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Exceptional Journals (in no order): [Eliwood] [Steve Healy] [Ravuya] [Mark the Artist] [Scet] [Ysaneya] [Mayan Obsidian]
My Personal Website
| Tuesday, January 23, 2007 |
  Bye? | 
Posted - 1/23/2007 11:14:01 PM | Priorities
Spontaneous? I think not. 
I've been slowly edging towards this for a little while now, but now it's time to put the 'ol foot down. Over the last term, and even now, I've been letting game development take too much precedence over my schoolwork, which is infinitely more important right now. As such, I'm going to be pretty much zero'ing out my hobby gamedev time. At least until I get my footing back. Hopefully next term, when I'm on co-op, I'll be able to get back into the swing of things.
I intend to work on my Scheme-like interpreter a bit on the side, and hopefully try to get Membrane Massacre done sometime soon, but regular progress is coming to a halt, and likely my activity here will slacken significantly.
With that, I wish all of you the best of luck on your projects. There's some very awesome stuff developing around here, and I'm really looking forward to playing them. Be sure to PM me or something if any of you get a new release out. 
This is Steve -- not saying goodbye, but see you later!
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| One of *those* weeks.. | |
Posted - 1/23/2007 12:10:46 AM | Arg!
Lost my Sociology notebook, lost my Linear Algebra textbook ($100+!), accidentally deleted my \Data folder (with all graphics, sounds, etc) for Membrane Massacre, and am behind on my algebra assignment (which I have no textbook to use to finish it!). Arrr.
I'll live. Just need to vent. :)
Game Scribe
Extremely bad name pending. A big thanks to Eliwood for some of the initial documentation and inspiration.
In a nutshell, I got the cool idea of having a scripting language that could be easily integrated for use in games. Something simple, but yet sufficiently powerful. The main reason I never tried embedding Python or Lua or {Language X} is because embedding it to work with your C++ code is a pain in the arse. So how about writing a reasonably powerful language that could fit into your game with minimal pain? Sounds great. Let's do it.
Since writing a programming language tends to be on the 'difficult' side of things, I opted to use a rather simple, Lisp-like programming language as a base: Scheme. It's a function programming language that I've grown rather fond of during the last term at university. The rules of interpretation are pretty clearly and cleanly defined, so I jumped on it.
Several hours of casual tinkering later, lexical analysis was complete, token tree construction was a-go, function calling (built-in functions only, currently) was in, and variables were done. Less than 10 hours of work, and a semi-working language was born. Here's a little chunk of my interactive program:
(Apparently this is the sort of stuff we do in the 3rd-year Compiler course -- woot.  )
Next up is user-defined functions and conditionals. I want to bring a fibonacci function alive!
Anyways, very exciting stuff. This kind of work really gets me going, so there's a handful of later-year courses offered here that I'll probably get a huge kick out of.
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| Saturday, January 20, 2007 |
| The midnight update! | |
Posted - 1/20/2007 12:13:30 AM | Phew, what a whirlwind the last week has been. I'm absolutely exhausted, but there's just no time to take a break. The show must go on!
But lots and lots is new, so hopefully everyone can find something to entry in tonight's action packed episode of: The Midnight Update (EST).
Membrane Massacre
Tonight I hit a whirlwind of progress on Membrane Massacre, which has done a fantastic job of making the game feel more and more like a professional endeavor. Here's the spiel:
Boom!
Explosions are simply a bundle of joy. Previously an 'explosion' was just an effect created by the Missile weapon, which was just a wanky little spurt of particles. Very boring.
Now explosions are a set of additive-blended explosion/smoke particles that look utterly awesome. Explosions radiate outwards for a variable amount of time, destroying chunks of terrain, knocking away enemies (even El Mucho Membrano!), and giving a fun screen-shake effect when the player is too close to an explosion. Explosions can also damage the player now, too. Let's just say it makes it much more satisfying to use Missiles (not to mention the smoke trails!).
(Die, die, die!)
(Kudos to Draffurd for helping me make the end-game screen spiffer, too!)
(Let's not forget all of the wonderful new weapon icons Draffurd also created )
(And yes, there will be multiple ships :P)
As you can see, I'm getting closer and closer to my goal of having a near-professional quality game. I'm extremely pleased with MM thus far, and I absolutely can't wait to release the finished product. Hopefully I'll be able to keep my goal of finishing by the end of the month.
