I can’t believe he called me down on not capitalising ONE letter ‘i’.

To be honest, I found this to be amazing, it’s nice to hear someone critisize you for somethign you did years ago and reflect on how much you’ve improved (debatable?).

Warning: Some bad language if you’re sensitive :p

Kudos to Mr Reviewer, whoever you are

And also, this is his only video, but his youtube name is Armor Games Reviewer, so who knows who is next!?

Back when E3 was about Games, SWAG, Laura Croft Look-a-likes, and extravagant booths, there was college kid who had a dream of attending the show. His dream quickly was defeated by the reality of E3 being open to ‘Business Professionals’ only.

Where there is a Will, there is a Way; and this college hopeful created his own company called LAM (Local Area Marketing) that specialized in Video Game Marketing. Did the company have any clients or revenues? Nope, but they had business cards and a Charming CEO!

The day of the show arrived and like a Kid in a Candy store the CEO browsed the showroom floor grabbing free shirts, stickers and hobnobbing with the elite. Checking the E3 program revealed that Tony Hawk was going to be there endorsing his new (and yet to be released) game ‘Tony Hawk Pro-Skater 2′.

For the rest of the story, You’ll have to watch the video!

Video Credits:
Starring Daniel McNeely & Tony Hawk
Produced and Edited by Adam Barisoff
Voice Over by James Evans

For a Trip Down Memory Lane visit these photo sets of E3 from past years.
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005

Hi there everyone, just thought I’d give you an update of what I’m just finishing up on - a single or multiplayer arena fragfest in the same vein as the super bomberman games for the Super Nintendo. Multiplayer you say? Yes I say! Sadly due to time constraints, the game is not online multiplayer, but can support 2 players sharing a keyboard (Arrrgh I hear you cry) or 4 players via Wiimote (Whaaa!? I hear you cry) in the Nintendo Wii browser (once the feature is fully tested). For those who cry out for some Solo action (or people without any friends), there’s 12 solo battle scenarios against AI opponents to beat to unlock medals and a custom game option for those who just want a drop in drop out ass kicking session to blow off the day’s stresses. The game acts as most shooters do, only with fast thinking strategy introduced. Whereas in bomberman you lay your weapons on a delay, in FF your player hurls fireballs in the direction he is facing. The strategy is introduced by the grid system the game runs on, to change your direction of fire, you must move one space. This means that in later levels Strategy is a must if you want to outsmart the AI or a skilled human opponent. Certain blocks can be destroyed to leave items which level up your characters rate of fire, making collection an important part of any battle. Anyway, I’ll stop yammering on about it and get back to work on it, here’s a few screenies for you

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Click for bigger image.

In other news, looks like someone is gunning for my job.

Please excuse how dopey I sound trying to teach her phonetic letters, but I’m hoping to have her replace me soon without Dan noticing, so she can do all the hard work while I reap the rewards!

Well thats all for now, I hope to make posts more frequently and get into greater touch with the Armor community hence forth

-Tony

MS is a horrific disease that affects over 300,000 each year in the United States. I personally know 3 people who have been effected by it, so I’m doing my part to help raise money for their cause.

This year we will be riding 150-miles on our bikes to raise money and awareness for the disease. (MS Ride)

There are two ways you can help.

1.) Sponsor me as a rider and donate $10.00 or more. (Website won’t accept any amount smaller than $10, Sorry) Anyone who makes a donation will receive a 5 pack of stickers and a Ball Revamped Squishy ball. All donations are tax deductible.

Visit my personal fund raising page here. (click)
*After you donate, make sure to e-mail your address to ‘MsRide@ArmorGames.com’ and we’ll get your free SWAG dropped in the mail.

2.) Join our team and ride with us. (Team Page)
*Anyone who joins the team and rides with us will get a complimentary team jersey with your name on it.
(A $60 value for FREE)

Thanks for the support and Happy Gaming!

-Daniel

WHOH THERE.  Yeah you thought we were just all about Flash games or Wii and Zebra-shaped birthday cakes or something…but I am here to talk about this extremely bizarre product we started consuming by the bagful, and sometimes the boxful.

