May 27, 2006
I guess I wasn't fooling anyone with my previous journal post: yes, 4E5 is almost upon us, and I've spent the past couple of days working on nothing but. It's really getting something of a makeover this year - a proper logo, a full minisite, revamped backend... even banner ads. Hopefully Melissa wi…
May 23, 2006
Idea for SameTime Risk battles:
Instead of rolling D6s repeatedly until only one force remains - which can, for example, result in an army of 3 beating an army of 15 - just have each force roll a 'luck modifier' at the beginning of the battle (A D6 each; if one army is clearly a 'defender' while oth…
Instead of rolling D6s repeatedly until only one force remains - which can, for example, result in an army of 3 beating an army of 15 - just have each force roll a 'luck modifier' at the beginning of the battle (A D6 each; if one army is clearly a 'defender' while oth…
May 21, 2006
Today, a couple of friends and I got out the pack of 100 army men we bought at the toy store a couple of weeks back, cleared some space on my floor, and tried playing a little battle. We got about three moves into the game and had to go, so it's still covered in army men [grin]
The first step was to…
The first step was to…
May 12, 2006
Take a look at ECMA Standard 119 for the ISO9660 filesystem.
Specifically, scroll down to section 8.4 and take a look at the table they've got there. Notice anything wrong?
I don't think that bytes 8 through 2048 are really (Reserved for future standardisation). I think someone copy-pasted the table …
Specifically, scroll down to section 8.4 and take a look at the table they've got there. Notice anything wrong?
I don't think that bytes 8 through 2048 are really (Reserved for future standardisation). I think someone copy-pasted the table …
May 07, 2006
Went to see Covenant perform live at the Islington Academy tonight... they were awesome, and they were supported by a couple of awesome acts too (one was Pride and Fall, and the other I don't know). I bought a shirt [grin] Any of the rest of you there?
I've been wondering about creating some samples…
I've been wondering about creating some samples…
May 06, 2006
EMBED tags don't work here, which is probably a good thing
In related news, it's disappointing that a search for "Monty Python" on Google Video turns up more clips of people parodying or attempting to act out their own Monty Python sketches than it does of Monty Python themselves. [sad]
In related news, it's disappointing that a search for "Monty Python" on Google Video turns up more clips of people parodying or attempting to act out their own Monty Python sketches than it does of Monty Python themselves. [sad]
April 23, 2006
I've decided that my interests are under-represented here at Oxford Uni, and so to rectify this I'm setting up a Computer and Video Game Society for the university.
The Society's going to cover pretty much anything game-related, both non-development (trading, reviewing, LAN parties, clans, etc) deve…
The Society's going to cover pretty much anything game-related, both non-development (trading, reviewing, LAN parties, clans, etc) deve…
April 11, 2006
Turns out I was all manner of wrong - ResourceManagers aren't created locale-specific, it's ResourceSets that are locale-specific. This means that I don't need to create different ResourceManagers for each culture, and I don't need to worry about recycling, or even use TLS at all. I just have a sta…
April 11, 2006
Here's a fun thing.
I'm trying to build a localization-aware class library under .NET. This class library is designed to be usable by both regular "fat client" Windows applications, and by ASP.NET serverside web apps.
Localisation - in this particular case, it means using custom strings for each lang…
I'm trying to build a localization-aware class library under .NET. This class library is designed to be usable by both regular "fat client" Windows applications, and by ASP.NET serverside web apps.
Localisation - in this particular case, it means using custom strings for each lang…
April 09, 2006
My publisher says: I owe him how much? is now up.
I actually found that talk really interesting, which is a little scary because it was all about accounting stuff. [eek]
I actually found that talk really interesting, which is a little scary because it was all about accounting stuff. [eek]
March 29, 2006
I'm finally back home for a night. After flying back from San Fransisco and touching down at about noon on Monday, I came home for about two hours before leaving again to go up to Cambridge where I spent Tuesday at the Microsoft Research labs there. Met up with my fellow MVPs, including Jack Hoxley…
March 25, 2006
So the Powers that Be Loaded (Kevin and Dave) decided to get me drunk last night and now I've woken up in what I think is Mexico.
