Vast update...
Wow. It really has been ages since I wrote here. I guess life just got too damn busy for me to comment on it. I got back into the UK just over 2 weeks ago and straight into Release Candidate deadlines on the Square Enix project (more on that later).So what has been going on?
Number one most important thing, Yanti is now with me in the UK having got the marriage visa while I was in Jakarta. We originally planned on her flying over at the end of the month, but she rapped up things really quickly in JK and flew here early.
She landed on the 22nd and after a quick medical in Heathrow (yup - she had to have x-rays and everything. Maybe they thought she was a human bomb or something) made it through customs and everything really quickly.
So great to have my beautiful wife living with me finally. I'm a very happy man!
We got all the photos from the wedding on the VCD of the whole thing. I’m going to do an ‘edited highlights’ and post on google video or something so I can link it to here.
In other news, I can finally tell you what I'm working on. This was officially announced at the beginning of June at the BREW conference but I've been kinda busy so haven't had a chance to blog it.
I've been working on a came called (deep breath) 'Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII - Lost Episode'. It's the mobile version of the recently release (in Japan) Dirge of Cerberus PS2 game, featuring Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII.
Here's a YouTube video of the PS2 game:
The mobile game is a fully 3D action game with some FPS elements. Nothing on mobile comes close to the stuff we've achieved on this game and this is the first time an external developer has been allowed to do an original Final Fantasy game. When the games released I’ll talk a little more on the development of the game.
Here are some screen shots and links to previews and news from the game sites including an interview with Ito-san, head of Square Enix Mobile division.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirge_of_Cerberus:_Lost_Episode_-Final_Fantasy_VII-
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9722
If you’re an AMP’D subscriber (in the US) you should be able to get your hands on it pretty soon. If not, you’ll have to wait a little while. The game runs on BREW handsets, but thanks to our rockin’ in house tech – it should run on pretty much anything. I’m not sure on Europe and Japan releases at the moment, but I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
While we're talking about games, here's what I've been playing recently:
Loco Roco:
Finally Sony makes a game for PSP that Nintendo would be proud of. The graphics are wonderful, the levels are super inventive, but best of all is the music. It’s got the best tunes and the best gibberish language of any game. Reminds me of Yanti when we she starts getting communications from Mars. So cute. LOVE THIS GAME. Finally something to play on PSP besides Taiko No Tatsujin and Everybody's Golf.
Trauma Center - Under the Knife:
The first of the 'Job Simulators' I've been playing on the DS. This game is pretty old but only recently released here. You use the DS Stylus to slice open people and remove all kindsa nasties. Can be hard to play on the train when you have to be accurate with the stylus and the train is swinging around all over the place but it’s great fun!
Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney:
So if Mummy ever wanted you to be a doctor or a lawyer, you really need to buy a DS. Phoenix Write is a 'lawyer'em up' where you have to win cases based on collecting evidence and questioning. It’s pretty much an interactive novel, or the natural evolution of the text based adventure games from the 80s. Really amazing script and design that keeps you guessing and playing. Wonderful.
In other game news, I finally found a use for my dusty XBox. I found out you can 'soft-mod' the XBox so you can run homebrew (okay - and dodgy warez). I think this is old news, but it was new to me cos I’d never really kept an eye on the ‘xbox scene’.
Finally the XBox came to life thanks to XBox Media Center. This amazing piece of software turns the XBox into the best media server money can buy. It's so good I bought a second XBox for the bedroom. At £49 second hand they are a total bargain (once modded).
XBMC allows you to stream any format of movie, music or picture format over the network. So now everything sits on the Medulla Corp main server and is wirelessly streamed all over the house.
XBMC also allows for the running of python scripts and people have written scripts to stream the Quicktime trailers from Apple, YouTube and Google video etc. Even tells you the weather!!
Ploom 2 commented that MS should just mod all the remaining XBoxs and put XBMC on them. I think he's on to something.
You can find XBMC here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/xbmc
I also found some DVDs full of emulators of all the machines that are sat under my TV. Maybe I should have bought that extra large TV cabinet after all.
In other MS news, T-Mobile finally released the OS update for my MDA Pro. I installed it yesterday and so far it seems pretty stable. Some nice features or the ability to launch 'running programs' from a soft key. I'm always having to close the programs Windows Mobile 5 leaves open.
I've also been using the Net Front web browser recently instead of the mess that MS provide for the phone. It's a much better web browser and beats Opera and Minimo by miles. It costs, but you have to pay for quality.
Finally - I've nearly finished work on the book I'm contributing on with Barns (www.fleafall.com) and Jim Thompson about games development. It's a light, coffee table style guide that aims to cover everything it takes to design videogames. I've got about 2500 more words to write and I'm done. I'll let you all know more about release dates etc when I know more. I have to be honest, I’m along contributing to about 15% of the book for the simple reason that I’m too lazy/too busy with everything else. I’ve really enjoyed writing about games design but the only time I really get is on the train on the way into work and what with Loco Roco etc – even that time is precious :)
Bye!
Nic.
