Matt Barton's Blog, page 11
April 24, 2012
Dev Diary 021: Making Planets Move
OrbitalIt's been awhile since I worked with Unity--been too distracted with Legend of Grimrock. I decided to try to get something done today, breaking apart the project into bite size chunks. I figured I might as well start tackling the heart of the game first, and spent the morning getting a basic system worked out for orbiting the planets around the sun. I'm not quite satisfied with this--for one thing, I can't seem to work out a way to make the planets rotate in sync with their orbit. I'm guessing there's some heavy math involved in something like that, so I might just fudge it. No reason (I can think of) why I can't just pick some textures that won't make much difference how they're angled. In other words, making a ringed planet like Saturn look right would probably drive me nuts, so I might just stick to rocky worlds and gas giants. At any rate, I'm fairly pleased with this part. Now I just need to make some ships that will rotate around their respective planets.
April 23, 2012
Matt Chat 145: The Skinny on The Fat Man
In the third installment of what's being called "my best interview ever," Mr. George "The Fat Man" Sanger continues his discussion of the industry, covering such topics as the dangers of establishing a nickname and why gaming has never had its Woodstock (we can still hope.) He also shows off his exotic instrument collection and explains why a proper musician never blames his tools.
Download the mp4 here. As you know, Matt Chat is 100% funded by people like you. If you want to see it continue, donate today. One dollar is all I ask!
April 18, 2012
Matt's Podcast 12: Kickstart me Up!
[image error]Legend of Grimrock: Oh, hellz yeah!Hi, guys, it's been awhile since we had a new podcast up, so here's one I recorded today about the epic Legend of Grimrock and some of the latest Kickstarter news. Are we experiencing a fad--a brief phase--or on the cusp of a gaming revolution? I also chat a bit about Grimrock, though I stick to basic points since I plan to do a Matt Chat on it soon. As always, feel free to comment, ask questions, or do whatever it is you do below.
Download the podcast here.
April 16, 2012
Matt Chat 144: The Fat Man Talks Business
Here's part 2, and this is one video you do not want to miss if you want to know what's wrong with the industry today. The Fat Man lays it all out with his trademark wit and elegance.
BTW, YouTube misidentified another video as "Matching 3rd Party Content." The Wu-Tang Clan??? Uh, whatever. Thankfully, you can download the video here.
April 10, 2012
Matt Chat 143: The Fat Man Part I
Here's the interview with The Fat Man himself, George Sanger. George is indeed "The Man" when it comes to PC game audio, particularly back in the pivotal early 90s when we moved from the PC buzzer/speakers to Soundblasters. George helped standardize the industry and did all kinds of fantastic productions, including The 7th Guest and Wing Commander soundtracks. Lots of great stuff in this interview about how he got his start and much more.
Download the viddy here.
April 2, 2012
Matt Chat 142: Wasteland
Wasteland! By now, everybody who has ever been a fan of this game knows about Brian Fargo's Kickstarter project to make the sequel. So, naturally, I decided this week to take a look at the hallowed original. While not everything has aged gracefully, I must say it still holds up rather well today, with a particularly gritty storyline and great writing (printed in the manual, of course). It's also a remarkably violent game, going so far as to have the player slaughtering "cute little animals" and even babies! This game would definitely get an M rating today and probably arouse the ire of our good friend Hillary Clinton. At any rate here's the video!
You can download the mp4 here.
April 1, 2012
Malfunctioning ColecoVision sends Rob Daviau to Alternate Reality
[image error]Rob Daviau in Mortal Peril!Attention all Armchair Arcaders: Rob Daviau, YouTube sensation and longtime friend of the site, has suffered a terrible accident! Foolishly modding a badly wired ColecoVision he received in a mysterious box from "The Doctor," Rob has been ripped out of our spacetime continuum and projected into a terrifying alternate reality! The photo you see here was sent just before the portal vanished; apparently Rob thought it was more important to alert us to his predicament than to use the portal to return! As you can see from the agony on the man's face, this is not a realm he wishes to be, and we must do all we can to save him. Please, if you have a ColecoVision and a Sonic Screwdriver, Rob needs your aid to bring him back home.
