To help the IGN Demigod community get moving, I've begun posting some info over there. If you guys have any questions you want asked, post them there and I'll answer them.
Day 3 at GPG and there’s tons going on.
Right now, Chris Taylor and I are testing out the latest internal build, making notes, etc.
So for instance, the war score in the game determines what upgrades in the Citadel are available for purchase with gold. This build may be the first one with that implemented. That’s obviously a big change.
We’re also working heavily on the multiplayer tournament mode where players join either the forces of light or the forces of darkness in a persistent world to help their side ascend to the pantheon.
Then there’s the new intro cut scene which I can’t show but looks really cool.
Here’s some pictures from this week so far.
Kellyn Beeck, VP of BizDev in the GPG lobby.
Mmmm. Coffee…
Steve Bauman readies for the day.
Coding and updating on Demigod in “the pit”.
We’re still on schedule for a Thursday beta 2A…
I’ve arrived in Seattle and we’re play testing the new build. I must say, the new game modes are REALLY fun.
One tweak we made today is that controlling flags will cause war score to go up. Citadel upgrades will cost a certain amount of gold to purchase and require a certain war score to be available to purchase. The combination makes the game play a lot more fun. It’s hard to describe but those of you in the beta will see soon.
Our goal remains to get a build up this week. We’re still struggling to improve the NAT negotiation features so that multiplayer is a lot smoother – that’s why we have the public beta so that it’s not after release we’re dealing with that.
Stay tuned!
This week has been pretty tiring. I hate being away from my family. I just left CES in Las Vegas and now I’m in Redmond Washington. Next Wednesday I get to come home.
If you want to see what I have been doing at CES see my other blog – http://frogboy.joeuser.com.
I’m a big fan of Canon’s products. Their Canon Image Press C1 is an awesome high end printer. Their printer products overall are just great, I love their digital cameras and video cameras. So here’s a quick video tour of their booth.
I got to see Dawn of War 2 in action. I predict DOW2 will be up there for strategy game of the year (right up there with Demigod).
Couldn’t get to CES this year? No problem. Here’s a quick tour of Microsoft’s booth.
Bushnell and Acuweather have been teaming up for a bit to provide a rather cool gadget that you just keep in your home and it displays the current weather conditions as well as what is on the way. This build here won’t be out for a few more weeks. I think I might have to pick one up.
A scene from the show.
Demo of Windows 7. Some of the UI niceties are very impressive. I don’t think the Superbar, however, is quite as good as they seem to think it is. I do like the jump lists though a lot. Windows 7 is shaping up to be the best version of Windows by far.
I love living in the near future. Now that’s a soda dispenser.
A few people emailed and asked for more information on Hitachi’s super resolution. Basically, this is a feature that looks like it will become standard on Hitachi TVs starting in 2010. The effect on picture quality is tremendous. It’s really obvious on lower definition video but even HD video looks a lot better with it (especially cable broadcasts which have a lot of compression in them).
This “Ultra High” definition gives us a preview of the future. I saw two trends with TVs this year. One, everyone is now touting 240hz refresh rates for TVs. Last year it was 120hz which is a massive improvement in image quality IMO over 60hz. The 240hz is…better but I wouldn’t pay a premium for it.
Lorex is a name I’m going to keep in mind. They have cameras with WiFi in them which you can remotely monitor things and view them on the computer.
Duracell launched this last year but more people may want to know about it. It’s basically a all-in-one battery and recharging unit. If you’re a kook like me, the solar panel it comes with is pretty compelling. It’s nice knowing that when that terrorist EMP pulse hits in 2011 that takes out the US grid for 6 weeks that I’ll still be able to play video games on my laptop.
Canon launched a new series of HD cameras at the show. The HF20 looks impressive. The only bummer is that they continue to use the AVCHD format for storing HD which makes them really a pain in the butt. How much of a pain? I used my Canon Elph to do video at the show because it saves to AVI. Incidentally, Canon launched some new digital cameras that now save to Quicktime (.MOV) by default.
I really like the idea of electric cars. I currently live 6 miles from work so it wouldn’t be a big deal to drive something like this for such short distances.
This is what the South Hall looks like when you walk in.
So what are some of the cool things at CES that you wouldn’t normally hear about or see unless you were here. Well, that’s what this blog is for.
Kristen and I visited the Blackberry booth. They came up with a new Curve but it’s only on AT&T and no 3G. No Verizon yet.
LG has a watch phone that is extremely cool. I’m not sure how cool it would be to wear a phone on your hand all the time but still. Unfortunately, it’s Europe and Asia only.
Duracell had a bunch of very cool new technologies that are coming out later this year. They gave me a quick demo of some of them including this small solar powered recharger that supports hooking in lots of different devices.
This little USB rechargeable battery goes into the cigarette lighter of cars. It was very slick.
If I had a pool, I would want this. A floating massage chair. Mmm…
This was one of the coolest things at the show and it won’t even be out until 2010. Hitachi has a new technology that can take a SD image and makes it like an HD image. Now, this isn’t upscaling. It has heavy duty processing in it that intelligently improves the details in the image. It was really impressive.
I also saw, but couldn’t take pictures, of a Samsung TV that could show 3D without the need for glasses. It was pretty cool but gave me a headache.
And now for the video journal of the day:
It’s no secret that I sometimes…exceed the speed limit.
My radar detector of choice is the Escort 9500i with GPS in it. I recently replaced my Valentine V1 with it (the V1 is awesome too, but not quite as good as the new Escort).