Game Development

Planet-sized video game

by

Every so often I find something about a new level of virtual world. The art and science of creating 3D real time virtual worlds keeps moving forward. Today I saw another demo of a coming platform for gaming.

Planet-sized video game gets its first release – 2 minute video in a short article.

Outerra's Anteword - Fly Forever

There is also an Outerra Tech Demo released! One can download and try it out for free. A torrent download is available in addition to standard downloads. File size is 219mb, a couple of minutes via Torrent.

If you are thinking of downloading it, check the video driver notes first. Be sure you can run it.

Read more

New Things Coming to #SL

by

For some time I’ve read the blogs and posts of SL users saying the Lindens developing Second Life needed to spend more time in SL. The idea being that if they used the product rather than just developing what they think we need, SL would be a better place. I think it is a good idea.

It seems Rod and Will think that is a good idea too. Hamlet posted, “Linden Launches Monster-Dodging Game for Premium Users UPDATE: Rod Humble Explains — It Was Made With New Tools Coming Soon for SL Game Developers” which is about a new game in Second Life. He has been chasing down his contacts in the Lab to find out what is up with that.

A quote he got from Rod says they built the game not to be building games, but to learn what tools are needed to be able to build games in Second Life. That pretty much is the idea many of us have put forward for Lindens. Walk in our shoes and you’ll understand. The Lab has now done that. They built a game to find out what we are up against.

Whether walking in our shoes is a better idea than listening to us is yet to be seen. I am more and more certain that the idea of transparency for the Lab’s development is a thing of the past. Much like Obama’s idea of government transparency has faded.

Read more

About Second Life…

by

One of my favorite Second Life bloggers is Gwyneth Llewelyn. Her posts are infrequent, but they do cover a subject in depth. She has a new article up: Innovation, yes, but wrong turn. One can learn a lot about Second life from the article.

Gwyneth’s viewpoints are usually a fresh look at Second Life and the directions taken by Linden Lab. In this article she lays out a new perspective, basically calling a spade a spade. In her viewpoint Second Life is a niche product/service and she makes a good argument for her point of view. She also makes good points for what can be done with a niche market.

The four page article is worth the read.

Game Design Information

by

While I suspect most of the readers of this blog have interests more Second Life and OpenSim oriented, there are a number of us interested in what makes any computer game popular. In some ways that translates to what may make SL popular. Also, some SL/OS residents are interested in what can make their inside-SL-games popular. Here are some sources of information for those with such interests.

Game Design
Game Design - Image by: amsfrank @ Flickr

Read more

Mesh Testers Needed

by

Dan Linden has put up a post asking for mesh testers. Help us test Mesh performance

There is a challenge in regard to testing prim equivalency and parcel prim limits. There are some serous tick-you-off gotcha’s evolved in prim limits and mesh equivalents. This is the testing they need help with. So, if you want a parcel on the Preview Grid and are willing to help out with building mesh stuff, sign up.

Hey folks,
we need your help in testing Mesh within real limitations. We want to  get “real world” numbers for render and streaming performance and this  means building content on parcels with restricted size instead of region  size sandboxes.

See the post for how to sign up. Only 64 parcels available. You need to fill them up with meshes.

 

Game Development Meeting

by
Virtual Worlds
Metanomics Studio

I got into playing in Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) by playing the Myst series of games, a series of mostly single player adventure/puzzle games. In the series was Myst Online Uru Live (MOUL), which was Cyan Worlds, Inc’s attempt at a multiplayer game. Ubisoft and GameTap both tried to run the game and discontinued it because it could not maintain player interest and financial support. From seeing what I think is a neat game fail I became interested in what makes a game work and popular. Monday there is an opportunity to learn about game development. 

Read more