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Humble Bundle have just released another bundle of interest to game developers, the Humble Book Bundle: Become a Game Developer.  The title is slightly misleading as the majority of content are actually video courses and tutorials, although there are also half a dozen current Unity books from Packt in the bundle.  As always, the bundle is split into tiers.  Buying a higher tier also nets you all the contents from lower value tiers.

Bundle tiers:

1$ Tier

• Unity 2018 Artificial Intelligence Cookbook **
• Hands-On Game Development with Unity 2018.1
• Mobile Game Development with Unity 3D 2019
• Game Design with Unity 2019

8$ Tier

• Unity Artificial Intelligence Programming **
• Practical Unity Game Development
• Hands-On Augmented Reality with ARCore and Unity
• Introduction to Unity
• Skeletons vs Zombies MOBA With Multiplayer in Unity
• Beginner and Advanced Lighting in Unity
• Cinematics and Animation in Unity

15$ Tier

• Unity Virtual Reality Projects **
• Unity 2018 Shaders and Effects Cookbook **
• Unity 2018 Cookbook **
• Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2019 **
• Master ARCore 1.3 Unity SDK
• Create an Image Target Based AR Experience Using Unity 3D and Vuforia 7
• Create Augmented Reality Apps using Vuforia 7 in Unity
• Create a Game Environment with Blender and Unity

Items marked with ** are books, all other items are videos.  You can decide how your money is allocated, between Humble, the publisher, charity or if you choose to support GameFromScratch (thanks!!!) using this link.  You can learn more about this bundle in the video below.

GameDev News Unity

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While not true for all, many mobile games fall squarely within the tower defense, MOBA, or pay-to-win genres. It’s rare that you find a turn-based RPG that’s actually an exciting, quality experience that feels as though it could have made a home on PC or consoles, save for the errant port. But that’s exactly what I found with Battle Chasers: Nightwar. It’s a turn-based RPG with modern and retro elements that manages to dazzle, despite the usual trappings of mobile gaming. If you’re looking for a sprawling mobile adventure that feels like jumping into a classic game of yesteryear, you’ll find it here.

Nightwar sets the stage immediately with a gorgeously-animated cinematic scene that kicks things off right with western comic artwork and fantastic voice acting. The narrative follows a young girl named Gully who’s searching for her father, along with the help of a war golem named Calibretto. Along the way, the pair rendezvous with swordsman Garrison, rogue Red Monika, and mage Knolan as their paths cross with a group of enemies led by the sorceress Destra, who wants to take all the land’s mana for herself. What begins as a modest journey throughout the landscape to find Gully’s father after their airship crashes turns into a much deeper story than that as you traverse the landscape.

From the first few moments of the game, it’s clear that plenty of work went into making it lush and believable. The Western fantasy-inspired landscape is rife with locations to explore in the background and foreground, but even more dazzling are the characters themselves. They’re surprisingly detailed and move fluidly, with a level of detail I simply didn’t expect to be translated for the mobile version of the game, which originally landed on consoles and PC. From your characters’ portraits to their sprites, they exude personality and uniqueness, and you feel as though you’re on the precipice of something epic as each new character is introduced.

The game plays out much like you’d expect a turn-based RPG would. As you make your way through the world to advance the story, you’ll explore a hub-like overworked that has clearly-marked points of interest to explore. It’s a much more streamlined method of pushing players to their next objective, with icons representing houses to enter, monsters to fight, and dungeons to explore. You use an on-screen control pad to navigate, which doesn’t feel terrible for once, or you can tap where you want to go along the path before you.

You tap on icons to interact with them, such as an exclamation point to investigate a new location, and if you happen upon a monster icon in your way, it’ll be time to fight. Combat is where the game truly shines, and it’s a good thing – there’s plenty of grinding to be mindful of when getting started, with each character receiving their own level and skill tree to fill out. You get three in your party at a time, and you must have them all participate in battle if you want to earn experience. This means grinding is usually necessary if you don’t want an unbalanced team.

With that said, as you explore dungeons and make your way throughout the game, you’ll have to fight plenty of monsters. It looks familiar at a glance, but features some intriguing permutations that make it different from the rest. You take turns, with your party represented as well as your enemies via the timeline at the top right of the screen. This way you can always see who’s up next. You take turns slinging attacks at each other or using defensive manoeuvre as you build up Overcharge. Overcharge is accumulated as you use certain attacks (mana-less options), which is added to your mana gauge. This means Overcharged characters get plenty of mana to use. So you charge up your gauge, and your characters can then use powerful attacks. It’s pretty cool stuff, especially if you’re into annihilating your enemies without trying too hard.

There’s also Burst, which builds up slowly as you take turns. Your party shares the resource, and it can reach three charge levels. When at a high enough level, any character can use it to rip a powerful ability free, even if they’re low on mana. They’re cinematic, powerful attacks that you’ll love to watch, and they’ll do a devastating amount of damage to your enemies. There’s a lot of strategy involved when it comes to figuring out when’s best to use Overcharge and when you should actually let a Burst fly. Between these combat options and regular gameplay, there’s a lot to keep track of, which keeps things interesting.

An excellent traversal system, gorgeous artwork, music, and voice acting as well s a nuanced combat system make for an exciting cocktail for Battle Chasers: Nightwar, but one thing I did observe was that the game sometimes didn’t seem to respond to input as readily as I wanted it to. Sometimes, I’d have to tap on a target a few times to get it to do anything. I know it’s not my responsive iPhone X screen, as I have no other issues elsewhere, and is localized to the game. Not a huge deal, but frustrating nevertheless.

In a world where mobile games are often treated as second fiddle to their more explosive, bombastic console and PC cousins, it was refreshing to see so much loving attention heaped upon the mobile version of an obviously successful and interesting RPG. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the mobile version, but found that it was just as pleasing as the original game, but even more so since I can take it with me anywhere I go. It’s also a game you pay for once, meaning you don’t have to continue blowing cash on it after your initial purchase.

