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  In related news... 01:23 PM -- Mon February 9, 2009  

"A $2 billion allocation intended to push universal broadband service into rural areas of the United States has been cut from President Obama's economic stimulus package."

COME ON!!! It's blizzarding on my satellite dish!
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  Snow Day 01:17 PM -- Mon February 9, 2009  

It's another one of those fine blizzard days, I will probably not have much internet access! I didn't have any this morning, just visiting now, and the blizzard is kicking up a notch, so I think I will probably not be long for this virtual world... sorry if I don't get to your emails before I lose it!
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  Dumb Packed 03:09 PM -- Thu February 5, 2009  

Looks like the Dumb Pack is just about there. I don't doubt more issues will appear, but that's why it's nice that it's so easy to update! I've put up the trophies and awards for it on the Dumb Pages. So it's good. I'll just need to release the next patch which fixes the issues people have noticed lately (holding off until tomorrow to see what else pops up), and update the game info page so it doesn't try to warn you against buying it anymore! And of course do the stupid newsletter I have been procrastinating (but besides procrastination, it is appropriate for it to be delayed until the game is out for real, right? I want to announce it!).

Then that's it! I'm moving on. I am moving on to Loonyland Tactics. I have a great idea about the development of this game, but I'm going to have to do some testing first to make sure it's feasible and wise, so I will probably delay the start of development for a week or so first while I work on those other things. Wouldn't it be nice if I did some Costume Party marketing in the meantime?

I've also been thinking about and planning for this year's PAX! It's a tad premature, but Phil Hassey and I have been talking about sharing a booth, so I got to tinkering in my brain with what I would be doing in my booth. I'll definitely have game CDs available, and it occurred to me that not only do I want to sell T-shirts there, but it's the ideal opportunity to go ahead and get a full-size T-shirt run produced! Sure, they'll be sitting around the house taking up space needlessly for now as the orders barely trickle in, but since I'll need to have a bunch handy for the show anyway, why not get them now? Then I can have shirts up on the site all nice and normal and fancy. I'm trying to go for ones with appeal beyond just Hamumu, and the two that have really caught my brain have been the No-Pumpkins shirt (I have no idea why that hadn't occurred to me before it was mentioned on the forum!), and a classier version of the "I Am Dumb" shirt, with a warning sign style to it. Like you're letting people know in advance, so they can be careful. So come on out to PAX this year (it'll be in Seattle at the end of August, I believe), meet us, buy some CDs and T-shirts, and check out what we are up to!

Maybe I'll arrange a secret code phrase so true Hamumians can get a sneak peek at whatever I am working on then, while the lesser mortals just get to play the existing games. The secret code will probably be "Hey, I'm from the forums!"

Oh, and speaking of Phil, he's hosting this month's Mini-LD, which is this weekend! Unfortunately, so is our Groundhog's Day party (featuring Rock Band!), so I don't know how much participating in Mini-LD I will be doing.
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  Will the debate ever end!? 04:03 PM -- Fri January 30, 2009  

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  Dumb Pack Beta Is Here! 03:36 PM -- Thu January 29, 2009  

Costume Party Dumb Pack Pre-release Beta!
Go get it. I've already fixed a bunch of things, so it ain't perfect (it's a beta!). Maybe it's actually an alpha... betas are feature-complete, and this is missing 5 tiles and a lot of sounds. Anyway, it's available and as wondrous as you ever dared dream (minus 5 tiles).

Since release, so far, I've fixed Yerfdog's inhale effects (inhaled guys didn't trigger switches they got pulled over, but they do now), added a display of what he's inhaled, Happy Stick's clinging (he remained airborne if you clung to a colored block that vanished), made the remaining tutorials, and fixed an issue with the E-Crates! Those fixes will appear in the next patch in a day or two, hopefully along with lots more new stuff. I'm currently debating exactly what to do with the remaining 5 tiles. I feel like Squashes should be in there somewhere, but there's already Pumpkins, and I'm not even sure what the Squashes should be able to do.
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  B.B.B.B.M.M. 11:52 AM -- Tue January 27, 2009  

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  Dumb Packin' 03:19 PM -- Mon January 26, 2009  

I don't want to spoil too much of the fun, so I'll skip sharing too many details and tricks, and just say that I completely redid how wires worked today, and they now look sorta better in a way, although there is one thing I bet people will complain about, and I'll leave that for you to discover (and complain about!). Mainly though, they function better. They used to use bullets for the sparks, and it was very easy to completely overload the bullet limit by filling wires with sparks. Now there is no limit on sparks, except that multiple sparks that share a space (if they are heading in the same direction) become one, so, effectively I guess there is a limit of the number of tiles onscreen times four. Anyway, it doesn't slow things down anymore, it's great.

