Copy Protection Done Right

Validation is such a wonderful sensation!

Stardock Games, developers of the excellent Galactic Civilizations franchise and publishers of the soon-to-be-released Sins of a Solar Empire, are really on-point with their attitude toward copy protection for PC games, which is pretty much… don’t copy-protect PC games:

“The bottom line on copy protection is that if you create a greater incentive for someone to buy your game than to steal it, those who might possibly buy your game will make the choice to buy it.”

I weep with joy. I’ve been saying this for years!

From the Stardock Games blog via IGN.

Bloxx (beta 1)

I’ve been really distracted lately with work and stuff, so the polishing-off of my puzzle game “Bloxx” has taken a lot longer than expected. But today, finally, it’s ready to go!

About the game: “Bloxx” is an arcade-puzzle game in which you manipulate rows of blocks — which are falling in from the top — to match and clear contiguous sections (or “chunks”) of a certain color. Clearing multiple chunks in quick succession applies an increasing bonus to each subsequent clear, but you have to do it fast or your bonus will reset!

Features:

• Challenge Mode: Complete 9 levels of increasing difficulty, and get the highest score possible
• Survival Mode: Put time back on the clock by clearing chunks; stay in the game as long as you can!
• High Score Tracking: The top 10 are tracked seperately for each game mode
• Original soundtrack: 10 original electronic compositions including ambient, house, tribal, and breaks
• Sexy outer-space backdrops: Because every puzzle game in the universe has sexy outer-space backdrops

Download Bloxx ver. 1.0b (beta)
(ZIP, 27.1 MB)

“Bloxx” is licensed under a
Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0
United States License.
System requirements: You’ll need a PC running Windows XP, a halfway-decent processor (1 GHz or higher is recommended), and DirectX-compatible video and sound devices.

This is a BETA VERSION of Bloxx. If you find any bugs please leave a comment here.

Also, please considering dropping a comment here with your general feedback on the game.

Screenshots:

Soundtrack: The “Bloxx” original soundtrack is also available in MP3 format at my music site, www.soulboundtrance.com. Or you can just pull the OGG files straight out of the “music” folder if you use an Ogg Vorbis-capable player.

I’m Still Alive

Whew, it’s been kind of a while since I updated this here blog… :/

Today I stumbled across GameSetWatch’s Top 12 “Still Alive” Cover Versions, which was an amusing diversion for ten minutes or so. I wasn’t terribly impressed by most of the covers, but there were a few standouts, most notably the Commodore 64-style rendition that clocks in at #1. (There’s also a dude in a furry suit, but that one stood out for a whole different reason…) Go check it out at GameSetWatch.

That article got me thinking that there must be something better out there. And indeed there is! Granted, it’s not “Still Alive”, but as far as Portal-themed remix videos are concerned, this thing takes the cake (aww snap):

You can even download an MP3 of that one! (This shit is so going on my Zune…)