I have mixed feelings on the new languages that compile to JavaScript such as Dart and CoffeeScript. The problem with these languages is that by producing JavaScript there are people who seem to think they are creating JavaScript projects when they are not. It is possible to take the JavaScript output and edit it as if it were a JavaScript program, but unless those changes are also done in the language source code, those changes are either not part of the project or make the project much harder to maintain. This effectively means that once you start a project in one of these languages you pretty much have to stick with the language. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it does reduce the number of people who can use the source code.
Dart is a bit different from other languages that compile to JavaScript. The compiling to JavaScript is a backwards-compatibility feature designed to allow programs written in Dart to work on browsers that do not support the Dart language. The idea is that eventually browsers will start supporting Dart as one of their script-tag languages. The dart programs then would be run using their native JIT-compiler resulting in better performance. Right now there are not any browsers that support Dart, but Chrome is going to soon as the Dart SDK includes a beta-build of Chrome that has Dart support.
When Dart was first released, I briefly looked at the language but decided I would wait for the 1.0 release before trying it. A Google IO presentation on the language got my curiosity peaked and when I discovered StageXL (which like the CreateJS library is modelled after the Flash API that I am familiar with) I decided that the JavaScript issues I was having with CreateJS might be solved if I used Dart and StageXL. This in fact was the case so I have decided that I will be using Dart to port my Ultimate Retro Project to HTML5.
The Dart language is a proper Object-Oriented language with optional type support. All the type-related issues I have with JavaScript are gone and having proper classes makes working with code great. My favourite feature surprisingly was the switch statement. Dart requires that each case statement within the switch block has a break, continue or return statement making the issue of accidentally forgetting a break statement a thing of the past. This is one of my pet-peeves with all the C-like languages so discovering this feature made my day.
While I am still new to the Dart language, I suspect that by the end of the Ultimate Retro Project port I will be close to an expert with Dart. If like me you are coming to JavaScript from real programming languages, Dart may be the solution. I will be continuing my discussion of Dart as I continue to work on my port, but as this is a side project I am not sure how quick the work will proceed. Perhaps by the end of the project I will have changed my mind, but my current impressions of Dart are exceedingly positive so there will have to be major issues to make me change my mind about the language.
Showing posts with label Ultimate Retro Project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ultimate Retro Project. Show all posts
Friday, June 14, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
7DRL Postmortem
My 7DRL project was not what I consider a success. While technically I had a playable game, it was more of a random maze game than anything else. While the RPG code was mostly done (if you look at the source you can see a couple thousand lines of rpg related classes) it simply was not integrated into the rest of the game. This work will be done and the finished version of the game will be releases eventually but it was not finished within the 7 days of the challenge so it is not a success. That said, here is the postmortem.
What went wrong
Memory is a faulty thing. As this game was to be based on an existing Java game, I was thinking about the project as if all the code was already ported to JavaScript. For this reason I never really took a look at how much code there actually was for the original game. I really don't remember the project being as big as it is. Part of the reason for this is due to the fact that the orignal Dungeon Romp was built on top of the other games in the Ultimate Retro Project as well as borrowing a lot of code from the Coffee Quest series so a lot of the work was already done. I really should have reviewed the code before I started and started porting the common libraries beforehand. Ultimately, I made the rookie mistake of taking on far more than was realistic for a one week period. Next year I will be more prepared.
What went both wrong and right
Porting the code was a mixed blessing. As I mentioned above, there was a huge amount of code that I ended up hand-porting to JavaScript. There are some tools that will cross-compile from Java to JavaScript, but when I looked at them the results were not very good. I want to be able to modify and use the JavaScript code not to work in Java and publish the results as hard to read/modify JavaScript that requires large amounts of support libraries to work. While hand-porting is a lot more time consuming then running code through a tool, it has two huge advantages. You really understand the code that you are porting after you have finished porting it. You are able to take advantage of certain features of JavaScript (dynamic classes, for instance) that a cross-compiler simply will not.
What went right
While I suppose this is not the most significant thing, the thing I am most proud of is my pre-loader. This is the first JavaScript game I wrote that really needed some type of pre-loader. After doing a bit of testing, I found that the code started running before all the script files were loading, so the pre-loader could also include the loading of the scripts as long as the pre-loader script was before the other source script tags. Even if this is not a feature in all browsers, the image loading code will still take the bulk of the loading time though there will be a slightly longer delay before any activity happens. To get something on the screen as quickly as possible, a text message is rendered while the title-screen image starts loading. Once the title screen image is loaded, the other images (condensed into a number of image atlases) are loaded.
While finishing the game in a part-time week was not in the cards, the game will eventually be completed. I am hoping for an April release, but am not committing to anything at this point.
What went wrong
Memory is a faulty thing. As this game was to be based on an existing Java game, I was thinking about the project as if all the code was already ported to JavaScript. For this reason I never really took a look at how much code there actually was for the original game. I really don't remember the project being as big as it is. Part of the reason for this is due to the fact that the orignal Dungeon Romp was built on top of the other games in the Ultimate Retro Project as well as borrowing a lot of code from the Coffee Quest series so a lot of the work was already done. I really should have reviewed the code before I started and started porting the common libraries beforehand. Ultimately, I made the rookie mistake of taking on far more than was realistic for a one week period. Next year I will be more prepared.
