The Delightfully Quirky Show

I have a cold.

2008-02-03T19:21:00.000Z

Before I start moaning, I need to clear up the issue of my comparison in my last post of Toast with Mario. Toast is nothing like Mario. Toast is a very original, side scrolling platform adventure. It has jumping, dying and enemies. Mario is different, it has jumping, dying and enemies which you can kill.

Right, glad we sorted that out.

I have a cold. On top of this I have Physics coursework. We all know coursework/lab work is a bitch, however I always grow to cope with it. This time I haven't though, because it just won't work how I want it to. I am supposed to be investigating crosstalk in a couple of wires. I decided I would test the variables of distance between the wires, the angle they lie to each other and the frequency of the original signal.

This would all be acceptable if I could actually observe it. It took me three sessions to find an oscilloscope that worked and fish out the other equipment I needed. And I spent the next two getting the experiment to work full stop. Now I can observe some crosstalk. The problem being though, I can only get 5mV of the damn stuff! When changing the frequency over a range of approx. 1kHz - 100kHz I observed between 1mV and 5mV - and it's 5mV per division!

So, my results are crap. And things just don't get any better in that there are no digital oscilloscopes left. And I need an A in Physics. Without coursework that would require me to get 120/100 in the two exam units!

I could compare it to being stuck in a hole with no spade, but someone will only point out Physics A levels don't have spades... Or something.

Freelance [2]

2008-01-23T20:35:00.000Z

This post of course is a triumphant return to blogging.

After pretty much a year I am back to entertain my pitiful audience with useless drivel about pixels and such like. Much has changed in a year. My game is now worthy of a demo, and boasts one whole complete level (apart from the first bit isn't drawn right, and the character is short of one walk animation and a few sound effects and cutscenes and rooms are missing).

Aside from my game I've applied to universities. And got in to some. And been turned down by others. It was a good one though. In fact Oxford have missed out on a genius this year... as sadly my friend didn't get in either - he is a brilliant Mathematician!

I digress however to the subject of this post: my most recent freelance contract. Out of the kindness of my heart, I refused generous offers of payment for my services. Though I am confident the project will be wholly professional, despite the lack of financial encouragement.

That Martin and his friend that Tom are working on a game called "Toast". Toast is, as far as I know, just Mario with a timer and characters made of toast. I think however that it will go a long way when injected with some artistic flair.

I was initially disappointed when all the toast jokes I proposed were dismissed, and all the cool game mechanics involving butter and jam were rejected, however I have been given sufficient reason for why this is so. In fact, I'm taking a leaf out of that Martin's and that Tom's book in deciding that this post was a good idea, but, all in all far too much effor-

Now Everything Starts To Come Together...

2007-01-09T17:24:00.000Z

I haven't posted for almost a month now. Which is no suprise as this isn't exactly the most consistent blog in existance. Anyway, you'll be pleased to know (I haven't a clue who I'm talking to. Myself?) that the time out has produced some results...

Firstly, I have made the decision to develop my game in Adventure Game Studio. Mainly because it's an amazing engine and I want to concentrate on the pixel art involed for now. In making this decision I have now put all efforts into the plot and the art.

The plot is coming along nicely now, it's a sci-fi/conspiracy themed adventure set in the future universe. I decided not to attach a specific year to it, as I find this thins the realism of most plots. For example, the idea of Star Wars is great, because you can write stories all along the timetime, and nothing is connected to our present day or our past (and the Star Wars past is fairly dismissable). I did decide however to set the game around Earth, as it depends on a development in science that affects our world in a certain way.

The art is also slotting nicely into place. I am now starting the first sequence, which sees you on a cargo ship heading for a mining world. After planning the backgrounds I need, and writing the level content, I am now going through the process of drawing it all.

I'm posting a lot of what I'm working on at The Gibbage Forums, so log on and give me some constructive - or perhaps rather insulting - criticism. It's up to you. So long as it's not the latter. And no doubt won't listen anyway.

By Popular Request...

2006-12-19T13:28:00.000Z

http://freewebs.com/markbilly/he%20walks!.gif

http://freewebs.com/markbilly/he%20walks!%20left.gif

http://freewebs.com/markbilly/cycle1.bmp (not finished)

People Read This?

2006-12-16T15:50:00.000Z

Recently I have discovered that some people actually read my blog. Arrgh!

After being asked what had happened to the blog previous to my previous entry, and then a few days ago seeing my blog up on someone elses computer, I've realised I may have to put some effort into this posting malarkey. Now that is one terrifying thought...

