Forget the interaction, how did they do the environment?

Saw the following TED talk on "Milo":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uieh3RfkCng

While I find the idea fascinating, I'd personally like to know how they generated the environments that Milo was walking around in. Of course I'd also be interested to see if "Kate" is really more feminine, or just a female Milo.

Anyone know who I have to send my resume to in order to get to work on the project? :-)

Working on Games, but Nothing Specific at the Moment

Have done basic design work for four games, three of which would be multi-platform, and the fourth would be a Unity only title most likely. Problem is that all of them need more artwork than I'm up to producing, and the little I've made from the games compared to my photos makes it hard to get motivated. On the other hand, at SOME point I'm sure I'll get to the point to push to the finish on at least one of these.

Just so you know what I'm up to :-)

Will the iPad be a Game Machine

Still trying to decide how I feel about the iPad... it's sort of a big iPhone but with support for a wireless keyboard. Which in many ways IS more of what I want to carry around.

In any event, I now find myself considering a game that would be just about perfect for that form factor. The problem being that I would have to buy a Mac first. Maybe I'll get a Mac Mini and see what I can do...

Unity - Sensory Overload

The announcement of the udk system being available brought about quite a bit of discussion on Reddit, including a useful comparison of Unity versus UDK 2 and UDK3. One of the points made was that Unity had much more mature documentation and tutorials.

So I decided to start working my way through those...

WOAH!

After less than an hour I had to shut down the environment and the documentation because I was getting ideas left and right for what I could do with the tool, and feeling like I knew enough to actually do it. I suspect what I need to do is to pull up my Mars Lander stuff, and then try to implement that in Unity. If I can, then doing my next project may be worth doing in that as well, particularly with the iPhone porting option...

Free Engines are the new "In" thing

Not to be outdone by Unity 3D offering their basic SDK for free, the folks behind the Unreal engine have now released a free version of their development kit. I have to say, I'm reconsidering whether my next game should be in Flash or not with the tools that are out there. While selling downloadable titles is harder, there's something in me that thinks the game would look SO much better with UDK behind it...

Unity3D is now available free

Was surprised to find out that Unity 3D - used for creating games for Windows, Mac, iPhone, Wii, and the Web - is now available for free! I'm not sure I'll move the game I've started working on from Flash to Unity 3D - in large part because there still isn't an ad-supported revenue model for Unity Web projects. But I'm certainly going to look at it for my next DL'able game. Given that Unity for the iPhone is still $399, I probably will look at still using the Flash to iPhone module coming in CS5 for that option as well. But if they made a free or very cheap version of the iPhone add-on...

Flash to iPhone via CS5

In case folks aren't already aware of it, Adobe is adding a tool to the CS5 version of Flash Professional that will let you generate a stand-along iPhone app that can then be "signed" with a Mac, and submitted to the App Store. While it means you still have to get a Mac to sign the application, and you still have to pay the application fee, it does mean that if you know flash, you now can develop in a tool you're comfortable with to build an iPhone application. And yes... I'm already thinking about whether it would be worthwhile to port College Romance to the iPhone. If I did that, I think I'd want to look at hiring some voice talent to make the app worthwhile. Then again, that might make it too big. Oh well... at least it's an option :-)