Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-20 Thread Hayden Presley
Hi Dark,
When you put it like that, one can't help thinking that we have, as blind
gamers, have just lived through a 30 year period in 10 years or so.

Best Regards,
Hayden


-Original Message-
From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On
Behalf Of dark
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 10:54 AM
To: Gamers Discussion list
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back
memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

Hi Tom.

Amusing, angela in an empty level?  that would be a pain to get past, 
the vacuume of the ancients! ;D.

I must confess, having had to monitor most of the releases over the last few

years I don't think your correct in terms of saying we've missed out on a 
boom in games, rather I'd say that at the moment the emphasis has changed.

Back when Gma, bsc and presumably esp were working ten years ago, it seems a

lot of developers had the thought of creating games of the 80's and 90's in 
an accessible form, just as Dan and justin said in the troop podcast.

There then seemed to be a boom on such games, alien outback, pipe, the 
original plans for monti, superliam, jim kitchins' Mac1 game etc.

Obviously though like everything else, there was a boom and bust syndrome 
and people's expectations and desires changed. People started to say "we've 
got enough wrack up score style affairs, what next?"

I even remember when Liam released judgement day, there were those who's 
reaction was "oooh no, not another one"

now, it seems we have two catagories of games. Free or fun affairs which are

made either by start out devs with bgt, or by experienced devs for fun, 
which tend to be arcade games but don't tend to wrack up a huge amount of 
interest, and serious! games, which have huge amounts of options, levels, 
game modes or whatever.

Of course like any trend there are some exceptions such as Q9, but generally

it seems now the average accessible game player has higher expectations of 
what they will play, and what they expect if paying for a game, than 
previously.

Were bsc to release something like troopanum now, the reaction I think would

be "what,  you expect us to pay money for something like this?"

This is however just the way game developement seems to work. from the 
players perspective it's a difference in demand and supply, while from the 
developers' it's a different spur to your creative talent,  sinse like 
anything else artistic which you put your own time and effort into, your own

individually created game has to be! individually yours even if it is 
created with community in put.

That's again a nice aspect of the gaming community, such things can be 
discussed, tested, thought over etc, rather than some big evil company boss 
saying "make this, sinse we sell more of these and the advertizing says 
it'll appeal to people"

This is just what Mr. Marx meant when he spoke about the alienation of 
labour, and the online community is a pretty good example of something which

doesn't fall into that very nasty hole.

But before I go into a socialist wrant i'll stop ;D.

Beware the grue!

Dark. 


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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-19 Thread Thomas Ward
Hi Dark,

Yeah, I know. Trust me I've been there and done that myself. My first
games, so-called games, were pretty boring affairs. They would be
pretty laughable compared to what I'm creating now.

For instance, the first game I wrote was text-based and was suppose to
be something like a intergalactic gladiator type game. To give you an
idea of how lame this thing was you selected the type of alien
creature you wanted to fight and you would be placed in an arena with
the creature. You were then presented with a number of options like
fire your blaster pistol, fire your blaster rifle, throw thermal
detonator, swing light saber, etc. It was turn based and you basically
took turns chopping and shooting each other to death. Definitely
nothing very interesting to write home about. Now, look where I am
today.

Cheers!


On 5/19/11, dark  wrote:
> In fairness though tom there is another side to this.
>
> Several developers started as ameter devs and actually improved as they went
> along.
>
> I'm thinking here both of people like rs games, and of philip bennefall
> himself.
>
> going from 3D snake and duck blaster to the bgt engine itself is a pretty
> good idea of what a developer can do if they stick to things and keep
> learning.
>
> Beware the grue!
>
> Dark.

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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-19 Thread dark

In fairness though tom there is another side to this.

Several developers started as ameter devs and actually improved as they went 
along.


I'm thinking here both of people like rs games, and of philip bennefall 
himself.


going from 3D snake and duck blaster to the bgt engine itself is a pretty 
good idea of what a developer can do if they stick to things and keep 
learning.


Beware the grue!

Dark. 



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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-19 Thread Thomas Ward
Hi Damien,

Right. That's exactly why I didn't name names or specifically point
out the new games I didn't like. I don't want to put the developer
down for giving it his or her best. I remember all to well there was a
time I was exactly where they were when starting out, and it is
certainly not helpful for a more experienced dev to put their work
down when they are just beginning.

I realise it is my personal expectations are just too high. As was
pointed out on list earlier now that there have been games like Shades
of Doom, Rail Racer, Entombed, Time of Conflict, and other more
complex audio games released I want to see more games like that. When
a new game comes out that is very simple I can't help but feel a
little disappointed that there isn't more games of the quality I am
looking for. Of course, I know the reason is that as you pointed out
we are talking about amateur developers, with an average education,
with little to know experience, trying to get off the ground and
therefore aren't ready to take on a project like Troopenum yet let
alone Shades of Doom or something as complex as Time of Conflict.

Cheers!


