Beta 7 – Closing Down

This is just a quick update to say that all abilities or effects you guys challenged me to do have been added in. These were Charger, HE Shells, Berserk, Move, MiniWalker, Pitfall, and Wormhole 😀

It’s all good. This token system is working so far and those should be some of the hardest abilities out the way.

Well.

This is awkward. Out of things to say already.

There’s actually a much bigger post coming very soon to really bring an end to the project now my classes are beginning (they start in 11 hours). But if I’m honest I think I will still add more abilities even during my studies. The reason being that this new system is really easy to work with, meaning I can add new abilities fairly quickly, and it is very low-stress even when debugging as the code is really clean.

Yeah, stress is a factor. Even back in my days down in sunny Surrey there were times when I had some spare time, albeit limited, but I didn’t want to be spending it doing what can be a very stressful hobby. This time however it doesn’t seem like it will be so bad.

The only real weakness in this tokens system that has caused me a bit of a headache is when you have a very unique ability. This system is a huge step up from the previous one as it can perform many general actions and I simply feed it a token from an ability and it processes it perfectly. But it can’t do some of the more specialist actions. An example of this is Molotov. Molotov creates a token with the damage, burn, and duration as part of it, but the damage part only needs to be processed on the first round of the token, and the token system has no way to do this – it processes all tokens fully every round. So what I did was after the first round I took the token apart, modified the damage to 0, and then rebuilt the token and put it back into the system. It works, but eh, special cases are tricky.

The other special case I have come across so far is the Pitfall ability that grants immunity to damage, but it doesn’t give this immunity immediately, instead it appears next round. So yeah, this one I fixed by using this switch; at the end of the round if the Pitfall token is there the switch flips to on and grants immunity, but if the token has expired (i.e. the ability is no longer active) then the switch flips to off and the immunity vanishes.

I know this system is going to get increasingly complicated as more abilities are added, but I’m hoping it is good enough to suit all the different abilities that exist now and that could ever exist in the future.

The previous system was a load of crap basically and had no general structure so treated every ability as a completely unique case. Each ability took a long time to code in and then it had to be tested against every other ability to make sure it didn’t break. That’s why the progress slowed down exponentially as more abilities were added. This lack of general structure is also why the database needed several thousand columns so that each ability could be individually processed in all cases. Although I was proud of the architecture at the time, these days I am deeply embarrassed that I created something so bad.

But I guess that’s how you learn. Remember that I am new, or at least I was new, to this and it was only by making these serious mistakes that I was able to learn the correct way.

I’m just hoping this isn’t another one of those mistakes that I have yet to realise >.>

---

That’s it now. The last update post until summer. Expect a funky post sometime next week about my experiences and thoughts with CCSO, but as far as beta goes, it’s goodbye. Hibernating in this frozen place (literally <.< Scotland is cold) until that one day of sunshine Scotland gets every year. Although I do hope to work on it a bit during the next two semesters 😛

Goodbye! ^.^ And thanks for all the testing, destruction, and comments everyone 😀

EDIT: Also, we’re going to pass 1500 blog views with this post! What a way to end the summer 🙂

Beta 6 – Challenge me!

Amazing Advancements!

Welcome to the final true CCSO update for this period of work. I mentioned last week that I wanted to work on the game a bit more, a task that originally defeated me cruelly back last autumn. If you remember I had a lot of trouble adding abilities in particular, with each one contributing a hell of a lot of complexity to the code and being full of bugs. It was a complete disaster!

My fix for it involved redesigning the entire code around a database table with some 2765 columns and a modular design. It was completely unmanageable, although I do have to admit that if I had infinite time to program, bugfix, and fine-tune all these columns then the game may well have worked. I was along the right lines, but just applying my knowledge in the wrong way.

Since then I have had plenty of time to reflect upon my nightmare experience and figure out exactly how to go about combating this problem. I had to figure out a way to get the database size down to a reasonable number.

Guess what? I did just that! 😀 Ditching the modular and expanded design in favour of a new system, called Tokens, I have managed to shrink the table down to a mere 38 columns! Although this sounds like a lot, it really isn’t when you’re dealing with a game like CCS, and it is about 1% of its former size anyway!

Tokens are a surprisingly obvious and simple mechanic I’ve implemented. It involves creating a standardised system to convert every ability into a “Token” where a Token is simply a string of text and numbers detailing the ability and its upgrade level. These tokens are then stored side-by-side in a single database column.

The backend code reads these tokens and processes them to figure out what they do. It then collects all this information together and applies it to the target of the abilities. Every token has an expiry time on it, dependant on the duration of the ability when it is used. At the very end of the round all expired tokens are removed from the game – aka the effects are no longer active.

It’s a much simpler method than how I am explaining it (:

Now, I have been extremely pushed for time this week. Those of you who stalk me know I’ve recently moved to Scotland – St Andrews to be precise – to study at one of the most prestigious universities in the UK for one semester. This place is right up there with Cambridge and Oxford and absolutely reeks of prestige.

