Monkey Pirate Plunders New York

ARTE

2006-08-06T20:13:00.000-04:00

Art is something I do when I'm bored, happy, thirsty, and sometimes angry. It's the residue that drips out of my brain in meetings gone wrong, classes too long, and when I can't figure out a third phrase to finish my rhyme. It comes natural, not that I'm good, I'm just naturally inclined to try to make it, good or bad. It's something that happens when I'm left in front of piece of paper for too long.

Anyway, here's an attempt at some pixel art I made. (you'll want to open it in paint or something like that to see the detail) Pixel art is common where I work because it's all we use in the games we make, so I see a lot of it. And I'm always like, "I wanna do that!" So here's a first attempt. I made them from right to left. I think they got significantly better after the first one. Let me know which ones you like.

I plan to fill a whole sheet, with characters as practice. Should be fun. I started out trying to cover the videogame basics (pirates, zombies, wizards, dinosaurs, etc). I'm still missing robots and ninjas, but that's not from lack of trying.

Now I gotta figure out animation.

Cafe Lady

2006-07-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

There's a small cafe near where I work. I go there everyday to get a drink for lunch. Always a diet strawberry kiwi Snapple (because they're good). Always $1.50 (because that's how much it costs).

The same girl always works the register I go to. Seems like a nice girl, laughs a lot, pretty smile. She likes to remind me the price of my Snapple each day, even though she knows I know it, and even though I've already got the money in my hand as she reminds me. Always "Dollar fifty, please" in a slight Indian accent and then we both smile and laugh as I hand her the money.

On my daily trip to the diner today I was accompanied by my coworker. Who, after seeing me check out, stated that I had garnered "some rapport" with the girl at the counter. The way he said "rapport" had a dirty sound to it. I left the diner disgusted with him.

Finally Civilized

2006-07-17T20:41:00.000-04:00

I bought a bookcase from Walmart this weekend. That means for the first time since I moved to New York my floor is not littered with books or other objects that are bookcase sized.

I also finally installed my AC. Living in the heat wasn't bad, I just decided that if I was going to be getting stuff off the floor, my AC unit should be one of those things, so, into the window it went.

Back of the Bus

2006-06-13T23:19:00.000-04:00

Sitting in the back of a crowded bus I find myself smashed up against all of humanity, lives are acted out like so many little plays upon those cheaply covered seats. To my left two co-workers discuss their plans for quitting and what has brought them to their decision, on my right an awkward conversation between a young attractive girl and an older man about the anti-depressants she is on and why she can't get off of them. In front of me a crowd of 30-somethings flirt among themselves and a young lady stares at her cellphone background, an image of her and her boyfriend, being showered with small animated hearts.

And then there's me. A little tired, but ok.

Time to pray.

Something borrowed...

2006-05-13T14:47:00.000-04:00

Messing around with GameMaker again. I stole someone's engine and have been tweaking it, making it better.

It amazes me at the awful code I've seen made for GameMaker.

The code for the engine I stole was actually pretty good, ok maybe not good, but it was well laid out. After messing around with it some I've discovered it has some nasty bits. It was abandoned half-way through development so there are a few variables that are hanging around that don't really do anything. The previous owner also did collision a little weird. At first I thought he had done something clever that I didn't understand. But nope, just wrong.

I've also made some changes to the way I'm doing things to make it easier to code in GameMaker. All these poor kids using the program have no idea what a real development environment is like.

So yeah...right now it's just a generic engine.

Least exciting post ever!

Lots of Yapping

2006-05-05T23:05:00.000-04:00

I said "sexy" more times today than I have in any single day in my entire life.

Today I felt like a stench in the nostrils of a giant.

I've gotten in-between my company and its game because I don't want things to be "sexy".

My definition of what's "sexy" or at least "too sexy" is much more conservative than most anybodies. I warned my company ahead of time. I don't do "sexy".

Apparently HQ didn't know. So I spent a long time trying to explain. They don't get it.

At times I was afraid I was close to getting fired. Other times I had to stop and pray so I didn't say anything dumb. I don't think I did. I'm not trying to create problems, not trying to slow things down. I just can't go where God doesn't want me, don't want to make something God wouldn't be pleased with.