What went both wrong and right
Porting the code was a mixed blessing. As I mentioned above, there was a huge amount of code that I ended up hand-porting to JavaScript. There are some tools that will cross-compile from Java to JavaScript, but when I looked at them the results were not very good. I want to be able to modify and use the JavaScript code not to work in Java and publish the results as hard to read/modify JavaScript that requires large amounts of support libraries to work. While hand-porting is a lot more time consuming then running code through a tool, it has two huge advantages. You really understand the code that you are porting after you have finished porting it. You are able to take advantage of certain features of JavaScript (dynamic classes, for instance) that a cross-compiler simply will not.
What went right
While I suppose this is not the most significant thing, the thing I am most proud of is my pre-loader. This is the first JavaScript game I wrote that really needed some type of pre-loader. After doing a bit of testing, I found that the code started running before all the script files were loading, so the pre-loader could also include the loading of the scripts as long as the pre-loader script was before the other source script tags. Even if this is not a feature in all browsers, the image loading code will still take the bulk of the loading time though there will be a slightly longer delay before any activity happens. To get something on the screen as quickly as possible, a text message is rendered while the title-screen image starts loading. Once the title screen image is loaded, the other images (condensed into a number of image atlases) are loaded.
While finishing the game in a part-time week was not in the cards, the game will eventually be completed. I am hoping for an April release, but am not committing to anything at this point.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Words and a map
The first thing I should mention is that Dozen Days of Words episode 1 has been started. The first block of work was completed. During that time I greatly enhanced the read-me file so that it explains the Dozen Days Pentalogy and the rules I am going by for this second season. I am going to be breaking the game development into 4 3-6 hour sessions. Due to the fact that I want the game released on the first friday of January, the other three blocks will be completed soon. My plan is to do the second block on the 26th, the third on the 27th and the final block on the 28th though it is possible that those plans will change. A sneak preview post will be made when I update the site later this week.
I found and scanned in the map for Ultimate Retro Project's Modern Adventure game. A small version is below. I will post a better version on Blazing Games when I update it this week.
I found and scanned in the map for Ultimate Retro Project's Modern Adventure game. A small version is below. I will post a better version on Blazing Games when I update it this week.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Modern Adventure posted
The final episode (well, the final game in the series to be finished since technically speaking there are two episodes after this one but those were posted quite a while ago) has been posted. Next month I will be posting a map and then a walk-through of the game. I will also be giving you a sneak preview of my plans for 2009. This post a short one, but there is a lot happening that I hope to be telling you about next month! And for the Americans reading this, Happy Thanksgiving.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Ultimate Retro Finished
I just posted the source code for Ultimate Retro Project episode 58: Modern Adventure to the repository. Those of you who want to play it early and who know how to download from a repository and compile the java source code can play it early now if you wish. Those who don't want to be bothered can just wait until it is posted on Friday (late Thursday evening in B.C.). While this is probably cutting it a bit close, the game was in a playable state last weekend so today's work was simply finishing touches, bug fixing, and fine tuning. That said, there was a lot more I would have loved to do with the game had I more time to work on it. I suppose the reality is that there will always be more that can be done so having hard release dates does make sense. The question is how often should those be. More hours per game with fewer releases? I'll be making that decision in a little over a week when I officially close the poll on the Blazing Games site.
I do want to release a hint guide for modern adventure on this blog even though I don't really think the game is that difficult. I don't think next week is the right time to do so, but do watch for that shortly after the game is released. I haven't decided if I will create a good map for the walkthrough or just scan in my hand-made map. Perhaps the hand made map would give some insight to the design process, but if not it would be much faster to just scan that in. Besides, that sounds like a good excuse.
Now all the games in the Ultimate Retro Project have been completed so technically the series is done. I do still plan on doing a 3D version of Dungeon Romp so look for that next year.
I do want to release a hint guide for modern adventure on this blog even though I don't really think the game is that difficult. I don't think next week is the right time to do so, but do watch for that shortly after the game is released. I haven't decided if I will create a good map for the walkthrough or just scan in my hand-made map. Perhaps the hand made map would give some insight to the design process, but if not it would be much faster to just scan that in. Besides, that sounds like a good excuse.
Now all the games in the Ultimate Retro Project have been completed so technically the series is done. I do still plan on doing a 3D version of Dungeon Romp so look for that next year.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
November preview
I have a bit of a confession to make. Most of November's content, 3/4's of it to be precise, was not ready before November. Regular readers know that I finished Dozen Days of Dice on November 1st, but One of those Weeks episode 45 and Ultimate Retro Project episode 58 were still not done. This weekend went a long way towards rectifying this situation, but I am still not in the clear. Of course, the contents for this month are Chapter 27 of Making of One of those Weeks, Dozen Days of Dice episode 11: Everest, One of those Weeks episode 45:Toronto and Ultimate Retro Project episode 58: Modern Adventure.
Chapter 27 has already been released so there is not much need to talk about it here. Episode 45 of One of those Weeks, however, has not been released. The screen shot probably should give the players an idea of where they have ended up. Those of you who are familiar with Canada may notice that the skyline does resemble the city that the episode is named after. I do wonder if I am about to annoy eastern Canadians, but know that western Canadians will understand the humour of the episode. Of course, that assumes that people actually share my sense of humour which may just be wishful thinking on my part.
