Topics

201

Living Room / [SOLVED] Please Help Me Recover Invisible Files!

« on: June 17, 2014, 02:20 PM »

Yesterday I was attempting to move a folder containing subfolders which had music files in them. It had a structure like so:

BaseFolder
--Subfolder1
----Lots of files
--Subfolder2
----Lots of files

After the move operation was completed (using TeraCopy), the "BaseFolder" was created in the new location, but it was empty. I've had similar experiences with TeraCopy in the past (but that's usually with it leaving behind empty folders after performing a move operation) so I went to the "old" location to try the move again, but the BaseFolder was empty there, too!

I was wondering where the files went if they didn't get moved. Surely they weren't just deleted! Alas, I couldn't find the files anywhere on my HDD, so I thought I had lost them. I even ran a checkdisk to see if it could recover them. Long story made shorter, I found that they appear in their old location when viewing the "BaseFolder" in my FTP client. But they don't show up in Windows Explorer (or cmd prompt).



So the files are there! Now the question is how do I make the files show up again like normal files? I already have my PC configured to show "hidden" and "system" files. But they still won't show up for me. Does anyone have any tips or ideas on how to restore the files to their original state?

202

Living Room / Please help me find this video

« on: June 08, 2014, 10:17 PM »

Hi folks,

Back in 2007 there was a free video tutorial series named C# Soup to Nuts given by William J. Steele, sometimes referred to as Bill Steele. It seems the original links on Microsoft's website are no longer valid and the "archive videos" are linked to a domain that is no longer owned by Mr. Steele (and thus, no longer host the content). I'm hoping that somebody, somewhere has the videos archived. Unfortunately my searches have proved fruitless thus far. While it would be nice to have the entire set of lectures, I'm specifically looking for the one on Delegates and Events, which seems to have originally been recorded/released on February 19th, 2007.

Perhaps some of the fine folks here at DC will have better luck or know of better resources to search through to find these videos?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

203

Living Room / Looking for a good non-Logitech keyboard

« on: May 01, 2014, 11:16 AM »

I'm in the market for a new keyboard. I was using the K800 which I really, really liked. But every single Logitech device I've purchased in the past decade or so has had significant issues crop up after only 2-3 years of use so I'm done with them as a company. Every single mouse has had issues with double clicking or "letting go" when I was trying to click and drag. And this past weekend one of the keys on my keyboard has suddenly stopped working. A $100 keyboard should last longer than that. And no, I didn't spill anything on it. I'm sick and tired of my Logitech devices failing after only a couple of years (if that long). Grr!

If that's not planned obsolescence then it's sheer incompetence, and I'm not going to support either of them with more money.

So anyway, does anyone have suggestions for a nice keyboard that will last? Some of the things I really liked about the K800 and would like to have again (but are not requirements) are:

1. Quiet keys.
2. Slim (not tall) keys that are easy to press. I can't believe how hard it is to type on a regular keyboard with such tall keys now that my fingers have gotten used to not having to move so much!
3. Backlight.
4. The key labels couldn't rub off because as best as I can tell the key itself is black and the label is laser etched through it or something. Very nice.
5. Wireless. I left my keyboard plugged in 98% of the time, but it was nice to be able to disconnect it occasionally to take to the couch or hand over to someone else near my computer.
6. Full size keyboard with numpad and Function keys.

Some things I didn't like about it:

1. Really the only thing I can think of is that I ran into conflicts when trying to press many keys at once. I'm not a competitive gamer, so it's not super important to me, but there were a few games where I noticed I couldn't use the key combinations I wanted to.

But honestly at this point I'm open to any suggestions.

Please, DC, share your wisdom with me and help me find a good Logitech replacement.

204

Developer's Corner / Ludum Dare 29: April 25-28 Weekend

« on: April 25, 2014, 01:38 PM »

First of all, what is Ludum Dare?

Ludum Dare is two similar events taking place over one weekend

The Competition is the familiar “make a game in 48 hours solo competition” that Ludum Dare is known for. Specific details can be found below. After the competition ends, participants are given 3 weeks to play and rate games created by their peers. After those 3 weeks, winners are announced.

