December 10, 2004
Gamewag Half-Life 2 and CS:Source Mapping Guide
Since the release of the Source SDK, there has been a flurry of activity in the development community. Quite a few people have created tutorials and solved problems in the usual forums, but finding useful information can be tough. The goal of this guide is to provide a categorized listing of help topics for mappers. We're not addressing coding resources yet, but may in the future.
We created this list initially for our own mapping uses, but it quickly grew to the point of becoming useful for the public. Sharing is good.
Visit the Gamewag Half-Life 2 and CS:Source Mapping Guide
Posted by jb at 12:38 PM
July 29, 2004
The Laws of Online Gaming
I sometimes fancy that I could be a valuable contributor to game design. Then I remember that the average person believes themselves to be of above average intelligence, but I digress. In thinking about the underlying concepts of game design, one could spend months tearing through their own personal feelings about what's important and what isn't, and if they're good enough, constantly worry that their opinion is single minded in it's nature.
Or you could read Raph Koster's view on the subject. He's a Creative Director for Star Wars Galaxies, and has developed into quite the guru on the subject. This guy has a really big brain.
"Game design is an art and a craft, and like all arts and crafts, it has techniques and approaches, and that implies that it can support a criticism; said criticism exists though it is not very sophisticated. Mud design is also an art and a craft, and it also has techniques and approaches, but there is no criticism, no self-evaluation, no standards defined, no study of what has gone before. And without self-critique, it cannot improve except in fits and starts. If this genre is to evolve into more than game design, which I firmly believe it has already begun to do, then it will have to support at least the critical apparatus of game design, and preferably the critical apparatus of many disciplines that most people do not bother to link: server design, and writing, and hypertextual theory, and art (for graphics are coming and will dominate, it's not worth fighting over), and psychology and sociology... Game designers today generally do not know even the short history of computer game design; we must as a community educate ourselves and each other if we want the community and its art and craft to grow."
Posted by at 04:44 PM
June 22, 2004
I can hear you
I was told as a kid that when hunting: you should never fire two shots in a row. This was because after two shots all the animals would know exactly where you were. I have no idea why I was told this. While other kids were hunting deer, I was playing, "Hunt the Wumpus" on my TI-99/4a.
However! For all you snipers who proclaim, "howd j00 know where I wa syou h4x0r" I highly recommend getting a set of headphones that didn't come free with the in-flight magazine.
I prefer heavy circumaural sets with studio drivers - jb likes the sleek professional in-ear sets. If you don't know what a driver or a pro in-ear set is, then it's time to broaden your horizons.
Posted by at 01:06 PM
Magical Sound Shower
Not getting enough physical abuse from your significant other as punishment for poor driving? Outrun.org is the place for you. A site dedicated to the variants of the Outrun series.
You'll find just about every sound clip from the original game (Magical Sound Shower was always my driving music of choice), ROMs, manuals and plenty o' screens.
Posted by jb at 10:28 AM
June 17, 2004
Civilization Fanatics' Center
This site has been around for a long time, but I've just managed to discover it. If you're into Civilization, this is the one-stop place to find strategy guides, patches, tools, fan-created addons and thousands of pages worth of discussions.
One of the cooler features is Game of the Month (GOTM). Essentially, every month (hence the name) someone creates a scenario that many people play. Discussions take place about the best strategies and there is a competition to see who gets the highest score.
If you thought you had Civ figured out, you're not even close.
Posted by jb at 04:44 PM
