It’s the stuff of legend:

“…It’s taken longer to develop than the mapping of the human genome. It’s the first Google result for “When it’s done.” It’s birthed the longest running development period in video game history, and the longest running joke in internet history. It’s still not out.

Maybe the one thing you can’t say about Duke Nukem Forever is that it’s been canceled. And now, thanks to that fortune, we may yet be treated to a release of the infamous game. But how did we get here? I was in 7th grade when DNF was announced, and though I’ve followed its development since, my memory of that time is muddled with the pleasures of late 90s gaming, and the horrors of braces…”

hahaha

well 3D Realms finally shut down:

“… Original story: A very reliable source close to Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms today confirmed to Shacknews that the development studio has shut down.

The closure came about as a result of funding issues, our source explained, with the shut down said to affect both 3D Realms and the recently resurrected Apogee. Employees of both entities have already been let go…”

The next time you find yourself working on a game and you can’t seem to finish it – don’t worry – there’s a benchmark for this kind of delay, here’s some comparisons (i.e. Word Events):

World Events:

• 4 nations have acquired nuclear weapons technology.
• 19 wars have begun.
• 5 wars have ended.
• Approximately 509,373,306 people have died and 661,373,082 have been born.
• There have been 7 total solar eclipses and 8 total lunar eclipses.
• The United Kingdom handed sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.
• There have been 22 “major” school shootings worldwide.

You can check this page for more comparison!

The population of the world has crossed six billion

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

via ycombinator via nextgn via industrygamers

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

You should add me on Plurk <a href=”http://www.plurk.com/p/1ahtxk”>here</a>

“Due to flooding caused by typhoon Isang, DLS-CSB is suspending classes&amp;amp;work today, 17 July. All campuses except CSB Hotel shall be closed”

got the txt/sms from the IS Chairperson, enjoy the day!

posted by Paul <a href=”http://paulpajo.com”>The Pageman</a> Pajo

A very interesting post by GigaOm posits this:

“After initial experiments with pointless apps such as vampire bites and zombies, Facebook quickly became a casual gaming mecca, thanks to the success of games such as Scrabulous, Mafia Wars and scores of other multiplayer social games. Twitter could follow the same path as well.

After all, much like Facebook, Twitter offers the virality so vital to a social network, a name space and thumbnails, a communication channel for messages and notifications, and a simple API for developers. It also has momentum. But those are the basic building blocks of a good social gaming hub — they need to be aggregated to produce engaging experiences as well.”

Speaking of Mafia Wars – they’ve been upping the ante lately by even offering a new Cuban experience outside of the normal New York Mafia action. GigaOm does have a point, SpyMaster (I admit I’m not playing this so as not to spam my FriendFeed/Twitter/Plurk connected Facebook stream already) is a proof-of-concept of how viral Twitter can be if you used it as a casual gaming hub. Which begs the question and is actually the last sentence of the GigaOm article:

“Of course, all of this means nothing without good games that can hold people’s attention.”

So, I’ll leave it up to you DLS-CSB GDD students to come up with a Twitter casual game on your own free time to make the case for Twitter being a casual game hub, okay?

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo (you can add me on Twitter/Plurk as well!)

From DLS-CSB Website:

Confirmed Case of Influenza A(H1N1) and Extension of Suspension of Classes

De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) announces the extended closure of its campuses until June 18, 2009 in view of its first confirmed case of Influenza A(H1N1) virus. Based on existing Department of Health Guideline on A(H1N1) in schools, DLS-SCB will reopen on June 19.

The student has mild symptoms, has been admitted in a healthcare facility and is being closely monitored by medical practitioners.

The College has been cooperating fully with the DOH in its contact-tracing activities. DLS-CSB and the DOH team have been communicating with everyone on the contacts list to provide them with information and medication, if necessary.

This morning, DLS-CSB released an announcement on suspension of classes following the CHED regulation, which was sent to the College at 7:30 am. At 11:30 am, administrators of the College met with DOH officials and were informed of the one confirmed case, which prompted the amendment of the previous announcement.

During the closure period, the DLS-CSB academic community is advised to monitor flu-like symptoms, to stay away from crowds, and to practice good hygiene. If symptoms appear, members of the academic community should immediately seek medical attention. They should also inform the DLS-CSB Clinic or Department of Student Life of their condition by sending their full name and ID number through email at clinic@dls-csb.edu.ph, lazatinc@dls-csb.edu.ph or bacays@dls-csb.edu.ph.

Inquiries may also be made to the following numbers:
-       (0918) 916-3475
-       (0917) 570-2944
-       (0917) 570-2952
-       (0917) 570-2955
-       (0917) 521-9818
-       (0917) 859-2988
-       (0922) 843-2097

The DLS-CSB Clinic may also be contacted from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm for medical inquiries at the following numbers:
- Taft Campus: 526-7441 to 47 ext. 106 or 245
- AKIC Campus: 523-888 loc. 253
- SDA Campus: 536-6752 loc. 301

Any updates and developments on the issue and on class schedules will be posted on the DLS-CSB website: www.dls-csb.edu.ph.

Other concerns and inquiries may be sent to mco@dls-csb.edu.ph.

From the Marketing and Communications Office of DLS-CSB.

From: Marketing Communications Office
Sent: Tue 6/9/2009 8:04 AM
To: DLS-CSB Employees Mailing List
Subject: [OP] Suspension of Classes until June 14, 2009

June 9, 2009

In observance of the CHED regulation released early this morning, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) is suspending work and classes until June 15, 2009. Please see the attached copy of the CHED regulation for more information.

