Nerd rant...

I don't know what got me into this Gnome hating frenzy but here, I thought I'd share a post, well a few post from my Google+ profile.

Quoted from Google+:

"Okay nerd rant! I'm working myself into a Gnome 3 hating frenzy that will probably get me thrown in jail tonight because the first gnome I find in someone's yard I'm going to punt!

#Gnome3 #Linux #ThisIsMeScreaming  

Today has just been a crazy day, I had or was suppose to have a meeting today at 11 AM. Get to the meeting place and boot my laptop to do some work while I wait, it's at a coffee shop and has its wifi open, no big deal, just create a profile in netcfg and bring it up. Nope! Not going to work, some kind of error message would pop up telling me WPA Authentication / Association Failed, okay, no problem, let's do this the old way, bring up the interface:

ip link set wlan0 up

Next:

iwconfig wlan0 essid "Pcj_Public"

Okay, so far, so good...

dhcpcd wlan0

....

...

..

.

Get a timed out message!!?? Okay what's going on here? This is an open network, it should let me connect to it fine! So I try wicd, I don't like using wicd, because it frequently drops connection. Unable to assign an ip. 

Hmm, there was a nerd in a coffee shop who was about go to ruby red this morning.

Okay I feel better now...

Perhaps, gnomes out there, you're safe for now...

But no, they are not safe, because Gnome is a desktop, it used to be a grand desktop back in it's 2.x days! You could customize it, make it do all sorts of wonky wobbly things, even set your desktop on fire! Can Windows do that? Now, look at Gnome 3!? It's stale! No real way to customize it, I mean you can go into Fallback mode, which is almost like being back to 2.x but no, those days are gone, those were the golden days. I think Debian still is clinging to the old Gnome desktop, perhaps I'll give him a call!

#Debian #Linux #Gnome #Rant

Ahh I just remembered that I have XFCE and Openbox installed, sorry I won't use KDE."

If you managed to read this far without falling asleep, there will be an update for Proxy Monsters coming Wednesday. Jonathan has been out of town for a while and I'm supposed to meet up with him Monday and I'll scan in the monsters he drew and put them in the game. 

Have a good the rest of the weekend, and if you come across any Gnomes' just look the other way.

Flash...

During my studies while I was in college, majoring in Simulation and Game Development, I took two full semesters of Game Development using Flash. This was the hardest class I've ever taken, perhaps it was due to the text books chosen and they didn't seem to help, poorly written, I'm sorry but during my studies, I found most of the textbooks we paid a lot of money for, was a waste, now don't get me wrong, I love my textbooks, especially well written ones! I can often be found in the tub, soaking, bubbles, candles and flower petals, well not the last two, I was just kidding about that. But I get more enjoyment from reading a textbook than from reading any other type of book.

I still got perfect scores in those classes, it was tough though! So I have a tremendous amount of respect for indie game developers or game developers in general who make games using Flash. To me I would have all my teeth pulled out without numbing them than experience that again. So it goes without saying the first game listed here is developed by David S Gallant, @davidsgallant on Twitter, check him out, cool guy, very neat games and if you can check them out here at his site: http://davidsgallant.com/

And try this short but fun game of his out first, the art style reminds me of Earthbound and I loved that game! He informed me that @Harry_Houdini was the games writer. See now there are two people you can follow on Twitter, if you haven't already, YAY! Here's the link: http://davidsgallant.com/2012/05/17/apocalypse-later/

Well check it out, drop him a line on Twitter and follow him. Being indie is tough, but a lot of these guys, eat drink and sleep game development. I've got a lot of catching up to do! Thanks!!!

A new label...

Here lately when I am focusing on social media and trying to network with others, I'm finding it more enjoyable on Twitter than Google+ or Facebook. Don't get me wrong, I've met some interesting people on Google+, however it has become kind of stagnant on that social network, and that's just me speaking from my experiences. I've really learned a lot on how to monitor what everyone is talking about when it comes to search phrases, usually I monitor, keywords such as #IndieGames, #GameDev, #Kickstarter, #AndroidGames <-- that feed scrolls by very fast, and a few other keywords, all with the help of HootSuite (awesome!), which makes my job a little easier and allows me to check those things, post some stuff, interact, re-tweet, and be back to work in no time. So what's this new label going to be about? With the amount of interaction I'm getting on Twitter, most from other indie game developers, some share their work, if I have time, I try it out. And if I like it I let them know. Well the ones I find I like I will share here in a new label, called, Other Indie's Games. And this will be the first post in that label. Let's see what we can find!

