Allison randomly shouted "BUTTER!" at lunch today. When we asked why, she pointed at the "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" spray, and said there was an exclamation point, so "we say it loud."
Yesterday, at Legoland, she noticed the elephant statue. It was squirting water out of it's trunk, but when it dipped it's head, it didn't actually dip its trunk back in the water. She was a little indignant and wondered how it was squirting water without filling back up again.
She's a pretty clever kid.
2011/05/22
2011/05/11
Recently, I posted an a link to an article on Facebook called "Why I Don't Put Pictures of my Kids Online". The article didn't directly speak for me, but made several salient points that I generally agreed with.
When a friend expressed some interest in my position, I told shared the full story, which I will share with you now.
When Allison was born, as an immensely proud new parent, I wanted to share her pictures with everyone we knew. The easiest way to do this would be to put them in some public place online (like this blog). That was certainly easier than sending out mass emails, or sharing passwords to a locked site, or whatever.
Diana pushed back against sharing pictures publicly with a certain amount of vigor. She said things that I didn't really understand at the time, about ownership of your own image and that we should respect Allison's privacy, and things like that. I looked at our newborn baby, and then at my wife, thinking she was clearly crazy. Allison was just a baby! How could she possible know or care if we put her pictures online?! So I attempted to mount a counterargument...
... and I came up with nothing.
I couldn't come up with a single good reason why it was a good idea to publish her baby pictures online. The best reason I could come up with was that it was slightly more convenient for me.
That was kind of sobering.
On the other side of the coin, I could come up with at least a few reasons why it seemed like a bad idea. I'm not actively concerned about child predators, but some people think that's reason enough. I've heard stories of images scraped from blogs and used for commercial purposes. Unlikely, I guess, but possible.
But most importantly, the more I thought about it, the more Diana's original position (or at least my own interpretation of it) started to make sense in my own mind. Allison might not want her pictures online. It took a few years for that to actually make sense.
The idea of a newborn, or even a three year old, making rational decisions about privacy and posting pictures online is obviously ridiculous. As a baby, we made literally every decision in Allison's life. Now, as a three year old, we make the vast majority of decisions for her, but fewer than before. For example, we may decide that she needs to wear a jacket, but she can decide which one. As she gets older, we'll make fewer and fewer decisions, and she'll take more ownership of her own life and choices. That's what growing up is all about.
At some point in time, she'll come to realize what it means to post pictures online for the world to see. And it's possible that she'd come to the realization that we've posted all her pictures, from slobbering baby to awkward teenager, for the entire world to see, and be horrified that we'd done that without her permission(though more likely, she'll say "Gawd, Dad... you're SO lame!"). At the very least, I think it's far more likely that she'd have negative feelings about it than positive ("Gee Dad! I'm so glad you put all these pictures up! You're awesome!").
That doesn't mean that I'm afraid of making unpopular decisions. Far from it. But if she did feel betrayed or embarrassed about it, I'd at least like to have some justification. And that's the entire point... I have none.
When she gets to that age and decides that she wants her baby pictures online, then she can do that. But she's not ready to make those choices yet, so we make it for her, and that answer obviously coincides with our own values.
It's hard to project a little girls feelings forward, so maybe this is a better example: On a whim, you google your own name, and find that I've posted a picture on my blog from a beach party. You're wearing a bathing suit, and it was before you'd dropped 30 pounds. You're eyes are half open, and you're in the middle of taking a bite of cake. Whatever. Suffice to say, you don't think it's a flattering picture. You look again, and realize that this picture has been up publicly for the last five years. Would you care?
The answer to that question is personal. Some people are "open books" and wouldn't care at all. Others are more concerned with image and privacy and might care. Others would be horrified and outraged. It just depends on how you feel about these kinds of things.
My point is we don't know what Allison's views are on the subject yet, so it seems natural to make the choice that is the least likely to be painful, and also the easiest to reverse. (That's the other crazy thing about the internet... Once things are posted online, it's extremely easy to lose control of them. Taking pictures down after they are released might not be as easy as it sounds.)
The "public" part is really actually key. We DO share her pictures privately with friends and family. That might even be hypocritical, given the reasons above, but I'm more prepared to defend a position of "we share pictures of our kids with our friends" than "we share pictures of our kids with everyone in the world."
I fully realize that we are in the vast minority in this opinion. The internet is paved with pictures of your kids and pets. Everyone does it, and here's my guess why:
1) You don't care about your own privacy as much as I care about mine. And you assume your kids won't either. I think this is a personal opinion that everyone makes for themselves.
2) My family is extremely small. It's easy for me to manage sharing pictures privately with just a few people. You might have a audience, so you get more value from having a single place to post pictures. Even if you are somewhat against sharing pictures online, this convenience might sufficiently tip the scale in the other direction.
3) You simply don't think about these kinds of things. I think this is probably the case with most people. They either don't care, or figure they'll deal with that bridge when they get to it, or don't even think it's worth thinking about in the first place.
4) Something else?
So, to sum up.
I can come up with reasons why I'm uncomfortable posting pictures publicly. These reasons might be unlikely, or far fetched, but I don't think they are completely bogus.
I can't come up with any good reasons why I should.
So the choice is pretty clear.
I'm still mounting that argument against Diana, so if you can point out a flaw in my thinking, please let me know!
When a friend expressed some interest in my position, I told shared the full story, which I will share with you now.
When Allison was born, as an immensely proud new parent, I wanted to share her pictures with everyone we knew. The easiest way to do this would be to put them in some public place online (like this blog). That was certainly easier than sending out mass emails, or sharing passwords to a locked site, or whatever.
Diana pushed back against sharing pictures publicly with a certain amount of vigor. She said things that I didn't really understand at the time, about ownership of your own image and that we should respect Allison's privacy, and things like that. I looked at our newborn baby, and then at my wife, thinking she was clearly crazy. Allison was just a baby! How could she possible know or care if we put her pictures online?! So I attempted to mount a counterargument...
... and I came up with nothing.
I couldn't come up with a single good reason why it was a good idea to publish her baby pictures online. The best reason I could come up with was that it was slightly more convenient for me.
That was kind of sobering.
On the other side of the coin, I could come up with at least a few reasons why it seemed like a bad idea. I'm not actively concerned about child predators, but some people think that's reason enough. I've heard stories of images scraped from blogs and used for commercial purposes. Unlikely, I guess, but possible.
But most importantly, the more I thought about it, the more Diana's original position (or at least my own interpretation of it) started to make sense in my own mind. Allison might not want her pictures online. It took a few years for that to actually make sense.
The idea of a newborn, or even a three year old, making rational decisions about privacy and posting pictures online is obviously ridiculous. As a baby, we made literally every decision in Allison's life. Now, as a three year old, we make the vast majority of decisions for her, but fewer than before. For example, we may decide that she needs to wear a jacket, but she can decide which one. As she gets older, we'll make fewer and fewer decisions, and she'll take more ownership of her own life and choices. That's what growing up is all about.
At some point in time, she'll come to realize what it means to post pictures online for the world to see. And it's possible that she'd come to the realization that we've posted all her pictures, from slobbering baby to awkward teenager, for the entire world to see, and be horrified that we'd done that without her permission(though more likely, she'll say "Gawd, Dad... you're SO lame!"). At the very least, I think it's far more likely that she'd have negative feelings about it than positive ("Gee Dad! I'm so glad you put all these pictures up! You're awesome!").
That doesn't mean that I'm afraid of making unpopular decisions. Far from it. But if she did feel betrayed or embarrassed about it, I'd at least like to have some justification. And that's the entire point... I have none.
When she gets to that age and decides that she wants her baby pictures online, then she can do that. But she's not ready to make those choices yet, so we make it for her, and that answer obviously coincides with our own values.
It's hard to project a little girls feelings forward, so maybe this is a better example: On a whim, you google your own name, and find that I've posted a picture on my blog from a beach party. You're wearing a bathing suit, and it was before you'd dropped 30 pounds. You're eyes are half open, and you're in the middle of taking a bite of cake. Whatever. Suffice to say, you don't think it's a flattering picture. You look again, and realize that this picture has been up publicly for the last five years. Would you care?
