Aug 2012 - dev update!

Development Update!

What's it been? A few weeks I guess right? Well it feels like it has been awhile. Here is the latest..

In the interest of being a little more human-being-relate-able, I am going to try to keep this a little less biz-heavy. So let's see how that goes.. anyway it's midnight and I am extremely exhausted after another long long day. I recently accepted a job at Fuse FX in Burbank, click on the link if you are interested to see details. The do VFX for lots of big clients, I am sure you've seen some of their shows. I like the gig a lot and am working hard in hopes of getting more employment, we'll see how it goes. I really enjoy the work quite a bit as well, my goal is to have a day job doing stuff like that and keep doing independent development in the off-hours.

The job is not exactly walking distance, but it would cost $1500 to repair my car vs. $150 to repair my bike so you can imagine which choice I decided to make. I never was a terribly avid cyclist, but I always enjoyed it and as a guy who typically walks all over town it's nice to have a little speed on that :) Also taking the metro (subway) is pretty convenient to where I live, so between the two I am satisfied. Good to get some routine exercise as well, of course!

After several years, I finally joined the "I lost my iPhone" club, and I am more than a little ashamed to admit it. I went out to the bar on Friday night after a stressful week, and 5 minutes out of the cab (beginning of the night) I realized it was gone. It's a bummer - I need to get a new device but can't say for sure when it will happen, the real tragedy of course is that it is also my development hardware :( Send donations for new hardware to, uhhhh, never mind. Anyway my ladyfriend got a new Android phone recently so I've adoped her old Samsung Epic in the meantime. I am going to try the "100% free phone route" for a while and see how it goes, that means no plan at all and just use WiFi w/ Google Voice (free phone number/text msgs). If you intend to do the same, make sure you get the GrooveIP app as well to actually make phone calls. It's fairly easy to setup. I figure I have WiFi at home and at work, and it's in a few of the bars I go to in town as well - make sense then. If I get fed up I can always hop on another plan, I'll certainly report how it winds up.

Game development (yes, in the "Game Development" blog, for real!) Slow as hell, one can imagine, although it is still moving. Main focus of late has been GunHead, PC/Xbox version, I am sure I mentioned recently that there's a video of the E3 build on the YouTube page, be sure to check it out if you haven't. A ton of work has gone into the game since those days, it's actually gettting along quite well and I am laying out levels now (at last!) which is quite fun. It looks and feels excellent, exactly the type of game I would have loved as a 12-yr-old and can still get a pretty huge charge out of now. The deeper into development it gets, the more excited I am to get it released!

Android and iOS development of the game are pretty slow. There's absolutely no way either of those versions will release in 2012 I expect, in some ways I feel like I just want to abandon them and concentrate 100% on the PC build. That won't happen, but it feels comforting to think of emptying my plate a little!

Android programmer emailed me the other day to say "Let's release Trapdoor already" and I feel bad for letting it simmer for so long. I pulled the build out tonight and played it on the subway for 20 minutes easy, didn't even notice the time pass. It looked pretty nice on the Epic as well. The game needs some finesse still, but honestly could release it tomorrow and it would still be a good product! It sucks being so strapped for time, but I am going to use this as impetus to get the damned thing out the door already, I mean I could really - really - use the money as well. I should just give myself a deadline and wrap it up already..

My friends at UpUpStart launched a Kickstarter campaign for their Epic Skater mobile game. It looks excellent - have a look!

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!