BEEP BEEP BEEP … that’s either the sound of a Tenacious D concert playing on Family Channel, or the sound of the OMDC MONEY TRUCK backing up to your door sometime soon.

The Ontario Media Development Corporation announced last week its Screen-Based Content Initiative, aimed at putting cash in the pockets of Ontario corporations to develop content for film, television, the Internatz, cell phones, handheld gaming devices - anything with a screen. Note that the money is for developing something. You don’t have to actually arrive at a finished product. This is great news for those of us in the (ambiguously-named) media industry, because most often, paid work takes a back seat to developing new products, as new products are often researched and developed at a loss.

Given the choice between taking a work-for-hire contract to build someone else’s games for someone else’s property, and running on fumes while we create an original product that might become economically viable and could possibly break even … or turn a profit … or not … the survival instinct kicks in, and we sign the work-for-hire contract. We’re very optimistic that we’ll end up in the running for this funding. It’s amazing to think that we’ll have something to call our own.

Everyone and His Dog

The OMDC itself admits that this initiative will stir fierce competition. i’m even wondering how far certain people will try to stretch the “screen-based” requirement. Maybe silk-screen artists will try to make a grab at the funding? Or screen door manufacturers? Or people who screen their phone calls?

The screen-based development activities that the OMDC lists as elligible include:

The top prize is $100 000, up to 75% of the project budget, until the OMDC burns through up to 2 million dollars. The rest of the details are on the OMDC site.

We were very excited to receive our Chumby today in the mail. Chumby is an adorable, squeezable bean bag with a cuddly creature-shaped charm on it. You can hold it, cuddle it, or toss it around the room, though that might not be a great idea because it has a computer inside.

The device pulls wireless Internatz content through the ether to display a chain of Flash Lite 3 displays, called “Widgets”, that can do anything from displaying the time and weather to updating you on the latest Chuck Norris legends. The designers built Chumby so that owners can very easily develop content for it, which is then uploaded to the Chumby network to enjoy privately or to share with other Chumby owners. Chumby Industries even actively encourages its userbase to hack the device, providing Chumby schematics and specs on their site.

Long before the Chumby was released, i knew it was right up my alley. i’ve long been looking for a device that will run Flash that i could show off to my friends, and the fact that this thing is encased in a cozy beanbag drove it way beyond “Daddy Wanty” on my “Vapid Materialism Metre”. Unfortunately, the Chumby isn’t the answer to my portable device fantasies that i was hoping for.

Crumby

No device is perfect, and i hate obsessing over the flaws of a device once it’s in my hot little hands, so let’s get this part over with quickly. The trouble with the Chumby, as most online reviews attest, are as follows:

1. Unresponsive touch screen
2. No hardware volume control
3. Wall power required.

This last point absolutely killed me. The Chumby has to be plugged in via its AC adapter and cable to function. My dreams of running through idyllic meadows, spinning my battery-enabled Chumby around in my arms and collapsing into a bed of fluffy dandelions was shattered. The need to plug in your Chumby precludes all kinds of interesting uses, not least of all carrying on a polite conversation with someone about all the magical things you can do, and then proving it by pulling a bizarre touch screen-enabled beanbag out of your pocket and demonstrating your software.

i haven’t owned the Chumby long enough to comment on the missing volume dial, but i immediately noticed that the touch screen was not very sensitive. Regardless, folks with meatfingers like mine are probably best off using a stylus. i can’t even wrap my sausage-digits around the P2 interface to play a lousy song or two.

Untold Entertainment

So with its mandatory wall-tether, the Chumby makes for an expensive, gadget-lover’s alarm clock replacement. i’ll wait until the hardware hackers come up with a cool Chumby Mech Suit that lets your little beanbag walk around the house shooting tiny layzzor beams at your cats. Until then, the Chumby can download and play Widgets for free from the Chumby Network.

i’m still in the process of reviewing the 50-odd games available on the Network to figure out where my Chumby ambitions lie. i am excited to exploit the more unusual features of the device, like the squeeze sensor and the accelerometer.

The Cure for the Common DJ

Even if the Chumby is destined to sit dutifully by my bedside for the rest of its life, i was more than thrilled to unplug my old alarm clock and all but hurl it out the window. For the past few months, i’ve been enduring Toronto radio DJ Bill Carroll talking about how much he hates cyclists. Just this morning, he was talking about the current Toronto police campaign to improve cyclist awarness, and complaining about the fact that he’ll now have to signal before making turns in his car just for the benefit of cyclists, because the police are watching. A few weeks ago, after a cyclist was killed when someone opened a car door in his path, Carroll put the blame on cyclists.

As a cyclist who commutes with his 2-year-old daughter to day care every morning, i don’t enjoy waking up to this guy dangerously misinforming his listeners, tacitly defending motorists who maim and murder adults and children on bicycles. Good riddance, Carroll! Say … perhaps the Chumby could use a “Punch Your Detested Morning DJ in the Face” app?

