Pot Noodle: the follow up

Seems the Pot Noodle video I posted a while back uses elements from the Stakker 'Humanoid' video. Yeah, I've never heard of them but I was three years old when it was created.



Strangely hypnotic.

Quicktime Movs and Flash files now available for download at my site, for the sake of it. Not proving massively popular on YouTube yet so maybe some more web promotion is in order.

My site

Political Propaganda

This guy's videos are good. Wish I'd seen them before now, more specifically when I was still working on the Analogue Propaganda stuff. Dunno if the guy actually mixed them himself or if he stole them from some mashup show but they're impressive nonetheless.





RX2008's Youtube channel

Useful links

Just a few sites I've been using/bookmarked over the last few days:

• How to add autorun to a CD. Definitely will be using this for my data disc and possibly a game disc for MyPlace.com.
  
• Video Game Music archive. Plundered for my game - using Sim City tune as well as some free license stuff.
• Acme Manufacturing CD/DVD templates.
• Windows Advanced Installer (direct link to download)
  

Update: blasted autorun doesn't work on Macs. Why can't we all use the same computer and all these compatibility problems will be gone?

Analogue Propaganda DVD

Visual scheme. Looking to follow the same theme with my DVD packaging.

Gough Road map

Maybe a bit late now, as the mapping brief's deadline passed ages ago, but the University of Belfast have created an interactive version of a map from the 14th century. Talk about old contrasted with new - some of the tools resemble those on Google Maps, produced some 600 years later! It's also interesting to see what the country looked like all those years ago, even if the cartography didn't prove to be wholly accurate.

The Gough Map
Gough Map at Wikipedia

Improveverywhere April fools

Meant to post this ages ago, but Improveverywhere's website was reskinned on April Fools day:



Click to enlarge. I love these parodies of early userpages... something I touched on in my MyPlace game.

MyPlaceland beta

I'm pretty close to a version I'd be happy to post on my website. Some screenshots provided above - graphical and technical elements are all but complete. At this stage I wouldn't really have the time to add anything significant. I'm adding the finishing touches to the overall gameplay, specifically more people that may have a positive or negative effect on your points/sanity.

Apart from that it's just ironing out bugs through repeated playtesting.

MyPlaceland is nearing completion

What the title says. All rooms are in place and the next week will be the time to playtest and finalise the game, including adding a soundtrack (I have yet to mix) and messing around with the graphics a bit.

Reskinning MyPlaceland

Began the process of bringing more "Internetish" elements (especially graphically) into MyPlace. Beginning to work in places but looking like a nautical map in others...

Also the story has been changed to a more generic "you have to pick up bits of your corrupted webpage" collection based affair with the friends meter taking second stage.

I'm still thinking it through: I'm sure things will be sorted by the deadline.

I Wanna be the Guy!

Apparently this is the hardest game ever conceived. Pays homage to lots of famous video games and is graphically very cool.

I wanna be the guy

Youtube:

"I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game is a sardonic loveletter to the halcyon days of early American videogaming, packaged as a nail-rippingly difficult platform adventure. Players fill the role of The Kid, a youthful, vaguely Megaman-esque protagonist on a quest to become The Guy. This inscrutable plot, however, is just a vehicle for a wide variety of inventive, well-designed and frustrating jump-and-shoot challenges that pay homage to many of the games you loved as a child. The ever-fragile Kid explodes in a shower of red pixels at the slightest brush from the game's many obstacles, from traditional spikes and bottomless pits to more unconventional killers, such as plantlife and puzzle pieces. "

Couple of links

• Top Ugly MySpace pages. Perfect for my room skinning.
• How to get better quality playback on YouTube videos.

Also, updated my website with new projects and some better quality YouTube links.

My Website.

MyPlace: inspiration

As said previously, the graphics and general idea of the MyPlace game take from classic puzzle games as well as some newer top down role-play games. In particular the graphics take from Grand Theft Auto 2:

In addition, the game borrows graphically from the SNES version of Zelda. Here's a quick video of that in action:

Now, compare to some screenshots of my game:

Spot the difference.

MyPlace: quick update

MyPlace: the Game. Now has status bar, six rooms and unlockable areas. Also includes some new car sprites and yet more bits nicked from Zelda 3.

MyPlace: game progress

The graphical elements stolen from Zelda 3 stick out a bit....

MyPlace Land: Work In Progress

I'm thinking of applying this game to the publication brief: video game mapping. I might not be able to finish it in two weeks, however so I may need some sort of backup plan.

Some of the graphics are lifted from Zelda 3 whilst some, such as the sprites, are hand created. The above screen is the starting room in the game and thus far is the only one I have anywhere near completion. I'm going to base the map around a long street with a number of different rooms a bit like Zelda 2's houses.

I think things will have to be modified to fit the time limit: getting health from the computer idea is binned (for now) and only the friends (lives?) and score (score) ideas remain.

One other problem: the physical size of the game could potentially be massive in modern terms. It's already 30Mb and only the first room is done! At this rate it could end upwards of 200Mb meaning it would be a CD only game - no embedding into web pages.

To do:

• Create box art, packaging and distinctive graphics (purple, MySpace based). Apply to the game - make it more 'social networking' based.
• Change wavs to mp3s and see if the file size is reduced.

And an idea for another game:

• Teletext maze game. Simple beat the clock, Pacman 'avoid enemies' style.