Current projects: update
Well…you have an idea until you get a new one.
Three weeks into it and I’ve made the decision to abandon my Alien PBeM game before I sink too much time into it.
Several reasons:
I’ve already spent a lot of time on it, and I really like how many of the things work quite well so far, but the structure of the whole thing, and me not planning things out too well in the beginning and just charging ahead with it, has made the source a bit messy already, and I’m not looking forward to keep adding to it.
But I’m just not feelin’ the love for this project and I’d rather work on something I really want to do, than to keep working on something I find it hard to believe I’ll be satisfied with in the time I have for it. I’m getting slightly depressed by the thought of having to work on this for another 6 weeks.
Luckily I’m my own boss though. 
So for now it’s abandoned. It pains me, but perhaps I’ll resurrect it later. Who knows.
The good thing is that I can now get back to projects I feel a lot move love for, like….well, just looks above. 
Happy new year 2009/2010
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The New Year is nearly upon us and I just wanted to write a little something about the past year before the booze goes in and the brains go out. This will be a more traditional New Year for me than last year where I was in Cambodia, but this year I’m not travelling and will celebrate with friends at home. Development wise, the past year has been very productive for me. Three games developed in 2009 and another two pretty advanced (but slightly stalled) WIP’s in development – Psycho Pigs UXB & Horace in the Mystic Woods – means I haven’t been wasting too much time. If I’m cheeky and include December of last year I can add another three games to that list – Zektor, Space Fury & Dingo, although to be fair they were made in the three months before December. Still, that’s six games in about 16 months – that’s basically half my entire output. Busy, busy, busy. I was even approached for an interview by Retro Gamer Magazine which resulted in an interview in their July 2009 issue as a ‘Homebrew Hero‘. The cool thing about that is that, not only have I been subscribing to the magazine for 5 ears, but also because I was now featured in a column when a lot of other people I admire have appeared. Programming wise I hope 2010 won’t be as busy. My plan is to finish the 3 WIP’s I have started (the third being X-Quest 2) and hopefully not be too distracted by new projects along the way. I hope you all had a great Christmas and it that you’ll enter the New Year safely and surrounded by friends or family…and that your hangover will only last a very short time. Stay safe…and come back soon. /Soks. |
…and because it’s all about remaking I’ll just re-post the same picture I used two years ago.  |
Long needed overhaul.
Finally I’ve decided on a new theme for my site. I’ve looked at hundreds of themes and ended up with about 10 choices, but I still couldn’t commit to one because none of them really satisfied all my requirements. Among other things I wanted was something more simple and elegant than my previous site – something that also looked “less designed”. Well, the answer was right in front of me the whole time. I decided to try the theme used at Retro Remakes – just for fun really, and actually saw most of the things I wanted right there. An acknowledgment of their good choice.
A bit of tweaking later and here it is.
There is now also a subsection called “Works in progress” to get an easier overview of what I’m working on.
- Nothing there yet though.
A new section called “Other retro stuff” which will be used for retrostuff that falls outside my own games.
I’ve added an RSS feed and soon there will also be Gravatar support.
However, it’ll be a few days until I’ve completed tweaking old posts and pictures to look better under this theme.
Perhaps I can get my ass in gear soon and ramp up my programming efforts. I’m only programming about once a week and that unfortunately means I’m getting close to nowhere with my WIP’s…and I so want to get on with my projects.
See you later.
/Sokurah
Falling down
Not just the title of the song I’ve just listened to, but also a description of my state of mind. Well, actually that may be exaggerating just a bit – I’m not about to go into a Burger King, waving a gun and complain why the burger I got didn’t look like the one picture, but I’m not my normal self either. Depressed?…dunno – a bit perhaps, but when it comes to programming I AM feeling a bit burned out. So, Am I really burned out on programming or am I just having a midlife crisis?
This is all very existential and I wish I had an answer to it. As for the ‘midlife crisis’ – I am having my 41st birthday today (see, notice I didn’t write ‘I’m celebrating my…‘? But, I don’t actually think it’s a ‘real’ midlife crisis (wouldn’t it make more sense if I’d had it a year ago then?) – why would I lose my ‘programming-mojo’ just because I’m having a birthday? – no, I’ve actually not felt like like doing anything much, programming wise, for the last month or so. Don’t know why but it’s probably more likely to be the stress of needing graphics for a game and not feeling like doing it, and then completely losing my drive all together because of it…I think (and to be quite honest there are a few other non-programming factors involved as well).
