiled list of a lot of bloggers from the EVE community. If you like to read blogs from the EVE community or if you are a blogger yourself, head on over to this link and start clicking the follow button.

http://www.crazykinux.com/2008/04/eve-online-blogroll-lovefest.html

Also a salute goes out to Galen_Druid at Wandering Druid of Tranquility for providing the OPML download for the EVE Player Blogroll. This makes it real easy to import all the player blogs into any reader.

http://www.eve-druid.com/2009/05/03/eve-player-blogs-opml-download-updated-13/

Again, Thanks. I'm proud to be part of the community!

(OOC) EVE Skills Help in RL!

When I started playing EVE two years ago, I set out immediately to start my own industrial corporation. We were just a few RL friends mining and building ships. We set goals, and started growing. We're still a small corporation by all standards, but the corporation makes isk. We make enough isk to invest most of it in new ventures, and still keep the profit. I never really thought of myself as a leader before being a CEO in EVE.

Now, in my senior year at game design school, as I began to treat RL team management like EVE team management, I noticed that the skill carried over.

I was elected as project manager for our graduation project by my class. I realized right away that I was approaching the group with more confidence and assertion, due to my dealings with my EVE corporation. I layed out goals, set plans, and assigned tasks. I ran into some EVE-like problems though.

Real people, like capsuleers, have their own agendas, keep their own best interests, and are always looking for something other than the grind to stimulate them. By implementing group communication techniques that are new and trendy, and keep people using new technologies, group interest in a project can stay fresh.

One thing that has helped our project is a Wiki. This is an awesome project management tool. If you're like me, just having a wiki to edit makes me 'want' to post content and create pages. The rest of the team follows suit and the ability to comment makes team members feel like their opinions will be heard by the entire team, where in a board-room-type setting they might not speak up.

Social networking sites like twitter and facebook that offer SMS updates to be sent directly to or from mobile devices are also a neat utility. Team members can send and recieve instant updates to the entire group. Having that information instantly gives a much more 'live' feel to the project. It makes it feel like it's running 24/7 which keeps the team more actively involved.

EVE runs 24/7. There is a live feel to the EVE universe because it never stops. Even when the servers are down for DT, characters continue training, POS's continue churning materials, and the isk printing machines(corps) keep printing isk. People from all over the world can contribute to the corporation because of being able to utilize in-game communications methods as well as external web based resources to convey corporate goals, policies, and tasks.

(OOC)Testing Mobile Blogging

Just got the ability to start mobile blogging.

edit:
looks like I lack the functionality to post titles to the mobile blogs... Not cool

So Blogger offers the 'mobile blogging' function which allows one to post blogs by sending a simple SMS text message from a mobile device. While initially this sounded like a cool feature, it simply lacks any type of document formatting which forces you into one-line posts in something akin to twitter. Just having the ability to post a title would make all the difference.