For whatever reason to keep the business going, MOSS had decided to make a simple casual game based on Caladrius for mobile devices. You just move the ship left and right and the projectiles are coming downwards from the top of the screen and you simply have to avoid them until you run into something that ends the game. It's kind of way too simple I guess but that is not going to give them tons of money due to how too short the replay value can be. At least, for Donpachin by Cave may offer the proper shmup gameplay but the annoying thing is that the game never ends. It has like endless amounts of levels similar to other casual games by King where there are already hundereds of levels in stores for you so who wants to play such a game with too much levels?
Before Raiden III, IV or any other shmup by MOSS, there were already previous games developed by that company in the 90s and early 2000s and there were already some shmup games developed by that same company in the 90s as well such as Macross Plus shmup for the arcades for example.
Monday, September 29, 2014
Maimai Orange
Even more recent games to blog about and this one recently came out in the arcades with new songs. For me, I don't play Maimai alot as there are already lots of people playing it non-stop for fun at the arcades and it may be same story for the prequels as well. The honest thing is that I had already attempted tons of Vocaloid songs as well as other licensed songs the last time. There might be newer gameplay mechanics in Maimai Green and Plus version and this sequel is going to offer even new stuffs. The game's so popular and fun that many people are eventually playing it non-stop at the arcades but for me, I play the same game two to three times before moving on.
GITADORA Overdrive Guitarfreaks First Play
OK, I was kind of shy to play such kind of rhythm games like this in the first place at least, I managed to outcome the shyness two days ago. Unfortunately, the entire place was completely filled with tons of players hogging everything but I happened to see the same uncle playing this GITADORA like always. I guess that he's a better individual player than me at this but it's rare for him to see me back playing Beatmania IIDX at the arcades.
Even better was that there were some cosplayers out there trying to show off their playing but depending on the intention, it may be a special show off or a normal one. Maybe there should be a list of animes that have some arcade scenes where various rhythm games are shown in action. Of course, as long as we can see some character playing the game, that should be something you should try to mimic at the real life arcades, like playing that specific game that character plays dressed up as that character and then trying to fulfill the same objective by fulfilling various goals from the anime if available, like getting full combo for example. If there's a song from that anime in that rhythm game and that anime has the song in the same game, this should be an opportunity for you. The example will be Connect by Claris on DDR in which its anime already involves the DDR machine playing that song. However, you should take note that not all things can de-fictionalized although there may be other epic real life in-game challenges for the cosplayers dressed up as those characters who play rhythm games in the epic way. However, those challenges are extremely difficult if you're going to take up the challenge like that.
So after sometime watching that uncle play GITADORA, I eventually took a turn in playing GITADORA Guitarfreaks edition myself, only to realize that I needed to get used to the controls of the guitar controller. The pick is kind of weird at first but you're supposed to shift it to both sides like you're strumming it so I had a hard time like that. Another weird thing is that to trigger the game option for adjusting timing, speed and other stuffs similar to the ones in IIDX is that you're supposed to press the purple button to toggle that option but I made the timing adjustment to 4+ as I still need to figure out the new interface which looks uneasy compared to the mobile version which is split up into three gameplay parts and the worse thing is that you won't have much time left trying to adjust all that. The Help button is more like an Info button to me which displays your gameplay information. Unless I adjust the timing correctly, it will still behave like crap on me when trying to play the songs, affecting the grades. I actually got better grades in the mobile version than the one in the arcades but I still need to keep playing the arcade version if I want to unlock the remaining songs from the remaining Collection Mall Volume sets in the mobile version. There are also Volume sets in the arcade version but that is more tedious than in the mobile version which requires additional credits. Better playing, we can care about that later because this is the first time I played Guitarfreaks in the arcade.
As this was the first play, I didn't need to insert coins or anything as stated by the First-Time-Play campaign and although IIDX Pendual recently came out, that doesn't mean I had played IIDX for the first time by playing IIDX Pendual for the first time as I had already played the previous ones. That means, I still had to insert 4 coins to get started in IIDX Pendual for the first time and then migrate my E-Amusement to the latest game, resetting everything. So, keep on rocking until we have enough Gitadrops needed for the remaining Collection Mall Volume sets from the mobile version to unlock the remaining songs so that I can video capture some.
