NI-based game development studio, Wee Man Studios just gave SyncNI an exclusive on Galactic Racer!

Click through the graphic for the exclusive.

Due for release, later this quarter.

Dolgion Chuluunbaatar of Gamasutra writes about non-linear adventure games:

As I was on vacation, I picked up my sister's copy of Sherlock Holmes stories, and quickly I got caught up in the really really beautifully narrated and well thought-out plots. As I had my phase of obsessively playing the classic LucasArts adventure games, the very first Holmes story "A Study in Scarlet" led me to think about the adventure game genre.
...
In "A Study in Scarlet", Sherlock Holmes is first introduced to the reader by the narrator and companion Dr. Watson. It is through his eyes that we perceive the story and Holmes' actions, not counting in the second part that explains some of the necessary background of the plot.
...
It's almost always the question of "What did the game designer want me to understand so that I can find the trigger to advance the narrative?". It's trigger that sometimes puts me off, because in a badly designed game, it can end up in senseless actions being asked of the player and therefore he/she gets stuck for no valid reason. With good puzzle design, this can be minimized, but still, it all puts the player's range of action into an uncomfortable corset.
...
This design paradigm consists of the basic idea that the player should be able to solve a problem by using their own brain power instead of hunting for triggers. Triggers are a more primitive way of the designer forcing the player to think, sadly resulting in use-everything-with-everything orgies if badly done.

A non-linear approach allows the player to make mistakes and encourages the player to make their own conclusions and gives them the power to execute on them. Of course a autonomous world to do that in is awesome already by itself and it should allow for pretty new motivation to replay an actually linear plot line if it was not for the player .

Of course, as a gamer I've run many detective games. These range from the high thrill, high horror, low schlock games like SLA Industries to the low key, psychic conspiracy thrillers like The 23rd Letter.

In the 80s, I remember playing Consulting Detective with the older kids and thoroughly enjoyed the level of detail, the requirement for immersion and visualisation and the reliance on observation and deduction. But it was not a popular game because to the average teenager, the game was hard. We were smart kids (most of us anyway), and yet we seemed more stupid in a group. Smart as we were, we were no Sherlock Holmes.

It is my belief that when running a detective game, you have to remember that the players are often less than the sum of their parts (due to confusion, interrupted narrative, last night's football results and the imminent arrival of spicy food and naan bread).

This means that even smart individuals may miss important clues, may not see the allusions and the inferences in the newspaper clippings, fag ends and hastily scrawled dying notes which litter the genre. We all have day jobs and families and we're not the super-obsessive compulsive consulting detective that the game might assume so the designer has to take the step of telling us once, telling us twice and telling us a third time to make sure we get the clue. We might misremember small facts, forget to keep copious notes (which, in my opinion, spoils the enjoyment of the game) or simply we may not be wired to think that way. Kevin Beimers of Straandlooper spoke about this aspect of game design at an event we held at Belfast Metropolitan College earlier this year. Clues need to be logical and discoverable.

There is also the problem when this translates into a video game that the game will often, by necessity, highlight items which are important. Games like Myst and Hector: Badge of Carnage thankfully escape much of this but it can be maddening to be tapping around trying to figure out exactly how to get something to work as a fan belt.

But we enjoy the discovery, even as it frustrates and confounds us. I've had almost as much fun watching someone play an engaging game as I have had playing it. So, why are there so few multiplayer detective games?

Are there any?

So I won a competition from dicecreator to get my own custom dice, which rocks. So I spent an afternoon working on the design. I’m sure you’ve seen my the Cthulhu-inspired image on the front of this webpage (and it doubles as my twitter icon) but if not, here it is again.

I thought this might make a cool face on one of the dice, so I went about re-working it a bit, using my trusty lightbox. I’m sure I could have done the re-work on the computer exclusively but I still like to use pencil and pens. It’s more satisfying somehow, at least for me.

I removed the background, filled in his wings which highlighted the tentacles much better. I was keeping in mind how it would look on a small dice.

I wanted “Fudge Dice”. Fudge dice has two faces with plus “+”, two with minus “-” and the final two blank. Keeping the Cthulhu theme, the minus and plus have to be tentacles!

I cheated though, I drew one half of a tentacle and then using my lightbox built up a minus and plus.

But, I won two customised dice and didn’t want to waste the opportunity with just one design! Using some themes from stuff I did for Lost Heroes RPG and the same technique as the tentacles, I came up with theses:

Now with my two designs, I sent them.

And I got the results in my hand right now:

I think they look rather cool myself!

(I’ll write up my initial impressions in another post)

• Harv Barker just suggested a zombie/austin hack for #Hellforleather Gorgeous, spunky and full of braaaaains!
• Hell for Leather hits the US, thanks to the work of the guys at Indie Press Revolution! http://bit.ly/97IBhy
• Facebook news: IPR have copies of HfL in the US. http://bit.ly/97IBhy #fb

Character creation:  Excited about the ongoing outdoor LARP starting this week in Dublin, Shane, humbug and Liam dig into the rules document and see what kinds of characters they can turn out - a real man, a real roleplayer, a munchkin and a loony.  It's worth noting that in the short amount of time between recording and release a new version of the rules has been released so some of the rules referenced are now out of date.  Some of them are just referenced incorrectly, of course.  Features:

• Midway LARP
• Camarilla
• Real Men, Real Roleplayers, Munchkins, Loonies
• The nature of apocalypse
• Leather chaps
• Downtime and uptime
• First Aid and Surgery
• Professional-grade munchieing
• WWMD?
• Prestige: Pterodactyls
• Rolling on tables!

Discuss this episode on IrishGaming.Com!

Portal - for the non-violent nature of it and the neat teleportation physics puzzles. And removing half of the stupid ways to die. And for this.

Mirror's Edge on iPad - for the simple swipe-based mechanics, showing us a new way to do a simple platformer. For showing us how to convert a FPS for touch. And for this.

Left4Dead - for uncompromising 4 player co-op on both sides. For re-inventing the entire zombie genre. For much fun and great instakills. And for this.

Myth - for showing us that you don't need to spend two hours building an army for a 10 minute fight. And building a kick-ass story around it. And for this.

And two movies.

Primer - for providing an all-round mind-fuck of a movie. and it's available for free (linked here) on low-resolution web video and of course, available as a DVD.

Inception - only just out and not long out of the cinemas so there's not a lot that I can say without introducing spoilers. So go and look at the trailer here and then go watch the movie. All I can add is "BRRRRANNNNNGGGGGGG". You'll know what I mean after you watch it.

In a series of ten bi-monthly podcasts, Sebastian Hickey tells design stories about the Hell for Leather project.

In the first podcast, learn about the names that Sebastian submitted (but weren’t used), the book behind the game and a little story about how the dice tower was born.

• 00:18 Two Games One Name
• 01:48 Physical resolution
• 03:04 The Running Man
• 05:05 Dice tower
  

I believe that my playing of games has contributed positively to my development as an individual. Traditionally advocacy for gaming has included the development of teamwork and leadership skills, understanding of competition, resource management and also a greater appreciation of geography, politics, religion and 'alien' cultures. Games, especially tabletop role-playing games, have been used in education for years as they are comparatively light on resources, encourage participation and are good for personal development.

I read this from BrainyGamer

This year, for the first time, a video game will appear on the syllabus of a course required for all students at Wabash College, where I teach. For me - and for a traditional liberal arts college founded in 1832 - this is a big deal.
...
I pitched the idea to my colleagues on the committee (decidedly not a collection of gamers), and they agreed to try Portal and read selections from Goffman's book. After plowing through some installation issues ("What does this Steam do? Will it expose me to viruses?"), we enjoyed the first meaningful discussion about a video game I've ever had with a group of colleagues across disciplines. They got it. They made the connections, and they enjoyed the game. Most importantly, they saw how Portal could provoke thoughtful reflection and vigorous conversation on questions germane to the course.

And so we're playing Portal at Wabash College.

Portal is, for a single player game, utterly fascinating.

I yearn for a group of individuals who get together to not only play games but also to have meaningful discussion about games and play. To examine the meta-design of games and to discuss the reasons why they are fun.

• Cobweb Games is now associated with IPR. Check out the publisher page! Woo woo! http://bit.ly/czkWTa #
• I have 10 copies of Joe Prince's Hell 4 Leather for sale. It's time for the world's most confusing bundle. #fb #
• I just added the Art of Swashbuckling to the list of attributes. I love this game. #wayoftheagent #

Mailbag:  A Completely Non-Fictional Listener is back with another rambling question, and Shane, Liam and humbug are at hand with another rambling non-answer.  It's all got something to do with RPG wound systems, lethality and healing, and as with so many questions about RPGs, raises the big issue again of "what exactly is that nonsense trying to simulate, anyway?".  Some interesting things to think about are raised.  Features:

• Alarming rummaging
• Unstoppable fantasy killing machines
• Liam says "gambit" instead of "gamut"
• Exalted
• Call of Cthulhu
• Twilight: 2013
• Fate points and chips and karma and emergency dice
• Deadlands
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
• Shadowrun
• Silhouette
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Who suffers when you get hurt
• Rolemaster
• Where rules and genre don't match
• Wound negatives and system shock
• Heavy Gear
• Hit location versus one big blob of person
• Critical hits and fumbles
• Playing a healing character
• Ars Magica
• Star Wars Saga Edition
• How role-playing was born
• Computer games and injury systems
• Ghost Recon 2
• Halo
• Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
• Lethality as an extension of GM personality
• Amputation and sanity loss as other things that make a system lethal
• Cavitation - might actually be just for listening to submarines
• Traveller
• The United Federation of Caveman Planets

Discuss this episode on IrishGaming.Com!

Equally useful for the development of tabletop game ideas, this method was used tonight to brainstorm some ideas for videogames in our local game development cluster.

