All of the dinosaurs from Venture Dinosauria lived during the cretaceous period in North America. The cretaceous spanned 80 million years and not all of these dinosaurs lived in tandem, but they do represent a fairly broad cross section of the larger creatures that lived during this period.

Yesterday we kicked things off with Deinonychus. Next up, Quetzalcoatlus:

(click to see a larger image)

Quetzalcoatlus was the largest flying creature to ever live. It had a wingspan of over 30 feet. Recent research suggests that Quetzalcoatlus was not a fisher or wader, but in fact roamed the prairies like a giraffe, catching small prey in his beak.

Time to announce the 12 dinosaurs in the game!  First up, Deinonychus:

(click to see a larger image)

Deinonychus, an 11 foot long, roughly 5 foot tall dinosaur, may have been able to run up the sides of trees using their powerful legs and claws, and possibly assisted by lift generated by feathered forearms.  They likely ate a whole range of prey: from insects and small reptiles to much larger prey.  They may have hunted in packs, having been found in close proximity to (and with teeth marks on) Tenontosaurus.

Feathers on deinonychus are not just a theory: quill knobs have been discovered on the closely related Velociraptor’s skeleton.

Ain’t much to this post.  You are looking for high quality sound and music to use in your game.  You don’t know where to get it.  You are a cheap bastard.  Try these links:

sounddogs

audiojungle

soundrangers

IBAudio

ShockwaveSound

Opuzz

voice123

Freesound.org

Incompetech

Sound Effect Generator (sfxr)

Anyone else have favorite places not mentioned here?

It’s not often that you feel rejection letters are truly honest and constructive.

If you are interested in the board game market, there certainly seem to be some similarities with the game market.  A few big hits in recent years have probably given the board game industry additional strength (see Caracassonne, Ticket to Ride, and Settlers of Catan) but I’ve found that the strategic (non party-game) segment of the market is still very personal and cottage-industry-like.  In general, the German market has been a breeding ground for lots of off-beat, strategic games.  Knowing this, I sent my first board game pitch to Kosmos, a German publisher of games like Settlers of Catan (the M.U.L.E. of board games), Lost Cities, and Ubongo.

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A quick glance at our first dinosaur model for Dinosauria, the lone Jurassic dinosaur of the bunch, Stegosaurus! (for full size images, click on the thumbnails)

First, we conceptualize the shape and colors:

After iterating on the concept image, we model the high-poly version, which we will use to create a normal map:

Then we break that down to the low-poly version:

Then we paint the texture and apply the normal map. The Stegosaurus is ready for the game! (at 2177 tris):

This post is a continuation of The Indie Infrastructure, a series for those thinking about “going indie” or still getting their bearings once casting off from salaried shores.

• The Indie Infrastructure #1: Game Engines
• The Indie Infrastructure #2: e-commerce
• The Indie Infrastructure #3: Employees
• The Indie Infrastructure #4: Scheduling

Building Sticky

New (blue) vs. returning (green) visitors for the Pocketwatch site, I have no idea if this ratio is any good.

Are you amazed at how well Wolfire has managed to mobilize a web community for the upcoming game Overgrowth based largely on the reputation of one lesser-known game (Lugaru)? They are beating the marketing drum with everything they’ve got, and it’s working.  How are they doing it?  Well, by doing everything: marketing on Facebook, reaching out to mod communities, Mac and Linux fans, game developers, blogging, creating an IRC channel, and more.  Are you jealous of the attention they’ve gotten?  Put in the hard work.  And start with a CMS.

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We always knew “indie” meant SOMETHING.  But no one could ever define what it was.  With the success of high-wattage IGF winners, the divorce of the casual gaming market from the indie gaming market, and the continued commoditization of free-to-play flash games, the beast has finally emerged from the mud.  It has become clear what indie games are.

This article is on the evolution of indie games distribution and how it has shaped the content and helped to finally define what “indie” means as a genre of game.

The 80′s were defined by the golden age of computer games, the rise of the console, and the apex of the arcade.  The 90′s will probably be remembered best for the move to 3D.  And it is becoming clear that the 2000′s are defined by the rise of the casual game and the subsequent birth of the modern “indie” game.

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Last week Dinosauria hit its first milestone!  That puts us at 13% done. It’s also why I haven’t been blogging for the past week… I’ve been trying to get some R&R so my trapezius stops spouting obscenities at my desk chair.

[pfmeter id=2 target=100 progress=13 display=4]

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As part of my dinosaur research, I’ve been speaking with Adam Britton, a real-world crocodile handler and researcher.  He keeps a fantastic Crocodile blog and founded Crocodilian.com.  He also has numerous TV and movie credits.

The first dinosaur we are modeling is the classic Tyrannosaurus Rex.  We’re taking a bit of an *ahem* creative approach to the coloration of all the dinosaurs in our game, and I wanted to make sure the creativity didn’t conflict with the (perceived) reality of TRex.

The following is a bit of concept art from our artists at Liberum Donum and the conversation with Adam that ensued.

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This post is a continuation of The Indie Infrastructure, a series for those thinking about “going indie” or still getting their bearings once casting off from salaried shores.

• The Indie Infrastructure #1: Game Engines
• The Indie Infrastructure #2: e-commerce
• The Indie Infrastructure #3: Employees

In my last Dinosauria update post, one of the commenters asked how I came up with the “Percent Complete” metric.

[pfmeter id=2 target=100 progress=9 display=4]

Answer: Microsoft Project.

If you are making games on a development schedule over 6 months, or you are an aspiring game producer, you owe it to yourself to learn to use this program.  Project will help you with three things:

1. Recognize dependencies (so you can make sure no one is waiting around for someone else to finish an asset or feature)
2. Schedule your tasks and create milestones
3. Track progress

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