Ludus Novus

In the process of working on my next game, I found myself in need of a particular photo editing effect: torn paper, as if an image has been ripped out of a magazine and glued in place. I found an excellent method for the image editor I use, the GIMP, but it requires several steps. The solution? Script-fu! I haven’t coded in Scheme in forever, but it was relatively straightforward to put together a new filter.

Download the filter here.

Save it to your GIMP scripts directory, which will be ~/.gimp-2.6/scripts/ (or something like C:\Users\Gregory\.gimp-2.6\scripts for Windows users). The filter will be added to the end of your Filters menu. To use, just make a selection of any shape, make sure the layer you want to tear out is active, and go to Filters->Torn Paper. The filter will make a new layer with the torn out piece on it.

This filter allows you to make images like the one above. Cool, huh?

Looks like Silent Conversation, my latest game, will be out next week. I’ll post when it’s released!

My latest article has gone up over at GameSetWatch. It’s called “Layered Gameplay in Disgaea,” and it’s about how that game lets you get as in-depth as you want with character and gameplay customization.

My latest article is up at GameSetWatch. It’s about puzzle design, and three cases where the Myst series gets it totally right. Read it here.

I freely acknowledge the flaws of the Myst series, but there’s something utterly compelling about these games that nothing else has captured for me. The Ages serve as exploration environments as well as puzzle arenas, and the world has developed quite well, to the point that Uru and its followups require a bit of world knowledge in order to play them. The rules can be determined by experimentation, but it’s handy to know ahead of time that, say, a Link always takes you to the same position in space relative to the planet. And of course, in the Myst universe, “planet” is a very vague term.

I have several other favorite puzzles that didn’t make it into the article. Here are a few of them, in an arbitrary order:

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Failing isn’t fun. The way most video games implement failure, it halts the experience and shoves the player out of immersion head-first. In my latest article for GameSetWatch, I discuss the way Crayon Physics Deluxe embraces failure. Go read “Failure-Friendly Gameplay in Crayon Physics Deluxe.”