- Congratulations to AGameAWeek.com's Jayenkai on his 200th game.
- Farewell to Cooper Hawkes. I love GameHounds.
- New game design blog alert: Heaven Twiddling.
- Lewis Pulsipher sees strategic possibilities.
- Walker Hardin likes procedural content. Me too.
It's long past due, but Flick's simultaneous battle, Mano A Mano, has been removed from the featured list. The server has been unavailable for quite a while. Fortunately, Flick said last week that he was looking to find hosts for many of his projects so the game might be added back soon.
The former King of BYOND Strategy, IainPeregrine, has been interviewed by BYOND Journalism's EnigmaticGallivanter. Naturally it was an extensive look into the further development of Castle Masters and the high regard he has for his successor... Or else it could focus on his events, RPG, multiserver chat tool and relationship with BYOND. One of those. ;)
Mecha Destroyer JD announced and ran a test server for his RTS sequel, Ultra Strife. He appears to be satisfied with the amount of testers and bugs found. (Although, he might want to look into the \ref macro for embedding images in skins at run-time.) Another session is planned to be hosted soon. The game is currently listed in the guild.
Danny Roe ran a poll asking players to decide on the shape of the grid for his tile-laying board game, Proximity. The choices were hexagonal tiles or isometric tiles. Technically, the isometric grid won, but it's been declared too close to call. Perhaps the quantity of a tile's neighbors will be a factor as transferring their ownership is a central mechanic of the game. Granted, I voted for hexagons anyway. ;)
Feedback in Vexonator's forum has led him to drop two hints that a Surreal Dreams update is on the way. If so, expect the tactical fantasy to gain content for the early missions and improved documentation.
Disappointed by the "stagnant and repetitive" gameplay of Spore, Acebloke is creating another game in the genre. Dreamland is intended to have a larger scope with a greater number of phases defined by differing mechanics. More details, along with temporary screenshots, are provided on his blog.
EmpirezTeam informed me that last week's question about the status of Empirez was not the first. Enough have mentioned the RTS that it could again be available soon. The pager conversation also revealed that the Shining Force-inspired tactical RPG announced last week will not have multiplayer mode.
Youko Kurama 10 and AmonR appear[s] to be working on a strategic RPG inspired by Final Fantasy. The project has been in development for weeks. An announcement, and maybe even some open testing, could be expected soon.
I missed some tidbits last week.
- ViswamNathan is working on some sort of card game for 6 players.
- Joshua50187 is looking for a team to work on "the Rubik's Cube of board games with almost infinite possibilities in game play and game patterns". The focus will be on spatial thought.
BYOND CSS postponed requests on Saturday. As compensation, those with previous requests from Qubic will receive them for free. Requests will likely resume tomorrow.
(Why mention this here? It's because the announcement appears to have been mistakenly hidden by the automated filter and there was no "Show" link for a moderator to override it. The staff has not posted any solid info, but one theory is that the filter took issue with "is hit" being displayed in the summary.)
I've had more pancreatitis problems that I'm going to claim are why I have not touched my turn-based, combative space race, StarScurrier. I did, however, post some mock-ups that are encouraging me to work on my shooter. Better yet, I discussed a mechanic that can blend player actions and stories in many types of games.
Sign the petition from the Electronic Consumers Association that will be submitted along with their amicus brief in the case of Schwarzenegger v. EMA. Protect your gamer rights!