Dozen Days of Dice episode 11 has been mentioned before, but it is an interesting game. The goal is to flag all the locations on the mountain first. Flags are earned by combining dice meaning that both luck and strategy play a part in this game. I do wish now that I would have spent the three hours I had remaining fine tuning the game, but with everything that is going on at the moment with me I am finding that I am getting exhausted after only spending 12 hours on the challenge (only 10 of which was work). I really do hope that the majority of people who care about the Dozen Days series want me to spread the hours out as it will result in better games while still retaining most of the spirit of the series.
The bulk of the artwork for the final Ultimate Retro Project episode has been finished by Mary Caton so I just have to do the coding and by the end of the month I should have the series complete. The Modern Adventure episode is the same story as the classic episode but with a graphical user interface. I should point out that episodes 59 and 60 were released quite a while ago and were done out of sequence because that was the game I really wanted to develop. I do still plan on creating a 3D version of Dungeon Romp, but that will not be showing up until next year at the earliest. Also likely to be postponed until next year is the Christmas special that I had to postpone last year. I will not know for sure until the beginning of December, but the odds of me having the time to finish it before this Christmas is very low.
Last, but most important, there is a four question poll that is going to be available until the end of the month. This is to get feedback on the direction the site should take next year. While the final decision for what I am going to do in 2009 is mine alone, the results of the poll will certainly help me make my decisions so it is in your best interest to let me know what you think.
Chapter 27 has already been released so there is not much need to talk about it here. Episode 45 of One of those Weeks, however, has not been released. The screen shot probably should give the players an idea of where they have ended up. Those of you who are familiar with Canada may notice that the skyline does resemble the city that the episode is named after. I do wonder if I am about to annoy eastern Canadians, but know that western Canadians will understand the humour of the episode. Of course, that assumes that people actually share my sense of humour which may just be wishful thinking on my part.
Dozen Days of Dice episode 11 has been mentioned before, but it is an interesting game. The goal is to flag all the locations on the mountain first. Flags are earned by combining dice meaning that both luck and strategy play a part in this game. I do wish now that I would have spent the three hours I had remaining fine tuning the game, but with everything that is going on at the moment with me I am finding that I am getting exhausted after only spending 12 hours on the challenge (only 10 of which was work). I really do hope that the majority of people who care about the Dozen Days series want me to spread the hours out as it will result in better games while still retaining most of the spirit of the series.
The bulk of the artwork for the final Ultimate Retro Project episode has been finished by Mary Caton so I just have to do the coding and by the end of the month I should have the series complete. The Modern Adventure episode is the same story as the classic episode but with a graphical user interface. I should point out that episodes 59 and 60 were released quite a while ago and were done out of sequence because that was the game I really wanted to develop. I do still plan on creating a 3D version of Dungeon Romp, but that will not be showing up until next year at the earliest. Also likely to be postponed until next year is the Christmas special that I had to postpone last year. I will not know for sure until the beginning of December, but the odds of me having the time to finish it before this Christmas is very low.
Last, but most important, there is a four question poll that is going to be available until the end of the month. This is to get feedback on the direction the site should take next year. While the final decision for what I am going to do in 2009 is mine alone, the results of the poll will certainly help me make my decisions so it is in your best interest to let me know what you think.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Halloween game posted
Regular readers of this blog already know that the Halloween game for this year is Ultimate Retro Project episode 57: Classic Text Adventure. I don't know why, but to me a text adventure with a horror theme seems perfect for this time of year. While the Modern version that will have graphics would probably be preferred by most readers, that requires a fair bit of artwork. Mary Caton has volunteered to do some of that artwork so I am hoping to have the modern version of this game finished by the end of the year. If this does happen, and I finish One of those Weeks as I plan to, then this would mark the end of two of my bigger projects.
Next month is going to have a very interesting poll, which I will run from November 7th to November 30th. It will have four questions that will be used to aid me in my decision of what to do with the site in 2009. Note that the purpose of the poll is to get feedback and even if the majority feel a certain way I will make the final decision. To be honest, if everybody voted that I should cancel Coffee Quest then despite my fondness for that series I would probably listen to the results. Yes, the future of Coffee Quest is in fact on of the questions.
Next month is going to have a very interesting poll, which I will run from November 7th to November 30th. It will have four questions that will be used to aid me in my decision of what to do with the site in 2009. Note that the purpose of the poll is to get feedback and even if the majority feel a certain way I will make the final decision. To be honest, if everybody voted that I should cancel Coffee Quest then despite my fondness for that series I would probably listen to the results. Yes, the future of Coffee Quest is in fact on of the questions.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Classic Text Adventure Release Candidate in repository
Well, I managed to finish my horror themed text adventure today and have posted the files to the repository so those of you who can't wait five days and know how to compile java can download and play episode 57 of the Ultimate Retro Project early (in the unlikely event that any exist). The development of this game was quite quick due to the fact that the two main parts of the engine, the room management and the parser, had already been written (at least partially) for other games in the ultimate retro series. Still, when adventures are concerned, the parser is very important. I opted for a simple two word parser which was used by a lot of adventure games.
A two word parser is actually one of the easier things to implement. This is because the format is very straight forward. You have a verb followed by a noun. Both the verbs and the nouns can be grouped into a list and you can then simply look up the command on the list and turn the command into a number representing the action and a number representing the object that the action is being applied to. My parser is slightly more sophisticated then this.
At the heart of my parser is the command class which holds a number that represents the verb and a number that represents the noun. The word, however, is not a single word for each command but a list of words that represent that command. The list of words are stored in a Word class that also holds other info about the word that I do not take full advantage of. A sentence class, which consists of a word class for the verb and a list of words that can be used for the noun (after all, some commands may have different nouns that can be used such as in the case of the move command) forms the basis of the command architecture. Finally, the parser class consists of a list of sentences that the game can understand.
