Today Dormouse Games moves into Intrepid Labs. We have an office! Intrepid Labs is a fantastic co-working space which houses some of our closest friends and mentors in the game design world. The Tap Lab has been there for a while, and suggested we look into getting a desk there. Owlchemy Labs moved in recently. Some ex Zynga Boston folks (who I haven't met yet) are there. And a few other companies are starting soon as well.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
Blog on Blog.
Is white text on black lettering a little too harsh? As I was reading an article on another game designers blogger, who happened to use the same template, I noticed reading white text on a black background was a little too harsh.
I am not actively trying to burn the retinas of my readers. I'm assuming that most of you are reading through an RSS feed anyway. But I turned the text color down, and increased the font size. If you have opinions on how to make things more legible, please feel free to comment.
Also blog posts have been a little spares lately... I've co founded a game design company. Check out the facebook page. I really do intend to keep this blog running, and keep writing articles. Time is simply not on my side at the moment.
Any requests for topics?
I am not actively trying to burn the retinas of my readers. I'm assuming that most of you are reading through an RSS feed anyway. But I turned the text color down, and increased the font size. If you have opinions on how to make things more legible, please feel free to comment.
Also blog posts have been a little spares lately... I've co founded a game design company. Check out the facebook page. I really do intend to keep this blog running, and keep writing articles. Time is simply not on my side at the moment.
Any requests for topics?
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
No console? No problem!
Having not owned a console since Super Nintendo, but feeling a certain lack of gaming exposure, the near future is looking pretty bright. Ouya had a super successful 8 million dollar kickstarter. Gamestick is looking pretty awesome, and passed it's goal in 6 out of 30 days. Nvidia has created the Shield... A hand held console thing... And finally Valve has released information about the Steambox called Piston at CES.
Price points are going to be a big deal. The super portable Gamestick will retail for $79. Add $15 shipping on the kickstarter to get it in April 2013 on launch. Ouya is a $99 dollar console that promises 'free to play' as the basic purchasing mechanic of every game. The Shield should be priced somewhere between $100 and Pistons $999. Piston will be more like a PC meant to attach to your TV, rather then a bargain device.
By the time the Piston becomes available the desktop PC where I play all my steam games will be just about ready to be replaced. $1000 is a terrible price point for a console... But a great price point for a replacement of my gaming PC. Having missed the Ouya kickstarter, the Gamestick is awfully tempting. Super portable and cheap, even if it's games kinda suck the form factor and portability is tempting. Although I don't feel the need to pay $90 now, when I could buy it for $79 later, which means their kickstart campaign isn't efficient.
With a flood of new consoles in 2013, will you be buying anything? With Windows increasingly becoming a game tyrant, will Linux be coming to your rescue? 2013 might be the year of the console... Therefore is 2014 the year of the console game? Start coding folks!
Price points are going to be a big deal. The super portable Gamestick will retail for $79. Add $15 shipping on the kickstarter to get it in April 2013 on launch. Ouya is a $99 dollar console that promises 'free to play' as the basic purchasing mechanic of every game. The Shield should be priced somewhere between $100 and Pistons $999. Piston will be more like a PC meant to attach to your TV, rather then a bargain device.
By the time the Piston becomes available the desktop PC where I play all my steam games will be just about ready to be replaced. $1000 is a terrible price point for a console... But a great price point for a replacement of my gaming PC. Having missed the Ouya kickstarter, the Gamestick is awfully tempting. Super portable and cheap, even if it's games kinda suck the form factor and portability is tempting. Although I don't feel the need to pay $90 now, when I could buy it for $79 later, which means their kickstart campaign isn't efficient.
With a flood of new consoles in 2013, will you be buying anything? With Windows increasingly becoming a game tyrant, will Linux be coming to your rescue? 2013 might be the year of the console... Therefore is 2014 the year of the console game? Start coding folks!
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Investopedia loves gamers.
As a lot of you know as well as creating an app, and cofounding a game development company, I’m also a financial services guy. Call volume to 529 plans isn't steady, so occasionally I get to spend some time learning about finance, instead of just taking calls. Today for example I found this article on Investopedia.
I love this article. The author is clearly a gamer or someone that loves one. The article tackles the benefits of many different kinds of games with care and rational thought. He mentions many games by name from Chess to Magic: the Gathering as well as Dungeons and Dragons and points out the positive cognitive effects of each.
It makes me happy to know there are more financial services gamers out there.
Monday, January 7, 2013
Firelfy MMO?
As a huge fan of the masterful story-telling and world-creating of Firefly, I'm not sure how I feel about an MMO. Fox seems to be down with it. But what of Whedon? The key word is verisimilitude. If the MMO can do a good job, it just might work.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
So many great things happening all at once...
Dormouse Games has officially filed for LLC status. We're a real company! The twitter account is more interesting then the website right now. I'm running the twitter, Eric's running the website so there is a bit of light hearted satisfaction there. I made the logo, can you tell!?
I mentioned an app idea in previous blog posts. The prototyping has begun! It will be completed before the end of January, and I have to decide whether to put it up freely on the App store, or gather feedback from a community of users to refine it.
This is going to be an amazing week.
I mentioned an app idea in previous blog posts. The prototyping has begun! It will be completed before the end of January, and I have to decide whether to put it up freely on the App store, or gather feedback from a community of users to refine it.
This is going to be an amazing week.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Cortex Command
This is a crazy game. It is not finished yet, and its been in development for quite a long time. But it is weird, and fun, and has a ton of potential. At first it looked like a Terraria knockoff... But it is so much deeper and more interesting. I really like the setting and the story ideas that explain the game setting.
There are two huge downsides about the game. 1.) It's an 'unpolished alpha'. If you buy it now, you are not getting a polished product. 2.) There is some crazy drama, which I neither care about nor understand. I paid full price almost instantly for the Alpha.
There are two huge downsides about the game. 1.) It's an 'unpolished alpha'. If you buy it now, you are not getting a polished product. 2.) There is some crazy drama, which I neither care about nor understand. I paid full price almost instantly for the Alpha.
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