Category: General

Categories
General

The Recent (and Current) Downtime

If you’re lucky enough to see this message, it is because you finally managed to connect to the site’s server for the random few seconds it allows me to do so throughout the day.

Basically, my webhost moved my site to a new server, but had issues moving their DNS servers. The old ones expired, but the new ones aren’t yet setup. I don’t understand why it is still possible for me to access the site at all, but hopefully the site will become stable soon.

I apologize for the delay, and I thank you for your patience.

Categories
General Linux Game Development

The Death of John “overcode” Hall

Returning from Grand Rapids, I was shocked to learn that John “overcode” Hall had lost his war with stage IV melanoma on September 17th. I had posted about John Hall’s battle previously. He is the author of Programming Linux Games and used to work at Loki.

From his War blog:

One of my main purposes in blogging this is to alarm people into getting suspicious moles checked out by a doctor immediately. If you are even remotely concerned about anything on your skin, please make an appointment with a doctor today. You definitely won’t regret it.

Definitely good advice that merits repeating.

A number of people close to him have written on the subject, such as Ryan Gordon and Jamie Fristrom.

It was Stéphane Peter‘s post that really threw me for a loop. Up until I saw it, I didn’t realize how young John Hall was when he had died. I had assumed that he was young, but still a bit older than I am. I thought he was maybe 40 years old. It turns out that he was born only a year before I was. A YEAR!

In about the same span of time that I’ve been alive, the man became a pilot, a published author, a game programmer, and a musician among other roles. And on top of it all, he put up a valiant fight against cancer. According to people who knew him, he was enthusiastic, ambitious, and incredibly motivated. He was also a good friend and family member. I wish I would have known him or at least talked to him on IRC.

I didn’t know him, and yet the news of his death really hit home. Family members have died without stirring so much emotion in me. I didn’t know why it affected me so much, but I thought about it for some time. I’ve determined the following possible reasons:

  • For one, I’ve had almost the same amount of time as he did on this planet. Nothing stopped me from accomplishing great things in that time. How did I squander it? What did I do besides graduate from college?
  • For another, while I have been interested in improving my general health, I’ve been procrastinating with seeing a doctor for a physical as well as getting new health insurance to replace my expired plan. The application was frustrating to fill out, to be sure, but it was not so bad as to have delayed me for over a month. My eyes have been bothering me for months (I can read but I’m not sure why it is somewhat more difficult), but I haven’t gone to have them checked out. One of my knees was painful for months at a time, and I never went to see a doctor about it. It cracks loudly when I extend my leg these days.
  • Finally, what about my major goals in life? What are they? What’s taking me so long to define them and start making progress?

I feel terrible thinking about my own mortality because I feel like I am doing his memory a disservice by talking about me. On the other hand, I think the death of a person who has some connection to you, no matter how surprising the connection may be, is cause for introspection. It puts things into perspective. In the end, I know I have no excuses for what I have done or haven’t done, but I also know that I can’t just wallow in my past failures. My life shouldn’t be wasted by waiting for the perfect time. My life shouldn’t be wasted by waiting for the perfect circumstances. I’m living it, whether I’m ready or not. Time will pass, whether I’m happy with the moments or not. In the time I can do so, I would like to actually make a difference.

My thoughts and prayers go out to John Hall’s family and friends. He sounded like someone to look up to, and I know at the very least that he has inspired me.

Categories
General

Report: Grand Rapids Schmooze 2005

I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan on September 15th, 16th, and 17th for the Grand Rapids Schmooze. The GRS is basically an informal get-together of people involved in the shareware industry. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I figured it would be good to hear from people already in the industry I want to get into. I made my hotel reservations, printed out the directions, and away I went.

First Day

At the last minute my girlfriend decided to accompany me, and we both drove out from Chicago. I thought it would be a four hour drive, but we didn’t have to stop for gas. We got there with half a tank left, and plenty of time to spare. No traffic! We checked into the hotel. I brought my Gamecube, and we both brought plenty of books. Like I said, I didn’t know what to expect.

