Downloadable contect (DLC), profiles and setting up a whole bunch of consoles

One of the big challenges right now in developing our collection is how go about getting some of the more innovative or interesting games available.  Most of those games for the consoles seem to come from downloadable content, games like Flower.  They do propose an interesting problem for acquisitions and cataloguing.  We are having a meeting this week to look at, and by we I mean all the people involved in the process.  That is the issue, coming up with a regularized process to move forward with, that will become part of a standard process.  I personally have a PS3, and I have a reasonable feel for how its store works.  I don’t have a very good feel for the Xbox360 though, I will have to set up both systems tomorrow morning on campus and run them, see what I can find out.  Our plan is to make the DLC available, soon as I know how we are doing it, I will post it here.  [Jerremie]

Going over SDK training, trying out Unity

So I have been going back over my Source Development Kit training videos, both because I can’t remember how to do a couple things I need to do for some games I am working on, but also because I am also checking out Unity.  Unity is another development engine and as part of the collection we are looking at getting authoring software.  In other parts of the library we have productivity software to help people use our collections to their fullest.  We will do the same with the games collection.  Students and faculty author in gamic environments for various reasons, focusing on different areas of simulation and game design.  Many of them are already designing games or working in 3D environments like Second Life.  I don’t know if we will have Second Life, I am also going to be looking at Hero Engine, but in the end whatever we license I will also have to support it.  Hero Engine, only gives one development space per license, sort of like buying space in Second Life.  Unity has an asset store which makes it attractive as we also want to purchase the assets that are needed in to build 3D environments.  We will have Valve’s SDK, possibly Unity, maybe even Unreal.  Still testing, and as a result open to suggestions.   (Jerremie)

Valkyria Chronicles, a dog and the PSP

The Valkyria Chronicles was a favorite game of mine, in fact after playing it on my brother-in-law’s PS3 I decided the PS3 was the HD console I would get.  I have played it a couple of times, in fact I even named my dog after a game character, Welkin.  Now why all of this?  Because I have never owned a handheld game device (well at least not in 25 years), and when I started buying equipment I realized that I don’t know too much about them.  Particularly when it comes to sorting out access policies and what should circulate with handheld devices I needed to know. Like how long do the batteries last?  How long do they take to recharge?  (Chris did ask Alan for me, so I have a reasonable idea, but still I felt I needed a better understanding).  I am not sure if I enjoy gaming in this format.  I did get Valkyria Chronicles 2, which I enjoy, but there is less animation and smaller maps.  But what I might like even less is how I can actually play all the time, so quick, so easy, I could see losing sleep and giving up reading etc.  I could even play while walking to work, if it wasn’t so cold out.  At any rate it could be just this game.  I have spent more time with the PSP than the DSxl, probably because graphics matter to me more than I realize, or because I am hooked on Valkyria Chronicles 2.  We will have hand held game devices in the collection and they will circulate with  a case, and charging setup.  This will make cataloguing easier (everything in the case is one item, one record, so the cords and chargers don’t need separate records).  They will circulate on a 3hr loan period along with games. Whether or not we can always check them out charged, or how we will make them bookable, if they are needed for a given class I am not sure.  (Jerremie)