After the parser command has processed the input string, you are left with a command. The ID of the verb is used to determine what to do and the ID of the noun is used to additionally quantify the action being performed.
While I was hoping to have a generic adventure creation engine by the end of this episode, puzzles tend to require a lot of condition processing. I was not about to spend far too much time writing a simple scripting language that could handle the condition processing so the final code is a bit too integrated with the data files than I would like. I think the time for text adventures is over and I have far better projects to work on so a general purpose text adventure game engine will not be coming from me any time soon, though there are already a number of them that already exist.
A two word parser is actually one of the easier things to implement. This is because the format is very straight forward. You have a verb followed by a noun. Both the verbs and the nouns can be grouped into a list and you can then simply look up the command on the list and turn the command into a number representing the action and a number representing the object that the action is being applied to. My parser is slightly more sophisticated then this.
At the heart of my parser is the command class which holds a number that represents the verb and a number that represents the noun. The word, however, is not a single word for each command but a list of words that represent that command. The list of words are stored in a Word class that also holds other info about the word that I do not take full advantage of. A sentence class, which consists of a word class for the verb and a list of words that can be used for the noun (after all, some commands may have different nouns that can be used such as in the case of the move command) forms the basis of the command architecture. Finally, the parser class consists of a list of sentences that the game can understand.
After the parser command has processed the input string, you are left with a command. The ID of the verb is used to determine what to do and the ID of the noun is used to additionally quantify the action being performed.
While I was hoping to have a generic adventure creation engine by the end of this episode, puzzles tend to require a lot of condition processing. I was not about to spend far too much time writing a simple scripting language that could handle the condition processing so the final code is a bit too integrated with the data files than I would like. I think the time for text adventures is over and I have far better projects to work on so a general purpose text adventure game engine will not be coming from me any time soon, though there are already a number of them that already exist.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Modern hotdog stand released
Today the Modern version of Hotdog Stand was released. While I may have a strategy guide for the game in the future, today I am just going to talk about the underlying simulation. Granted, understanding how the simulation works will probably give you all the information that a proper strategy guide would so if you want to finish the game without looking at a strategy guide then you may also wish to stop reading the rest of this article until after you have completed the game.
The heart of the hotdog stand simulation is the customer. After all, it is customers who purchase the hotdogs that are being sold in the game. The number of customers generated depends on a number of factors. First, there is the location that the player has chosen. This determines how many people will be there. Of course, different numbers of people will be present based on the time of day so that is factored into the chance that a customer will appear. If there is advertising for that day, an additional percentage of customers will be added to this base amount. All of this is added together and forms the chance per six seconds that a customer will appear.
When a customer does appear, the customer takes a look at the store. Based on the sign that is being used, the customer makes a first impression decision as to if they wish to consider purchasing something from the stand. If they are going to buy something, the customer then randomly selects which food combo they wish and what their price range is. If the food combo is under the price range then they will attempt to buy the item. If there is enough ingredients to make the requested meal then a purchase is achieved. If not, then the customer will divide the impression of the hotdog stand in half and make another attempt at analyzing the stand. This keeps up until the customer is not interested in the stand, in which case the reason given for not buying something (costs too much or not available) will be the result.
The heart of the hotdog stand simulation is the customer. After all, it is customers who purchase the hotdogs that are being sold in the game. The number of customers generated depends on a number of factors. First, there is the location that the player has chosen. This determines how many people will be there. Of course, different numbers of people will be present based on the time of day so that is factored into the chance that a customer will appear. If there is advertising for that day, an additional percentage of customers will be added to this base amount. All of this is added together and forms the chance per six seconds that a customer will appear.
When a customer does appear, the customer takes a look at the store. Based on the sign that is being used, the customer makes a first impression decision as to if they wish to consider purchasing something from the stand. If they are going to buy something, the customer then randomly selects which food combo they wish and what their price range is. If the food combo is under the price range then they will attempt to buy the item. If there is enough ingredients to make the requested meal then a purchase is achieved. If not, then the customer will divide the impression of the hotdog stand in half and make another attempt at analyzing the stand. This keeps up until the customer is not interested in the stand, in which case the reason given for not buying something (costs too much or not available) will be the result.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Details on October
Modern Hotdog Stand has been posted to the repository. While there are additional features I would love to add to the game, my current schedule does not realistically allow me to do so. If the game is popular enough, I could always revisit it and add the features I desire but I suspect that will not be the case. The next task in the Ultimate Retro Project is the text adventure game. This would actually be ideal for Halloween as it does have a horror theme to it. Still, I do not know for sure if I will be able to finish this on time, so have an alternative planned out in case I am unable to meet the end of month deadline.
Speaking of October's schedule, I should probably go over my plans. Of course, Dozen Days of Dice episode 10 has already been released. One of the Saturday's in October will probably be spent working on episode 11 so I have it ready for November. I am going to try to keep the Dozen Days series monthly from now on which is why I am having the poll this month. I want to know which series will be following the dice series in case I have a string of free Saturday's and can get ahead in series development. Yes, I know that pig's can't fly but stranger things have happened.
