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Kodu Game Lab is out! Remember Kodu? Anyone?

Tommy Gun — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:34:54 +0000

Kodu, you may remember, is the game programming tool shown at CES by "actual 12-year-old girl," Sparrow. It was cartoony and cute and bright, and many people wrote it off instantly: "LBP rip-off!", "Stupid rock-carrying game?!", and so on. I really wanted to try it out, and now, apparently, it's out. I say apparently because it's gotten almost no press, and the only way I found out was by randomly browsing the Community Games channel and seeing it there. (Okay, Joystiq and other sites did post about it, but I had relatives over for the past two weeks so maybe I just missed it.) Still, after the CES demo I thought its release would be a much bigger event, and it would show up somewhere on the Xbox dashboard (Spotlight). It's too bad it wasn't released on XBLA rather than the CG channel, the place where no one dares tread.

Anyway, I've been playing around with it for the past few days, and it's great! You really can create all sorts of games, from FPSs, to side-scrollers, to racing games. The interface is very well designed, for the most part, using nested pie menus for all of the actions/objects. There are lots of different lighting options and ground materials to help change the look of your games, so don't think everything created has to be blue-skies-and-rainbows. The programming is easy, but surprisingly deep if you learn how everything works. Because it was initially designed for kids, it's also very fast. You can go from editing your level to playing it in under a second.

I was programming a dual-stick shooter for a video I hope to put up, and my roommate started watching. "What happens when you run into the UFOs?" he asked.
"They blow up and damage your ship."
"Is that what always happens?"
"Well no, that's what I made them do. I can program it to do whatever. I can make them…turn into apples, if I wanted to."
"Do it!" Literally twenty seconds later I had it working that way, just for fun. The Kode (yes, I just called it that):
WHEN bump puck DO vanish me
WHEN bump puck DO create apple
Crazy how simple it can be, isn't it?

There are definitely limitations though. One of my biggest complaints is that not every object has every option available to it — you can create a tree that shoots missiles, but a soccer ball can't follow a path the way lights and bots can. I was hoping each object would simply look different, and have sliders set differently (bounciness, speed, etc.), but could be programmed however you want. If you like how one vehicle controls, but wished you could use a different 3D model, you're out of luck. But this is where extreme creativity shines. With these limitations, how far can you take it? Some game types seem impossible, but someone will figure out how to make it work. Kodu comes with a bunch of samples and prebuilt games, so you can learn how the more advanced games are programmed (they're all editable). Be sure to check out "gawlf" to see how they brilliantly used the health bar to act as your swing power meter.

Did I mention it's only five dollars, which is a steal? I easily would have paid $20, and with a more robust system it could have been a retail game. I should mention that Kodu does a pretty poor job at introducing you to the game. They desperately need a "play tutorials" button on the main menu, with a list of tutorials that get checked off as you go along, each one with a hint system (where's Clippy when you need him?*). There are just three tutorials that come with Kodu, mixed in with the other games, and they don't actually explain anything. I guess they thought it was so well designed it didn't need any explanation. So I recommend watching some video tutorials (online — none are included) first to get an idea of it before you jump in (I hope to have some tutorials up in the near future).

You won't be able to make the next Gears of War, and you won't even be able to make exactly the arcade game you had in mind, but new ideas will appear, and you'll have fun doing it. If you have kids, buy Kodu. Even if they can't use it on their own, you can create things with them. If you've ever had a game idea of your own, buy Kodu. It's designed to get you thinking like a programmer, and it succeeds.

Other Notes:
Right now game sharing sucks — you have to be friends with the person, and both be running Kodu at the same time. They are working on a patch though, which will add three dedicated servers! There's also a bug where levels seem to get deleted — if it happens, restart Kodu and it might fix it (more info here). The patch will also fix this and other issues.
The patch is out! Delete Kodu and re-download if you don't have it (there's no "update" function).

Links:
Kodu fan forum
Audio interview with Matt MacLaurin — back when it was called Boku.
The Kodu Blog

* Please don't include Clippy. In anything. Ever.

Kodu Game Lab: Full Game Video Tutorial with Narration! – Generic Wars You can download this tutorial as a single divx file...
Kodu Game Lab video tutorials: 3 Keys, Popcorn Popper You can download both of these videos from the Downloads...

Dark Sector, and Poor Game Design

Tommy Gun — Mon, 19 May 2008 09:30:10 +0000

My roommate just signed up for GameFly, and got Dark Sector. I was never really all that interested in the game, but I figured I might as well play it since he's only renting it. I'm not going to write a full review since I haven't finished it (and probably never will), but I want to talk about a few things. For the record, I got to chapter 7 (out of 10) before I stopped playing.

