ASTUKA'S GAMING PALOOZA GAME AWARDS 2013

Yes, it's that time again. The time I've been waiting for for about a year now. Once a year it comes and goes and all children are filled in absolute amazement only to brag or argue to their friends the next day about it. You know what I'm talking about.



AWARD SEAASSOONNN

Ah, yes. The one time where all the fanboy factions come together to stage all out war, the winner normally being whoever wins IAA or VGX. Now, here in the AstukaGaming household the tradition of holding a massive game awards ceremony has been in existence since 2010, but this is the first year that we're recording it for the internet to see. So before we start, let's take a look at some of the past overall winners.

2010
Game of the Year: Mass Effect 2
Studio of the Year: Rockstar Games

2011
Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Studio of the Year: Bethesda Game Studios

2012
Game of the Year: Journey
Studio of the Year: Telltale Games

Now normally there's about 16+ award categories but I can't even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday much less what I rated the best mobile game in 2011 was so for the most part I'm going to skip the rest of that. Well, that's enough of the intro -- let's get to the awards!

MMO OF THE YEAR

The recent years of gaming have seen a massive uptrend in highly anticipated MMORPGs being released, only to fail about two days after launch. While we haven't found a WoWkiller yet, it seems as though the MMO community is just going to keep throwing out shitty MMOs until it finally does. Or WoW goes free-to-play and adds another 10+ years to it's lifetime. Whatever works.

Nominations

Eve Online: Odyssey

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

Firefall

Defiance

Guild Wars 2

The Old Republic

The Secret World

Neverwinter

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Rift

And the winner is...

Out of all the ideas for an Action MMORPG, a full 3D, diablo-esque game seemed about as good as it could get. Yet for some reason, none of the attempted "WoWmurderers" even attempted to try that -- until Neverwinter came along.

Neverwinter does something no other MMO has done yet; feel like it's not a grind. A heavy action/gameplay oriented F2P MMO with a fair cash shop and Blizzard-focus on both PvE and PvP, Neverwinter seems like a gamers dream come true -- and despite a few hiccups along the way, that's exactly what it is.

MOBA OF THE YEAR

Despite being highly unpopular with some of the gaming community, MOBA's are one of the largest mainstream gaming trends since World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. Now with a previously one-game genre spurting out new games left and right, it's only fair to crown a winner.

Nominations

League of Legends

DotA 2

Smite

Rise of the Immortals

Guardians of Middle Earth

And the winner is...

Even with the MOBA industry now being chockful of games, the one real winner as always is the (slightly) original League of Legends. True, it may have a shit community, but the category that helps this one succeed is without a doubt the gameplay.

Well, that's all for now. Stay tuned for more posts, with will lead up to our game (and studio) of the year!

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Royal Fisticuffs -- The Battle between Twitch and its users

Note: The following events took place the week of November 20th - November 21st, whenever that was.
Twitch is a place that works a lot like Imgur -- people go to it all the time since there's no real better place, yet everyone would agree the management really isn't the best (Seriously? "jif"? Are you fucking kidding me?). This is one of those times where Twitch once again proves it.

In case your not exactly following internet drama (don't worry, I don't either), the story starts with one of the lead admins named Horror. Horror is non-closeted homosexual furry (no, that's not an insult -- that's what he actually is) who has been around roughly since the ye olde Justin.tv years. Now, normally he isn't known for much around the community, with the exception of his own barely ever used emote, BionicBunion . However, in the recent days, he's caused quite a stir.

Apparently, Dr. Furry Love decided to make an emote for his newest furry partner (who remains unnamed, and the actual emote in question cannot be found), AKA his "fursona" (which to this day I have no idea why someone decided to make that a word). Now that only made people SLIGHTLY annoyed -- the hammer truly came down on Twitch once they removed streamer Cyghfer's emotes for, and I quote, "looking kind of sort of like Hello Kitty which is copyright." Okay, that's paraphrasing; but you get the idea.

But the true catalyst, the Franz Ferdinand of this conflict, was when a streamer by the name of Duke_Bilgewater made an innocent joke regarding the issue to which he ended up being permanently banned. Perfectly reasonable solution, I would say.

Seems reasonable.

This caught on to end up being a shitstorm, with bans on famous streamers left and right and the rest of the streaming community trying to fight back like some pitiful internet drama. Oh, wait.

One of the biggest public outcrys came from twitter, where people virtually shouted "REMOVE HORROR" over and over again like they were apart of some great political movement. Twitch proceeded to completely ignore all responses and instead make some shitty pun/joke tweet that made everyone in the vicinity immediately cringe in agony.

Please, @TwitchTVSupport. Never try to be funny again.

But that wasn't even the major brouhaha -- the battle moved to Reddit when one of the admins apparently suggested legitimately bribing the /r/gaming mods to keep the fight under wraps.

The immaturity level has skyrocketed!

