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    Random Spam


    2011 - 06.26

    I seem to get a lot of spam on this blog, and in the past few days, the spamming level really has got quite crazy. However, some of the ‘comments’ are quite amusing, here a few of my favorites ( spelling left as is ) :

    Hey, you’re the goto epexrt. Thanks for hanging out here. ( every coder loves using goto statements! )
    Wakinlg in the presence of giants here. Cool thinking all around! ( on my article about catvertising )
    That’s not just logic. That’s rellay sensible. ( why thanks, I’m sure my picture of angry asteroid is helpful )
    You raelly saved my skin with this information. Thanks! ( on catvertising, obvously lots of spam cat campigns will start appearing )
    I suppose that sdonus and smells just about right. ( I knew installing wordpresses real time smell plugin was a good idea )
    The forum is a birtgher place thanks to your posts. Thanks! ( errr, what forum? )
    Haha, solhudn’t you be charging for that kind of knowledge?! ( again on catvertising, if you are looking for a head of catvertising, feel free to email me!)
    Great hammer of Thor, that is poewfrully helpful! ( I’m going to use this as an expletive from now on )
    I’m just a hot bot, but this is amasing ( well, atlease you are being honest )
    It was dark when I woke. This is a ray of snsuhine. ( ironically on a post about realtime lighting )
    This info is the cat’s paajams! ( on catvertising once more )
    Hey, that’s the gresaett! So with ll this brain power AWHFY? ( errrrrrrrm? )

    Now, a lot of these posts are from bots who seem to only link to search engines – so I’m a bit confused as to what the point of the spamming is … any one have any ideas? or is someone running an automated commenter on my site just to make me feel popular? πŸ˜‰

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    My Tweet Archive


    2011 - 06.06

    After looking at my rapidly growing library of tweets coupled with a definite twitter addiction I’ve decided to add a new section to the blog which will contain an archive of all my tweets. The reason? vanity mainly πŸ™‚ That and the fact that I’m sure the up to the date info will be tasty food for GoogleBot to chomp on.

    After making the decision to put my tweets in an archive section, I went searching for a solution. Alas, none could be found which would fit my idea – most of them seemed to just grab your tweets and automagically place them as a post on your blog. I didn’t really want that, as my blog articles tend to be a lot higher quality than my quite spammy twitter feed.Β  So I decided that I would use a Page, and roll my own.

    I haven’t really done any coding for WordPress, with the exception being minor tweaks to things – so had no idea where to start. After reading the codex and about 30 mins of web searching, I searched for two plug ins that I would need. The first most excellent Tweet Tweet – which really does all the hard work.Β  It grabs all my tweets and saves them to a local database.Β  Quite a bit of a time-saver there.Β  The second was the incredibly useful WP exec PHP which allows php code to be embedded and run in pages.Β  I had all the tools I need, so got coding.

    After battling with the almost mysterious URL re-writing WordPress ships with, along with several heart stopping moments when I thought I had borked my install to such a degree I couldn’t get it back, I had the My Tweets section completed.Β  All in all, about two and half hours work.Β  But now I can sleep soundly at night knowing that even if Twitter deletes all my precious tweets, I’ll still have a back-up of them πŸ™‚

    If anyone is interested in a tutorial or some code or something, drop me a comment and I’ll see what I can do πŸ™‚

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    Indie Games


    2011 - 06.01

    As well as spending my free time writing games, I do spend a lot of a time actually playing them. Recently I have noticed 90% of the games I have been playing have been indie games – mainstream ones don’t really seem to hold much appeal anymore. Sure they tend to look fantastic, but they just seem lacking. Maybe the freedom indie folks have without publishers means that can actually mix things up a bit. Maybe focusing more on game play than looks makes the difference. Maybe I’m getting old and indie games seem more acceptable than the stuff the young ‘uns play πŸ™‚