Whether you’re an RPG buff looking for your next fix or you want a fun, exciting mobile story-based game to sink some time into, Battle Chasers: Nightwar is a fantastic option. You won’t be disappointed.

The ASP.NET team has built a command-line tool called HttpRepl. It lets you browse and invoke HTTP services in a similar way to working with files and folders. You give it a starting point (a base URL) and then you can execute commands like “dir” and “cd” to navigate your way around the API:

C:\> dotnet httprepl http://localhost:65369/
(Disconnected)~ set base http://localhost:65369
Using swagger metadata from http://localhost:65369/swagger/v1/swagger.json http://localhost:65369/~ dir
. []
Fruits [get|post]
People [get|post] http://localhost:65369/~ cd People
/People [get|post] http://localhost:65369/People~ dir
. [get|post]
.. []
{id} [get]

Once you have identified the API you are interested in, you can use all the typical HTTP verbs against it. Here is an example of calling GET on http://localhost:65369/People as a continuation from before:

http://localhost:65369/People~ get
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2019 20:33:07 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/10.0
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET [ { "id": 1, "name": "Scott Hunter" }, { "id": 0, "name": "Scott Hanselman" }, { "id": 2, "name": "Scott Guthrie" }
]

Right now HttpRepl is being shipped as a .NET Core Global Tool, which means all you have to do to get it is run the following command on a machine with the .NET Core SDK installed:

C:\> dotnet tool install -g Microsoft.dotnet-httprepl --version “3.0.0-*”

The ASP.NET team built HttpRepl for the purpose of exploring and testing APIs. The idea was to make the experience of exploring and testing APIs through a command-line more convenient. What do you think about HttpRepl and what other uses do you envision for it? We would love to hear your opinion, please leave us a comment below or visit the project on GitHub. And for those wondering, HttpRepl’s official ship date is expected to align with .NET Core 3.0 GA.

Configure Visual Studio Code to launch HttpRepl on debug

You can configure Visual Studio to launch HttpRepl when debugging (along with your web app) by creating a new launch configuration as follows:

"version": "0.2.0", "compounds": [ { "name": ".NET Core REPL", "configurations": [ ".NET Core Launch (web)", "httprepl" ] } ], "configurations": [ { "name": "httprepl", "type": "coreclr", "request": "launch", "program": "dotnet", "args": ["httprepl", "http://localhost:5000"], "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}", "stopAtEntry": false, "console": "integratedTerminal" }, { "name": ".NET Core Launch (web)", "type": "coreclr", "request": "launch", "preLaunchTask": "build", // If you have changed target frameworks, make sure to update the program path. "program": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/Debug/netcoreapp3.0/api.dll", "args": [], "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}", "stopAtEntry": false, // Enable launching a web browser when ASP.NET Core starts. For more information: https://aka.ms/VSCode-CS-LaunchJson-WebBrowser "serverReadyAction": { "action": "openExternally", "pattern": "^\\s*Now listening on:\\s+(https?://\\S+)" }, "env": { "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development" }, "sourceFileMap": { "/Views": "${workspaceFolder}/Views" } }

Configure Visual Studio for Windows to launch HttpRepl on F5

You can configure Visual Studio to automatically launch HttpRepl when you F5 a project with the following simple steps:

The .exe for HttpRepl on Windows can be found in the following location:

%USERPROFILE%\.dotnet\tools\dotnet-httprepl.exe

Don’t forget to select it from the menu after adding it:

Next time you F5 your project, Visual Studio will automatically launch HttpRepl with the appropriate base URL (same URL that would have been passed to a browser, controlled through launchsettings):

Note: We are currently working on integrating HttpRepl into Visual Studio, which will give you an out-of-the box and more refined experience.

Configure Visual Studio for Mac to launch HttpRepl as a Custom Tool

In Visual Studio for Mac, you can configure a Custom Tool to open a new Terminal window and start httprepl. To configure this, go to Tools>Edit Custom Tools…

This will bring you to the External Tools dialog where you can add a new tool. To get started click the Add button to add a new tool. Here you will configure a new tool to launch a new Terminal instance and start the httprepl tool. Fill in the dialog with the following values.

• Title: dotnet httprepl
• Command: osascript
• Arguments: -e ‘tell application “Terminal” to activate’ -e ‘tell application “Terminal”
  to do script “dotnet-httprepl”‘
• Working directory: ${ProjectDir}

See the image below showing this new tool:

After clicking OK a new tool will appear in the Tools menu. To test your application with httprepl, start your application with Run>Start Debugging (or Run>Start without Debugging) and then start the httprepl with the new tool in the Tools menu:

When you invoke the tool a new Terminal window should appear in the foreground. From here you can set the base url to that of the api that you would like to test with set base. For example, see the image below that shows set base was executed and a get request will be executed next:

Give us feedback

It’s not HTTPie, it’s not Curl, but it’s also not PostMan. It’s something that you run and stays running and its aware of its current context. We find this experience valuable, but ultimately what matters the most is what you think. Please let us know your opinion by leaving comments below or on GitHub.

 

By Malcolm Owen
Wednesday, September 04, 2019, 06:47 am PT (09:47 am ET)

Google and subsidiary YouTube has been hit with a record $170 million fine by the Federal Trade Commission, to settle allegations the search company violated a law protecting children’s privacy.

The fine is split into $136 million paid to the FTC and $34 million to New York, to end the investigation by the FTC and the New York Attorney General.

It is alleged YouTube collected data on its youngest users and broke the law by not gaining consent from parents beforehand. The complaint further claims the collection was made via cookies, persistent identifiers which allowed YouTube and Google to target ads to viewers.

Google claims that YouTube is a general-audience site. But, since some channels are aimed at children, YouTube as a whole must comply with COPPA.