At this point the maturity of both sides had reached that of some Minecraft server made by a bunch of prepubescent children, but they train wouldn't stop there. The fighting would continue to go on for what seemed like years to the Twitch.tv community but what ended up being about five minutes for everyone else, the two sides finally "truced" and most people who were banned in the incident ended up getting unbanned.

But has the fighting really stopped? Has the battle between one of the most popular streaming websites in the world and it's mostly 20+ year old users really ended? I sure hope so, because anymore autism and I might die from a hernia.

Sources:

Source1

Source2

Source3

(All from Reddit, it seems. Who is really to blame?)

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Posts to be less frequent

Hey, Astuka here!

I just wanted to say that, while Geimatsu is still an active project of mine, due to my focus on schoolwork I've been having to cut a few of my personal projects to make time. Unfortunately, this is one of the ones I'm going to cut down on.

But while you may frown in dismay that your obviously favorite blog on the planets posts will become less frequent, don't despair! In fact, this is actually good for most of you -- the few posts that are made will be much better written and not short little snippets, which it seems that no one likes (I don't either!). So, basically, there will be less but more informative and longer posts, which should sort things out!

I already have a few ideas on what to write, and plan on making them "week projects" that I write for a week and then post on the weekend or whenever. Anyway, that's all for now -- see you in the distant future!

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Geimatsu Legend Podcast #3!

Whoops, I forgot to post it yesterday. I am making the fourth one right now!

https://soundcloud.com/astuka/geimatsu-legend-podcast-1

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 11/19/13 -- Soundcloud Edition!

I decided to instead post them to Soundcloud, for the sake of simplicity. Once I run out of space on my SoundCloud account though they'll be put back on Youtube.

www.soundcloud.com/astuka

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 11/18/13 -- Video Transition!

This day's episode has been converted into a podcast! In about a hour, you'll be able to see it here.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Geimatsu Legend 11/17/13 -- Work Day

Okay, maybe today we can try for actual progress?

Programming

Today I learned about switch functions! Yay! That's it! Yay!

Art
For this sketch I tried Thrall, everyone's favorite orc shaman.

Okay... this might be a BIT more difficult.

This looks like a multi-day project in the making. Good, PROGRESS!

Game Design

Still working on the book! Unfortunately I kind of got off track and so I haven't written as much today, but I'll try making more later in the night.

Music

More LMMS practice.

I... uh... yeah I still have no idea what I'm doing.

I am starting to learn a bit more with presets and making tolerable music though, so that's always good.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 11/16/13 -- I have no idea what I'm doing

The phrase above is something I think a lot when doing this.

Programming
Things in programming have changed little -- as in there's still little progress. Oh well, at least I finally completed while loops!

Art
Last time I promised to sketch something. This time, I'm going to sketch something.

I decided to choose a random LoL character (mostly because that was the only thing I thought of at that time) Lo and behold, that character was ... Karthus!

Seems simple enough.

I didn't even know this guy was a champion, but I'm going to DRAW HIM DAMMIT

MUCH better

Wow, it's actually good! If only I could do the same thing with pictures that don't already exist.

Game Design
Still working on the book. Worked on it today actually -- going pretty good!

Music
Well by this point its safe to say I'm completely musically incompetent. I'm learning a few new things in LMMS though -- now I know how to make a beatline (sort of) and import audio files. Huzzah!

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 11/15/13 -- Starting up again

The famed blog series you thought was dead (and honestly probably wished it was too) is now BACK!

Programming

The question of the hour here I think is whether progress can actually be made in Javascript, to which we all know the true answer: No.

PROGRESS

I think at the time of making this series I had around 38%, so we've literally went up by TWO PERCENT this entire series. Turns out making blog posts along with your project makes you lose progress.

So, will we ever get to Java? Only time will tell. A very, very long time.

Art

Welp.

Alright by this point it looks as if I've just given up in the art department. Maybe I should try doing sketches again and seeing if that improves my drawing ability. Save it for next time, though!

Game Design

Story's going along well, so I think it's time for some more engine testing!

This time we're going 3D (or 2D) with Unity. As I'm typing this I just clicked the download button, so a full on test won't come (yet). Check tomorrow's Geimatsu for one of those!

Music

Last time we summoned Cthulhu using a basic free music maker, this time we're going to try to make actual music.

Once again I have no idea what I'm doing.

Oh god this is going to take years.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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The Ultimate MMO -- Principles on what to make when designing the WoWkiller

Attention all MMO makers,

Back in 2012 I went through ideas discussing what would make the perfect MMO. It was in March that I sent a few of these ideas to a friend. Here they are.