Maybe now that I have some fans (OK I have evidence of only two readers, but still...) I'm going to have to up the standard of my entries, and maybe even the volume of them. Something which I am clearly not doing now. I haven't posted for nearly a month, and this is utter shite!

Anyway, people (Hehe! I'm actually talking to someone!) amazingly amusing and informative posts are on their way! For now, I hope you liked this one.

You didn't? Ow nuts!

Freelance Work

2006-11-19T21:55:00.000Z

Hi, I'm back from the dead.

I've been neglecting this Blog for a while, but by popular request (that's Robert) it's going again in full force! I think the last time I wrote something for the Blog was 30th August, which is actually a really long time ago. Almost three months.

I won't go into why I've not been writing, but one of the reasons is starting college. And to be honest the work load isn't really that huge, I just can't be arsed at the moment. Anyway today I can be arsed, so I'm going to get this down quick before all motivation deteriorates.

On the issue of my little sprite man, he's come on a little since I last wrote, he nows walks... mostly, and is looking quite good. I've also been looking at developing the story of my game a bit recently and that is coming on fine. I haven't however looked anymore into the programming side of things. I realise this is immensely stupid as the programming is the largest aspect, or at least the fundamental one. I have really enjoyed the art though, so fuck it.

As for the title, and the accompanying sprite then... Whilst at college I have bumped into this rather insane trio who are planning to create there own MMORPG entirely using Visual BASIC. Yes, I laughed too. In fact I laughed a lot. But this didn't seem to deter them from allowing me to do the art for the project. It's great actually, I think the game idea is fairly mad, however they have the vision to make it work... A bit anyway, and so because I only have to worry about drawing generic fantasy RPG top-down sprites it doesn't matter how shit I think it is because at least my sprites will look OK.

For the game, entitled (rather amusingly) Wizards and Mages there will be three character classes: Wizard, Mage, and... hang on, Warrior. I have drawn the three character sprites and done 32 rotated versions so they can freely move around the map. Sorted. Gives me something to do, and I can deny any responsibility for the game if it's crap.

Great. Now on with embarrasing myself with my game...

Seriously, Martin I really do like the way Wizards and Mages is going. Honest. It's just, like some politians I have to bend the truth a little to please the masses. You understand that, don't you?

No, honestly, it looks great. I'm honoured to be a part of it.

A Walking Sprite That Doesn't Walk

2006-08-30T21:31:00.000+01:00

On the sprite note. I went back and re-drew the walk cycle completely, using a different template cycle (however toning the legs movement down a little).

It's better.

Instead of just jumping around all over the place and looking like a shite, my sprite now does produce sensible movement. Unfortunately it still doesn't walk. Just try to imagine seeing someone walking down your street. Their arms are swinging perfectly beside them, just as God intended... However their legs just flick about in mid air and their head jumpily dips in and out of their shoulders.

Still not right.

Problem is, after sorting the arms, and being ready and eager to start work on those bastard legs I was carted off on holiday. Fortunately for me, it wasn't to Cornwall, and it wasn't with my parents. Instead I flew out to Jersey late notice with my girlfriend.

Sod the sprite.

Now I'm back, and I can't be arsed. You see, after flying back (admittedly it was only 40 minutes) I went straight off to Greenbelt Christian Arts Festival. This meant a twenty minute walk from camp to the main stage; sleeping on a mat, with a matchstick pillow; sleeping in a chair outside one night and not getting to sleep 'til 4am.

Zzzzzz.

Still, after a boring day at home and a sudden realisation for the ridiculous amount of spare time I've got I've started work on the sprite again. This time I'm keeping the one's I have, however deleting the bottom half of them and drawing the legs again, this time not drawing the character's cloak on top. I will finish the leg cycle and check it's all working, before adding the cloak afterwards.

Back to the sprite.

P.S. He needs a name. Suggestions please.

The Joys Of Sprites

2006-08-16T22:27:00.000+01:00

The frustration with drawing sprites is like no other. There's no cursing, swearing or kicking. Or even throwing books and mugs of coffee at walls. No, when drawing sprites there is a lead up to the frustration. As if, it's luring you into a false sense of security before it kills you.

The last month or so (yes, it takes that long) has been spent drawing a little sprite person who hasn't even got a name. Funny really as I know him better than most people. Unfortunatly, I don't know the little beggar enough to make him fecking walk! First I tried using Guybrush's walk cycle as a template and using his walking poses. This looks stupid, as Guybrush seems to run rather than walk. This therefore led me to believe that screenshotting Beneath a Steel Sky would be a good idea. The walk cycle is perfect, and I manged to get enough shots to create a decent cycle to use as a template.

