Why I Love Twitter

I remember when I didn't want a Twitter page. I thought it was stupid. Why did I think it was stupid? Well... I can't remember. It was a stupid reason.

I guess I thought it was a fad. It was one of those things that I looked at and was like "this is just something that will blow over in a couple of months. Why should I join it?" This all changed when I met a group of people over the summer who all had Twitter accounts. I was kind of forced into this whole Twitter thing. And the rest as they say, is Twistory.

Wow. That was horrible. I'm so sorry about that. Ridiculous. Sorry.

Okay, so fast forward to today. I have since ditched the account I made over the summer (a personal account) and transformed into a business-orientated Twittering entity. I made the Twitter account to... well, honestly, to get traffic.

And that's why I love Twitter. I can promote Abscure as much as my little heart desires.

Twitter is like a game to me.

Every little thing I do makes me feel like it's going to help my site. Every person I follow, there's a chance they'll follow back. Every time I tweet, there's a chance that gets retweeted. There are so many options, so many positive outcomes.

The more effort I put into it, the better off I am. And that's something that will keep me happy for a while.

Now that I think about it, it's kind of like a videogame. You keep grinding, trying to get your stats up. Twitter is addicting. I have to keep getting followers, I have to keep tweeting. But although it's addicting, I'm gonna do it until there's no point in doing it anymore.

Whenever I see I have a new follower, or a new message of some sort, it's like leveling up or beating a level in a game. It's that reinforcement, that reward, that high that keeps me going.

Now that I put it this way, maybe it's not the healthiest habit. But we all need things to get us through our day. And that's what Twitter helps do for me.

Thanks for reading.

New Logo

Yeah. That's right. It's an owl... with a god damn controller for eyes. Uh uh. Yes we did.

I bet you're wondering, "what will this be used for?" The answer is: everything we can possibly use it for.

Getting Hooked

I'm always playing it. While I watch TV, I'm playing it. When I'm eating, I'm playing it. When I'm thinking, I'm playing it.

And here's the thing. I don't even like it that much. It just... it's just a part of me. Like fidgeting, or sucking your thumb, or picking your nose (gross! I wish I didn't have to always come up with a third example for things). It's a compulsion. Maybe a crutch. It's like an itch that I always have to be scratching.

How did this happen?

First, let me tell you what game I'm talking about. It's Crazy Cabbie.

This is the culprit.

It all started with Facebook. I found the game there, with online high scores and everything. I tried to get the higher score than my friends; but who the hell cares about those scores anyway? I eventually stopped playing it on Facebook and forgot it ever existed.

Recently I discovered Netflix. Now I spend all day, every day watching TV shows (don't worry guys, I'll give you all the details later.) And growing up in the 21st century, I need to be multitasking. Do you really think I can just sit still and watch a TV show? Ha. That's hilarious.

So I play this game all the time. I just took a break from writing to play it.

Here's why I'm addicted:

The countdown timer thing. This is the main culprit. It's the only game that I personally play that has this. I like to view games on how they punish and reinforce me (clearly there are tons of other things that are involved in game addiction. But this is my favorite to look at.)

Punishment:
• Switching in to the wrong lane
• Jumping too early
• Jumping too late
• Not jumping when you need to
• Most important of all (obviously) is having the time run out. That's the main source of punishment

Reinforcement:
• Any successful jump
• Successfully switching lanes
• Making it past the flag on time
• Okay here's the best possible thing that can happen in this game. Time is running out fast. You'd be lucky to get even get close to the finishing flag. But you keep getting closer. All of a sudden, the flag appears. You're so close, but, time is running out! 5...4...3...2...1... Oh my god! Photo finish! You barely made it! You saw that you had like a few milliseconds left! But you did it! Yeah! Okay, no time to celebrate, the next level starts instantaneously.

So in conclusion. These photo finishes are mostly why I love this game. I also love the constant movement, and the rhythmic jumping involved (it's kind of like a rhythm game, in the way that it's scrolling and you have to move from lane to lane).

This was a lot of fun to do, breaking down a game I'm addicted to. I'll have to do this more often. I recommend that you do this for your favorite games. It's possible that it will make the game seem less fluffy and awesome, but it will give you a more realistic view of the game and once you break it down to its core, you will become a better developer because of it.

