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Full voice and animation support
Interactive backgrounds / scenes
Inventory System
Optional Stats System (e.g. health, power) to add a little bit of RPG’ing into the game
Support for over 500 scenes in a game, that makes for a massive adventure!

We are now open to licensing inquiries for this engine, which of course includes a quotation for building your next adventure game! To demonstrate the capabilities of this engine, we’re in the process of creating an in-house game.

I tuned into Apple’s announcement of iBooks 2 today (pardon the pun), then I thought to myself: I’ve been expecting an announcement about electronic textbooks accessible to everyone for a while now, having been a Systems Analyst in several eLearning companies like Smartforce, Skillsoft and Canada’s National Adult Literacy Database. I didn’t know back then that it was going to be Apple, nor that the iPad would be the tool of choice. But as I listened in, I shook my head, put my hands together and said to myself: “Kudos to everyone at the Apple team who made this a reality. It’s about time.” And not just universities or colleges, we’re talking online libraries, online schools, even (I imagine eventually) online self-help courses, which anyone can take at any time!

Seriously, why is Apple just coming out with the iBooks 2 now (note: iTunes U in its original form was released back in 2006 for basic lecture content like videos and presentations, iBooks 2 adds interactivity into learning material). This should have been done years ago, specifically when I was going to university! It would have saved me so much money (apart from the initial iPad investment, which still would’ve ended up cheaper than a year’s worth of textbooks, and I studied for four years, so do the math), I would have gotten better grades because I would have saved time finding the material that I needed (with the search feature for one), doing more exercises geared towards my level of understanding (which I admit sometimes lagged behind my peers’), and finally be able to get additional source material or even instructional videos (as with the Stanford iTunes U lectures, as an example) to fortify my understanding of the subject matter.

By the way, you can download iTunes U from the iTunes store on this link. And as of writing this article there are 500,000 lectures already on iTunes U, and several major educational institutes and libraries signed on, like: Stanford, Yale, MIT, Oxford, UC Berkeley, MoMA, the New York Public Library, and the Library of Congress. I’m sure that in another five years, most of those lectures will be in iBook format.

Yes, e-Learning has been around for decades, but Apple just figured out a way to make it super intuitive, easy to use, clean, and most of all cheap! While the environmental effects (less trees need to be cut down to make textbooks) would not be noticeable until more universities adopt iTunes U and iBooks (or future competitors, because you know they’re coming!), it still has to start somewhere. I expect that at least by 2020, most of the classrooms in the western world would’ve moved away from traditional textbooks, either by support from legislation (incentives, or subsidies), or by support from school and university administrators themselves, either way, it’s going to happen.

Now, let’s go out there and make some really cool learning material for future generations!

For those who are unfamiliar with TKoS, this is a revolutionary free browser-based massively multilayer RPG set in an alternate version of modern Earth where human beings walk with and fight alongside Demons, Angels, Vampires, Reptilians, Aliens, Mages and Superbeings.

While the game has been in development since 2002, it has been hit with many snags and delays due to server issues, frequent lack of funding, and a shortage of developer time. In 2008, InEvoWare Inc acquired TheKingOfSpades.com and has frequently provided much needed funding and resourcing to bring the game back to life and complete the launch plans. That, coupled with an unwavering support from the TKoS community and players’ donations have kept the game from falling into oblivion.

What sets TKoS apart from other browser based games is the unique tool-sets that allow players to create unique and intricate characters, locations, histories and player-made quests that are unlike anything you’ve ever imagined.

Players on The King of Spades have created cities on faraway moons, worlds in alternate dimensions, massive underground bases of operations, gigantic starships and wondrous floating cities.

Sign up for early access and beta testing by joining the TKoS forums where you will be kept up to date on the game’s progress and maybe try out the game by playing a pre-upgrade version of the game on the TKoS temporary beta server.

For more information, check out The King of Spades, the world’s best and most original massively multiplayer browser-based online RPG

Your only limitation is your imagination.

Head on over and check it out! GamePaler: Free to Play Online Games

There are many ways to maintain continuity, and I’ll talk about one of the key ingredients: Everlasting content. “Everlasting Content” is what players relate to, it’s the lingering goal or threat that keeps the players on their toes, it’s what they talk about passionately to the next gamer (or potential new fan). It is viral marketing without making any effort. This is what will make the name of your game lasted for years. I will present two examples, both of which are Blizzard Entertainment titles which I talk a lot about during presentations due to their great success: World of Warcraft and Starcraft. The key to their success is mass appeal generated by a strong attachment to its “Everlasting Content”: a great storyline fueled with passions, a great history generated by conflicts across realms and planets, and highly fleshed out races that players control, both in playability, and historical outcome. Players argue amongst each other on which race is best (and will not hesitate to prove it to you in a 1-on-1 battle in game), and they remember the names of key characters, and because of that continuity, they keep coming back from more, which is why Starcraft 2 has got most if not all of the original fans back on the saddle, and which is why World of Warcraft continues to dominate the MMORPG market.

How do you create “Everlasting Content” in your brand new game? You need to have a good team of concept, environment and game history writers, that won’t just write a synopsis that players will quickly skip over, but they need to flesh out every detail, from origins, to aspirations, to unique mannerisms, and have bits and pieces of it like breadcrumbs throughout the game world. Make it relevant to game-play, and place appropriate story “hooks” and “plot twists” to make it even more enticing. This is content that will immediately stand out. Just look at the amount of detail and research that Ubisoft’s concept writers put when designing the Assassin’s Creed trilogy, every major character had a full biography, every relationship was fleshed out, every locale had something to do with the game’s history. And speaking of locales, it just amazes me the amount of realism and detail they put into constructing major cities like Damascus (in Assassin’s Creed 1) and Venice (Assassin’s Creed 2), but I digress. So after laying out your concept, the trick is to trickle this history into the player’s subconscious mind, gradually, but consistently. There is no glory in blurting out the entire synopsis at the beginning of the game, remember subtlety, and try to tease the characters with your concept, like a piece of raspberry chocolate cheesecake. MMMmm… By the end of it, your player is not just playing to win the game, but he or she is literally striving hard to save the galaxy, or world (or in some case, even destroy it) because everyone is depending on them! Then, when they’re done, they will patiently look forward to the next installment, and will be thankful to be given the opportunity to hand over their dough.

A short list of highly acclaimed games (made by other developers and game studios) that have “Everlasting Content” and are sure to be classics for a long while:
Halo, Metal Gear Solid, Mass Effect, BioShock, Star Wars KOTOR, Resident Evil, Assassin’s Creed, Silent Hill, God of War

• Browser-Based Online Games
• Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMO’s)
• Online Social Multiplayer Games (Standalone or FaceBook-based)

• 2D Designers (Concept Art: Creatures, Characters, Architecture, Technology)
• World Builders (Cartography, Level Design & Building, Asset Placement)
• 3D Designers (3D Modeling: Characters, Creatures, Vehicles)
• 3D Architects (3D Modeling: Buildings, Structures)

• Concept Writers (Characters, Creatures, Architecture, Technology, Magic)
• Game System writers (Combat, Economy, Navigation, etc)
• Web Masters (Building & Maintaining Beta Forums, Promo Websites & Game Sites)
• General Writers (Storyline, Dialogue)
• Editors (Proofreading, Plot lines)
• Voice Actors (Multilingual Dialogue)