RagDoll Development

Gamasutra is running an interview with Mark Healey, developer on the Bullfrog title Dungeon Keeper and, more recently, developer of the Steam-powered beat em' up RagDoll Kung Fu. From the article: "GS: Were you influenced by any gesture interface work in particular? MH: Yes. I remember playing a demo where you could push crash dummies down some stairs, I forget what it was called, maybe it was 'Stair Dismount' or something like that. I almost got a little buzz that you could be like a puppeteer. " Update: 12/06 23:49 GMT by Z : Oops. It's on the Steam service, not made in the Source engine. Wrong (tm).

Porrasturvat

[TripMaster Monkey]

From TFA:

Yes. I remember playing a demo where you could push crash dummies down some stairs, I forget what it was called, maybe it was 'Stair Dismount' or something like that.

Mark is of course referring to the venerable Porrasturvat (Stair Dismount), which can be found here [jet.ro], along with Rekkaturvat (Truck Dismount) and many, many Porrasturvat mods.

Re:Porrasturvat

[Anonymous Coward]

Will you kindly just SHUT THE HELL UP, you moronic KARMA WHORE??

Once ... JUST ONCE ... I'd like to see you actually gain karma (A) without your little minions following you, artificially bumping up your karma because you told them to, (B) without stealing .. sorry .. quoting from the article, and (C) using some genuine insight that is more than rehashing the article.

I frickin' dare you! But you won't because you have no idea how to do it!

The TripMaster Money formula:
1. Quote from the article
2.

Re:Porrasturvat

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

The TripMaster Money formula:
1. Quote from the article
2. Add a one or two-line inane comment
3. Flip a coin to decide whether or not to use that fu*king anime smile
4. Post a link to another site because obviously the great TMM *always* knows about other links (aka Google)
5. Wait for the boot-licking monions to come in and mindlessly click "Informative" when they see the author without even looking at the post itself
6. ???
7. Karma!!!

Well, since you seem to have figured out the formula, why don't you try it? Slashdot needs more TripMaster Monkeys. If you avoid "quoting from the article," you're rarely on topic. And you may consider your opinions "genuine insight," but most people don't want to hear your unrelated rants.

I was going to mention Porrasturvat (a fun game, I can attest), in much the same manner, until I realized someone else had. That information is relevant to the article. I didn't even notice that the poster was TMM until you pointed it out.

TripMaster Monkey only has name recognition because of his sig. Pick a couple of other good Slashdotters and "stalk" them for a few days - they'll be modded as high as TMM. And have you looked at his comment history? He too has plenty of comments left at 2.

And yes, I have mod points, but since the Porrasturvat post was already at 5, I wasn't going to mod it. (Actually, I probably wouldn't mod anything that's just a relevant link past 4.) If you have excellent karma, you'll get mod points often enough that you can counteract the TMM effect - not by downmodding him, but by looking for other insightful posts.

And I'm not afraid of giving my username.

~Geoffrey

Re:Porrasturvat

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Who the Hell is Trip Master Monkey?

Re:Porrasturvat

[Red Flayer]

Yup, it is a childish rant. The fact of the matter is, his post was informative. I read the summary, and immediately thought, hmm, I remember using that demo, what was it called again? I wonder if I still have it linked somewhere.

And lo and behold, TMM posted the information I was wondering about, and saved me a bunch of time searching. And people who hadn't used the demo (which is quite amusing|distubring) which was inspiration to the subject of the article now have it at their fingertips to check it

Re:Porrasturvat

[rmccann]

saved me a bunch of time searching

Not really. First result on a google search for 'stair dismount' [google.ie]

My hypocrisy alarm is going off again

[iced_773]

Just a few things to point out:

It's just as bad as the idiots who fall for trolls and waste their mod points by applying negative mods when there are other posts deserving of positive mods.