There’s this weird product called “Crisps” we bought recently at Costco after our Admin Assistant Fil tipped us off to it’s existence.  The product is several varieties of freeze-dried fruit.  No, not dried fruit like you get in trail mix or whatever.  Freeze-dried fruit, like the novelty astronaut food you might have eaten from a museum gift shop or somewhere like that.  What they do is remove all the water from a piece of fruit so that it is only the meat of the fruit leftover.

This very stock-photoesque picture I found on the web is about what it looks like.

The fruit tastes like the normal fruit except it has a wafer-like texture and consistency when you eat it.  You can easily eat a whole bag of these things in about two handfuls which means you don’t get many.  But surprisingly the apple-version bag tells us is that there is 1.5 freeze-dried apples in each bag, meaning that days in which I eat three bags I am eating nearly 5 apples.  These things are ridiculously good.

Anyway after our trial box of these things we decided the office needed more.

I think we have about 200 of these things now, which should at least hold us over until the end of next week.  These things are delicious and yes this entire post seemed like a giant marketing ploy… but man we are addicted to these things.  Our office stocks them as snack food now so that we stop eating other things that are horrible for us.  Come work for us and you can eat them too.

We sure talk about food a lot on this blog… sigh.

What a day what a day what a day.

I’ve been busy all day finishing up the levels for the Assassin Bow Woman game, which should be ready soon, although a few snags have been hit, but this morning I decided to get the engine done for the other game I’d like out this month, a game that lends heavily from the “Match 3″ genre but then smashes it into the “Mouse Avoider” genre like there’s no tomorrow, it’s looking kind of nice, and more updates on that soon.

In slightly more infuriating news, my XBox decided to join the ranks of the other 33% failure rates of Microsoft’s PC/Console lovechild. Now I face the dilemma of Microsoft Customer Service or having a pop at repairing it myself. Time allowing, I’d prefer the latter.

And here is a pic of me, my Girlfriend Lucy, and daughter Ella showing off my Stylish Shift 2 Shirt I recieved for my 21st from my dear Mother. This is for those of you who would like to see behind the scenes for one of the Armor Staff, and chide him over how badly he needs a haircut.

I was also considering doing a proper Shift shirt design myself in high resolution, what would you guys think about something like that being available to purchase? Would you be interested? If not, suggest what *could* make you consider such a purchase.

-Tony

One of the hardest parts about making a Flash game is coming up with a name.

It’s amazing that so much is going to bank on the title of a game. It is probably the one thing the player is going to see before any other aspect of the game, so it must reflect the experience or at least excite the player beyond the average title. All the hard work put into characters, interactive objects, enemies and whatever else depend on the player choosing to play the game. On any given game website there are hundreds of games to choose from, so how will yours stand out? A good title is a way to start!

So how would you go about choosing a name? There’s a few different factors.

1) Short, but Not Too Short

People don’t want to read a sentence. 1-3 words should be all, and any more or less should find a way to cut it down. This also saves the issue of website optimization since longer titles result in broken website layouts. Website owners get fussy and abbreviate (or even rename) your games if they do not fit the standard game name size. On the contrary, a tiny game name is going to have trouble getting any exposure. If your game was named “Ak” then it will be dwarfed easily by other titles.

Good Examples: “Grow Cube”, “Modern Tactics”, or “Drunken Masters”

2) Make It Optimized for Searching

Naming a game “Flash Game Fun” is probably going to bury your game so far in the search results that anyone trying to search for it would fail. Use a single word or combination of words that are interesting together. My “Knights of Rock” game had two very different keywords involved and holds the first 11 Google results. On the contrary, my game “Ocean Explorer” could have probably held a better title and is hidden way down in the depths at search result #8.

Good Examples: “Unfair Platformer”, “Metro Siberia”, or “Doodle Defender”

3) Avoid Filler Words

Putting “Fun” or “Game” in your title is probably one of the most cliche things you can do unless your game explicitly targets one of these words (such as the game “The World’s Hardest Game”). These words are just filler… it’s something that makes any game go from “The Exciting Title” to “The Fun Exciting Title” or “The Exciting Title Game.” It looks unprofessional and sounds cheesy. Also, you should never use “My Title: The Game” unless your game was once a movie, book, or other media; “The Game” should only be used when you need to differentiate it from another media.

