A New Frontier for “The Settlers of Catan”
Posted by Lindsay Lamb – August 2, 2010MContinuing to build its digital game empire, Vectorform re-imagines The Settlers of Catan for Microsoft Surface.
Seattle, WA and Detroit, MI, August 2, 2010—The Settlers of Catan is a classic multiplayer board game, combining economics, strategy and chance, as colonists compete to build settlements from raw commodities. Created in Germany in 1995, and now available in 30 languages, The Settlers of Catan has achieved icon status. Over 15 million copies have been sold worldwide, and an estimated 20 million people play regularly, through a diverse set of traditional and digital game forms.
In partnership with Microsoft, Catan LLC, and Mayfair Games, Vectorform has created Catan for Microsoft Surface. Microsoft Surface is an innovative computing platform that responds to touch, natural hand gestures and real-world objects placed on the display. With a large, 360-degree, horizontal user interface, Microsoft Surface offers a unique gathering place where multiple users can come together to interact with content and each other–making it an ideal platform for games like Catan.
Working to maintain an authentic, interpersonal experience of board game play, Vectorform leveraged the social nature of Microsoft Surface. This functionality, defined by Microsoft as “together computing,” provides a distinct advantage and authenticity over games played on traditional PCs or personal devices. “Where a computer game is a solo computing affair, board games are connected experiences. Together computing has its place now, and will be more prominent in the future.” Vectorform Game Studio Executive Director Joe Engalan says.
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Vectorform to launch “Catan” for the Microsoft Surface
Posted by Lindsay Lamb – June 21, 2010The Settlers of Catan has been one of the most popular strategic board games since its official launch in 1995. The game is translated in over 30 languages and sold more than 15 million copies.
Now Vectorform Game Studio brings you Catan as presented by Mayfair for the Microsoft Surface. This multi-touch, multi-player experience captures the authentic experience provided by the popular board game. Featuring 3 or 4 player modes, a beautifully animated and interactive board, and a free-form interface which keeps play flowing as smoothly as possible, this experience is sure to be a defining element in the legacy of Catan.
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Vectorform hearts Fast Company
Posted by Administrator – May 14, 2009Fast Company gets circulated around Vectorform every month, so we are thrilled that one-and-a-half of our apps were featured in Chris Dannen’s 11 Killer Apps for Microsoft Surface. The article provides information and videos for 11 applications created for the Microsoft Surface.
Our MSNBC Election Experience, created for political analyst Chuck Todd and NBC Universal, made the list, and we got some indirect coverage for a demo application created in partnership with FD Kenisis for Coldwell Banker. FD Kenisis, Coldwell Banker’s Agency of Record created a concept and UX for Coldwell Banker’s Home Search Application. We developed the application incorporating Live Maps and Coldwell Banker’s Existing web services.
We’ve got our fingers crossed that the BMW Product Navigator and SurfaceDJ round the list out to a lucky 13!
Moving Full Throttle
Posted by Vectorform – August 26, 2008We recently completed our first implementation of the Vectorform Surface Trivia Engine, Full Throttle. Players answer questions about automotive finance in a head to head race with friends to rack up points and race across the country. We knew it would be a challenge to make a fun game out of finance trivia, but after a couple of pizzas, a few liters of soda, and the helpful testing of some local students, we found our first game is hard to put down.
Silverlight Viewports
Posted by Dan Dobbs – November 14, 2007One thing you usually recognize about web-based games is that they generally have a fixed view. With a fixed view, your game world matches the web control 1:1. What if you want the game to take place in a larger space, like an entire world, or a galaxy. In the game world, you’d create a viewport or a camera that only displays a portion of the world. Unfortunately, Silverlight doesn’t have native support for viewports into a larger space. We decided to make it.
Source: CanvasViewport C# class
The CanvasViewport is a simple plugin class that can be used to create a viewport on any Canvas (it doesn’t have to be the main page). It works by manipulating the Canvas’ RenderTransform in response to programmed parameters.
Usage:
// Create a viewport on this canvas.
CanvasViewport _Viewport = new CanvasViewport(this);
// Create a viewport that is 320x240 in logical (original canvas) units
_Viewport.Size = new Size(320, 240);
// Set the center of this viewport to 500, 800 on the canvas
_Viewport.Center = new Point(500, 800);
// In a game, you can have the viewport track a player like this:
void Update()
{
_Player.Update();
_Viewport.Center = _Player.Position;
}
An added advantage to using viewports in XAML is that since XAML graphics are all vector based, zooming in and out dosen’t have all of the pixelation problems that working with raster graphics has. Here’s the orignal game without the viewport.
Here’s the game with a smaller viewport into the original world. (Notice that the UI and the Reticle doesn’t change size).
Have fun with your viewports.
Breakout – Silverlight Style
Posted by Dan Dobbs – November 8, 2007
A full breakout clone with source. The demo features 9 levels loaded from embedded XML. There is also an “attract” mode which makes for a nice screen saver.
We also wrote a level editor in WPF because it was so similar to Silverlight. The editor can be released upon request.
Silverlight 1.1 – C#
Silverlight Pong – 1.1 C#
Posted by Dan Dobbs – November 1, 2007
We wanted to start exploring some game development with Silverlight so we started where one should start… good ol’ Pong! Then with the functionality in place we couldn’t help but skin it with some nice imagery of a beat-up ping pong table. Enjoy!
This is our first 1.1 example and we plan on doing more as time allows so check back often.
and for the Javscript folks, here’s the 1.0 version…
Character Assassination
Posted by Administrator – April 3, 2007Game addiction comes and goes at a pretty quick clip here in the office:
So, we built our own! It’s called Character Assassination.
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