(No not really [grin])
Had a very strange dream. Morgan Freeman and I were driving to the store and he asked me to take the wheel while he worked the pedals. We smashed in…
(No not really [grin])
Had a very strange dream. Morgan Freeman and I were driving to the store and he asked me to take the wheel while he worked the pedals. We smashed in…
March 24, 2006
Just got out of a talk by a couple of folks from Ubisoft on 'Project Assassins.' Their stated goal is to "redefine the third-person action-adventure genre for the next gen." Said goal is extremely vague and lofty so I'd recommend they settle for "solve the percieved problems with third-person actio…
March 24, 2006
just got back from the microsoft party.
Microsoft throw good parties.
Me and Andy Dunn kickin' it in the hizzouse.
Tracy is the girl with the power - you know her, you'll soon know everyone else. Love ya babe.
And Jen is the hottness. Why'd you have to leave with that other dude, babe?
Microsoft throw good parties.
Me and Andy Dunn kickin' it in the hizzouse.
Tracy is the girl with the power - you know her, you'll soon know everyone else. Love ya babe.
And Jen is the hottness. Why'd you have to leave with that other dude, babe?
March 23, 2006
Today's been fun so far. Had a meeting with Kevin and Michalson in the morning to talk GDNet tech stuff, then a session on how the guys at Ritual are using D3D10 - omnidirectional shadow maps using cubemaps (or render targets, depending on which view you're using at the time) and vertex shader base…
March 23, 2006
Creativity Boot Camp coverage is finally up. Sorry it took so long; I tried working on it both Monday and yesterday nights, but I just sorta got back, got set up at my laptop, and passed out.
Got a bit of a backlog building that I really need to clear out. There's the MS Developer Day stuff that I'v…
Got a bit of a backlog building that I really need to clear out. There's the MS Developer Day stuff that I'v…
March 20, 2006
I've stopped briefly by the press lounge to post to my journal and check up on the GDC coverage stuff going live. Will need to run off at get some lunch soon; Kelly advises me that they kept running out last year, so I'd better be quick. It certainly smells good. And I think I see chocolate chip co…
March 19, 2006
I'm writing this on my laptop from the hotel room in San Jose. I've now clocked about 33 hours without sleep (except for a fifteen-minute doze on the plane) but I feel fairly wired so I'll probably stay up, at least until the meeting with everyone at 9pm. Managed to make a complete fool of myself b…
March 18, 2006
It's 2:50am or thereabouts. I'm getting a lift from a friend who happens to also be heading to Heathrow today at 7am, and my flight is scheduled to depart at 11am. The flight will then take 11 hours or thereabouts, touching down at San Fransisco International Airport at 2:05pm local time. I'll then…
March 05, 2006
In the process of investigating OpenGL bindings for Haskell, I came across Visual Haskell, which is an integration of Haskell into Visual Studio .NET 2003. The fact that I could use Haskell with VS.NET (well, I use 2005, but never mind) is interesting, but the fact that they've integrated a third-p…
March 04, 2006
So, the long-awaited trip to Slimelight got cancelled at the very last minute (like, when we were waiting for the bus to go to London) because one of our number decided to attend a different party instead. As this trip was sort of a birthday celebration, and the one in question is the birthday girl…
February 28, 2006
At 2pm I thought "I'll launch a contest this afternoon." At 5pm I launched Seeing Double, a two-week game design/prototyping challenge. And lo the world didst tremble. And I said "blimey."
It's going to get easier as I go along, I think. Bits of legal text, rules etc build up over time - I culled mu…
It's going to get easier as I go along, I think. Bits of legal text, rules etc build up over time - I culled mu…
February 24, 2006
I finished Psychonauts today after roughly a week. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the game; I'm less happy with the implementation (like the frequent crashes, or the lack of Xbox 360 controller support even though it worked fine with the demo, etc), but the overall experience has been positive. The…
February 15, 2006
Went to Intrusion last night, at The Cellar in Oxford. It's a sort of goth music night - EBM, Darkwave, Futurepop, Industry, etc. Had a completely awesome evening - I think by the end of it I'd had five shots of apple sour, two double vodkas, an aftershock and an amaretto, and danced for like two h…
February 13, 2006
There's also a second game idea I've been kicking around that I should probably write down before I forget about it. I think it's loosely inspired by a webcomic I once read but I don't remember where/what it was now; it also borrows elements from games like Fable.
The name I've given the idea is "Th…
The name I've given the idea is "Th…
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