Press Space To Win Is Pretty Awesome
Press Space To Win is pretty awesome
I was trolling message boards and portals this morning because of my inherent need to procrastinate rather than work on the three games I have going at once. On the Mochi boards I found a link to a YouTube video of this game and decided to check it out on New Grounds.
Press Space To Win is a tongue in cheek retro flash "game" where the objective is to finish the adventure and save the Kingdom from Peril. The 8-bit visuals are well done and the music is incredible throughout the game (Midi and Samples, not chip tunes).
Most of the game is played by simply hitting the Space Bar. At its core is a nicely put together Flash animation that makes fun of both the current trend of "dumbifying" Flash games down to a single button press, and the ludicrous nature of most RPG quest games. But thrown into the mix, there are several Dragon's Lair type sequences where you must press the space bar at the right time to move on.
Honestly though, I can't tell if any of these interactions actually do much in the game, but it was interesting to see where the author wanted to take the player. It certainly is worth a look at least for the creativity, patience and attention to detail that Rhete (New Grounds user) put in. Game play-wise it is lacking, but that's the point, isn't it? Nice work!
Classic Electronic Games Magazine Issue #1 Online Now!
Classic Electronic Games Magazine Issue #1 Online Now!
This is the one that started it all! All modern and classic video game magazines would probably not have been the same without this incredible magazine. The hard workers at RetroMags.com have scanned each page into a JPG. Then they compiled the whole lot into a CBR (comic book reader) file.
Issue #1 of Classic Video Gamer Magazine Available Now!
Issue #1 of Classic Video Gamer Magazine Available Now!
A new Downloadable and Print Magazine covering the world of Retro Games has been released. Hoping to become the American version of the famed UK Retro Gamer Publication (I just got the issue with Game Boy on the cover and an Archer Mclean interview), it looks very impressive so far.
Classic Video Gamer Magazine #1 contains a lot of Atari coverage (2600, 7800, Jaguar and more), plus some Amiga games, an Alien Hominid review, King of Fighters coverage, classic advertisements, World of Illusion for the Genesis, reviews of batari Basic games and much much more.
A downloadable copy of issue #1 can be had for $1.95 (PDF format). A printed copy in full color on quality paper can be pre-ordered for $6.50. They need 50 orders before they can afford to print and ship (for free to the USA), so make your order now (I have).
Flash indie game development interweb-mash-up : May 29, 2009
Flash indie game development interweb-mash-up : May 29, 2009
The more often I write these, the shorter they become, but the longer
it takes me to dig up new and interesting stuff. This week I had to
cast a net a little wider than usual. I did find a little
time to
play more Flash games by other people this week, so let's start there:
Let's
Start By
Highlighting A New Releases that caught my eye...
-
target="_blank">Smiley's Lunch Time
is pure genius.
-
target="_blank">Long Animals' Heavy Weapon
- One
sweet shooter!
-
target="_blank">MegaDev's Block Squad should
make
a killing! Quality Everywhere!
- Have a little retro Centipede fun with
Nanopedes
- Tony Pa is the
master of all things puzzle games!
-
target="_blank">Death v Monsters won a contest
(and my heart). Blast everything.
PhotonStorm
Rich has been busy thinking up ways
target="_blank">to remake MSX and ST games.
He has
had quite a bit of success with this so far, so I'm pretty sure his
next set of games will be very good indeed. Rich also has
some
target="_blank">inspiring art work
from his 8-bit
MSX days when he used to sit around designing games and magazines
(instead of do his Math homework?). There is some really
cool stuff in there. Rich, when EVERYONE here had an Apple or C64, we
have Atari 800s and STs. We know EXACTLY how you felt as an MSX kid in
a BBC/Speccy/C64 world.
Emanuele
Feronato
- As always, our Italian geek genius has added mucho content for all
your game dev needs. A couple of my favorites: In our 8-bit theme, he
has posted a
target="_blank">Postmortem by Filippo Bodei
on his
C64 remake - Hi Roads (pronounced Trailblazer when it was an Atari
8-bit and C64 game). A tutorial on the v
target="_blank">ery basics of Papervision 3d.
You
should be reading his site every day (and many of you already are).
