11th November, up at 4:30 a.m. to reach Dadar station to catch a bus to Pune for the Nasscom GDC. Just the night before night Krishna and me realized that we would infact have the time and could actually attend the NGDC. At first we thought it’s too last minute but by midnight we decided, lets go for it. So, groggily we met up at 5am outside the station and got on a Shivneri after a 4 hour journey spent in a half asleep state, we reached Pune and head right to the venue, Taj Vivanta and “freshened up” there. EXCEPT! that was NOT the venue! After speaking to a couple of friends we realized that the venue was Hyatt Regency (I still can’t recollect why we were so convinced that the venue was Taj). Feeling like a bunch of idiots we head towards Hyatt and spent 2 days attending sessions and meeting lots of interesting people.

There were some really good sessions this year. I particularly enjoyed Rajat Ojha’s Post Mortem of their upcoming game SNS. It was a simple talk of What they did, How they did it and what did or did not work for them. I wish them luck for the launch and with their new games. Jason Bay’s session on freemium games also had some great insight into the hottest business model in the games indsutry today. Then there were the fellow Indies, Yadu, Kinshuk, Shubhank, Apoorav and the whole bunch. They were lively and passionate with good ideas for the way forward for Indies and game development in general in India (like the BYOG). My personal favorite moments, however, were the heated discussions between Vijay and Yiannis. :)

The NGDC ended quite well with a great meeting with Ian Livingstone. I demoed our upcoming game to him and he seemed to think it had potential (YAY!!!) As you can see, it was very Heart Warming. :)

Mr. Yasuhiro Fukushima and Mr. Shoji Shiromoto visited our office and we talked Games and the Indian Market for hours.They gave us great feedback on Finger Footie, and seemed to quite enjoy It’s Just a Thought.
They also play-tested our upcoming secret project. ** Don’t tell anyone, but I think they liked it ! :D **

“Hoplay festival 2011 at Alhondiga Bilbao, Spain”

From Hoplay11, posted by Shailesh Prabhu on 10/07/2011 (20 items)

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

And I’d like to thank ……………

Spain here we come

It’s Just a Thought has been nominated in all the categories of Spain’s Game Festival at Alhondigabilbao. HoPlay or noPlay, we are heading to SPAIN, well probably not we; but one of us! This means a lot to us and its little things like these that keeps us going. We would like to take this opportunity thank our ever encouraging fans (YOU). Now if you are in Spain and live even remotely close to Bilbao, get in touch with us…………

http://www.alhondigabilbao.com/seleccionados

AH yes! Yellow Monkey Studios
We have successfully invented another uh Invention ! We call it “Human Talk, Monkey DO” or “Voice to Text”. That is the real reason behind our inactivity, not to mention dying grey matter. Now to show you some real powerful stuff that you can do with this technology.

BEHOLD

AH hA ! There …oh no no not supper secret. Guys we need to work on the spelling correction algorithm again, check Ok? Sorry for those minor interruptions. Now, lets try that again.

This is it!

……….hey slash , check out my new post. Oh gosh how do i turn this……… Didn’t we……….WHAT ! NO KILL SWITCH ? GUYS!…….*Table rumbling* *Coffee splash* *Heavy objects falling* *sounds of silence……….

—————————————-NO DATA TRANSMISSION FROM I.P. 22.51.3.226——————————-

OMG. A poorly coded flash game. You don’t get to see to many of those ever since flixel/FlashPunk has been around. However after much persistence and few days of bonded labor I have finally come up with a deliverable. It may not be the best versus game you ever played , but I’m pretty sure you guys enjoyed button mashing on your clicky sounding keyboard. OH and please refresh the page if you want to play again, my retry() function asked me to retry writing the code. Please do report in your volcanic adventures.

Music Credits: Brad Sucks – Dirtbag (Blackberry’s Dirtbeat Remix) on CCMixer

Yellow Monkey Studios made some waves last month as its latest game, It’s Just a Thought, disseminated among the indie Internet. The team was lauded for its incorporation of social website Facebook into the game. I consider catching Michael Rose’s attention a good litmus test of indie superstar potential. Alliteration aside, indies in India seemed like a good idea to explore, so I decided to hear what Yellow Monkey Studios has to say about the Indian indie scene. Along the way, I discovered how tasty vada pav looks!

Read more here…

 

1. Innovation from the AAA industry.

It is not everyday that we get to see something new from the AAA industry. Some things really stood out in God of War .

 

a. The mystery of the green gem aka The Isometric view puzzle – God of War 2 used the green gem as a time manipulation tool. This sequel it has something to do with space and perspective. I have seen many indies explore the relation between the player and the view with which he sees the world. This relationship can be the basis for an interesting puzzle mechanic. In this particular puzzle the view switches from a perspective view into an isometric view similar to the picture below.



Yes the level has paths of flowing water too

The rules of the level change according to the view you are in. Keeping a mind map of the way we see things is definitely mind bending. This puzzle was no exception.
b. Head lights – It was amazing to see light mechanic in God of War 3. Doom 3 used it for a futuristic setting but must I say that it definitely feels better in the Ancient Greek setting. Playing in the dark gave a different feel to this brutal action game.
c. Fear Level aka Max Payne Blood trail – Expecting a brutal boss fight at end game is a natural reaction for those of you who have played previous God of War games. However God of War 3 tries to send across a higher message with its end game scenario similar to the Blood trail level from Max Payne.
d. Disposable Flight Mechanic – I have always wanted to use enemies in our games more than just to be dodged or killed. Maybe its something that we can take help from for a limited amount of time. Harpies in God of War 3 served that purpose. You could swing onto them and use them to get across pits before ripping their belly apart.

 

2. Accessibility – God of war 3 on a PS1 controller.

It is obvious that God of War 3 must have “more” of everything with the same control schemes. But I must applaud the fact that even after having 8 different weapons(along with their respective platforming mechanics), all were easily accessible without having to look twice at the control scheme. Probably this is one of the first games I have played that allows for quick switch whilst performing a weapon attack so you wont have to worry about crowd control.

 

3. A success story.

Its not easy rewriting history, having a parallel story about Ghost of Sparta blends exceptionally well in the Greek mythology. It may not be accurate to the teeth, but its modified well to fit another character. Having creatures like Medusa/Chimera, using powers from mythology itself (Golden Fleece) and bosses like Titans/Gods has helped in creating a memorable story.