Third Day: Let There Be Light

Alright, I’m starting to get a bigger move on things. So, I’ve made a new plan, which is to finish the dungeon completely before doing anything voice related. That way, if anything goes horribly wrong with the follower, there’s a nice dungeon to sift through.

So, as you may have noticed, there’s some shading now. I have added the magic of lighting to the portion I had done yesterday. In fact, I finished off an additional hallway. Now, the first half of the layout is done. But I digressed, lighting. Lighting is extremely important in a video game. Just like real life, light is required in order to be able to see. Lighting is especially important in darker areas. There needs to be just enough light to see, while not blinding anyone. There must also be limited light in order to maintain the whole “you’re in a really, really dark cave/dungeon underground.” There also has to be distinct sources for light. Players will notice if there’s light with no source. Adding a lamp here and there will provide sources for light. That said, remember not to break immersion. Drop the light source where a real person would. Hang the chandeliers at a good height, place lamps where the light from chandeliers can’t reach, etc. One must also be conscious of what kind of light they’ll be using. A lamp will produce a different kind of light then, say, a massive bonfire. It’s a lot to think about.

At the moment, my lighting is iffy at best. While the creation kit does a fantastic job of previewing how each light will work, you can’t really see it perfectly until you’re actually in game. For the moment, I can’t check. The dungeon isn’t set up to support the player in game yet, and I won’t be able to do that until later on. So, for now, I’m making well educated guesses.

Also in the works today was the addition of clutter. I’ll write more on that at a later date, but the short and skinny of it is that people need things to look at. Empty rooms are boring.

So, timeline for today.

8-12:30, AP Calc exam

1:40-2:20, Biology class

4:30 to 6:30, work on dungeon

Overall, 6.5 hours of work in total today. Not bad.

Ah! By the way. A friend of mine is also working on a senior project. Please, try out this survey for him. Click here!

On the Second Day…

This is only one half of the dungeon I’m making. I’m thinking it may be a bit… large. Based on the size of what I have, I may shrink my map design. Anyways, this is about half of what I originally planned, un-decorated. No lighting, rubble, chests, enemies, etc. I’m liking it so far.

Let’s get educational. What you see in that picture is a bare bones map. It’s basically a very long hallway with rooms. The rooms serve as areas for battles, where the hero will fight against various enemies. Hallways give some time to regroup, gain health, and generally provide a buffer in between each encounter. This style of dungeon design is in the game itself, meaning the map is already on the right track. Education over.

So, a time log of today.

8 – 10, Class

10 – 1, Site revamping (Take out hour for lunch and chores)

1-2:30, Class

4:30 – 8:30, create map above.

So about 9 hours of work total, 6 of which was dedicated to this project. Nice.

 

Update: Hibernation

Many of you are probably wondering what’s going on with the lack of posts around here. Well, I guess I owe you an explanation. This site is not a business nor a serious website with a structured schedule. It is a hobby run by me, Glasses Guy and sometimes Warlemur and Polish Assassin. As of late I have had little time for hobbies. I call this time of the year “Winter Crunch”. During winter crunch, I start getting piled with work that takes away much of my free time. For instance, three hour play practices until the middle of March. Thus, I lose time after school to update the site. I also lose my Sunday’s to a skiing program, thus forcing me to turn Saturday into a workday. I also now reserve Friday evenings for my girlfriend, who I barely see at school during the week. Thus, I only have an hour or so of free time a day. I use the time sparingly, and spread it out through all of my hobbies. I’ve been on vacation for the past week, and I’ve been using that time to build various projects. In short, the site is going to be neglected until March. However, once the middle of March roles around I’ll be able to kick back into gear with my fours hours of free time a night, if I get homework done on time. Once again, I apologize for neglecting you all.

P.S. The Master Sword up there is just one of the three swords I’ve made this week, all of which I am very proud of.

P.P.S. I guess you want some shenanigans, so I’ll just say that I wrote this whole update while on the toilet. It’s up to you to decide whether or not that’s true.

Why Baths are better

Baths are far superior to showers in many ways, but thousands of people refuse the admit it. I intend to inform those of why baths are better than showers.

1. You have to stand up to shower. You can sit down and be lazy in a bathtub.

2. In a bath, the water covers and distorts your body making you look skinny. In a shower, you have to stare at every ugly roll, wrinkle, and wart.

3. Rubber duckies float in the bathtub. They don’t float in the shower.

4.Baths take longer, thus keeping you away from the harsh realities of life. You may even set up a DVD player nearby to raise the “I’m relaxing” factor.

5. When was the last time you had a bubble shower? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Bubble baths FTW.

Facebook Worm, countless idiots and newbies affected

Business as usual, about 45,000 computers have been hacked because a portion of the population of facebook clicked shady links. A while ago I would have blamed this mess on the hoards of idiots plaguing facebook clicking every chance for a free phone they see, but I’ve seen a new light. Many of these “idiots” still know enough to spot a scam, and will avoid the link. Honestly, it’s new citizens of the internet who know little about safety who get hacked. While I would love to grill said newbs, I have to look at the fact that at one point in time, I would have dived at the chance for an ipod. I suggest facebook, being one of the massive gateways to the ACTUAL internet, should provide a warning sheet for new members. It should be similar to the “Welcome to the Internet Page”, but in a lighter tone. While this may seem too nice, please remember. Your mother is most likely one of these noobs, and it’s the money they spend on you and your hobbies being stolen. I sure as hell don’t want my mother frying another computer due to a pop-up ad.

A Scientific Study

Recently skittles and I started playing an old favorite, Sonic Adventure Battle 2. While playing this game I noticed a few things that made me question the rating it was given. For those who don’t know, it was rated E for Everyone. The first thing I found odd was when you first come to the chao garden you find two eggs. Despite the fact that you have no prior engagement with these eggs, you claim them as your own. The second thing I question is why the hell is there a black market in a kindergarten in an E rated game?! Finally I found it very disturbing the amount of DRUGS that are in this game.