On 5/19/11, Damien Pendleton  wrote:
> Hi Thomas,
> It all depends really on personal preference. In my opinion, some of those
> games are quite good. I don't know what people think of River Raiders, I
> know I play it nearly every day, I find it quite addictive, and I would
> suggest that the few who regularly post to my scoreboard finds the same
> enjoyment in it for them. But certainly some of the other projects are ok.
> There are only one or two projects out of the approximate dozen that were
> released that I feel would not bring as much public enjoyment without at
> least some expansion, which I am assisting some of the newby developers to
> do.
> I myself play quite a lot of them, and although they are mainly rainy day
> games that aren't as complicated as Judgment Day or even Troopanum, I still
> find quite a lot of enjoyment in them. Yes, some of them can be quite buggy,
> but I try not to let that get in the way of my enjoyment of it. There are
> not a lot of serious developers like you, Che, Philip and David around. As
> far as I am aware David is very well educated in maths and science as well
> as software development. Most of these people though, have had an average
> education and are struggling to come up with concepts and ideas alone. This
> is why I try and give as much assistance as is in my power to those
> developers who are starting out, free of charge, rather than being
> judgmental and botching their hopes and ideas. I'm not necessarily saying
> you are being judgmental, but I have seen quite a lot of undue complaint in
> the community. This game is bad, there's no replay value, etc, rather than
> giving constructive criticisms as to what can be done better.
> Whether amateur or professional, these developers are quite proud of what
> they are achieving and I feel they should be given the respect they are due
> as developers, and as far as I am concerned, they should be given more
> respect because of the fact that they can find bags of time to sit down and
> learn a scripting language for the purpose of carrying out one of the
> costliest exercises that can ever be imagined, i.e. developing for such a
> small-packed, tightly knitted community like the audiogaming market.
> The only way I believe audiogames can become as complicated as they used to
> be, is by collaborating on projects as me and a few other potential
> start-outs are attempting to do now. That way everybody can learn from
> everybody else's skills in a working environment, like Justin and Dan did,
> and then branch out independently to make their own projects.
> My views and opinions may sound far fetched and unrealistic, but I've
> generally found them to be more effective in my seven years experience of
> software development than expecting them to learn and work alone without the
> support of their community base, the result being that they generally get
> downhearted and decide it's not worth their time or energy.
> I'll get off my soapbox now. Smile.
> Regards
> Damien.

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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-19 Thread dark
That's one reason why I personally am trying to be selective before giving 
an announced bgt game a page in the database or news, because I cannot be 
sure of quality, this has irritated some people, but I think it's necessary.



That being said, pontes backgammon as i SAId earlier was a bgt project I've 
been quite impressed with recently.


Beware the grue!

Dark. 



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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-19 Thread dark
Funnily enough tom, both in terms of Megaman and in terms of the bsc games, 
I never had them when they first came out.


i actually didn't play the original nes mega man games until 2005 when i got 
the aniversary collection for the gamecube, and I only became interested 
because of the snes offerings.


Likewise I didn't play hunter, troopanum 2 etc until 2006,  possibly one 
reason why I've never cared to buy classic pipe or classic troop, sinse for 
me the two later games seem to cover the earlier ones.


Certainly i play and enjoy them, but I very much disagree that it is just! 
the classic appeal of the games which makes them worth playing.


Were someone (as occasionally happens), to turn up on the forum asking for 
classic arcade games or games they could play in a short amount of time, I'd 
most likely recommend troopanum and pipe 2, possibly hunter (depending upon 
age given the grizly deaths), superliam, alien outback, dynaman, the pinball 
games, pakcman talks and indeed Q9, simply because they are well worth 
playing.


Beware the grue!

Dark. 



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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-19 Thread Damien Pendleton

Hi Thomas,
It all depends really on personal preference. In my opinion, some of those 
games are quite good. I don't know what people think of River Raiders, I 
know I play it nearly every day, I find it quite addictive, and I would 
suggest that the few who regularly post to my scoreboard finds the same 
enjoyment in it for them. But certainly some of the other projects are ok. 
There are only one or two projects out of the approximate dozen that were 
released that I feel would not bring as much public enjoyment without at 
least some expansion, which I am assisting some of the newby developers to 
do.
I myself play quite a lot of them, and although they are mainly rainy day 
games that aren't as complicated as Judgment Day or even Troopanum, I still 
find quite a lot of enjoyment in them. Yes, some of them can be quite buggy, 
but I try not to let that get in the way of my enjoyment of it. There are 
not a lot of serious developers like you, Che, Philip and David around. As 
far as I am aware David is very well educated in maths and science as well 
as software development. Most of these people though, have had an average 
education and are struggling to come up with concepts and ideas alone. This 
is why I try and give as much assistance as is in my power to those 
developers who are starting out, free of charge, rather than being 
judgmental and botching their hopes and ideas. I'm not necessarily saying 
you are being judgmental, but I have seen quite a lot of undue complaint in 
the community. This game is bad, there's no replay value, etc, rather than 
giving constructive criticisms as to what can be done better.
Whether amateur or professional, these developers are quite proud of what 
they are achieving and I feel they should be given the respect they are due 
as developers, and as far as I am concerned, they should be given more 
respect because of the fact that they can find bags of time to sit down and 
learn a scripting language for the purpose of carrying out one of the 
costliest exercises that can ever be imagined, i.e. developing for such a 
small-packed, tightly knitted community like the audiogaming market.
The only way I believe audiogames can become as complicated as they used to 
be, is by collaborating on projects as me and a few other potential 
start-outs are attempting to do now. That way everybody can learn from 
everybody else's skills in a working environment, like Justin and Dan did, 
and then branch out independently to make their own projects.
My views and opinions may sound far fetched and unrealistic, but I've 
generally found them to be more effective in my seven years experience of 
software development than expecting them to learn and work alone without the 
support of their community base, the result being that they generally get 
downhearted and decide it's not worth their time or energy.