All campuses shall be closed, except for the CSB Hotel. The CSB Hotel shall remain open and fully functional, following the guidelines of the Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.ph/h1n1/images/ij%205.pdf) and the Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines.

Any additional announcements and updates will be posted on the DLS-CSB
Website: www.dls-csb.edu.ph.

Why is GiantBomb releasing their API?

“Put simply, user submitted data should not be locked up in one site. As a core philosophy Whiskey Media feels that the hard work of our individual sites’ communities should be usable (within reason) by that same community. We also generally believe in karma, and though we are admittedly pretty scared about giving away all this data, we think at the end of the day it’s the right thing to do. All we ask in return is that you link back to us and help us build bigger sites.”

It looks like uploading your newly-created video games just got easier!

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

I just ran across this question in StackOverflow:

“I’m a web-game developer and I got a problem with random numbers. Let’s say that a player has 20% chance to get a critical hit with his sword. That means, 1 out of 5 hits should be critical. The problem is I got very bad real life results — sometimes players get 3 crits in 5 hits, sometimes none in 15 hits. Battles are rather short (3-10 hits) so it’s important to get good random distribution.”

“A blade spider is at your throat. It hits and you miss. It hits again and you miss again. And again and again, until there’s nothing left of you to hit. You’re dead and there’s a two-ton arachnid gloating over your corpse. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes. But given enough players and given enough time, the improbable becomes almost certain. It wasn’t that the blade spider was hard, it was just bad luck. How frustrating. It’s enough to make a player want to quit.“

Obviously, there has to be a way to do it. One suggestion was to use a shufflebag:

“In games or educational programs you often don’t want real randomness. Unsurprisingly random it’s often a bit too random. You may get some items several times in a row and others too rarely. It’s either too easy or too hard. Balancing the weights is hard as well, because each run is too different. And if that wouldn’t be already bad enough; it’s also difficult to verify the results.

Here’s the code of the commenter based from his own java code:

package net.orfjackal.puzzlewarrior; import java.util.ArrayList; import java.util.List; import java.util.Random; /** * @author Esko Luontola * @since 25.2.2008 * @originally here: http://bit.ly/9vgIV */ public class ShuffleBag { private final Random random; /** * Unused values are in the range {@code 0 <= index < cursor}. * Used values are in the range {@code cursor <= index < values.size()}. */ private final List values = new ArrayList(); private int cursor = 0; public ShuffleBag() { this(new Random()); } public ShuffleBag(Random random) { this.random = random; } public void add(T value) { values.add(value); } public T get() { if (values.size() == 0) { throw new IllegalStateException("bag is empty"); } int grab = randomUnused(); T value = values.get(grab); markAsUsed(grab); return value; } private int randomUnused() { if (cursor <= 0) { cursor = values.size(); } return random.nextInt(cursor); } private void markAsUsed(int indexOfUsed) { cursor--; swap(values, indexOfUsed, cursor); } private static void swap(List list, int x, int y) { T tmp = list.get(x); list.set(x, list.get(y)); list.set(y, tmp); } public void addMany(T value, int quantity) { for (int i = 0; i < quantity; i++) { add(value); } } public List getMany(int quantity) { List results = new ArrayList(quantity); for (int i = 0; i < quantity; i++) { results.add(get()); } return results; } }

If you’re not into Java, here’s ShuffleBag code in Ruby:

Happy ShuffleBagging!

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

I just got this in my email and I think that the Flash Lite Developer Challenge is something that the students of DLS-CSB’s BSIT-GDD can join in the near future. In fact our IS (Information Systems) and CA (Computer Applications) students can probably join this challenge this year! The prizes are surely compelling and there’s also 6 categories: Games, Lifestyle, Infotainment, Sports, Social Networking and Most Innovative Application that’s sure to whet any Flash Lite Developer’s appetite. I’m wondering which students would form teams and join this year! Well, they have until May 31 2009 to do so! ANIMO LA SALLE! ANIMO BENILDE!

cross-posted in Multiply.

Posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo

fresh from the printing press:

This year, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) is proud to announce its new program. This program responds to industry needs and is a product of extensive preparation by experienced administrators and faculty of DLS-CSB’s School of Management and Information Technology and School of Design and Arts in consultation with the game development industry!

Join us as we jumpstart a new era of information technology education!

I WANT TO

• Develop Interactive Video Games
• Become a part of the growing global and local game development industry
• Manage/create my own game development company
• Create Video Games for different platforms

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Bachelor of Science in Information Technology with Specialization in Game Design and Development program runs for 3 years and 2 Terms. It is the first BS-IT degree program in the Philippines that specializes in Game Design and Development. The program is firmly anchored on information technology and animation concepts. It aims to develop individuals who will address the needs and meet the standards of the local and global game development industry. The program is focused on developing original content that will showcase Filipino ingenuity and excellence through various IT and animation-related game development disciplines such as video game programming, game art and animation, game design and game production.

PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

You have the opportunity to become part of the game development industry as game programmers, artists, designers, quality assurance personnel and video game producers just to name a few. Our students will also be trained to became entrepreneurs since the program incorporates lessons on how to start-up game development studios that will make a difference in the Philippine and global game development industry. Graduates can also find opportunities in the Information Technology and Animation Industries.

FOR INQUIRIES

Contact the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde Admissions Center at 2544 Taft Ave., Manila, Philippines 1004 Telephone: 526-7441 to 47 local 126, 220 and 221 or visit the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde website

posted by Paul “The Pageman” Pajo