Divine In(ter)vention

Windows Phone 7 Gaming Framework

Dennis — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 19:14:16 +0000

Over the past few weeks, Oliver Scheer and me have worked on a framework that aims at easing the development of casual games for Windows Phone 7. The Framework provides standard-functionality required by many games - such as managing the game menu, as well as game ressources such as lives, scores and time.

For more information and source code, check out the CodePlex Project.

Long Time, No Write

Dennis — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:15:08 +0000

Since joining Microsoft, I have been pretty busy with work and therefore had not much time for this blog. Whenever I have a few minutes, I try to squeeze in some Windows Phone 7 Game Development and I’m planning to write a few things about it in the future…

You can also start developing Apps and Games for WP7 using either Silverlight or XNA. Go ahead and give it a try, you’ll love it!

Istar’s Labyrinth

Dennis — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:15:39 +0000

Interesting! I just found a video-playtrough for one of the cenarios, I designed for Dawn of Discovery: Venice on YouTube:

Gaze-based Interaction in Future Operating Systems

Dennis — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:47:58 +0000

Gaze based interaction could be a gread addition to graphical operating systems (such as Windows 7).

ANNO 1404 - Best German Game 2009

Dennis — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:21:23 +0000

ANNO 1404: Dawn of Discovery was awarded in five categories at this years German Game Developer Award.

It won the audience award for “Best German Game 2009″ and jury awards in the categories “Best German Strategy Game”, “Best Game Design”, “Best Graphics” and “Best Soundtrack”. Since the German Developer Award is regarded as the most important award for developers of computer and console games in Germany, I’m a little proud myself.

Goldfarming-free online worlds are possible

Dennis — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:10:07 +0000

Some time after its completion, Tjuhl’s master thesis is garnering some attention by online world researchers at http://virtual-economy.org.

Throughout his thesis, Tjuhl developed a framework and mechanism for an online world economy free of goldfarming. Those pesky goldsellers have become a major annoyance to the players, but also to virtual gods, people and companies that operate and develop online games. While flashing those persons to virtual death with lightning is fun for a short while, at some point it just takes too much time and effort to deal with that nuisance.

Tjuhl’s approach to tackle this issue: (1) Install a compulsory-to-use auctioneer that conceals all transaction partner identifiers (time, price, amount, location, name) to trade participants and that designates trade partners. (2) Validate auctions based on the full trade data provided by the users and the minimum price effectively established by computer-controlled shopkeepers.

To find out how this mechanism works in detail, go check out the article at http://virtual-economy.org/blog/resolving_goldfarming_through_. Congrats to Tjuhl on your publication!

Capture the Egg 1.0 released

Dennis — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:39:24 +0000

Yet another of my recent projects gone gold: Thanks to the combined effort of Tjuhl and me, I am happy to release version 1.0 of Capture the Egg to the public! Be assured that’s not the last you will see from CtE, we have planned some hot new features and 4 more classes for version 1.1. Stay tuned for more!

Continue to the Capture the Egg Project Page

ANNO 1404: Dawn of Discovery goes Gold

Dennis — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:35:58 +0000

It’s done! The production of ANNO 1404 (international title: Dawn of Discovery) is finished and the game will ship June 25th. Time to go on a 2 week vacation!

Teeworlds Map: dm_pinnacle

Dennis — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 22:40:56 +0000

Teeworlds is a free retro multiplayer shooter and a nice litte game for lunch break. It features deathmatch and capture the flag game modes, looks like an old NES platformer and plays like Worms in realtime - including mad ninja rope action!

Since it’s such a fun little game and has a level editor included, it didn’t take long, before I was creating my first map: dm_pinnacle…

As the name suggests, dm_pinnalce is a deatmatch map for 4 to 6 players, designed for symmetric fast paced action, and set in some kind of jungle-tower-temple-tingy.

Map Overview

Download Map

dm_pinnacle Downloads: 368 times

Anno 1404 Announced

Dennis — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:05:35 +0000

Good news for everybody who kept asking what I am currently working on: At this year’s Games Convention in Leipzig, Ubisoft announced Anno 1404. The sequel to the successful Anno series offers a richness of features never before seen, including the ancient Orient and it’s technology.

The GC 2008 Trailer is available in German and English:

GC 2008 Trailer (English)
GC 2008 Trailer (German)