I'll get off my soapbox now. Smile.
Regards
   Damien.

- Original Message - 
From: "Thomas Ward" 

To: "Gamers Discussion list" 
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 4:23 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back 
memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed




Hi Shaun,

Yes, but the general quality of those games have gone down. What i
mean by that is now that BGT has been released a lot of new game
developers are trying to produce games, but a lot of what I've seen
from them are a bunch of amateur practice games. Nothing really
skillfully written which is to be expected from people just starting
out. I'm not saying this to be negative, rude, etc but I think that
some of the new amateur games should have been simply private affairs
rather than public releases since they are proof of concepts rather
than games. I won't name names or their projects as I don't want to
hurt anyones feelings, but I think some of the new BGT developers
should wait until they have enough skills under their belt to produce
something a little more complete I guess is the word for it.

HTH




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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Thomas Ward
Hi Shaun,

Yes, but the general quality of those games have gone down. What i
mean by that is now that BGT has been released a lot of new game
developers are trying to produce games, but a lot of what I've seen
from them are a bunch of amateur practice games. Nothing really
skillfully written which is to be expected from people just starting
out. I'm not saying this to be negative, rude, etc but I think that
some of the new amateur games should have been simply private affairs
rather than public releases since they are proof of concepts rather
than games. I won't name names or their projects as I don't want to
hurt anyones feelings, but I think some of the new BGT developers
should wait until they have enough skills under their belt to produce
something a little more complete I guess is the word for it.

HTH


On 5/18/11, shaun everiss  wrote:
> Well what I have seen is  That with the event of bgt, a load of teams
> have started.
> Loads of indipendant teams  mainly opensource hackers have released
> loads of stuff.
> The language is sertainly versitile.
> This along with those that have started in python and with the games
> from game madness, apron, etc have probably releaved preasure from
> the main companies which I am happy.

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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread shaun everiss
Well what I have seen is  That with the event of bgt, a load of teams 
have started.
Loads of indipendant teams  mainly opensource hackers have released 
loads of stuff.

The language is sertainly versitile.
This along with those that have started in python and with the games 
from game madness, apron, etc have probably releaved preasure from 
the main companies which I am happy.


At 04:27 a.m. 19/05/2011, you wrote:

Hi Dark,

You are certainly right about the direction of accessible games
changing over the last few years. Mostly it was a good thing.

Like you said from 2000 to 2004 most of the games were arcade affairs
like DynaMan, Aliens in the Outback, Troopenum, Dark Destroyer, Pipe,
Pipe 2, Hunter, Tarzan Junior, etc that were a throwback to the 1980's
style of gaming. One reason there were so many game releases back to
back is an arcade game like Troopenum is relatively easy to create
compared to some of the games we have seen over the last three/four
years or so.

For instance, in 2006, I believe it was, Che mentioned to the list his
idea to create Rail Racer. When he finally released 1.0 in 2007 or so
it totally changed the way VI gamers think of racing games and raised
the bar considerably. I litterally had to rethink Raceway from the
ground up because of it.

What I mean by that is that the original plans for ESP Raceway was for
a racing game on par with Poll Position. You'd have like 8 different
tracks, and up to four cars on the track. There was no season mode, no
points, no upgrades, and all and all just a plane Jane racing game. I
realized with games like Rail Racer coming out and free games like
Topspeed and Mach1 already out there Raceway wouldn't do well
financially. So I decided to rethink the game and use something like
Nascar Thunder as my basis which is a mainstream game with a lot more
features etc that would be selling points.

Then, of course, there is Entombed. Again this is a game right up
there with mainstream RPG games, and has totally redefined what I and
others are willing to pay for in terms of games. People know I've been
thinking of an RPG game for a while now, perhaps one like Sryth, but
I've realized that a text-based game alone is not going to sell. Now,
days there is this expectation of fighting sounds, weapons, background
ambience, some music, etc followed by some narration voice which means
a strict paper and pen style game isn't probably in demand any more.
Something more roguelike such as Entombed is the style accessible RPG
games will most likely take.