Anyway, due to this I have been lacking on time for the programming, but I have the entire base system completed and I have started adding abilities. I’ve chosen a large mix of abilities, including several of the more complex ones, to test out how well the Token system is working. Thus far it all seems good!

There’s a playable demo featuring Molotov, Stun Bolt, Missile, Toxin, and Glue Bomb available to try out. The link is on the homepage of the old alpha site. Instructions on how to use the demo can be found on the page itself.

You may also notice a few cool new features not previously seen in CCSO such as loading bars and tabs for the round data. My abilities are more diverse than ever and it’s beginning to show in my work.

Now

I present to you an offer. I am confident that my Token system can handle any ability or effect that can be thrown at it. I challenge you to pick out the most complex and horrible abilities or chassis/weapon effects in CCS and ask me to program them ^^

I have already taken on many of the hard ones :p

Now, you perhaps believe that I have no spare time now and will not be able to work on this anymore. Not true! I have some spare time this coming week and so will continue with CCSO over the coming days. There will be a final update next weekend at this time, and there may be a mid-week update too.

However after that it is likely that CCSO will hibernate for one final time until summer again…

But wait…

You may be wondering why weapon damage, weapon/chassis upgrades, custom units, and so on aren’t included in this play testing area. It’s simply because they already work elsewhere and I wanted a clean environment for testing abilities in. This ability system is 100% compatible with everything already seen in the alpha release last Christmas, so once all abilities are added I can just link up the two systems to create a full game.

Good luck everyone and have fun! I look forward to hearing ideas and feedback from you! ^_^

Beta 5 – ForumFixed

Part 2 at the end!

Shoop has really outdone herself once more. I honestly can’t express how fortunate we are to have someone as hard working as her 🙂

 

Forum Fixed

All the bugs you guys have found have now been fixed. There are a small number of minor bugs still on my private list that will be cured very soon, but ignoring these the forum is extremely stable now 😀

Pages and editing have also been added and displayed times are now shown as a count up rather than a static time. Thread titles are now shown for threads and I have redesigned the colour scheme too ^^ The forum is worth visiting again if you haven’t recently!

I know for many of you this isn’t the most interesting topic in the world: you are waiting for the actual game to be released (see the end of this post). But you must realise that this forum is a crucial part of the final product. Without it members the future community would lack a way of connecting to each other. In addition, the skills I have learnt during this development are required for more advance communication features later on.

Yes, this forum has been really pushing my SQL skills. SQL is the language that bridges the website you see and the server in the background. It sends information back and forth between the server and the PHP that formats it to your screen every time you press a button. It also stores all the forum data in the background. Anything you see on the forum pages that is persistent when you refresh the page is stored with SQL.

As you can imagine this forum uses a lot of SQL and some fairly advance statements as it has to link all three sections of the forum (boards, threads, and posts). Making a change on the post level can cause changes on the thread and even board level on the website. It’s been an interesting puzzle trying to figure out how to link it all together. I would even recommend that anyone who loves puzzles and has a fair amount of PHP, SQL, and HTML knowledge gives forum building a try 🙂

 

Final Update Next Week

When the next update comes I will be in Scotland starting my doctorate. The workload looks nasty, but I guess when you are going for the highest level of academic qualification it has to be. This means CCSO work will unfortunately pause once more and it won’t be until next summer that work starts back up properly. But from next summer onwards I will have left full-time education so shouldn’t have any more delays like this ever again.

So…

I’m going to be working on the gameplay itself for the next two weeks! I have been itching to get back to it since the start but kept putting it off as I wanted to try other projects first and I found it extremely frustrating before But I have a lot more skills than before, and I have had plenty of time to think about how I can tackle the problems I faced before!

The forum will be changed a little bit more to fix the rest of the bugs, but the rest of the time shall be spent on the game itself. Look forward to it! 😀

COMIC – PART 2

The glue represents how I have limited you on the forum so you can’t break any more things 😛 Have fun ^^

See you soon!

Beta 4 – I spy a Forum!

Creating a forum is harder than I first anticipated…

 

Forum

Long, long ago, before this blog went public in week 24 of development, CCSO had a fascinating forum. Those of you who have been around since the beginning may well remember my adventures… my discovery, my journey, and my fights with phpBB.

Essentially a forum in a box, phpBB is a godsend to any novice web developer. You set it up and you’re all ready to go. Hundreds of cool features, amazing styles, and everything else you could ever really want.

Anyone remember that image? 26th July 2014. From one of the private weekly updates before CCSO went public.

Anyway, long story short… I lost two months on phpBB. It was amazing. I could have worshipped it. But, it was inflexible. You got what you got, and nothing more. I wanted something that I had more control over. I spent so long reading through the documentation, testing so many things, and yes I could edit it to an extent, but it just wasn’t enough in the end.

