6:05 pm
After a day's worth of debugging / banging my head against the wall / drinking, I've finally learned why games have loading screens. To put briefly, because sh** doesn't get initialized fast enough as you start adding complexity to your game. When your game does nothing and you only need to do 4 things before the game starts, your program runs fine without a loading screen. When your game does a little more and you need to do 10 things before the game starts, bad things happen.
No pain, no pain.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Where Has the Time Gone?
11:08 AM PST:
I've just read our previous post, dated December of 2010, calling out ambitious plans of finishing before the start of 2011.
Starting work again, let's hope we don't run out of steam.
Yesterday, I lost a day's worth of work trying to get too clever re-architecting the code. Tossed all the changes, and started anew. This time around, I'll make sure I won't bite off more than I can chew. Today I'll start on the logic for loading level data from disk, which will requiring learning to use PLists, NSBundles, and NSDictionaries...blech.
Hopefully if this is up and running, then I'll be able to get to character movement next.
-Eddie
I've just read our previous post, dated December of 2010, calling out ambitious plans of finishing before the start of 2011.
Starting work again, let's hope we don't run out of steam.
Yesterday, I lost a day's worth of work trying to get too clever re-architecting the code. Tossed all the changes, and started anew. This time around, I'll make sure I won't bite off more than I can chew. Today I'll start on the logic for loading level data from disk, which will requiring learning to use PLists, NSBundles, and NSDictionaries...blech.
Hopefully if this is up and running, then I'll be able to get to character movement next.
-Eddie
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Winterslam 2010: The Battle-Monkey Bay Area Brawl
Lot of things going on. Many very talented people helping us out, some even waiting for tasking that's still coming down the pipe...eek!
Some of the stuff that's in the works:
Logo
Concept Art (which essentially defines our art theme)
Business Plan
Tons of Code (my responsibility...critical path!)
Some of the stuff that needs to get done soon:
Slides for Web Designer
Roadmapping the featureset. (I'm already seeing potential for things to balloon out of control with our excess of creative mojo.)
Defining the backend services so we can begin back-end architecture.
Making decisions on monetization.
Lots of vacation time coming up in December, so hopefully we'll be able to make some real progress before 2011!
-Eddie
Some of the stuff that's in the works:
Logo
Concept Art (which essentially defines our art theme)
Business Plan
Tons of Code (my responsibility...critical path!)
Some of the stuff that needs to get done soon:
Slides for Web Designer
Roadmapping the featureset. (I'm already seeing potential for things to balloon out of control with our excess of creative mojo.)
Defining the backend services so we can begin back-end architecture.
Making decisions on monetization.
Lots of vacation time coming up in December, so hopefully we'll be able to make some real progress before 2011!
-Eddie
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Battle Monkey, meet Twitter
Hi All,
Just created a twitter account, turns out someone already has the handle BattleMonkey (what a dumb name), so we ended up with IAmBattleMonkey, which turned out better because it's infinitely cooler than BattleMonkey. Also it clears up the any possible confusion as to the source fo the feed.
Expect to see frequent tweets as we try to gain some exposure on our venture. Or at least that's the plan...
We've also managed to find some like-minded people who have agreed to contribute in all aspects of the project, for which we are eternally thankful. At some point when our webpage is up, we'll put up some introductions so we can all get acquainted with the guilty parties. In the meantime, thanks to everyone for your support thus far. You guys have been great.
-Eddie
Just created a twitter account, turns out someone already has the handle BattleMonkey (what a dumb name), so we ended up with IAmBattleMonkey, which turned out better because it's infinitely cooler than BattleMonkey. Also it clears up the any possible confusion as to the source fo the feed.
Expect to see frequent tweets as we try to gain some exposure on our venture. Or at least that's the plan...
We've also managed to find some like-minded people who have agreed to contribute in all aspects of the project, for which we are eternally thankful. At some point when our webpage is up, we'll put up some introductions so we can all get acquainted with the guilty parties. In the meantime, thanks to everyone for your support thus far. You guys have been great.
-Eddie
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monkey Lawyer, FIGHT!
Hey Everyone,
So, I just finished writing our first NDA (non-disclosure agreement). It basically sets the ground rules for anyone we hire or bring onto the team in regards to handling information for our games. Typing up that mumbo-jumbo this afternoon reminded me that we live in a greedy-ass world. People will sue the pants off you if you let them and that's just sad. Rodney said it best, "Why can't be just all get along?"