The answer to that question is personal. Some people are "open books" and wouldn't care at all. Others are more concerned with image and privacy and might care. Others would be horrified and outraged. It just depends on how you feel about these kinds of things.
My point is we don't know what Allison's views are on the subject yet, so it seems natural to make the choice that is the least likely to be painful, and also the easiest to reverse. (That's the other crazy thing about the internet... Once things are posted online, it's extremely easy to lose control of them. Taking pictures down after they are released might not be as easy as it sounds.)
The "public" part is really actually key. We DO share her pictures privately with friends and family. That might even be hypocritical, given the reasons above, but I'm more prepared to defend a position of "we share pictures of our kids with our friends" than "we share pictures of our kids with everyone in the world."
I fully realize that we are in the vast minority in this opinion. The internet is paved with pictures of your kids and pets. Everyone does it, and here's my guess why:
1) You don't care about your own privacy as much as I care about mine. And you assume your kids won't either. I think this is a personal opinion that everyone makes for themselves.
2) My family is extremely small. It's easy for me to manage sharing pictures privately with just a few people. You might have a audience, so you get more value from having a single place to post pictures. Even if you are somewhat against sharing pictures online, this convenience might sufficiently tip the scale in the other direction.
3) You simply don't think about these kinds of things. I think this is probably the case with most people. They either don't care, or figure they'll deal with that bridge when they get to it, or don't even think it's worth thinking about in the first place.
4) Something else?
So, to sum up.
I can come up with reasons why I'm uncomfortable posting pictures publicly. These reasons might be unlikely, or far fetched, but I don't think they are completely bogus.
I can't come up with any good reasons why I should.
So the choice is pretty clear.
I'm still mounting that argument against Diana, so if you can point out a flaw in my thinking, please let me know!
2011/05/09
So much to write about, so little time...
So many things going on these days, but so little time to write.
We visited Dave and Elaine and Ben and Julia in Maryland a few weeks ago, and the trip was fabulous. Easy plane rides, and a wonderful visit. It was Allison's first time meeting Julia, and they had a great time together.
Since getting home from Maryland, we cracked down a little on Allison and bedtime rules. The "Sleep Rules" were instituted, and we review them every night. I say the chorus, and Allison chimes in with the counterpoint.
"You need to stay in your bed..."
"... except to go potty!"
"... and you need to stay quiet..."
"... but I can talk to myself or my sleep friends!"
"... and you can't call for Mommy or Daddy. We want to be alone."
As long as those rules are followed, she can leave her light on and read in bed. Breaking the rules results in lights out and no more playing/reading.
Bedtime used to be an ordeal, with constant visits and calling for us between about 7:30pm and upwards of 10pm. It's much, much better now. In general, Allison seems happier and healthier, more polite, and just riding a crest of being a good, happy, sweet kid. She's just great.
She's also extremely thoughtful. We have quiet car rides a lot, and she'll bust out with all kinds of questions. Diana sent me some from today:
She's a good ship... She can get a little dramatic though, at times, when things don't go her way. She'll say coldly "I don't want to talk to you", and whip her head around, nose high in the air, and stomp off. Not sure exactly where that came from. It would be aggravating, but it's so cute.
In entertainment news:
Reading:
Song of Fire and Ice (aka "Game of Thrones") Book 2: Clash of Kings Awesome.
Watching:
Game of Thrones on HBO. Awesome. Survivor. Also awesome.
Playing:
I finished Portal 2. Only took a few play sessions, but was pretty fun. Diana and I have played a bit of the coop, but only a few levels. I'm waiting for the PSN to come back up, and maybe can hook up with Baditude, or take it over to Mike's or something.
Programming:
Bad Golf has sold a total of around 1700 copies, netting a total of just over $1100. It still sells a copy or two per day, but it's pretty much dead.
Luckily, I'm just putting the finishing touches on "Battle for Venga Island"! I hope to have that all ready to wrap and ship within a week or so. It's a bit more ambitious of a project, with a bit more risk/reward factor, so I really have no idea how it will perform. But it's been fun to work on, and I think has some originality to it that hasn't been done before on the XBLIG system.
And... I'm out.
We visited Dave and Elaine and Ben and Julia in Maryland a few weeks ago, and the trip was fabulous. Easy plane rides, and a wonderful visit. It was Allison's first time meeting Julia, and they had a great time together.
Since getting home from Maryland, we cracked down a little on Allison and bedtime rules. The "Sleep Rules" were instituted, and we review them every night. I say the chorus, and Allison chimes in with the counterpoint.
"You need to stay in your bed..."
"... except to go potty!"
"... and you need to stay quiet..."
"... but I can talk to myself or my sleep friends!"
"... and you can't call for Mommy or Daddy. We want to be alone."
As long as those rules are followed, she can leave her light on and read in bed. Breaking the rules results in lights out and no more playing/reading.
Bedtime used to be an ordeal, with constant visits and calling for us between about 7:30pm and upwards of 10pm. It's much, much better now. In general, Allison seems happier and healthier, more polite, and just riding a crest of being a good, happy, sweet kid. She's just great.
She's also extremely thoughtful. We have quiet car rides a lot, and she'll bust out with all kinds of questions. Diana sent me some from today:
A: Is the blue part hard or soft?
D: Blue part of what?
A: The sky
A: Do people who don't talk have nice manners?
D: What are you thinking about?
A: One time when I was riding the smooth escalators, I moved over for a man but he did not say anything. does he know how to say 'thank you'? (This was from our trip to Maryland, when she spent a lot of time on the moving sidewalks in the airport).
A: Mommy, I wish three things.
D: What are they?
A: I wish that I can have special eyes to see underwater like Ariel, and I wish to see a broken rainbow and a jumping river (images from the Dreamsack book)
She's a good ship... She can get a little dramatic though, at times, when things don't go her way. She'll say coldly "I don't want to talk to you", and whip her head around, nose high in the air, and stomp off. Not sure exactly where that came from. It would be aggravating, but it's so cute.
In entertainment news:
Reading:
Song of Fire and Ice (aka "Game of Thrones") Book 2: Clash of Kings Awesome.
Watching:
Game of Thrones on HBO. Awesome. Survivor. Also awesome.
Playing:
I finished Portal 2. Only took a few play sessions, but was pretty fun. Diana and I have played a bit of the coop, but only a few levels. I'm waiting for the PSN to come back up, and maybe can hook up with Baditude, or take it over to Mike's or something.
Programming:
Bad Golf has sold a total of around 1700 copies, netting a total of just over $1100. It still sells a copy or two per day, but it's pretty much dead.
Luckily, I'm just putting the finishing touches on "Battle for Venga Island"! I hope to have that all ready to wrap and ship within a week or so. It's a bit more ambitious of a project, with a bit more risk/reward factor, so I really have no idea how it will perform. But it's been fun to work on, and I think has some originality to it that hasn't been done before on the XBLIG system.
And... I'm out.
2011/03/30
Three and a half
Allison is three and a half.
It's a little overwhelming to try to summarize Allison at this point. She's in a weird grey area of not quite being a "kid", but not much of a "toddler" anymore, either. I'm not exactly sure what those labels mean, and maybe our whole childhoods (or lives) are just one big grey area of development.
We were at my parents house recently, and being a half-year milestone, we measured her height. She's grown about two inches since her third birthday, and a little over four inches in the past year. Crazy. We frequently note to ourselves how long she looks when she's lying in the bathtub.
She's had a lot of emotional growth in these past months. Her imagination is growing, and she plays out little scenes with her toys. Favorite toys these days are little girl and mermaid toys, but she still hauls around Ramone from Cars and other stuff animals. She's still part-time at Dorrie's house, and part time at preschool. The latter has been a bit easier since she made friends with a girl named Jordyn, and the report is that they're inseparable. So that's nice.
She can sound out many basic words (like HAT, TOP, CAT, DOG, etc), but has understandable trouble with things like "TAPE", where the silent E adjust the vowel sound. The more I try to teach English, the more messed up I realize it is. Too many exceptions to the rules.
