Another Game, Auditions, and Fireworks

Hi! I know I haven’t posted in almost two weeks (yikes), but not much has happened. I do have some stuff to talk about now though, so here’s an unorganized and ramble-y update!

I’ve finally started working on a new game, and I’m excited about this one because I decided not to use any sort of game engine or library. It’s just pure javascript. I’m doing it this way because while working on other projects I felt too dependent on my library and like I wasn’t actually learning anything. Not using a library on this project might make the going slower, but I’ve already learned so much that it’s worth it. Of course, there’s nothing bad about using a library. If it speeds up your work or helps you in any way, go for it. I just wanted to see what I could do without one, especially since I’m a beginner.

I also scheduled my audition for the summer show and it seems like all my worries and nervousness about it just kind of disappeared. The director was super nice and enthusiastic, and I’m really looking forward to auditioning. I can’t wait!

We’re also leaving for our trip in less than two weeks, and I’m looking forward to that as well. It’ll be nice to just get away from everything and spend some time camping and in the mountains. We’re going to see a lot of family too, so that will be good.

And I know it’s late, but happy Fourth of July! We watched the fireworks last night and I even got to watch the beginning of the first Captain America movie, so I would say I had a good day! Did you do anything fun, if you celebrated? I hope you enjoyed these words from a nerd, and I’ll see you next time!

A Ramble-y Update

I haven’t really been feeling up to writing blog posts lately. I’ve just kind of run out of inspiration and things that I can talk about for a whole post. So to get writing again, I’m just going to ramble on about a bunch of different things to get ideas and kind of update on where I am.

I have an idea for a game that I want to make. I came up with it a few months ago and it’s been stuck in the back of my head, refusing to disappear. It’s not fully formed yet, just kind of floating around in bits and pieces, but I have a general idea of what the game will be. It’s way above my level, though, so there are a lot of technical things that I need to learn before I start to develop it. I’ve worked a lot with the Phaser engine, but I don’t think I’m using it to its full extent yet. I still have a lot to learn about it.

One of my next goals is to make a platformer with Phaser and Tiled. I have the basics of working with Tiled down and I can make a simple map, but that’s pretty much it. I don’t know how to export it and use the JSON in a game or how to make an object layer and whatnot. Tiled seems like a useful tool that saves a lot of time, I just need to learn the more complex stuff that it can do.

Another possible thing that I might look into is RPG Maker. I saw the other day that you can buy it through Steam at a lower cost than I thought it was, so I may have to look into that. I already have the Lite version of VX Ace on my computer, so I’ll have to play around with that more. I want to see if I can work with the limitations or if I need to buy the full version. I know many people have made full games with only the lite version, so it’s not impossible. I just need to work with it.

Camp NaNo is also coming up, and I have no idea what I’ll be writing yet. Usually I end up planning a month or more in advance, but there are only a few weeks left and I have nothing. This isn’t a bad thing, though. It just means I’ll have less time to get bored with my idea, which usually happens. Less planning time might me better for me. I’m still on the fence of whether I’ll do it or not, though. For the last 2 weeks of July, I’ll be on a camping trip with a bunch of family and I won’t have much time to write. I might just wait until November to do another NaNo event.

My school is holding auditions for parts in the summer show. This time they’re doing Almost, Maine and I’m going to audition for it. I still have to read more about the play, but I’ve been working on the monologue that I have to give. This morning I went and cut out some lines so that it would fit in the time limit, but I made sure that it still flowed well. The bad thing is that auditions are on the day that we get back from our big camping trip, and I’ll be pretty exhausted. I’ll just have to make sure that when I sign up for my audition time that I pick a later time slot.

I think I’m also going to start working on a short story. I really want to write one, I’m just not sure what to write about yet. I’m sure I’ll come up with something, though. That’ll be one of my project goals this summer, I think. I’m already working on making a habit of writing at least fifteen minutes each day. I just set the timer and write, not worrying about quality that much.

I’ve also kind of abandoned working with Unreal. I don’t have the patience or skill set to make a full-fledged game in that yet, but it is kind of fun to poke around and see what I can do. I may just mess around in it and not actually make anything. I think if I try to do much of anything fancy, my computer might melt. I’ve abandoned my work in Blender as well, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m more focused on doing things with Phaser.

Even though I love Phaser, I think I’m going to research other game engines, just to see what’s out there. It’s nice to be well-versed in all kinds of different things, and who knows! Maybe I’ll find an engine that works for me even better than Phaser does.

I’ve also re-installed Steam and I finally got around to buying Portal. I’ve heard a bunch of good things about it but somehow never played it. I love it so far. I also bought a game called Don’t Starve, and it’s awesome as well. It’s a perma-death survival game that has lots of cool fantasy elements, and it somehow manages to be 2D and 3D at the same time. I think you should check it out.

So there we go! I feel a lot better about writing posts now. I feel more inspired and creative already, which is good. I don’t think I’m going to be as strict on the “one post every day” thing as much anymore. I don’t want to strain to write a post and end up writing something that’s horrible. So I’ll post when I feel like it or have something to talk about, which will still be pretty often. I hope you enjoyed these words from a nerd, and I’ll see you next time!