Virtual Goods Summit Videos

This video is just too good to keep from sharing with you. If you have any interest in virtual worlds, MMO's, web-based social networking, etc. you will really enjoy watching this video. Dont forget to check the other great video from the summit on Virtual Goods Success Stories.

Whirled: 2.5D Create Your Own Content MMO

To me, there are three companies right now creating the next "big thing". Socially Constructed Web Based MMO's (I don't think there's a nice simple acronym yet) will take the web by storm just like Blogs or Podcasting has. These three companies are Three Rings for Whirled, Areae for ... Areae, and whatever the folks at Conduit Labs are creating.

This article has more details of Whirled, and offers tantalizing screenshots into what must be the Alpha version of the game.

Scratch: Create Your Own Games

While Scratch from MIT is designed to allow 9-13 yr olds to learn how to program, it is also a very easy to use program for other purposes as well - including creating interactive slide shows, simple games, and other fun purposes. If you have kids you are cheating them out of something really amazing if you haven't let them on to Scratch. And even if you are a grizzled net veteran like me, you'll find yourself stealing time playing around with the fun interface yourself.

Here's an example of what you can do in scratch.

3D Tomb II - a DHTML Wolfenstein

Mathieu Henri works at Opera software and is I'm sure working on amazing 3D stuff. This is one example of his awesome work with 3D and DHTML. If you ever played Wolfenstein you'll have a fit of nostalgia as you move around rooms and slay mummies.

Myth-Weavers - play by post rpg

I found this site after poking around m3mnoch's Jaiku site. It's a play by post RPG that is easy to get into quickly without a lot of hassle.

From the site:

Myth-Weavers is a tightly-knit role playing community for running play by post games from numerous game systems, most popularly Dungeons & Dragons. If you'd like to browse the site, our forum index offers a brief overview of our discussion and gaming sections, and the RPG Tools menu lists our role playing resources. If you would like to participate in our quickly growing community of hundreds of active members and many active games, and use our online character sheets you'll have to register -- it's fast, simple, and absolutely free!

Limitless Quest Code restart

Now that I've made some good progress on Limitless Quest, I'm "restarting" the codebase. I have a much better idea of what I want to construct and I know the technology a bit better now.

Look for a new build "from scratch" soon.

Featured Blog: OpenBracket

OpenBracket looks to be a communal blog for helping folks create web based games. I've found several of the posts useful, and will definitely be coming back to check on what they write next.

Browser Based Game Zone

If you are into creating your own browser based game (as I am) you may find this site useful.

Site blurb:

Welcome to BBGameZone.com, the home of browser-based online gaming! Here you can learn to create your own browser-based PHP game, Java game or Flash game, find links to resources and games, and join our community!

Create your own web based strategy game

From the site:

The B&B Strategy Game Template allows you to build a fully customized browser-based strategy game (a PBBG) without programming it yourself. All B&B games share the same gameplay fundamentals, but each has its own unique units, items, look, theme, and game areas.

Basic customization involves little more than setting some variables which the B&B scripts will use throughout the game automatically - this does not require very much technical expertise. However, for a more experienced developer the possibilities are limitless.

A Dream. And A Call.

I had a dream last night. It was very interesting. It started out as I was at some kind of carnival or fair. As I wondered around seeing the games and things I was approached by a person. This person said something to the effect that this carnival was really a way for this group of people to find more folks like myself. They were happy, energetic, and fun. I was brought to a room in a house nearby where I was "tested". Note this all had sort of a pseudo midieval feel to it. Kinda like your typical fantasy rpg setting. Anyway, this was not like some cult initiation thing, it was more like having your eyes opened to something you had been feeling all along. Very much like that experience you were expecting Neo to have in the original Matrix when he first met Trinity at that rave.

Anyway, I came away from that dream with a huge feeling of acceptance, joy, and a sense of fun. I was able (in the dream) to do things all of the sudden like levitate things, or see distant locations, etc. Needless to say it was an awesome dream. I found myself as I was waking up wishing that I could revisit this place. It was just really cool!

As I thought more about it I realized that there may be a way to do that sometime in the near future. With places like whirled, second life, areae and others, there might actually come to be a place (even if it is cyberspace) where this kind of thing might happen. You might start off playing the "game" where you wonder around and see the sights, but there might be another level of "play" where you actually get to control the physics of of the world you are in, or that there is a system of "magic" that lets you begin to have more control over the world you are in. However this magic is not something you just learn by yourself, you have to establish relationships with others in a way that helps both you and the other person.

Anyway, I offer this post as an open call to all those folks wanting to build virtual worlds. I implore you to find a way to create something like this. Where you can come in and just "be" whatever you want - but more than just playing around I want to be able to interact with other folks in ways that arent possible in the real world. More than just creative ways to kill tons of monsters, I want a way to collectively build amazing things, to grow together in new ways (magic? sci-fi? whatever you want to call it).

