Commoners, Plebs, and Meeple?

Paul Rand knows what I'm talking about.

Been wondering what, if anything, I have to say about anything today and while this post has been brewing in my mind for a bit I really don't know if it should even be on here due to this blogs intended positioning. Granted I could just as easily change it, but that uhh.... takes work and junk. So I guess a post is in order.

So as it turns out, I'm not original or even all that unique. Everybody, is in complete shock at this I know.... But, seriously, there there is some real weird "typecasting" going on here. For instance I program stuff for a living. Ok, so that cool so do others. I like beer, not just any beer though I'm talking random craft brewy things. Well, so do other programmers. Ok, so I want to move into making games for a living. Shock, there are other programmers who like crafty brews that want to make games. The hits just keep coming for I know that for every thing I think might be uniquely me there is probably a score or so that are exactly the same. Statistically this is not a big shock, and really I'm blowing this in to hyperbolics but the point is that there are others out there that are very very similar, (this makes me well.. common).

So really what does this mean. It means that for one, anything I (or even you lovely people) create will have an audience. It may not be large, nor profitable (lets be honest people like me/you are kinda cheep) but it exists. Likewise there is a greater common superset of that audience that may not be "my kind of people" but are "mostly my kind" so that translates in to a bigger audience. This is good, especially when trying to design games. There is that old adage of "don't design for you design for others" or something like that... This is really a load of bollocks.

Now, if this saying was really taken to heart by the world we wouldn't have things like the ipod or email. These are disruptive things, people don't want disruptions, thus they shouldn't be designed for as design is inherently disruptive.  If this "adage" was adhered to we would not have the Minecrafts, Braids, and Portals of the world. We would have Quake 17 and Need for Speed 87... We would have... wait.... oh yes.... the current AAA industry (snark snark).

This is important as though I or you might not be the most original when it comes into things I like, I we can come up with original ideas or spins on ideas. My personal experiences and reactions to those experience cannot be replicated and thus make my view on later happenings different from some other guy/gal/ostritch. Even if these arn't original I can, at least, make them the best nonorginal idea possible. Look at angry birds, nothing new, but hugely successful. As much as I bag on Rovio they did something right.

Well... I digress and that whole fornicating lot knows exactly where to stick it. So let's end this thing and a note of breakfast club cliche....

So here's to you, you people that are too much like me, you simulacra of sensibilities, you keyboard kommandos, you linguistic mutilators... you err people of some sort of alliterative verb that starts with "p".... go make some stuff I care about... and make it snappy I don't have forever.

~cheers  

Back on the magical space narwhal

So here I am again. Back in the vast emptiness of my imagination conjuring something from nothing. The narwhal is necessary, the costume is fun.
(still can't believe I found this picture)

You may remember from older posts that I was waiting on a response for a game proposal. Well after a lot of waiting I finally got a response back. Turns out even after a spectacular presentation back in octoberish they only raised about 1/3 of the needed money for the proposal (a Kickstarter would have probably helped). To add that extra kick to the pants they also surveyed their target demographic and came back with less than fantastic results. It seems the kids in this age group don't care about the whole space....uuuhhh.... thing. Instead these kids/clients want to see something in a more (in my opinion mundane) "Amazing Race" type setting.  

First off....

What is going on? Is imagination and sense of discovery dead? We went from exploring space and interacting with new creatures too... a more or less copy a TV Show. A freaking TV SHOW! What, in the bloody blue blazes!  Might I remind the audience that this game is to engage kids on a certain level to get them to want to read and think about how to read better. I don't know how the client proposed this idea to these kids, and I don't know what other options where given upon receiving a less than stellar reaction. But, i have a hard time believing that these kids are that lacking in imagination. More than likely they just mentioned a TV show and the kids thought that sounded cool.

So, back to square one, on earth. I must now operate in a budget and with set of constraints. Needless to say, probably; this will mean a lot of features that where not scenario specific will need to be cut. This is reality after all but it saddens me as well. For instance we will probably have to take out the analytics. This had a chance of becoming a huge source of data for the client to better gauge the learning and such.  Now with the removal of the needed funding that probably no possible. Likewise there was a huge social arc in the orignal proposal to help the students learn social skills. This will probably be in the game but very watered down and probably part of the puzzles.

In general... not as thrilled with this turn of events. Granted it does make making the thing much simpler but I think the learning that could have been had is a major loss. Yes... I don't know that for sure but I feel it in my gut. 

Abraham Lincoln

Beard Power Up

So as one would expect, graduate studies are .... time consuming (I know big shock eh?). But the situation is rather more involved than just having all my time taken and ferreted away in the pursuit of higher, high education. The deal is that it leaves one in either a manic or drained state in addition to sucking.... time. For instance this week long break I recently had between semesters left me in a constant state of  "what am I not doing." I kept thinking I had to get something done, which in turn leads to a minor cardiac infarction, which then leads to a strange "jagerbomb" like manic-calm where you realize that there is nothing that needs to do.

Conversely, there is the times when you have to get things done each night and you know that X things need to get done but the classes have pounded so much on your will to live continue that only stimulants and guilt motivate you to do the work.

It is due to all of these things that I have come to the very reasonable decision of setting up personal time in direct opposition to the villainous time sucking demons of the "G'rah Duat pragam." Before I started traversing the G'rah Duat pragam I did things. Things like draw, program for fun, make freaking games, and sleep (oooh sleep). Now....not so much. I learn about telecomunications, SDLC, and the finer details of Stack vs Heap. While this can all be interesting I feel the creativity be bashed out of my skull in favor of housing theories and methodologies of proper database field normalization of the third form and higher.

So long story.... not so long..... I'm taking back my creativity ye vile ilk of hellspawn. I'm going to draw every night, I'm gonna randomly (vent) write important things on this here blog, and I'm making me some games.

