Archive for the 'Programming' Category

Zinger items and inventory

Published on August 7, 2010 in Programming. View Comments

Just a quick update:

We’re changing how the inventory is in Zinger!. Its going to be more Worms-esk, which means you can have more than 4 items and you’ll never have to destroy anything. If you pick up an item you already have, it will stack.

Also, you’re going to start with items now. Just some of the basic ones though. You’ll still have to find all the good stuff in crates, but at least you’ll have weapons to use at the beginning of the match.

Oh and by the way, Chad modeled and scripted this sign for mappers to use. The text and text color is totally customizable by the mapper. They can pick three lines of text and each line can have its own color:

zing_test0066

P.S. No, that’s not a typo. THERE HAS BEEN AN EARTHQUACK!

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Zinger! changes

Published on July 30, 2010 in Programming. View Comments

So we’re making a bunch of changes to Zinger!. I don’t want to go into all the details, but lets just say “trust us”. We’re breaking our work down into 2 major parts: playability and replayability… in that order:

Playability

Playability is simple… make the game easy and fun to play. Zinger! is already fun and easy to play FOR US. But when you add in total noobs you get a clusterfuck of “WTF IS GOING ON?!”. Understandable. We’d been playing Zinger!, or at least the concept of it, for a really long time and through many iterations. We need to remember there are people who’ve never played it before now playing it. Especially when it gets distributed on Steam (omg omg omg omg).

Along those same lines… we’re going to rethink or simplify some of the stuff we were doing before, or even remove it completely. Like the spectator mode and course randomizing. A perfect example of a bad choice is when we limited what you could spectate just to force you to watch what was going on in the current hole. It made spectator mode so obtrusive and restricted it felt like you were looking at the game through a tube. Fuck it, free roam!

Some of the other issues will require more drastic changes. There are certain elements that feel pointless and even a waste of time. We have plans to change that. Like what’s the point in shooting a guy into the water or out of the map if he just respawns right back where is was? We’re going to try to work in a damage system sorta like Super Smash Brothers. You can’t be damaged to death, but the more you get hurt the more it accumulates and affects you. (which means we’ll have to add healing related items into the game)

The other thing we’re worried about is a theme. The only reason we care about that is because of the lack of “flow” in the game. Sometimes Zinger! feels like its fractured a bit. Like you’re playing several mini games at the same time. Is it team deathmatch? Is it golf? Is it an adventure game? What is it? So to bring it all together and to help it make more sense we’re going to add a general theme to the game. That’s where the most dramatic changes will be. You’ll see the content getting tweaked and changed to help match. Don’t worry, we’re keeping the same artistic style… we just need to update the assets to match. Our goal is to have a bunch of reusable assets for mappers to use to keep a consistent feel. It sounds like a lot of work, and it might be, but it will be worth it. Chad and I are both super excited about it.

Replayability

The replayability is going to come after all that. First we make a fun and simple and easy to understand game… then we focus on keeping players interested in it over time. Stuff like unlockables and micro-achievements (no not the Steam achievements, just ones you earn in a hole or on a course).

We tried randomizing the course and rings and shit like that, but the problem is it leads to more problems than its worth… and really it doesn’t make the game feel any more fresh or new. In retrospect, does rearranging a couple of rings make anyone go “OH MAN! THIS IS GONNA BE FUN!” all over again? Nope. Fuck it.

We needed more interesting ideas: things like changing a simple mechanic on a hole. What if we randomly selected one hole to add huge amounts of recoil to every item? Or everyone has unlimited Bazookas but no crates dropped? Or everyone was invisible to the other team? Of course those are just random ideas off the top of my head, we’ll see where we go with that.

Reply here and let us know what you think.

P.S. If you wanna peek in on what we’re doing, you can always check our Twitter feed for SVN updates.

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We won second place!

Published on June 2, 2010 in Programming. View Comments

I know this is old fucking news but… In case you haven’t heard (which I’m sure most of you have) Arcadium Software’s Fretta gamemode Zinger! took second place in the Fretta Gamemode Contest!

What now? What does this mean? Where do we go from here?

Well, we’re looking forward to some feedback from Garry and Craig. We also have some touch ups we’d like to do. Once we’ve polished up the gamemode we send it to Garry and it will be included in Garry’s Mod!

We also get to add achievements to the gamemode and even push updates out once a month. Which is totally amazing. The prize money is totally great and all, but that comes and goes. The fact we’ve got a small piece of work in a retail game is definitely the most rewarding part.

