So, most of the pre-shooting work for the Gamer Zone TV show is done.  Title graphic, name, etc. is all set up.  My co-host (a good friend of mine, Meredith) and I have done a couple of run-throughs to get used to timing issues, agrigating the news, putting together a review, etc.  In other …
The second week in June, GamerZone will begin shooting the 3 episode pilot for a new gaming TV show. Yes, a Gamer Zone branded TV show. Game reviews, game news, game development stuff, etc. It’s being shot on the red couch up in GZ, during business hours, so everyone is free watch it in progress, …
 OK, GamerZone is finally back open.  Yesterday the contractor couldn’t get ahold of the Superintendant from Central Inspection, so we remained closed.  However, today it all got worked out, and we’re back open for business. Amazing – all this headache over one figgin’ piece of information not going from one gov. office to another …
Well, I made it to Kenosha, WI alive – again.  Since the flour mill in Kenosha was built (11 years ago) I’ve spent an amazing amount of time here.  The mill is huge capacity wise, and there’s been like 6 startups here along with all the changes and expansions over the years.  Basically, I’ve been …
 I’ll warn ya now – this is a long entry  It’s been a week since I’ve set down and did a brain dump to the ‘blog, so grab a cuppa tea (or Mt. Dew, etc. , and be semi-entertained ( yeah, well, not sure if my drivel is entertaining – being a volumous writer …
Business Geekyness, DDR update, reposession, the other road Read More »
 Well, I actually resisted posting anything for a day The first thing I’ve got is a snapshot that one of our members will appreciate (when he gets back from Las Vegas) – Snuff (Russ) was a playtester for Lucas Arts “Star Wars: Empire At War” (which we have, and are still waiting on fixes …
Pad construction began, Credits where Credits are due, more people droppin’ by Read More »
 One of the downsides to business sometimes is you get really excited about something and would love to tell the world.  Unluckly, sometimes you can’t until all the pieces are in place.  GamerZone has some major things in the works now, and I’m dead tired from running around making all the pieces fall in …
While I love DDR, there’s always been a small “something” about it that frustrated me, and I could never place it.  Tonight, I finally figured out what it is. I’m a balls to the wall sorta guy – when I take on a new game, it rarely takes me long to go from first time …
 Yeah, give me a blog and suddenly I’m a chatty bastard  Two posts in a day is probably rediculous, but I had a serious rant about Xanga.  So far I’ve been pretty happy using Xanga – it beats the hell out of LiveJournal (well, when I used it a couple years ago – …
Xanga Profiles: let’s turn people into 2D searches, and a small DDR update Read More »
Well, if you don’t know what Gamer Zone is, this is probably going to be really boring Yes, this is a pathetic company owned Xanga ‘blog – but it will probably be sort of entertaining to anyone who’s interested in GZ and what goes into a place like this. This isn’t my first ‘blog – …
It felt a little like Christmas today.  I got 3 boxes of “stuff” and one poster tube.  Ok, two of the boxes o’ stuff stucked – well, they were little mini-ball and and cup catch things.  That was lame.  The good stuff though?  Oh yeah… We license in lots of games of course, but it …
So after running Gamer Zone for nearly two years, I’m finally starting a Blog on the subject. Wait… what is Gamer Zone, you ask? Well, it’s a Cyber Cafe / LAN Gaming Center located in Wichita, Kansas. For about 17 months we were located at Harry & Broadway. Wow – I could tell some intersting …
I’m stoked. Gamer Zone is going to be hosting the World Cyber Games local prelims for Wichita, Kansas (and anyone within driving distance 🙂 We’ve done a good number of local tournaments before, but, this is participating on a world wide scale. 1.2 million players are expected to compete this year. For anyone interested, here’s …
OK, it’s not like my .plan files are a newsletter, magazine, or similar. It’s just my .plan file. But for some reason, I keep wanting to well… add something useful to it 🙂 I’m finally getting around to creating a “feature” that’s going to be regular in my .plans = “Game Design By Observation”. This …
A Slow Return To Sanity As many people who followed my .plan files might have guessed, I dropped out of the GG community almost completly after IGC ’05. I’ve been watching people’s .plan files, and on rare occasion commenting on ’em. But other wise, I keep my ICQ turned off, don’t log into IRC, don’t …
