Saturday, March 31, 2012

4/1/12 - Spikes Quest Cancelled



I've decided that due to the enormous stress this project has caused me in the past year alone that I am to cancel it and replace it instead with a newer much more worthy project.

Boots Adventure

you know, Boots from Dora the Explorer? yeah, that monkey thing... I'm making a side scrolling adventure with him because he's so much more amazing than Spike the Dragon!

The game will be a 4 level Mario style game where you go around collecting  purple seashells and helping his Spanish human girlfriend (Dora) get from point A to point B.

There will be no enemies and there will be no traps. And the story is nothing more than to help some dumb blond mermaid who lost her precious pearl in a large jar of pebbles or something silly like that

Doesnt that just sound exciting? :D

Oh, and to make it even more epic, I'll be throwing in a brief cameo by Tom Bombadil from the Tolkien Novels where he'll help our monkey out by singing him riddles while prancing about on some random floating lily-pads.

You cant deny that's not epic!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Stream Related News - Changes are being made...

So I was about to set up everything for the stream, but of course I've been dragging my behind the whole time about it. A feeling of not really wanting to do anything at all today. Facts to be I've spent half of today watching YouTube videos... procrastinating.

So what is it with me losing motivation over the whole livestream thing? Most of it would be because of my usual disappointment on how few viewers I get each day. Most of the time I'm there by myself just tinkering away on some small bits of graphics or code, but sometimes one or two (or if I'm lucky, three) people would come in to check out my progress. But eventually they'd often just get bored and leave (or some other more important reasons, they'd leave).

Once again, I'm not griping or complaining about the lack of viewers. I fully understand that there are logical reasons behind the matter. I just tend to get bummed out about it sometimes, and I lose the will to keep working on things.

So I'm thinking that maybe the whole Livestream thing is becoming more of a burden than an actual asset. I'd probably work best if I scrapped the whole streaming thing and worked at my own leisure and without the depressing concerns of if I'm boring the hell out of my viewers or something.

So here's what's being changed. I wont be hosting a stream five or six times a week like I have been doing. But I will host a livestream on Saturdays before the Pony episodes to showcase what has been done and answer a few questions.

I'll also keep doing my art streams on Thursdays and Sundays, because I find great pleasure in having a few good chaps watch me draw things.

In between these stream dates, I'll work on the game. Building up the graphics and the code in an effort to make the Saturday stream damn well worth it!

And also between these times, I can try to build up hype and promote the upcoming streams through forums, blogs and the SQ youtube channel

What do you guys think of that plan?

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Wednesday 3/28/12 - Stream Recap

Just now called quits on the stream for the night. it was slow as expected, but it went alright, I guess. I've started work on Ponyville if anybody wants to know.

Anyway, before the stream, I guess I was just being a bit too hard on myself which made me think about cutting the stream's up-time over the week. I was in one of those heavy doubt stages, not only concerning the stream but the project as a whole. I half wondered if I'd ever even complete it.

But during the stream, as I worked I kinda let up on those thoughts and started to feel slightly proud again. I may just keep the stream times the same as they were and forget about the time deduction thingie.

Next stream will be on Friday as promised. And I might actually start it extra early... like say maybe 7:00am CET

I know allot of you folks out there haven't been able to attend the stream due to work or school (or odd time zones), and believe me when I say I'd like to make it easier on y'all, I just don't know how to at the moment. I'm hoping that as Summertime approaches things will at least get easier for you school types!

anyway, I hope to see some of y'all in the next stream. Who knows, I might one of these days hold an announcement stream with the promise of a demo on that same day!

we shall see.... we shall see....

In other news, I will be hosting another art stream tomorrow starting early in the morning and lasting until late in the evening! It will be the continuation of the artwork labelled "For I Have the Upper Ground" feel free to come in and watch me draw!

Wednesday 3/28/12 Stream About to Start

http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater?t=704881

Wednesday 3/28/12 Stream Notice

Yes, there will be a stream today, but it wont start until 2:30pm CET

Since it seems I'm kinda getting a late start on everything.

However after today, I've decided to only do the streams on Fridays, since streams seem to totally drain me and also the fact that if you plan a stream a week in advanced more people are likely to show up.

also for today's stream I've decided that rather than working on that same tileset that I've been working on for the past couple of weeks I should change up the environment. what shall I work on? Maybe Ponyville, maybe the Everfree Forest or maybe a cavern setting. I'll decide when it comes time...

