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Classic Games (Games)

Super Mario Bros. 3 Level Design Lessons 95

Posted by Soulskill from the double-whistle-to-victory dept.
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Significant Bits about how the early level design in Super Mario Bros. 3 gradually introduced players to the game without needing something as blatant and obtrusive as a tutorial: "Super Mario Bros. 3 contains many obvious design lessons that are also present in other games, e.g., the gradual layering of complexity that allows players to master a specific mechanic. What surprised me during my playthrough, though, was how some of these lessons were completely optional. The game doesn't have any forced hand-holding, and it isn't afraid of the player simply exploring it at his own pace (even if it means circumventing chunks of the experience)."
Social Networks

The New Reality of Gaming 122

Posted by Soulskill from the i-blame-the-schools dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Video games used to be about fighting aliens and rescuing princesses, writes Rohin Dharmakumar in Forbes, but the most popular games today have you tilling your farm, hiring waiting staff and devising menus for your restaurant or taking your pets out for walks while maintaining cordial relations with the neighbors. 'Reality, it would seem, is the new escapism.' Video games of the pre-social network era were mostly played by boys or young men but 'now the core audience of social network games are girls and young women,' says Alok Kejriwal, founder and CEO of games2win, an online gaming company. The tipping point in the US came in 2008 when women outnumbered men on the Internet. Combined with millions of parents and grandparents who're new to the Internet, the traditional face of the gamer is changing from that of a 25-year-old male to a band stretching from 16 to 40 years comprising men and women in almost equal numbers, says Sebastien de Halleux, one of the co-founders of Playfish, who predicts that someone is going to create a social game very shortly that pulls in a billion dollars a year. Gaming for this new set of players is less about breathtaking graphics, pulsating sound or edge-of-the-seat action and more about strengthening existing real world relations through frequent casual gaming. 'Think of these games as a sandbox where everybody has the same tools, yet everyone achieves different results,' says de Halleux."
Games

Submission + - New PC game has 600(!) screens of C64-style grfx (wordpress.com)

Submitted by GabeMcGrath
GabeMcGrath writes: "Rocky Memphis & the temple of Ophuxoff" is a new indie PC platforming game, with 600 screens of Commodore 64-style graphics. It's a bit like a cross between Rick Dangerous on the C64 and Manic Miner on the ZX Spectrum. Here's a big interview with the developers, and of course, a link to the download. Oh, they also spill the beans on their remakes-in-progress for other C64 classics like The Last Ninja, Myth and Scarabeus.

By the way — if the title confuses you, it goes like this:
(voice 1) What, how many screens?
(voice 2) 600.
(voice 1) ...Ophuxoff!!

Comment Re:Actually (Score 1) 422

by pastyM (#34383088) Attached to: The 5-Year Console Cycle Is Dead
I still like playing GT4 and from time to time GTA:SA. If Sony would pull there heads out of the butts and bring back the alternate OS and backwards compatibility I just might think about shelling out the money to get a PS3.
Graphics

Company Seeks To Boost Linux Game Development With 3D Engine Giveaway 140

Posted by Soulskill from the for-services-rendered dept.
binstream writes "To support Linux game development, Unigine Corp. announced a competition: it will give a free license for its Unigine engine to a seasoned team willing to work on a native Linux game. The company has been Linux-friendly from the very start; it released advanced GPU benchmarks (Heaven, Tropics, Sanctuary) for Linux before and is working on the OilRush strategy game that supports Linux as well."

Submission + - Tablet PC- Tablet Computer - Buy 100% Economical C (china-tablet-pc.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Buy 100% Economical Tablet PC And Experience All The Functions That Notebooks Have. It is 100% practical to buy tablet computers at the cheapest price. buy china iPad from here
Open Source

Submission + - Pretty, Open-Source Wifi Lights Sync to Music (createdigitalmotion.com) 1

Submitted by rryan
rryan writes: Why aren't there any sweet DIY high-power LED light projects? The SaikoLED project wants to fix that by providing open-source software and hardware to make pretty wireless lights all over the place. This video shows off 15 of these lights changing to music via PureData and OSC.

From TFA: "Open source hardware is the basis of a sophisticated, wireless lighting rig. It's already syncing to music with Pd, and automatic lighting control right from free DJ software may be next. With the effort of the open source music and visual communities, that could be just the beginning."

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I've noticed several design suggestions in your code.

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