machai-umno

I read the other day that the US budget deficit is expected to be $1 300 billion for 2010. Which led me to say to Thomas that we should ask the US government (Yes, I know we are Swedes. Yes, I know it is wrong to expect Swedish game development support from the US government.) for $100 000... Who would notice? Which led me to think about the perception of numbers, in particular when talking about money. Usually people (such as myself!) perceive money from an individual perspective, making sums like $100 000 appear very large. But, if one puts the same sum into the perspective of a group, the same amount of money is all of a sudden much less (really?!). For instance, 1 300 billion shared by a 300 million population adds up to $4 333.33 per individual. That's not so bad is it? I'm not going to continue on the topic of the US budget, it only reminded me of a situation about a year ago which in turn will lead to the actual subject of this post. I met a fellow that does not play ga...

It's been a while since I posted items for my Leviathan kits; Here are some weapon options that will be available.

Jon just posted this up on his Blog http://khurasanminiatures.blogspot.com/2010/01/sir-yes-sir.html So I thought I would throw up a few renders of the CAD model. These renders have the longer toes, the toes on the printed model have been shortened a great deal. And a view of the print from Moddler....

Introduction In many of the posts here I have been discussing how having "unfun" gameplay can greatly enhance the experience. I have also ranted about how too much "fun" can completely destroy the intended experience. What I want to discuss now is how a game's most common ingredients might be detracting from certain kinds of experiences and are in some cases best gotten rid of. These ingredients are Gameplay and Narrative. It is my view that these two features can seriously get in the way when trying to take the interactive medium in new directions. I also believe that using the word "Game" is holding back progress in certain areas. The reason for not using the word "Game" is that it comes with certain expectations, which I will go through below, and these can work against both user and creator. This post will also explain a bit about the design and goals for our upcoming game Amnesia . Hopefully it will provide a bit insight into the game an...

Here is a example of one armor variant; The legs, shoulders and feet have been up-armored some plates for the arms, waist and neck/upper torso still need to be created. This armor set was designed for used on the Leviathan Crusader, but will be able to be used on any of the variants as shown.

I am trying to finish off four variants of this Leviathan each will have different weapons, heads and some changes to the armor. Here are a couple of roughed out heads. Many of you may recognize Gabriel from a model I made back in 2003 Azriel is a design from the old days as well; both have been recreated in CAD and are awaiting final detail. Gabriel and Azriel have thier head moved out from the main body to make room for a larger reactor, these will be the only Leviathans in this size class with energy weapons.

Because of a past as sort-of-toys (explained nicely here and here ) important features of games are: How "fun" they are, replay value and how long they last. Reviews often take this into account and in turn this makes developers focus a lot on making a game "fun", "replayable" and "long lasting". I think this kind of thinking (which I am at times guilty of myself...) can seriously hurt a game. I think designers shall focus entirely on what kind of experience they want to deliver and make that come across as effectively as possible! I have mentioned in a previous article how making combat fun can hurt the experience in a horror game, especially if scaring the player is the main goal. Instead of trying to make the combat as frightening as possible, combat is often added with little thought on how it affects the experience and much more focus on how "fun" it is. So instead of making a scary horror game a fun shooter is created (which i...