Making of One of those Weeks is an eBook that only a few people read. I assume that most the people who read this blog also read the eBook but really have no way of knowing for sure. Still, Chapter 26 is ready to be released so I don't have to worry too much about it. I think this chapter of the book clearly explains the decision making process that I go through when I don't have enough time to focus on games for the Blazing Games site.
Modern Hotdog Stand was actually not finished before the month started. It was actually finished today, which should be obvious from the first paragraph of this entry. People who know how to compile Java and want to play the game early can grab it from the repository. The best I have been able to do is to finish the game in 7 days. I will be writing an article on how my simulation works which I hope to release shortly after the modern version has been officially released.
One of those Weeks episode 44 is in a functional but not finished state so I am going to have to finish it up before it is released. The neat thing about this episode is that it is simply the application of information the player obtained by playing the previous episode. I am hoping that the clues are sufficient, but because I know the answers I can't properly judge the difficulty. This is a problem that all puzzle designers have to face with the only real way of knowing the true difficulty of a puzzle is to expose it to a large number of people.
The final game of the month has not yet been determined. I probably should have placed some type of placeholder message on the schedule, and will probably do so next time I update the site. As I said above, I am hoping to have time to finish the classic Text Adventure which does have a horror story. My alternative plan is to do alternative layouts for Monster Hunt.
Speaking of October's schedule, I should probably go over my plans. Of course, Dozen Days of Dice episode 10 has already been released. One of the Saturday's in October will probably be spent working on episode 11 so I have it ready for November. I am going to try to keep the Dozen Days series monthly from now on which is why I am having the poll this month. I want to know which series will be following the dice series in case I have a string of free Saturday's and can get ahead in series development. Yes, I know that pig's can't fly but stranger things have happened.
Making of One of those Weeks is an eBook that only a few people read. I assume that most the people who read this blog also read the eBook but really have no way of knowing for sure. Still, Chapter 26 is ready to be released so I don't have to worry too much about it. I think this chapter of the book clearly explains the decision making process that I go through when I don't have enough time to focus on games for the Blazing Games site.
Modern Hotdog Stand was actually not finished before the month started. It was actually finished today, which should be obvious from the first paragraph of this entry. People who know how to compile Java and want to play the game early can grab it from the repository. The best I have been able to do is to finish the game in 7 days. I will be writing an article on how my simulation works which I hope to release shortly after the modern version has been officially released.
One of those Weeks episode 44 is in a functional but not finished state so I am going to have to finish it up before it is released. The neat thing about this episode is that it is simply the application of information the player obtained by playing the previous episode. I am hoping that the clues are sufficient, but because I know the answers I can't properly judge the difficulty. This is a problem that all puzzle designers have to face with the only real way of knowing the true difficulty of a puzzle is to expose it to a large number of people.
The final game of the month has not yet been determined. I probably should have placed some type of placeholder message on the schedule, and will probably do so next time I update the site. As I said above, I am hoping to have time to finish the classic Text Adventure which does have a horror story. My alternative plan is to do alternative layouts for Monster Hunt.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
September is here
While the family situation is still going on, I am back and have posted the schedule for September, a new poll, and the Billy Spelchan Senior word set for Circle Word. While I would love to be talking about what the family situation is, I have been asked not to and will respect my families wishes. That said, the month does not look too bad (at least as far as I am concerned) though I still haven't had a chance to create the game in a day game for September.
The poll on the site will run until the eleventh and I urge all my visitors to try out episode 42 of One of those Weeks and let me know if a more elaborate version of Solid Light is desired. In addition to the poll, three sets of words for Ultimate Retro Project's Modern Circle Word have been created. These word sets are dedicated to my Father and are themes based on his interests and life.
One of those Weeks has episode 43 as well as chapter 25 of Making of One of those Weeks coming next month. The rather interesting twist has it's foundations in this episode. The twist might be a bit too obvious after this episode is played, but the twist is actually the whole point I am trying to make with this story.
Finally, Dozen Days of Dice needs a ninth episode. I am hoping to do this episode on the 6th or the 13th but if I am unable to do so then I may do the episode live on the 20th. If that is not possible, then I may reluctantly release the bonus episode that I created but felt was not fun enough to be released.
The poll on the site will run until the eleventh and I urge all my visitors to try out episode 42 of One of those Weeks and let me know if a more elaborate version of Solid Light is desired. In addition to the poll, three sets of words for Ultimate Retro Project's Modern Circle Word have been created. These word sets are dedicated to my Father and are themes based on his interests and life.
One of those Weeks has episode 43 as well as chapter 25 of Making of One of those Weeks coming next month. The rather interesting twist has it's foundations in this episode. The twist might be a bit too obvious after this episode is played, but the twist is actually the whole point I am trying to make with this story.
Finally, Dozen Days of Dice needs a ninth episode. I am hoping to do this episode on the 6th or the 13th but if I am unable to do so then I may do the episode live on the 20th. If that is not possible, then I may reluctantly release the bonus episode that I created but felt was not fun enough to be released.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Hotdogs and Knees
The classic version of Hotdog Stand has been posted on Blazing Games, I came close to having a breakdown, and my doctor told me something that I never expected to hear in my lifetime. While I do plan on writing a series of articles explaining how my hotdog stand simulation works, which would also act as a strategy guide for the game, I am really not in the right state of mind to do that at this time, but will eventually do so. The interesting thing about hotdog stand is that the classic version is almost as much fun as the modern version. I just wish it was as easy to earn money in the real world as it is in this game. Then again, I suppose that is part of the reason we play games.