Some new updates...

WOW, it's been one crazy week, well actually the past few weeks have been crazy and though I won't share what made it a crazy week here, you'll just have to take my word for it. Aside though from being overwhelmed with work here and there, not just meeting with the local SBTDC and SCORE, I have one more meeting with them in a few days, again. Great bunch of people that really are poised to help small startups, small businesses get off the ground the right way. They do all of this for free. Business plan is finished, they're helping me with the financial spread sheets, and those are almost finished as well. It seems like it's a never ending process of refinement that takes place similar of that to a persons resume. However I have informed them at the SBTDC that I won't be seeking outside investors. The people who help me every day, those are my partners, Jonathan and John and soon one more individual, they pour themselves into this studio and they deserve most if not all of the credit. They invested their time, and in return, they along with myself own this studio and we won't risk losing that, it's our baby. At least now we do have a business plan and have began the process of incorporating! I am just glad I'm not going it alone this time. It is more fun having others around to work with. Spoke with Jonathan yesterday and he has been out of town and has a lot of work to submit so I will meet up with him next Monday, he's a great guy, hard worker and I can't wait to see what else he has developed and drawn out.

Also I'm working on developing the studios new website. I used to do website design so I'm a little rusty, HTML 5 isn't that much different from HTML 4. Because I really want to have one site that contains it all in one place. I love how easy it is to label post with Blogger but some how the studios blog and Proxy Monsters blog got separated. I purchased a few domain names and a hosting package and should have it all ready soon.

Jonathan is also going to be handling the artwork for Ninjay and its sequel. For now with all this help I'm taking a back seat and focusing more on the coding and framework construction.

I also want to thank the ton of followers that have, followed me these past few days, most of them all indie game developers as well. I've learned a lot using Twitter and right now it's my preferred method of reaching others. Thanks to an old friend John he really opened up my eyes to how Twitter can be used as not just a marketing tool but also to connect with the same, like minded crowd. So thank you very much for following me! I'm also learning it's not about quantity, for myself anyways, it's about the quality, so am I going for tens of thousands of followers on Twitter? Sure that would be nice, but I want them to be in the same field and share my same interest.

Updates coming soon for Proxy Monsters and with it Google Map implementation, the camera API's will be added in the next update. It's just too much to include right now and at the same time I want it functional and appealing. It's going to be great!

That's it for now and as always take care and have a great day!

Another quick reminder!

Please if you have downloaded the demo of Ninjay know that effective January 1, 2013 it will be pulled from the Google Play Store. Please uninstall it and download the free version which is the entire game and read the store description to find out why we are giving it away for free. The free version does not contain any ads or in app purchasing.

Ninjay Free - Google Play Store

Thank you!

Gumroad - Proxy Monsters - Android Game - Alpha Version .101A

Gumroad Marketplace

Don't want to go through the Google Play Store or want to gift this for someone else? You can now purchase directly from us through Gumroad and all future updates will be emailed to you. 

If you have any questions please comment below, check the label, Gumroad to stay current and Thank You!

Proxy Monsters - Android Game - Alpha Version .101A

Please be aware that this game is being released in an Alpha state and this is a location based game that utilizes the GPS capabilities of your phone. Read below on how to install this game onto your Android device. Thank You!

***HOW TO INSTALL***
The .apk file will be emailed to you along with any future updates as they roll out. 

1.Please ensure that the check box stating that it's okay to install apps from unknown sources is checked. This option is usually under Settings and then Applications.

2. The email you received will contain the .apk attachment. Please download this attachment and you will be give the option to install once it has finished downloading. Please do so at the prompt. And that's it! Let us know if you have any questions, concerns or problems! We want to hear from you and thank you!!!
***END OF HOW TO INSTALL***

There are several reasons we are releasing this game in Alpha, one is to help raise support so we can work on it full time and the other reason is to help mold the game through player feedback while it is still early in development. This studio has been staying afloat with the help of a lot of people, friends, family, and clients, by making apps for individuals and small business. We want to get back to what we are passionate about, and that's making games!