When electricity gets to the end of a wire, it shoots out bullets as 'sparks'. They're only harmful to the player. I should probably add a Blaster device that does the same but harmful to enemies. That way you could benefit. I've also added electrifiable floors (usable as an alternate type of wire, as well), pushable blocks that conduct electricity, and special wires that make sparks multiply. Oh, and the batteries I was talking about. There are a whole lot of potential tricks involving all these devices, so enjoy.

In other news, I've decided the best way to get this tested, best deal for you and for me, is the same deal we had with Loonyland 2! This week, I'm going to get pre-orders set up, so you can buy the Dumb Pack in advance and try it out. I get my testing, you get to play early. Everybody wins. I guess I need to get to work on some sound effects and music pretty soon... still a few tiles to go, too.

The real question is, which music is most appropriate for each of these characters? Yerfdog's never had a song, unless you'd like to hear the "doo-doo-doot-di-dit-doot HAMUMU!" song repeated endlessly. And Bouapha's got tons of songs. I don't know which is fitting. Happy Stick Ninja is new... but there's the secret music from Dr. Lunatic, which would fit since that was where happy stick was born. Then again, he's a ninja. Maybe he should have the Ninja Academy rockin' tune. And no, still don't know quite what background image would be good either. Maybe green hills and sunshine, to go with the Cliffside tiles.
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  Sneak Peek: Costume Party Dumb Pack 12:08 PM -- Fri January 23, 2009  



New stuff! Only three new things, two of which are kind of old. Yes, after all the desperate demands, we now have sideways spikes. The third new thing is very interesting, and I'm mainly posting a sneak peek so I can get lots of ideas for them.

They're Wires. They go on the overlay layer, and automatically connect up, like roads in Simcity (I was actually inspired in the first place watching my wife play Zoo Tycoon and lay out paths). If you have one wired up to a pressure plate or switch (you can see both in this pic), then stepping on the plate/switch will send a spark down the wire. You can also wire them to Targets, and they'll spark when you shoot the Target. You can see two sparks on the upper wire in this picture, if you look closely. So what do the sparks do?
  • Detonate Blast Bricks (see left)
  • Light or unlight Fireplaces (see upper right)
  • Open doors (see lower right)
  • Notice the upper Kid is standing on a Switch... but that Switch isn't down! How is that possible!? Sparks pop Switches back up! That's why there's a loop in the wire.
So far, that's all sparks can do. But doesn't it seem like there should be more? I want to have a light bulb you can light up, but that's tricky to decide just what tiles it would create (also, since Wires go in the overlay layer, the wire would prevent light from happening in its space!).

So I'm just asking for ideas. Either existing things that should react when sparked in some way, or new things that the sparks could be used with. One idea I really like is a Battery. Each time a spark gets to it, it goes inside, and once the battery is full, it empties and... something!? I am not sure. A simple idea is that when full it fires a spark upward, so you could have something where you need to get 8 sparks to go into a battery in order to get a door open (because the battery then sends one spark to the door). Want to need 64 sparks instead? Stack two batteries on top of each other! Each time the bottom one fills, it will fire one spark into the upper one. 512 Sparks? 3 Batteries.

Another idea I sorta like is if a wire runs into water (both being in the Overlay layer, you can't actually string wire through water), it could shoot out Blast Brick shots when a spark hits the water. Maybe it's better to just have a Blaster that fires a shot each time a spark hits it. Maybe dead-end wires should always shoot out a little blast of Lasers each time a spark gets there, to simulate sparking electricity, and to be dangerous. I think I will do that one at least right now!

P.S. Dumb Pack Status: 15/25 tiles.
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  Spam Spam Spam Spam 09:55 AM -- Fri January 23, 2009  

It has happened! I hit the big time! Someone bothered to make a bot to spam my journal comments! So now I implemented a 'captcha'. Try posting a comment and you'll see it. It's mighty tricky! I hope you can figure it out.

In other news, I got Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour after Christmas. Yay! I got them on the Wii, which meant a whole new set of instruments. I was not happy with that, but it means I can now download songs and if I had an internet, I could do the various internet options. It won't connect to that on my satellite, but thankfully it will connect to the music store. I downloaded a Disturbed song (not Still Alive yet - the Wii has a limited selection, they're gradually adding the songs in).

