The Monday Post: Challenge Yourself

So, while I have 2 weeks off from school (but not my job), I've decided to spend that time relaxing. Just kidding. I've realized that I want to keep my skills sharp. So I'm going to enter myself into the Ludum Dare that starts this Friday. What the hell is this? In a nutshell (or In a Nuts Hell, depending on where you put the spaces):

• 48 hours to complete, from scratch a game
• Theme is finalized on last day. You must make the game in the theme
• You must work on your own, in the time limit. That means design, code, and *gasp* art
• If you have pre-existing files that jump start you, you have to share them
• You share your game and source code at the end.
• After the comp is done, 3 weeks of playing and voting

So, if you see me on Facebook or some other chat over the coming weekend say hi. If I don't say it back, it might be because I'm cursing at my computer. I might try to stream part of it on Justin.Tv but I'm not sure yet. Wish me luck!

The Monday Post: Nearly Final

So I am a bit busy with my finals for this semester. It donned on me, however, that this is the end of my first year of schooling. Almost a year ago I took a chance. I realized, during the lead up to my move, that I'd been stuck in a holding pattern. I had no significant other (despite trying), no family even from that, and nothing... NOTHING holding me back. And nothing holds me back now except getting through my schooling. I literally have no idea where I will go after I graduate. I have another year or so to go on that, and I have a wide berth of options. Shit, I have a published game, my name in the credits, and I'm only my 3rd semester in.

It's not quite a year yet, however. I left August 29th, 2011. So expect a kind of retrospective in 2 weeks or so around that date.

For now, be seeing you!.

The Monday Post: Arithmetic Horrors

So I didn't exactly post last week and I have only one thing to say to that fact: It's near the end of the semester and a LOT of classes are ramping up for that end work-wise. In other words, stress. And going a little insane with mathematics as well.

The Monday Post: Nope

Sorry, have too much to do, and completely forgot about the post this week. Shit, I've had so little time I'm doing my laundry right now (a boon for having a 24hr laundry room on campus). See you guys next week.

The Monday Post: Daytime at Dark

So it's early-to-mid summer here in Arizona now and we've gotten to the point where we see high 90s to low 100s during the night. For those having heatwaves, even ones in the national news, may I kindly ask you to go away and kindly take your pansy whining with you.

The Monday Post: Clang, thud?

I just saw a post reminding me about the Kickstarter campaign by one of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson. The elevator pitch is he's going to create a game and framework for sword fighting games the way that racing games have their own peripherals. Fine controlled motion capture and swords. How can that go wrong?

The Monday Post: D&D Dice Probabilities

So I was playing my weekly game this week of Dungeons and Dragons when I was presented a rather odd opportunity for my character: I Cleric was (literally) flying overhead of my character about 30 feet (thanks to a potion of flight) and the best my fighter could think of to do was throw his 2-Handed Bastard sword up like a spear to try to hit the cleric. I needed a natural 20 to hit. I got an 18. I missed, but not by much.

The Monday Post: Programmer's Mind II - "Is A" vs. "Has A"

I had this planned out in my head for weeks. See, I've taken to looking at some old code for games others have written and I actually got into a stonewalling argument when trying to get around to fixing it.

The Monday Post: Stress Relief D&D

Long post ahead!

The Monday Post: What it's like to be a programmer

Ok so I'm a bit off on my timing for a Monday post. I'm knee deep in coding/homework and such. So here's a quick look into the mind of a programmer: