Summary: Slashdot: Games
News for nerds, stuff that matters
New submitter Garth Smith writes "Tim Schafer has a video
update for his crowdsourced project, Double Fine Adventure. Because
of the nearly $2 million in funding, the budget is now large enough
for language translations, voice acting, music, and more platforms.
The XBox and PS3 are absent. I wonder what would the chances of a
DRM-free release have been if funding had come from a traditional
publisher?"
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Date Published: Feb 16, 2012 - 12:43 pm
First time accepted submitter Synchis writes "Fantasy Author
Thomas A. Knight continues his 29-day blogfest today by posting a
special interview with Author and Game Designer Jeff Grubb. Jeff
has been involved in projects ranging from the original D&D
Unearthed Arcana and Monster Manual II, to more recent games such
as Guild Wars Nightfall, and is also the author of various novels
set in DragonLance, Forgotten Realms, Magic: The Gathering,
Warcraft, StarCraft and the Guild Wars shared universes."
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Date Published: Feb 15, 2012 - 2:11 pm
angry tapir writes "Legislation to pave the way for an R18+
(adults only) classification of video games has just been
introduced into the Australian parliament by the minister for home
affairs. The state and territories will still have to pass
complementary legislation, however. Currently the highest rating
for a game in Australia is MA15+, with games that didn't meet the
criteria being refused classification, leading to content being
gutted prior to release or games just not being released. The
legislation marks a victory for a long campaign by gamers (notably
lobby group Grow Up Australia). The current legislation, which will
take effect on January 1 next year providing it makes it through
the lower and upper houses, merely introduces an R18+
classification, falling short of the complete classification
overhaul proposed by the Australian Law Reform Commission."
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Date Published: Feb 15, 2012 - 12:14 am
An anonymous reader writes "In what can only be described as a
case of the pot calling the kettle black, Zynga has launched and
settled a lawsuit against Brazilian game developer Vostu after
accusing Vostu of copying their games. The settlement resulted in
the loss of jobs for many Vostu employees. How Zynga managed to
carry out such actions while keeping a straight face after dealing
with similar allegations remains to be seen."
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Date Published: Feb 14, 2012 - 9:08 pm
hypnosec writes "It costs developers a total of $40,000 to
release a single patch on Xbox Live, making it a difficult platform
for smaller developers to grow on. This revelation was made by Tim
Schafer of Double Fine Studios — which recently drew a lot of
charitable donations as part of a campaign to create a contemporary
point and click game. He went on to say that this is just too high
a fee for smaller developers to pay, making it hard for them to do
well on the platform. This makes sense, since requiring just one
patch could massively cut into the profits for a company."
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Date Published: Feb 14, 2012 - 2:28 pm
eldavojohn writes "Twisted Metal designer David Jaffe gave a
DICE Summit presentation in which he argued against 'games that
have been intentionally made from the ground up with the intent and
purpose of telling a story or expressing a philosophy or giving a
designer's narrative.' He went on to say essentially that it's a
waste of time and resources when the focus should be on gameplay,
not story. While some parts of his presentation are warmly welcomed
by the gaming community (like his instructions for game execs to
get a BS filter), this particular point has some unsurprising
opponents. His argument against a 'cinematic narrative' was
probably strongest with his comparison to the movie Saving Private
Ryan, where Spielberg made the Normandy Beach invasion scene as
close to a documentary as possible. The audience could sit back and
appreciate that. But if you made a game where the player is in that
position of the soldier then that historically accurate imagery and
top shelf voice acting doesn't really matter, the only thing the
player should be thinking is 'How the **** do I get to that rock?
How do I get to the exit?' Is Jaffe right? Have game makers been
'seduced by the power and language of film' at the expense of
gameplay?"
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Date Published: Feb 13, 2012 - 1:59 pm
acadiel writes "Matthew H from the AtariAge.com TI-99/4A forum
has finalized a design of a TMS 9918A replacement (with VGA out)
for classic computer systems such as the ColecoVision, TI-99/4A,
SpectraVision, MSX1, SpectraVision 128, and Tomy Tutor Home
computers. This hardware project replaces the native video
controller on these classic systems and enables them to have VGA
output for the first time." (It's just under $100 to order one.)
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Date Published: Feb 11, 2012 - 1:40 pm
redletterdave writes "San Francisco-based game developer Double
Fine took to Kickstarter to fund its next game project, and so far,
the studio has enjoyed unprecedented success through crowdsourcing.
The project, which was announced by the studio's founder Tim
Schafer on Wednesday night, has already raised more than $700,000
in less than 24 hours. The funding frenzy has set new Kickstarter
records for most funds raised in the first 24 hours, and highest
number of backers of all-time, though both of those numbers are
still growing. Schafer says he will build a 'classic
point-and-click adventure game' in a six-to-eight month time frame,
and will document the entire production process for fans to observe
and give input on the game's development, which 'will actually
affect the direction the game takes.'"
