update

So I've not published anything lately, I've just not managed to get anything done.
I don't quite know how other people can do it. After working 8hrs plus another 3hrs travelling I don't really come back home wanting to use the computer, I get enough of that thing at work!
I have no mp3 player, so the journey on the train and tube can get rather boring, not knowing what to look at! If someone out there wanted to help you could always send an mp3 player my way!! :-) or help me get a free iPod by signing up here: http://ipods.freepay.com/?r=26824297 and completing just one offer.

After work I'd rather do some mind numbing, dumb, easy thinking task, like watching eastenders than programming. I know that if I turn that PC on and something doesn't work, I'm gonna get very annoyed. I suppose to unwind is why some people smoke, some people drink and I, well, I kill people, well not real people, just mutilated, robot fused cyborgs who go by the name of Strogg. Yes you've guesed it Quake 4. What better way to relieve stress for a guy than to go to a mouse controlled shooting range. No clay pigeons, foxes or stuck down coconuts here, instead we have aliens who are very keen to do nasty things to your limbs. Although I've still not finished it!

I did find an interesting article while I was at work though; it's about poor games with great ideas.

Guardian - Poor Games with Good Ideas

Sonic

I was watching my 4yr old cousin play Sonic on the Xbox over New Years.
There was this switch on the wall and you have to press X and then push it into the wall by pusing up, or down to pull it out. He must've spent a good few minutes trying just to get a hold of the switch. With Sonic being a fast action packed game, a few minutes spent on any part is a long time. I began wondering how long it would be before he gave up, how long is a 4yr old attention span, or at least his commitment to pushing that button. Anyway he eventually got that button pushed into the wall and a door opened with something good inside.

Perhaps I could incorporate a similar idea into my game. For instance shoot a special buoy and suddenly the camera zooms out and there is a (metal? ) passage/tunnel on the left, you can go through it, whereupon you find some goodies. Then when you reach the end of the heavenly tunnel, you rather speed backwards where you came and the camera pans right, or there is an exit on the right for you to get out, and then the camera resumes normal playing zoom level. So perhaps a tunnel in the shap of an elongated straight C.

Just an idea though, perhaps a good way to avoid certain enemies, perhaps not a metal tunnel but a wormhole?