Basically it means that I won’t be able to finish my project for The RR CD50 Project by the end of june as planned. Unfortunately.
It’ll still get done though. Perhaps if there’s enough contributions to the project this one can get on CD2 but it won’t be finished in 3 weeks as planned.
For what it’s worth I can’t be completely burned out because I’ve actually started up 2 new projects up over the last couple of weeks (both are games that are pretty light on graphics) and these will be finished – just as my other projects, but I just don’t want the stress of absolutely having to finish something specific to meet any sort of deadline right now.
For now I just need to recharge my mental batteries and fool around with something fun for a while. More ‘news’ when I feel like it.
Still here, still alive…
Just in case anyone was wondering – yes, I’m still walking amongst the living.
Not much has been happening the month or so since my last update…well, not concerning programming anyway.
The big thing has been my trip to New York. It went very well. A complete success. The main reason for the trip was to see (and hear, natch) Pat Benatar in concert. I’ve been a fan of hers for about 28 years so I thought it was about time I got to see her perform live…and I did…and it was good. Getting to go sightseeing and walking for millions of miles (roughly) was just an…added bonus. Anyway, after initially being seated in a slightly-less-than-optimal spot I got up and spoke to the manager (thanks Joel) and just happened to mention ”that I’d come 5000 miles for the concert” (which was true) and y’know what? – I got the BEST seat in the house. WHOAH! I even shook her hand after the concert. Ahh, bliss (…and ‘yes’ I have washed my hands since then) Now, I hope to go back the next time she performs in NY and hopefully I can get my best friend to join me.
Speaking of my best friend – he’s drawn the main character for the game I’m doing for The RR CD50 Project. It’s really cute – it’s like a combination of an upright walking anteater and an armadillo (well, I guess you’d have to see it). Not that I’ve made any notable progress on the game itself, but I have added a few bits and bobs to it though. There’s still about 2 months to complete the project but I still I expect to make some progress in the near future…which should be possible now that I’ve completed another time consuming project I’ve been working on -playing Burnout Paradise on my Xbox 360!
Yeah, I just completed Burnout Paradise today.
ONE HUNDRED FUCKING HOURS!
70 HOURS OF FUCKING BEING ANNOYED!
Well, at least I won’t be playing that anymore. Next game up for me is Mass Effect but a friend of mine just completed it in 27 hours so I don’t really see that as a big task. 
…funny really – I have a rule. Well, it’s not an absolute rule and it’s not as simple as black and white, but for years, when I’ve selected which PC games to play, I’ve always checked the ‘estimated time to completion’ first. If a game would (estimated) take more than 15 hours to complete it would be in danger of not being selected to be played – if it would take more than 20 hours then it would most likely not be played at all. I just don’t have the patience for long games anymore.
…so how come I’ve been playing that damn Burnout game for a 100 hours? (and I’m not even going to tell you that it feels like 200 hours or something corny like that – it feels just like 100 hours…although mostly annoying ones). Actually, I’ve played all the Burnout games for more than 50 hours, so there’s something to think about. It must be that pick-up-and-play-in-short-bursts thing that most racing games has – I don’t really have to remember a bunch of backstory and plot. I can just sit down and play in short bursts whenever I have the time and want to, without having to remember where the fuck I’ve been and what to do next, after getting back to a game after 3 weeks.
…and that’s probably what I love retrogames so much – simple, honest, fun gaming. No pretentious, badly written, uninterresting storylines….just pick up and play and have fun!
Just to pad this post even further I’ll tell you what DVD’s I’ve bought over the last week or so;
Wonderfalls, season 1 (…unfortunately that’s all there is)
L.A.Story
Down with Love
Houseboat (Cary Grant & Sophia Loren) (1958)
Monkey Business (Cary Grant & Marilyn Monroe) (1952)
Arsenic and old Lace (Cary Grant) (1944)
Ben Hur (1959)
The Ten Commandments (1956)
Spartacus (1960)
Cleopatra (1963)
The Third Man (1949)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Tick, season 2 (Spoon!)
Dark Angel – seasons 1 & 2
The Hunt for Red October
This is not a normal week for me though – there’s more “old stuff” than normal, but no-ones gonna tell me that I’m only into new flashy action movies.
It’s late and I’m tired. Thanks for reading. I’ve you’ve got any comments, please let me know.
PS. also, there might me a website redesign coming soon.
See you soon!
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Come back soon…