I waved goodbye to phpBB 😦

I knew creating a forum was way above my skill level at that time so I left it and moved on to greener pastures…

But now the forum situation changes!

Gah! Not quite as handsome as phpBB, but it is a starting point!

I thought this would be a fairly straightforward task, yet I grossly underestimated the confusingality* of it all. Forums are pretty complex systems, if I’m honest. There are so many variables you have to keep track of and juggle as you traverse or make changes to the forum.
*Now a word.

It was a difficult task (as you can probably tell by the intro comic). Despite this, I succeeded! I am proud of the achievement. The forum is solid and provides a good base to build upon.

I know you are eagerly scanning ahead in this text searching for how to access it. Stop right here! Here you go: Visit the index page of the alpha site. The link is there. You’ll be prompted to log in if you aren’t already as this is required to use the forum.

I greatly look forward to seeing the twisted and warped mess you make of it ^^ Just judging from past experience when I let loose testers on a new feature. Once one of you finds a bug it spreads like wildfire!

Updates to this forum are likely going to be frequent throughout the coming fortnight. I found it quite an enjoyable object to work with – at least once the functionality started to all click together – so I’m motivated to continue to work on it and add even more features.

 

Art

And where would we be without an art section? This time only one piece but there is something bigger we’re working on at the moment! I’m sure you’ll see the secret soon.

For now though… have a Drill!

Great work, Shoopiewoopie! (she hates me calling her that hehe)

 

That’s all for this week!

The beta site is coming together nicely. I know a lot of these projects aren’t 100% complete, but they are getting there. My skills are improving all the time, allowing me to attempt larger and more complex tasks and functionality. You all have a lot to look forward to! See you soon!

Beta 3 – New Unit Creator Design

Thanks Shoop >.<

 

Unit Creator

For those of you who have been around since the alpha, you may remember this image that I posted a while back.

What a sexy thing. Anyway, I had a go at creating it.

Ok, it’s not quite the same, but that is pretty close. Also, while I was at it I streamlined this unit creator so that the overall page now loads a lot faster. In fact, the only part that initially loads is the list. All the art and unit data is loaded in by a server request when you click a component*. The load is a tiny bit slow, but nothing too much and it is only slow the first time you click each component.

* Yes, I have been sharpening my skills a bit so I can do some cool things. Also, I fixed the bug with Boost and Boost+ not being next to each other (you can see this bug in the alpha version of the unit creator).

P.S. you can try this yourself by navigating to /secret/unitSelector.php

This new unit creator is not yet linked up to the rest of the game, so trying to buy or customise a component will throw a 404. The buttons along the top also don’t work yet.

Oh and thanks Shoop for the cool colour scheme. Thanks to her notes and my amazing programming skills and top-notch decision making and leadership, we have made it look pretty awesome. If you don’t like the colours then go moan at Shoop. 😉

Next stop will be linking this up and offering a search feature so users can find the component that suit their needs.

 

Art

Dueler, Boomer, and Bomb+

 

WAIT, WHAT? Bomb+?!

Isn’t that … Laura’s?

Yes, that’s right! 😀 Now Laura has finished all her exams I’ve jumped on her back and dragged her back to the drawing boards of CCSO.

It is great having you back!!!

Also thanks ElD for the other two pieces 😛 Sorry you’ve been a bit overshadowed this time, but you understand? ^^ I’ll get Shoop to bake you a cake or something. But really, Boomer looks really sinister and strong, just like a bomber unit should. Dueler appears fast and nimble, suiting its fighting style. They are both great pieces! 😀

 

Map Editor

As I understand it, the map editor doesn’t work as expected on all browsers.

(image courtesy of Melarec)

It works best on Chrome. However, a friend pointed out that my method for creating the map editor was outdated and I should be using the new HTML5 Canvas.

I had a look into this and it offers a blank canvas where you essentially code the art on it. It looks extremely flexible. For example. the well-known game of Entanglement (http://entanglement.gopherwoodstudios.com/) is created on a canvas. This really demonstrates the power of the tool and I have spent a lot of time this week reading into it.

Unfortunately I have nothing new to show you yet. But soon perhaps I will have the Map Editor moved into a canvas so it is more compatible with everything and offers more features. Canvases may well come in handy for other parts of the site too, such as the core game itself. But that is a maybe. We’ll see how it goes. 🙂

 

Graduation

BOW BEFORE ME. I AM NOW A MASTER!

…of Physics.

…which I guess is even cooler than being a regular old Master?

Yeah, I passed all my modules. I understand the universe now. Seriously. After four years of physics I can now never watch a single action film again because all I see are the mistakes in its physics.

Sigh.