Michael
James Williams
MJW has been adding a lot of cool new blog entries lately:
target="_blank">Move With Mouse, Aim with Keyboard
is a nice tutorial with all the AS3 you will ever need. Michael, if you
are reading this, can I borrow the style sheet CSS you are using for
your code examples? It is the best I have seen! MJW also discusses
target="_blank">some nice extensions for the Flash IDE
- Frame to Symbol and Queasy Tools are two very nice tools.
Freelance
Flash Games
The
target="_blank">Freelance Flash Bash
looks
familiar and I like it! Freelance also has a short discussion
target="_blank">on why your game needs a level editor,
target="_blank">tips on getting more clicks on your
More Games Banners, as
well as
target="_blank">5 ways to put a More Games banner in
your games.
Vortex
Games
- Very
target="_blank">nice and simple MVC for games
implementation.
- Atomik Kaos Mechanic
target="_blank">Postmortum.
Also, why not try this
target="_blank">uniquely addictive game.
8bitrocket
Towers
- I am
target="_blank">still planning to make some custom
free sounds (last weekend I got
side tracked). If you have a need, I might have an answer.
- I have
target="_blank">geeked out on American 8-bit computer
games again. I feel so dirty.
- My
target="_blank">version of Star Castle
is coming along slowly. It's time for some levels and Minter-like
ZarJaz.
- Steve went off on
target="_blank">Video Ads and Writer's Block.
Quick
ways to skin that
cat:
- Lawrie Cape's sweet
tool experiment
- Icky Dime has a nice
target="_blank">entry on Japanese Flash gurus.
-
target="_blank">Vote for you favorite Flash IDE
on
Iian Lobb's Blog. I did, so now Flash Develop if up to 67%!
- You want to make a Flash Game?
target="_blank">Lorenz will show you how.
Then you
can submit it back to his site.
- Come2Play
target="_blank">has a cool new non-contest, contest.
- Check the
target="_blank">other 3 deserving winners of the
Mochi Top of the World Contest.
(Death v. Monsters was the big winner - see above).
- Drawlogics
target="_blank">Flash 10 AS3 Drawing Optimizations
- Spinxwebdesign
target="_blank">on considerations for making a
successful Flash game.
- Thinking of making a Pacman style game:
target="_blank">The Pacman Dossier
is all the reference you will need!
Off Topic: The best thing I can say about this
is well,
target="_blank">this.
As always check out
for your daily dose...
About US: Mission Update : Inform-Instruct-Inspire
Inform. Instruct. Inspire.
Yesterday Jeff and I decided we wanted to clarify why we have this web site. Sometimes I think of it as a Frankenstein's monster of a concept. It's a blog, but not one. It's a community, but not really. It has games, but it's not game portal. We have games and reviews (mostly retro) but we are not a gaming site. What are we? Here is what we have worked out. (new on about.aspx)
What Is The Purpose Of This Web site?
8bitrocket.com is
site dedicated to the art and science, and history of Flash, web,
viral, indie, and retro game design and development. Our Mission is to
create a community, knowledge-base, and resource for developers. We
want to Inform, Instruct, and Inspire the current and next generation
of indie, web, viral, retro game developers.
When Did You Start This Site??
This site has been in existance off and on in different forms since
1995. The orginal URL was http://www.earthlink.com/~jfulton, then, in
the height of early web boom, it became Wheatmedia.com. It was once
also known as Retrohello.com. The name 8bitrocket.com sums up
everything we love, so it stuck.
Why did you start this site?
We were just kids when we started programming (at age 9) because we
wanted to explore computers. We had access an Apple IIe (and later an
Atari 800), and the necessity to program because, at the time, you
almost HAD to program to use one. Games were a quick and fun way to
make an old 8-bit computer do something cool. Today, computers are so
easy to use, that most kids do not have to learn to program to use a
computer. This has led to a populace that is computer-literate, but
mostly does not know the sheer mental thrill of creating software. We
believe that informing, inspiring and teaching the skills of game
design and game programming is one of the most effective ways to get
kids (of all ages) into the art and science of programming.
Solar Fortress Chronicles: Hours 18 – 20
Solar Fortress Chronicles:
Hours 18 - 20
Note
- I am rapid (wishful thinking) prototyping a
retro game in my spare time and keeping a diary of what I do each hour
of the project.
