I'm in a funk...

No games to play...  No game projects to work on.

Bleah.

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Megadungeons...

We need more megadungeons for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. There is Dungeon-A-Day, obviously and Paizo has just released Dungeons of Golarion (but its more of an overview). We need a classic megadungeon You know the kind... It doesn't have much in the way of plot or even make a lot of sense from level to level but it does have: - pathways to the darklands - prisons for eldritch demons - ancient ruins - lost civilizations - legendary weapons - unexplainable magic (lost magic) - mines - slave pits - elemental nodes - water-filled passages - mazes - one way doors (heck secret doors) - traps - haunted levels - classic monsters (ropers, trapper, mimics, otyughs [especially otyughs], owlbears) - dragons - monsters too big to have ever fit down those hallways. - artifacts A classic megadungeon with everything wrong and right about it. Who is with me!
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Tech Feature: HDR Lighting

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Introduction Hello my name is Peter and I’m the new graphics and engine programmer. New is not really the correct word since I have been working at Frictional for a year now. During this time I have updated the engine and added a lot of new graphic features. This will be the first of my blog posts descripting the changes that have been made. HDR One of the biggest changes to the the new engine is the introduction of HDR (High Dynamic Range) Lighting. This is a technique to increase the detail of the lighting system. The benefit of using HDR is that bright things can be really bright, dark things can be really dark, and details can be seen in both. In nature there is no limit to how bright something can be. The difference between a 60 W light bulb and sunshine hitting the earth is around 10 000 luminance (cd/m^2). This means that we need a way to store high intensity values while keeping the quality and precision of the dark areas. Thankfully there already exists a method for storing su...
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Horror Tip: Slender

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Slender is a short horror game really similar to Hide. You walk (or run) around in a monotone environment looking for notes, while there is a scary monster hunting you. Like Hide it is interesting to see how a simple setup can create a really spooky experience. The graphics are nothing special, the music is simple moody droning and the sound effects are of no great quality. Still, taking all together and put in an interactive space, it gets a lot more immersion than what you would expect. I think this is a great testament to the power of interaction to create a strong sense of presence in way that is much harder to accomplish in any other media. The game only lasts for few minutes, which is good because there is so little to do that any longer would most certainly break the spell. This makes me wonder what would have to be needed to make an experience like that last for one to two hours. Adding too much would likely decrease the sense of dread, so one would have to be careful in length...
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