I was recently drawn to an article published by Gamasutra, which provided an opinion on whether games were too much like work. Within which, the author mused “on ways to enjoy games without the focus on success, failure and competition, asserting that users must have that option if games are ever to be as inclusive as movies.”

Unfortunately, the article failed to answer the question posed – instead comparing games to movies, and the issues of difficulty in video games. So what makes a game feel like work? It’s a subject that I’ve been picking up on within games over the past few years.

Given a pile of top ranking triple-A titles, I could probably separate it into two piles – those that have mechanisms of feedback and reward, and those that focus mostly their core gameplay experience. For me, the latter is the type that eventually starts to feel like work; tinting my brain in a shade of grey and leading me to jack it in halfway through.

The WordPress “5-Minute Install” does exactly what it says, but it isn’t the whole picture. You’re left with plenty of tasks to do before going live, from securing your site, to customising your appearance.

This post brings together several resources that I feel are essential to consider when installing a WordPress blog.

Welcome to the new and improved version of the site. We hope you enjoy the new design and some of the improvements this will bring. Specifically;

Moving to a generic site design will allow us to move our focus away from the Unreal Engine and into different subject areas, and organise the content into clear categories.

Visitors now have the ability to post comments and feedback on each page and posting.

With a search function and larger font size, the site is more accessible and easier to read.

Skies are built differently in UnrealED 3. Instead of creating a sky box, we now have to create a sky dome to implement a realistic sky in our maps. Custom skydome textures are difficult to create and are not yet freely available from the internet. This tutorial will show you how to convert skybox textures into a skydome.

This tutorial will show you how to output six skybox textures for use in your maps, using Terragen 2. This tutorial does not show you how to use Terragen 2 or how to create your sky.

This tutorial uses the Terragen 2 – Technology Preview 1 (Free Version), which is available from the official Planetside Software website. Note that the interface and ability of Terragen 2 is likely to change. Additionally, a plug-in which automates this process is likely to be delevoped at some point.

Terragen 0.9 users - download and use the skybox script instead!