February 22, 2009
For the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be doing a bit of self-directed study as a sort of crash course in creative arts, with a bit of programming thrown in. It's a sort of wake-up call to shake the rust off my brain and get innovative again.
To start with, I'm doing a few learner exercises in p…
To start with, I'm doing a few learner exercises in p…
February 18, 2009
I might be a couple of weeks slow in catching up with indie news, but recently I've been pondering the current portal price wars. In case you missed it, earlier this month Reflexive, which is now owned by Amazon, opened up as Amazon's casual game download service. One of the earliest moves they've …
February 15, 2009
I've found another computer gathering dust and added it to the pile, and it's pretty sweet: a Pentium III 500 Mhz with 128 Mb RAM and a 3dfx Voodoo Banshee. It must have been a pretty sweet machine back in 1999. I was told that the video card might be on the blink, but it doesn't seem to have any i…
February 15, 2009
My family tends to be a bunch of pack rats, and we've been hoarding a bunch of old computer parts over the years. We're doing a big clean-up to reclaim some space, which means some equipment will probably have to go.
This afternoon I went through and did a quick test of all the PCs and monitors. I'd…
This afternoon I went through and did a quick test of all the PCs and monitors. I'd…
February 14, 2009
I'm back.
Or more accurately, since I'm still sitting at the same desk I have been for most of the week, I'm virtually back.
Actually, that's still not right. I've still been hanging around at the same forums I usually do, so I never even virtually left. So maybe I'm virtually, virtually back? Ah, s…
Or more accurately, since I'm still sitting at the same desk I have been for most of the week, I'm virtually back.
Actually, that's still not right. I've still been hanging around at the same forums I usually do, so I never even virtually left. So maybe I'm virtually, virtually back? Ah, s…
February 03, 2009
The weather is back to normal summer temperatures (low to mid thirties Celsius), so my desk area is now safe for human use. This week I'm attempting to finish off all outstanding Ph.D. material so I'll be free to move on. I expect I'll have some administrative stuff still to go next week, but it sh…
January 29, 2009
Summer has now outstripped winter as my least favourite season. The Melbourne heatwave is in Day 3, the meterologists are claiming this is breaking all sorts of records (such as the "most consecutive days with max over 43 C"), my office area is uninhabitable and no-one's getting any sleep. I've set…
January 27, 2009
In answer to the backup problem, I ended up buying two Maxtor 500GB external hard drives for A$100 each. The backup of the Time Capsule seems to be working, although I've only done a cursory check so far as to the data integrity. I'll need to figure out the best way of double checking the backups a…
January 23, 2009
One thing I've never been that great about is my data backup procedures. For the last few years my backup procedure was to burn a CD-ROM or two every week of certain directories on my hard disk. Really important files would get put on a USB stick or copied to a USB drive daily to be carried around …
January 22, 2009
A very quick review of some other editors...
Name: Corel Painter Essentials 4
Company: Corel
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Brief Description: Consumer grade paint and photo editing program
Demo Restrictions: 60 day trial
Cost: A$100 in Australia (US$66), unsure elsewhere
Web Link: www.corel.com (li…
Name: Corel Painter Essentials 4
Company: Corel
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Brief Description: Consumer grade paint and photo editing program
Demo Restrictions: 60 day trial
Cost: A$100 in Australia (US$66), unsure elsewhere
Web Link: www.corel.com (li…
January 21, 2009
Time for another quick art software review: Autodesk Sketchbook Pro.
Name: Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
Company: Autodesk
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Brief Description: Professional digital pen software with gesture based interface
Demo Restrictions: 15 day trial
Cost: US$100 download in North America …
Name: Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
Company: Autodesk
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Brief Description: Professional digital pen software with gesture based interface
Demo Restrictions: 15 day trial
Cost: US$100 download in North America …
January 19, 2009
Time for a sketch software trial. I'll try to do one of these every day or two this week, weather permitting (my air conditioning is rubbish and it's summer at the moment.)
I am trialling these on an iMac (20 inch screen, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM) running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.6). While I…
I am trialling these on an iMac (20 inch screen, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM) running Mac OS X Leopard (10.5.6). While I…
January 16, 2009
Quick update: I haven't forgotten about trialling all that drawing software. I've got stuck on some other work right now, and it's been sucking away my time and energy. I should get this latest batch done over the weekend, and I'll be reviewing software next week.
January 13, 2009
This post is in stereo, posted both at my personal journal at trazoi.net and at my GameDev.net journal.
One of the things I plan to do in early 2009 is to brush up on my skills, as well as learn some new ones, in some dedicated practice sessions. My goal is to become skilled in all areas of game dev…
One of the things I plan to do in early 2009 is to brush up on my skills, as well as learn some new ones, in some dedicated practice sessions. My goal is to become skilled in all areas of game dev…
January 10, 2009
This is a follow up to the post on piracy below. There were some good and interesting points made in the comments, and rather than confuse everything with lengthy posts within a threaded comment display I felt it was worth making another entry.
