Monthly Archives: April 2011

                I was prepared to write a long exposition about how restarting is the hardest thing, about how, after three days off, getting back on track and writing some actual code is next to impossible. It turns out that’s not the hard part, at least not this time.

                On Monday Randi and I went to the concert—which was awesome—and we didn’t get home until after midnight. Tuesday I have already written about. By the time I finished the bit of code I was working on, it was after 12:30 when I finally went to sleep. After the baseball game and a rather stressful Wednesday, we finally shuffled in out of the cold at 10:00. Needless to say—but said anyway—I haven’t gotten much sleep this week.

                When I sat down to write last night, the code came pouring forth in a torrent which defied my earlier prediction. In fact, I nearly finished the flexible system which will display stats for the player. (Side note: it’s amazing that a system which doesn’t affect actual game play can take so much work; people ought to keep that in mind when they next wonder why a game is taking as long as it is.) By 8:30, though, my consciousness was fading. Fifteen minutes later, I was asleep at my keyboard.

                It’s interesting—and timely—that I recently heard a tidbit about how it’s possible to accrue a sort of sleep debt which has to be paid back before normal body function is restored. It’s the science behind why a person sleeps for ten to twelve hours after pulling a few long days. While I understand completely why my body is exhausted, it’s nevertheless annoying.

                So here I am at quarter to five Friday morning writing a blog post and working on my code. I’d like to say that this whole experience has taught me a thing or two about my limits and how I need to prioritize, but that would give lie to the fact that I’m awake this early working. My alarm isn’t even supposed to go off for another hour and a half!

                I felt bad last night when I was going to the concert. After the concert, though, I was glad I went. Tomorrow Randi and I are going to a Twins game, and I’ll probably feel guilty about that. After the game, though, I’m sure I’ll be glad I went. Today, though, was something entirely different, and even though it meant I made very little progress tonight, I am still in a spectacular mood.

                As I posted earlier on the twitter feed, I started the evening off by resisting the urge to curl up on my previously-mentioned comfortable couch and play Stem Stumper. After working for a few minutes, I decided to check Skype for a contact I’ve been meaning to ask about my Yeti Microphone—the one I will likely be using to record most of my voice overs. That particular contact wasn’t online, but an incredibly good friend of mine was.

                When Randi and I were planning our wedding back in 2006, I asked my friend Jim if he would stand with me. He enthusiastically said that he would. I even pre-paid the favor by being one of Jim’s groomsmen when he and his wife Erika said their vows just a month before Randi and I did, and I was honored to do it. Shortly before our ceremony, however, Jim was deployed to Arizona and thence to Germany, Iraq, and, finally, South Korea. We have seen him once since then when he stopped in Texas for a training exercise. We haven’t seen his wife since they left 5 years ago. We have tried to stay in touch over the years, but lives being what they are, we haven’t always been as good at this as we would like.

                Imagine how excited I was this evening, then, when I scrolled down my Skype contacts and discovered that Erika was online. I had added both Jim and she to my contact list when Randi and I were still living in Hawaii, but I never once saw either of them logged on. Talking to Erika was too good a chance to pass up, especially when it turned out that Jim came home on his lunch break shortly thereafter, and I had the privilege of talking to him as well.

                It is an incredible experience to catch up with two people we have both held so dear to us for so long, and I don’t regret a moment of it. Both of our lives are better for having Jim and Erika in them, and if our catching up with two old friends means I miss a day of work, so be it. This is a part of life that is always welcome to take precedence over my hobby.

                All that aside, I have perfected the default method code for the menu system, which means I will now be able to make menus function as message boxes. This will come in handy when the player wishes to check round, fight, and career stats. And because this is Python, and because Python is even more winning than Charlie Sheen, I will be able to use this same code for all of my upcoming projects.

                There will likely be no development tomorrow unless the baseball game gets over early or delayed on account of rain. Even so, I’m still chomping at the bit, and I fully intend to work my butt off on Thursday.

I have made no secret about the fact that developing this game won’t be as fast as any of us would like due in large part to my having to develop and program opposite my full-time job. When I started blogging and laying out the details for my game plan, I did so right in the middle of my Easter break. Because of the large amount of time I have had available I have been able to make some outstanding progress over the past four days, and I’m pleased with the results. Tonight, though, Randi and I are going to see Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm in concert, and I’m taking the evening off. I’m feeling incredibly guilty about that.

I suppose it’s because I’ve been a programming fool these last few days, and I know when the work week starts up again tomorrow, I’m going to come home exhausted and much less inclined to program. Even though we’ve been looking forward to this concert for months, I still feel like I’m taking a vacation day on faith. Now that I’ve announced my intentions to the world, I can’t shake the feeling that I’m on a schedule, and I worry that I’m going to be letting people down if I don’t put my shoulder to it as hard as I can. Talk about a double-edged sword!

I’m sure I’ll get over my guilt right about 7:30 when the Opening Band starts. After all, programming this game is just one facet of a full life. In the meantime, though, I’m going to roll up my sleeves and do the best I can with the few hours I have left this afternoon. That and go a quick 3 rounds with my conscience.

                I started today with the idea of refactoring my menu code to make it prettier and applicable to more situations and games. After banging my head against it for three hours, though, I realized I have absolutely no idea how to proceed at this point. I’m sure the idea will come to me eventually, but it hasn’t shown up yet.

                As a result, I turned my mind to other matters, like streamlining match and round code. My current setup has a game object to manage the whole framework, a match object to start rounds and create opponents, and a round object to handle things like the clock. Each one of these objects was, until a few hours ago, in its own module. In an attempt to slim things down, I’ve combined round and match into a single file. Now if I can just find out why the game doesn’t run anymore…

                On a more positive note, I have tweaked opponent and round code so that the opponent will now read the proper round’s punch chart. It used to be that at the start of the next round, he would revert to the previous round’s chart. Not so anymore, which means he’ll soon be a real fighter.

The boxing game, which does not yet have a working title, gives homage to Nintendo’s Punch-Out! from the early 80’s. The concept of dodging punches and responding with a furious combo has been preserved in spades, but some changes have been made to make the game more accessible to audio gamers. I will write more about these as development progresses.

In the meantime, however, I can let everyone know that the basic concept of the game pits you, the under-dog player, against a series of particularly crazy opponents including a pirate, a clown, a mad scientist, and many others. I have already coded most of the fighting engine, and I am now refactoring code and working on systems to hold the game together—systems like the between-round stat menus and the between fight scenes.

My plan is to be finished with a working alpha by the end of the Easter break. Sadly, however, I have no current plans to make the demo available to the general public. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am still learning to program, and I have no idea how to encrypt my source code and files at this point. As a result, I hope you will all be content with the sound demos I promise I’ll post as soon as everything starts to come together.