http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog Subcontracting ninjas since 2006 Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:31:06 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en So, I'm getting started on a 4E6 entry. My biggest gripe (and it's minor) with XNA as it exists now is the difficulty in working with the standard .Net Framework to build tools. Apparently this will all be cleaned up with XNA Game Studio Express 2.0, but it's somewhat annoying ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2007/10/05/animation-editor/ Another six months of silence. I'm an excellent blogger, huh? Soon after writing that last entry (the mammoth one that I just modified to prevent it from taking up the whole front page), I got a job offer to return to a company I had worked for previously. I'd ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2007/10/04/four-elements/ Game design was never more fun for me than when I was in elementary school. My friends and I would constantly pass back and forth our level designs for Ghosts 'N Goblins and Castlevania. (I'm sure our teachers found it quite annoying.) It's hard for me to ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2007/04/13/fun-design-work/ Jay Barnson over at Rampant Games (See footnote 1) posted today about a contest that was announced on MyDreamRpg.com. (Most of the info seems to be written in forum posts. Take a look here.) The gist is, you've got one year to write a game (possibly restricted ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2007/04/03/one-year-dream-game-contest-torquex-experimentation/ It's been a long time coming, but I'm back. It's a shame things worked out quite the way they did. Right after writing the reviews for Mr. Robot and Kingdom Elemental, my number of readers shot way, way up. And then the crazy overtime at work kicked in, and ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2007/04/02/the-return/ I apologize for the lack of development updates or new game reviews. My day job has gone into crazy crunch mode and I haven't had much free time to write or play games lately. This project (at least the part of it that's causing all the overtime) is ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2007/02/05/still-alive/ Game: Kingdom Elemental Developer: Chronic Logic Version: This is a review of the full version of the game. Recommendation: Try it I bought this game without playing the demo. I almost never do that. But it's from Chronic Logic (the makers of the fantastic Gish), who I trust to show me a ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2007/01/03/review-kingdom-elemental/ Game: Mr. Robot Developer: Moonpod Games Version: This is a review of the full version of the game. Recommendation: Buy this game without delay! This is a game I've been waiting a long time to play. On October 18, 2005 the guys from Moonpod started started posting development information into their dev journal ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2007/01/02/review-mr-robot/ Game: Eets Developer: Klei Entertainment Version: This is a review of the full version of the game. Recommendation: Buy this game right now! Try it! - Buy It! In my review for FizzBall, I mentioned that Professor Fizzwizzle was my favorite indie game of last year. I received an email from a reader asking ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2006/12/13/review-eets/ Game: Fizzball Developer: Grubby Games Version: This is a review of the full version of the game. Recommendation: Try the demo What happens when you mix Katamari Damacy with Arkanoid? You just might get something that resembles Fizzball, the newest release from Grubby Games. If that name seems familiar to you, and ... http://www.thirdpartyninjas.com/blog/2006/12/07/review-fizzball/