In another sign that the publishing business can’t be too hard up, Dragon Age designer and writer Dave Gaider will see his prequel novel for the universe published by Tor Books.
The first chapter of Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne is available for download. I’m waiting for the final version, myself. I’d hate to spoil what I’m sure will be another exercise in scene setting and historical exposition.
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I love Broadway musicals.
And I still think this is the stupidest thing I’ve heard all month.
But today the word has come out that Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Really Useful Group, the company responsible for handling Webber’s various projects, is currently in talks with multiple video game publishers with the goal of bringing Webber’s musicals into the world of video games.
I can see Phantom of the Opera work as a rhythm/Diner Dash combo game. You sing and match notes to become the Phantom’s new musical protege. Maybe throw in some quick time events to keep chandeliers from falling on patrons. Sing well, make the Opera Populaire a success, etc.
Sunset Boulevard could be an adventure or mystery game, I suppose. Evita could work as a city builder or Tropico-lite.
But Cats? Jesus Christ Superstar? By Jeeves?
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Because if they had, they wouldn’t have nominated it for a writing award.
Nice to see Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble! there, mostly because I really love that name.
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Since the strategy world is pretty barren at the moment, I guess I should think about writing another feature series or something. Maybe work up another board game AAR.
In the meantime, here’s another interview with Derek Paxton, the design lead on Fall From Heaven II.
On the AI:
The AI knows, “I can summon a demon that can move two steps, and I have an enemy that’s two steps away, so I better do that even though I can summon something that’s more powerful but only moves one step. I’m going to summon the one that can get to my enemy.” So the AI does all those calculations. It looks at if it has multiple damage spells it can cast, it looks at which one will have the greatest effect on the enemies within its range. So it does those things very well. The thing that the AI doesn’t do, is that it doesn’t consider moving and then casting. So it won’t go out and cast Spring on a desert tile to turn it into a grass tile, because it doesn’t understand “I need to move out there and cast a spell”. It only looks at the unit, where it is right now: “Let me look through my spells and see which makes the most sense to use”. From a summoning and damage perspective, it doesn’t know “if I move one step to the north and cast Maelstrom, then I’ll get a better hit and damage more units”. It doesn’t do that right now.
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I really feel like crap today, so I’ll take the easy blogging way out and link to Soren Johnson’s three part (I & II & III)interview with Derek Paxton, the lead modder on the total Civ IV conversion Fall From Heaven II. Paxton goes into what it takes to make a mod of this size.
FFH2 is one of those things that I respect more than I enjoy. I really dig the fantasy setting and how the team is very happy to break sacred cows about balance and equality among the civs. However, I can never shake the feeling that the AI just has no clue what is going on. This might not sound like such a bad thing since even I can’t always tell what is happening in a specific turn. But so many rules are turned on their heads that FFH2 still has a bit of the juggernaut thing. I don’t mind being a juggernaut if I think that I am simply playing intelligently. It’s when the juggernaut moves without me doing much that I feel a little let down.
None of this is meant to imply that FFH2 isn’t an amazing accomplishment, even with all the cribbed art assets. The computer opponents are much better than they were, but this is a mod that is clearly designed for a multiplayer action. There are a lot of subtleties here that I think only a human can really get.
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They finalists for the IGF 2009 prizes have been announced.
Now I just need to score a GDC invitation so I can see the ceremony and talk to the developers.
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