The Jam is the new “relaxed” Ludum Dare. It was created to make Ludum Dare even more inclusive. You can work in a team, borrow assets from your other projects, or do things that would normally be against the rules. You also get one extra day, giving you up to 72 hours to submit an entry. This is helpful for those times real life gets in the way, or for games that need just a bit more time to become something great.

Ultimately, our goal with Ludum Dare is to encourage people to sit down and make something. Our hope is that the new structure continues to encourage more and more developers to join us and create a game in a weekend.

-http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/rules/

Ludum Dare 29 begins today. In about 6.5 hours from the time of this post. I'm planning on trying it out, which means before Monday comes to an end (in my timezone, at least) I should have a new game playable for all of you.

More details can be found here:

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/

Join me (us)! Scrap your plans for this weekend and make a game!

See my previous DC posts about Ludum Dare:
Ludum Dare - Game Programming Challenges
Ludum Dare 23 - 1,000 New Games and Counting
Be Tiny, World! (The game I made two years ago during Ludum Dare 23, which I've continued to update to this day!)

205

Developer's Corner / How NOT to Sort by Average Rating

« on: April 16, 2014, 04:58 PM »

I came across an article today that explains some flaws in commonly used sorting methods, with examples of why they're wrong, and then proposes a nice solution for more accurately sorting the truly higher rated stuff on top.

PROBLEM: You are a web programmer. You have users. Your users rate stuff on your site. You want to put the highest-rated stuff at the top and lowest-rated at the bottom. You need some sort of "score" to sort by.

WRONG SOLUTION #1: Score = (Positive ratings) - (Negative ratings)

Why it is wrong: Suppose one item has 600 positive ratings and 400 negative ratings: 60% positive. Suppose item two has 5,500 positive ratings and 4,500 negative ratings: 55% positive. This algorithm puts item two (score = 1000, but only 55% positive) above item one (score = 200, and 60% positive). WRONG.

Sites that make this mistake: Urban Dictionary



WRONG SOLUTION #2: Score = Average rating = (Positive ratings) / (Total ratings)

Why it is wrong: Average rating works fine if you always have a ton of ratings, but suppose item 1 has 2 positive ratings and 0 negative ratings. Suppose item 2 has 100 positive ratings and 1 negative rating. This algorithm puts item two (tons of positive ratings) below item one (very few positive ratings). WRONG.

Sites that make this mistake: Amazon.com

-http://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html

The article goes on to propose a better method of sorting things by their rating. A method which has even been endorsed by Randall Munroe of xkcd fame, so you know it's good.

Anyway, be sure to read the full article here:
http://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html

206

General Software Discussion / Ubuntu One (cloud) file services ending soon

« on: April 10, 2014, 03:55 PM »

Bad news when cloud services byte () the dust.

From an email I received earlier today:

from:    Ubuntu One [email protected]
date:    Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 1:32 PM
subject:    Ubuntu One file services

Hi,

We are writing to you to notify you that we will be shutting down the Ubuntu One file services, effective 1 June 2014. This email gives information about the closure and what you should expect during the shutdown process.

As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services apps in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately.

As always, your content belongs to you.  You can simply download your files onto your PC or an external hard drive.  While the service will stop as of 1 June, you will have an additional two months (until 31 July 2014) to collect all of your content. After that date, all remaining content will be deleted.

If you have an active annual subscription, the unused portion of your fees will be refunded. The refund amount will be calculated from today's announcement.

We know you have come to rely on Ubuntu One, and we apologise for the inconvenience this closure may cause.  We've always been inspired by the support, feedback and enthusiasm of our users and want to thank you for the support you've shown for Ubuntu One. We hope that you'll continue to support us as together we bring a revolutionary experience to new devices.

The Ubuntu One team

Thank goodness for DRM-free storage. That's the one nice thing about all this. I never relied on Ubuntu One cloud storage for anything, and what I do have there (a single album I bought a couple years ago) can easily be retrieved and stored elsewhere before the deadline.

