Have any of you seen that purple doggie on the FrontierVille homestead? You know, the one with the waggly tail ... and the word "Temp" painted on its body? Unfortunately, it appears that this purple pup is not for sale, but a coding glitch that appeared around the same time the Injured Critter Goals were introduced. Several players on the forums report seeing this Purple Dog and have been asking why, but the moderators' guess is as good as ours.
"This has been discussed a few times now, Mizz Faith said, a FrontierVille forums Super Moderator. "The overall consensus is, we're baffled. I'm gonna ask again and see if it was ever figured out. It's quite a creepy looking little thing!" So if the moderators don't know a thing, it's likely that we won't either. My best guess is that this little scrapper is a placeholder for future items or animals. Perhaps it's used in testing new features before the artwork for items and animals is finalized. That said, it's just as likely that we'll never know and all we'll have to work with are screen shots. So, if you see the Purple Dog, be sure to snap a picture of it as you might never see this elusive creature again.
[Image Credit: iRonX]
Have you seen the Purple Dog on your homestead? What do you think it represents to the FrontierVille studios?
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn game development. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn game development. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Sáu, 6 tháng 1, 2012
Aliens vs. Predator developer Rebellion opens social games division
Unfortunately, this does not necessarily mean that AvP is coming to Facebook. Develop reports that Rebellion, the UK-based studio behind the Aliens vs. Predator games, has opened a social gaming division. This internal team will focus on Facebook games after having recently released Evil Genius, its first social game. Rebellion will still focus on creating high-profile games with high production values, but after seeing its first social game leave the nest, Rebellion appears hungry for more.
"The release of Evil Genius has given us an appetite to look at other opportunities in the area," said Rebellion co-founder Jason Kingsley. "One thing that has become increasingly apparent over the last few years is that gamers can't be defined as just people who own consoles – people who use social media like Facebook or use smart phones all play games and this is an exciting new opportunity that we want to explore."
Rebellion follows several traditional gaming companies into the Facebook scene like EA, Konami, Sega and Ubisoft. If anything, this move is yet another example of massive shifts in the gaming industry. In other words, expect to see more (and even bigger) companies follow suit in 2011.
[Via Shacknews]
[Image Credit: Squidoo]
How do you think Rebellion will fare in the social games space? Do you think it's to traditional developers' benefit that they focus at least some talent toward Facebook?
"The release of Evil Genius has given us an appetite to look at other opportunities in the area," said Rebellion co-founder Jason Kingsley. "One thing that has become increasingly apparent over the last few years is that gamers can't be defined as just people who own consoles – people who use social media like Facebook or use smart phones all play games and this is an exciting new opportunity that we want to explore."
Rebellion follows several traditional gaming companies into the Facebook scene like EA, Konami, Sega and Ubisoft. If anything, this move is yet another example of massive shifts in the gaming industry. In other words, expect to see more (and even bigger) companies follow suit in 2011.
[Via Shacknews]
[Image Credit: Squidoo]
How do you think Rebellion will fare in the social games space? Do you think it's to traditional developers' benefit that they focus at least some talent toward Facebook?
Thứ Sáu, 30 tháng 12, 2011
Zynga's Brian Reynolds trying deeper, more clever social game design
Hey, you asked for it. Zynga's chief game designer Brian Reynolds never rests, and even now he's working to bring deeper game mechanics to social games without increasing their complexity, Gamasutra reports. Good call, Reynolds, because we're not sure these games could become more complex, really. (Have any of you seen Kingdoms of Camelot?)
In an interview with the game industry news site, the FrontierVille creator was asked whether he expected to social games to become deeper. Reynolds replied, "I think we'll continue to learn how to design games that way. We'll be better and better at hiding the friction, but making there be depth."
In fact, that's what the former Civilization designer has been up to all along. The mechanics you see happening in FrontierVille today were intentionally designed to intuitively teach you how to play without reading a manual or 700 pop-ups. How close he got to that point is up for debate, but he presses on regardless in the name of deeper Facebook games.
So extremely simple parts that just happen to have very subtle interactions with each other -- that was what we were trying to do with FrontierVille. For example, have a lot of little systems, but we don't make the player have to read a book on how to play before they can start. It's more like, 'Oh look, there's a whole world of stuff; just click on stuff. No matter what you click on, something good will happen!' And then, eventually, you notice that animals work a little bit different from plants, and then maybe you notice, 'Oh look, if I put a sheep here, then the grass doesn't grow back.'
Reynolds continues to explain (check the full interview here) that positive reactions this garners from players, and that this feeling is one he wants to create in his games more regularly without introducing too many complexities like menus and guides. While some would argue that games like FarmVille and CityVille could use even less complexity, this is at least exciting for what Reynolds aspires to in social games. And if the next innovation in social games comes from Reynolds and Zynga, we know it will stir massive waves.
Are you excited to see what Reynolds has in store for Zynga, and inevitably, social games? How would you make social games deeper without being complex?
In an interview with the game industry news site, the FrontierVille creator was asked whether he expected to social games to become deeper. Reynolds replied, "I think we'll continue to learn how to design games that way. We'll be better and better at hiding the friction, but making there be depth."
In fact, that's what the former Civilization designer has been up to all along. The mechanics you see happening in FrontierVille today were intentionally designed to intuitively teach you how to play without reading a manual or 700 pop-ups. How close he got to that point is up for debate, but he presses on regardless in the name of deeper Facebook games.
So extremely simple parts that just happen to have very subtle interactions with each other -- that was what we were trying to do with FrontierVille. For example, have a lot of little systems, but we don't make the player have to read a book on how to play before they can start. It's more like, 'Oh look, there's a whole world of stuff; just click on stuff. No matter what you click on, something good will happen!' And then, eventually, you notice that animals work a little bit different from plants, and then maybe you notice, 'Oh look, if I put a sheep here, then the grass doesn't grow back.'
Reynolds continues to explain (check the full interview here) that positive reactions this garners from players, and that this feeling is one he wants to create in his games more regularly without introducing too many complexities like menus and guides. While some would argue that games like FarmVille and CityVille could use even less complexity, this is at least exciting for what Reynolds aspires to in social games. And if the next innovation in social games comes from Reynolds and Zynga, we know it will stir massive waves.
Are you excited to see what Reynolds has in store for Zynga, and inevitably, social games? How would you make social games deeper without being complex?
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