Mark Sibly : Sibly's Hour

Hello Mark, I really do hope you get a chance to read this, and possibly let me know what you think about it.

About 7 or 8 Years ago I took part in an online game, it was one of those web based space battle games, and one of the things I loved most about it was that once per month, there was a creators hour, in essence, some of the creators sat in IRC, and took and answered questions, for 1 hour.

Since then I have been lucky to get into the closed beta test of a few AA titles, and a good few Indie and normal low budget games, and I have noticed that more and more of them where small development teams are involved, have or held these 1hour Q&A sessions.

I know that some people will reply to this saying that you dont have to answer this, because people who use c++ or VB dont get that with their respective creators. well this isnt c++, and its not VB, its blitz, its a small team and a very small and tight nit community, and I think this one on one situation could really help, not only your community, but yourself by allowing you in a structured manner to find out what your users are looking for, or what our fears and concerns are.

What I propose is that 1 hour per month, on a fixed day, and fixed hour, you create a post called "Siblys Hour" or something, During which time you sit down, have a coffee, and answer and reply to as many questions as you can preferably in the order in which they are posted.

1 Hour from your month is a very small amount to ask for, I know that you could find yourself in a situation where you are asked a hard question, tell the truth, were all adults I think we can handle it, if your asked about Max3D then answer as best you can, if your really unsure of the answer then just say that. don't suger coat it for us just give us your thoughts unedited. we know your human, we know your not perfect, none of us are.

My rant is now officially over. I only hope you read and reply before the hordes of negative posters get here.

<Negative_Post target="Yavin">
What questions do you expect to get answered? "When will Max3D be out?" When it's done. There aren't really any questions that most users can ask that someone other than Mark can't answer.

Do you want to know what his favorite game is or something? I understand this is a close-knit community in a way, but that's not what it's about.

Let Mark do his work and answer questions as he sees fit. As-is, if he wanted to answer questions in threads about Max3D, he would. Clearly he doesn't, so move along and be patient while he does what he has to. He's answered questions regarding bugs and other technical aspects of BlitzMax/Blitz3D, but I think we can all see that he doesn't want to talk about Max3D given the tendency for others to just flip out.

My 2 cents.
</Negative_Post>

time = money

And what Noel said.

All I could really ask for is his worklog to be updated more regularly, since it's him speaking about going on with his own will, rather than being restricted to answering the contents of an question...

Mr Cower is back, welcome back :-)

sinu: I will eat your soul!

Sibly's Hour : Friday's at the local pub - lol :))

Welcome back Noel! ;)

I'd personally ask him what pizza topping he likes, what does he do away from his 'puter, does he have any pets? etc etc

Actually find out about the man BEHIND Blitz, cos I'm a nosey bugger! :D

Dabz

It looks like a good idea to me, but I'm sure a Mr. Sibly hour would be a 'when will Max3D be available' hour. I'm sure most users will ask him the same they ask him on the forums. And obviously, if Mark hasn't answered in the forums, I doubt he will on a IRC chat. I think having a more up-to-date mark worklog would be much better to keep Blitz users informed and happy :D

This is how those gun rampages start. Mark is going to hunt the lot of you down, one day.

Actually if it's just the same with you, I'd just as soon have a "George Carlin hour".

Who?

has anyone thought about organising a UK convention - whilst ol' Mark will probably not be able to come, it might be useful for people to discuss Blitz products.

The DBPro ones I organised for the past 4 years were quite useful for many people.

Been done before. 7 times.

Still going ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Carlin

Yeah. Besides one can always use another excuse to get drunk out of ones mind.

See.... the way it worked before; Idigicon set them up and it all went fine, until they decided to invite users of other platforms etc.

It got invaded by Mac addicts, and the final straw came during the Q&A session, when two Mac people stood up and debated the ins and outs of Valve's 'Steam' for about 45 minutes, boring everybody else to death.

Another Blitzcon followed, but the Q&A session was scrapped because of what happened last time. So it was basically a pissup which a couple of people brought computers to.

It all got a bit pointless. The last one was two years ago in July.

That was just my way of getting through it. :)

Hmm, a Blitz "conference" (note the qoutes == tax deducable party) somewhere on a sunny place in Europe during off season (= dirt cheap tickets and hotels)....

Looks like Mark may be busy with the characterization of environmentally-induced antisense genes in Pseudomonas fluorescens.

http://www.tufts.edu/med/microbiology/lab/levy/silby.html

dp

Except thats Mark Silby, not Mark Sibly.

