I rather look fwd 2 the Bungie area which hopefully will be available at the Colognes GamesCom this year!
-A STARstruck gaming KiD.

-RAPMAN

Carnàge Carnivàle (by Bungie):

-A STARstruck, Gaming, A-mazed, Bungie-Loving, Halo-A-Doring Kid; J*

Facebook Pages

Run! Credit

- A STARstruck KiD

]]> http://blog.starstruck.at/2010/04/things-i-giggle-about-and-appreciate-arthurhamapps/feed/ 0 http://blog.starstruck.at/2010/04/pixels-by-patrick-jean/ http://blog.starstruck.at/2010/04/pixels-by-patrick-jean/#comments Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:04:36 +0000 MJ* http://blog.starstruck.at/?p=740 Herrlich umgesetztes Video, in dem New York von Pixeln invadiert wird.
Am liebsten hätte ich jetzt wieder das Gesicht voller Pickel, würde meinen Amiga, Atari, Commodore oder GameBoy rausholen & den ganzen Tag, die ganzen Klassiker spielen; Brick, Bomberman, Frogger, PacMan, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong… Es gibt so viele Classics die man wieder einfach mal aufleben lassen sollte. Keep it gaming;

-Dein Videospielfreund, J*

Run! Update

Ich wurde für die Übersetzung in den Credits erwähnt (Stolz)!

Run!; Neue Funktionen

!SOFORT KAUFEN, wenn ihr es noch nicht habt, es ist jeden der 79 Cent wert! HIER laden!

-Dein Spielfreund, J*

Run!

In this article i want to lay the STARstruck focus .at @ArthurHamApps awesome game “Run!” (0,99$/0,79€) (iTunes Link).

Probably the App Store (I translated for the German App Store, yay ) /Arthurs Homepage description and a little YouTube video will do it for the first impression:

So this is what kept me for hours on my iPhone since I have earned all of the 33 achievements, which I’m damn proud of, because there are some insane ones as well

Since my annoying attitude I have been bombing Arthur Ham with messages on twitter and I pretty much fastly received some answeres. That’s the symphatical difference between major and independent programmers I asked Arthur for an interview for my blog which he immediately has been ready for, so I didn’t hesitate and wrote down some questions I’d love to share with you folks, here it goes:

STARstruck: What made you do that game?
Arthur Ham: I wanted to create a new game that would not require too much development time. I did not want to spend as much time developing as I did with my previous game (Pet Playpen), which took two people and five months to develop it. So instead of brainstorming overly-ambitious ideas, I decided to keep it simple and stick with an idea that I played around with previously in my spare time, which eventually would become Run!. I ended up spending about 2.5 months developing the game, which is still pretty fast considering I did everything myself.

STARstruck: Did you make the lovely graphics yourself as well?
Arthur Ham: Yes, I made all the graphics myself. Creating the graphics was probably the most difficult part of creating the game because of all the animation frames I had to create from scratch. It was especially hard in the beginning because I had no idea what kind of style I wanted the graphics to be.

STARstruck: What is your highscore on that game?
Arthur Ham: I remember scoring at least 3000 points on Normal Mode playing with the latest update. I’m pretty sure I could have scored higher but I lost on purpose because I was testing something.

STARstruck: Are you aware of cheaters on OpenFeint?
Arthur Ham: Yes I’m aware. There’s nothing I can really do about it except report the cheaters to OpenFeint.

STARstruck: Why Open Feint not Plus+?
Arthur Ham: I chose OpenFeint over Plus+ because I wanted to add a social platform to Run! as soon as possible. Anyone can download the OpenFeint SDK and include it in their game quickly. As for Plus+, you have to apply and get approved before you can download the Plus+ SDK.

STARstruck: Why is Run! not compareable to Canabalt + xTimes hundred that fun and way cheaper?
Arthur Ham: Canabalt was popular on the web even before the iPhone version came out so I believe it has a much stronger following.

STARstruck: How are the sales?
Arthur Ham: Sales have been pretty steady recently and are pretty good for a game that has been in the App Store for almost 3 months now. Run! did very well in the beginning, especially during the week it was featured by Apple under “New and Noteworthy” and rose to the top 15 of all paid apps. That was a very exciting time for me and I felt proud that an independent developer like me could still do well in the App Store despite increased competition from big-name developers like EA.