I was there fairly early, but I got to meet a few people, including our host Sheila Manning. There was plenty of food and drinks throughout the Schmooze, which is good because hotel food is expensive. B-)

The first day was full of talk of the Shareware Industry Conference and other events about which I had no idea, but I figured I would pick up on the inside jokes soon enough.

Second Day

After breakfast (read: donuts), a number of us went to see the ITT Game Design Club (WARNING: heavy use of Flash). We got a tour of the ITT campus as well as free lunch. I got a chance to talk to a few of the students and faculty there. I thought I wouldn’t have much to say compared to some of the other Schmoozers, but I was surprised to find that my throat was getting dry by the end. I was asked about what classes I would have found useful, and the discussion eventually turned to a number of topics including games in politics and female gamers. I even managed to procure a small toy cow provided by the Schmoozers from Tucows.

After returning to the hotel, we spent the rest of the time schmoozing. Some of the people from the ITT GDC came by and played Magic: The Gathering while a number of people went out for dinner. I missed out on going to Big Boy, but Applebee’s was good.

I found another fan of Total Annihilation, and everyone always gets a kick out of hearing about my fairy ninja in Wizardry 8. I also heard that Homeworld 2 had some serious flaws, but I’m still interested in getting a copy of the game. It’s a blast to hear some of Gregg’s stories from the trenches of Spectrum Holobyte and Thomas Hruska‘s TI-82 games.

Third Day

Besides Schmoozing during the day, Gregg Seelhoff hosted a campfire. A number of us attended, including my girlfriend, Thomas Warfield, Tim and Sharon Thousand, and Loren and Kim Brewer. We successfully started a campfire, successfully grilled some hamburgers and hotdogs, and I successfully got the beanbags through the hole of the game that Loren and Kim brought. And I just lost The Game.

While most of the people brought tents to stay the night, I drove back to the hotel with my girlfriend and Thomas Warfield. Before going to bed my girlfriend and I stayed up a bit to play more Wind Waker. We finally got the first piece of the Triforce!

The Return

I meant to go to the Schmooze Room to help Sheila clean a bit before leaving, but when I got there the room was locked. I assume she left earlier. Traffic was great on the way back…until we hit Chicago. It honestly felt like the trip time doubled once we got in the city.

I realize that the above is not very exciting, but since most of the Schmooze is basically Schmoozing, it is kind of hard to describe in detail. You had to be there. B-) I’m definitely attending the next one, which is apparently going to be in Indiana. No Big Boy there, unfortunately. If it is anything like this one, it should be a lot of fun.

After being gone for so many days without access to the World Wide Web, it is natural that I would miss out one some news. These items don’t all have the same relative importance, but I am simply listing them here:

I’ll have something to say about the last two items in separate posts. The last one especially shook me up pretty bad, and I didn’t even know the guy personally.

Categories
General

My Blog Software Has Been Upgraded

While I figure that people reading in this post in the future will find it confusing, my webhost finally moved my site to the new server, and I found that I could finally upgrade WordPress to version 1.5!

Of course, it means it will be awhile before I decide on a new template and customize it a bit to make it more like home. Later, I will post an update on what’s been going on for the past week, including information about the Grand Rapids Schmooze and the news I missed out on while I was there.

Categories
General

Grand Rapids Schmooze

I’ll be gone for the rest of the week. Also, my webhost will likely move my website to a new machine on Saturday or Sunday, so I will be making this blog static until I return home. By static, I mean that I won’t be able to accept comments or trackbacks, nor will I be making new posts during this time.

I will be attending the Grand Rapids Schmooze, which should be a great opportunity to meet shareware developers. The ITT Game Design Club will be hosting a luncheon and SophSoft, Incorporated / Digital Gamecraft will be hosting a campfire.

It should be great fun, and I’ll be sure to post about it.

Categories
Geek / Technical General

Building a Better Game Blog

Video game blogs: the next level is a post on Aeropause on the topic of writing a better blog in general and a game blog in particular.