In the last couple weeks I have
had some major distractions
and have not been able to put much time into Solar Fortress (pronounced
Star Castle). Most of my time was spent in a couple areas:
1. Creating the line of site
for the boss shooting. This will
be the focus of an upcoming mini tutorial in the "Program by Google"
vein that Steve has proposed for our next few tuts.
The Pixel version of the Boss missile (before tedious line translation
to coded vector) looked like this (2x size):
title="boss missile"
src="images/blog/solar_fortress/bossMissile1.png">
When there is an opening in the
walls of the concentric circle
segments surrounding the boss, he will fire this at the player (if the
player is in sight).
2. I added in a Frame counter
and memory usage indicator - also
the subject of an upcoming mini tutorial.
3. I added in the shell of the coin mechanism for player power ups.
Currently there is only one green coin with a tile sheet that looks
like this (2x size):
title="coin 1" src="images/blog/solar_fortress/coin1.png">
These are four 20x20 frames for
the simple spin on center axis
animation. I certainly am no artist, but this was pretty fast
and
easy. I plan to upgrade the look and add in more coins. The Green "S"
coin gives the player more shield (health bar).
4. Ace (The Super Villain), who
we have started collaborating with
on games and graphics, sent me over some code that should fix my boss
following the player properly problem, but I have had no time
to
implement it yet. That will be part of the next set of hours I spend on
this game. Those hours are coming so few and far between right now
because I have multiple projects all going at once and e3 is next week,
so that will shoot a couple days progress on all projects.
Here
is the current build. The player ship is controlled with the arrows and
space fires. The player can pick up the coins but nothing
happens
yet. There seem to be a few small garbage collection hiccups when it
starts playing, but those end pretty quickly and then the frame rate
stays at about 60 the whole time.
type="application/x-shockwave-flash" name="Object1"
menu="false" quality="high"
pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"
align="baseline" height="400" width="600">
ComeToPlay's non-contest Flash Game Contest
ComeToPlay's non-contest Flash Game Contest
I don't shill for everyone that writes in asking up to promote their product, contest, game, or site. I usually sift through the requests and add the best ones to a Mash-up. Come2play emailed us yesterday about a pretty cool contest (really a revenue opportunity) that you guys might be interested in participating in. Come2play has a multiplayer API that you can use in your games for free and to promote it, they have created a pretty generous non contest - contest. They also have distribution across 300 partner sites (including iGoogle, Facebook, Net-Games, etc).
Here are the basics in their words:
On the API
"Come2Play's open source API allows developers to create multiplayer games without having to worry about servers, hosting, ranking, chat, game lobbies, leaderboards, tokens and virtual rewards, all of which are built into the Come2Play network."
On The Contest
"To promote the capabilities of their multiplayer API, Come2Play is announcing their Non-Contest, Contest for game developers. The non-contest is simply a bonus payment based on the number of game matches recorded in a three month period after the developer's game has been launched. Come2Play will pay developers $5,000 for the first 2 million matches played in the first three months. Bonuses increase by 5 thousand dollars for every 2 million matches. So, 4 million matches = $10,000 prize, 6 million matches = $15,000 prize and so forth."
You are also able to sell sponsorships and keep all in-game ad revenue from games entered into the "non-contest". If you are interested, check out the developer section of their site.
The History of 8-bit Computer Games in The USA #1 : CGW Nov/Dec 1981
The History of 8-bit Computer Games in The USA #1 : CGW Nov/Dec 1981
I
never read Computer Gaming World Magazine
when I should have. When I
finally purchased a PC in 1992, I started to read it and kept doing so
as a subscriber until it died late last year. Steve and I had
an
Atari 800 in 1983 and read Atari specific Antic
and Analog (as well
as Atari Explorer), Computer Fun, and Electronic Games magazines but
never had access to CGW during the prime 8-bit years. We did find it on
a rare news stand now and then, but never purchased it because it
always seemed to ignore Atari computers. Now that I have had a chance
to read many of the early issues through the incredible
on line archive, I
have a much better appreciation for the magazine and what it covered.
It pretty much had its finger on the real pulse of 8-bit (and
later 16-bit) hobbyist gaming. Because of this, it can be used as a
tool to examine the history of 8-bit computer games in the USA as an
unbiased, non-fan boy source.
