It’s quickly becoming a drag-n-drop (virtual) world. From an article over on Gamespot news, “Epic shows off Unreal tools ” (Link):

Willard showed off a level whose appearance was easily altered using the engine’s ability to link together multiple shader effects with an easy click-and-drag interface…
…
Epic’s post-processing editor gives artists a simple way to create shader effects without relying on a programmer to implement each effect. The tool is a graphical user interface that lets the artist select and attach pre-built shader effects to game graphics.
…
Willard also demonstrated the Unreal Engine 3 Kismet system, a scripting tool that allows the designer to schedule game events in a flow-chart-like format.

That shader system sounds a lot like Maya’s amazing Hypershade system, which always blows my mind when I get into it. And that Kismet system sounds like something with which I’d like to play.

The tools just keep getting easier. I just wish I had access to and use of a high-level PLM system. Imagine doing the 3D, having the equivalent of a Kismet for electronic circuitry and programming, then fabbing the parts and downloading the code to put a physical device in motion?

How this all starts to play out is going to be fascinating.

via Blue’s News

I rarely hear any news out of WildTangent, a company that first came to my attention back in 2000, when Paul Steed joined them after leaving (getting booted from) id software. Well, it appears they’re alive and kickin’ and Ad Age has some interesting news (Link) of a videogame advertising currency/token system they’ve developed. From the news article:

The token system, called WildCoins, lets users extend their game play as long as they wish without having to spend the typical $19.95 to buy the game. Coke is offering tokens as prizes through a loyalty program on its MyCoke Rewards site.
…
Up to now, it was too expensive for advertisers to pay to giveaway a game to users as part of a campaign. “This is a way for us to unlock customer promotions within video games,” Mr. Madden said.
…
WildTangent also gives game developers a share of revenue for all the tokens sold. Given the 1% to 2% conversion rate of most online titles, this meant that game developers were locked out of recognizing any revenue from the bulk of game play. “It helps accelerate quality of games into the marketplace,” Mr. Madden said. “Developers [have an incentive] to create the best content now.”

Does WildTangent still depend on ActiveX? I hope not.

Quick update to my earlier post (reLink). In part 2 of Vinyl Pulse’s documentation covering the creation of Itokin Park’s “Robo” custom toy, some readers (including moi) asked some questions. Well, some of those have been answered and it appears more answers and images are forthcoming.

The image above is one of nine process images showing quite a bit of his general part-fabrication process. For those of you interested in this sort of custom/niche product development, head over to the Vinyl Pulse site (Link) and follow along.

{Image source: Oalaworld}

There’s a short article on BusinessWeek, “On-The-Job Gaming” (Link), that’s mildly interesting. From the piece:

“Video games teach resource management, collaboration, critical thinking, and tolerance for failure,” says Ben Sawyer, who runs Digitalmill Inc., a game consultancy in Portland, Me..

The market for corporate training games is small but it’s growing fast. Sawyer estimates that such games make up 15% of the “serious,” or nonentertainment market, which also includes educational and medical training products. Over the next five years, Sawyer sees the serious-games market more than doubling, to $100 million, with trainers accounting for nearly a third of that.

With all the talk about avian flu and people hunkering down for weeks isolated from the world, I’ve been wondering how these kinds of games and tele-education are progressing. This doesn’t really answer that, but it does reinforce the thought.

If only every blog entry made me think, “Damn, look at that.” The above image is just one of several behind-the-scenes peeks at the effort that go into a custom-made toy. In a post over on Vinyl Pulse (Link), you get additional insight into the work of Japanese toy artist, Kazuhiko Ito (aka Itokin Park). From their entry:

For all of his works, from his earlier Rabbit Pilot to his most recent creation, Itokin Park meticulously hand designs, hand crafts, hand paints and hand assembles them all. His effort does not stop at just the toy. He also self-designs the box and the background that compliments his cuddly creatures.

This is the first in a series. Check out Vinyl Pulse to catch all the entries; part 2 is already up (Link).

{Image source: Vinyl Pulse}