Wait, what's that? Another transmission! Transcript follows (breaking news!):
(begin transcript)
Rob: "Matt, DO NOT BRING ME BACK!"
Matt: "Hold on, Rob, we can't just leave you there. I know you must be worried that you'll bring back a strange germ or something from that other dimension, but don't worry, we'll be sure to hose you off good when you get here."
Rob: "Matt, NOOOO!"
Matt: "That's right, Rob, just hang in there, we're working as hard as we can here."
(end transcript)
As you can see, the situation is becoming more serious by the moment. Get to work, folks!
Malfunctioning Colecovision sends Rob Daviau to Alternate Reality
[image error]Rob Daviau in Mortal Peril!Attention all Armchair Arcaders: Rob Daviau, YouTube sensation and longtime friend of the site, has suffered a terrible accident! Foolishly modding a badly wired Colecovision he received in a mysterious box from "The Doctor," Rob has been ripped out of our spacetime continuum and projected into a terrifying alternate reality! The photo you see here was sent just before the portal vanished; apparently Rob thought it was more important to alert us to his predicament than to use the portal to return! As you can see from the agony on the man's face, this is not a realm he wishes to be, and we must do all we can to save him. Please, if you have a Colecovision and a Sonic Screwdriver, Rob needs your aid to bring him back home.
Wait, what's that? Another transmission! Transcript follows (breaking news!):
(begin transcript)
Rob: "Matt, DO NOT BRING ME BACK!"
Matt: "Hold on, Rob, we can't just leave you there. I know you must be worried that you'll bring back a strange germ or something from that other dimension, but don't worry, we'll be sure to hose you off good when you get here."
Rob: "Matt, NOOOO!"
Matt: "That's right, Rob, just hang in there, we're working as hard as we can here."
(end transcript)
As you can see, the situation is becoming more serious by the moment. Get to work, folks!
Bill wins hundreds of millions in lotto!
[image error]Bill is a winner!Well, you guys probably heard the news--I, like so many other millions of eager people, got caught up in the huge excitement of the $640 million New Jersey state lotto. Since Bill lives in the state, he casually bought a half-dozen tickets, and--quite unbelievably--the Loguidices are one of the three winners! Unfortunately, they're naturally too excited to post about it here, so they left it to me to summarize what you're gonna see changing around here.
Perhaps the most exciting thing is Bill's Armchair Arcade Museum. Both of us feel it's only right to build it in New Jersey since that's where the winnings came from--and it's where Bill lives, who will of course be contributing the bulk of the exhibits. They will be paying each of the AA staff a great wage just to work there full time, educating the public and, of course, playing as many retrogames as we can stomach. Admission to the museum is free, but you'll have to pay twenty five cents per game. And there will be NO, repeat NO, redemption machines anywhere. Well, except the little crane one where you can win plush Bill and Matt dolls (hey, we have to give something to the ladies!). The museum will also feature a full-service gym equipped with all the latest exergaming equipment (where you'll find Bill most of the time) as well as a full-service microbrewery called Pour of Radiance (where you'll find me most of the time). Somewhere down in the basement will be a TRS-80 programming area (Shawn's hangout). Mark Vergeer will be most likely found in the SHMUPS Emporium, which, as you can guess, will feature all the best SHMUPS in Dutch, of course. You just haven't played Gradius until you've played it in the original Dutch.
March 28, 2012
Matt's Podcast 11: Orbliteration
[image error]Pencil me in!I'm back from St. Louis with a big new podcast! Topics covered include the gaming events on the trip, Magic the Gathering vs. DLC, the lingering canker sore that is ME3's ending, Gameplay Forever news, the Matt Chat book project, and Orbliterator, the new game I'm working on. Enjoy, and please, lemme know what you think of the game and book ideas.
Download the MP3.