1. There are no levels, however there are hundreds of skills that you can boost up and can still get you far in the game (similar to runescape)

2. Completely customizable armor. Merchants with a level high enough can mix and match different designs compared with different materials to create the ultimate armor and sell it for tons of gold

they unlock different designs/the use of different materials too, but for the materials they have to find their own in order to craft and sell (but those are general MMO crafting rules)

3. Quests change from different NPCs. Since all NPCs can die permanently, it switches around so that no person will have the same quests once its complete, its complete and another person will have a quest

these quests also match up to the different needs of the area, for example if there becomes a wolf infestation by means of random event or just no one being in the zone to kill them, a NPC "generates" a quest to kill a specific amount of wolves

4. In ultima online, there was a system where if too many of one creature were killed, they would start fading out from the world and a different being would start taking over, probably something that was lower in the food chain

the problem with it though was that players would kill everything, so they would all die out

#4 uses a similar concept, but to remove the flaw of that Ultima found, the creatures will get a "survival of the fittest" perk that makes them way stronger, and more of a match to other players

now this would be limited in low level starting areas so that newbies don't get instakilled, and in case things don't work out there is also random events that are generated by developers

5. Artifacts. Extremely hard to find, the only hints being small clues inside the universe. Extremely hard to get because of all the obstacles, Artifacts are highly-powerful pieces of armor/weapons/etc. that there are only ONE of in the entire game. This makes it so that players can work together to find them, or that one player can be all-powerful (which sounds bad but is important as you will find later on)

6. Dynasty system. Even with the toughened monsters, it is pretty hard to die in this game because of the NPCs-PCs working together and the alternate routes to going up in the world. but eventually your character will die, and when it does, it will not come back

so, that seems really bad, right?

wrong. With the dynasty system, players can marry PCs or NPCs to create strong bloodlines of characters that flow in the family. each child will have some negative/positive traits that their parents had, and though they will have to work their skills up again, they can inherit all the items that your previous character left behind

so basically, your character dies, you reincarnate as one of your NPC children

so what do your children do while NPC, you ask? They spend this time doing different tasks and roaming town that will let them gain their own skills

you can also influence what your child does in order for them to get the skills you want them to have when you die and reincarnate as them

7. Destructible Environments Entire NPC towns, mountains, and likewise are subject to the devastating forces of both erosion and explosives. These can leave paths of destruction across places that use to be homes but were subject to ruin, causing whole new places to explore all on their own. Players can't just grief whatever they want, however- if some guy just starts throwing dynamite around, he'll be killed by the city guard, with one exception that leads me on to the final, and ultimate, feature...

8. Players create the world. NPC Town Sieges. Entire kingdoms entirely made by players. This, combined with all the other previously mentioned features, creates the main reason why this is the ultimate MMO.

The only way to perfectly explain this is from a specific point of view:

Meet Robb. Robb, and his friend Thelion, are the owners of a large guild. Robb eventually finds a peaceful plot of land far from civilization in the game, and decides to make a town, specifically for his guild, there.

With the town founded, Robb is given a new view -- called the Strategic view -- where he can build buildings, recruit NPC guards, and more with the resources his guild has collected. He decides to give Thelion second-in-command, giving him also the Strategic view with the exception of things that Robb does not allow Thelion to do. Things go on, and eventually the Guild town becomes a kingdom, as big as some of the NPC kingdoms in the game. People -- NPCs and PCs alike -- flock to the new city to seek refuge from an influx of PC-bandits in the south. One day, Robb finds something big -- thanks to an anonymous tipper, Robb finds the location of an ancient longsword artifact called the Ebonsword of Glory deep in the frozen mountain of Lok'Thagar. He sets up an expedition, lead by him, into the mountain. After a long journey with some casualties, the group finds the sword, which is given to Robb. Over time Robb becomes obsessed with the sword and starts to get tyrannical. Thelion notices this, and gets an army of revolutionaries and fights Robb's loyal faction. After a long, bloody, and destructive war that ravages the countryside, Robb is slain. From then on both PCs and NPCs remember the event, and it is forever known on an official timeline of the game.

So that's about it. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas?

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Warlords of Draenor -- The New WoW Expansion

Sorry for the late post, still trying to get my schedule fixed up. New Geimatsu will probably be up tomorrow though!

Despite the hype for the PS4 release coming very soon now, I didn't preorder a PS4 for the fact that none of the games interest me (honestly none of the next-gen exclusives do yet), so instead I'll be covering something I found to be buried in other news -- the new WoW expansion!

Ah, yes. World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor (better known as the "we're going full Jagex" expansion) is the latest expansion pack for... well, world of warcraft.

The expansion has some clear emphasis on time travel (which by the way was already a thing). Why time travel? Well some could argue that Metzen is trying to add more complicated stuff to the lore to keep the game afloat, but let's face it -- not even Metzen cares anymore. This is literally just a Blizzard run TBC private server.

But wait! Look at these exciting new textures for characters!

20 more polygons! It's like a whole new game!

And look! You can level a character up to the highest level in the game so you can experience endgame free of charge! Certainly no one has done that before, right?

Really? I did a fucking POST about this, Blizzard.

And look! Strategy in a MMO: Garrisons! No one has ever thought of this before, right?

Actually, yes. I have.

