2008 Review and 2009 Goals

Here's mine (including some 2008 mistakes): http://greyaliengames.com/blog/2008-review-and-2009-goals/

Let's hear yours! :-)

wow jake, you've been a very popular guy this month. bandwith limit exceeded, and your sig pics aren't showing.

or he does how pretty cheap host :D

Time to upgrade Jake!

cheers
Roman

Well, I didn't get much done in 2008... here's hoping I'm more productive in 2009...

Trying to get it fixed. I have quite a big bandwidth and no idea why it's gone up this month.

I did a lot of work for work this year...and I released my first actually completed game.

I intend to make 1 more free game in blitzmax, 1 free game in c++ then work on a commercially sellable game in blitzmax this year.

Wish me luck guys :s

Good luck! Free games are good training for sure.

I'm bumping this as my blog is now up and running after the bandwidth issue I had.

@boom boom, looking good for the new year then.

I did a lot of work for erm, work also this year - still you grow older and wiser.

Picked up Peter James latest book - dead man's footsteps, looking forward to reading that in the new year.

Coding wise - I've a couple of ambitious projects, one is a bicycle speed data logger, another involves some hefty 3d development. Quick search on the bike front reveals that there is one company using phones as data loggers. On the 3D front, I'm looking forward to playing with B3D and the selection of physics engines you can pick from these days.

@Grey, congratulations and all the best with your 7th goal thingy for 09, lifes a one way trip and it helps to have someone close to spend it with.

A Good New Year to all (just 103 mins away here)

Thanks for your openness in your blog, Jake.

One of my goals last year, early in the year, was to have some kind of game released before Christmas. This totally did not happen, not even close, not even anywhere near, barely even started! Well, have done quite a bit of work on my fairly advanced engine/environment which *eventually* will make things very productive. But alas a game and website were not very feasible in '08. I work full time at a day job so I usually only get a few hours per week to work on my project. Oh well.

My aim for 2009 is that by the end of the year I will at least have turned my engine/software environment into a useable set of design tools with which to set about creating games/apps. Secondarily I would hope that I will even churn out a game or two with it before the year is out, but I know there is still a lot of work to do. A third aim is to get a decent website up and running, which in itself could take quite some time to do well. If I had more hours to work on this stuff it'd be rockin' by now.

Time constraints make me start thinking about ditching everything and writing some smallish indie casual type of game. But I do have stick-with-it-ness.

2009 goal: less procastating

@Imaginary:

I'm so with you there.

&

Yeah, me too - you subscribe to madjack's sign off then? I loved Grey's framework - it allowed me to finish a educational project that really required stick with it ness in the end. Will you be making a demo version of your engine for public consumption?

2009 Goals;

-Graduate in February
-Have meetings with 2 multimedia companies and convince them to buy games and interactive multimedia cd's (They pay fairly good for a single guy because their budget is arranged for teams)
-Buy new furniture to finish the home/office
-Work hard on the new project as the programmer, make enough money per month for bills and extra stuff from there including high speed cable internet.
-See gf more often (Istanbul - Izmir 8 hours with a car)
-Finish the hidden object game demo and submit to major portals
-Start bodybuilding after the graduation
-Improve texturing and uv painting skills
-Get the new programming tool which feels like Blitz3D 2.0 (I gave it's name in an earlier post but that post got deleted so I won't take that risk again )
-Stop smoking
-Get a driving license
-Read a lot of books, especially the fantasy ones like forgotten realms and dragonlance series
-Start a RPG project including a lot of dwarves, for hobby.

The list goes on...

@Blitzplotter: Thanks! Yeah I like the idea that we are a team and move forward through life as a team.

@ImaginaryHuman: You are welcome. Stating it publicly helps me to focus and see clearly.

Classic. I read the dragonlance stuff when I was a teenager, so like nearly 20 years ago gasp!

It's a spaceship? I always thought it was a mushroom on your logo!

Blitzplotter: "Yeah, me too - you subscribe to madjack's sign off then? Will you be making a demo version of your engine for public consumption? "

I'm not sure what you mean by madjack's sign off?

