February 28, 2012

Tech part 2

Complaint Department
Tablets, I love tablets, yet I hate these so called "tablets" they're touting these days. A good wacom tablet you can use a pen and draw things, great for photoshop and all kinds of things. One problem with some such related tablets is back to the Absolute vs Relative post in which it doesn't matter what you do the position on the pad is relative to the location on screen and so you have to adapt. I would much rather have the option to make it a higher sensitivity in movement and make it relative to the mouse, so this way I could drag down low and have the mouse move down, then go up top and keep dragging down from where the pointer just was instead of having it jump to the top of the screen.

Now the other tablets that everybody are going wild for are these essentially mini computers with touchscreens. I can't hook them up to the computer and use any of their features, which would be very nice. I would love to hook it up and display my screen on the tablet, zoom in and draw a bit using my hand or other tool like the digital drawing pens I already have. I'd also like to be able to use other items available on these tablets such as the video / camera, mic, and in some cases call features. I'm a bit of a fan of the tablet that works perfectly with the cell phone and has an attachable keyboard, just a nifty little bugger. I am aware that with enough work some if not most of this is possible, and it could be argued that I could just use the tablet for these things themselves and bypass my actual computer but I like to do things my way. For example I wouldn't mind using them as input devices for recording in my favorite programs instead of using built in recording features and apps and then trying to work with the file afterward. Back to effort though I'd rather not have to work too hard to do this, I'd like things a bit simpler because logically I'd like to do it more than once if it works out to my satisfaction.

Side note 
the tight corridors and inside houses etc in silent hill used absolute camera positions, you could tell the camera never moved or only moved slightly by somewhat targeting the player.

Wishful Thinking
I know it may sound a little silly, but it would be nice to have an engine made for kids, early designers, just something to make very basic games with and get children into the idea. They could draw an object, or a circle for example and then manipulate it from a properties standpoint. Define it as an object, a player, a NPC, an enemy, a zone or target, or a list of other things. Give it emitters under conditions, mark it as a spawn location, other similar things. You could argue the halo forge is just that, but it's a little too simple and doesn't allow for new content just excellent manipulation of existing content.

Game Update
So somewhere in the last update I appear to have altered something a little wrong. I'm having an issue with the auto allocation system, stats aren't updating with the new allocated units until you're in the pause menu where you would normally allocate. So once I track that down I'll have a new build but it looks like it might take a bit more than a day to do that and implement the other updates / tweaks so I handed them an older build and told them to find new things until I get this next build up.

8 comments:

  1. Call me a derp, but i dont get the whole tablet pc thing...

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  2. i do agree that tablets pretty handy when it comes to digital arts and drawings, but it still lack practicability and its somehow expensive to buy decent one imo otherwise its pretty much helpful..

    GFXElite.blogspot.com

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  3. There is GameMaker. And it pretty much fits in what you asked for.

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  4. i really don't get the appeal of the mass-market tablet. I already have a laptop and a netbook. A touchscreen alone isn't gonna win me over

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  5. You mean like the ipad? Not that I'd get one, but what are some of the best tablets to buy?

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    1. I honestly can't recommend any, so far they've all been garbage, the one that works with phone and keyboard is alright if you don't intend on doing much
      and if you're looking for drawing tablets I'd say any wacom or Genius brand will do, the larger the better

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  6. Nice. I just uploaded my first prototype of my game! Definitely feel free to check it out, it's on my blog.

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