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September 29, 2005
SnowBall Warfare
Just a heads up on a great 3D game that's come up on some of the Director mailing lists recently, it's called SnowBall Warfare and if you've got a machine that can handle it then it's well worth giving it a go! The game is a bit resource hungry so those viewing it on lower-end machines (those without robust 3D cards likely) may have performance issues, but here on my ThinkPad T30 (WinXP) it runs like a champ. Have a look, it's quite fun:
SnowBall Warfare
by David Skoglund (www.monsterland.se)
Posted by thiggins at 03:51 PM
September 28, 2005
INM's Impressario Project Contest Update
As I reported back in early August (see INM's Impressario Project Contest from August 2nd) the folks at INM recently hosted their second annual Impressario Project Contest. Well, the event is closed, the judging has been completed and the results are in! Out of the many submissions received three were chosen as the cream of the crop by a panel of judges that included yours truly. Read all about it:
Winners - INM Impressario Project Contest 2005
The goal of this contest is to challenge developers to showcase how they've used INM's Impressario Xtra for Director which allows the display, editing, saving and printing of PDF documents, all without the need for the installed Adobe Reader. If that type of functionality interests you then I suggest that you look into the Impressario Xtra.
Posted by thiggins at 09:27 AM
September 27, 2005
Flocking behavior at MAX 2005?
The Birds of a Feather sessions for the MAX 2005 conference have been sorted and scheduled and I'm here to report that we have one for Director developers. We're set for a Monday night 7pm-8pm session where the agenda is open for the most part, if you're in town for the conference do try to drop in and chat for a while.
Posted by thiggins at 04:25 PM
September 20, 2005
Flash 8 Asset Xtra in development
Hey folks, I'm just posting up a quick blog entry to let you all know that the Director team is working on a new Flash 8 Asset Xtra for both Director and the Shockwave Player. Anyone who has seen the new Flash 8 authoring or Flash Player 8 releases or heard about the new features knows there's a lot of good stuff available and as such we obviously want to make sure that those developing with Director can tap into and/or utilize those new capabilities. At this time I don't have any specific information to share about how and when the new Xtra will be available, but I at least wanted to give a heads up that we're actively under way on this effort. Stay tuned for updates...
Note, for those attending this year's MAX 2005 event please make sure to attend Mark Jonkman's Using Flash and Director Together to Produce Rich Applications session as he'll be discussing some of the new capabilities offered by this new Xtra!
Posted by thiggins at 02:25 PM
September 06, 2005
Video Jigsaw Jam
Yet another awesome example of what's possible using Macromedia Director is the Video Jigsaw Jam available from Nickelodeon's Nick Arcade. This piece, produced by Blitz Digital Studios and programmed by Lucas Meijer and Ullala, allows kids to assemble puzzles that aren't still images but rather playing videos. Of course the videos used are all Nickelodeon videos featuring their regular cast of characters (Spongebob Squarepants for example :) ) and so I can see that many young children, my nephew included, will want to download and play this game. It's a Windows-only downloadable projector and it's available for free as timed-out trial or you can go ahead and purchase it if desired for ongoing use and enjoyment.
If you have chance then give it a look, it's worth the download and install as it's a very well put together and visually appealing bit of content. Kudos to everyone involved, nice work!
Posted by thiggins at 12:51 PM