GDNet: Weekend Reading
by Drew -Gaiiden- Sikora · 03/06/2009 (6:59 am) · 0 comments
Hey everyone, be sure to participate in the Weekend Reading poll on the GDNet home page this week! I've left it open to multiple selection so you can choose one (or more) of the first four options and then also check "Other" to give me feedback in more detail if you so wish. So go vote if you haven't yet already! I'll be applying the results towards next week's Tales.
Journal Land Pick of the Week
Big Trouble In Little Chairtown - Drilian has another great article up, this time discussing .NET reflection and how it can applied towards creating state machines. Be sure to also page back and check out his previous article on how to generate lightning bolts in code if you missed it last week.
From the Staff
* Gaiiden's Scroll - This week I go over our plans for GDC coverage, book audio excerpts on Industry Broadcast, soliciting GDNet book reviews and as always: new resources and events
* The Code Zone Bargain Basement Blog - If you missed it, johnhattan was running a contest this past week to give away a copy of the GDNet Collection book Business and Production by having people follow him on twitter. He'll be passing out more books as well so keep on eye on his blog! I plan to donate mine to my local IGDA chapter, so get your fix from John if you need it
Project Updates
* Journal of Journaling - nordwindranger shows off a new tank model for his WWII-themed game. What I like most is he shows his use of 2D images to trace and then extrude to create the 3D model - a technique I always forget about whenever I dabble in 3D modeling myself (with horrible, unspeakable results)
* Journal of Lethargic Programmers - cameni's team have managed to leverage Chromium Code to integrate the Google Chrome browser directly into their engine. Being a terrain engine, they of course have Google Maps loaded up - imagine playing a game set in a real-world location and using Google Maps to navigate? Awesome.
* The Bag of Holding - ApochPiQ has put in some more serious time towards his language Epoch, posting a major milestone on Sunday towards his RC6 release, which is linked to here. Be sure to page through the rest of the week if you're hungry for more.
* Journal of EasilyConfused - EasilyConfused has up the latest demo for his project Squishy, a Gish-like physics blob swinging and squishing around. Check it out and leave your feedback, page to previous days this week to learn more about the project's development
* Level-Grind Online - momentum on JWalsh's project seems to have finally picked up after his last update in October with a project website, forums, and additional team members. Hit the links in the post for all the details on Level-Grind Online
* Journal of MrCpaw - MrCpaw continues to practice his drawing skillz, working on the difficult technique of shading. Not too much, not too little - it's one of the more technical aspects of drawing that really takes practice to get the hang of.
* My personal space of thoughts... - Metron is looking for a graphic artist willing to do some concept work for the community project Prohibition Online
* Happenings with VBStrider and Crew - this week's newsletter for the team announces the return of the IRC servers, why you should hold on to your development install discs, and how the community faired without the IRC and servers
* Under a ShadowyTree - Black Knight had some issues getting bridges set up and working properly in Dark Age
* Ye Olde Ramblings - Telastyn has been busy earlier in the week with a number of method tests for his Tangent programming language, page back for parts 2 and 1 as well
* Journal of Drew_Benton - Drew_Benton has settled into working on a new engine using mainly off the shelf components. In addition to his progress, he lists all the libraries and middleware he is plugging in and has a short video demo of what's been constructed so far
* Saga City - sneakyrobot has an update to his 2D game project, where he's been busy working on the game's level editor and has started now to work on the catalog of entities that can be placed via the editor
* The Carrier2 papers - Aph3x pops in for a quick update on his work with shadows in his 3D project, with a hat-tip to Ysaneya
* What doth life - Aiursrage gives a brief first look at his studio's new game Red Storm
Game Dev Stuffs
* Merry Prankster Games - gdunbar lays down thoughts on the "Escape Problem" in RPGs, which involves letting a character evade combat at will, even when combat has already been initiated. He gives several reasons why he feels this is a problem.
* Adventures in Text-mode - By special request, Twisol shares this idea with you all: visualizing the structure of programs atomically, with parts of the program as molecules, a class as a single atom, member variables at its nucleus and functions surrounding it like electrons (for example). I have to admit, UML is cool and all but it's just so.. so... flat and boring. How about whizzing around your programs in a 3D atomic landscape?
* epic.fail - evolutional goes on a brief rant about quests in MMOs and how they could potentially be improved.
* Excursions into the Unknown - Mike.Popoloski shares some code to return all possible combinations of a given sequence, as he is working on a Sudoku game. It's been revised and improved With the help of Telastyn, so check the comments.
Other Stuffs
* dwn - DWN is looking for advice from telecommuters, as he is looking to work from home. My advice is kinda no-brainer but - a strong portfolio and proven track record, with as many references as you can cajole out of people you've worked for before to establish your reliability. Companies have to place a lot of trust in remote workers to get the job done at their end without constant supervision.
