Category: Uncategorized

• teach myself Processing.
• update my resume.
• learn ActionScript.
• find a job in the game industry.
• blog more often.

Happy Holidays to all, and Happy New Years, as well. I’m off to Italy tomorrow for vacation; see you all in 2008.

Working with the code used in objective001, add a second object to the space. Program the ball to detect collisions with that object, and react accordingly.

Update: Objective complete.

Notes:

• The image above does not reflect the final version of the sketch.
• Though not stipulated by the original objective, the second object (or “paddle”) is interactive, and can be controlled with the mouse cursor.
• Once the applet loads, click it to allow the mouse to interact.
• Because of the speed at which the cursor moves the paddle, it was possible for the ball to accidentally pass through the paddle while the paddle was in motion, rather than colliding and bouncing off. To circumvent this issue, I instructed the ball to only interact with the paddle while the paddle was black. Moving the paddle now causes it to turn white, and once the paddle has stopped moving it must “cool down” in order to interact with the ball again. A practical solution, but one that has interesting design potential.
• Additionally, the paddle had to be instructed to remain white while the ball was passing through it, to prevent a bug where the ball would bounce in the interior of the paddle.
• The background colors are controlled by the position of the paddle, using the same RGB-calculation code written for objective001. This was done to add a little color to the sketch, which was otherwise a bit boring to look at and play with.

Create a space, and a circular object (“ball). Program the ball to move within the space, rebounding off its boundaries when necessary.

Update: Objective complete.

Notes:

• The x and y positions of the ball determine its RGB values: The x position determines the red value, the y position the green value, and the sum of x and y determines the blue value. Scaling was used to keep values in the range of 0 – 255, and values had to be converted from floating point to integer data types.
• The pattern created by the ball’s movement is achieved by never redrawing the background during each frame of animation. Had the background color been declared during the draw() function, each frame would have wiped the background clean, showing only the ball’s current position — practical, but less interesting to look at.

I’m blogging about it because it told me to.

I’m falling behind on the blogging again. Need to not do that.

Two weeks ago I reviewed Zombie Fluxx for Joystiq. It’s good, but it could be better. I’m still working on exactly how it could be better. More on that topic (hopefully) soon.

This past week, I reviewed Ticket to Ride, which is quite, quite, quite good. In fact, I’m recommending it. Consider it recommended. Now play it.

Also last week, The Escapist published 9am class, my dice game about falling asleep in early morning colleges courses. They did a phenomenal job with the piece, giving it a snazzy logo and even re-designing the game board to make it look less like I just threw it together in Photoshop. I tip my game designer hat to them.

December’s going to go by awful quick. Here’s hoping I can keep up.

…no matter how badly I want it to.

I got the blues.

At least, that’s the perspective taken in The Filler, a new card game I designed for The Escapist. One player takes on the fictional role of the Filler, a nice if somewhat withdrawn individual who uses his portable cement mixer to fill in graves with concrete, to prevent zombies from escaping. The other player is, of course, the zombie horde, whose sole task is to make the Filler’s life more difficult, and possibly get him fired from his job. Hilarity ensues.

Dry wit aside, I’m happy with how The Filler turned out. It was my first foray into resource-focused gameplay, and I enjoyed the process of tweaking and re-tweaking the numbers. Next month (fingers crossed), I’ll be premiering the game I intended on premiering this month, which is my first attempt at designing a board game. Panic ensues.

Well… kinda. I use my Powerbook as a display for video game consoles. It’s the easiest way for us to continue playing new releases on our North American systems while living in France (we’re damn sure not gonna miss Super Mario Galaxy or Smash Bros. Brawl). How it works exactly is the topic of this week’s Off the Grid, although the picture below is kind of a giveaway.

This piece actually marks the hopeful end to a bit of a dry period for Off the Grid. The move to France disrupted my normal flow of reviews, and I’ve spent the last week or so attempting to arrange for more review copies of games to be sent to my new address.

It’s going to be harder to review games here, in part because fewer companies are willing to ship review copies abroad. The larger problem, however, is the lack of players. It’s just me, Bonnie, and at the moment nobody else in this country that I’d feel comfortable subjecting to board games they’ve never heard of. At the moment, that limits me to games for two players. I guess I’ll have to start making French friends if I want to play anything more substantial than that.

I’ve been working on a game that uses a deck of playing cards, and have been keeping track of a number of simple stats and factoids about the cards during the design process. I thought I’d be nice and share.

There are 52 cards in a deck (not counting Jokers):

• 13 spades (black)
• 13 clubs (black)
• 13 diamonds (red)
• 13 hearts (red)

That means there are 26 black cards and 26 red cards.

Of the 13 cards in each suit:

• 3 are face cards (Jack, Queen, King)
• 10 are number cards (Ace through 10).

In total, a deck of cards contains 12 face cards and 40 number cards.

Counting by color, there are:

• 6 face cards of each color
• 20 number cards of each color.

We can add the values of number cards together to come up with total sums:

• Total sum of each suit: 55
• Total sum of each color: 110
• Total sum overall: 220

Lastly, here’s a good rule to keep in mind:

• If you’re going to leave the country for six months, bring at least one deck of playing cards with you!

I must have six or seven decks back in Pennsylvania. Now I have to go out and buy a French set. Just remember:

• Jack is Valet
• Queen is Dame
• King is Roi

Photo from itzjere on Flickr. Thanks!

I’m surprised and delighted by the number of comments to my latest Off the Grid post, which talks about the difficulties of continuing a video game obsession hobby while living abroad. The column is part one of a two-part series, in which I explain how I managed to get our American-born Wii and PS2 working perfectly in France. It’s no Not Without my Daughter, but it still makes for a good story, I feel.

I was concerned that the content of the piece would be lost on a lot of non-traveling gamers, but it seems a surprising number of people have been in my exact same situation. The comments I’ve received on the piece are extremely helpful, and I’ll definitely be taking their input into consideration while I write next week’s thrilling conclusion. I look forward to sharing my crazy, ass-backward solution with the world.

In travel news, we’re headed to Italy tomorrow. By train. We can take a train to Italy. How cool is that?