All was going great then. I'd drawn a good few frames and I was checking them as I did them, the animation was comming on fine. Well... that's until I strung them all together at the end. The resulting animation looks like my character is jolting to particually bad music, whilst parts of his clothing disappear and reappear around him. It looks shite! And it took me so much effort! Grrr!

I don't think the actual individual sprites are really that bad, especially as this is my first real experience with them. It's just so difficult to produce a successful walk cycle!

Well, enough of my whimpering and sulking, it's back to the Paint Shop Drawing Board to add some more frames to the animation, see if that works.

If you would like to bail me out by giving me loads of cool advise and maybe even drawing the bugger for me, you can find me at Gibbage Forums. Or leave a comment of course...

The Gibbage Forums Song...

2006-08-15T20:49:00.000+01:00

To the tune of 'Piano Man'

Its midnight, on a forum
The regular crowd is postin'
Theres Dan, he is talking to me
And the room is dark and dim.

He says son, can you spare me 6 english pounds,
For this game, or I'll break your nose?
He's glad and he's sweet that he's won such a feat.
How he did it, nobody knows...

La la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da

Chorus:
Written this song about Gibbage,
Been writing this song all night.
I almost forgot about Ben
But now I hope, he's feelin' alright.

Hey Robert from afar is a friend of mine
He probably says: 'cannie'
Oh hes quick with a poke if you tell him a joke,
So for this Scotch joke, dead I will be.
Lorenzo, is currently, killing me.
For the joke I made of his face.
And he treatens to tear my head apart,
As I run away in haste.

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da (Buy Gibbage, Buy Gibbage!)

Now Delve is the real shit expert
He is the one with the wife
And hes talkin with Simon, who isn't called Ivon
And there's Cliffski, he has a knife

We've had great discussions of politics
But talk slowly slips to 'who knows?'
Yes, we're prone to a little off topic-ness
But its better than being a drone.

Chorus

Its a great way to waste a saturday
Better than the WoW free trial.
It's The Gibbage Forums and it's where you should be
To forget about life for a while
Viridian, he sounds like a grizzly bear,
It's a sound we luckily don't hear.
They come from near, and they come from afar
And say, man, what is happenin' here?

Oh, la la la, de de da
La la, de de da da da (Buy Gibbage, Buy Gibbage!)

Chorus

By markbilly

For all the fun described, visit The Gibbage Forums

Amazing Game Idea!

2006-08-13T17:34:00.000+01:00

DISCLAIMER: I believe (I have just realised) this has already been done. But it can be done better, so read.

At last something bloggable has happened to me! I've had a brainwave!

I watched Top Gun yesterday (for the fifth or so time) and realised what an AMAZING game it would make (and it needs to be done again). Not just amazing, but mildly different, something which gaming lacks at the moment. Recently, the most revolutionary thing we've seen in gaming is Prey which alows you to 'walk up walls'. My fucking God! How brilliant! Just a shame it's on the Doom3 engine, and therefore basically is Doom. Lets face it, it's just another Quake 4 isn't it? Albiet nice and shiny and clever in parts, it's just another mindless shooter. Yes, mindless shooting is great, but it's just getting boring!

I'm not suggesting that this Top Gun idea will be original, but we haven't seen a decent, action flighter sim for ages (if at all). The best we've got is Battlefield 2 and it's planes; the problem being however that BF2 isn't solely a fighter sim and so the maps aren't essentially designed for dog-fighting. They're not big enough for starters.

What a(nother) Top Gun game would allow for would be BF2-esque controls for the planes, however much more depth in the gameplay. Players could play co-op with one as Goose, and the other Maverick (navigator and pilot). As well as a single player campaign available - with you pitted against other pilots fighting for Top Gun, and with other combat missions - the game could very easy have a multiplayer aspect, with huge air battles, each side having an aircraft carrier each as a base. The game could even be solely a MMOG, with rankings for both individual pilots and navigators, but also for the two co-op players.

You're probably now thinking this is all well and good, but what about much needed graphical advancements? How can you have next-gen graphics... In the sky? Firstly, there is the opportunity to put actual pilot models in the aircraft, for inverted 4Gs or whatever, but also for when pilots have to eject from their aircraft. Textures will come to good use on both the planes and the aircraft carriers, with lighting effects on the planes and the sea.

None of this is 'next-gen' though. But then what do you get in the sky? Clouds... After watching the Crytek tech demo, it would be very cool to be able to fly through fully volumetric clouds.

Feel free to shout 'That's amazing!' and get in touch immediately to break a deal with me, but whatever you do: do not fail to ask first, because I know some very scary people, who will not hesitate to seek you out and let nasty things naw your gonads like mere brazil nuts. You have been warned.