But even so, I do not regret this degree path in the slightest. It has been an amazing and highly rewarding journey and I have developed so many skills along the way. And well, I guess it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows the entire way. We’ve lost a lot of good people along the way. In first year we started with over 70 people. I went through the graduation list and only counted half that number. I remember in first year how we used to fill huge rooms. It hit me hard when I was in the graduation ceremony and saw that my class took up only four rows.

We lost about a third of the class by the end of first year alone. People switching to different courses or vanishing completely. Second year hit us hard too. I guess I witnessed first hand how friendship groups can fall apart completely if a few key people are removed. By the final year the rooms looked so bare. In some there would be more fingers on your hands than students in the classroom. But I guess this brought us all closer together. By the end of it we weren’t a class of friend groups. We were a class of friends. We would all look out for one another and work together just so we could pass.

Less than half of us made it, but only 19 of us achieved the rank of Master, which is the highest qualification. 19 people out of 70+. How I made it just seems impossible. I was never that smart. I just. I don’t know. I just knew how to knuckle down and work through anything.

To anyone out there thinking about studying physics. DO. There is a shortage of physicists in the world. With such a degree you will never be unemployed, you will never be poor, and you will get to see the world. But all of that is insignificant to the major problems that humanity will face in our lifetimes. Global warming, terrorism, overpopulation. It’s not that we lack the potential to fix all these problems. It’s that we just don’t have enough people. There is a skills void.

Still. Do not worry. The future of your world is in good hands for now. We are highly trained and we will work for the best of all of us.

But. If you want to study physics for the sake of prestige or money (physics opens doors to banking), then don’t study it. You will fail. Only follow physics if you have a true passion for it, if you are by your very nature a problem solver, if you are a mathematician. Anything else and you are lining yourself up for disappointment. Physics is not easy and I cannot stress this enough. You have to be strong. I remember in first year there being a girl who was in tears because she couldn’t handle the workload. She didn’t make it beyond the year. But then there was another girl, in second year she came out of an exam in tears. It was a challenging paper – they all are. But she recovered from it and went on to be one of the 19 graduating Masters. We all have our own stories to tell, but stories can only have happy endings if the protagonist is able to overcome every obstacle.

 

It is the combination of the canvas learning and this graduation that has left me short on time since the last update. I’m still happy with what I’ve achieved but I know it’s not a whole lot. I hope from here on things develop a lot quicker.

Beta is coming.

Beta 2 – Map Editor (Demo)

Oh my god I have just figured out how to make graphics come out full sized in the text…

 

Map Editor

I had some strange urges this week regarding Shoop. I felt really motivated to create that map editor we’ve been talking about for a while and use those tiles of hers.

Then I thought for a while and was like Pfft… nah! That would require an insane amount of JavaScript! I’m going to look at cat pics instead.

But for some reason though I found myself in my code editor writing this script. I forgot how fun JavaScript actually is. I’ve remembered a lot and for some reason my skill seems ten levels higher than it did in the alpha. I wrote some pretty complex code without too much hassle. And the next thing you know…

And while this editor is only a simple demo at the moment, I have decided to open it up to all of you. You can find it by looking around the Alpha site 😉

It’s pretty cool to be fair, and that is a really bad thing because it means I’ve spent so much time playing with it – as you could probably tell by the face pictures – so here’s a little note to self: Do fun things last!
I’m learning one step at a time.

Anyway. Enjoy the editor! Do screenshot and post your best pieces 😛 I am aware of a few problems with the tiles such as tiles with water on being largely incompatible with each other, and there being some colouring/texture problems. Oh and larger structures like dunes and bushes being made piece by piece And the lack of T-junctions and crossroads.

If you think anything else is missing, let us know! I’ll get Shoop working on it straight away.

(P.S. the map editor is bootstrapped so resize the page, refresh it, and the map and tile selection will resize to fit the new size. Note that refreshing will reset the map.)

 

Art

  

Trident and Capsule at the top and two familiar looking chassis at the bottom; a new Juggernaut with an improved flame on the left, and on the right is CMFR with a golden disc on the top. Little things that make quite an impact.

Cheers ElD and Shoop for such great pieces! ^^

 

What next?

Lots of small fixes and additions to the map editor and lots of code translating from the alpha site into bootstrap.

See you soon!

Beta 1 – Responsive Design

I think I’m finally getting to grips with Bootstrap. Lost no more than one computer in the process.

Beta updates now as I develop the new site – The Beta site. I’m also hoping to use a new system for the playable game to allow easier development, so hopefully there’ll be some progress there again soon.

I looked through the public alpha site the other day and I remembered it as much worse than it actually is. I have always hated that site, but when I was browsing through it I saw and remembered just how much hard work I had truly put into it… Good memories 😮 It is a fairly good site. But still, Bootstrap has outdone it entirely. I’m still playing around and learning Bootstrap but it is so easy to make decent looking pages with it (pics later).

