Category: Games

iPhone 3GS Compass

So, if your game uses the compass and it’s being played in a moving vehicle, what happens….

The new iPhone 3GS has a compass in it, and most certainly it’s going to be used for precision game play at some point.

Then it dawned on me, one of the number one applications of the iPhone is to act as babysitter. You fire up a game and hand it to the kids in the back seat as you’re driving somewhere.

I’m wondering how this is gonna work as people try to play compass-enabled games while moving, say a car, bus, or train.

My first gut instinct is that initial QAing of games will happen seated, but their real use will be in an environment where there’s motion, and at that point this potential problem may start to get noticed. It may surface as bugs, where ‘the game’ did something unexpected.

As for me, I can’t wait to see how a few malicious sharp terms and exit ramps will affect future game play.

MacHeist 3: A Look At Group Purchasing Behavior

Have MacHeist sales stagnated? He’s my take on why, and what can be done to fix it, and how it has to play out… for the better!

As a glossed over quick introduction, MacHeist is a short-run sale of software packages for the Mac that has a twist. You pay $39 for a bundle of software, and some of that software is “locked.” A portion of your purchase price goes to charity, and the more money raised for charity, the more items in the bundle that get “unlocked.” Thus the more people buy, the more you continue to get. It’s a great scheme, only it isn’t working.

MacHeist 3MacHeist, at the time of this writing, is conducting their third “heist” and after some amazing fluster of activity, new sales appear to have stagnated at an alarming rate.

Alarming to bundle purchasers, because if not enough sales happen, bundle purchasers won’t get all the amazing high-cost software at the extreme end of the bundle. What’s important about that statement is that it’s never happened before, and the problem isn’t the recession.

In informal polling, there appear to be two kinds of purchasers: early adopters and frugal purchasers.

The early adopter purchases the bundle early, knowing a good value when they see it, spurred on by the fact that there are additional incentives for doing so.

The frugal purchasers have their eye on either the final packages in the bundle, or are looking at the bundle as a whole. They don’t want to purchase the bundle until they know everything in it is unlocked.

And that’s the interesting part. If no one buys it, nothing gets unlocked. If everyone takes a risk, everyone gets handsomely rewarded, guaranteed. Thus each potential purchaser is waiting on the action of everyone else — it’s crowd mentality, only the driven behavior is idleness.

The secret ingredient is momentum. By carefully crafting a set of software incentives, under ideal circumstances the early adopter crowd overlaps with the late takers. This manifests itself as a steady stream of purchases.

It might be argued that The Directorate which runs MacHeist became victims of their own success and actually caused the problem by marketing the sale too well. Based on all the pre-sale puzzles, rumors, and incentives, there was a flurry of purchases in the early hours of the sale and projections seemed rather high.

However, one of the primary packages in the bundle required what looked like a high goal to unlock, the perception was that momentum was slowing. And perception drove reality. “Hmm, that doesn’t look like it’ll get unlocked, I think I’ll wait to see if it does before I buy,” is all it took to slow the influx of unlocking purchasers.

This was ill-timed, as it also happened to coincide with the reward for the first 25,000 buyers being removed from the table as the 25,000th bundle was sold. Days later, a only mere 5,000 more have sold and questions are being raised if the final packages will be unlocked.

The up-front fast burn created enough of a gap that people who were on the fence at different points became more segregated than usual. This didn’t happen in the last two sales.

So here’s my prediction: they have to fix this. Meaning, new incentives will re-emerge, the goals will have to be re-addressed, and it’s in the best interest of MacHeist to unlock the bundles anyhow at the end of it.

Turns out before I could finish this post, a new bonus was added, and that did stir a little traffic. But the real objective here is to convey there’s movement, specifically enough that the goal could be reached. That will inspire sales again, and in turn actually unlock the software. By re-calibrating the goal levels, this would solve the problem. In fact, the easy solution is to put all the last packages into one final, achievable goal.

The truth of the matter, however, is whatever happens will be remembered, if not chronicled in Wikipedia forever. If MacHeist goes down in flames for not unlocking all it’s bundled packages, people will be ever the more skeptical, and that means early adopters turning into late purchasers. That only exacerbates the problem, killing future sales opportunities.

By contrast, if the packages do get unlocked, whether by purchasers or by The Directorate making its own donation from the profits it receives, then MacHeist will be seen as more of a sure thing in the future, sliding more of the late comers and risk adverse customers into the early adopter side. This would actually increase future sales, because more gets unlocked sooner, enticing the skeptical buyers.

As such, “betting” on MacHeist with a purchase at this point still seems like a safe move. And, even if none of my predictions happen to come true, enough is unlocked already that the $39 price tag is still an awesome buy for the collection of software provided.

Wii: 141 in hoops, with a blindfold

Having gotten a decent score using a mirror, Rob practiced and then tried the Party Game hoops using a blindfold. …and got on the high score list with 141.

