New Blog

I'm starting a new blog, mainly because E-Mail of this profile dose no longer exist. So go to madmanmaking.blogspot.com

see you there,

Greg

ARRRG!!!!

Well ...

I was working on my editor, to be precise on the background Project-World-Level strukture when all the sudden Visual C# 2008 started to make problems.

It turned out that this dose have some stuff to do with the edits I made in the designe file of the main form.

"Ok", I thought, "just don't make any edits anymore and your fine." Thought, done.

But a few minutes later the designer file deleted the main split container of my form ...

"Ok", I thought, "delet that stupid form and with that all the problems you have." Thought, done.

But a few hours later, after I recreated the form, it happened again. The Editor Control was gone. I may only have the just replace it in the designer view, but it still sucks.

"Ok", I thought, " how about if I dump the entire project, reinstall VC# 2008, or even reset the entire PC. That should solve the problem." Thought, ... no not done.

I just closed the project and I'm waiting for motivation to rewrite the whole thing ... till then I may play some games of make another little project ... who knows.

Greg

I did it (well parts of "it")

A few days ago I planed to make a tile map editor till monday 2400 and right now its 10 minutes before tuesday.

This is the proof that its working, I made a spiral in the grid. And that not trough test writing and telling the editor what is where before the whole thing is build.

NO! I've loaded the tiles in runtime (not through the contentimporter as the beautifull magenta spots show), have selected the desired tile and painted it on the grid.

It far from being done, or bug free, nor can I save any level yet, or load it, but that will be done another day.

Yes, the 6th of august is comming closer, but a good tool it the essence of every good game.

Till then,

Greg

Trying it the hard way

On the 6th of august Microsoft will close the entry window for this years DreamBuildPlay contest.

When that happens, I want to enter a game.

20 Days till then. What I got is a beginning of a Leveleditor. I have a good game idea. And I have 20 days I can use (- some hours, because I'm lazy ;-) ).

What I have to do, is only create the world map, additional sublevels, write the complet game code, debug it, port it on the 360, debug it send it.

Sounds quite easy too me. I know that I might woun't make it, ... but who cares? I still would have finally a complet game in my postfolio, woudn't I?

Currently, my next Milestone is to get the editor done till monday 2400. Around 3 days should be enougth to tune the storage system, make a tile manager, create a good grid-level setup, and make it possible to place special tiles (stuff you later can interact with).

Sounds like a plan to me. :D

Greg the Mad

First wave out

4 applications there are that are still unanswered, and that from a total of 6 send.

To give you more figures: Those 6 where out of a list of 16 internships that would fit for me, and those 16 where out of a list of 65 internship advertisements.

well ...

... I only need one, you know ...

And I don't know if I really will be able to pull up that game that I came up with two days ago.

Yes, just like that I hade a new game in my head. No, its not that I can't focuse on one game, but that this is a more or less easy 2D game that still holds a lot of fun. Its a SciFi Survival Adventure, thats all I want to say.

But I would have to make some progress in my programm, and that did not happen till now.

The Content Project makes problems, the Xna.Path dose not work as said.

... but I could hardcore write this game ...

I don't know yet.

... its too hot in austria to do thinking ... :(

Greg

Looking for a job

OK, yesterday I called the austrian military when I would have to make my obligatory military duty. Well ... 4th January 2010.

Thats quite a while till then, so I decieded to look for a job in this time, instead to work on my game engine. Its just too much time to spend infront of my computer only doing what I want ...

Anyway. I already have send away two applications, the two which would interest me the most.

One for a german console games magazine and the other for a more local game developer.

If I would get the first I would have to get a flat in munich/germany and had to move there (for 5 month ...), but I'm flexible. ;-)

Ther other one would be closer, and I wouln't have to move anywere, but on the other hand it wouldn't only be a job about games, it would be a job ... evem more about games.