These last two weeks I have been translating some of the old code into Bootstrap while also tidying it up and separating logic from mark up to keep it manageable. The old code in places is truly horrific. That is what happens when you code as you learn…. At least now it is all changing 😀

I’ve remembered more than I expected from before. In fact I’ve barely looked up anything since coming back. It feels so good ^^ Coding that is. Once you get good at it you end up surprising yourself with how fast you can make new stuff.

Anyway, straight to the designs.

Responsive Layout

This was more me playing around with a potential design than anything too serious. I wanted to learn bootstrap so this is what I made.

The top image shows the site on a large device (laptop or desktop screen) and the bottom image is on a phone.

Note how the top bar contracts, and how sections can vary in size, position and visibility. All to the power of bootstrap.

Yeah.

I’ll bring you some interesting pics next update 😛 But this shows that the site will be smooth on phones as well as large desktops. Bootstrap is much better than I expected. Ok yes, it is really limited in areas, but it does look pretty good and is serving as a stepping stone while I continue to develop my skills and expand. This time last year I knew very little, but now I know so much. I wonder what I’ll achieve this summer 🙂

 

Translating Code

So far I have only translated a small amount of the old code into the new site, but next week I will have a lot more to show you.

 

Bootstrap 4

I’m using Bootstrap 3, but I was reading their blog and it seems like Bootstrap 4 is just around the corner. They mentioned it in a post that it will come out in December …of 2014. So they’ve missed that by a long way. But on browsing other blogs and reading what other web developers have been saying, everyone expects it to come out either this year or next. It offers more flexibility and is designed to be easier to use. If it comes out it shouldn’t be that hard to update the site version 4.

 

When is the Beta site going to be public?

No target. It will be done when its done. One thing I found in the alpha development is predicting times is really hard. Sometimes you’re a month ahead of schedule, other times you are two months behind. I’m really not experienced enough yet to tell you when it could be out. I am still diving deep into the unknown here and I want the beta site to be highly developed before release.

Of course I will probably give you dates closer to the release, but until then all I’m saying is it will be ready when it is ready. It may be this year, it may be next.

 

Next Update

Lots of translated code so I could show you some of the old alpha pages in bootstrap and possible updates to part of the site as I prepare it for beta.

 

See you all soon!

 

P.S. Artists, where are you? 😦

Day 378 – INCOMING!

I’m not dead! I’m still surviving. Just about. Click for the full-sized image 😛
Anddd I have some great news to share! 🙂

But first sorry. Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I have been ridiculously busy with my degree. Plus I don’t really want this blog to be about my personal life, which is something the last update basically was. If there is no real news to tell, why tell anything at all?

Let’s jump straight in with the fabulous art that’s been created since the last update! ^-^

 

Art

 

Top left going right and downwards: Nemesis, Phantom, Puncture, Rogue, Shredder, sketch of Blaze (fire elemental) and the Uber Blaster, sketch of Boomer, Caster, Obliterator, Hawkeye, Ticker, Worker, and Extendo Cannon, Spitfire (three munition for the three attacks per round), Stun Gun, Ticker sketch, Caster, CMFR, Energy Blade, and finally Flamethrower!

Still got your breath? 😛

There’s been so much done and I honestly am so lucky to have such wonderful artists working with me.

And we’ve also had a couple of very special pieces! (remember to click for full size!)

Top: Early CCS(O) banner! We were throwing around ideas and this is the result. Maybe not the final design, but this one sums up the game nicely. In the foreground are two players (either side) looking at the same central player but both see an enemy, while really he’s on one of their teams. In the background are a small collection of the hundreds of components in CC Survival.

Bottom: Map tiles! Why? Well, why not? Ok seriously, tiles allow the rapid creation of colourful maps with minimal effort. With several biomes going to be created there should be a huge variety for players to create custom map designs in CCS to share with other players and create campaigns with. Permission has also been granted to use these tiles in any future games I make, and so there is a huge amount of potential in these simple mosaics.

Our collection of artwork is enormous now. It’s just one of those things I look back on and browse through like oh wow. I will have to set up some kind of gallery where it can all be viewed 😀 Maybe add a description to each image too.

 

Music

Another great track has been released by Harmless!

CCS Track 4 – Unsettling Darkness v0.5

Pretty creepy! I want to see more like this hehe. What do you guys think? Apparently this isn’t even the final version 😮

 

Progress Begins Today

Oh yes. Today I start practicing and using Bootstrap to design a new site. Progress will be slow initially as this will begin with a learning phase. But I’m sure I’ll pick it up soon enough.

From now on updates are only going to be every two weeks. I recall mentioning this in passing before. It’s because weekly is too challenging to keep up with if you have a particularly busy week.

And finally, for those interested in what my future could hold (and hence how CCSO progress could change in the future) and who still remember the last post. I was so torn between the two options: PhD and EngD. In the end I leaned more towards the EngD and took it. As long as I pass my exams I’ll be in Scotland from September ^.^ One of the most beautiful and friendly countries in the world! And where a small portion of my blood originates from 😉

But whether or not I actually pass my exams is another question. I’m certainly not holding my breath, but even if I fail I can resit in August and even though the Scotland position will almost certainly be gone, I don’t doubt that I’ll have any trouble finding another job. I’m trying not to get too excited over the EngD in case I have actually messed up an exam. These final ones were killers and I think everyone’s averages are going to be pulled down a lot. My grade is high enough that even if I just scrape passes in all these exams I still get the grade needed for the EngD, so the actual marks don’t matter. It’s just pass/fail as far as I’m concerned. Results day is three and a half weeks away. Fingers crossed!

 

See you all in two weeks with hopefully an entire barrel full of exciting news as I brush the dust off the gears and put them into action again! 😀

Ahhh, it’s great to be back!

Day 273 – Food running low, water from sky no come, made some nice sandcastles though

MY GOD, AN UPDATE! Looks like I’m not the only one becoming delusional 😉

So Much Uni Work…

It was weird skimming through this sheet and seeing what appeared at first to be a mirror embedded in the sheet (click the image to make it bigger) … but then my eyes focused and yeah, I quickly realised that I needed to get away from this work.

I think that pretty much sums up how things are going right now haha.

May Lose Another 9 Months…

Let’s start of this time with all the bad news. I know I usually end with the bad stuff, but the element of surprise is key to victory in CCS, so is probably the key to an interesting blog too. #keylogic2015

In a few short months I will be holding my Master’s and that basically means I need to go on to become a Doctor, because you know, who spends so long studying for a Master’s just to get a job?

The traditional choice for getting a doctorate is the PhD. They are 3 years, pay about $21 000 per year tax-free (which isn’t very much) and are based on you doing research and writing a thesis at the end.

Seem pretty good, don’t they?

For a STEM graduate however, there is another path open, known as the EngD or Engineering Doctorate. These are equivalent to a PhD at the end but take 4 years to complete. They pay around $30 000 per year tax-free (a modest pay for someone my age) and involve one year of taught lectures, followed by three years working for a research company.

EngDs give an edge to someone wanting to go into industry, while PhDs give an edge to someone wanting to go into academia (i.e. becoming a professor). Now, becoming a professor could be quite cool and I know that if I don’t pick a PhD my chance of becoming one ever will be ~0, but if you look at the stats, only about 1% of PhD students go on to become professors anyway as there just aren’t any spare spaces for them. You basically have to wait for one to die or retire and then take their place.

I spoke to some professors at my uni about which out of academia and industry is best and the general feedback I got was this:

Academia Advantage: You get complete freedom to research whatever you want.

Industry Advantage: You know what you are making will directly change the world.

The professors all said the thing they felt they were missing out on the most was knowing that their inventions and discoveries were unlikely to ever make any significant contribution to the world. This seems like something that would be particularly bad for me. I really want to use my skills to change the world and make it a better place. Following a career that risks this seems like a poor choice. PhDs open the path to industry as well as academia though.

Last year I worked in industry on my research year. I actually found there was a fair degree of freedom. It wasn’t a boss telling me exactly what to do most of the time, instead I was given a large problem and asked to solve it in whatever way I wanted as part of a team. There was plenty of opportunity for me to plan things out, setup my own experiments, do my own research to gain a vaster understanding of the physics before working on the problem. Science careers are one of the most independent and free careers in the world. I know some jobs just involve you sitting in an office all day while your boss sends you work to do. Those kinds of jobs – commonly called monkey jobs – don’t really sound appealing to me. I need room to intellectually express myself and develop as a person in my workplace.

Getting back to EngDs they have 1 year taught courses and 3 years in industry, but for one week out of each industry year they have an intensive course in business/management. EngDs are really for training people up to be leaders in the workplace. To be the people who will form the next generation of bosses and management.

In CCSO I have really loved the whole organising and keeping track of the team. I am always looking for opportunities to expand, and I really think my natural position is in a lead place. Let’s even go to my history on the CC alone, I run two games and have done for many years, while in a number of other groups I have taken high positions. Even back in school I ran as a prefect and was the deputy head for my house (my school had four houses, a bit like Harry Potter). Leadership appears to be something that is rooted deep in me. I’m quite shocked how I never realised sooner.

“You’ve Changed”

This week I presented my research work in the form of a short (15 minute) presentation in this daunting lecture theatre full of other students in my year, all the second year students (who were about to decide what research placements they wanted), a whole load of university professors, and all these researchers from companies around the world who sponsor students to go on research placements.

I was first up.

In the past public speaking has not been my strong point. I always got those leg shakes and spoke very fast and messed up and didn’t make eye contact. I’m sure you all know what it is like…

But this time it was different.

