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.

It’s an interesting process having that happen, mostly because it’s actually quite difficult to find out that it has.  Mike, who set AltDevBlog up, has done great things in helping it get noticed across the industry and as contributors we’re all aware of where our articles might end up.  And it’s nice to see them leaping forward into the wild.

None games related, recently a few of us went to the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool to see a performance of As The World Tipped.  These small pictures don’t really do it justice, but the seemingly simple act of turning a stage 90 degrees to make it vertical made for a breathtaking visual feast.  It’s certainly got me thinking about how we should be able to do similar things in games – changing a player’s perspective on something to create a new sensation.  If you ever get the chance to see a performance like this, definitely go along.

#AltDevBlog has gone through a few changes in the last week, with it being transferred over to a new server to cope with the increased demand.  That’s now all settled down and I posted my second article up on there, What Happens Next?.  It’s my thoughts on where the core industry might head in the future – hopefully a more educated guess than who’s going to win Wimbledon (until yesterday I was certain Lisicki was going to do it).

And on this very site I’ve also posted Learning By Analysis, which is a little more designer focused.  That will make its way over to altdevblog in due course as well.

Happy reading and sunbathing!

Now, there’s no doubt this is excellent entertainment (and yet further evidence that Star Wars can still be great as long as George doesn’t get involved). But it tells me very little about the game.

Square released a trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution last year:

Again, staggeringly good entertainment that immediately makes you want to watch Blade Runner again. During E3 some footage of the game itself appeared:

I’ve purposefully linked to some footage from the shop floor rather than the controlled demo because this is how players will experience the game. And, for me, it’s a perfect example of expectations versus reality. In fact, it’s a perfect example of why games are not films. The pre-rendered movie evokes a sense of wonder and excitement that only passive entertainment can: it makes the viewer believe they are the protagonist that can do all these wonderful things. Games allow you to do wonderful things and can be completely immersive, but not in the same way. Deus Ex is all about freedom of choice, and trying to wrap that up in a cinematic way invariably ends up with “press this button to watch an animation of you killing someone”. Which, for a Deus Ex game, is disappointing.

In what can only be described as a complete surprise, about the only game that I’ve really thought “that looks cool” is Need for Speed: The Run:

This is, in effect, Dragon’s Liar.  But I’m not sure it’s pretending to be anything else and, because of that, is all the better for it.  The expectations set by it are clear: a high octane interactive movie.  The driving bits in between will be the meat of the game, and the on foot sections provide a quick interlude.  This is much more likely to get my money than a game that’s only shown me pre-rendered footage.