The little Inn by the wayside

Here you can talk about anything (that isn't related to the other forums).

Moderator: Crew

jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

I'd LOVE to do that. But with Monkey it ain't so simple! There's all the different targets, for starters. HTML5 and Flash both have the unfair disadvantage of not letting me play audio at different pitches, which stops me from doing my own Pseudo-Random-Music-Generator well, which is annoying, because I kinda wanted to do that! So, that's out, and code-based Mod playing is also out due to the same reasons. I suppose, if I DID bother to write my music gen thing, I could make HTML5 and Flash be music-less, but then you've also got other issues, like file formats and things. Grrrr..
Plus, the lazy side of me kinda can't be bothered to redo all of that musical stuff. crazy!

In all honesty, I haven't used a Mod format for a few years. It's easy enough to add simple mods into my DS Homebrew games, but modern languages seem to be missing this all important feature, and it's a massive drain on my abilities ;)
Maybe I should complain more?

In health news, I had a nice long deep relaxing bath, last night, swiftly followed by ten minutes of vomiting.. *sigh* I was shaking for about an hour after that. So much for relaxing myself. :\
Also been a little sick, this morning, but that may be because I was chasing the cat around the house! I shouldn't move that much ;) Molly!!

I think today's a rest day, although I might give my Word List another go.

.. Oh, yeah, the space at the bottom of the game. I already bumped that up for my tablet, but I guess the problem's even worse on a phone! I'll probably add a wee bit more space. Does anyone take notice of their score whilst playing? Do you think it'd be ok to shove that down at the bottom, so it doesn't look so bare?
User avatar
eMTe
Cyberflaneur
Posts: 6990
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 23:08
Location: Cracow

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by eMTe »

With things being slow on CWF I took the liberty of focusing more on Lemon Amiga/EAB competitions this year. Things look good so far, especially that I neither like racing games too much, nor I am good at them. However the strongest players, as far as I remember older rounds, have tendency to score during last week, so it is possible that on Tuesday I will be eighth, not fourth.

As a sidenote, I find it fascinating that there are still people (even if they number no more than two dozens) who can devote tens of hours each month to take part in a free competition involving old and long-forgotten Amiga games, fighting for victory or good place, discussing various tricks etc. I guess it qualifies as the true spirit. If not this than what?
"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)
jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

Awesome!! Nice that old games still get played, and not just "played", but competed, and properly mastered! I wonder if, in years to come, some of my games might get played like that?
.. I say that, I've been playing the original Centipong all week, and realised this morning that the darn thing's FIVE YEARS OLD, already! Yikes!! That's pretty scary! It's weird, because in the back of my mind, I can still picture the original plan of the game, with each level being a different Atari2600 game.. Then I started bouncing the centipedes about and it got stuck where it is!! Five years ago? *sigh*
Having said that, Platdude turns 16, this year! Eek!!

I don't think I'll be joining in with the racing. A) I'm rubbish at racers, and B) I'm FAR too busy fiddling with all these games!
Mmmmm..... :)

Good luck in the compo!
jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

Double post, naughty..

Things aren't particularly great, this morning.
Woken up by GameCenter's fanfare, again. Nngh..
If you don't have an Apple Device, you won't be familiar with their useless GameCenter system, which pretends to be a social gathering hotspot, but is really just for highscores, and nothing more.
Luckily they recently added the ability to send challenges to your friends, or to put it another way, annoyingly they recently added the ability to annoy the bejesus out of your friends by constantly spamming them with adverts about the games you're currently playing.
Every click of the ingame "Challenge Your Friend!" button will send a challenge, and a god-awful fanfare, to the requested friend.
Fantastic!!!
It might be 7,000,000 times less annoying if the fanfare wasn't the smegging Scrappy Doo "tada-ta-tad tada!!!" one, which manages to wake you up in the foulest mood possible. It's like the worlds most annoying alarm clock, but set to go off randomly, at any point in the day.

I had it go off whilst at work, once, to laughter and merriment, as everyone thought I'd switched to a Scrappy Doo Ringtone..
Grrrrr!!!

*sigh*
So, we open up the email to find not one, not two, but FIVE emails from twitter. Seems that yesterday's Twitter Hack is so widespread that they've had to reset passwords for every single one of my accounts. Yikes!
For those who don't care, they are...

@Jayenkai - my primary account, full of this sort of thing, but usually shorter and easier to read, since you're not allowed to waffle as much on Twitter.

@iJayenkai - since I don't like to spam, but do need to spam, I made a spammy account, just for spamming! iJayenkai spams like a juggernaut, if juggernauts spammed.

@Socoder - initially created to enable Socoder (my forum) to Twitter access, but then I removed that functionality after someone used their twitter account to hack into my forum. Grrr... Still occasionally used for the odd server update, or silly comment.

