Rackspace totally nailed the PRISM question when ask to them. Read it here.
Now, Revaders with Sound!
I got my hands on a replica MOOG synthesizer… its a decent version of the original. I decided to use it to create the sounds for Revaders. Even though the MOOG is from the days of early 8-bit games, the sound it generates is not the same as used in those games, so I may change it. But its not bad for a first attempt.
I’m pretty happy with what I got so far with Revaders. The game works on Java and Android now, with what ‘should be’ an easy port to iOS and HTML/GWT. It stores state local to the device and backs it up to the user’s google account should the owner install it on a second device. I did the gravity controls myself, opting against using JBox2D just to see what it was like. Also, learned some of what I like from PlayN, and some of what I don’t…. Got to play with fonts, sounds, and various ‘screens’ in a platform-agnostic way.
Never got the ads working… didn’t know where to put them. I figure an in-app purchase to add features is a good way to provide income should people like the game. I really don’t like the games where the developer has a ‘free’ version and a ‘paid’ version. I’d rather not require the user to install ‘yet another’ game and potentially lose their settings. Google is finally making that easier, which is a serious bonus. I’m set for that, just don’t have the ‘uptick’ in features a purchase would warrant yet, so there is my next task.
I also got to see the limits of the game design I picked. I wanted something simple but addicting. I can see what changes I need to do now to make the game more accessible to people, and to give more goals rather then just ‘increase score’.
I do have the desire to write a new game. I have some ideas but I’m trying not to focus on them while working on Revaders. Don’t want to be even more distracted than I already am.
Revaders Early Access
I finished up the first early access release done for Revaders, and its now available on Google Play. I’m looking for comments on the game and to see how people think it should progress. It’s the first game I wrote in a long time, and I used this as a way to learn the PlayN framework. PlayN allows you to write games for many platforms. Currently supports Java, Android, HTML via GWT, Flash and iOS. I have a lot of changes I’m planning on this game, but open to ideas people have. Download it and let me know what you think.
Prawf Pause….
Due to unforeseen circumstances, I’m going to temporarily pause prawf development.
Since ATOM came out, I’ve futz’d with news readers; but Google Reader made me lazy. Kirsten too. Thanks to Google’s desire to route out all the ways to avoid advertisements, I think I’m going to try to build the news reader I want. Comic and podcast friendly, android app too. ‘Cloud’ based for story sync.
It may not work, but this is the best time to try. I’m gonna miss the Reader… gonna be hard to code through all these tears…
Making prawf real…
Sometime after I left Philips/Magnavox, I came up with the idea for prawf. Over the years, what I wanted prawf to be may have changed, but the core concept never did. I’m finally in a position where I believe I can make prawf a reality. I even think it can make a profit.
What I’ve done is revamped and simplified my core domain model, making it as basic as possible, abandoning the obtuse WfMC guidelines. I used the ‘unUndoable’ ArgoUML for modeling. Used Trello, Google docs, various free online filestores for the planning sessions and keeping track of all documentation. The core server implementation is in Rails with PostgreSQL. Simplified site design makes use of Bootstrap and jQuery. I used various free online-services to make the Terms and Conditions, and the Privacy Policy… to be reviewed by a lawyer at one point. I’m going to use puppet to configure the virtual servers that will run prawf, and test their build out with Vagrant and VirtualBox. But now I’ve started finally to spend money on the project. And this month, prawf.com will go live.
I’m not expecting Prawf to be perfect when it goes live. Far from it. I’m expecting prawf to go through many iterations before I’d want to market it publicly. I’m planning on updating the site often, and will be making the updates go live as possible with minimum downtime. Its there now for testing only. Once the SSL is setup, I’ll do real backups for the database and start marketing it. (Oh god…. the ‘m’ word…) Still need to get a forum up somewhere so people can request features.
I’ve waited a long time since the demise of Method Systems to bring this project back. I’d like to thank Sarah, Jay and Kirsten for helping with this reboot.
Lenovo x230, Windows 8 and Ubuntu
Just a quick note for people who bought a laptop with Windows8 (W8) and want to use Ubuntu without destroying W8. And in my case, I have the Lenovo x230 ThinkPad with secure boot. This is what I did to accomplish this.
You can easily install 12.10 on this ThinkPad. Before you do, make sure you install all the Lenovo windows drivers you can, including firmware updates. Then create a windows recovery disk. (Yeah, searching for the recovery media creation program in W8 sucks on the x230. Google it… maybe a MS geek could find it easier then I did.)
I first re-partitioned the Windows disk via W8 to make a second drive. I booted into the BIOS via the windows ‘troubleshoot’ restart facility (Yeah, you heard me. You can’t get into the BIOS normally anymore until you install Ubuntu. UEFI fail.) (EDIT: Yeah yeah, UEFI replaces BIOS… still annoyed.) After disabling secure boot, I could boot off a Ubuntu installer USB drive and get a real OS on it.
After the Ubuntu install is complete, and you rebooted, you’ll notice that Linux works fine, and Windows won’t boot anymore. To fix that, I installed the boot-repair tool in Ubuntu and ran it, accepting all the defaults it gave me. When it was done, I got about 3 different windows partitions to boot in grub next time… and the second one is what worked to get back to my game^h^h^h^hwindows OS. (Isn’t that why you want W8 in the first place anyways?)
Of course, if all else fails, you can reuse your recover USB disk you made… right? Or forget running w8 native and run it via VirtualBox.
[Disclaimer: YMMV....]
Bootstrap…
On the rare occasions I’m doing front-end work, I like someone else to make the design and give me what they want. But I have this project I’m doing on at home, and there isn’t anyone else to make the design. This means I have to come up with something that looks ‘reasonable’ and easy to use. By myself. Without whining.
I’d like to thank Jay for introducing me to Bootstrap. Now, at least, the site looks reasonable.