I have no control. They're going to take the game where they want it regardless of my desires. My only choice if the game goes a direction I'm not happy with is to leave the project and take my name off the credits, or quit.

ROBOTZZZzzzZzzz...Zzzz

2006-05-04T22:29:00.000-04:00

Just playing around with Paint. I've always liked the way parts of an image disappear when you drag it over a background of the same color.

This is just me taking that to the extreme.

It's surprisingly hard to make them fit together. Half artistry, half geometry, half fiddling. Robots are easiest. I thought the colored bar in the middle of the robots could act as a power bar they shared but would serve two different purposes depending on who's using it.

Syntax is a little rusty

2006-04-29T22:01:00.000-04:00

A x, Person(x), E y, Person(y) and Beatiful(x, y)

Person(z): z is a person
Beautiful(w, z): w is beautiful to z

Love's one of them weird things.

Dere's Somethun En Me Wall!!

2006-04-29T21:54:00.000-04:00

Honest.

I've heard it before, but previously it's been up around the top of the wall. Today it's been moving around next to my power outlet.

I figure it's a rodent of some sort. Maybe a squirrel. Hopefully it's not a bear. Hate it when bears get stuck in my wall.

It kinda freaks me out.

I almost shoved a pair of scissors into the wall to try to finish him off. But that's kinda gross and I don't want to go punching a bunch of holes in the wall. I'm hoping he'll just nibble a power cord and finish himself off. Just not an important one...and just as long as he doesn't light on fire. Burning rodents in your walls are far worse than regular ones. Or at least I'm told.

Maybe it's a colony of beavers.

Wii!

Time Wisely

2006-04-28T20:39:00.000-04:00

Been spending some time each night working on a new design on my own. It's got a long way to go since it's fairly ambitious. Just trying to work on my pacing so I don't burn out before I get started.

:P

Set us up da bomb

2006-04-28T20:23:00.001-04:00

Does God set us up to fail? In the big things? A marraige, a job, a dream. Would God put something in our grasp and then pull it back? All things work out for the good, but that is in the end, pain produces good if we let it.

Sometimes I wonder.

I know I'm not the best designer. Today I had a run-in with my ineptitude when a couple of my designs turned out completely unenjoyable. I had a feeling they were rotten, but they were some of my better rotten ones. :) Sometimes things like that put fear into me. Fear is probably a good thing, keeps me honest, keeps me praying.

I saw a Baer.

2006-04-22T21:11:00.000-04:00

Went to the Museum of the Moving Image today to see Ralph Baer the creator of the first home console talk. It was good. My first thought when seeing him was that I was looking at one of the men who created the medium that I work in. That's a striking thought. It's very rare that you meet someone who created a medium of expression? When's the last time you saw the guy who first thought of the idea of rubbing stuff on surfaces to make pictures? It was almost scary to think about.

His actual talk was pretty cool. He seemed like your typical sharp old guy. A wise crack always on his lips. The talk was done in an interview format with one of the museum employees interviewing him. There were several awkward times when the interviewer seemed to cut him off to redirect the conversation, or would say something incorrect and Ralph would correct him, but overall it was fun.

After he finished talked several other videogame industry people gave speeches and then took part in a round-table conversation; among them were Eugene Jarvis (maker of Robotron 2084 and Defender), Eric Zimmerman (from Gamelab), Greg Costikyan (from Manifesto Games), and the guy responsible for a museum exhibit called Videotopia (or something like that).

Eugene Jarvis was cool to see. For some reason I figured he'd be 100 years old at this point his name is so familiar, but he looks around my father's age. Another reminder of the youth of the videogame industry. He wasn't a particularly good speaker, but I couldn't help but like him.

Eric Zimmerman was a pretty good speaker. He has an artistic education and it's pretty clear.

Greg Costikyan likes Nethack so he has to be cool. I know this because I asked him at the reception afterward. I figured he would. Said it and Civ have been the two games that have been on every computer he's owned. He's not a great speaker, better in conversational style stuff.

Oh yeah, Jarvis and I both dug this one particular exhibit at the musuem with this crazy water drop that turns into a bomb that slips through the fingers of a hand, that turns into a paper airplane, that breaks a plate....yeah...I just thought about it now, a paper airplane breaking a plate doesn't make any sense....but yeah...

