Can’t Rage against (with?) the Xbox machine

id Software’s Tim Willits spoke candidly about his companies latest project, Rage. During a discussion at Austin’s GDC he stated that the Xbox 360′s limited disc storage is holding the game back.

“The PC is limitless in the amount of data you can put on it…The PS3 has about 25GB. But the Xbox 360 roughly has 6 to 8 GB of data. We’re hoping we can squeeze the game down to two discs for the 360 version.”- Tim Willits (Lead Designer, id Software

According to Mr. Willits, the game had grand things planned for gamers. What were they exactly? Well, hit over to 1UP.com and find out!

Click here to continue

Austin GDC: From Comic Books to Games

This is a very interesting topic I think everyone should read. It’s how to effectively take a literally 2D design and make it into a 3D character, and the pitfalls some artists fall into. Here’s a portion:

Lee began by discussing the difficulties of translating 2D characters into a 3D space. “You tend to draw these female characters with really long legs,” he said by way of example.

Gee, I tend to focus on other parts of the female anatomy

Click here to read more

Fallen Earth info from Austin GDC

Some Q&A to go along with their new look and logo for the website and game respectively:

1. Will we be required to eat/drink in the game? i.e. If I don’t drink in the desert will I die of thirst?

I realize this has been answered previously, but we hadn’t said anything on it for awhile so I wanted folks to know nothing had changed. You do not have to eat, but your Health and Stamina recovery without a food or drink buff is pretty rough.

2. Will I be able to swim on top of the water, and/or dive under the surface of the water? If yes, can I use a weapon while swimming? Melee or Ranged or both?

Click here to find out the answer

Austin GDC, Day 1

Portion of the Austin 360 article:

On Monday, the first day of the Austin Game Developers Conference, I kept wondering, “How many of these people registered before the recent Austin game company layoffs?”

Bad news at NCSoft and Midway Austin notwithstanding, GDC so far feels like a gathering for an industry that’s still expanding despite the current national economic panic. Merrill Lynch sold? Sorry, we’re busy creating a playable demo for our Xbox 360 game.

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Across the globe, Tex-Dev makes impact

Haha, we can’t get enough of our Austin-based Red Fly Studios! They are one of the few devs that keep their blog current (we’re looking at you, Retro). RFS ended in the Guardian, a UK website, as an example of how newer games let players “do-it” themselves. Here’s the portion that talks about Mushroom Men:

Similarly, Wii has the bizarre battle game Mushroom Men, which involves back-garden wars between tiny fungal soldiers. Here, you bodge together your own Heath Robinson-style weapons by scavenging and combining objects from the environment.

Read the entire article here

UGO’s Mushroom Men impressions

Red Fly Studios claims it’s one of the best write-ups they have seen so far, so you bet your buck it’s worth checkin’ out! Here’s a portion:

With the Big N now seemingly more focused on personal fitness and minigame collections than anything else, the burden of pleasing the Nunchuk-loving segment of the world’s Wii owners has fallen to the third-parties.  And based on what we saw of Mushroom Men:  The Spore Wars last week, few have risen to the challenge as well as the Austin-based Red Fly Studio has.

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Armature Studio Opens Its Doors

Acclaimed Metroid Prime Developers form New Studio and Sign Exclusive Publishing Deal with Electronic Arts

The Psychology of the MMO Gamer

Portion of a Joystiq.com article from Austin GDC 2008:

The first panel we attended at Austin GDC was entitled “The Psychology of the MMO Gamer,” which seemed to hold a mythical amount of promise. Sure enough, once the panel began it was clear that these people had gathered a couple of days before and said, “So hey… what can we talk about?” It was a bit disorganized, but some good stuff came out of it, particularly finding out how a six-year old can grief you with pudding. Read on to find out how you too can learn this devious and delicious skill.

Click here to read more

Austin GDC!

Okay, I didn’t get to go but I was working on something game-related and important (oddly enough it did not involve playing video games!)

Rest assured I am going to update you with everything I find…RIGHT NOW!

Wario takes (Six Flags) over Texas

Nintendo will be giving Six Flags Patrons a chance to try out the new Wii game, Wario Land: Shake It!, and two locations are right here in Texas! They are:

* Six Flags Over Texas (Arlington, Texas) – 9/27-28, 10/4-5, 10/11-12
* Six Flags Fiesta Texas (San Antonio, Texas) – 10/4-5, 10/11-12

The details after the break!