The family situation is still going on and I am still not talking about it. It is quite stressful, and has really had a negative impact on how much coding I have been able to accomplish. When you take into account that in addition to next month's games, I have some third party projects that I am working on, coding slowdowns are not a good thing. One of these projects is actually something that I can talk about, but right now am not in the right state of mind to do so meaning that the announcement will be made next week if I remember.
My knee injury did swell up slightly and I had a disturbing incident with my knee giving out. I went to the doctor and she told me something that I never expected to hear from a doctor. "It is actually a common sports injury." While I am sure there are many programmers who are also athletic in nature, I am not one of them. Essentially I was right about the injury but in addition I bruised the menisci, and may have torn a ligament. I am suppose to let it heal for a couple of weeks and if I am still having problems may have to see a specialist. After a week, it is actually quite good. While my knee gets sore when I use it too much, I can walk just fine. Stairs, however, still bother me.
The family situation is still going on and I am still not talking about it. It is quite stressful, and has really had a negative impact on how much coding I have been able to accomplish. When you take into account that in addition to next month's games, I have some third party projects that I am working on, coding slowdowns are not a good thing. One of these projects is actually something that I can talk about, but right now am not in the right state of mind to do so meaning that the announcement will be made next week if I remember.
My knee injury did swell up slightly and I had a disturbing incident with my knee giving out. I went to the doctor and she told me something that I never expected to hear from a doctor. "It is actually a common sports injury." While I am sure there are many programmers who are also athletic in nature, I am not one of them. Essentially I was right about the injury but in addition I bruised the menisci, and may have torn a ligament. I am suppose to let it heal for a couple of weeks and if I am still having problems may have to see a specialist. After a week, it is actually quite good. While my knee gets sore when I use it too much, I can walk just fine. Stairs, however, still bother me.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
August 2008 Blazing Games Schedule
Sorry for the delay of my monthly preview and notification of Ultimate Retro Hotdog Stand being posted on the repository. My ISP problems still sort of continue. The status page says I have a lot less bandwidth than I am suppose to have but I am being told not to be concerned that it is a web site issue and that the correct information is in the billing computers. Still, I am going to be very careful with the amount of bandwidth that I use until my bandwith limit numbers are correct and have the feeling that this is not the last technical support call that I will be making. It is sad that there are so few broadband choices here. Bandwidth caps suck but I don't have much choice so am stuck with them.
Of course, One of those Weeks episode 41 has already been posted. It is the start of a new day so it is a dream sequence. I think I did a good job on the penguin, but am sure most people will disagree with my self-assessment. As there are five fridays this month, episode 42 will be released at the end of the month. I am withholding the description and screenshot for a few weeks, partly because I want to have another pass at the artwork. The middle of the month will have chapter 24 of Making of One of those Weeks.
The Dozen Days of Dice episode has already been sneak-previewed to readers of this blog so I don't think I need to go into further details here.
Finally, the classic version of my ultimate retro project:hotdog stand simulation will be posted. For those of you who don't want to wait and know how to compile java classes, the source code has already been posted to the ultimate retro project's subversion repository. This was a fairly substantial update and probably should have been posted as a number of repository updates but I just kept forgetting so ended up with the complete game before I finally got around to posting it.
Of course, One of those Weeks episode 41 has already been posted. It is the start of a new day so it is a dream sequence. I think I did a good job on the penguin, but am sure most people will disagree with my self-assessment. As there are five fridays this month, episode 42 will be released at the end of the month. I am withholding the description and screenshot for a few weeks, partly because I want to have another pass at the artwork. The middle of the month will have chapter 24 of Making of One of those Weeks.
The Dozen Days of Dice episode has already been sneak-previewed to readers of this blog so I don't think I need to go into further details here.
Finally, the classic version of my ultimate retro project:hotdog stand simulation will be posted. For those of you who don't want to wait and know how to compile java classes, the source code has already been posted to the ultimate retro project's subversion repository. This was a fairly substantial update and probably should have been posted as a number of repository updates but I just kept forgetting so ended up with the complete game before I finally got around to posting it.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Modern Monsters
Modern Monster Hunt has been posted on the site. Likewise, the alpha version of hearts (page 4 of the making of Hearts article) has also been posted. If you don't know what I am talking about then see last week's post. A power outage (five hours long) has altered my plans so I am keeping todays entry short.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Putting Day 6 to Sleep
I have posted tomorrow's game and the schedule for July on Blazing Games. The final episode for One of those Weeks Day 6 is the game that we are starting the month with. In addition, I also released a special bonus to readers of the development blog, which you will find the link near the end of this post. The game concludes with your trial. Win the trial and you get a chance to earn your Medusian citizenship. Lose the trial and you will be considered a large pet. Large pets are not allowed on the space station so if you are deemed a pet, you will be put to sleep.
The month of July is actually quite a nice month for releases. What is strange is that the first two weeks contain medusas in them. This was not intentional, and I only placed Modern Monster Hunter -- which was released on the ultimateretroproject.dev.java.net repostitory on Canada Day -- in that particular slot because I wanted it released as close to the classic game as possible. I could have had it released this week, but want One of those Weeks releases every other week and next month has five fridays in it so the release days for One of those weeks were kind of locked in.
