Setting Up Unity To Remote With A Nexus 4: A Step By Step Guide

As much for my own future reference as the sanity of others, I have collated here all the necessary steps to get the Unity Remote working on the Nexus 4. It’s an otherwise simple process that’s beleaguered by a series of ill-explained hoops too jump through, which trawling the internet for the past hour or so finally has revealed to me. Perhaps most sites simply assume a prior knowledge of Android development. Well, I have none, and I’m not going to assume any in the steps below either.

This guide is for PC users and specific to my experience with Windows Vista and the Nexus 4. I expect the process would be virtually identical on other Android devices, though you may need a different driver. I do not own a Mac and have no idea how to go about setting this up on one, so don't ask :)

Game Design Challenge: Merry Christmas

Last week I submitted my second entry to Game Career Guide's frequent Game Design Challenge feature. The theme this time was "Merry Christmas" with the goal of, you guessed it, designing a Christmas themed game. Unforgettably my submission was not chosen among the top entries, but I was very happy with my design so I'm still posting it here!

My primary goal was to incorporate the themes and traditions of Christmas into the gameplay itself, rather than simply slapping a Christmas skin on top of a conventional genre. Secondly, I wanted the game to be about Christmas as a whole and explore what the holiday means to different people around the world, rather than just focusing on a single subset such as elves and Santa or the Christian mythos.

Thus was born World Wide Christmas, an "annual global collaborative social game". A game designed to  connect friends, family and strangers, study different cultural influences on Christmas, and make real-life differences in the lives of the players and others.

I was inspired to take this unconditional approach after reading Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken, a fascinating book about how games and lessons learned from them can be used to make the world a better place. In the book she examines a variety of examples of how games can (and have) been used to build communities, improve quality of life, and encouraged people to achieve amazing things together - in virtual worlds AND in the real world.

I had never contemplated designing a game like this before, so it was a great exercise in thinking outside my comfort zone and a very enjoyable experience. I wanted to incorporate so many ideas from Reality is Broken that it was difficult to cut it all down to just 500 words!

I Was Used and Abused By My Asari Girlfriend

The vixen in question

By Commander Shepard, Alliance Navy

Liara and I have always been close. In the three years we’ve know each other we’ve been through a lot - Geth invasion, Reaper attack, interplanetary espionage, and now all out galactic war. That kind of thing brings people together no doubt - but I never expected us to become romantically involved.

Sure we’ve always been good friends, but even when I first knew her I only had eyes for Ashley, and Liara seemed preoccupied with her Prothean research. She even said that she found me “fascinating” because I was “touched by working Prothean technology”. If her fascination with me was based solely on my connection to the Protheans, then thinking back now I can see our relationship was doomed from the start.

BrainHex

I took International Hobo’s BrainHex test the other day and was surprised by the result: Socialiser-Mastermind. Socialiser, meaning multiplayer and social gaming (either online or with immediate company), and Mastermind, meaning puzzle solving and strategic thinking.

Mastermind is understandable as I’ve always been a fan games that require a little more thought, such as the Zelda series and RTS games, but Socialiser was a surprise. I’m not sure what else I expected, five years ago I might have said Conqueror (enjoys tough challenges and punishing failures. Plays for the sensation of victory), but lately I’ve found myself with less patience for games built around the classic hardcore mentality. Don’t get me wrong - I still enjoy a hard earned victory, it’s just I no longer get a thrill out of failing thirty times beforehand. Ten years ago I might have said Achiever (collects everything, plays all the game has to offer), but the completionist in me perished with Donkey Kong 64 (the ultimate collect-a-thon, which none the less I still completed to 101%), unless maybe it’s the odd Metroid game – but only because I’m a hopeless Metroid fanboy.

What We Have to Learn about Learning From Video Games

Over at Screen Play Jason Hill is talking about what video games have taught him. It’s a fun read, and of course the joke is that much of how videos games represent life is silly. This in turn has sparked Screenplay Reader James “DexX” Dominguez to reply with his own list of how video games lie.
Reading these posts got me thinking about what games actually do teach us. Cynics will laugh at the idea that games can teach us anything, unless maybe it’s how to steal cars and shoot people (a familiar argument that never ceases to contradict itself), while gamers on the other hand will claim that games can teach many things - but certainly not how to use a firearm.

Politicians will cite the teaching power of games when lobbying for stricter laws and censorship of violent and controversial titles, and indeed the fear of teaching our kids to be murderers and car thieves has been one of the key concerns in the R18 debate here in Australia. Yet despite all of this there is very little mainstream discussion about what games actually are teaching people. With so much money on the line you would think the critics might show some concern as to the facts they are basing their opinions on (though as we have seen, when it comes to video game censorship the facts often seem to be of very little concern).

I think there is fundamental misunderstanding of what games actually teach, and after reading the Screen Play posts I began to think about what games have taught me. I’m not talking about educational games or training simulations, (which are already in use by many schools, educators and businesses around the world) but the mainstream entertainment we play every day.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

I’m so glad to have played this game. I picked it up on launch day like so many others, but I didn’t know then what I was getting into. I was expecting a good game – I’d watched the videos, read some previews – but I certainly wasn’t expecting a potential Game of the Year. The gameplay is solid and engrossing, the art is great, the sound work is perfect, and the atmosphere never ceases to draw you in. There are plenty of reviews on the web for this game already that say exactly this, so I don’t feel the need to write another one here. Rather I want to talk about two things in particular that stood out for me from a professional point of view. Two things that set this game apart from all others I’ve played this year.