Bungie's Halo or Rare's GoldenEye are often thought of as the first games that truly delivered a technologically advanced, first-class FPS shooter to console platforms - but from my perspective, Iguana Entertainment's Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for N64 may well have got there first. It's a release that was well received at the time but as the years have slipped by, its reputation has slowly lost its lustre, with many suggesting that perhaps Turok was never that impressive or important in the first place.It's difficult to overstate the hype surrounding Nintendo 64 when it launched in 1996. Boasting 64-bit power and hardware capabilities unlike anything else on the market, it was an instant success. This success was due in no small part to the unrivaled quality of Super Mario 64 which - a release which redefined expectations for what a video game could be. The problem was, very few titles lanched on the system in its first year, resulting in a recurring hype cycle even around the most … [Read more...] about DF Retro
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The story of CarnEvil, an arcade frightfest once called “the most twisted video game ever created”
"It was as American as bubble gum inside hamburgers inside apple pie!" says Daniel Bigelow, part of the small team behind a little cult classic named CarnEvil. His description is as unique and strange as the game itself: a light gun shooter rife with gore and gallows humor, set inside a cursed combination of carnival, theme park, and three-ring circus. CarnEvil is emblematic of the kitsch and excess of the late '90s, a bygone era when arcades were prevalent in the West, shock value was a valid selling point, and Midway Games was raking in quarters with games like NFL Blitz and Gauntlet Legends. To think that the then-huge (now defunct) publisher would take a chance on a bizarre, macabre idea like CarnEvil is mind-boggling, even 20 years later. Stranger still is the fact that it was a success, unforgettable for anyone who's picked up its green-and-purple shotguns. CarnEvil is about more than mowing down hordes of belligerent clowns, though that's definitely a big part of it. "It's a … [Read more...] about The story of CarnEvil, an arcade frightfest once called “the most twisted video game ever created”
FBX Exporter and round-tripping between Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya and Unity – Unity Blog
Last year, we unveiled the Unity FBX Exporter, giving creators the ability to round-trip scenes between Autodesk 3ds Max or Autodesk Maya and Unity. On the heels of today’s announcement of our deeper collaboration with Autodesk, we want to share some exciting details of how we’re building significant interoperability between Unity and multiple Autodesk tools such as Shotgun Software, Revit and VRED. As you may know, our FBX Exporter addresses two common game-dev use cases: 1) white-boxing (or grey-boxing) a level in the Unity Editor, then switching to Maya or 3ds Max to complete the level with production-ready assets; and 2) recording gameplay in the Unity Editor, exporting animation to Maya for an animator to polish, then returning to Unity to add the animation to a Timeline track. Let’s look at these two use cases in greater detail. Exporting static scenes The term “white-boxing” (or gray-boxing) comes from the practice of using white (or gray) boxes to … [Read more...] about FBX Exporter and round-tripping between Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya and Unity – Unity Blog
What exactly is a Technical Artist? It seems like…
A technical artist is a someone with both art and programming training who works as an intermediary between the engineering and the art teams. Artists need to use tools such as Maya, 3D Studio Max, Motion Builder, Photoshop, etc. in order to create art assets. However, those assets are not necessarily stored in a format that the game can use. This means the data needs to be parsed and exported to a format the game engine can read. This is where the technical artist comes in. The technical artist needs to understand how the data is processed while still trying to maintain the visual fidelity of the assets in question.The technical artist also functions as a sanity check for the art team, and needs to come up with constraints for performance. Left unchecked, an artist can create some really beautiful stuff but the game running those beautiful assets will run poorly due to inefficient use of system resources. It’s up to the technical artist to help come up with solutions and … [Read more...] about What exactly is a Technical Artist? It seems like…
Get a job: Cold Iron Studios is looking for a Principal Environment Artist
The Gamasutra Job Board is the most diverse, active and established board of its kind for the video game industry!many, many positions being advertised right now. Location: San Jose, California Cold Iron is seeking an experienced Principal Environment Artist to join us in working on a shooter in the Alien universe for consoles and PC! Do you excel at building props and spaces that are as pleasing to look at as they are to play with? Are you a passionate game developer looking to create the best experiences possible? Join our creative, collaborative studio where you will help craft visually inspiring worlds and awesome gameplay environments. Here’s the most important one: Do you do it all for the game? Because you know that your talents are needed to make sure that even the best development teams get an awesome experience out the door? Awesome. Come join our creative, collaborative studio where you’ll own the product management responsibilities … [Read more...] about Get a job: Cold Iron Studios is looking for a Principal Environment Artist