Some of you may have heard of the $10,000 Game Contest put on by the good folks at MyDreamRPG. For those that haven't, or that forgot about it, let me summarize a few of the details:

• Start Date: 4/1/2007
• Contest End Date: Midnight EST on April 31st, 2008.
• 1st Prize: $10,000
• Technology must be based on one of these GarageGames Torque engines (TGB, TGE, TGEA, TorqueX), and can include other Content Packs made by 3rd parties
• Contest Points List
  

I'm here to announce that I officially entered a game tentatively titled Docoto Defense into the contest on May 21st. Docoto Defense is an amalgamation of the words DonationCoder Tower Defense. So what does this all mean? It means that the DonationCoder.com Games Division is working on a Tower Defense style game that, to be a valid entrant in the game contest, will be finished and ready for release by May 2008 at the latest!


This game is going to be unique from other TD games because it will feature single player quest modes, multiplayer (cooperative and competitive modes), have both defensive and offensive elements, and will focus on user created content. People will be able to create their own levels, maps, units, etc., customizing many features of the game.

Mouser is very involved in helping to design the game and Nudone has agreed to help out with some artwork, but I'd like to make a request to the DonationCoder community for more support. I could especially use the help of those with artistic abilities, musical/sound effect abilities, and website design. Even if you don't have those abilities or don't have the time to help out you can still contribute with one of the fundamental ideas behind this entire community: Donations.

The game is still in the early design stages, so I'm sorry to say I don't have more cool screen captures to show off, but you can follow the game's progress at the Development Blog.

I found a great site yesterday with a bunch of animated images good for quick prototyping art. Only problem was that each frame of the animations were separate image files, and for the game engine I'm using (Torque Game Builder) it needs them all to be on one sheet. I needed a program to splice the images together! Reiner does have one on his site but it's a little more complicated than I'd like it to be. I asked around on the GarageGames forums and was directed to GlueIt, a very easy to use program to do this task easily and quickly.

GlueIt 1.06 is the perfect sprite companion, it will take a series of single images and paste them as
an image strip making the sprite animation immediatly ready to be incorporated in your sprite engine. NEW Loads .PNG, .BMP, Saves .PNG, .BMP, .JPG
It will save you ALOT of time!
Best part is, it's FREE !

The only possible downside I see to it is that it requires .NET 2.0--which isn't a problem for me.

You think you've got it hard in life? Picture yourself trying to figure this one out.

http://endangeredgamer.blogspot.com/2007/04/most-diabolical-super-mario-mod-ever.html

Mouser puts it best:

It's like a testament to human suffering and perseverance. It's heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. It's soo damn cruel!

So cruel, yet so hilarious!  ;D :P :D ;D ;D