Ammorphius

Is the games industry manufacturing dumb farts?

2006-11-27T01:44:00.000-08:00

Thats the first argument I hear whenever I talk to a non gamer. What's my take on that issue...its a completely irrational fear/prejudice. Its the same kind of fear that people in the good old days had about television. I don't think the "idiot box" produced many idiots at all.. The TV is a tool for visual communication and helps us see so much of the world without having to go places and keeps us up to date to the minute on events around the world. Kid's shows teach them so much about the world in such a fun way that they don't even realize they are learning. In fact, even religions institutions have started broadcasting on TV, so you can get "Nirvana" at home! However, thats not the point I'm trying to make here. The point, really is that a TV is an inanimate object sitting in your living room. It never shows you anything unless you switch it on. Now, if you can't control your urge to switch it on, then you are "the idiot with the box", not the guy owning an idiot box.

And that, is the crux of the problem with games as well. Games are fun and they teach you a lot. I played this one game a few months back which completely taught me the terminology associated with the automobile industry. Isn't that great? A crash course on automobiles the fun way? Games let you simulate a world for the kids. When kids do something wrong in the game, they quickly realize that the method they use doesn't work. Isn't this much better than having the kid do something similar in real life and having to face the consequences? Everything in this world has its uses. Its important to recognize and use these to get what you want.

So kids, please get yourself a healthy dose of games, and parents, please spend time choosing good games for the kids(not something like a rubik cube puzzle again) instead of cursing the industry. And remember, if you want to be an idiot, you will be an idiot and you'll make everything in the world look like an idiot creator.

Full Throttle, A legendary game for a not so legendary gaming community

2006-10-30T10:39:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, between a couple of blue moons, an amazing game is released. Within a year though, the same game almost always meets a sad fate. Here's one of them - Full Throttle. Lucasarts scrapped the sequel twice. The second time, after a teaser was released, and with that, they brought down the whole platform gaming genre, which is yet to recover from bad marketing.

Trust me, If I were one of the sales guys for this game, I'd just scream at you and say, "Full throttle. Go buy it or rot in hell!!!". I know that sounds like a bad sales pitch but its true. The game is really good. Thats it, plain and simple. Unfortunately, in the world we live in, it doesn't matter whether something is good; it only matters that it sounds good. I wouldn't recomend this game to hardcore gamers for exactly the same reason. You wouldn't like because it doesn't have 3D graphics, there's not much shooting or killing in it and it doesn't have real-time HDRI rendering. If, however, you aren't a hardcore gamer(or even a gamer for that matter) and think that games should be fun to play, or, if you are one of those rare ones into gaming and not corrupted by "bleeding edge" technology, pick it up. You'll love playing it and you'll wonder why you hated games and gamers so much...and then you'll wonder why games like this are never made.

I can't curse the games industry enough for burying games like this. At the same time, I can't believe that gamers choose brain numbing action over interesting puzzle solving(and I'm not thinking "rubik cubes" when i say this).

Anyways, to hell with the world and the industry. I love the game, and I'm a huge fan of Mr. Tim Schafer, and this is my tribute to him and Full Throttle.

Here are some goodies from the game for the curious.

Classic quotes

"The customer with the knife is always right!"
"Hmmm...fuel leak...I love engine fires!"
"This is like a religious pilgrimage for me. A religious pilgrimage with a lot of butt-kicking"

One of the hilarious numbers from Full Throttle...it has an obnoxious blues/country tone to it.

Increased Chances
by Chitlins, Whiskey & Skirt

The population is greatly decreased.
And now the odds are greatly increased.
That i may someday get a chance,
to kiss your lips.
I thank the lo-o-ord each day,
for the apocalypse.

Folks are mostly disfigured or dead
but, sugar, I wont let it go to my head.
My mama's face has dripped down into the dirt.

But I'm still chasin' chitlins, whiskey and skirt.

2006-10-16T05:51:00.001-07:00

Don't miss this one! You can thank me for the weapons and the special FX :)

What this blog is going to be about

2006-10-11T22:53:00.000-07:00

I plan to use this blog mainly as a hub for the latest in game dev and gaming, so look out for a lot of interesting stuff on that here. I'll also be posting a lot about the scenario here in India, so aspiring game developers, you should be reading this blog :).

Oh, BTW, allow me to do some justice to the title of the previous post(yes, the previous post...lol). Well, game developers love using handles...so the name of my blog is my handle. Ammorphius - A name partly derived from the Ammobox which almost ruined my beer(read previous post) and from the chemistry word "Amorphous" which describes the various bits and pieces of knowledge I've collected over the years.

The Name Game!

2006-10-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

It all started off on a bright Sunday morning when I walked into the first game studio I've ever been to. The "studio" was a converted 2 bedroom apartment on the second floor which had a rusty spiral staircase as the only means of entering it. None of that bothered me though, Yeah, yeah, the job was good, the pay was great, but more than that, it was a part time dev contract for a HL2 mod! A HL2 mod!!! I couldn't think of anything more fun than that!

They wanted to test me out before I signed the contract. Routine procedure, I thought, picking up the neatly printed spec sheet. The "spec" was a two line document which explained very briefly that I was to code an ammobox that would replenish ammo for only one gun at a time in a gap of three seconds. half an hour job.

With beer, french fries and a signature in my mind, I pulled up one of the plastic chairs and turned to the dutch game designer, The game designer was an amazing guy, I can't probably do justice to him with a single line of introduction, I'll probably save that for later posts, anyway this is what I said to him,
"Can I have the docs and the Hl2 engine specs?".
blank stare
no docs??? hmm..its ok...you can handle this
"Ok, Ok, I'll check through the source code, they must've documented it there."
awkward silence followed by glint in the designer's eye
"Ya sure, go ahead"
Good, I think, this should be easy. Step #1, open up the ammobox C++ file. I have to say this, C++ is by far one of the best languages I've come across. Its not theoretically perfect but works amazingly well as an industry solution. Anyway, the file opened up and the first few lines went like this...

// Ammobox.cpp
//
//*********************************
// Class: Ammobox
// Author: CK
//
// Purpose:
//*********************************

Purpose: what??? Nothing!!! Desperate, I searched through all the code looking for atleast hints of information - nothing, nada, zip! The Cheaters, nincompoops, what am I going to do with this??? After another half an hour of bickering(half an hour job?), I slowly realized what I had to do - "Use the force, read the Source!!!". Trust me, that didn't sound half as exciting as the exclamation marks make it sound! Groaning, I reached out and started reading the code, line by line...

Thats how it started, My love affair with game dev. I managed to finish that test by the end of day, which luckily still entitled me to the beer and signature, but completely changed the way I code.