 To start the show off I need something powerful.... like Beard power....

See it freaking works....    

HTML 5 Erector set.

Let me preface this post by saying this...... I hate HTML.

Not just HTML but CSS and JavaScript (though slightly less on this one) as well. Of all the tools out there if I can get away without using HTML ever again I would. Sadly this is something of a pipe-dream as my day-job is primarily focused on the web and the front end of that to boot. This naturally means that HTML is something I have to use. As I say this I realize that this is probably one of the reasons why I'm attracted to tools such as Ruby/Rails or even, in this case, Construct 2. Such tools basically mean I can do things for the web and have the software do the dirty HTML crud for me. Thus I think this is a grand concept. (Screw you HTML...and such and so on)

Okay... on to Construct2. This incarnation of the software is built specifically for the creation of HTML5 games. The last one allowed one to deploy to the web too but it was through ActiveX and thus only really usable in IE. (Who even uses IE?)  If there is one constant on the web its that limiting your audience to only one browser is just not a good thing. Luckily for us as far as HTML5 is concerned it is pretty well supported by all the major browsers, including the newer IEs.  This is good as the projects that come out of Construct are html5 (Though its mostly canvas and javascript doing the work because really those are the best parts of HTML5). One interesting thing here is that my computer just popped on the fans each time I started up my game. Granted they weren't howlin' but they definitely spun up fer sum reas'n.

In general the workflow is good and meaty in Construct2, I only felt limited due to the free versions limits and because I had to do things with the drag and drop UI (sigh). I read that there is an API but how/if that works wasn't really part of my studies here.

I managed to get the below html5 app to this point in about 8hours. This time includes ripping apart a gif I made and some testing. Its not the most full featured thing yet but I think I'll add some lives, animations, and some score counters. So all in all I think its a neat little thing and fully capable of what gets thrown at it. It is certainly a lot easier that doing it with HTML. I guess as far as 2D games go one could do much worse than construct2.

Yeah this was kinda of a sucky review but I never said it was going to be a review just an overview. Heck I didn't even say that, why are people puting words in my mouth..err. keyboar...uhh thingy. *sigh*

Anywise.........

Try my test thingy - > http://db.tt/2vDVJrz6
Go try Construct2, its mostly free -> http://www.scirra.com/construct2

And as always if you have time go and play with yourself or better yet find friends!

It lives! ... well shambles and such

OK I admit it's been a while.

Well maybe three months, but yon know what I'm busy and nothing new happened dagnabbit! That's not entirely true, stuff happened, like the GDC.... which I did not attend. And SXSW is going on now... also not attending.

BUT!!!

Google IO just announced registration and it looks like I'm all set up to go to that one...so that could be good. Which is honestly is just the tip of the horseradish (as they say... somewhere I'm sure). So i guess this will be a restarting of this blargy blogy thingy.... out of hibernation and into the sunlight.

So over the next couple days I'll yammer about some stuff, primarly

• ruby on -=and off of=- rails
• Google I/O
• Happenstances in my Game dev lifey
• random imbibements <= this really should be a word if it is not (aka Beer)
• New techy things
• My Phone (lurv it)
• Linux
• Drawing/Arty-things
• snoring cats (srsly)
• and what ever else I freaking feel like, quit pressuring me jeex!
• ....

So yeah it will be a good old time, had by mostly me... as per ush.. (pronounced "you-shj" <- important 'j')

If you are bored have a read, if not fine... go uhh do like something else I guess.

Brimming, bloody brimming.

If you read this regularly (like all the cool kids from Russia do). You might have noticed a bit of what one might call a dry spell. In this case this phrase refers to me not actually typing anything here for about, oh... lets say two weeks as I am lazy and don't really feel like finding out the actual date.

The reason for this is because nothing is happening. Nothing, zip, zilch, nada. This is because the client must acquire funding and that the project might not even functionally start until sometime in January. Yet, knowing this doesn't make it all better, just understandable. So where does that leave me?

Well I'm getting an itch you see. The kind that can only be satisfied by doing something crafty/clever/creative/interesting (pick one).

I'm brimming with creative juice and it "must needs to be happend!!!1!!!!"

This means I need to start working on side projects again or explode.  I obviously prefer the former, though the latter is in the "interesting" category so cannot be axed completely.  So, a side project is probably a good idea, one of the current ones would be good (see projects) but if not I'll find an outlet elsewhere.

So yeah.... back to trolling forums ( 'cause that is fun )

Cheers ^

One crazy ride.

Sup ya'll peepos out there.

I am just burnt out after the last week and today. This partially has to do with a cell phone I am following way to close and part due to the flurry of activity I have been involved in. This flurry I am speaking of is all centered around my presentation to the clients. It was grueling,and tiring, and well... one big growth experience to be honest.

I found out that I have a tenancy to go off on tangents, get stuck coming up with proper wording, and generally think to much during a presentation. So to alleviate (and root out) all of these issues I ended up presenting roughly three times before I even got to the real presentation. This is a good thing as pretty much all of my hang-ups were solved with having a sheet of notes. This is sad because,much to my dismay, it turns out I am only so good off the cuff. I wish I was cool like that but apparently not.

After the presentation we opened the floor for discussion and such and even then I found myself fielding a lot of questions. Which I actually am better at (probably because answers are typically shorter) so maybe I'm kind of cool after all.

In general things went well. We didn't have all the people we could have had but that is ok. The main point is everyone seemed on board and excited by the concept and possibilities. For me though, I found public speaking rather energy consuming. Much more than teaching ever was. I was literally exhausted after that meeting and wanting nothing more than to sleep.

So I think that is what I am going to do...

Cheers~