Also note that there will be two versions of Proxy Monsters published. One will be a demo, and the other a paid version. Neither will contain ads as I've stated before, we will never run ads in our games nor will we ever have in app purchases. Our price point for any game or app we publish will be at .99 cents and we feel this is reasonable and attainable from any budget and trust me, every little bit helps!

The demo of Proxy Monsters will in essence be the same as the paid version all the way up to the release candidate. Then, afterwards, the demo will only get updates that pertain to interface and game play enhancements to allow anyone who hasn't purchased it to see what improvements have been made.

Also, the first 5,000 people to purchase the Alpha build will get their names in the About / Credits section as Producers, we feel this is a good solid foundation as if we reach this number we can devote a lot more time to it and the next 5,000 people to purchase the Alpha build will get listed in the game as well, as Executive Producers. We are also laying down some ground work on the "Key Contributors" section. This will most likely be people who devote so much time in helping us improve Proxy Monsters. We can do it, but with a little help we can do it a lot faster!

Jonathan as well as myself feel strongly about this title and we hope that you will too once you play it and experience the concept. I'll include links to the developers blog, Proxy Monsters Blog, and the development road map document which details a lot on how we want production and development to play out..

The development road map document explains a lot, however the concept of the game is that it has a story that you can play out, or not, that choice is yours. It generates random locations, some nearby, some distant. You go to these locations, then when you are closer in proximity, you can engage these monsters, fight, capture, train and level them up. In the next few updates once GPS get more fine tuned, we will be including NPC's that will allow you to progress the story and merchant NPC's.to buy item from. You will have to go to these NPC's to progress the story or buy or sell to.

Have questions? Please don't hesitate to email us at: eighteendaystudios@gmail.com

Thank you!

Proxy Monsters Development Road Map: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2Ila9P2z9-tLVBJMDhoRFZkeFU

Another go around...

In July we were approved and ran a project on Kickstarter to help with funding of our next title, Proxy monsters. I went with the decision of producing an Alpha version and putting that up on the marketplace instead. There was and is from our point of view some benefits to this: One was to generate support by selling Alpha access and two, to get feedback while it was early in development. And we feel it gets the game in your hands and you can watch it evolve and grow as we continue to push updates out. The level of support we raised would determine how much time we could devote to it. Regardless we are always going to support any product we put out, it's just finding time to be able to do so. So, currently I've got another update for Proxy Monsters about finished and ready to be uploaded so stay tuned for those update announcements to see what's in it. And we also got approved for another Kickstarter project. Since the game is already out in Alpha we've changed some of the rewards for backers but it was advised by the SBTDC that we try this method again. So I'll include some links below.

I've been working with the local SBTDC and Wilmington Score as well and they've been very very helpful and have been giving me a ton of free advice. They're also helping me with putting together a business plan to help put things into perspective, which trust me it has. These past two weeks I've been working on it pretty solid and it's a lot of work making a business plan but it also makes sense when I think about it. When I started the company, I registered it as a Sole Proprietorship and dove right in, they said, that is how a lot of small businesses get started and unfortunately some fail. But we're not about failing or giving up. We are committed to seeing this company through to the very end. We are in the process though of restructuring, meaning I'm adding Jonathan Pigford as a partner, he really dove head first into this concept when I told him about it and since then he has put a lot of time and sweat into it, without hesitation. So I can't leave him out in the cold and I won't. This also includes incorporating the company and a name change along with that.

The SBTDC will help us find Angel Investors or Venture Capitalist firms but they're not going to even look at what we have until we have a solid business plan. And they explained the risk that goes along with diving into something like that and urged to try Kickstarter again or any other crowd source funding program, first.

So that about sums it up. If you have any questions at any time please don't hesitate to send us an email at: eighteendaystudios@gmail.com

Here's a link to the new Kickstarter Project:
Kickstarter - Proxy Monsters A Location / Augmented Reality Based

And some more links:

Proxy Monsters Development Blog

Proxy Monsters Demo - Google Play Store

Proxy Monsters - Google Play Store

Thank you!!!