She's getting a flair for the dramatic. She might ask if she can play with the iPad (for example), and if I say no, she'll pout and cross her arms and whimper "I guess I'll NEVER play again" and stomp off to her room to sulk. This only lasts a minute or so before she reappears again.
Though she was sick recently, she's never had any real concerning health issues, thank goodness. She has a second cousin who has really critical health problems, and that it puts Allison's coughs and runny nose in real perspective.
We have an upcoming visit to go see Dave and Elaine and her cousins in a week or so, and that should be a fun adventure.
2011/02/09
Teacher conference
Diana met with Allison's preschool teachers today for a little status update.
The news is all generally good. Allison is a very bright little girl. She
knows all her letters by sight, as well as recognizes numbers up to 20 (except
for 12 and 19, apparently), and colors and shapes. She's a good listener, and
follows directions well. At circle time, she doesn't volunteer much on her
own, but will respond in unison with the rest of the class, and answer direct
questions.
She's getting more comfortable playing with others, but also values her time
alone on the playground. It's natural for kids her age to push boundaries and
break rules, and the teacher was a little concerned that Allison wasn't doing
that, but Diana assured her that she was at home. The teacher also noted that
she saw Allison climbing a tree, which is against the rules, and was so happy
to see that that she turned her back and let her do it. I thought that was
cute.
She said other little things, like that Allison will proudly show off her Cars
shirt or socks, and stuff like that that puts my mind a little more at ease
that she's comfortable and herself at school. She's starting to initiate play
with others (ie: "There's a monster! Oh no, we should run away!"), which was
welcome news. She's sometimes sad when we drop her off, and it's easy to
imagine her miserable and suffering all day. It was refreshing to hear that
she's not.
One suggested take-away was to help Allison be a little more of an advocate for
herself. She'll sometimes suffer in silence instead of asking for help.
On a side note, I noticed some relatively new development the other night in
the shower. She frequently plays with her little dinosaur figures, and wants
them to talk to each other and play hide-and-seek or whatever. Normally, she
acts out one part, and wants me to be the other one. The other night was the
first time I remember her acting out both sides of an imaginary dialogue
between her toys. She doesn't spend a whole lot of time playing on her own, so
I thought this was a welcome step in that direction.
Not much other news. This weekend was a little bit of a roller coaster. On
Saturday morning, I took her to track class, where she again broke down in
tears and wanted to go home. We left, and I don't think we're going to be
going back. It's all activities that she likes doing, but I think it's just a
little too overwhelming at this point. I sometimes forget that she's still
pretty young. When we got home, she kind of crashed in Diana's arms, and Diana
noted that Allison felt pretty warm. She definitely had a mild fever, and we
gave her some medicine and had a quiet afternoon. Sunday was the Superbowl,
and we had been talking up going over to Norm and Teri's house and playing with
all the kids over there, so I was pretty bummed that she was sick. I figured
that unless she was 100% healthy, she'd have to stay home.
Surprisingly, the next morning, she woke up happy and bright-eyed without any
fever, and has remained healthy since. So I guess she was just fighting
something off on Saturday and won the battle. That morning, we met my parents
for breakfast, and then went to the local park and launched rockets! That was
a lot of fun. Then home for naptime and over to the Hamson's for the
Superbowl.
I wasn't concerned about Allison at the Hamson's house, but really curious how
she'd fit in with the boys. She's traditionally been pretty wary of older,
relatively loud, active boys. Jaxon and Landon are already friends, and Tyler
and Colton are used to being around their older brothers, so she started out a
bit of an odd man out. But she did fine, either playing by herself or with
Tyler. At halftime, I went out and played with all the kids, chasing and
playing on the big jumpy slide, and she was really happy with that, shrieking
me and telling me who I should chase next. When we left, she was all fired up
to call and invite them to play again. Really cute.
Every day, Diana and I love her more and more. She's such a fun little person.
2011/01/19
Bad Golf Post Mortem
So the cool thing that developers do when they release a game is do a "Post
Mortem". I'm not cool, but I want to be, so here I go.
Mortem". I'm not cool, but I want to be, so here I go.
Bad Golf was released on 12/24/2010. According to my notes, I started it near
the end of September, so that's almost three months of development (with some
pretty long stretches of inactivity in December). Actually, it was in peer
review for a while, so call it two months.
What Went Right:
I used two external libraries, the Farseer Physics Engine, and the Mercury
Particle Engine. Both of them I'd tinkered around with previously, and I had
pretty a pretty good handle on both going into the project. I've also spent a
LOT of time developing my own base game library. I didn't end up using most of
that, but it made it really easy to do all the menu screens and stuff.
Farseer has a "Texture To Physics" routine that basically takes a picture and
turns it into a physical object. This was huge. This meant that I could do all
my level design in Paint.NET, and didn't have to create a separate level
creation tool.
The Mercury Particle Engine is great. For the last two courses, I added a
"snow" and "rain" effect at the last minute. Easy peasy.
The original plan for the game (and hence the name) was to do a "fighting golf
game". Players would control little onscreen golfers who would hit their shots,
and then fight while running to their balls to hit their next shot. I like this
idea, but I quickly came up against some tough design issues. For example, I
liked having "islands in the sky" types of levels. How would the players
traverse the landscape when there were vertical cliffs, or how would they jump
up to an island? After getting the basic mechanic of aiming and hitting the
ball, I ditched the whole fighting idea.
Having a really tight design concept was important. I could always see the game
in my head (probably mostly because it was so heavily copied from Stick Golf for
the iPad). So the main concept and vision was always there. I just needed to
fill in the code.
It probably goes without saying, because I didn't really have a choice, but
using XNA worked great. I borrowed an Xbox from work, and all the deployment
and testing worked really well right out of the box. I got some good feedback
in playtesting, and the peer review process was generally good (but slow, as I
was so anxious to get it out!)
I was able to find some really good free images and sounds to use for menus and
whatnot.
Finally, I think my ability to compromise was huge. I realized Bad Golf wasn't
perfect, but also that it never would be. I constantly told myself that I was
just doing this for the experience of it all, and that it was OK to make
compromises if it moved me forward.
When you release an Xbox Indie Game, people download it for free as a Trial
version. They can play the game for eight minutes, and you can control what
content they see and do not see. After eight minutes, a popup comes up that
says "You can either quit or by the game". If they quit, they can start up for
another eight minutes, or if they buy the game, they immediately continue
playing. I initially was only going to have one course in the trial version, as
well as restricting the ability to save high scores. This would allow players
to play some of the game, and see other courses that were locked.
What I figured, though, was that it takes about 4-5 minutes to play through the
first course. I ended up releasing two courses for free. This would mean that
the player would play through the first course, and then start up the second
one, and hopefully be most of the way through it when the eight minutes
expired. It's really important, I think, to know exactly where the player is
when that timer comes up. You want them to be right in the middle of something
important, and not just sitting at a menu screen.
What Didn't Work
Art. I'm a horrible artist, and my attempts to enlist help in this area were
not very successful. Eryn was unfortunately too busy to help (and I'm not sure,
in all actuality, if he would have been able to do the amount of work that I
wanted without hating me). I posted on some message board and got some help
from a student in Germany, but just got the gut feeling that it wasn't going to
work out. I had to awkwardly "break up" with him, and I feel bad for that.
I finally was able to get some halfway decent stuff together, and with the help
of Photoshop's pre-built filters (drop shadows, etc) finally just said "screw
it" and forged ahead.
If I'd known how important cover art would be, I would have spent a little more
time on it. It's totally cheap, but I've noticed the games that feature a hot
chick on the front get a lot of attention. Am I beyond appealing to this kind
of base instinct? I'm not sure.
Level Design. Good, not great. Bad Golf has four courses of nine holes each.
I really wanted each course to have a distinct personality, and while I think
that succeeded, it was hard to come up with that many creative layouts. I
really like some holes, but on the whole, feel pretty blah about most of them.
The Bottom Line
Never owning an Xbox or being part of that scene, I really had no idea what to
expect with regard to sales. I just didn't want to lose money on the whole
venture, which means I'd need to sell like 130 copies. Actually, you only get
paid once you make over $150, so I needed to sell even more than that!