Having achieved 74 hoops using a mirror, Rob figured out how get the controller just right that he was confident he could pull a decent score blindfolded. We were shocked when he actually started making baskets, stunned when he passed his prior mirror score, floored when he crossed 100 points, and were astounded when he kept going.

Yes, the video is real. Yes, it’s really him. Yes, he’s holding the real controller doing the shooting. Zero trickery involved.

[QUICKTIME http://www.wwco.com/~wls/livejournal/WiiRobHoopsBlindfolded.m4v 360 500]

The Most Addicitive Wii Game

I can’t tear myself away. Here’s the most addictive Wii game that I’ve encountered yet. And, I explain why – the game builds an addiction feedback loop, making it very difficult to quit.

Geomerty Wars: Galaxy for the WiiIt isn’t often that a game comes along that is:

  • Instantly Playable.
  • Wonderfully fun.
  • Loaded with eye-candy.
  • Highly addictive.

Hmm, make that:

A-d-d-i-c-t-i-v-e.

Don’t let the two dimensional Asteroid-like vector graphics on the box fool you. Geometry Wars: Galaxy is not an Asteroids rip off.

If you got a Wii, you need to buy it now for your collection. Before the holidays.

Deep inside we all want a game where you shoot everything with total disregard, you’re loaded to the hilt with fire power, you amass incredible scores, and you cause all kinds of explosions and manipulate the environment to destroy your enemies. That why we seek cheat codes. This game found out how to do it without ruining playability! You get everything you ever wanted, without relying on cheat codes to make it happen.

Here’s my take on what gives this game its incredible hook:

Visually Pleasing


There isn’t a moment that there isn’t some color explosion, spray of sparks, swirl of color, or special effect going on. Some thing’s always moving or blowing up, and when it does, it looks like the best fireworks show you’ve ever seen. Effects are not boring, the tend to interact, and don’t seem redundant. Those watching will be treated to an impressive spray of color and particles.

“Every time you finish a game, the next carrot is just withing reach — if you play just one more time.”

Simple Controls


The simple synopsis is that you’re a ship in the middle of a grid in the galaxy. With the nun chuck you steer, with the Wii-mote you point.

You don’t need to read any rules to start playing instantly.

Enemies Fear You


As you point, you emit a red laser that directs where you’ll fire; enemy objects see the red laser and run from it.

Unlimited Firepower


Unlimited, constant, fast, ever improving unlimited firepower — just push the button or squeeze the trigger.

Enormous Colorful Bombs


If enemies get too close, push either button on the nun chuck and a kill-everything bomb will go off, taking out all your enemies.

Points for Everything


Whenever you destroy an enemy, you get points. If it moves, shoot it. If it doesn’t move, shoot it. If it disrupts the fabric of space itself, shoot it.

As you play, you get awards, in addition to the high score list, which is easy to get on and bump off the default scores; no one wants to look at scores from the game designer anyhow.

Cumulative Score Multipliers


Destroyed enemies leave behind little golden bits which you simply have to zoom near, accuracy doesn’t matter, and you’ll consume them; doing so gives you score multipliers. You can have very big multipliers.

Money Does Buy Happieness


Earning multipliers is like accruing currency, you can save up between games. Currency unlocks different playing fields, new enemies, and more wonderful things.

A.I. On Your Side


In addition to your ship, there’s a totally hands free drone.

Your drone stays near you, and using some very basic artificial intelligence, it helps you.

You can buy different skills for your drone. The more currency you have, the more skills you can purchase. And, get this, one of the drone’s tasks can be to collect more currency. Clever.

Longer Play


Think back to how many times you’ve played an arcade game and lost a life because you missed something trivial or committed a dumb mistake.

You may have your drone shoot, defend, snipe, or do one of any number of a selected set of tasks. You pick which, making compensates for weakness in your play style or leverage your strengths.

If you miss something during play, aren’t playing attention, or aren’t looking where you’re going, there’s a really good chance that the drone will take care of it for you. Play lasts longer and is more enjoyable because little accidents don’t matter.

The Addiction Feedback Loop


The more you play with a drone using a particular skill, the smarter it gets. The better you play, the faster that it gets smarter; it literally accumulates experience. With enough experience, the drone levels and plays even better, helping you even more.

Meaning, that after you finish a game, the drone is more capable, and you’ll do better in the next game at the same level of effort. So you do.

But then your drone levels, so now you want to play again to see what the new capability is. So you do.

You get more kills with a better drone. That directly translates to higher scores and more currency. And, more currency means new drone skills and more experience. Which, gives you a better drone. That takes you back to more kills.

Every time you finish a game, the next carrot is just withing reach — if you play one more time.

Pure evil. The best kind.

