Well it’s official, on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at GDC, Director 11 was announced. The announcement featured a demo of a really unbelievably cool game by Lucas Meijer and the Artplant team that features BMX Bike racing across a series of terrains. The new physics look good and the graphics in the game are especially nice.
The news was pretty extensively covered. I’ve included links to the various articles and blogs below.
I’m back in San Francisco, and thrilled to find that the Director Podcast is in fact back. Skip emailed me to tell me that there had been over 1400 downloads in the first 24 hours. Honestly, how many software packages have theme songs and podcasts?
http://www.magicgate.com/podcast/director/
Rumors are swimming about Director. I heard whispers all over the plane. One kid ran up to me pointing and shouting ‘Look mommy its that Director Preacher!’ Needless to say I was totally flattered. After I slipped the kid a 20 I sat down to watch Wired Science on my iPhone. That’s right, I did it. I bought the iPhone. I hate to admit it, but I haven’t been happier with a tech-purchase since my blue clamshell ibook. Man I loved that thing. That was the first Mac I ran D8.5 on. You may bow your head in reverence when I mention 8.5.
Did you know that there are half a billion people (or perhaps more accurately computers) on this planet with Shockwave installed? Really, the current Shockwave user base is larger than 500 million and growing. It got me thinking about the size of that number. Its one of those too large to visualize numbers.
If each one paid you 2$ US you’d be a billionaire. There are approximately one and two thirds players installed for every person in North America. There are about enough for every two persons in India to share one. In fact, there are about enough for every 12 people on the planet to share 1. That means there are so many installed copies of Shockwave, that there is essentially 1 for every 12 people.
I realized today that at long last all of my promises to buy beer, may finally be collected upon. I have been actively developing software and participating in the Director community for more than 15 years and in all that time I have eagerly thanked fellow developers – with the idle expression – “Hey – when i meet you, I owe you a beer!” I have been graciously invited to speak at this years Game Developers Conference (GDC) and now that the appointment approaches – I realize that the beers I owe far outweigh those that I may have earned.
So I’m clearly thinking a lot now about beer. Where in San Francisco will I find cheap beer? How cheap can it be without causing further offense? How much beer can we 40 something developers really drink? And a host of other beer related nonsense.
If you haven’t gotten down to that funky beat you haven’t really celebrated the magic which is the Director Podcast. MagicGate’s Director Podcast is a celebration of all things Director. The entire community mourned when the podcast stopped appearing at the start of 2007 and one of the first things on my mind when I started serving as Director Evangelist was getting Skip Kimpel to re-establish the coolest Podcast in his arsenal.
I’m thrilled to report that Skip confirmed today that the Director Podcast will return to service in a matter of days. Its the perfect chance to download any back issues you may have missed and get caught up as Skip revamps the format and preps the podcast for its reintroduction to the community.
I ran across a blog by Hanford Leemore about using Director for casual games http://blog.hanfordlemoore.com/2006/12/09/director-for-casual-games and i couldn’t agree more with the sentiment. Give Hanford’s blog on the subject a look, its a very well reasoned argument.
As you may know I recently authored a book “Creating Casual Games for Fun and Profit” published by Charles River Media (I know the title is … ugh … but they never let me choose titles.) Nonetheless it’s reallly the first and I think still the only serious investigation of the topic. I surveyed the active casual game community and came to simlar conclusions. Given the incredibly short development cycles for casual games today and the need to deliver online and offline solutions, Director is the obvious choice.
There’s an excerpt from my book online here if you’re in a reading mood.
I’ve spent the week in beautiful downtown Bangalore with the Director engineering team. A week filled with non-stop planning and development for future versions of Director has left me numb with delight. I must admit that from the astonishing spectacle of tropical birds gliding among the tree tops to the startlingly beautiful local blooms that pepper the trees I am totally enamored of Bangalore’s beauty.
The signpost is genuine. The service apartment in which i stayed was about 2 blocks from the Adobe office. A brief, albeit exciting walk in and among Bangalore’s buzzing 5mph traffic led me to the morning each day.
Now I don’t want to be accused of sugar coating anything, so i’ll add that like most westerners I found my initial reaction to the dense traffic, wild dogs, wandering livestock and wind strewn trash was initially cautious suspiscion. It was difficult at first to see beyond the primitive and ancient structures and traditions to the heart of the city. But after some sleep and a bit of extraordinary food, I came to find that there was a giant place in my heart for Bangalore.
Steve Becerra and the Mockworld team have a very thorough list on Shockwave3D.com http://www.shockwave3d.com of companies using Shockwave (specifically Shockwave 3D) to promote their products, entertain their customers and build their businesses.
Welcome to Shockwaves, a new online resource for users of Adobe Director and Shockwave. Your host here is Allen Partridge, Adobe Director Evangelist and I’m joined by authors from Adobe and beyond in an effort to encourage rapid delivery of information about Adobe Director and Shockwave. The basic theme of this blog is the same as its mission – to encourage you the authors and developers of Adobe Shockwave and Director content to create all the media you wish.
Here we say, Don’t just make waves, Make Shockwaves!
