Posts by Antilogical

59 Forum Posts by "Antilogical"

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Response to: Need help with simply editing text. Posted 2 weeks ago in Programming

I don't want to be another one of those assholes, but you should earn your reward without fooling your father. He's willing to motivate you to work harder with a financial sacrifice to himself, and you didn't live up to it. Try again next year, and be thankful you have a father who cares about your success.

Response to: Hardest game you've beaten Posted November 17th, 2014 in Video Games

I haven't really played anything so hard. Only thing that really comes to mind is that I've nearly completed all stages of Super Meat Boy with the fastest time on the leaderboards on my friends list.

Response to: how to make isometric game Posted November 14th, 2014 in Programming

At 10/26/13 11:44 AM, sharpnova wrote:
Programming skill and work is really a dime a dozen. It's those game ideas that have true value. Anyone can spend years-decades mastering multiple languages and sound/art/project-management utilities, and put hundreds of hours of incredibly skilled work developing/debugging/iterating things. But how many people can honestly say "isometric game"? That shit is once in a generation.

This is weird because it makes me want to laugh, but also to cry. It's a shame it feels like this thinking in aspiring creators is due to the value placed on these roles by the consumers - the designers always seem to be the rockstars, and the programmer is just there to get that shit done.

Response to: Good C# book? Posted June 1st, 2014 in Programming

I would say that you don't need a book for C#. Microsoft's MSDN (previously posted) covers absolutely everything, and http://www.dotnetperls.com/ covers a lot of useful stuff in very readable format. The best thing you can do is start programming small tasks for yourself and when you don't know something technical, the information will be at one of those two places. The biggest battle with programming is thinking with the right perspective, something a book won't teach you.

That said, if you really feel you must buy a book, the standard for C# is Step by Step C# by John Sharp (http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Visual-2013-Step-Developer/dp/073568183X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401633607&sr=8-1&keywords=c%23+step+by+step)

I bought the 2010 version of the book and have pretty much not used it. I have recommended it to others though. I think you'll be better off starting how I recommended in the first paragraph, then buying the book if you're still really struggling a few months in.

Response to: I got a GBA today. Posted April 29th, 2014 in Video Games

At 4/29/14 01:22 PM, Madjasper1 wrote:

:I've heard it has no backlight, but I don't care, I'm a console collector.

Look at this badass over here.

Buy a Pokémon game and learn to love it.

A Guide to Collaboration Seeking Posted April 28th, 2014 in Collaboration

Hey everyone. I don't post much, but I frequent the collaboration board out of interest. I've been programming for a few years and I like to see what else is out there. Throughout the months that I've browsed, I can safely say that I can count the number of appealing threads on here on one hand. Almost every thread is rushed, excluding necessary information, or not offering good return. Here are my thoughts on how to make a good collaboration thread. I'll be speaking with bias as a programmer who mostly reads the artist's threads, but hopefully this can help people.

1. Who are you?
An introduction to your post. If you're looking to work with someone else, establish yourself. Your skillset, a bit about your history, who you are seeking and why.

2. What are you looking for?
Threads often lack essential detail in what they seek. So many times a thread will say "Seeking VA" or "Looking for programmer" without any further detail. What exactly are you looking for? Or at the very least, a rough idea. If you're looking for a programmer, what do you want the programmer to do? Flash games? HTML 5? Something else? Do you have a code base that you want a programmer to start working from? If you're looking for a voice actor, who are they playing? What do they sound like? What's their character. Specifying "male" and "female" doesn't cut it. Voice acting is such a wide field that you need to give more details for what you're looking for. If you're not sure and want to leave it a bit open, that's fine, but something more than "Looking for male VA" would work well.

3. What are you offering?
There needs to be some give and take in this process. There are a number of threads where someone asks:
- "Looking for a programmer to make my game"
- "What are you offering?"
- "Well, I don't have money."

You don't have to offer payment, but there needs to be some kind of two way process here. If you're looking for someone to work with you for free, why should they? Are you a passionate individual who is looking to make a kickass portfolio piece with a likeminded individual? Are you an established person who is offering a good place for someone to make a mark in a good product?

One big problem that I see from some artists and designers "Looking for someone to make my game", for free. People looking for a code monkey who will work for the purpose of working. Not going to happen. If you don't have money, again, that's fine. Just be prepared to offer up something else. Maybe sharing the design process of a game.

If you are offering payment, specify at least roughly how the work process will go. Are you offering X amount of money for X amount of work? Clarify! Are you looking to develop a mobile game for which the profit will come from ad revenue? Are you looking to make a game that you think might not work, but ideally you would like to monetise it? Specifying these things is important. Even if it's a worst case scenario, frankness and honesty is better than trying to pull someone in to a failing project with no expectation of how it will go?

4. Why work with you?
There's something here that baffles me. People come here and seek a type of person without offering anything about themselves. Bear in mind that for a lot of the collaborative projects here, it's quite an even process between all parties involved, so you need to show how you're pulling your weight. If you're an artist, include your work! A post where you mention a great idea that you have without any art won't win anybody over. If you're a programmer, mention the languages you work in and link to some past projects. If you're a designer, show some games you've made.

None of the things you've made have to be successful, or big, or important. They just have to show your skillset and how you apply yourself. And that's important for when you're working with someone.

5. Details!
Details! Details! Lots of details. Information about what the project is. If it's a Flash animation you want an animator for, talk about its characters, its setting, the style (link to something similar to what you're envisioning!). Same goes for a game. The genre, gameplay mechanics, how the player will be interacting with the game, etc. Make sure to also mention the scope of the project. The time you expect it to take, how many people will need to work on it, whether you'll be seeking any extra people etc. It's all important.

