ThomasTheSpaceFox

Your computer's desktop is like your real one. It may be neatly sorted and covered with useful things, or it may be covered in useless things you never use. :) Debian+XFCE for me. Whats yours look like? :) yes i made that wallpaper.

you and me both :p

heh. funny. a topic about desktop screenshots, and the first two are a Debian+XFCE linux system, and a chrome OS laptop, with windows nowhere to be seen. :p

A developer's workflow is like a craftman's tecqiuqe, no two are exactly the same. myself: graphics: The GIMP, inkscape sound & music: audacity & LMMS IDE: Geany documentation writing: Geany + markdown plugin, occasionally LibreOffice.

tiling engines, both the more hardware-centric found on older systems like the NES, and the more modern software centric ones, are a cornerstone of 2D gaming. I myself have written a few tiling engines. such as this one i never wound up using: What kinds of tiling engines have you worked on? any off the shelf ones you've used? ever written one?

Open source games have this track record of being a mixed bag. some look gorgeous (Super Tux Kart, some look a /teeny bit/ more dated. (minetest) several open source games use an existing engine for graphics (i.e. irrlicht engine), but not all of them. Others, like AssultCube, use mostly existing engine tech. and even commercial games sometimes use open source components. like Bullet Physics, and lua. As far as open source 3D game engines, i myself can only recall a few: blender's game engine irrlicht godot 2D open source engines are as common as sand nowadays, even i have worked on a few of them. such as my point and click adventure game engine, desutezeoid, and its XML-based boolean keyword logic. (it does have a crude script as well in the form of a slightly enhanced animation script system.) Are you working on/using a open source game engine for something?

Discussing PCs & laptops. ^.^ Some questions to help get things going: What Sorts of hardware are you running? What do you use your PC(s)/Laptop(s) for? what OS(es) do you use? how messy is your computer desk? :p do you have a super-customized rig? any plans? Myself: I have my tiny Acer Aspire V5, with its 4GB RAM, 1 Ghz Dual Core AMD APU, with 512MB Kabini graphics running Linux with the XFCE desktop, ...and not much else :p I use said Acer for programming, art, making music, web browsing, IRC chat, and playing a selection of open source games, like minetest and supertuxkart. :p As far as plans, i wouldn't mind building a nice higher end rig, if i had the money that is. :p

Anyone else into the venerable 3D platformer genre? As a kid, i grew up with many of the countless 3D platformer's littering the PS1 and PS2 libraries. From the legendary crash, to a certain yellow sponge. While my collection from my childhood is long-gone, nowadays my library contains a few: Mario Galaxy Mario 64 DS A Wii tie-in for Night in the museum: battle for the Smithsonian. Sonic Colors and hopefully more to come... What sorts of 3D platformers did you play as a kid? Any you play nowadays? any on your wishlist? Also, What do you think of the recent resurgence in the genre?

I recently changed my main fursona from a gryphon to a mouse. So, i was wondering how much others have changed their fursonas? Me, ive lost count, but probably around a dozen times if i had to guess. :p

Not many people give the wii much thought, nevertheless, those who own one know there are plenty of good games hiding within its library. I'll admit, the main reason i got a Wii, was that i was going to get a GameCube, but decided id opt for a gen 1 Wii at the last second on a whim. One of the things that surprised me was how many wii games have nearly no disk damage. Among other things, i also realized how many decent Wii titles are laying out there, despite people saying to the contrary... What Wii games have you enjoyed/recommend? Any particular favorites? any diamonds in the rough? some of my favorites: sonic colors: Man this one is gorgeous, and its a decent sonic game too. (GameCube controller helps) Mario galaxy: obviously. Epic Mickey 1 & 2 Decent cheap titles: Night at the museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (kinda short, but well-voiced action adventure) Hotwheels beat that: fairly standard rally racer, with some decent guitar riffs for a budget toy tie-in.

Id wish more people would try wii games. seems everyone is just afraid of motion controls... Most wii games don't have that bad controls (at least with a nunchuck) and some even support the venerable GameCube controller. Heck, they don't even all have motion controls to begin with. and some games use pointer controls very well.

Whats your favorite super-hero tie in games? A few i can think of off-the-bat Batman Arkham City (quite good looking on the xbox 360) Spiderman 2 (PS1) (because nostalga :p)

Superhero games have a long history in gaming, don't they?

And yet again for me. this time changing to an 'oddly pink cat'

I was wondering what sorts of sandbox/simulation type games people have been playing... you know, things like the sims, OpenTTD scrap mechanic, mine* block building games, etc. Myself, i play: minetest, an open source minecraft clone with an actual modding API (and a wonderful train mod called 'advanced trains') OpenTTD: everyone's favorite isometric transport business simulator. (is it obvious i like trains?) Though i sometimes watch videos on others, i.e. scrap mechanic. What kinds of sandbox/simulator games do you play?

well, calling minetest a game was slightly misleading... its more of an engine for mine* sort of games... Though, its default game, 'Minetest Game' (creative name right?) IS a tad on the lacking side, and you WILL need mods to properly enjoy it. or if you even want simple things like animals or enemies. minetest's stable(ish) API does mean its gotten some quite impressive mods. such as mesecons. which is similar to redstone, only cranked up to 11 in complexity. Technic, which simulates electricity, and pipeworks, which simulates water pipes and pneumatic tubes. Ive tried mod development once. even tried developing a game. never really got past learning lua though...

Reminds me of an old classic i havent played in YEARS.... Roller coaster Tycoon 2

also, building anything 45 degrees out of giant grid-based blocks presents an interesting design challenge... and anything other than 90 and 45 is just plain tedious... 2D or 3D...

Ill say this much on minetest itself: its nice having mods, and not having them break with every version thanks to a proper API. also, its written in C++, and uses Luascript for mod scripting. in the sense that everything is mods. the engine won't do much of anything by itself. Advanced trains basically takes realistic, working trains, with OpenTTD-esq automation, and 30-degree turn increments, and shoves such into a script mod for a C++ minecraft clone. Somehow all the while keeping lag to a minimum, and managing an entire track & train database and control engine, in Lua of all things. How is beyond me... XD

Any fellow punk rock fans? if so, whats your favorite punk songs? Favorite band? my favorites include: Superman - Goldfinger along with several Green Day tracks... also, how many of you were introduced to punk via tony hawk games?

The tony hawk games soundtracks are pretty legendary. I'm listening to the Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4 soundtrack right now...