UW GameCamp (XNA)
Microsoft visited our campus today! They chose the worst possible spot/time (middle of our student life centre at lunchtime), and overall it was pretty disappointing. They showed us a bunch of promotional XNA stuff, including the incredibly boring Space War demo and some Grade 10-calibre games that the presenters themselves had been working on. And Visual C# Express crashed once, hehe.
On the upside, the usual Microsoft tactic of giving out mounds of free stuff improved my mood pretty well. I got a free T-Shirt (saying "Remember that one time at game camp.." ), free lunch, free fortified soy milk (WTF?!), a free Visual Studio Express CD, and got to chat a bit with the XNA guy afterwards. I still don't think I'll be touching XNA seriously anytime soon, as it seems too much like the goal is to build a developer community, rather than actually having feasible methods for game distribution.
Co-Op
So this evening was the night I logged onto our university's 'JobMine' and started checking out the offerings for my co-op term this summer.
Wow! Just shy of 300 jobs in my field; awesome! I found a handful that really spoke out to me and applied. I can't wait to see what kind of replies I'll get back. There were some neat ones, like one where I'd be working on some NASA-related programs used for measuring/analyzing worldwide snowfall/snow-melting, a couple of fall-back tutor jobs (for CS) right at the university, some programming jobs at reputable places such as Royal Bank of Canada and McAffee. Very cool stuff, if I do say so myself.
Sick!
And as of today I think I'm coming down with something nasty. Not cool. I wish I had my own microscopic ship.
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| Saturday, January 13, 2007 |
| Choices, choices.. | |
Posted - 1/13/2007 11:15:05 PM | Membrane Massacre - On to the fun stuff!
With this, the GUI work for MM is more or less finished. I now get to move onto the fun(ner?) stuff, like improving enemy AI, adding groovier explosions, and maybe some more level generation algorithms. And of course some fun stuff for the 'Impossible' difficulty setting.
(Finally those strange people who prefer absolute-style controls can leave me be! )
The main work was creating the Option component, which is essentially a label with buttons grafted on either side, with appropriate handlers. The other chunk was the logic of cycling through options and having them take effect. And with the additional graphics options, I'm pretty sure even the really low-end computers out there could play MM pretty smoothly.
Next up is getting in some crankin' tunes, and making enemies more interesting!
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| GameDev reborn! | |
Posted - 1/13/2007 12:37:13 AM | Beefed up for the Term
The UW Game Development Club has a very awesome-looking term coming up, in this man's honest opinion. The last two days (Thursday/Friday) were the university's Club Days, where the university's (many!) clubs all gather in the Student Life Centre and try to acquire as many loyal followers as possible. Amongst 5 of us, we managed the booth from 9:30-4:00 on both days. I pretty much spent all non-class time there, and it was great. Nothing quite like grabbing the passerby's attention and luring them into the deliciously seductive world of game development.
In summation, we got over 50 names/emails on our sign-up page, which is absolutely insane. I can't wait for our initial meeting! Heck, our current meeting room only seats 30! Again, awesome. This is going to be an extremely fun term for both myself and the club.
For solely ego points, I also had a demo version of Membrane Massacre playing on my laptop to catch the passerbys. Everybody likes a little publicity.
Schoolwork Landslide!
Lots and lots of schoolwork has been bogging me down. Calculus 2 has been proving full of difficulties, my German class is very intense, I'm way behind on Sociology readings, and I also have to manage the Co-Op application/interviewing process this term, which I've begun. It's a huge load of work, so (personal) game development has been at a crawl. But I'm still sticking to my goal of finishing Membrane Massacre by the end of the month -- I still have weekends!
Membrane Massacre
Just to toot my own horn a little -- (a lot? ) -- I'm very excited about the nearing completion of Membrane Massacre. I've got lots of really interesting and innovative features left to add, now that the slightly boring GUI work is almost done. I excitedly await the same kind of fantastic feedback that I got the first time around!
Crazy Coders
After such a big 'me'-session like above (which I simply get caught up in because of my raw gamedev excitement ) I need to offset some of that gamedev passion by giving kudos to some developers who have been pushing out some really great progress recently.
