Path of shadows is a game made by 5 students at IDEC - Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

It is a short stealth based demo released for free on PC [download link on their site.]

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Character design

The game is set in a nondescript, unnamed, seemingly ancient Japanese town, which has been presented in cell shaded visuals. It looks beautiful and goes to show that hyper realism isn't the only option. The game is split into 3 sections; the graveyard, the tutorial and the infiltration.

The only downside is that, while it does look good, it's dark. It makes sense for the game play, but I would love to see these settings during the day.

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The character you play as is completely covered in a dark blue ninja suit which changes to black in the shadows, so you know if you can be seen or not. And the markings glow, even in shadows, when your powers are charged... which sort of breaks immersion. Useful for the player, but not for the character.

How do you do a thing?

Standard WASD movement with the mouse being used for camera control and aiming powers. Space to teleport, shift to run, right mouse to aim, left mouse [in conjunction with the right] the create shadows, click to take out guards.

Not hard to get to grips with and pretty intuitive. If you couldn't guess something, there are stylised tutorials to show you what to do.

Sometimes the powers won't go where you want them and the camera angle makes it so you can't see round corners, but in a game like this there are ways to compensate for dodgy controls.

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The tutorials... oh, God the tutorials. After playing games like Skyward Sword, which even on Hero Mode STILL holds your hand, the ones in this are a breath of fresh air. The tutorials can be ignored completely as they are presented as white textures on buildings or the floor, plus getting stuck [and not even seeing the tutorial in the first place] gets you used to paying attention to surroundings, which is useful for a stealth game.

While I was playing this I completely missed a tutorial, and the game didn't feel the need to beat me over the head for it or even block my progress until I read, acknowledged and successfully completed it multiple times.

Don't try to remember anything...

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A few seconds into the game, a mysterious deity gives these words of advice to the player. And considering the way most modern games present your options, they couldn't ring more truly.

While most games allow you to run in, guns blazing, that will only force you to start over again from your last checkpoint here. Getting caught and overcoming guards just isn't an option. And for that I'm thankful. It pays to take your time and think things over before moving.

The game introduces the teleporting powers, which only have a limited range [so no teleporting all the way to the end] and the game play introduction is under way.

There's not much to say about the game play, it's what you would expect from a stealth game. A single button press makes the character shake the bells on their arm to attract guards, which is useful for getting stationary NPCs to move. It also introduces the fact that you can't create shadows with your power near lights.

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BUT THOU MUST!

True to video game trope, you get presented with an order to go and do something [i'll leave it to you to find out what] and you don't really get a reason for it. Nor do you get an option to refuse.

Right at the start to the main part of the demo you're given the power to summon a crow to show you the way. The crow... well, it looks rough. Compared to the rest of the visuals, it looks unfinished. It also seems to hate you... or maybe it's just me. When summoned it will fly off in the direction you should be going, but the path finding itself should really be done by the player. At this point in the game, just as you get the ability, it seems to always attempt to lead you into a trap.

Making your way through the level, skulking in the shadows is fun. As is figuring out how to get past seemingly unavoidable guards.

Some sections require patience and planning, while others were easy to figure out and get through quickly.

Final opinion

Despite the sometimes dodgy controls this is a good game. There's talk of the possibility of a kickstarter campaign to get this completed, so I would suggest downloading the demo and checking it out.

Even though it's short, around 30 minutes depending on how good you are, the way it's presented allows you to replay it to try out new methods.

This is definitely something to keep your eye on.

There's also another court decision, which I can't find, what says that EULAs aren't legally binding. So they can't even get you that way. But, that may be US only.

So it follows logically, that this and this would be illegal in the EU, along with a lot of DRM.

So, no-one has to worry. Yay and all that jazz...

But, wait! A challenger appears!

Physical PC software [and non-Steam digital stuff?] is usually locked to single use activation codes, persistant internet connections or simply tied to an account with no way to deactivate it. Which is one of the reasons I don't play on PC too much. I don't want to faff about making accounts on top of accounts to play a game.

While also illegal, due to the fact it has [to my knowledge] never been questioned in court it's still the go-to DRM. Which means either the law doesn't apply here, companies don't actually care they're breaking the law and/or people don't know/care about this... [Judging from the outrage on the console side of this I'm guessing they do care.]

In theory, I should be able to delete my battlenet account and sell my WoW disks. But, I can't due to having used the CD-keys, AFAIK there is no "I'm in the EU, reactivate the keys and let me sell it" button.

