Have I ever mentioned how much I love Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace's Battle Droids and their cute little STAP hoverbikes? No? How about their Lego versions? Wait, come ba--
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Listen to a special audio message from Bill Roper to the Hive Workshop community (Bill is a former Vice President of Blizzard Entertainment, Producer, Designer, Musician, Voice Actor) 🔗Click here to hear his message!
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Read Evilhog's interview with Gregory Alper, the original composer of the music for WarCraft: Orcs & Humans 🔗Click here to read the full interview.
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The Hive's 22nd Icon Contest: Creep Abilities is now concluded, time to vote for your favourite set of icons! Click here to vote!
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✅ The POLL for Hive's Texturing Contest #34 is OPEN! Vote for the TOP 3 SKINS! 🔗Click here to cast your vote!
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✅ The POLL for Hive's Techtree Contest #20 is OPEN! Vote for the TOP 3 FACTIONS! 🔗Click here to cast your vote!
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I've spent my entire game dev career thus far going "pathfinding is difficult to implement, but it's a solved problem -- there are libraries for that". To be fair, this strategy that has worked for almost a decade, but as is tradition, the time has come for it to fall apart.
A place where nobody dared to go, the love that we came to know -- they called it Xanadu Next. And now, open your eyes and see, what we have made is real -- we are in Xanadu Next.
It's X-COM, but not as we know it. Why bother with tense turn-based tactical battles where everybody dies when you can jet around at super speeds and spray bullets in all directions as the Enforcer battle-bot?
Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc may play a little fast and loose with history, but can you really argue when she gets to tear through hundreds of troops with sick combo attacks?
Blog 1021: Wars and Warriors: Joan of Arc
If Joan of Arc / Had a heart / Would she give it / As a third-person action-RPG/RTS hybrid.
raodaozao.net
How many times should one remodel a huge chunk of map until it feels right? As many times as it takes, duh.
I never played XCOM: Chimera Squad at the time because it didn't exactly get the rave reviews its predecessors garnered, but with no sign of XCOM 3 on the horizon I'm getting desperate. Will a bit of breach and clear keep me going?
There's always that worry when a sequel changes engine -- and developer -- that something essential might be lost along the way. Luckily, despite all the technlogical flourishes it brings to the table, Deadly Shadows still feels like proper Thief.
That's right, it's demo season again and once more I have been caught with Exon in a right mess. Can I put it back together enough in time for Edinburgh College Games eXpo in Codebase from 5.30pm to 8pm on Tuesday the 26th of May 2026? Guess you'll have to come along and find out. Entry is free!
Blog 1017: Say Hello, Wave Survive
Standing at the door of the game dev expo, crying in the rain / My game had a kind of so-so level and I’m gonna make sure it never happens again.
raodaozao.net
More details about ECGx can be found here, if any of you can get your asses to Edinburgh: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/edinburghcollegegames/2176634
It is only natural that playing through XCOM leaves one with a desire for more XCOM. Luckily there exists a way to sate that desire: XCOM 2.
One of my greatest filmic regrets is not going to see 2016 medieval action-fantasy The Great Wall at the cinema. Every time I watch it that pain grows stronger, because it's basically my perfect film.
![A]mun](https://cdn.hiveworkshop.com/data/avatars/s/140/140771.jpg?1674379729)
When This Wreckage 2?
(someone said jokingly)
Rao
Dao
Zao
It turns out that when I played Thief II: The Metal Age as a teenager, the mission that caused me to give up was only two from the end -- so I had actually seen pretty much all of the game. Now I'm an adult, can I finally see it all the way through?
Blog 1014: Thief II
Unlike my school friends, I never had a rebellious metal age — I went straight to 80s synthpop.
raodaozao.net
Another day, another bit of the level editor. While I've had a robust solution for doing natural terrains in Exon for ages now, I've struggled to integrate man-man mega-structures into the mix. Time to do something about that.
Who doesn't love a bit of XCOM? This time I finally graduated from Easy to Normal difficulty and... Well, I did win, but it made me think. (Always dangerous.)
It is perhaps remiss of me to not have played one of the foundational texts of the immersive sim genre when I'm such a fan of Deus Ex, but here I am, late to the party as always: it's finally time for Thief.
How hard is it to keep an open world populated with just the right number of wandering monsters? You already know the answer: quite hard, actually. Like everything. Sigh.
Blog 1010: Repopulation
Oh, it’s not perilous; the old creature spawning system would have made it perilous, but now the creature spawning system will not make it perilous.
raodaozao.net
It is a truth universally held that the expansion pack does it better, and Star Wars: Empire At War: Forces of Corruption is no exception -- it takes the base game and slams it into hyperspace.
Blog 1009: Forces of Corruption
(Long John Baldry as Dr. Robotnik Voice) Forces of Corrrruption!
raodaozao.net
Yes, Star Wars: Empire At War is still worth the price of entry for the automatic space battle movie camera system alone. Just ignore that bit where the Death Star successfully nukes Yavin 4.
Venetica might actually be my favourite 7/10 eurojank game of all time -- scouring corruption from fantasy Venice is as fun as it is a refreshingly off-beat premise for a third-person action-RPG.
Sometimes a game doesn't survive a second play-through. According to the history books, I gave Divinity: Dragon Commander a glowing review when it launched, but today I struggle to see the appeal. I'm not getting old, you're getting old.
Hard to believe, I know, but I just launched a video game. (No, not that one.)