I’ll make this .plan amazingly short (well, for one of my .plans) Cody at Digital Snow and I have been going back and forth doing final bug thwaping. Well, we finally did it – the last build. Installer for the Windows demo is ready to go, as is the installer for the full verison for …
No, I’m not dead. No, I didn’t give up game development. Yes, I’m doing just fine – GREAT in fact!!! Go grab a cuppa – this one is gonna be a long read, with some boring stuff interemixed with some pretty interesting and possibly insane stuff. Ok, now you ready to set down and read …
I should never bother trying to go to be early. I’m writing this after chatting on IRC way too late (and getting too absorbed in the conversation again) after handling business email, and getting the framework for a new (contract) game up and running. Always seems when ever I try, I end up finding 1.5 …
SnapTo it, buddy! Ever look at something in Torque, and wonder… why the hell didn’t someone do that already? Just had that experience tonight, trying to place roads. Sure, there’s the Grid that you can work from, but that doesn’t always cut it, so I put alignment tools in there. I put ’em in there… …
Elusive vet seen on IRC frequently Yes, it’s true. For the past like, oh, week and a half I’ve been hanging out on IRC in the GarageGames channel (and elsewhere.) Logan asked me – What changed? I got onto IRC because of the Game In A Day thing, and decided I needed to spend more …
I decided to take part in this month’s Game In A Day. It really ended up Game In Three Days, but, I mostly followed the rules – it’s 24 hours of game development, though it can be spread over two 12 hour days. I did three, because after the second day I still had time …
Game In A Day – Boulder Panic! 3, including a snapshot, dev log, and semi-Post Mortem Read More »
Honestly. Trajectory Zone Beta 3 highs and woes. All in this short .plan file… (yeah right, it’s just a little smaller than normal 😉 I’m no longer allowed to sleep. So I’ve been going along, cranking on Trajectory Zone and have been looking for paying work at the same time, though not huge hunks of …
Xavier (eXoDuS) is finishing up with the Linux build and sending it to me (Mmmmm – Trajectory Zone on a 32″ monitor – my MythTV machine :-). That’s the final step to getting all of Trajectory Zone Beta 3’s builds out the door. Oh wonderful day! I haven’t had a lot of sleep over the …
Let there be dancing in the streets: Trajectory Zone Beta 3 Released!!! Read More »
Well, Midnight Ryder Technologies grew by one. Bryan Edds and I have been talking, and we teaming up to do some game development work – any Engine modifications that need to be done are my job (in this case, basically just droping in some stuff from the Resources – very little ‘new’ development), scripting and …
Last week was Game Development Nirvanna. I’m not going back to reality, and you can’t make me! 🙂 Last week I had no contracting work to do, and almost zero customer calls. That means I made squat for money this week. On the flip side, I made an incredible dent in Trajectory Zone. I had …
Wow – GG’s rapid-fire release of information has been interesting lately. The new Indie and Commerical licenses are just cool. These just potentially saved me a buttload of cash. What amazed me was the amount of confusion this caused – even I was a bit shocked at the advertising clause (However, the only reason I …
Last .plan I mentioned that someone was probably joining Midnight Ryder Technologies to work on some short term game development projects. Well, I can finally say who 🙂 Ron Yacketta has joined forces with me to do something rather different with Torque. Most of the stuff he’s working on will end up goin’ back to …
In random order, of course 😉 It’s amazing what little things in life case you stress. One of mine has been vehicles. I love to work on cars – it’s part of that hacker nature really. It’s just another thing to take apart, examine, and put back together better than when you started (hopefully – …
So, you asked “How did your Monday start off?” Ok, maybe you didn’t ask – and really, you shouldn’t 😉 I spend the weekend sleep deprived and working on game development (X Code is… interesting) and contracting stuff (along with handling business stuff I’ve got to keep up on – lots of hats to wear. …
All three of the original Panic! puzzle games are being collected up in a single package (Midnight Ryder’s Panic! Pack Volume 1), and are moving into a retail space. You’ll soon be able to cruise down to CompUSA and pick up a copy. (BTW: Something of interest is that one of the games has reworked …