Last, but certainly not least, is Time of Conflict. Once again GMA has
amazed me, as well as everyone else, with something new and
revolutionary. It reminds me of the various Civilization games were
you build an army and then proceed to take over the planet by whiping
out the enemy forces. It is a game with no parallel in accessible
gaming and even SoundRTS, which is a decent real time strategy game
itself, doesnt' quite compare to Time of Conflict in the RTS genre.
I've litterally spent more than a week fighting a single campaign in
Time of Conflict. So I agree that expectations for commercial games do
get higher and higher as time goes buy.

Cheers!

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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread shaun everiss
not to mention that with bgt its possible for new devs to pop up out 
of nowhere.

At 02:06 a.m. 19/05/2011, you wrote:

I think having all the new games so spaced apart in terms of when
they're released has had a profound effect on the community. Nobody
really steals each other's thunder so there's a lot more cooperation
than you'd see in the sighted games world. Some folks think that we've
already gone through our golden age of accessible games. I don't
agree. With the quality of the upcomming releases Charles mentionned
plus others, we could see a perfect storm which creates an even better
period ahead for us.

On 5/18/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
> Hmm.  You've still got the spirit, Phil is working on one, and we 
get a game

> or two from Jim Kitchen every so often, and there are others either coming
> or are recently  on the scene of game production.  Things move slowly
> because games aren't made in a day, so to speak.  I'm thinking that Sarah,
> MOTA's 2 and 3 dimensional versions, and Raceway will be big new arrivals.
>
> ---
> Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
> heart.
> - Original Message -
> From: "Thomas Ward" 
> To: "Gamers Discussion list" 
> Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 11:09 PM
> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] brings back memories - Re: Fw: 
BlindSoftware.comBlog

> Feed
>
>
>> Hi Charles,
>>
>> Yes, in deed. I remember Troopenum was huge when it came out. I
>> believe Aliens in the Outback came out about the same time. As I
>> recall ESP and BSC were really popular at roughly the same time on the
>> list. Also GMA put out Shades of Doom 1.0 around 2001 so that was a
>> really good year for games and a huge step forward for accessible
>> gaming. Before that year the majority of the games out there were the
>> PCs Dos games, Jim Kitchen's Dos games, and GMA's early versions of
>> Lonewolf and Trek 99 were Dos games as well. Its easy to forget how
>> much of a driving force BSC, ESP, and GMA were in those days.
>> Unfortunately, the creative spirit that started the Windows gaming
>> experience from 2000 to 2004 or so seems to have dried up.
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>>
>> On 5/17/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
>>> I remember there being so much traffic, and I think it was on this list
>>> as a
>>> matter of fact, about this game, Troopanum.  The NFB was promoting the
>>> game
>>> because it was produced by blind gamers.  Wasn't it about the same time
>>> as
>>> Aliens in the Outback was big?  After a few months of reading about the
>>> game, I downloaded and tried it.  After playing it for about 20 minutes,
>>> I
>>> bought it.  The podcast reminded me of the unpacking aspect of the game.
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
>>> heart.
>>
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>
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Skype: michael-feir
Author of Personal Power:
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A Life of Word and Sound
2003-2007
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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Thomas Ward
Hi Charles,

Yes, something like that. While there are new devs and new games
coming along to replace BSC, Draconis, DanZ Games, etc let's face it.
There is still aplace for Hunter, Troopenum, Search Party, ESP
Pinball, etc. They are, in a way, our classic games now. They are, in
a sense, like what the original NES games mean to WII gamers. You can
still get Megaman, but there is something about the originals you'll
always miss.

Cheers!


On 5/18/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
> I see where you're coming from.  Sort of like the fact that the Indy racers
> of today are good, but they just aren't a member of the Unser family, nor is
> there an A. J. Foyt among them.  There are good guitarists, but there's no
> Hendrix.  For the most part, what got the games for the blind industry what
> it has become is gone.
>
> ---
> Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
> heart.

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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Charles Rivard
I see where you're coming from.  Sort of like the fact that the Indy racers 
of today are good, but they just aren't a member of the Unser family, nor is 
there an A. J. Foyt among them.  There are good guitarists, but there's no 
Hendrix.  For the most part, what got the games for the blind industry what 
it has become is gone.


---
Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to 
heart.
- Original Message - 
From: "Thomas Ward" 

To: "Gamers Discussion list" 
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back 
memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed




Hi Charles,

Yeah, but I was thinking more of the companies who made accessible
gaming what it is today. For instance,
ESP was a driving force 10 years ago, but ESP Softworks is gone and
although Draconis has assumed control of ESP there hasn't been
anything really new from them for at least three years. BSC Games was
also a driving force 8, 9, 10 years ago and now that Justin is working
full time there hasn't been anything in the works since Castle Quest
was canceled. Dan pretty much quit developing games, released
everything as abandonware, and now works full time at a college as I
recall. I know that real life takes priority over game development,
know that better than anyone, but still I can't help feel like
something is gone/missing from this community. We need something more
than Blastbay Studios, USA Games, and the ocational game from Jim
Kitchen to keep the community going. I hope now that BGT is out we
start seeing something like what we saw 5 to 10 years ago where people
were creating lots of games and style of games like Side-scrollers,
Pinball games, FPS Shooters, etc.

