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.

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.

Once again Liverpool has been transformed with what, on paper, sounds like a fairly old fashioned type of entertainment: giant puppets move through the city.

The skill of the Royal De Luxe takes that simple premise and executes it brilliantly, and the day of the Giants moving through the city to find each other is a story beautifully told.

As I missed the date for wishing the Western world Happy New Year it seems appropriate to instead welcome in the Chinese New Year.  Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of dragons to post, so here’s a picture of the only snow we’ve so far had here this winter.

I’m aware that it’s been a few months since I’ve posted here, my online activities died down quite a lot towards the end of last year as significant events in my personal life kept me very happy and very busy.  This is not a promise to become a daily updater but hopefully now I will update more frequently than once a quarter.

My postings on #altdevblogaday also reduced but my latest article, Learning from the past, has now been live a few days and seems to have been well received.  I’ve now re-posted it on my articles page here too, and Gamasutra also picked it up.

It’s November 5th today, a date that, to us Brits, means Gunpowder Plot.  Or Guy Fawkes, or simply bonfire night.  There are many names for it, but it means the same up and down the land – fireworks get set off, fires are lit, and toffee apples eaten.  As it falls on a Saturday this year it gives us the chance to celebrate it properly on the actual night, rather than the nearest Saturday as so often happens.

It’s a fun time to be about if you like fireworks, and what better way to kick off the darker nights than by lighting up the sky?

It’s been a busy few weeks for seemingly everyone I know, and quite a lot of people I don’t. It feels strange writing about someone that I didn’t know, but equally it feels strange to write a post this week without at least some mention to the man behind the computer I use every day. MG Siegler’s article here sums up everything I could say on Steve Jobs passing, and shows that so many of us share similar thoughts: the world will miss a man that was just getting into his stride. Apple will live on, but it’s a shame that he isn’t here to enjoy its continued success.

As for me, the project I’m on is speeding onwards and there lots of events to keep me on my toes. I’m still writing articles over at altdevblogaday, and my next post there will take me into double figures. Gamasutra have now reposted 3 of those articles which is very cool, though I still wish they’d let me know so I could join in the comment threads in a timely fashion. I’ve spent a few hours copying them across to this site as well, and I’ve also updated my photography page – ditching the fancy javascript I spent many hours getting to work and going for a simple layout inspired by the recent changes to google’s image search.

Finally, for now, I’ve done what I never thought I would: changed away from the orange links. This, again, is influenced by google but this time the other way round – I have no doubt in my mind that google did not copy my orange colour, but I felt it was time for a change away from it before everyone thinks I copied google.

(note: the image used on this post is by Ron Garan).

Tomorrow is officially the first day of Autumn, already it’s the time of year again when condensation greets you in the morning, leaves of wonderful colour fall from the trees and a there’s a chill in the morning despite warm days. I think autumn (or, if you’re American, fall) is my favourite time of year – spring is full of promise, autumn full of reflection. The only thing I don’t like is that it points out how quickly the year has gone. There’s still plenty left, and the next few months are going to be very busy.

Articles wise, AltDevBlogADay continues to grow and I’ve been far better at keep my articles up to date on there – I admit I haven’t given my own website a great deal of attention of late. Gamasutra have been reposting many articles from AltDev, and have put a couple of mine up now as well – a double edged sword because we have to find them for ourselves: I missed contributing to a healthy comments thread in time on the last article of mine they posted. It is exciting to see your words up on a big website though, there is no denying that.

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:

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!

Yesterday we visited the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which is where this image was taken.  I went there last year and, while admiring of the place as a whole, found the experience slightly prickly.  I’m not sure if it’s me that’s changed in the past year, the park or just the temporary exhibitions, but yesterday was relaxing and felt far more welcoming than it felt previously.  It was also very busy, which was nice to see – for £5 car parking you get free entry for all which, given there’s several hours worth of things to see and walk around, is staggeringly good value – even when you add an additional donation on top.

If you get the chance, I highly recommend you pop along.