Quick Thoughts

Dark Sector isn't a terrible game if you're a fan of the genre, but there are a lot of weaknesses. Enemies respawn far too often, which amounts to you ducking behind a wall for ten minutes shooting the same enemies. It copies Gears of War too much, including things that don't make sense: as GiantBomb pointed out, your running and sprinting speed is the same as GoW — which makes no sense here as Hayden (your character) is a skinny guy, not a giant man in armor.

The "glaive" is great, and is one of the only things that sets this game apart. It's a blade that acts as a boomerang; throw it to slice enemies in half, and it'll come back to you. You'll gain an "aftertouch" ability which lets you slow down time and actually direct the glaive mid-flight, which is what I spent most of the game doing.

Aside from that it's a pretty standard shooter.

Poor Game Design

Countless times throughout the game I found myself wandering around wondering what I was supposed to do next to proceed. The game is terrible about giving you any sort of direction, and assumes you know what to do or where to go despite never "teaching" you anything.

Example 1: You come to an area where there's a door on the other side of a locked fence. You need to throw your glaive over the fence, then use aftertouch to steer the glaive down and hit a button to open the gate. Sounds fine, but there are a few problems when actually playing the game for the first time.

You have no idea you're supposed to go through that door in the first place.
The game has never taught you that you can hit a button with your glaive (and at this point in the game I don't think you've ever even seen those buttons before).
The button isn't very obvious.

I figured that part out fairly quickly, but I play a lot of games so I know the drill. Valve has a three step approach they use in games like Half-Life. First they teach you the basic mechanic (button opens door), then they give you an easy puzzle using the same mechanic to make sure you know it, and then they give you a tough puzzle with it. Dark Sector really needs something like that.

As for #1, that's a big problem with Dark Sector. In other games you'll have radar, text telling you what to do, or some guy on the radio giving you instructions like, "find a way into the compound!" This game has none of those, so you're left to search a bunch of boring rooms to find where to go.

Example 2: At the start of a checkpoint, you find yourself in a room with a turret that shoots rockets. You gain a new ability: a temporary bubble shield around you. The game tells you that it can reflect rockets to wherever you're aiming. Okay, I try aiming at the turret to blow it up. Doesn't work. I try aiming at various walls or doors to find a way out. Doesn't work. The game keeps telling me I can reflect rockets with my shield. I'm trying!

There is another room you can go into, but it has some ammo and that's about it. Oh — and it also has a door you simply have to walk through to load the next section. Wait, what about that turret? Apparently (after just now reading an FAQ), there was in fact a door I needed to blow up to get out of that first room — I guess when I tried to blow up the turret it also hit the door. The problem was that I had no idea I blew up a door, and the "tutorial text" still kept popping up telling me to use my shield. It was completely misleading and made me think I still needed to do something with it. As for the other room, well there are a lot of those in the game; side rooms that contain ammo and nothing else, so I didn't think that was the way out.

Again, a small radar would have been perfect here. Not a map, just a little blip telling me the direction I was supposed to go in. It would have led me to the other room with the door out. It's not that I spent an hour reflecting rockets or anything, I found the other door after a couple minutes; it's just bad design.

Example 3 (minor spoilers): The first real boss you run into climbs up the walls and throws rocks at you. I figured out the first part quickly: throw your glaive into the fire, then hit the boss with it to make him drop down. Now he's on the ground for a few seconds where you can…shoot him? Glaive him? I tried both those things for a while, but the boss doesn't have a health bar, and there's no indication that shooting him isn't working! A simple "bullets bouncing off" sound effect would have been sufficient to let me know I was taking the wrong approach.

Eventually I figured out that you're supposed to run up to him when he's on the ground, and initiate a Quick Time Event (series of button presses, a la God of War). In retrospect I realize he was flashing red when on the ground, which, if you've performed a "finisher" on a normal enemy, you would know means you can hit a button. But the game never taught you that, and I didn't know that at the time. I only know that now after playing the game for a while and figuring it out. Perhaps the manual mentions it, but I don't have it (GameFly remember), and games should not require manuals. Also, what if you're playing this game as a shooter? Then you never would have gotten close enough to perform a finisher.

There's a difference between hand-holding and teaching you how to play a game. The former is annoying, the latter is a necessity. Dark Sector could learn a thing or two from Valve.