On March 13th (of this year) I sent my friend an email detailing the elements created to make the ultimate MMO. I'll post the full list later, but for now, all you need to see is this.

...uh, wait, it's here somewhere...

...

Really self? I didn't write down one of the main ideas about the MMO in general? But I thought of it, I swear to... ARGH, YOU WIN THIS TIME CHRIS METZEN

Soon.

Oh well, I'll get the ideas listed tomorrow (along with my original strategy idea). Wait, what was that? I was talking about World of Warcraft? Eh, who cares... dammit Metzen...

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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I'm not dead!

Those of you who care enough may notice I haven't been posting here recently. Contrary to popular belief, it is NOT because I'm dead in some ditch. Let me list to you the things I've had to do last week:

• 6 quizzes
• 2 tests
• a wedding
• a friend's concert
• a 25 hour gaming marathon

So yeah, I've been a little bit busier than normal. Assuming things don't go back to being this way though and your daily dose of Geimatsu Legend should come back to fruition.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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No Posts

i don't even really have time to make this god dammit

here just have tb

Extra-Life: The Conclusion

Even though we DID end up falling asleep for 7 of the final hours and only making one dollar due to half of the audience being 8 and half of it the DDoS attacks (dammit ghjiop), this stream ended up resulting in many incredible moments. As fun as it is though, I probably wouldn't do it again since I don't know how many hands are on my finger right now. Well, it was a good first try!

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Extra-Life stream starts in about a hour

In about 45 minutes, the 25 hour Extra-Life livestream will begin. As you can probably tell, I won't be posting anything besides this today.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Geimatsu Legend 11/1/13 -- Finally, a full day! (and probably the last one)

Oh look, I didn't fall into a concussion today. Great!

Well we're going to do some major shit today, and it involves actually doing work on Geimatsu. I have a long to-do list for today, and this starts it off, so let's get to it.

Programming

So, where were we again? Oh, right. While loops.

Well, these a pretty straight forward, you just-

Uh...

It froze...

I'm not exactly sure if I did this wrong or not.

The only page that's frozen is that one and it's just like that not doing anything.

Uh...

Now the page isn't loading.

Well, fuck. Let's try this again later.

Art

Ah, yes. Art. The subject I obviously exceed in greatly.

Today I'm not going to be too creative -- instead, I'm going to try to make a trash can. Yes, you heard me. A trash can.

Here is this trash can:

I really don't know what I expected.

Well I guess you can say that trash can art is pretty...

...

...

...

...trashy.

(But seriously, real art will come soon. Probably sometime next week. Promise.)

Game Design

As I realize I won't have enough time for doing alternate projects, I think it's best just to save it until I can actually do things. Though the stories are still being worked on!

Music

Okay, so here is one I've put off for awhile, but this time god dammit I'm doing it.

Well, try doing it.

And this is the moment that I realize I don't have any FUCKING idea what I'm doing.

Well, from a basic field report::

It appears that clicking the buttons that appear in the gray space makes blocks, and clicking those blocks make a horrible alien symphony that sounds like the background music of a horror game.

However, this appears to only work for the first part (preset) and nothing else actually does anything.

Okay, pretty straightforward. Let's see how to import alternate music that doesn't sound like a radio transmission from Silent Hill.

Aaand I'm once again reminded that I have no idea what I'm doing.

Well, one thing's for certain: I'm going to NEED a tutorial for this.

Programming, Take 2

Alright,  let's try this again. Nothing can go wrong, right?

Sure. Nothing.

Nope. Fucking froze. Great.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Happy Halloween!

Not too much to see here, so enjoy this article.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Geimatsu Legend 10/30/13 -- Well, shit.

Oh, would you look at the time. Again. It's six o'clock. I slept for four fucking hours and nobody woke me. Great.

Programming
Unfortunately, this means (and probably October 31st too) that this will be another 1-skill day. Might as well do programming, because hell -- it's the easiest.

Hey, I worked on While loops. That's it. Fucking fantastic.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 10/29/13 -- Almost Late Day

School has come again, in case your wondering about the infrequent updates. Also I slept from when I got home to 5 today, so remind me never to do that AGAIN.


Programming:
Same old, same old. This time I've moved on to while loops, but it's still about the same stuff.

Another side-project of mine has been "programming bibles", that add useful functions/layouts/properties into a document so that I don't have to google for an answer. It's pretty helpful.

Now, as for the other subjects, I really pretty much have zero time to work on them. I would, but I can't. Sorry to disappoint you guys!


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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 10/28/13 -- Stream Day

Today marks the first day I streamed my progress! It was on the new group channel, twitch.tv/astukagaming. Check it out!

Programming:
Today I mostly worked on the project for "for" loops. Not much else.

Art:
Drawings:

yuugi/luugi requested by toldfir

OG J.L requested by ghjiop

Game Design:
Worked on both the OT RPG and the Roblox RPG (both side projects)

Music:
Still practicing LMMS.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 10/27/13 -- The Whatever Day

Programming

At this point I'm trying to get through JS as fast as possible so I can get to Java. However, as it turns out for loops aren't exactly as easy as they look when matched with arrays.