Features, features, features


Aside from the ton of worlds and surprises you can unlock, the disc has more.

Yes, you can play with another player. Even more surprising, if they have a Nintendo DS, your Wii will go WiFi and connect to it.

There’s also a Retro version as part of the game as well.

The game experience itself is fresh.

Plus the game itself comes in at about $10 cheaper than other main titles, it’s so affordable it’s not worth resisting.

Walt gives the Wii’s Geometry Wars: Galaxy two carpel tunnel thumbs up!

Wii: Games to Get, Games to Avoid

I’m no good at first person shoot ’em up games, I dislike sports, I get bored easily with games that repeat, I don’t like repetitive button pressing that causes my wrists to hurt, and I get motion sickness. I do like lots of variety, humor, and having friends over for social gatherings. As such, I’m the perfect candidate for the Wii. Here are a number of games suitable for social occasions and similar personalities, especially ones that don’t like to read a lot of directions up front.

Here’s Walt’s take on what Wii games you want, and which ones you don’t. Keep in mind, this is biased by someone who does not enjoy first person games (ok, I suck at them), and who loves social party games as the Wii is a great source of fun for large groups.

Wii Sports: GET IT (OK, YOU GOT IT)
It comes with your Wii, and it is the defacto standard in my mind about how games interfaces should work. Everything naturally does what you expect. Even if you hate sports in the real world, you’ll love them on the Wii. Bowling, Golf, and Tennis are personal group favorites. Here’s a great tip, too – while most people focus just on the primary games, go to the training icon, there are a 15 more games hidden in there.

Rayman Raving Rabbids: GET IT
Over 70 multiplayer games and challenges involving masochistic bunnies and toilet plungers. This has to be one of the most entertaining and clever games, and it makes great use of the Wii-mote control and nun chucks. The only down side is that you have to play the story mode to unlock individual party games.

WiiPlay: GET IT
A handful of clever two person game that use the remote in interesting ways. The games are very easy to pick up.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz: GET IT
Primary game with 50 multi-player games involving monkeys in gerbil balls. Interesting use of the Wii-mote, as it uses more of a key-turning action combined with tilting. The only down side is that you have to read the instructions carefully before each game, and if anyone hits a button, the game starts prematurely. Why read the directions? Because some of the stuff is just so weird, you won’t figure it out by trial and error.

WarioWare Smooth Moves: GET IT
This game has some of the worst graphics you’ll ever see. However, a game doesn’t have to have eye-candy graphics to be fun, and this title comes with 200 micro-games. Often you’re given several seconds to figure out what you’re supposed to do, and make it happen. For instance, a fly and a flyswatter may appear on the screen, you have to mentally connect the two concepts and realize you need to make a swatting action with the remote. The Wii-mote is used in ways you’ve never imagined, and each one is taught in a humorous manner.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’07: MAYBE GET IT
If you’re a golfing nut, you want this game. It is far more complex than WiiSports, both in the realistic rendering as well as the physics modeling. It’s possible to make very realistic avatars of yourself. And for just as good as the game is for golf swings, it equally is deficient on having an easy interface – it is just too easy to select something you don’t mean to. For a party game, it can take quite a while to complete all the holes; people get bored easily. So, if you want to play golf, it’s great. If you just want quick fun, pick another title.

Super Swing Golf: AVOID IT
What looks like Manga combined with Putt-Putt is actually a what happens if you were to make a game using Microsoft Vista’s GUI. It looks pretty, but is damn annoying to use. For instance, in both WiiSports and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, you swing your club back, and then forward to strike the ball. Not here. No, you select on the screen a tiny button that says you’d like to take a swing. Then you raise and lower the remote to tell how much you’d like to hit the ball. Then you lock in your answer. Then you swing the remote. Nothing about the game feels like a natural golf swing. Plus the tutorials are long and horrible, they throw text at you as slow as the slowest child reader might read, but don’t let you practice – no you watch the computer to the maneuver rather than trying it yourself. This could be such a great game, but the interface is so painful, so very painful, so utterly painful you will give up before you ever make it to the second hole.

Mario Paper: GET IT, AND HAVE PATIENCE
I do know know what it is about games which have so much text dialog that the makers actually think it’s fun if you have to press next, next, next, next, next, … for ten minutes without actually playing anything or being able to skip. That’s the frustrating part of Paper Mario. Then things change. You’re forced to hold the remote sideways and use it like a traditional game console, that makes you wonder why this game was ever made for the Wii. But then, 3D mode kicks in, and it isn’t so bad. And then you start using the Wii as a pointing device to reveal objects, and things are actually okay. And then, you start getting weapons that require use of the accelerometers, and suddenly things are pretty good. The game is quite clever, but may require a use of cheat guide if you get stuck – some stuff isn’t so obvious to find.

