If you’ve read much of what I’ve written in the my articles, you’ll know that I sound a bit like a broken record with regards to believing that the games industry needs better tools to get on top of AAA development.  Someone at Valve obviously feels the same way, and today they released a new mini, in-engine, editor for Portal 2.

And it’s awesome.  It has limitations for sure, but I’m guessing it’s a proof of concept.  Within 10 minutes I had a fully fledged puzzle up and running, with all the triggers and doors and everything else you need to make your very own Portal 2 puzzle.  NowGamer have put up a great little guide, including this video:

This is the way forward.  I can’t wait to see where it goes next.

A small update to acknowledge a couple of things that have happened behind the scenes.

One, after waiting in the wings for a while, I’ve joined twitter. I haven’t fully settled on what exactly to tweet about yet but I this is me if you want to follow me.  I’ll add a link next to the RSS feed soon.

Far more exciting is that my latest posts on AltDevBlog have made it over to Gamasutra, the very latest of which has been picked up by Official X-Box Magazine and turned into a small news piece.  The article itself is well written and they link to a recent blog of their own in the same vein, which strengthens what I’m saying very well.  It’s an interesting time right now for game development, and a lot of people are thinking along similar lines.  We have a fun few years ahead I think.

My recent articles will make it onto this site soon; I’m just waiting until I’ve got part 3 written before adding them all here.

It’s only been out a few days but already Hog Rocket have lowered the price of Tiny Invaders down to the lowest paying price available on the App Store: just 69p (or $.99 if you’re States side).

This brings up an interesting point about the App store – why does £2.49 feel like a lot of money?  If I’m in a coffee shop I wouldn’t blink twice at paying that for a coffee, let alone walking into a physical Apple Store and spending over £1000 for a laptop (I bought my Air without so much as a whimper).  And I’ll happily buy any of the Hog Rocket team a pint.  Yet seeing that “install” button roll over to “2.49″ creates a hang-on-a-sec… reaction.  Why?

I don’t any answers for this and I know I’m not the only one to ask it.  Possibly Apple themselves don’t even know.  But it’s certainly an interesting psychological question.  For now though, relish in the delight that is Tiny Invaders for just 69p – hours of entertainment for less than bag of chips:

The first day of September, the sun is shining and Hog Rocket have released their first game, Tiny Invaders, to the world:

It’s a great little game that gets mighty addictive the deeper you get into it, I’ve been part of the beta test and still love playing it which is always a sign of a good game.  And you don’t just need to take my word for it either, Touch Arcade have posted their review already, giving it 4/5 stars.

“Tiny Invaders is an excellent debut from the folks at Hogrocket. Its puzzles are infused with such urgency that you’ll find yourself on the edge of your seat, mashing reset to take one more shot at beating the timer.”

Good work Pete, Ben & Steve!