I can't be that sure of any of them to be a success, after all I would be a big risk for any of them as I'm fresh from school and have no specific education, but ... you can dream, can't you?

But I will have a look for other jobs, but they will go into the same direction I think. The "Possible, But Unlikely" direction.

And at this point I have to point out the great HR woman from the first job that have send me a mail only to tell me that she has received my application. It probably was a automatic mail, send to every one who sends a application, but its still something so many other HR people are lacking of ...

Greg

Back home

I just were reading in the good old Bioware forums, what I didn't have done that frequent in the last weeks, and guess what I stumble over. Yes, a topic about Blogs, and so I thought about making a new post.

I'm back from my week in turkey, it was so great and sunny that some parts of my skin wanted to stay there, so I let them. Some other parts decieded to come back and stay tan, and again some other thought it would be awesome to take some austrian vacation. The last are leaving my day by day ...

Damn you sun!

Do you know what really lets you know that you're done with school? You look into you timetable and see a quite big empty void looking back.

I may will fill that blank page of my life with some programming form my game engine, well not yet, later.

Now I have to make some other stuff first, like figuring out what I have to go to the obligatory military duty thise year, every normal boy in austria have to make.

Mean while I will have to think of a fitting university to atemt to, the right branch of study, etc.

... Is there a branch that combines astrophysics with game programming? Something like Advanced Space Sumulations? Spacecraft System programmer? Worldleadership for Beginners?

... hmmm ...

Greg

Day 5 / Entry 2

Its been a while.

On my firt real day here I already burned my skin, the whole body ... So ... I spended the next two days in my room.

Today is the first day out of that room, and I'm happy :)

Right now I'm waisting time as my MP3 player is pulged on this laptop sucking energy out of it. After that the 'Beach Mania' will start.
I am normaly not that beach party fan, but they got some interresting bands, no Linkin Park, Metalica, or whatever, but I might have a look.

Oh, one last thing, I hate Pepsi ... that cheap, or rather not that cheap Coca Cola copy. Its the coke they got here regulary, to mix all the drinks, and as a Coca Cola fan I drink coke all the time.
And by the time ... you realy start to tast the differences, .. and pepsi looses that mache.
Yesterday I bought a Coca Cola ZERO in the resort shop and ... whaa ... you can't imagen what that feeled ...

Can't wait till I'm home ... not because it suchs here, but because there will be a good cola. :D


So Long,


Greg the Mad

Day 1 / Entry 1

We arived after around 8 hours waiting, sitting in a plane and sitting in a bus. It was already getting light again ... well I have to say that we traveled in the night.

Right now I'm sitting in the communication area, with around 30 other people who apparently use the same tube as I do: http://www.speedtest.net/result/505567272.png

But if that is the only downside, it would be awesome.

Its not the only downside, but still great ;)
The other downside is that I totally lost the other schoolmates, so I'm wandering around all alone and get bored quite fast, still ther is much to do, so I have entertainment, but I wouln't have to sit here and write a blog entry about it.


So thats all for now, So Long


Greg the Mad

Great Cell Idea

How about a cellphone that only works over the internet connection?

I mean, thats what cells are made for today, is it not? And you can make voice calls over Skype or even free stuff like Live Messanger (you could decide youself!).

And who cares that you would not be able to call for help with those devices? ... You still could really 'call' for help after all. Also could the emergency servises create thier own online portals for those calls.

All I know dose the broadband internet also use the same grid as the normal cell phone (well at least they could) and so you would not loose any connectifity.

... Such a device would be greate ... just think of all the cool stuff that would be standard! Waves (meaning Google Wave, if you don't know what that is ... anyway)! Voice calls! Video calls! Internet! And all of that wouln't be any big deal, you only had to pay for the loading. And imagine that with a flatrate! You only would have to pay (for example) 5€ a month to have EVERTHING!

Well that me, sitting here with my phone only cell, without internet ... well that whole divice costs 30€ without any discount ... can't some great cell producer create such a device and present it to me?

