More Game Jams, Busy October

hey all,

It has been a surprisingly busy summer. Last August, I got the idea for Particularly Wavy and spent most of the last year working on that. Because of that, I didn't really do any game jams between 2017, August and 2018, May. However, in July and August this year I did participate in several game jams. The latest one was the Brackeys Game Jam, which had the theme of light. The game I created for that jam, Salvation of the Fireflies, has gotten more comments than my usual projects, so I'd like to extend my work on that a little and try to polish it up.

I've got one more coming up in a month or so, but my current focus is on two projects: a visual novel that I'm working with a very small team on, and my RPG/RTS project. For the former, we need player profile saving systems, and also systems that can interact with Fungus, which is a free plug in we are using to create the menus and dialogue. For the later, I am still hacking away at the date / time system. The goal there is to be able to create holidays, to correctly add and subtract amounts of time from a current date/time, and lastly to compute the difference between two dates/times. These actions will be necessary for making time pass correctly, waiting in game, and tracking time limits for quests.

Next month is going to be superbusy. Michi and I are planning on taking a four day hiking/camping trip to the Japanese Northern Alps, specifically Mt. Hotaka, and the very next day after we get back we're attending a performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute. The next weekend, we're going to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel design near Nagoya, and the week after that we're checking out a Paul McCartney concert.

It is now six months until the next GDC, and I'm determined to go in 2019, no matter what. I really regret not going in 2018, but this time I've got enough saved up already and I plan on continuing to save throughout the year to make sure this happens.

Cheers,

GDC

hey all,

GDC 2017 is over, and my oh my, how overwhelming, wonderful, boring, and fascinating it was. I've never been to San Francisco, so just that was pretty interesting for me. I was able to do a little sightseeing the day before GDC started, but after that I was in seminars and meetups almost the whole day every day after that. I have no idea how many people attended this year, but I read that in 2016 about 27,000 people attended, and it would not surprise me to know that around the same number did so this year.

I only went for the Educational pass, which although well worth it for the money, does severely limit what seminars you can attend. So, for the first two days, I participated in the Game Design Workshop, which was focused around working in small groups to design mechanics and themes for games. Really fun to finally work in a group, although I was lucky and most of the time my group was filled with great people from academia, the industry, and amateurs/hobbyists like myself.

The other days were spent running from room to room and building to building to attend the next seminar. In between those, I got to chat with random people and check out the expo, which featured games being developed by teams all around the world.

That's all for now, but expect more news soon.

We're off to see GDC, the Wonderful GDC of San Francisco!

hey all,

I wish I had some uber cool gameplay or demonstration to show everyone, but to be honest, although I have been working on improving that node editor, I have not made significant progress on it. I have written a small Windows Application Form that will construct file folder structure, and generate properly formatted Visual Studio Solution files, which are amazingly dry to read:

Microsoft Visual Studio Solution File, Format Version 12.00
# Visual Studio 2013
VisualStudioVersion = 12.0.40629.0
MinimumVisualStudioVersion = 10.0.40219.1
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Common", "Common\Common.csproj", "{2F7CB239-8DEB-473E-AD4F-54BDA3A573F6}"
EndProject
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "Common.Editor", "Common.Editor\Common.Editor.csproj", "{F3429125-342F-4C61-8B06-BCB24B3B2177}"
EndProject
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "NodeGraph", "NodeGraph\NodeGraph.csproj", "{31EF0942-3ECB-44C7-9909-7803AB3F1965}"
EndProject
Project("{FAE04EC0-301F-11D3-BF4B-00C04F79EFBC}") = "NodeGraph.Editor", "NodeGraph.Editor\NodeGraph.Editor.csproj", "{33AC7A55-35B9-4422-AD3D-A90F2C584A4E}"
EndProject
Global
GlobalSection(SolutionConfigurationPlatforms) = preSolution
Debug|Any CPU = Debug|Any CPU
Release|Any CPU = Release|Any CPU
EndGlobalSection
GlobalSection(ProjectConfigurationPlatforms) = postSolution
{2F7CB239-8DEB-473E-AD4F-54BDA3A573F6}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU
{2F7CB239-8DEB-473E-AD4F-54BDA3A573F6}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU
{2F7CB239-8DEB-473E-AD4F-54BDA3A573F6}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU
{2F7CB239-8DEB-473E-AD4F-54BDA3A573F6}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU
{F3429125-342F-4C61-8B06-BCB24B3B2177}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU
{F3429125-342F-4C61-8B06-BCB24B3B2177}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU
{F3429125-342F-4C61-8B06-BCB24B3B2177}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU
{F3429125-342F-4C61-8B06-BCB24B3B2177}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU
{31EF0942-3ECB-44C7-9909-7803AB3F1965}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU
{31EF0942-3ECB-44C7-9909-7803AB3F1965}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU
{31EF0942-3ECB-44C7-9909-7803AB3F1965}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU
{31EF0942-3ECB-44C7-9909-7803AB3F1965}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU
{33AC7A55-35B9-4422-AD3D-A90F2C584A4E}.Debug|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Debug|Any CPU
{33AC7A55-35B9-4422-AD3D-A90F2C584A4E}.Debug|Any CPU.Build.0 = Debug|Any CPU
{33AC7A55-35B9-4422-AD3D-A90F2C584A4E}.Release|Any CPU.ActiveCfg = Release|Any CPU
{33AC7A55-35B9-4422-AD3D-A90F2C584A4E}.Release|Any CPU.Build.0 = Release|Any CPU
EndGlobalSection
GlobalSection(SolutionProperties) = preSolution
HideSolutionNode = FALSE
EndGlobalSection
EndGlobal

But that does not make for really gripping story or text. So, here it is: on Saturday I leave for the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco, California. I will be attending under the educational pass, so I get access to all the educational and career seminars and workshops. I've ordered a big stack of business cards (that should be arriving later today) to pass out to all and sundry. In other news, I contacted Teacher Gaming months ago, but never heard back, so I assumed I was getting the cold shoulder. But I actually got an email from them the other day, so it is at least possible that I could polish one of my early games and sell it.

In any case, please do not expect any updates for the next week.