October 16th, 2012 | By Erik Johnson
Tagged in: developer links | DevLinks | industry | industry news
Today’s Developer Links have character. Or articles about characters: engaging AI characters, RPG character design, and what happens when you have the wrong kind of characters on your development team.
Negative Developers And Team Stability (AltDevBlogADay)
“It doesn’t take much for negative feelings to start to seep into a team but it takes a lot more to turn a team around and start to raise moral and motivation. The following isn’t based on an in-depth study of development teams across the world but on my own personal experience of managing and observing a number of teams over the last 10 years. Take of that what you will…”
Toaster Repairman: The Strange (And Unfinished) Evolution Of RPG Character Creation (Sinister Design)
“When Wasteland 2 reached full funding on Kickstarter, a discussion began to brew in the RPG community about ways to improve on the original game. Among the many subjects of debate was whether (and if so, how) to improve on the skill-based character creation system employed by Wasteland (and due to reappear in Wasteland 2 in one form or another). This struck me as a good time to write about skill-based character creation systems: how they came about, and what they mean for cRPG design today. I’ve spent the intervening time building this article, bit by bit. Let’s talk about how character creation first came about, how the skill-based approach evolved, and where that leaves us today.”
The Video Game Kickstarter – Week of October 5 (Zeboyd Games)
“Lots of interesting stuff to cover this week so let’s get started! The biggest new project this week is probably An Old-School RPG. Yes, that’s the actual title. The project is being headed by Brenda Brathwaite (Wizardry) and Tom Hall (Anachronox) so they’ve definitely got some experience backing them but many fans rightfully were annoyed at being given such a generic pitch and being expected to donate just based on the developers’ reputations. Thankfully, the kickstarter organizers seem to have realized this and so they’re starting to give more details about the game…”
A Future of Polygonal Friends: AI & Emotional Attachment (Part 1) (Specs & Headphones)
“I feel that the next big step for games is improving how they tell a story – and that’s not just a plea for the industry to wean me off my addiction to charmingly ineffectual narratives. There are so many ways to go about stepping up the storytelling in games, critics could write (or argue) about it for months, but here I’m going to focus on character-driven storytelling.”
Humble Beginnings Of The HPL Engine (In The Games Of Madness)
“I recently stumbled upon some really old videos with gameplay tests in the HPL engine and decided they would be fun to show off. This was not our first foray into 3D first person horror (Unbirth was), but it was the first time the the HPL engine was used. All of these are gameplay videos are from a student project then know as “The Hatch” and later became the ‘Penumbra Tech Demo’.”
Gree Declares Indie Love With New Competition (Develop)
“A new competition for independent game developers offers access to Gree’s expertise and extensive resources to help release their titles on mobile. Social and mobile game maker Gree has been sailing on a wave of acquisitions, but the company said it still has an immense respect for the indie studios ‘responsible for pushing the limits of creativity and driving innovation’.”
Good Enough. (Bientôt l’été)
“For a while, I have been thinking that the lack of massive critical success of our work was due to the fact that it wasn’t good enough. That one day we would make something that would be so good that everyone would appreciate it. I don’t believe that anymore. Our work is “good enough”. It’s damn good, in fact. It’s just not for everyone. And if we were to make a game that everybody likes, it would simply be another type of work, something that is easier to love. Better made? Perhaps, in that way that widely appreciated things are well made.”
Available To Over 1290 Devices (distractionware: devlog)
“I’m working hard to release Super Hexagon as widely as possible, as soon as I can! For PC/MAC, I should have some news there soon. For Android: here is some good news, and some bad news.”
Erik Johnson (295 posts)