Or skip the obligatory blog post (oblogatory?) and go straight to the game -- it's FREE and it plays straight in your browser! IsoMatch by Rao Dao Zao
I will apparently do a lot for a late-90s third-person fantasy game, namely waiting years for a suitably pristine retail copy to come on sale so I can snap it up. Finally, Drakan: Order of the Flame has winged its way to me.
Blog 1004: Drakan: Order of the Flame
Order of the Flame? It’d like the steak, please. Well done.
raodaozao.net
You ever try to gently improve your level design tools and end up reimplementing Undo? No? Just me, then?
Blog 1003: A Deeper Can of Worms
And there’s nothin’ I can do, you’re so far, far away, you’re so far away.
raodaozao.net
I definitely like the idea of stealth action games even if I'm rarely patient enough to pull them off. My time with Stolen was, alas, no different than usual. "Stick to the shadows," they said...
A new year is always a good time to reset the clock on a project that's been dragging for a while. It's time to put Shattered By Light back on schedule.
Blog 1001: Old Year’s Resolution
My new year’s resolution is the same as it ever was: 1440×1080, or 1024×768 if the game won’t take it.
raodaozao.net
Sometimes in life you come across a game that just makes you want to gush. Today, Tribes: Vengeance is that game -- a triumph of a mid-00s FPS.
Legends of Aranna adds nothing to Dungeon Siege's core, but it does manage to rearrange the existing pieces into something markedly more compelling.
Dungeon Siege is neither a satisfying action-RPG nor an engrossing tactical party RPG. In trying to straddle the line it has only managed to make the worst of both worlds... But god damn if it doesn't look good doing it.
Blog 998: Dungeon Siege
It’s okay, there actually is a dungeon that is under siege (right at the end).
raodaozao.net
You didn't seriously think you'd get away without a UT2004 blog this year, did you? I've been playing for years and somehow only just discovered the hidden Onslaught ladder.
Looking back on the games I've played this year, it has been quite the eclectic mix. Critical darlings that I hate, critically maligned sequels that I love, plus the usual heap of weird old shit nobody else has heard of -- love 'em or hate 'em, though, they're all very pretty looking.
Since I've apparently been on an RTS kick recently, I decided to squeeze one more little one in before the festive season. Populous: The Beginning is an absolute classic that still shines despite its advanced years.
Blog 995: Populous: The Beginning
It’s an Ebenezer Goode game, where you can Move Any Mountain.
raodaozao.net
Sometimes I overhear somebody mention an obscure old game and immediately set my sights on having it. Today's dive into the wilderness comes courtesy of Devastation, which is certainly an FPS from 2003.
Blog 994: Devastation
Flynn Haskell: revolutionary street fighter or functional programming language?
raodaozao.net
I don't often play RTS skirmish matches, but when I do, it's... always Age of Empires II. But even AoE2 skirmishes don't quite hit the spot. Could they be better?
Why make one game when you can make two? KnightShift is primarly an RTS/RPG hybrid, but it also comes with a dedicated action-RPG mode...
If the prospect of a fantasy RPG/RTS isn't enough to get me through the door, then a punny title will definitely seal the deal.
Did I mention it's probably time to rebuild another system? This time it's Terragne under the knife (again). Don't worry, it's not a full rebuild, just... major surgery.
Blog 990: The Path of the Level Editor
Modding support is definitely scope creep, you got me this time.
raodaozao.net
Did somebody say "RTS with customisable laser-sword-wielding giant mechs"? Hellooooo there Metal Fatigue!
Winter of the Wolf offers a slightly disappointing new campaign after all the delights of Battle Realms, but at least it's the obligatory snowy expansion pack.
Battle Realms is an RTS packed with more than enough cute flourishes to embarrass any of its early-00s contemporaries.
Blog 987: Battle Realms
Battle Realms is another one of those games that GOG gave away for free at some point, years and years ago, and despite thinking “that looks kinda cool” for most of that time, I’v…
raodaozao.net
Sometimes what you need is an obscure early-00s FPS with expansive, often beautiful levels... Just a shame the shooting's not up to much. That'll be why Chaser is obscure, then.
Initially I was surprised by Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir's swerve into free-form world map wandering, then I realised that I loved its skill-driven discoveries and bite-sized dungeons.
Mask of the Betrayer continues the story of Neverwinter Nights 2... sort of. In as much as some more stuff happens to the same person for (mostly) unrelated reasons. Luckily high-level D&D is always good fu-- oh. Oh dear.
Now that exhibition season is over I've returned to working on Exon's art, which inevitably means I need to play with the Milkshape file importer again. I swear, I'll never be happy.
Blog 983: Extra Model Data
How long do we think it’ll be until I do the obligatory regretpost rescinding everything I say here?
raodaozao.net
It turns out that the more open-ended a scenario is, the harder it is to get the pacing right. Who could have predicted this?
Blog 982: Shattered By Pacing
“We’ve reached the point of no progress reports,” he said, before immediately coming out with another progress report.
raodaozao.net
Despite thinking that Neverwinter Nights was a honking pile of shit, I decided it was time to play the sequel. It does have a better reputation, but then again, so have many other sequels I didn't like... I... I may have a problem.
Picture the scene: you're in a fight and you desperately need some repairs, but all your repair kits are stuck in your inventory and you can't grab them. Well, what if they weren't hidden away...?
Dawn of War II's second expansion pack decided to half-heartedly become an RTS again and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Blog 979: Retribution
In the grim darkness of the far future, there are only missed opportunities.
raodaozao.net
Given how stand-alone all of Dawn of War's expansion packs were, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising allows you to import your progress in the base game for high-level heresy funtimes.
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