As a gamer, I’m not normally the type to look down upon the gaming habits of others. Sure, I’ll make the odd quip about “freestyle” DDR players now and then, but generally I don’t give my fellow gamers too much grief for doing whatever it is they choose to do.
This stance has lead me to defend Guitar Hero / Rock Band, games which I have played very minimally, whenever someone brings up the “you should just learn a real instrument” argument. I’ve even argued this point with my dad, who is an actual musician (he plays bass guitar). I had an epiphany at a GameStop which changed my views on this slightly, and which makes me wonder about how far the rhythm games can go before they’ve gone too far. It also makes me wonder if I’m the only person who’s ever had an epiphany at GameStop.
With the latest Team Fortress 2 update, which includes the new Heavy class achievements, weapons, and a new game mode, Valve has also released another short trailer for the game: Meet the Sandvich.
The “sandvich” made its debut in the Meet the Scout video, where it changed hands between the Heavy and Scout after a scuffle, and continues to be the source of conflict in the newest video. It’s also a new unlockable item for the Heavy class. It can heal 120 health, and the Heavy who has it equipped has an unlimited supply. The downside is that eating it makes a considerable amount of noise, and leaves the Heavy vulnerable for four seconds while he consumes it.
I was recently Looking over my old water example, and I decided I could make something that looks a little better. So I dove into Game Maker (and Photoshop of course) and produced, what I feel, is a much nicer and more realistic water effect.
This water still doesn’t use any other geometry other than planes to create the effect (ie, no actual wave effects), but the new animated texture adds a new level of detail that my previous example just couldn’t pull off with only a few layers of static textures. I used a similar texture in my old fishing game demo, and I am planning on posting a full tutorial on how to create the effect in Photoshop soon.
The 3D example also includes code for a skybox (courtesy of Yourself), and I will post a tutorial in the future on how to create compatible skybox textures with Terragen as well, too.
Anyway, the zip includes a 2D and 3D version of the example, for both GM6 and GM7. I’d appreciate that you use this for learning only - so don’t use the artwork (animations / skybox) without obtaining permission from me first, please!
Though it still feels like I got the required amount of relaxation this weekend, I look back on all the stuff I did (or played and watched, to be more specific) and almost feel like I couldn’t have. Throughout the weekend I’ve watched two movies, beaten one game, played through a good amount of another, spent a good portion of time with my girlfriend, and even got some work done on some web / game stuff I’ve been meaning to do.
Monday mornings are usually a pretty groggy affair for me. After spending all weekend doing what I want, staying up late, and sleeping in for long hours, getting up suddenly at the crack of dawn leaves me a tried wreck for the rest of the day.
Not so for this most recent Monday, however. I woke up at 6:15 AM, bounced right out of bed, and making a break from my normal routine, landed straight in front of my computer. BlizzCon tickets went on sale on Monday, and I had promised my brother I’d get us tickets for his birthday. Neither of us have ever been, but we are both fans of many Blizzard games, so it seemed like a good idea. I found my way onto the BlizzCon website, and from there clicked through into the Blizzard Store.
I logged into the Blizzard Store, navigated to the tickets, got a few errors on the way, but eventually made my way to the final checkout page. I clicked ‘Purchase’ and watched the little Firefox wheel of dots start spinning - I was mere seconds away from my tickets.
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