207

Developer's Corner / How The Most Expensive Game Jam In History Crashed And Burned In A Single Day

« on: March 31, 2014, 08:19 PM »

Here's an interesting article about something that happened this past weekend. It seems like a simple and pretty good concept: Organize and film a game jam to give folks a view into the ups and downs of indie game development. If you don't know what a game jam is, it could perhaps be summed up as an event in which game developers gather (often in one physical location, but not necessarily) and design and create a game in a short period of time (usually between 24-48 hours (a weekend) to 7 days (a full week)), often based on a theme or idea. They're mostly a non-competitive, fun, coding challenge almost like DonationCoder's own NANY, except done over a week(end). It's a great outlet for creativity and experimentation, and the short time limit liberates you from worrying about it being an utter failure or total crap. And many game jam games have been further developed into full fledged indie titles that are relatively popular.

Personally I found the first several paragraphs of the article hard to follow, as if the author was trying too hard to wax poetic and write prose rather than trying to describe what happened. But once he starts describing the events that took place, it becomes an interesting read about how one person when given too much power, can ruin things for all involved.

That natal idea, and one of the themes central to all 11 developers agreeing to travel to Los Angeles for the shoot, was the production and filming of a game jam for a televised audience (or at least a YouTube audience) with the intent to document the ups and downs of actually developing a game – hopefully sharing that experience with a viewership likely ranging into the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions. More importantly, it would be an opportunity for the group to share the closely-knit spirit of togetherness unique to indie development, presented through the lens of popular YouTube personalities with massive, mostly younger built-in viewerships. A slam dunk, you might say, created in earnest to shine a kind of light into the often misrepresented world of creating… or at least, that's what everyone thought.

At some point GAME_JAM outgrew itself, attracting the attention of major sponsors as well as a couple of our "high creative" production executives from the adjacent office down the street, and over the next four or five months the show began phasing into something less documentary and more docu-tainment. A sort of competition, held between four teams of "Jammers" (the developers), and "Gamers" (the YouTubers), as they battled it out to see who could come up with the best game combining both development and entertainment skillsets. Plus to see who could win a healthy array of branded prizes, generously procured by said sponsors and totally un-vetted by anyone who actually understands game development. At some point which remains unclear, the show wholly dipped into a scripted reality slant and became less about making a game and more about creating drama for sake of the audience, less than one day out of the four blocked off for shooting available to sit down and jam. The rest of the program, as it turned out, was filled with arts and crafts, physical challenges, and competitive gaming – once again, totally unrelated to game development. But that wasn't communicated to anyone, and through Polaris' local contacts the developers were signed up and flown out to Culver City, where they awaited their first hurdle in Maker's legal department.

-http://indiestatik.com/2014/03/31/most-expensive-game-jam/

It's a pretty good story about how standing up to and being united in the face of what essentially equates to bullying can really change the outcome. That is to say, from my perspective, I think that a lot of the developers here have a bitter taste in their mouth from the experience, and yes it's true that the game jam was cancelled, but it could have been a lot worse if it had continued on the path it was going down. The event may have been a failure, but I see this as a general success in doing the right thing in the face of adversity.

Read the article here: http://indiestatik.c...-expensive-game-jam/

And it's also worth reading about the experience as described by three of the developers who attended:

Robin: http://soundselfgame.com/?p=302
Adriel: http://msminotaur.com/blog/?p=187
Zoe: http://www.beesgo.biz/reality.html (She was contractually obligated not to write about the specifics, so it's a little less directly related)

208

General Software Discussion / Microsoft Word under attack. Don't open RTF files!

« on: March 25, 2014, 03:23 PM »

Hide yo wives! Hide yo kids! And hide yo husbands, cuz they RTFing errybody out here!

Microsoft Corp. on Monday issued an emergency security warning saying that hackers have found a way to booby-trap certain common Word files with the .rtf extension.

Microsoft says it's aware of attacks going on now, but there's no fix yet to stop the hackers. It's working on a way to stop the bug.

