THE BLOG HAS MOVED

Now taken over by the main site

www.pengink.com

first job

These past few months of unemployment have been quite interesting. Most people around these parts have had jobs lined up since January, and as such I’ve developed a reputation for being “too picky”. But life is short and opportunities are rare.

I think the post college job search process is almost like gambling. Some people hit jackpot early, cash out immediately, and retire. Others might exchange their chips as soon as they make a profit. As for me? I go for broke.

777

art games podcast

DOWNLOAD LINK

“Heather Kelley, Rod Humble and Gregory Peng — all experienced game designers — give a look into the process, people and resources involved in creating a video game. Aside from a game’s plot, art and music, they argue that game developers offer an artistic statement in controlling, through “rules,” the way a player interacts with the game’s environment, characters, and what they have to do to win.”

WARNING: I am ask to define an art game, as well as what indie means. Tread at own risk.

pew pew dice

Made a quick little game for Game Design class, integrating physical die with a digital game. It actually doesn’t work too badly (and is still somewhat playable without the die, though not nearly as much fun).

The best parts are the sound effects, made with the super awesome indie sound tool sfxr. Honestly, I don’t know how I ever got by without it. There’s only so much I can do with Audacity and a Singstar mike.

“A literary solution to a binary problem”

As an assignment for Game Design class, we had to redesign Hopscotch. Having sprained my ankle only days prior to working on the assignment, I knew that digital hopscotch was the only way to go. Cactus, who has been consistently churning out great games almost every other week, primarily uses Game Maker, so I thought I’d give the thing a shot. Due to time though, the end result was a bit (very) lacking, so I took a page out of the Tim Schafer’s book and tried to solve some of my design problems with a bit of prose.

 

Hop lives in a world where robots have taken over the world. In order to retaliate for the human cause, he must upload viruses to all the mainframe robot computers, deep in the earth’s molten lava core. But the evil robots anticipate his moves, setting up a honey-pot (booby trapping one of the computers). Hop must jump from computer to computer, and upload each virus in the correct order, all the while avoiding both lava and honey-pots. He must do this four times, because four is the number of true death.

Capstone Ideas

Bossmen (title pending) is the game that I’ll be leading this semester. Before we ended up deciding on the idea, I threw a couple of ideas at a wall, saw what stuck, and gathered them into a little powerpoint presentation for easy viewing. For those who don’t feel like downloading, here’s the skinny:

Bossmen - 3D action shooter entirely consistent of boss-fights
Army of Children – save/massacre an army of children controlled by alien parasites
Your Idea Here – exactly what it sounds like
Lashback – arcade space shooter based on reflecting bullets rather than shooting them
Hellavation – zombies in a tall building
Akinetopsia – the player has the inability to see movement, resulting in “slideshow gameplay”

Maybe I’ll return to these other ideas one day, but for now Bossmen (title pending) shall take the limelight!

What is an indie game?

In my opinion, what do I think defines an indie game? One word: heart.

I’m talking about the pulsating organ within your chest that fills arteries with warm blood. In other words, Indie games are all about warm blood. That’s why people are always talking about the Indie Spirit; one sip of Indie Spirit and you’ll feel warm all over. This also explains why a few commercial game companies are able to make games with heart. It’s because they have the Indie Spirit!