I just wrote up an article on TwoFedoras.com about why I think Microsoft’s Project Natal is awesome and the Wiimote and Sony’s Arc suck.  Check it out.

Two Fedoras – On Motion Control Solutions and the Coming Revolution.

Up to this point I’ve tried to write on a more open schedule, pushing for graphical updates (since everyone loves pretty pictures).  That hasn’t quite worked out for me, since I’ve lately been working on a couple side projects and mostly deep engine stuff.  Instead, I thought I’d try a more stream of consciousness textual update style for a bit and see how that suits me.  Probably pepper that with some screenshots when I have something interesting to show for it.

So, I’m currently re-working the bullet engine to more closely match the design pattern of BulletML, basically making my own flavor of the system that works better in C# using the content pipeline for loading and working with patterns written in xml, as well as hooking into my GPU based particle system using bullets as individual emitters.  This means I’m also working on a fairly optimized version of a tiny expression parser to handle expression based values as read in from the bullet xml descriptions.  Allowing me to write “pi” in a value field instead of hard coding “3.141592″ as well as a “rand” value in expressions which will generate a new random number in the expression every time the bullet hits that part of the script.  I hope to post more about my bullet engine when it’s more fully formed, including code and descriptions of design decisions, because I think it’s fairly interesting.

My apologies for the lateness, but I was recently simultaneously afflicted with both strep throat and jury duty.  That was a fun combination.  On to the screenshots!

While the textures are basic for now, I have implemented dynamic lighting and particles in the stage loading and drawing pipelines.  The sconces contain tiny licking flames, and the stage is overlaid with an ambient color that is modulated with radiant lights, such as the sconce light sources which provide a soft flickering red-orange.

The shadows are dynamically cast, in this case using a large, soft light source centered on the player for testing.  Eventually, I will probably relegate shadow casting to environmental lighting, certain enemies,  gunshot flashes, and some special effects I won’t reveal just yet.

So this week has been filled with playing a lot of Indie style games, as I finished Ratchet & Clank and am awaiting the arrival of Muramasa: The Demon Blade. So far the experience has been pretty enjoyable and the exploration combined with the delay of Muramasa, thanks Gamefly, has resulted in the subject of my next game review.

Death by Cube

I only played the trial for this one, and it is technically not an indie game at all, as it has the backing of Square Enix and all of its wondrous resources that your typical indie developer does not. However, it is an Xbox Live Arcade  title and rings in at the total of $10 if my funny money to U.S. Dollars converter is functioning properly.  As it was a demo, I did not spend to terribly much time with it, but I did manage to garner some insight into the game and how the rest of it may play out.

The game itself is a top down shooter with 3D assets. You play the role of a robot who has recently awoken to find that he has lost his memory and is setting out to restore them and awaken some girl robot and kill lots of cube shaped things that appear to spray gallons upon gallons of red “oil” with projectile like velocity when destroyed.  The game itself feels good and responsive but be warned, it’s freaking hard, crazy hard. Either that, or I stink, it could even be some combination of the two I suppose.

Death By Cube

Miner Dig Deep

This title is in fact indie, and has been on my list to play for a while now as it sits near the top of the highest rated games on the indie marketplace on Xbox Live. It clocks in at just 80 MS points, which I think is a dollar? I don’t really know. I’m not going to talk to much about this game as I intend to give it it’s own post containing in depth, lol, exploration of the game and it’s various constituent parts.

Miner Dig Deep

Rocketbird: Revolution!

I spent a little time browsing some of the IGF entries and checking out their various available assets. One that I hit on early was “Rocketbird: Revolution!” as it offered a playable demo.

“Take control of HardBoiled Chicken, the original Cock of War, and lead the rebellion against the draconian penguin oppressors to overthrow their hold on Albatropolis!”

Yeah, exactly. Plus the intro music and video is exceptional, as is the rest of the games sound, and worth watching right after you finish this paragraph. I didn’t fall in love with the controls really since it is a Flash title and uses keyboard input which I find frustrating for games of this style. While this may seem minor to most, it has at the least postponed my acquisition of the title.

Rocketbirds:Revolution! from Ratloop on Vimeo.

Since I’ve been slacking off recently, here’s a Raspberyl dance party, played on by Yui and Mio to make up for it.