EasilyConfused - Udo is flying! The game looks great, and the gameplay looks to be riddled with the same funness that ensnared Mario's audience.
SimmerD - Ancient Galaxy is looking excellent as usual, but your progress on the editor lately has been both speedy and efficient. Very exciting stuff going on with AG. :)
Stompy - Nuff said! AoBM is moving forward steadily and speedily, and looking good. Great stuff!
Wijnand - A somewhat little-known face in the journal world, but he's been pushing his DX-based engine, Vyper, forward with considerable speed and motivation. Definitely worth a look-see if you haven't already.
Ysaneya - Simply a mandatory item on a list of motivating developers. Your incredible progress and dedication to Infinity keep me aiming high and pushing forward. Rock on.
Have an intensely cozy nap, or a sleep perhaps, in your bed.
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| Lack of updates! | |
Posted - 1/8/2007 12:54:29 AM | Woah! Has it already been a week?
I'm back at residence, and back to classes. The first few days of classes were pretty good, overall. Linear Algebra is going to be interesting, Calculus is going to require some review, German is going to be fun stuff (Vie heissen Sie? Sprechen Sie Deutsch!?), CS is always a joy, and Sociology is going to be boring.
And the worst news of all: I'm getting a new roommate! At the end of September (last term) my original roommate had some personal stuff going on and had to leave. This left me with the whole room to myself for the term, which was flipping awesome. I say this because I'm the sort of guy who really values his privacy, which I disliked losing when I had my roommate. Anyways, he's supposed to be arriving tomorrow, so I'll try to make the best out of it. "Siu Sem Hon" (I got a piece of his mail) -- he's probably British, or something.:P
Lastly, game development productivity is finally picking up again. I am very determined to finish Membrane Massacre by the end of January, so I request of you, dear reader, whatever motivation you can salvage and throw in my direction.
Recently added was the 'info bar' at the bottom which updates as you mouse-hover an option. You can also (as shown) hit Escape in-game to both pause the game and bring up the main menu. A small addition, but I'd just feel plain guilty if I didn't show something. ;)
(EDIT: Whoops, just realized I forgot to draw the logo as well! :P)
In addition, I've been (on a somewhat daily basis) reading up on and practicing some Direct3D hijinks, which I believe I'll be tackling as my 3D API of choice for my foray into 3D gamedev, for now. Easy there, Ravuya! :P I won't blab about why -- those are best left to "OpenGL vs Direct3D" threads on the forum! I suspect my next game will be 3D in some way or the other. Fingers crossed!
EDIT: Oh, guh, and I keep meaning to get my stuff set up on GreatGamesExperiment!
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| Happy New Years! | |
Posted - 1/1/2007 2:00:20 AM | End-of-Year Report
What a whirlwind year! I feel like I lost a dozen months in all of that chaos!
I'm extremely happy about my accomplishments this year, and I absolutely can't wait to tackle all of the challenges, obstacles, and great experiences that are waiting for me just around the corner. And of course I wish you all a great New Years with your friends and family.
I have a tendency to measure my year's worth by my accomplishments, which I think is pretty reasonable. Or maybe that's just because I did pretty good this time around. ;)
Acomplishments of 2006
- Skirmish Online - Spent 5 months developing Skirmish Online to the brink of open alpha testing. Also began a rewrite in C++ which reached closed alpha testing. The game went very far in development, got a dedicated handful of testers, and plenty of fans that saw the game's potential. Not to mention the most successful attempt on the biggest project me and Dean (Draffurd) have ever attempted.
- Star of Shadows RPG - I began this in the end of September 2005, but I also got a lot of it done in early 2006, before I decided to drop the project. Despite not working out in the end, it was still a valuable learning experience that I do not regret.
- Accepted to the University of Waterloo - Also accepted into the Uni of Windsor and Toronto, although I consider Waterloo -- being the most reputable for Computer Science -- as the most notable.
- TA'd a Grade 11 CS class - This was an excellent experience. Between me, my highschool CS teacher and myself, we managed to allow me to assist in teaching a grade 11 CS class for a semester. I learned a lot and I hope I helped the others learn a lot. I'm sure that I instilled the awesometude of game development into the minds of more than one person.
