ID:102952
 
Keywords: techtree

Happy birthday to my cousin Eric who celebrated this week and is probably yet another family member who doesn't read this column. ;)

  • Over on GameHounds, Nicholas "Heartbreak Ridge" Sylvain examined the brief for the petitioner in the case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA.  Wishes of good health go out to GameHounds founder Edie "GamerEdie" Sellers who recently discovered that she may have cervical cancer.
  • Paul Eres has finally posted the 3rd Weekly Report on TIGSource.  I've seen most of the games many times over by now, but I guess there's only so much one can expect from a rogue cyborg.
  • As hinted at in that report, Mr. Podunkian and Sophie Holden have released their game entries to Indie Kombat.  Votes are being accepted now.  The next battle is between Andrew Brophy and Barnov.
  • On his Gamasutra blog, Josh Bycer analyzed Stardock's 4X strategy game Elemental: War of Magic.
  • The Game Crafter team has launched their own online strategy game called The Lacuna Expanse.  In Evony-inspired parody, the breasts of TGC co-founder JT's wife were used in the advertising...  I'm guessing developers won't get those to promote the board games.
  • Speaking of The Game Crafter, TaDa Ministries has been providing multiple video reviews of the games they print.  Meanwhile, Matt Worden's Jump Gate was recently reviewed by The Dice Tower.
  • The episodes are going to take twice as long to release, but the game review show Bytejacker is back from hiatus.  The premiere focused on Minecraft (what else?) and featured an interview with the game's developer, Markus "Notch" Persson.

As for us BYOND folk...

The DDT team has given the source of Last Robot Standing to the BYOND staff along with their permission to provide updates.  The Wiz-War homage should soon have a download available which will allow others to ignore the server problems that have plagued it over the years.  Naturally, efforts are underway to fix those bugs.  Likewise, a modern interface should be implemented.

Visions of the game deserving its popularity rank are dancing in my head while rants about nostalgia remain stillborn.  Woohoo! =)

Acebloke's Spore-inspired Dreamland has shifted to an isometric perspective.  Details of the world generation have been provided, updated and displayed in a demo available on the hub.  Details of the game mechanics, however, seem scarce.  Despite the aforementioned Spore influence, Acebloke's desire to create a multi-user dungeon means the game might become one of those dirty, dirty RPGs.

The results of September's AceMedalTable have also been posted.

Does using the adjective "tactical" a lot make an RPG a strategy RPG?  I'm guessing not.  Just in case, here's a link to Asellia's call for artists to work on a project called World of Selgaia.  There's a possibility of making a tiny amount of money on the deal, but candidates probably shouldn't get their hopes up.

I've been working on the interfaces for each phase of my racing combat board game, StarScurrier.  There's no pictures yet, but I think I'm finally satisfied.  There have been a lot of drafts thrown out and I still have to work on the phases themselves.  Some of the cards ("contracts") might be redesigned as well.

Fooldom Come: One subscription. Many games.

Sign the petition from the Electronic Consumers Association submitted along with their amicus brief in the case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA. Protect your gamer rights!

Finally. I've been waiting for SOMETHING to happen with LRS since 4.0.
Elemental was a huge waste of money. They did what BYOND games do. "Hey, we're hosting our WIP, come play." Only they charged new game price to recuperate some of their spendings.
@I-Failed: It's on the list for the next Tech Tree. Funny enough, I didn't look a day into the future when writing this column. ;)