Some people have secret projects. That's fine. But whilst you're making a request thread, ask yourself why it's secret. Quite often, whole projects (or at least large parts of them) really don't need to be kept secret, so just re-evaluate. Posting the details in the manner described in this thread is MUCH better than "PM for info". If the project is hush-hush, just think about it and try to talk about what you can.

6. Contact information
This is normally covered, but it does without saying. Will a reply to the thread suffice? A PM? Skype? Email? Post any way you'd like to be contacted.

That more or less covers the most important things to include. Bear in mind everything you'd feel comfortable replying to in someone else's shoes. Before you post "Looking for VA", ask if that's something you'd want to reply to based on only that information. Think about what you'd need to know about the role, about the time you'd need to spend, about possible payment etc.

This thread largely covers people who are seeking others for existing project, but the same applies for if you're trying to sell yourself as someone willing to work. "Will program for free" sounds nice, but doesn't explain much. Portfolio! No matter what your domain, a portfolio will work wonders. Make your thread appealing and worthwhile, and don't force people to have to interrogate you for details. It should all be there for someone to make a justified decision on whether the project or role seems like it's for them.

Hope this helps some people. Happy collaborating, everyone.

Response to: what a good laptop for programming? Posted April 20th, 2014 in Programming

Any. Programming isn't about specs. Don't get bogged down in that. The optimal things are high resolution, and it's fast. Things you can tell independent of worrying about programming.

Response to: Do you smoke? Posted March 26th, 2014 in General

At 3/25/14 10:51 PM, SneakyGameBoy wrote: Cigarettes? No, I don't want to have health problems in the future nor die at a early old age.

You're in for rough surprises regardless of whether you smoke.

Response to: Your first time. Posted March 2nd, 2014 in General

At 3/2/14 10:46 AM, supergandhi64 wrote: Never. The First Time You Attended Communion?

--supergandhi64

The first time was probably before I can remember, but when I was around five I ended up spitting out the wine on to the floor. The priest immediately began wiping the floor with his cloth and told me that it was a sign of the devil.

First time you got a pet?

Response to: Is there a way to..? Posted March 1st, 2014 in Game Development

At 3/1/14 06:28 PM, evowolfdemon wrote: Is there a way to cancel a key in actionscript 3.0 I have the key Z for a special attack but i want it to activate when you reach a certain score.....

In your if statement for the key press, add an AND conditional operator followed by the score being greater than a certain value.

Response to: I'm fat? Posted March 1st, 2014 in General

I think you look fat, but you don't look bad. But if you want to motivate weight loss, do it for your health, not aesthetics.

Response to: && Statement For Multiple Key_up Posted February 24th, 2014 in Game Development

I don't know about Flash, but XNA has a built-in key array that you could implement yourself. Essentially you would just have a list. Whenever a key is pressed, it's added, and when the key is released it is removed. To check for multiple keys you would check if the list contains the keys you're looking for.

Response to: I made a maze Posted February 22nd, 2014 in General

At 2/21/14 05:23 PM, Madjasper1 wrote:
At 2/19/14 11:52 AM, Antilogical wrote:
That 8 looks like it was from Fraps.

Correct. Don't ask me why I cropped a print screen in Paint* rather than taking a FRAPS screenshot.

*I know the snipping tool exists, but I always end up in trust old Paint.

Response to: Mods Posted February 20th, 2014 in General

I've only seen one but I only recognise him by his icon. I got annoyed because he locked a six hour old empty thread exactly a minute before I tried to submit a long reply to it.

Response to: I Got A Pokemon With Pkrs Posted February 20th, 2014 in Video Games

The first Pkrs is rare, but after that your other party members have a decent chance of becoming infected.

Response to: Map Editor Posted February 20th, 2014 in Programming

At 2/20/14 03:07 PM, Nagbe wrote:

:: well when you put it that way, it can be very time consuming to punch in whether a block is solid or not. The only problem with your idea is that the Map Editor just loads a Tileset of images and it doesn't know which blocks to initially set to solid because the maker of the tileset could arrange the tiles anyway they wish.

I think they way I'd do it in your case is to have a toggle switch at the side which determines whether placed blocks will be solid or not. So you'd press it, place whatever collision blocks you'd like, then press it again and place your non-collision blocks. Then you could easily toggle back and forth. It would greatly speed up the process and I'd strongly recommend implementing it. When developing tools that are to be used by someone else (or yourself, but especially someone else) you want to ensure their workflow will be as smooth and efficient as possible.

Response to: Map Editor Posted February 20th, 2014 in Programming

At 2/19/14 10:47 PM, Nagbe wrote:
The thinking behind me making every tile optionally solid is what if you wanted secret areas and that area looked solid but it wasn't. The in game map editor sounds pretty cool and is something I might implement, but for now i'm just going to work on the current one.

That's a special case though. You should have a reasonable set of default parameters that can then be tweaked. You don't want to have to manually set a thousand blocks to be solid just for that one optional solid-looking aesthetic block.

Response to: How to make text selectable? Posted February 19th, 2014 in Game Development

What you mean by selectable, but not just highlighting? Changing a text box to "Dynamic text" will allow the user to highlight text and copy it.

Response to: Join me in bed, NG Posted February 19th, 2014 in General

At 2/19/14 12:58 PM, Fluffington wrote: wouldn't it be better if all of us just stayed under layers of cozy blankets and cuddled?

Probably not. It just means nothing gets done and work piles up.