That last post is actually completely pointless and I don' t understand why I bothered to create it. I must have still been reeling from the thing.
Now I'm just reeling from the last post.
It will be a neverending chain.
Every week or so.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Purity Name Change Made Possible
I was looking at the Character Submissions thread over at TIGSource and ran into a suggestion for the character from Purity. Needless to say, I was shocked because I thought no one knew about that game. It turns out that there was another Purity before mine that I just didn't know about.
That was a big relief, but it does mean that my game's name isn't original any more. This doesn't mean I'm going to change it completely. I might just add a subtitle that never actually shows up in the game but still distinguishes it from the other one.
That was a big relief, but it does mean that my game's name isn't original any more. This doesn't mean I'm going to change it completely. I might just add a subtitle that never actually shows up in the game but still distinguishes it from the other one.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
A GNU Dawn
In an act of extreme symbolism (which I hope will be remembered when the time comes to award the next Nobel Prize in Literature), I have ported my artgame, Freedom, to Linux.
This version brings back the window frame because there's basically no cross-platform method for positioning windows with SDL and the window kept showing up at the bottom right of my screen. Now at least it's possible to move it to a nicer location.
Download: Linux
I don't have a whole lot of LInux experience, so I don't actually know if I can just pass around the binary and assume that it will work on other computers. I don't see any immdeiate reason that it shouldn't, though. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Oh wait. You can't. Because you're the Internet Void, and only people can test the game on other machines and let me know if it works. And we both know that no one reads this.
Yet.
When the time is right...
One last thing. Basically none of the Windows versions of my games are going to run correctly under Wine because I used clock() for timing instead of SDL_GetTicks(). In the future, I plan to stick to SDL_GetTicks(), so my games ought to run just fine in Wine.
Of course, they ought to also have Linux versions that run just fine without Wine.
Edit: Linux version += easteregg
This version brings back the window frame because there's basically no cross-platform method for positioning windows with SDL and the window kept showing up at the bottom right of my screen. Now at least it's possible to move it to a nicer location.
Download: Linux
I don't have a whole lot of LInux experience, so I don't actually know if I can just pass around the binary and assume that it will work on other computers. I don't see any immdeiate reason that it shouldn't, though. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Oh wait. You can't. Because you're the Internet Void, and only people can test the game on other machines and let me know if it works. And we both know that no one reads this.
Yet.
When the time is right...
One last thing. Basically none of the Windows versions of my games are going to run correctly under Wine because I used clock() for timing instead of SDL_GetTicks(). In the future, I plan to stick to SDL_GetTicks(), so my games ought to run just fine in Wine.
Of course, they ought to also have Linux versions that run just fine without Wine.
Edit: Linux version += easteregg
Friday, September 12, 2008
Language: English Vs English
Greetings, Internet Void,
As you have no doubt noticed (assuming you've worked out ASCII and those other encoding formats), there seems to be two versions of English floating around and a whole lot of debate over which one to use where. It's starting to seem as if bringing English over to America during the British invasion of New England (not that I have a problem with the result, it's just that the initial act was a little rude) was a bad idea. If we'd just started with a fresh new language, we wouldn't have this problem. Instead of letting English evolve into two slightly different languages due to physical and cultural separation and then debating over which one is correct, we'd just have an extra language to translate, which wouldn't be a problem at all since we seem to be handling the ones we've got right now just fine (and even some "fictional" ones).
As it is though, we've got these two almost identical languages causing a lot of pointless flamewars over at Wikipedia when really, it does not matter the slightest bit which one we use. Anyone who knows English knows that "metre" and "meter" are exactly the same thing. Some argue that "meter" should be used for measurement devices and "metre" for the unit because then you can tell them apart by spelling. So they should also be pronounced "meatur" and "meatreh" so that you can tell them apart in speech, right? Alternatively, we can all just spell them however we want and tell them apart by context.
Language is such an imprecise communication tool that it's really pointless to argue over these sorts of things anyway.
I could leave it at that pretty elegantly, but I'm not one for being articulate, so here's an example:
"Give me that screwdriver."
