Southlake, TX
Imparting game development wisdom of dubious quality a ridiculously long time.
April 03, 2008
The Code Zone logo contest ends tomorrow. Unless I get a flood of entries in the next 24 hours, I'm going to declare the contest to be an utter flop. I'll post the entries and crown a winner and award a prize, but I'm pretty disappointed in the number of entries.
Safari on Windows is official and, A…
Safari on Windows is official and, A…
March 25, 2008
Just minor changes this time
-- One of the dialogs didn't have the text set correctly.
-- Lowered the time penalty. Taking too long penalized you a mite too severely.
-- Added a pause button. The other dialogs pause the timer, but I figured I'd make it more explicit.
http://www.thecodezone.com/games/co…
-- One of the dialogs didn't have the text set correctly.
-- Lowered the time penalty. Taking too long penalized you a mite too severely.
-- Added a pause button. The other dialogs pause the timer, but I figured I'd make it more explicit.
http://www.thecodezone.com/games/co…
March 24, 2008
Okay, I think I'm almost there. Here's the latest (hopefully ready for prime-time) ConFusebox 2.
http://www.thecodezone.com/games/confusebox2.php
Here are the changes from last time. . .
- Moved ContinuityBox to the top because it's the easiest
- Changed easy-medium-hard to small-medium-large
- Made the…
http://www.thecodezone.com/games/confusebox2.php
Here are the changes from last time. . .
- Moved ContinuityBox to the top because it's the easiest
- Changed easy-medium-hard to small-medium-large
- Made the…
March 21, 2008
If you look way way back in the archives, you'll see that my first ever post to the Bargain Basement Blog (then known as "John Hattan's Developer Journal" as the term "blog" hadn't yet been coined), you'll see that it was on March 28, 1998.
That means that the Code Zone Bargain Basement Blog is turn…
That means that the Code Zone Bargain Basement Blog is turn…
March 20, 2008
Well, in keeping with Drew's new "best of the blogs" news posts for Friday, I'm going to post a bunch of stuff tomorrow. Specifically. . .
1. RC1 of ConFusebox 2 with all the features and music and help in place. Fun time-wasting goodness for you!
2. An announcement for the official Bargain Basement …
1. RC1 of ConFusebox 2 with all the features and music and help in place. Fun time-wasting goodness for you!
2. An announcement for the official Bargain Basement …
March 19, 2008
Okay, Confusebox 2 is almost feature-complete. The following still needs to be done.
- A little UI polish. Just some checks to make sure you're not doing something you shouldn't
- Help
- Changing up the sounds a bit so it's not just the old ConFusebox sounds again
- (maybe) adding a "lock" mode if you …
- A little UI polish. Just some checks to make sure you're not doing something you shouldn't
- Help
- Changing up the sounds a bit so it's not just the old ConFusebox sounds again
- (maybe) adding a "lock" mode if you …
March 17, 2008
Just because screenshots=hits, here's a shot from the upcoming ConFusebox 2. The game now has three different modes. One is classic ConFusebox that you know n love. The second is called "ContinuityBox", and it plays similarly to ConFusebox but without any bulbs. The wires form a big convoluted loop…
March 13, 2008
Yeah, it's a personal update, but there's also some game development related goodness in there.
First off, just took Maggie in for her six-year checkup. She's still over the 97th percentile in height, but she's down to about the 90th percentile in weight. In short, she's becoming the extremely tall …
First off, just took Maggie in for her six-year checkup. She's still over the 97th percentile in height, but she's down to about the 90th percentile in weight. In short, she's becoming the extremely tall …
March 06, 2008
Lessee.
SCO files chapter 11. No surprise there. When your main competition is as good or better than your product and is free, you're not long for the world. Solaris is equally doomed and for the same reason, but that's also no surprise.
Sharper Image files chapter 11. Again, no surprise. When your …
SCO files chapter 11. No surprise there. When your main competition is as good or better than your product and is free, you're not long for the world. Solaris is equally doomed and for the same reason, but that's also no surprise.
Sharper Image files chapter 11. Again, no surprise. When your …
February 28, 2008
Sorry about the recent lack of updates. I wish I could say it was because I was doing something frightfully interesting. To the contrary, it's because I'm doing something frightfully uninteresting. Actually I'm streamlining my build process. I've noticed that some game portals like to see customize…
February 16, 2008
We now have some very well-proven bits of technology available to us. . .
1. Battery powered devices that can be charged through induction, namely electric toothbrushes
2. Devices that can sync with servers and computers wirelessly, like my Zune
3. Headphones that connect to devices wirelessly, ala bl…
1. Battery powered devices that can be charged through induction, namely electric toothbrushes
2. Devices that can sync with servers and computers wirelessly, like my Zune
3. Headphones that connect to devices wirelessly, ala bl…
February 14, 2008
Well look at who's suddenly taken an interest in me. . .
Methinks a certain presumptive presidential candidate is looking for a science advisor for his cabinet.
If that's the case, I'll take it, presuming that the job includes some decent cheap health insurance.
Methinks a certain presumptive presidential candidate is looking for a science advisor for his cabinet.
If that's the case, I'll take it, presuming that the job includes some decent cheap health insurance.
February 11, 2008
I guess this could be germane to the whole "doing something clever on the cheap" meme that I always push.
This is George Hrab, a funny music-guy who I've been following for a little while. With nothing more than a webcam and a little planning ahead, he made what is, IMHO, one of the cleverest music …
This is George Hrab, a funny music-guy who I've been following for a little while. With nothing more than a webcam and a little planning ahead, he made what is, IMHO, one of the cleverest music …
February 07, 2008
I have. . .
