tsfreaks

So I've apparently gotten all the low hanging fruit and now I'm left with all the hard work. That sort of sucks. :)

In fact, I need to go buy some SQL and Stored Procedure books before I can really continue. :|

I want to show screen shots and I want to tell all but at this point, that would be detrimental to the project.

Just venting because I just shoved a bunch of stuff to V2 for the first time. V2 was an empty list before that.

I'm also starting to scope my V1 design which will of course place the user in a nice tidy box where natural interactions with others will not be possible until the V2 work starts happening. Users will immediately start asking for all the "interaction" features I've pushed off. I think this is a good thing though. I have some major concerns about performance, security, and functionality that can be hammered out easier with a simpler V1 design.

I may also just give up on the whole PopLava things because I did something else that was stupid. I went through all the core PopLava projects and made some rough (but realistic) predictions on how long each one would take. Well, I'll be done sometime late in 2012. Wow... wtf. Is that even feasible. Do I invest in BYOND and a project of that magnitude? Wow. That was dumb of me.

So... I've been fighting with that for the last 1.5 weeks and if you combine it with all the hard work left in this one... egads. I'm at high risk right now. If I need further evidence, I just need to continue typing this blog posting instead of coding.

So... on a side note... I continue to hunt for great games on the web. I've looked at or played 40+ games over the last few weeks. I've found a few time wasters but wow... nothing captures me at all. It's truly amazing. The games with potential always lack my core needs or are super grinders. So, that is what drives me. I think better can be done.

This evidence of sucky games is what drives my efforts. I can only hope that as the PopLava vision slowly leaks out with each release that people jump on board. Together, I think we can do better. If not, I will throw the towel in as a game developer. I may fool myself into some game design document writing but I know better.

As I ponder over what it would be like to stop thinking about game design every waking moment of my life... I think I may sleep better at night and I think I may actually be a lot happier. I won't be distracted and so anti-social because my brain isn't distracted by game design all the time.

I want to succeed so badly... but I'm also so tired of not going anywhere with it.

Again, this is just a vent session. I do this about 1-2 times a year. This time around feels a little more serious though. I was able to stop buying PC and XBOX games for the last 3 months and that's more proof that I'm undergoing some major changes.

Anyway, here's to chance and hope. Cheers.
ts

The definition as supplied by wikipedia seems ok to me.

Definition: "A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters and looting any treasure they may find."

The following list of options are provided simply for reference and were also taken from wikipedia.

* Azure Dreams
* Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance
* Champions of Norrath series
* Class of Heroes
* Dark Cloud and Dark Chronicle
* The Dark Spire
* Darkstone
* Demon's Souls
* Diablo series
* Digimon World 2
* Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup
* Dungeon Hack
* Dungeon Siege series
* Dungeon Runners
* The Elder Scrolls: Arena
* The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
* Etrian Odyssey
* Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard
* The Fantasy Trip
* Fate
* Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series
* Gauntlet
* Grandia Xtreme
* Guild Wars: Eye of the North
* Hellgate: London
* Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom
* Mabinogi
* Might and Magic
* Munchkin
* Mythos
* Neverwinter Nights series
* NetHack
* Phantasy Star Online series
* Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series
* Record of Lodoss War: Advent of Cardice
* Shining in the Darkness
* Shining the Holy Ark
* Stonekeep
* Swords and Serpents
* The Sorcerer's Cave
* Temple of Apshai
* Titan Quest
* Too Human
* Wizardry series

If you see one missing, let me know and I will add it to the list? If I get enough responses, I will try to post a follow-up 'Poll' with all the submissions.

Explaining what makes it #1 (in your mind) would be cool to.

and while I was looking around, I came across a new site which I hadn't seen before. Check it out if your into classic RP dungeon crawls - http://dungeonaday.com

oh, and my submission is...
"Diablo" ( the first one )

ts

I'm overworked.... and I want to punch the crap out of a punching bag... but I dont have one. Punching anything else will cost me money or pain so thats out.

Even if I had a punching bag, I would get tired after 10 punches and then I would get frustrated about that. Then I wouldn't use it anymore and that would frustrate me.

It's just a never ending fuxorplux... I want to scream...

but I'm to embarrassed to try... even though nobody is around...

so...

*SCREAMS*

...

ts

Just a quick heart beat update.

I've been working my ass off on my latest project. It's FAR more work (details) than I originally anticipated. I don't really pray but if I did, I would pray that part 2 of this little project is MUCH easier than part 1.

I've been working something like 4-12 hours a day on it.

I find that I'm pretty gung-ho about it which is strange given its not even a game. I think it shows that my passions are truly about what happens before and after games are made.

I've only got a couple more big todo's and hopefully one last big redo before moving on to part 2. Hopefully, my next update will have me saying, "done with Part 1"!

Until then...
ts

Think in terms of creating a new game or going back and adding AI to a single player game.