The only way to be sure your computer won't get infected is not to open a document with the .rtf file extension until Microsoft says it's fine to do so.

-http://www.businessinsider.com/hackers-are-attacking-microsoft-word-2014-3

Read more here:

http://www.businessi...icrosoft-word-2014-3

The Business Insider article seems to imply the attacks are for all editions of Microsoft Word, but the actual security advisory says the exploit only works in versions before Word 2010:

At this time, we are aware of limited, targeted attacks directed at Microsoft Word 2010.

[...]

We were glad to see in our tests that this exploit fails (resulting in a crash) on machines running Word 2013, due to the ASLR enforcement introduced for this product.

-http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2014/03/24/security-advisory-2953095-recommendation-to-stay-protected-and-for-detections.aspx

So be sure to read the actual security advisory posted by Microsoft here to get the actual info:

http://technet.micro...ity/advisory/2953095

209

Developer's Corner / Unreal Engine now $20/mo + 5% royalties

« on: March 20, 2014, 12:49 PM »

Unreal Engine announced yesterday/today (I heard about it yesterday, but the blog post I read yesterday has today's date...) a new version of the engine, as well as a new pricing model.

So now, you too can be licensed to use Unreal in your game project for only $20 per month, plus 5% of any sales:

Unreal Engine 4 launches today. What we’re releasing is both simple and radical: everything.

Epic’s goal is to put the engine within reach of everyone interested in building games and 3D content, from indies to large triple-A development teams, and Minecraft creators as well. For $19/month you can have access to everything, including the Unreal Editor in ready-to-run form, and the engine’s complete C++ source code hosted on GitHub for collaborative development.

This is the complete technology we at Epic use when building our own games, forged by years of experience shipping games like Gears of War for Xbox and Infinity Blade for iOS, and now reinvented for a new generation. Having the full C++ source provides the ultimate flexibility and puts developers in control of their schedules and destinies: Whatever you require to build and ship your game, you can find it in UE4, source it in the GitHub community, or build it yourself – and then share it with others.

-https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/welcome-to-unreal-engine-4

Personally I disagree with the idea of a subscription model. It's better to own your tools than to rent them. If you come up on hard financial times and can't pay rent on your tools, then you can't work to earn more money to pay for your tools. But that's just my opinion.

In either case, I'll stick with Unity, which you can use for free and you don't have to pay any royalties. Interestingly, Unity also started offering a subscription model to the Pro version of their engine well over a year ago, IIRC. Curious to see Epic copying them.

210

Living Room / Kickstarter Highlight: Catapult for Hire

« on: February 07, 2014, 01:41 PM »

	Catapult for Hire
Goal	$36,00 ($1,600 as of this posting)
End Date	2014-03-07
Project Creator(s)	Tyrone Henrie
Excerpt	Explore a whimsical Nintendo 64 era world and discover its darkest secrets Catapult for Hire is an action-adventure RPG where exploration and puzzle solving are done with your skillful and creative use of catapults. No job is too big or too small, in this game you do it all. One moment you will be solving huge Zelda-like temples and in the next you are helping a gigantic lazy ogre complete his chores. Earn gold, find and unlock new catapults, fight epic bosses, craft new payloads, heck you can even go fishing. The story is a satirical look at modern issues in a medieval setting. You play an out of work knight during an economic meltdown who turns to freelance catapultry to make ends meet. Even in a whimsical world, life can be harsh. Experience triumphant victories and crushing failures. As you progress you find there are bigger powers at play and that your adventures have found you uniquely equipped to take them on.

Back it here: http://kck.st/1atdlJs

211

DC Gamer Club / Dillo Hills 2: 'Roid Racing

« on: February 07, 2014, 01:46 AM »

I have no idea what a 'roid is. But Dillo Hills 2 is a fun racing game with a simple premise: Press down while going downhill to gain speed. Let go while going uphill to retain speed and fly into the air. Collect crystals to get powerups and items to fire at the other racers (Mario Kart style).

It's a great free, cross-platform flash game (also available on Android and iOS) that supports up to 8 players simultaneously (I repeat: cross-platform!).