The museum itself was surprisingly rad. It's fairly small. But definintely worth visiting.

Rambling DONE!

Who is the Lord?

2006-04-18T22:01:00.000-04:00

"Pharoah said 'Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Isreal go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Isreal go.' " Exodus 5:2

The LORD my LORD is both creator of the heavens and earth, the Almighty, ever present, ever seeing, slow to anger and quick to forgive. He promises to hear my prayers, longs to bless me, loves me even when I stray.

Yet I forget all these things in the midst of my worries.

Decisions

2006-04-18T21:31:00.000-04:00

I hate decisions. I hate making them without having lots of time to think. I sometimes hate making them even after having lots of time to think. I even hate thinking about making them.

I'm one of those people who drives decisive people crazy. I like to make a decision, then change my mind. I like to sit there for five minutes staring at two boxes of cereal trying figure out if I should go with the one with the best toy, or the one that actually tastes good.

I like working alone because then all my indecisiveness won't affect anyone else, I don't have to feel bad for changing my mind, and no one has to redo anything because I couldn't get it right the first time.

I just wish designing didn't require so many of them.

Don't Drink The Yogurt

2006-04-08T23:00:00.000-04:00

Went to the farmers market today with my roommates. Best grocery store *evar*. Got a ton of stuff (3 apples, 3 apricots, 3 potatoes, tomato sauce, pound of grapes, a squash, 4 large rolls, and more) for $11. Would have probably cost me $30 at the grocery store. So now I have a pantry/fridge full of cheap goodness.

My Turkish roommate also took me to several turkish stores and a turkish restaurant. The stores were cool. All kinds of crazy foods I didn't know existed. I bought some turkish junk food to test it out. I didn't buy any "real" Turkish food because I couldn't read the labels. However, I was amazed at their selection of olives. My roommate eats olive spread on his toast in the morning *scrunched gross face* so I'm guessing they really like their olives. The store also had several "interesting" types of preserves (like the stuff you put on toast) including rose petal, and eggplant preserves *another scrunched gross face*.

The restuarant we went to was the equivalent of a Turkish pizza joint. Turkish pizza is similar to American pizza except the crust is super thin and there is no cheese on the pizza, just a very thin covering of meat and tomato pieces. You add lettuce, tomatoes to the middle of the pizza, squeeze a lemon slice over the pizza, then roll it up to eat it (it's only about 10 inches across). It's really good.

To wash down my pizza I purchased a yogurt drink (it looked like milk). My roommate was having one, and he really likes it so I decided I should give it a whirl. Sadly the whirl ended about halfway through the bottle. :) I had to force myself to get that far. It tasted like salty milk with a yogurt aftertaste *one more scrunched gross face*.

So yeah, if you ever visit a Turkish pizza joint, get a coke and enjoy the pizza.

Long Naps

2006-04-06T01:54:00.000-04:00

I accidentally took a two hour nap at 8pm. So, here I am at 2am wide awake and posting on this stupid blog. :P

Anyway, tough day at work.

How am I supposed to be a "fair" designer? I mean, I have an idea for how the game should work, or for the visual direction of the game, but so does everyone else in my team. Who says my ideas are any better? When do I use someone else's ideas? What aspects of the game should I be flexible on? Which aspects should I stick to my guns on?

I have a hard time accepting ideas from other people. It's not that I don't want to use their ideas, it's just that when I design I create an image of the game in my head. When people propose ideas for the game I test them in my head to see if they fit into that image. Very rarely will someone propose an idea that immediately fits well into my original concept. All the other times I'm left with the dilemma of, do I reject the idea or change my concept to include this new idea? I'm always reluctant to change my ideas for several reasons, some better than others.

1. A game needs focus. If everyone's idea gets added, then coherence goes out the window.
2. Greed and Pride. I want the game to be mine.
3. Don't want to turn into a receptionist. I fear accepting too many ideas is going to give everyone the impression that they can send all their ideas to me and that they will end up in the game.
4. I want to actually look like I'm working. This is another fear I have. If the game ends up looking like combination of a bunch of other peoples advice I fear the higher-ups will assume that I didn't do much designing.
5. The idea is dumb. This one's hard because I don't like telling people their ideas are dumb, even if they are. Like this one blind bunny idea I have...my brother just doesn't understand it, but that's cuz he's DUM. :P

So yeah, there are more reasons than that but it's 2am so I don't feel like yakking anymore. This is one of those issues I want to resolve because in the end I'm going to be the one taking the heat for a bad design.

