Winds of Change

Up until about 3 weeks ago, I was gainfully employed at a company called Metrostudy (www.metrostudy.com) working as a software developer. Our office was shutdown which left me to look for work. I was heavy in the job search for the first couple of weeks sending out my resume to pretty much every .Net developer job in the triangle area (Raleigh-Durham-Cary). I had a few leads, but no takers. I was left with too much time on my hands and few things (productive things) to do. So I began to think of things I could be doing while looking for a job.

Game development has always been a hobby of mine. Even before I was programming, I enjoyed thinking up game ideas. It wasn't until this last January though that I completed a game. I had been toying with different game ideas for a long time, but never really committed to anything. This is because developing a game is so time consuming and is difficult to focus on with work, family, and school. Not to mention, the technology changes so fast that whatever you are coding in can become obsolete half way through development.

So here I am with all the time in the world to make a game, but with no means to support my family. Sure, I have unemployment, but that doesn't cover what I used to make. It will also run out in about 6 months. I'm still applying for jobs, but who knows when that might be fruitful. All of this has led me to a scary thought: Maybe I should make a game.

Now I'm not talking about simple games like Bejewelled or Tetris. I'm talking about a game that is a bit more in-depth. I already have a little of the basic framework built which some of you may have seen on my development blog. However, the game I have envisioned will go far beyond that.

I began devoting 100% of my effort towards the game on Monday with a projected roll-out date scheduled about 6 months from now (no, that is not a coincidence). I've been working on story components and game world content and am quite happy with how things are going. My brother, William, has been somewhat helpful in brainstorming a few of the game details. I'm a bit worried about game art, but I'm hopeful I'll find some people who can help me.

So that's my world lately. I wanted to write it here I think because I was hoping for a little feedback. If you managed to get this far in reading, thank you.

Game Development Moved

I have moved all Silverlight related development and blogging to amazingsilverlightgames.blogspot.com

Map Transitions

So I've added the ability to transition to other maps. No visual candy has been added yet so all you see is a crude transition. There are 5 maps in this demo one in each direction (up, down, left, and right of the starting map). If you move past the edge of a map, you will be placed in the next map if one exists. Otherwise, you will start on the opposite side of the map you are in (that is just default behavior right now until I put something else in place). The keys are the same, but if you click the admin button, it will take you to a screen that lets you pick a different key for each input. Those key inputs only allow for 'a' through 'z', the arrow keys, 'ctrl', 'shift', and 'spacebar'. Anything else will throw an error since I was too lazy to account for them.

Excuse My Procrastination

So this post is a much delayed post which I should have added soon after my last. Oh well. The purpose of this post is to show you the early conversion of my CrazySpace game into Silverlight. The little screen below shows my initial conversion efforts. Basically, its a window with your ship that you can fly around inside a blocked off region. Make sure to click on the window in order for the controls to work. The only keys it uses right now are up left and right.

Testing something new

So I found out today that Microsoft has had a Silverlight hosting site for about 2 years now. I don't know how I didn't know about this. In any case, this blog post will test the functionality of this hosting site with a sample silverlight app. The app has nothing more than a single button which does nothing. The important thing here is that you see the button, and you can click the button.

My Mabinogi Addiction Revealed...

I believe that these Mabinogi expenses are only the beginning of a long line of future purchases. Nice job Nexon. Another customer hooked. As far as my next purchase is concerned, it will probably be a rebirth card.

Crazy Space Initial Release!

I am a little late announcing the release of my game Crazy Space here. I mentioned some details about it on my blog at Caffeinated Games here. I released the game on January 22nd and so far all reviews have been good. The game is built with .Net 3.5 and utilizes the Physics2D.Net physics engine.

PLEASE EMAIL ME WITH ANY FEEDBACK! buttcrumbs at@ gmail .dot com