The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a rule that requires online services aimed at children to provide details of their information collection and usage practices, and to obtain parental consent before collecting any personal data for users aged under 13. The rules apply not only to sites and services, but also third parties like advertising networks, in cases where they know the age of the person they are profiling.

“YouTube touted its popularity with children to prospective corporate clients,” said FTC Chairman Joe Simons. “Yet when it came to complying with COPPA, the company refused to acknowledge that portions of its platform were clearly directed to kids. There’s no excuse for YouTube’s violations of the law.”

Whetu Paitai’s always been good at building. In fact, he might still be a builder in Australia if it weren’t for two things: a broken leg and a promise kept. Thanks to life’s strange twists he’s back home in the Coromandel, but instead of putting up houses, he’s reconstructing the world of his Tīpuna (ancestors). 

The path was laid almost a decade ago, when Whetu was in hospital with a broken leg. A university lecturer in the same ward raved to him about Minecraft. When Whetu suggested his daughter try the game she was instantly hooked – and so was he. The pair bonded over their shared passion for creating digital worlds. 

Fast forward a few years, and Whetu, now a father of four, often wished his tamariki (children) could connect with their culture by learning to speak te reo Māori, something he’d never learned to do. A promise to his wife saw them return to New Zealand and he’s never looked back since.   

Now Whetu has not only reconnected with his culture and heritage, immersing his children in te ao Māori (the Māori world), he’s found a new calling: designing games that introduce his culture to countless other children. His latest is a brand-new world built for Minecraft: Education Edition, Ngā Motu (The Islands), giving students a taste of what life was like in a traditional Māori pā (fortified village).  

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There’s great value in little things 

Whetu is the founder of Piki Studios, a game design company he runs while home-schooling his children on the remote Coromandel Peninsula. The leap from builder to educational games developer may seem like a big one, but Whetu remembers being drawn to technology from an early age. 

“When I was a kid I enjoyed computers, but the geeky stereotype didn’t fit with the Kiwi view of being a boy. I grew up in Harataunga (Kennedy Bay), surrounded by bush. Computers went on the back-burner.” 

When he returned to New Zealand, and still a massive Minecraft fan, Whetu was seduced afresh by digital technology, so he retrained. Armed with new digital skills, he found himself helping out with the admin at his children’s kohanga reo (Māori-language preschool), and a lightbulb went on: “If I could be involved that much in my kids’ education, how much more involved could I be?” 

Whetu realised that by marrying his passion for IT with education, he could help other children learn the language and culture too by creating fun new resources.  

And so his game building began. He started by creating an online game, Mahimaina (Minecraft in te reo Māori), to help children learn the language, joined by around 100 students. More games are set to follow, both online and traditional board games, which Whetu hopes will be used by schools and whānau (families) around the country.  

“There’s great value in little things,” he says. “For a child, seeing their culture represented on major global platforms is incredibly empowering.”  

It was exactly what one of the world’s largest tech companies was looking for.  

Last year, Microsoft came knocking. Would Whetu like to create a uniquely Aotearoa (New Zealand) resource for Minecraft: Education Edition?  

A voyage through Aotearoa 

“It blew our minds,” says Whetu. “I knew Minecraft, but it wasn’t till we explored Minecraft: Education Edition, tweaked it, played with it and saw all the additional things it could do that we realised all the potential. This will open up so much more space for Māori and all Kiwis to learn and play in the Māori world.”  

Minecraft: Education Edition brings the world of Minecraft to classrooms around the world, offering hundreds of free lessons as well as a global educator community. Immersive game-based learning helps students build key 21st century skills including creativity, collaboration and STEM. Educators across New Zealand are already using Minecraft to transform learning, from learning programming with Hour of Code to designing sustainable villages and even reconstructing Gallipoli in-game. 

Whetu is the first to create a brand-new world immersed in te ao Māori. Characters based on his children and their friends guide young players as they walk through Ngā Motu, from the impressive waka hourua (sea-going canoe) at the beach to the pā with its wharenui (large meeting house) decorated with kōwhaiwhai (painted panels) and tukutuku (woven lattice). Pātaka, rua (food storage areas) and a hāngī pit for cooking can also be found in the pā.  

Whetu has gone into painstaking detail to make sure everything has a uniquely Aotearoa flavour, right down to the kumara (sweet potato) gardens where children can create new buildings. The resource packs swap typical swords for more appropriate patu (clubs) and even the mobs will have Kiwi kids feeling right at home.  

Whetu’s younger daughter requested her favourite bird, a pīwaiwaka (fantail), you can interact with a native kunekune pig and even an extinct moa, New Zealand’s famous giant bird, complete with sound recreated by the experts at national museum Te Papa. Children can learn words in te reo Māori from the guides, or via in-game exercises. 

In future iterations, intrepid voyagers will be able to visit the taniwha (guardian) in the harbour and collect kaimoana (seafood) near some pink terraces that may remind New Zealanders of the long-lost Pink Terraces, destroyed by a volcanic eruption more than 100 years ago. All of these will add to children’s glossary of Māori words and understanding of Māori history and narratives. 

“I would love the kura (schools) to build their own pā or wharenui, explore the world on their own and learn how to care for the moa,” Whetu says. 

“We’re believers in learning being organic, being able to explore all the elements, because nothing in our lives exists in isolation. Our mission is for everyone to be able to play these games and see more than just what a waka is – they’ll be able to see how it fits into that whole world,” Whetu explains. 

A “serendipitous” opportunity 

This philosophy is exactly why Microsoft New Zealand’s Sam McNeill and Anne Taylor came to Piki Studios. 

“Whetu’s so passionate about education and helping all kids, not just his own, understand our indigenous culture and that really shines through when you speak to him. He’s a natural teacher,” says Anne, Education Lead for Microsoft New Zealand.  

“The creativity and attention to detail with which Whetu has approached this project just blew us away. What he’s created goes way beyond what we could ever have expected.” 