Even better was that there were some cosplayers out there trying to show off their playing but depending on the intention, it may be a special show off or a normal one. Maybe there should be a list of animes that have some arcade scenes where various rhythm games are shown in action. Of course, as long as we can see some character playing the game, that should be something you should try to mimic at the real life arcades, like playing that specific game that character plays dressed up as that character and then trying to fulfill the same objective by fulfilling various goals from the anime if available, like getting full combo for example. If there's a song from that anime in that rhythm game and that anime has the song in the same game, this should be an opportunity for you. The example will be Connect by Claris on DDR in which its anime already involves the DDR machine playing that song. However, you should take note that not all things can de-fictionalized although there may be other epic real life in-game challenges for the cosplayers dressed up as those characters who play rhythm games in the epic way. However, those challenges are extremely difficult if you're going to take up the challenge like that.
So after sometime watching that uncle play GITADORA, I eventually took a turn in playing GITADORA Guitarfreaks edition myself, only to realize that I needed to get used to the controls of the guitar controller. The pick is kind of weird at first but you're supposed to shift it to both sides like you're strumming it so I had a hard time like that. Another weird thing is that to trigger the game option for adjusting timing, speed and other stuffs similar to the ones in IIDX is that you're supposed to press the purple button to toggle that option but I made the timing adjustment to 4+ as I still need to figure out the new interface which looks uneasy compared to the mobile version which is split up into three gameplay parts and the worse thing is that you won't have much time left trying to adjust all that. The Help button is more like an Info button to me which displays your gameplay information. Unless I adjust the timing correctly, it will still behave like crap on me when trying to play the songs, affecting the grades. I actually got better grades in the mobile version than the one in the arcades but I still need to keep playing the arcade version if I want to unlock the remaining songs from the remaining Collection Mall Volume sets in the mobile version. There are also Volume sets in the arcade version but that is more tedious than in the mobile version which requires additional credits. Better playing, we can care about that later because this is the first time I played Guitarfreaks in the arcade.
As this was the first play, I didn't need to insert coins or anything as stated by the First-Time-Play campaign and although IIDX Pendual recently came out, that doesn't mean I had played IIDX for the first time by playing IIDX Pendual for the first time as I had already played the previous ones. That means, I still had to insert 4 coins to get started in IIDX Pendual for the first time and then migrate my E-Amusement to the latest game, resetting everything. So, keep on rocking until we have enough Gitadrops needed for the remaining Collection Mall Volume sets from the mobile version to unlock the remaining songs so that I can video capture some.
Facebook, Google and Twitter to comply with the Russian censorship law
Now, it may appear that Facebook and Google are really ignorant to the recent Russian law when it comes to allowing only local products and services in lest the nation gets spied by the foreign one for no apparent reason other than the bullshit reason we already know of. While we know that Apple is announcing the increased hardware security for their IOS devices that you will be able to buy the new Iphone 6, Iphone 6 Plus or perhaps the recent Ipod Touch and Ipad models with the new hardware security that will make cyber-spying kind of difficult, it may seem that the censorship in Russia is kind of equivalent to the one in China. The US services, products and manufacturers are kind of ditched in Russia and China or something and if the three companies want to continue business, the Russian user data must be stored in Russian data center, not anywhere eles. It may do better that way but that doesn't end the cyber-spying once and for all.
But the thing is, we already know the Russian antivirus brand but not any other local products there at this moment that there will be more work in Russia than in China as China already has its own local services and products and especially for the stuffs made there.
What about the localized computer hardware components such as the China-branded CPU, GPU as well as the motherboard to call the computer a China-branded-made PC for instance? Besides the China OS in which we anticipate, we may also expect some other Asian-branded OSes as well provided that the OS in China is made from scratch with some new OS technology made in China entirely.
But the thing is, we already know the Russian antivirus brand but not any other local products there at this moment that there will be more work in Russia than in China as China already has its own local services and products and especially for the stuffs made there.