STARstruck: What updates can we expect?
Arthur Ham: You can expect to see more obstacles, achievements and other game play modes, as long as there’s still a demand for it.

STARstruck: Can an achievement be named after me in some future version?
Arthur Ham: We’ll see about that. =)

STARstruck: Will there be a second game coming?
Arthur Ham: I’ve been brainstorming some ideas for a new game but I haven’t had the time to pursue any of them yet.

STARstruck: Are you aware of the fact that you made the most amazing and addictive game for the iDevices?
Arthur Ham: Thanks! I appreciate your comments and I hope that everyone who has played Run! feels the same way.

Thanks for that interview Arthur, I hope to see some updates coming to this awesome little game!

So far, -J aka aPish impatiently waiting for some updates

P.S.: I made a fan group on Facebook, anyone who is as addicted as I am is certainly invited to join: http://j.mp/runonfb

Noch ein paar Bilder der Special Edition von Halo 3 ODST, die ich natürlich 2 mal vorbestellt habe (ein mal für meinen jüngeren Bruder ):

Halo 3 ODST Pack Shot

Controller Side

Controller Front

Nur noch 8 Tage bis zum Release! Ich freu mich drauf, bis dahin… Halo 3 zocken

-Bis dann, J*

XBOX 360 Bag, Halo 3 Armband, Halo 3 ODST Buttons (Probably the 1st buttons I am ever going to wear), Halo 3 T-Shirt (The games, HDD, Gamepad and Legendary Helmet were mine I just brought them to get them signed by Dominic Koeplin, Brian Jarrad, Ryan Crosby and Chad Hodge!)

Signatures of Brian Jarrad, Ryan Crosby and Dominic Koeplin!

Autograph Stuff

Halo ODST Poster

And here’s some Tony Hawk Ride stuff:

Stickers, Fingerboard, Sweatband

Now let’s get to that Rockstar section:

GTA 4 Poster, Giant GTA Chinatown Wars Sticker, etc.

A lot of Rockstar Stickers (Logo, Red Dead Redemption, GTA Lost & Damned, GTA Chinatown Wars), GTA Chinatown Wars Chop Sticks, GTA 4 Laneyards, Rockstar Table Tennis Balls, Midnight Club Keychain and a GTA 4 T-Shirt

Apart from that I could grab some more stickers from DJ Hero and Def Jams Rap Star. Besides my little brother has some stuff too, a real nice DJ Hero shirt and almost all the stuff I got as well So I guess the visit on Sunday was worth it.

Best regards, -J*

Heute im Fokus: Die GamesCOM (Köln), insbesondere BUNGIE and Microsoft:

Am heutigen Tag fand im Rahmen, der nun Kölner, GamesCOM (Ehemals leipziger Games Convention) eine Einweisung für die Produkte aus dem Hause Microsoft statt. Glücklicherweise hatte ich das Glück Halo ODST zu repräsentieren.
Ja, Bungie ist mittlerweile independent, arbeiten aber trotzdem eng mit den MS Gamestudios zusammen!

Jedenfalls hatte ich heute die Gelegenheit mit dem “Community Guy” und Bungie Pressesprecher “Brian Jarrad” aka “Ske7ch” eine Runde Halo ODST zu spielen. Ebenfalls an meiner Seite und zur Unterstützung war der XBOX Porduct Manager Ryan Crosby.

EIN UNVERGESSLICHES ERLEBNIS!

Zum dritten Mal in diesem Sommer durfte ich Weihnachten zelebrieren, ein Traum!