Whetu acknowledges getting the call from Microsoft was daunting, being a small family business dealing with a large multinational corporation. It was a relief to find he was working with people who shared the same values and goals.  

“A better opportunity couldn’t have presented itself. Straight off the bat, Sam and Anne knew te ao Māori, believing in dealing honestly and genuinely with indigenous people, and we never lost any of that closeness that is so important. It was truly serendipitous.”  

The group were determined to ensure all the translations were accurate. Two professional translators, Hemi Kelly and Piripi Walker, worked with Whetu and the team to translate the language pack for the game, including the instructions. There were even some new words for some of the more in-game Minecraft items. 

“It was important to make sure te ao Māori was respected as its own being, the mana (status) and cultural IP of each artefact upheld and maintained throughout the process,” Whetu says.  

The most difficult part was the timeframe, just five short weeks. Luckily Whetu was supported by other Māori working in the tech space, making it a truly collaborative process. And of course Whetu’s children acted as in-house quality assurance – keeping Dad on top of his game. 

First Harataunga, then the world? 

Soon Ngā Motu will reach an audience beyond New Zealand, as Piki Studios is now an official member of the Minecraft Partner Program, enabling it to add to the resources available in the global Minecraft Marketplace. For now, the game will be available to classrooms in New Zealand, as part of Microsoft’s Schools Agreement that provides resources such as Minecraft: Education Edition to every State and State-Integrated school. 

 “Ngā Motu is a truly amazing resource for Kiwi students and teachers and we know they’re going to absolutely love exploring and building on this world,” says Anne. 

“It’s not just Whetu’s children. We showed it to some of our global colleagues and the excitement in the room was just palpable.” 

Not bad for a boy from Harataunga. 

For more information on Minecraft: Education Edition in New Zealand please visit: http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Future-focused-learning/Minecraft or visit Piki Studios https://www.pikistudios.com/ 

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Te waihanga anō i ngā ao tuku iho mā ngā poraka mariko 

Mai anō e taunga ana a Whetu Paitai ki ngā mahi waihanga. Ina, tērā pea e mahi waihanga tonu ana ia i Ahitereiria engari nā ēnei mea e rua: i whati te waewae me te ū ki te kupu oati. Nā ngā āhuatanga o te ao kua tau atu ki te wā kāinga i Hauraki, engari kāore ia i whakatū whare, kei te whakatūtū kē anō ia i te ao o ōna tīpuna. 

He mea whakatakoto tēnei ara i tōna tekau tau ki mua, i te wā i rō hōhipera a Whetu nā te whatinga o tōna waewae. I te waha pakaru haere tētahi kaiako whare wānanga ki a ia mō Minecraft. I te meatanga a Whetu ki tana tamāhine kia whakamātauria e ia te kēmu i tino rawe rawa atu ki tana tamahine – me ia anō. Ka hono tahi rāua i runga i tō rāua kaingākau ki te waihanga ao matihiko. 

Ka huri ngā tau, kua whā ngā tamariki ināianei a Whetu, me tana manako kia hono ana tamariki ki tō rātau ao Māori mā te ako ki te kōrero i te reo Māori, kāore hoki a Whetu i mōhio ki tōna reo. Nā tana kupu oati ki tana hoa wahine ka hoki mai rātau ki Aotearoa, kāore mo te hoki whakamuri.  

Nā, kua hono atu a Whetu ki tōna ao Māori, koinei hoki te ao o ana tamariki, kua whai ia te tino oranga mōna: te waihanga kēmu me te tūhono atu i tōna ahurea ki ngā tamariki huhua. Ko tāna mea hou rawa ko tētahi ao tino hou mō Minecraft: Te Putanga Mātauranga, Ngā Motu, e pā atu ai ngā ākonga ki te āhua o te ao i roto i tētahi pā Māori.  

He mea nui kei roto i ngā mea iti 

Nā Whetu i whakaara ake a Piki Studios, he kamupene waihanga kēmu e whakahaerehia ana e ia i a ia e kura ana i ana tamariki i te kāinga i te takiwā mamao o Hauraki. Ko te whakaaro pea he tino nui te neke mai i te mahi waihanga ki te waihanga kēmu mātauranga, engari i maumahara a Whetu ki tana kaingākau ki te hangarau i a ia e paku ana. 

“I ahau e tamariki ana he rawe ki ahau te raweke rorohiko, engari kāore i ū te āhua o te ihu rorohiko ki te whakaaro o te iwi o Aotearoa mō te āhua o te tama. I pakeke mai ahau i Harataunga, i waenganui o te ngahere. Ka whakarerea ngā rorohiko.” 

I tana hokinga mai ki Aotearoa, ā, ka mutu e kaingākau tonu ana ki a Minecraft, i riro te wairua o Whetu ki ngā hangarau matihiko, nā ka hoki ia ki te ako. Ka riro mai i a ia ōna pūkenga matihiko hou, ka huri ia ki te āwhina i te kōhanga reo o ana tamariki me ngā mahi tari, ā, i reira ka taka mai he whakaaro ki a ia. “Mēnā e pēnei rawa te nui o taku uru ki te mātauranga o aku tamariki, kia pēhea te whakawhānui kē atu i tōku uru atu? 

I kite a Whetu mā te hono i tōna kaingākau mō te ao rorohiko ki te mātauranga, ka taea e ia te āwhina i ētahi atu tamariki ki te ako i te reo me ngā tikanga mā te waihanga i ngā rauemi pārekareka hou.  

Nā, ka tīmata tana mahi waihanga kēmu. I tīmata ia mā te waihanga i tētahi kēmu tuihono, Mahimaina (ko Maincraft i roto i te reo Māori), hei āwhina i ana tamariki ki te ako i te reo, me ngā ākonga tata ki te 100. He nui atu anō ngā kēmu kei te whai mai, ngā kēmu tuihono me aua kēmu papa anō, ā, ko te tūmanako o Whetu ka whakamahia e ngā kura me ngā whānau puta noa i te motu.  