I think it'll probably just take some time, experience, and humility to find the correct balance.

Checking Out Churches

2006-04-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

Went to a new church today. Just wanted to check it out since I've only gone to one so far. It was a Vineyard church. It was the complete opposite of the other church I've been going to recently. Very small, quiet, predominately white. I enjoyed it. Got a chance to eat lunch with the pastor and several of the members. The pastor seemed pretty cool. He's British and thus a huge soccer fan. His daughter who's probably 6 years old had 5 tamagotchis hanging around her neck. I discussed the intricacies of tamagotchi care with her and learned the names of all her tamagotchis (which I then immediately forgot as I do with all names).

Then I came home cooked (which I am immensely talented at), cleaned the shower (another thing I am immensely talented at), and napped.

A good day altogether.

Another Revision

2006-04-01T22:20:00.000-05:00

So here's the second version of the bee game. I've added floors and walls. Right now there are plenty of collision bugs to work out. I like the idea of friction on the floors and skipping across them. It needs tweaking though.

Having walls and floors makes me use the spacebar a lot more. I'm not sure I like it. It loses some of feeling of lazily floating around.

I've also added the Turkish people (again, my roommate's idea). The green ones are my roommate and his clone.

Soon you should be able to pick them up and throw them. (woot)

K.
Tir.ed.

Game Maker

2006-03-30T23:07:00.000-05:00

I've been messing around with a little program called Game Maker recently. It's pretty amazing. I was convinced to check it out by an artist co-worker who having no coding experience has used it and made some amazing stuff (it helps that all the art in his games is gorgeous...but still). Anyway, I've decided to start using it to make some of the ideas that I've been kicking around in my head for so long. My first attempt is here. Eventually it'll be a game about being a bumble bee, but for now a red arrow whizzing around the screen will have to do. :)
The controls are: Left to rotate counter-clockwise, right to rotate clockwise, tap the space bar to boost, and 'r' to reset the character.

Watch out when you first start, if you don't press left quickly you will plunge off the bottom of the screen. :)

I find floating around to be fun, so long as you don't overuse the spacebar.

Oh, and the Turkish flag is courtsey of my roommate who is...Turkish.

night.

I'm alive!

2006-03-29T20:12:00.000-05:00

The two people who actually read this blog were getting disgruntled with me not posting, so I've decided to post again.

So...here it is. Now I gotta think of something to say...(thinking)

NY's been good so far. The job has been a ton of fun. They've thrown me into the middle of things working on a new project which has been an exciting experience so far. Up to this point I've done a little bit of art, a little bit of programming, a lot of pretending I know what I'm doing. My coworkers are cool. I tend to get along with the programmers best. Probably because I'm more of a programmer than anything.

I've not done a whole lot of site-seeing so far. I intend to check things out when I have the chance. My weekends up to this point have been spent moving, fixing up my apartment, etc. I need to find someone else to wander around with since looking at stuff on your own can get kinda boring.

My roommates at the apartment are great. One is Filipino, another Turkish, and the third Indian. They are all very nice. They let me eat their food too! (oooh yeaahh!)

I've had several crazy NY experiences, but those will have to wait until another post.

Ok. Cool.

Back online

2006-03-17T07:20:00.000-05:00

I finally have a place to call home. *brrrrroooommmmmm* (sorry car drove by) I should be posting stuff soon.

Media Blackout

2006-02-22T22:55:00.000-05:00

I'm leaving tomorrow morning so I won't be posting for a few days. I'm sure I'll have plenty to say when I do though.

Treasure Hunting

2006-02-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

When I was younger I spent a good deal of my time at my neighbor’s house playing Commodore 64 games. My neighbor had a box full of Commodore 64 disks containing a wide assortment of games. I’m not sure we ever actually played all the games he had in that box because we always seemed to find new ones hidden on the same disks we’d played a thousand times before. It was like a little adventure whenever we found a new game. The adventure started with us banging every key on the keyboard until something happened, from there we attempted to work out the rules of the game, and what the big ‘s’ shaped green blob on the top right of the screen was.