But no! i must not use my Chumby for evil. i will most likely tool up a quick little game get my feet wet with the Chumby, before embarking on something more ambitious.

If i develop anything that can be played properly on your computer, i’ll be sure to make it available on the Untold Entertainment Games Page. If i build stuff that uses the squeeze or motion sensors, you’ll have to consider getting a Chumby!

i’m taking Two by Two from the Untold Entertainment library to see how various online monetization methods for Flash games pan out.

Introduction
Part 1: Armor Games
Part 2: Kongregate
Part 3: MochiAds
………./\……….Update: MindJolt

This is a website hailing itself as “the Youtube of video games”. Upload your game to the site to participate in their revenue share split - as the developer, you earn a portion of the advertisting money. Kongregate also has weekly and monthly contests to attract new games on a regular basis. The site offers a bigger portion of the revenue pie to developers who integrate their more “hooky” features like high scores and statistics, as well as making your game exclusive to their site.

Keep reading »

A gaggle of Corus ex-pats went on to start something big at Earth Rangers, an enivronmental education centre for kids. They’re looking for a Coordinator for their Interactive team.

The drawback is that they’re all the way up in Woodbridge. Perks include a Captain Planet lunchbox and free eagle rides.

Company: Earth Rangers (Toronto area)
Job Title: Coordinator, Interactive
Description: Earth Rangers is an innovative, dynamic and fast-growing organization which mandate is to inspire kids to act to protect the environment.

The Coordinator, Interactive will be responsible for regular updates to the Earth Rangers web sites (corporate and kids sites), researching and writing new material, and understanding and maintaining a connection with the users and kids that are visiting the site. The ideal candidate will be creative, possess excellent organizational and communication skills and is aware of online trends and culture specific to our audience.

See the full posting here.

i’m taking Two by Two from the Untold Entertainment library to see how various online monetization methods for Flash games pan out.

Introduction
Part 1: Armor Games
Part 2: Kongregate
Part 3: MochiAds
………./\……….Update: MindJolt

Armor Games is a Flash portal that will sponsor games on a case-by-case basis, with a game’s worth being determined by the site’s moderators. The site owners appear to be very efficient at pimping out games themselves; the Armor Games splash screen seems to pop up in every conceivable corner of the Internatz.
Keep reading »

It’s a great day and time to be an independant game developer. There’s a player and developer backlash against the antiquated notion that you need a team of hundreds, a budget of millions, and a timeline of years to create a video game. As the audience for electronic gaming widens, more and more players are satisfied with smaller, faster, and more focussed games that scratch the entertainment itch just as well as a $400 game console and a $80 special edition new release of the hot new game, Totally Shoot Things in 3D.

But while the teams behind Totally Drive Cars in 3D and Totally Murder Hookers in 3D stand to win back their investment and then some in high sales numbers, what’s the best that an indie or casual game developer can hope for? Day by day, there are more and more opportunities for independant developers to monetize their games. In this series, i’ll be taking one of our own games and running it through the setup process for every monetization plan i can think of, to generate some real data on how effective these various methods actually are.
Keep reading »

The TOJam Arcade is tonight!

TOJam Arcade
Friday June 6th
7PM - Midnight

The Blue Moon Pub
Queen St. East (near Broadview)

Save your quarters - admission’s free!

View Larger Map

37 games … 157 developers … some of the hottest, sweatiest nerds in Toronto gaming … and ladies, they’re siiingle!!’.

(Yes. All of them.)

The first art book released by French MMORPG team Ankama has been a staple in our collection since we were lucky enough to snag one at E3 a few years ago. According to Worlds in Motion.biz, Ankama has launched their closed beta for Wakfu, the follow-up to Dofus.

Due to my addictive personality, i’ve avoided the more “hooky” or “hardcore” MMOs, and have likely saved a lot of pennies over the past few years. But when Wakfu is released, regardless of whether it’s even a good game or not, i may shell a few coppers for a chance to stare, goggle-eyed, at their horribly gorgeous artwork:

Be sure to visit the Wakfu site for full-screen shots that will make you weep!

Pagination is a navigation style where you have a bunch of content that won’t fit on one screen, so you give your user BACK and NEXT arrow keys to flip through “pages” displaying the content. In many ways, it’s preferable to a scrolling navigation, because you don’t have to fill the box with all of your content at once - you can pull it down for your user on demand. (note: i’ve seen a few rare cases where a the application downloads content as you scroll the list, but in my experience it’s not very common)

You see pagination everywhere, and i use it at least once in every single game i build. It’s just handy. Check out the puzzle gallery in Jigsaw! for an example:

When i was first learning Flash and i had to set up these paginated galleries all the time, i would constantly make the same mistake. The left arrow button would fire a function that would be almost identical to the right arrow button’s function. For some bizarre reason, it took me YEARS to figure out how to set this up without duplicating code.