Thankfully, I surpassed that after only a day or two, and from then on, it was
all gravy. This has the unfortunate effect of setting my expectations much
higher for whatever my next game is.
Period Statistics (Dec 24 – Jan 16)
Trials: 6435
Purchases: 1300
Purchase/Trial Ratio: 20.20%
2011/01/14
2010/12/30
I hate Excel. It took me a while to get this graph. I wanted to show the ratio of downloads to purchases, but could only manage to figure out how to do total downloads per day.
Note the trending downwards... However, although I'm getting fewer downloads, my download-to-purchase ratio is going up.
My expectation is that the game sales will turn into a trickle and eventually just kind of go away. I'm really curious to see how the curve goes, though.
Period Statistics from 12/24 to 12/29
Trials: 3752
Purchases: 615
Purchase/Trial Ratio: 16.39 %
2010/12/27
Merry merry!
Merry Christmas everyone!
It's been a busy weekend, so let's get right to it.
Late last week, Diana and I met up with her parents at Quail Gardens and saw the Christmas lights and stuff. Santa was there, and Allison actually got up on his lap and had her picture taken. She was a little shy, but told him her name and said she wanted candy for Christmas. It was really cute.
On Christmas Eve day, it was beautiful and sunny, so we opened one of her presents early (a cool stomp-rocket set from Uncle Dave) and met up with Mike and Gwen and Ripley at the park. Mike and I tossed the football. Allison gave Ripley some treats and played on the playground a bit, and did plenty of rocket-stomping. Good times.
That evening, we went to my parents house for a delicious prime rib dinner and some presents, as they were leaving the next morning for Montana.
When we got home, we decided that Santa's reindeer would want some carrots to eat, and Santa would also like carrots, as well as some broccoli crackers. So we set those out on a plate, as well as a letter that Allison wrote (dictated) at preschool, and headed to bed.
Allison woke up the next morning at 5:30am, and I went in to see her to try to get her back to sleep. Thankfully she did, but not before asking if Santa had already come. We woke up to her later yelling that "Santa came! Santa came!" She had found two rolls of Smarties candies under her tree, and was very fired up by this. (All this is reported by Diana… I was still in bed at this point). She apparently lined them all up and counted them all and ate them.
That morning, we opened some presents, and got ready to head over to Diana's parents for more celebrating. Allison got a new blue Cars shirt with about 20 characters on the front, which she immediately put on (and I'm not sure if she's taken it off since…) She also got some Dora the Explorer underwear, so had to put those on right away, too.
We headed over to Diana's parents house, opened more presents and generally hung out and played for the rest of the day. Diana and I snuck away during naptime (aka "quiet time", as naps don't really happen over there) and had a nice walk on the beach.
The next morning, we went back to Diana's parents and met up with all the Schatz's and their respective spouses and kids. It was great to see Katie and Lindsey and baby Romy, as well as talk indie gaming stuff with Andy.
And now, back to work. A nice long weekend.
The other big news is that my indie gaming project went live over the weekend. Bad Golf finally passed peer review, and hit the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace on the morning of 12/24. I wasn't immediately able to see how many copies had been downloaded or sold, but I was able to see that reviews (just a star rating) were starting to come in. By the end of the day, there were 20 or so reviews, the average of which was about 3.9 out of 5.
On 12/25, I was able to see 12/24 sales data, and found that I'd sold 60 copies (with 643 people trying the free trial version)! This was very exciting.
On 12/26, the sales data wasn't updated, but my number of ratings climbed steadily up to about 40.
On 12/27 (today), I can see sales data for 12/24 and 12/25.
1757 downloads (trials)
227 purchases
12.93% purchase/trial ratio
The game sells at $1 per copy, and I get 70% of that (eventually, I guess). So I've already made back my $99 investment to become a Creators Club member. I'm sure the game won't make, like, thousands of dollars, but maybe a couple hundred? That's kinda neat.
Much more importantly, though, is that I'm pretty proud of myself for finally sticking with a project for long enough to see it all the way through. I've started a lot of game programming projects, but soon after getting some of the broad strokes complete, I think to myself "Who is actually going to play this? Why am I doing this? Maybe I could convince some of my friends to humor me, but what's the point of all this effort?" Having the Xbox Live Indie Gamers system was really a big motivation, as it gave me a very real, tangible outlet to distribute the game. That's neat.
I already have my next idea for a game, and I'm pretty excited about it. I think it's a pretty original idea for the XBLIG scene. So I'll give myself a little break and maybe start working on that sometime soon.
2010/12/13
Sick
On Wednesday evening, after going to gym class with Yaya Carole, we noticed right when Allison came in the door that her voice was a little raspy. The following morning, it was just a little worse, and we dropped her off at daycare, and let them know that she may be coming down with a cold or something.
When I picked her up, her voice was considerably more raspy, and she started developing a fever and a ragged breathing. She was never really struggling to breathing, but it was clear that her airway was constricted. That night, she had a very strange barking cough, which we unofficially diagnosed as croup. The idea of taking her to the emergency room crossed our minds, but as long as she was sleeping peacefully (and able to go back to sleep easily if she woke up), we figured that wasn't necessary. (We remember the words of Doc Mick, and his description of what an emergency baby looks like compared to a non-emergency situation).
We took her to the doctors on Friday, who did a throat culture and then basically said "She has what we doctors call _A VIRUS_" and sent us on our way. Call back if she turns blue or develops green runny snot.
I stayed home from work on Friday, and we just hung around most of the day. She was pretty low energy, no appetite, etc. But thankfully, she takes after her mother and is a wonderful patient. And unlike her father, who is a miserable sick person.
I pulled a mattress into her room and slept in there on Friday night. She woke up every hour-and-a-half or so, choking and coughing, but would go right back to sleep. But by the time midnight rolled around, I got the impression that her breathing was clearer, and that her fever was going away.
Saturday looked up a bit. More energy, better appetite, able to run around a bit. I slept in her room again that night and she only woke up a few times. Sunday saw continued improvement.
In terms of getting through those bad nights, I think Diana and I work pretty well together. If Diana wakes up in the middle of the night, sometimes her brain can go into high gear and she has problems getting back to sleep. My brain doesn't have a high gear, so I usually can take care of whatever problems there are and crash again. Conversely, I'm not much of a morning person, so once Allison is up for good at 7am or so, I'm totally happy to sleep for a few more hours. This worked to great effect on Friday night, when Diana slept for something like 10 hours straight (almost unheard of), while I was up every 1.5 hours. Then I slept in until 10am, which worked well for me. Win win.
Today is Monday, and her illness has transformed into a sinus infection with lots of snot. The doctor wanted to see her again if this happened, so she's got another appointment tomorrow. I suspect that she'll be prescribed antibiotics as a result, of which I'm growing more and more concerned. I'm certainly no expert, but I'm hearing from multiple sources that the idea that "green snot = antibiotics" is outdated. So we'll see what her doctor says.
Although she's gotten better and better, I have yet to see that healthy shine in her eyes. She's still a little droopy.
My mom is taking care of her today, bless her. I'm excited to hear how that all goes.
When I picked her up, her voice was considerably more raspy, and she started developing a fever and a ragged breathing. She was never really struggling to breathing, but it was clear that her airway was constricted. That night, she had a very strange barking cough, which we unofficially diagnosed as croup. The idea of taking her to the emergency room crossed our minds, but as long as she was sleeping peacefully (and able to go back to sleep easily if she woke up), we figured that wasn't necessary. (We remember the words of Doc Mick, and his description of what an emergency baby looks like compared to a non-emergency situation).
We took her to the doctors on Friday, who did a throat culture and then basically said "She has what we doctors call _A VIRUS_" and sent us on our way. Call back if she turns blue or develops green runny snot.
I stayed home from work on Friday, and we just hung around most of the day. She was pretty low energy, no appetite, etc. But thankfully, she takes after her mother and is a wonderful patient. And unlike her father, who is a miserable sick person.
I pulled a mattress into her room and slept in there on Friday night. She woke up every hour-and-a-half or so, choking and coughing, but would go right back to sleep. But by the time midnight rolled around, I got the impression that her breathing was clearer, and that her fever was going away.
