The Transient Programmer #5: The Last Day, FREE BEER Revisited
OK, so this happens to be the last day I will spend as a transient" programmer. By 7:30 tomorrow I will finally have another house to move-into. However, tonight has been pretty difficult. It's 4:00 AM, and sleep is not coming easily. The hotel got old about 2 weeks ago. That is when my family started to notice little things that separate a hotel room from an actual home. First of all, no matter how they try to hide it, the hotel room is built on an unforgiving concrete slab. After a while you realize that, besides the decor and room separation, the actual building is one-step away from being a garage. Next is that aforementioned decor. I suppose if you are staying in a hotel for 1 or 2 nights, the decor is not really an issue. However, over 25 days it has time to sink-in. This room has the most offensive red and black striped carpet I have ever witnessed in any establishment. As well, the pictures on the walls, and furniture all match this color scheme with deadly accuracy. Honestly, it's like a Freddie Krueger bachelor pad in here. As well, the low quality of the fixtures has become readily apparent with each passing day. The showers now dribble, the light sockets are falling our of the lamps, etc. It's odd how we put up with these things though. If this was not a long-term stay, we would asked for another room weeks ago.
However, the one constant throughout the entire stay has been the FREE BEER. Nearly every night my wife and I have enjoyed a glass of FREE BEER. We have not gone over-board, and we have kept our consumption of the FREE BEER fairly low, but we still enjoy it. We may have stopped eating the food the hotel provides last week, but not the FREE BEER. The FREE BEER has never let us down. To that end, I have been developing a new game named FREE BEER to launch on the site. I'm not sure about the moral value of game where the main goal is to "capture" as much FREE BEER as you can before you run out of time, but while living in a hotel with fixtures that are falling apart, resting my feet on horror-movie carpet while trying to bide the time my 5th consecutive night of insomnia, it sure seems like a fun idea. My next transmission will be the Alpha version of the game.
Flash Game Development Inter-web Mash-up: July 28, 2008
A selection blogs, articles, tutorials, games, and more that might be on interest to Flash game developers (or any other game developers).
This week we have things you can learn from creative programmers, a couple entries on sponsorships and contests, game planning, path finding, creating a game arcade portal, a new site full of Flash tutorial goodness, Google's attempt to search inside .swfs, and more...
First off, LifeDev has an excellent, thought provoking article called Creative Code: 14 Ways to Learn From Creative Programmers. Glen has some great things to say about how programmers can be and need to be creative when they code. Since there are so many different ways to do the same thing in code, it really is a creative medium. I think that gets lost on a lot of people who don't understand what programmers really do. It is a Left and Right brain activity at the same time. Thanks to the He-Man, Alan "Mr Hot wheels" Donnelly for pointing this one out. And Alan, even though Empire Strikes back is technically a better movie than A New Hope (its darker, the Hoth battle rocks and at least one hand gets light sabared off), it didn't change an entire generation of kids and films the way Episode IV did. For that reason alone, I consider A new Hope the best of the bunch.
Freelance Flash Games has a slew of new updates, including a list of the best Flash Game Sponsors, and 10 Things to Consider when Planning a Game. I am especially a fan of #1: Be sure it interests you. Game making should be fun. If it feels like work, then you should try a different idea.
8Bitrocket Brother At Arms, Scotty D. has a nice write up on the upcoming ability for Google to search inside of Flash Movies. I read about this last week, and have been intrigued at the possibilities. It's great that Yahoo and Google are basically bucking popular trends and not simply hating on Flash, but actually trying to help the situation.
Over at GamePoetry, Panayoti explores the subject of Flash Version Validation and provides an example of using the VersionValidator built into AS3.
Chris Rock at Sokay.net has posted a wonderful tutorial on how to path find around irregular objects. Using a system he calls North Star, he has created a simply amazing algorithm for path finding, and he wants YOU to have it too.
Emanuele Feronato doesn't rest much, does he? Along with his usual selection of game engine tutorials that he seems to whip up at an astonishing rate is a new two part series that will interest any budding Game Portal operator, Creating a Flash Arcade Site Using WordPress Part 1, and Part 2.
tutorio.us is a brand new beta site that is attempting to create a full Flash Game Development curriculum using existing and future web tutorials. They don't have any of ours up yet, but maybe they will soon.
Mr Sun Studios explores the topic of difficulty settings in Flash games, and also gives a lot of insight into the development and sponsor process for his latest game, Xylophone Master. He is right, Flashgamelicense has helped us with Addicting Games in the passed and I can't say enough good things about both of them.
Mochimedia seems to always has a great new trick up its sleeve. This week they gave their portal site a fresh new look and they have a brand new contest for Flash Game Developers. - SWEET!
Just in case I haven't mentioned it enough already, we opened up our Royalty Free Music Loop library to all game devs to use...
Here is a list of games that are keeping me from working on my own games...
Pandemic 2 on Addictinggames.com
Super Marine on Hallpass.com
Alien UFO on Mind Jolt
Charlie The Duck on Gameshot.org
Monster's Den on Gamebrew.com
Protector Reclaiming the Throne on Knogregate.com
Inquisitive Dave on New Grounds
As always, check out Flashgameblogs.com and freelanceflashgames.com for your daily dose.