Use my Friend ID when you sign up to add me to your friends list: 166764
(Strangely, it doesn't automatically add you back on MY friends list, so be sure to post here with your racer name so I can add you to my list as well.)

Play here in your browser (plus links to get it for Android or iOS): http://www.doyoudillo.com/

More info here: http://dillohills.com/


Full disclosure: I'm in no way affiliated with Dillo Hills 2, but if you use my friend ID when you sign up, I do get an in-game referral token which can be redeemed for in-game goodies.

212

Living Room / No More Candy

« on: January 21, 2014, 02:25 PM »

I'm probably breaking the law in making this post, since candy^tm is now trademarked.

While the joys of Candy Crush Saga have only reached the PC in the form of a Facebook app, the implications of one of the worst decisions by the US trademark office affect developers on all platforms. They have, as of last week, decided it’s perfectly reasonable for owners King to trademark the word "candy". And they’re trying to get “saga” too.

So it is that Gamezebo reports developers are now receiving threats that they must remove their apps or games if they have had the temerity to use this oh-so rare word in their product name. It’s the "edge" fiasco all over again, except this time with actual legal muscle behind it.

-http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/21/stealing-candy-from-babies-king-embrace-the-aristocracy/

What to do?

Candy Jam
Ooops sorry, 'Sweet Jam'
Fight trademark trolling - make a game.

Why?
Because trademarking common names is ridiculous and because it gives us an occasion to make another gamejam :d

Rules:
Make a game involving candies.
Consider using the word "candy" several times, also "scroll", "memory", "saga" and "apple" might give bonus points.

Deadline:
3rd of February

-http://thecandyjam.com/

213

Developer's Corner / How to seamlessly verify a unique identity without requiring username/password?

« on: January 06, 2014, 07:12 PM »

OK so here's the situation:

I program games. Nothing fancy. Nothing popular. Nothing that anybody except my mom has played. (Thanks, mom!)

But I do occasionally have ideas for games that would work better with certain "community" features. A few examples:

• Cloud saves.
• A game with a level editor, where players can submit and download user created levels.
• A racing game where not only are best racing times recorded (leaderboards), but also "ghosts" which you can download and race against.
• Asynchronous turn-based games that will require some sort of account system to keep track of who is playing against who, and prevent players from playing games/turns they shouldn't have access to.
• Friends lists to make it easier to start a game with people you know.
• A game with automatic matchmaking based on an Elo-like rating system^w.

Naturally, I'd need some sort of database/account system to keep track of which data belonged to which player. But I really don't want to make the players of my games have to deal with creating yet another account, or deal with password resets or things like that. I just need to verify that the player is who they say they are, and then let them play. This should be a one time process, per device/profile. i.e., if they install my game on their Android device, they'll need to authenticate once, then the app itself will store the token locally and access their game data that way. But if they also install the game on their PC, they'll need to authenticate once on the PC, too. And if they make another profile on the PC (if I am smrat and make the game support multiple profiles) then the profile will need to be authenticated for the new person.

I don't want or need any personal information. If hackers get access to my database, I want it to only contain non-personal information. Only game related stuff like scores, ghosts, friends lists, games, etc. This way a security breach isn't really a problem. All the data will essentially be public anyway, so the only thing I'd need to be worried about is if the hackers decided to delete the data.

Yes, there are third-party solutions that offer leaderboards and the like, but in my experience both as a player and as a developer, they have 2-3 big problems:

1. They are unreliable, smaller companies which disappear after a year or two, thus breaking all game functionality that relied on them.
2. They are reliable, huge companies (Google, Steam, Apple) but are not cross-platform.
3. They are reliable companies, but charge more money than I'm willing to pay since it's just going to be my mom playing my games.

My thoughts were to use OpenID, but that was designed to be used in the web browser, redirecting to the provider's page, then back to the content. I can't exactly do that from within a game. So maybe I want to use OAuth? Even then, I'm not sure. This is because, again, I don't wan't access to any of their account information from the OAuth provider. I just want a way to verify they are a specific, unique person, then automatically access their game account details from there.