Saturday looked up a bit. More energy, better appetite, able to run around a bit. I slept in her room again that night and she only woke up a few times. Sunday saw continued improvement.
In terms of getting through those bad nights, I think Diana and I work pretty well together. If Diana wakes up in the middle of the night, sometimes her brain can go into high gear and she has problems getting back to sleep. My brain doesn't have a high gear, so I usually can take care of whatever problems there are and crash again. Conversely, I'm not much of a morning person, so once Allison is up for good at 7am or so, I'm totally happy to sleep for a few more hours. This worked to great effect on Friday night, when Diana slept for something like 10 hours straight (almost unheard of), while I was up every 1.5 hours. Then I slept in until 10am, which worked well for me. Win win.
Today is Monday, and her illness has transformed into a sinus infection with lots of snot. The doctor wanted to see her again if this happened, so she's got another appointment tomorrow. I suspect that she'll be prescribed antibiotics as a result, of which I'm growing more and more concerned. I'm certainly no expert, but I'm hearing from multiple sources that the idea that "green snot = antibiotics" is outdated. So we'll see what her doctor says.
Although she's gotten better and better, I have yet to see that healthy shine in her eyes. She's still a little droopy.
My mom is taking care of her today, bless her. I'm excited to hear how that all goes.
2010/12/09
Dev notes for Bad Golf...
In case you're into this kind of thing... which I can't imagine you are...
9/30/2010
---------
Bad Golf will be a combat golf game for one or more players.
Single player will simply be 2D side-view golf game (like Stick Golf for the iPad)
Multiplayer will be a race... players will get points for lowest shots as well as time completed.
While you're chasing your ball, you can also briefly stun other players.
DONE:
Dynamic start/end positions for each hole -- done
Water hazard -- done
Sand Trap -- done
Link holes together to form a course -- done
Sound effects (swing, bounce, hole) -- done?
Putting -- done
Course Select Menu -- done
Timer -- done
Shot Count -- done
Out of bounds sensors -- not needed
Combat -- cancelled?
Menus -- Player join -- done
High score list -- done
Pause screen -- done
Fix overlapping power meters in multiplayer -- done
Power meter visibility if near edge of screen -- automatic
Trial Mode / purchase options -- done
----------------------
TODO:
Multiplayer
Logical Player Index -- done
Gamepad / keyboard -- done
Signed in gamer, permissions, etc -- ...?
Race points/results
Title Safe Area -- done
Lots of levels -- in progress
Backspin / topspin -- no
Title screen -- done
----------------------------
Course ideas:
The Antrap (all underground course with little "rooms")
In The Clouds (all "sky island" kind of things
Rolling Hills (traditional golf course) -- done
Spooky Island (zombie/scary theme)
Inferno (rocky/fiery)
Ice Planet (rocky/icy) -- done
Wild Jungle (Indy Jones)
10/1/2010
---------
Added green and cup sensors
Added shot cooldown
Fixed up player state machine
When the ball hits the sensor, it drains into the cup. Yay
10/4/2010
---------
Water hazard, sand hazard, and temporary sounds
10/5/2010
---------
Refactored Input class for future benefit
10/6/2010
---------
Animated water
Sand trap graphic
Basic Course Selection screen (thumbnails, scrolling)
10/7/2010
---------
Select Course menu
Better power meter graphics
Power meter positional bug fixes
10/8/2010
---------
Invisible walls added
High score module added/tested
Hole timer
Hole score counter
List of hole times/scores ready for high score list
Beginning of Course Summary screen
10/11/2010
---------
Course results screen shows after each hole and end of course
High scores started
New Course template created
10/12/2010
---------
Unlockable courses (including crazy XML overwrite file bug resulting in >> at the end of file because of true/false)
10/22/2010
---------
Back from Maui!
Fixed screen fade in and out
Menu background screen
More controller selection stuff
Water hazard +1 graphic now changes color matching player
10/27/2010
----------
Took a bit of a break...
Eryn has helped with some concept art, and I really hope I can hit him up for more work.
I need to get cracking on creating final draft, playable levels for him to color.
10/28/2010
----------
Fixed multiplayer power bars stomping all over each other
11/04/2010
----------
I was able to borrow an XBOX from work, and got the project to build and deploy to the Xbox! Pretty damn cool.
Working on creating courses (Rolling Hills and The Anthill)
Updated menus/gameplay to only allow input from certain controllers in certain situations
(Like, only the person who paused the game can restart it, etc)
11/05/2010
----------
Constrained water being drawn ONLY in the water rectangle. What a pain in the ass. Now maps don't need
so much land bordering ponds.
11/13/2010
----------
Rolling Hills and Ice Planet are pretty much 100%. I don't like The Anthill much, but might try to salvage it.
I really feel stuck with art. I need a title page, a better scoring page, etc. Ugh.
Fixed some small bugs.
11/16/2010
----------
Last night, got curious and decided to fool around porting to XNA 4.0. Finished up the process today.
The upgrade was generally smooth. Some confusion regarding the particle engine content stuff. Then changing
around all the alpha values to comply with pre-multiplied alpha.
XNA also broke the third party high score component I was using, so I switch to EasyStorage and save my own data.
Luckily, switching systems wasn't that big of a deal.
I now save high scores and unlock data in the course description. I can then use that data on the course select screen
to show course records as you scroll through. This really negates the need for a separate High Scores screen, which I'm
thankful for.
11/19/2010
----------
Big progess... Tweaked the course results screen. Created a new splash screen. Heavily tweaked the controller select screen.
Everything is working really well. I feel like I'm 99% complete with the actual game/menus/everything, and just need to make some courses
and artwork and I'll be 100% complete. I found a really nice image for the Main Menu, which I need to attribute, which means I'll need a "Credits" screen, I guess.
11/30/2010
----------
Three full courses and graphics.
Everything works and works well.
Need four player testing (this weekend).
Need to create par values for each course.
Then I'm... done?
12/7/2010
---------
Well, I think I'm finally all done. Tested 4 player multiplayer, worked fine. Created another course (Ant Hill) to make it four total.
Added some particle effects for rain/snow and hazard splashes (dust/water).
I submitted a release for playtesting, and got a good comment out of that, regarding bringing up the "select storage" screen.
So I bought a USB thumb drive and tested that myself. I think it works well now.
I think I'm going to call myself done and let 'er rip! Wish me luck!
12/9/2010
---------
Wouldn't you know it... I submitted my game for playtesting, and someone had a good suggestion about when to bring up the "memory select" screen.
So I moved it, and that ended up breaking the automated loading of saved game data.
SO... you could play the entire game, unlock courses, and save the data, but the NEXT time you played, the data wouldn't load properly, and it would
look like you were starting fresh. Dumb.
I didn't discover this until AFTER submitting for peer review. But I pulled it down and now have to wait a week to resubmit. Bummer.
9/30/2010
---------
Bad Golf will be a combat golf game for one or more players.
Single player will simply be 2D side-view golf game (like Stick Golf for the iPad)
Multiplayer will be a race... players will get points for lowest shots as well as time completed.
While you're chasing your ball, you can also briefly stun other players.
DONE:
Dynamic start/end positions for each hole -- done
Water hazard -- done
Sand Trap -- done
Link holes together to form a course -- done
Sound effects (swing, bounce, hole) -- done?
Putting -- done
Course Select Menu -- done
Timer -- done
Shot Count -- done
Out of bounds sensors -- not needed
Combat -- cancelled?
Menus -- Player join -- done
High score list -- done
Pause screen -- done
Fix overlapping power meters in multiplayer -- done
Power meter visibility if near edge of screen -- automatic
Trial Mode / purchase options -- done
----------------------
TODO:
Multiplayer
Logical Player Index -- done
Gamepad / keyboard -- done
Signed in gamer, permissions, etc -- ...?
