I think there is an obsession with texture/shadow resolution, with the amount of polygons etc. What I find more impressive is they built a landscape that looks real with enough variation that I can more or less tell where each of the "exposures" in this video were taken.

I somewhat dislike the option to fast travel. Towards the end of the game I ended up just telelporting from each hub city to the next hub nearest to my objective then spent 20 minutes in a dungeon before teleporting back.

>> ^sillma:

Too bad setting the game to 'ultra high' doesn't bring it even close to the real max settings


yea the graphics are largely 'meh' without a few nice mods like the FXAA Injector, 4k HD Textures, Better Water, Better Night Sky. With those however.. the graphics are astounding and of course the art direction is already so good that you are totally immersed into the game's setting of an old nordic land that is passed it's prime and slowly crumbling while the men and women of power desperately hold on to it as it begins to slip away as the next age of the country begins. The real question is who shall lead it? The game really oozes atmosphere.

Edit: Oh for those on the PC who would like to see these amazing graphics, all the really good graphics mods are listed here (I use all accept the top one myself). http://www.gamersnexus.net/news-pc/660-best-skyrim-graphics-mods

I guess it's more about the enviroment and the atmosphere it sets than the graphics. The textures in skyrim, or the lighting system, is far from the best on the market for sure. It's not ugly, it's quite pretty, but not nearly the best there is, but the mood in skyrim's world is far superior to anything I've played yet.

>> ^vex:

Still unimpressed by the desaturated, almost monochromatic color scheme of most of the landscapes. Upvoted for the music!


Skyrim is a tundra. What do you expect?

On the other hand, if you run into the texture memory bug, you'll find lots of splashes of purple for the last few minutes before the game crashes.

Good to know!

Yeah, Unity is very impressive to work with. I'll call on you if I need it at some point.
In reply to this comment by NicoleBee:
Very nice! Glad that things have been all systems go for you. : I dont have any project ideas (Or rather I I shouldn't get into it until I've finished some other commitments!) but I'll be sure to poke through it more thoroughly as I was quite impressed.

If you need anyone for monkeying up some models or textures, I'm around! Because you know, I was such a peach to work with the last time. :

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
I'm working in unity right now. It is making development for iphone super easy - we can focus on the game, not the technology. I recommend it. If you need some help playing around with it, say so. ;

In reply to this comment by NicoleBee:
Have you played around with Unity at all? Or do you work in something better, already. :


Unity looks like fun!

Very nice! Glad that things have been all systems go for you. I dont have any project ideas (Or rather I I shouldn't get into it until I've finished some other commitments!) but I'll be sure to poke through it more thoroughly as I was quite impressed.

If you need anyone for monkeying up some models or textures, I'm around! Because you know, I was such a peach to work with the last time.

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
I'm working in unity right now. It is making development for iphone super easy - we can focus on the game, not the technology. I recommend it. If you need some help playing around with it, say so. ;

In reply to this comment by NicoleBee:
Have you played around with Unity at all? Or do you work in something better, already. :


Unity looks like fun!

Most of this is CG, with sketched textures on the models, as well as a sketch post-process filter in some cases. Definitely not drawn by hand, just in case the contributor was under that impression.

Oddly enough, they co-opted some existing animation too, as I noticed a few frames from existing animations (1:47 - studio ghibli's Ponyo). I guess musical artists have finally broken through to the visual side of "sampling"?

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Graphics are a bit weak IMO. They need better texturing.

I don't mind if a game is simular to another game or only a slight tweak , I just find it annoying when one is fincaily rewarded massively over another one when the other game accentually put the ground work down.

In the case of notch at least he admitted it was largely taken from fotress craft but the same would apply I would hope that the origonaters of an IP get rewarded fincaily to a fair extent.

my piont about changing the art work over is that focuses things on the game play and physics , if you were to come up with a bullshit % chart of how close one game is to another , I think angry birds would be very close to crush the castle be like 5% difference in game mechanics and that being only the launcher , its a bit like me taking doom replacing the guns and all the textures but keeping all the other mechanics and level designs exactly the same , where as a game that innovates properly would change the guns the ai the levels and the textures.

as I say I don't think things should be automaticly blocked or copping something largely is inherently a bad thing , the aspect I dislike is the lack of fair reinbursment and the lack of things being attributed properly , its like when you write an essay if you incoperate someone else's work into your work you attribute them.

saying that I bet ethical Developers probably don't attribute because if they did they would probably get sued for copyright infringement.

there are plenty of Games where I have enjoyed copying unreal toruniment - from quake 3 , mashed - from micro machines , worms from - original tank game. peggel from pachinko , plants v zombies form desctop tower defense.

in most of those examples sugnificant changes were made , more so than crush the castle to angry birds.

looking at plants v zombies as a good example of what I dislike you can have a very large company that has the resources to exploit a game more than the small developer and then they accentually steal the potential for that small developer to develop an IP to fruition. unlike back in the 80s when developers could come up with a new IP or mechanic typ and then gradualy develop it and build in size whalst coming up with new IP.

oh well i will stop blathering on , we probably agree on most things anyway.

