Just read a feature about Dwarf Fortress on GamaSutra. This sounds like a very cool game.
From what I’m reading, it’s basically a simulation of a world where dwarves make a Moria type inhabitation that you can wander around in and even influence. There’s an adventure mode that gives a classic roguelike feel to parts of the game.
What’s fascinating is the simulation description he gives for world building. Also, the fluid dynamics that they use are pretty cool.
I’m going to have to play this game.
I was reading Stevey’s latest blog entry and it answered a couple of questions I’d had lately.
I’ve been working on the SQL Server 2005 PHP Driver for Windows 1.0 (Whew. I didn’t name it, I’m just writing it.) at work. Having been writing the code, one of the consistent comments I get in code reviews is that there aren’t enough comments. While I don’t necessarily disagree, I wondered why I hadn’t been writing them. I believe in comments specifically and readability in general, but this code just hasn’t seemed to need it. It was so simple.
That’s not to say that the programmer’s reviewing the code were simpletons or inexperienced, just that they didn’t have the context I did. Fine. I’ve been adding more comments as requested.
So what does that make me? An experienced coder? Perhaps. Still, after reading the article, I couldn’t help but think it sounded a little curmudgeony. I don’t doubt the basic premise that “metadata” (as comments and static types) can be overdone, but the article seems to be more like Steve Yegge channeling Paul Graham. Oh well. What do I know? I love Lisp/Scheme and Python for the same reasons he mentions. They just get out of your way.
I did however have a “milk-out-the-nose” laugh from the article:
“Code is data, and data is code. The two are inextricably linked. The data in your genes is code. The floor plans for your house are code. The two concepts are actually indistinguishable, linked at a fundamental level by the idea of an Interpreter, which sits at the very heart of Computer Science. Metadata, on the other hand, is more like the kidney of Computer Science. In practice you can lose half of it and hardly notice.”
Oh man. I’ll have to make a reference to kidneys in the comments. 
Out of GDC land comes not one, but two very cool announcements for XNA.
XNA 3.0 will allow game development for the Zune. I had been just hoping for some games themselves to show up on the Zune (a la iPod), but instead Microsoft goes the extra mile and allows me to write my own! How cool.
Not only that, but they are offering a marketing opportunity via the “Community Games” moniker. You can submit an XNA developed game to the community, have it evaluated, and then either sell it or give it away on XBOX Live Arcade. (Which is great for me. I don’t fancy myself ever capable of making something that people would pay for, but I can make games that a few dozen people might enjoy. )
Microsoft hasn’t always done the best thing, but they’ve (almost) always done the right thing when catering to developers.