There have been hints of this kind of thing I've seen in some virtual worlds. In one game you start off as a nobody, and you have to eventually learn that there are others in your world who are friendly and open and eventually one will walk you through a series of "choices". You cannot do it by yourself. Once you walked through those choices you were in a way connect to that person that acted as a catalyst - forever in the game you'd have an affinity for that person. Making this choices allows you to begin to grow as a character. Once you got "high enough" in levels or whatever you'd start helping other newbies along.

The mechanism in this game was crude, but emotionally it was powerful.

So, if you are a entrepreneur working on a new virtual world - please think about this. I dont want a thousand ways to add a funny hat to my avatar. I dont want yet another way to "add rickybobby999 as a friend?" I want to have deep, powerful, fun, and new ways of interacting with other folks who share a common idea.

Anyway, back to my typical 2 line "this is a cool link" posts...

New Mac Game: Tiki Magic Mini Golf

This is a 3D Golf game that has some impressive graphics. Normally I wouldn't post about a particular game however this one is notable in that it was created using the Unity development tool which is indeed very cool. It's great to see commercial products finally coming out using Unity. If you have a mac you are doing yourself a disservice not to go and download the IDE and try it out.

Social Networking Meets MMO's at Conduit Labs

With games like Areae, Whirled, and whatever is coming out of Conduit Labs, I am of the firm belief that the next "big thing" is going to at least involve heavily casual MMO's. Places that you can go to and "be" as opposed to places that you visit and just observe information.

From the site:

"We want to deliver a completely new kind of massively multiplayer experience — one that requires minutes, not hours, to access and learn, and one that is as rich and social as real-world activities like shooting hoops or jamming in a band. And we wanted it all in a browser, as accessible as your email."

Wiicade Opens its API

Want to create games for the Wii? You are now a step closer if you know flash. WiiCade has opened its API for anyone to create Wii enabled games.

Applying Game Design to Web Apps: Raph Koster

Raph Koster points to a great article about applying game concepts to web applications.

Adobe building office applications

I knew this was coming. There's a 3 way battle between google/firefox adobe and microsoft for the lion's share of developer and users mindshare. Google's building office apps to fight Microsoft. Microsoft is creating Silverlight to fight Flash. Adobe is building office apps to fight Microsoft. Google and Adobe should team up and create killer online/offline apps.

Omega Fenix - Flash Based Shmup

Senor Robot Studios has released a playable demo of a pretty snazzy shmup called Omega Fenix. It's basically a top down shooter with some impressive animation and gameplay (it's hard!)

GameTunnel's Top 100 Indie Games

I've seen alot of top 10 or top 100 lists for indie games lately. Most of them are more like favorite lists from the authors and not especially representative of the indie game genre. This list however seems to genuinely try to cover something of every aspect of indie gaming. If you had just woken up from a 50 year sleep and had an urgent desire to catch up on the indie gaming scene, this would be a great start.

Castle Wolfric Games - experimenting with games affiliates

Bigfish games has this really interesting system where you can create you own "affiliate" site. Meaning it's a set if php templates that are fed by xml from Bigfish games, but you host the site. You get a cut of the sales from the site. Seems like a very clever way to market games... I was really suprised at how braindead easy it was to set up and get going.

The Design of Online Economies: The Role of Currency

This site talks about online currencies and the pitfalls surrounding them. This seems especially relevant with all the sites that are coming up with online games - each with their own currency.

Internet Games FTW

Internet gaming is beating out video sharing and social networking sites. Duh! You can only watch so many videos (passively), you can only add so many friends. Games let you actually DO something on the web...

Casual Gaming meets Lotto

Interesting story about how casual games are being cross-promoted with lotto scratchers.

AMFPHP - fast php for ajax and AIR apps

I heard about this from Mike Potter.
From the site:

Amfphp is an RPC toolkit for PHP. It allows seamless communication between Php and :

* Flash and Flex with Remoting
* JavaScript and Ajax with JSON
* XML clients with XML-RPC

Casual Games Association posts Podcasts and Slides from Conference

From the site:

In addition to printed materials, the Casual Games Association hosts three yearly conferences and regular networking socials with over 4,000 attendees yearly. Below are slides and podcasts which can be played on your computer or iPod.

The presentations are listed by subsection in suggested listening order inside of each section, but listen to them all - they are all good!

Heard this from Raph Koster.

Bit 101 - flash tutorials

If you are working in flash and have a desire to learn things like gravity, 3-d rotation etc. you'll find a goldmine of information here.

Flexible Input Box Layout using CSS: Hedger Wang

Hedger is quite the web ninja in my books. I've thrown some pretty intractable questions to him in the past and he's always come up with creative and elegant solutions. This post talks about having to have a lable, an input box, and a search button all on one line and have the searchbox stretch to fit the available area...

