Journal of Suspense

... is that I need it. Everyone at some point tries to tackle a project that's too big and ends up failing. We've all been there, right? So we think to ourselves, "From now on I need to stick with smaller projects I know I can complete." And maybe you actually do finish one or two like that. But for me at least, that's not enough....

Wow, I forgot how draining a full-time job can be. It's been surprisingly difficult to work on my game after I get home in the afternoon. Of course, the chronic insomnia is probably also a factor. Either way, finally managed to crank out some more code and finish off the first prototype. You can play around with it...

Of course when I say playable, I mean you can press keys and something happens on the screen: link. A and D to move, space to jump, click to throw a snowball. Graphics are filler.

My original idea was to make a Scorched Earth with a snowball fight setting. ...

As I said in my last journal post (5 months ago), I've been really focused on finishing school. That's my reason for not updating... ever. But that period is over now! Yep, I graduated last week. Finally. So now that I have time to breath, I also have time to show you guys all my shiny new stuffs! First up is stuff I mentioned in my...

Hard to believe it's been 6 months since my Frogwood project went the way of the dodo. Here's a little update on what's going on now.

I've been focusing a lot on finishing school, so that's been a hindrance on any personal projects. But I'll be graduating in April, so who knows what will happen at that point. My CS course...

I took some time this morning to get started on a magic spell for Frogwood: Flame Wave. It doesn't actually do anything yet in the game, but it looks kind of nice. I also added some stars and trees I found on the internets, and a crappy looking flower thing I drew.

In a previous journal entry I talked about the #1 killer of projects, lack of motivation. Today is the #2 killer, Real Life™.

We're getting ready to start releasing a new product next week at work. I found out today that our lead developer is leaving the company next week. We'll be left with 3 programmers, 2 of which (myself included) have...

As I mentioned before, I got ahead of my schedule last week. I thought about charging forward to the next task, but ended up choosing to convert my data files to XML from my cryptic raw-text format. It was a good choice because it was nice and easy to do and will make adding content a lot easier in the future. This will be a big deal. I've...

Got monsters working this morning. Well, so far it's just monster. But you can shoot it to make it go away! Here's a video. This is my first time using fraps, and it seems to make the speed a little inconsistent. The video demonstrates shooting and aiming with the mouse; jumping; animation; monster action; and shooting the monster. You can...

I added code for loading a new level and for firing the basic attack spell. This completes everything I can do right now for the bare minimum of functionality between the map and the player sprite. My goal for this accomplishment was set for Saturday, so I'm a few days ahead of schedule. Go me!

Now I have to decide how to spend these extra few...