  Replentishing The Fishless Seas of my Soul | 
Posted - 5/7/2008 8:45:12 PM | I got a router today so that I could have internet access in my room at the new apartment. I'm still getting settled. I've yet to get a bed and my stuff out of storage, but I've got internet access and my computer, so it's time to get back to work on things again. I've been doing a bit of reading lately which has been a good change of pace, as it had really been a while since I had taken the time to read some good books. Currently I'm reading, "Become What You Are" by Alan Watts ,
"Transformations of Myth Through Time" by Joseph Campbell and
"Devices and Desires" by K. J. Parker , all of which are great books. It's also good as it's giving me some things to think about once again for the working on designing the Wrath of the Scarecrow series. More on that later down the road.
For now, it's back to work on cleaning up the engine in hopes to get something done this week for the gamedev.org expo. If only I can quit reading other journal entries. It's hard though, there's a lot of interesting projects out there and intelligent people who write clever things that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So much so that I begin to feel sick and then end up vomiting on my work shoes. I then have to clean the potato salad off of them, and that leaves a stain, and then I'm hungry again, so I have to go eat more food. This leaves me with very little time for working on game stuff. So stop writing clever interesting things people, or you will ruin my life. 
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| This is how, this is how we feel... | |
Posted - 5/4/2008 1:10:59 PM | Subject taken from the Public Property song ,Movement. Fitting only because I'm doing what I seem to do at least once a year, and that is move. It'll be a good change as I'll have a roommate which will allow me to save a lot of money which means.. money to be saved to invest in future business endeavors. Cool cool stuff, server anyone?
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| Serpent Rapture | |
Posted - 5/1/2008 7:08:28 PM | Well, I finally set down to do some work in an organized manner on things today in the first time in the last two months. Back towards the end of February I tore apart the engine to begin re-writing game state management in a more flexible manner and to add some additional functionality such as encapsulated GUI stuff and additional generic game pad support. Well, because of work being so heck-tick, on the days that I did have off, I tended to do absolutely nothing that required deep thought. Although I did manage to get some things done sometimes, but I started coding different classes without completing previous things that I had already started on. This is a bad approach to say the least, especially seeing as something such as how you handle game states can start getting quite complicated pretty fast.
Well things are slowing down at work and with that my time is starting to multiply, which is a good thing, because now I can finally start getting things done once again. So what the hell did I do today?....
Not a whole lot actually, but I did get my objectives organized again, and formed a plan of attack, which as any good strategist knows is an essential starting point. That and the need to establish multiple mining operations before your enemies have the chance too take over any near by mines. I also did get into coding the functions in the game state class, and as I did so, I came to the conclusion that this is the perfect place to begin the python scripting implementation for the engine. Primarily, in the Update function for a game state.
Up to this point all my states have been hard coded, which isn't all bad, especially if your just doing demos or game proto-types, but once you start wanting to use an engine and editor at a very friendly and intuitive level, hard coding just isn't a viable option. Especially for those people who don't know a programming language.
Now, this has been my plan since I first started designing this engine back in 2005, and python is already embedded and initialized in the engine, but it also opens a big can of worms, the likes of which I've never smelled.
My idea is too simply have the update function make a call to a master script for specific states that will in turn take care of managing the creation, destruction, and manipulation of objects within a scene and level. Most of the classes on the object level are currently complete for the 2d version of the engine, and seeing as how I want the GUI to be adjustable through python interfaces as well, it seems that now is the perfect time to accomplish this. So, it's time to dust off the old python tomes and get to work.
Work on the Barricade proto-type has currently been put on the back burner again as these things for the engine are underway. I'd say the proto-type is about 70% complete at this point in time.
As for my previous post, I was unable to put together an actual game for the competition due to work, but the contest was extended an additional two weeks. It's my hopes to get the engine put back together and get an entry submitted still as I really like the concept of having lore based around game development and I also thought I had a pretty nifty concept. As soon as the state management stuff is finished I'll turn my attention to my entry.
Also, Glenn Becks rant on GTA4 irritated the hell out of me today. I consider myself to be a liberal conservative, or a conservative liberal, however you want to look at it, but I listen to Beck as I don't have an ipod and I'm in the work van for 8 to 12 hours a day. I generally find what he says to be interesting at least, and the things that are discussed at least get me to look into politics more and form my own opinions. I disagree with him on quite a few things, but I also agree with him on some as well. This is one I disagree with whole heartedly. Ironically enough, I was just thinking of making shirts that say "MAKE GAMES <NOT WAR>" just yesterday, if anyone else makes that shirt I'll come after you, and he's jumping on the bandwagon of games being detrimental to society. He uses defense contracts and exploitation of games as support for his argument, saying that simulation has been proven to desensitize people, stating that in World War 1 people where only 20 to 30% to pull the trigger when being attacked. Today it's 100%.(Somewhat paraphrased here.)
He used that example saying that virtual reality simulation in the military (or at least alluding to this) is the cause of a lack of moral question in killing for war. (Never mind more sophisticated weaponry and better training.) He also compared GTA4 to shows like One Tree Hill where teenage kids are having sex and the like, saying that this is why our society as Americans is going in the toilet. To this I say, Bullshit!
From a personal stand point, I used to be a huge trouble maker when I was younger. I can tell you that it was due to a lack of guidance from my parents and the lack of a positive male role model in my life that lead to me being that way. As I got older and a little more educated, I started taking responsibility for my own actions, change doesn't come easy and it's a constant thing that one has to work at. During that time though, games and game development were a large part of keeping me working towards something, hours of entertainment, and an interest for a continuous per suite of education.
This is more of what I see, we live in a capitalistic society, a society driven by a free market where people work and struggle and spend vast amounts of time working to get a dollar. A lot of people are materially driven and because of this a lot of people have a lack of balance in their lives. They spend half their days at work, while their children are with other people, with little to no supervision and or guidance. Kids start acting a certain way and or doing things a certain way and the parents, even though they may fleetingly try, aren't there to hold them accountable for their actions, so the kids start thinking they can get away with more and more. They see their parents going after material things and they see everyone else around them doing the same thing. They don't know who they are yet, they are still developing, and instead of having a strong family to guide them during these trying times, they begin identifying themselves with other things and or people, people who give them attention, people who make them feel validated for doing negative things possibly... huh..
This is exactly how it was for me growing up. It was when my mother worked out of state for up to six months at a time and my step father worked 80 hours a week and was only home at nights, and we he was, he was either working, sleeping, or doing yard work, that I stared to fall into negative thinking patterns and actions. Not because I had played Mario, but because I had lost a feeling of security within my own family, so I started looking for it else where. By the time my family took notice to my changes, it was already too late, I had fallen into negative behavior patterns, and it wouldn't be until right before my son was born that things would begin to really turn around.
I don't blame my parents, they did the best that they knew how to do at the time, and even though I was young, I was still capable of making better decisions, but I didn't feel like it mattered, so I didn't. Yes, my family life was the major reason for me taking a negative path, a game had nothing to do with it.
Personal responsibility is something that Glenn Beck talks about all the time and it is amazing to me that he can jump on a bandwagon of blaming media for cultural degradation when it really comes down to individual family units and the individual people. By monitoring children more closely and participating in their activities as well as structuring their time, better people will be raised. Showing someone that they are loved, really loved, by taking interest in their daily lives will make more of an impact on the character that person has far more then any form of media. At the end of the day, it's knowledge of who I am that keeps me from bashing in a hookers brains with a base ball bat, no matter how many virtual hookers I may slay.
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