Hes working on a time machine so he can release Max3D when BlitzMax comes out. Ofcourse none of these posts will exist.

Darn, didn't think anyone would catch that :).

Can't believe how frequent these threads are. Just go and make a game or three with what you've got and when/if the module turns up, rejoice.

It would be a good idea if Mark posted a tiny bit more often than he does perhaps in a blog, but it would be best if he didn't answer any questions so it didn't take much of his time at all.

Try not to assume what I would ask cos you have no way of knowing, and I am sure the questions would change each month.

Personally I would love to know, as the creator of this amazing product, what is his favorite thing that one of us has made with it.

This has nothing to do with when or will max3d will come out, its more about addressing the lack of communication that a lot of people would like, and something like this would do it. I think.

LMAO

I agree with you Yavin. The point isn't to release games, the point isn't to be productive...

the question is "What are you dreams, what are your ambitions"..

Blitz is never about making games (just look at the number of profiles in the community vs the number of completed games). No matter what, blitz is a hobby language, always will be. That said, it's not a bad thing, as it still has sales potential.. The question on most people mind is "when and what is the next step" which Mark convienantly avoids.... Perhaps he is done with blitz? Perhaps he just helps out to fix the bugs and be done with it?? Perhaps people should just move on?

It is a poor individual who never looks to the future, who never plans further than 5 feet infront of them. Asking such questions as Yavin asked is logical and should in no way be avoided.

@Yavin, you probably wouldn't get the opportunity to ask "What's your favourite product made in Blitz?" due to the clamour of people asking "When's Max3D going to be ready?"
I *think* Darkhalf was kinda/sort-of agreeing with you (although it could have been sarcastic) but caps it with
basically agreeing with what many peoples fears would be.

for god sake people doesnt anyone write games anymore or do ya just lurk on the forums? :)

I just lurk in forums.

... so do I. Who said we had to write games?

ENAY mostly, I think. :P Personally, I haven't coded squat in over a year!

... so has this forum got nothing to do with Pseudomonas fluorescens then? Sod it! I've bought the wrong product.
Unless....
Mark, why is there no news on a Pseudomonas fluorescens module for BlitzMax? I bought BlitzMax specifically to look at characterization of environmentally-induced antisense genes in Pseudomonas fluorescens. You don't mention it in your worklogs, you don't allow discussion about it on the forums, you don't even have it listed on the products page. Are you done with Pseudomonas fluorescens? Do I have to look at the DBPro and it's Pseudomonas fluorescens add-on?

Were you just checking that you could spell long words? or did you actually have something relevant to say and just posted to the wrong thread..

Hopefully somebody will get it (<edit> and/or appreciate it)

@tonyg
No sarcasm at all, sorry if it came off as such. The LMAO was directed towards the others (the ones who still haven't produced complete products, yet choose to sit here and tell us to get back to work).


Some of us have already came to grip with that possible case and moved on..

Why am I still here? I don't know, this is one of the few communities where you can still get decent information before the local Trolls come out after dawn. Besides, I guess I am watching and waiting to see what happens, will BRL see the light, or will they fall. Is Mark still doing this, or has he given up. It's all a calculation really, and looking at A. the number of posts he's made B. What topics he has posted in, C. updates (meaning status updates, not software updates, think worklogs or such)
one can come to their own conclusion... the question is at that point, are you ok with that, or do you choose to live in denial?

Again, I think Yavin has a good idea (as many before him have had). Personally I like Yavin's work, I loved some of his past work!

I'm happy with my 40-50 quids worth whatever happens.

yeah me too.

I agree as well with tonyg's and grays last comments. its the best money iv spent in a long time.

Except for all your posts on the forum, which I personally think is a pretty good indication.

Why on Earth would you assume that? If the forums are any indication, the exact same questions surface roughly every week, not one asking or providing new insights, and not one, regardless of politeness or profanity is capable of provoking a response. Why do you think this is?

I don't think he plays favorites.

Or could it possibly be that the same questions surface every week because some forum members would like a response for once?

@Mark - Please, just post something about working on your Pseudomonas fluorescens effect and we'll lay off.

Another vote for George Carlin Hour. In fact, I'm seeing his performance on Sunday. I am excited.

Oh I dont know, maby because they would get an answer to it ? why ask when you know they would then ask something else.

