Tobler.SoftwareArchitecture() : [GameDev]

Your Company's Next Senior Software Architect???

CSharpener — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:08:00 GMT

I would *love* to join a new and exciting software development team that has a single-minded focus on delivering high-quality software products to great customers. Perhaps that team is working in your company! Please have a look at my resume (http://weblogs.asp.net/jtobler/articles/48839.aspx) to find out if my skills match your customers' needs! If interested, contact me by email so I can get to work with you as quickly as possible! I currently live in San Diego, CA, but would consider relocating to Las Vegas, NV, or the Miami Ft. Lauderdale area, FL, to join the right company with the right challenge!

[.NET General] O Happy Day!

CSharpener — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 05:25:00 GMT

This is just a "happy day" announcement that Microsoft has decided to make all of the Visual Studio .NET Express Editions permanently free! Thank you!

[GameDev] About "Flow in Games"

CSharpener — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 18:50:00 GMT

First, go play flOw!

It is not usual, these days, to see a truly impressive game emerge from a single mind or a small group of minds. Neither is it common to see such a game achieve that much sought after quality known as "immersion" using little more than a rectangle and some dots, circles, and a few lines. Furthermore, it is even less expected for a little, free, totally immersive game to have a *really* simple and intuitive interface. I mean we're talking about moving a mouse and clicking one button.

At a time when the major players almost have us convinced that game design is the sole province of multi-million dollar development companies, and when the game industry magazines teach that the day of the garage game developer is long gone, it is totally refreshing to see a young man in pursuit of a MFA degree put all that conventional wisdumb to shame!

The game of flOw is part of Jenova Chen's MFA Thesis project. Chen has been more than competently assisted by Nicholas Clark and Austin Wintory (see the Credits). While flOw is not yet totally finished, it already stands far above the pack. It would behoove game developers of any level of experience to sit up and take notice. Chen has vision! Chen is onto something here. If this game does not blow your mind, you don't have one.

These creatures that swim around in flOw are made up of whatever it is that I see dancing around on the fluid of my eyeball when I lay flat on my back and stare out into a perfect blue sky on a perfect day. This is what happens when someone with creative vision plays around with the ultimate graphic primitives: dots, circles, and little lines.

To me, flOw is far more than an intellectual exercise, it is "Game of the Year!"