Crunched Bytes: May 2013

Alright, so here is a compilation of interesting articles read for the month of May

Starting this month's reading is with the big question - "Why are you making games?" followed by a look at the problem affecting the Game Reviews and much more!

Why Are You Making Games?

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/BenServiss/20130425/191183/Why_Are_You_Making_Games.php
A very thought provoking article forcing the reader (read game developers) to re-evaluate why they are actually making games?? What's the motivation?

“Surely there is some reason you are going through all the trouble of trying to design great games.” –Jesse Schell, The Art of Game Design

So have you figured out your reason yet?? May be this article is just meant for you!

The Problem with Game Reviews (And Why Games Are Like Restaurants)

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenServiss/20130502/191616/The_Problem_with_Game_Reviews_And_Why_Games_Are_Like_Restaurants.php
Author Ben Serviss indicates how we have simply copied the rating systems from a linear comparable domain of movies and mapped it to use for rating the interactive and immersive experience of games, and why such a system is incomplete and broken.

Cognitive Overhead, Or Why Your Product Isn’t As Simple As You Think

http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/20/cognitive-overhead/
Does any of these sounds familiar -

• Make your product simpler, 
• Minimize the number of steps, 
• minimize time required, 
• minimize the features, etc. etc.

David Lieb, co-founder and CEO of Bump has something different to say... Making simple is all about reducing the cognitive overhead and this may even mean adding an additional step i.e. make users do more rather less!!!

Google Introduces Portable Native Client, Makes It Easier For Developers To Add C And C++ Code To Their Web Apps

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/17/google-introduces-portable-native-client-makes-it-easier-for-developers-to-add-c-and-c-code-to-their-web-apps
After Mozilla's asm.js now we have PNaCl… its soon going to be c/c++ on web as well… way to go!

Ten classic games you can actually beat, but probably won’t

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/ten-classic-games-that-are-surprisingly-technically-beatable/
A fun read on games that you weren't supposed to win and what happens if you win

Anatomy of a hack: How crackers ransack passwords like “qeadzcwrsfxv1331”

http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/how-crackers-make-minced-meat-out-of-your-passwords/
With hackers decoding upto 90% of leaked passwords (in the form of md5 hashes) within
a day… are your passwords really secure?

Why you should move that button 3px to the left

https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/c012e5ad32f7
How to bring together design and engineering. As an engineer, its a nice read into a designer's mind.

Designing Game Logos

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/SimonDean/20130425/191184/Designing_Game_Logos.php
A quick writeup based on the experience of designing their game logo. Few good tips to keep in mind though

Euler vs Verlet

http://kahrstrom.com/gamephysics/2011/08/03/euler-vs-verlet/
A small primer to help you decide how to integrate the laws of motion in your game/simulation. If you have ever wondered how to model the movement (velocity, distance, etc.) of your scene objects and wrote a code to model the Laws of motion, this article will help you name the method you used or better, provide you with a better alternative.