March Back Up

03.27.2013

Today is Day 3 (or maybe 5) of me messing with computer hard drives. It's basically another case of me going overboard when one little things goes wrong, which in turn makes all kinds of other things go wrong.

I've got 2 NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices hooked up to my network. Why? So I can plug in lots of hard drives. Between those 2 NAS I've got 8 hard drives. 1 of them started to go bad last week. I'm not sure how bad it was going to get, but one morning when I looked the drive showed 1 folder and it was empty. The statistics showed that the drive was still 80% full, but nothing appeared when I opened the drive. After fussing with it for a while I finally rebooted the NAS and everything popped back up. The drive had been acting funny (if I searched for anything on the drive that took more than 20 seconds Windows Explorer would crash) so I took this as a sign to replace the drive. From there I went to Amazon and ordered a replacement drive. While there, I decided to go ahead and replace the 2 360GB drives in the other NAS with 1.5TB drives to match the other 2 drives already there.

When the disks came my trouble started. Replacing the "bad" disk went without a hitch. Old drive out, new drive in, we're good to go. Replacing the 360GB drives.... let's just say that I started this Monday, and just now I've finally gotten all the drives to show up and are accessible. They're all blank (2 of them used to have files), but thanks to my anal need to save files in multiple places I can move most things around to how they were. As it is I'm not missing anything important.

Once files are moved and copied, I'm going through and deleting the outdated duplicates (I don't need Palm Pilot drivers any more). While I could do this before moving files, I want the final layout where things will be, and then I'll delete the files from the places I don't want them to be.

People with a laptop just surfing the web probably don't run into this problem very often. I suffer so you and they don't have to.

Permalink programming/interweb

A symphony of links

03.24.2013

I started to send the below as an email to Jerry, but that would be cruel if the links didn't show up as actual links in his email. It's cruel enough as it is, but I thought I would share with everyone else that stumbles across the 'Mania.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered http://www.artscow.com/ClientDesigner/Designer.aspx?DesignId=105317569, which is really just http://www.artscow.com/photo-gifts/blanket/fleece-blanket-medium-595 with http://pworkwargame.blogspot.it/2010/11/prodotto-outlander-mat-120x180-cm-48x72.html after a little modifications (had to get it down to under 15MB) for use as "ground" when gaming. It arrived yesterday and while it doesn't look as good as I hoped, it doesn't blatantly look like a http://www.uline.com/Product/Detail/S-16332/Moving-Boxes/Camouflage-Moving-Blankets?pricode=WU329&gadtype=pla&gclid=CIfMgsndlbYCFQ70nAodLH4A4A.

This stems from my growing to desire to play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2RAxRXDpwI since I've been racking up on http://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/rasslor?searchstr=dust+tactics&rankobjecttype=subtype&rankobjectid=1&columns=title|thumbnail|version&searchfield=title&geekranks=Board+Game+Rank&ff=1&subtype=boardgameexpansion>http://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/rasslor?searchstr=dust+tactics&rankobjecttype=subtype&rankobjectid=1&columns=title|thumbnail|version&searchfield=title&geekranks=Board+Game+Rank&ff=1&subtype=boardgameexpansion and thinking it might not be such a bad game. I've been thinking more of terrain along the lines of those http://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/C1234/page/1 that I've had for a while. Instead of just making them and tossing around, I should put them on a http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=79_80 of some type. But then I saw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_FU-7aAoKI. Although what the dude is doing seems needlessly overcomplicated with an http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/10/EggCarton2.jpg, I liked his use of http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/Sheets.htm to make the base. Custom cut the base, add leftover http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5242/5210258111_a6aee05ab0_z.jpg and bam, you got a http://fabricfolliestwo.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/page01_005.jpg?w=640.

Later, once finding styrene at http://www.hobbytown.com, I went back to looking at videos to find what thickness to use to make a good base. It took a while to stumble upon the correct video again. While stumbling I saw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDkSp5VMkz4, which led me to decide that I really needed http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064RFHHO. It should arrive http://www.tuesdaymorning.com/media/tuesdaymorning/images/content/logo.png, although I doubt I'll actively do anything with it for a while.

Permalink random

More Stores for Your Zombie Shopping Pleasure

03.19.2013

I've been making more Zombie Mall progress. After another update to the rules I went back and worked on the map that people will be able to download and print in order to play the game. I've got a big 30"x40" map. but it's not very practical to print. I could break it up into 8½"x11" sheets which would make it more printer friendly, but I find those a royal pain to put together. Plus, everyone would be stuck with the layout that I made, and I've always envisioned the map to be modular so that each game could be different.

When I put the big map together, I made 6"x6" stores thinking that would be nice and modular. I forgot about the mall sidewalks. And corners. If you don't have 6"x6" walkways (I was planning on 3" wide) the modularity part of that plan kind of falls apart. I went back to the drawing board and eventually decided to stick to a 6"x6" modular tile, but I would include the walkway on the tile. With this, a 2" wide walkway would be the norm for matching up tiles. A little more narrow than what I originally thought, but it kind of helps with the "Oh no zombies are after me/How will I ever get away?" feeling. Using the original 6"x6" stores as templates, I went back and made 6"x5" stores (for the average store) and 5"x5" stores (for stores on the corner, with a walkway on 2 sides). 38 tiles later, I consider myself 99% finished.

I need to go back and make stores that will fit on the outside corners. I think these may only have 1 space of walkway, so the entrance may look a little funky. I need to play around with the tiles I've made and see how everything fits together.

