VVVVVV - Art of Our Generation

   

Something different, yer familiar. Something strange, yet totally relatable. Something difficult, yet immensely gratifying.

From the minute you start the game up, its clear that VVVVVV is a game you'll never forget. Unique in style and gameplay, nothing of the like has ever been crafted in the course of human history. Everything is creative, beautiful, and unique, from the inspiring techno music to the flashy retro graphics, to the entire concept of the game itself. Flipping.

There are so many elements in VVVVVV that layer together to make some of the most complex and mind-bending platforming puzzles ever seen. There are no tutorials - you inherently understand how the mechanics work, and have to retrain your brain to function in nontraditional laws of space.

Oh, and the reflexes. VVVVVV is hard - everything in the game requires precision accuracy and spot-on timing. While it can be very frustrating, nothing can beat the sense of gratification that you get when you complete a challenge - the feeling of overcoming a great obstacle in your path.

Beating VVVVVV took me 2 hours and 756 deaths. This guy did a perfect run in 15 min.

A Square Life: My Adventures and Revelations in Minecraft

"Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go."
- James Cook

I recently purchased the Humble Indie Bundle 3 (VVVVVV is awesome!), and it came with free access to Minecraft, a game that I had heard of, but never had a chance to play. Up until that point, I thought Minecraft was nothing more than a silly distraction. However, seeing as it was only free for a week, I decided "I may as well give it a try." I loaded the game, only to find that there was no server list! After doing a quick google search, I realized that the creation of a "server list" had been tasked to the community. Numerous sites had been created for the sole purpose of serving as directories to servers. But the sites were not just sites. Each individual one was a community - a forum of individuals uniting around a common interest to deliver something of value to the world. Every single site had an active forum and a massive user base - something that completely surprised. I hadn't expected this out of a server list.

I picked a random server and entered in the ip address. The server "CityCraft" dropped me into a short test where I had to confirm that I understood the rules of the server. After that I was dropped into a massive entrance hall. My first though - "Woah..."

Part of the building hasn't even loaded into view yet.

Intricately and extensively crafted, the entry hall imposed itself upon my memory. However, one more surprise awaited me. I left the entrance hall, only to be confronted by a massive open world city, complete with streets, skyscrapers, pubs, and houses. I spent hours exploring, looking at what people had built - taking numerous screen-shots as I went.

After exploring CityCraft, I decided to see what else the community had built. The spawn point for another popular server, named "The Lord of the Craft" was a decorated temple. I slowly walked outside - I could see several other newcomers following me. What I found was a massive town with people, both computer controlled, and player controlled. Awe-struck, I wandered aimlessly around, eventually leaving the town. As I explored the land for hours, I cam across numerous landmarks, hamlets, dungeons, and all variety of interesting sights and places to explore (Check out a dynamic map of the world here). I discovered that the server had a wiki, which contained a full lore/backstory article for many locations within the game; I eventually used it as a travel guide in my numerous ventures.

The truth took a long time to dawn on me, but when it did, my mind melted. People had created this world. A team of dedicated individuals had created something great for others to enjoy. They shaped the mountains, they built the cities, they even manually crafted each tree in the forests. But these people were not professional artists, or Renaissance men. They were ordinary people. Ordinarily people with an extraordinary sense of organization, and an unmatched respect for each other. A single, egotistical individual could not have accomplished what this team of people did in such little time, with such attention to detail.

I don't know - maybe I'm just gushing, but my day as a block guy was anything but square - even if it looked like it from the surface.

Gaming Technology

In the past, the video game industry has lagged a bit behind mainstream technology. Video games would utilize existing mainstream technology and ideas in new creative ways to develop a playable experience.

Over the course of the past decade, this has completely flip-flopped. What was the first mainstream device to fully utilize accelerometers?  Not the iPhone (2007), but the Nintendo Wii (2006). How crazy is that? It's because of the video game industry that this technology became mainstream in the first place! Now it's in basically every single modern cellphone. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. New graphics card technologies such as CUDA evolved to catch up with ever increasing graphics standards in video games. You know what else CUDA is used for? Predicting protein conformation, medical analysis simulations, fluid dynamics, and accelerated encryption and decryption. Oh yeah, it's also helping the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). It's also what makes Just Cause 2 so freaking awesome. If you've caught onto my point, you know exactly where I'm headed with this.

