Monthly Archives: November 2005

The superprogrammers and getting the job done

Is really fun to discover, when talking privately to fellow programmers, that most of the successful indie developers are not what is commonly considered “a good programmer”.
For me,a good programmer is the one that gets the job done. In time, without (not many) bugs, etc. Language or ultra-knowledge of all latest tecniques does not matter.
Not the one who makes the best C++ ultra-polymorphic engine 😉 but often people are like that, and then they find out that they can’t port their code to other platform like Mac Os X because they used a particular class/structure/library etc.
I won’t make the names because I want to respect their privacy. But is not a secret to anyone that Platypus was made with Blitzbasic and was in the top 10 of the best casual games portal around… so you really don’t have to be an expert programmer to be successful in this industry.

why PES5 sucks

Yes I am disappointed. After the initial enthusiasm, I can say that PES5 is not so good.
Why? easy, computer cheats.
At every level (even if I played only from 3 stars and up) the computer cheats in every manner. Some quick example:
– you shoot 10 times but their goalie makes impossible saves or you simply hit posts or miss the target. They shot 1 time and always make goal.
– they can do any kind of foul but the referee rarely whistle, while as soon as you touch them they fall on the ground.
and so on. It’s really a general sensation that the Computer Opponent has “something more” than you. Every time you play you can feel it.
Now I wonder: why do that?? they can say otherwise Computer AI is too easy. Ok well with the insane amount of money that you earn every year (PES is a top-selling serie of soccer games) INVEST in AI research instead of simply adding cheating!!! 🙁

Bah, going back to play Everquest 2, at leat is a game more “fair”.

First Magic Stones expansion released!

Today I uploaded the first expansion for my game Magic Stones, “The Bonelord”.
Is still BETA version even if I think there shouldn’t be any serious bugs 🙂

If you want to try, check those links:
http://www.winterwolves.net/games/MagicStonesTrial.zip (mac)
http://www.winterwolves.net/games/MagicStonesTrial.exe (win)

you’re welcome to report any bugs or give feedback!

PES5 network madness!

Ok I got PES5 last week. I was very excited about the possibility to play against human adversaries with network.
Now I can say that I’m not excited anymore. I just played 10 matches. Can you believe it? 9 out of 10 adversaries chose the team: BRAZIL.
This sucks. I always try to pick different teams, like Juventus, Milan, Italy, etc. The adversaries: BRAZIL.
Seems like to play against robots, not humans. I wonder what’s the purpose of choosing always the same team. Surely they don’t want to lose, but WTF is just a game!
There should be rules, like you can’t use same team for 2 consecutive matches. Or you’re penalized if you pick a much stronger team.
Anyway, I’m playing only the classic Master League for now. I’ll leave network play to those exhaltated guys and their super-ultra-unbeatable teams.

Magic Stones expansion and clones…

I’m very busy doing the first Magic Stones expansion. I have people who want more challenge with my last game, so I’m going to give them some 🙂 the new quest mode will be very limited in terms of mana and creatures allowed, this way I can test the difficulty myself, shrinking the range of possibilities, and having more control on the real challenge of the game.

Talking about a very different thing, was fun seeing the post of Popcap creative director, complaining about the Clones invasion (basically he is calling those devlopers parasite, who cannibalize sales over other people ideas).
Fun how the idea of every other developer seems to be “you want money? me too!” 😀
Me? I don’t think I’m going to make a casual game soon, I’ve too many ideas going on at the moment (USM2 for example) …