Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Sweet Resistance - Game Jam 8 Entry

So the other day myself and my daughter attended a GameJam in Galway city (Ireland). She's 11 and so I was really happy with what she came up with considering that she made 100% of the graphics on the game. She did alot of the "coding" too, I did help out with that. It was a 12 hour gaming session so I was really impressed that she kept her head the whole time, nice and focused, we would take a break, walk around town, then go back bust out some game development.

The reason I say "coding" is because the game is make using scratch. Scratch is IDE that enables you to create a game and post it directly to the scratch website. Look, the point here is that you can simply the game by clicking on the link below. The only thing is that you must press the green "Play" flag to kick off the game.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/129309985/

Writing according to the King

Stephen King has written alot of books. You know what, I would like to write one. How do I do this? Hmmm, wait, I know. You start writing, you write some EVERY DAY. You do it consistantly. Then you finish the book... Well, here is what Stephen King had to say in his book "On Writing".

1. First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience. “When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story.”
2. Don’t use passive voice. “Timid writers like passive verbs for the same reason that timid lovers like passive partners. The passive voice is safe.”
3. Avoid adverbs. “The adverb is not your friend.”
4. Avoid adverbs, especially after “he said” and “she said.”
5. But don’t obsess over perfect grammar. “The object of fiction isn’t grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story.”
6. The magic is in you. “I’m convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing.”
7. Read, read, read. ”If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”
8. Don’t worry about making other people happy. “If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.”
9. Turn off the TV. “TV—while working out or anywhere else—really is about the last thing an aspiring writer needs.”
10. You have three months. “The first draft of a book—even a long one—should take no more than three months, the length of a season.”
11. There are two secrets to success. “I stayed physical healthy, and I stayed married.”
12. Write one word at a time. “Whether it’s a vignette of a single page or an epic trilogy like ‘The Lord of the Rings,’ the work is always accomplished one word at a time.”
13. Eliminate distraction. “There’s should be no telephone in your writing room, certainly no TV or videogames for you to fool around with.”
14. Stick to your own style. “One cannot imitate a writer’s approach to a particular genre, no matter how simple what that writer is doing may seem.”
15. Dig. “Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible.”
16. Take a break. “You’ll find reading your book over after a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience.”
17. Leave out the boring parts and kill your darlings. “(kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.)”
18. The research shouldn’t overshadow the story. “Remember that word back. That’s where the research belongs: as far in the background and the back story as you can get it.”
19. You become a writer simply by reading and writing. “You learn best by reading a lot and writing a lot, and the most valuable lessons of all are the ones you teach yourself.”
20. Writing is about getting happy. “Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. Writing is magic, as much as the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink.”

These point are taken from
http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/stephen-kings-top-20-rules-for-writers.html

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Here is a face I drew.

Not great but the fundamentals are there. I used the website http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Face
It is interesting when you look at the website how much method is behind it. I often think of that when drawing (I do not draw half enough). The face below is simply shapes. Draw this oval. Divide it into quarters. Draw lines that divide the image up more. Animals find beauty in symmetry. If a face is symmetrical then the odds are that the DNA in the parent was healthy and so we are instinctively drawn toward beauty. When people saw beauty is skin deep they are wrong, it is as deep as the very fiber of your being. So that is one of the most important thinks to remember when drawing a face, symmetry. Straight on is the easiest way I think.. like the image below, difficult art comes in when shots are taken above and to an angle or the like. I have been watching a lot of Pokemon lately and I am always impressed by the art. It is so great, whatever the opinion of even the most close minded might think about the series, the story, voice etc it can't be argued that the art is anything but great. And with that said, Pokemon is just a drop in the ocean. There are so many animations and anime and manga out there with brilliant art. I like to attempt to draw something well every now and again (the image below is not one of those times) in order to appreciate the skill that others have. Some people who make drawing look as easy as others find to criticize it.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Excellent film on Japanese Video game history and culture...

Gamers [Heart] Japan...

Gamers love Japan is a film put together were tons of people talk about Japanese game culture. Pretty much that is it really. The film was made to rise money I think for tsunami victims. For the rest of us it is good to introduce it to some heros of the Japanese gaming community like Shigeru Miyamoto (Zelda, Mario etc), and Gunpei Yokoi (Gameboy creator). It is definitely worth a watch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROHJmP_TNR0

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Database of Asteroids!

This is cool, and has to see to understand how and why it is cool. It is a database of known asteroids and their path around the Earth! You can click on the asteroid and watch it go!

http://www.asterank.com/3d/

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Game almost finished!

Wow, it has taken a long time, but at last I am nearly finished with a computer game that I was writing. It is such an easy game to play, and to tell the truth it is not all that good at all. In the game you are a spaceship flying around collecting coins. The number of coins that you leave behind are doubled and taken from your time. When you reach the final time, boom the game finishes. It is definitely not much to look at or play but behind the scene all the ingredients are there for a proper game.

Development screen


So I know what I have and I am happy enough with it.

The Reality Of The News

There have been a few times where I have clicked on a news article only to realise that I have been hit with a paywall. I don't mean thi...