Vision Riders Entertainment Blog - Off-Topic

Fundamental Flaw

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:34:03 -0700

There's a freeware Civilization clone by the name of C-Evo that I've never been particularly interested in, but I recently chanced across their design philosophy. As a bullet point under how the game should focus itself on strategy, they note:

"The fun you'll have playing the game without reading the manual is comparable to the fun it is to move pieces on a chessboard without knowing the rules of chess."

I'm going to have to point out that, in my opinion, this is a pretty lousy paradigm. I learned how to play chess by actually playing the game with my father. "This is the goal of the game. These are how your pieces move. This is what you should be thinking about at this stage." I learned as I went. I didn't read any books on the subject until after I learned how to play, and I did so in order to understand and develop my knowledge of the game's strategy, not to learn how to move pieces around the board.

A game should already know how to "play itself" and should be designed to help the player along in getting their feet wet, if the player so desires. I like have a nice thick manual at hand as much as the next person, but I shouldn't have to read a textbook just to play a video game.

Rumors of My Demise Have Been Slightly Exaggerated

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:43:39 -0700

No, I'm not dead ~~just pining for the fjords~~. I've busy as of late with "real life": helping family move, getting ready to move myself, all kinds of stuff like that. Don't know when Swordmaster Odyssey will return, but I am working on other stuff that will hopefully be ready to share in another month or two.

As for Sketchbook Monday, I'll try to get back on top of that next week.

Alas, Poor Update, I Knew You Well

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:59:15 -0700

My rich younger brother bought a new Intuos for reasons I do not comprehend and gave me his old one. This is nice and all, but having used my tiny 6x4 Graphire. Problem is, thanks to the size change, my work flow has been completely thrown off. It's hard to explain, but basically I can't judge the distance between objects on screen anymore. I'll be looking at something, but I can't tell how far or at what angle I need to move the pen in order to undertake what I'm trying to do.

Finally, I gave up for the time being and thought "Well, maybe I can plug my Graphire back in so I can finish off today's page?" I tried this, and all I managed to do was crash my computer. :/

Guess I'll just have to keep practicing with the Intuos so I can get the page up next week.

An Apology

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:28:42 -0700

I'm so sorry! I keep promising things that I am unable to deliver on. I said I would have some Adventurer's Guide entries up by now, but so far I haven't even gotten around to drafting them. I'm such a horrible person!

For the past week or two I've been storming through the second draft of Under a Different Moon, that is, Iccari's story. You may remember Iccari from some of the many Sketchbook Monday entries in which he has appeared. It is rare for me to keep up such an extended session of creativity and, as I near the end of the second draft, I fear it will go out again before I finish. Please understand my predicament. I still plan on getting a page up this week, but if it doesn't happen, at least it won't be due to my own laziness for a change.

Thank you for your understanding (or your lack thereof as the case may be). I really am sorry.

In the meantime, how about taking a minute to vote in the annual character poll?

Stupidity At Its Best

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:21:58 -0700

So I added a function in the code that allows the player to skip scenes by tapping the Y button on the controller. I boot up the game to test this and the intro scene for the first level begins to play. My immediant reaction is "Ah man, I've got to sit through this scene again so I can test the button that lets me skip this scene!"

Stupidity.

Yay Me!

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:28:55 -0700

Just completed (for the most part) the scripting language for AetherFall. It's complete with variables and if-then-else blocks and such, which should prove useful for writing the game's events. I've never completed any sort of scripting engine before, so this has been a real eye-opener for me. I now both understand and appreciate programming languages a lot more because of it. XD

Surprisingly, it wasn't as hard as I was dreading it would be, either. Granted, I still have some things to test/debug/clean-up, but the hardest part was simply working out how everything should flow.

Vacation Time Over! Boo!

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:45:59 -0700

Just got back in town a little bit ago; had a great time. It was nice to be able to meet with relatives that I haven't seen in ages.

Anyway, it's back to work for me on Monday. Or Tuesday. It depends on how tired I am. I'll definantly get some work done on AetherFall then, but Swordmaster Odyssey will likely be up in the air for awhile (I need to order more paper, you see).

Vacation Time! Woohoo!

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 19:05:19 -0700

Leaving on a trip tomorrow; be back next week. Meant to get an Adventurer's Guide entry up, but it never happened. Sorry about that. I'll try and get one up when I get back.

Here's What I've Been Up To Lately

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:57:30 -0700

Sorry I haven't been getting Swordmaster Odyssey up lately. I'm hoping to get the comic back on track in a few more weeks, so don't fret too much. In the meantime, though, I've been dabbling in programming again, playing around with C# and Microsoft's XNA.

This is a game prototype for a platformer-RTS hybrid I put together over the past week. Not sure if anything will come of it, or if I'll have the time and/or gumption to continue working on it, but thus far it's been an interesting endeavor.

Lamenting Off Days

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:07:44 -0700

I hate "off days". Days when no matter how hard you try everything you draw seems off, your heart just can't get into it, and all you can see is the mistakes you're making. It's all the more annoying when you're just a moderatly-skilled artist like me and your work is sloppy enough begin with. XD

Hopefully insperation strikes me soon, because I really want Swordmaster Odyssey to look its best when it resumes on Friday.

On Vacation Still!

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:35:40 -0700

No Sketchbook Monday today. Sorry. Maybe next week.

Maybe.

Monitor Woes

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:27:09 -0700

I ended up having to replace my 19" CRT display (the screen was turning yellow) with an old 17" one that I had lying around. Losing two inches may not seem like much, but... My goodness, everything is so small now! I'd take my resolution down, but Photoshop is hard to operate (for me, at least) at anything under 1280x960.

However, more importantly, this aged moniter has an awkward distortion issue. If I have a bunch of squares on the screen that are all the same size, the ones in the middle will be thinner than those on the sides. I can even drag things around the screen and watch them "magically" resize themselves!

...Yeah, this is going to be a problem. XD

I have a two moniter setup, so I may just switch them around and use this one as my secondary moniter, and the other one to do the bulk of my work in. Granted, it's not like the other one is in that great shape, either. :/

Silly Houston

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:53:42 -0700

It was in the 70s and 80s yesterday, but now it's snowing. Go figure.

...And now my front yard is a post card! XD

I'M BAAA~CK!

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 12:03:08 -0700

We have internet again, so all two of you worried about me can calm down. Hurricane Ike did some major damage to our neighborhood, but our house came through just fine. Our lawn? Not so much so. :/

SMOdyssey should resume next week if all goes as planned.

Hurricane Ike

nospam@example.com (Dale Johnson) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:23:42 -0700

Yet another major storm is making a beeline for the Gulf coast. Just a head's up that if the storm keeps up its current path and significantly strengthens over the week, there likely won't be an update this Friday seeing as we'll be busy bracing for impact--or making a run for it.