In other words, once they are logged in, the account information would be mostly behind the scenes. I'm thinking that all I'd need is a unique token that never changes (so they can login again after a reinstall or on another device) and that token will be the key/index to the rest of their account information in my database.

Am I going about this the right way? If so, how would I go about using an already existing service provider to provide me with a token which I could then tie to the player's account, without requiring the player to create a username/password to login with every time they launch my game? I think I could even use something like a time-limited code (like what we often see in 2-factor authentication) so that they only need to type in a relatively short numeric code and it will grab all their details automatically. But again, the question is how do I do this seamlessly from within the game, without requiring them to use a browser for authentication?

So what should I use? OpenID? OAuth? WebID? Persona? Something else entirely?

214

DC Gamer Club / A bunch of games for $1 each at ShinyLoot.com

« on: December 02, 2013, 01:49 AM »

Hi folks,

I just came across this site which is having a sale of a bunch of games each for $1:

http://www.shinyloot.com/sales

Take a look and see if anything strikes your fancy.

215

Developer's Corner / GameMaker Studio Standard Free Upgrade

« on: November 27, 2013, 01:30 PM »

There's a free upgrade from GameMaker Studio to Standard Edition. Details below:

At first, I thought of Game Maker as a tool for unskilled beginners to make psuedo, they-don’t-count games. Then Spelunky came along and took away my snobbery, showing me that the entry-level tool could be used to create fantastic games. Then Gunpoint came along, and replaced my snobbery outright with a permeating sense of bitterness and regret; the kind which penetrates deep to your core and gradually erodes all your personal relationships.

Consider me a cautionary tale, and make use of this offer: Game Maker Studio‘s Standard edition, which normally costs $50, is free at the moment.

http://www.rockpaper...dard-edition-is-free

from rockpapershotgun.com

216

N.A.N.Y. 2014 / NANY 2014 Release: Blasteroids

« on: October 30, 2013, 07:44 PM »

NANY 2014 Entry Information

Application Name	Blasteroids
Version	1.141104.9 - Check the website below for more recent versions in case I forget to update this page.
Short Description	Destroy the asteroids before you're overwhelmed.
Supported OSes	PC/Mac/Linux/Web/Android
Web Page	http://blasteroids.deozaan.com/
Download Link	Downloads hosted on itch.io
System Requirements	Windows XP or later; Mac OS X 10.5 or later. Android 2.2 or later Pretty much any 3D graphics card. WebPlayer runs on all browsers, including IE, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, among others.
Version History	View most recent updates here: http://blog.deozaan....ategory/blasteroids/ NANY version history 1.140106.0 NANY Quitting while in-game now takes you back to the main menu. Death explosions no longer affect bullets. Extra life awarded for ever increasing score amounts. 1.140101.0 NANY Initial release for NANY 2014
Author	Deozaan
Donate to Author	DonationCredits Send DonationCredits to Deozaan Itch.io http://deozaan.itch.io/blasteroids

Description
You control a point defense turret in space that is being bombarded with asteroids. Destroy them before they destroy you!

Features
Amazing asteroid blasting action!
Infinite levels of increasing difficulty!
Compete against yourself and others with a (local) high score table.
The awarded score is based on how well you play.

Video

Screenshots




Usage
Installation
Unzip and run the executable. At least on Windows, and probably similar for OSX.
On Linux you'll need to set the permissions for the x86 or x86_64 files to allow them to run as executables before you can play.

Using the Application
Click the mouse to aim and shoot.
You can also press the spacebar instead of clicking.
Press Escape while in game to bring up the menu.

Uninstallation
Delete the directory containing the game files (and all subdirectories).
Some information (high scores, volume settings, etc.) is saved to registry or equivalent, which on Windows is: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Deozaan/Blasteroids

Tips
You get an extra life as your score increases. Lives are score multipliers, so try not to die much to maximize your score!
Try not to blast asteroids all willy nilly! Use some strategy. Each time you break a larger asteroid down into smaller ones, try to quickly destroy the smaller ones before breaking down more larger asteroids.
Don't die.

