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Instant Action Closed Down!?

Dude, I just stumbled across some terrible news... But first, a little recap. Along time ago, I used to play some wonderfully fun games online on a website called "Instant Action". It was a ground breaking website with browser based multi-player games using Torque 3D. They were graphically pleasing and interesting. Fallen Empire: Legions was a great example of this. After a while, they paused their operations to upgrade the site. I was thourally excited to play on the upgraded site. Day after day, I would go to the site to no availe, and it slipped to the back of my mind. Pretty soon I had forgotten all about them, then today, out of pure curiousity I decided to check to see what happened to them. I ran across a post dating 11/11/2010, that the site had closed down (See Blog here). D: What is this nonsense!?!?! I am shocked. I really thought they had a fighting chance. The games are still available for download here. Sleep tight sweet prince, you deserve a well deserved rest. *Salute*

Live Journal + Blogger Post Test

So I found a nifty tutorial on hooking up your blogger account with your live-journal account, so it updates them both at the same time http://www.lexislounge.net/2007/09/publish-your-blogger-blog-to.html. It might just work! This post is mostly a test in itself

Social Medias

I am now a member of digg, float it, delicious, and more! Come friend me!

Halo Reach Forge

Halo Reach Forge truly is a wonder. Great place for young budding level designers to start! Create, save, and make sure you keep them! It is gloriously endearing to look at a library of game levels you have collected over the years, and to see your progress as well! Who knows, it might land you a job some day ;).

Halo Reach Forge ViDocHalo: Reach, Covenant

Adobe 3D API Based Off of Flash?

Just found out that Adobe (you know, the guys that took over Macromedia way back in the day?) is creating a 3D API built off of Flash Player. Apparently it is really efficient so it doesn't use to much cpu. More info here.




Video courtesy of mindfunctions

Will The Angry Birds Be Less Angry?

I am sure all of us have heard of the popular game for the Droid and iphone, and if not, it is a game based around birds being shot across a distance to hit pig targets worth respective points. This is a video by a comedy show in Israel "A Wonderful Country" or "Eretz Nehederet". More information here.






Video courtesy of "A Wonderful Country" or "Eretz Nehederet"

Sega Urinal Game?

So, I was talking with Melanie today, and she told me she came across a most interesting game... Yes that's right, Sega made a urinal game! Now as weird and as awkward it might be to be wielding your wiener as a controller, I think it's an amazing concept! Think of the possibilities this creates! The boundaries that are broken to create more dynamic and creative games! Just saying, I would play this game, I would purposely drink gallons of water to use that restroom. Stretch the limits Sega!



Video courtesy of gastacaotv

Website Membership

You can now "like" the website via the button on the left hand side of the screen. Also, there you will find a membership box. For right now the only thing it is used for is for adding comments to the bottom my my staff page. If that is something you would like to do, it uses your Google account as your username. All it is really doing is just joining a group. In the future I may add some other functionalities to entice others to join as well.

Website Upgrade!

I have finally started to come to terms with using social media to entwine my internet existence. Although eventually I want to completely overhaul my web site, for now the interconnectivity of different social media's will hopefully boost my name recognition. I started embedding my blogger (obviously), started using slideshows from my photobucket account, and plopped a twitter feed in there as well! My website is starting to feel alive! Although maybe a bit informal, I was never much of a tight wad anyway :D.

http://willowlantern.net/Staff/keiYanagida/keiYanagida.php

Game Archiving

Today, I decided that I am going to start archiving the games I own by taking pictures of them! This way, if something were to happen to them, I could always look back at these pictures with a fond smile.

http://willowlantern.net/Staff/keiYanagida/keiYanagida.php

and select Game Archive! You know you will want to start one too! Send me a link!

Game Developers Conference!

I can't believe Melanie & my good luck! Thanks to Melanie's friend's recommendation, we have been selected as volunteer's for the Game Developer's Conference in San Fransisco! I am so excited I can't even breathe. I will have the opportunity of a life time to network with people building games gathered together from all over the world! Now I just need to save some money...

Finishing Things Up

Original Post Date: 12/13/2010

Today was extremely tiring. On Saturday we went and retrieved our puppy we have had claimed since even before her birth. Happen to run across a cute kitten while we were there as well. We named our puppy Luna, and our cat Spooky Nero. I was so tired Sunday night after moving all day, but heaven forbid we get a little sleep, Spooky decided to bat our faces all night. It's cute when thinking about it now, but it was quite irritating then. Went to work, went to my last class ever, and did another load for moving, I am bushed. Waking up early for an interview and to stop brighthouse services.