I guess what I'm saying is, regardless of whether you play games on a PC or a console... you're getting screwed one way or another. When someone successfully sues a company for blocking the resale of their PC software, THEN this will be something we don't have to worry about, until then companies are just going to get more and more controlling over what you can actually do with your purchases.

So, a while back, while at a CC3 training doodah, I started talking with one of the techs. Turns out he works at the school near to where I live.

From what I gathered he was new to tech support, so we swapped details and I said to ask if he wasn't sure about anything* [i think I also mentioned EduGeek as well.]

Now, I'm getting emails/phone calls every so often asking about things and I'm giving out advice where I can [because I'm nice like that.]

I have gained an apprentice. [Though, with the amount of help I've given, I should start charging consultation fees.]

_{*I'm not an expert or anything, I've just been playing around with it for a while and have learned a lot through making mistakes.}

So far, I've made 1 screen... and it's taken me about 3 days.

This is that screen.

Well... I say it's the screen... it's about 60% of the screen. There's some more stuff to go into it. But that stuff is being done a different way...[/mysterious]

"What is this mysterious room?" I hear you ask... Well, it's nothing special.

Only the room which decides whether you get the super cool bonus item or not. [Or one of them... there's a few ways to fail getting it.]

Next update: Maybe you get to see a/the character or "the beast of 1000 Nyans."... Maybe. If you do all of your homework and clean your room, I'll think about it.

Side note: If anyone can suggest/link some good, FREE, 2D animation software, I'd be much obliged.

If I can sort out where to start...

I suddenly got the urge to make a game. Most probably sprite based.

All written in C++, everything hand made.

I may even get some of our staff involved.

The thing is... I have no idea of what to make. [/FirstWorldGameDevProblems]

Maybe something like Mario... Maybe a first-person exporing game...

Is it story driven? Or pure randomness?

More importantly... What am I going to call this project?!

Following on from here.

Our head has upped his game. No longer is he simply a pretty cool guy. Now he trolls [company] and doesn't afraid of anything.

That's right. ANYTHING.

We've been having issues because of one particular company [Which I'm not naming...] So our HT, instead of doing what I'm used to seeing from other heads [Which would be precisely [censored] all] he's been sending e-mails off to the company, bypassing the faceless drones and going straight for the jugular managers.

So far the company aren't happy with him... All because of 1 e-mail... In which he implied they were idiots.

He isn't happy with them either... Because they take their time dealing with problems... Problems we don't want them taking their time over.

I've also been reading our new SLA... It looks like they [still the same company] are trying to take over my job.

At present they pretty much run this LEA...

On a less world-dominationy note... our HT also sent out a mass e-mail in which he called a member of staff a scum bag... Or not... It was a "I was going to call you this, but it'd be offensive to that group."

>INB4 Righteous indignation!

The e-mail was sent out after, once again, people's lunches and other things [like charity money] had been stolen by someone. [we have no idea who it was]

I love my boss... He's awesome.

The new computers are licenced for Windows 7 Home Premium [sP1], but will actually be running Windows XP.

My idea was... rejiggle the licences around [Put the licence for the old machine on the new one] and then there'd be some decent Win7 lincences going spare. [which I may or may not have planned to aquire...]

Turns out, you can't do that. Even though we've paid for it, we can't use it how we see fit. [Move unused licences to machines that need them, thus saving us some monies.]

OEM licences aren't transferrable. [Or they won't support transferred licences...]

[censored] you, Micro$oft. If I have n licences sitting around on computers THAT DON'T WORK, I'm reusing them.

I'm not going to pay out for something I ALREADY HAVE, just because your £100Squillion profits "aren't enough".

God damn greedy companies.

The following is an ACTUAL e-mail chain sent between the head and myself. [it's also backwards. Most recent at the top.]

 

http://i41.tinypic.com/jzkhh.jpg

 

Not just any dragons... GANGSTER DRAGONS!

 

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-----Original Message-----

From: [Head]

Sent: 23 March 2012 08:54

To: [X-13]

Subject: RE:

 

Aliens indeed

 

There be many in this school and I also believe there may be dragons as well!

 

-----Original Message-----

From: [X-13]

 

Sent: 22 March 2012 18:28

 

To: [Head]

 

Subject: RE:

 

http://derpy.me/JWPld

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

-----Original Message-----

 

From: [Head]

 

Sent: Thu 22/03/2012 13:12

 

To: [X-13]

 

Subject: RE:

 

 

Cosmic

 

 

Dust that is

 

________________________________

 

 

From: [X-13]

 

Sent: 22 March 2012 10:29

 

To: [Head]

 

Cc: [teacher]

 

Subject: RE:

 

 

 

Investigation into the cause of this black spot has led me to believe it is dust. The fact it doesn't have a hard edge suggests it's between the lamp [not on it] and the mirror.

