The Art of Games, and the talent that is needed.

After playing many games in my life, and watching many movies, listening to many complete albums there are many comparisons' that can be derived. In fact, it is an art much like making a movie that has emotion, that teaches a strong lesson far after either the lesson has be taught, or the number of movies that has preceded that film can be taken into consideration. Many developers in the gaming industry are making a strong attempt to make games like movies, or like an Episodic movie like Half Life 2 that does a noticeable attempt to make games as meaningful as movies. The problem that I see that the norm mass media doesn't pay attention to most of the games that try this, for it is very difficult for developers to make a game that a majority of people will play from start to finish.

First let's compare games to movies, Developing games that has emotion, that gives a person who enjoys that entertainment a minute to ponder who, what, or where they are in there life, and if they have made a difference is tremendously difficult, and thus I say that very few titles have achieved this. I am willing to say just a handful of games if that has been able to take a gamer from just playing a game to kill time to taking a gamer through a game to teach him a very valuable lesson on life, or whatever the matter shall be.

There is controversial games in the industry; however, most of these controversial titles are just more death, blood, and sex in the game for the game to sell, and very few of the games carry a message as strong as the controversial image it projects.

My idea is that we start making games with emotions and messages no matter how difficult the task may become, so we can show to the world how powerful a simple game can be. There is a reason that the industry is a $10 billion industry. There is a reason that creating video games is an art.

I am going to attempt this no matter what level, what platform, or what type of game. Any game can carry a message that is strong, and can be supported with much thought, and work; however, for it to become a game with a strong message it must first be created unlike the games that are being made today, and so I will start with the way I start designing the games, what I put in the game (images, music scores), how the game is played, and most importantly how it is built, and distributed.

Now let me quickly compare video games to music. If a complete album is complete in the sense much like a paper that has unity, and flows well, and is popular to the media through a message that many can accept the message then it becomes a popular, or a much well recognized album.

What if we made games that lasted an hour long either episodic, one small title of a game, or a bunch of small games that do relate? If we can create a game that last either 1 or 2 hours, and can carry a strong message like an album can it become successful? I will try to attempt this as well with the "What If Mode" Project.

This will start with the "What If Mode" Game Engine. I have much work to do now.

What I've done lately

OK, so I have recently been busy in the world of school, my 2 jobs, and the projects. I have been pondering on rather or not to finish the Simple Browser by the end of November or just wait until the official release of Visual Studio 2008, and see if it can offer me anything else that I don't already utilize in the Beta 2 Release.

In respect to the Game Engine "What If Mode" I have been asking myself what's the correct API, and library to use, so the development of 2D games are with ease. I have decided to use SDL just because it has the ability of Networking, font, image loading, networking, and input; However, I need a good API that really utilizes the Hardware, and renders the graphics, animation, etc.. Quick as possible while maintaining the elegance, and beauty I would like to keep in the game; Simply put have no lag.

Since this was a question of much concern; I have been playing around with OpenGL and DirectX at the same time. Yes, it may sound a little daunting, confusing, and almost impossible to be experimenting with both API's at the same time, but I have some how managed, and I'll continue to experiment, and test out both of these API's until I am comfortable with the API I would like to use in the game engine. As of now it's most likely going to be Dx.

A couple of new ideas that have sprung up for my game engine has really just been by studying, and playing the hell out of Nintendo DS games. I like 2D Nintendo Games; Especially Mario. The innovations in Nintendo Games is something else, and if I can mimic that, or transfer to the PC a fun-like gaming experience that Nintendo offers on their systems for the PC by single player, or online then I'll be able to say that I have accomplished the goal of this game engine.

A Delay on the Simple Browser

The Simple Browser was going to be Alpha Ready this week, and I even announced it; however, after much research, and frustration with Visual Basic I have been in the process of transfering the project in C# a language I am more familiar with, and the browser can still be downloaded, but it is still in early development, and won't be completed for awhile. I only have the weekends to work on this project, the game engine, and the Tank Annihilation game, and thus it will be quite awhile before I can complete each program. Until then I'll make up for it by having 3 more articles out on Sunday one in physics on Elastic Collision, and in Calculus 3 on Double integrals, and finally in Computer Science which will be a continuation on the Crash Course in SDL that I have started.

Requirements

• Windows XP Service Pack 1 or Higher


• .Net Framework 3.0 or Higher (It should install .Net Framework 3.5 if it doesn't it means you don't have .Net Framework 3.0

Thanks, and as always Enjoy!

c.s. Finch

An adventure of software delight!

I have started my new blog of my progression in the software development community. This blog will keep people updated on the applications I work on, and will provide links to my applications for beta testing, or as open source stand alone no support application.

My first application that I will distribute out to the masses by next week is my Simple Browser. It's a web browser that is nothing more than a very simple browser with basic functionality that a browser would need.

Thaks,

c.s. Finch