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Southlake, TX
Imparting game development wisdom of dubious quality a ridiculously long time.
June 30, 2007
club.live.com is a harsh mistress.
Okay, not all that harsh but there's a truism about it that I didn't realize. Looking at the high score tables, the highest scorers all have very close scores (18000-19000 points). I discovered this around the same time that Flexicon told me that I had played all o…
Okay, not all that harsh but there's a truism about it that I didn't realize. Looking at the high score tables, the highest scorers all have very close scores (18000-19000 points). I discovered this around the same time that Flexicon told me that I had played all o…
June 29, 2007
Well, I managed to get myself another 2500 club.live.com points and ordered my second wireless XBox joystick for my Windows game machine in the living room. Happy happy.
On the "it never hurts to ask" front, I noticed a while back that Microsoft bought up the company that makes iView Media Pro and i…
On the "it never hurts to ask" front, I noticed a while back that Microsoft bought up the company that makes iView Media Pro and i…
June 27, 2007
First off, somebody managed to launch all of the rockets in Countdown Dice, a feat that I thought was nigh-impossible. To see the playback, check the top score for June 26 in the high score table.
I was thinking of making an award for launching all the rockets, but I thought there was no point. Now…
I was thinking of making an award for launching all the rockets, but I thought there was no point. Now…
June 25, 2007
Wouldn't you know it. I finally get enough points to get the freebie I want on club.live.com and it sells out. They're now out of wireless USB joysticks (what I wanted), Vista software, and a couple other gizmos.
I suppose I could wait to see if they get restocked, but there's also the chance that t…
I suppose I could wait to see if they get restocked, but there's also the chance that t…
June 23, 2007
If you recall, I recommended Microsoft's http://club.live.com to play some games and win some prizes in the name of MSN search pimpage.
Well, the following night (Wednesday) I managed to rack up 2500 points playing the Flexicon game, so I ordered my prize, a wireless XBox controller (the PC version,…
Well, the following night (Wednesday) I managed to rack up 2500 points playing the Flexicon game, so I ordered my prize, a wireless XBox controller (the PC version,…
June 20, 2007
A couple of bits.
First off, I have to retire a trophy. It's always been a troublesome one, and I just realized the reason that it's troublesome. It's the award for making a "perfect score" in ConFusebox.
Problem is, I cannot reliably predict what a perfect score will be. The way I generate a puzzle …
First off, I have to retire a trophy. It's always been a troublesome one, and I just realized the reason that it's troublesome. It's the award for making a "perfect score" in ConFusebox.
Problem is, I cannot reliably predict what a perfect score will be. The way I generate a puzzle …
June 19, 2007
Sorry about the lack of updates. The following is going on.
I'm a reviewing fool. I've reviewed about five books in the past week and have just completed a product review and plan to review two more before I start writing new games.
On a personal note, I've been a reading fool through the dog days of…
I'm a reviewing fool. I've reviewed about five books in the past week and have just completed a product review and plan to review two more before I start writing new games.
On a personal note, I've been a reading fool through the dog days of…
June 08, 2007
Awright, some of you monkeys are all about winning trophies in my daily puzzles. I have good news. There are new trophies today. 22 of 'em to be exact.
The bad news is that you don't get to keep 'em.
You see, these new trophies are MOVING TROPHIES and they move around to the current winner. For examp…
The bad news is that you don't get to keep 'em.
You see, these new trophies are MOVING TROPHIES and they move around to the current winner. For examp…
June 07, 2007
Awright, I have a couple of old projects written under contract. I have the rights to 'em, but they really aren't compelling enough unto themselves to sell or do anything with other than give 'em away, so that's exactly what I'm gonna do. Just to test, I slapped a Mochiad into each of 'em, and I ha…
June 05, 2007
I don't know what Stallman's been doing with his time lately (I'll bet it ain't taking a shower), but after an interminable 6-year delay GNU Emacs version 22.1 is released!
It's got loads of new features, like a TOOLBAR and the ability to drag and drop text!