Improvements

For me, the glaive was the only thing that kept me playing as long as I did. As it stands, the game is pretty forgettable, but there are some things that could have made it much more interesting and fun.

Increase the speed: Hayden is a small guy, let him run quickly around the levels slicing enemies up.
Add more hand-to-hand combat: Give Hayden more up-close glaive moves, and focus less on the boring shooting.
More glaive puzzles: There are some interesting puzzles in the game, but not enough. If they teach you how to use the glaive in strange ways, then they can throw some complicated puzzles at you.

To be honest, if they removed the guns completely (and adjusted the levels to make up for it), I would have enjoyed it much more.

Kodu Game Lab: Full Game Video Tutorial with Narration! – Generic Wars You can download this tutorial as a single divx file...
Kodu Game Lab video tutorials: 3 Keys, Popcorn Popper You can download both of these videos from the Downloads...

A Musician's View on the Rock Band Phenomenon (link)

Tommy Gun — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:37:36 +0000

Ever wonder what real musicians think of Rock Band? I don't normally post links to other sites, but this is a great little essay. He started off as a hater, having never played it, but actually went out and bought it. He tells the story of playing Rock Band with his friends, and how he got hooked:

A Musician's View on the Rock Band Phenomenon

Kudos for being open minded and actually playing the game!

No related posts.

Review: "Rock Band" Part 2: Bullet points!

Tommy Gun — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 14:34:28 +0000

This is part 2 of my review, also see part 1.

Quick Summary: Rock Band is Guitar Hero/Drum Hero/Karaoke Revolution combined. Made by Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero, it's the ultimate party music game.

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Read the rest of Review: "Rock Band" Part 2: Bullet points! (832 words)

Review: "Rock Band" Part 1: hardware, difficulty, modes

Tommy Gun — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:28:10 +0000

Note: we have it for the Xbox 360. Each person needs to be signed into an Xbox profile (it can be the same one). Some things may be a bit different on PS3.

I started writing this review right after getting the game, two months ago, and have since added to it. There is so much more to say about the game, though, that I have left some things out to talk about later. I have broken it into two parts, and apologize for the unorganized format. It's not so much a review as it is a discussion.

Quick Summary: Rock Band is Guitar Hero/Drum Hero/Karaoke Revolution combined. Made by Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero, it's the ultimate party music game.

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Read the rest of Review: "Rock Band" Part 1: hardware, difficulty, modes (990 words)

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 – "Little Rocket Man" Gnome Achievement Tips

Tommy Gun — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:48:33 +0000

When I first read about the gnome achievement, I knew I had to do it (partly because it sounded fun, partly because I love Amelie). I had already beaten Episode 2 on the PC, but we just got it for the 360, so I wanted to play through it again anyway (points!).

This actually isn't as hard as you might think. There are a lot of battles where you can just set him down somewhere until after the fight. If you know the game (I assume everyone will have played through this episode at least once before trying this achievement!), you'll know which rooms you'll be coming back to, so you can leave him for large sections of the game. The rocket is found well before the end of the game, so it's only a few hours of play anyway.

This is not a guide for the whole episode, just some tips on where to safely leave the gnome.

SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!

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Read the rest of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 – "Little Rocket Man" Gnome Achievement Tips (1,126 words)

Rock Band: Two #1 (in the WORLD*!) Expert drum scores, leaderboards question, Rock Band vs. Drummania.

Tommy Gun — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:14:20 +0000

That's right, I have two of the HIGHEST ROCK BAND DRUM SCORES in the WORLD*!

Okay, this isn't nearly as impressive as it sounds, but I've gotta milk this for all it's worth, since this'll surely last a whole…hour? (day? week?) Actually the first one is pretty good, five gold stars:

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Read the rest of Rock Band: Two #1 (in the WORLD*!) Expert drum scores, leaderboards question, Rock Band vs. Drummania. (857 words)

Some Thoughts on TimeShift

Tommy Gun — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 06:10:51 +0000

I had been looking forward to TimeShift for a while, but getting closer to release my excitement had been waning a bit. People sounded a bit unimpressed, the time powers weren't really as interesting as they first seemed, and the delays meant it was no longer as groundbreaking as it may have been. I was able to borrow the Xbox 360 version from a friend, so I quickly played through it (I think it only took around 10 hours to beat). Overall, it was a fun, solid game. But, I feel like there were many things they missed out on.

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Read the rest of Some Thoughts on TimeShift (629 words)

Elite Beat Agents song list revealed!

Tommy Gun — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 04:47:28 +0000

We don't normally post news items here, but since we run one of the largest Ouendan fansites, we just had to comment.

