By Cyrris , 14th February 9:28 pm
Like many strategy freaks, I was awe-inspired when I saw the first motion video of Supreme Commander in action all those months ago. Seeing the massive battles, the zoom, the nukes… I was sold almost instantly. Since then, I signed up for the Supreme Commander beta and played around with it. It definitely wasn’t how I envisioned it, but being a beta I decided not to write a review here until I had some more experience with something closer to the official release. Now I’ve played the demo, and so has Holliday. Today we’re both going to share our impressions of the demo in what is Aelon’s first real joint-authored piece. It’s not quite an interview, it’s not quite an article, and it’s not quite a review. Instead, it’s all three, so you can think of it being three times better than any other material on the web. It’s also our biggest single piece of content to date, so we’ve sectioned it up.
» Read all of “Supreme Commander Impressions“…
By Cyrris , 21st January 1:01 pm
Perhaps the key reason for the existence of The Project is my dissatisfaction with previous games like it, and the desire to do better. Having played two text-based strategy games previously, both quite different, the pros and cons of Mech Wars and NukeZone became quite obvious when contrasted with each other. One of the biggest differences between the two was how they managed game balance. Being online strategy games, each was made up entirely of other human players. Such a system is hence prone to what can only be described as the most important scientific observation of our time. So common is this problem, that computer games these days have disclaimers reminding players that the quality of the gaming experience in multiplayer is too dependent on the actions of other players for any type of guarantee to be made. For a game such as The Project, which doesn’t even have a singleplayer aspect, this is perhaps the most important single issue that we’ve had to deal with.
» Read all of “Game Development - Playing Fair“…
By Cyrris , 9th January 8:51 pm
It’s no secret that things have been a little quiet around here lately. Very quiet, in fact. I can’t speak for the others who post here but for me at least, the lack of updates has not been without good reason. You see, recently things have started to move around here. Wheels have actually begun some kind of motion. Unfortunately this movement isn’t really related to Aelon itself, but rather another project (from here on simply referred to as The Project) which has finally broken free from the shackles of my own procrastination.
Rather than just spending my time writing on games and the technology that goes with them, I’ve decided to make one myself.
» Read all of “Game Development - The Project“…
By Cyrris , 23rd November 10:30 am
I’ve been using Trillian for a long time now - ever since I realised that a bunch of my stubborn friends wouldn’t come and use ICQ with me. I never liked MSN, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to have two contact lists open at once, so Trillian was the right program at the right time. It wasn’t without its problems of course - I often had (and still have) issues with Trillian 3.1 - messages not getting through, clunky performance, and such. That said, it has still been the communications hub of my computer for years now and I can’t imagine life without it. One thing that has bugged me more recently though is the lack of development updates. Trillian 4, codenamed Astra, was announced some time ago, but it was only when I awoke this morning, a few months after the announcement, that I found a preview site had finally been launched. It sure explains the lack of updates.
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By Cyrris , 28th October 7:07 pm
Everyone has programs that they like. Naturally I’m not talking about games, but rather those other applications people use. Browsers, music programs, editing apps, communication programs. The list goes on. But how many programs do you have for which you keep a keen eye on their development? I have quite a few now. It always tends to start the same way. I will get the program, I’ll start liking it, I will wonder what the next version will have, and from then on I will regularly check up on any new updates and proposals, as the version numbers tick over. So, without further ado, here is the list of programs which I just can’t help but check up on for news or updates every couple of days.
» Read all of “Keeping Track“…
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