Folding@Home

October 15, 2010 by Shadowfox

Shadowfox Games has joined Folding@Home! What is it? Well, some smart guys at Stanford University made a neat program that uses distributed computing in order to simulate protein folding to help with research related to attempts at curing serious diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and certain forms of cancer.

Essentially, the Folding@Home project lets any computer work with other computers in parallel through the internet to accomplish a certain goal, which in this case is to simulate folding proteins. It is like a super computer with its CPU cores connected through the internet instead of a local network.

By downloading the Folding@Home client program, you can help simulate protein folding. The client automatically downloads the required data to your computer and starts folding. When the simulation is complete, the results are automatically uploaded to the Folding@Home servers. It does not interfere with the use of your computer as the program only uses unused CPU cycles.

So go join Shadowfox Games’ Folding@Home team! My stats are low as I am currently the only member of my team so help me out by using my team number, which is 195240, when you want to start folding. Not sure how? Then check out the instructions on how to join a team after you download and install the Folding@Home client. Happy folding!

Game Making Programs

October 15, 2010 by Shadowfox

If you read my last post on how to begin making computer games, you know that you have to understand the basics of programming in order to really be able to make your own games. If you are absolutely adamant on using pure C++ to make games, go ahead and use DirectX. I started trying to learn it and found out that while it can be fairly flexible and powerful since it lets you work with graphics hardware at a very low level, it requires a large time commitment and understanding at that low level. It was difficult to do even the basics without having to memorize many functions with really long names. Unless you really like low level code and don’t mind memorizing long function names, it can be a really great thing to know. Knowing DirectX will surely be helpful if you’re looking to get a job in the video game industry. Continue reading →

How to Begin Making Computer Games

October 13, 2010 by Shadowfox

So You Want to Make a Computer Game?

You’ve played a lot of games and want to make your own now. Perhaps you always found yourself thinking up ways to improve the games you play. Maybe you have been making improved versions of games by modding existing games. Or maybe you think it would just be really cool to build your own game. How do you do it? What do you need to know? And how much of it do you need to know? I’ll tell you that you do not need a lot to get started. A basic knowledge of procedural programming is required to start making “real” games. Although there are many game making programs out there and some even have a drag-and-drop interface, I would highly recommend that you learn the basics of procedural programming for two reasons:

Understand the logic behind games – Games are just programs. Very fun and complex programs, but deep down they are just programs. If you learn the logic behind programs you will be able to more easily understand how to make things in your game work.
Make Better Games – Being able to write code will give you immense freedom in making everything in your game behave the way you want it to. Without programming, you will be rather limited in the kinds of games you can make.

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Game Review: Soul Master

October 12, 2010 by Shadowfox

Review Score
Gameplay
Combination of action-RPG with RTS elements makes for a unique gaming experience.

Replay Value
Unless you enjoy fast-paced action-RPG style gameplay, this game can get somewhat repetitive with all the grinding.

Graphics
The graphics have a nice level of cartoony detail that gives some decent atmosphere. Flashy special effects are also decent.

Audio
Passable music with some solid sound effects to accompany the graphical effects makes for pleasant action.

Overall
Unique blend of RPG with RTS makes this a must-try.

Soul Master Official North/South America Website

Introduction

NOTE: I am conducting this review from playing the North and South American version available at Games Campus.

Soul Master is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online real-time strategy game, or MMORTS for short. It blends RPG elements with real-time strategy. You have a persistent hero character that levels up and can equip items you earn from completing missions, buy from a merchant or other player, or crafted yourself. The heart of the gameplay is in the PVE missions and PVP matches. Missions and matches play similar to DoTA, which has you controlling a single hero character while your armies fight by themselves without any interaction from you. The difference in Soul Master is that it has an RTS component, albeit a light one. You can gather resources and construct buildings in order to summon creatures called Souls to help you fight. You can also give your Souls simple commands like staying at a particular spot or to attack a particular enemy. Thus, Soul Master blends RPG and RTS elements together for a unique gameplay experience. Continue reading →

Browser Games are the Future

October 12, 2010 by Shadowfox

Playing games online inside your browser has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment today. Some may consider browser games to be “casual” games. But today’s browser games are exceptionally more advanced than the simple flash games of yesteryear. Today, stunning 3D graphics in browser games is becoming commonplace. Powerful middleware like Unity are making it even easier to make advanced games with appealing graphics playable inside your browser and also raising the quality bar for online games. Here is a video of a demo made with Unity:

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