Continuing to chop down the list of URR stuff to be checked before 0.8’s release! Here’s what has happened in the last couple of weeks: – Resolved some strange issues with churches, especially if you approach them at night. Priests weren’t sure where to spawn or where to sleep, and random worshippers kept appearing off … Read More
More URR progress! I am now down to the final two things before URR 0.8’s release, which are 1) check every line of dialogue as comprehensively as I can, and 2) deal with some strange issues regarding game speed and optimisation which are bothering me. In the mean time, though, the fact we’re now at … Read More
It is with immense pleasure that this month’s blog entry is going to be a long and pretty thorough update on what I’ve programmed into URR in the last little while. As many of you readers will know, the latest version – 0.8 – has been about 90% done for over a year, until I … Read More
I am very proud to announce my first book, The Unpredictability of Gameplay, is now out and available from Bloomsbury Academic! The main goal of the work is to unpack what I’ve taken to calling “unpredictability” in games – the ability to put in one input, and not know what output will occur – into a … Read More
Another strange and tricky year pulls to a close (a few months after I promised a return to weekly blog entries – we’ll get to that in a moment), and what has happened? Well: Academic Firstly: my book is now out! Counting this post as a slightly-delayed December post, I’m going to do a proper “launch” … Read More
Hello everyone, and welcome to my new website! After several months in development, I must – as noted on the post I’ve just uploaded on my old website – give my profound thanks to the amazing work of NerdCloud, whose website design ability made this all possible. For those who have already read that one, … Read More
I’d like to start this entry with an anecdote, which outlines the basic issue I’m pondering far more effectively than an abstract discussion. A few years ago I found myself in the position of trying to teach someone who had never played a single video game in their life – and had extremely limited experience of board or card … Read More
HBO’s new Westworld series is absolutely essential viewing for anyone with an interest in games. It’s a great mystery, a great thriller, and great science-fiction, but it’s also fundamentally an exploration of games. On one level it is obviously an exploration of immersive or pervasive games – games that expand past traditional boundaries to engage with the “real … Read More
A Hunter is a Hunter, even in a blog entry… Regular readers of my blog may remember a comment I made a while back about a game I’ve been deeply anxious to play for some time. This was Hidetaka Miyazaki’s new masterpiece (or so the reviews told me) – Bloodborne. I know I’m rather behind the times … Read More
A few years ago Perfect Dark was re-released on Xbox Live Arcade. Whilst it was generally met with a positive reception as an impressive modernization of a classic game, especially since the new engine was built ground-up to be as close a copy of the old engine as possible, several reviewers claimed the game’s level design … Read More