And the moral of the story is…
Don’t drink kids, you don’t wanna end up like ol’ Uncle James here, do you now?
Okay, so I better post, because I’m totally in the best state to do that right now. So I got 92% in my programming coursework (woo!) and what I think is 80% in my software engineering coursework (very difficult to read the lecturer’s writing), so I’m currently on a good streak of grades here. I’ll update my last post at some point with the rest of the info about Sweepy Cleaner, and detail a few things I’m hoping to make and submit to the Windows Phone marketplace:
-Firstly I’m going to tart up Sweepy Cleaner and make it function appropriately for the marketplace (back button working etc.)
-Secondly, I’m going to finish my own project Get the Square, where the aim of the game is pretty obvious
-Thirdly, I’m going to make a simple Magic and other TCG life counter app
-Lastly, I’m going to make a game out of the Scott Sanderson Simulator, a game based on the magnificent Scott Sanderson
So after doing this I should have netted myself 4 points for the Windows Phone Marketplace rewards scheme and be getting myself a Lumia (yay!).
And that’s all I can be bothered to type for now, bye folks!
Blogging in McDonald’s
Christ I feel depressed…
So yeah, I ended up not sleeping last night, so I got up early. Then I decided to have the bright idea of walking to university. I got to Cottingham Road and realised that it was only 7:50am…and there’s nothing until 9…and I don’t have to be there then either…
So I decided to get a coffee and Breakfast WrapTM at the McDonald’s at the end of the road and write up a blog post on my phone to kill time.
Since it’s pretty overdue, I’ll talk about my Sweepy Cleaner project. I’ll update with some images later, but for now I’ll have to describe it using interpretive dance words. My project isn’t a graphical masterpiece like Roberto’s, or a brand show-off like Danny’s, it’s simply something made for coursework, and it works.
My Sweepy Cleaner was made unique by its enhancements. The simplest one is the Dynamic Health system. The original spec stated that the player had to start with 5HP and each hit reduced that by 1. I found this irritating, so I asked if I could implement my own health system. The player starts with 100HP, and if they hit something, they lose health equal to their speed (which is a Pythagoras of their X direction and Y direction speeds, yay M1 Mechanics!). And it works really well.
My other enhancement was my own implementation of Extra Dusts. The original spec described a ‘pixie dust’ idea, but I wasn’t happy with that. I decided to ask (when I asked about the health system) if I could have my own versions: Super Dust and Evil Dust. Super Dust gives the player 20HP and a random powerup (phasing through furniture, invincibility, or double speed) when collected. Evil Dust chases down the player, avoiding furniture, and tries to hurt them. To get rid of it, the player must collect one of each dust (they become numbered), and if the Evil Dust gets them they lose 20HP and become twice as slow for 10 seconds. The Evil Dust has 4 rectangles around it, which detect furnitur- bugger, my battery’s dying, I’ll have to continue this later, ciao amigos…
C#, in a Magic-al way
My Green/Black Birthing Pod Deck, showing my 2 6-drop wurms, my Sheoldred, Whispering One, my Birthing Pod, and my sexy sexy Steve Argyle Deck Box…I’m so nerdy…
So yeah, I play Magic the Gathering. I know, I can hear your gasps and your cries of “A nerd who plays Magic, unheard of!” but, alas, it is true. But Magic is fun, it’s sociable, and it has a really tight design that means that it works in a very nice structured way.
And that’s why I want to code it.
I’ve decided to start a mini-project in which I build a Magic the Gathering based program that includes a database of basic cards, and each ‘card’ will be an object that contains method calls and code and all those nice programmey-type things. Magic’s gameplay structure just looks ripe for the coding (even due to the fact that it uses a stack with spells and abilities), and it looks like a nice side-project to build, and with plenty of resources online to research exactly how the game works, I won’t get lost when it comes to a ruling.
This project is not meant to be used to actually play Magic, nor will it be released, it’s just a fun coding project that seemed interesting and challenging.
(No comments starting with ‘In response to your blog post..’ please, you’d be commenting on a post that wouldn’t have resolved yet)
Desolation and Windows 8, and the return of mobile blogging
So yeah, arrived back from home yesterday to find our block a ghost town. Most of the people went home for the holidays, but some of us are sticking around due to there being no good reason to back.
Well, this is a software blog really, so let’s talk about some software. First off is Windows 8, which I’ve been running on my old laptop for a while now. My first impressions are good. Very good. It boots quickly (really quickly) and I like the new start screen and Metro UI I’ve come to know and love thanks to Windows Phone 7. Everything runs smoothly on its slightly old 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, and it even runs games (mostly) well. I say mostly because when playing Burnout: Paradise it was a bit choppy; although I’m not sure if this is either Windows 8 or my GPU that was possibly damaged by Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 (Protip: don’t run that on a laptop or it’ll be liquified after a short while).
Also, I’ve started using the WP7 WordPress app, and it’s really nifty, as it lets you connect to any blog that uses WordPress, and even allows you to check your blog’s stats. Try it out!
The Death of a PS3
So, my friend Danny blogged about his Hard Drive dying (you can read about that here), so I decided to blog about my PS3 dying. After around 4 years and 3 months of dodging every non-PSN-outage related issue, it finally caught up to me. My PS3 got the YLOD…*sobs*…
I’ll most likely get it repaired (there’s a company that does repairs for £60, which is resonable), then later on maybe get Sony to replace it with a 120GB slimline model for £110 (I ain’t losing 4+ years of gaming by getting it replaced straight away).
In other news, and I know it’s late as whenever I tried to blog something always broke (such as the WP7 WordPress app), but it’s the Three Thing Game 24-hour development session this weekend. My friend Alex and I got the things Bomb, Hammer Throwing and Horse Racing. Alex has done most of the coding whilst I’ve been doing art, although I’ll try and code over the weekend when I’m not shooting people with my Nerf gun.
Oh, and get a Nerf gun. Don’t ask why, just do it.
Blogging on my phone
So, still having issues with the URLs, but at least the links work properly now. WordPress works great on my Windows Phone, so blogging on the move seems a viable way to do it.
In other news, post I’m expecting still hasn’t arrived after nearly a week (yay).
Blogs ‘n’ stuff…
So yeah…I got a website…
I’ve never blogged before, so don’t expect much at first.
Oh, and you see that there link to the homepage? Don’t click it, it doesn’t work…don’t you love it when you have no idea how to edit the source directly?
Oh, and previews don’t work for the same reason, so I had no idea what this blog post would’ve looked like until I posted it…
about me
Hi, I'm James Czerwik-Hampshire, a 1st year Computer Science student at Hull University, currently working with C# and XNA.
You can find my social networking mullarky at My Facebook Page, My Twitter Page, and on The Escapist (link to my profile)