 

 

The projector just needs to be taken down to be cleaned.

 

 

 

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________________________________

 

From: [Head]

 

Sent: 20 March 2012 15:56

 

To: [X-13]

 

Subject: RE:

 

 

Hi [X-13]

 

 

Can you check out [teacher]'s projector something odd has happened to it?

 

 

It only shines on half the screen

 

 

Random!

Starts off normal... then decends into madness. As usual. [it may also get a worse...]

Sorry it's long... But HTML is disabled and Teh 'Geek doesn't have spoiler tags. [i possibly could have forced the tags with a bit of HTML...]

I've tried to shrinkify it... And turned the images into URLs... But it's still long!!!

I've had to convert the head-node into a CC3 desktop because one has died [power supply failure] and I've also had to rip the power button from one of the nodes.

That brings it down to 3 computers I can use. While it's stil possible, I think, the fact they're RM F-series and weak beyond belief[/opinion] would render any added power from the clustering moot.

Sorry to anyone who was actually interested.

The project is dead. Long live the project.

It's pony related. [Among other things] [[censored] ponies... how do they work?]

I'm sitting around herping, derping and generally searching things on the interweb when our Head of Math asks me about my desktop wallpaper.

So far, it's been described as bambi, "that white guy with blue hair and the dog in the collar"[?]... no-one had actually asked what it was.

So I told him. It's 'My little pony.' And it's awesome.

I told him about "Party of One" and he looked kind of upset that Pinkie had a breakdown.

It's always nice to find people who don't feel the need to take offence because you like something a bit different to what they expected.

I have long hair, wear baggy clothes, 99.99% of the time I have some sort of hat on... I get funny looks because people assume I'm a drug addict. [i once nearly got arrested because "I look shifty." True story.]

But, I like soft jazz and classical music... [among other things.] I'm non-judgemental, I give things a chance and if I like them, I like them. If I don't, I don't feel the need to tell everyone they shouldn't like it either. [Except Twilight... That needs to be destroyed.]

In short, give things a chance. You never know what you're actually going to like. Also, ponies are awesome.

[This message was brought to you by the letter X and the number 13.]

Everything I have references software that doesn't work. [and things like chkconfig... which I can't use.]

I'm going to find alternatives and start again from scratch.

This time using Ubuntu 11.10 [server]. If it works... Which it didn't an hour ago.

Hopefully, it will have all the necessary software installed.

...

All I have to say is "SCREW YOU, DEBIAN 6.0.3!!"

I spent this morning setting up/configuring the cluster controller [or the "head node" as my documentation calls it].

I wired it up, without any network connection as I'm not at that stage yet.

Stuck in the Debian disk, boots fine.

Using it as a live disk, works fine.

Install OS... Nope.

For some reason it doesn't want to install. I have no idea why, it says the HDD is "unclean."

Well, it isn't. I checked, formatted, shredded and reformatted. There is literally nothing on it.

It partitions fine, but won't install. I tried both i386 and AMD64 [both loaded fine.]

Luckily, I had a Ubuntu 10.10 disk sitting about.

Unlike other Linux/GNU distros, Ubuntu doesn't let you set up root during the install. So, I've had to do it manually. Which took all of 30 seconds.

I'm about halfway through setting up the controller thanks to Debian not installing. [i should have finished that today...]

I've made about 3 pages of notes so far [which I forgot to grab when I left... so I'm writing this from memory.] and I think, once I'm done, I'm going to go through them and write them up properly. Then try again with no notes/guides.

As I haven't really used Linux/GNU properly, I'm pretty much just copying commands from the papers I have. As I go on, hopefully, I'll actually understand them.

As for the testing, it seems I can't use Quake like I planned. So I'm going to have to find something else. I've been looking at BPS [beowulf performance suite].

As usual, comments/suggestions are welcome.

And a small update at that.

Yesterday was spent upgrading the nodes and the controller, I've doubled the RAM so it now stands at 1GB RAM per node, and 4GB RAM on the controller.

Everything else is standard.

As the test, I'm thinking of possibly installing Quake and seeing how it runs. Lag, FPS [frames per second... not first person shooter.], graphics quality, etc.

First it'd be installed on the controller and tested without nodes, then with the nodes connected.

