An Assortment of Time

My current job isn't bad. I'm lucky to have good managers and people to work with. The job itself is easy and fairly boring and customers are of course horrid. The perks of my position is quite a bit of solitude, at least in the sense that people leave me alone. People tend to piss me off, so not a bad thing. However, I'd probably hate the job completely if it wasn't for the birds being around. I've gone over lots about the birds there that I don't think I need to go into another story about them for this. So my question; Is there something like the birds for you at work that keep you going back? (Other than a paycheck.)

Those Moments

There are times when developing where I find myself just staring at the screen. Despite knowing exactly what needs to happen next, nothing at all occurs. The next line of code just hangs there without an end, or that map remains an empty void. It's 1 in the afternoon and I've got lots of things set out to finish for the day, lots of high hopes. I look at the clock and it's suddenly 9 in the evening, so I look back at the screen, a single line of code has been finished. And then I'm angry with myself for wasting time.

Ever had one of those days where you can't get anything done? I'm not exactly sure what causes this loss of focus, but when it does occur, I know it's time to stop what I'm doing and give it some time before returning.

Because Video Games

Overtime

The birds following me around have become a thing for the customers at work. Apparently it is now well known among those that are returning customers. Also my manager knows... and doesn't care, even though he doesn't like the birds. +1

Another partial written post and the rest being done through video.

A Video and a Game

First up, this was just finished yesterday by a friend of mine. He worked hard on this, and its got an original score for it as well. His blog has been linked before, but as a reminder, it can be found here.
Game Download: Dolphin Squadron

Click to enlarge

The way you play is you gotta weaken your target and once you've done this, you suicide ram into it! Download link and a trailer are above. You gotta try it out to really understand it, but it's lots of fun.

DT3 Video
The rest of this is in video format.

Big Anniversaries

My bird has learned a new trick. When he sees me inside the store, (as rare as that is) he'll wait outside the front doors for me. Luckily he has never attempted to come inside, though all I'd need to do is get him to follow me out if that ever occurred. I doubt he will, he seems very content with the outside.

Today is the 10th year anniversary of the best mmo ever made. That being the original Planetside.

No screenshots this time, this is mainly an announcement that I may do another video soon.

Although before I close this. I'd like to ask all DT3 demo players. (Or even if you didn't play it and are familiar with the other 2 games.) If you could add/remove/change one thing in DT3, what would it be?

An Assortment of Stuff

My bird likes to fly super close, he's almost flown into me on 2 occasions. It's a good thing they can course correct really fast. He really likes to land close to eye level now too, him and the bird in the video from last post. They're getting very brave.

Looks like he's about to say 'Sup!"

Ponies and Something Else
If you've followed the Internet this week, you may have come across this. I don't really know what to think of it, but I know I won't be going to see it.

I came across this thing. It's supposed to be some headband to improve your focus, thereby improving your gaming ability. My issue with this, aside from the lack on information on the site and inability to come up with reliable google results, is the way it's being advertised. Gamers haven't identified with this type of marketing for years. I think someone needs to tell these guys to get into the 21st century. That I doubt it does anything considering the site has no real data. I somewhat have a feeling this is some attempt at trolling.

Sad Cat Diary
A link is all that needs to be done for this.

DT3 Progress
I know I haven't talked much about DT3 lately. It's not that there isn't anything to talk about, but I just don't want to give away so much. As before though, Gate 5 is still going. Here's some screenshots.

It does have a few rule changes that I'll mention. The first one is that it uses checkpoints upon retrying. They utilize the same thing the Prime series did in that you will be fully healed up using one. To clarify, if you die in Gate 5, you do not restart at the beginning of the current map, but at the last activated checkpoint. Metroid's setup simply doesn't work for DT's normal style of gameplay and changing it up to match DT would remove the concept of Gate 5. This probably won't be the only time that this checkpoint setup will be used. There are two other locations in the game where this is planned.

The other thing changed is that all enemies in Gate 5 deal damage to you through your dash, which is disabled for about the first 20 minutes of it anyway. Jeremy informs the player upon regaining the dash of this change. Projectiles and traps are still avoidable in the usual method. Remember that the dash makes for a really handy and quick evasion.