Race points/results
Title Safe Area -- done
Lots of levels -- in progress
Backspin / topspin -- no
Title screen -- done
----------------------------
Course ideas:
The Antrap (all underground course with little "rooms")
In The Clouds (all "sky island" kind of things
Rolling Hills (traditional golf course) -- done
Spooky Island (zombie/scary theme)
Inferno (rocky/fiery)
Ice Planet (rocky/icy) -- done
Wild Jungle (Indy Jones)
10/1/2010
---------
Added green and cup sensors
Added shot cooldown
Fixed up player state machine
When the ball hits the sensor, it drains into the cup. Yay
10/4/2010
---------
Water hazard, sand hazard, and temporary sounds
10/5/2010
---------
Refactored Input class for future benefit
10/6/2010
---------
Animated water
Sand trap graphic
Basic Course Selection screen (thumbnails, scrolling)
10/7/2010
---------
Select Course menu
Better power meter graphics
Power meter positional bug fixes
10/8/2010
---------
Invisible walls added
High score module added/tested
Hole timer
Hole score counter
List of hole times/scores ready for high score list
Beginning of Course Summary screen
10/11/2010
---------
Course results screen shows after each hole and end of course
High scores started
New Course template created
10/12/2010
---------
Unlockable courses (including crazy XML overwrite file bug resulting in >> at the end of file because of true/false)
10/22/2010
---------
Back from Maui!
Fixed screen fade in and out
Menu background screen
More controller selection stuff
Water hazard +1 graphic now changes color matching player
10/27/2010
----------
Took a bit of a break...
Eryn has helped with some concept art, and I really hope I can hit him up for more work.
I need to get cracking on creating final draft, playable levels for him to color.
10/28/2010
----------
Fixed multiplayer power bars stomping all over each other
11/04/2010
----------
I was able to borrow an XBOX from work, and got the project to build and deploy to the Xbox! Pretty damn cool.
Working on creating courses (Rolling Hills and The Anthill)
Updated menus/gameplay to only allow input from certain controllers in certain situations
(Like, only the person who paused the game can restart it, etc)
11/05/2010
----------
Constrained water being drawn ONLY in the water rectangle. What a pain in the ass. Now maps don't need
so much land bordering ponds.
11/13/2010
----------
Rolling Hills and Ice Planet are pretty much 100%. I don't like The Anthill much, but might try to salvage it.
I really feel stuck with art. I need a title page, a better scoring page, etc. Ugh.
Fixed some small bugs.
11/16/2010
----------
Last night, got curious and decided to fool around porting to XNA 4.0. Finished up the process today.
The upgrade was generally smooth. Some confusion regarding the particle engine content stuff. Then changing
around all the alpha values to comply with pre-multiplied alpha.
XNA also broke the third party high score component I was using, so I switch to EasyStorage and save my own data.
Luckily, switching systems wasn't that big of a deal.
I now save high scores and unlock data in the course description. I can then use that data on the course select screen
to show course records as you scroll through. This really negates the need for a separate High Scores screen, which I'm
thankful for.
11/19/2010
----------
Big progess... Tweaked the course results screen. Created a new splash screen. Heavily tweaked the controller select screen.
Everything is working really well. I feel like I'm 99% complete with the actual game/menus/everything, and just need to make some courses
and artwork and I'll be 100% complete. I found a really nice image for the Main Menu, which I need to attribute, which means I'll need a "Credits" screen, I guess.
11/30/2010
----------
Three full courses and graphics.
Everything works and works well.
Need four player testing (this weekend).
Need to create par values for each course.
Then I'm... done?
12/7/2010
---------
Well, I think I'm finally all done. Tested 4 player multiplayer, worked fine. Created another course (Ant Hill) to make it four total.
Added some particle effects for rain/snow and hazard splashes (dust/water).
I submitted a release for playtesting, and got a good comment out of that, regarding bringing up the "select storage" screen.
So I bought a USB thumb drive and tested that myself. I think it works well now.
I think I'm going to call myself done and let 'er rip! Wish me luck!
12/9/2010
---------
Wouldn't you know it... I submitted my game for playtesting, and someone had a good suggestion about when to bring up the "memory select" screen.
So I moved it, and that ended up breaking the automated loading of saved game data.
SO... you could play the entire game, unlock courses, and save the data, but the NEXT time you played, the data wouldn't load properly, and it would
look like you were starting fresh. Dumb.
I didn't discover this until AFTER submitting for peer review. But I pulled it down and now have to wait a week to resubmit. Bummer.
2010/12/07
I'm a game developer!
Well, I've officially submitted my game for peer review to the Xbox Live Indie Gamers area. That means that other people test it out and look for bugs and pass/fail it. If it passes, then it gets published to the marketplace and people can buy it online from their own living room. This is all very exciting.
I've spent $99 for the Creators Club license (you have to be a member to create games), as well as $12 for a USB flash drive for testing. I'll be stoked to make that money back. A small, secret part of me hopes that this sells thousands of copies, but I just don't see that happening. But a boy can dream.
Wish me luck!
I've spent $99 for the Creators Club license (you have to be a member to create games), as well as $12 for a USB flash drive for testing. I'll be stoked to make that money back. A small, secret part of me hopes that this sells thousands of copies, but I just don't see that happening. But a boy can dream.
Wish me luck!
2010/12/05
Bad Golf
Here is my official preview video for Bad Golf... I've released the game as a "playtest", so other people can give it a try before actually getting released into the wild. I think one guy has given it a shot so far and provided some good feedback.
Yay.
Yay.
2010/11/22
Dinner Conversation
"Allison, Daddy was saying that you were learning about opposites today..."
"Yeah!"
"What is the opposite of big... When you're not big, you are... what?"
"Little."
"Good! And what about hot? What is the opposite of hot?"
"Cold!"
"Very good. And what is the opposite of... yummy?"
Allison looked around the table... "Salad."
Feedback laughter ensued.
"Yeah!"
"What is the opposite of big... When you're not big, you are... what?"
"Little."
"Good! And what about hot? What is the opposite of hot?"
"Cold!"
"Very good. And what is the opposite of... yummy?"
Allison looked around the table... "Salad."
Feedback laughter ensued.
2010/11/09
Conversations
Second-hand from Diana:
"Mommy, when I grow up I don't want to be a lady."
"Well what do you want to be?"
"I want to be a girl all the time... When will I be a lady?"
"Not for a LONG time... 20 years."
"What day is it when I'm a lady?"
"I think a Saturday"
"Will I get to watch you when I'm a lady?"
"Watch me what?"
"At gym class... you do gym class, and I'll sit and watch... how about that idea?! Which teacher would you like? Miss Hed-der... Miss Lindsey... Miss Rebecca...."
"Mommy, when I grow up I don't want to be a lady."
"Well what do you want to be?"
"I want to be a girl all the time... When will I be a lady?"
"Not for a LONG time... 20 years."
"What day is it when I'm a lady?"
"I think a Saturday"
"Will I get to watch you when I'm a lady?"
"Watch me what?"
"At gym class... you do gym class, and I'll sit and watch... how about that idea?! Which teacher would you like? Miss Hed-der... Miss Lindsey... Miss Rebecca...."
2010/11/02
XBOX game development
I'm a game developer! Well, kind of.
For about a month, I've been working on a computer game using XNA, which is Microsoft's cross platform game development library. Cross platform means that it's common across Windows, XBOX, and the new Windows Phone 7. The game is a multiplayer ripoff of a fun little game for the iPad. It's a 2D golf game, played from a side-on point of view. You choose the angle of your shot and the power, and try to hit the ball in the hole.
In terms of gameplay, it's about as simple as you can get. But it might be deceptively simple. If you have a round ball hitting a curved hillside at a certain velocity, what at angle should the ball bounce away? Also, all the game menus and pretty effects are something that game players just take for granted, but if you get them wrong, they really can look bad. I was surprised, actually, at how much goo there is once the actual gameplay stuff is complete. You need a title screen, a main menu, a controller selection menu, a course selection menu. Those menus should all transition nicely back and forth. If you have multiple players playing at the same time, how do you arrange their power selection meters so that they don't stomp all over each other? There's a huge number of issues, even with the most simple games.
I have a folder full of dozens of half-hearted game programming projects. Some just little toys. Some started in earnest and flamed out spectacularly. But each taught me some lesson and got me a little closer.