It's finally here, via Wired's Game|Life, the Elite Beat Agents song list:

Walkie Talkie Man – Steriogram

ABC – Jackson Five

Sk8er Boi – Avril Lavigne

I Was Born to Love You – Queen

Rock This Town – Stray Cats

Highway Star – Deep Purple

Y.M.C.A. – Village People

September – Earth, Wind and Fire

Canned Heat – Jamiroquai

Material Girl – Madonna

La La – Ashlee Simpson

You're the Inspiration – Chicago

Survivor – Destiny's Child

Without a Fight – Hoobastank

Believe – Cher

Let's Dance – David Bowie

Jumpin Jack Flash – Rolling Stones

Makes No Difference – Sum 41

The Anthem – Good Charlotte

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Read the rest of Elite Beat Agents song list revealed! (486 words)

Why we play Guitar Hero instead of "the real thing."

Tommy Gun — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 19:30:39 +0000

After the amazing response to the Guitar Hero videos I put up, I just wanted to take a moment to respond to some of the comments.

It seems for every Guitar Hero video posted by anyone, there will inevitably be comments like, "Go buy a real guitar!", "What's the point?", "Get a life!", and so on. I think people overestimate how much time it takes to learn how to play these games. If you play other music/rhythm games, the concept is similar and the learning curve is a lot lower. Even if you're playing for the first time, it's pretty simple.

Here is a list of reasons why people play Guitar Hero instead of the real thing:
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Read the rest of Why we play Guitar Hero instead of "the real thing." (655 words)

Nintendo bit Generations games originally to be two per cart?

Tommy Gun — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 23:36:33 +0000

While a lot of people love the new Nintendo bit Generations games for the GBA, many people (myself included) think they're priced a little too high. Why couldn't they put a few on one cart, and/or all of them on one DS cart, and sell it at full price? Well I've been messing around with the save files, and found something interesting — there is a second section in most of the save files for a second game:
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Read the rest of Nintendo bit Generations games originally to be two per cart? (87 words)

The best Game Boy cartridge case mod

Tommy Gun — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 03:30:45 +0000

Okay, let's be realistic here — we've grown up. We all have fond memories of playing bulky gray Game Boys when we were supposed to be doing homework, or getting that sexy new Game Boy Pocket in the killer ice blue limited edition color. Maybe you still play it, maybe you sold it off when you got a GBA, or maybe it's collecting dust in some drawer. But chances are, you still have some Game Boy cartridge cases lying around somewhere. So what are we to do with all those old cases?

I've been doing this for a while, so I thought I'd share it with you since I find it's a handy little trick. This is a bit complicated, so I've provided step-by-step instructions.

Tools and supplies needed:

Safety Goggles
Original Game Boy cartridge case
At least one (unopened) condom, for testing purposes

Step 1: Put condom in case (see figure 1).

Figure 1.

Congratulations! You're finished! If you're the skilled and ambitious type, you may want to go a step further to really give it some zing!

Step 2: (Optional) Apply tape or other decorations to the outside (see figure 2).

Figure 2.

This way it's more discreet, since Game Boy cases are clear. This mod is useful since you're not supposed to keep condoms in your wallet because they can weaken. You also don't want to just throw them in a backpack or other bag because they might get punctured. Now you don't have to worry about them getting damaged. Also, if some nosy person goes through your bag, all they'll see is some plastic case instead of a bunch of condoms. Just remember to still make sure they're stored in a cool, dry place.

Now go out and prove to the world that gamers do get laid!

Update: This was mentioned in NGamer magazine!

Kodu Game Lab: Full Game Video Tutorial with Narration! – Generic Wars You can download this tutorial as a single divx file...
Kodu Game Lab video tutorials: 3 Keys, Popcorn Popper You can download both of these videos from the Downloads...

Stop making me Crazy.

Tommy Gun — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 21:47:00 +0000

I shop at used game stores a lot. The GameStop near me has been having "buy 2 get 1 free" since December, so I've been buying tons of games. The thing is, I always feel like they're judging me every time I buy something (usually many things). I'll get comments like, "Oh, well at least you're getting ______." So every other game I got is total crap? Listen, I know you work at a game store, and you don't know me, but that doesn't mean I just randomly pick stuff off the shelves because of the pretty boxes. I know what games I'm buying. What exactly are the qualifications needed to work at a used game store, anyway?