That's right - the Microsoft Kinect. If you've been following the stories, then you've seen some of the freaking awesome things that people have done with the Microsoft Kinect. You can dance in front of it, or you can record hologram messages. You can pet a virtual animal, or create freaking 3D replicas of a real world environment. Or drive a robot. Maybe in the future, the Kinect will be driving our cars!

Really gives some insight of the role of the entertainment industry.

This Was A Triumph

And you make a neat gun, for the people who are still alive. So yeah, I'm still alive, and working on a whole bunch of new projects!

Cool People Discussing Video Games in Physics Class

So me and a group of friends have video game related discussions everyday in Honors Physics class. Literally like everyday. So we had the genius idea of recording our discussions and turning them into a podcast. So we did a pilot episode, and it turned out really awesome, thus spawning a whole series. You can check us out on iTunes here. If you're short on time, I'd recommend episode 8. It's probably our best so far.

Warped Reality

Reality sucks. So should blogs. Me and one of my most sarcastic friends decided to take it upon ourselves to make fun of stuff. Like what, you ask? Everything. Politics, sports, life - and even ourselves. Yeah, we make fun of ourselves. Check it out!

Sorry to Burst Your Bubble

So me and my friends decided to make a short video. It's pretty cool with some effects and music thrown in, as well as a bit of randomness.

Basic Math Engine

So I added a bit of tools to my Basic Math Engine site. It's sort of like a framework that I've created (running on Google App Engine) that I can use to play around with stuff and create my own tools, such as calculators. Among the tools added are a Euler's Method Calculator, a Directional Field Grapher, and a Density Map Grapher.

Ludum Dare 19 Entry

So I made a entry for Ludum Dare 19 (a 48 hour game making competition). Unfortunately, it was a bit to simple to compete with the many other awesome games that were made. You can check it out here.

Star of Doom: A Basic Framework

For the past few weeks, I've been slaving away at Star of Doom, and now a basic framework is starting to come together. As the engine is completed, you'll start to see more content to replace the temporary models and maps.



The current models and animations are only temporary. This video demonstrates the ability to switch and use weapons, as well as obtain pickups.



This video shows the integration of a basic inventory system into conversations.

Computer Science Club Recap (9/20/2010)

That was an awesome meeting that we had today, guys! A lot of stuff got done. Before I forget, I just want to recap on everything that we discussed today.

Game Concepts
We started the meeting today by discussing some game concepts. I was originally going to do a presentation, but I found some recording that I made a while back that basically summarize what I was trying to talk about. I originally made these videos for some other group that I was in, but it applies perfectly for this situation. The videos basically explain some basic concepts that apply to every game. It's kinda boring, but you should still watch it. It's important.

Show Off
After that, I took a bit of time to show off my own projects, in order to demonstrate how the same concepts are applied even in much more complicated games. In addition, I discussed why all of the games we make will be coded from scratch. Remember, this is a computer science club, not a game making club, and the goal is to learn the fundamental concepts behind how something works. Games are an effective and fun way to do this.

Star of Doom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWr9koi1YlM

Voxelvania:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgrLLN1YFXQ

Game in 5 Minutes
After that, I did something cool! Well... Not so much... Basically, I made a game in less than 5 minutes (Swaroop was timing). A really simple game, but an interactive one nonetheless. You basically just move a cube around the screen.

Prototypes
After that, we discussed some of our short term goals. Our eventual goal is to tackle that wizardry-esque RPG, with full battle and graphics etc. To start though, its best if we move in increments. At some point, I want to create a simple text based adventure games, because these can help to teach you many of the basics of programming. If you don't know what that is supposed to mean, I have a simple prototype that you can try.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2727127/HHSCSC/Prototypes/TextAdventure/game.html

Star of Doom Progress!

I've made some considerable progress with Star of Doom! The basic framework is laid in place (1605 lines of C++!), and I've begun to setup a workflow for creating maps and other content. Take a look at this video of what I have so far: