Right Wright!

I agree that I can’t create art in any form to save my life, however I do understand art and able to appreciate good art.
I remember painfully trying to create something (for fun) using 3d studio max and I couldn’t even create anything close to what I can now, thanks to Will Wright. Right!!!!!
Spores! Yeah finally I was able to get a copy and get going. As expected I went from single cell organism to a two legged freak in no time.

My starting organism
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My current P1-100 creature
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I told you i cannot create art to save my life.

Super fun!! I’m expecting lot of my time vanishing, all thanks to SPORES.
I love it.

Uno Rush Announced

My game (well actually I mean Microsoft’s game ;)) was announced today at E3 by none other than John Schappert himself…..Cannot say much about this game before it actually hits the market….meanwhile here are some links to drop your eyes on:

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/39941/Uno-Rush-Screenshots

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/puzzle/unorush/news.html?sid=6193760

http://play.tm/wire/click/2002225

Time - Where has it gone?

Hi,
It all happens in a flash. Always.

Whenever you are waiting for something to happen, it feels really long, but only till it happens.

After it happens, you go "Hey! That was fast"

Here I'm 8500 miles away from where i was last week. Driving on the other side of the road, sitting in the other side of the car, eating cold food and trying to sleep on top of a sinking bed.

The change is sometimes 0verwhelming .....

On the great side Microsoft has given me a beautiful house overlooking the lake in Kirkland. The view is spectacular. I'm really looking forward for times to come, the start has been great and i wish it continues to be the same. I leave you with some snaps.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/91306143@N00/sets/72157605418434426/

Break after 3108

Today I completed 3108 days in India, developing games professionally (getting paid for).

Eight and half years is a pretty short span if you really think of it, but starting when there was nothing (near ZERO) related to games development in India and reaching to a point where the likes of EAs, Game lofts, UBI Softs, VMCs, Activisions setting up shop and a new funding happening every day, it does seem like a lifetime.

In my opinion games industry in India is getting to the verge of being recognized as an *Industry and on path of becoming main stream. Still young but promising for sure.

Exciting times lie ahead and I’m convinced that India will become a strong contributor in the world of games development in its own unique way.

My 5 predictions (things that will happen in next 5-6 years in India Gaming Scene)

1. Government of India will recognize this sector and will associate us to either IT Industry or Entertainment Industry.

2. More than 20 new game development companies will start and more than 30 game studios will Tank.

3. Games Education will be recognized by universities and various game engineering programs will start to take shape.

4. Sony Playstation 2 will become even more popular and will be known for games based on Indian Content Games (some of them will be mind bogglingly absurd too)

5. Indian team will not be ranked in the bottom 3 in World Cyber Games at least once in next 6 years.

Unfortunately for me, I will not be around for next couple of years to have all the fun.

I have decided to move.

My new job is with Microsoft Corp. in Seattle (Redmond); I will now be working with Windows Game Experience Group, delivering the most compelling game experiences to Windows gamers.

On 30th of May I will be leaving India, but surely not be leaving my community (Indian Game Developers), I will continue to yap away making new friends and hopefully not many foes.

Cheers and have fun making games.

Mallika Arora - Agni - another one bites the dust....

I ‘m a passionate Indian Game Developer and I like keeping myself well informed about the recent happenings in the Indian game industry. One week back, I read FXLabs released its action/adventure game Agni: Queen of darkness, published by Zapak and distributed by Sify. It was priced at Rs. 699/-.

I buy almost all (if not all) games (PC) made and released in India.

I went to their website and was not able to find even a single in-game screenshot, no trailers, or in game videos, or concept art. (Now they have them) There were few Mallika Arora Khan’s hot poses with things in her hands which looked like weapons.

I started getting a bad feelings about my money (700 bucks) not being wisely put to use yet again. (I have a habit of buying bad games) Nonetheless, I went ahead and paid the money (Paypal, no credit card option).

Monday first thing I received was an email that I have received a mail from FXLabs (Microsoft Internal mail room is pretty darn efficient).

I opened the package and found the cover to be pretty cool (nice packaging), the installation took 4-5 minutes and then “boom” comes the FX Labs logo.
I am not always so excited about firing up a new game, but this game was done in my country by many people who I know personally.

The main menu looked like a new concept, I know lot of people would say it is horrible, but I kind of found it to be different and not so bad.

The game starts with a cut-scene, which again I thought was pretty okaylyTM done, though I didn’t like the voice over’s but having been there and done that, I know getting a good voice talent is not easy and that too for games. The cut-scene had Agni and Betal (Snake) chatting with Tara on some shit, some magic happens and Tara and Agni become one character with an ability to transform from one to other - the games starts. I see an enemy run towards and he gets stuck in the air under the bridge, I am like "what???" I just started this game, less than 10 seconds in play and I see PRI1 SEV1 bug (FXLabs is AppLabs venture and Applabs is http://www.applabs.com/ (Software testing services company specializing in Software testing, qa testing company, outsourcing software qa testing, quality assurance testing Services)

You got be f***ing kidding me!!!!!

I struggled hard and tried to move Tara in all her seductive positions (none in the game, figurative speech) but nothing happens, then suddenly the alien just falls off the air (Manjit: Yes he really falls off the air, I have a screenshot to prove it and then he probably dies (:))

I continued playing the game for around 5 more minutes and then I end up in a so called boss monster fight, were a sort-o invisible Skelton sitting (paralyzed) on a wheel chair is shooting bullets at me, there are only two positions where the bullets can hit you, no there are no hiding places it is an open area . Dialog in Hindi suggests that I need to do something that kills the monster with his own weapon.

I am stuck here for last 20 minutes; no clue what to do…….

Gamecheats.net does not have a walkthrough for the gameJ, if anyone from FXLabs is reading this can you please provide with a walkthrough of the game?

Well, I have been developing games for last 8 years, I truly know that making a game is a daunting task and making good games is even crazier.

I am not the “cool graphics” nerd who thinks games are all about looks, but Agni’s graphics are horrible, models look less 10 polys, lighting has no sense, texturing is detail less, whatever little effects once sees is probably the engines job. The recommend PC cong is 2.4Ghz Dual core, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia 7800GTX+ cards.

I am not sure what engine they are using, if they have written their own engine, then hats off to them but if not (it looks like Unreal 2 engine), I want to know “What on earth you are trying to do” or did try to do?”
What can I say “a very disappointing effort by the guys at FXLabs”. I thought with the “might and experience” of Tony Garcia, Agni should have been way better.

Another Indian game hits my collection’s bone-yard.

My rating of the game is 1/10 till the time I cannot figure out how to make any progress in the game.

Indian Xena or Indian Jigna

You must be kidding me, Priyanka Chopra the next Xena warrior?

Virgin comics have been doing some really cool stuff lately from a concept point of view and some low risk mobile games (here) , but hey! Concept is nothing by itself; executing the concept to deliver immersive experience is what makes people consume it.

I am not denying; the concept art here is pretty cool; but Priyanka Chopra????? The only character I see fitting in this role is Rakhee Sawanth J “Watch out you bad ass, otherwise I am going to use my super mouth weapon – Verbalistic Diarrhea to make you suffer”

She in her secret identify can also cause damage to your nervous system by crying your brains out with her Emotional Delusion Weapon.

But this will be another story, coming back to Priyanka Chopra (stop fu**in kidding me), she looks like a nice girl and best fits dancing and singing around trees and being a moral support to the blood fest Indian hero.

So I would really like to be proved wrong here:

They could have chosen anyone who the mass audience relates with. Rani M, Neha D, Lara D, Ash et. al. Anyone could have been made to look cool in a concept art.

They choose Prinkya, randomly? Because singing her on might be cheaper? Or maybe something else, but surely not because of her past work, public image and/or body language.

I do not have issues with such “so called” strategic and creative moves but does it bring real value to your product? Does her inclusion take the experience to a new level? Well if you are a VC or a business man and reading this and believe that brand name makes it easier for the product to be tested by a wider audience? You are right! But a brand name not adding value to your core product and experience is a fad.

Indian Epics - Not just for India but for all?

Picked-up from Content Sutra -

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Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has acquired rights for a videogame based on "Ramayan 3392 AD" from Virgin Comics, a company started by Deepak Chopra, Shekhar Kapur and Richard Branson, reports Variety. SOE is setting up a development team in India, and has planned for a 2010 release for the game. A few of Virgin Comics' stories - on Devi, Ramayan 3392 AD and Sadhu - are being made into mobile games by Jump Games. Seems strange to me that SOE is looking to target India with the Ramayan 3392 AD game - given that it has religious significance in the country, and one never know hows the religious right might react. Also, this reminds me of a PC game being created on another Indian epic: the Mahabharata.
Virgin Comics has big plans for Ramayan 3922 AD, which is being re-launched.

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It seems - the Indian Game Development and Indian Gaming Industry Boom Bug is biting everyone. SOE is planning to setup a shop in India to build a game on Ramayana.
Shekhar Kapur has been deeply interested in creating video games based on his stories for a long time now. I met him in 2003-4, while I was working for Paradox Studios in Mumbai and we discussed some cool ideas. But I think it was a bit too early in Indian Gaming Industry to pull off something big, I am still not sure if there is enough expertise and experience to do something on this scale today (There are only handfuls of experienced developers). But with lot of experience coming from west; moving down to India and starting teams is a promising and a healthy sign. Things are getting exciting every day :)

The End Begins - GOW2

Can’t wait for the End to begin

Yesterday, I finished God Of War 2, the sequel of the acclaimed God of War by David Jaffe, and what can I say, in David’s vocabulary, I would say “Fu**ing AWESOME”.

Although this sequel is designed by Cory Barlog (an art and animation background guy) but I think he did a superb job.

Overall I loved the game, it was nice to see that the designers realized what made GOW1 real cool and they made sure to have lots of it in this game. What are those you may ask?

Illusion of enormous size of the levels and the game world;

The mind blowing Vicious Kill sequences

Athena’s blade are super powerful and especially when you MAX it out.

New cool power-ups - Atlas Quake one my favorites

You can now not only use the blades to climb walls but also to traverse ceilings

The three sisters- boss battles - Lakhesis, Atropos, and Clotho and the whole LOOM story of weaving threads to go back in time.

Well I am not going to write a full review here, there are tons out there, I just wanted to say that after a while I got a game which I couldn’t wait to finish.

This is a cool game, though sometime you feel “come on this is unnecessary you are just trying to increase the length of the game by giving me more stupid little enemies to kill” but then if you are one of those who love hitting hard combos and see dozens of enemy flying all over, then I am sure you will not mind this :)

Also towards the end; one would say it was a bit of an overdose of the female voice saying “Key of this”, “Skull of that”, “This of that and That of this” – too many unnecessary name.

As usual, not to my surprise, there will be a part 3 of this game but I am sure Cory, Jaffe and their team would need to really get something super strong in the design from a game play point of view. Simply extending the story would not suffice.
Hail GOW!!!!!

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft announced today at the D5 conference that it’s built a new touchscreen computer—a coffee table that will change the world.

This is super cool :)

More Cool Stuff

My shopping for the Day

Guitar Hero :)
Sing Star :)
God of War 2 :)
Nintendo DS – Mario Cart and Club House Games :)



Tomorrow i want to go and back Dance Dance Revolution.