March 2005 Archive

March News Saved

 * Stuff of lasting interest or value.

Game Dev Conference 2005

 * Coming up again in my home town of San Francisco in early March.


 * Their agenda bears a stricking resemblance to our own goals here.


 * So much so, let me quote:


 * Game Design Track Highlights


 * "Creating compelling, immersive games requires understanding, visualizing, demonstrating, and tuning the interactions of an ever-increasing number of game tools and systems.


 * While game designers need to understand and exploit the possibilities of new technologies such as realistic physics, facial expressions, and lighting techniques; they must also continue to master the traditional disciplines of drama, gameplay, and psychology.


 * The Game Design Track explores the challenges and ramifications of the interaction between new technologies and established techniques."


 * Check-out the rest of the agenda:


 * Here

Democracy in the WZ Game World

 * This is something that has become integral to the Backstory & Unfolding of WZ 2120: The South American Campaign, from my POV...


 * I've commenced a discussion on this aspect of the work by way of a Time-Line of Story Premises


 * Participate in:


 * The Arc of Democracy in WZ


 * Let me intrigue you with this quote:


 * Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.


 * That was said by master prose stylist, legendary editor of the "New Yorker" & author of the classic "Charlotte's Web" - E.B. White (1899-1985).

World-Building: WZ 2120

 * The original backstory & rationale for WZ 2100 was somewhat flawed in its tecnological, economic & sociological extrapolations.


 * WZ 2120 will address these deficiences & inconsistencies in world-building.


 * New Energy Sources for the "Mars CAM" and the "South American CAM" such as:


 * Geothermal Energy Source....


 * Hydrogen Fuel Cell Energy Source....


 * Are just the begining.


 * The Scav cultures will be built on the principles of Sustainability


 * The "Fossil Fuel Economy" will be entirely supplanted.


 * "Cybernetics & Nano" will be the foundation of Technology or "T-4".


 * Warfare mechanisms will subsume 21st Century Military Doctrine such as "Situational Awareness & Velocity".


 * "Experience & Rank" will be integral to gameplay & the Player will have an in-game Avatar as a Commander Unit.


 * The foundation sources for all of this are numerous.


 * I'll only be able to mention a key few.


 * I'll start with The Rocky Mountain Institute


 * HERE


 * The paper on a "Hydrogen Fuel Economy" is a great place to start.


 * Discuss New Tech Proposals Here


 * There are a whole host socio-political-cultural ramifications to even just these tech premises that will manifest in "Factions".


 * In due course we'll get to it all & I hope it will come to a common ground that sparks collaborations.


 * Rman Jack

"Act of War" Goes Gold

 * As fans of WZ 2100 we are passionate about the RTS Genre.


 * We look for the outstanding games in this genre.... to wit:


 * With close to a Million downloads of its Demo in little over a month...


 * That gameplay success is partly predicated on medivacing your wounded & rescuing hostages.


 * That part of your economy is based on POW captures.....


 * That the story is written by an author who has 15 New York Times Bestsellers.


 * That the 3 Factions have distinct Special Abilities & Technology..


 * That the Cinematics (almost an hours worth) could easily be seen in your local Multiplex & pass muster


 * That MP has been tweeked for months based on the input of hard-core Net Gamers..


 * That the Sound, LOD & Camera Schema make for an awesome experience I would call "TOTAL....VISCERAL....IMMERSION"....


 * Conclusion - take a gander ....


 * Act of War.


 * At least Get the DEMO Here

WZ OPs With Robots ?

 * This choice find came to our attention by way of Member Cybersphinx.


 * You Wz modders out there have got to check this out.


 * Not just as a New Unit / Platform in Wz....


 * IMHO, it could also radicalize gameplay


 * Of course all issues & concerns over game-balance would apply.


 * That would have to be looked at more comprehensively, no doubt.


 * But in the present moment - the possibilities are provocative, exiteing & MOD-inspiring.


 * Other kwel stuff on this site about Materials & Sensors well worth perusing. :)


 * Thanks Cybersphinx !


 * Military Robots & More


 * Interested in putting-forth some of your ideas:


 * Discussion Here

Chojun's Ambitious WZ Project

 * Warzone 2100 is written in Gnarly C


 * Chojun calls his Project:


 * "A Shiny New Framework"


 * What he's doing is the precursor to re-creating portions of WZ 2100 ala OOP: Object-Oriented.


 * His object of attention (pun intended) is the heart of modifying WZ - the .wdg structure.


 * From the .wdg much else can be leverged as Archimedes would say (yes, that pun was intended as well.)


 * The details of how he's tackling this long-term project I hope will be made available @ BerliOS in the near future.


 * It was at the realtimestrategies.net Forums & called A Shiny New Framework but those bbs are not available presently due to the domain not being renewed - same deal as what happened with P-2 little over a year ago.


 * Does history repeat or just rhyme ?


 * It's hard to tell the difference on these occasions.


 * Rman 3/10/05

LEGO Star Wars

 * It's wacky, out-there... some would say, down-right weird...


 * But... It Works ! It's Kwel ! Pure FUN !


 * Loved the first trilogy of movies. Couldn't get enough of Legos as a kid. Now I can have both. Imagine that, a full grown man playing with Legos, heh.


 * Playable Demo was Just Released....


 * Get It Here


 * There are several mirrors for this 228 MB download.


 * What's the connect to WZ ? You ask...


 * Modularization, the over-arcing strategy of the WZ Code ReDev. effort.


 * Externalizing as much as possible from the core game engine... aka, modularization.


 * And what could be a more apt metaphor of that strategy than LEGOS... (thanks Troman...)


 * Course a far less technical rationale - it's just unvarnished gameplay joy.


 * If you give it a whirl on your box tell us your what you think - even if it ain't that nice:


 * Discuss