hObbE's blog

As it seems I'll be attending DreamHack winter 2010 for a couple of days (25-26/11). I'll be demoing the XBox360 version of TWTPB and collecting user feedback. Do some live coding etc.

If you are at DreamHack feel free to drop by the Linneaus University booth ( DreamExpo i B-hallen, B06:06).

Having been away from coding especially c++ far to long I've decided to make some changes to T.W.T.P.B. to get into the game again so to speak

I actually had a chat irl with two of the current top players and they wanted more rewards (i.e. energy) for killing enemies. Also I've had been pondering this idea that when you kill an enemy the bullets from that enemy are converted to small energy pellets. So this seemed like a pretty good thing and I have started to implement it.

There are however some decisions to be made:

Converting bullets per enemy seems to make the game a bit easy Possibly this should be on a per formation basis instead. Or this should be the rule when playing on "easy" and maybe do per formation on medium and no conversion on hard.

Any comments or ideas?

I hope to get some time to experiment and get an update out there asap.

As it seems the as far as I know nameless dog from Nintendo Duck Hunt has been spotted in my home town of Kalmar, Sweden. All according to local newspaper Barometern. I'll make sure to check this out myself asap

I guess nerdiness lives and prospers even in the heat of summer

Some of you might wonder what I've been up to lately. Besides having a sprint on the site adding support for Twitter login I've been busy starting a research project at the university where I have my daytime job. The general idea is to take some of the experiences (10+ years) from game development and make further experiments to expand, enhance and validate & verify my findings in a scientific way. The result of this process will be a thesis and I'll become a Ph.D.

And without further adue I present my "hyper thesis", a.k.a. vision

Enhancing Quality of Software Architecture in Computer Games

The driving requirement of software architecture in computer games has since long been performance. However, focusing on performance alone often leads to problems in other areas; the software cannot be maintained or changed in an agile way and it becomes hard for developers to react to market changes or advances in hardware. Testing is hard or even impossible in many cases and reuse of code and design is minimal.

Modern approaches to software architecture in computer games, e.g. a modification of the model view controller (MVC) pattern, bear other qualities like changeability, maintainability, testability, and reusability without sacrificing performance. This is shown for a number of game types ranging from casual games to multi-player action titles. A standardized software architecture throughout many projects also enhances programmer productivity and project scalability.

Feel free to comment

Oh man I've had two very busy weeks in my "real" life. So busy I've hardly had the time to check the website and little less post anything new.

Things do look brighter now and I hope to get busy developing soon! I've got an update for T.W.T.P.B. in the pipe and also Project L needs some love

I've been one of the lucky few to get into the XBox 360 Blur multiplayer beta and I really like the game so far. Kind of a mix between Mario Kart and Burnout. These games being two of my favorite racing titles Blur is spot on!

Anyway I just got three extra keys so grab em' while they are hot and register at www.blurgame.com/beta

3PHH-MT9A-T2Z4-UAVK
FYHW-VKWD-WLGP-CHW7
RACG-VNKR-7F63-RZLQ

Enjoy!

I love the people over at Kokoromi and their annual Gamma contests and what they are doing for independent game development. This year they even got an invitation to show the Gamma IV winners at GDC! A great opportunity for many aspiring game developers. One problem though, such a display costs money and they need about $1600 for this to happen.

I have decided to help them by letting all revenue generated from sales of T.W.T.P.B. during February go directly to support their plea. Also I've got two game codes for some casual games that I will give to some lucky winners in a Twitter contest*.

You can help to!

• Support Kokoromi by Donating some $ and get some fabulous schwag
• Buy T.W.T.P.B. and all revenue will be Donated at the end of February
• Spread the word on Twitter and possibly win a game*

* The Twitter contest works like this

1. Tweet this message "RT @SpellOfPlay: Help Kokoromi Send #gamma4 To San Francisco and Win a Game! http://bit.ly/dmWiYZ"
2. Your entry will be collected in this post as soon as I see it in my timeline.
3. Wait... I will draw two winners at the end of February and send them their codes.