Saturday, March 28, 2009
posted 12:10am
"Fallout 3"
On the 19th of this month I completed Fallout 3, a post-apocalyptic rpg created
by Bethesda, and I've finally gotten around to writting a
review of it. In short, it's
a great game that's a must have for any rpg fan. I had a tremendous amount of
fun exploring the irradiated wasteland once again, in this fully realized 3-D
world. Rich characters and affective game play, along with amazing graphics and
a hip soundtrack, make for a game that just blew me away. For my full review,
check out the link above.
- D
Currently Playing: Eve Online
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
posted 9:21pm
"New Electronica"
Over the weekend I found a pretty good audio converter that can handle all the file
types I deal with, even .aif.
Switch
is one of the many products that comes out of NCH, a software company that specializes in audio,
and it's real easy to use; with a few clicks I can "switch" the raw .wav coming out of
HomeStudio
to .mp3 or .aif. Not only can I create gothic music to share across the web, but I can also create
short symphonic pieces that can be dropped into interactive fiction games using .aif. I already
have an intro piece for Across The Stars compressed to .mp3 that I'm going to put up on the site,
and I've even created a test Glulx file that plays the music as well as displaying the wallpaper
for a splash screen, we'll have to see where it all goes.
But I digress; the first thing that I did with the program was convert Black Tears, a new gothic song that had been stuck between .wav and .mp3. These wavs are just too big to share across the Internet. There's some cool stuff that goes on in this song too, like how it breaks down and kind of gets surreal.
I hope you like it - D
Currently Playing: Fallout 3
Sunday, March 08, 2009
posted 10:26pm
"Across The Stars"
After last year's competition I wanted to start working on the second release for ATS,
but after putting a year and a half in, we needed a break. So around January of last
year we started trying to smooth over some of the bottlenecks we saw creep up in the
competition reviews. There were a few things that never made it into the competition,
so we had a chance here to include them without a deadline, and I felt that there
needed to be a few structural changes, making some of the text more digestible.
Most of the changes to this release came from the transcripts I collected after the competition. Once we had the bulk of the changes worked out, I had a few more people play through the final release while I tested it in my spare time, cleaning up all sorts of little bugs. In the end I wish this was the game that we entered into last year's competition, but we had gotten to the point where we really needed some feedback from the community. Beta testers are gold, but there is never enough of them when it comes to putting together a game like this, and having a hundred or so people play through your game, plus giving you feedback in reviews, is priceless. We knew where we wanted to work on the game a little more, but exposing it to the public brought up a lot more than we would have thought of on our own. Thanks to everybody that reviewed the game.
I finally put up the website that's going to support the game too, to go with the new release and all. Check it out: http://acrossthestars.infodarkness.com/. You can download the Maps, Clues, Wallpaper, and all the "feelies" that come with the game. There's even a Java applet that allows you to play the game so you can see what it's all about before downloading the whole package.
Hopefully, due to the inner-connectedness of the web, new people might be brought in to this interactive experience. I could see a person interested in science-fiction literature running across the site, and getting to see the game through the Java client. I don't think everybody is put off by a little challenge, and I can see this person downloading the game package and getting a copy of Gargoyle to play offline. I'd like to see more people playing IF, even though it takes about six hours to finish my game.
Enjoy the new release - D
Currently Playing: Fallout 3