As to a demo, I am still considering the most appropriate distribution/business model for my platform. I want to get it correct right from the start - vision requires foresight. Initially I am not planning to make it a strap-on sourcecode-level engine (I was going to, and I am writing fairly clean code, but I'm not sure if I want users to use it as a module). It's probably not going to be another Max3D/Leadwerks/Flow3D type of module/dll thing that you call from your Blitz programs. I'm hoping to get away from sourcecode as much as possible.

I prefer to think it's going to be a virtual platform/environment, providing a wide variety of functionality as a `core` engine, coupled with higher level tools. The platform itself I am thinking will be a closed-source paid product but I'm not sure yet. I have to think about it all very carefully.

The core platform is going to be like a virtual operating system/virtual console. It will create a blank canvas with no fixed tools/apps/games. Then there will be a level playing field where any higher level stuff that I create is on the same level as any 3rd party stuff, encouraging healthy competition and avoiding all monopolistic activities. I am thinking I would then focus on improving the core platform and use it to create and release various games/apps/toolsets geared towards easy yet advanced game design and graphical arts.

I guess it would be similar to the model of an operating system where you are providing mostly `unseen` behind-the-scenes functionality and then the `user space` applications can be whatever you like. But instead of having lots of Blitz applications calling multiple instances of an engine, it's going to be more like a single engine with multiple apps executing inside of it. So then if I choose to create apps/games on it, it's with the same freedoms and potential as anyone else.

I am not sure yet if I would charge for those higher level tools or focus on charging only for games and the core platform. Whereas Linux distributions sometimes charge for services to support the free platform, I am not sure yet whether to charge for the platform and make the higher level stuff free or vice versa or some combination thereof. I also am looking at propagation of the platform and making it a franchise-like model. So I'm still roughing out the pro's and con's of how that's all going to fit together. I'm sure that somewhere along the lines there would be some kind of demonstration version, later this year though probably.

Brucey wrote:

Are you kidding me?? You are one of the most productive Blitz members here. You should be given a lifetime achievement award for making BlitzMax a better product.

For me, I gotta get Book II wrapped up and keep pimping Book I whenever possible (we have another big distributor agreement in the works). Sometimes I am jealous that Jake gets to work on a new project every 4-6 months, but then I don't think I'd enjoy making casual games as much as I enjoy the RPG scene.

Heh - I think he means my sig ;-)

hmmm IDK about yall but my goal for 2009 is to find a 'programming buddy' - someone I know in real life that also knows how to program well in b3d... unfortunately I dont know any at the time that program in blitz3d (but I know one that programs in bmax) :( except for my dad but he understandably doesn't have time or energy to program along side work and family.

@Imaginary, yeah I meant madjack's signature - and he is definitely a very fine example of the completer polisher/finisher meld.

Also I can see you ave put a lot of thought into your engine - good luck with it.

@ Tachyon - I agree with your sentiment 'bout Brucey's output.

About Brucey: 100% agreed! Brucey you've helped so many of us in so many ways. Thanks!

well, did you read my bog post? I didn't even release a game last year (unless you count Mac and International versions of Fairway), and Fairway took me practically the whole of the previous year. However, yes things will change now as we aim to have small teams to complete games much quicker, so you can start being jealous now ;-p Hurry up and finish your game please! I'll try and find some quality time to play it...

LOL, I thought you were pushed for time of late but you are now posting from the bog? I'm being flippant, I'm guilty of trusting my typing skills to *grins*

clarification of bog: Scotland: the toilet, alternative more common thingy water thats a bit stagnant-esque to the point that it develops a green ish tinge.

I have no hesitation in saying that Fairway Solitaire is one of the finest examples of what can be produced by an Indie, with BMax (;0)

Happy New Year Grey.

lol haha good one! I do sometimes plan code on the bog though...yeah Happy New Year.

I hope for your sake your house has more than one bog then.....

And don't forget to press Eject ;-)

LOL (;0)

haha. Actually we do have more than one bog, but I'm normally don't get much planning done. I am enjoying having time to think on the bus on the way home at the moment though. To review the day and what I'm doing next etc.