Everyone keeps asking me what we’re doing with the money. Well, the majority is getting split up between Chad and I, and some will go to our sound guy and level designer. They both contributed great work so we’re looking forward to  showing them our appreciation.

Once again, I know this is literally last weeks news but I’ve been busy with a lot of shit lately… like moving… which I have yet to blog about. I’ll do that tomorrow, ok?

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Retro Arcade – an Android Live Wallpaper

Published on April 15, 2010 in Programming. View Comments

I’ve been posting a few of these lately, huh?

So yea, third Android app and this one is finally built on the 2.1 SDK. It’s a total nostalgia bomb too. Right now its just one single game, but I plan on adding more games to it so its like a bundle deal: multiple wallpapers from a single download.

This is my first paid application and since I first published it a few days ago I’ve already got great responses. The way I look at it is once its done its done: I don’t have to do anything else. Maybe I won’t get 250,000 people buying it, but whatever I do get is awesome.

Images related:

pacman eating pills pacman chasing ghosts

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Copy Text – an Android App

Published on April 7, 2010 in Programming. View Comments

BAM! Just like that I released my second Android application. This one was to fill a void that I’ve personally had. A lot of applications give the user the ability to “Share” with other apps. For example, I can click an image in my picture gallery and “Share” it to my Facebook app or Twitter app or whatever else allows you to upload pictures… you get the idea.

But sometimes apps have some text in them and you can’t really share it to another app. Take for instance the Twitter app I use… often times I want to just paste a tweet or a portion of a tweet to someone in Gtalk or something. But there’s no option to just copy it so I can put it (or any portion of it) where ever I want! And so I wrote Copy Text. Basically if any app shares plain text, Copy Text will be an option. It does no more than just copy the text to your clipboard. And Android 2.0+ users can even “Share” contacts in the form of plain text… great for including someone’s number in an email or text message. Simple? I think so. Needed? Damn straight. Oh yea and as an added bonus I included a history for easily recopying text you used before.

I released Copy Text yesterday and its already been downloaded more times than my previous app and has retained a higher install percentage (how many users installed and kept it verses those who installed then uninstalled it… idiots). Which either means my first app sucked dick, is a niche application, or this app was just needed more! You decide!

Images related:

Contact integration copying contacts numbers

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Simply Cyanide – an Android App

Published on April 2, 2010 in Programming. View Comments

Android logo

I’m working on my first Android app. I’ve done all sorts of programming in various languages, but I’ve never touched Java… so this project is mainly a learning experience for me.

Simply Cyanide is a simple yet elegant viewer for the web comic Cyanide and Happiness. There are other comic viewers already on the Android Market, but this one is designed specifically for C&H. Why? Well because I personally love the comics and I needed an easy project to get my feet wet. This was my solution.

I’ve got the basic functions of it working, I’m just polishing it up and figuring out how to sign the package so I can publish it on the Market. Although, once I figure out how to package it properly, I want to have some people who have an Android phone test it for me before I actually go and publish it (I don’t want to upload some shitty app and look like a total dumbass).

On a side note: I contacted the C&H artists to see  if they would give me permission to release it. I could probably release it without them giving me the thumbs up, but I would really like their approval.

Once I get a few people to test it and get some feedback, I’ll do a follow up post and give a rundown on all the features.

Here’s some screens of it running in the emulator:

viewing comic options menu

about dialog even opens videos!

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Blog updated

Published on February 11, 2010 in General Stuff and Programming. View Comments

I decided my blog needed to be tinkered with. I didn’t do an overhaul or anything, just messed with fonts and added some more CSS3. I uploaded two more headers into the rotation, too.

I need to start writing more about what I’m working on. People are always asking me and I never know where to begin. Here’s the thing: I’m always working on something. What it is can be totally different each day. Although right now I’m pretty focused on Zinger!. We’re closing in on the deadline for the Fretta Contest and we’re really excited about it. Not much is left, actually we’re just finishing up a few odds and ends.

I’m going to be writing a few articles related to Lua soon so you can look forward to seeing those. Actually I’ve already started… I just need some spare time to finish the first one (work has kept me so busy lately!). Technically I shouldn’t even be writing this now, I should be writing those… GOTTA GO!