Examples: “Ultimate Gardening Game”, “Fun Traffic Jump”, or “Shutterbug Fun”

4) Watch for the Duplicate

Games should always get a quick search on the web to ensure that the game title is not already taken. Making a game then realizing that the title is taken just makes your job harder. Also, if your game shares a large portion of the name with another’s game (such as “Pencil Defense Wars” and “Pencil Defense Fighter”) then consider moving on to another title. Be wary that your game may also share a title with a popular book, film, or music album.

5) Use Awesome Words That You Know How to Use

Catch your audience off-guard with a catchy word. I am not saying use a word that no one would ever understand, but take the time to think of good words. Take the word “spin” for example. Other choices may include “swirl”, “whirl”, and so on. But always use words that you understand completely. Never use words that you have little knowledge of as this may lead to future grammatical embarrassment.

Good Examples: “Bowmaster Prelude”, “Monster Basement”, or “Pandemic”

6) Can You Spell It?

Assume your audience has a fourth grade spelling level when you make a game. People are not going to be able to spell “Agathokakological” if they decide to search for your game. If you have trouble spelling it from memory then skip it.

7) Make Your Own Word

“Indestructotank” is a good example of this. The word is obviously the combination of “Indestructible” and “Tank,” which allows a player searching to find it easily (correct me if I am wrong Tony). It is also clever and witty enough to stand out as a good title. If you choose to make your own word, make sure it’s easy to spell and only slightly modifies a word or group of words.

Good Examples: “Indestrutotank”, “Luminara”, or “Exorbis”

Make It Related to Your Game

It’s easy to get tied up in a title made of a bunch of cool words that have nothing to do with the game. Avoid this common problem by at least drawing to some element in the game. My game “TBA” draws a lot of confusion because of it’s lack of description, while games like “TwoThree” get the job done. A good title that builds a relationship with the game also builds a relationship with the player, which allows the player to remember the title in the future!

Good Examples: “Descent”, “Cube It”, or “Alpha Assualt”

9) Evolve Your Titles

Don’t make a game title and stick to it! Constantly change up the words to get different ideas flowing. Most likely your game will change throughout production, so do not worry about sticking to your guns until you release it.

here is one progression I recently made:

1) Aboleo Genesis - Aboleo is a confusing word to spell.

2) Anima - Found out it was not the right Latin word.

3) Animus - Found out it was the name of the computer from Assassin’s Creed.

4) Genesis - Too similar to the Bible book, when on it’s own.

5) Spectrum Genesis - There we go!

10) Be Careful Using Genre-Specific Words

Using the words “Tower Defense” in a game nowadays will get it easily lost to the “oh look just another tower defense game” crowd. This also goes for games that have the word “fighter” or “shooter” in them. Don’t evoke a sense of averageness when you can go for awesome. Just be careful how generalized you make your words. That’s not to say that good games haven’t come out of making genre-specific words; “Street Fighter” and “Desktop Tower Defense” were both splendid. But these game were genre-defining on their own so unless you game is helping make history it might be best to avoid common terms.

—————-

That’s it for my examples of good game-naming. I’ve started to be more careful as I have began research into this topic, and stepping back I can see where I messed up at times. Game naming is an important task that shouldn’t be neglected by the game developer!

A few times a year our friends over @ MousePlanet put on Mouse Adventure @ Disneyland and California Adventures.

Mouse Adventure can best be described as part-scavenger hunt, part-road rally, part-trivia challenge—a team-based competition that guarantees you will never look at the Disneyland Resort in the same way again.

Team Skillz (Lisa, John, Jen & Me) will be competing this Sunday; April the 13th.

We’ll all be wearing green shirts, so if you see us (Before or After the competition) come up and say ‘Hi’ and we’ll give you a free Armor Games sticker!

-Daniel

I get asked a lot of questions about what it’s like here at the office. A lot of Flash developers work from their bedrooms toiling late into the night, and the idea of working at an actual office is interesting to some. I decided to answer the most popular questions, or at least the questions I tend to get the most.

