Screenshot: Proof of Concept for Hecatomb

I've actually been building proof of concepts for a PC version of the game for a while now. I've been trying very hard to improve speeds using just the .NET CLR, but it looks like I'll have to begin looking into either making or borrowing a proper image library for this. My own very basic algorithms just aren't enough to keep up - I'm hoping to have it run on 512MB RAM computers, although it looks like whoever's interested is going to need 1GB to run this well - it currently runs using just 8MB of RAM - but it can easily balloon if I decide to preload resources into RAM. We'll see.

Oh yes, card images copyright Wizards of the Coast, or Hasbro, or whoever owns them. Definitely not mine.

Keeping Mechanics Simple - But Still Deep

I've been thinking about game mechanics recently - be it for the card game variety or of the strategy game variety. (And well, of the Swords and Sticks variety - believe it or not, the original Sword Fantasy RPG battle system mechanic might actually be present.) Every time you think about the game - there are times you run into problem with a particular mechanic or method. The problem is usually choosing between simple and complex. Taking the simple route out - sometimes makes things too simple. There is a lot of difficulty with trying make simple mechanics - without sacrificing the depth of a mechanic.

Simple things like adding elements into the game can make the game difficult to play - because there's always the overhanging need to memorise long lists of what's weak to what, and what's effective against what - however, if that list is short enough, like 3 elements - that can simplify things considerably - but the easiest way is really not to fix the mechanic - but to fix the display and implementation of the mechanic.

Elements are fun - but they're something that should be explained outright on the unit or card. Telling the player what element damage it is dealing, what element it is weak against - keeps things simple - without losing depth. It's not really important that the mechanics themselves are simple - but that the players don't have to keep looking back to the manual, rules or whatever it is that will be hell to read through to understand.

It's really keeping things easy for the player. If you had complex rules for the game - especially an online one - make sure there's an easy way to refer to them. Have complex rules for calculating damage? Make sure the player knows how much damage they can deal way before they even order the attack.

Jumping on the Bandwagon

I'm hardly the world's fastest adopter of new websites. Video game technology, maybe, but certainly not new websites. Despite that, I'm probably aware of their existence significantly before most people are - just that I refuse to join in until much later, usually after their worth has been proven. Most things I do usually have roughly a delay of a year - I refused joining most friend networking sites (yes, even friendster and facebook) for quite a while after I got the first e-mail asking me to join. The dangerous things my friends do, giving out e-mails and passwords simply because someone asked for it.

The latest bandwagon I've jumped on is Twitter, and tweeting. Not to say I'm not familiar with the idea - but I wanted to wait a while. My blog did have a short rants section for a while,  a change that dates back to more than a year ago.

I haven't quite decided how much tweeting I'm going to do, but the content of my tweets are certainly not the same as things that go into short rants - but I recognise that there is an overlap - and there is a good chance that it'll replace my short rants somewhat. I've also become particularly cautious, making sure that there is a backup of my tweets on the blog server too - as well as a weekly digest of my tweets - so that in case twitter goes down for whatever reason, I don't lose those precious amounts of ramblings and rantings.

I'm going to try and do it right and try to tweet at least once every 24 hours - but we all know how well I do with schedules and routines that aren't study or work. We'll see how long it lasts.

HDTVs in Malaysia

There's a new crazy trend in Malaysia. Since now large LCD TVs are cheap, and they're about the only thing selling well, everyone is stocking and selling these HD ready TVs. People are buying them although here in Malaysia - we don't have HDTV signal (not yet). It's fine if you're viewing over-the-air broadcasts (we probably won't be getting digital signal for another 2 years) - but most of them are rubbish at handling lousy input. A lousy input a lot of people know as: ASTRO satellite TV. That's not to say they haven't been working at getting a HDTV version of the satellite decoder out - but I think they're not that far behind. Even in Australia, where free channels have gone HD, the cable is still mostly SDTV.

As many people who are using a HDTV will testify, there's a lot of problems that can show up strangely on cheaper HDTVs (not sure about expensive ones, since I can't afford one). First, there's ghosting. I can assure you, it's not the screen's response time at fault. Then, there's also the JPEG-like compression blocks (which didn't show up before). It's a combination of bad input, deinterlacing methods and god knows what else. It's not just the ASTRO box which is at fault - it's just one of many.

How do I know it's not the screen's response time? For one, I have current generation consoles which output at 720p and 1080p - and I can assure you, ghosting will be something I'd be unable to bear during gaming. How do I know it's a combination of the input and video processing methods? For one, piping ASTRO through RF cable - actually improves the situation somewhat - although it shouldn't. S-Video doesn't help on my particular combination of decoder and TV. (Don't think that I don't have good cables. You would be surprised at the cables I have.)

Why am I blaming the ASTRO box when it could be just the TV's bad handling of input? My DVD player and PS2 don't suffer the same problem - so it's obviously at best, a combination of the two.

Webcomic: Fast and Cheap