I'm Not Dead!

2006-08-12T17:06:00.000+01:00

This Blog is not dead.

It is however mortally wounded. Mortally wounded by the fact that blogs are driven by interesting entries, and nothing interesting has happened to or around me for ages.

The Blog should though be getting better, as I will find something interesting to write about, and as soon as I do it's going on here.

If you want to tell me I'm boring, or say something really interesting to me so I have something to talk about, find me on The Gibbage Forums. There, the deed is done.

Holidays... What are they for?

2006-07-29T21:23:00.000+01:00

I have just come back from a lovely holiday in the South. I spend a week in Cornwall and a week in Devon. As much as this was very nice, and it didn't rain (which is a miracle because normally a huge cloud follows me around and buckets everytime I walk out the door) I still didn't enjoy it and I certainly can't say I didn't want to leave. In fact all I did for the whole holiday was count the blessed days until I was home!

For the last, oh, sixteen years of my life I have been going down to Cornwall for my summer holiday. Two weeks, in the caravan (I'll get to the joys of caravaning in another post maybe), lots of walks, days on the bikes and reading a fucking huge pile o' books, suplimented by the odd day bodyboarding. I say the odd day because it's either too bloody cold to go in the sea, or the swell is more dormant than a hedgehog that's been hit by a Ferrari.

All of these reasons for it being a crappy holiday were just topped of nicely by the fact that I didn't have any need, or desire to go on holiday anyway. I was perfectly happy at home, spending time reading my Dummies guide to C++ and coding silly little "Hello World" programs. At home you can go out with friends, watch telly in your room, and subsiquently watch what you like. You can update your blog and talk to interesting people on forums. Most importantly though, you are not hundreds of miles from your girlfriend with only free texting to keep you contented.

As I've illustrated above, I did not enjoy the majority of my holiday, however there were a few good things. I've said Cornwall is boring and I have done it to death, but it's like a second home. And there's no place like home. Plus I've never been to North Devon on holiday before and I can say it is a very nice part of the country indeed.

The holiday also gave me the chance to hone in on my artistic skills and there's a picture at the top of this entry to demonstrate, and others have been added to my deviantart. I had great fun with water and lights and some of the shots are quite surreal. I also have some good landscape shots and of the area (mainly Devon), however these were on my SLR and I haven't yet sent off the film. The picture above were taken on my Dad's digital. I shall post the digital/non dig SLR/dig SRL arguement another time maybe...

Unfortunatly, the holiday didn't just allow me to practice photography and read some good books. I also improved my logic skills, which can't be all bad I suppose, but it now means I'm practically addicted to Su Doku. Whether this is good or bad I'm yet to find out, but I certainly didn't feel cool with my 'Indipendant' Su Doku puzzle on the beach.

So, in conclusion, dispite the odd few pluses this holiday was really something I didn't want to go on, and frankly has wasted my time. I have to say though, if I'm going to have a holiday, just the week in Devon would have been bearable... just about.

Oh, and I do know what a holiday is for, but in the curcumstances I was in, it didn't work for me.

Pre-Blog: Exams

2006-07-13T17:05:00.001+01:00

Dated: Wednesday 24th May 2006 at 9:04 PM

I'm taking exams at the moment... and?

For anyone who has not yet experienced this joy in life, it is not as people tell you. Everyone will describe how their friend hanged themselves from their cabin bed, or ate their arm off during a maths exam, but I haven't felt peckish yet. In fact I would say that the time leading up to exams, and especially the coursework is a much more stressful experience.

Revision for instance... I'm finding my (rather last minute) revision is something, not that has me locked in my room for weeks without food water, or not going for a dump for 6 days solid, but instead as a sporadic wave of inspiration in which I have the strange urge to consolidate bible references into a cool table, or explain the theory of evolution on a scrap of paper with too many arrows. And this only takes me a maximum of the hour between comedy programmes on Friday night.

So, in short, worry about bastard coursework, then sit back, be cool and enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is that of exams. Yeah, get a little nervous, but, in the words of my Electronics teacher, you've a lot more to look forward to in life, don't get hung back with exams. Get a life basically.

Anyway, if you've just read all that, which no one will of course, and you think I'm talking crap and that I actually should be hanging myself, whilst eating my arms and chanting "a² = b² + c² - 2bc Cos A" then, get in touch and I'll put you straight.

Ooo, and if this laid back approach that I have just preached to the world causes the A* - C percentages to drop lower than ever before recorded, it wasn't me! It was my dog, I was far too busy chewing paper and slowly dying because my stomach is eating itself due to lack of nutrition.