I've been playing around with Photoshop some more - so far I'm really liking it.
I used to do a lot of sketches of creatures as a kid, and I really enjoyed them, so I started doing a few. Maybe if I have time, I'll go back and color in some. They aren't that great, but hopefully my drawings will improve over time.
Edit: Found some time to try coloring a sketch of a bee.
I want to try my hand at some landscapes and see how they turn out.
So I remembered that I had Adobe Photoshop (Bought with Production Premium) that I never really used for anything. I decided to try it doing some basic stuff in it. Now I know why beginners always start out drawing fruits.
I had originally started Ludum Dare 21 in hopes of finishing a complete and coherent product, but I had to stop my entry due to personal problems. My final submission was a simple game with a meager four levels. I liked the concept, but the game lacked any substance to be of enjoyment.
So, now that I have the ability, I've decided to direct efforts into finishing the game. Its taken quite an upgrade and is now what I would actually call a game, rather than a concept. As of now, there are only 8 levels (World 1), but a world system is in place to make it easier to create more levels. The upgraded version also has a level select and a saving system which saves completed levels and the total amount of deaths. I want to have at least 5 worlds for the final version - the next ones should be coming soon.
From the minute you start the game up, its clear that VVVVVV is a game you'll never forget. Unique in style and gameplay, nothing of the like has ever been crafted in the course of human history. Everything is creative, beautiful, and unique, from the inspiring techno music to the flashy retro graphics, to the entire concept of the game itself. Flipping.
There are so many elements in VVVVVV that layer together to make some of the most complex and mind-bending platforming puzzles ever seen. There are no tutorials - you inherently understand how the mechanics work, and have to retrain your brain to function in nontraditional laws of space.
Oh, and the reflexes. VVVVVV is hard - everything in the game requires precision accuracy and spot-on timing. While it can be very frustrating, nothing can beat the sense of gratification that you get when you complete a challenge - the feeling of overcoming a great obstacle in your path.
Beating VVVVVV took me 2 hours and 756 deaths. This guy did a perfect run in 15 min.
"Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go."
- James Cook
I recently purchased the Humble Indie Bundle 3 (VVVVVV is awesome!), and it came with free access to Minecraft, a game that I had heard of, but never had a chance to play. Up until that point, I thought Minecraft was nothing more than a silly distraction. However, seeing as it was only free for a week, I decided "I may as well give it a try." I loaded the game, only to find that there was no server list! After doing a quick google search, I realized that the creation of a "server list" had been tasked to the community. Numerous sites had been created for the sole purpose of serving as directories to servers. But the sites were not just sites. Each individual one was a community - a forum of individuals uniting around a common interest to deliver something of value to the world. Every single site had an active forum and a massive user base - something that completely surprised. I hadn't expected this out of a server list.
I picked a random server and entered in the ip address. The server "CityCraft" dropped me into a short test where I had to confirm that I understood the rules of the server. After that I was dropped into a massive entrance hall. My first though - "Woah..."
Part of the building hasn't even loaded into view yet.
Intricately and extensively crafted, the entry hall imposed itself upon my memory. However, one more surprise awaited me. I left the entrance hall, only to be confronted by a massive open world city, complete with streets, skyscrapers, pubs, and houses. I spent hours exploring, looking at what people had built - taking numerous screen-shots as I went.
After exploring CityCraft, I decided to see what else the community had built. The spawn point for another popular server, named "The Lord of the Craft" was a decorated temple. I slowly walked outside - I could see several other newcomers following me. What I found was a massive town with people, both computer controlled, and player controlled. Awe-struck, I wandered aimlessly around, eventually leaving the town. As I explored the land for hours, I cam across numerous landmarks, hamlets, dungeons, and all variety of interesting sights and places to explore (Check out a dynamic map of the world here). I discovered that the server had a wiki, which contained a full lore/backstory article for many locations within the game; I eventually used it as a travel guide in my numerous ventures.
The truth took a long time to dawn on me, but when it did, my mind melted. People had created this world. A team of dedicated individuals had created something great for others to enjoy. They shaped the mountains, they built the cities, they even manually crafted each tree in the forests. But these people were not professional artists, or Renaissance men. They were ordinary people. Ordinarily people with an extraordinary sense of organization, and an unmatched respect for each other. A single, egotistical individual could not have accomplished what this team of people did in such little time, with such attention to detail.
I don't know - maybe I'm just gushing, but my day as a block guy was anything but square - even if it looked like it from the surface.
In the past, the video game industry has lagged a bit behind mainstream technology. Video games would utilize existing mainstream technology and ideas in new creative ways to develop a playable experience.
Over the course of the past decade, this has completely flip-flopped. What was the first mainstream device to fully utilize accelerometers? Not the iPhone (2007), but the Nintendo Wii (2006). How crazy is that? It's because of the video game industry that this technology became mainstream in the first place! Now it's in basically every single modern cellphone. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. New graphics card technologies such as CUDA evolved to catch up with ever increasing graphics standards in video games. You know what else CUDA is used for? Predicting protein conformation, medical analysis simulations, fluid dynamics, and accelerated encryption and decryption. Oh yeah, it's also helping the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). It's also what makes Just Cause 2 so freaking awesome. If you've caught onto my point, you know exactly where I'm headed with this.
That's right - the Microsoft Kinect. If you've been following the stories, then you've seen some of the freaking awesome things that people have done with the Microsoft Kinect. You can dance in front of it, or you can record hologram messages. You can pet a virtual animal, or create freaking 3D replicas of a real world environment. Or drive a robot. Maybe in the future, the Kinect will be driving our cars!
Really gives some insight of the role of the entertainment industry.
So me and a group of friends have video game related discussions everyday in Honors Physics class. Literally like everyday. So we had the genius idea of recording our discussions and turning them into a podcast. So we did a pilot episode, and it turned out really awesome, thus spawning a whole series. You can check us out on iTunes here. If you're short on time, I'd recommend episode 8. It's probably our best so far.
Reality sucks. So should blogs. Me and one of my most sarcastic friends decided to take it upon ourselves to make fun of stuff. Like what, you ask? Everything. Politics, sports, life - and even ourselves. Yeah, we make fun of ourselves. Check it out!
So I added a bit of tools to my Basic Math Engine site. It's sort of like a framework that I've created (running on Google App Engine) that I can use to play around with stuff and create my own tools, such as calculators. Among the tools added are a Euler's Method Calculator, a Directional Field Grapher, and a Density Map Grapher.
So I made a entry for Ludum Dare 19 (a 48 hour game making competition). Unfortunately, it was a bit to simple to compete with the many other awesome games that were made. You can check it out here.