Some (many) will ask why I even bother doing this. I think the story of
8-bit computer game platforms in the USA is much more nuanced than most
would believe. To those that were not part of this era or were not
paying attention, it would seem that the Apple IIe gave way to the C64
and then to DOS machines and no other machines existed. This
is a story that has not been explored in detail before, and with the
resources available on the Internet, I plan to give it the nuanced
justice it deserves. In future installments I will probably explore
various other multiformat publications such as Compute and Hi-Res in
conjunction with the CGW issues during the same time period.
Over the next few parts of this
series I will be examining each issue of the magazine, from game ads,
reviews, magazine polls, features, and everything in between to paint a
clear picture of 80's computer games in the USA and how platforms
progressed through major eras:
1. Apple/Pet/TRS 80 in the very early years
2. Atari 800/Apple dominated era
3. The C64/IBM complete dominance of the mid 80s
4. The middling 16-bit Amiga/ST era
5. The late PC dominance
Issue
1, Nov/Dec 1981
Games Lists By System
Note:
for this issue, if a game is listed but no specific system was listed,
I
assumed Apple II was the platform. It so dominated this era that most
people just assumed you were talking about the Apple and no system
designation was needed. Even if I know that a game would
later be
released for a certain system, I will not list it under than
system until CGW actually signifies that it has been released or
announced.
Apple Games (in order of
first appearance)
1. Battle of Shiloh (SSI) From full color ad.
2. Tigers in the Show (SSI) From full color ad.
3. Sorcerer of Shiva (Automated Simulations) - from Hobby and Industry
News
4. Jabbertalky (Automated Simulations) - from Hobby and Industry News
5. Computer Quarterback (SSI) - from Hobby and Industry News
6. Computer Baseball (SSI) - from Hobby and Industry News
7. Alkemstone (Level 10) - from Hobby and Industry News
8. Escape From Arturus (Synergistic Software) - from Hobby and Industry
News
9. The Green Plague(CE Software) - from Hobby and Industry News
10. Southern Command (SSI) - from Hobby and Industry News
11. Napoleon's Campaigns 1813 and 1815 (SSI) - from Hobby and Industry
News
12. Computer Football Strategy (Avalon Hill) - from Hobby and
Industry News
13. Draw Poker (Avalon Hill) - from Hobby and Industry News
14. Guns of Fort Defiance (Avalon Hill) - from Hobby and Industry News
15. Dneiper River Line (Avalon Hill) - from Hobby and Industry News
16. Warp Factor (SSI) - from Hobby and Industry News
17. Castle Wolfenstien (Muse) - Full Page B/W ad.
18. Torpedo Fire (SSI) - Review and Analysis by Bob Proctor
19. Robot War (Muse) - From Robot War, A War game for all Programmers
by William Edmunds
20. Sword Thrust (CE Software) - From 1/2 page B/W ad
21. Mission Escape - (CE Software) - From 1/2 page B/W ad
22. Wall Street - (CE Software) - From 1/2 page B/W ad
23. B1 Nuclear Bomber (Avalon Hill) - From B1 Nuclear Bomber, A
Strategic Map by Chris Cummings
24. Crush Crumble and Chomp (Automated Simulations) - From Review by
Stanley Greenlaw
25. President Elect (SSI ) - From The Political Apple by Russell Sipe
26. Gorgon (Sirius) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games Mail Order
Ad.
27. Raster Blaster (Budgeco) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games
Mail Order Ad.
28. Alien Typhoon (Broderbund) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games
Mail Order Ad.
29. Ultima (California pacific) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games
Mail Order Ad.
30. Space Eggs (Sirius) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games Mail
Order Ad.
31. Apple Panic (Broderbund) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games
Mail Order Ad.
32. Epoch (Sirius) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games Mail Order
Ad.
33. ABM (Muse) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games Mail Order Ad.
34. Wizard and the Princess (OnLine) - From Gold Disk Quality
Software Games Mail Order Ad.
35. Pool 1.5 (IDS) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games Mail Order
Ad.
36. Phantoms 5 (Sirius) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games Mail
Order Ad.
37. Three Mile Island (Muse) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games
Mail Order Ad.