"Would you please hand me the screwdriver?"
These two are exactly the same but some people are inevitably going to be offended by the first one. People demand all these little embellishments that makes language in general incredibly inefficient. There's no reason for this thing called "politeness," and there's no reason (outside of "art") for this thing called "connotation."
They are both inextricably linked to language, though, and as a result the part that matters gets clouded up by all these meaningless little details, and a lot of information gets lost in a flurry of emotions.
Emotions.
We could certainly do without some of them.
The above sentiment brought to you by some of the emotions we could do with out.
And the same to that one
Etc.
As you have no doubt noticed (assuming you've worked out ASCII and those other encoding formats), there seems to be two versions of English floating around and a whole lot of debate over which one to use where. It's starting to seem as if bringing English over to America during the British invasion of New England (not that I have a problem with the result, it's just that the initial act was a little rude) was a bad idea. If we'd just started with a fresh new language, we wouldn't have this problem. Instead of letting English evolve into two slightly different languages due to physical and cultural separation and then debating over which one is correct, we'd just have an extra language to translate, which wouldn't be a problem at all since we seem to be handling the ones we've got right now just fine (and even some "fictional" ones).
As it is though, we've got these two almost identical languages causing a lot of pointless flamewars over at Wikipedia when really, it does not matter the slightest bit which one we use. Anyone who knows English knows that "metre" and "meter" are exactly the same thing. Some argue that "meter" should be used for measurement devices and "metre" for the unit because then you can tell them apart by spelling. So they should also be pronounced "meatur" and "meatreh" so that you can tell them apart in speech, right? Alternatively, we can all just spell them however we want and tell them apart by context.
Language is such an imprecise communication tool that it's really pointless to argue over these sorts of things anyway.
I could leave it at that pretty elegantly, but I'm not one for being articulate, so here's an example:
"Give me that screwdriver."
"Would you please hand me the screwdriver?"
These two are exactly the same but some people are inevitably going to be offended by the first one. People demand all these little embellishments that makes language in general incredibly inefficient. There's no reason for this thing called "politeness," and there's no reason (outside of "art") for this thing called "connotation."
They are both inextricably linked to language, though, and as a result the part that matters gets clouded up by all these meaningless little details, and a lot of information gets lost in a flurry of emotions.
Emotions.
We could certainly do without some of them.
The above sentiment brought to you by some of the emotions we could do with out.
And the same to that one
Etc.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
gearGen and Linux
I finally got around to filling that empty space on my hard drive that I've had sitting around for six months. I filled it Linux. What this means is that in the future (if I can just figure out how to use KDevelop), I will be able to offer both Linux and windows versions of my games.
It took me about two hours to install Linux. I then spent 8 hours fiddling with xorg.conf and rebooting over and over again before I realized that I could just turn off overscan on my monitor. After that, I'm pretty sure Linux is actually more "user-friendly" than either Windows or Mac. It certainly seems to have a lot more fancy graphical stuff going on. And it seems you can download and install just about anything by typing "sudo apt-get install [program name]." I mean anything. "sudo apt-get install pi" downloads and installs a program to calculate pi.
Anyway, in celebration of my new operating system, and because doing it on a calculator was really tedious, I decided to write a good old-fashioned command line program. It's called gearGen and it prints out x and y coordinates for drawing gears. Those coordinates can then be converted to images using paint or the GIMP. This ought to help a lot with making sprites for a certain game. It turns out that just opening up paint and drawing a 32x32 gear from scratch is not at all easy.
gearGen code: (C=C+1)
It took me about two hours to install Linux. I then spent 8 hours fiddling with xorg.conf and rebooting over and over again before I realized that I could just turn off overscan on my monitor. After that, I'm pretty sure Linux is actually more "user-friendly" than either Windows or Mac. It certainly seems to have a lot more fancy graphical stuff going on. And it seems you can download and install just about anything by typing "sudo apt-get install [program name]." I mean anything. "sudo apt-get install pi" downloads and installs a program to calculate pi.