Anyway, when it comes to time it takes to create a game of any serious
quality I definitly can write the book on that story. I've been
working on an engine, of various versions, for about three years, and
have hjust now finally produced what I think will be a fully
cross-platform portible version of the G3D Engine based on SDL 1.2.13
and FMOD 4.32. At least MOTA beta 19 seems to work decently on both
Windows and Linux now aside for a few bugs. Which does bring up a
funny story.

A couple of days ago I was testing MOTA beta 19 when I loaded up the
game Angela couldn't walk, run, jump, and was basically stuck in one
spot. I spent two entire days driving myself crazy trying to figure
out why something that was working an hour earlier just stopped
working. Turns out I forgot I had updated the level data file, and for
some reason when I saved it was empty.  As a result nothing was
initialized when the game loaded. When I copied the original data file
over to the levels directory the game loaded up and ran perfectly. So
I had to make the changes and resave it. Lol!

Cheers!




On 5/18/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
Hmm.  You've still got the spirit, Phil is working on one, and we get a 
game
or two from Jim Kitchen every so often, and there are others either 
coming

or are recently  on the scene of game production.  Things move slowly
because games aren't made in a day, so to speak.  I'm thinking that 
Sarah,
MOTA's 2 and 3 dimensional versions, and Raceway will be big new 
arrivals.


---
Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
heart.


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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Thomas Ward
Hi Dark,

You are certainly right about the direction of accessible games
changing over the last few years. Mostly it was a good thing.

Like you said from 2000 to 2004 most of the games were arcade affairs
like DynaMan, Aliens in the Outback, Troopenum, Dark Destroyer, Pipe,
Pipe 2, Hunter, Tarzan Junior, etc that were a throwback to the 1980's
style of gaming. One reason there were so many game releases back to
back is an arcade game like Troopenum is relatively easy to create
compared to some of the games we have seen over the last three/four
years or so.

For instance, in 2006, I believe it was, Che mentioned to the list his
idea to create Rail Racer. When he finally released 1.0 in 2007 or so
it totally changed the way VI gamers think of racing games and raised
the bar considerably. I litterally had to rethink Raceway from the
ground up because of it.

What I mean by that is that the original plans for ESP Raceway was for
a racing game on par with Poll Position. You'd have like 8 different
tracks, and up to four cars on the track. There was no season mode, no
points, no upgrades, and all and all just a plane Jane racing game. I
realized with games like Rail Racer coming out and free games like
Topspeed and Mach1 already out there Raceway wouldn't do well
financially. So I decided to rethink the game and use something like
Nascar Thunder as my basis which is a mainstream game with a lot more
features etc that would be selling points.

Then, of course, there is Entombed. Again this is a game right up
there with mainstream RPG games, and has totally redefined what I and
others are willing to pay for in terms of games. People know I've been
thinking of an RPG game for a while now, perhaps one like Sryth, but
I've realized that a text-based game alone is not going to sell. Now,
days there is this expectation of fighting sounds, weapons, background
ambience, some music, etc followed by some narration voice which means
a strict paper and pen style game isn't probably in demand any more.
Something more roguelike such as Entombed is the style accessible RPG
games will most likely take.

Last, but certainly not least, is Time of Conflict. Once again GMA has
amazed me, as well as everyone else, with something new and
revolutionary. It reminds me of the various Civilization games were
you build an army and then proceed to take over the planet by whiping
out the enemy forces. It is a game with no parallel in accessible
gaming and even SoundRTS, which is a decent real time strategy game
itself, doesnt' quite compare to Time of Conflict in the RTS genre.
I've litterally spent more than a week fighting a single campaign in
Time of Conflict. So I agree that expectations for commercial games do
get higher and higher as time goes buy.

Cheers!

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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Thomas Ward
Hi Michael,

Yeah, that's always a possibility of course. I was kind of struck by
something Justin said in his podcast a couple of days ago about how
back in the 80's he was a huge fan of arcade games and that was the
inspiration for games like Troopenum. As someone who was also sighted
during that time period as well I naturally saw that quality in his
games and purchased Troopenum as it was clearly like many of the games
I had played growing up. However, in my own way I'm just now beginning
to follow in Justin's footsteps.

What I mean by that is I too was sighted, have lots of mainstream
gaming experience, and I'm about to bring to the table some new
content that has never been done in audio before. As Charles pointed
out Mysteries of the Ancients 2d and 3d versions are in there own way
as revolutionary to this community as Troopenum or Shades of Doom was
10 years ago. The inspiration, as it were, for MOTA is of course the
Tomb Raider games of the late 90's. USA Raceway, when completed, will
be an accessible game similar to Nascar Thunder. Hopefully it will
live up to some of the other racing games out there like Rail Racer
that admitedly is an excellent racing game in and of itself. Those are
actually only a small collection of games I have in my todo list. I've
got plenty of other ideas I have written down, but haven't mentioned
publically on the list. So you are right, who knows, perhaps games
like that will inspire people to create bigger and better things.

