ANNOUNCEMENT: I MOVED MY BLOG

I have a new domain so that I could finally self-host my blog. The new address is: http://thedolgion.com

Mind that it isn’t “thedoglion.com”, but “thedolgion.com”. There’s been a mistake when I bought the new domain.

It’s confusing yes, but dolgion is my actual name. I’ll probably buy thedoglion.com though in the future.

I’ve made a little redesign of the whole thing, and I hope you like it. The old blog will not get any more posts.

It is practically dead. I’ll leave all the old content here, but if you want to access my new posts (post

September 30th) then click the link above. Thanks!

Kinect Game Idea: Pick-Up Artist Game

So the Kinect is coming soon, and game designers are now tasked with the challenge of finding new innovative game ideas and designs that work with the Kinect. Not just work with it, but that are now possible (meaning that they had been impossible before). Obvious game types that lent themselves for motion controls in the past are dance games, for example. On a standard controller not much more than rhythmic button pressing, but with some way of capturing actual dance motion it allows for a an engaging dance experience (of course still nothing compared to actually going out with friends).

Mafia 2 – A defensive Review

I just read the review of Mafia 2 over on Eurogamer and it honestly kinda pissed me off. It’s not so much that they gave it 4/10. I don’t give a rats ass about numerical ratings. But the points of critique they brought up, those I care about. They essentially say Mafia 2 is not GTA, and therefore it’s a bad game. This is ridiculous and very very sad that they as a reputable and professional game reviews site get down to such shallow measures. Well they didn’t actually compare it to GTA that much, but they whine about there not being much to do in the open world environment. They criticize the missions as simplistic and repetitive, the in-game radar is complained about and some of the level design and a bunch of other nitpicking. Read it yourself if you like, I want to keep my article free of links to dumb articles like that. The only valid point of critique (in my eyes) is them saying they didn’t like the plot of Mafia 2. They say Vito Scaletta is a character without depth that does as he is told (which I don’t think to be true, he has several moments of inobedience), and that the other characters are all clichee. If they don’t like that aspect, okay, I can live with that.

FlashPunk Tutorial 06: Can I have a Word with You? – Making Multiple-Choice Dialog

Hello and welcome back! It’s been silent around here for the last 2 weeks, because I’ve been bedridden with fever and stuff like that. But no more! I’m back on the keyboard and wrote up a tutorial on making Multiple-Choice Dialog in FlashPunk. This feature is of course implemented right into my JRPG Engine, that shouldn’t be a surprise to you. It’s pretty basic. The dialog texts are written and stored in XML files as assets. The engine allows for multiple dialog options and can make NPCs answer to the chosen line of the player. You’ll find out more in great detail throughout the article. The source code can be gotten from here. You can play the demo here.

The Difference Between Being Told to Feel and to Actually Feel

Pictured Above: Me pissing my pants

There is a genre that I really can’t stand playing, not because the games are dead boring or of generally bad quality, but because they feel too real to me as a player. It’s the horror game genre with games such as the classic Resident Evils and Silent Hills. I mean those games apparently are amazing masterpieces, from what I hear, but I never can get my nerves together for long enough to finish one of them. In fact, I usually quit the game after the second scary moment in a game. In Silent Hill 2 I stopped the game before even getting to the town. That whole eerie fog and the sounds scared the living hell out of me. Funny though that I find most of the supposedly scary horror movies (Grudge, Ring, both jap. versions and etc) really just entertaining, and not that scary at all. I can’t help but laugh out loud sometimes even when a particular cheap trick is used in a particular cheap way. So…what is it with those freaking games?

Sherlock Holmes and Non-linear Adventure games

I like the cover, too

As I was on vacation, I picked up my sister’s copy of Sherlock Holmes stories, and quickly I got caught up in the really really beautifully narrated and well thought-out plots. As I had my phase of obsessively playing the classic LucasArts adventure games, the very first Holmes story “A Study in Scarlet” led me to think about the adventure game genre. It should be no news to you that the basic design of adventure games is largely the same as it was 20 years ago. Which isn’t bad. Those games, as I said, were gems and the old design patterns, if well implemented and with a good amount of creativity, do lead to an enjoyable gaming experience.  I’m kind of a sucker for the whole non-linearity subject, as you might have noticed looking at my other blog posts.

In “A Study in Scarlet”, Sherlock Holmes is first introduced to the reader by the narrator and companion Dr. Watson. It is through his eyes that we perceive the story and Holmes’ actions, not counting in the second part that explains some of the necessary background of the plot. What I find so interesting is that Holmes’ skill of observation and deduction is largely the key for his success in uncovering the murder mystery. It’s as I believe a very classic structure. A murder happens, the hero (Holmes) comes onto the scene some time after the incident happened, searches for clues and goes off making his deductions and conclusions. In between, there is enough space for interrupting events and twists in the plot that can lead to the need to change the theory of the detective, or that can help flesh out and advance the theory.

Brainstorming on RPG Design

Hello people! Just got back from the countryside, and wow just one week gone and the online space seems to have moved on so much, I don’t have the time to read all my RSS subscriptions, lol.

As I was away from my computer and enjoying a refreshingly intact ecosystem (my homeland of west Mongolia is beautiful) I was pondering on where to go with my JRPG Engine, or better, how to make use of it. I’m not very thrilled with making a traditional game adhering to genre standards, so I’ll share with you some of my thoughts on RPG design in general.  It’s all loosely related to my previous post on non-linearity.