Mario Party 8: GET IT
What starts off as a board game where you simply “press a button” to roll a die and move, things get fun quickly. You have more influence over the course of events than it first seems, and after every round there’s a party game that’s presented and unlocked. The games are quite clever and require the Wii remotes to be used in odd ways. The diversity makes it hard to get bored.

Elebits: MAYBE GET IT
Aside from some child book story art, the tutorials. Make you. Click the. Remote. After every. Concept. …the whole thing introduction is long, painful, disorienting, and had to skip. The story line is horribly forced and immature. However, if you can get through that, your Wii-mote is a kind of anti-gravity gun and with it you cause wanton destruction! By moving and shaking objects, you coerce little packets of energy to come out into the open. You gun collects them, becoming more powerful, allowing you to eventually pickup and throw extremely large object into one another, open and close doors, topple furniture, break things, and so forth, all to find more of the little energy creatures. The sheer destructive nature of the game appeals to your inner child that wants to mess up the house when the parents are away. However, if you don’t look where you point, you’ll get one of the worst motion-sickness headaches that makes any first-person shooter game experience pale in comparison.

The Legend of Zelda – Twilight Princess: GET IT
This is not a social party game but a first person role playing adventure game that’s going to require some serious time investment. The game, however, is very well designed so that there are interesting activities within the game itself that are just as rewarding, even if you don’t follow the main plot threads. The game makes pretty good use of the Wii-mote’s capabilities.

Sonic and the Secret Rings: AVOID IT, MAYBE
The game claims a hundred missions and 40 party games. But right out of the box it can feel frustrating. The Wii-mote is held sideways and used as a regular-old console game pad. Come on, the Wii is all about having a useful interface. One should be able to point on the screen, not use directional arrows on a keypad! There are some instances where the game redeems itself using the remote as the Wii intended, but not enough to make me happy about this game.

The Pits, Getting Closer

I’m offering a sizable cash reward for the Adventure Game known as The PITS which was hosted on The Source back in the 1980’s. Today I got an interesting clue that it might be written in A-Code, a generic adventuring gaming language.

This week I got a surprise letter from a gentleman named Jeff Walker who remembers playing the adventure game called PITS on The Source back in the early 1980’s.

For those who don’t know, I’m offering a cash reward for information and source code to the PITS. That’s right, if you can Google and find it, even in some public area, and it’s the game I remember playing, you’ll get a hunk’o’cash.

Jeff helped me recall some more details, and he got me in contact with Tom Walker who had far more information on The Source than I had before.

He then got me in contact with a guy named Fritz Thane who believes PITS was actually constructed using the old ADV550 engine. I’m thinking a good lead at this point is the A-Code adventure writing system.

Looks like I’m now researching generic game engines for adventure systems.

Google Image Labeler – Game or Tool

Here’s one I bet you didn’t know about: Google Image Labeler… it’s like a game, and it makes finding Google Images better.

Ever wonder how Google Images seems to zero in on images so well?

I just stumbled into the Google Image Labeler, and it’s addictive.

Google shows you a random image, and you enter in as many keywords as you can think of in real time. Meanwhile, a partner you’ve been paired up with does the same thing. When you match one of your terms, you progress to the next image.

You’re given a finite amount of time to do as may as you can, scoring points as you complete match after match. A score board is kept so you can see your ranking, as well as compete for the top titles.

So, while you’re playing this game with a mystery person on the net, you’re actually seeding Google with image tags, the ones where you both match are given validation that two independent people looking at the same image came up with the same tag.

Clever. And fun!

Flight Simulator Must-Have: X-Plane

Looking for an absolutely killer flight simulator? Check no firther than X-Plane.

A friend turned me on to X-Plane a few days ago, and my copy just arrived, and I’m in awe. Total awe.

This is like the flight simulator to end all flight simulators. It has gobs of air vehicles from real planes to science ficition ones, it has totally fantasic topographical data, amazing imagery detail laid over that, and can utilize incredible input devices. So good is it, I’m given to understand the FAA will allow time in the simulator to count as flight time.

Even more impressive, the software was written on a Mac so that it is capable to work on Linux and Windows as well. The price is cheap, cheap, cheap …like in the $59 ballpark. For that you get seven DVDs jammed packed with the software and detailed world images. The rendering is more realistic than any other simulator I’ve seen. And you can add real-time current weather! Plus, if you want to splurge, for an additional $15 bucks or so, you can get two moer DVDs with the full topographical and image data for Mars. Yes, Mars. Fly a plane, or even the space shuttle, around Mars.

A downloadable demo is available online, and honest to God, undoctored screen shots are presented on the site. The software even lets you make movies of your flight, plus the software is deliberately networkable and hackable, so you can play with other people, beam your data to programs, or have your software control the planes.

And that’s not all, if you like dog fighting in the dark verse, snag a free copy of Space Combat. All platforms supported!