tools

Happy Tenth Birthday, Havok!

12:20AM Mike Fahey | Often unsung heroes of the gaming world, physics simulation, content development, and digital media service provider Havok celebrates 10 years of their logo showing up all over the damn place. More »

Create a 3D Platformer With Atmosphir

6:20AM Stuart Houghton | One thing about us here at Kotaku, we love a 3D Games Design Tool with a happy Atmosphere. More »

Make Your Own World in Conflict Maps

1:15PM Logan Booker | First rule of extending the life of a game is multiplayer. The second is providing tools so players can create their own content. If you’d like to head over to the Internode Games Network, you can download WicEd, a map editor for Massive’s RTS World in Conflict. Seeing as WiC had multiplayer from the get go, this utility is for those who wish to follow up on that second rule. Be warned, it’s a chunky 350MB, so start your horses now and unclog those poker chips from your Internet tubes. There’s also a 7MB hotfix for the editor, which was just released today. The editor fits nicely with WiC’s Movie Maker and Broadcast Tool. Makes you wonder what Massive will pump out next. World in Conflict Patched to 0003 – With New Map, and map making tool [Internode Games Network] More »

World in Conflict Movie Maker Next Week

3:20PM Logan Booker | What? The World in Conflict Broadcast Tool wasn’t enough? Well, it’s good then that Massive plans to double-up on its generosity from this week with the gift of its Movie Maker Tool next week. While the Broadcast Tool will satisfy the professional gamers, the Movie Maker will undoubtedly find a warm and comfortable spot in the hearts of machinima fans. In an interview provided by Sierra/Vivendi to go along with the news, Massive’s Tobias Nyman and Stefan Johansson go into a bit more detail on the utility: TOBIAS: I think the tool is going to appeal mostly to people who’re ready to put some effort into it, but it’s of course easier for people with at least some prior knowledge of movie making and filming. STEFAN: Essentially, anyone who’s made any machinimas before should be able to figure it out. And with the help of our manual, it should be pretty easy to figure out the basics of how the tool works TOBIAS: And if you want to create more than just cool camera-paths for showing of – like a trailer or so – then you have to edit it, so you should have an editing program at hand. But editing programs today are easy to learn. At the end of the day editing is only about taste. Tobias even makes mention of a shaky-cam feature. Shaky-cam people! I have to say, if Massive can keep up this pace with tool support, then WiC will have nothing but an excellent future. More »

World in Conflict TV

2:43PM Logan Booker | Should World in Conflict be the Battlefield 2 of the RTS scene? I guess that’s up to you to decide. If you just want to show your mates how cool your nuke launches are – from ten different angles – then Massive’s just-released broadcast tool sounds like it’ll be right up your ICBM tube. The tool allows you to play the role of virtual MC, manipulating cameras to grab the best shots of the action. It’ll be a boon for the competitive scene, no doubt, but now you can try it at home – free. It’s designed for Direct3D 10, but if you’re still running D3D 9, there’s a command switch you can run to get it working fine in Windows XP. More info and the download at Internode Games Network. World In Conflict Broadcast Tool Has Arrived, Comrade [Internode Games Network] More »