And just because I happen to be one of those people waiting on the Max3D engine does not mean that it would have been my first question, why waste a question on something I know for a fact would be asked by some one else really quickly. I genuinely would like to know what product mark is most proud of that was made with his own created language. I know if I was in his position I would look at all things made with blitz and think, "Whaaa cool.. I helped him do that"

Yeah, FlameDuck is just being to litteral and overly anal... Here is how an interview would go with flameduck (if he had his way).

Q: Your doing well.
A: Yes

Q: What are you working on currently?
A: Projects that keep me busy.

Q: What is your timeline?
A: Long and busy.

Q: Anything you'd like to add?
A: Nope....

Q: Well FlameDuck, thanks for your time, we hope you the best.
A: Umm, I didn't approve that question/statement... This interview is over <doors barge in with men in black suits, they grab FlameDuck and remove him from the scene quickly and quietly>

I Thinks you should put it this way

The Divine one Created a Stick,its was of your common garden stick variety not contaminated from the ways of the world.

The Divine called aloud "Dear Blitzers Here is the Stick of Purity Go forth and make many a thatched abode or use it as you see fit".

Mr A stared Longingly at the Stick of Purity and thought,"mmm I will make a Boeing 747 from this",and so Mr began working his magic.

Suddenly Mr A Shouted "Bl**dy Feck,Jebus my Stick has broken its all the Divine ones fault B***h".

The Divine one heared the echos of his cries and at once sighed," But this stick is only a tool and it is nothing more than tool to manipulate your ambitions,to ask it to be something else is absurd".

The Moral is Dont ask an apple to be a Orange unless its within your abilities.Its not the sticks fault or that of the divine one. Remember you dont use a RosePettle for Open Heart Surgery. The Stick is a rule to bond/Bind and manages flow this tool is only limited by you.

Wow. I can't believe you got every answer wrong.

And even some of the questions. It should be "You're doing well."

lol, ok, what are your real answers?

> for god sake people doesnt anyone write games
> anymore or do ya just lurk on the forums?

Naaah, haven't you heard? Noone makes games anymore, waiting for the next big thing is big business, and your popularity is only determined by your frequent occurances in a forum where everyone can remember your name, usually because you've been banned for being a bit lippy. A world where time wasting is the new free love.

I remember when this forum first appeared and was new, Mark used to be around on the forums quite a lot. A Q&A session on IRC is a humourous idea. It's from crazy suggestions like this and hounding over questions over BlitzMax3D that the guy has gone into hiding. He's like a celebrity to you, that you're stalking, is he your Britney Spears?

For me personally, if I wasn't going to make something I wouldn't even start. It's like buying some paintbrushes, a canvas, then buying some more brushes, a shinier new canvas, talking about your picture, but then never actually starting or finishing a picture. Why would you do that?

I feel great sympathy for the no hopers of this world, the people who are never gonna accomplish anything and just spend all their time sitting around talking about doing things they're never gonna do. In respect to people who have fun tinkering with languages seeing what things they can do without achieving any finished works, good luck to you. It's great that you can find fun in programming for leisure.
But it's the people who moan and go on and on about new and upcoming features that amuse me, the people who when these features do arrive, (they may never arrive) they won't do anything with them anyway.

If it's a 1 hour QA session you want, here is my question; what are you going to make in BMax3D? What can't you live without in Max3D that you can't start now in Blitz3D, or BMax and a 3rd party 3D engine. Who's doing your 3D models, your music, have you planned your game yet? Games programming is actually a very difficult artform. Some of you don't really have much hope to be honest. Ignorance is bliss indeed.

But in the meantime yeah, you go hound that Mr Sibly for information, you go pester him for his next worklog and get your fix of Blitzmax3D/Mark Sibly goodness for erm something.

But as each day passes, the complexity of games increases and thus the gap from lone developer to big corporation widens. Those that can, do, those that can't waste time on forums.
It's only your time you're wasting though, so it doesn't really bother me. As for me, I just get some twisted enjoyment of pointing this out every now and again, or making fun of your typing errors. :) So yes, I won't be that sad if you all start writing your own games tomorrow. I enjoy a good chuckle every now and then reading some of your posts.

I'm the greatest Blitzer whoever lived.

lies HaXoR puki :)

I keep reading this topic as:

Sibly's Finest Hour

I think Beaker managed to convince Mark to do a couple in the old days too, if memory serves.

Apparently your point is valid!


"Later today ENAY will be holding a teleconference as the kettle has a few words for the pot."

lmao, good read ENAY, it was like reading the words of a true politician :-)

I think most people here buy blitz to lurk on the forum or so it seems. Flameduck is one of the old school still around, like me seeing the same threads over and over gets kind of annoying so sarcasm can come across as being blunt.