I know as for myself when I started writing games like Mysteries of
the Ancients I was really thinking of getting into the 3d first-person
genre. I still intend to do that, but now that I've been actively
following Star Wars The Old Republic from Bioware online I am getting
interested in perhaps doing an RPG game like that in the future.
Entombed is a great example of how it could be done, but it would be
an extremely long and difficult project to create. Not sure I want to
commit to something that complex and time consuming now that I have an
FPS Engine I can use to crank out games fairly quickly now.  However,
that just gives you an idea of how one idea leads to another.

Cheers!


On 5/18/11, Michael Feir  wrote:
> I think having all the new games so spaced apart in terms of when
> they're released has had a profound effect on the community. Nobody
> really steals each other's thunder so there's a lot more cooperation
> than you'd see in the sighted games world. Some folks think that we've
> already gone through our golden age of accessible games. I don't
> agree. With the quality of the upcomming releases Charles mentionned
> plus others, we could see a perfect storm which creates an even better
> period ahead for us.

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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread dark

Hi Tom.

Amusing, angela in an empty level?  that would be a pain to get past, 
the vacuume of the ancients! ;D.


I must confess, having had to monitor most of the releases over the last few 
years I don't think your correct in terms of saying we've missed out on a 
boom in games, rather I'd say that at the moment the emphasis has changed.


Back when Gma, bsc and presumably esp were working ten years ago, it seems a 
lot of developers had the thought of creating games of the 80's and 90's in 
an accessible form, just as Dan and justin said in the troop podcast.


There then seemed to be a boom on such games, alien outback, pipe, the 
original plans for monti, superliam, jim kitchins' Mac1 game etc.


Obviously though like everything else, there was a boom and bust syndrome 
and people's expectations and desires changed. People started to say "we've 
got enough wrack up score style affairs, what next?"


I even remember when Liam released judgement day, there were those who's 
reaction was "oooh no, not another one"


now, it seems we have two catagories of games. Free or fun affairs which are 
made either by start out devs with bgt, or by experienced devs for fun, 
which tend to be arcade games but don't tend to wrack up a huge amount of 
interest, and serious! games, which have huge amounts of options, levels, 
game modes or whatever.


Of course like any trend there are some exceptions such as Q9, but generally 
it seems now the average accessible game player has higher expectations of 
what they will play, and what they expect if paying for a game, than 
previously.


Were bsc to release something like troopanum now, the reaction I think would 
be "what,  you expect us to pay money for something like this?"


This is however just the way game developement seems to work. from the 
players perspective it's a difference in demand and supply, while from the 
developers' it's a different spur to your creative talent,  sinse like 
anything else artistic which you put your own time and effort into, your own 
individually created game has to be! individually yours even if it is 
created with community in put.


That's again a nice aspect of the gaming community, such things can be 
discussed, tested, thought over etc, rather than some big evil company boss 
saying "make this, sinse we sell more of these and the advertizing says 
it'll appeal to people"


This is just what Mr. Marx meant when he spoke about the alienation of 
labour, and the online community is a pretty good example of something which 
doesn't fall into that very nasty hole.


But before I go into a socialist wrant i'll stop ;D.

Beware the grue!

Dark. 



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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Thomas Ward
Hi Charles,

Yeah, but I was thinking more of the companies who made accessible
gaming what it is today. For instance,
ESP was a driving force 10 years ago, but ESP Softworks is gone and
although Draconis has assumed control of ESP there hasn't been
anything really new from them for at least three years. BSC Games was
also a driving force 8, 9, 10 years ago and now that Justin is working
full time there hasn't been anything in the works since Castle Quest
was canceled. Dan pretty much quit developing games, released
everything as abandonware, and now works full time at a college as I
recall. I know that real life takes priority over game development,
know that better than anyone, but still I can't help feel like
something is gone/missing from this community. We need something more
than Blastbay Studios, USA Games, and the ocational game from Jim
Kitchen to keep the community going. I hope now that BGT is out we
start seeing something like what we saw 5 to 10 years ago where people
were creating lots of games and style of games like Side-scrollers,
Pinball games, FPS Shooters, etc.

Anyway, when it comes to time it takes to create a game of any serious
quality I definitly can write the book on that story. I've been
working on an engine, of various versions, for about three years, and
have hjust now finally produced what I think will be a fully
cross-platform portible version of the G3D Engine based on SDL 1.2.13
and FMOD 4.32. At least MOTA beta 19 seems to work decently on both
Windows and Linux now aside for a few bugs. Which does bring up a
funny story.

A couple of days ago I was testing MOTA beta 19 when I loaded up the
game Angela couldn't walk, run, jump, and was basically stuck in one
spot. I spent two entire days driving myself crazy trying to figure
out why something that was working an hour earlier just stopped
working. Turns out I forgot I had updated the level data file, and for
some reason when I saved it was empty.  As a result nothing was
initialized when the game loaded. When I copied the original data file
over to the levels directory the game loaded up and ran perfectly. So
I had to make the changes and resave it. Lol!

Cheers!