As usual... Suggestions willkommen. [Note: I don't speak German...]

EDIT: Posing like a team, beacuse it's about to kick off.

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Yes... I'm weird looking, yes the montor is cocking it's screen [it's trying to look aloof in case there are any single lady-screens out there, also there is very little space.], and yes... I did just imply the monitor is self aware and looking for a date.

But there's one thing I forgot to check...

CHECK THERE'S ENOUGH ROOM!!

Which there isn't... Blargh!

I'm still doing it though. A couple of powerstrips [and a reposition of the laptop trolley] should be sufficient.

As usual, any suggestions let me know.

At least premission has been given, and the powers that be think the LAN MMO idea is a good one. [still trying to find one... here's hoping BETT can help.]

For those who are curious, for this experiment I will be using:

10 RM F-series as nodes [Which I can't find full specs for...]

Some sort of ex-admin Dell as the controller. We've got a couple sitting about.

Cisco Catalyst 2950 [24 switch]

OS will more than likely be some sort of Linux as getting licences for connections to the cluster just for an experiment/test is foolish.

Possibly VLAN, not sure though, I've never set one up and I'm not sure how they work... [#BadTech]

Full documentation will be made available after the fact, should I remember to document what I do and/or remember to post it.

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to post them. I could use all the help I can get.

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[Wow... that's smaller than I thought it'd be... Click to embiggen.]

Neg rep because you dislike Reddit?

Or you're one of THOSE 4channers who think Reddit is the cancer of the internet?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a reaction image if worth at least 500 emotions.

Just because something is from reddit/tumblr/4chan/wherever doesn't make it intrinsically bad.

Also, get over yourself. Just because YOU don't like something as banal as this, doesn't mean you can rage at everyone until they all do as you say.

What if I don't stop posting reaction images?

Are you going to neg rep me into oblivion?

Are you going to whine about it? [Hypocrisy FTW]

Seriously, grow up. It's a picture, which accurately depicts my reaction far better than text could.

You know, you could have shot off a PM [or posted in the thread] mentioning it. But I guess you can't justify your loathing of reaction images, so you stick to neg rep. [Anonymously of course because, heaven forfend, someone might call you out on it.]

http://www.gamesprays.com/files/resource_media/preview/homestuck-vriska-what-now-5500_preview.gif

Think of it as CPD, if you like.

We have 10 old RM computers [F-series] just sitting there gathering dust.

We also have 4 switches sitting around, plus a lot of various cables.

Our head would probably let me do it... But, I can't think of a use for it...

I had the wallpaper on a USB... It just wouldn't display properly.

Set it to "tiled", works fine.

"Center"... Still good.

Stretch? nope.

The colour borks and it becomes worthless.

This is what the wallpaper looks like, for those that are interested.

[NOTE - not the actual one that borked. This one borks differently.]

Seems, in my haste while saving it, I didn't save it properly.

It was a .bmp file, but I saved it straight into a .png.

Which fudged the colours. Saving as .bmp, then resizing, then resaving as .png in paint makes it work properly.

~The more you know.

~Be warned, the following may contain fragmented, meandering thought processes that may or may not make sense.~

1 day to go of work and I'm starting to drift into the random daydreams that make people believe I'm lazy...

I'm actually surprised it's started so late, though that may be because I've been focused on sorting out our sound and flash problems. [They're still not fully sorted out... mearly "close enough"]

X-13 > The subject. Change it.

So far, due to reading through the entirety of HomeStuck in a couple of days, I've managed to reference it about 30 times today alone.

I even got to tell someone that I warned them "about dem stairs, bro."

My wierd sense of humour seems to fit in with the crazyness of Homestuck, so I'm quickly finding myself becoming more and more like certain characters. Maybe I was always like them, and this has just made me realise it. Also, Gamzee FTW. honkHONK

Also, >500 Homestuck songs on my Zen. So. Damn. Awesome.

X-13 > Randomly change subject, again.

I got my first christmas present at work... That was cool. For "always saving me[the person] from the computer."

While I appreciate the sentiment, words like this make my imagination go into overdrive. Currently, I'm some sort of Link-esque adventurer saving people from GanonServer... Oh well, not like it hurts anyone.

I don't get why people, in general, find my thought processes weird. I get that it's sort of fragmented and sometimes seems random... But it works for me, except when I need to explain something.

[Apologies if that makes absolutely no sense... ]

X-13 > Become overwhelmed at how stupid you're coming across.

Nah, I'm good.

*PSHOOOO*