Anyway, in celebration of my new operating system, and because doing it on a calculator was really tedious, I decided to write a good old-fashioned command line program. It's called gearGen and it prints out x and y coordinates for drawing gears. Those coordinates can then be converted to images using paint or the GIMP. This ought to help a lot with making sprites for a certain game. It turns out that just opening up paint and drawing a 32x32 gear from scratch is not at all easy.
gearGen code: (C=C+1)
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Game: Freedom
I have noticed something about art games: they are exactly like any other art; the artist presents the audience with a thing, and the audience digs up meaning for the thing. Since the artist's job is a fairly simple one, I decided to try taking the place of the artist.
My art game is called "Freedom." The goal is to reach the opposite side of the tunnel. Use the right arrow key to move. When the tunnel changes colors, you change direction and speed.
Download: Windows
Linux
Following the lead of other artists, I have also written an analysis of my game (though it is pretty short).
Freedom represents the journey of a nation as it struggles to remain free in an imperfect world. On the path to freedom, obstacles can cause the people to lose sight of the real goal (to go backwards). There are two ways to reach freedom. Either "stay the course" (hold right) and keep moving in whatever direction seems to be forward, or try to adapt to the rest of the world; when something goes wrong, pull out quickly and wait for the situation to resolve itself before moving forward again (press and release right as the color changes).
However, this analysis merely skims the surface of a deeper meaning. Strangely, the bitmap responsible for holding the numbers used in displaying the final score is located in the root directory instead of in the "bmp" folder. Additionally, it seems as if the images for "4" and "7" have been removed and replaced with hasty mspaint scribbles. No matter what the end result, there is always the potential for capitalism, which is supposed to enforce individuality, to corrupt the system as a whole.
One might argue that the numbers 4 and 7 were chosen at random; however, a closer look reveals that 4 and 7 were the two numbers of the "system" font that did not adapt well to the modified font used in the game. This reveals the exact nature of the capitalist corruption. Those things which do not fit, rather than being carefully (and expensively) repaired are replaced with cheaper, lower quality components.
Additionally, the hexadecimal number 47 represents the letter "G" in ASCII. If "G" is taken to means "GAMES" or "GAMEPLAY," it can be said that the corruption of hex 47 represents the state of the commercial games industry. the gameplay is cheap filler that creates simple context for beautiful graphics and the occasional "GIMMICK."
Etc.
My art game is called "Freedom." The goal is to reach the opposite side of the tunnel. Use the right arrow key to move. When the tunnel changes colors, you change direction and speed.
Download: Windows
Linux
Following the lead of other artists, I have also written an analysis of my game (though it is pretty short).
Freedom represents the journey of a nation as it struggles to remain free in an imperfect world. On the path to freedom, obstacles can cause the people to lose sight of the real goal (to go backwards). There are two ways to reach freedom. Either "stay the course" (hold right) and keep moving in whatever direction seems to be forward, or try to adapt to the rest of the world; when something goes wrong, pull out quickly and wait for the situation to resolve itself before moving forward again (press and release right as the color changes).
However, this analysis merely skims the surface of a deeper meaning. Strangely, the bitmap responsible for holding the numbers used in displaying the final score is located in the root directory instead of in the "bmp" folder. Additionally, it seems as if the images for "4" and "7" have been removed and replaced with hasty mspaint scribbles. No matter what the end result, there is always the potential for capitalism, which is supposed to enforce individuality, to corrupt the system as a whole.
One might argue that the numbers 4 and 7 were chosen at random; however, a closer look reveals that 4 and 7 were the two numbers of the "system" font that did not adapt well to the modified font used in the game. This reveals the exact nature of the capitalist corruption. Those things which do not fit, rather than being carefully (and expensively) repaired are replaced with cheaper, lower quality components.
Additionally, the hexadecimal number 47 represents the letter "G" in ASCII. If "G" is taken to means "GAMES" or "GAMEPLAY," it can be said that the corruption of hex 47 represents the state of the commercial games industry. the gameplay is cheap filler that creates simple context for beautiful graphics and the occasional "GIMMICK."
Etc.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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