Anyway, I'd like to hear some opinions about changing the stream schedule up. Of course, I'm still worried that the reason not many folk have been showing up may be because I frightened them away the other day what with those nasty livestream ban errors and Procaster setting the stream to my webcam where my ugly mug was on the screen the whole time...

I'm still sick to my stomach with embarrassment... c.c

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Art Stream in Progress!



No work on the game today as I'll be working on my current piece of artwork titled 'For I Have the Higher Ground'

I'll be streaming the entire progress on scheduled stream dates (much like I am doing with the game)

the stream has been in progress for the past hour, so feel free to join in!

http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater?t=704881

Saturday, March 24, 2012

http://www.ponychan.net/chan/collab/res/10544+50.html#35884

Supposedly I have the stream fixed. so those who were apparently 'banned' aside from myself are banned no more (stupid LS bug... I'm still a bit peeved about it... c.c)

So get in here! watch me do.... productive.... things....

yeah.

http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater

Friday, March 23, 2012


Despite the misery that Livestream hath caused me today, I realise I must keep moving along with the usual plans.

Tomorrow's stream starts early, 7:30 my time and ends 10 minutes before this weeks pony episode. The rest of the day will be spent with friends and family.

The stream after that will be Sunday, but specifically for another art related project.

The next SQ related stream will be on Monday though.

Hope to see y'all tomorrow... hpefully there wont be anymore bull-poop on Livestream's part... c.c

3/23/12 - Livestream BAN Problems........



So I worked the whole day away not realizing that the livestream was having horrible problems

this evening when I tried to type, it sent me a message that I apparently banned myself from my own channel

upon researching this terrible bug, it seems that it not only bans the moderators but the users as well...

I did notice a few users come in and out throughout the day but never heard a word from them... Was everyone else banned aside from myself?

please respond... I feel this bug may have given me a bad rep :(

I was able to fix it by resetting the channel... but still.. I feel terrible!

to top it off, once after resseting my procaster I noticed that the thing autoset to my webcam... I hope I wasnt working the whole day with the channel displaying my webcam.. that would be feckin embarrassing!

AUUGH!!!

I'm feckin' MISERABLE!

3/23/12 - Friday Stream About to Begin!

http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater

3/23/12 - Friday Stream Reminder

Here's today's reminder for today's stream :)

same time as always!

I'll go ahead and start it up and put on some music, but the actual work wont begin until 12:00 today.

Hope to see y'all there!

http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

3/21/12 - Wednesday Stream Recap


Spent much of the day texturing a 3D mesh and then applying it to the game to see how it looks and feels. The one chap who was there at the time commented that it definitely resembled Castlevania in its way of using 3D backdrops which was exactly what I was going for!

Yesterday I had tweaked the code a bit (I unfortunately had to trash the shading system because it was causing really bad slowdown with the game's engine) and needless to say it ran smoothly during today's stream :D

Everything's looking pretty dang nice so far and I cant wait to have a video ready to show all those who cant join in the streams!

Next stream will be on Friday, and then the one after that will be Saturday morning before the episode (after the episode, I plan to go out and enjoy life. so meh)

There will be stream on Sunday too, but it wont be SQ related. I'll be doing an art project then, but feel free to join in :)

Hope to see y'all on Friday!

3/21/12 - Wednesday Stream About to Start

http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater?t=188664

3/21/12 - Wednesday Stream Reminder

Here's the reminder for today's stream!

Today's todo list:
- More tile work
- Implementing the 3D background for the current tileset-in-progress
- Work on the background 3D mesh
- and of course, progress in the code (I managed to clog that leak, so the game runs a bit more smoothly now. yay.

The stream starts at the same time as it did Monday... 12:00 pm to 7 or 8:30 pm central eastern time (I live in central Tennessee if you wanna look that up.

Keep in mind that the stream's ending is never absolute, the stream could carry into later hours, according to how active the stream is at the time.

I wont be there until I'm ready to start streaming, but for those who want to get an early start you can enter the stream chat to chat with other viewers until I come in and start things up.

Here's the link:
http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater?t=188664

I probably should start a playlist there to keep folk entertained... sorry if its too quiet in there atm :P I'll spend some of my free time tomorrow taking care of that!

Anyway, I will post up a notice of when the stream starts. So see y'all there or sumthin!