Known Issues
None

217

Living Room / DonationCoder & Cody themed art compilation thread

« on: September 16, 2013, 08:08 PM »

Hi folks,

I'd like to gather all DC related art into a single thread so that it is easier to find. Here's what I've found so far:

How Tall Is Cody?
DonationCoder.com Wallpapers Set 1
DonationCoder.com Wallpapers Set 2
DonationCoder.com Wallpapers Set 3
NEW Cody Wallpapers for Halloween (and old Halloween wallpaper)
Desert Island
Desert Island NANY Mug
Draw Cody Competition
DonationCoder.com Games Division (and Docoto Defense concept art)
NANY 2011 MUGs
Cyber Cody & Zombie Cody

I know I'm missing the pictures of the Dalmation Snake and Cody's Uncle. Will you help me find any art that I'm forgetting/missing?

218

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Be Tiny, World! release for Android, PC, Mac, and Linux.

« on: September 16, 2013, 03:07 PM »

Hi folks,

In April 2012 I participated in the Ludum Dare 23 72-hour game jam and made a game called "Be Tiny, World!" within 72 hours. I'm not particularly proud of the result but it was a fun little exercise and I enjoyed the challenge of making a complete game within 72 hours.

Since the challenge, I used Be Tiny, World! as an opportunity to try my hand at porting a game to Android, and shortly thereafter made an Android release. And over the months I've occasionally made some improvements (mostly to the Android version) to the otherwise simple, dumb game that it is.

Recently Google launched their Google Play Game services to provide things like Cloud Saves, Leaderboards, Achievements, and Multiplayer. Once again I was itching to test some of these things out so I used Be Tiny, World! as the guinea pig this past weekend and added achievements and leaderboards to the Android version of the game, and in the process I also made some minor improvements to the desktop version of the game, and additionally, there is now a Linux build of the game available.

So for anyone who would like to try out the nifty new achievements and leaderboards on Android, you can get the game either from Google Play or a direct APK download here (using Google Play or the Google Play Games Services is completely optional). And for those of you folks who use Linux, I'd appreciate if you gave it a try and reported any bugs, since this is the first release available on Linux. The desktop builds for PC/Mac/Linux can be found on the Be Tiny, World! website:

Be Tiny, World!

Thanks!

219

Living Room / The Best Job Around the World

« on: September 10, 2013, 01:38 AM »

Hi folks,

My friend, Jess, made a video to apply for a job to travel the world, take photos and videos, and write about her travels. Take a look at her video and if you like it, show your support by clicking the like button.

http://www.bestjobar...bmissions/view/10208

We have begun the search for our Chief World Explorer who will travel the globe for one year visiting destinations, sharing experiences and creating content for Jauntaroo while earning a salary of $100,000.00!

We are not kidding – this is the real deal! Travel, explore, experience the world and get paid. How can YOU help people know where to go on vacation? Click here to view some of the destinations our Chief World Explorer will visit!

[...]

After reviewing video applications, we will narrow down and announce the Top 50 Candidates. We’ll see if everyone agrees with our selections.

220

General Software Discussion / How to enable NAT Loopback on ZyXEL C1000Z router?

« on: September 03, 2013, 02:23 AM »

Hi folks,

I recently got a new ZyXEL C1000Z DSL router (provided by my new ISP--I didn't get a choice) which unfortunately doesn't have NAT Loopback^w enabled by default. Through some Googling I've found reports that it is possible to enable NAT Loopback on the router, but so far I've failed to find any instructions that actually work. Can any of you fine folks with better Googlefu skills than me find a solution?

The reason why I want this feature enabled is so that I can use a service such as DynDNS to automatically update my IP address, then I can just type something like MyIP.dyndns.com to get my IP from anywhere. This is also helpful to connect to my own computer even on my LAN for multiplayer games--but this where the IP loopback is required. With it disabled, the router does not allow MyIP.dyndns.com to resolve to the router's (ISP's) IP address.

Any help or suggestions?

Thanks!

221

Non-Windows Software / ANDROID: What's a good recipe viewing app?