Like YOUR post? You could have just left TMM's post alone, but you had to be one of those trolls and waste, at the time of this posting, two mod points, that could have, as you said, been used on a post that deserved to be modded up.

my non-AC account's karma is excellent

How do we know that? You could be a UID of

Re:Porrasturvat

[elhedran]

I just opened up his page and clicked five random modded up comments.

I would my self been happy to spend mod points on all of them, and shock, only one followed the 'TMM formula' you posted.

Maybe you just can't accepts someone is doing better than you? Thats what it seems to be to me.

Moderators only have 5 mod points at a time. So unless you are the first to make a point, and make it pretty close to the posting of the article you have a low chance of getting mod points regardless of the quality. Even then

Re:Porrasturvat

[antdude]

Also, here [pouet.net]. Very popular in demos scene.

Source?

[thebudgie]

From what I've read about Rag Doll Kung Fu it isn't actually based on the Source engine, but is in fact a standalone game. The only thing it has to do with Source is it being available through Steam.

Re:Source?

[HD Webdev]

From what I've read about Rag Doll Kung Fu it isn't actually based on the Source engine, but is in fact a standalone game. The only thing it has to do with Source is it being available through Steam.

Yes, in fact it's clearly stated on the rag doll kung fu home page [ragdollkungfu.com].

"Rag Doll Kung Fu is the first wholly independently developed game to be distributed through Steam, using custom physics and graphics technology to give you a really fresh and unique games experience! It is not a 'Mod' and does not use Val

Re:Source?

[Meagermanx]

Can anyone who has it tell me if you have to connect to the intrawebs every time you want to play, like I've heard you have to with Half-Life 2?
Can you host your own games, and that kind of thing, independent of Valve?

I wouldn't think it would be a problem, but I'm thinking about getting it, so I'm making sure.

BlackShades

[KaosConMan]

If you enjoy Dismount, check out BlackShades -- http://www.icculus.org/blackshades/ [icculus.org] One of it's unique features is the rag-doll skeletal animation. I found the game play to be cute, graphics to be lacking, but the animations very cool.

Most important question

[nzodd]

Unfortunately, the interviewer failed to ask the most important question.

Does Mark Healey have stairs in his house? [somethingawful.com]

Dismount

[everyplace]

Stair and Truck Dismount [jet.ro]

I haven't looked at this "game" in a hot minute, but I definitely remember being amused greatly by the ability to just throw a doll down some stairs or on a truck. Its great to see that they link to mods now too! Like "Spiral Staircase Dismount" ! Man, the possibilities.

Rag Doll Kung Fu?

[Supurcell]

That interview makes Rag Doll Kung Fu sound like a really cool game. Has anybody here played it before? What did you think of it?

Re:Rag Doll Kung Fu?

[josteos]

Its entertaining for a bit, but I found it hard to control. Once I figured out how to control it, I was able to make it to the final level in one sitting. Lost its replay value right there.

The "cut scenes" are funny - Mark Healey & friends (badly) acting out their wannabe kung fu dreams. The game was innovative, fun to play, surprising, hyperkinetic and funny. I didn't try multiplayer so I can't comment on it.

Re:Rag Doll Kung Fu?

[LearningHard]

I played it on a friend's account for awhile. I must say that I came away inredibly happy I didn't shell out money for the game. I really have nothing positive to say about it. For me it definitely ranks as one of the most horrible computer games I've ever played (and this is since the mid 80's).

Stair Dismounter

[neo]

Probably one of the most addictive games ever made and yet it was rediculously simple. More games need to come out with bodies just dangling around in death throws.

Rag Doll Masters

[Anonymous Coward]

Rag Doll Masters [ragdollsoft.com] is another great rag doll game. At least my roomates and I were able to kill a couple drunken hours playing it. It brought back such good memories of mac shareware that I shelled out the $5 to register. I highly reccomend it.

Gesture interface

[Error of Ruto]

I can see how Stair Dismount influenced his choice of physics. But, unless I'm grossly misrembering, Stair Dismount did not have a gesture interface.