Hei tāna, “He mea nui kei roto i ngā mea iti.” “Mō tētahi tamaiti, ka nui te whakamana i te kite i tō rātau ao e whakaaturia ana ki ngā pūhara ā-ao nui.”  

Koinei tonu te mea e kimihia ana e tētahi o ngā kamupene hangarau nui rawa o te ao.  

I tērā tau i whakapā mai a Microsoft. Kei te hiahia a Whetu ki te waihanga i tētahi rauemi ahurei ki Aotearoa mā Minecraft: Education Edition?  

Te hīkoi i Aotearoa 

“I tino mīharo mātau,” te kī a Whetu. “I te mōhio ahau mō Minecraft, engari nō te hōpara haere i a Minecraft: Education Edition, i rāwekewekehia, i pureihia e mātau, ā, ka kite i ngā mea tāpiri ka taea kātahi ka mārama ki tōna kaha ka taea. He nui ake te wāhanga ka tuwhera mai i tēnei mō te Māori me ngā tāngata katoa o Aotearoa ki te ako me te purei i roto i te ao Māori.”  

Ka heria mai e Minecraft: Education Edition te ao o Minecraft ki ngā akomanga puta noa i te ao, e tuku ana i ngā akoranga koreutu maha rawa me tētahi hapori whakaako ā-ao. Ka āwhina ngā akoranga ā-kēmu rumaki i ngā ākonga ki te whakapakari i ngā pūkenga rau tau 21, tae atu ki te auahatanga, mahi tahi me te STEM. Kei te whakamahia kētia e ngā kaiwhakaako hei takahuri i ngā akoranga, mai i te ako i te papatono mā te Hour of Code mai i te waihanga i ngā pā toitū, me te aha me te waihanga anō i a Karipori i rō kēmu. 

Ko Whetu te mea tuatahi ki te waihanga i tētahi ao hou rawa i roto katoa i te ao Māori. Ka ārahina ngā kaitākaro tamariki e ngā kiripuaki, i takea mai ēnei i ana tamariki me ō rātau hoa, i a rātau e hīkoi haere ana i Ngā Motu, mai i te waka hourua ātaahua i tātahi ki te pā me te wharenui me ōna kōwhaiwhai, tukutuku hoki. Ka kitea anō i roto i te pā ko ngā pātaka, rua me rua hāngī mō te tunu kai.  

He tino hōhonu rawa te āhua o ngā iroirotanga i oti i a Whetu kia mau ai te āhuatanga ake o Aotearoa, tae atu ki ngā māra kūmara e taea ai e ngā tamariki te waihanga whare hou. Kua whakakapia i roto i ngā kete rauemi ngā hoari mō ngā patu, ka mutu ka tino taunga ngā tamariki o Aotearoa ki ngā māpu.  

I tono a te pekepoho kōtiro a Whetu i tana tino manu te pīwaiwaka, ka taea e koe te pāhekoheko me tētahi poaka kunekune me tētahi moa kua korehāhā me ngā tangi i hangaia anō e ngā mātanga o Te Papa. Ka taea e ngā tamariki te ako i te reo Māori mai i ngā kaiārahi, mā ngā tūmahi i rō kēmu rānei. 

I roto i ngā auau o muri mai ka taea e ngā kaumoana te toro ki ngā taniwha i roto i te whanga me te kohikohi kaimoana e tūtata ana ki ngā parehua, ā, ka hoki pea ngā whakaaro o ngā tāngata ki Ōtūkapuārangi kua ngaro noa atu, i riro atu i roto i tō pahūtanga puia neke atu i te 100 tau ki mua. Ka tāpiri ēnei mea katoa ki te kete kupu a ngā tamariki me te whakawhānui i tō rātau mōhio ki te hītori me ngā kōrero a te Māori. 

“Ka nui taku hiahia kia hangaia e ngā kura ā rātau ake pā, wharenui rānei, te hōpara i te ao me te ako me pēhea te tiaki i te moa,” te kī a Whetu. 

“E whakapono ana mātau ka pā noa mai ngā akoranga, mā te āhei ki te hōpara i ngā āhuatanga katoa, i te mea e kore e noho wehe motuhake tētahi mea i roto i ō tātau ao. Ko tā mātau whāinga kia taea e ngā tāngata katoa ēnei kēmu, ā, ka whānui ake tā rātau kite i tētahi waka – ka kite kē rātau i te urunga atu ki roto i te ao whānui,” te whakamārama a Whetu. 

He whai wāhitanga i “tūpono noa atu 

Koinei tonu te tikanga whakaaro i haere atu a Sam McNeill rāua ko Anne Taylor o Microsoft New Zealand ki a Piki Studios. 

“He tino ngākaunui a Whetu ki te mātauranga me te āwhina i ngā tamariki, kaua ko āna anake, kia mārama ki tō tātau ahurea taketake, ā, ka kitea puta tēnei i ā koe e kōrero ana ki a ia. He tino kaiako ia,” te kī a Anne, Kaiārahi Mātauranga mō Microsoft New Zealand.  

“I tino mīharo rawa atu mātau ki te auaha me ngā iroirotanga katoa i roto i ngā mahi a Whetu mō tēnei kaupapa. Kua eke kē atu ia ki āna mahi ki te taumata i manakohia e mātau.” 

I kī ia i āhua wehi ia i te waeatanga mai a Microsoft, ina he pakihi whānau iti mātau e whakariterite ana me tētahi kāporeihana nui nō te ao whānui. I tau ia i tana kite i te mahi tahi ia me ngā tāngata he ōrite ngā uara me ngā whāinga.  

“Kāore i tua atu i tēnei whai wāhitanga. Mai i te tīmatanga, i mōhio a Sam rāua ko Anne ki te ao Māori, e whakapono ana me pono me tika te mahi me te iwi taketake, ā, he mea nui kāore i ngaro taua āhuatanga piri tata. He āhuatanga tino tūpono noa.”  