To answer a frequent question about this Gate. It will not have a map like the Metroid games do. There will be a less detailed map available though. The first 2 Metroid games had no map and were of a much larger and maze like scale than this will be. It's not going to be very confusing without a map. Besides, I loved the NES days of drawing my own map. Have fun. :P

Planetside 2
Next week a rather large update will be hitting the game. If you didn't like the base connections of PS2 and were more fond of the original game's set up, rejoice that PS2 will be moving over to the lattice. Though it's not exactly identical to PS1, it never will be and shouldn't be. I'm very much in favor of the connection change since I feel it'll greatly help the flow of combat. Before this, most bases had around 5-6 connection, this has been brought down to about 3-4. In some cases, the small outposts are now a two way connection between the larger facilities. This creates a very defined front line of offense and defense when heading toward those facilities. Cutting off the enemy is still a very viable option, and really I feel it'll have far greater benefits than before due to having fewer options where you can attack from. This definitely won't fix all the current problems with the game, but it's a good step in the right direction. The change is only for Indar right now, Esamir and Amerish will get those changes sometime within the next few months it seems. (Hopefully very soon, even though it won't change Esamir all that much.)

All About Birds

Lots of bird happenings lately. This guy here started eating out of my hand. He's pretty skiddish and I'm surprised he gets that close sometimes seeing how cautious he is all the time. Although he also doesn't like the phone so it's even more surprising that he stayed around for this. There are these times when he's not jittery at all, at these times, he's almost digging into the bag of food I have as I'm reaching in to get it for him. Most of the birds don't get close if I'm moving about at all.

Then we have this guy who follows me around sometimes. He's been getting really close for the last 2 months and refused to eat from my hand until recently. He likes to follow me around for awhile and often attempts communication. He does things a bit different than the other birds who were brave enough to eat directly from me though. Almost every time he does, he'll first bite or peck my hand once. Not hard, hes never broken skin, but it's a very consistent behavior. I have 3 assumptions on what it is, that being; It's a greeting, a warning of what he can do, or to establish dominance. The reason I thought of the last is he seems to be the dominant male in the area. He's almost always near the middle of where I work, usually up high, and typically always vocalizing. Far more than the other males in the area. When using the bill up posture, the other males will back down from him most of the time. He's also the biggest grackle there.

I've read up on someone else that had this same experience with a grackle. Would feed directly from his hand, and the bird would give a modest peck or bite first. His assumptions are the same as my first two assumptions.

All the Candies!
Here's a game that Slaix showed me. I don't want to say anything about it, otherwise I'll spoil things.

Also WhattayaBrian has picked up his DT3 demo LP again. He seems to be a pretty busy guy.

Birds and Video Games

For the first time ever, I own a smartphone. It's an HTC Evo something or other. I've found it has quite a few uses, such as checking my Facebook and email while at work. Texting my roommates about random stuff that happens at work. Reading various articles while at work. Checking Planetside 2 test server stuff... while at work.

Most importantly though, taking pictures of grackles while at work. Its uses in reducing productivity are immense. In all seriousness though, being able to check these sorts of things when I'm away from my computer and in a moment of not having much else to do, it is a very handy device, and saves me time. Run-ons don't even care! Here's a random screenshot of something!

This can actually happen.

There really are a lot of birds in DT3.

Those Extra Things
Gate 5 is almost all based on the level design with very few major things happening until near the end. It follows closer to Super Metroid's method of progression in simply letting the player figure out where their new power up would allow them to go. It's split up in 3 major sections plus a hub. The only help given is which of these sections the player should be in.

There's times when I feel something extra would greatly enhance the player's engagement, even if the extra bit doesn't really have any major purpose. For example, in Gate 5, there's a scripted scenario around getting the Morph Ball. That segment of gameplay could just as easily work with the player simply grabbing the upgrade and that being the end of it. How do you guys approach situations like this?

A Thing About This
Anyone played Fez? It was that little platform where you shift the world around 90 degrees. So the link above is a review that are my thoughts almost exactly. While the review is a bit satirical and overly hateful at times, it hits on my main issue with the game. I disagree with the bit about the music being bad though, the reviewer seemed like he was getting his hate on during that segment. I felt the ambient music fit well with the empty, shallow gameplay.

But that aside, remember Ys3? It was pretty awesome and this remix does well in reminding me of it.

And while we're on the topic of music, Smooth McGroove did this.