Design or Code?

Tonight I seem to be trapped y some indecision. Should I carry on with this important design I am working on, or should I carry on working on the proof of technology code. GAH! I just don't know.

So far I have worked on both the code AND the design, but neither is realy moving fast enough for my mind. It is like my mind is going at 4 times the speed i can type AND write. So now I am writing this still not sure which to choose.

Sensibly I should choose the design, as that will come first... Only.. Well, If I knew how many polygons I can push on the different hardwares, It could influence the design. Simply by me being able to put on more enemies at a time without the frame rate suffering.

I think I will work a bit on the Camera tonight (maybe 30 mins or so). Then I'll carry on with the design. I will do mainly design becasue it directly effects my partner Scott.

Well, I am glad writing this has allowed me to get it straigh in me head.

Laters all,
Da Voodoochief

3D is now a plaything

One of the Excellent things I get from using Marmalade is that I get to play with whatever I want, 2D or 3D wise. Even menus or UI has several flavors to choose from. This is a most excellent suite of tools or SDK. I usually tell ya about how easy it is to create cross platform content. But today I am gonna mention my new direction...

I have been doing 2D games now for some time with my Indie game dev company Sorcery Games. Well it might be time to branch out. The 2D is very easy in Marmalade (www.madewithmarmalade.com) and I expect the 3D to be just as easy. I am very familiar with both worlds having created and also ported so many games, both big and small. One thing I dislike is having to somehow wedge in addons to compensate for the game type I am writing. So far I have not had to do that with Marmalade.

Still onto todays topis. 3D, yeah check this out, a picture from my PC desktop, but it lokos the same on the Amazon Kindle...

You cannot see it from the picture, but she is also animated. this is CombatEva and she is part of one of the examples. Only this version of CombatEva is an export from my artist friend, and the animation is also one he created for her. All is well in creating a basic 3D model and rendering it. One of the advantages of using Marmalade is the fact it creates Native CPU instructions to run on the hardware. This makes it a real performance winner. And who doesn't need as much help there as we can get eh! The Backbreaker series is created with this SDK along with Need for Speed etc. It is a proven 3D powerhouse and we need that, as some devices are simply not very powerful with polygons.

Next up for me is to get another model into this game and fly the camera around. I may just do some flying controls, not sure yet.

But I am very happy to be going into the next dimension once again. With Marmalade I expect it to be as simple as it can get.

Laters all,
Da Voodoochief

Work and Play

I have not posted in a week, it could be the first whole week this year that I have not posted anything to this blog. And that includes when I was on vacation several weeks ago.

I have been lax for several reasons. One is just burn out. I have been so busy frying my brain with my day job that I have not had enough left to be creative with my Blog. I also seem to have split my time into too many directions at the moment and so completing anything is a pain.

Still my milestone is about over and I hope to go back to a more normal creative and brain draining rate at work. If that happens then I should be able to get back to my own endeavours and keep updating  this blog on it's more regular schedule.

I was saddened yesterday to learn that a good friend of mine that I have not seen in several years died recently in a Motorcycle accident. It was fatal at the scene and my friend Mike, who was a really good guy and someone everyone wanted to be around passed away. I feel a bit frustrated with myself for having lost touch with him these last years and now i won't see him again. I hope he is at peace and making friends in his usual easy way up in heaven. We love ya Mike.

...back to milestone documentation,

laters
Da Voodoochief

Good Night of Work

Well last night went so well. I managed to attack several things and get them to the level I wanted to. A much more productive time than I have had this last week for sure. Heck I even managed to suffer an hour or so of Diablo3 as well.

Watched Chronicle with me family.. I realy enjoyed the raw flavour of this film. I felt for the depressed and picked on kid the whole movie. Though my favourite character was Steve, he rocked.

Read some of a book by Brock Deskins on me Kindle Fire as the wifey watched some master chef crap. It was so distracting I could not work, though by this time I had setup my PC and al my excellent recording equipment. (see i was preparing).

Once Hells chef Master was done and all expletives spoken i was ready for some work. So I got down and started recording the rest of the Male reading audio for A Day at the Zoo. I was soon done with that and I believe I am getting much better at directing myself (sure hope so).

As I had been reading my book I had been pondering a game design challenge. It has taken me something like 4 days but as I was reading the inspiration and idea hit me. YES, i knew i had it. So after the audio work. I wrote down the design layout.

I answered several emails and emailed Google about an isue with my 5 Golden Coins app. Then I typed up my design and sent it to me mate Scott. I really feel this could be a good one.

Next up I played some D3. Killed so many elites and then retired it. The butcher will be taken down very soon now.

Edited some pictures my artist has sent me and created an apk. Though I will wait to send it till later this week I think (i can add my audio :).

And then I went to bed, haha

Laters
Da Voodoochief

Porting Others Games

I am in one of those rather frustrated days today. I even feel a bit angry to be honest.