If you’re a smartypants and you figured this out long ago, more power to you. But if you’re just learning and you have a similar problem, here’s the trick:

ID, please

The first thing you need is an ID to store which “page” the user is looking at. Remember that our gallery is going to be completely code-created, so there are no actual “pages” to speak of - you decide how many items will appear on your pages. But you’ll use this ID value to figure out which content to display.

//AS2:
var ID:Number;
 
//AS3:
var ID:uint;

That’s the variable declaration. When you initialize your gallery screen, set ID to 0.

mod

Next, i give each arrow button a variable called “mod“. That’s short for “modifier“. The LEFT/BACK/PREVIOUS arrow gets a mod of -1, while the RIGHT/FORWARD/NEXT button gets a mod of 1.

btnArrowLeftClip.mod = -1;
btnArrowRightClip.mod = 1;

Interactify it!

Set up some button events or event listeners for your arrow buttons, and pass each button’s mod value to a common function.

//AS2:
btnArrowLeftClip.onRelease =
            btnArrowRightClip.onRelease = function():Void
{
     flipGallery(this.mod);
}
 
//AS3:
btnArrowRightClip.mod = 1;
btnArrowLeftClip.mod = -1;
 
btnArrowLeftClip.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, flipGallery);
btnArrowRightClip.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, flipGallery);

Flip it real good

Now, you just set up a flipGallery function. It accepts mod (-1 or 1) as input and uses that to change the ID value.

// AS2:
flipGallery = function(mod:Number):Void
{
      ID += mod;  
      // If mod is -1, ID goes down.  If mod is 1, ID goes up.
}
 
//AS3:
function flipGallery(e:MouseEvent):void
{
      ID += e.target.mod;
}

That’s a Wrap (?)

You’ll want to add some logic to your flipGallery function to wrap the ID variable. Figure out how much stuff you have to display, then figure out how much stuff you can fit on one “page”. That will give you totalItems and totalItemsPerPage values. Do some division to calculate a totalPages value.

Then, within your flipGallery function/method:

if(ID >= totalPages) ID = 0;
if(ID < 0) ID = totalPages-1; 
      // we subtract 1 because we're working with 0-base counting

So what do you actually do with your flipGallery function once the ID is set properly? If you have all of the things you want to display numbered sequentially and linked from the library (or stored in an array), just loop through totalItemsPerPage. Multiply ID (current page) by totalItemsPerPage and add it to your iterative value (usually i in a for loop). That’s the number of the correct item to display … so display it!

There’s a little more work involved with actually laying out your items on the stage so that they’re not all lumped together. i’ll leave that up to your discretion. i just wanted to talk about the mod method, because i would have appreciated it very much if the Ghost of Christmas Future had written this article for me and emailed it to me back in 2002.

Shall we have some more?

Was that helpful? Not? Do you have a way better way to do it? Is there another topic you want to see covered? Let me know!

- Ryan

i was just reading an interview on the Worlds In Motion biz site with Jamie Ottilie, whose studio is set to release a kid-targeted MMO called Freaky Creatures.

In the interview, Ottilie crows:

The initial creatures come with 50 different parts, 20 powers and 4 objects that can be placed into the creature’s lair. The variety of parts and powers will allow players to create more than 3 billion visual combinations.

This is an extremely common attempt at impressing people with your virtual product: calculate all the possible permutations of your avatars based on the number of their component pieces. Ottilie is not the first person to try to dazzle the press with big numbers - this tired hack stat is dredged up again and again by designers desperate for something impressive to say about their work, and it betrays a lack of confidence in what could turn out to be a very lacklustre product.

What’s the appeal of 3 billion visual combinations when every kid picks the red dragon wings because they look the coolest?

A few years back, i worked with a service provider who said the very same thing about their avatars … there are FIVE body zones with TEN pieces per zone, which works out to ONE POINT FOUR ZILLION avatar combinations. (Math police: it doesn’t really, i know - but you get the gist.) They even went on to say that the colour pallette allows players to choose from over 16 MILLION colour hues.

16 million, eh? You don’t say. Are those the same 16 million colours we’ve been enjoying in every computerized paint program since 1993? (And aren’t 4 million of those colours indistinguishable variations of black, white, and bleh?)

Boasting about your avatar permutations is like a vacuum cleaner salesman proudly proclaiming “Our SuckMaster 5000 can pick up SEVENTY FAJILLION dust particles in a matter of minutes. FAJILLION, ma’am. That’s one hunnerd thousand herpillion.” If a salesman tried that line on me (aside from taking him out for calling me “ma’am”), i’d seriously doubt the efficacy of his product. The most impressive thing he could say about it was that it could suck up an impressive number of atomic particles. Suspicious.

How can i be so sure this is bona fide flimflammery? i’ve used the line myself in trying to trump up an otherwise weak product. i admit it. But i’ve seen the error of my ways. From now on, if i need to jazzercise up a feeble game, i’ll sing the virtues of its Blast Processing.