I mentioned this article in the original post, but it i…
I mentioned this article in the original post, but it i…
January 08, 2009
A lot of planning has been underway in the last week. Most of it has been sifting through a couple of years of brainstorm notes for when I got to this point, trying to remember some of the strategies I had jotted out for this point of time. I do not have a very clear road map of what I need to do; …
January 01, 2009
First post, 2009! The last post for 2008 was my wrap up of the goals of the year that was. This post sets the new goals for the year that will be.
2008 was a bit of a bust game development wise, but I knew at the start of the year that that would be the case. The most important goal of 2008 was to f…
2008 was a bit of a bust game development wise, but I knew at the start of the year that that would be the case. The most important goal of 2008 was to f…
December 30, 2008
Time for the last post of 2008 and the yearly wrap up and analysis of the year in game development!
I knew at the start of this year that I'd be spending a lot of time working on completing my studies (that's certainly been the case). I wasn't sure if I'd even set myself any specific objectives for …
I knew at the start of this year that I'd be spending a lot of time working on completing my studies (that's certainly been the case). I wasn't sure if I'd even set myself any specific objectives for …
December 19, 2008
After a few days of heavy editing and an all-nighter or two, I think I've got my Ph.D. write up very almost completely-for-real-this-time totally beat. It's been a couple of months of changes to the document, but I think it's as good as I should make it now. All that needs to happen is a final roun…
December 14, 2008
One thing I left out of my big language post was discussion of C#. I know C# is the new hot thing as far as game development is concerned, at least for lone developers and small teams around these parts, so my choice to avoid it warrants consideration.
The truth is that I do not know that much about…
The truth is that I do not know that much about…
December 11, 2008
For me, 2009 is going to be a big year for game development. This is the year that I am going to move away from the hobbyist mindset and start treating this as a professional career. In practical terms, this means I need to consider how I can make quality games within a time budget rather than just…
December 09, 2008
The current poll on the main page at the moment is:
"What naming convention (excluding notation) do you use for classes, functions, variables, etc?"
Options:
My query: does anyone exclusively use the same naming convention for classes, functions and variables?
Me…
"What naming convention (excluding notation) do you use for classes, functions, variables, etc?"
Options:
- CamelCase
- Under_scores
- lowerFirst
- none
- Other
My query: does anyone exclusively use the same naming convention for classes, functions and variables?
Me…
November 10, 2008
I've made a longer post about the not-very-exciting and not at all game developy things I've been up to in the last month over at my website. Basically my time in the last month has been:
- editing my PhD thesis dissertation
- Procrastinating, mainly by following the U.S. election on-line
- Catching up on v…
September 04, 2008
Also mirrored on my blog at trazoi.net...
Only a fortnight left to go before my deadline. I've upgraded from "crunch mode" to "death march". For the next week I'll still be around on forums and the internet so I've got some contact with the outside world, but expect any posts from me to get madder a…
Only a fortnight left to go before my deadline. I've upgraded from "crunch mode" to "death march". For the next week I'll still be around on forums and the internet so I've got some contact with the outside world, but expect any posts from me to get madder a…
August 19, 2008
(Mirrored on my blog at trazoi.net)
Another post to say I aten't dead. One month to go on the PhD write-up, and everything still feels only half done. Still, you've got to submit with the thesis you have, not the thesis you'd like to have. I'll be in crunch mode from now until mid-September. I'll st…
Another post to say I aten't dead. One month to go on the PhD write-up, and everything still feels only half done. Still, you've got to submit with the thesis you have, not the thesis you'd like to have. I'll be in crunch mode from now until mid-September. I'll st…
July 30, 2008
I spent a bit of time searching through potential names. It's hard to find anything that hasn't been taken. Plus you get the impression that at least nine tenths of the internet are "under construction" pages or owned by domain parkers.
But I've managed to snag a good alternative web domain: zapgem.…
But I've managed to snag a good alternative web domain: zapgem.…
July 30, 2008
I've been playing around with fonts and logos again for "Trazoi Entertainment" as a distraction from real work, but I'm starting to have second thoughts about the strength of "Trazoi" as a business name.
Trazoi has got a fair bit going for it: it's is short, pronounceable, unique enough to be a pote…
Trazoi has got a fair bit going for it: it's is short, pronounceable, unique enough to be a pote…
July 02, 2008
I had a last semi-unexpected batch of marking to do for the Computer Vision subject I was tutoring for this semester, and ended up spending a fair chunk of the cash on books. Since I'm spending the bulk of this month either writing my thesis or procrastinating from writing my thesis, buying books r…
June 20, 2008
I'm writing this mostly to sort out some of these arguments in my head, but I'm posting it here because I'd like the feedback of other developers who likely have opinions of their own. I've thought about making it a general Lounge post but it's probably best in my journal, as the next statement I'm…
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