Finally Writing a Game - Dev Diary 1

I have been playing around with the BlitzBasic series of products for the last 10 years or so and just experimented and done small things.  I have been doing the same thing with Monkey since it came out.  I bought the Playniax Framework, Jungle IDE and have been going through the Beginning Monkey ebook by Mike Hartlef and finally decided that I need to finish something for a change.

I have a notebook with lots of different game ideas.  I think that part of the issue in the past with never getting too far or completing anything is that I have been too ambitious with my projects.  I would start writing a game and then get stuck on a certain aspect and when I couldn't figure it out I would let that kill the project.  This time I have decided that I need to pick a game that is moderate in scope.

In the game the player is going to be a miner in a fantasy world that digs underground to collect various ores and gems.  I am planning on having basic crafting and very light RP.  The character will be able to improve on a few of his skills and upgrade his mining equipment, some gear and items in their house.

This past week I have finished the base tile engine that scrolls around and is centered on the player sprite.  I also plan to use this as a foundation in the future for a roguelike.  The game randomly generates the levels using a basic cellular automata algorithm. The player can dig and collect gems right now.

I am going to work on this regularly and I plan to release this on multiple devices since Monkey is so cross platform.  I may do a release on mobile and then flesh the game out more, add features and then release on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Stay tuned for more dev diaries and some screen shots!

DIY Book Scanner

I absolutely love books.  I have always wanted to build a library in my house.  With that said, the rise of digital mediums is hard to beat for convenience.  I love being able to pull out my phone or tablet and pickup where I left off.  This is a really cool project to make a DIY book scanner.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/02/diy-book-scanning-is-easier-than-you-think/

Sentry Fire Safe Fix

I have a Sentry Safe that I bought at Sam's for $150.  It worked great for about 3 months and then went completely dead. I tried the batteries, playing with the contacts, all of the normal things that an electronics geek would try and no luck.  I was keeping medication in there that I take every day so I needed to get in.  I called Sentry support.  They have an 800 number and they answered quickly and it was actually an American on the other end!  I know, amazing, right? He told me all of the usual and then he said there had been some problems with the contacts inside.

The solution: unscrew the face, there is a small phillips head on the underside of the keypad.   Turn the face counter clockwise and pull forward.  The problem was immediately apparent when I pulled the face off.  The connection that the batteries push against almost fell out.  Very poor quality.  There are two v shaped contacts that the battery tray presses against.  Take a flathead screwdriver and bend the contacts down so that the battery tray makes solid contact and voila!

I posted this here hoping it would get indexed by Google because I didn't find it with a search.  The model number is SFW123FTC. Other than this, I have been very happy with the safe.  It feels well built(other the the above) and is pretty roomy.  Probably great for the average family.

Family Found Living in the Wild for 40 years!

This is an amazing story.  A family in Russia had moved into Siberia to escape religious persecution and had no contact with the world for 40 years.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html