Category Archives: Current Matters

Happy Birthday! You’re Welcome!

Computer Games, Current Matters, Goldwingu

A less than week ago I had a small party celebrating a pre-alpha launch of Goldwingu. Of course the time when a software hits an alpha stage is left to anyones guessing but I think it was nice to have a certain date set for you. Progress has been rather slow and sometimes you just need to drudge on to see where you should go next.

I also thought about my definition of “Done” and I came to the decision that I consider this game to be ready when its in sale in Steam (or suitable alternative), after which the Launch Party proper can be held. I also decided to give some pledges, to maybe help myself get there sooner:

  1. No alcohol after 14th of September (you have to celebrate a bit…) until it’s Done.
  2. One climbing session more each week until it’s 5 per week until it’s Done.
  3. I will write once a week on my blog about my shenanigans in the world of indie game development.

I was almost certain I thought of more, but thats it for now.

Today I released a new version of Goldwingu, to celebrate my birthday. Unfortunately sound support had to be dropped because the samples I was using didn’t allow re-distribution (even though they were otherwise royalty-free). Most changes are under the hood, but do have a go and see for yourself.

EDIT: Added third pledge.

Suck It, Poor People!

Current Matters

Well, I guess it pays to release your game as an unfinished version every week! I’ve been contacted by a Finnish mobile gaming company interested to buy the mobile (basically iOS and Android) platform rights to Goldwingu! I can’t mention the details of course but lets say the proposed sum has 7 (full) figures! I guess soon I can get drunk drinking something else than that Lidl’s 90cents-a-can beer!

I Really Should Check My Reddit Account More Often

Current Matters, Goldwingu

Oh dear. Professor Elemental held an AMA session at Reddit not too long ago. Of course I submitted a question as well as a not-so-subtle suggestion for co-operation regarding my game project. Being a bit late to the AMA I don’t expect a reply and then of course I don’t check my Reddit account for 3 weeks, until today.

Of course the dear Professor had answered and even showed willingness to explore the co-operation bit. I hope I didn’t blow this one right off the bat.

Day of Infamy

Current Matters, Goldwingu

Yesterday I noticed that the released version of  Goldwingu v.0.4 was broken. I fired my Release Manager on the spot. The executable was as it should be, I had the previous version of the assets-file on the package which didn’t work with the new version. When I checked the package, I just tried that the game actually launches.

The broken version will be saved for prosperity as a constant reminder to not be bad.

Friday Night Ramblings, part 2.

Current Matters

You know you have hit somekind of low when the only reason you decide to right to your blog is that you are going to have a nice long line of 1’s in the permalink.

But then again, this blog has traditions, everybody remembers the big triple-8 entry that is still being discussed in Slashdot. That last thing is possible untrue, but you might as well believe it. Ramble ramble.

I just got back from my working out, first 1.5 hours were light, but the second 1.5 was not. Add o.5 hour of cycling and you have a rather tender piece of a person right here. I sincerely recommend exhaustive physical activities for everyone, the innumerably light sense of being afterwards is the purest form of existing I’ve felt.

That sounds so grand I feel the need to return this blog back to ground (and beyond!) and I’d like to say something like “I just farted”, but it wouldn’t be true and if this blog is about something it’s truth. And when I say it’s about truth I mean that it’s not to an extent that I’m not comfortable in admitting. Hows that for a ramble?

Random Link of the Week

Current Matters

It’s Friday night and not feeling my most creative (I’m not drunk!), so instead of trying unfruithfully trying to come up with something witty (because I know my readers are discerning bunch) I’ll just post a link taken from Reddit, it’s almost meta and that makes it almost witty, right?

Coffee Jerks: My friend took a series of 1950s/60s-era coffee commercials and edited them down to just the moments when the guys were the biggest jerks to their wives about coffee

Reddit discussion on the link

Too Much for Saturday Morning

Current Matters, personal

Last Saturday I was away in an almost foreign city, known for its working class history. It was morning and I was waiting outside a supermarket, waiting for it to open so I could get myself some caffeine.  Something you might call a hobo called me out. Asked me to come sit with him, to chat out.

Now, there are two ways you can approach this kind of familiarity. Either you dis it with extreme prejudice or you go along with it, do the human thing.  I chose the latter and sat next to him. He started to simply pour out his life with history and opinions. People like him are pretty candid about their condition, he drinks a lot, doesn’t expect to be alive too long, had a few songs, told me I was a good listener.

When our brief meeting came to a natural end, he asked me my name, and then gave me the most heart wrenching blessings I’ve heard. After receiving it, I felt compelled to shake his hand and thank him. I left with a lump in my throat.

Current Matters, Programming

As my day job slips farther and farther away from actual software development, I’ve come to face a decision. Either I get myself a project or I slowly become an alcoholic. I’ve chosen to get myself a project.

I’ve used better part of this Sunday to setup a development environment in my old work laptop. It’s a fairly meaty machine so running Linux on it is no problem. Installing Linux was no problem either. I had an Ubuntu disk image I had downloaded earlier, I downloaded an USB installer-maker and now I have a USB stick from which I can install an Ubuntu. Now I have a laptop with an Ubuntu, Eclipse with PyDev (and PyGame) running nicely.

…Annnnd now I have also a git-plugin setup to work with my Eclipse. I almost feel like developer now!

One main reason for this post was to also capture the nice date that we are having. You might also want to check out the permalink for this post, I hesitated to give this post a subject line that would have erased it.