photoshop posts

GDC09: How HeroEngine revolutionizes MMORPG game design

by Seraphina Brennan Mar 31st 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Hero's Journey, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Hands-on, Virtual worlds

Let's be frank, MMOs are a pain in the rear to design. You have large teams working collaboratively to build huge expanses of terrain, hundreds upon thousands of objects in the world that players can interact with, server architecture to worry about, and even more in-depth things that the standard player may not even notice or consider.

But if you've been on the site recently and have been checking out our coverage of the GDC, then you may have heard us and developers talking excitedly about HeroEngine, the new MMO developing tool from Simutronics. HeroEngine is powering games like The World of Gatheryn and this funny Star Wars game from those BioWare people, as well as other companies that haven't announced their new projects as of yet.

So why is HeroEngine so amazing? Well, we got the inside scoop straight from Simutronics as we visited their booth at the GDC.

Tags: 3d-studio-max, collaborative-development, developers, development, game-design, game-development, gdc-2009, gdc09, hero-engine, heroengine, heros-journey, photoshop, real-time, simutronics, virtual-worlds

Design an EVE Online billboard, win big isk

by James Egan May 18th 2008 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Contests, Humor

EVE Stratics is running a contest where winners receive free game time in EVE Online. EVE Stratics asks, "If you could place an ad on an ingame billboard, what would you put?" At first glance, especially since this was announced on the official EVE Online website, you'd think that the contest would actually allow the winner(s) to put their own messages on in-game billboards. Sadly, this is not the case. Truth be told, that could be a total disaster anyway.

The contest is strictly out-of-game, but it's an easy way to win a few months of free EVE Online Time Codes, and maybe an Art of EVE Book as well. There's just over a week before the contest ends, and Stratics only limits you with a few terms:

Image size must be 1024x768 or smaller and can be in JPG or GIF (single frame, no animation) format. The billboard frame is optional and will not affect judging.

No vulgarity, graphic nudity, copyrighted, or overly offensive material. Slightly offensive is usually pretty damn funny, so we'll let that slide.

The contest ends on May 26th at 11:59pm, so fire up Photoshop and add your billboard to the EVE Stratics gallery. The billboard template and further details are found at the EVE Stratics 'Build-a-Billboard' contest site. Entries are judged on creativity and originality, and all submissions should be emailed to loktofeit@stratics.com.

Via EVE Online

Tags: ccp, contest, eve-online, photoshop, stratics

Photoshop a JGE dev, get a closed beta spot

by Chris Chester May 8th 2008 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Jumpgate Evolution, Contests, Culture, Forums, Humor

In one of the more bizarre contests in recent memory, the NetDevil boys are submitting the hair of two of their developers to the whims and amusement of the larger Jumpgate Evolution community. In order to participate in the contest, you just Photoshop whatever freaky color you think would look good on either of the pair of developers, and the two that most amuse the team will earn the winners a signed Jumpgate Evolution print and a guaranteed closed beta spot. Oh, and did I mention they're actually going to follow through and dye their hair that color as well?

Now, this is pure speculation, but this blogger has a sneaking suspicion that this contest may have been the product of some heavy drinking. In any case, entries must be submitted on the official forums by May 20. So get cracking!

Tags: contest, hair, jge, jumpgate-evolution, netdevil, photoshop