ProducerFish

Geeky ramblings of a game developer
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Game Producer @ Digital Chocolate
www.linkedin.com/in/producerfish

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2009 (11)
 

Evolution of Mobile games - Tower Bloxx

Got an idea from this article: http://sfrock.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/evolution-of-mobile-gaming/ to visualize the 4-years evolution of mobile games through award-winning Tower Bloxx games made by Digital Chocolate - http://www.digitalchocolate.com

(download)

Tower Bloxx Original for Java Mobile platform - 2005 (Images 1 & 2)

Tower Bloxx Deluxe for Java Mobile platform - 2007 (Images 3 & 4)

Tower Bloxx New York for Java Mobile platform - 2009 (Images 5 & 6)

Tower Bloxx Deluxe for iPhone - 2009 (Images 7 & 8)
Gameplay teaser: 
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Tower Bloxx is interesting also for Console/PC as the game jumped from Mobile to Consoles/PC during 2007-2009

Tower Bloxx Flash version
Tower-bloxx-big

Tower Bloxx PC
Qobz2t

Tower Bloxx XBLA (Upcoming game for XBOX 360)
Tower-bloxx-deluxe-20091005011
Teaser trailer: 
Trailer: 

Filed under  //  360   dchoc   evolution   game   games   iphone   mobile   tower bloxx   xbla   xbox  
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Apple TV after the honeymoon

Allrighty, I have now used Apple TV for months with heavy activity and I feel I can now give you the after thoughts.

Content: A good amount of exclusive ATV content but there could easily much more. I love that nearly all movie and TV releases are available in HD, many movies are not HD in iTunes Mac but I can count on that with ATV there is a HD version.

UI: In the long run the main menu still bugs me a bit that list items don't loop vertically but otherwise I am quite content with the UI and general usability.

Syncing: Everything works pitch perfect, background content sync is just awesome. Exception is with photos. After iTunes 9 my photo events refuse to sync properly, I was forced to use a hack to create an album of last 12 months to get latest photos into ATV.

Performance: Excellent almost no playback hiccups, network performance is solid and reliable as long as your connection/wifi is. Crashed only two times and only while in sleep mode.

Overall: I cannot think living without it anymore ;)

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Max Payne vs Iron Man

Max Payne from Max Payne 3 is Obadiah Stane from Iron Man movie? :)

Max-payne

Uncanny resemblance - eh?

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Filed under  //  game   iron man   max payne   max payne 3   movie   resemblance   uncanny   villain  
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Connecting the dots - Monopoly & Fallout

Today i was investigating Monopoly and it's visual history from the internet when i connected two things together.

Monopoly & Fallout game series

To be exact, Fallout's Vault-Boy Skill & Perk illustrations.

I see uncanny resemblance here that cannot be an accident. Then actually i found proof it was not an "accident" in an interview with Fallout Art Director - Leonard Boyarsky - Full interview: http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=7623

"I also came up with the idea/design for the “Vault Boy” and the “cards” (as I called them) showing him doing all the different things in humorous ways."
"The Vault Boy was supposed to evoke the feel of Monopoly cards, and the Pip Boy was based on the Bob’s Big Boy mascot."

It's a wonderful feeling to connect two things together, in a sense like i was reverse engineering this developers game. Especially as i was actually investigating about Monopoly for game development reasons myself.

Just look at this comparisons and compare Monopoly cards with Fallout games Vault Boy PERK/SKILLS illustrations (first two Monopoly & last two Fallout):

(download)

Filed under  //  art   boardgame   cards   fallout   fallout 3   game development   games   illustrations   monopoly   vault boy  
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Fallout 3 - the three DLC's minireview

Operation Anchorage, The Pitt & Broken Steel

Anchorage
Fallout-3-operation-anchorage_

Pros:
-Action packed & intense
-Visual feel of the environment feels different and very Alaska like
-Finally i got to see some chinese soldiers & some backgrounds to the war
-Ninja Suit & Winterized Power Armor reward for completing the DLC

Cons:
-Very slim story wise
-Hardly any interesting dialogue
-No moral decisions 
-Not at all RPG like gameplay
-No perks/skills rewarded for playing the DLC

Summary:
Felt very non-fallout like gameplay and more like an attempt to mod F3 to be an action game instead of an RPG - very short also, hardly worth the 800 MS POINTS. What adds to the disconnected feel was there was no experience gain, perks, skills or anything to be gained from the DLC, except weapons/armor.

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The Pitt
Welcometothepitt

Pros:
-Felt like a proper DLC after Anchorage
-DLC rewards you with couple perks
-Dialogue and moral decisions are within the same level as with F3 and they feel like F3
-Decent storyline

Cons:
-New weapons are underpowered; Infiltrator and the Chainsaw a bit useless
-City feels VERY small somehow
-Does not unravel much about the war or any background info
-New enemy type is not as scary as it could of been
-Not much exploring to do, very linear

Summary:
A decent DLC - i might call it a "proper" DLC after Anchorage. The extra weapons that it adds lack the umph and new enemies lack some umpf too, at least if you are lvl 20 already. While i was expecting to be able to explore the Pittsburg, i got disappointed as the DLC was very linear in nature. But at least this felt like Fallout 3. No use in getting back to The Pitt once you have been there or at least no motivation was given to me. I might visit to scour for some items that i ignored while playing it first time around. Overall worth 800 points, barely.

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Broken Steel
Custom_1241821843686_brokenste

Pros:
-Now this is how a DLC should be
-Lot's of useful & cool new weapons
-Adds level cap to 30
-Adds new perks that can be selected when leveling up
-Bad Karma & Good Karma choices continue
-Continue the game as sandbox after finishing DLC main quests
-Adds new enemies to the wastelands that up the difficulty and make exploring interesting again
-Continues the story of Fallout 3
-Adds new locations in the DC wastelands

Cons:
-Main quests are a bit short compared to The Pitt
-New music tracks would of been nice in GNR
-Not much new dialogue options for old characters

Summary: 
Keep thinking that they should of released this first then the other 2 DLC's. Great DLC overall, a must have for any Fallout 3 fan or anyone who liked the game enough to complete it. Makes me wait for the next DLC's - well perhaps not the Mothership DLC, sounds like a very Operation Anchorage like DLC.

Info about the upcoming DLC's & these DLC's: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_downloadable_content 




Filed under  //  dlc   fallout   game   review  
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About LIPS & it's late update

Last night i had a great party!
We had fun watching Eurovision song contest http://www.eurovision.tv/ - Sadly Finland finished last.
But instead we focused more on playing LIPS karaoke game (Singstar for 360) http://lips.xbox.com/

I noticed earlier that launching the game it asked if i want to upgrade to extend the LIPS experience, thinking they finally added global leaderboards and they did! Yay!
Just thinking that this is something they should of had from the start, i would rate LIPS 8/10 instead of 7/10 now, as seeing how much my friends anticipated to see their global LIPS rank. A pair even got a rank of 180 which is great amongst all the 5000-10 000's of users globally - or at least Europe.

It now seems LIPS is becoming an evolving product: http://lips.xbox.com/LeaderBoards/default.htm

As the lack of Leaderboard function was one of the biggest gripes they had from users on game launch. I think i will take note from this. When you do a competitive party game, global or even regional leaderboard should be a default feature i guess. At least people seem to expect that.
Also with the update they have streamlined the CO-OP / BATTLE options to be more straightforward instead of being cryptic as so that players do not understand what to do.

I think i am going to play this solo couple rounds today.


Lips-20080714024726228_640w

Filed under  //  game   lips   microsoft   update   xbox  
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Posts from my old blog @ tumblr - Soul Bubbles preview

Got my hands on Soul Bubbles game for DS. So far it seems to progress very fast trough the different worlds of the game, very nice game mostly but downsides so far have been a little weird map screen & areas/worlds unlocking way too fast. Some enemy graphics are also drawn by me when i was 5 year old. But those aside, it’s a refreshing original title for DS, innovative stuff i would love to see more in DS from 3rd party developers and not only Nintendo. 

Got my hands on Soul Bubbles game for DS. So far it seems to progress very fast trough the different worlds of the game, very nice game mostly but downsides so far have been a little weird map screen & areas/worlds unlocking way too fast. Some enemy graphics are also drawn by me when i was 5 year old. But those aside, it’s a refreshing original title for DS, innovative stuff i would love to see more in DS from 3rd party developers and not only Nintendo.

Filed under  //  ds   game   nintendo   preview   review  
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Posts from my old blog @ tumblr - "A game developers review: Lost Winds"

A game developers review: Lost Winds

Lost Winds

 A very fresh Wii game with innovative control mechanics and great visuals. Too short for it’s price-tag however.

 8/10

Pros:

-Innovative physics based gameplay is a fresh take

-Physics based gameplay is surprisingly intuitive and fast to learn

-Addictive

-Cute characters

-Made me want to play the sequel as fast as possible

Cons:

-A bit too easy in most parts

-Level navigation is often not clear enough and the instructions are insufficient

-Visuals & story was VERY Zelda Windwaker / Phantom Hourglass esque

-Too short!

Filed under  //  game   review   wii  
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Testing e-mail blogging

Perhaps i finally have use for my e-mail...

 Let's benchmark this baby;

(download)

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