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Roundtable: Books as Games

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jan 7, 2009

Filed under: Video Games 48 comments
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This month at Man Bytes Blog, the roundtable discussion is:

Putting the Game Before the Book What would your favorite piece of literature look like if it had been created as a game first?

I don’t participate in the roundtable as often as I would like, but I think I can make up for it with this one. I have the longest and most detailed response in the history of the roundtable. It’s 155 posts long and took a year to produce.

But my first webcomic – while true to the premise offered – is probably a bit too much to qualify as an “entry” in the roundtable. Let me check the bookshelf and see what else might be good: God Game? Er. That would be sort of meta, making a game about a book about a game. I guess you’d just end up with a game within a game. Or just making the game described in the book. Either way, that’s not very interesting. How about Cryptonomicon? Nah. WWII shooters are too passé. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? Already been done. A Brief History of Time? Er. No. Snow Crash? Yeah. That can work.

I will do better than simply imagine what that book would be like as a game. I will imagine Snow Crash as a game (made with today’s technology and design techniques), and then review it.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Roundtable: Books as Games”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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48 comments

 

Stolen Pixels #53: Hidden Treasures

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jan 6, 2009

Filed under: Column 0 comments
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On the charge of this installment of Stolen Pixels being childish:

I plead guilty.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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Unskippable: Eternal Sonata

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jan 6, 2009

Filed under: Movies 35 comments
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I mentioned Unskippable a few weeks ago. The feature officially launched yesterday:

Like MST3K, they do have to work with what they’re given. And I think their hit / miss ratio is about the same as the crew from the Satellite of Love. (I suppose it helps that the one who made the “Archduke Ferdinand” joke (who I’m pretty sure is Graham Stark) sounds like Mike Nelson in both voice and delivery. (And I know I’m risking a flamewar here, but I always liked Mike best. (Not that I’m criticizing Joel, he thought of the series and all, it’s just that Mike makes me laugh more.))) I don’t know if Eternal Sonata itself is any good, but the cutscene here looks insufferable. I would not want to watch it without Stark and Saunders along to ease the pain.

One thing I do wonder is how they plan to feed this thing. It can’t be a weekly feature. I don’t think there are 52 cutscene-heavy games per year. And ideally you want more than that, because you need to pick & choose what you’ll take on in order to exploit only the richest lodes of stupidity and auteur self-indulgence.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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35 comments

 

Reset Button Fan Support

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Jan 6, 2009

Filed under: Projects 19 comments
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NobleBear asked who they should email at The Escapist in order to encourage them to pick up Reset Button. I’m gratified by the support, and I want to make sure it’s welcomed and doesn’t feel spam-y.

Russ Pitts is the guy in charge of video content at The Escapist. His email doesn’t seem to be public, though, so I can’t rightly point you directly at him.

My suggestion is that you either use the general-purpose contact form or their contact page. Themis Media is not so massive that your input will get lost in the belly of the machine. They’re people and they talk to each other.

I don’t know how much of an effect this will have. If fan letters could affect the course of production, then we’d all be bitching about how Firefly seems to have lost its way since season 4, and totally jumped the shark this year when they added the kid genius to the crew. Instead, we’re filling the void with angst and fan fiction. My prediction is that Reset Button will sink or swim based on banal things like budget, demand, and content. Having said that, voicing your support can’t hurt.

Please be polite if you do. They’re nice people and didn’t have anything to do with Firefly being canceled.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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19 comments

 

Xbox 360

By Shamus Posted Monday Jan 5, 2009

Filed under: Video Games 76 comments
That's not a CheatPrevious Post
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It’s kind of odd to like electronic and techno music at my age. It makes me feel like a bit of a poser to be into the stuff the kids are into. I know I’m supposed to be listening to New Order or Bon Jovi as I ride the time’s inexorable tram to the old folk’s home, but I’d rather listen to the Crystal Method than grope for the Glory Days of moody euro pop and guys in makeup. Okay, I’m not about to go to a rave or anything, but I like the new stuff better.

In the same way, I really like the Xbox. I know it’s supposedly a console for foul-mouthed, beer-soaked fratboys, and I’m not about to jump into Halo online and run around pwning things and screaming nonsense at strangers though the headset. But taken out of its purported cultural habitat, it’s a fine machine.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Xbox 360”

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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76 comments

 

That’s not a Cheat

By Shamus Posted Sunday Jan 4, 2009

Filed under: Video Games 170 comments
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Dear Gamespot, 1Up, IGN, and the rest of you rotten crumbs,

When I Google for “Explodious 3 Cheats XBox” it’s because I want some cheat codes for Explodious 3 on the Xbox [360]. I’m not doing it for a fun romp around the web. I’m certainly not doing it because I have a copious supply of free time that I want to throw away. In fact, I’m usually in a rotten mood when I’m looking for cheats, so luring me to your website and then not giving me cheats is a foolish move on your part.

I know what cheats are. “Beat the game on ultra-hard in less than 5 minutes using only the B button to unlock the original Explodious costume” is not a cheat. It’s the very opposite of a cheat. It is yet another task I can’t do, which is a problem I already had in the first place. It’s an “unlockable”.

You know this. You know this is not a cheat. But you care about soaking up Google searches and page hits more than you care about your visitors, and so you seed your pages with the word “cheat”, when you know full well there aren’t any. Rather than wasting my time, why don’t you mention the lack of cheats in a review? Since you know there aren’t any, and you obviously know what a massive traffic draw cheat pages are, then it stands to reason that this is something that people want and aren’t getting. It could be argued that keeping them informed is your job. Perhaps drawing attention to the lack of cheats will correct the problem, thus ensuring that you aren’t standing there empty-handed when I show up on your doorstep looking for something.

Thank you for your time and please drown in a septic tank,

Shamus

P.S. If you do find cheats for Explodious 3 please email me! Thanks!

Topic for discussion: One game you enjoyed, but had to shelve because you couldn’t beat it.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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170 comments

 

The Craft of War: BLIND

By Shamus Posted Saturday Jan 3, 2009

Filed under: Movies 41 comments
Zero Punctuation: Prince of PersiaPrevious Post
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Wow. Machanima has gotten elaborate. I didn’t even know there were tools out there for doing this.


Link (YouTube)

I’m sure this wasn’t done inside of World of Warcraft. No doubt they used a program to extract the art resources from the game (I used something similar to set up a few shots for Stolen Pixels that would have been too much of a pain otherwise.) They would have then needed to use some other program to generate all of the animations. Amazing work.

I know I just got hit with the same criticism myself, but I did think it would have been better if it was a little shorter. Or maybe I was just getting tired of the song. Either way, it’s a nice bit of well-polished work.

 

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

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