Auf der GC wird der Fokus, bei dem Halo 3 Addon, auf den Spielmodus “Firefight” gelegt.
Wer den Halo 3 Single Player Modus gespielt hat kennt auch sicherlich die Meta Games, im Großen und Ganzen ist FireFight mit diesem Modus vergleichbar.
Es geht ums gemeinschaftliche Punkte sammeln und Überleben!
Ihr spielt in einem Team von maximal 4 Spielern auf 3 möglichen verschiedenen Maps, von denen 2 (Hierbei handelt es sich ausschliesslich um den Beta Build für die GamesCOM!) auch noch im Nachtmodus (auf dem -Button sind nicht mehr, wie bei Halo 3, Goodies wie Regeneratoren, Shield Absorber oder Bubble Shields zu nutzen, sondern eine neue Innovation, die Night Vision!) gespielt werden können, zusammen gegen die feindlichen Covenants!
Diese kommen in mehreren sogenannten, wie sie Ske7ch nennt “Waves”. Ziel ist es diese zu eleminieren und bis zur nächsten Wave zu überleben und sich von Wave zu Wave durchzukämpfen und den Covenants stand zu halten. Leider hatte ich nicht die Gelegenheit gegen Dominic Koeplin zu spielen (einer der wichtigsten Tester der Halo Reihe und ist für die Bewertung der Spielengine verantwortlich, das bedeutet wie die Physik, das Movement in dem Spiel am Ende für uns zu fühlen ist!)
Ich hoffe, dass ich noch die Möglichkeit haben werde mit Ihm an meiner Seite ein paar Covenants zur Strecke zu bringen
Auch vor Ort sind Microsoft Repräsentanten, und zwar nicht irgendwelche, sondern Chad Hodge (Halo Franchise – Global Marketing Director) und Ryan Crosby (Senior Global Product Manager).
Ryan hat mir versprochen mir nach der Messe einige Goodies zukommen zu lassen, auf die ich mich schon sehnsüchtig freue
Lasst euch das Ganze doch auch noch mal von Brian in diesem kleinen Videozusammenschnitt erklären :

Also, nochmal das Wichtigste:
Waffen:

• Keine Battle Rifle
• Halbautoatisches MP (mit Zoom)
• Pistole (mit Zoom, Hallo Halo 1 )

Equipmentänderung:

• Kein Equipment mehr!
• Dafür Nachtmodus (-Button)!

Ich hoffe ihr wartet wie ich so ungeduldig auf die finale Version von Halo 3 ODST!
-Ein von seinen STARs beeindrucktes Halo KiD, J*

Todays STARstruck focus on the GamesCOM (Cologne), especially BUNGIE and Microsoft:

Today at Colognes GamesCOM (once the Games Convention in Leipzig) I had an introduction to the products which will be presented by Microsoft. Luckily I had the chance to be Halo ODST representative.
Yes, Bungie is independent nowerdays, but they’re still cooperating pretty tight.

Anyhow, I had the great opportunity to play Halo ODST with “Brian Jarrad” aka “Ske7ch”, Bungies executive PR and community manager! Also I could count on “Ryan Crosbys” (Senior Global Product Manager) firepower through a tough firefight!

AN UNFORGETTABLE HAPPENING!

It’s the third time this summer that I was able to celebrate christmas!

This years GamesCOM will concentrate on Halo 3 ODSTs gametype “Firefight”.
People who have played Halo 3s single player mode will remember the hunt for points in the meta games (It’s been achievements as well). Resuming you can say that Firefight is pretty much compareable to the meta game mode! It’s about gaining points, achieving medals and 1st of all surviving! There are 3 different maps on the beta build of Halo 3 ODST for the GamesCOM, there’ll be more on the retail version! 2 of the maps are also playable in night mode, what will make you use the -button, a new feature for the ODSTs: Nightvision. ODSTs won’t have the equipment which you have been used to from our well known spartan John 117. So, you’ll be defending yourselves from the Covenents which will be invading you and your friends in 5 waves, how Ske7ch has described them. You got to get them all to survive a game mode. On the GamesCOM there’s a timer which is set to 10 minutes, on the retail you’ll be set to Se7en lives for the whole team! So a firefight game will be depending on length to your and your co-op mates skills! Games can take 10 minutes or 2 hours, e.g!

I hope that I’ll have the opportunity to play with Dominic Koeplin (one of Bungies leading testers, who is responsible for the physics in the game what means that he’s responsible who we customers feel the fictive person we’re controlling through our gamepads ) At the spot are Microsoft  representatives, not just some random guys, it’s Chad Hodge (Halo Franchise – Global Marketing Director) and Ryan Crosby (Senior Global Product Manager). Ryan promised me to send me some goodies after the fair has ended, I’m looking wistful to it

Well, you better let all of that explain to yourselfs from no one else than Mr Brian Jarrad himself

Wrap up of all the important stuff:
Weapons:

• No Battle Rifle
• Halbautoatisches MP (mit Zoom)
• Pistol (With zoom, Hello Halo 1 )

Changes of equipment:

• No more goodies like bubble shields, regens, and all of that other stuff!
• But you got Nightvision by pressing the -button!

That’s all of it so far, I hope you’re looking as impatient as me forward to the retail version of Halo 3 ODST!
-A STARstruck Halo KiD, J*