What about the localized computer hardware components such as the China-branded CPU, GPU as well as the motherboard to call the computer a China-branded-made PC for instance? Besides the China OS in which we anticipate, we may also expect some other Asian-branded OSes as well provided that the OS in China is made from scratch with some new OS technology made in China entirely.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Developing games with Construct 2 Jump Start
Now, before I may start to talk about the topics from this Jump Start, there may be some controversies involving various origins of the game templates. The only controversial thing that kept me from paying attention was probably the clone of that Floppy Bullshit they were making, only to know the fact that the clones with completely original sounds, music and graphics may seem to be okay compared to the original which was kind of terrible that many people including me may want the original creator to be sued, anyway due to the unoriginal, uncredited and reference-less contents put in there. We already know the classic games and it may be the same for those working at the game companies, Microsoft, the companies behind the game creation tools, etc. So, who's to blame then? Well, that should be Doug Nyugen, the creator of that original bullshit I just talked about and I already had some rants about this on my Twitter account. The talks about this may be everywhere in all the modules but the third module was all about making a clone of that bullshit. Again, having to bounce like that non-stop instead of flying is kind of COMPLETELY BULLSHIT to me! Why can't the bird FLY NORMALLY? When you tap, it should fly up and when you're not tapping, it should FLY DOWN! Have you even seen the way Mario flies or swims? YES, WE FUCKING HAVE EVER SINCE OUR CHILDHOOD!
Negatives aside, there are already positives of this event. The first two modules are fine that they teach you how the game is made with various features that are differently common to the features in Game Maker but certain features are easily implemented unlike Game Maker such as the fact that you can have the enemy weapon to fire bullets from the end of the weapon tip and they will still fire from that even when the weapon rotates. Another cool thing is that you can get transparent sprites and background in multiple ways without having to buy the license unlike Game Maker where you have to do so. The rotation of the background and sprite should be easy without needing so much frames and taking so much memory. Again, it's a common thing between Game Maker and Construct 2 but you will need the full version of Game Maker if you want the easy rotation of the sprites. The layout and events are on the middle panes and are similar to rooms and events in Game Maker but be careful, you need to know the limitations of the number of events and layers in Construct 2 and it can pose a challenge to those developing games using it. Next thing is the amount of variables you can adjust on the left pane and some programming elements are needed when it comes to variables and it's a little bit more challenging than in Game Maker when implementing the text in there. For me, I can use the HUD background and then put in some variables as an example in Construct 2 just like in Game Maker without having to put in the strings in there.
The last module is about publishing your games to Windows Store for Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1 that requires Visual Studio but if you're publishing games to other platforms, then I'm afraid that this last module is not for you. Not to mention that Windows Store may be notorious for low-quality apps and games compared to the high-quality ones which are the official ones.
Negatives aside, there are already positives of this event. The first two modules are fine that they teach you how the game is made with various features that are differently common to the features in Game Maker but certain features are easily implemented unlike Game Maker such as the fact that you can have the enemy weapon to fire bullets from the end of the weapon tip and they will still fire from that even when the weapon rotates. Another cool thing is that you can get transparent sprites and background in multiple ways without having to buy the license unlike Game Maker where you have to do so. The rotation of the background and sprite should be easy without needing so much frames and taking so much memory. Again, it's a common thing between Game Maker and Construct 2 but you will need the full version of Game Maker if you want the easy rotation of the sprites. The layout and events are on the middle panes and are similar to rooms and events in Game Maker but be careful, you need to know the limitations of the number of events and layers in Construct 2 and it can pose a challenge to those developing games using it. Next thing is the amount of variables you can adjust on the left pane and some programming elements are needed when it comes to variables and it's a little bit more challenging than in Game Maker when implementing the text in there. For me, I can use the HUD background and then put in some variables as an example in Construct 2 just like in Game Maker without having to put in the strings in there.
The last module is about publishing your games to Windows Store for Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1 that requires Visual Studio but if you're publishing games to other platforms, then I'm afraid that this last module is not for you. Not to mention that Windows Store may be notorious for low-quality apps and games compared to the high-quality ones which are the official ones.
Introduction to Programming in Python Jump Start Day 2
It's the second day of the Jump Start that took place two days ago. After the talks about the If and Nested If statements, there came the Lists, file reading, opening and writing along with appending as well as the For and While loops in which I had already done those before in the Coursera course of Python programming last time which was Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python. However, the difference between the course I took and the Jump Start was likely to be the programming tool you're using as well as the way you make use of the other files. From the online progarmming tool I used as part of the Coursera course, the files were pretty much part of the cloud technology but there's no way to access them easily through the File Explorer-like interface where you can look at the folders and files along with the different kinds on the window. Just think of the Windows Explorer or anything similar to that when accessing those kinds of files but I don't think there's such kind of interface at Coursera lest you end up accessing other students' work and then tempering with it using that interface. Another difference is that some of the topics were not common in between this Jump Start and that Coursera course. So, when it came to making use of the external files, writing and appending to files as well as reading them with the use fo the code, I don't think it might be exactly the same kind of coding in that Coursera course.