XBOX Live has an Indie Gamer service, where you can pay $99 for the right to put a game up online and sell it for a buck or two or five. I've been doing all my game development on the PC, and with an eye towards how many projects I've given up on, didn't want to actually spend any money until I was pretty sure that I was going to actually finish a game and put it up for sale (and hopefully sell more than 99 copies).
Over the past month, I've gotten about as far as I can on the PC. The XBOX has some different interface stuff (controllers, for one thing, and some display issues, things of that nature), and I was pretty much ready to see if/how things worked on the XBOx. I also was able to borrow an XBOX, so I now have all the tools I needed to test things out.
So, last night, I forked out the $99 and signed up as an XBOX Indie Developer. Yay me.
After only a few minutes, my game was ported over as an XBOX game, and deployed on the console. It showed up in the list of games available. With baited breath, I selected the game and clicked to play it.
At work, I have a friend who is working on his own, much broader scale XBOX game. He and I were talking about what might happen when we first deployed games to the XBOX. The worst case, we agreed, was that some cryptic error message would come up, and we'd have no idea why the game failed on the console when it worked on the PC. Without any clues, that would be a really tough debugging job.
So, when I started the game, I was met with an error message. Some generic thing like "Sorry, your game could not be started, Error Code 4". Fuck.
Google told me that error code 4 was just some generic error message. I don't remember much about that, because while reading about XBOX error codes, I read about debugging on the XBOX. It turns out that I could set breakpoints on my PC, and step through the program on the XBOX, one step at a time. In just a minute, I found a bug in my code, and was able to get it fixed.
I started the game again, and it worked perfectly. There it was, on the XBOX and on my TV. Awesome.
The first thing I noticed was that that the TV cut off a LOT of the image. This was a 15 year old 27" CRT TV. On a computer monitor, 100% of the screen is shown. TVs commonly show only a fraction of the image, so there was probably about 10 or 15% shaved from each side of the image. When making a golf game, this is important. I can't have the ball ever stop too close to the edge of the screen, or the players won't be able to see the ball anymore!
I called Diana in, and we were able to play multiplayer, each using our own controller. This is pretty awesome, because up until this point, I'd only simulated multiplayer via the keyboard. Having it work with the two controllers was nice.
I then took the XBOX and hooked it up to our nice TV in the front room, and it looked MUCH better. None of the image was cut off anymore, and it was all high-def and glorious. Very, very exciting stuff.
So what now?
I think that funcionally, the game is 99% complete. There are a few lingering controller issues, but everything is basically set.
I need to do a full review of all the graphics and sounds. Everything until this point has been stand in stuff. I need images for the background of menus, a title screen, etc. I need to make sure that I haven't ripped off copyrighted sounds or images without permission.
Levels. I need to create the actual game levels. I'd like to release with at least a couple courses. Each course should have 9 holes, so that's going to be dozens of levels to create. Levels are created in two parts. First, the physical layout of the level is created. This is done in a paint program, just painting black on white. Everywhere that is black is "ground" and is what the ball can collide with. Everything that is white is open air. So I can get cranking on making five sets of 9-hole courses, but they'll just look like black-and-white images. The second thing that needs to be done is painting those black-and-whites so they look awesome. Eryn has helped with some sketches and they look spectacular, so I'm really hoping I can hit him up for some more. There's certainly no shortage of artwork to be done, and I'm TERRIBLE at it, so I'm going to need all the help I can get at this point.
Finally, I need to figure out all the actual XBOX deployment stuff, and how to actually submit/market the game on the XBOX Indie Gamer site. I'll need some whiz-bang screenshots and demo movie on YouTube, stuff like that.
I really hope all the big hurdles are behind me, but I've got enough experience to plan on something hiding around the corner. Still, confidence is pretty high that I'll actually get this finished and released.
If any of my five readers happens to know any good computer artists (2d sketching) out there who'd be willing to donate their time, let me know.
For about a month, I've been working on a computer game using XNA, which is Microsoft's cross platform game development library. Cross platform means that it's common across Windows, XBOX, and the new Windows Phone 7. The game is a multiplayer ripoff of a fun little game for the iPad. It's a 2D golf game, played from a side-on point of view. You choose the angle of your shot and the power, and try to hit the ball in the hole.
In terms of gameplay, it's about as simple as you can get. But it might be deceptively simple. If you have a round ball hitting a curved hillside at a certain velocity, what at angle should the ball bounce away? Also, all the game menus and pretty effects are something that game players just take for granted, but if you get them wrong, they really can look bad. I was surprised, actually, at how much goo there is once the actual gameplay stuff is complete. You need a title screen, a main menu, a controller selection menu, a course selection menu. Those menus should all transition nicely back and forth. If you have multiple players playing at the same time, how do you arrange their power selection meters so that they don't stomp all over each other? There's a huge number of issues, even with the most simple games.
I have a folder full of dozens of half-hearted game programming projects. Some just little toys. Some started in earnest and flamed out spectacularly. But each taught me some lesson and got me a little closer.
XBOX Live has an Indie Gamer service, where you can pay $99 for the right to put a game up online and sell it for a buck or two or five. I've been doing all my game development on the PC, and with an eye towards how many projects I've given up on, didn't want to actually spend any money until I was pretty sure that I was going to actually finish a game and put it up for sale (and hopefully sell more than 99 copies).
Over the past month, I've gotten about as far as I can on the PC. The XBOX has some different interface stuff (controllers, for one thing, and some display issues, things of that nature), and I was pretty much ready to see if/how things worked on the XBOx. I also was able to borrow an XBOX, so I now have all the tools I needed to test things out.
So, last night, I forked out the $99 and signed up as an XBOX Indie Developer. Yay me.
After only a few minutes, my game was ported over as an XBOX game, and deployed on the console. It showed up in the list of games available. With baited breath, I selected the game and clicked to play it.
At work, I have a friend who is working on his own, much broader scale XBOX game. He and I were talking about what might happen when we first deployed games to the XBOX. The worst case, we agreed, was that some cryptic error message would come up, and we'd have no idea why the game failed on the console when it worked on the PC. Without any clues, that would be a really tough debugging job.
So, when I started the game, I was met with an error message. Some generic thing like "Sorry, your game could not be started, Error Code 4". Fuck.
Google told me that error code 4 was just some generic error message. I don't remember much about that, because while reading about XBOX error codes, I read about debugging on the XBOX. It turns out that I could set breakpoints on my PC, and step through the program on the XBOX, one step at a time. In just a minute, I found a bug in my code, and was able to get it fixed.
I started the game again, and it worked perfectly. There it was, on the XBOX and on my TV. Awesome.
The first thing I noticed was that that the TV cut off a LOT of the image. This was a 15 year old 27" CRT TV. On a computer monitor, 100% of the screen is shown. TVs commonly show only a fraction of the image, so there was probably about 10 or 15% shaved from each side of the image. When making a golf game, this is important. I can't have the ball ever stop too close to the edge of the screen, or the players won't be able to see the ball anymore!
I called Diana in, and we were able to play multiplayer, each using our own controller. This is pretty awesome, because up until this point, I'd only simulated multiplayer via the keyboard. Having it work with the two controllers was nice.
I then took the XBOX and hooked it up to our nice TV in the front room, and it looked MUCH better. None of the image was cut off anymore, and it was all high-def and glorious. Very, very exciting stuff.
So what now?
I think that funcionally, the game is 99% complete. There are a few lingering controller issues, but everything is basically set.
I need to do a full review of all the graphics and sounds. Everything until this point has been stand in stuff. I need images for the background of menus, a title screen, etc. I need to make sure that I haven't ripped off copyrighted sounds or images without permission.
Levels. I need to create the actual game levels. I'd like to release with at least a couple courses. Each course should have 9 holes, so that's going to be dozens of levels to create. Levels are created in two parts. First, the physical layout of the level is created. This is done in a paint program, just painting black on white. Everywhere that is black is "ground" and is what the ball can collide with. Everything that is white is open air. So I can get cranking on making five sets of 9-hole courses, but they'll just look like black-and-white images. The second thing that needs to be done is painting those black-and-whites so they look awesome. Eryn has helped with some sketches and they look spectacular, so I'm really hoping I can hit him up for some more. There's certainly no shortage of artwork to be done, and I'm TERRIBLE at it, so I'm going to need all the help I can get at this point.