Greg the Mad

Sucksses

You know that test always proofe that you fit a certain level of knowledge.

As it is supposed to be with the 'Matura', but it somehow lowers you 'I'm great' feeling if you hear a girl talk about how all hir friends passed the 'Matura'. Especialy if you know those friends and know how not smart they are ...

I'm pissed currently ... man? What is this education worth anymore?

... Anyway.

I acutally planed to relaxe the next week as I take of to turkey next weekend, but relaxing is hard.

I mean Sacred 2 : Fallen Angles is one of those good old Diablo games wher you just play, and don't have to think much, you just play.

But well ... I did not spend the whole last week relaxing ... I ... have ... ... I have layed out a the main concept of my engine and restarted the work on my programmin language, now called 'Blockgramm' ... hey ... Blocking dose have a sound to it too ...

Greg the Mad

1 week feasting

I made it.

I have passed one one of the hardest school test in austria, and so probably one of the hardest test in the world.

I'm the king of the world!!!!

:D

Anyway, thats all air through the engine already. Just came home from a big party we had at a colleagues place, around 24 hours of feasting.

And the best hasn't yet started. SummerSplash

SummerSplash is a exclusive holiday-feast-programm for people like me who have passed that one special test.

In plain text this means that I, and around 10.000 other young and pritty people will spend one week, all inclusive, on a beach somewhere in turkey.

:D

Greg the Mad

Matura

Right now its 10:10 ... 21 hours till my schoole leaving exam starts.

I currently fixing some minor and major issues in the pressentation that I have to make tomorrow.

After that I will spend a nother funny afternoon learning the blackboards that I have to know tomorrow, boring but neccersary.

Then a little run of around 3km to keep my heartrate down. Supper, checking equipment, and sleep till around 5am.

At 7am I have to be in school and take the oath that I'm ready for that test and not affected by any illness or drugs.

Then the waiting comes.

We will sit in the so called 'Matura-Saal', which is a own hall for that one test. Once in a while a teacher will come and call a name. The called student then have to stand up and get his question. Its a sheet with two questions on it that he can choose, or two he has to answer, depending on the  subject the question is in.

There are two kind of subjects, the complimentary subject and the focus subject. The focus subject consists of two questions, one you have to answer as a presentation and one you have to answer as a blackboard drawing.

The complimentary subject is two questions that you can choose one of.

After you are done with your question you get back at your seat and wait for the next question.

... You woun't know what that question will be or what subject, ... that are tense hours.

Finaly at 12am, we hope, the worst part will be over and the first half of the class will be tested (including me). With that thrilling experience we will walk down to a lokal eatery and have some lunch (they other might also have some beer ;) ).

Later at around 20:00 the teachers will be finished testing the whole class and will be done with evaluating the results and the marks will be writen down.There is a little indication that everyone is looking at at those minutes, the flag. Its tradition to have a white flag outside the building if every one has passed the test. Its the highest goal of the whole class. Not because everyone what everyone else to have a positive test, but because that tells everyone that they did pass.

Greg the Mad

Its been a long time

It really was, was it not?

Was has changed since the last time I have posted a entrie? Well, much!

First of all: I started running! Not jogging, I mean real running. Its quite exhausting, and I have to admidt that I don't to it every day (unfortunatly), but it has such a great effect on your life if you run 3km. You feel free and active. It may not change you from a introvert into a extervert, but ... your just untouchable. I'm a planet.

Second ... I started twittering.

Its just that easy ... 140 charecters. No matter what you're doing. www.twitter.com/gregthemad

My first impulse to do it was actually to recieve updates from other people/stuff like Major Nelson, or BioWare. But well, I sticked with it and updated a few time.

Third: The first part of my School Leaving Exam is over, prepearing for the last part. Thats the part that you could call 'Oral' part, even if 'oral' sound funny.

