Okay, I have a project due a week from Monday. I have to build a Flash game. I am totally at a loss for ideas. So I am turning to you guys for inspiration. What would you like to see in a Flash game? Is there a particularly good game mechanic that you would like to see used? A particular theme? Feel free to suggest anything.

The idea I ultimately choose must meet the following criteria:

• Time Limit: I won’t be able to work on it this weekend, which means I have about seven days to do the project to completion with art, programming, sound effects, etc. It should not be “large.” That is, it should not require creating multiple levels or enormous amounts of animations.
• Programmer Art: I am a programmer, not an artist. I can do basic drawing and animation in Flash, but I’m not very advanced.
• PG-13: If it got a movie rating it would have to be PG-13 or younger.

Additionally, the game should meet the following criteria, but it is not, strictly speaking, necessary:

• Innovation: It should have something to it that is new or innovative for a Flash game.
• Programming Challenge: The game should somewhat challenge my programming skills, so it should be more advanced than Pong, but it doesn’t have to be a full RPG engine or anything like that.
• Style: These projects are graded as much for aesthetics as for technical skill, so it should have a coherent visual and auditory style.

Again, feel free to pitch any idea. I’m really just looking for some inspiration.

Microsoft picked up a twelve month exclusivity deal on the two leading soccer games on the market. They will be headed only to the Xbox 360. I’m glad I already own a 360.

E3 is cancelled.

But not really.

It’s being restructured.

But it IS cancelled for next year at least.

Because big exhibitors pulled out. EA? Activision? MS? Nintendo? Sony? Who qualifies as a big exhibitor at E3?

MS guy says it’s a “perfect storm” of three damaging factors.

Humorous commentary and insider thoughts.

C-A-D commentary: nostalgic.

It’s too bad. I was hoping to see at least one of these famously over-the-top trade shows. I suppose something will step in to fill the void.

I thought this announcement might be coming. EA has announced that their next-gen open-world rpg Project Gray Company is, in fact, their next Lord of the Rings title. It has now been renamed to The Lord of the Rings: The White Council, which is not as cool as Project Gray Company. I’m pretty psyched about this game, even though it looks a lot like Oblivion, which I thought was overrated.

Nintendo has announced the final name for their new console, codenamed Revolution. The name is Wii, pronounced “Whee”. A lot of people hate Wii. I kind of like it. It’s concise and visually pleasing. By the time the console actually launches we’ll all be used to it.

WWII in online gamerspeak:
T0J0: lol o no america im comin 4 u
Roosevelt: wtf! thats bullsh1t u fags im gunna kick ur asses
T0J0: not without ur harbors u wont! lol
Roosevelt: u little biotch ill get u
Hitler[AoE]: wtf
Hitler[AoE]: america hax, u had depression and now u got a huge fockin army
Hitler[AoE]: thats bullsh1t u hacker
Churchill: lol no more france for u hitler
Hitler[AoE]: tojo help me!
T0J0: wtf u want me to do, im on the other side of the world retard
Hitler[AoE]: fine ill clear you a path
Stalin: WTF u arsshoel! WE HAD A FoCKIN TRUCE
Hitler[AoE]: i changed my mind lol

Hilarious. Read the rest of it.

No time to comment on this right now. (I’m working hard.) But apparently videogames cause you to drink and smoke. There is no evidence yet that they lead to sex.

I’m sure I probably disagree with Adam Thierer on almost every political issue. After all, he is published in the National Review and he works for a conservative think tank, The Progress & Freedom Foundation. But there’s at least one issue we do agree on. Videogame legislation.

I have always had pretty liberal political views, which is why I hate to see Democrats who should know better, like Hillary Clinton, flirting with censorship. It’s like they’re shooting themselves in the foot. Do these so-called liberals (Lieberman, I’m looking at you.) really think this is an issue that’s going to win them voters? The Democrats’ platform is so good and so in the mainstream on so many issues. Why pick this one?

On a related note: Senate Hearings: “What’s in a Game? Regulation of Violent Video Games and the First Amendment”

Interesting article in Wired about how the misunderstanding and mistreatment of games as a medium is not new or unique to games, but rather is a phase that all media must go through. There are some really choice quotes about corruption of our youth. The Culture War.

Movies
“This new form of entertainment has gone far to blast maidenhood … Depraved adults with candies and pennies beguile children with the inevitable result. The Society has prosecuted many for leading girls astray through these picture shows, but GOD alone knows how many are leading dissolute lives begun at the ‘moving pictures.’”
- The Annual Report of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, 1909

Comic Books
“Many adults think that the crimes described in comic books are so far removed from the child’s life that for children they are merely something imaginative or fantastic. But we have found this to be a great error. Comic books and life are connected. A bank robbery is easily translated into the rifling of a candy store. Delinquencies formerly restricted to adults are increasingly committed by young people and children … All child drug addicts, and all children drawn into the narcotics traffic as messengers, with whom we have had contact, were inveterate comic-book readers This kind of thing is not good mental nourishment for children!”
- Fredric Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent, 1954

Videogames
“The disturbing material in Grand Theft Auto and other games like it is stealing the innocence of our children and it’s making the difficult job of being a parent even harder … I believe that the ability of our children to access pornographic and outrageously violent material on video games rated for adults is spiraling out of control.”
- US senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2005