I stood confidently, I wasn’t shaking – although I was a little nervous inside after seeing some of my research team in the crowd –  I felt in control. I noted when I went up that many of the second years hadn’t arrived yet, so I began the presentation with a joke about how such a huge number have come to see my presentation. I was animate throughout the talk and kept the jokes coming, I paused at places to let the audience calm down or study the slides. I put loads of images in all my slides to have it a highly visual experience, while the wordy explanations were left to me as the speaker.

It was invigorating. I actually enjoyed it. The adrenaline, the attention, the action. This is not like me.

The presentation ended with a huge applause that may have been the largest of the day, and when I climbed the stairs back up to my seat all my friends were just shocked. They said they didn’t want to present after such a great presentation because it would make theirs look terrible. I brushed off their comments because friends always complement each others, so their remarks were fairly null in my book.

In the lunch break students and researchers kept coming up to me to congratulate me on my talk. It was really surprising. People were jokingly asking me to teach them my amazing skills. The following day the head of the physics society approached me and said my talk was the best one. I hadn’t seen him in the audience, but that was an honour of kinds.

“You’ve changed…” my friend Tim said to me after the presentations. A good change of course. But they remember me from before the placement year when I was almost a nervous wreck in front of an audience. I have changed. A lot. I know what to say, how to act, I can read the audience now. I swear I’m one step away from being a psychopath. I don’t feel the nerves like before. I even look forward to the next time I have to present.

One change at a time I am becoming a strong and independent character. I really wonder what my future holds. All my weaknesses just seem to be disappearing one by one, meanwhile my strengths continue to put me one step ahead of the general crowd.

Because of this I’m thinking an EngD will be more suitable for me than a PhD. The skills I gain from the business courses on an EngD could actually aid CCSO developments. It comes at the cost of another slow 9 months of progress on CCSO though :S But maybe I’ll be able to find more time this time around. And the EngD won’t start until September anyway, so I’ll have all summer to work on it.

Back to current works…

Music

Harmless has been working away with the music production ^^ Three new pieces have been produced!

CCS Track 3 – At Long Last
A calming track for the early game. Also nice to listen to if you’re feeling a little stressed ^^

CCS Special – Victory
CCS Special – Defeat
Do I need to explain these? 😛 When winning or losing a battle one of these will be played.

All these pieces are still in an early stage and are expected to change slightly over the coming week or so. Also, if you haven’t heard the other tracks, do check them out because they are awesomeeee 😉

CCS Track 1 – Light Urgency
CCS Track 2 – One Shot at Victory
CCS Track 2 – One Shot at Victory (Extended) (my favourite ^^)

Art

Twinwing, Ballista Impact, Destroyer, Bunkerbuster, and Hydro. Let me know if I forgot one :S Chassis by ElD and weapons by Shoop. Lau is still a little busy. I really like these, but some are a little different to normal. First, what do you think of Bunkerbuster? The angle makes the missile look huge. I’m wondering if it could be drawn from a different view or if it is fine as it is.

And Ballista Impact looks amazing, doesn’t it? The first version had no spikes on but then it was suggested to add spikes to the bow. Shoop actually misread this and added spikes to the missile head instead. *facepalm* But it actually turned out pretty nice, so I suggested to keep them. Spikes everywhere… imagine looking into that in battle. It is sleek yet deadly.

Twinwing captures the decrepit state of the biplane really nicely 😛 Good job on the paintwork! The smoke is a really cool feature too! Hydro is awesome as well ^^ Was wondering if the water tanks should start more full or not. What are your thoughts?

And finally, Destroyer. A huge cannon. It is exactly what it is. A destroyer.

Thanks ElD and Shoop! I know I can always count on you for epic art!! You guys provide such a driving force for me to develop CCSO. I actually feel pretty guilty not being able to code much xD But…

Bootstrapping!

I’m not sure if I mentioned this in a previous blog way back or not, but there is a framework called Bootstrap that is designed to speed up website design and make sites more compatible with mobile and tablet devices. I have been learning this and playing around. It is fairly simple but takes a bit of getting used to. It is however very powerful o.O I can create such a nice site with this. I’m thinking about creating a simple site to show off the capabilities of Bootstrap at some point so you can all see how the next version of the CCSO site could look.

I don’t know when this will be out, but hopefully not too long from now.

A long update to make up for the lack of them 😉 There may be another break before the next one, but we’ll see. The future is not written yet 🙂

Week 36 – The End of CCSO :(

Today is the last update.

But we’ll get back to that in a bit.

 

I’ve been playing around with the upgrade system for abilities. It’s been frustrating this week and I’ve not managed to get nearly as much done as I had hoped. Even the simplest of things take a long time sometimes. This hurts me a lot more than it pains you as I have this huge project laid out in front of me and if I spend so long doing one tiny part of it, it is going to take forever to finish. Really demotivational.

