The Chaos Engine

Chaos In The Games Industry

Aug
20
Nine years. Nine long years.
Arguments, nonsense, banning various people, awesome discussions and some lovely and positive moments along the way...

Here's to nine more years...
;)
Jan
08
Voting has begun, head on down to Game Reviews and get stuck in!

http://www.thechaosengine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=60947

Cheers,

Prof.

UPDATE:

Voting is now completed.
Winner is... well, hit the link and find out for yourself.
;)
Dec
16
VOTING HAS ENDED

Winners are...

Jake Simpon
Mick West
Floyd
Brendan McNamanama
and some others things for some other stuff. Great times!

I love you all. You are winners!

Merry Chaosmas and an Engine New Year!
Jan
01
It would appear that the year has gone and changed on us, and traditionally at this sort of time one is supposed to issue salutations and congratulations on the new birth.

Well, I've been rather puzzled as to what to think of this last year... In many ways it has been one of disaster, with many a dead company and forced moves to pastures new (for better or for worse). People seem keen to foretell the end of days for the games industry, given the (not so) slowly shrinking pool of companies.

The thing to remember though (and I appreciate many of you may not be old enough to remember) is that we have been here before (and survived!). Back at the end of the Amiga was the first big one I remember, and then again when the Playstation ushered in an era of 3d which some shops just plain could not cope with.

The trick here is to adapt to survive (and to continue to do so), something which the music and movie businesses still refuse to accept, but I have bigger hopes for our little industry. The reason for this faith is the tremendous successes of various indie games last year. Who would have predicted the rollercoaster success of something like minecraft? How else other than indie production would we have got such treats as Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV? What risk averse major player would have bankrolled games like Osmosis and Eufloria/Dyson? (apologies to any of the big names I didn't mention, my memory is weak, and I am not sure what games happened last year).

The point being that in the heat of the furnace, new gems are formed, and I for one welcome the reminder that what we are about is making games and entertainmentand that not every game has to be AAA big budget, something we seem to loose sight of when serious money becomes involved.

Heres to more of the same in the coming new year!

</rant>
Dec
24
T'was Chaosmas eve and all through the house walked an admin who couldn't be arsed to rhyme.

But seriously folks, as some of you are released from crunch into daylight for the first time in nearly a year, and struggle vainly to find presents which sold out weeks ago in blind snow panic (apologies to those of you who didn't get released - the secret is to get a desk where multiple people are chained, so a few of you can work on getting the fixings loose at the same time), it comes time to wish all of you a Merry Chaosmas!

God bless us, everyone. And stuff.

Now go have a mince pie or something, you are making the place look untidy.
Dec
21
Firstly, its starting to look a lot like fishmen^H^H^H^H^H^H^HChaosmas, and as such (possibly due to moaning in the forums, possibly not) we have the traditional Chaosmas threads up in Irrelevant Corner, so get over there and start an unholy war nominating each other!

Secondly, its kinda fund raising time again - not to worry, we are safe for a bit yet, so if you are strapped for Chaosmas (and lets face it most of us are...) then fret not, we will fleece you rotten in the new year! Unfortunately, we appear to have upset Paypal, who have once AGAIN locked our account, and this time do not appear to want to talk to us about it. As a warning to other people in this situation, it would appear that in Paypal's eyes you are either an individual with a paypal account to buy or sell things, or you are a charity. Seeing as we don't really fit into the first definition, then we are a charity, and our account has been locked until we provide official documentation of being a charity. Which we can't, not being a charity and all...

I wouldn't mind, but this is like the third time this has happened, and now I either have to make an hour+ international phone call to try and sort this out, or dispatch even more emails into the ether to get ignored.

So, whilst Paypal do not want to take the rediculous amount of money they usually take off us, we have a bank account with BACS and IBAN numbers, so feel free to pester me for this (I don't think its the wisest plan to publish these on t'intertubes)

In the meantime, Happy Chaosmas!