Not surprisingly, most of the games we found were awful, or clearly rip-offs of some more popular game. Still, the thrill we felt in those rare times we found a good game was worth all our effort.

Recently, I came upon this site that made me feel that feeling all over again. I spent a couple hours looking through all the pictures just enjoying the show. I didn’t actually download any of the games (because I’m not that kind of pirate) but it was nice to feel the thrill of exploration all over again. I still love the simplistic graphics of Commodore games. They allow me to imagine each game to be what I hope it is.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Artic Shipwreck: Wolly mammoths on icebergs? Has to be awesome.

Cage Match: I remember getting owned in this game by my older brother.

A Rockstar Ate My Hamster: Sadly the screenshot doesn't do the title justice.

Ant Attack: An example of the type of game that required a lot of key banging.

The D's

2006-02-19T18:57:00.000-05:00

Went to visit the D's this weekend. It was one of the many things I wanted to do before going to NYC. I had a lot of fun. The highlights of the weekend include playing Bosconian (an old Namco arcade game) with Mr. D, making fun of the Olympic announcers with Mr. and Mrs. D, and watching Mr. D fix my computer with masking tape (don’t worry Mr. D’s a professional).

Now I’m back at home preparing for my flight to NYC on Thursday.

On a completely different note, have you ever noticed how Satan uses our pride to stop us from turning a righteous desire into a righteous deed? There have been many times in my life when I’ve found in my heart the desire to do something righteous. No sooner have I realized my desire than pride appears in my heart and congratulates me for having such a wonderful thought. After a few minutes of congratulating myself I am either so happy with myself that I’ve forgotten what it was I desired to do, or I believe God must be so pleased with me for having such a wonderful desire that he couldn’t possibly expect me to experience all the pain carrying it out would require.

Silly me.

Agh.

2006-02-16T19:58:00.000-05:00

I watched something like 10 hours of television today because I had nothing to do except pack and I wasn't in the mood to do that. Bleh.

I've been putting some game thoughts up on my wiki. Watch out, right now they're in "Todd think" so don't expect any punctuation.

My latest idea is the result of my desire to create an action game for a cell phone that didn't have awful controls. The solution I've come up with is to remove the player from the action by a degree. Instead of the player controlling the character, let him "coach" the character. The challenge is going to be making coaching the character engaging, and making the player feel like his coaching actually effects the actions on screen. If it all works out, the player should experience the excitement of an action game, without the awful controls.

Ha, me a game designer, this is gonna be interesting.

Beating the House

2006-02-14T22:11:00.000-05:00

Been looking at apartments. I think I scared some poor lady that I called about an apartment. I thought she was a realtor so I was being curt with her because realtors usually start jabbering if you let them and I just wanted the facts. When I went back and looked at the ad, it turned out she was just an individual trying to rent her apartment. Oops.

Been working on the formatting of my wiki. It's not pretty, but I think it's going to work. I just need it as a location to collect thoughts about games. Eager to flesh out the designs I have up, but haven't had the time.

Sold my parking pass back to Georgia Tech for $245. It's a really good deal coming from a place that threatens to fine you $100 per hour you are late moving out of your room at the end of the semester.

An Issue of Worth

2006-02-13T23:45:00.000-05:00

Reading the Bible I've sometimes run upon parables of Jesus that scared me. An example of one of these parables is that of the man who when he finds a pearl of great worth sells all he has to purchase the pearl.

Why is this so scary? Because the parable is about how we are expected to behave if we seek to obtain eternal life. Eternal life, a relationship with Jesus Christ, is the pearl. Our lives are the everything we must sell.

My response when reading parables of this sort is always "But Lord, my life is so valuable! It's the most valuable thing you've given me!" And I still believe this is true. Why then is it wrong to keep my life? Because I have neglected to consider the value of that which I will obtain.

When we realize that our lives are valuable, but that which we obtain in giving them up is much more so, it is much easier to let go.

Take XII

2006-02-13T22:58:00.000-05:00

Unhappy with my wiki's lack of commenting abilities and blogging's linear style I've decided to double-team my problem by having a blog and a wiki. That means the sparse few things I have to say spread thinner between two sites.