Warhammer 40K Tournament (Yellowcon 2010)
Sunday, August 29, 2010 from 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM (GMT)

Stormont Hotel
587 Upper Newtownards Road
BT4 3LP Belfast
United Kingdom

REGISTER HERE

1750 point tournament. Prizes for winner & runner-up.

Access the rules pack which will be necessary for you to play in the tournament

The first game will start at 10.30, but it will be best for players to be there from 10am.

We hope everyone really enjoy the day!!

When designing games I tend to think about what will make the game more 'sticky'. At the start, I can usually enthuse someone about a game by talking to them about it. You're the consummate salesperson for your game and design and in theory no-one can sell the concept like you can. To get people to play (or better still, to pay), you have to describe the game in such terms that it seems fun. This was a challenge with The 23rd Letter because it doesn't contain pictures and like it or not it's the visuals which usually interest someone in a game.

In theory, with the concept of Playbor (work that seems like play), you can make anything seem like fun. Whether this is Tom Sawyer fooling others to whitewash the fence or the complicated patterns from the Folding@Home project, you can get results by adding simple things like achievements, leaderboards and a dollop of fun.

I'm very interested in the motivations of people especially with respect to getting them to change behaviours. Work I've done with the University of Ulster was describing scenarios for changed behaviours and how you can take advantage of those for good (or evil). Needless to say that lots of companies are looking at this area because it goes beyond advertising. In this world, advertising is already dead and we're presenting people with things that would normally be described as 'not fun' and making them into 'fun'. That's actually a lot easier than getting someone to click through on a banner advert.

Can you get more people to take the stairs by making it more fun?

This is the essence of games.

Not everyone can appreciate the fun of a game like Left4Dead (one of the very best co-operative games on the market). And not everyone is going to appreciate games like Diner Dash or Farmville. But there is a feeling of enjoyment and achievement in all of these games which is what is common in games.

This is Jane McGonigal at TED talking about how games can be used to fix real-world problems.

My aim is to start a new company (working title: Alien Salvage) which will focus on the development of games which will have both learning and healthcare applications as well as being fun.

Lorenzo Mele, expert DBM and DBMM player, has created a new website to support DBMM players with photos of armies, tactical advice, campaigns, etc. Well worth a visit: www.tagmata.it

Provisional Date. Full details to be announced.

It is anticipated that it will follow last year's successful format of 315AP on 200AP-sized boards with open army lists. 3 rounds in 1 day on preset terrain.

Organiser: Mick Hessian

400AP, 2-round invitational Finals for the RINIWA DBMM League.
http://www.iworg.com/league
In parallel there will be a new 2-round event called the RINWA Challenge that is open to all.

List checker: Rob Brennan.
Lists due by: 25th November 2010

Cost: 10 euro for RINWA members or overseas players (12 for non-members)

Format:

There will be 2 rounds

read more

]]> http://irishgamingwiki.com/planet/archives/44897/feed 0 http://www.iworg.com/node/196 http://www.iworg.com/node/196#comments Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:35:53 +0000 admin This was originally published here. Please visit the site if you like this post or wish to comment on it. Pulled from IWorg.com

Start: 29/01/2011 - 00:00

End: 30/01/2011 - 23:59

Timezone: Etc/GMT

2-day, 400AP DBMM Event hosted by Munster Wargames Group

See http://www.corkgaming.com/ for full details (soon).

]]> http://irishgamingwiki.com/planet/archives/44898/feed 0 http://www.irishgaming.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=140&Itemid=1 http://www.irishgaming.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=140&Itemid=1#comments Sat, 21 Aug 2010 06:10:07 +0000 irishgaming.com News http://www.irishgaming.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=140&Itemid=1 This was originally published here. Please visit the site if you like this post or wish to comment on it. Pulled from News at irishgaming.comWoohoo, it's sunny and I've almost (almost) got that Friday feeling! Right - Here we are again with another great...

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]]> http://irishgamingwiki.com/planet/archives/44883/feed 0 http://cobwebgames.com/index.php/for-sale-joe-princes-h4l-bundle/ http://cobwebgames.com/index.php/for-sale-joe-princes-h4l-bundle/#comments Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:22:54 +0000 info@cobwebgames.com (Cobweb Games) http://cobwebgames.com/?p=1569 This was originally published here. Please visit the site if you like this post or wish to comment on it. Pulled from Cobweb Games

It’s time for the world’s most confusing game bundle: Two Games with One Name.

Back last October, Nathan Paoletta started the 2G1N competition. Joe Prince’s Hell 4 Leather was the overall winner and my Hell for Leather won Best Dark Game. Now, for the first time, we’re bundling these two bad-ass games together with a huge discount. Included in this bundle:

• Joe Prince’s Hell 4 Leather (Winner of the 2G1N competition 2009)
• Sebastian Hickey’s Hell For Leather (Winner of the Best Dark Game, 2G1N 2009)
• Hell for Leather Deluxe Target
• Hell for Leather PDF

That has a street value of €28. We’re giving it away for €19. There’s limited stock, so grab your copy today!

Order Joe Prince’s Hell 4 Leather and save €9!! Includes both the RPG Books, the HfL PDF & the HfL Target!

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