    Anyway, the mainstream games I have played lately have all seemed to be very similar in nature – even those that have the occasional new game mechanic, it just all feels the same. Indie games, on the other hand, seem very different. They tend to hook me with one specific feature and/or story line element and then get me addicted by the rest of the offering. Sometimes not even that, Revenge of the Titans hooked me purely with their fantastic art direction πŸ™‚

    I’m quite happy to see an increase in mainstream acceptance of indie games.Β  Minecraft, I think, has been the major game changer in this. It is the one the media has picked upon most, and the one even non-gamers have heard of. Selling millions of copies while still in beta probably had a large part to do this. On a shallow level, graphically, you can’t compare it to any main stream game – its seems generations behind what is available in any modern mainstream title – no splashy reflective water effects, no models with more polygons in it than I would dare to count, no textures which are bigger than my screen. It has simple, clean, retro looks. The look isn’t important here ( though I will admit during sunrise/sunset standing at a high vantage point there is a certain beauty about an organic world made of cubes ) – the game play is what counts. No need for a story. You aren’t a brainwashed government trained killer, or a survivor of a plane crash or even a gangster trying to prove your name. You are there. You exist. You are given a world, and left at it. What you decide to create or do is your choice. Just a quick youtube of the word Minecraft will show you some quite simply amazing things people have created with it. It doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. I can’t imagine trying to sell a game concept like this to a big company – ‘Well its made of cubes, and you can build stuff’ would seem like quite a large risk to any one. No story or flashy hooks, just simple clean fun.

    I applaud Valve for their obvious love of indie games – steam as an awesome platform for game distribution and has such a huge audience that it allows a large spotlight to fall upon indie games that otherwise might never be seen. Hell, even their pretty epic Portal 2 release was quite literally powered by indie games πŸ™‚ Another big advantage of steam for indie developers is the nervousness of people buying things online. I know that the internet is meant to be becoming safer for online transactions, and if anything does go wrong I can always contact my bank – but still seeing a webpage for an indie game asking for my credit card details ( personally ) is a bit a turn off. At least when I am buying through steam, I know that the trust between Valve ( who lets face it, are huge ) and the indie developer ( who lets face it, tend to be tiny ) must be pretty good – therefore it encourages me to buy. That and the convenience of steam generally is a huge motivator. I do worry about the day steam closes down and I loose all my games, but I’m hoping that never happens. Maybe burying my head in the ground a bit there, heh.

    Anyway, this random little discourse was just meant to be ‘In between development posts I am going to post some indie game reviews’ but, alas, it seems to grown somewhat πŸ™‚

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    Project: Cards – a short story


    2011 - 05.29

    Inko and I are currently working on teaser trailer for Project: Cards – which will show the basic story of the player and the first few battles that they will take part in.Β  The following is read audio which goes over the top of some awesome concept artwork Inko has come up with.Β  Currently, it is my not very dramatic voice over the top of it.Β  Hopefully we can find a cool voice actor before we put the trailer live – if you have a cool voice, feel free to comment and offer your services πŸ™‚

    I awoke from the dream. Well, I had thought it was a dream – but it seemed more real than the unfamiliar world which I could see through blurry eyes. Visions of myself leading a mighty army against the forces of darkness. The God of Courage charging along side me into the melee. The clashing of sword on armour, the smell of blood and sweat. The God of Courage laughing with mirth as another foe was slain against his sword.

    In those few moments of waking, the confusion of the dream and reality made me pause before suddenly awareness dawned on me. I had been chosen.

    I was in a clearing, which was not where I had laid my head down to sleep I was surrounded by lush greenery and a small brook bubbled to one side.

    As I crawled over to the brook to wash my face I saw my reflection – there was a small mark on my forehead , a mark which had appeared over night, a mark which was his mark – the mark of the God of Courage.

    I knew from that point on, my life would never be the same again.

    Suddenly a screech filled in the air, and turning around I saw a terrible sight, a dark skinned goblin approaching across the clearing. A cruel looking dagger was in its hand, a look of hatred and murder in his eyes.

