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zoombapup
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Posts by zoombapup
What is player generated narrative?
One of the more popular trends in AAA games right now, is the use of linear narrative to drive gameplay. This works well for AAA because with linear narrative, you can guarantee some great screenshots and movies to drive your marketing spend. The current pinnacle of that art I think is the Uncharted series, which [...]
What is EverSky?
December 30, 2011 - 8:45 pm
Posted in EverSky | No Comments
Posted a video to youtube to describe the direction for EverSky (which is what Damzel is changing into).
What is believability?
September 8, 2011 - 1:24 pm
Posted in AI, Namaste | 4 Comments
If you ask anyone with a passing interest in AI and more specifically in AI in games what is the most important aspect, you will probably be answered with something relating to logic. Logic and decision making seems like the most important aspect because it drives behaviour after all. But in this post, I want [...]
Deviants, idiots and a talking toaster
August 6, 2011 - 9:27 am
Posted in Namaste | 2 Comments
While most of the guys at Namaste are reasonably highbrow (well, ok, I’m talking mainly about Stephane and Brian, who are both pen and paper roleplay geeks) I’m actually a bit of a low brow kind of guy. I’m not quite at the level of enjoying fart jokes, but I do enjoy a bit of [...]
What are we working on?
June 29, 2011 - 11:38 am
Posted in Social AI | No Comments
I was at the Paris Game AI Conference last week (www.gameaiconf.com) and had a great time yet again. Speaking to all types of AI programmers is always fun. One thing that I kept getting asked was “what are you working on at Namaste” and everytime I had to stop and think how to describe what [...]
Deconstructing a city
February 3, 2011 - 9:06 am
Posted in Articles, Damzel | 2 Comments
Damzel is a game set in a city. The city itself is alive with AI-based people. But I wanted the city to have a nice aesthetic to it too. Luckily, there’s a good example in Mirrors Edge. I knew it was built with the Unreal engine, so I decided to see if there was any [...]
Designing game user interfaces
If you ask any programmer what is the thing they least like to work on, its likely the one thing they really don’t like working on is user interface code. Luckily there are tools that can help.
Why EA cut LMNO
November 7, 2010 - 10:42 pm
Posted in Articles, Damzel | No Comments
I read with great interest the recent leaks of details about EA’s “Project LMNO” over on Rock Paper Shotgun. Although I’d heard of the game before, as a fellow AI Game Programmers Guild member (Borut Pfiefer, who is now an indie working on Skulls of the Shogun had worked on it). It was interesting because [...]
Getting some oversteer
This last month or so I’ve been working on squad control for Damzel. Squad control is perhaps the most important part of the game, because you spend most of your time doing it. It is important enough that it was worth spending those weeks trying out different control schemes and looking at the problem from different directions.
Analyzing the Squad control of Brothers In Arms
Of all the things you will be doing in Damzel, the most important will be giving commands to your squad. Given the importance of that aspect of the gameplay, I have been looking at other games with a similar structure. Last week I was looking at Syndicate by Bullfrog, this week I’ve been looking at [...]