I tino nganga te rōpū ki te whakarite kia tika ngā whakamāoritanga. E rua ngā kaiwhakamāori ngaio, ko Hemi Kelly rāua ko Piripi Walker i te taha o Whetu me te rōpū ki te whakamāori i te kete reo mō te kēmu, tae noa atu ki ngā tohutohu. I puta hoki ētahi kupu hou mō ētahi tuemi a MineCraft ake. 

“He mea kia manaakitia te ao Māori, te pupuri i te mana me ngā rawa hinengaro ahurea o ia taonga puta noa i te tukanga,” te kī a Whetu.  

Ko te mea uaua rawa ko te wā, e rima noa iho ngā wiki. I waimarie a Whetu i tautokona ia e ētahi atu Māori e mahi ana i roto i ngā mahi hangarau, ā, he tukanga tino mahi tēnei. Me te aha, nā ngā tamariki a Whetu i whakaū i te kounga – kia eke ai a Whetu ki runga rawa atu. 

Ko Heretaunga i te tuatahi, ā, ko te ao ā muri ake? 

Kāore e roa ka tae a Ngā Motu ki ngā minenga o te ao i tua o Aotearoa, ina kua uru a Piki Studios hei mema whaimana nō te Kaupapa Pātui a Minecraft, e taea e ia ngā rauemi te tāpiri tuihono i roto i te Wāhi Tauhokohoko o Minecraft i te ao whānui. I tēnei wā, ka wātea mātau ki ngā akomanga puta noa i Aotearoa, he wāhanga tēnei nō te Whakaaetanga Kura a Microsoft e tuku ana i ngā rauemi pērā i a Minecraft: Education Edition ki ia kura Kāwanatanga, Kura Tāuke hoki. 

“He rauemi tino whakamīharo a Ngā Motu mā ngā ākonga o Aotearoa me ngā kaiako me tō mātau mōhio anō ka tino rawe rawa atu ki a rātau te te hōpara me te waihanga i roto i tēnei ao,” te kī a Anne. 

“Ehara ko ngā tamariki anake a Whetu. I whakaaturia e mātau ki ētahi o ō mātau hoa o te ao, ā, i pupū mai te whakaongaonga i a rātau.” 

Tau kē tēnei tama nō Harataunga. 

Mō ētahi atu mōhiohio mō Minecraft: Education Edition i Aotearoa haere ki: http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Future-focused-learning/Minecraft haere rānei ki Piki Studios https://www.pikistudios.com/ 

Hōpara i te ao o Ngā Motu me ngā akoranga a Minecraft: Education Edition i: http://aka.ms/ngamotu 

Tags: #MicrosoftEdu, Education, Minecraft, te ao Māori

GNS3 is an amazing tool that allows IT professionals to, quite simply, create a virtual lab. The software can virtualize or emulate a variety of systems called appliances. These appliances range from Cisco routers and switches to nodes such as Windows Server, CentOS, and Fedora. GNS3 also has the capability to utilize containers. If you’re designing and testing proof-of-concept ideas, recreating environments for troubleshooting, or want to delve into the world of network engineering, GNS3 might be for you.

As seen on their website, GNS3 is well acquainted in the enterprise world. Companies using it span from tech businesses like Intel, to scientific organizations like NASA. Even renown banks and telecom companies are included in the list. This adds great credibility to the power and reliability this open-source tool provides.

Installation

For Fedora users, GNS3 can be easily installed from the official repository. From the command-line type:

sudo dnf install gns3-server gns3-gui

The reason for the separate packages is because GNS3 can be configured as a dedicated server. This is useful for teams to collaborate while working on a project, or problem. The dedicated servers can be installed on bare-metal or as a virtual machine.

GNS3 requires a computer with virtualization capabilities. This allows the software to utilize the computer’s hardware to increase the performance when running the appliances. To use Spice/VNC as a console install the virt-viewer package.

When the installation is complete, an icon will be placed among the applications for GNS3.

Initial setup

Opening GNS3 for the first time will open the Setup Wizard. The options on the first screen allow users to either setup an isolated VM environment, run the topologies from the local computer, or to use a remote server. The examples in this article are performed on the local machine.

The next screen configures the application to connect to the local machine running GNS3 server. Here we see the path to the application installed locally on the server, host binding address, and port. These settings can be tweaked to match your setup. However, for a quick setup it’s best to accept the defaults.

Once the settings are verified, a confirmation will appear stating the connection to the local server was successful. The last screen in the wizard will provide a summary. Click the Finish button to complete the setup.

Finding appliances in the GNS3 Marketplace

Before venturing into the GUI, this would be a good time to visit the GNS3 Marketplace. The marketplace contains appliances, pre-configured labs, and software for use with GNS3. The options in the Marketplace are vast and beyond the scope of this article. However, let’s download an appliance to see how it works.

First, select the appliance you want (the examples in this article will use OpenWRT). Select the template for that appliance to download. Appliance templates are JSON files with the extension gns3a.

You can also install OS nodes without a template, or create your own. OSBoxes.org has a variety of pre-built VMWare images (VMDK) that are compatible with GNS3. For this article we’ll use the Fedora 64-bit VMWare image. You can also find images for many other distributions such as CentOS, Ubuntu, and Kali Linux.

To use Cisco appliances a service agreement or subscription to VIRL is needed to download the IOS images from Cisco. For links and guides to legally download Cisco IOS, check out David Bombal’s site at https://davidbombal.com/gns3-download-cisco-ios-images-virl-images-best-get/.

You may also need to install Dynamips which is not included in the official repos. However, a simple web search will point to the RPM package.

Importing appliances to GNS3

Now that we have some appliances let’s build a small and simple topology using the templates and images we just downloaded.

After the initial setup the New appliance template window will open. From here we can import template files like the gns3a file downloaded from the Marketplace. Other options for adding appliances without a template include IOS devices, VMs, and Docker containers.