- Admiral Overalls - I wrote Admiral Overalls with Dean in June for a game development contest over at GeeksWithBlogs.com. We're still trying to not be bitter about an arguably unfair judging. :P
- Survived my first term of university - Phew! This first term was nuts. I've learned way more than my comparatively bland highschool years, met a bunch of great people, and have plenty more to go!
- UW GameDev Club - This term I helped get the club on its feet again, and ran/presented the Beginners' section of the club. It was a great experience in both helping my organization skills, and my public speaking. Not to mention showing others the wonderful world of game development!
- Membrane Massacre - Well, the first release. What first began as a small competition between developer pals ended up being my most-downloaded game to date -- in just a month's time!
Developer Awards 2006
A lot of folks around here (and those I know from elsewhere) have been working very hard during 2006, and are definitely deserving of recognition. And if I don't mention you, then it's because of poor memory, not lack of respect. :)
- Eliwood - A friend, a fellow developer, and an invaluable source of motivation. This guy has been bustin' away for most of this year. Certainly prodigy material. He's been working on a great game builder called Stencyl. Check it out!
- EasilyConfused - Who has been doing an excellent job at getting into game development. This year saw the completion of 'Orc', a fun and solid sidescroller, and the beginning of a promising project, 'Udo'. His dedication throughout this year has been nothing short of motivating.
- Sir Sapo & Prinz Eugn - The development of Angels 22 has been nothing short of impressive. This game went from a vague terrain demo to a complex and visually attractive game that draws nearer to completion even now. Sapo and Mark's dedication and hard work throughout the year have been a huge inspiration. You guys rock!
- Ravuya - One word: Glow. You began a project with the dream of killing zombies, and you reached out and met that dream. And how! Your steady unwavering progress throughout the months has been excellent. I can't wait until Novarunner reaches fruitation, too!
- SteelGolem - For a guy who spent most of this year not posting much development, you really jumped on the ball the last month. You've managed to get a more-or-less playable game in a month's time. Great stuff, man. :)
- ShoeStringGames - What a trooper. You've had real-life throw you some lemons throughout this year, but you've managed to *somehow* manage to keep your gamedev spirits alive. I know you'll end up reaching those goals -- just hold onto them!
- Scet - Holy smokes. I still eagerly look forward to day when I'll be able to create a full 3D game. Heck, I still couldn't even touch something like your early map viewer. You've done great stuff this year, and I can't wait to see where this adventure will lead to in the end.
- Stompy - What can I say? You were writing games solidly and consistantly in 2005, and you did it again in 2006. Keep pumping them out for this year, too! :)
Awesome work, all of you. And to everyone else I didn't mention. I think everyone here did something generally productive this year. :)
Resolutions for 2007
Erk, 'resolution' is a rough word. I prefer 'goal' much more. Makes it sound a little more acceptable in case I don't accomplish it.
- Learn 3D graphics programming - I've been stuck in the world of 2D and 'faking 3D' for far too long. I really want to get into this, and this year is the time to do it. Especially with this year's Linear Algebra class to help out!
- Learn basic 3D modeling - Yep, time to escape those evil sprites as well! I don't plan on mastering modeling by any means, but I want to be able to create some game-viable stuff for my 3D adventures.
- Learn PHP/MySQL -This implicitly implies some HTML/CSS review, but the main goal is to be able to create dynamic websites and get comfortable with relational databases like MySQL. Knowledge of database programming is as good as gold in the programming (and game!) industry.
- Finish Membrane Massacre -It only took me one look at the response I got from the first release to know that I had to finish sprucing up this game and turn it into all it can be. It's gonna be good. :)
- Create that big online game -I'm not sure if this will be the rebirth of Skirmish Online or an online RPG, but I really want to make "that big online game" this year. Well, perhaps 'start' is the better word. :P
- Make a few more games - Always a safe one. I've got to get some more nice titles under my belt before the next year is out!
That's all I can conjure on-the-spot, but more will likely follow as the year progresses.
With all of that said, I wish you all again a happy new year, and may all of your goals for this year reach fulfillment!
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"Good night, Monster Land."
"Good night, brave warrior."
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