On 5/18/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
> Hmm.  You've still got the spirit, Phil is working on one, and we get a game
> or two from Jim Kitchen every so often, and there are others either coming
> or are recently  on the scene of game production.  Things move slowly
> because games aren't made in a day, so to speak.  I'm thinking that Sarah,
> MOTA's 2 and 3 dimensional versions, and Raceway will be big new arrivals.
>
> ---
> Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
> heart.

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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Bryan Peterson
Let's not forget BGT either. That's going to make it a lot easier for more 
people to create games.

We are the Knights who say...Ni!
- Original Message - 
From: "Michael Feir" 

To: "Gamers Discussion list" 
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 8:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back 
memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed




I think having all the new games so spaced apart in terms of when
they're released has had a profound effect on the community. Nobody
really steals each other's thunder so there's a lot more cooperation
than you'd see in the sighted games world. Some folks think that we've
already gone through our golden age of accessible games. I don't
agree. With the quality of the upcomming releases Charles mentionned
plus others, we could see a perfect storm which creates an even better
period ahead for us.

On 5/18/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
Hmm.  You've still got the spirit, Phil is working on one, and we get a 
game
or two from Jim Kitchen every so often, and there are others either 
coming

or are recently  on the scene of game production.  Things move slowly
because games aren't made in a day, so to speak.  I'm thinking that 
Sarah,
MOTA's 2 and 3 dimensional versions, and Raceway will be big new 
arrivals.


---
Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
heart.
- Original Message -
From: "Thomas Ward" 
To: "Gamers Discussion list" 
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 11:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] brings back memories - Re: Fw: 
BlindSoftware.comBlog

Feed



Hi Charles,

Yes, in deed. I remember Troopenum was huge when it came out. I
believe Aliens in the Outback came out about the same time. As I
recall ESP and BSC were really popular at roughly the same time on the
list. Also GMA put out Shades of Doom 1.0 around 2001 so that was a
really good year for games and a huge step forward for accessible
gaming. Before that year the majority of the games out there were the
PCs Dos games, Jim Kitchen's Dos games, and GMA's early versions of
Lonewolf and Trek 99 were Dos games as well. Its easy to forget how
much of a driving force BSC, ESP, and GMA were in those days.
Unfortunately, the creative spirit that started the Windows gaming
experience from 2000 to 2004 or so seems to have dried up.

Cheers!


On 5/17/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:

I remember there being so much traffic, and I think it was on this list
as a
matter of fact, about this game, Troopanum.  The NFB was promoting the
game
because it was produced by blind gamers.  Wasn't it about the same time
as
Aliens in the Outback was big?  After a few months of reading about the
game, I downloaded and tried it.  After playing it for about 20 
minutes,

I
bought it.  The podcast reminded me of the unpacking aspect of the 
game.


---
Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it 
to

heart.


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Michael Feir
Volunteer at The Dam
http://www.thedam.org
2011--
Owner of Silver Smiles
Join and share the silver lining in your life.
Group homepage:
http://groups.google.com/group/silver-smiles
2010--
Twitter: mfeir
Skype: michael-feir
Author of Personal Power:
How Accessible Computers Can Enhance Personal Life For Blind People
2006-2008
http://michaelfeir.blogspot.com/2009/01/personal-power.html

A Life of Word and Sound
2003-2007
http://michaelfeir.blogspot.com/2009/01/life-of-word-and-sound.html

Creator and former editor of Audyssey Magazine 1996-2004
Check out my blog at:
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If you ha

Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories- Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread dark
As I've said before I did always find it a bit sad that some of what I used 
to considder major developers sort of came and went in terms of what they 
were doing, the way that bsc, vip gameszone and draconis were as regular 
releasers as someone like Gma before other considderations got in the way.


This just does seem to be the way things work though, even jason Alan has 
had to backoff from entombed developement due to his work, though he stil is 
keeping going if slowly.


That being said, I think what you might call the core developers who work 
seriously and constantly has expanded more than people have drifted off, 
sinse I think were I listing the main developers now it'd probably have to 
include a good few more people such as Philip bennifall, jean-luc pontico 
with sound rts, and most recently Aprone aka Jeremy.


Heck, look at Airik the Clerric.

Someone wanders onto audiogames.net, and within a month we're looking 
hopefully at another pretty hefty game release.


So, while there are certainly people who've had to stop developing due to 
other commitments, the amount of people working seriously on games does seem 
to have expanded quite a lot,  particularly with the release of bgt.


Beware the grue!

Dark. 



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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread dark
Well michael, this is generally true, though I will stick a hand up for some 
of the graphical indi developers here on the community front as well in 
tersm of general niceness to their players and availability to cooperate and 
chat,  one reason why discussing access changes with indi developers is 
generally far more fruitful than discussing them with the industry.


that being said, the community around accessible games is indeed a good 
thing.


Beware the Grue!

Dark. 