Also, the annoyance that is semicolons have now begun. What kind of evil program makes an entire piece of code defunct just because you did or did not put a semicolon? Did the fucking nazis make this?

Eventually though I did get to the project, which I'll probably save for tomorrow since it looks like it will take work to do.

Art
This time on art...

Game Design and Art are going hand in hand with a mini project that I'm doing that's side-related for a forum I used to use. Basically, practice using Stencyl for the actual Geimatsu project to come.

After a few minutes, I got this response:

Well that was easy.

I now present to you...

SUPAHBOSHI64

RIKU1257

NIGHTDUMO

SENTRY7743

And thisaccount12345

I kind of got less enthusiastic about it as it went along, but I'll have to try stuff like this some other time.


Game Design

Continued working on the side project.

Music
For the most part, I plan on just testing LMMS to see how it works and what its functions are. I'll report back tomorrow to tell how useful it actually is.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 10/26/13 -- Well that ended abruptly

Programming

After failing to find anyway to actually run the JS adventure, I determined that ultimately it was useless and that right after I finish Javascript I'd go straight to an actually useful language like Java. So what were we doing again? Oh, right. Loops.

For the most part, For Loops look like they have a very basic layout, which already makes them ten times easier than functions.

Also, today marks the day I was permanently banned from nl_kripp for cheating and exploiting. It was a good run RIP :,,,,,,(

Art
As I went to go search for tutorials, I realized that I had no fucking idea what to search to make "good" art. Game art tutorials? Digital art tutorials? BASIC art tutorials?

I decided to try my luck with just digital art tutorials at first. I ended up with...

...a bunch of graphic design stuff.

Okay, I know how to do graphic design. That's not my problem. I've trolled hundreds of people by faking pages and articles etc.

Then I realized art cannot be taught. It must be LEARNT.

And learn it I shall.

Today's image:

Don't ask why it's a fucking cat.

This time I tried starting with a rough sketch and replaced it with lines. It's fairly okay besides the fact that the god damn ends aren't round, but I'm pretty sure that much can be fixed.

Game Design
My project has commenced! It's looking up to be pretty good so far. Also, as I mentioned about doing a shitty-game engine game next, I'm convinced that game engine might be Stencyl. It's an extremely basic flash game maker that utilizes Scratch's coding style, so it's perfect for a coding peasant like me. I'll likely start a project in it once I get better with drawing basic things...

Music
When it comes to the music section, we have a few problems.

Synthesia is just for learning the piano for the most part, which honestly could get me the ladies but in the end I really don't care too much about it since its not related to the vidya and this IS related to the vidya. Also I ragequit with Mario Paint, so there's that too.

So I decided the next best thing to do is find something like FL studio. FL studio is for music, right? It's basically what Han Zimmer uses, right?

Anyway, searching for "free software like FL studio" led me to this:

Well, that was quick.

In case the image isn't readable, basicly the entire front page mentions something called LMMS, a "free beat-making software" according to the first result. The second result was the actual download.

For now I've just downloaded it, next time I'll probably get the actual thing done.

Also, things have managed to get really awkward since I'm still managing the 4-person "other" studio. I haven't been doing anything since the one incident that caused this, mostly because I've been focusing on this more. However I still need it to exist, just in case. It's like putting as many lottery tickets in as possible, you feel me?

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimatsu Legend 10/25/13 -- Broken Record

Continuing off of last post, it appears that contrary to popular belief you can't run jack shit when it comes to javascript. According to one guy off yahoo answers however, what you can do is place that .js file into a html file and play it through there. So, is it true?

I don't know, does this look like a fucking game to you?

Of course, it doesn't. It was then however that I remembered I had downloaded some coding app for google that I was pretty sure couldn't run the script either. To be fair though at this point I was pretty desperate, so I tried it anyway.

to be continued

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
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Geimastu Legend 10/24/13 -- The First Project!

Programming

PROJECT ONE

Idea: Simple text-adventure

Programming: Javascript in Notepad

Art: N/A

Music: N/A

As I started thinking when I was walking home this morning, with my current knowledge of JS it would actually be pretty easy to make a simple, 30 minute-or so long text adventure game using only JS. Since this is the first project though, combined with the fact that I have a lot of work to do this may be the only thing I end up doing today.

Once the game is finished, I'll probably just put it up as freeware on a separate page on this blog, assuming it even works.

So, as most games start I decided to add a basic "set-up" that showed who the game was by, what it was called, etc. Then right after I saved I realized something: I had no fucking idea how to run it.

I'd figure it was probably the console, but actually running it on the console confused me. I decided just to open up the code and see if I could open it with the console. After being distracted by all the different strange folders in the "My Documents" library, I opened up the right folder to see that it was already recognized as a javascript file.

Huh.

HUH.

