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  Belated Friday Cat Blogging 12:19 PM -- Sat May 14, 2005  


I wanted to introduce you to our new pal. See, the most ridiculous thing happened the other day - Some people were coming to look at our house (did I mention we're selling it? Apparently we are, since people are looking at it), and they came to me and asked "What's with the noisy cat?" I thought they meant Bonsai, since he's obnoxious, but I went to look, and lo and behold, there was a kitten outside our window just yelling and yelling like he wanted to come in. But we didn't know him. I kinda chased him away a little, but all throughout the day he'd come and yell in our windows.

Later, when more people were looking at the house, I went out in the backyard with them, and the kitten came over and started snuggling up on my legs and wouldn't leave me alone for a second. Eventually, you know how it went. He got to come in (which he was desperate to do), and he absolutely scarfed food faster than I've ever seen a cat do it - he was practically unhinging his jaw to shovel it in. I'm so glad he didn't throw up. We put him out later, but during the night, he yelled some more, and we let him in, and he curled up on our bed. So that was that.

We put up some signs, called the local vet to see if anybody knew anything, but we were okay with his owners not being found (with how starved he was, I have no idea when the last time he saw them was). So now he's our Oliver (get it?). And we have FOUR cats. That's ridiculous. But he needed us. It's funny how much he adopted us - he was never the least bit nervous about us, he just hopped right in. For the first few days, he spent all day in my lap as I worked. Those days he was sleeping almost all the time and eating the rest of the time, so he was obviously doing some heavy recovering. Now he's a lot more like a normal cat, but he still always sleeps on our bed and likes to be around us. You'd think he'd been with us for years. Several times we let him outside to see if he'd run off to wherever he belongs, and he did disappear the first time. Then 10 minutes later, he was yelling at a window on the other side of the house. So he wasn't ready to go anywhere.

The really nice thing is that the other cats don't mind him like they did Bonsai when he arrived. And best of all, he's a playmate/victim for Bonsai to wrestle with, which has really saved the other two. Hard to imagine, but adding another cat has made things more peaceful and made all our cats happier (despite some initial hissing... but not much!).
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  Dead Forum 12:46 PM -- Thu May 12, 2005  

Yep, I know the forum is down... something apparently went horribly wrong when I tried to upgrade it. I'm trying to get help now, who knows when it will be fixed! I just hope we don't lose anything. So anyway, hang out and play some Ninja Academy while you wait.
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  Sneak Peek: Ninja Academy 04:47 PM -- Wed May 11, 2005  


Well, it's done! With only 2 hours to spare before the deadline, I've hacked together something reasonably playable. It's definitely not what I wanted to accomplish, but it's a game, and with the deadline for the contest past, I can get to work turning it into a real game. It's gonna be really good when it's fully editable and has more interesting enemies and things. Here's a handy download link to try it out for yourself:
Ninja Academy (2 MB)
Be sure to drop by the Other Games forum to post your records. Can you even pass the Final Exam? I sure haven't yet.
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  Artificial Butter Flavoring 05:25 PM -- Wed May 4, 2005  

Well, it's been a while, I think. I'm working on the ninja game. I think what I will do is submit the small version of it to the contest and call that Ninja Academy. It will be themed accordingly, with your enemies being training dummies and whatnot. Then the big version to come out later will be Super Happy Go Go Ninja Time with a more diverse world. I put up a sneak peek so you can see how it looks right now (well, it looks like that only with a lot less JPG artifacts).

In addition to that, another big bit of news is that we are now on the new Supreme CDs! Only Supreme right now, that was my initial test. And boy did it go badly at first - the day they got set up (yesterday) I got an email from a Canadian customer concerned about the SIXTY DOLLAR shipping charge. So I had to iron some things out a bit. I'm not sure it's all good yet, but it's sure getting there. Hopefully fast, since I already ordered the Kid Mystic and Loonyland CDs. It's kind of a mess though, since the Buy page is still set up for the flat $5 charge. It's a tad confusing if you order a Supreme CD. We're working it out though.

And last big news is that the Monthly Merge has begun! Create a level and win a fabulous prize. Click the link to learn more. I need to get the Monthly Newsletter out so I can announce that to the world.
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  Sneak Peek: Ninja Academy 05:19 PM -- Wed May 4, 2005  


Here's a shot of the current state. It is now playable, by the way! The background is all temporary artwork of course, but check out those snazzy 3D blocks. Oh, and the throwing stars are a temp scribble too - they kinda look nifty though. This screenshot is reduced, the game actually runs at 800x600 resolution.