Guitar Hero is a pale imitation of Rock Band. It's really kinda sad. The thing that kills me the most about it is that, apparently in an effort to be "rock n' roll!!!!", the fonts in it are horrible and unreadable. When singing, I have to squint and lean right into the tv to try to understand. When it says what song you're doing, it's like a game in itself trying to guess what they say. It's not just the fonts, though. Like all the different types of notes you can have look almost identical. Where in Rock Band you get these glowing white notes for energy that you can't miss, in Guitar Hero, you just get normal notes that are star shaped. They stand out, but not that much. There are a pile of other note types that are also very slightly different.

Rock Band 2 arrived later, so we had Guitar Heroed for a few days first, and it was such a breath of fresh air! Such nice clean fonts, such fun touring madness and earning of fans! Guitar Hero does have some superiority - a way better intro movie (for whatever that's worth), the music studio feature (but Rock Band has a very cool drum training program that really helps!), and better/more character customization. Oh, and you can do cool stuff on the GH guitar. Guitar Hero drums, by the way, are terrible. Expect to be returning parts or whole drum kits if you buy some (I am currently waiting on a replacement cymbal and microphone... luckily, Rock Band only uses one cymbal, so I am still rocking on my chosen platform!).

Rock Band 2 is far and away the better game, and I suspect the drums on it are way better, probably because they're not velocity sensitive. I had weeks of going back and forth adjusting the sensitivity on these drums and dealing with the broken cymbal. On the other hand, Guitar Hero drums have one plus: a nice, solid, well-built foot pedal. But even that has a serious downside - it's not locked into the drum kit, so when you are kicking madly away, it starts to slowly crawl away from you. It has velcro under it which is supposed to help it stay in place on the carpet, and let me tell you, it does nothing.

I endorse Rock Band 2. Play it. It has Master Exploder in it (so does Guitar Hero, actually). My band is The Founding Muthas, featuring Abe Linkin and Mary Todd (I know Abe Lincoln wasn't one of the founding fathers, thank you). Originally it also had Martha W. and Benny Frank in it, but they were both kind of weird looking (Martha W. extremely), so last night they got replaced with B. Rock and Shelly O. I always get a kick out of Abe, he looks awesome. What Abe Lincoln would be if he was in Jimmy Eat World.
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  Sneak Peek: Costume Party Dumb Pack 07:38 PM -- Tue January 20, 2009  



Things coming together quickly now! Here's a little Dr. Lunatic themed scene for you. Pumpkins are very simple enemies, they just constantly head forward (turning if they hit a wall), walking right off ledges. They take only one hit, and are worth no points! The one that appears to be flying is actually just falling off of the Candle, which one can of course stand on like any ordinary candle.

Now why would an enemy be worth no points? Because of the Pumpkin Patch (half-hidden behind a Pumpkin)! These generate a Pumpkin every 2 seconds (alternating left and right). They'll stop generating when there are 10 Pumpkins of theirs around. As soon as you smash some, though, they start right up again to get it back up to 10. It takes 10 hits to destroy a Pumpkin Patch, and you get 200 points for it, so it's good stuff.

Of course, where there are Pumpkins, you need a Pumpkin Gate. It works just like a Bat Gate, but thankfully Pumpkins are much easier to beat without getting hit. It always bothered me how the only Gate available was for creatures that are such an incredible nuisance. It's also fun that you can be annoyed by Pumpkin Patches while trying to get one of these open.

And where there's Bouapha, you absolutely need Candles! They are worth 10 points each, unless you get them all - the last one is worth 500 points. However, like Keys and Hearts, they can be destroyed by enemies and spikes. If even one is destroyed, you can't get the bonus. So that could be used for some fun levels (and nicely, you can still pass the level without them, they are only worth points). As an added bonus, just for fun, Candles are destroyed if they hit water (can't burn in water!).

I'm at kind of a loss for what else to include that is truly based on our other games... Stockboy surely has several good choices (if tricky to implement...), but other than that, the games don't lend themselves that well to being put in this game. I thought a Moon Invader would be kind of cool, or a Killer Kiwi. Hooray for obscurity! I do have a few other things I'd like to get in, though. Not all particularly Dumb Pack style, but this is Costume Party Dumb Pack - if adding something is going to make Costume Party better and add more potential puzzles, that matters a whole lot more than shoehorning in things from other games.
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