Dozen Days of Dice episode 7 was completed on June 28th. This was my first Flex based game that I completed in a single day and only one of a few projects that I have developed in Flex. As such I did run into a problem that happened to strike right in the beginning of development. It is explained in the making of Hearts development journal, which I have decided I will give readers of this blog early access to. You can read the planning section and pre-alpha sections of the making of Hearts right now and additional sections will be released in the upcoming weeks.
The month of July is actually quite a nice month for releases. What is strange is that the first two weeks contain medusas in them. This was not intentional, and I only placed Modern Monster Hunter -- which was released on the ultimateretroproject.dev.java.net repostitory on Canada Day -- in that particular slot because I wanted it released as close to the classic game as possible. I could have had it released this week, but want One of those Weeks releases every other week and next month has five fridays in it so the release days for One of those weeks were kind of locked in.
Dozen Days of Dice episode 7 was completed on June 28th. This was my first Flex based game that I completed in a single day and only one of a few projects that I have developed in Flex. As such I did run into a problem that happened to strike right in the beginning of development. It is explained in the making of Hearts development journal, which I have decided I will give readers of this blog early access to. You can read the planning section and pre-alpha sections of the making of Hearts right now and additional sections will be released in the upcoming weeks.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Canada Day Long Weekend
Just in time for the Canada Day long weekend (July 1st is Canada Day) I am posting Classic Monster Hunt. This is an interesting game as the games that it was based on predate the text adventure and computer role-playing games yet this game has elements of both types of games. The map for this game is very simple, though I am considering creating additional maps for the modern version. In fact, depending on the weather this weekend I am hoping to finish the modern version of monster hunt so that it can be released early next month.
If the weather follows normal long weekend rules and is miserable, then I am going to attempt at least one game in a day challenge for my Dozen Days of Dice series. This will be a very interesting day as I will be developing the game in Flex so that it will be compilable with the freely available Flex3SDK. On the other hand, if the weather is actually as nice as it has been the rest of this week then I will be lucky to finish off the modern version of Monster Hunt.
In other news, I have had Wii Fit for about a week. For someone out of shape like me, I think the product makes doing daily exercise more tolerable. So far I have kept up with the exercises and to my surprise have found the Yoga stuff to be much better than I expected and think that I enjoy those exercises the most. I don't know if there will be that much more software that supports the balance board, but if Wii Fit helps me stick with an exercise program then it will be worth the price.
If the weather follows normal long weekend rules and is miserable, then I am going to attempt at least one game in a day challenge for my Dozen Days of Dice series. This will be a very interesting day as I will be developing the game in Flex so that it will be compilable with the freely available Flex3SDK. On the other hand, if the weather is actually as nice as it has been the rest of this week then I will be lucky to finish off the modern version of Monster Hunt.
In other news, I have had Wii Fit for about a week. For someone out of shape like me, I think the product makes doing daily exercise more tolerable. So far I have kept up with the exercises and to my surprise have found the Yoga stuff to be much better than I expected and think that I enjoy those exercises the most. I don't know if there will be that much more software that supports the balance board, but if Wii Fit helps me stick with an exercise program then it will be worth the price.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Thirteen Spikes and the Flex decision
One of the nice things about this year's site format is the simple fact that most of the posting work for the weekly update is done on the first post of each month. This means that posting Thirteen Spikes Unlimited, which has just been posted, doesn't take too long. This is a good thing as this is one of the rare occasions when I was taken out for supper so I was late posting the site today. Because everything was ready to go, however, it only took minutes when I got home to post the update for this week.
While I know that you should never drink and blog, I am going to make an exception today as I do want to explain my Flex decision and think that since Thirteen Spikes Unlimited was created using only the freely available Flex3SDK and jEdit for editing. While the remainder of One of those Weeks will be created in Flash CS3 and the remainder of the Ultimate Retro Project will be finished using Java, future projects will be created using Flex. Flash will be used for asset creation but the projects themselves will be compilable using the freely available Flex3SDK. In a couple of years I will take another look at the browser landscape and possibly change my development direction, but right now I am going to be focusing on Flex development.
I have been playing around with a number of different languages and quite frankly am sick of having to shift my gears when switching between projects that are in different languages. Having all my work done in a single language makes my work easier. If a paying client wanted me to do some C++ or Java work for them then I would certainly do so but for Blazing Games and other programming I am doing in my spare time then the work will be done in Flex unless there is a very compelling reason to use a different language.
I really do not trust Microsoft, so even though Silverlight 2 has some really nice aspects to it unless I am being paid to use their platform I am not going to do so. Java still has a place in my heart but I feel that Sun just dropped the applet ball and FX is too little too late. Still, this is one case where I would like to be proven wrong. HTML 5 is no where near being a finalized standard so I might as well focus on Flex while I wait for it. Other browser based game development plug-ins simply do not have the installed base.
I have already pointed out numerous times that Flash CS3 is expensive, while Flex has a freely available SDK. Flex produces Flash output and I can still use Flash for the creation of assets and animation.
While I know that you should never drink and blog, I am going to make an exception today as I do want to explain my Flex decision and think that since Thirteen Spikes Unlimited was created using only the freely available Flex3SDK and jEdit for editing. While the remainder of One of those Weeks will be created in Flash CS3 and the remainder of the Ultimate Retro Project will be finished using Java, future projects will be created using Flex. Flash will be used for asset creation but the projects themselves will be compilable using the freely available Flex3SDK. In a couple of years I will take another look at the browser landscape and possibly change my development direction, but right now I am going to be focusing on Flex development.