On the fun side, I'm in the process of getting a few great designers to do some work for us for free 99. We should have our official logo by the end of the month. We have our domain name: battle-monkey.com and I believe Eddie is meeting with a potential web designer tonight. Anyone else interested? Drop us a message. We need a flash artist and someone who can make a mean game banner.
I am also starting a lot of game testing tomorrow (my PSP just came in the mail). I'll be doing things like counting grid squares, timing battles and tweaking game play ideas. The real tough part will be testing our own game, but I'm looking forward to that, even when it's in alpha. If you would like to even help us by being a tester, please let us know.
-Keep on Dreamin'
-Tony
So, I just finished writing our first NDA (non-disclosure agreement). It basically sets the ground rules for anyone we hire or bring onto the team in regards to handling information for our games. Typing up that mumbo-jumbo this afternoon reminded me that we live in a greedy-ass world. People will sue the pants off you if you let them and that's just sad. Rodney said it best, "Why can't be just all get along?"
On the fun side, I'm in the process of getting a few great designers to do some work for us for free 99. We should have our official logo by the end of the month. We have our domain name: battle-monkey.com and I believe Eddie is meeting with a potential web designer tonight. Anyone else interested? Drop us a message. We need a flash artist and someone who can make a mean game banner.
I am also starting a lot of game testing tomorrow (my PSP just came in the mail). I'll be doing things like counting grid squares, timing battles and tweaking game play ideas. The real tough part will be testing our own game, but I'm looking forward to that, even when it's in alpha. If you would like to even help us by being a tester, please let us know.
-Keep on Dreamin'
-Tony
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
The BMS Shopping Spree
Two days will mark the historic event whence we break open the war chest and dip into our !vast resources to purchase our first Adobe Flash Professional CS5 license. We've pretty much wrung out every last drop of value from our 30 day free trial, and now its time to shell out. It comes with a hefty price tag, but...nope. There really isn't an upside...working for free has been awesome.
Recent Developments:
-We may have found a contact to make us a badass logo. This is vital for profitability, because if this video game thing doesn't work out, we can at least try to make a buck in merchandising.
-The hunt continues for an artist. There's no sense in hiding, we will find you.
-Still shooting for Alpha by December of this year. Hold on to your hats.
Recent Developments:
-We may have found a contact to make us a badass logo. This is vital for profitability, because if this video game thing doesn't work out, we can at least try to make a buck in merchandising.
-The hunt continues for an artist. There's no sense in hiding, we will find you.
-Still shooting for Alpha by December of this year. Hold on to your hats.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Steady As She Goes
As our crazy idea grows ever so slowly, I can say that I'm happy with even the little we've accomplished. I never thought I had so many ideas for a game until I sat down and seriously thought about it.
Combat rules, community interaction, menus, items, the whole thing is pretty damn cool.
I would love feedback from any gamers out there for what you would like to see in a videogame. If I use any of your ideas, I'll be sure to give credit where it is due. If you have skills that you would like to contribute to this project, we would be more than happy to receive any help. Keep in mind that we're not expecting to make it big with this first project, but we're hoping it would be fun to play (at the very least) and a ticket to work with a big studio (at best). If we make any money off of it, I will be surprised. So, if you have art skills, programming chops, mustical talent, marketing abilities or just want to help, please let us know.
If videogames aren't a passion of yours...well...get out there and find your thing!
Pursue what you love, love what you do and you will find a sense of satisfaction.
- T
Combat rules, community interaction, menus, items, the whole thing is pretty damn cool.
I would love feedback from any gamers out there for what you would like to see in a videogame. If I use any of your ideas, I'll be sure to give credit where it is due. If you have skills that you would like to contribute to this project, we would be more than happy to receive any help. Keep in mind that we're not expecting to make it big with this first project, but we're hoping it would be fun to play (at the very least) and a ticket to work with a big studio (at best). If we make any money off of it, I will be surprised. So, if you have art skills, programming chops, mustical talent, marketing abilities or just want to help, please let us know.
If videogames aren't a passion of yours...well...get out there and find your thing!
Pursue what you love, love what you do and you will find a sense of satisfaction.
- T
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