Stick People

Well I've been neglecting my internet obligations of late, so I apologize.  Busy, lazy, whatever...I haven't had much to put on here lately anyway.

But I was thinking that lately I have been seeing a ton of those stick people on cars.  The one that struck me the most, was one I saw the other day.  It had 2 parents and like 12 kids....not sure if it was a joke or real, but either way it got me to think...what would my stick people look like, if I were to put stick people on my car?  I decided to make one. 

If you don't know, I am single, have no kids, am pretty nerdy, and have 2 cats.  That is my life, I guess.  So I put together a set of "stick" figures that I think would be cool to have on my car to show people who I really am.

Ya, pretty badass in terms of stick people, if I do say so myself. 

Anyway, that is all for today.

- Zach

Vikings! and Cable TV ala carte

So when I was a kid, my family went back and forth between having cable tv and not having it.  It was this vicious cycle of having nothing to watch and having everything to watch but never wanting to watch any of it...or missing the only thing you wanted to watch.  In the end we gave it up completely.

When I left for college, every dorm room or apartment I lived in came with free cable, and it was great.  I got to catch up on all those shows that I had missed, and started a lot of new shows, but again, the problem came with timing.  If you wanted to watch a new show, you would have to be ready at the exact time the show is on.  I like to watch things when I'm trying to avoid being productive, or when I'm going to bed, and that doesn't always coincide with the timing of the tv programs that I liked to watch.

Then came along Netflix.  I can pick what to watch, when I want to watch it.  People say, "but Netflix doesn't have everything I want to watch"...neither does cable.  When was the last time you found an adult cartoon on at 9 am on tv...exactly.  If there is something I feel like watching, I see if Netflix has it.... and if it doesn't, I pick something like it. 

There is a minor problem with only having Netflix - there are a number of shows I would love to watch now that Netflix doesn't have.  These shows have new seasons coming out soon and I want to keep up.  I've heard Hulu might be something to try, but I didn't want to spend more money on another streaming service at this time, and they don't have everything I want to watch (Game of Thrones, being the big one).

I first saw a free episode of Vikings on my Xbox.  I really liked it...but again, no cable and I didn't want to pay $20+ to watch the episodes on my Xbox, so I just waited until it came out on dvd and bought it.  But now that the 2nd season is coming out, I really want to watch it now.  I am in that Vikings mood.

(I'm not the first to say this, and I won't be the last)
So my proposal is an "a la carte" system of cable channels.  Why get 200 channels when you know you will watch maybe 5-10 of them regularly. 

When I had cable I watched:
Cartoon Network
Comedy Central
Sci-fi (SyFy now)
FX (for Archer only)
Discovery
History
USA and TNT (pretty much the same channel in my opinion)

I never had HBO, but I would love to grab that on "a la carte".  Perhaps even Showtime as well. 

But out of 60+ channels that's all I watched. 

Anyway, get on that cable channel providers.  I can't guarantee I would pay what I can only imagine would be outrageous prices per channel, but just having the option would make me contemplate getting a channel or 10...

- Zach

Kickstarter: Mutant Chronicles Warzone

Warzone

I received another one of my Kickstarter tabletop war games called Mutant Chronicles: Warzone Resurrection.  It is another space fighty game from the looks of it.  This was early in my Kickstarter "career" so it is a much smaller order than some of my more recent ones.  Anyway, below is a quick look at the set I received.

Cats!

I also had some interesting experiences with my cats this weekend.  First, the box that my new game came in turned in to a nice Cat Trap.

Then I was playing hide and seek with my kitties, and Abby (shown above) decided to hide in the bathroom.  I don't think she understood the concept completely.

When I called her out, she proceeded to find a new hiding spot.



Sorry for the blurry, moving picture, but anyway, that's what I did this weekend. 

Fun times! (Wow I need a social life....)

- Zach



Game engines and Unity practice

I love playing video games...

And since I love playing them, I think it's only natural that I want to do more with them, such as create them.  I think of myself as fairly creative, so it makes sense to me that this would be the next step in my evolution from Gamer to Game Creator.

Now as far as my background goes into programming, it is a short list.  I pretty much only know the basics of programming logic.  I took a fairly low level class way back in high school (and I don't remember much of it), I know a little bit of HTML and I have taken an actual programming logic class.  The programming logic class was very helpful.  It made a lot of the ideas easier to comprehend when they aren't directly applied to a specific language.

So in the end, I understand the basic concepts, but I don't know an actual language.  I've been told the language is the easy part; it's basically just looking up the syntax for what language you are using, and using the basic programming logic of what you think you want to do, and plugging the two together (logic and language syntax).  Example: this should repeat; that means I need a loop; where's the syntax for a loop in Java, etc. etc.  Ya ya it's more than that just that, I know, but that's the basic idea.

Anyway, I've been looking for a way to get started learning something...anything...in the game design/programming area.  I recently took a class in Game Design from the local community college for fun, but it just wasn't what I expected.  They had us working in GameMaker creating a 2D side scrolling game, and that isn't what I picture my game to be.  GameMaker just didn't seem to meet the requirements I have set in my mind for the games I want to create.  It also wasn't as much of the actual programming as I had hoped for.  GameMaker has options to code directly, but for what we were doing it was pretty much just plug and play.  Plug this "block of code" into that "loop block", and done.