It's pretty cool to see how much you can do with one button (although a bunch of the attacks aren't actually in yet, so there will be even more!). In this shot I am jumping over the training dummy and tossing throwing stars all over. It's kinda tricky to control since obviously you don't have a lot of options, and everything relies on timing. The hardest thing is to throw a star where you want it. I may end up with auto-aimed stars, or at least some level of aim assistance. But I'm getting better at it, and I can see it being that sort of game, like (what else?) Tony Hawk, where you can build up your skills and develop into a combo-making machine. Now I've just got to get the actual conflict ability in there so you can pound on the wooden training dummy I made instead of just walking into it and making it slide across the floor. I really think this will be cool! The editor is powerful, but not easy to use - you can create your own characters and moves via text files. I have to work much much faster than I have been - I need something contest-winner-worthy by May 11th!!
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  Ninja Havoc 05:45 PM -- Wed April 27, 2005  

I'm working really hard on the 1-button ninja game now. It's still not playable, but there's a level editor (and yes, you can make your own badguys!). I've also rendered out all the animations for the ninja himself, which are a surprising number considering the whole thing is controlled with just one button. Let's hope it turns out playable and fun!

Yesterday we had a little jam session trying to come up with a name for the game. What do you think? I was setting some rules:

1. The game name can not be the name of the main character, or any other character (i.e. "Dr. Lunatic"). I'm tired of doing that.
2. It also can't be a description of him ("Tubby Ninja" for example), because then people will just end up calling him that anyway, even though it's not his name.
3. I want the name to somehow reflect the fact that it's a 1-button game, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that.

Some general areas of naming we explored were Wacky Japanese Names like "Super Happy Go Go Ninja Time", Ninja Move Names like "Single Talon Eagle Claw" (note how that cleverly implies the one button play!) or "Lotus ...something", and Kung Fu Movie Names like ... well, I can't think of one now, but a real one is "Iron Monkey". Oh, we also thought about basic video game names like what I titled this journal entry.
I do kinda like Super Happy Go Go Ninja Time, and for that matter, Ninja Havoc isn't too bad. So, do you have any ideas? Don't forget to make it ridiculous! Maybe the right thing will come to mind once it's playable and I'm playing it.
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  Contest Ahoy! 05:54 PM -- Wed April 20, 2005  

While participating in the LD48 contest, I learned of another contest! One of the themes that was in the final running for LD48 was "1 Button Games" (meaning games you control entirely with a single button, no joystick or anything), and I got really excited about that, and came up with a bunch of ideas that would work so well. That theme actually ended up coming in 2nd (3rd?), I believe, which is why we did Light & Darkness. But now it turns out that the guys at Retro Remakes are hosting a 1-button game development contest! How outrageously convenient! You get a wee bit more than 48 hours, as the final date is May 11th, and as a result, I've fleshed out my one favorite idea. I won't be using the whole timeframe (I sure hope), but a few days for sure. I believe that I can make this game good enough to sell alongside my other ones. Wouldn't that be something? A one-button game you'd pay money for? Obviously, that means more development to crank out cool levels and features to expand it beyond a super quickie. But it'll still all be 1 button. I know the idea is awesome enough to do it, it's all down to the execution now. I hope I can pull it off!

A cool thing is that the reason they are running the game is to get some games that can go up on oneswitch.org.uk, which is a site dedicated to "one-switch" games, for people who are disabled and can't operate a full-fledged game. What makes that extra funky is that it means even the game menus have to be operated with a single button. So the menus might be a little awkward. But it should be fun to play!

How can you resist the real ultimate power?!
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  New CD Style 04:59 PM -- Tue April 19, 2005  

As promised a long while back, here's what the new CD cases look like. What do you think?


They're SKINNY! I really like them, though obviously they don't have the artistic value of the DVD cases. But they've got their own charm. And look how nicely my thumbnail is trimmed! I believe the new CD price will be about $5, plus shipping cost (somewhere around $1 in the US, maybe $1.60 for Canada and Mexico, more elsewhere). So it's going up from the former flat $5, by whatever actual shipping costs to your location happen to be.

I still have a hundred or so blank CDs and cases and all. What do you think about limited edition signed copies of the old style? Would anybody care?

PS - we're still on the old style. The new style is slowly dribbling into place.
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  Game over 01:12 PM -- Sun April 17, 2005  

Okay, I'm all done with room to spare. There's now even really crappy background music! But it doesn't matter how much time I had, the music wasn't going to be good. So if you'd like to try out my 48 hour game Habitat For Horror, click right here! It's 2.4mb, and it's not bad I think. I can't quite tell if it's a good game or not, so you tell me. Now it's time to relax and enjoy the half day of weekend I have left. See you tomorrow, peopleses.

Whoa, uh oh, I forgot to put up the source code! I would've been disqualified!
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  Pretty much done 11:09 PM -- Sat April 16, 2005  

Well, now there are 10 levels (some of which made me feel kind of clever, and others of which pummeled me fairly mercilessly... I think this may have actual challenge and gameplay... or maybe it's just pure luck), a level select menu, help screens, winning, losing, sound effects, and who knows what else. It's really finished. So I'm thinking about adding one of several alternative dangers. My wife just came up with a really cool one, though I don't know how on earth to do the artwork for it. Here's one of the exciting new levels in action:
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