Peregrination, Sessions

Today's session went well. We played Flick.ManoAMano for about three hours, and then several of us played a couple round of BenG.Breakthrough for a little under an hour. Several members continued playing as part of ZMD's event, which our member Calus CoRPS won. We'll be continuing with another session of Mano A Mano next week at the same time.

I'd like to start filling out our schedule with a midweek session. I'm thinking Wednesday evenings (6:00pm EDT, UT-4), but I havn't picked a game yet. Reply here or on the forum if you have a game you'd like to play (or to suggest a different time).

Edit: We've temporarily chosen Plunder Gnome for this Wednesday's session, but I'd still like to hear other ideas. Having two games going can help if the first game starts getting boring.

This Sunday, probably around 12pm eastern time (UT-5), the guild will be playing a session. I'm thinking we'll play Flick.ManoAMano, as that's what we've been playing recently. Show up any time around or after 12 and you'll find me (and hopefully others) playing. If you'd like to suggest a different time or game, just reply here. We can even string together a couple different games/times.

PS: If you'd like to donate some time updating the CSS, just comment here or post on the forum.

(Comments restricted to guild members, but guild membership is open to all).

After talking with some other members while playing various games today, I've decided to bring back the Sessions guild. What is the Sessions guild, you ask?

The purpose of Sessions is to find other people to play games with. There are a lot of us who like to play BYOND games like Flick.ManoAMano or Oasiscircle.TurtleTowers, but when we log in there's no one there. By maintaining a list of good games we want to play, other people who want to play those games, and times when we'll meet up and play them, the Sessions guild will help find you people to play with.

Over the next week or so I'll be reconfiguring the site to reflect its new purpose and changing over the favorites list to reflect the guild members' preferences (instead of being my favorites). For now I've reinstated the Sessions Forum, so you can post there if you have a specific game you'd like to play and optionally a time you'd generally be able to play. You'll need to join the guild before you can do that, though. A word of caution for anyone currently in my guild: If you don't want to be paged with invites to play Acebloke.Exploder (or some other game I'm hosting at the time) then now would be a good time to leave the guild.

Now that I have a server I can host from, I'll host something this Sunday, and I'll probably make that a regular part of the guild.

Note: This is a post of no particular value to anyone. In other words, it's truly a "blog" post. As such, I've decided not to show it on the front page. Read if you've got 5min you need to kill.

Sometimes I loose track of my own personal history. I don't know if that's something common to most people, or particular to me. I was reminded of something just now while reading a post by Foomer, in a discussion on the developer forum. A large part of that thread focuses on the need for developers to find others willing to work for them, because programmers can't make graphics and artists can't program. The problem lies in the fact that each developer (programmer or artist) is working on their own game, and wants to get someone to work for them, not the other way around. This is a giant issue on BYOND. The good news? Don't look at me, this isn't a post about how to save BYOND, this is me talking about myself, so let's get back on track. Foomer wrote:

You may be bitter about it, but its not true. So not everyone has a talent for programming. Just because someone isn't good at something doesn't mean they can't do it. Look at Theodis. He's an awesome programmer, very talented in that aspect. Can't draw worth beans. He makes stick figures. Does this stop him from making games? No, he makes his games stick figures and all. The reverse is also true. Someone may not be good at programming, but that doesn't stop them from being able to do it. You can get away with a poorly-coded game with awesome design or graphics just as well as you can a very well-coded game with really sad graphics. (Design isn't really optional. A poorly designed game will suck no matter what.)

This got me thinking. People generally consider me to be a good programmer. I'm not. I'm a diligent programmer and I've worked for a very long time to learn the craft, but I don't have any special flair for it like some people do.

People generally consider me to be a good artist, too. In fact, a little while ago when I was hiring myself out as a programmer, several people approached me to do graphic work instead. I've never considered myself a graphic artist, though. My three siblings in art school are the artists, I just make "programmers art" to make my games more lively. Granted, I've spent years honing the craft and picking up techniques, but I have no innate flair for it. I simulate flair by throwing time at something.

So, yeah, by being diligent and spending a lot of time I can create good graphics and good code, but I'm not primarily a graphic artist or a programmer. I'm a game designer, it's an art as complex and noble as any other. I have been one ever since I can remember, and that's also why I'm on BYOND. I just forget that sometimes, like this week as I've been spending every free moment doing graphics for Regressia.

I promised you results on Sunday, didn't I? According to BYOND standard time, I've still got about 3 hours to deliver that promise. What, you live in Australia, and it's Monday already? Hey, not my problem Kangaroos can't keep proper time. Besides, it's only been two weeks, this is the fastest any BYOND competition has every been judged!

Seriously, though, stop paging me.

The zip with the entries is still uploading, so it may be a couple minutes before it's available. Also, the prizes have yet to be determined or distributed. I'm expecting to hear back from our sponsors as soon as they see the results. So if you got a good place, just sit tight and I'll post the prize information as soon as I get it.

Congrats to well... I won't spoil it. Congratz to the winners. Now go read the document.

Edit: You can also view a list of all developers who were ranked "Complete" or higher, by viewing this hub page. If you are on that list and would like to proudly display your accomplishment on your members page, simply add that hub to your favorites and the medal will show up on your blog shortly thereafter.