Alright, thanks for reading!

Guess Who's Making a Game Console?

If you've been reading this blog lately you would have been reading Ethan's wonderful rants about various things that he does. For a bit of a change, I'ma make a post. If you don't know me, I'm Christian, otherwise known as Pinpickle. I program most of our games, keep the website up and give design a shot every once in a while.

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My school has a bit of a project going on at the moment. Basically do whatever you want for a year and you get marked on your "process". Me being me, I've gone for the most ambitious thing possible. I'm making a game console!

Before we get into big details, here is the basic plan.

• Build a homebrew computer, doesn't need to be flash or anything.
• Install an Linux distro and get to work on making it all game consoley.
• Design a case for the console, according to the size of all of my computer components.
• Build said case.
• Put computer parts in said built case.
• Continue to work on Linux distro (most likely won't be done).
• Using wireless USB controllers as my game controllers, make some awesome games with whatever cross platform engines I can find.
• Put it on some big screens and impress my friends.

I've already made a bit of a start, currently I have a homebrew computer connected to a computer via a transcoder box that turns my VGA signal into an s-video one. And it has OpenSUSE installed on it.

Here are the specs for my computer

• Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 3.2GHz
• Memory: Transcend Hynix 2GB DDR2-800
• Motherboard: ASUS M2N68-AM PLUS AM3/AM2+/AM2
• Power Supply: COOLER MASTER Elite Power 400W
• Graphics Card: Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 5450
• Optical Drive: Lite-On IHAS524
• Hard Drive: The HD that I bought has since been taken off the website I bought it from. All I can remember is that it is 160GB and quite small.
• Case: Some case my friend had spare.

Currently my graphics card isn't on because it isn't compatible with my case. My friend says he has another spare that would work.
Not the best parts in the world, but pretty much the best value I could get for my money (roughly 450NZD).

I'm sure the internet doesn't need another "This is how I built my computer" post, so I'll leave that topic well enough alone. You guys can have pictures once my computer starts agreeing with me again.

If any of you have any tips at all, I'm open. I still haven't picked an engine to use for my games, and Linux is proving difficult to grasp.

Ruined: Looking Back Part 2

This is the second entry in a series of reflections on my favorite project, Ruined. Think of it as the team looking in the mirror… and then taking a picture, and showing it to everyone on the Internet.

Today, we will focus on my area of expertise (or at least what I did for this game)...Graphics!
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It's been a while! The last time I did one of these reflection things, we had basically just finished Ruined. Now, don't for a second think that it's been too long since development, and I can't remember the development process for this game. Wrong.

So, one could argue that the most important graphic in a game is the main character. It should be iconic, loveable, and should be symbolic of the character. Our main character is Alec. He is very tiny.

This is Alec. Look at him. LOOK AT HIM!

So you're probably wondering, "why does this main character suck so much?" Well, that's a funny story, and it'll probably make me look lazy. But for the sake of this blog I will tell you anyway.

There's something you should know. At first, before we started developing, I wasn't so excited to make Ruined. That isn't to say that I didn't want to make it. We were coming up with ideas for a YoYo Games competition, and I thought that it was better to make a smaller project and spend most of our time polishing it. But nonetheless we began making Ruined (and it's a good thing we did.)

Anyway, point is, I made Alec thinking that it was a possibility that this game wouldn't be finished. So that's why it isn't the greatest looking graphic in the world.

Moving on, one of the things you'll notice about the art is that it's based on Knytt Stories' graphics. When I think about that game, I think about the environment. The game gives you a feeling... its environments are constantly changing, changing your moods, but you're always having fun.

So in terms of the tiles and such in the game I just tried to keep it simple and make a "mood". And I don't really know how I tried to do that. I think the sky is really awesome; I can't really take much credit because I just took the colors from a photo of the desert. It looks really good with the desert tile.

Fun, fun, fun.

I think the four different environments (temple, underground, sky, and of course the desert) are all memorable. I also think that they have their own properties beyond the actual pixels. The have a color, a memory, a mood, a feeling.

So people, yes, the graphics in the game aren't too impressive. Christian is the one who made the game the awesome one it is. But I do think that the graphics fit perfectly in the game; it wouldn't be Ruined without the graphics it currently has.

Thanks for reading.