Bloggpengar.com and Gamezine.se

One and a half year – damn, has it really been that long?

Although no longer an aspiring indie game developer, I still spend a lot of time with games. Most promptly, I am writing for the Swedish gaming magazine Gamezine.se. I also have a couple of personal experiments in micro websites (Bloggpengar.com, MinBMI.com), just to keep myself occupied.

I have decided to leave GameFocus as it is, if only to preserve the (admittedly few) developer interviews I have conducted. Hopefully it will be of interest to someone.

So, what’s been happening?

Well, a lot of things have been going on in my life the last couple of months. Those things kept me from updating the first couple of months, and later helpt me to learn what I really want to do with my time. Sadly, this blog is not one of them.

Writing this blog have been great fun for me. I have talked to great people that I admire, and to say that it has been great is by any measures met, a big understatement. Now, I have begun gymnasium (I won’t use the pure english translation, since I probably would’ve got it wrong), tested new things, and realised that games is not really want I won’t to do, and that programming isn’t really the thing for me. This takes a lot to write down, mind you, since I have been working with it for years now. Still, I feel like it is time well spent, I have met great people and learned a lot, not only about games and programming but also about life, and everything that comes with it.

Right now, I am mainly writing. I have a swedish website where I publish short stories, and I’m working on a larger fantasy novel as a long-term project. I am hoping that it can take me somewhere, but even if it doesn’t, it’s still great fun. Which is, if I remember correctly, the very reason to why I started creating games a couple of years ago.

Well, thank you all for this great time, and good luck. I won’t remove the website, since I feel that the developer interviews I have done can still be of use for future visitors. Now, go make some great games

Funkylabs.com – Groovy games for a groovy generation!

Click here to visit…

Yep, I am still going strong. I’ve had a break due to heavy pressure from my studies, but now, holidays are closing in and game development is back in focus. The website, as it is now, is just a temporary solution since my own titles still are in production, and not due for release for quite some time As of now, I am offering games from Reflexives huge selection on the website, so if you have some extra money to spend, please stop by I am currently working on making the website a little more user-friendly and more good-looking.

Expect more updates further ahead…

Masters of Doom

This book is documenting something that is a dream for most indies – making it, and making it big. The story about Id Software and their early years is a must-read, I tell you. I couldn’t put it aside once I started reading it.

Masters of doom on Amazon

RealArcade/Platypus 2 Rant

Some time back, i wrote about Anthony Flack and his games with clay graphics. One of them being Platypus, a awesome shooter with awesome graphics and a whole lot other awesomeness in it. Something i didn’t mention tho’, is the the fact that Anthony sold the rights for the game to Idigicon, a rather big player in games at that time – seven years ago. Yes, the game is really that old… not bad at all considering when it was made and that a single person developed it.

Well, as it turns out… RealArcade has released a sequel without any credit given to Anthony about it – they didn’t even let him know about it. They do own the rights to the game, but doing such a pure income-oriented business move is just wrong. I stronly believe that companies thinking with their hearts will survive the companies thinking with their accounts, and RealArcade is blacklisted in my book now.

Money isn’t everything, RealArcade.

Indie platform shooter being released in 2007

Squashy Software is a one of a kind Indie developer. Anthony Flack, the founder, carekeeper and developer of Squashy Software is doing something totally different, and something, very, very cool.

All of the art in their games are made of clay.

Platypus

Yes, you read it right. Clay. This different take makes the games very good looking, and definately worth a download. Up to date, they have only released one game, Platypus – a side scrolling shooter. Due to contract issues, they no longer own the rights to the game, but that doesn’t make the game any less their product, and the artstyle is unmistakable. Platypus has also been released on the Playstation Portable (PSP).

Cletus clay

They are currently working on a side-scrolling platform shooter (puh), and i’ll make sure to post about it when it is released. The game is due to release this year, and it’s one of the soon to be released Indie-games i am most excited about. That a developer is willing to try something different, ignoring the Match-3 and Zuma-clones trend is very admiring in my book.

Check out their website at http://www.squashysoftware.com

Make your own MMORPG

Yeah, the wet dream of arising (read: newbie) developers is as wet as always – it just isn’t a dream anymore. The Realmcrafter MMORPG engine is designed specifically for, you got it, making MMORPG’s.

Some features:

* DirectX 9 Graphics
* Improved Game Editors
* Customizable Shaders
* Dynamic Shadows – Actors will all cast shadows on the ground and even upon each other.
* Mapping Techniques – Normal and parallax mapping will make flat surfaces appear 3D.
* Better Lighting – Unlimited dynamic lighting means your game can have lighting that will be cast on scenery and players. This also means realistic torches working at night time.
* Bloom & Tone Mapping – Areas that are bright, will look bright, and areas that are dark, will look dark
* Water – Water shaders which will allow realistic water with waves, ripples and reflections
* Improved Options for Customizing Player Appearance

teh mmorpg mekha

(It actually looks good too, and that kinda’ scares me.)

Prize rise bonanza

Addictive 247 are currently trying out a new method of selling games, where there games start at really low prizes and slowly rise. If you are interested, check out their website.

More info at addictive247.co.uk

Grab a game cheap

There is currently a real bargain going on at iWin, 50% on all of their games, and the offers expires the 31 January. In other words, the perfect timing to grab that gorgeous puzzle game you have been drooling over.

700,000$ Worth of words

Popcap Games latest game, “Bookworm Adventures”, is the most expensive game developed for the casual genre to date, with an amazing 700,000$ budget. I have played the demo and it is a good game, but i am not sure if it is 700,000$ good.

It will be interesting to see how the game will do on the portals. Popcap must be counting not only to make 700,000$ out of it, they will probably not consider it a success unless it makes a lot more than the amount invested into it. Well, they have priced the game at 29,95$, a very unusual number for a casual game. I’d suggest you download the demo, it is a really nice game and I can very well imagine people giving 30 bucks for it – but i wouldn’t.