Oh, fucking fantastic. Looks like whatever windows was trying to run doesn't even know what console.log is. Here's hoping codeacademy is telling the actual truth.

I'd figure my next best bet was to run the command prompt, which instead of doing something useful just closed instantly. I figure that my last hope was to run the program through the console, or to use the alternate return function. Surely that's got to do SOMETHING.

Did I mention I have to idea what the fuck I'm doing?

UPDATE 1:

I've tried a few other things and googled some, but it looks like no matter what I try the code still isn't running. I'm going to leave for now to finish that other work and try again later.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Geimastu Legend 10/23/13 -- The Third Day

I just realized the title is actually not technically pronounced "Game-mot-sue" like I thought it was. It's actually spelled "Guy-mas-tu". Oh well, my pronunciation is still correct.

Programming
As it turns out, it is actually the function ride that never ends.

Honestly I'm getting tired of this shit, mostly because you can not even MAKE any (good) games using javascript. However I'll probably need to know this for Java (basics) so I'll do it anyway.

Oh hey, look. Functions turned into loops. Well this is a pleasant surprise. Hurray for loops!

This is the most happy I've ever been about seeing the word "loop"

Art

Since things are turning out so well in the art department, I've decided to turn in one more day without looking at tutorials to try one last thing -- a 3D table. Here's how it turned out:

Oh god nevermind I need help.

Well then, more tutorials for me.

Game Design

Still working on other writing stuff. It counts, okay?

Music

Today I focused primarily learning Synthesia, and learned one thing -- either I'm really fucking bad at piano, or it's just because I don't even know what half the keys are in this fucking game. Oh well.


Well, that's it for today. Least productive day ever? I'd say so.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Geimatsu Legend 10/22/13 -- The Second Day

The adventure continues.

Podcast of the day

Programming

The functions may be over, but as they've always said: the javascript ride never ends.

Jesus bloody christ.

The good news is that I do know functions now, though I still have no idea what the fuck the return part does. I'm also still debating on what to continue with -- Java (which, by the by, is not related to JS -- I just have some experience in it) or continue along the Codecademy track to like PHP or something, which if I remember correctly has bloody-all to do with games.

Art

After watching a few speed-art videos for League of Legends characters, I noticed that a common trend was zooming in to pixel form in order to draw, as well as creating a "rough draft" the layer beforehand. Equipping this knowledge, I made this piece of armour in full on tryhard mode.

And it's STILL better than normal.

This time I focused mostly on multi-layering and zooming in/panning, which felt a lot better than the first time. This one actually looked pretty damn good at first, but after I realized I had no idea what the fuck I was doing things quickly fell apart.

Game Design

Mostly my writing has been being focused on the "secret project" I told you about in the beginning of this blog (Oops, spoilers). Because of the recent tragedies with the game studio I used to have, I haven't been able to write for it for awhile so I'm planning on getting a shit-ton done this Saturday to make up for the lost time last Saturday and next Saturday (Extra-life!). I've also been thinking of using Sketch or whatever the fuck its called and some other babby game engines to try and improve my skills there, but that would likely help all of them, not just game design. So, for now, we continue to wait.

Music 

After my epiphany last time of realizing I was the new Beethoven, I continued on my progress for the song I was making last time.


Looking back at the last song FUCK I FORGOT TO SAVE IT

Wait,

Nope, yep. It didn't save. Well forget what I was saying and fuck that junk, looks like we're going to go straight to virtual piano next time.


So, will I re-realize the fact that I am a musical genius by teaching myself to play piano and that me closing out was true divine intervention, or will I end up making a cacophony of ear-shriekingly bad music? (game design)

Find out tomorrow on

GEIMATSU LEGEND

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Happy 1k Views!

Close enough.

Today is the day we celebrate 1k views for this blog! This may be like a small feat to most, but this in reality is pretty damn big mostly because this website has NEVER BEEN ADVERTISED. That's right -- if you got here, it sure as hell wasn't me.

Not only is that true, but we're also catching up on the blog that I DID advertise from about two years ago that has only five posts.

Hype is through the roof.

And NOT ONLY THAT, but it's also technically a fifty-post celebration -- the longest I've gone on any blog ever. Mother of the lord, today is the day of achievement.

But enough of that, time to get to the "special edition" I was planning out for you guys!

Overall website stats:

Average per month (2 months so far!): 509.5
Most viewed day: October 12th, 2013 with 56 pageviews (that was the day we posted the "Quest to the Master Race" special)
Page views, all-time count at 10/21/13 @ 5:40 PM: 1,019 views

Where in the world did you come from?

Greatest refering sites:

1. VampireStat.com (205 views)

2. 7SecretSearch.com (31)

3. Kallery.net (28)

4. AdSenseWatchDog.com (26)

5. Google.com (25)

So basically a bunch of bot-spam/blog sites. Not bad.

Search keywords:

1. astukagaming.blogspot.com (20 views). Huh.

