[casual_games] RE: Content of Software Toys Industry?

Thu Jan 12 15:19:49 EST 2006

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Sent: 12 January 2006 9:04 PM
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Subject: Casual_Games Digest, Vol 8, Issue 10

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Today's Topics:

   1. RE: Flash (Allan Simonsen)
   2. the minna mingle at GDC (Brian Robbins)
   3. RE: Flash (Jonas Beckeman)
   4. Software Toys Industry? (Jason Van Anden)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:56:39 -0800 (PST)
From: Allan Simonsen <Simonsen at rocketmail.com>
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Flash
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List <casual_games at igda.org>
Message-ID: <20060112015639.79085.qmail at web32409.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Just as an aside; has anyone looked at using Thatcher
Ulrich's GameSWF player? The main thing I saw missing
last time I played with it was the ActionScript
support, the rest works pretty good. Not to mention
it's free, and far faster than flash?

The main page:
http://www.tulrich.com/geekstuff/gameswf.html

The CVS rep:
http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=31763

There's also a little postmortem of it's use here:
http://www.tulrich.com/geekstuff/gameswf_stranger_postmortem.html

Would love to hear feedback!

Allan

> We embedded a flash player in the game rather than
> relying on the installed
> flash player. It is very inexpensive to license.
> But it does increase the
> distribution size by nearly 1 MB.  We obtained a
> license from Macromedia to
> distribute Flash8.ocx but we also purchased a
> library called "Flash player
> Control" from Softanics to make it easier to
> interface with Flash and get
> access to the bits of the frames.
> 
> James C. Smith
> Producer: Ricochet xxx, Big Kahuna xxx
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org 
> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
> On Behalf Of Jonas Beckeman
> Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 3:21 PM
> To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
> Subject: RE: [casual_games] Procedural rendering -
> again
> 
> 
> > We don't use Flash to draw the animation to the
> screen.
> > We
> > extract the frames out of flash and draw them to
> the screen ourselves
> 
> So you have a VP6 decoder in your runtime? Is it
> expensive to license (they
> don't say on their website)? Or do you require Flash
> to be installed on the
> system and use the external interface to decode VP6
> content to memory areas
> somehow?
> 
> I find both solutions very interesting, please
> share!
> 
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------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 22:41:43 -0500
From: Brian Robbins <brian-l at dubane.com>
Subject: [casual_games] the minna mingle at GDC
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List <casual_games at igda.org>
Message-ID:
	<7097421f0601111941m2a765362q649dfb91cd7afef8 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

The IGDA Casual Games SIG, the Casual Games Association, and all of our
sponsors would like to invite you to the biggest casual-game industry
party at GDC -- the minna mingle! http://www.minnamingle.com/

This party is for the casual games industry, by the casual games
industry. It is open to anyone who participates in the casual games
space, and will provide the ideal environment to chat with your fellow
casual game peers. Please join us and help celebrate the amazing success
and growth our industry has had this past year!

the minna mingle will be held at the Corinthian Center at the Silicon
Valley Capital Club Downtown San Jose, 196 N 3rd St. This is walking
distance from the San Jose Convention Center, and is a great location.

The party will start on Wednesday March 22nd at 8:30 PM. Please be sure
to bring your business card as proof of professional status to guarantee
admittance.

Space is limited, so we strongly encourage you to RSVP in advance on the
website (www.minnamingle.com). Those who RSVP will be mailed invites in
postal mail for themselves and two guests.

Unlike event parties sponsored by one or two big companies, it is our
goal with this party to recognize the huge contribution that small
companies are making in the casual games space. Therefore we have set
the sponsorship cost at a low enough level that smaller companies can
help make this party happen, and it is our hope that together we will
all make this the most fun party at GDC! To help realize this goal,
please consider sponsoring this event by filling out our sponsorship
application: http://mingle.minnamedia.com/MinnaMingleSponsorshipForm.pdf

Please feel free to forward this invitation on to anyone you think
should be invited!

Sincerely,
The IGDA Casual Games SIG and the Casual Games Association

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 10:00:52 +0100
From: "Jonas Beckeman" <list at jobe.nu>
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Flash
To: "'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'" <casual_games at igda.org>
Message-ID: <20060112090053.59581FA4AA at mailwash7.pair.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

> Would love to hear feedback!

I've just started a thread on Flash rendering on the AGG mailing list,
and during the discussions I've understood that GameSWF and other
tessellation algorithms have some problems that are very hard to solve.
Certain shapes cannot be rendered properly.

People are working on different ways to solve this, but currently
software rendering (or pixel-shader-based) is the only way to produce
correct results. AGG's author Maxim is doing both, I'll monitor what he
comes up with.

BTW, Does GameSWF provide antialiasing these days?

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 10:18:44 -0500
From: Jason Van Anden <jason at smileproject.com>
Subject: [casual_games] Software Toys Industry?
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List <casual_games at igda.org>
Message-ID:
	<8eadd6950601120718n7c4cbc19ifcca5bd403235648 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

I have been developing a soft-game/art/toy hybrid that is similar in its
principle to "Electroplankton" just reported on in Wired:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,69999-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_3

Electroplankton evolved from art installations, as does the thing I am
currently creating (and almost ready to release).

Is Electroplankton an exception - or is the industry starting to reach
out to fine/studio artists for fresh ideas?  As a an artist, I am
usually a bit intimidated about making contact because the two resumes I
have are for art and the software industry, not specifically related to
the games industry.

I started lurking on this list after a game I wrote as art was reported
in Wired last year ("Farklempt!") - and to my complete surprise got a
bit of attention in the games press.

Suggestions super appreciated.

Jason Van Anden
http://www.smileproject.com

------------------------------

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