Provoking Development
I want everything in my code to be perfect and beautiful, but this is no way to make any sort of progress on a project. So I need to provoke progress from myself. I've decided to randomly and poorly implement new features. This will, in turn, force my obsessive perfectionism to integrate and polish them.
It can't fail!
Random new classes to fill out:
- GameData
- Polity
- HumanPolity
- ComputerPolity
- FlagMaker
- MapGen
Ok, the last two aren't new, I just never did anything with them before.
New terrain types:
- Glacier
- Snow
Unfortunately it'll take one or two more before the list of terrains exceeds the size of the of the TerrainPalette which would force me to implement some kind of scrolling. After the whole scrollbar fiasco from the end of November I was kinda turned off to the whole idea, but it's probably been long enough that I can look at the problem with a fresh perspective. Surely. And I made a little chart of wetness versus temperature for all my terrain types, so there are like 16 or so total to have done, see here:
And this isn't accounting for TerrainEffects or IsoFeatures, of course.
New GUI Element:
- Next Turn Button
Sure, it doesn't do anything yet, but it exerts a subtle teleological imperative. How can I but live in despair under such a force?
Actual development?
I very nearly implemented toggle buttons. The codes all there, I just haven't cleaned it up or, ahem, tested it. But it should work with a few rounds of debugging, I'm excited! I should mention, this was prompted by the realization that writing out the current Editor mode (see last post's screenshot) should be unnecessary because the button selected should show what mode the Editor is in. Yeah!
Game Art Portfolio
See, the way to get people to pay you for things is to look like you're expensive. So I'm moving my portfolio away from 1993 and more toward a design that at least acknowledges something beyond the most basic HTML. Yes, it goes against my anti-aesthetic sensibilities, but this damn Web2.0 thing with it's bells, whistles, and faux-glossy buttons is making me look bad.
Not quite done, but check it out.
This whole freelance graphics thing is interesting, really, but I'm not yet making the equivalent of any kind of fulltime job. And I don't really care for piles of cash mind you, though they'd make life easier. I'd just like to live on doing something I enjoy, ya'know? It's as much as anyone reasonable asks, I know, and I'd be privileged to attain it.
I'm nervous about posting in the help wanted section because I worry that I'm not good enough, but damn, I know I'm good enough -- people are indeed paying me to do art! And it isn't just $5 from the guy who sat in front of me in chemistry class to draw a picture of robots shooting guys armed with muskets. I've got quite an ego enough besides, so this shouldn't be a problem.
We'll see.
Hi David,
You have some really nice work there! Some advice though: the way to get people to pay you is to look professional. In short, pay someone to make your website. It will make a big difference and be worth the money. If I want my game to look good, I pay someone like you to help me with the art work because it will look better and you can do the work faster than I could. The same applies to a webpage.
</unsolicited opinion>
Incidentally, I will be looking for someone to help me with game art in the future, and I'll definitely be keeping you in mind. But... how much would I expect to pay? That's info that'd be nice to have on the webpage as well :)
Best of luck,
Josh