New drink added!

In the Food and Drink section, I've added the first cocktail recipe. Game themed of course, today it is the Shadow Complex, created a few weeks back in celebration of a mate's birthday and another mate's stag do!

Make! Drink! Enjoy?

Designer Questionnaire

Found on Gamasutra this morning:

Turn-based or Real Time?

Real Time

Rounds or Respawn Timers?

Respawn Timers

Cutscenes or Scripted Events?

Scripted Events

Sliding Floor Tiles or Sliding Blocks?

Sliding Blocks

Free To Play or Subscription Based?

Free to Play

Crosshairs or Iron Sights?

Iron Sights

Skill Trees or Dialogue Trees?

Skill Trees

Console or PC?

Console

Coop or Multiplayer?

Coop

Block or Dodge?

Dodge

Open World or On Rails?

On Rails

What is the most beautiful feature or mechanic in games?

Movement

What is the most disappointing game you have ever played?

Oblivion

What is your favorite game judging solely by user-interface?

Wii Sports Resort

What famous designer do you wish you were?

Shigeru Miyamoto... or maybe Tetsuya Mizuguchi

What game's world is most interesting to you?

Halflife series'

What game would you most like to turn into a franchise with 13 sequels?

Rez

Food and Drink

So I've added a Food and Drink section to my blog now, and the first recipe is up - a really nice summer salad.

Check it out!

I've removed many games from my Now Playing list, due to the dreaded Red Ring of Death. Aye, it has struck.

Start Squirting!

I've updated the Games page with Squirt!

I'm kinda extra-chuffed on this one as it is the second game out there entirely my own design (the first was the wonderful Lineboy)!

It's part of Proper Games Labs initiative, where we upload prototypes that we're not moving forward into production with.

Enjoy!

Game Character Names

Spotted this very long article detailing theories for the names of videogame characters.

Well worth a read when you have the time. Seriously, it's looooong.

Braben - respect!

So I caught this article on what David Braben of Frontier (a studio located not far from where I grew up in Essex) thinks is wrong with the perception of casual videogames - highlighting those in particular on the Wii - as the debate rages on about core games on the Wii and their sales.

Anyway, the man makes a very good point - one which I've been thinking on myself recently - basically that the core games press does not know how to review a casual orientated game, or even just those that are not targeted directly at the core gamer.

Having had some interesting and revealing insight into the whole 'problem' watching the launch of Flock! (a very casual game released on a bunch of very hardcore platforms, through hardcore channels - does anyone who is reading this think their mum knows how to download a game and play it on their PC? No, didn't think so!) it's nice to see some very considered and thoughtful discourse coming to the surface.

Proper Games Labs

We're launching a new section of the Proper Games site soon, called Labs.

Here'we'll be letting people play, see videos of and maybe even download our prototype game ideas that never make it to market.

The first one to appear will be Squirt, a match-3 puzzler with a twist - a game concept entirely designed by myself, which makes it the second game to come out that is completely and utterly my design with nobody else's input (the first was of course the experimental game Lineboy!)

I've also added Squirt into my list of Non-Commercial Games over here...

Gundam

I've been playing a lot of Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 recently (my 360 has decided it doesn't like connecting to the net, so all my multiplayer games are out of the question currently) and as such have been keeping an eye on Gundam in general. The fiction appeals to me, as does the very Japanese-style storylines and characters.

Anyway, I spotted this a while back - a life-size Gundam being built in a park in Tokyo. Seriously, they know how to celebrate stuff!

I'd love to see this in real life, I just hope they keep it up longer than planned.

Mini Mod

A blast from the past, this one!

In 2nd year of Uni at Abertay, me and my flatmates from 1st year created a small (ouch, forgive the pun) mod for Half Life called Mini Mod. Essentially a Deathmatch game given a Toy Story twist, it was the first time I'd made anything and actually released it to the public.

I kinda wanna go back to it and see what I've learned since, maybe re-do a level for HL2... we shall see what happens!

I've added it to the Games section of my blog, or just click here.