But that is what has been happening since the start. There have been fast and slow parts, and usually it is the parts that should be fast that take the longest and the long parts that end up getting done pretty quickly.

For now though I have added a basic system for when you upgrade an ability the main arena page shows the upgrades above the ability text. Yes, it is crude. I was just trying it out to see how it would work. In the future these upgrades will be listed more compactly and the text will update to reflect these purchases.

Try it out and tell me if anything weird happens ^^

 

Art!

These look a lot better on the alpha site 😉 Thanks Shoopadoo for Magma Missiles and Tempest! I have long since exhausted my vocabularly of positive words. So yeah… these are very, very, very, good. That will have to do for this week 😛

 

Anyway, now what you have all been thinking about…

CCSO Shutdown

CCSO isn’t completely over don’t worry. I’ve just been using strong language to keep you engaged here. I’m as sly as ever.

But CCSO is going to pause now until the summer (about 4 months). I have classes at uni again and may not be able to keep up with weekly updates. I know my aim for today was to have a working playable game. And yes, in many ways I have done that, but we have fallen massively short. My inexperience has really shown over the past few weeks. This is more complicated than I first believed it to be and has required a much greater amount of work.

It’s all a good learning experience, but it isn’t the best production experience.

But Some Good News

I actually seem to have much fewer lectures this semester than I thought. I may actually be able to devote quite a bit of time to CCSO still. This doesn’t mean regular updates though so shhhh.

I have had enough of playing around with the core game for now. I really need a break from it to keep my motivation up. I have a new plan for the coming months, see what you think:

• Massively reduced update frequency.
• Focus on redesigning the site for the Beta version.
• Addition of all the sections in the final game (although some will be blank) and a working forum.
• Brand new unit creator based on the sketch I put a few weeks back.

The redesign of the site will use all my new skills from the past few months and will make it compatible with mobile devices, tablets, and all screen resolutions. You may notice at the moment that on a screen with high-resolution there are empty regions down the right and left of the alpha site, and the site isn’t mobile friendly at all.

Wait, do all you Americans call mobile sites cell phone sites? I have never actually thought of this before. Since you don’t call mobiles as mobiles, you also don’t call mobile sites as mobile sites? Hmm, get back to me on this one. I’m pretty curious.

Anyway, yes, this new site will be carefully designed to work on all devices. I have those skills.

I am going to make the site actually look good. The current core game may have some minor updates as I already know now that I’m too addicted to actually get away from it completely. But it isn’t going to be the focus of work. Of course, if things go really well and I have time left after everything else before summer, I will get back to it.

I’ll be sure to post the odd major update here and there as I make progress. Probably in the form of videos. And I’ll keep our artists and musician making stuff when they can and will showcase it perhaps weekly still.

I won’t be able to tell you the exact date that I’ll be back to normal work on CCSO, but it is right near the start of summer.

 

A Reflection – in FAQ style.

Should I do the same as you and jump straight into a many-year project using languages I don’t even know?

No. lol. It has been fun, I’ll admit that. But the only reason I am still doing this is because of you guys. If you don’t have a hell of a lot of willpower yourself and a supportive community behind you, then you will fail. No other way. Just don’t follow in my footsteps.

Instead start with smaller projects and build up your skills before trying something so big. I guess in some ways I regret my decision, but in other ways I’m glad I took this challenge on. But definitely, this has been the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It has stretched my skills to their very limits and changed me as a person.

How does it feel to be a game developer?

It feels really awesome. I, like a lot of young men, was struggling before to find my place in life and actually give my life meaning. It just kind of felt like I was going along with the flow of everything without ever achieving anything. Many of you are still too young to experience this, but once you have spent a few years living independently with the whole world as your playground, you soon start to feel very small.

Everyone needs some kind of meaning to their life, something they are proud of and can focus their time and energy into. CCSO is it for me. If you are reading this and feel like your life has just stagnated completely, try a personal project. It will really help. I actually think a lot of people go through this phase. I know it is particularly common in young men, but probably most people will experience it at some point.

Game development itself it pretty cool. It is so rewarding to see people playing your game, even if they only send you bug reports. I wouldn’t give this up for anything 🙂

 

Eh, those are the only questions I can think of right now. But I still have much more to talk about.

Weekly updates. Yes, no. My work between weeks has been inconsistent in terms of what you see. I think in the future I may knock it down to every two weeks for updates so that the updates are larger and more consistent between weeks. It can also be stressful on busy weeks to still get content to you guys.

And er… apparently I didn’t have much more to talk about. Hm. I think getting away from this project and focusing on other things for a while will actually do me a lot of good. Breaks are good.

 

TL;DR

What are you playing at? My blogs are awesome. Read them.

• Fewer game updates for ~4 months.

• Not focusing on CCSO for ~4 months.

• Will still be working on it though. CCSO isn’t ending 😛

• Huge update in summer featuring redesigned site with full features.

See you all… soon.