Barricades, Getting Back to Basics, and Birthdays

Long time no see! I feel a year older than when we last caught up! Still, old habits die hard, so it’s business as usual at the #EgoOffice.

So, I made a commitment to you last week. I told you I would actually do something on Horde. The million dollar question is, did I manage it? Well… Sort of. I spent longer than I expected writing the employment contract. Turns out there’s a bit more that needs including than I gave credit for when putting one of these things together. I eventually got the first draft finished at about 3:30pm, which didn’t leave me an abundance of time to work on Horde.

Nevertheless, I made a commitment to you guys, so I tried, I really did. Mostly I was going over some bits of design, I tweaked the human AI shoot time a bit to make them a little kinder, and put some thought into how I’m going to trigger the end of a level. My job today is going to be getting the end barricade working I think. I’ve written a bunch of untested code to call a load of events when it gets destroyed, but as it doesn’t even exist yet, the odds on that happening are slim!

So yeah, sadly I don’t have a lot to show you, but at least I’m easing back into dev, instead of perpetually working on the bureaucracy of running a company! I’ll try and put together something more visual for the next blog.

I have however been trying to take steps to get back into improving my art skills, and that I can show you! This week I’ve been digitising my housemate’s drawings of some DnD characters. I’ve got one fully coloured, so here she is:

She’s by no means perfect, I’m not happy with the face or feet, but I think I did a decent job on the hair, clothes and ocarina. I’m actually happier than I expected with the shading too. It’s proving to be a fun exercise, mimicking Richard’s art style. My intention was to focus on practising the technical side of putting lines where I intend them to be, and not having the added challenge of coming up with a design and whatnot. I’ll probably post more of these practice pieces on the twitter and Facebook page if I can get my act together!

And finally, as the title and less than subtle intro suggests, it was my birthday this week! I spent the time working, so really made full use of this once-a-year event, but Suzie and I did put together a fairly excellent birthday cake, which we’re still working through!

I’ll make sure #EgoProblems gets an even bigger cake, when its birthday rolls around! That’s still a ways away yet, though we’re approaching the half-year mark, which is pretty fantastic! For now though,

Matt out.