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Date Published: Feb 09, 2012 - 11:02 am
mikejuk writes "SuperPoke Pets is another casualty of Google's
aggressive spring cleanup... But unlike other users of Google's
trashed software, Superpoke users have decided to fight back with a
class action. The aim is to recover the money they spend on virtual
gold used as a currency to buy clothes for their virtual pets. The
total 'amount in controversy' exceeds $5,000,000 — a sum that is
credible given that there were at least 7,000,000 users. So if you
are considering adding a virtual currency to your app you might
want to think of the future."
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Date Published: Feb 08, 2012 - 9:43 am
MojoKid writes "Historically, console add-ons that boosted the
performance of the primary unit haven't done well. Any attempt to
upgrade a system's core performance risks bifurcating the user base
and increases work developers must do to ensure that a game runs
smoothly on both original and upgraded systems. The other reason is
that a number of games rely on very specific hardware
characteristics to ensure proper operation. In a PC, swapping a CPU
with 256K of L2 for a chip with 512K of L2 is a non-issue assuming
proper platform support. Existing software will automatically take
advantage of the additional cache. The Xbox 360, on the other hand,
allows programmers to lock specific cache blocks and use them for
storing data from particular threads. In that case, expanding the
amount of L2 cache risks breaking previous games because it changes
the range of available cache addresses. The other side of the
upgrade argument is that the Xbox 360 has been upgraded more
effectively than any previous console; current high-end versions
ship with more than 10x the storage of the original, as well as
support for HDMI and integrated WiFi. It would also forestall the
decline in comparative image quality between console and PC
platforms."
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Date Published: Feb 07, 2012 - 5:30 pm
Andy Hefner has a detailed blog post covering his quest to
program an NES with the assistance of Common Lisp. He developed a
new 6502 assembler, a mini-language for composing musical
sequences, and a neat demo (rom image).
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Date Published: Feb 06, 2012 - 7:00 pm
New submitter albinobee writes "The Kinect for Xbox 360 isn't
only about gaming; it can also be used to help compensate for
impaired vision, as a team of Indian engineers is working to prove.
A device called viSparsh, still in its nascent stage, is a motion
sensing belt that can help alert the blind to obstacles that lie in
their path."
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Date Published: Feb 06, 2012 - 3:59 pm
Hugh Pickens writes "Ken Gaebler discusses a new way of hiring
called 'employment simulations,' which are gaining popularity among
high-tech firms that are seeking data from prospective employees
that you can't get from sit-down interviews. In a typical
employment simulation, candidates participate in online 'video
games' that leverage simulation software to determine how well
candidates perform in actual job situations. 'There are no
questions about your former work experience and office habits.
There's simply a computer game. If you win, you get the job. If you
lose, game over.' As one example, call centers are very amenable to
simulations because the work environment (a series of computer
programs and databases) is relatively easy to replicate and the
tasks that make up job performance are easy to measure (data entry
speed and accuracy, customer service, multitasking, etc). Other
employment simulation programs have been written for healthcare,
insurance, retail sales, financial services, hospitality and
travel, manufacturing and automotive, and telecom and utilities.
But skeptics say employment simulators and other computer-based
hiring models have some drawbacks. 'Like any technology, the
effectiveness of employment simulations is limited to the quality
of the software and its accessibility to users,' says Gaebler."
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Date Published: Feb 05, 2012 - 6:18 am
hypnosec writes "Several of Ubisoft's biggest titles won't be
playable as of next week thanks to a server move by the publisher
and the restrictive DRM that was used in their development. This
isn't just multiplayer either. Because Ubisoft thought it would be
a smart plan to use always on DRM for even the single player
portion of games like Assassin's Creed, even the single player
portion of that title won't be playable during the server move.
Some of the other games affected by this move will be Tom Clancy's
HAWX 2, Might & Magic: Heroes 6 and The Settlers 7. The Mac
games that will be broken during this period are Assassin's Creed,
Splinter Cell Conviction and The Settlers. This move was announced
this week as part of a community letter, with Ubisoft describing
how the data servers for many of the publisher's online services
would be migrated from third party facilities to a new location
starting on the 7th February. The publisher didn't reveal how long
the transfer would take."
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Date Published: Feb 03, 2012 - 9:37 am
dotarray writes "According to an Oklahoma politician, video
games help cause many problems affecting the youth of today, but
they can also help solve those same problems. Representative
William Fourkiller, a Democrat, has proposed a 1% tax on every
video game sold which has a Teen, Mature or Adults Only rating. He
explains that half of the money would go towards helping to get
kids playing outside, while the other half would be placed into a
bullying prevention fund."
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Date Published: Feb 02, 2012 - 12:25 pm
