By Cyrris , 17th March 9:26 pm
Back in 2001 when I first started making appearances on GameSpy’s community forums, my restricted internet connection meant that I was never really able to play games online with anyone who I met there. Quite often I’d have to just sit back and read about the fun which other members had while teaming up to play Tribes 2 or StarCraft or a bunch of other games. While most people at the time had meager 56k connections, which were sufficient, I didn’t quite have that. At my house we had our 56k modem shared on the home LAN between 2-4 computers depending on who was around, and usage was restricted to just a couple of hours a day.
So, it comes as no surprise that the first gaming experience I had online was with the text-based browser game Mech Wars, with NukeZone following soon after. Being websites, they didn’t require much in the way of bandwidth or time - although after getting deeper in, I began to realise that time was actually something that was more important than I first thought. After a while, in both games, a pretty clear gap was evident between players who could log in at any time, and those who had severely restricted access like myself. Some of the focus behind the development of The Project has been to see if this gap is still a problem, and if so, if it can be minimised.
» Read all of “Game Development - The Gap“…
By Cyrris , 19th February 11:01 am
When it comes to making a game that has no non-player characters, no artificial intelligence, no missions or campaigns, and no actual visible game world, the question must be asked as to what actually drives the game forward. As I said previously, the game is, at it’s core, database manipulation through a web interface. While that may sound rather hopeless, the fact is that the simple website and database has been proven time and time again to be a very entertaining medium, namely in the form of blogs and forum systems.
As if Aelon isn’t proof enough that a blog is entertaining, a good forum system (coupled with a private messaging system and perhaps IRC channels) is really the key behind making a text based browser game work. Just the other day I finished coding the forums for The Project, marking the first major facet of the game to be completed. While they weren’t the trickiest things to program for the game, they are certainly among the most important.
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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.
» Read all of “Trillian 4“…
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