• What I Played: 2009 Edition

    Check out a list of every game I played in 2009 with a few thoughts on each one!

  • Game Deconstruction: FarmVille

    Why is this game so popular? Read my take on trying to figure it out.

  • Game Deconstruction: 'Splosion Man

    Critics agree that Twisted Pixel's latest effort shouldn't be missed. What makes it more memorable than other XBLA platformers?

  • Audiball Postmortem

    Read my reflections on my first foray into game development. Audiball is available now on Xbox Live Indie Games.

Theme Update

Just installed a new theme to the site, one that shouldn’t have any problems in IE7, Firefox, or Opera (image alignment was rough in the last theme). I’ll be making some of my own changes to it over the next few weeks, so if you encounter any problems displaying the page, please let me know. This blog is also now being streamed to the new D-Pad Network homesite, so here’s a shout out to all the regulars over there.

     

Audiball Featured on Georgia Tech Homepage

gatech

My indie startup, Indiecisive Games, was featured in a story by Georgia Tech’s Digital Lounge this month. You can check out the full article here.

     

Games of 2008 Wrap-up

Since Audiball finished development, I’ve had a lot more time to play the games I’ve been buying over the past few months. Hit the jump for some quick impressions.
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Winding Down

Just finished my last week of classes for the semester. It’s been a busy one, so busy in fact that I completely forgot to post about Audiball when it was released. The game has been out for three weeks now on Xbox Live Community Games, and we’re getting great positive feedback from players. Check it out and let me know what you think!

     

Audiball & IGF

Indiecisive Games’ debut title Audiball was entered into the Independent Games Festival today. I’m still working on content for the upcoming XBLCG release, but since I hadn’t posted anything about the game on my blog yet, I figured this was as good of a time as any. Please let me know what you think of the trailer we’ve released, and feel free to email me any questions you may have about the game.

     

New Game – Flying Fighters

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No, this isn’t the big new game announcement. That’s coming on Friday, and this probably won’t be the first place you see it. Flying Fighters is a GBA game I made for a CS class. Check it out here.

     

A Candidate You Betcha Can Believe In?

Had to make a “propaganda poster” for a class. The upcoming election was the obvious subject matter. Anyways, I tried to mimic an artistic effect that was done for some Obama posters I’ve seen. Here’s the result:

palin
     

New “Game” – PollockPaint

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Ok, so it’s not really a game, but I made a paint program for a class this week. You can check it out here. Let me know what you think!

     

Rock Band 2: It’s A Lot Like Rock Band

Picked up Rock Band 2 last weekend with high expectations. The original Rock Band was my favorite rhythm game to date, and I couldn’t wait to see how they improved upon the original. It turns out that the biggest improvements are quite minimal on paper. The single player campaigns have been axed in favor of using Tour mode for everything and a few “challenges” that consist of playing various sets of songs with certain instruments. The online modes have been left mostly the same, but tour mode is now online as “Battle of the Bands,” so the old modes are somewhat irrelevant to me. Combining the songs I’ve downloaded with the songs imported from the original Rock Band, I have over two hundred songs available to play in Rock Band 2. Choosing a song to play is like looking at someone’s iTunes library. It’s better than the original in every facet of gameplay and presentation, but of course, the game’s own song selection is what really matters, and it somehow manages to best its predecessor. It’s got Bon Jovi, Journey, Modest Mouse, Blondie, Beck, and more. Many of the songs aren’t obvious, and that’s what makes it so great.

So basically, it’s still Rock Band. And I couldn’t recommend it more for rhythm game fans.

     

T-Shirt Designs: Woot Shirt Derby

During my first semester at Georgia Tech, I discovered Shirt.Woot and their awesome design derbies. Every week they come up with a theme and ask for submissions. The submissions get voted on by Woot users, and the top three shirts are made and sold at the end of the week. I entered the contest a number of times, placing in the top 20 more than once. Here are some of my favorite ones:

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