@Alodare - hmm.. Now I need to explain who AL is.. When I first got my Amiga, I created a silly cartoonish character named AL using DPaint's Anim functions. DPaint wasn't up to much Anim stuff, but it could at least handle little 4-page comic strip type things, so that's where AL started. Since my artistic talents are awful, to say the least, AL has always remained at the level of a two year old, and constantly posted things in a very childish way. He's inexplicably stuck around, becoming my "stupid" alter-ego, and when I started making "stupid" music, it only seemed fair to attribute them to AL. As a result, nearly all of my resent music has been done in his name. AL was given his own twitter account, and Tumblr account, too, when he suddenly started creating some wonderful pieces of music, a couple of years ago. He then stopped, just as quickly, when I went into hospital. .. I wonder why!!

@Greenie - oh, geeze, I need to explain Greenie, now, too!! Ok, this one's not as weird though. Greenie is an odd cartoonish characature of my old college teacher, Mr Green. He taught us what was supposed to be A-Level Computing, but what rapidly became A-Level Binary and Punched Cards.. After a while, I created an odd stick-like doodle, stood by a wipeboard, and he became Greenie. Greenie continues to pop up in my games, with his trademark blue suit, red tie, and big nose. He's also the co-star of my old/odd mini-sitcom Codas, which was neither popular or any good!

Hmm.. I prattled on again. I seem to be doing that a lot, lately..

Morning, all!
User avatar
Scythe
Winner of CWF review contest!
Posts: 3165
Joined: Sat Mar 04, 2006 12:59
Location: Nova

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by Scythe »

You're pretty good at convincing me not to get an Apple Device. :D
User avatar
eMTe
Cyberflaneur
Posts: 6990
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 23:08
Location: Cracow

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by eMTe »

We're going to the theater today. Well, in fact, not truly theater meant as building, because it is small troupe registered as non-profit organisation, getting subsidies from Department of Culture, and they use medieval cellar rented from one of universities for their shows. Ive always admired people who work for free.

On another note, Ive discovered new breed of dog - hand-dog. All of a sudden city is populated with lassies nursing small rat-like creatures, hugging, kissing and stroking them. What's funny these creatures seem to have four legs, but they are not allowed to run freely. I wonder if it qualifies as cruelty.
"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)
jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

I haven't finished C3ntipong, yet. The proper release will be on Tuesday.
Now probably wouldn't be a good time to start something else.
.. Yeah, that would definitely be a bad idea.
D'oh!
User avatar
Zyx
Pretender to the throne
Posts: 1907
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 20:48
Location: Helsinki
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by Zyx »

Totally off-topic, but that video has pretty cool video id, nULL...
Do you has what it takes to join the Homestarmy? The guts? The determination? The five bucks? Join today!
User avatar
eMTe
Cyberflaneur
Posts: 6990
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 23:08
Location: Cracow

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by eMTe »

Believe or not, but the most prominently featured stage props were coathangers.

I think I am partially insane.
"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)
jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

....that sounds like an odd show!
Perhaps the writer used to be a prop-designer?

Don't worry about going insane. Just start focussing the insanity somewhere productive, and see if others enjoy it!
User avatar
Railwaymodeler
Legend
Posts: 892
Joined: Fri Mar 24, 2006 16:06
Location: North of Hell, err, Illinois
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by Railwaymodeler »

Came down with the flu real bad. From what I've been told, there are even worse strains of it too, which shots and meds can't prevent.

Maria and Skoda are at the grandma's house tonight. Two nights in a row they spent over there because of the flu.

Kind of strange in a way, middle of the night, reaching over for Maria and finding she is not there. But, it is for the best, so that she, and more importantly, Skoda, don't catch it.
Without trains America Stops- Support Amtrak

Old trains never die. They just sit in ruin and wait until the day they are taken in by a skilled craftsman and rebuilt to their former glory.
jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

Poor Modeller :(
...well, not "poor", but.. ;)

Today, I'm faced with "the ultimate dilemma of modern game development!"
I knew this day would come, I just wasn't prepared to have to tackle it so quickly.
Here's the issue.

Android is so messed up, I couldn't in all good faith, charge for games that might not work.
I'm a freeware coder. I like making games for the fun of making games. Profit, if possible, is merely a bonus.
With iOS I took a little extra time on each game, built it up bigger and better, and had the excuse of "it fits in your pocket!" as a reason to charge.
But now.. .. Hmm.. Now it's exactly the same code as the freeware Windows, and freeware Android code.

I feel like the iOS versions should, therefore, be bigger and better somehow, to warrant the additional cost. And this has hit me hard while coming up with SpikeDislike2 additions.
Am I REALLY going to produce a "Lite" edition of a game, just so's I can sell a version on iOS??
That doesn't seem fair. And it doesn't seem very "Jayenkai" either.