Finally, I need to figure out all the actual XBOX deployment stuff, and how to actually submit/market the game on the XBOX Indie Gamer site. I'll need some whiz-bang screenshots and demo movie on YouTube, stuff like that.
I really hope all the big hurdles are behind me, but I've got enough experience to plan on something hiding around the corner. Still, confidence is pretty high that I'll actually get this finished and released.
If any of my five readers happens to know any good computer artists (2d sketching) out there who'd be willing to donate their time, let me know.
2010/11/01
Supergirl
Throughout this week, if you asked Allison what she wanted to be for Halloween, she'd tell you "a butterfly". This was, in fact, a lie. She's never liked wearing her butterfly wings. She tolerates her Cinderella dress, as well as her Supergirl clothes, all with the caveat that she can wear her green Cars shirt underneath.
On Friday, she wore her Cinderella dress to preschool. The preschool had parents invited from 10am to noon, and the place was pretty much a madhouse. Diana and I showed up at 10 and had to hunt around to find Allison, quietly playing by herself with some sand toys in the corner of the yard. We stayed for a while and had some snacks, but then had to go to work. Allison seemed a little shell-shocked by the whole event.
Yesterday evening on Halloween proper, I made a play for the Supergirl costume, and she put it on with some enthusiasm. She ran all around with her cape, and we did lots of up-a-girls. We had some time to kill between dinner and trick-or-treating time, so I took her over to Mike and Gwen's. She was pretty shy, but we said trick or treat and got some M&M's. While buckling her back in her car seat, I said "Oh, we forgot to say thank you to Mike and Gwen!" She turned towards there house and shouted "THANK YOU!" (the windows were up and we were half a block away). So... thank you Mike and Gwen, in case you didn't hear it.
As we drove home, she chastised me for sharing some of her M&M's, and next time, please don't do that. I told her that we BOTH said "trick or treat", so we both got candy. If she wanted to have candy all to herself, then she'd have to say "trick or treat" all by herself. Even the lure of candy didn't do much to overcome her shyness for the rest of the evening, and we only ended up going to a few houses.
Our neighborhood was particularly dead last night. Many neighbors houses were dark and vacant, and I think we only had two or three groups of kids come to our door. It kind of sucks, because we have a great courtyard for doing some really cool Halloween decorations, but it doesn't seem worth it if no one actually comes to the door. Maybe someday.
So, all in all, a pretty mellow Halloween for us.
On Friday, she wore her Cinderella dress to preschool. The preschool had parents invited from 10am to noon, and the place was pretty much a madhouse. Diana and I showed up at 10 and had to hunt around to find Allison, quietly playing by herself with some sand toys in the corner of the yard. We stayed for a while and had some snacks, but then had to go to work. Allison seemed a little shell-shocked by the whole event.
Yesterday evening on Halloween proper, I made a play for the Supergirl costume, and she put it on with some enthusiasm. She ran all around with her cape, and we did lots of up-a-girls. We had some time to kill between dinner and trick-or-treating time, so I took her over to Mike and Gwen's. She was pretty shy, but we said trick or treat and got some M&M's. While buckling her back in her car seat, I said "Oh, we forgot to say thank you to Mike and Gwen!" She turned towards there house and shouted "THANK YOU!" (the windows were up and we were half a block away). So... thank you Mike and Gwen, in case you didn't hear it.
As we drove home, she chastised me for sharing some of her M&M's, and next time, please don't do that. I told her that we BOTH said "trick or treat", so we both got candy. If she wanted to have candy all to herself, then she'd have to say "trick or treat" all by herself. Even the lure of candy didn't do much to overcome her shyness for the rest of the evening, and we only ended up going to a few houses.
Our neighborhood was particularly dead last night. Many neighbors houses were dark and vacant, and I think we only had two or three groups of kids come to our door. It kind of sucks, because we have a great courtyard for doing some really cool Halloween decorations, but it doesn't seem worth it if no one actually comes to the door. Maybe someday.
So, all in all, a pretty mellow Halloween for us.
2010/10/26
An Evening Conversation...
Allison doesn't like to go to sleep at night. We do everything we can to keep her in bed, or at least in her room, but she toddles out every few minutes with some announcement or request. It's infuriatingly adorable.
Last night at around 9:15pm, when I thought she was asleep, I heard her little voice from the hallway.
"Daddy...?"
I get up and go collect her. Sometimes I come down kind of hard on her to discourage getting up and wandering around at bedtime, but she was just so cute standing there in her favorite Cars shirt, hair all messed up. I swept her up in my arms and carried her down the hall.
"Daddy, do you know where we haven't go'd in a long, long time?"
"Where, Allison?"
"Disneyland!"
I put her down in her bed.
"Can we go to Disneyland tomorrow? After my nap?"
"No, Allison... you're going to Dorrie's tomorrow, and Mommy and I are going to work."
"Oh. AFTER Dorries, can we go to Disneyland?"
Cute.
Last night at around 9:15pm, when I thought she was asleep, I heard her little voice from the hallway.
"Daddy...?"
I get up and go collect her. Sometimes I come down kind of hard on her to discourage getting up and wandering around at bedtime, but she was just so cute standing there in her favorite Cars shirt, hair all messed up. I swept her up in my arms and carried her down the hall.
"Daddy, do you know where we haven't go'd in a long, long time?"
"Where, Allison?"
"Disneyland!"
I put her down in her bed.
"Can we go to Disneyland tomorrow? After my nap?"
"No, Allison... you're going to Dorrie's tomorrow, and Mommy and I are going to work."
"Oh. AFTER Dorries, can we go to Disneyland?"
Cute.
2010/10/25
Conversations from the car
Allison: I want to be... Super Girl for Halloween. (After deciding between that and a butterfly and Cinderella)
Me: Ooh, that's neat. Do you know what Supergirl does?
Allison: No...
Me: She's super strong. And she can run really fast. And she can jump really high... like over a HOUSE!
Allison: OH! That's surprising! (pause) What does surprising mean?
And later, when she was pissed at having to leave the store.
Allison: But I waaaaanted to stay at the store.
Me: I know, but we can't always do the things we want.
Allison: Why not?
Me: Well, because we live in a society of people, and need to share responsibilities.
Allison: Oh. Ok.
Me: Ooh, that's neat. Do you know what Supergirl does?
Allison: No...
Me: She's super strong. And she can run really fast. And she can jump really high... like over a HOUSE!
Allison: OH! That's surprising! (pause) What does surprising mean?
And later, when she was pissed at having to leave the store.
Allison: But I waaaaanted to stay at the store.
Me: I know, but we can't always do the things we want.
Allison: Why not?
Me: Well, because we live in a society of people, and need to share responsibilities.
Allison: Oh. Ok.
2010/10/22
Buying Stuff
Allison has just started to grasp money and buying things.
We went to the bookstore yesterday, and she found a book that came with a number of little toys.
"I want that!" she said.
"No, we're not buying that," I said.
"Why not?"
"Because it costs money. Do you have any money?"
"No... do you have money?"
"Yes."
"Do you have ONE money?"
"Yes, I have lots of money."
"Then we can buy it!"
"No, we're not buying that."
"Why not? I want it!"
I was actually at quite a loss. She wanted that toy. I had money to buy it. I could see her saying "What's the problem, here?" I felt myself saying all the things that parents say to their kids all the time that just don't make any sense to the kid (and, to a certain degree, myself still).
We went to the bookstore yesterday, and she found a book that came with a number of little toys.
"I want that!" she said.
"No, we're not buying that," I said.
"Why not?"
"Because it costs money. Do you have any money?"
"No... do you have money?"
"Yes."
"Do you have ONE money?"
"Yes, I have lots of money."
"Then we can buy it!"
"No, we're not buying that."
"Why not? I want it!"
I was actually at quite a loss. She wanted that toy. I had money to buy it. I could see her saying "What's the problem, here?" I felt myself saying all the things that parents say to their kids all the time that just don't make any sense to the kid (and, to a certain degree, myself still).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)