To be fair most of the people seem cool, and seem to really like games, but do they have to be so damn condescending all the time?
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Read the rest of Stop making me Crazy. (718 words)

Fable: The Lost Chapters — The choice is yours…sort of.

Tommy Gun — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 15:43:55 +0000

I beat the game last week. The original content took me just under ten hours, and the whole game took about 13 hours, which is really short for an RPG, and even short for a regular game. I did avoid a lot of the side-quests (didn't really interest me, although I did get married twice, and totally scored like four times!), and there were plenty of other things to do — find all the silver keys, open all the demon doors, etc. Then obviously you can play through multiple times and try to be 100% evil, 100% good, a pure mage, a pure archer, etc.
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Read the rest of Fable: The Lost Chapters — The choice is yours…sort of. (1,586 words)

A counterfeit GBA ring operating out of my car hole! Er, ebay!

Tommy Gun — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 20:12:39 +0000

I realize I'm a bit late to the party here, as this has been written about many times before on the net, and even Nintendo has their own site about it. Unfortunately, I never saw any of those sites until after I got burned. I frequently scour ebay for good deals on games, particularly handhelds. One such good deal was a used copy of "The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap" for a crazy-low Buy-It-Now price of about $14 including shipping, when the stores sell it used for $27! I've gotten a lot of DS games for really cheap, and they're all in great condition complete with box/manual, so I thought it was just another good find. I grabbed it right away, being totally unaware that there are tons of GBA scammers out there.
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Read the rest of A counterfeit GBA ring operating out of my car hole! Er, ebay! (677 words)

i am 8-bit doesn't know the code.

Tommy Gun — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:13:54 +0000

I recently bought the i am 8-bit book and I really like it. However, I noticed some of the pieces contain an attempt at the Konami Code. I say attempt because none of them is correct.

From the book:

Page 78: "Putting the Super in Mario": Piece: Painting of Mario with Peach naked on a bed. Mario has the code written on his hand. The facing page has the title screen to Contra (dialogue: "Bro, that wop plumber jacked our moves."), so it's clearly supposed to be the code.
Code: U U D D L R B A start – Close, but missing the second L R. It's not even because there wasn't enough space, he could have put it right above the B A.
Page 111: "Up, Down, Up, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, A, B, A, B, Select, Start": Piece: Painting of a nude woman with many video game tattoos. Code is only in the title.
Code: In the title. Again, it's close enough that it's clear it's supposed to be the Konami code, but it's actually way off.

From the second exhibit (no book yet, just photos online):

Title: "The Many Different Stages in the Doldrums and their Constant Battles with Eternal Life": Piece: Painting with a Contra theme. Shown is the Konami logo, Bill and Lance, and a ".Com" in the style of the Contra logo. The code is written on the right.
Code: U D U D L R L R A B A B select start – Contra themed art, and it's way off.

I'm aware that there are some variations of the code, but those usually involve switching B and A to other buttons (like X and O) to adapt it to a different controller. Some change the directions, like turning your controller upside-down and entering it, but the beginning is still always "same same opposite opposite," if you know what I mean. I also imagine some people are doing this from memory, and the code gets told differently by different people (everyone I knew thought it was select start at the end). Even so, if you're creating a whole art piece for an exhibit, don't you think the least you could do is google it to ensure accuracy? Even when I'm posting on a forum that two people will read, I still google names and things. Notice how I spelled "i am 8-bit" in lowercase, the way it's written in the book?

The exhibit is supposed to conjure feelings of nostalgia, and at the end of the day with all those mangled codes, I suppose it does just that.

No related posts.

Far Cry Instincts is way too easy

Tommy Gun — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 11:09:59 +0000

Note: This refers to the original Xbox version.

First off, let me say that I love this game and had a fun time playing it. The first day I played it was for eight hours straight, so I must have liked it. However, there are no difficulty levels, and the game is way too easy! You can literally run through most of the game if you really want to, especially after you have feral speed. Even the final boss isn't very hard. He's certainly more challenging, but it still only took me three or four tries, and that was simply figuring out what was going on (apparently there's a huge glitch on the final boss, but I guess I avoided that). The rest of the game is a cakewalk, and here's why:
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Nintendo Revolution [Wii] Controller Design (concept poster)

Tommy Gun — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 14:46:22 +0000

Note: This was originally created 6/21/05, posted on my other site, here. Obviously we now know what the controller looks like and does, but I figured I'd repost this here anyway. I still think someone should make a standalone box. Update: We now know that the Revolution has been officially named the Wii.

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Read the rest of Nintendo Revolution [Wii] Controller Design (concept poster) (452 words)