Q: Where’s the office located?

We are in warm sunny Southern California. When I say warm and sunny, I seriously mean it. SoCal doesn’t seem to get colder than 40-50 degrees F in the Winter, and it rarely rains here… the weather always seems nice. I miss the rain a bit from Northern California, but the sunshine and actual Spring-like weather is a nice change. We are nearby a shopping center with good food. Disneyland is 15 minutes away. There are a ton of palm trees here and they plant them here as if they are the only thing that will save humanity. The office is in Orange County, or as some people like to call it “the OC.”

Q: Isn’t it hard doing Flash the entire day?

It was at the beginning. What was good was that my first few days at work were shorter days, which allowed the work day to ease from a few hours to the normal eight hours a day. Now it’s no big deal… I rarely feel burned out and there is plenty to do. If I do get burned out by a code that isn’t getting fixed I’ll go play video games for a while, surf the web, or play some Flash games online. It’s definitely different from casual home programming though, but luckily the transition only takes a few days. And no, Luka didn’t program on the XO laptop, as much as I would have liked to imagined that happened.

Q: Do you have a cubicle or a small office?

I don’t really have either. I have a large work area out in the main office area. The main work area is made up of large desks, but there are no big obtrusive walls separating the different work spaces. We have two main office areas… the administrative office / entertainment center, and what I have nicknamed “the bullpen” which is where the Flash devs work. I like my desk because it has a great big window next to it where I can watch the UPS trucks try to back up and turn around in a 20-foot radius.

Q: What do you do there?

Haha, good question. I have a few different responsibilities. I am the head of game development here, so my job includes running local game development here, managing site integration with other sites (for example, Shockwave’s high score system), and making my own games. I also am in charge of making sure the food still tastes good and that the internet still works for all my favorite websites.

Q: What’s the office environment like?

We have a relaxed work environment. I play music at my workspace from my IPod and do my work. If I get hungry or thirsty we have a snack table with good food (I am extremely partial to the rice crackers and Diet Dr. Pepper). We have a great couch that I love sitting on when doing paperwork or when needing a break to play a game or two. We have several consoles, including a Wii, XBox 360, NES, and others. We take trips too, like we have played golf and gone snowboarding on different occasions. We also go to lunch together when microwave soup or sandwiches are not cutting it for the day.

Q: Do you have to wear a shirt and tie?

Nope! We have a casual dress code of slightly less than work-casual. I come in a pair of skate shoes and a button-up shirt or t-shirt. If we go out to some big company dinner we’ll all dress up for the occasion. It’s nice to feel comfortable at work without having some stiff collar to program in. Very much unlike Office Space garb, which came to mind suddenly, and it was the only appropriate picture… I think.

Q: Any downsides to the office?

I can’t really think of any. If I really had to nitpick, rolling out of bed and being at the keyboard already was convenient when I worked from home. I also was a bit frustrated if I accidentally left a file at the office that I needed, but I recently fixed that problem by getting remote desktop working. But really, just having an open area dedicated to work is completely awesome and outweighs all that. To the left is a picture of my old workspace at home. To get into my chair I had to swivel because my chair was backed up into my bed and did not let me roll backwards.

Q: Mac or PC?

We are mixed. I am growing partial to Macs because they just seem to work when you need them to, but I am running Vista at my desk. And while I am at it, I am running a computer that is 2.4 Ghz Dual Core with 2 GB of RAM and Dual 512’s. If you have a preference most likely it can be fulfilled. If I could program an awesome Flash game in MS-DOS then that would probably be okay too.

Q: Do you work with Dan? He’s in the office right?

Yes, he is in the admin office. Yes, he is a real person. No, he does not wear armor to work. He beats me at golf but I beat him at Worms… it all balances out. He’s the boss around here and runs the whole operation of Armor Games. We have been working together since about 2004 when he sponsored my first title, and it’s great to finally have an office where we don’t have to email back and forth and can just walk into the other room to talk. If Dan has an idea it’s also a lot easier to draw out the ideas on a whiteboard then trying to describe it in an email.

