In An Amazing Turn Of Events...

The wedding went well. It was a tonne of work, but once the ceremony started, everything was amazing. You would be suprised how quickly you forget how much everything cost when you are being driven around in a limo. Nothing beats an evening of drinking and dancing and limos with your closest friends and some amazing new acquaintances that will hopefully become freinds. Despite all the blisters and sore muscles that I will now have to suffer through, I can not think of a single thing in the world I would have rather been doing.

Then along came "City Builder"...

"City Builder" is the name I gave my monopoly ripoff game. I was working on it last night. I added the ability to sell properties and started making the graphics prettier. I was actually feeling pretty good about it. I even started a game as a real player and played for a few minutes. And everything is all nice and right in the world until someone says, "Well, why don't you make it do this" or "Why did you use that color?" or "You should make it look like this.". Not that they mean anything by it. They are just making a suggestion on how to make it better, which is a good thing because that is how things get better. But often I still feel the need to justify what is already there because the stuff that is already there took a lot of work. I guess you don't realize how much work something requires unless it is you that has to do it.

And it isn't like I think it is done. I know there is a lot of work I can and will do to it. It's just right now, I have something that is functional and basically does all it really needs to. I know that it is missing all the "frills", but that doesn't mean that I'm not proud of the fact that I actually wrote a functional game. You always have to start with the basics, but there is nothing wrong with the basics. Sometimes it would just be nice for someone to look at the basics and be like "Wow! That is amazing! Great work!". And I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would appreciate that because this does not just apply to programming. And I'm sure, just like me, they realize that this will probably never happen because there are so many cool things out there with all sorts of "frills" and extras that the basics just isn't amazing any more. If it was 30 years ago, maybe, but not today.

So what does that all mean? I guess, if you want something to be amazing (including yourself) you have to work harder and longer and do more then ever before (not that this means adding all sorts of extras, because often times, the simpler and easier, the better but then the graphics have to be outstanding!) and put up with a million and a half "Well why don't you..." suggestions and actually consider most of them.

And this all seems so confusing because half of the documentation on how to make your software better for the users says that you need to keep it simple and easy to use and straight forward. Which is kind of the opposite of what I hear about my game. So maybe it is different for games then it is for application software. I guess that would make sense (are there books on how to write good games?). When people are working they want software that does exactly what they want, when they want it and nothing more. But when people are playing, they want to be able to do whatever they want and more. They want to drive off road and go into buildings and shoot the good guys and they want it all to look amazing and run quickly. I guess with the level that games are at now (like the one's they want you to pay $60 for), no one is really interested in something that doesn't deliver everything and more then what they can get from somewhere else. Why have a hotdog when you can have Lobster?

Hmmmm... at this rate this will be "The Urban Babble"!

And then there was rain...

It's raining. It is supposed to rain for the next 5 days or so. I suppose then it will begin to snow. It definitely feels like summer is over. I'm supposed to be a bridesmaid in an outdoor wedding this weekend too. I had to pay for the dress and then I had to pay to get it altered. I had to buy new shoes and get my hair cut and various other things. And now the weather is going to ruin it all.

Anyway, back to the third party software problem. Now one person is saying that everything is good to go and another is saying that it isn't. You would think that they could talk to each other and get their stories straight before dealing with us. Oh well. I'm just going to go on the assumption that everything is fine and take it from there.

I've been working for this software company for a few years now and everyone is always saying to me that I could get a job anywhere now that I have some experience, but I don't think that is completely true. Sure, I have experience, but only really with one language. I'd still have to start all over learning another language if I went anywhere. It's even worse because we use our own language. So I have come to the conclusion that I should start experimenting with some new languages (not that I'm planning on leaving my current job, it's just nice to learn and be prepared). So I started with a project in the language I know first. I started writing a Monopoly rip-off game. When I have it more or less running I will attempt to rewrite it using Ruby on Rails (at least that's the plan). I've seen a little bit of Ruby on Rails and it seems like an interesting approach. The Ajax stuff look handy too. At least it should be fun and interesting. It's always easier to learn a language when you are learning it to do something you want to be working on, rather then something you have to be working on.

There was only darkness...

I work for a software company as a programmer. We use our own language called Suneido. It's kinda nice using your own language because whenever you need something new, you just add it. Of course, that is also it's downfall, whenever you need something new, you have to add it. We do a lot of interfacing with third party software. Usually it's not too bad, but this last company keeps changing their file specifications without letting us know. So then customers start calling us because their files aren't working any more and then we find out that something has changed. Seems like kind of a silly way to find bugs. And no one there seems to have any answers as to why this is happening. They just say "Your file did not work because this field is too long. Please shorten it". And then we're like "Okay, thanks for letting us know before the change happened so we didn't have to piss off a bunch of our customers and waste a bunch of their time and our own." Is it really too much to ask for a simple email saying "hey, we are changing this effective tomorrow". Then everyone could be happy and live in peace.

In the beginning...

This is the first blog I have ever attempted to run. It was suggested that this is a good way to improve and practice writing skills. I guess we will see if it works. I guess it all depends on how much I can think up to write about.