The reason is that my Day job has mostly turned into porting others games onto inferior machines. I have done this kind of thing for many years, usually dotted with development on original titles along the way. Mixing the two methods of programming and creatig games has been fun and very informative.

Yet, here I am sitting at my desk today, looking over this ridiculous amount of code that creates one of the simplist games I have ever seen. I do not feel like this is what I am mean't to do. There is no real creativity to this one, unless you count the detective work to fathom some black box piece of code and then write a system to replace it. Lots of detective work, not much coding. Still a bit of fun to be honest.

Today though, i feel frustrated.. I have several creative developments going along at the moment and I cannot find enough time to really get them moving faster. Instead I sit here looking over thousadns of lines of code that do so very little, gah!

At lunchtime though I will be able to work on my designs again... I will wait patiently for that time,

Da Voodoochief

Sound Recording ready?

I spent some money on obtaining better sound equipment so I can record the audio for my Book App to a higher quality. I did enjoy using works system, but carting that back and forth is a pain. So I bought my own stuff. After talking with several workmates about what to buy (they are mucisions as well as great geeks). Then I went to musicians friend and bought all the bits I need.

After I ordered all the stuff most of it was sent the next day. The only issue was the mixer, which was on back order, bah!

One of the best bonuses of buying all this equipment is that I now have excellent Karaoke equipment to use, sweet eh!

One week later and the moxer was sent out. I got it last night and tried to set everything up. Only to find I missed a bit. GAH!  I missed buying that  RCA->Jak and I need two o them. Still a quick journey to Radio Shack today and 6 bucks later. I now have them in my posession. I think there might be audio happening this weekend.

Take care out there,

Da Voodoochief

Design template

I have been working on a design template this weekend. Nothing too fancy, but a nice succinct layout for me to throw my new generation of Game designs into. A format I hope will be efficient and also allow my friend Scott to easily adapt as well.

Ya see we are both busy designing games at the moment, and at some point we will choose one or more of them to go into production. However his way of laying out designs is nothing like mine. So i am hopeful that if I do this template, we can really put designs alongside each other and work out which we want to do. Not which is better precisely, but which we will do for many reasons, that I will write about when i know the answer, lol.

Here is my first attempt...

Now I have my template I am going to try and put in a design I already did, to see which aspects I have missed. That way i can find which parts i have missed and also tidy it up more (make it more consistant in layout).

Laters
Da Voodoochief

As an Indie Dev, never on vacation

I am sure this also goes for other entrepreneurs and self employed people, but I reckon there is no dedicated Indie game developer that ever shuts off.

For example...

I just spent the last 4 days at big Bear in my trailer camping with my family. It was great, the weather was nice in the 70's and we were close to the lake. I managed to Read several books (which always give me inspiration) and more interestingly I managed to layout designs for 2 more games. Which I hope to discuss with me mate Scott. When I am away from my machinery I am always thinking about what I might want to create next. I never shut off, and when i am away in the open etc, i find my mind is all aflutter with ideas and inspiration.

Scott has an investor who wants us to create some games, so we will try and create some fun games that are free, but have enhanced or alternative content for in game purchase. It is a fun thing to do as we both have set out to create 10 game designs each, then we will battle over (discuss) which are our best starting options. Eventually getting this list down to the starting one. that might be difficult, but it might be our most important decision.

I'll post more information and an update once i have chatted with Scott.

laters
Da Voodoochief

5GC and ADatZ links and update

As usual I am rather excited. My artist Nathan is pounding forward like the true professional he is. Sending me those samples to choose a pose from and being quick with it.

Tonight I have been very busy modifying the web sites to reflect the availability of 5Golden Coins.

5 Golden Coins on Google Play Appstore
5 Golden Coins on Apples Appstore
Adventure Books for Children Home page
5 Golden Coins Product Page
SorceryGames Home Page
A Day at the Zoo

Now I have active links to the iOS page. Which is something I feel is very important. his point really promoting the App. In fact I am going to wait until I have A Day at the Zoo created and then promote them both at the same time.

Take care and I'll post after my few vacation days camping.

Da Voodoochief

Snake Sketches

As per my Elephants post, this is another sketch sample from Nathan.

This time I have what I believe is an easier choice, simply because each snake is a different species. I try to look at this artwork from both a parental perspective and and also a childs eye view. This I hope will give me the best insight into which sketch to use.

what do you think ?

Me, I like the Boa at the bottom. Not exactly sure why, maybe it is the coiled nature of it?

I have also included a colored Sketch of the Panda. It was this picture that convinced me I should use Nathan for the art in this book. I hope you too can appreciate the wonderful sense of Pandaness that exudes fromt eh sketch. Yes, it is not yet finished, but on it's way.
Laters
Da Voodoochief