HAPPY TWISTED BIRTHDAY?!?!

Saw this over on TMA! Happy Birthday, Rabid! Totally cool!

THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

Bought and played this very cool game with my kids this weekend. If you have kids and are looking for an interesting analog game, I highly recommend it. They really love it and it's very, very clever! Check it out: 

Players control Wizard Kids (the colored Chess pawn looking pieces) trying to reach a magic relic randomly placed on the board. There are magnets in the base of each pawn and a metal ball- on the underside of the game board- attaches to the pawn's magnet and glides under the board as you move your piece  (the red glowing metal ball in the above pic shows this). As you move (controlled by a die roll), you race to reach the relic before your opponents. The first player to collect 5 relics wins! And with only 1 relic active at a time, all players are racing for the same item, creating a lot of tension and drama! 

So far so good. But here is what makes the game crazy fun and fresh:

If you lift the game board, you'll see a hidden grid. Wedged into the grid are these little wooden walls that create- in effect- an invisible maze. Players can use up to 24 wooded walls to design the maze however they like. Once the maze is laid out, the game board is placed back over the grid and the wooded walls are (naturally) hidden. 

As players race to the relic, they must be careful not to glide over any of the hidden walls. Doing so will dislodge the marble. When this happens the player must go back to his starting square and his current turn is over. Over time, players construct a mental picture of the maze in order to avoid the walls and get faster and faster at reaching relics. Really fun and challenging, especially as the maze can change every game. Plus, you are engaged even when it's not your turn as watching other players try to navigate adds to your own mental picture of the hidden maze.

Overall, we had tons of fun with The Magic Labyrinth this weekend. More of a game for just kids or for adults with kids. But for that demo, I highly recommend it! 

That said, if you have a precocious  (aka griefing) 6 year old that you let build the maze while you go to grab a diet Coke, you could end up with something like this:

Anyone want to guess where my 6 year old Kate's starting square was :). I was both super proud and appalled. :)

Later,

David

ps. one of the rules is you can take as long as you like to make your moves BUT once you commit to moving from one square to the next, you have to be rapid. This makes it so you can't 'feel' your way thru the maze (which would make things too easy). 

The instant I played this I was like, 'This would make a super fun iPad game!' It would solve this cheating exploit and it seems the core game could really get some neat freshening up via digital elements. Turns out, there IS an app for this (think it's iPhone native only, not sure tho) but I hear it's not very good. 

IDEAS VS. EXECUTION

Just now getting around to Isaacson's great Steve Jobs book that many folks read months ago. While many of the great Jobs quotes and pearls of wisdom have been discussed and paraphrased ad nauseum , there's actually great Isaccson insight when it comes to the bullshit 'ideas are cheap, execution is everything' line that many folks in my industry like to toss around a lot.

When discussing Jobs and Apple taking a lot of the XEROX PARC ideas, Issacson writes, 'There falls a shadow, as T.S. Eliot notes, between the concept and the creation. In the annals of innovations, new ideas are only part of the equation. Execution is just as important...good execution is as important as good ideas'.

To me, many video games feel like special effects show reels and glorified tech demos. Most video games- once a few months/years go by and the visuals and fx and the new hardware no longer wow- are forgettable and do not stick to your bones.

I think a big reason for this is so many in our industry value the tech and execution over the ideas that drive that tech. This does not apply to all games. But for most games, we are like the movie business if there were no writers or directors but just the brilliant, genius craft folks who make and run the cameras and build the sets and create the special effects.

If you just want to pump out products and keep the widget machine going, execution is WAY more important than ideas.

If you want to create amazing games, great ideas AND great execution of those ideas must be nurtured and respected.

The only people who want to make great games who claim that execution is more important than ideas are the people who have never actually had a great idea.

STATE OF PLAY

Had a great time on Brandon Bales' new web show STATE OF PLAY. Besides my interview (which you can see below) going to the site will let you check out very cool and informative interviews from That Game Company's Kellee Santiago and Jonathan Blow (he of Braid and the upcoming Witness).

When Brandon first pitched me the show (this was taped during 2011 E3) he said it was like a video game version of Charlie Rose. Lo and behold: that's what he's created and I really dug being on it and I really love this format! Here's to lots of future episodes and success Brandon! Eager to see who you have lined up for season 2!








Talk soon, ya'll!

David

TWISTED METAL STATUS UPDATE

Game, Network, and Website Updates in the video-

Thanks!

David

MARCH 12TH TWEAK COMMENTS

Here is a place to comment on any numerical tweaks you feel we should make to TWISTED METAL for this coming Thursday Night's (March 15th) tweak server push.

Thanks!

David

Another Twisted Metal Status Update

TWISTED METAL STATUS UPDATE #4

Little rambly plus the kids stop by but here ya go:



Covers Network connection issues, dropping games, XP tuning, skins, website update, plus a bit more.


ALSO- fantastic Twitter follower @dagimp13 has written the following that MAY aid SOME folks in making TM games easier to join and stay connected to. I am not advocating this as I know NOTHING about this (I'm not the guy to give advice on how to reconfigure your network settings) but I can tell you this guy says it's worked great for him and a number of twitter followers have pretty much said the same thing. Let me know how it affects your experience should you choose to do it.

Thanks to @DaGimp13! Much appreciated, sir! :)


David

Ok, here's what he wrote:

++++++

Ok, so some people have been asking for help in setting up their routers with the PS3 TCP/UDP ports. While a few may have been helped, I'd like to reach the larger audience of PS3 users. Here is a guide on how to do it (generic, mind you. I'm not going to deal with each & every router individually). 

1. open a web browser, be it your PC/Mac/PS3/cellphone, and google Port Forward. the site has a massive list of ports & routers on it, which is to help users open ports on routers. click on router list, and select the manufactuer & model of your router. You'll then find steps on how specifically to add the full PS3 list of TCP/UDP ports.

2. to explain how the list of PS3 TCP/UDP ports works, it's a compiled list of ports used from all PS3 games/programs. All ports are input as 'Ranges' that are opened, whether its TCP/UDP. So individual ports such as UDP 5223 are input as Start 5223 End 5223. Ports listed already as range ports are input as such. Example: Start 990-9980. you'll also notice it wants you to choose a type, either TCP or UDP. Choose accordingly to whichever the input on the list was. Example: UDP 5223 is type UDP. Obvious, right? Also, Start & End port digits are open, so whatever that Start of that range is (TCP 990-9980) the 990 & 9980 are open & any ports in between.

3. If you scan through list of ports on Port Forward, you'll notice the MOST common TCP port is 5223. Do not worry that it is not in the TCP list, as it already is! TCP port range 990-9980 covers this port already, so it doesn't need to be opened twice. 



Now that we've covered the basics on 'how-to', let's bring in the list. this list covers the entire catalog of PS3 games/programs, so enjoy.

Full PS3 list of TCP/UDP ports

TCP: 80-81, 443, 990-9980, 10000-10500, 13505, 14310-14328, 15310-15328, 17502, 18121, 18126, 30350-30400, 42100-42199

UDP: 81, 88, 2005, 3064, 3074-3075, 3478-3479, 3658-3659, 5223, 5730-5739, 6000, 6112, 9570, 9820-9880, 10000, 10500-12500, 14000-14016. 17502, 18126
======================================================================

Hope this helps people connecting with PS3 online, whether it's Twisted Metal or Call of Duty, and anything in between.

@DaGimp13
PSNID: DaGimp13