It’s now half way through the month, and progress on my “October Game” is minimal to say the least. I suppose that was to be expected, since I did have several things to finish this month. My week-days have been filled with various tasks, leaving only weekends to work on this new thing. Next week I’ll be busy with my “1 more thing”, leaving me the last week of October for a final crunch....
Busy busy. I didn’t get to put much time in to the October game this week, but their certainly was progress. Before: and after… some element are mocked up (character and outlining): Day 3 – Back in the Saddle After a few days of other work (Smiles for Windows Phone 7), and making un-interactive interactive movies with silly internet tools, I have finally resumed working on my October game....
I’ve been doing my daily logs over at the Ludum Dare site, to try and encourage more people to participate there. I’ve really only worked on the game for 2 days, despite my plans to start early. Today I was busy with something else, so this week’s update will be light. This “week” was about getting the foundation of editor up and running. Currently it works on a 2 button mouse (right click to erase), but the editing interface will support a touch screen (tile zero is the eraser). There’s currently no UI, but I can cycle tiles with the mouse wheel. It auto saves/loads the map to a specific file. It started out looking like this: Then by the end of the night Saturday, it looked like this: If you’re interested at all in the process from A to B, hit the jump for more. I was going to do some work today (Sunday), but there’s so little time left, I’m calling it a night early. ...
The response to the October Challenge has been incredible! I think the one thing that’s most amazing about it: everybody gets it. Every appearance of it on the internet has encouraged a plethora of “I’m in!” or “It’s ON like Donkey Kong!” responses. I’ve had dozens of direct tweets and people hunt me down in IRC just to tell me how much they love the idea. Very awesome! For October 1st, I’ll be setting up and doing a new post on the Ludum Dare site, explaining how we can keep a list of finished games (i....
You might think I’m contractually obligated to start something ridiculous every few years, though I don’t remember signing the papers. My new project is awesome, I love it, but it’s going to take me all of next year (and maybe more) to make it. I’m so fascinated and taken by it, it’s something I NEED to make. But that’s next years agenda. This year, 2010, there’s still a good 3 months left....
And it’s that time again too. Ludum Dare #17 is coming up next weekend. If the idea of crunching together a game from scratch in 48 hours interests you, check us out. Now, this compo has been a little different. We announced our date nice and early, so the people at GDC would know about it, and to save us from silly “when will the compo be?” questions. So really, it was probably our best pre-announcement for a compo date to date....
So, holy cow! GDC was absolutely insane! I almost don’t know where to start, but lets start from the beginning. First thing first, I won again!! Argh! They used that squished photo again! I even sent them a square one! Yes, as if winning a free car wasn’t enough, I also won a free trip to GDC. So Intel ended up covering my flight, putting me up in a fancy hotel, gave me some spending money, treating me to dinner, AND giving me nearly front row seats to a San Jose Sharks hockey game!...
For the benefit of friends and people I’m meeting at the show, here’s a run down of my itinerary for GDC. I’ll also be tweeting and watching twitter while I’m down for any impromptu meets, hang-outs, and whatever with people I know. If the twitter says “totally bored”, then you know. 🙂 If anybody I know needs my cell number, send me a quick e-mail (mike AT sykhronics dot com). It’s not my usual cell, but it’ll be my number whilst I’m in San Fran....
Ordinarily, greeting someone by glancing at their chest might be seen as a little rude (especially a lady), but at GDC it’s encouraged! Yes I’m talking about the passes, not making a pass. The passes do a good job of helping you connect a face to a name, and even a company, but you don’t always know who made or represents what. GDC passes include a relatively large pocket, so you could either make something to insert behind your name card, or cover the pass with some strategically placed stickers....
So last year, I was an IGF Mobile finalist. This little game of mine stood alongside iPhone favorites like Edge and Fieldrunners, vying for the “Best Mobile Game” award. And if I had won, … well, I have no idea. Even just being a finalist has been great for me, so I’d image it would have been MORE great. 😉 That was 2009, and this is 2010. This year started out as my “low key” and “quiet” GDC....