Sierra Kilo

Tachevert of WorldIV got into the alpha test for Metaplace. He is the first community member to have a spotlight article. Congratulations Tache!

Now, about my Metaplace invite…

If this image is any indication of how cool the live-action G.I. Joe movie is going to be, then I’m all in.

Dennis Quaid as Hawk? Yes! Teenie-boppers for leadership roles? Nay! 3rd Rock From The Sun’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Cobra Commander? Very bold…could be very interesting or could bomb the whole movie. Marlon Wayans as Ripcord? Nay! “The Mummy” as Zartan, “Mr. Eko” as Heavy Duty, and “Dr. Who” as Destro? Yes, ok, yes! Ray Park as freakin’ Snake Eyes? There is absolutely nobody else that would fill the shoes better! I haven’t seen the guy playing Storm Shadow before, but he looks the part.

Read about it on USA Today’s site.

While reading a little web news, I came across Asaph. This is one of the coolest web apps I’ve seen. It is “a small blogging system, that allows you to instantly post links and images directly from any page on the web.” It is perfect if you want to “show all the cool things you found elsewhere.” Once in a while, I’ll come across a quote or a picture that I think is comment-worthy and want to make note of it. Asaph is perfect for that. I’ve installed it for my use here. I also added an RSS feed sidebar widget over -> there to show my latest Asaph posts.

Our nanny had been giving us problems, so we fired her. We had to find a new daycare for our daughter that had availability, was willing to work with her disability, wasn’t too far away or too expensive, and that we felt comfortable with. We found a good one. We’re having to adjust our schedule a bit. The whole process has just been very stressful on everybody, but it’s looking up. They have a webcam in the room and it’s good to see her playing during the day.

We had some friends over on Friday night and finally got to play Munchkin. The flowchart I found helped immensely because the instructions were a little vague. After 3 or 4 turns, we were whizzing right along. After a while, we started sabotaging each other and really getting into the game. Laura’s friend’s wife won both games, despite my backstabbing and wandering monsters.

They had mentioned wanting to play D&D. It’s been nearly 10 years since I played in college, but I still have the books. I found an adventure for 1st level characters that I’m a little familiar with and think we’d enjoy, so we’ll probably try to set up an evening to geek out and roll dice. The adventure I found is Doom of Daggerdale, a 2nd Edition AD&D adventure set in the Forgotten Realms setting. It looks like it’ll be a lot of fun, but I need to read up on it a little. Since I’m familiar with the setting and there are plenty of resources, it should be easy to continue in that campaign should we enjoy it enough and find enough time. I’m definitely looking forward to it.

Games:
Game time has been short lately. I played a little co-op Rainbow 6: Vegas on Saturday night, a little Rock Band, and showed the frenetic, gritty combat of Call of Duty 4 to a friend who said it was actually entertaining to watch me play. I’ve played Rebelstar on my GBA Micro recently, too. Kongregate is still the 5-minute time waster now and then.

I still mean to develop a multiplayer game. I think the easiest route is text-based, since I haven’t picked up graphics development yet. I’ve been meaning to play with XNA, but it’s hard to self-motivate. I envision this: commands similar to ROM MUDs, room-based world (for now), Wiki-like interface for object naming/descriptions/pictures, web API for character info, integrated AIM communication.

Gadgets:
I think Apple is finding that people want the iPhone to be the next Newton. They want a mobile computing device, not just an iPod with a web browser that can make calls. Over 100,000 SDK downloads sounds like it to me. People are finding, however, that they can’t create applications that run in the background. Most of it probably revolves around battery life. Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) has the same problem, but at least they let the user decide if the loss of power is worth the application features. I’d still like to get one, but I’m trying to hold out for version 2 (the one with high-capacity [60+GB] storage, 3G data network, and true multitasking OS).

The Goods:
I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. It wasn’t too bad, but there’s one grass/weed that grows in thick clumps that has been my nemesis for a few years now. I plan on hitting them hard with Round-Up this week. Laura took the clippers after the bushes, so they look much better. I don’t think I’m going to experiment with planting anything this year unless it’s in a pot and easily controlled. I think I finally killed off the basil. It started in a small pot, took over the other pots, then started growing in the yard! The 8-inch branch of rosemary I got from Mom 2 years ago is now a bush 4-ft. in diameter. He says he wants to be called Claude now or he’ll eat my air conditioner. Yep, spring means outdoor enhancements.

