All posts tagged News

Monday, monday

 Martin · 16 years

There's much ado with Marty - here's the low-down on what I've been up to, and what I've got planned for the week.

YoYo Games Competition 3

I've been bouncing around an idea in my head for the third installment of the YYG game competition a while now, and I think that when I get home from work today, I might just start putting together an engine. The idea I have is for a puzzle game, and is somewhat basic in design, but even with simple rules, I think that a complex and fun game can be created. I'll be posting more about this later in the week depending on how things turn out. About the only thing I'd like to give away for now is that the graphic style I have in mind is akin to something like Out of This World. And it's probably going to have robots in it.

Reflect Games

I know, I keep saying that I'm working on a site update, and nothing comes of it - well, there is actually quite a bit going on with the beta version of the new site, and though I've been off the project again for a few weeks, I'll be dipping into it again soon enough. I've also got a few things to sort out with the Reflect server code itself, so I might be re-writing that too - if the problems the Adrenaline team has been having with it turn out to be a Reflect issue.

World of Warcraft

Despite my best efforts not to play that much WoW, I put in a fair amount of time with the game this weekend... and now I've got my epic flying mount, which makes traveling around the game, mining, and questing a lot more enjoyable. For anyone outside of the Azeroth loop, much of your time in the game is spent traveling to and from where you need to go... so the faster you can get there, the better. There are a multitude of solutions for this - mages can make portals to towns (like Diablo), you can pay for rapid transit from town to town via flying beast, and eventually you can buy all sorts of mounts of various breed and speed. An epic flying mount is about the fastest ride you can buy, and combined with my Paladin's Crusader Aura, gives me a speed increase of 456%. Needless to say, this makes traveling around the World of Warcraft a lot less time consuming, and the game much more enjoyable.

I'm now currently waiting for Blizzard to unlock a new set of PVP gear for purchase, so I'll probably be spending a bit less time playing until then.

Web Work

I've also been helping out my buddy "D" to get his gaming news blog off the ground. I've re-skinned it and added a lot of cool plug-ins and customizations to help the site look its best. Check out DLB-Network.com to see how it all turned out.

The Rest

There's not much else going on for me at the moment - my girlfriend is out of town for most of the week. I finished my lunch-time book a few days ago, so I have nothing to read today (I'll probably just listen to the radio). And I'm not sure what I want to eat for lunch... hmm.

Anyway, that's all. Who else is working on a game for the next YYG competition? Post a comment, I'd like to hear from ya! And as always, thanks for reading.

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The Ballot Is Stronger Than The Bullet

 Martin · 16 years

That's a quote from Abraham Lincoln, and an important note for the time and place we're at.

I voted this morning. I probably should have done more research into the candidates, so I didn't place a vote for some of the positions, but for those I did, my voice shall be heard. It's a good feeling to know that I am not just standing idly by while the rest of the community decides my fate for me!

If you are a citizen of the U.S., live in California, are a registered voter, and are of legal age to vote, get into your local polling place and cast your vote too. There are too many important things going on right now, and things are too messed up to pass on your chance to change things!

Photo courtesy of Ana Schaeffer

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Whats New with Marty (Catorce de Mayo Edition)

 Martin · 16 years

I just wanted to make a quick post to point out a new feature, an upcoming addition, and to talk about what's in store in the coming months for my games and my web endeavors. I've got some neat stuff planned, and I hope that there will be something for everyone here when it's all said and done.

User Registration at Marty Blog

This was actually a request of a friend of mine. I've now opened registration up on the blog, which means that, if you so choose, you can now register as a Subscriber, login, and have the site remember your user details for when you post. Frankly, I should have done this sooner. You can still comment without registering though, so if you're not the type who likes to register, everything is just as it was before!

Games On the Way

If you've read up on the archives of this blog or poked around a bit, you've noticed that part of the reason why I created it was to replace my old games site with something easier to maintain and with broader use. You might have also noticed that, while my examples have made the jump from old site to new, my games haven't - but I aim to change that soon. Within the next week or so I'll be adding a special page to house my games, with better descriptions, control explanations, etc. so don't forget to check that out (especially if you haven't played all of the games yet!).

Reflect Games Site Update

It's been a long time in the making, but I am slowly moving closer to releasing the new version of the Reflect Games website. The changes are a mixed bag of functional and aesthetic improvements, and will include a friends list, credit store, highscore page, improved stats and profiles, and a lot more. Though all the new features will not justify the amount of time it's taken me to finish, I think the site will look more professional and will offer more reasons for people to create and use Reflect accounts. I'll post more about this when I draw closer to the update.

Cross-Site Mayhem

My buddy Dandri, the guy who requested registration here, currently runs the Official PlayStation 3 blog at MySpace, and is looking to expand his operations to a whole new site this summer. We've been talking about doing some cross-site promotions, and since we both have extreme opinions about certain aspects of the gaming world, we thought it'd be interesting to do some interviews and other things along those lines, so keep your eyes peeled for that stuff as well. Again, I will post more about this as the details emerge.

What About Game Maker?

Depending on when the upcoming YoYo Games Competition 3 is announced, and exactly what they decide to do with the user-created theme, "co-operation," I might just be entering. I liked that they gave developers more time to work on games for the second competition, and I've got a couple of ideas that might prove to be fun if they work out correctly.

I'd also like to be getting in more Game Maker in general, but with the Reflect Games website revamp, Grand Theft Auto 4 (as well as other games), my job, and my girlfriend, I've not had too much time lately to work on anything significant. Hopefully I'll be able to turn that around this summer, as I finish the website and the games up. I've got a few small projects I've had floating around on my computer for a while that I am considering just releasing the source code for as well.

In any case, I'm trying to get things rolling a little more swiftly than they have been, and to get things out the door. I'll be publishing more What's New with Marty to show my progress in the coming weeks / months, providing there is anyway.

If you've got anything to add to my to-do list, feel free to let me know with your comments - my head hasn't exploded yet!

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Convivial Carjacking Commencing

 Martin · 16 years

Well, it's done. I got my copy of GTA4 reserved at the local Gamestop a day ago. This will actually be my first GTA game that I haven't waited for the PC release, but I think my 360 should handle the job nicely for now. If not, I'll just wait a year and pick up the PC version, which I am sure will run better, play better, and look better than either the 360 or the PS3. Ah, but who cares about that - if this game is half as fun as it looks, I don't think I'll even be thinking about all that once I start playing!

To be honest, I've been purposefully avoiding reading too much about the game, so that I can head on in with no expectations. Rockstar has blown the dust off the hype machine, and has been releasing lots of new information on their site over the last few days, and there was even a big photo of the game's city map floating around on the game news blogs a few days ago. I've yet to visit the site though, and I only took a brief look at the map (to see if it looked real, of course). Other than that, I just know a few odds and ends of technical information about the game (check out the Euphoria physics technology they're using... just turn down the crummy music), and not much else.

Well, nothing else except for multiplayer. I have actually read a bit about that, and I think that's going to be one of the best parts of the game. Rockstar finally included a fully loaded multiplayer component in GTA4, and it's looking to be capable of throwing up to 16 people in the city at once. Unfortunately, there's no co-op mission play, but between all the different multiplayer modes, I don't think I'll regret the lack of co-op much. I like the way Rockstar usually does the story-telling in GTA games anyway, so if it remains untainted by multiplayer, that's fine by me.

So yeah, I am gearing up for some fun times in Liberty City. I'm going to cut this post short, because I don't really have much more to say about this for now, other than I am pretty excited about it. Hopefully the game turns out to be good, huh?

GTA4 is out on April 29... better reserve a copy if you haven't already!

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