2. michael townley real life (2)

3. meeting god you were on your way ... (1). So someone literally just copied and pasted the entire story to see what would come up.

The Audience

Most of you are from...

1. United States (946 views)

2. South Korea (28) YEAHHHHHH

3. Russia (11)

4. Germany (5)

5. United Kingdom (5)

I'm just glad South Korea's in the top 2. I love you too, Korea.

Using the browser...

1. Chrome (640 views, 64% of all browsers), so basically me.

2. Firefox (178, 17%)

3. Internet Explorer (129, 12%)

As well as some other unorthodox browsers, such as UniversalFeedParser , OS;FBSV (whatever the fuck that means), and NX. Sad to see Netscape is apparently not making a comeback, but oh well.

And the operating system...

1. Windows (508 views, 50% of all OSs)

2. Linux (395, 39%)

3. MacIntosh (70, 6%)

The simple fact that Linux beat Mac by that much just makes me feel all warm inside. 

And, finally...

THE TOP 10 MOST VIEWED POSTS

1. "Meeting God" by Anonymous (14 views). The only one I copied takes 1st place. Of course.

2. The beginning of a hypothetical legend (Introductory post) (12 views)

3. Meet the GTA V characters... in real life (11 views)

4. Grand Theft Auto V Review (10 views)

5. The Quest to the Master Race special (9 views)

6. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review (8 views)

7. Important Links (8 views)

8. gotta go fast (7 views). I don't even remember what the fuck this was.

9. TIL & is called an ampersand (7 views)

10. 5 browser games you can play right now (7 views)

And the most viewed by "series" were

TIL - 30 total views

Reviews - 29 total views

Nothing to Post 2013 - 25 total views

Gaming News - 22 total views

Geimastu Legend - 9 total views

At least now I know what to make more of in the future!

Well, there you have it folks. Oh yeah, also with my terrible digital art-making skill (which you all now know about) I made you this:

Beautiful. Truly beautiful.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis  

Geimastu Legend 10/21/13 -- The First Day

Well, the one thing about this project is that, so far, I haven't actually told the rest of my team that I'm doing it. Well, the part that remains. Neither of course do I have any intention on it since, if this project fails, might as well have some auxiliary. Right? Right!?

Programming:
THESE GOD DAMN FUNCTIONS

So the current area that I'm learning in Javascript is functions. For HTML/CSS/JQuery I pretty much brushed by with little to know problems, but this is the first time I've had to actually read things and do them over and over again. Like real coding.

Something tells me I'm going to HATE real coding. Oh well.

I feel kind of cheated in the way that I feel like I've learned practically nothing from using functions. They sure seem useful, but the whole idea seems like some convoluted mess to me, probably mostly because I'm both tired and frustrated.

Also, what the fuck does return even DO? I've been going through this section of it today and have no idea why it even has any importance. Then again that's probably just because I don't read. From my great analysis skills though, it looks like it does the same exact thing as console.log only just in functions.

Ingenuity, ladies and gentlemen.

Art:

For art, I decided just to "assess" what I already know before I proceeded to find some tutorials. To do this, I recreated myself in full glory.

Holy. Shit.

Okay, TO BE FAIR to my artist self, this is probably the best drawing I've made in YEARS. This, this is a high point.

Utilizing the incredible skillful techniques of line-drawing and correct oval eyes, I was able to make this master piece. Looks like Ringo Starr has some competition.

But seriously I REALLY need to get on some tutorials.

Game Design:

Well, like I said in my starting post, this is pretty much the only thing I'm good at, so....

Music:

My obvious initial first step for music was to find something that was actually able to create music. The only problem is, I don't know any. Why, is that, you ask? Oh yeah, I'm MUSICALLY INCOMPETENT.

But then, like a lightning bolt to my chest (how about you add that shit to writing/game design), I found the answer swiftly and incredibly painfully.

FUCK YEAH

It was perfect, and made to be 8-bit. I couldn't start on Synthesia or whatever the fuck its called because I don't know piano, and I couldn't do Garageband because I actually have a good computer, thank you very much.

So with a flick of the finger I clicked the virus/spyware software and started composing the mario way.

What came out was the most masterful first attempt at making music ever witnessed by no one, mostly because there's no way to actually upload your work. I might find it later, but for now I've got shit to do.

Toodaloo, bitches.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Geimastu Legend -- The Beginning of a Great Journey

"Can a single man develop a game all by himself?"




It is a question I have asked myself many a night. And by that, I mean this night whilst I was probably wanking off in the shower.

I have tried for what seems like a thousand times to make a little mini game studio of my own, but no matter how hard I try people get pissy and leave. What, they want rights? Bah! Let them eat cake, I say!

Then it hit me. If no one else has the same dream that I have, why don't I just do it myself and not get other people to do the work for me?

Sure, it would be hard. Hard as in probably the "DANTE MUST DIE" mode of life. But why would we do that in video games? To be challenged? So why don't we just challenge ourselves in real life?