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Project overload

Published on November 8, 2009 in Console Gaming, Fun & Entertainment, PC Gaming and Programming. View Comments

I’m swamped. Arcadium Software is working on a commercial project that has absorbed a metric fuckton of my time. No its not a game but we’re working on a web application for a big ass company. Its sorta weird how it came all about:

A few years ago my dad was using a really archaic method for keeping track of what vehicles he was in charge of. Like… where they were stationed. He wrote the vehicle number down on a magnet and placed it on a white board and moved them from square to square depending on where the vehicle got shipped. So I wrote him a digital version of that and since he struggles with computers, I totally mimicked the look of a board with magnets on it. Except you could double-click any “magnet” and open up extended information and tools on it. Needless to say this worked many times faster and he instantly fell in love with it. I spent loads of time in the UI so it was extremely user friendly.

Well he has since left that company and moved on to bigger and better things. Little did I know he continued to use that program and one day his boss saw him using it and one thing lead to another… next thing I know I’m in a meeting talking business for writing this company a custom software tool. So a lot of our time is being dedicated to that…

BUT THEN…

Garry decides that he wants to start a Fretta gamemode contest with some high dollar incentives. So now we’re working on THAT at the same time. Our goal is to submit two gamemodes so we really gotta bust ass on everything. We’re not going to sacrifice quality though, so its just time dedication.

BUT THEN…

All these new games have come out/are coming out and ahhhhhhhhhh. I’m deep into Fallout 3 right now, I’ve got Borderlands to focus on, Left 4 Dead 2 soon… Modern Warfare 2– fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu–

AND NOW FOR SOME COMPLETELY UNRELATED MEDIA

Awesome:

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SMF Mod: Color Group Name In Post

Published on October 17, 2009 in Programming and Website. View Comments

Since I’ve been working on the Arcadium Software Forums, I’ve found a few things that I wanted to modify about SMF but couldn’t find a working mod to accomplish it. This is my first release. Basically it changes the users group name into whatever color their group has been designated. Simple. Easy. Nice.

Before:
Before

After:
After

Release: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2225

Let me know of any problems!

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Reflection: Arcadium Software

Published on October 14, 2009 in General Stuff, Programming and Website. View Comments

What can I say? I’m a hobbyist. I like working on anything related to games. Even if I don’t finish a project per-say; I still enjoy the journey.

Modulus Software… Bakburner Etc… Arcadium Software. What’s up with all the name changes? Its just a branding really… nothing official. And to be honest they’re all 100% pointless. I’m pretty sure Arcadium Software is where we’ll stop, though. I’m confident in that because its the one that really means something to us; not just a name we invented just for the sake of having a name. We started out writing stuff for The Arcadium and all of our projects have evolved from that. It fits.

We’ve had our ups and downs as far as projects go. Those of you who’ve followed us from PGM to GATM until now have seen some interesting shit come and go. Successes? PGM+gNIX, Hoverboard, Firebox and MuseX, The Zinger Gamemode… plus Chad’s numerous useful modules. Failures and disappointments? GATM+Gear, Gadget, Zahmbeez!, The Zinger XNA Game/Arclyte, etc, etc, etc… lets not dwell on those; what we take away and learn from them is more important.

What have we learned? LOTS!

Chad and I both have what we’ve come to refer to as Developers A.D.D.! We really have a hard time focusing on projects. Its not a lack of commitment, its just we often find other things of interest that detours us from— holy shit that cat has a big nutsack!

Secondly, we’re also O.C.D.-ish perfectionists. Which is why we “start over from scratch” oh too often.

And finally… although we both retain the ability to do all sorts of extravagant stuff, including writing a game engine from scratch, what we’re really best at is developing for Garry’s Mod. Why? Its simple: its where our roots are at. And as a couple of programmers, using all the already existing content of Garry’s Mod makes our work so much easier. When we try to do standalone projects we find ourselves like a couple of bums wandering around town begging for content… “maps for the poor? a few models please? just spare me a texture or two? no I won’t buy alcohol with it… ninjas kidnapped my family I need assets to buy kung-fu lessons”.

So whats Arcadium Software up to these days? Surprisingly to most of you… LOADS. We don’t talk about our projects much anymore. We’ve learned that hype isn’t really something you need at the start. Sure, once you have something to show… something worth showing… then you can start fishing for interest and find yourself some followers to get decent feedback.

On my days off when I’m in my garage (because the rest of the family is sleeping) I’ve started working on the Arcadium Software website from my laptop. I’m trying to manage my time better. So instead of working on the website stuff during the day (when I have access to my desktop computer), I work on whatever project I’m currently occupied with. I’m maximizing my time! A concept new to me ;)

If you know what we’re up to, you sneaky bastard! If not… patience. Because we are up to stuff :D I’d like to invite you all the rejoin the forums and tinker with them; let us know of anything that needs to be fixed. (read this thread as to why you need to rejoin the forums)

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