38. Snoggle (Broderbund) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games Mail
Order Ad.
39. Pulsar II (Sirius) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games Mail
Order Ad.
40. Twala's Last Redoubt (Broderbund) - From Gold Disk Quality Software
Games Mail Order Ad.
41. Galaxy Wars (Broderbund) - From Gold Disk Quality Software Games
Mail Order Ad.
42. Odyssey (Synergistic Software) - Full page Ad
43. Dragon's Eye (Automated Simulations) - From Micro Review by Daniel
Hockman
44. Reversal (Hayden) - From Micro Review by Bob Boyd
45. Time Traveler (Not Listed) - From Micro Review by Terry Romine
46. Techyon (Imagination Software) - From full page ad
47. Savage Island (Adventure International) - From Initial Comments
Section
48. Golden Voyage (Adventure International) - From Initial Comments
Section
49. Planentoids (Adventure International) - From Initial Comments
Section
50. Empire of the Overmind (Avalon Hill) - From Initial Comments Section
51. Tanktics(Avalon Hill) - From Initial Comments Section
52. Swordthrust 1 (CE Software) - From Initial Comments Section
53. Swordthrust 2 (CE Software) - From Initial Comments Section
54. Swordthrust 3 (CE Software) - From Initial Comments Section
55. Swordthrust 4 (CE Software) - From Initial Comments Section
56. Swordthrust 5 (CE Software) - From Initial Comments Section
57. Autocheckers (Programma/Hayden) - From Initial Comments
Section
58. Clowns and Balloons (Programma/Hayden) - From Initial Comments
Section
59. Guided Missiles (Programma/Hayden) - From Initial Comments
Section
60. Cartels and Cutthroats (SSI) - From Initial Comments Section
62. Stocks and Bonds (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
63. Midway Campaign (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
64. Conflict 2500 (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
65. Lords of Karma (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
66. Computer Acquire (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
67. Nukewar (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
68. Planet Miners (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
69. North Atlantic Convoy Raider (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
TRS 80 Games (in order
of first appearance)
1. Battle of Shiloh (SSI) From full color ad.
2. Tigers in the Show (SSI) From full color ad.
3. Sorcerer of Shiva (Automated Simulations) - from Hobby and Industry
News
4. Jabbertalky (Automated Simulations) - from Hobby and Industry News
5. Crush Crumble and Chomp (Automated Simulations) - From Review by
Stanley Greenlaw
6. Mind Thrust (Not Listed) - From Micro Review by Babour Stokes
7. Savage Island (Adventure International) - From Initial Comments
Section
8. Golden Voyage (Adventure International) - From Initial Comments
Section
9. Planentoids (Adventure International) - From Initial Comments Section
10. Empire of the Overmind (Avalon Hill) - From Initial Comments Section
11. Tanktics(Avalon Hill) - From Initial Comments Section
12. Batter Up! (Hayden) - From Initial Comments Section
13. Backgammon (Hayden) - From Initial Comments Section
14. Gridiron (Hayden) - From Initial Comments Section
15. Royal Flush (Hayden) - From Initial Comments Section
16. Computer Baseball (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
17. Stocks and Bonds (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
18. Midway Campaign (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
19. Conflict 2500 (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
20. Lords of Karma (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
21. Computer Acquire (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
22. Nukewar (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
23. B1 Nuclear Bomber (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
24. Planet Miners (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
25. North Atlantic Convoy Raider (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
Commodore PET games (in
order of first appearance)
1. Dragon's Eye (Automated Simulations) - From Micro Review by Daniel
Hockman
2. Time Traveler (Not Listed) - From Micro Review by Terry Romine
3. Empire of the Overmind (Avalon Hill) - From Initial Comments Section
4. Tanktics(Avalon Hill) - From Initial Comments Section
5. Royal Flush (Hayden) - From Initial Comments Section
6. Stocks and Bonds (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
7. Midway Campaign (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
8. Conflict 2500 (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
9. Lords of Karma (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
10. Computer Acquire (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
11. Nukewar (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
12. B1 Nuclear Bomber (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
13. Planet Miners (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
14. North Atlantic Convoy Raider (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
Atari 8bit games (in
order of first appearance)
1. Eastern Front (APX, Chris Crawford) - from The Future of Computer
War Gaming by Chris Crawford
2. Empire of the Overmind (Avalon Hill) - From Initial Comments Section
3. Tanktics(Avalon Hill) - From Initial Comments Section
4. Stocks and Bonds (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
5. Midway Campaign (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
6. Conflict 2500 (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
7. Lords of Karma (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
8. Nukewar (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
9. B1 Nuclear Bomber (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
10. Planet Miners (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
11. North Atlantic Convoy Raider (Avalon Hill) - From Full Page Ad
State of the Industry Notes from Various articles:
1. In The Future of Computer War Gaming by Chris Crawford.
When discussing what will be the dominant machine he says:
"Which
machines will dominate the computer war game industry? The PET and
TRS-80 are out of the running. The Apple II dominates the market at
present. However, the greater power of the Atari and its rapidly
growing user base indicate that it will challenge and probably pass the
Apple within a year or two.
Analysis:
Obviously, this being
issue #1, it could not cover every game for every system, but it does
give a good state of the game play arena at the time. I know of many
more Atari 8-bit and TRS 80 games (as well as Apple and PET games)
that
were available in late 1981, but the point is to show the relative
market share difference from issue to issue. Also, from an editorial
perspective, mostly war and simulation games were covered this issue.
That has a lot more to do with the nature of the magazine contributors
than the games available at this time. If I look at other magazines in
this early era I will find many more arcade games listed for the Atari
systems, especially Star Raiders, Asteroids, and Missile Command. The
point is to see what was covered by the only mainstream press available
at the time with a sole focus on 8-bit computer (not video) games. I am
sure that as the ads pick up in later issues, a multitude of game
titles across many genres will be represented. The Commodore Key and
Atari Arcade features that crop up in later issues start to cover these
games specifically.
Clearly, the Apple II
platform is dominant, with TRS 80 a distant second, and PET just
beating out the Atari 8-bits for a far distant 3rd place.
Since I am
an Atari 8-bit fan, it is interesting to note that the Avalon Hill
games
(mostly written in Basic) dominated the CGW coverage. This was mostly
because that is the company who saw fit to advertise in this issue. It
could also be that Atari had just recently released the documentation
necessary for 3rd party software houses to create games using its
advanced hardware. It
will be interesting to see how the advertising and editorials evolve
over time.
In the next and further installments we will start
adding in games that have not been listed yet then will combine them
into one large ongoing unique count for each machine. I'm, not exactly
sure how I will manage the every growing lists of games a time goes on
in this series. I think I will need to start and alphabetical list for
each system.
Programming By Google? A Quick Poll
This week I worked on a project with some "new" CSS/HTML and AS3 concepts that I had never used together in any prior project.
I was fairly successful by the end of the week, and most of the time I "programmed by Google": When I got stuck I searched for the concept I needed help with, and had an answer fairly quickly.
Now, I did not search Google for the entire project, just small pieces that helped me get by small road-blocks. I must have done this 30 times.
So, my question is this: Do you do the same? If we write more tutorials. should be bite-sized on small concepts that help while YOU "program by Google"?
Thanks for the help.
-Steve
Diatribe: Writer's Block and Video Ads
I've had writer's and programmer's block for about a week now. I'm sorry there have not been any "interesting" blog entries coming from me since then. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the reception to "...palindromes...". While I knew it was not a blockbuster, the Flash game field has gotten so crowded that even small, quick games have trouble getting plays. I have been working on a game for my oldest daughter's birthday, now a week late (sorry doll face) and with a cool new designer on a game, (sorry Ace) but that's behind too.
The other thing that bothers me are video ads. That is, the video ads that Mochi plays in-front of games now. I still like Mochi, but those ads must be worth more than the eCPM they are paying. I mean, they are full f*cking commercials. I watch more commercials in front of games now than I do on TV. In fact, I don't watch TV commercials any longer, because I just skip them on the DVR.
If more people are like me, and only see commercials on the web, why has the money not followed? Where is all that ad money that used to be spent on TV? Is it still there, but being paid for an ever dwindling audience?
Anyway, I've got writer's and programmer's block. If you have any suggestions on how to get out of it, please tell me.
Thanks,
Steve Fulton