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Re: [Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Michael Feir
I think having all the new games so spaced apart in terms of when
they're released has had a profound effect on the community. Nobody
really steals each other's thunder so there's a lot more cooperation
than you'd see in the sighted games world. Some folks think that we've
already gone through our golden age of accessible games. I don't
agree. With the quality of the upcomming releases Charles mentionned
plus others, we could see a perfect storm which creates an even better
period ahead for us.

On 5/18/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
> Hmm.  You've still got the spirit, Phil is working on one, and we get a game
> or two from Jim Kitchen every so often, and there are others either coming
> or are recently  on the scene of game production.  Things move slowly
> because games aren't made in a day, so to speak.  I'm thinking that Sarah,
> MOTA's 2 and 3 dimensional versions, and Raceway will be big new arrivals.
>
> ---
> Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
> heart.
> - Original Message -
> From: "Thomas Ward" 
> To: "Gamers Discussion list" 
> Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 11:09 PM
> Subject: Re: [Audyssey] brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog
> Feed
>
>
>> Hi Charles,
>>
>> Yes, in deed. I remember Troopenum was huge when it came out. I
>> believe Aliens in the Outback came out about the same time. As I
>> recall ESP and BSC were really popular at roughly the same time on the
>> list. Also GMA put out Shades of Doom 1.0 around 2001 so that was a
>> really good year for games and a huge step forward for accessible
>> gaming. Before that year the majority of the games out there were the
>> PCs Dos games, Jim Kitchen's Dos games, and GMA's early versions of
>> Lonewolf and Trek 99 were Dos games as well. Its easy to forget how
>> much of a driving force BSC, ESP, and GMA were in those days.
>> Unfortunately, the creative spirit that started the Windows gaming
>> experience from 2000 to 2004 or so seems to have dried up.
>>
>> Cheers!
>>
>>
>> On 5/17/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
>>> I remember there being so much traffic, and I think it was on this list
>>> as a
>>> matter of fact, about this game, Troopanum.  The NFB was promoting the
>>> game
>>> because it was produced by blind gamers.  Wasn't it about the same time
>>> as
>>> Aliens in the Outback was big?  After a few months of reading about the
>>> game, I downloaded and tried it.  After playing it for about 20 minutes,
>>> I
>>> bought it.  The podcast reminded me of the unpacking aspect of the game.
>>>
>>> ---
>>> Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
>>> heart.
>>
>> ---
>> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org
>> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to
>> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.
>> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at
>> http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org.
>> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at
>> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org.
>> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the
>> list,
>> please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
>
>
> ---
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>


-- 
Michael Feir
Volunteer at The Dam
http://www.thedam.org
2011--
Owner of Silver Smiles
Join and share the silver lining in your life.
Group homepage:
http://groups.google.com/group/silver-smiles
2010--
Twitter: mfeir
Skype: michael-feir
Author of Personal Power:
How Accessible Computers Can Enhance Personal Life For Blind People
2006-2008
http://michaelfeir.blogspot.com/2009/01/personal-power.html

A Life of Word and Sound
2003-2007
http://michaelfeir.blogspot.com/2009/01/life-of-word-and-sound.html

Creator and former editor of Audyssey Magazine 1996-2004
Check out my blog at:
http://www.michaelfeir.blogspot.com

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[Audyssey] the spirit of game production - Re: brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog Feed

2011-05-18 Thread Charles Rivard
Hmm.  You've still got the spirit, Phil is working on one, and we get a game 
or two from Jim Kitchen every so often, and there are others either coming 
or are recently  on the scene of game production.  Things move slowly 
because games aren't made in a day, so to speak.  I'm thinking that Sarah, 
MOTA's 2 and 3 dimensional versions, and Raceway will be big new arrivals.


---
Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to 
heart.
- Original Message - 
From: "Thomas Ward" 

To: "Gamers Discussion list" 
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 11:09 PM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] brings back memories - Re: Fw: BlindSoftware.comBlog 
Feed




Hi Charles,

Yes, in deed. I remember Troopenum was huge when it came out. I
believe Aliens in the Outback came out about the same time. As I
recall ESP and BSC were really popular at roughly the same time on the
list. Also GMA put out Shades of Doom 1.0 around 2001 so that was a
really good year for games and a huge step forward for accessible
gaming. Before that year the majority of the games out there were the
PCs Dos games, Jim Kitchen's Dos games, and GMA's early versions of
Lonewolf and Trek 99 were Dos games as well. Its easy to forget how
much of a driving force BSC, ESP, and GMA were in those days.
Unfortunately, the creative spirit that started the Windows gaming
experience from 2000 to 2004 or so seems to have dried up.

Cheers!


On 5/17/11, Charles Rivard  wrote:
I remember there being so much traffic, and I think it was on this list 
as a
matter of fact, about this game, Troopanum.  The NFB was promoting the 
game
because it was produced by blind gamers.  Wasn't it about the same time 
as

Aliens in the Outback was big?  After a few months of reading about the
game, I downloaded and tried it.  After playing it for about 20 minutes, 
I

bought it.  The podcast reminded me of the unpacking aspect of the game.

---
Laughter is the best medicine, so look around, find a dose and take it to
heart.


---
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gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org.

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list,
please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. 



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