« on: September 02, 2013, 07:05 PM »

Hi folks,

I'm looking for an app for my Android tablet (Nexus 7) that will display my recipes so I can easily refer to it while cooking.

Note that I'm not necessarily looking for an app that gives me access to an online repository of recipes, though that would be nice. But what I'm really looking for is something I can enter my own recipes into to refer to.

I did a search on the Google Play Store and found an app for Big Oven which looks nice and I'll definitely be giving it a try, but I figured I'd ask the opinion of anybody else here who might already have done this search and tried out a few and come to a conclusion on a particular app.

Thanks!

222

DC Gamer Club / Boson X - Free, frantic indie game.

« on: August 30, 2013, 04:23 PM »

Build up speed inside a massive particle collider and generate high-energy collisions to discover strange new particles. Use precise timing and fast reflexes to navigate a subatomic world where floors and ceilings don't exist. Will you be fast enough to find the elusive Boson X?

Boson X is free for PC, Mac and Linux. iOS version coming soon!

-http://www.boson-x.com/

Give it a try and see what score you can get. Here are my current high scores:

223

Non-Windows Software / ANDROID: What app do you use to read digital books?

« on: August 10, 2013, 02:06 AM »

Hi folks,

I have purchased a few eBooks in my time and after a very recent digital book purchase I realized that (to the best of my knowledge) I have never attempted to read an eBook in epub or mobi format on my Android device, with the possible exception of the books I've gotten on the Google Play store (most of which were free/public domain). I'm not sure what format those are.

So for all you Android users out there, what's a good Android app to use to read eBooks with?

Thanks!

224

Developer's Corner / The Danger of Naïveté

« on: July 11, 2013, 02:07 AM »

I recently thought it would be fun to program a simple card game and was wondering how to simulate a deck of cards being shuffled. I asked about it in the DC Chatroom and got a few helpful hints from people. Hamradio found this particular one from Coding Horror:

In my previous post on shuffling, I glossed over something very important. The very first thing that came to mind for a shuffle algorithm is this:

Code: C++ [Select]

1. for (int i = 0; i < cards.Length; i++)
2. {
3.   int n = rand.Next(cards.Length);
4.   Swap(ref cards[i], ref cards[n]);
5. }

It's a nice, simple solution to the shuffling problem:

1. Loop through each card in the deck.
2. Swap the current card with another randomly chosen card.

At first blush, this seems like a perfectly reasonable way to shuffle. It's simple, it's straightforward, and the output looks correct. It's the very definition of a naïve algorithm:

A naïve algorithm is a very simple solution to a problem. It is meant to describe a suboptimal algorithm compared to a "clever" (but less simple) algorithm. Naïve algorithms usually consume larger amounts of resources (time, space, memory accesses, ...), but are simple to devise and implement.

An example of a naïve algorithm is bubble sort, which is only a few lines long and easy to understand, but has a O(n2) time complexity. A more "clever" algorithm is quicksort, which, although being considerably more complicated than bubble sort, has a O(n log n) average complexity.

But there's a deep, dark problem with this naïve shuffling algorithm, a problem that most programmers won't see. Do you see it? Heck, I had the problem explained to me and I still didn't see it.

-http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/12/the-danger-of-naivete.html

He then goes on the explain the problem, using charts and graphs and things. Pretty interesting stuff.

I had found Jeff's original post on shuffling and thought it was useful, but Hamradio's link to The Danger of Naïveté was particularly insightful to a noob like myself.

225

DC Gamer Club / Humble Indie Bundle 8

« on: June 06, 2013, 10:10 PM »

The latest Humble Indie Bundle 8 includes 11 games:

Little Inferno
Awesomenauts
Capsized
Thomas Was Alone
Dear Esther

Beat the average (under $6 as of this writing) to get:

Proteus
Hotline Miami
Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers
Intrusion 2
English Country Tune
Oil Rush

Get the Humble Indie Bundle 8.

If you get it, let's play some Awesomenauts together! (It's like a 2D version of Dota/League of Legends)