John pauses to let you catch your breath
Ok…
It's got loads of new features, like a TOOLBAR and the ability to drag and drop text!
John pauses to let you catch your breath
Ok…
May 31, 2007
Underreported in the news is the death of Charles Nelson Reilly at age 76. I realize that most of you underage monkeys out there have no idea who he is, so here's a quick background. He was one of those guys, like the late Nipsey Russell, who was a fixture on television but you never knew why. He d…
May 29, 2007
Good freebie on Game Giveaway of the Day today, especially for fans of the "take a simple game and make it better" genre. It's Battle Snake, and it's about the nth iteration of the old classic Snake game.
It's quite well done, though. I like that you can consume fruit to increase your snake's length…
It's quite well done, though. I like that you can consume fruit to increase your snake's length…
May 28, 2007
An article related to my Flash game angst of a couple of days ago. It does give a bit of insight as to the workings behind an uber-popular Flash game.
Reading it, though, I wonder if the business model of "write a new popular game once a month" will go. As someone who's worked at that pace in the pa…
Reading it, though, I wonder if the business model of "write a new popular game once a month" will go. As someone who's worked at that pace in the pa…
May 25, 2007
Well, Shelly's in the hospital. She got bitten behind the knee by a brown recluse spider around Monday. She was in and out of the doctors' office all week, but they finally decided to check her in yesterday. They're basically loading her up with IV antibiotics to see if the bigass welt on her leg w…
May 23, 2007
Well, I took a little assessment of what I have going here, and it's pretty hard to make ends meet. It's no surprise, but making money from ad-revenue is just a non-starter. While it might make some beer-money now and then, it simply will never pull its own weight. While the folks at Kongregate mig…
May 17, 2007
First off, I made a minor change to one of my games. The odds in Countdown Dice were slightly skewed towards the center of the board. On random rolls of dice, you are six times as likely to roll a 7 as a 12, yet there are only 3.5 times as many 7's as 12's. And these odds flattened themselves out a…
May 15, 2007
Okay, here's the plan so far. . .
1. Remove protections from daily puzzles and host 'em on Mochiads.com. This is done and seems to be working fine.
2. Minor updates to the standalone games (Windows and Mac). This is the first update to the games in over six months, so I'm happy with that. They're pre…
1. Remove protections from daily puzzles and host 'em on Mochiads.com. This is done and seems to be working fine.
2. Minor updates to the standalone games (Windows and Mac). This is the first update to the games in over six months, so I'm happy with that. They're pre…
May 10, 2007
Once again I've made some changes to the daily puzzles that you'll never see but might have far-reaching effects. We'll see.
All Games
Everything's now compiled with Flash CS3. That was really straightforward and transparent except that I had to reinstall Remoting (how I talk to the server). They're …
All Games
Everything's now compiled with Flash CS3. That was really straightforward and transparent except that I had to reinstall Remoting (how I talk to the server). They're …
May 09, 2007
Okay, I officially have minor bugs in all of my products, so I'm going to roll out a big minor update release of everything.
Bulldozer - Level 143 is broken and cannot be solved.
Duck Tiles - The instruction text on one tutorial level has a typo.
The Daily Puzzle Pack - The database has problems after…
Bulldozer - Level 143 is broken and cannot be solved.
Duck Tiles - The instruction text on one tutorial level has a typo.
The Daily Puzzle Pack - The database has problems after…
May 07, 2007
Oooh, I won the "Convince Me To Buy Your Game" contest.
Mind you, it was quite a field. Actually it looks like I almost won by default given that a minority of the entries were even for sale. But still it's a lofty prize.
But it appears that my offer of a pony put me over the top. Nothing like a pony…
Mind you, it was quite a field. Actually it looks like I almost won by default given that a minority of the entries were even for sale. But still it's a lofty prize.
But it appears that my offer of a pony put me over the top. Nothing like a pony…
May 04, 2007
The only way that congresscritters will get the message that the DMCA (aka The Best Law Money Can Buy) rules on encryption are absurd is if the authorities governing HD-DVD and BLU-RAY are suddenly faced with having to send out *millions* of C&D letters.
And, according to Google, they're at one …
And, according to Google, they're at one …
May 02, 2007
I need a Joost invite. I got a nice little computer hooked up to the downstairs teevee, and I figure it's a perfect setup for Joost. I've heard very mixed stuff about it, but I figure it's worth a look.
I dunno if any of these still require invites, but I can probably trade you for an invite to Wall…
I dunno if any of these still require invites, but I can probably trade you for an invite to Wall…
May 01, 2007
I've had lower back pain for three days now. It kinda sucks. I'm not in much pain if I'm sitting, standing, or lying down, but going from one of those positions to the other is when the pain hits.
Bleah. I can definitely see how chronic back-pain can fuel addiction. If somebody dangled a handful of …
Bleah. I can definitely see how chronic back-pain can fuel addiction. If somebody dangled a handful of …
April 27, 2007
While watching some less-than-interesting teevee last night, I got to bumping around with Yahoo pipes. And I'm now a convert.
For the uninitiated, Yahoo Pipes lets you take one or more RSS feeds, do stuff to 'em, and return a new RSS feed. I found that it's a terrific tool if you have some RSS feeds…
For the uninitiated, Yahoo Pipes lets you take one or more RSS feeds, do stuff to 'em, and return a new RSS feed. I found that it's a terrific tool if you have some RSS feeds…
April 25, 2007
Well, my games are now rated officially-nonviolent!
Well, somewhat. Since I didn't wanna spend who-knows-how-much cash for an official ratings board to tell me that (WELL DUH) Duck Tiles is G-rated, I went with the new voluntary self-rating at http://www.tigrs.org/.
Mind you, it's not a very prestigi…
Well, somewhat. Since I didn't wanna spend who-knows-how-much cash for an official ratings board to tell me that (WELL DUH) Duck Tiles is G-rated, I went with the new voluntary self-rating at http://www.tigrs.org/.
Mind you, it's not a very prestigi…
April 23, 2007
Okay, too much game developer chitchat here. Time for EMBARRASSING PERSONAL REVELATIONS!
My personal revelation. . .
"Around 1971, I appeared as a major player in a blackface musical."
Okay, it's not quite that sinister, but it is a rather funny relic of times-gone-by. Circa 1971 I was attending presc…
My personal revelation. . .
"Around 1971, I appeared as a major player in a blackface musical."
Okay, it's not quite that sinister, but it is a rather funny relic of times-gone-by. Circa 1971 I was attending presc…
April 17, 2007
First off, here's a graph of my hitcount over the previous month or so. Just thought it was amusing.
The first big peak was my games' mention on jayisgames.com. The second peak was the mention of my games (actually a mention of the jayisgames mention of my games) on the Wired blog.
In any case, the n…
The first big peak was my games' mention on jayisgames.com. The second peak was the mention of my games (actually a mention of the jayisgames mention of my games) on the Wired blog.
In any case, the n…
April 13, 2007
I'm glad Don Imus got fired, mainly because getting fired is the only thing he's ever done that entertained me.
Much like Rush Limbaugh's prodigious consumption of opiates and Bill O'Reilly's hilariously inept attempts to perform phone-sex with his producer, some people are only entertaining when th…
Much like Rush Limbaugh's prodigious consumption of opiates and Bill O'Reilly's hilariously inept attempts to perform phone-sex with his producer, some people are only entertaining when th…
April 12, 2007
Hey look at that. There's a new game up in the link-list up there.
Give it a try and lemme know what you think. Feedback's been positive so far.
Give it a try and lemme know what you think. Feedback's been positive so far.
April 11, 2007
Just got a Digipro 8x6 pressure-sensitive graphics tablet from geeks.com. They seem to appear there from time to time, and for the nice price of $40 (sign up to their mailing list for ads with the 50% off secret discount code).
Given that the Digipro is 1/5 the price of the equivalent Wacom tablet, …
Given that the Digipro is 1/5 the price of the equivalent Wacom tablet, …
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