With the above I've made the walls on the map bigger. Thick black lines are hard to miss, so I added in a concrete texture in the core of the wall, along with some shadow effects. The wall cuts into the available space more, but I'm hoping most people see it as a slight perspective shift and having some things hidden that are up against the wall won't seem weird.

I've still got a list of things to do to finish up the downloadable version of the game. Granted, there's still more play-testing to go (I just keep putting round 3 off, trying to get as many fixes as I think are needed in first). None of my tweaks affect play, they just make the initial rules comprehension a little easier. At least I think it'll be easier.

Permalink game dev zombie mall

WWE Quiz 2103

03.16.2013

Almost 8 years ago I took a quiz to see which WWE Superstar I was. Today I went back and found out the quiz is still active. For fun I took the quiz again to see how different 44 year old me is from 38 year old me.

You Scored as HHH/ Hunter Hurst Hilmsley Congrats. You scored as HHH. Although he may be a heel, he still is one of the biggest and most influental superstars in the buisness. A 10 time World Heavyweight champion who is accompanied by Rick Flair, the 16 time Champ, and a true legend. You have a garenteed place in the hall of fame. HHH/ Hunter Hurst Hilmsley 70% Stone Cold Steve Austin 63% Chris Jericho 53% Dudley Boyz 53% Mick Foley/Dude Love/Cactus Jack/Mankind 50% Big Show 47% Kane 44% Undertaker 43% Carlito 43% Shawn Michaels 40% Stacy Keibler 40% Randy Orton 37% Chris Benoit 23% Kurt Angle 23%

You Scored as a : HHH/ Hunter Hurst Hilmsley HHH/ Hunter Hurst Hilmsley 70% Stone Cold Steve Austin 63% Chris Jericho 53% Dudley Boyz 53% Mick Foley/Dude Love/Cactus Jack/Mankind 50% Big Show 47% Kane 44% Undertaker 43% Carlito 43% Shawn Michaels 40% Stacy Keibler 40% Randy Orton 37% Chris Benoit 23% Kurt Angle 23%

I still scored as Triple H, as I should. Because you've got to be as curious as I am, here's the difference between the 2 years:

	2007	2013
HHH/ Hunter Hurst Hilmsley	63%	70%
Stone Cold Steve Austin	50%	63%
Chris Jericho	60%	53%
Dudley Boyz	60%	53%
Mick Foley/Dude Love/Cactus Jack/Mankind	50%	50%
Big Show	43%	47%
Kane	44$	44%
Undertaker	50%	43%
Carlito	50%	43%
Shawn Michaels	50%	40%
Stacy Keibler	40%	40%
Randy Orton	50%	37%
Chris Benoit	37%	23%
Kurt Angle	30%	23%

Comparing the 2 quizzes, it's interesting to see where I've gone up and down. I'm still 40% Stacy Keibler. Less Benoit, which is probably good for those around me. Mostly I'm amazed that the same quiz, with the same words misspelled, is still up after all this time.

Permalink wrestling

Card Back Evolution

03.12.2013

I've had a couple of productive days of boardgame development. I've updated the written rules that I had been putting off for 2 weeks 3 weeks at least a month. After that I went about revamping the playing cards a little bit more. Thanks to a couple of different graphics programs and their various filters and brushes, I finally got pretty close to the look I originally envisioned.

Above is the original card back, with a nice zombie horde of arms I stole from somewhere on the internet which more than 1 person has noticed. The font for "Zombie Mall" I actually purchased! For all of $8, plus it came bundled with 3 other fonts (1 of which will make its debut in the next card). Although I couldn't use this picture for the back over the long term, I liked the look of it. I decided I would try to design something similar, yet original. Inspired by sounds good.

Thanks to a mix of Poser and Paint Shop Pro, the above was my first completely original pass at the card back. I used Poser to create a generic, green hued figure and just played around with arm poses. I took a lot (19?) screen shots of those arm poses and took them into Paint Shop Pro, where I fiddled with the hue, brightness, and added some weird cross between dirty smudges and blood. At this point the cards had been split into "Loot" and "Objective", so I color coded the card backs to match. Instead of everything having a black background, "Loot" would sport a red background while "Objective" would have green. This may have been cheating, but I just applied a colorize filter to the black background to get the red and green that I wanted. In addition, the "Loot" font is one of the extra 3 fonts that came with the Zombie Mall font. I'm getting my $8 worth!

Lastly (for now) is a more comic book inspired layout thanks to a graphics app I got that probably does all kinds of things, but it has a 1-click button that applies a filter to give the image a nice comic book color palette. Part of the filter is just boosting the vibrance of the colors, but I still like the look.

Now I've uploaded and sent off another order to Hong Kong to get this last batch of cards printed - I like printed cards. They make me feel like I'm making a game with some substance. I know it's all in my head, but I don't care.

This last version is also what I'm using to put together the PDFs for the downloadable Print-N-Play version of the game. The cards will be laid out so that the back and front fold over at the top (thus forming the front and back). A lot of people just stick the folded paper/card into normal card sleeves and play with them without worrying about the hassle of printing on proper cardstock and trying to glue everything together perfectly.

My goal is to have a complete Print-N-Play version together by the end of the weekend. I have to put the card & token PDFs together, and that's mostly fiddling with a bunch of fine-tuning the placement of already made graphics on the page. Lots of graphics. There are 162 cards, and I can fit 3 cards (front and back) per page. I've also got 5 or 6 pages of tokens, but those aren't optimized as far as their layout yet so that number will probably go down.

54 pages of cards to layout and convert into PDFs. That might take longer than I think it does.

Permalink game dev zombie mall