Capstones

Original Post Date: 12/10/2010


Capstones actually went alright, people were actually interested in my project even though it wasn't graphically pleasing. I had focused on only getting a basic game engine down and deploying it to a 360, but it seemed to impress people. I am glad Capstones is over, now I can work on my project in peace. Look for a 2013 release of Reverie Blade!

Return Madness

Original Post Date: 12/06/2010

UGH. So last night I get back from our Chicago trip around 10:30 P.M. beat tired. I have to show my professor that my XNA game runs on my Xbox today in order to make sure everything works fine for Friday's capstone presentation. As most of you know, XNA Studio connect will not depoly a build without being connected to Xbox Live. My internet service provider decided to have technical difficulties. I HAVE to get my latest build onto my Xbox hard drive before tomorrow's class! I have work early in the morning, work all day, have to go pick up my suits, and be dropped off at class by Melanie so she can go pick up our bird. When am I going to find the time to deploy it to my hard drive??? Latest build has cure, an infinite tent item, and enemy trading blows.

Edit: Found out that my builds were actually not deploying to the Xbox... It was just using the last successful build. I was wondering why none of my changes were displaying. The reason for this I discovered was that my upgrade to 4.0 was the culprit. 4.0 I think is for the latest Kinect compatible Xbox, while the older Xbox 360's are still using v3.0 and v3.1. So now after all that trouble of converting the solution into 4.0 I have to downgrade.

Chicago Trip

Original Post Date: 12/05/2010

Another busy weekend. I am working on my project in Chicago this time. My girlfriend is taking the JLPT test, and needed to be in Chicago to take it. We are staying in a hostel which is really cheap! It’s like a dorm room basically, except with young exchange kids running around. Anyway, the place is old, but being updated so it’s a mix between old and nice. We have been moving around so much, been uprooted from our apartment in Riley Towers moving to our new apartment. No where feels like home. It’s a weird icky feeling, almost like home sickness. I experienced this once before when moving from Evansville to Indianapolis freshman year of college. I am just glad I have Melanie with me, without her I would feel lost. Last night on the drive down, we listened to Dir En Grey in the car. It was interesting to have so many of her memories boil up regarding her trips to Japan and whatnot. I think it was an excellent time for its revival considering her test is today. Go Melanie go!

The upgrade to 4.0 went a lot smoother then I anticipated. There were a few spritebatch changes here and there, but all together went without a hitch. I did end up having to upgrade the XACT audio file though. I have 4 versions of Microsoft Cross Platform Audio Creation Tools floating around and it's quite irritating. I will need to remedy this situation at a later date.

Monte, this is last call for game music, please send what you have!!! I have only one week left, and I am feeling the pressure. I hope people understand that my capstone is focusing on the CODING not the graphics. I guess what happens will happen.

End Of November Stress

Original Post Date: 11/30/2010

The end of November... Draws in stress beyond belief. My projects due dates are a week away, going to Chicago this weekend for Melanie’s Japanese Test, next weekend I have to go down to Evansville to pick up our new puppy, Capstone is due next week, work is still on the fence whether or not they will hire me full time and may get rid of me all together, beginning my company and I already have to pay extra taxes, and somewhere during all of this, I have to find the strength to move to our new apartment DURING the most ridiculous driving conditions. I will definitely be glad when December is over.

Willow Core the ticketing system is coming along. I can create, view, and edit tickets now. Also, it has several accounts for other users.

XNA 4.0 Upgrade

Original Post Date: 11/26/2010

I still exist.
I have been working on getting as much done as possible for the capstone demo on December 10th 2010. It will consist of stick figures and a working game engine. You can level up, get stronger, enter battle's, heal and what not. However it will not look pretty. The workload was of course a lot more than I imagined. Thus preventing a release of the game. I estimate approximately another 3 years to get this game to completion. I tried Upgrading Reverie Blade from its Xna 3.1 predecessor to 4.0 to no avail. After removing all 3.1 to 4.0 discrepancies from the build, I found that an error for HD compatibility existed. My poor Laptop drooped his head in shame. It's okay laptop, we will get through this.

Quite excited of how things are turning out though. I have created my company Willow Lantern Game & Web Design, created a logo, Also I am trying to volunteer for a Game Conference in California. Networking out the wazoo! I have exciting things in the works to get things moving. We have clients approaching me here and there and I have business cards being delivered! Quite exciting turn of events. Check out my new business card!

 

Unfortunately the release date for the project is going to have to be pushed back a couple years to get it to the level that I want it to be. I have learned a lot in my first excavation into XNA, and have learned a great deal about Game Components. I need to revamp my code from scratch to get it to peak efficiency. The new release date has been set to December 20th 2013.