I try to focuse on that part the next 3 and a half weeks, but ... I do some other stuff meanwhile ...

And last but not least:

Since I have seen Star Trek I get more and more interested into physics and I started to read Steven Hawkins book: Universe in a Nut shell, just yesterday. ... I read through it and wonder ... is it wired to say that I don't believe in time? I mean that space and time are not two things that affect each other, but that they are just 4 dimensions (3D+1D) to desicribe one and the same thing? Well it may take a while till I can publish this theorie. ;)

PS: I now also use Google Chrome as my main internet browser, and I miss the autocorrection you get in the default text enter fields form Chrome here. :( My English sucks.

Till then, so long

Greg the Mad

I got a plan, ... or something like it

1. Finish School:

I will spend some of my time in the next two month focusing on school. That includes that I will learn for test and make some research on the questions I will face. The rest of the time will be spend on relaxing, sleeping, eating and maybe some games playing or programming.

2. Free Time:

Once I finished school I estimate that I have 3 month off. Well I may get a job at that time and earn some money, but my main focus in that time will be my Engine.

I get more and more used to C# and get quicker writing lines (Thanks to Typing of the Death), but thats not all. I also gain more and more knowledge. I still may don't know how to do this and do that, but all that can be found in the web. For exaple am I writing my own scrolle control for my interface at this moment (the default is not hand enougth). Ok, the scroll controll has nothing with my engine to do as it is only a interface thing, but ... Hey! ... I write my onw control, now thats a good basement for an engine, just think about the even handling, that could be use full later ...

3. Make A Design

No, I already got many designs in my head, but I'm actually taking about realizing it. Take a game, create it, and release it.

Once I got the last point I'm probably somewhen I my military service thing, and got enougth time to think about my Future: Get a Beccalour/Master or move right into the biz.

To have a master is always a good thing, but ... well ... I'll see. Maybe noone will like my game and I'll have to work as a engineer ... not that bad eighter.

Greg the Mad

Sometimes the School is great

Well, just look

[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/423973087.png[/IMG][/URL]

:D


Greg the Mad

Peep?

Yesterday I was snowboarding, my muscles tell me different.

School is getting hard work ... its hard to play DS while you got to make homework, but I'll do it later.

Maybe I should start twittering, it dose not need any clear structure when you write it.

I didn't write a line since a few weeks now, ... but I would like to work on my game that much :(

Why dose I got no money left in the middle of the month? Oh, that why ^.^

Is it me or is HAWX not that funny as the trailer promisses? Wait till the rhomb gets red and press 'A'?!?

No wonder that Flightsimulators are a rare product if you look at the fun quality of HAWX. Don't get me wrong, I believe that it will be a great game, but ... it too is lacking of the special something Freelancer had.


Greg the Mad


Ther is a lot of snow here now, and that at 6 degrees Celsius!

Trust me, if you go snowboarding, get yourself a backprotector, I used mine.


Greg the Mad

Damn

Do you know how it feels if you've worked two month on a project and than, at the end, you finaly realice that all you've done was for nothing?

Well, I'm now more or less finished with the screensaver project, talking about the code, but yesterday, when I tried to test it, I figured out that it dose not work ...

Here's the problem, the MS operation system looks for .scr at the end of a file to see if its a screensaver, and only those files the listed up in the screensaver selection window for the screensavers. ... But my screensaver got a .exe at the end ... If I would run good, old, but slow XP I just could rewrite that on my own, but better, newer, and faster Vista dose not allow me to do that ... And now I got a problem.

I just could write my own programm to do that, or use one from the internet for the job, but whats about the people who would download my sameple and want to write their own screensaver? ... I can't just give them a link to a nother programm and say 'And now you use that programm ...' ... thats not professional, is it?


And because of that the project is down in the sleep mode again.


But unlike my earlyer project stops, now I will continue a nother projekt, ... I think I call it 'Make A Designe - Engine' or MAD - Engine (the acronym is not final, and so can change).