- a relative who went to a two-year trade school so she could take a job as a pretend doctor who blames most human ailments on spinal alignment
- a relative who sends me a yearly Christmas card wishing me and my family the happiest of holidays and encloses with it a little comic book that pro…
February 05, 2008
First off, next month is the tenth anniversary of your humble reporter's Bargain Basement Blog. Since tenth birthdays of blogs are rare things (so rare in fact that I can only think of a couple other examples), I must do something interesting to commemorate the event.
And I'm thinking a contest. Her…
And I'm thinking a contest. Her…
January 30, 2008
Meltdown's the featured online game on Big Fish Games today.
I'm also a proud dad. ConFusebox was featured like a week ago, and it's been consistently the top online game for 'em. It's always at the number-two spot as the new game-of-the-day understandably gets the top billing from folks wanting to …
I'm also a proud dad. ConFusebox was featured like a week ago, and it's been consistently the top online game for 'em. It's always at the number-two spot as the new game-of-the-day understandably gets the top billing from folks wanting to …
January 27, 2008
Suppose for a minute that you ran a destructive moneygrubbing cult.
And suppose that that cult suddenly found itself threatened by anonymous hackers.
Well, there's a rather well-known destructive cult that recently found itself in that very situation.
And I think you know which one I'm talking about.
A…
And suppose that that cult suddenly found itself threatened by anonymous hackers.
Well, there's a rather well-known destructive cult that recently found itself in that very situation.
And I think you know which one I'm talking about.
A…
January 24, 2008
Oooh look. Now Brain Bones is the new game on Big Fish Games. Methinks they're gonna have a Code Zone kind of week :)
January 23, 2008
And I was gonna have a big announcement or something today.
And. . .hey look at today's newest game game-of-the-day on Big Fish Games!
And. . .hey look at today's newest game game-of-the-day on Big Fish Games!
January 22, 2008
One maxim I've tried to follow regarding thecodezone.com is "don't do something if someone else is willing to do it for you for free". Now then you'd think that such a thing would be as obvious as "assume that zebras have stripes", but you'd be shocked at how many developers do stuff on their own w…
January 18, 2008
I have a new game coming out probably next week. Actually it's a game I started back in 2005 with the intention of possibly selling it as a standalone game, but it really wasn't good enough for standalone so I abandoned it. I just revisited it this week, and it's actually better than I remember. Wh…
January 16, 2008
Here's a great tip on how to run a hosting provider, courtesy of my new provider, Mediatemple. They wanted to tighten up PHP security a bit, specifically the scope of PHP's internal fopen() command, and the change would conceivably affect anything that called fopen(), including several other PHP co…
January 15, 2008
I noticed that we have two recent defections from Gamedev Developer Journals (what blogs used to be called before they were called blogs) to greener pastures (aka Wordpress). And I do understand that. While the Gamedev journals are a good way to give your project a little exposure, it's really let …
January 09, 2008
Just a warning for you budding dotcoms out there.
DO NOT SEARCH FOR DOMAIN AVAILABILITY ON A NETWORK SOLUTIONS SITE
If you do a domain search on their site and the site is unregistered, they will immediately put a hold on the domain.
This was reported on a blog somewhere else, so I tried it out. Feel …
DO NOT SEARCH FOR DOMAIN AVAILABILITY ON A NETWORK SOLUTIONS SITE
If you do a domain search on their site and the site is unregistered, they will immediately put a hold on the domain.
This was reported on a blog somewhere else, so I tried it out. Feel …
January 08, 2008
Well I upgraded my Main Development Box to Office 2007 when Microsoft sent me the update. And I've been happy with it. That's to say that I have no complaints about it. It's backward compatible. It'll even write out PDF files directly (which isn't much of an issue as I have Acrobat, but hey). All i…
January 07, 2008
This is pretty funny if you haven't seen it. Even though he's the most evil corporate villain in recorded history (quoth Linux Fanboy Magazine), evidenced by his new intention to spend most of his time and money in an effort to eliminate malaria from the planet, he put together a pretty self-effaci…
January 04, 2008
Not a freebie, but still quite a good deal. This month's 3D World magazine (issue 100) has Carrara Studio Pro 5.1 for free.
http://www.3dworldmag.com/page/3dworld?entry=b_3d_world_100_now
Note that this is a UK magazine, and it usually takes a couple of weeks to arrive in the states. Still, the US ne…
http://www.3dworldmag.com/page/3dworld?entry=b_3d_world_100_now
Note that this is a UK magazine, and it usually takes a couple of weeks to arrive in the states. Still, the US ne…
January 03, 2008
Oh also Maggie's back in school for the rest of her third year at Clariden. The kiddo's still a learning sponge, and she kept declaring throughout the holiday that "today let's do something with science, daddy".
Last night our science experiment was to put a bowl of water on the porch because the fo…
Last night our science experiment was to put a bowl of water on the porch because the fo…
January 03, 2008
Yerg, I am so friggin' behind on reviews.
Actually I'm way ahead of where I used to be, when I had 15 books waiting to be read and a half-dozen pieces of software sitting around doing nothing. Of course, that was in the less organized days of gamedev where the policy was "oh just post it when you ge…
Actually I'm way ahead of where I used to be, when I had 15 books waiting to be read and a half-dozen pieces of software sitting around doing nothing. Of course, that was in the less organized days of gamedev where the policy was "oh just post it when you ge…
January 02, 2008
First off, I know that the Daily Puzzles are having intermittent submit problems today. I'm not yet sure what it is. It's intermittent, so I can't really debug it. Only error I've seen has to do with a version number conflict somewheres, so I'm wondering if somesuch PHP library got updated without …
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