I actually gave Eats, Shoots, and Leaves to my girlfriend, so I might borrow the book from her one day. I’m also interested in reading 31 Days to Building a Better Blog. I never intended to make money from my blog. I don’t blog professionally (although one might think that I spend enough time doing so at the expense of other things I SHOULD be doing professionally) so I don’t think all of the advice will be relevant, but I should be able to gain some insight into better blogging.

Categories
General

I’m Published in The Escapist

I wrote a letter to The Escapist and it got published. Reading it again, I see it isn’t that great of a letter so it’s not quite something to be incredibly proud of. Hopefully my suggestion of moving the navigation bar from the bottom to the top would be taken into consideration. It’s really annoying reading that magazine online, and I don’t always have access to a printer.

I think I might try to submit an article for a later issue. which would be something more newsworthy. But hey, this is my blog. I get to print whatever I want. B-)

Categories
Geek / Technical General

Creative Writing Prompts

Prompts to start you writing provides a link to a site to help you get into the writing mood. The Imagination Prompt Generator actually generates topics for you to write about.

Some examples that came up when I tried it out:

“One thing I want to learn right now is…”
“If you could pass on a piece of advice that meant a lot to you when you received it, what would it be?”
“____ was my favorite cartoon because…”

And you can just keep going until you find one that appeals to you, write for a few minutes, and BOOM, you’re in the writing mood and can start writing whatever it is you wanted to write. It reminds me of the creative writing exercises I did in grade school.

I searched for a similar site for hacking prompts, but I decided that it probably isn’t a good thing to encourage people to code creatively. It’s not like writing. I thought that maybe I can get into the coding mood if I write a simple, 10-line program based on a suggestion. I think it is more accurate to say that if I am having issues getting into the mood to program, I probably don’t have a very clear reason to program. I shouldn’t just sit down to a blank file and start hacking. I should have some specific goal. Why am I coding? I should design it on paper and try to figure out what details I’ll need. I can be creative coming up with solutions in that phase, but I should not be creative with the actual code.

Categories
Game Design General

Your Writing Style

Conversational Writing Kicks Formal Writing’s Ass is another insightful post on Creating Passionate Users that say that formal writing, as nice and professional as it is, is less effective at teaching than conversational writing is. Conversational writing does something to the brain that makes it act as if it is involved in an actual conversation and so forces the reader to pay attention much more than formal writing would. You just remember certain things easier this way.

I’ve mentioned before that I am always interested in learning how to write more effectively, and this post had some good points. Of course, besides writing better, I’m wondering how this principle might apply to game development. Specificially, how do I make games that you would respond to (notice I said you instead of “the gamer” or some other third person term)?

“You Win!” was always more exciting than “Player 1 Wins!” or “GIAN is the winner!”

In RPGs, it is common to meet NPCs that talk to your character. Even though the main character in Chrono Trigger never talked back, the conversation was more compelling because you really only controlled the main character when walking around. People were talking to YOU vicariously through the character, and it was all the more real when you used your real name in the game.

Is your game an educational title? Perhaps you should make the text in the game more conversational and appear to involve the player more. I don’t think it all needs to be second-person “you” and “your”, but you definitely don’t want anything to appear stuffy and formal.

Are the instructions for a game more understandable if you say, “If you wish to access the main menu, hit ESC” rather than “Hit ESC for main menu”?

What about marketing? Can your website become more conversational? Does it sound too much like a thesis? Would changing some sentences or whole sections make the game more memorable and therefore more likely to bring back a potential customer to make a purchase?

The post, like many on that blog, has given me some things to think about.

Categories
General

Change in Hosting

I just found out that my webhost will be changing the server I am hosted on this weekend. I will have to basically shut off the blog so that no moving parts are running while everything is moved to a new machine. That means no comments, trackbacks, or posts until the move is finished and the DNS entry gets updated.

Hopefully it won’t take too long, but hey, it isn’t like I am selling anything on this site yet so it won’t be a huge interruption in service, right?