uuuuuuuuuuuuugh...

Dag nabbit, I got totally lazy and didn't continue writing this friggin' blog.

So here's the deal, at work, I have a set schedule for writing my wiki/blog relating to work. But when I get home, gorram it, I have absolutely no motivation to update it. How am I supposed to stay motivated doing this? I'm finding it incredibly difficult. Yar yar yar...

Ok enough bitching. I am trying to start up little projects. I've been playing Supreme Commander a lot and it's made me want to work on some old AI stuff I had from the graduate class I took in Fall 08 (I dropped the class, felt a little bit overwhelmed, perhaps a post for another day). I figure, I can use the basic movement algorithms I got from it and build up from there. I love RTS games and it would be cool to make something.

I've decided to use Processing since the code I do have from the AI class was done in that. I'm very much tempted to use XNA since there is a nifty tutorial on selecting using using a game box. But, I also want to learn how to do it myself and not just copy and paste, which is what I will end up doing anyways. However, I use C# at work, and I want to work in a different language whilst at home. Even though at UNM I used Java.

Speaking of other languages, I've tried my hand at Haskell - aside from what I did for a class at UNM, but I dunno what to use it for. I need to go through the tutorials and figure out how it works to a decent point. There are some cool things you can do, but I'm not sure which ones. I'm thinking of doing Project Euler problems with it, but we'll see.

As for the old game that I had said I'd start working on. Obviously I'm not ranting and raving about it. I got distracted and lost interest. There was so much in there I was sure what to do anyways.

Artillery Battlespace

In my fall semester of '07 I took a Graphics Processing class, which I absolutely hated no thanks to the professor, and our final project was to create a game using XNA. The game 2 other classmates and I created, Artillery Battlespace, was based off of Scorched3D and the Worms game series. The game, unfortunately, was not completed, and although we got good marks for it, it left a lot to be desired. I have taken it upon myself to continue with the project and see if I can finish it and add more interesting content. I have enlisted my old high school buddy Shikyi to help with some art stuff. This will primarily be a side project since I do currently have a full time job as a coder for a local software company in ABQ.

Currently my plan for the game is the following:

• Rename game


• Refactor


• reorder and rename variables


• set proper access (make most private) and use Properties as the main form of access (C#'s version of getters/setters).


• clean up functions


• clean up game states


• Fix and/or reorder Player/Tank relation


• New art - with help from Shikyi


• New Models - with help from Shikyi


• Add Shaders (is going to require some research on my part)


• Fix lighting


• Fix bounding box

Currently those are the items I've been thinking about. I've been doing the refactoring part mostly and occasionally fixing a function here and there. When we created the game we had 3 or 4 weeks to do it, so we were in quite a rush to get it done; code cleanliness took a backseat to code production. I hope to move on to fixing class structures afterward. I do believe they could definitely use it. After that, I'll probably work on a proper game layout, and hopefully, if I'm not tired of this, work on the gameplay. I'm trying to save the graphics for last since I had a lot of trouble with it before. There are a lot more tutorials out there now, so I plan to utilize them.

I'm definitely hoping to get a decent game set up. This has always been a big dream of mine and if I can create at least 1 game, then I can die a happy man ;)

First blag

This will be my 3rd attempt to blag about stuff, hopefully this time I'll stay consistent with it. Generally I will focus on codes and stuff, but I'll probably dabble in my personal stuff from time to time. Naturally I don't expect very many people (or any for that matter) to actually read this. But for those that do, I hope you find this blag interesting and occasionally entertaining. If you have _kind_ words to offer, emphasis on kind, then feel free to share. So, enjoy!