Posted by mobile phone:
As I sit waiting to get my haircut, I realize I haven’t posted in a while. Between work and home, I haven’t had time to breathe. Excuses, excuses, I know.

I had a dream last night about making a game with Metaspace. I haven’t thought out any details, and I probably wouldn’t have the time anyway. One day, perhaps. I’ll just have to live vicariously through my brother as he goes into the industry.

I’ll try to post more later.

The news of the iPhone SDK means a couple of things. Native applications will start showing up without having to “jailbreak” your phone. These apps will be simple at first, then get more useful as developers get used to the SDK (and in some cases the Objective-C language and OS X platform). It means more social. Someone will probably write some kind of proximity-based detection app that allows you to connect to nearby iPhones like the Zune. There will be native Twitter, Facebook, Jaiku, and maybe even Pownce apps. There will be games! EA showed off a simplified version of Spore (which probably has more to do with the name than Will Wright’s design). There was an interesting Wing Commander-like space combat game. Sega also showed off Super Monkey Ball that uses the accelerometer for control. AOL will have a native AIM client! All of these things are great. For those of you who are thinking about developing for the iPhone, here are some ideas of things I’d like to see:

- CommuterFeed Tweet writer: Set your Twitter username and your default city code, then use Google maps’ triangulation to determine your location and have easy one-touch buttons for what you’re reporting (accident, heavy traffic, construction, etc).
- RSS feed reader: Aggregate all of your RSS feeds into one scrolling list.
- Adium: Multi-service IM application! Use pictures from your contacts on buddy list and chat windows.
- Some kind of passive, location-based social game: Think virtual geocaching…like PMOG.

There’s an interesting read over at The Escapist about the X-COM series. The article is mainly about the official series, so they leave out the best X-COM successors: Pocket UFO (a remake of the original for PocketPC) and Rebelstar: Tactical Command (a spiritual successor, yet stand-alone game by one of the original creators of X-COM for GameBoy Advance).

Merci over at Terra Nova has created an interesting game. It exists as a Firefox extension and you “play” the game by visiting websites. Along the way, other players can leave crates or mines for other players. Crates reward the visitor with a present, while mines steal points. The concept is very intriguing. I especially like the “passive” element, being able to “play” the game without actually doing anything. I signed up for the beta test, so we’ll see how it goes.

Another interesting game idea comes from one of my favorite sites. Squidi’s node-based travel is very reminiscent of the old LucasArts adventure games (Zak McKracken, Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island, etc). Each node represents a different area and gameplay happens in the different nodes. Maybe I’m just a sucker for the pixel graphics, but it seems like an interesting mechanic.

I think it would be interesting to take a game like Starfighter or Star Control II and put it in a fantasy setting. The base ship would be a player on foot. You could run from zone to zone slaying random goblins (ships) for cash or take a mission from a city (spaceport). Instead of upgrading your ship, you buy a horse, a better horse, armor for you, armor for your horse, better weapons, etc. Basically, take the same game and change the setting. I wonder how that would work out?

I’ve been thinking of developing a new game that will hopefully get me on the right track. The idea is to start small, start simple, and get something working. To this end, I’m looking into Microsoft XNA Game Studio. There are a couple of tutorials that might help get me started.

I started this line of thinking on Friday with a good list of ideas and have been paring them down more and more until I got to a place where I think it’s simple enough to start: Asteroids. Since I’m usually all talk and no walk when it comes to actual game development, I figured I wouldn’t try anything fancy. Just get some graphics on the screen controlled by some input. I wanted to put my own touch on it, though, so instead of a spaceship shooting asteroids, it’ll be an archer shooting game (rabbit, deer, boar, bear, etc). I haven’t figured out how to explain the asteroid breaking up when shot yet, though (does a bear produce 2 boars, or when you shoot an animal, is that it?). I’m going to call it “Archer.”

For version 2, I’d like to be less like Asteroids, more like SmashTV where you clear an area, then move to the next. For version 3, I’d like to add more RPG elements (gathering XP, levelling up, collecting items, etc). It gets more ambitious from there. I’d eventually like to get it on Windows Mobile and/or XBox 360 through the XNA Creator’s Club. With their new push toward community-created games, it would be fun to get in on that.

So, I hope I can be more walk and less talk with this project. Time constraints and inexperience are my biggest enemies.