I would love to see more stuff for Blitz coming out and maybe a more updated worklog we havent had stuff for ages apart from the MaxIDE post.

You genuinely want to know? Look at the front page - the bit where it says: Featured Blitz Game. So I'm thinking Naked War.

Well for starters I'm totally stressed out at the moment, moving house so everything is a huge mess and I can't find anything, no decent broadband the next month or so, way too much work, way to little money - that kind of thing.

I believe it's those that can, do, those that can't, TEACH. Posting on a forum can be recreational, particularly so on this forum.

Indeed.

In the immortal words of Bill Hicks, I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out. :o>

.. back and to the left...

Just updated my worklog!

nice one

Nice stuff!

Lots of things to spark immense (and inaccurate) speculation, though.

I'm a bit bothered by you using a whole new GUI library for the IDE. It looks nice and all, but it just doesn't seem right... Then again, it may seem a lot more right based on these questions:
-Would you say this GUI works well for interfaces in games?
-Is this interchangeable with MaxGUI? (As in, change Import brl.maxgui to brl.gxlib, maybe a few tiny changes elsewhere, and get a whole new user interface?)
-You mentioned that MaxGUI looks really ugly in most of desktop Linux. Does gxLib act as the solution to that problem, or do you perhaps have plans to address it more directly? Any thoughts for the possibility of MaxGUI officially with GTK? I realize GTK works a bit differently from others, but perhaps it is manageable via a few tricks. (I'm thinking GTK because it is the prettiest, because Brucey has proven it to be quite definitely possible, and because QTLib has a really scary license)
-Don't bother answering this if you aren't sure or don't want to say, but do you plan to sell gxLib or distribute it for free? (If it's free, then I 100% forgive you for having it as the UI library for the IDE, by the way).

Adding arrays looks fun! Now all I need is somewhere to use it...

Looks like this will leave room for FLOW as a 3D render engine, and we have full scriptable CEGUI lib support, that can also be used simultaniously with Maxgui too.

Maybe what Marks doing will work out, what with 3-4 renderers on the horizon.

..hey FlameDuck..are you a Lawyer or something?? Just curiosity, really??

Another cross-platform, non-native GUI?

<sigh>

That really bums me out. I spend my days coding Java with Swing. For normal GUI apps, people want *native* L&F. They don't give a rip if it looks the same on all platforms, as they likely only use *one* platform. I'm sure that gxLib will suck much less than Swing eventually -- Swing was obviously either a CS thesis project or the first project a CS major did out of University. And it may well rock for doing game UI. I do hope that, if he's not already familiar with Swing, Mark will take a look so he can learn from what works and what doesn't.

None the less, for standard apps, this will keep BlitxMax a second class citizen, at best. I know that's not its target market, but it's such a shame to limit the system.

OTOH, I'm really not sure it's *possible* to do a full meal deal cross platform, native L&F GUI. The major platforms just have too much divergence -- especially OS X.

Did you miss the part that said :

Erm no. I'm an ISV.

All a bit vague, but that's what Mark wrote in the first
lines. gxLib is clear, improved MaxIDe is clear.
The only thing i'm wondering what is our problem he wants to solve?

Thanks for the information. Sounds interesting and after a lot of work...

The only thing which left me a bit anxious is related to gxLib. Do Mac users only have to use a win like gui for the IDE then or will the released stuff also look like this? As if so this could put off people on the Mac.

I think that is unlikely. Though perhaps someone can write a "MaxGUI-gxLib" interface...

It's a shame about the OS X menus stuff... very non-standard, and likely to keep people on MaxGUI - if they want their apps to look like "native" apps.

Question about 'new direction of 3d module' (sorry I don't want to open a new thread for this at the moment).

Does this mean that the '3d sdk' (ala Blitz3d...) is ready?
In this case - * * * This is only MY opinion - I don't want to flame * * * why not consider the idea to sell it as 'official 3d module' and the new stuff (world editor+shader editor...) as something 'plus' (ie: Advanced edition or something) when it is ready and stable?

This is JUST for TIMING and economic revenue for BRL...I - of course - don't know how much time will keep the 'new project', but I don't believe only few months...

Just my opinion, I really appreciate the attentions to the docs...

Byez

Well, maybe Yavin did achieve something with this thread. More likely, Mark would have posted a worklog anyway.

Some encouraging stuff in there.

Lol, maybe - but one thing to remember - Enay, unlike many, has actually finshed games and had them published.

what games are these?

Really? Where are they?