>> ^Fletch:

>> ^westy:
Put it this way , if you replaced all the art work in crush the castle with angry birds most people would think it was angry birds.
... with catapults.

I'm just saying that if you put them side by side, the gameplay is different enough for me that I can prefer one over the other, as the catapult adds a timing aspect. The graphics are secondary for me, and not the core of what makes a particular game.
Yes, the targets were a rip-off. Would you be satisfied if the makers of Angry Birds recognized Crush the Castle in the same way Notch recognized Infiniminer, which he totally ripped off and made a mint? What about Fortresscraft, which is a huge ripoff of Minecraft? Who's at fault if one's game isn't popular enough to make lots of money? Gameplay, marketing, luck, timing and just the intent of the developer all play a part, and any one of them can sink an otherwise quality title. Crush the Castle is free to play online and only 99￠ on Android. How much money have you given the developers?

>> ^mxxcon:

>> ^zombieater:
I've never eaten a comb before; only the honey itself. I'm curious, does it taste different? I imagine it just tastes like crunchy honey.
combs are not crunchy. it is waxy..it's like eating almost tasteless candle mixed with honey. it's a nice experience to try, but it gets stuck in your teeth and overall a bit messy and sticky.


mmm fresh comb honey is amazing. I used to keep bees and this was my favorite treat. The yummy taste and soft chewy texture takes away from the feelings of guilt that you're eating a little fuzzy creatures home.

So he's feeling through the envelope? (still sealed closed at 5:30 when he marks the outside of it)

If the texture/braille were raised high enough for this... might be hard to miss as the audience guy

>> ^antonye:

THIS
You only have to learn 5 characters of Braille.
It's why they go face in - to ensure that the Braille on the card backs is outermost.
It's why he could tell which way round they are if pressed.
It's why it works 100% of the time.
>> ^Payback:
There's different textures of the back of the cards, he feels them.

THIS

You only have to learn 5 characters of Braille.
It's why they go face in - to ensure that the Braille on the card backs is outermost.
It's why he could tell which way round they are if pressed.
It's why it works 100% of the time.

>> ^Payback:

There's different textures of the back of the cards, he feels them.

>> ^Payback:

There's different textures of the back of the cards, he feels them.


I don't think he'd get the order wrong then. It's possible the cards are slightly different weights, and there's a hidden scale on the desk. I just don't think it's necessary, nor would it prove his point.

I still think it's a combination of his prior odds, and some common mentalism techniques (such as card forcing). I just noticed, for instance, that the circle and the plus are the bottom two on the deck before the deck is handed to the participant. There can only be so many ways of shuffling 5 cards, and he's careful to make sure the participant always holds them face down. That combined with some human behavioral norms (shuffling in certain ways, preferences for choosing cards in particular deck positions) could be biasing the odds even further in his direction. He might even be able to listen to how the cards are shuffled (for instance, to know how many cards taken from the middle to the ends, or ends to the middle, or end to end). Once you add up all these little biases, I bet his odds of getting at least one card are near perfect, and getting both is far higher than you'd think.

There's different textures of the back of the cards, he feels them.

At least 3 tampered cards in the deck, they look very thick so it wouldn't be too hard to make one of those cards split apart and have a circle and plus once you pull a layer to the other side and open it up.

Doubt they can bend so the guy couldn't shuffle them like you would a deck of cards making the tamper show itself while bending them. And he had the guy moving pretty quick, so he probably wouldn't even register different textures or feelings to the cards while he's trying to perform the tasks the guy is throwing at him.

If they were in a sleeve instead of wrapped like a book cover...or if they weren't put in facing each other like his directions stipulate he couldn't do the trick.

That's my guess, the directions are a little too bizarre and specific.

Although the remaining deck on the floor would be harder to manipulate.


But it appeared that all symbols on the cards can be flipped over and not appear upside down. So the left/right orientation prediction would just be cracking it open and seeing it's wrong (he does this) put it back down to your side wave your hands a lot and talk..re-orient it (very hard to tell if he does) and open it up so they appear in the right location.


But more than likely, the guy handling the cards sets it up for him to be correct and he just has to get the orientation right on the open.