So I've done some reading and decided it's probably easier for me to start with a pre-made game engine (besides GameMaker, if you count that).  I don't know enough programming at this point to be able to make an engine myself, and I've read that it is very time and energy consuming because there is so much that goes in to it...so my thought is why waste time creating something that has already been made, when I could jump to the good part of making the actual game I want?

There are a bunch of engines already out there made exactly for this type of thing! Engines where noobs, such as myself, can jump right in and get their feet wet.  Well, some are more noob friendly...but that is what I found out in my research.  I've looked at Unreal, CryEngine, Frostbite, and Unity.  I love Unreal games, but I have looked at the engine, and it seems so daunting.  There is so much going on, and most of the tutorials you have to pay for, and to be honest, I'm pretty cheap when it comes to buying something I don't know if I'll like.

In the end I would like to advance to one of those super high quality engines like Unreal, CryEngine and Frostbite, but with what little I know, I've decided to start with Unity.  My understanding is that Unity can do a lot of what the "higher end" engines can do, just without necessarily all the graphics and physics capabilities.  Also I've read it's a bit easier to learn than the others.

Then since I had some free time today, I did one of the tutorials on Unity's site.

http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/space-shooter

It's for a simple space ship, shooting asteroids game.  I did it and it seems to work, although I can't find an easy way to just share it on here.  The only way I figured out so you can check it out is to go to my dropbox with the link below.  It should load up in your browser, but you may have to install the Unity plugin.

(You move with the arrow keys, and shoot with the left mouse button)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/260910663/Space_Shooter.html

Anyway, it was fun to create, and I look forward to making some of my own games in the near future...I have sooooo many ideas...just need to narrow them down to things that are actually feasible for me to make.  Keep checking back and we will see what I can come up with.

- Zach

ps. Let me know if that link doesn't work and I'll try something else.  Thanks!

Cat pics, Dreadball, Deadzone and a little bit of League of Legends!

Welcome back!

So it's been longer than I had hoped to get this post out, but with my addiction to Netflix, League of Legends, and a new routine to get back in shape, I haven't really been focused on writing anything.  But I figured what better way to get back into the spirit of the internet than to lead with a cat picture!

I will preface this picture with this:

In Iowa, it's been awhile since the sun has been out, and so when it was shining bright and early the other day, I just had to open the blinds...but that was a mistake.  As soon as the blinds went up, my two cats fell victim to that ray of death which came from the sun.

After a few healing potions, the kitties were good as new, though.

Dreadball

Over the holidays I had some time to hang out with a friend, and we played a couple games.  The first game we played was Dreadball, which I could see myself playing a lot more of.  It is fairly simple and quick to play, but with enough depth and strategy that it will take numerous play sessions to get good with a specific team.

At this time I only have the Deluxe starter set of Dreadball which includes 2 of the first 4 teams, the Corporation (humans) and the Orcs.  I believe their actual team names in the book are Trontek 29ers and the Greenmoon Smackers...or something to that affect.  If we start a league, I think we would make our own team names and such, but since we are just learning, I am okay with the standard team names.

Anyway, I was the Orcs, and my friend played the Corporation.  It was fairly uneventful for most of the game, just Guards slamming jacks left and right, but no scoring until the final couple of turns.

It ended up being a pretty epic showdown with my Orcs winning by 1 pt in the last turn. 

We are only playing with the basic rules, and so there is a lot more we can add to enhance the gameplay, like cards and a referee to watch for fouls.  There is so much more to the game that we haven't even scratched the surface of, and so I look forward to playing more games.

Deadzone

As I said before, I recently received my Kickstarter edition of Deadzone.  I have slowly...very slowly...been assembling my guys.  I have been working my way through all of the Plague faction bags that I received. 

This is a Stage 3 human.  I believe they refer to them as Stage 3A.

These are more Stage 3A's. 

This is a Plague Teraton (teleporting turtle).  It has other names, but I can't remember them at this time.

This is kind of an in-process shot of what I am currently working on and what I have already put together.

I still have about 2 more bags of Plague after this lot.  Then I will move on to one of the 3 other factions I have received: The Rebs, Enforcers or Marauders.

League of Legends

League of Legends season 4 just started, so I'll probably be focused on that for at least a while. 

For any of you who don't know what League of Legends is, it is a computer game known as a MOBA - Multiplayer Online Battle Arena.  Basically 2 teams fight to destroy each others base.  There are tons of different characters to fight as and each has unique abilities and play styles.

There is also competitive play, called Ranked play.  Each season is the new start of the ranked season, and resets everyone's stats and usually introduces changes to existing game mechanics to make things interesting. 

It has a tiered system to show the levels of skill:  Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Challenger.  I ended in the middle of Gold tier last season, and started this season a little higher than I ended, so I am already pleased.  My goal is to get to at least Platinum and that should be doable.  I am also trying to play positions I didn't get to play much last year.  I am already feeling positively about this season, so it should be a good one.

Anyway, this is what I have been up to lately.  I plan on posting more pictures of Deadzone as I get more models put together, and I hope to play more games of Dreadball, so we can talk about that as well.

- Zach





Animations from College

So I was digging through some of my files and found some animations I did for a science animation class in college.  Figured I might share them.  They are pretty crappy, but they were fun to make.

First one is an over simplification of Evolution. 

(Forewarning: the second creature is furry; it might be hard to tell in the animation)

Below is another project I created for the same science animation class.  This one was a take on "Deadliest Warrior", the tv show.  It is also less science-y and more just whatever I wanted to do.

If I find any others that might be mildly entertaining, I'll be sure to add them. 

- Zach