Well, this is a challenge I will gladly accept. And there is no challenge I do not complete.

The goal of this mission is to make my own game where almost all aspects of it are made by me. In order to complete this, I will have to learn the following arts:

THE ART OF PROGRAMMISTU
Ah, yes. The simple foundation of all vidya -- the code. It is the most diverse and likely most frustrating of all of these tasks, but thankfully just like real life, once you learn one programming language it's pretty easy to learn the rest.

Fortunately, I already have HTML, CSS, and JQuery under my belt. Unfortunately, all of those languages can't make games for shit, or make really shitty games. My final goal in this art is to learn and master C++ and Java, though I intend to learn many others on the way.

THE ART OF ARTSU

Probably the most difficult art for me personally, I will sadly need to learn how to actually make digital art and 3D modeling. The question is, will I be able to? The answer is, probably not.

The goal for this art is to make art that isn't crap. It will take a very, VERY long time.

THE ART OF GAME DESIGNITO

Well... actually... this is the only one I actually know. So while I may prosper in this art, I will still need to practice to become a true Game Designito master!

THE ART OF MUSGHATI

Alright, I'm going to say it here and I'm going to say it now -- I am completely incompetent when it comes to music. Like, more so than art. And my art looks worse than Ringo Starr's fucking web art. So yeah, I'm fucked.

Thankfully though I know people a many who are actually good at making music, so perhaps I'll just make them do it for me. Maybe.


So here it goes, folks. The start of a real, living legend.

GEIMASTU LEGEND!

BEGINS MONDAY, TOMORROW, 2013

 

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Dark Matter ends after abrupt ending

Dark Matter, a game recently released on Steam for $15 has been flagged for a completely abrupt ending. According to the developers, the game originally was supposed to last around 14 hours, but was cut to around 4 due to the Kickstarter for the game failing, as well as a complete lack of funding in general. While the game was praised, the shortcomings with the ending may effect its lifetime on Steam.




It's likely that the developers had their best intentions, but they could have easily did one of two things:

A) Label the game as Early Access on Steam

or

B) Make another Kickstarter

They, however, did neither. If they said the game was a work in progress all would be good, but unfortunately they didn't, and there's going to be one hell of a backlash.

(In completely unrelated news, we're 53 away from 1k views! Better make that special edition soon...)

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Killzone 3 Review

Highway to the Killzone

Astuka Reviews: Killzone 3

Killzone 3 is considered to be the greatest PS3 exclusive shooter out there -- but does it live up to the hype?

GAMEPLAY: 8/10
The gameplay in Killzone 3 is one that you would expect from any other game. There's two preset control schemes in the game, one with L1 aim and the other with L3 (so basically, CoD or Battlefield). Sniping is incredibly accurate and fun, and for the most part the sights work well. Damage is realistic, with most enemies taking only a few hits before they die depending on the armor they have. However, the vehicle missions are everything but fun, and can be tedious and frustrating at some points. In summary: On-foot works well, vehicles not so much.

Multiplayer maps are pretty well designed, with multiple paths all around. Areas for both sniping and close quarters are all over, and a man who memorizes a map would probably do well. The "droids" in MP are pretty good, not being too overpowered while still providing decent coverage.

STORY: 4/10
Unfortunately, Killzone suffers with the incredibly dull average shooter storyline. Dialogue mostly consists of "ALPHA CHARLIE MIKE" and other tactical sounding phrases that really don't mean anything, and bland see-through characters are all around. For the most part, voice-acting is extremely cringey, especially from the American actors.

MUSIC: 7/10

The music in Killzone 3 is little of note. In fact, I'm not even sure the game has a soundtrack. The gun sounds/explosions seem pretty real, but overall there's really nothing to talk about here.

ART: 9/10
The art of Killzone 3 is really the only thing they have to be proud of. Areas are beautifully designed badlands, the scenery makes you feel like you're in a huge battle, and some vehicles are incredibly epic. From nuclear-ravaged warplains, to snow mounds, to caves teething with life -- Killzone's art is great and fitting.

IMMERSION: 3/5

Killzone 3 can be decently immersive, but for the most part you get thrown off by multiple deaths and annoying vehicles scenes.

EASTER EGGS: 3/3

Okay, fucking seriously? Does a game even NEED easter eggs to be good?

FINAL SCORE: 34/48 (70%) --- OKAY GAME
For the most part, Killzone 3 suffers at the things they think they're good at, but they're really not. If you're a hardcore FPS gamer you might enjoy it, but for most people you should probably just wait on this one, if buy it at all.

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Twitter: @CodexofAegis
Facebook: facebook.com/CodexofAegis 

Reviews incoming

This is me, promising more reviews for the vidya are coming soon. However, since they're work in progress, I can't actually post them (unless I want to be like IGN) and since I have nothing else to post, well, here we are.

In the mean time, enjoy these new screenshots from The Witness, the upcoming game made by Braid creator Jonathan Blow: