codedread

Ok, so I’ve got a little game I’ve been coding in my spare time. It uses SDL and Boost so that it’s pretty cross-platform compatible. In fact, I’ve built, ran and tested the game in OpenSuse Linux. However, I’m not clear on an easy way of packaging the game up in a download for Linux users. The game has run-time dependencies on expat as well as many SDL libraries (specifically SDL_ttf, SDL_image, SDL_mixer, SDL_gfx, and of course, SDL itself). I’d like something simple, akin to what I do with Windows (which is a batch file that bundles up every file needed, including DLLs, into one ZIP file for download). Can anyone out there help me?

Orinoco has put up a couple more SVG games that you can play inside your browser (either Firefox 1.5+ or Opera 9+). Click To Read More...

I don’t like to be reminded that I’m missing GDC this year, but Rob sent me this little video reminder. The video is of a soon-to-be-released game for the PS3 called “Little Big Planet” which allows up to 4 players to construct their own fully physical world, or download other levels from other players and play it as a game. Go watch it!

How well do you know your geography? I really suck at it, but I’m getting better by playing these two web browser games:

• Find the Country (blog post)
• The United States of SVG (blog post)

These SVG games work in modern browsers like Opera 9+ and Firefox 1.5+ and were written by orinoco and published on his Opera blog. I gave him some pointers to get them working in IE+ASV (I updated my guide with these tips too).

He really did some fantastic work - he started with a blank world map on WikiMedia Commons drawn in Inkscape which had all geography stuffed into a single path element and then he broke them out so that each country was its own path, then manually identified them all! It’s not an easy task, but it was made easier because the graphics format was an open, well-documented standard in plain text. I hope he continues to experiment with SVG.

Can someone test them in Konqueror and Safari nightlies?

I was talking with a friend who is still trying to convince me that playing World Of Warcraft is a good lifestyle choice (as opposed to, say “dedicated husband, father, software developer, blogger”). Kidding aside, spare time is really my only stumbling block here, it’s not as if I have something against heavy gaming in general (though I do recoil from the idea of having to pay a periodic subscription fee, I’d rather spend some time on a single-purchase game like Bethesda’s Oblivion that’s all about “me”). Click To Read More...

Via Arve, the Opera Web Applications blog talks of how the Opera 9 Browser has made extensions to the canvas element specifically for authoring games for the browser. Click To Read More...

We attended the third and final Web-Based Games Round Table session hosted by Brian Robbins at the GDC this morning. It was focused on the production/design aspects as opposed to the commerce and community issues of the previous two sessions. Click To Read More...