Dev Links: Mental Note

“The good people in my life come from all sorts of walks of life.

Making your game more inclusive, the simulation dream and other riveting topics in today’s Developer Links.

How can I make my games more inclusive?(IndieGames.com)
“The good people in my life come from all sorts of walks of life. Some women, some boys, some rich, some poor, some gay, some transgender, some young, some old, some confused, some depressed, some wildly liberal and some staunchly conservative. Some embrace labels. Some can’t abide labels. They sport different cultures, colors, nose shapes, hair types, sizes and everyone single one of them has a bizarre personal history full of dreams, joys and misery.”

The Simulation Dream(#AltDevBlogADay)
“There’s an old dream in game design. It drives the design of games like SimCity, Dwarf Fortress, Tropico, The Sims, and Prison Architect. I like to call it the Simulation Dream.”

How a Recruiter Got My Phone Number(#AltDevBlogADay)
“This is two part tale. The first is an amusing story of a recruiter who way over stepped their bounds. The second is a public service announcement on how you, yes you, may be unknowingly exposing both your phone number and home address to the entire internet.”

Apocalypse World(Auntie Pixelante)
“D. vincent baker’s apocalypse world is a role-playing game of the sit in a circle with your friends with some paper and pencils kind. it is in fact one of the games of that type that has most resonated with me.”

Reanimated: The story of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines(Eurogamer)
“On November 16, 2004, two games powered by the Source engine were released for the PC. The first was quickly heralded as a modern classic, leading to its creators becoming one of the most influential companies in the games industry. The second was largely ignored, resulting in the closure of its developer and the scattering of its designers to the winds.”

On Leaving University.(Hannardynamite)
“Last night at around 11.55pm, I received an email containing my final year uni results. I don’t feel that my results were all that surprising. Although being really happy with a 2:1 overall, (not bad for someone who couldn’t code prior to starting on a predominantly coding course), I was particularly impressed with the results for my dissertation. Now, for the first time since I was 4 years old, I am no longer in education. I feel somewhat… adrift.”

Staggered Game Release failure(Positech Games)
“One of my plans with the game I’m publishing ‘Redshirt‘ was to have it all set up nicely so that it launches in-between my own game releases. I’d therefore keep the positech games name and website alive in every-bodies minds while I huddled in a corner typing away on my next masterpiece. The thing is, no plan survives contact with the real world, and with some stuff going faster than expected, and other stuff going slower, and ‘events dear boy,events’, it turns out that Democracy 3 and Redshirt are going to be close to shipping at almost exactly the same time.”

Castle Crashers Steam Trading Cards(The Behemoth)
“The Castle Crashers Steam edition just got even better. Not only can you play just for the fun of it, you can now earn Castle Crashers Steam trading cards for playing our 2D side-scrolling adventure!”