Q: Do you really have biometric fingerprint scanners at your office doors?

Yes, we are from the future. You just put your finger on the little piece of glass and it happily chirps at you and lets you in. I once had a blister on my scan finger and it made it hard to get in but overall the system works. For all the times I have locked myself out of a building or car it is truly a lifesaver.

Q: Pics or it didn’t happen.

We have a ton of pictures from our recent job posting if you want to see more!

I think that is about it… if you have any more questions we’ll try to answer them in thread!

There are a few things bugging me about Console games and I see them slowly seeping into Flash games.  A few game mechanics are making games more difficult and less fun to play, which causes a lot of friction when trying to beat a game for the first time.  I think there are good solutions to these problems, so I hope that they will be fixed for the sake of my sanity.

1)  Games That Hide Health

I have found recently that games are starting to mask how much health you actually have.  Instead of a solid number or a bar of some sort, games use other means of telling you how much health you have.  For example, in Gears of War, the screen starts to turn red and an icon in the middle of the screen starts to appear.  For one, the amount of red pixels on the screen is not a very good indication of how healthy I am.  It’s really hard to judge whether I am nearing death, at death, or just approaching death.  A lot of really brilliant gaming moments are when I am rushing into a battle with close to nil health, and being able to survive it… but without a health bar, how do I know what to do?  Should I hide and heal, or go at it?  Will it be a few bullets or one to get killed?  I need to know!  It’s hard to judge a red screen and say, “hey, I count 20 red pixels so I must be near death!”.  I want health bars please.  Or quite possibly, have both the red screen and a health bar?

2)  Auto-Camera Only

It’s convenient, but a camera is not always going to be at the right angle for doing things in a Third-Person game.  An example of this is Super Mario Galaxy… the camera is pretty darn good, but sometimes it’s not in the proper place.  I find that it becomes frustrating to move around and do things when the camera is point straight at my face.  Super Mario 64 had a really nice camera system, that was both free-moving, POV, or even completely manual.  Hopefully games will realize that I don’t always want the camera whizzing around automatically, and that sometimes I need to be able to see in front of me to move!

3)  AI Friends That Know Better

I find a lot of games have the AI set to know exactly where to go, so your buddies will always run ahead of you in the right direction.  That’s great and all, but I love exploring.  I like the idea of running around and finding areas, taking in the scenery, etc.  I don’t like the idea that the AI are going to run ahead before you even see an enemy, and when you get to the fight half your friends are dead and the enemy is almost completely wiped out.  I think AI should at least have a couple settings (like in Mass Effect) that allow them to at least be set to “Run ahead, see if I care” or “I’ll be the leader”.

4)  Games with Voice Acting… Sometimes.

Games tend to always have voices during cutscenes.  Then there are moments right before levels when the players are talking, and that’s fantastic too.  But then you get mid-level events, and the characters start talking… with text boxes.  It’s suddenly like the game decided that the music was too important and that any dialog would hurt the overture; but quite frankly it just sucks me out of the game and back into reality again.  Games like Viva Pinata clears this issue by having all dialog in-game being voiced, and other games have no voices which works too.  I can handle reading text for an entire game, and games that only have text are fine.  But there is friction in gaming when suddenly the character’s voice is gone, their mouth is moving, but there is now a speech bubble instead.  One or the other is the best way to go.

5)  Games Without a Climax

I’ve been playing this game for 30 hours, and what’s at the end?  Nothing!  The game is banking on you buying the sequel, which sadly has yet to even be finished by the game studio.  But knowing that a sequel will take another year or so, I just feel bad.  I think there can be a better way to do this.  Games really need to be made in the style of Harry Potter: even though each Harry Potter book is part of a large 7-part story, each manages to end on both a cliff-hanger and with a climax.  I feel like games are just leaving me with the cliff-hanger these days, and I wish there would be a bit of closure to my romp through the jungle for the past 30 hours of my life.  I love the mystery of a concealed story but I need some reward or epic battle.  Reward me but make me hunger for more!

So that’s my take, anyone have any other mechanics or styles of gameplay that irk you?