To add the OpenWRT router, click Import an appliance template file. This will open the Add appliance wizard. Review the information on the first screen which shows the category, vendor, architecture, and KVM status for that appliance, and click Next. Now select the Server type to run the appliance and click Next. This is where we can specify whether we want to run it on a remote server, in a GNS3 VM, or on the local machine. After verifying the server requirements click Next to continue the installation.

At this point it’s time to install the image file for the OpenWRT appliance. Select the version and click the Download button. This will go to the site containing the image file and download it. This article will use OpenWRT 18.06.4 downloaded from the project’s website. If the version of the image is not in the list, click the button to Create a new version, and enter the version number (in this case 18.06.4). Select the filename and click Import to import the image. GNS3 will then ask if you would like to copy the image and decompress it (if necessary). Accept it and complete the install.

Adding appliances without a template

To add the Fedora VM downloaded from OSBoxes, click on one of the icons on the left and select New appliance template near the bottom. Select Add a Qemu virtual machine and click Next. Enter a name for the appliance (in this case Fedora 30) then click Next. Verify the QEMU binary path and input the amount of RAM to use for the VM, then select the Console type. On the next screen select New image and browse for the VMDK file. Depending on the file-size it may take a few moments. To copy/import the image select Yes and once it’s completed click Finish.

Adding and connecting nodes in GNS3

Now that we have some appliances, let’s build a simple topology with OpenWRT and Fedora in GNS3. The icons on the left represent Routers, Switches, End devices, and Security devices. The second-last shows all appliances, and the bottom option is to Add a link which connects the nodes to each other.

Click on the Routers icon and drag the OpenWRT router onto the empty workspace to the right. Click on the End devices icon and do the same for the computer node. Depending on how large the file is, it may take a few moments for the PC node to appear in the workspace. To connect the nodes, click Add a link then click on a node, select the interface (i.e. Ethernet0), then do the same with the other node (as seen in the demo below).

You can customize the consoles by going to the menu bar and selecting Edit > Preferences > General. Select the tab for Console applications and click the Edit button. From here you can choose your favourite terminal in the drop-down menu and even customize it in the text-box below.

Once everything is in place, start the nodes by clicking the green (play) button at the top. The lights in the Topology Summary section will turn green indicating the nodes are on. To open the consoles for the nodes, click the Console to all devices button to the left (it looks like a terminal icon). The Remote Viewer window for Fedora and a terminal window for OpenWRT will open.

Once complete you can turn off the nodes individually by right-clicking on the node and selecting Stop, or to stop all nodes click the red Stop button in the top bar.

Conclusion

GNS3 is a powerful piece of software with features that are beyond the scope of this article. The software is similar to Cisco’s Packet Tracer. However, Packet Tracer is a simulator with limitations to the program’s coding. GNS3 on the other hand virtualizes/emulates the nodes using the hardware’s actual OS. This provides full functionality and a closer experience to the actual hardware.

The GNS3 documentation site offers an enormous amount of resources that delve further into the workings of the application. They also offer training courses for those interested in digging deep into the workings of the software.

Before anyone gets too concerned, we’re happy to confirm that the X button found on your Nintendo Switch Joy-Con or Pro Controller is, and always will be, called ‘X’. Because of course it is.

As you may well be aware, the PlayStation corner of the internet has been in absolute meltdown over the last few days after PlayStation UK revealed that the DualShock controller’s ‘X’ button is actually referred to as ‘Cross’. We’re sure you’ll agree that this simply cannot be correct; indeed, our chums over at Push Square found that roughly nine out of ten players call it ‘X’.

Here’s the now-infamous reveal itself:

Concerned for the Nintendo community and gaming fans at large, we decided to get everyone in the office to stop what they were doing, find a computer, and search for any evidence of Nintendo pronouncing the names of its controller face buttons. It was a surprisingly difficult task, but we’re happy to confirm that it is indeed called ‘X’, as proven by Nintendo’s very own JC Rodriguez.

You’ll hear it at the 8:15 mark below.

Phew! Thank goodness.

Now, go ahead and rest easy for the rest of the day – you can thank us later.

The Game Kitchen’s Blasphemous opens with its central protagonist, the metal-masked Penitent One, last survivor of the Silent Sorrow Massacre, staggering to his feet atop a mass grave of bodies, each one an exact replica of himself. Here is a hero caught in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, charged with lifting a great curse that’s descended upon the land of Cvstodia. Sword in hand, he makes his way down a flight of steps, surrounded on all sides by crucified bodies and mounds of broken, rotten corpses wrapped in twisted thickets of thorn. From here he must venture forth on a solemn pilgrimage to seek the Cradle of Affliction and discover the seed of his anguish hidden behind a sacred door in the Mother of Mother of Churches.

Blasphemous has been wowing its many Kickstarter backers for the past couple of years with screenshots of the sumptuous pixel art-style which brings to life its incredibly detailed world, a world filled with twisted religious iconography, grotesque enemies, brutally warped boss battles and imposing landscapes dripping in blood, filth and decay. From its opening level set around the dusty Spanish-styled village of Albero and onwards across the Wastelands of the Buried Churches to the Desecrated Cistern – a festering, toxic labyrinth that descends into the foreboding depths of Jondo – this really is spectacularly well-realised stuff.

Of course, without gameplay to match, all this beauty would be for nothing, and so it’s fortunate that The Game Kitchen has pulled something pretty special out of the bag here; a heady mix of Soulslike and Metroidvania, with the rules of life and death governed in much the same way as FromSoftware’s titles, whilst the backtracking traversal and pixel-perfect platforming falls much more into the classic Metroid mould.