The last module from the Jump Start was about handling errors. You might have seen the occurance of those errors from the pervious modules and how the errors could have been fixed with the help of the advices and hints that were shown to you throughout the Jump Start. Also, they can be found on the slides which were available for download. But in case you have missed the Jump Start or something, you should be able to jump into it and get the presentations from there at the MVA website provided that it should be available two weeks after it took place live.
Lastly, I still have yet to do the challenges but with the help of that Coursera course I took, it should still be a challenge but I don't know if I can clear those challenges with enough meanings until I try.
The last module from the Jump Start was about handling errors. You might have seen the occurance of those errors from the pervious modules and how the errors could have been fixed with the help of the advices and hints that were shown to you throughout the Jump Start. Also, they can be found on the slides which were available for download. But in case you have missed the Jump Start or something, you should be able to jump into it and get the presentations from there at the MVA website provided that it should be available two weeks after it took place live.
Lastly, I still have yet to do the challenges but with the help of that Coursera course I took, it should still be a challenge but I don't know if I can clear those challenges with enough meanings until I try.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Introduction to Programming in Python Jump Start Day 1
OK, I already have some experience in Python programming thanks to Codecademy and Coursera where I took some course related to that and it was a challenge but this Jump Start features everything including what was not taught in that Coursera course. Also, there are already additional challenges to take if I want to attempt from this Jump Start to see if I can use the experience to complete them. Using the latest version of Visual Studio with Python Tools for Visual Studio installed, you should be able to start Python programming straight away just like you do with C# or C++. I already used Visual Studio Express before and it shouldn't be a problem in running the program I wrote as part of the other MVA course.
Now, there's no related course at MVA in Python Programming whatsoever but at least, we got the challenges to do if we accept. It should take me some time to memorize the new concepts from this Jump Start as well as new tips and if you forget, you can check out the documentation on the specific functions such as the variables, if, else if, nested if, boolean operation, Mathematics elements, Print, Input, Quotes and so on. And what was up with the respective sports teams in the Jump Start?
Another thing is the \n along with unncessary triple quotes. Having triple quotes takes up more space a little bit I guess but if you split up the statement into two lines with triple quotes only, the print statement does the same thing as having double quotes and \n in the print statement overall.
The last thing was something I have to memorize completely such as the Date and Time. You can customize the format as well as to specify how many 0s you want with the .format feature. What that does is based on something like this {0:3} for example in which the 0 on the left represents the position which can be determined through the Find function. Other functions include the Count function, Replace function, Upper, Lower and Swap case functions, etc. Using the Count function, it counts like how many things are there based on your specification as well as the Replace function which says it all.
More tips ahead when it comes to variables. They SHOULD NOT start with numbers and that there SHOULDN'T BE SPACING. Also, when using print statements, you should have quotes for whatever text you want to display on the console otherwise, the text will be treated as variable. Any variable that is not found on the code will throw an error. What else can I recall, the Integer, Float, String, %d or something as well as the one where you can specify how many decimal places you want for the Float as there are already too much 0s without that specification.
Now, there's no related course at MVA in Python Programming whatsoever but at least, we got the challenges to do if we accept. It should take me some time to memorize the new concepts from this Jump Start as well as new tips and if you forget, you can check out the documentation on the specific functions such as the variables, if, else if, nested if, boolean operation, Mathematics elements, Print, Input, Quotes and so on. And what was up with the respective sports teams in the Jump Start?
Another thing is the \n along with unncessary triple quotes. Having triple quotes takes up more space a little bit I guess but if you split up the statement into two lines with triple quotes only, the print statement does the same thing as having double quotes and \n in the print statement overall.
The last thing was something I have to memorize completely such as the Date and Time. You can customize the format as well as to specify how many 0s you want with the .format feature. What that does is based on something like this {0:3} for example in which the 0 on the left represents the position which can be determined through the Find function. Other functions include the Count function, Replace function, Upper, Lower and Swap case functions, etc. Using the Count function, it counts like how many things are there based on your specification as well as the Replace function which says it all.
More tips ahead when it comes to variables. They SHOULD NOT start with numbers and that there SHOULDN'T BE SPACING. Also, when using print statements, you should have quotes for whatever text you want to display on the console otherwise, the text will be treated as variable. Any variable that is not found on the code will throw an error. What else can I recall, the Integer, Float, String, %d or something as well as the one where you can specify how many decimal places you want for the Float as there are already too much 0s without that specification.
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