Monday, March 19, 2012

3/19/12 - Stream Recap

I've just now wrapped up the stream for the night. Got quiet a bit done too! Though nothing really major. I worked more on the graphics and managed to throw together a few more tiles. Piddled around with my 3D modeling software at an attempt to create a 3D backdrop for the tileset-in-progress

And to the three chaps who joined me in the stream I managed to show them a very buggy, very slow yet somewhat function-able preview of the engine!

And since it was nearing quitting time we had a bit of fun with my buggy mess of a code. I played epic music while Spike slooowly (as in The Matrix style) crossed the room...

Was all in good fun :)

We finished up just by listening to some random bits of music. I brought about nastalgia sickness by playing the theme song 'The Neverending Story' and other cool tunes.

And then I called it a night.

All in a good days work, I say :)

Anyway, the next stream will be on Wednesday... same time, same place!

See y'all around!

3/19/12 - Livestream Now Active!

http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater

3/19/12 - Stream Reminder

This is just a reminder about the stream today. It starts 12:00 PM and ends around 7:30 PM central eastern time (for those of you wanting to look that up, I live in central Tennessee of the US)

I'll post up a notice right when it starts.

If you cant make it, I'll try to recap it for you later, but mostly it'll just be me working on graphics, and perhaps later I'll show off some bit of code ;)

Come in whenever (or if ever) you feel like it!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

3/17/12 - Stream Has Ended





To the few who were in the stream with me, sorry, my computer crashed and I lost the stream completely.

thankfully I had the graphics saved (except for that 3D house.. for shame!)

but it was fun :) In fact, I think we can easily do it again! I'll stream every weekday monday through friday, 12:00 PM to 8:30 PM central eastern time.

Why am I doing this? Well because I find that I'm much more motivated when people are watching me work :) If you want proof check the image!

So feel free to join in! I'll post a notification with a link to the stream when it starts back up!

See you guys Monday! 

3/17/12 - ***2ND STREAM IN PROGRESS***



As promised, the stream is back up again for the morning! I'll keep it up until about 10 minutes before this weeks episode and then start it back up again 10 minutes after.

Here be the link:
http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater

Friday, March 16, 2012

3/16/12 - **PRODUCTION LIVESTREAM!!!**

 
to make up for the lack of a demo tomorrowaI decided to host a livestream of my work on the graphics. It'll be going until midnight tonight and then starting back up again in the morning until the new Pony episode.

So if your really interesed in this sort of thing then get in here!

http://www.livestream.com/misterbullsarttheater?t=181713

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

3/6/12 - Your all probably gonna hate me for this...



The demo will be delayed until the 31st of this month...

Yeah, I know, I'm worst than Nintendo when it comes to releasing a major Zelda game :P

But I have some good reasons for this delay. First, me worrying about meeting the March 17th deadline is about to drive me mental! I'm working nearly feverishly trying to get things done but my human limitations are not wanting to cooperate.

I want to make Demo #5 twice as awesome as Demo #4 and so far, even though I've worked endlessly for the past week, I still have nothing to show for it!

The good news is, the editing software is done and ready for the 5th demo (I'll still tweak it as I go, but yeah, I can now start throwing together maps for the demo)

the bad news is, I still only have just the one tileset. And I'm pretty dang sure that most of you out there are tired of seeing the same ol' background for each demo. So the majority of this week will be spent working on actual graphics. The old deadline would had only given me just 10 days (not counting today) to finish everything, and I'll be quiet frank, it aint happenin'.....

Still, considering on that day (March 17th) that Spike is supposed to have his own episode named 'Dragons Quest' I should do something special for that day to make up for the lack of a demo release. Anypony here have any good ideas?

Sunday, March 4, 2012

3/5/12 - Deadline Blues



I'm having awful thoughts right now about not being able to meet the upcoming deadline. Yes, I've been progressing on the game, but even on a full work day I find that I can only accomplish so much!

Today for example I worked from 5 this morning up til now (11:30 pm) and I only managed to get about five minor things done in the map editor! So who am I kidding? I cant possibly meet the March 17th deadline!

Or can I?

Maybe I just need to stop counting down the days and keep my focus on making awesome things happen!

But this notice is a 'just in case' scenario. If I cant meet the March 17th deadline then I'll at least try to have a really awesome video or something ready to make up for the loss. And also if it comes to that then I'll just delay the demo until the end of this month.

Dont lose hope! I'm working as hard as my human brain would allow it!