In terms of that Souls influence, there are bonfires, here known as Prie Dieu, at which to rest and recuperate your energy, resetting enemies across your current level as you do so. Estus flasks are replaced by Biliary flasks, upgradeable by finding and refilling empty ones scattered across the game world. You have a magic bar, here known as Fervor, which charges as you attack enemies, the twist being that each time you die a little of the bar becomes lost until you return to your place of death to retrieve it or pay to have it restored at a place of penitence. Speaking of currency, Tears of Atonement replace souls and are, happily, not lost upon death. As well as cleansing your guilt, they can be used to buy some of the various trinkets and abilities you can equip as you advance through the game, as well as the offensive skills you unlock as you level up your weapon.

Making your way across Cvstodia to carry out the Three Humiliations required to gain entry to the Mother of Mother of Churches, the Penitent One has only one weapon at his disposal: the Mea Culpa sword. Despite this initially disappointing lack of choice in terms of weapons, it turns out that concentrating on one means of combat has enabled The Game Kitchen to ensure it’s a tight and satisfying affair, embellished with lots of bespoke little animations that really drive home the delicious brutality of engagements. Every foe you encounter can be stunned and then ended with an outrageously violent finishing move, each one beautifully animated and entirely unique for every single enemy type in the game.

Alongside your sword, your move-set is comprised of a magic attack (several of which can be found and equipped as you progress), a dodging slide which makes you temporarily invulnerable and can be added to with its own powerful lunging attack, and a parry with which to deflect incoming strikes, opening your adversary up to some horrific retribution. It’s very much Dark Souls sans a stamina bar, losing the need to take time to recuperate in favour of a protagonist who can carry out endless combos which, nevertheless, require the same patience and forward-planning as FromSoftware’s encounters if you’re to be successful.

The ebb and flow of combat is further enhanced by how uniformly well-designed the different enemies you encounter across Cvstodia are, each coming with their own smart set of attacks that you’ll need to learn to defend against in order to proceed. Priests in the Archcathedral Rooftops, for example, wield long, stabby candleholders and need to be dodged just before they lunge, giving you a clear sight of their exposed flanks. The exploding disease-ridden ghouls in the bowels of the Desecrated Cistern, meanwhile, will continuously reanimate unless you find a nearby bell-ringer and cut them down. Each new area is stuffed full of new challenges and there’s much more to combat across Cvstodia than just hacking and slashing your way through all-comers; you’ll need to change up your attack style and make use of the many trinkets and abilities at your disposal if you hope to get anywhere.

You can equip Rosary Beads to bolster your attack or defence, or perhaps give yourself a boost against certain types of magic or elemental attacks. Initially, you’ll only be able to equip three beads but there are a total of nine notches to unlock as you progress. There are also religious relics to wear around your belt which very cleverly open up traversal options by letting you see hidden ledges, for example, or perhaps hear the final thoughts of the dead who lie scattered around levels.

The Mea Culpa can be also powered up in various ways, with longer combos, more devastating lunges and various other explosive attacks all unlockable at hidden shrines. You can also add special hearts to your sword to embellish its power – however, quite cunningly, each of these comes with a negative effect. The Heart of the Holy Purge, for example, will increase the rate at which you attain Tears of Atonement at the cost of the use of your health flasks. There’s also a delightfully macabre set of collectable body parts to find throughout the world, with great names such the Cervical Vertebra of Zicher the Brewmaster or the Coxal of June the Prostitute, which can then be displayed in a (rather unsettling) underground chamber area.

Platforming is also uniformly precise, satisfying stuff which manages to avoid becoming an annoyance as there’s plenty of variety and death is almost always a result of your own mistake rather than the game being unfair. Stabbing your sword into rock faces and walls in order to make your way up mountainsides, timing your jumps through huge, slicing blades and traversing fiery pits and cauldrons filled with lava makes for some really tense sections, especially when you’re also trying to fend off some horrendous magic-shooting banshee or floating angel head at the same time.

Topping all of this off are a handful of truly memorable boss battles against ludicrously-named, screen-filling creations. Our Lady of the Charred Visage is a hideously deformed floating head with bullet-hell styled magic attacks, whilst Exposito, Scion of Abduration involves you dealing with the attacks of a severed head attached to a wooden worm whilst avoiding the clutches of a giant blindfolded infant, its face drenched in blood from its gouged-out eyes. None of these ghastly encounters outstay their welcome or come anywhere close to being as soul-crushingly difficult as those seen in a FromSoftware game, but they’re massively enjoyable affairs nonetheless, testing your skills and forcing you to utilise every trick at your disposal.

Once you’ve completed the Three Humiliations and opened the great door to the final area of the game – very much Blasphemous’ Anor Londo moment – you may think you’re almost done, but are instead blasted with a barrage of mini-bosses, main bosses and tricky mixes of enemy types – alongside some pretty exacting platform sections – on your way to the final encounter of the game, which took us somewhere in the region of 25 hours to reach.

The story here is a much more easy-to-follow affair than you may be expecting on the outset of things; Blasphemous wears its lore on its sleeves much more than a Souls game, although this too is a world filled with strange secrets, sad stories and bizarre characters to meet as you make your way to its dénouement.

Small complaints come in the form of a map which can’t be zoomed in or out, which means it’s sometimes a little bit of a pain to study in handheld mode, something which is exacerbated by the fact you’ll find yourself scouring it quite often later in the game to ascertain where you should be headed next. Indeed, the game does suffer a little from being overly obtuse as to how you should proceed at times. There are several points where you’ll need some to present some bizarre artefact or other to a certain NPC in order to further things along, and we found ourselves at a loss on several occasions as to how we should move forward. There’s also some very iffy voice-acting from a few of the characters you meet on your pilgrimage, although nothing nearly as bad as some of the merchants from Dark Souls, it has to be said.

In terms of this Switch version, everything runs at a silky smooth 1080p/60fp whilst docked, with that resolution dropping to 720p in handheld mode. Over the course of our time with Blasphemous, we encountered no hiccups or slowdown and it really does look absolutely stunning, especially in handheld mode, where its pixelated lines look that little bit smoother.