Is GameCenter's online highscores, and neatly automated iOS updates enough? Or am I going to start trimming the free versions down a bit?
Hmmmm....
User avatar
Pater Alf
The Steel Spine of GameHunters
Posts: 7649
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 23:09

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by Pater Alf »

I would say that trimming down the freeware versions isn't a good idea. In my eyes you should keep the core game intact and add some features to the iOS version (like you already do with online highscores and automated updates). Maybe you could also create some things that are only included in the paid version (e.g. a level editor).
[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
User avatar
Zyx
Pretender to the throne
Posts: 1907
Joined: Wed Mar 29, 2006 20:48
Location: Helsinki
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by Zyx »

IAPs, my friend, IAPs...

Sent from the dark side on my iPad
Do you has what it takes to join the Homestarmy? The guts? The determination? The five bucks? Join today!
jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

Bah, humbug!
I dislike IAP more than I dislike spikes!!

Progress Report : SpikeDislike2 is awesome!
I've just sent out the first test edition to my chief tester guy.. (he has a wonky tablet that doesn't do it's X/Y Accelerometer the right way around!) ..and am waiting for some feedback from him.
Four themes are in, so far, but the Basketball one isn't doing anything special yet. The Classic theme is original mode, the Sheep theme switches from "Touch to Move" to "Touch to Leap", and.. well.. yeah.. I finally got around to putting NyanCat into SpikeDislike!
Image

Still got a whole bunch more things to add to the game, and hopefully they'll be as easy to add as the rest of it has been, so far.

Health Update
Had a bit of a rough day, today. Head's been a bit swirly. Not been able to move too much, at all.
Just spent ten minutes stood up, chatting on the phone with a neighbour, then a couple of minutes throwing up. woot!
Today's a "Bad" day.. But, the bad days are getting easier to deal with, and the good days are more frequent.
So far, so good!
User avatar
eMTe
Cyberflaneur
Posts: 6990
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 23:08
Location: Cracow

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by eMTe »

I have a cellphone without camera and I can't tell the difference between iPad and iPod. When somebody says "android" I reply "Blade Runner".
"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)
User avatar
eMTe
Cyberflaneur
Posts: 6990
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 23:08
Location: Cracow

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by eMTe »

jayenkai wrote:Perhaps the writer used to be a prop-designer?
No, but I have suspicion that prop-designer used to live inside Machinarium.
"As you have noticed over the years, we are not angry people." (itebygur)
jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

They still make phones without cameras?!!?!?

To be fair, I'm not actually a big phone user.
I might have an iPod, an iPad, and now a Nexus 7, too, but none of them have Phone capabilities.
My actual phone is a bottom-of-the-range "HTC Wildfire" (The first one!), which has all the usability of a chicken.
I'm constantly amazed by the fact that this little device, with a tiny screen resolution, and 500Mhz of processing power, can be outpaced in every respect by an Amiga running at 7Mhz.
It's absolutely abysmal!
And yet, since they didn't allow us to use the wifi, that was the one device that was actually usable whilst I was stuck in the hospital for five smegging months.. *sigh*
A usability nightmare, I can tell you!

Today sees the official release of C3ntipong, so if you're playing along on Windows, you can finally have a play. Be aware that it opens in 640x640 resolution. You can, of course, resize the window to whatever resolution you'd like, and the game will reload itself, and all will be happy, but that initial resolution might leave the bottom of the window off some people's screens. Not sure what resolutions you guys are running at, but thought it worth mentioning!
.. Should still run, though!!
Let me know if it doesn't.

I've got LOADS of stuff to do on SpikeDislike2, so I might take a couple of days off from that, and tackle something else for a bit. SpikeDislike2's release probably won't happen until the end of the month, giving me plenty of time to add everything I can possibly think of, and maybe a little bit more!

hmm.. what game to do for next week, then?
*shrugs*
User avatar
Pater Alf
The Steel Spine of GameHunters
Posts: 7649
Joined: Thu Apr 13, 2006 23:09

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by Pater Alf »

jayenkai wrote: hmm.. what game to do for next week, then?
*shrugs*
Full HD and 3D FPS remake of JNKPlat 07! 8)
[quote="eMTe"]I dont think trying to pass the screen in computer game once per 500 tries makes you a geek. Rather a dangerous psychopath.[/quote]
jayenkai
CWF's God of Freeware
Posts: 639
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 18:17
Location: Bolton, England
Contact:

Re: The little Inn by the wayside

Post by jayenkai »

Not currently possible/easy in Monkey, due to annoying file-access limitations. :(
In fact most things that need specifically designed levels are going to be tricky to do.
I can make levels myself, but having an editor is much trickier.
As I get used to things, I'm sure some sort of solution will turn up, but it's not currently looking too good. :\
Post Reply