So, wher should I start with the Making Advanced Designes - Engine? Right, at the interface.

I want a simple one, only with basic stuff at the moment, not like Blade3D for example, which looks as good as complex.

And after the interface, I plane to start with the Content pipeline, which should be one of the special advantages of the More Aweseme Donuts - Engine.


So long.


Greg the Mad

Les Blogger

Somehow I don't blog that much like I did in the beginning. I probably would blog more if I hade one of those fancy MS Mobile cellphones, with twitter and stuff like that
But that dosn't actually mean that I do alot of other stuff.

This week I got holidays, and till now I did, ... well, I did spend a day in vienna, and one day shopping, but after all I did enjoy it quite a lot.
I did not seach all my english documents yet, nor did I worked out one of my other matura questions, nor did I spend a lot of time on working on my screensaver sample, I'm just not enought relaxed, yet


Maybe tomorrow.


Greg the Mad

Finaly a succes

Its done! I finaly got fireflys flying over my screen, exactly how I want them to fly!

I can't realy say that I feel 'happy' about it, ... but there is that great feeling of 'being released' of something that I can't discribe ...

Its quite ironic, I've worked the whole time with the imagion of having 10 flys flying over the screen, but now I only got 2 max, due to my low graphic power on my Laptop, but ... anyway, :D

Now I have to get the code clean, add documentation, and make a .html documentation and the sample is ready for shipment. The .html isn't required for the sample, but it adds a huge amount of transparency to the whole thing, also do I now use a Text programm to write them, instead of useing the good old MS Editor. So I now can easyly make links and stuff. Its gona be a whole manual, if it turns out like I plan.


But thats about planing for now, it 22:00 and I got school tommorow ... lets sleep.


Greg the Mad

School Rocks the Week II

Well its, not that true, as I also do some other stuff, but I cought me today actually forcing me to continue programming my old screensaver project ... just a few month ago I thought it only would take me anothre month till its done ... well ... I was wrong.


It was not that much force that I needed to get in again, I just had to open the file, and seconds later I have solved a little, minor effect error, but the other, the major, problems will take more then that ... ;)

I'm now, more or less focused on school, and that from someone who spended two hours, yesterday, playing Solitär, just that I don't have to studi ... but I wrote a A anyway ...

And next week I got two test which should be a A other nothing else ...

And before that ther is the school prom, with many old friend I'll meet ... I just hope that I wound't be that tired, from the school week, as last week.

... and I'll be done with my screensaver next week ;)


Greg the Mad

School Rocks The Week

More or less.

Well, yes. School is back in my mind, after 3 weeks of geting it out of that unbelieveble place ...

With all its dark sides, and ... no ... I didn't found a bright yet.

I will have to spend a lot of time infront of my Laptop this week, makeing homework (which I should have done month ago), write protokols (which, too, I should have made month ago), etc.

But on the other hand is working on my XNA Screensaver one of my favorits in school (because of that I probably have to work that much at home ...) and I so may figure out the last few lines to finish it. ... I just have to make the lightning thing for all flys ...

Well, so long ...


Greg the Mad

Shady New Year

Well, thats the first time on my old desktop PC since quite a long while now, and its also the first post this year.

Fist of all, now my laptop is not brocken, I'ts just a mirracle that I got a internet connection with this old bucked.
But anyway, my last few days more or less sucked, of caurse I did get money for christmas, and a new pair of boxers, and so I was able to get me a new X-Box 360 (because of the money ;-) ) But on the other side I did spend too much time infront of it.

Fallout 3 this disease is called.

I did nothing, not for my screensaver project, nor for school.
Even if I made such great progress with the screensaver (I now use shaders, uhhh), I some kind of hurts, that waisted time ... not to mention the school stuff ...

I would like to contiue, but I have to get ready now, I have to be out at 21:45 *PARTY*


Anyway ...


Greg the Mad