Ok. So I lied about blogs. They’re still dead. Also, did you hear about Flash? A shame that. Truly an end to an era.
Textmode, ASCII art, PETSCII art, etc., however, is having a bit of a moment in the sun and you know I’m into it. Let’s catch up on the last couple of years of blog silence.
It’s been a while since the site got some love, so I’ve taken a bit of time to make a few enhancements, mostly with the focus of separating evergreen content from timely updates. A rough list of the notable changes includes:
Abstractly speaking, as creators we derive inspiration from all experiences. The more deeply steeped in our craft, the more a once innocuous stimulus or perception can become the seed of a polished creation. However, the two best sources of inspiration are most likely to be other creations within your medium and other creators. Here are a few creators and creations that have inspired me to come into my own as a game developer:
Hymn, the low-fantasy conflict-management collaboration I’ve been slowly plugging away at for a few months, has enjoyed some progress since the first early prototype/concept screenshots I shared. Although it isn’t quite as far along as I had hoped by now, the following screenshots are a testament to its development:
While 2014 up to this point was mostly dominated by the Crossword Dungeon AS3/Starling port, I am taking a short break from that project to collect my thoughts as well as player feedback. I’ve started another project and have a new direction in mind for 2014, details of which follow, roughly in chronological order:
What do you get when you put 11 randomly-matched game developers, artists, and musicians together and ask them to create a game in 48 hours around the theme of “extinction”?
Earlier today on #rgrd, Ido “tametick” Yehieli posted this link to the TIGForum thread for ASCIIPaint, a Flash-based tool to do just that: paint with ASCII. The thread features some amazing ASCII art, many of which are roguelike concept screens, put together by TIGSource community members.