Yearly Archives: 2010

Whither (Wither?) Torque

By Rubes | Published: November 12, 2010

Thanks to Rampant Coyote for bringing this to my attention, but for those of you who haven’t heard, InstantAction has decided to shut down its operations. While this is certainly sad news for a number of people who will be out of work, a lot of you are probably saying, “Who?” The truth is that I’m not sure I could accurately explain exactly how this relates to me, even though it does.

About three years ago, GarageGames – the company responsible for developing and selling the Torque Game Engine (TGE), the 3D engine I’m using to make Vespers – announced a ‘partnership’ with InterActive Corporation (IAC), which is just another way of saying that GarageGames was bought out by IAC. The idea, at least [More...] Read the rest

Posted in indie game business, indie games, Vespers | 1 Response

Who Wouldn’t Be Inspired By This?

By Rubes | Published: November 11, 2010

As some of you may have gathered by now, I like documentaries. And I’m a nerd. So nerd documentaries are like magical gifts from above.

Jason Scott has made two of them, BBS: The Documentary and, of course, GET LAMP, and both are excellent and clearly targeted to my demographic. I think our successful showing in Salt Lake proved that you don’t have to be a total nerd to enjoy them, but truth be told, they’re not for everybody. But courtesy Jason, another film about a subject close to my heart has appeared on the horizon, although this may be old news to some.

Indie Game: The Movie is a feature documentary being made by James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot of BlinkWorks, which covers [More...] Read the rest

Posted in indie games | Leave a comment

Time…Marches On

By Rubes | Published: October 29, 2010

So last night was the latest Utah Indie Gamer night, and I couldn’t make it. Bums me out a bit, because I enjoy connecting with those folks and following along with some of their projects, especially Jay Barnson’s Frayed Knights. At the same time, though, each successive gathering just seems to highlight the fact that I still haven’t reached any major milestones on this project.

It’s now the end of October, and still no Vespers. Still no demo. Seriously, what gives?

Fine, so four and a half years into the project, I’m willing to admit it’s taking slightly longer than anticipated. It was a struggle to finally reach that conclusion, but there you have it. I thought I was choosing a relatively small, [More...] Read the rest

Posted in 3D/if, Vespers | 4 Responses

JET LAMP SLC: A few thoughts about the event…

By Rubes | Published: September 14, 2010

…in no particular order:

1. Loved it. The event went off without a hitch. Brewvies was a great place to have it, especially with the beer and food to go along with the big screen. I was a little worried at first, since it was a pretty large theater with 160 seats, not intuitively conducive to an informal screening and discussion. But seeing the film up on the large screen was very cool, and the post-movie discussion actually worked quite well.

2. This:

Impressive lineup

was exceptionally cool to see. Not sure why, but this probably made the night. That, and seeing Jason’s reaction to it.

3. Who knew? Taking photographs of a cinema marquee, no big deal. Taking photos of the lingerie and sex [More...] Read the rest

Posted in adventure games, interactive fiction, text in games | 1 Response

JET LAMP tour stopping in Salt Lake City

By Rubes | Published: September 6, 2010

Well, after taking the summer off from the blog, we’re now officially back in business. And what better way to start back in than with an excellent announcement about Jason Scott’s documentary film on the history of text adventure games, GET LAMP.

The Official GET LAMP SLC flier

Jason is making the rounds during the months of September and October to promote the movie, thanks to a special “all-you-can-jet” ticket through JetBlue airlines. Since JetBlue flies into Salt Lake City, I invited him to stop in for a screening, and he accepted.

The screening will take place at Brewvies Cinema Pub, a cool place in downtown SLC that serves beer and food with movies, so it should make for a great place to [More...] Read the rest

Posted in adventure games, indie games, interactive fiction, text in games | Leave a comment