Dojo ShrinkSafe: Compress your Javascript

There are a lot of scripts out there that claim to compress your javascript. However many of those mangle your js in the process. This project from the Dojo folks claims to safely compress your JS into one file and decrease the size. Give it a shot and see for yourself if it works.

Limitless Quest Update 960080

Slowly. Gradually. Achingly slow. That's how fast this project is progressing. However, the good news is that it IS progressing. This new version (which you can update from within the app now!) has chromeless windows with draggable and closable elements. Also the website is starting to undergo a facelift. It's still apallingly ugly right now, but things will change, slowly.

Add Any Dapp to Facebook

Remember Dappit? It's that site that let you create mashups of applications as well as feeds for sites that did not already have them. Now you can place your creations on Facebook. Very cool!

New Elements in HTML 5

This article summarizes the significant additions to HTML that you may see with the introduction of HTML 5 to the web. Cool stuff.

California Extreme: Arcade Game and Pinball "Expo"

If you are anything like me and fell in love with arcade games back in the days of Asteroids and Space Invaders, you will really enjoy this Expo. Imagine having a ginormous room filled with every arcade and pinball game known to man all set on FREE PLAY!

From the site:
California Extreme is the "Classic Arcade Games Show". In a nutshell, it's an annual celebration of coin operated pinball machines, video games and other novelties you once found in game arcades. It's two days that celebrate this exceptional entertainment medium, featuring tournaments, speakers, parts vendors, and an opportunity to play games you may have not seen for years. All the games on display are set for free play, so leave your quarters in the ash tray in your car. You won't need 'em.

Flowplay: Casual Games + Social Software + Avatars

The link is to an article about a new startup called FlowPlay. It appears to be an online avatar site with a combination of social software and casual gaming. Playing games will give you items to customize your avatar. Sounds like it'll be a surefire hit. I heard about this from GameZebo. (Check out the podcast and screenshots on the Gamezebo link)

MegaDuel: Multiplayer Browser Game

MegaDuel is a pretty nifty new browser based battle game. You fight other buff characters with various stats to try to achieve the highest ranking. It kinda reminds me of a cross between Legend of the Green Dragon and Adventure Quest.

Virtual Characters for your blog / myspace: Voki

Voki is an extension of sitepal which lets you embed a little virtual character on your site or blog. It's kinda fun in a frivolous way, but you might find somewhat of a use for it if you try really hard. Check it out and see if its worthy of being added to your blog/facebook/myspace account.

Indie Mac Game Developer Contest from Unity

Looks like the creators of Unity, a game engine for Macintosh (and other platforms) is having a contest. The prizes seem to be $2000 and a licensed copy of the game engine. Check it out!

Dream, Build, Play Finalists Announced

From the site:


Earlier this year a challenge was issued to aspiring game developers
around the world to dream big and build an original game for Windows
or Xbox 360™ using XNA Game Studio Express. True to form, our
community did not disappoint and demonstrated an incredible
diversity in creativity and implementation as we received hundreds
of game submissions. This made the judges’ task even more difficult
as the process progressed in order to separate out the top 20 entries
based on the judging criteria. We're thrilled to announce that the
judges have completed the selection of finalists and proudly
present them to you! Join us in taking a moment to thank and
congratulate all the teams for their game submissions and the
top 20 game teams on making it to the next round of judging!

Firefox 3 New Features

Today seems to be feature freeze day for Firefox 3 - check out the bug listings for some of the interesting new features you'll find in Firefox 3.

Limitless Quest update - now self-updating! 0.960079

After getting alot of help from the folks at Adobe (Dragos Georgita )I've managed to get the Limitless Quest app to self-update if you click "check for updates".

It's complicated but it works and I'm extremely happy! Thank you Dragos!

Nate on Skinning YUI Components

Nate Koechley talks about the new Skins feature of YUI as well as encourages developers to create new skins for it.

YUI 2.3.0 Released! Six New Components + Skinning

The hardworking folks at the Yahoo! YUI team have released a new version of their excellent toolset with tons of new features. I leave it up to you to go click and find out - but there are things like a new skin for the utilities, a new Rich Text Editor, and many more things. Go!

Kloogewerks: Networked Gaming Table

It is a somewhat interesting story how I came about this link. I got an email from Facebook about someone who wanted to add me as a friend. I looked up their name and found a website about them. From there I saw a blog post about a flickr image they'd uploaded that looked interesting. On that Flickr image there was a reference to this Kloogewerks - that looked really interesting. So there you have it. I love the internet.

Oh yeah. This is a networked gaming "table" that you can use to play tabletop RPG's with other folks only using the computer as your canvas. Some of the features are listed here.

Airapps Wiki - Over 72 Apps and Counting!

If you are interested in learning about the range of applications being created in AIR, this is a great pleace to start. If you know of an AIR App that is not on the list, go ahead and add it since it is after all an wiki.