New Year's Resolutions and a Look Back

Well, 2006. It's interesting to think that since I started this blog, I've made 423 entries. There hasn't really been a pattern to what I've done, I've just gone where the winds have blown.

To be honest, though, that's usually how I succeed at something. I decide to do something on a lark, and I generally succeed, because there's no pressure for me to do well. If I screw up, it's no biggie. Because I don't have that pressure, I do really well.

That's how I got hired at Access. That's how I stayed on at Microsoft. That's how I got hired by Layton City. That's how I got hired by Ritual. (Speaking of which, my one-year anniversary is on Tuesday.)

I guess success comes to those who feel like they're already successful. So here's to a successful 2006, because I'm already a winner for having gotten this far.

New Years Resolutions

1. I resolve to try not to dredge up painful memories from the past. One of my bad habits is bringing up moments of failure from the distant past and refreshing them in my mind. Anything that caused me emotional pain is eligible...crashing into a parked camper, for example.
   
   Fact of the matter is that I can't distance myself from these moments. The failures of my past helped define me, as did my successes. I just need to learn to accept these moments rather than beat myself with them.
2. I resolve to update my domain (RomSteady.net) at least once a month.
   
   I pay over $100 a year for the domain and web space. I better be putting something there.
3. I resolve to finish at least one of the game mods I have in the queue. I've been working on several game modifications under the radar.
   
   The one I've been working on that's the furthest along is "Doom3: Moonbase Assault," a turn-based-strategy game in the Doom3 universe. (Already have the models loading and animating...I've also integrated the level editor into Visual Studio 2005.) Basically, I want to be able to tell the story of the marines who went in to get the last survivor at the end of Doom3.
   
   (Come on, you guys knew that there had to be a reason for all of the Doom3 utilities I've been creating...)
4. I resolve to go to driving school and try to get my driver's license back.
   
   Walking everywhere has been a real benefit to me. It has taught me patience, perserverence and time-management skills. It's also helped me lose eighty pounds since I started at Ritual. However, there are major downsides to boot. I've lost many opportunities over the years because of my lack of a driver's license, and I intend to make sure I don't lose these opportunities in the future.

Anyway, I'm going to be in Utah from January 23 to January 27 visiting family and trying to take care of my old home, so have a Happy New Year. May 2006 be memorable for good reasons.

Merry Christmas or something or other...

'Twas the Night Before Christmas In Freeport

Not bad for 10 minutes of work...

Updates, or Lack Thereof, and Why

So, it's been awhile since I've updated. I'd say, "I'm sorry," but according to my boss, I'm not allowed. (grin) Besides, you know you don't update enough when Robert Scoble unsubscribes.

I've been working a lot of six- and seven-day work weeks since my last update. We've been doing extended playtests of "SiN: Episodes" on a fairly consistent basis over the last while, and they're a bit of a time sink.

An extended playtest is when you bring in several players and have them play through the entire game from beginning to end. Since we've promised 4-6 hours of gameplay for players, we block out six hours per test.

In our first test, all of our players were done in about four hours. It exposed some issues with our dynamic difficulty system that were addressed.

As the dynamic difficulty system was repaired and adjusted, the tests gradually got longer. In our last test, we had one player who had played through half of the game before in previous playtests, one person who was a headshot master in "Counter-Strike: Source" and one person who has played first-person-shooters before but was in her words "bad" at them.

The experienced player and the headshot master finished in five hours. The "bad" player encountered a crash bug due to a bad shader fallback on a material at the six hour mark, but was on track to finish in seven hours.

Unfortunately, between now and ship, my time is going to be even more limited. I'm going to try to do some updates between now and ship, but I'm not going to promise anything, especially since I have testing duties above and beyond the playtests.

Amazon knows what Jack wants...

This screenshot was too funny not to share...

As some of you know, Jack Thompson is a Florida attorney and is pretty much against anything that he deems "sinful." You know, sex, profanity, violence in media, the fun stuff.

So what does Amazon think readers of his book would want?

MSNBC Exceptions

I'm glad to see that MSNBC is using the .NET Framework and ASP.NET to power their news site.

However, it might be nice if they were hiding their error messages...no need to give people too much information as to what's going on under the hood...