A bunch of us here make and work on games as well as playing them. One of the sites I really like is Lost Garden - it showcases many new games made from art and code the main author provides. A recent article has free tilesets and how to bootstrap your art needs. And if I can attest to the one thing that after the engine is done - is the overwhelming amount of art and variety of art expected in a game. Having made over 5000+ icons for Lord of the Rings Online - and over 1000 animation sets for Hillbilly Whack! art creation and getting it all done is just killer.
Anyways - check out Lost Garden first and then find yourself lost in the thoughts of people making games.
So… after leaving this poor blog to rot for several months here, I have decided to redouble my efforts on this puppy.
I have been working at a start-up called Guild Cafe, and while it has certainly been taking up more than its fair share of work, it has both gotten me closer to the game industry, and also demonstrated to me the need for me to have a place to rant about whatever, but that is separate from my personal (family) blog.
So.. with that (and a google ad check to remind me its actually worth it…cuz it will pay its server fees) monkeygames.org LIVES again!!!!
I have setup the blog with Flock (the most conducive web browser to blogging around, and so I have no reason to be lazy and leave my poor monkeygames to die.
With that, I thank you for visiting, especially after such a long long long haitus. I hope to serve you well out there in blogland. And if you wish to contact me, you can email me at russell at monkeygames d o t org.
p.s.
You may also note that the forums have been nuked, sadly this is what happens when you don’t spend time and energy protecting it from spammers.
Playing video games can satisfy deep psychological needs and, at least in the short term, improve people’s well-being, new research shows.
The more a game fulfilled a player’s sense of independence, achievement and connectedness to others, the more likely he or she was to keep playing, Dr. Scott Rigby of Immersyve, a Florida-based virtual environment think tank, and colleagues from the University of Rochester in New York found. And the more fully a player’s needs were satisfied, the better he felt after playing.
Today marked the launch of the demo version of Wii’s Internet Channel. The channel is essentially a version of the Opera Browser, that runs on the wii. I tried to make a post to monkeygames from the wii, but about half way through my message, the console froze up. RUH ROH. Maybe long typing entries are a bug on the current version. Ahh well. Its clearly not meant for a long typing session anyway.
Of note:
1) They seem to have added a very nice word complete functionality to at least the entries of the Browser, but possibly to all entry fields on the console (that would rock).
2) The browser itself handles the mismatch in resolution and screen size rather well. You can zoom in and out of a page, scroll with the wiimote, and even change the viewpoint to be more like a mobile device (this messes up the page good, but makes the text nice and big.
3) As for the browser’s capabilities, Gmail worked, google maps did not, You Tube looked awesome, and Flash movies play fantastic.
4) The loading was plenty fast.
5) The favorites page is slow to load, but once in, it is very intuitive with a shot of the front page.
6) One annoying thing, is you have to jump back to the home to enter a new web address. They should have a button jsut open the URL bar.
All in all, considering I would probably just head upstairs to use the internet on a more serious task, it does a nice job for a quick trip to IMDB to settle a bet, CNN for the news, YouTube for some fun browsing, or to Gmail to send a quick note or read mail. While the demo version is free and available today, I will deffinitely buy the full version once its released.
In other news, a couple of nights ago, Nintendo also put their Forecast channel live.
It was simple to setup, and now I can get the weather from my Wii. Sort of useful, deffinitely well presented. Their globe feature is pretty cool, as you can spin the globe and check out the weather from your home town, to the South Pole. It was cool, but after Google Earth, I’m dreaming of THAT on the wii at all times. THAT would be something amazing. At any rate, check out the You Tube below for a walkthrough of it. (make sure to fast forward the part where the user is downloading the app).
Lost Garden - The Art and Design of Making Games