I have been playing around with a number of different languages and quite frankly am sick of having to shift my gears when switching between projects that are in different languages. Having all my work done in a single language makes my work easier. If a paying client wanted me to do some C++ or Java work for them then I would certainly do so but for Blazing Games and other programming I am doing in my spare time then the work will be done in Flex unless there is a very compelling reason to use a different language.
I really do not trust Microsoft, so even though Silverlight 2 has some really nice aspects to it unless I am being paid to use their platform I am not going to do so. Java still has a place in my heart but I feel that Sun just dropped the applet ball and FX is too little too late. Still, this is one case where I would like to be proven wrong. HTML 5 is no where near being a finalized standard so I might as well focus on Flex while I wait for it. Other browser based game development plug-ins simply do not have the installed base.
I have already pointed out numerous times that Flash CS3 is expensive, while Flex has a freely available SDK. Flex produces Flash output and I can still use Flash for the creation of assets and animation.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Are deadlines today's modern minefield?
Modern Minefield has been posted on Blazing Games. I just got back from a trip out of province for my nephew's graduation. I am not entirely sure why the graduation ceremony was in May when school does not finish for another month but I suppose that big city schools have to schedule things when they can. It was a very short stay though the drive was not a short one but podcasts made the drives much easier. Of course, I do have deadlines approaching which makes things quite hectic here so I am keeping this entry quite short. Next week I will try to have a more substantial post.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Spiking a Path
I have posted the release candidate for Classic Monster Hunter on the Ultimate Retro Project repository so anybody who can compile Java can try it out. Those of you who don't know how to compile programs or just don't want to put the effort in will have to wait until June. I have still been thinking about what I am going to do with the site and my thoughts have started forming a series of plans. One of these plans directly relates to this development blog so I will outline it first.
Right now I have a separate RSS feed for Blazing Games announcements and the feed that Blogger automatically handles for this blog. I am thinking that I may drop the sites feed and simply have all my announcements here. I would also probably cut back on my posting to every Thursday with the only other posts being shorter announcements for things such as the repository update above and industry news that I think the people who read this would care about.
I have a bunch of thoughts on how to better monetize the site which I will be trying to test out over the next year. If I am lucky one of my plans will actually pan out and I will be able to turn Blazing Games into a real company.
One of the things that I have been trying to do in the past but never quite got working was the idea of releasing early builds of games. Making a game is a lot of work, with a weekly release schedule being a heavy burden, so if I can take a game and slowly build it out to what I want it to be over a number of revisions then visitors will still be able to play new material every week even if it is just new enhancements to an existing game. The first game to get this multi-release treatment is Thirteen Spikes Unlimited. Here is the revision and release roadmap for Thirteen Spikes Unlimited:
Right now I have a separate RSS feed for Blazing Games announcements and the feed that Blogger automatically handles for this blog. I am thinking that I may drop the sites feed and simply have all my announcements here. I would also probably cut back on my posting to every Thursday with the only other posts being shorter announcements for things such as the repository update above and industry news that I think the people who read this would care about.
I have a bunch of thoughts on how to better monetize the site which I will be trying to test out over the next year. If I am lucky one of my plans will actually pan out and I will be able to turn Blazing Games into a real company.
One of the things that I have been trying to do in the past but never quite got working was the idea of releasing early builds of games. Making a game is a lot of work, with a weekly release schedule being a heavy burden, so if I can take a game and slowly build it out to what I want it to be over a number of revisions then visitors will still be able to play new material every week even if it is just new enhancements to an existing game. The first game to get this multi-release treatment is Thirteen Spikes Unlimited. Here is the revision and release roadmap for Thirteen Spikes Unlimited:
- 0.1.0 internal development release
- 0.2.0 First official release on June 13, 2008
- 0.3.0 Development build for Skinning support
- 0.4.0 Official build supporting skinning targeted for February 13, 2009
- 0.5.0 Development build where campaigns are tested
- 0.6.0 Official build supporting campaigns targeted for March 13, 2009
- 0.7.0 Development build for built in campaign editor
- 0.8.0 Official build supporting campaign editor targeted for November 13, 2009
- 0.9.0 Development build for 1.0 version
- 1.0.0 Targeted for August 13, 2010
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Minefields and Graveyards
Classic Minefield has been posted. I am still trying to figure out what to do next week. Do I leave the vague description for One of those Weeks 38 or do I put the correct picture and better description of the episode? When you think about it, the description of the episode probably won't spoil the previous episode for those people who only visit Blazing Games infrequently.
The funeral went fairly well, considering it was a funeral. I was a pallbearer so my biggest fear was that I would trip or drop the coffin. I know, I have silly fears. The funeral has me thinking about my future and I am wondering if it is really worth spending so my time on Blazing Games. If I was actually smart enough to have a successful company and was able to pay myself a salary or wage for my work it would make sense. I do enjoy programming and creating games but do tend to put way too many hours into Blazing Games. I will make my decision about the future of Blazing Games once I have finished the existing projects that I am working on.
The funeral went fairly well, considering it was a funeral. I was a pallbearer so my biggest fear was that I would trip or drop the coffin. I know, I have silly fears. The funeral has me thinking about my future and I am wondering if it is really worth spending so my time on Blazing Games. If I was actually smart enough to have a successful company and was able to pay myself a salary or wage for my work it would make sense. I do enjoy programming and creating games but do tend to put way too many hours into Blazing Games. I will make my decision about the future of Blazing Games once I have finished the existing projects that I am working on.
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