Dwarf Fortress models an awful lot in its little miniature world, but pet overpopulation isn't one of them. Tame animals don't need to eat, but will endlessly reproduce. Cats spawn in large litters and are also readily adopted by the dwarves, who will then throw a fit if you kill off Mr. Snugglepuss. The resulting catsplosion brings the CPU to a crawl as it tries to handle the pathfinding for hundreds of mewling ambient units.
Even with two butcher shops going full-tilt, I can barely put a dent in the stray population. However, each butchery triggers one of my tanners to go to work. One top of that, I've had to build new shops and train new bonecrafters, chefs and leatherworkers just to keep my storehouses of raw materials from overflowing. It's reached the point where my entire dwarven economy is based around the slaughter of helpless kittens, which is a rather spectacular way for a civilization to decline.
Of course, some people get a little more creative with their livestock disposal.
Ian
@machall productions .com
Dwarves
April 21, 2008, 20:12 EST
I'm hoping Matt will step in here and explain some things about Dwarves and their dwellings. Me, when I try and play the game, I just see the Matrix. Now if the game looked like this... well, there would be no stopping me. I'd be playing the game non-stop.
The art for today's comic may seem weird. That's because usual game-based comics, I match the comic art to the game's art style to some degree. With today's the game is all ascii based. To try and show that I made everyone monotone, bright, and on a almost black background. Successful? You tell me. You might almost notice the character's foreheads.
I also want to talk about another couple indy games. The first is Noitu Love 2. It's out and you should play it. Buy at your own leasure, but at least try the demo. It's a fun fast paced pixel game, and I love me my pixel art. The game itself seems to be riddled with bugs, as I've fallen through/behind the world on almost twelve occasions. Considering how short the game is, that's pretty silly. Regardless, it's cool beans.
Third game I'll just mention in short. Yume Nikki. Sorry I don't have a direct link to the English version of the game for you. All I have to say about it is this:
Ian
@machall productions .com
No Comic this week.
April 16, 2008, 19:26 EST
I know I only do three little panels each week, but it's not happening for this one. Work right now is kinda keeping me a little burnt out. It's amazing how taxing failing to draw can be when it's done over a long enough time period.
Matt
@machall productions .com
Erections are hilarious and you know it.
April 7, 2008, 08:32 EST
Throughout history, the humble boner has made the wise foolish and brought the mighty low. It is concentrated satire in organ form.
Ian
@machall productions .com
BS
April 7, 2008, 02:15 EST
Not sure what this comic is trying to say, but I do know that Matt at least cracks a smile when he thinks about erections. Why must you fill this website with lies, Matt?
Matt
@machall productions .com
I just want to reiterate:
March 31, 2008, 16:10 EST
Figure it's been a while since I gave you guys a wallpaper.
Matt
@machall productions .com
Games I should not be allowed to play, pt. 1
March 31, 2008, 14:09 EST
I'm a guy who thinks that if a game looks good, that makes it more fun. So I didn't really think I'd get in to Dwarf Fortress.
I downloaded on a whim after reading the saga of Boatmurdered. As you can see from that link, it's a game that consists entirely of text characters, or a "roguelike" to those in the know. You command little smiley faces (dwarves) to carve rooms out of grey punctuation marks (rock) while setting up defenses in case of an attack by lowercase g's (goblins, or possibly rabid groundhogs).
When you start the game, it generates a world for you, complete with procedural rivers and erosion. When you dig out your fortress, you dig through geological layers appropriate to the terrain you picked. (This is great because I love geology. I'm all "Shit yeah! Gneiss!" when I play. It's hard to make a game for me.)
I have started up a game, started tinkering with the fort, and looked out the window to see the sun rise. This is unproductive. I should just wipe it from my computer, but, you know... gneiss.
Ian
@machall productions .com
Games!
March 31, 2008, 14:08 EST
So remember that pixel action game, Noitu Love 2, I mentioned last week? Well, there's a demo out now. I haven't tried it myself yet as I am still at the office.
As for news on the less action-y front; Last year I put a lot of man-hours into one of our projects here at Three Rings. It's been hard not to talk about it, because I'm pretty proud of the work I did. However, it went in to beta last Tuesday and I've received the go-a-head on letting you people know about it.
See about this time last year I decided to teach myself Action Script 3. (Why the shit does AS3 NOT have multidimensional arrays!?!) From there I just started programming my own game for Whirled. I decided to make a side scrolling crawl-n-brawl with my usual hyper cute style. Though I seriously regret the name of my theme. Sounds pretentious and weeaboo-like.
I've very happy with the game. Besides the help I had refactoring the code for ease of reading, it's all my creation from art to code. Note though there seems to be a massive memory leak that might end the game early... Flash's fault. Honest.
Anyway, feel free to check out my little Brawler. Maybe even wander around the rest of Whirled. Anything with the 'Kawaii' tag, by the way, is probably my creation.
Get a hold of the latest version of Flash, and Firefox then head over to Whirled if you like. it's essentially a browser/flash based Object Oriented Multi-User Dungeon. At least that's how I think of it. Users don't even need an account to wander the Whirled and, my favorite, you can even embed your room right into a web page.
What I particularly love about Whirled though is that if you can code flash, you can code for Whirled. You want to make a multiplayer game? We did the ground work for you. Just right your game and plug in our multiplayer library. Though I admit to be a little frightened about what kind of avatars and games will eventually get made for this... Internet, you're scary after all.
Hopefully by this time next week, I'll have the official Three Panel Soul group going and this site will finally have a forum, plus a real time graphical chat room. Quite a jump for 8 years of no community support.
Ian
@machall productions .com
Looking at it again...
March 31, 2008, 05:01 EST
...Panel one sure is ugly. Damn.
Ian
@machall productions .com
Kings of Power
March 24, 2008, 13:48 EST
Speaking of pixels, the new Paul Robertson animation is out. You should watch it. For it is awesome.
Those unfamiliar with his work, Warning: It's a bit morbid and makes heavy use of strobe light effects.
Ian
@machall productions .com
Jiggle Jiggle
March 24, 2008, 02:57 EST
A simple comic for you.
At Three Rings, now and again, I'm allowed to wear the hat of a programmer. Sometimes though I get really distracted and just start writing systems such as virtual jello.
So yeah, we're all moved in now into our swanky new house. Complete with Dom room mate. Now he gets to see that Fred isn't the only sporadically emo artist. Though it has been amusing to see him write a column, watch basketball, and tank Heroic Ramparts all at the same time.
FFCC:ROF
A bunch of us at the office all picked up the DS Crystal Chronicles and have been enjoying it quite thoroughly. People knock it, but I've really had a good time with it. Seriously though, don't bother with the single player. It's just not worth it.
If you enjoy real time hack-slashery, while leveling and gathering some of the cutest armor ever this game is for you.
It served well these past five years, and we're comforted to know that its legacy continues on my flash drive and various other backup locations.
We noticed it start to slow down the past year or so, and its once-bright monitor started to dim. We tried to keep it as comfortable as possible with a new power cord, hoping it would comfort it through the kernal panics. In the end, we decided not to take any heroic measures, and it stopped responding to on-button presses around 7 p.m. today.
The "beloved pet" metaphor is going to break down tomorrow as I begin yanking out its entrails and selling them on eBay.
UPDATE:Whoah, false alarm! It was just a bad RAM chip. The old girl is still clunking along.
Matt
@machall productions .com
Trivia
March 19, 2008, 14:00 EST
They put up those trivia questions I've been writing at Kwanzoo.
Matt
@machall productions .com
That is the worst part of moving.
March 18, 2008, 21:51 EST
