So what kind of firearms do you have? Any? I've got a CZ-75 P07 0.40 pistol.  This one my favorite pistol. I've also got a S&W Model 28 revolver which is my favorite handgun overall even though it's just a 6 shooter and has a 6 inch barrel. I also have a Mossberg 500 pump shotgun and a Benelli M4 semi-auto shotgun. I have a few others but I don't tend to use them anymore (not enough time to practice) In terms of rifles, my favorite one to shoot is a 10/22 but...

So what kind of firearms do you have? Any? I've got a CZ-75 P07 0.40 pistol.  This one my favorite pistol. I've also got a S&W Model 28 revolver which is my favorite handgun overall even though it's just a 6 shooter and has a 6 inch barrel. I also have a Mossberg 500 pump shotgun and a Benelli M4 semi-auto shotgun. I have a few others but I don't tend to use them anymore (not enough time to practice) In terms of rifles, my favorite one to shoot is a 10/22 but...

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-08-07-john-carmack-joins-oculus-as-chief-technology-officer If you’re no familiar with the Oculus Rift, it’s essentially a headset that allows the viewer to see a true 3D virtual world.  We have one here and it is a very neat thing to demo.  You can, while wearing it, look in all directions and see a true virtual world. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Unfortunately, right now, it makes a great demo but everyone who has tried...

Greetings! So here we are! July 2013.  Next month will mark the 3 year anniversary of the launch of the first Elemental game! 2010: Elemental: War of Magic 2012: Elemental: Fallen Enchantress 2013: Elemental: Fallen Enchantress – Legendary Heroes Could we worse. Could be like Star War: Episode 2: Attack of the Clones! So where do we stand? Legendary Heroes v1.3 We are still working on v1.3.  The AI got a major overhaul for v1.3 and so ther...

https://twitter.com/Polytron/status/361188665709436928 I’ m kind of bummed about the prospect of no Fez 2. I hope he changes his mind. Phil Fish had been taking quite a bit of Twitter abuse lately which culminated with a back and forth with a game journalist. Anyone who is on Facebook has probably seen family or friends wilt quickly from even the mildest of criticism.  Game developers, by contrast, are very closely connected with the players who often have very direct acces...

Just got back from New York on the Atari auction.  Being an inappropriate and embarrassing person, I naturally took pictures of the location as it was just plain amazing. Here are some pictures from the auction. Outside the window.   Each bidder was given a conference room where they could work out the purchase agreements with Atari and the investment bankers as well as just spend time working between the auctions.   ...

I'm posting this from my Surface RT (on an airplane no less). When I first got my Surface RT, I really liked the hardware but the software was in a terrible state.  Now, 9 months later, I am happy to report that Microsoft has so improved Surface RT that if I bought a Surface RT today and compared it to what I had back last Fall I would think it was a "Surface RT 2".  So what's changed? First off, it's much faster.  Gone is the lag when I was typing or launc...

I’m going to try to keep this as brief as I can. One of the most common complaints I see about strategy games is that the AI doesn’t play well.  That is, in fact, a reality and there are a lot of reasons for it which I want to talk about in this blog. The biggest factory today against good AI is the bell curve.  If you can make the AI “good enough” to beat 90% of the players on a reasonably high difficulty, it gets very tough to justify the extra expense in making it better....

Since the beginning of Fallen Enchantress, people have claimed that the AI monsters will sit next to any enemy city and not attack.  They concluded that the monsters were giving AI players a pass.  I have responded that I have looked at the code over and over and the monsters do not treat computer players any differently. Well, tonight I’m seeing the behavior very starkly. These ogres should be wiping out this AI city. The code says that the ogres want t...

I  never intended to start a company. I wanted to make CPUs. Monroe Bank and Trust interviewed me for our 20th corporate birthday.  You can check it out here: http://www.monroebankandtrustcares.com/2013/06/focus-on-our-customers-brad-wardell-and.html

My hopes are so high for is movie! I'm wondering if Clark Kent (with glasses) ever makes an appearance?

Windows 8.1 is scheduled to bring the Start button back to the Windows 8 desktop. However, it will not include the Start menu. Instead, it’ll simply transport the user out of the desktop and back into the Metro Start screen environment.  This is a mistake. I realize that there lots of people out there who like the Start screen metaphor.  And we can argue whether the Start screen is a more productive environment than the traditional desktop until the end of time.  However, ...

With Legendary Heroes out, I can finally start reading how people are playing the “finished” game.  Kael’s gotten me tons of reports and I’ve started tackling them one by one. I am hoping to have the first batch ready for the next update (perhaps as early as next week). But that won’t be the end of it.  I plan to take care of some low hanging fruit strategy suggestions first and then go on and deal with the more challenging aspects that will require a lot more play testing to do. ...

The Atlantic found this highly interesting cartoon from the 1950s: http://m.theatlantic.com/video/index/276344/the-wonderful-world-of-capitalism/ We are gradually losing this dynamic as the United States (and Europe) move away from a manufacturing economy and into an information economy and it’s not likely to get better.  Where in the 50s, the “captains of industry” had a symbiotic relationship with their workforce – their objectives required the labor and ingenui...

My office has a lot of light in it. It’s one of those catch-22, people want windowed offices but the light can be very distracting.  Rather than constantly fighting with my blinds, I decided to try some computer glasses. This is what I picked: Gunnar Optiks G0005-C001   I can’t say enough good things about these. Not only do they let me work in a well sunlit room in comfort but they make working on my Cintiq a joy since I don’t feel like I have a flash ligh...