* Gaiiden's Scroll - I confess to how I used a simple Visual Basic application I programmed to steal my father's online password when I was a kid to log on to the internet and play StarCraft (well, mostly :P)
* Any Colour You Like - benryves works his electronic wizardry once again to create a controller that receives and interprets IR pulses from a Sony remote control. He hopes to use this project towards the work on his Z80-based computer.
Journal Land Pick of the Week
Big Trouble In Little Chairtown - Drilian has another great article up, this time discussing .NET reflection and how it can applied towards creating state machines. Be sure to also page back and check out his previous article on how to generate lightning bolts in code if you missed it last week.
From the Staff
* Gaiiden's Scroll - This week I go over our plans for GDC coverage, book audio excerpts on Industry Broadcast, soliciting GDNet book reviews and as always: new resources and events
* The Code Zone Bargain Basement Blog - If you missed it, johnhattan was running a contest this past week to give away a copy of the GDNet Collection book Business and Production by having people follow him on twitter. He'll be passing out more books as well so keep on eye on his blog! I plan to donate mine to my local IGDA chapter, so get your fix from John if you need it
Project Updates
* Journal of Journaling - nordwindranger shows off a new tank model for his WWII-themed game. What I like most is he shows his use of 2D images to trace and then extrude to create the 3D model - a technique I always forget about whenever I dabble in 3D modeling myself (with horrible, unspeakable results)
* Journal of Lethargic Programmers - cameni's team have managed to leverage Chromium Code to integrate the Google Chrome browser directly into their engine. Being a terrain engine, they of course have Google Maps loaded up - imagine playing a game set in a real-world location and using Google Maps to navigate? Awesome.
* The Bag of Holding - ApochPiQ has put in some more serious time towards his language Epoch, posting a major milestone on Sunday towards his RC6 release, which is linked to here. Be sure to page through the rest of the week if you're hungry for more.
* Journal of EasilyConfused - EasilyConfused has up the latest demo for his project Squishy, a Gish-like physics blob swinging and squishing around. Check it out and leave your feedback, page to previous days this week to learn more about the project's development
* Level-Grind Online - momentum on JWalsh's project seems to have finally picked up after his last update in October with a project website, forums, and additional team members. Hit the links in the post for all the details on Level-Grind Online
* Journal of MrCpaw - MrCpaw continues to practice his drawing skillz, working on the difficult technique of shading. Not too much, not too little - it's one of the more technical aspects of drawing that really takes practice to get the hang of.
* My personal space of thoughts... - Metron is looking for a graphic artist willing to do some concept work for the community project Prohibition Online
* Happenings with VBStrider and Crew - this week's newsletter for the team announces the return of the IRC servers, why you should hold on to your development install discs, and how the community faired without the IRC and servers
* Under a ShadowyTree - Black Knight had some issues getting bridges set up and working properly in Dark Age
* Ye Olde Ramblings - Telastyn has been busy earlier in the week with a number of method tests for his Tangent programming language, page back for parts 2 and 1 as well
* Journal of Drew_Benton - Drew_Benton has settled into working on a new engine using mainly off the shelf components. In addition to his progress, he lists all the libraries and middleware he is plugging in and has a short video demo of what's been constructed so far
* Saga City - sneakyrobot has an update to his 2D game project, where he's been busy working on the game's level editor and has started now to work on the catalog of entities that can be placed via the editor
* The Carrier2 papers - Aph3x pops in for a quick update on his work with shadows in his 3D project, with a hat-tip to Ysaneya
* What doth life - Aiursrage gives a brief first look at his studio's new game Red Storm
Game Dev Stuffs
* Merry Prankster Games - gdunbar lays down thoughts on the "Escape Problem" in RPGs, which involves letting a character evade combat at will, even when combat has already been initiated. He gives several reasons why he feels this is a problem.
* Adventures in Text-mode - By special request, Twisol shares this idea with you all: visualizing the structure of programs atomically, with parts of the program as molecules, a class as a single atom, member variables at its nucleus and functions surrounding it like electrons (for example). I have to admit, UML is cool and all but it's just so.. so... flat and boring. How about whizzing around your programs in a 3D atomic landscape?
* epic.fail - evolutional goes on a brief rant about quests in MMOs and how they could potentially be improved.
* Excursions into the Unknown - Mike.Popoloski shares some code to return all possible combinations of a given sequence, as he is working on a Sudoku game. It's been revised and improved With the help of Telastyn, so check the comments.
Other Stuffs
* dwn - DWN is looking for advice from telecommuters, as he is looking to work from home. My advice is kinda no-brainer but - a strong portfolio and proven track record, with as many references as you can cajole out of people you've worked for before to establish your reliability. Companies have to place a lot of trust in remote workers to get the job done at their end without constant supervision.
* Gaiiden's Scroll - I confess to how I used a simple Visual Basic application I programmed to steal my father's online password when I was a kid to log on to the internet and play StarCraft (well, mostly :P)
* Any Colour You Like - benryves works his electronic wizardry once again to create a controller that receives and interprets IR pulses from a Sony remote control. He hopes to use this project towards the work on his Z80-based computer.
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