    Power suddenly filled my body and with a battle cry I leapt at my armed attacker, catching him unawares as we fell to the wet grass. I felt more alive than I had ever before as we tumbled for control. The collision had caused it to drop the dagger, which lay a few feet from me. After a savage blow to its head, it gave me the time I need to grab the dagger, and with a victorious yell I plunged it’s own weapon deep into its neck.

    Dark blood erupted from the wound as I watched it die underneath me, my heart thumping from excitement when suddenly I felt something even greater enter me – a raw power I had never felt before. I let it consume me, screaming a wordless cry as I felt something starting to form in my blood soaked hands

    I do not know how long I just knelt there, the goblins body cooling underneath me, my eyes staring into nothing before my suddenly my consciousness kicked in and I looked at the object now in my hand.

    I had seen one before, I had seen many in the dream, I recognized the strange paper thin crystal material instantly, the runes carved into it both familiar and alien. It was a card.

    I held it in the air letting out a shout of pure joy – this was the start of my adventure.

    A few uneventful days of walking lead me from the lush forests into a land that was obviously worked for crops. With the card held in a pocket near my chest, I walked through fields of wheat toward what I presumed was a farmhouse on the horizon. The birds chirped as the sun beat down upon my neck. Ever since I got the card, everything had seem more in focus, more real. The world around me was more beautiful than ever.

    As I approached the farm house, I sensed something was wrong and as if to confirm my gut feeling, smoke started to billow out of the windows of the small building – it was being raided!

    I broke into a run, racing toward the smoke, as I got closer I saw a bandit pull a woman from the burning flames, bringing a knife to her throat – but before he started to slash it he caught site of me running toward him – throwing the woman to the floor as he smiled cruelly and let out a shout, causing many other bandits to appear from inside the building and joining him.

    The energy hit me again, joyful at the thought of battle, I laughed as I instinctively channeled it into the card I had pulled from my pocket, feeling it start to warm from the energy I was instilling into it. I closed my eyes, and as I raced toward the bandits and threw the card at the ground infront of me.

    The second it hit the ground, the world seemed to explode. I was thrown backwards in the opposite direction I had been running and the ground erupted from where the card had landed. I looked astonished as I saw a head emerging from the ground, a head which was the size of a boulder, and had the looks to match. Two more explosions erupted from the ground as two giant hands emerged infront of me. I watched awestruck as a monster made of rock started to pull itself from the ground.

    My monster. My creature.

    The bandits where charging, weapons out, hoping to defeat my summon before it had chance to attack. They failed. A single slap of its giant hand I saw one bandit thrown clear into the side of the building, hearing a sickening snap as he back broke killing him instantly.

    I got to my feet, and with my creature, we both started to attack the bandits. My stolen goblin dagger easily cutting flesh, as my creature smote others down with every wave of its giant hands.

    I could feel every time one of them died, the now familiar energy filling me as sword clashed against sword and as their life force left their body and entered me.

    As the fight concluded, I looked over my slain foes, while the sole survivor of the bandit attack sobbed in fear. I didn’t hear her cries of sorrow and thanks, I was watching my hands with glee – as I watched three more cards fade into existence in my open palms.

    I needed the cards, just as the cards needed me. I watched as my mighty creature faded from reality, instinctively knowing in which card he resided in.

    With the battle lust now leaving my body, I helped the woman up – consoling her, familiar words leaping into my mind now that my addiction for cards had been satiated. Hearing her sobs, seeing the pain in her face – I swore to myself that I would never see anyone in that much pain again. The God of Courage had chosen me, and I would defend all people against evil.

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    Been a while


    2011 - 05.29

    Wow, the rudimentary mistake of the blogger – letting real life stuff prevent me from blogging, ah dang it!

    I’ve mostly been working on Project: Cards recently – it’s on ModDB now and coming together you can check out the site here : Project: Cards.Β  Also, I’ve just moved from the god awful servage.net hosting to godaddy – who already seem a helluva lot better than servage.net ever was.Β  I’ll post about my woes with them later.

    As the site is in transition and I’m moving things around – some stuff may be broken.Β  If it is feel free to let me know πŸ™‚

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