So I broke out the arduino board after I had gone to the dentist to get a ton of work done. And was messing with it, then I got the idea to grab one of the garden solar lights that wasn’t being used. Tore it apart, and messed around with it a bit, got it to read an LDR (light dependent resistor) and such. But that wasn’t what I was interested in. It was the Solar Panel that comes with these inexpensive garden lights. It’ll charge a single double a battery, which will run the LED once the LDR detects there isn’t enough light. Then my brother called me a day or so after i first tore it apart. And said he wanted something that would charge his cellphone when out hunting and such. So I got started on the task, taking the remaining 3 others and tore them apart, ran them in a series. Made a circuit used for regulating and charging iphones (it’ll do any other USB device as well) and voila. I had an ugly looking solar panel USB charger. Recycling parts and such from stuff I had lying around. USB extention and such. Only thing I really had to buy was the 5v regulator. Stole a few things from my dads place as well. And with a TON of help from him I was able to get it running all stable-like. And that’s my ramble for the day. (Not that anyone ever reads my blog. right? prove me wrong.)
-Ikky
We all know about swype for the android phones. And how the iPhone is lacking in that department. I think most all of us can agree, that we use our keyboards on out phones mainly for texting. While iPhone does not have a ‘global’ swype like keyboard there is an app out there in the appStore that gives you that functionality, called Shapewriter pro. However in order to use this and text, you have to go into the Shapewriter app, swype, copy, exit the Shapewriter app, open the SMS app, paste, and so on and so forth.. As you can see that might be a bit of a pain in the ARSE! A work around I have found however is using an app like tlert, or iRealSMS found in the Cydia store. I personally use tlert. These apps allow you to send and receive texts from any app. So instead of switching between the 2 apps, you just need to stay in Shapewriter pro (If you’re doing a lot of texts). Photo example! YAY
Hope this can be of use to those who want to use Swype w/o all the app switching!
like i said in my last post.. I have again started programming on mah game… Instead of trying to keep track of a blog and adding stuff every now and then for updates.. I decided to make a calendar to give myself deadlines for particular ‘objects and goals’. This way I can see the progress I have actually made.. And I must say it makes me feel a lot more accomplished having it across a ‘calendar’ of sorts.. I just installed some random calendar which works out.. If you want to check out the progress I’m making goto http://www.ikkydev.com/progress and it should all be there. I’ll also add a link on the side ->
Started programming my game again.. It’s kind of hard to get back in the loop of things.. But i’m picking back up where I was… Just means my programming is a mess of things :p I’ll clean it up when I get a chance… For now I am just gonna get things up and running.. Fixed a few bugs with the game maker. Got the ‘look’ command to work w/ the client side of things. Still need to register the user on the server side of things.
Yeah so I’m trying to do this on my phone and let’s just say it’s hard!! So As the title suggests kara and I finally got into our house!! It’s wonderful we love it! So we cleary don’t have Internet yet else I would be posting this on the laptop but its not too bad to type with this phone.. You get the hang of it after awhile.
We got into our home on Saturday. Been moving stuff over ever since, tomorrow we have 1 load left to take over then we are done! So exciting!! Starting to unpack everything already and it’s just been a blast to do with Daniel and janette! Ok so I’ll post pics once we get the interwebs all up in hurr!!
Oh hai! Yeah so it’s been quite awhile since I’ve last posted… My wife and I have been trying to get into a new home.. Which has been a MESS!!! We should be closing on the 17th at the earliest. In order for our builder to pay closing costs they had us go through their lender. But short story shorter they weren’t set up to do a rural loan, in any case we are now able to go through our original lender and hopefully things will go well. As for programming.. I haven’t done anything for the game at all… :/ But I’ve been messing with an arduino board as of late. It’s been pretty fun, was able to control it from a program on my computer, LEDs and such. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to programming the game once I get some time to do it! Work + moving + other projects = ADD
Haven’t had much time to do much work.. Decided to get the ‘moving’ working.. and well.. it’s working now… Next on the list is fixing up the ‘game maker’ a bit.. and then touching up moving and i’ll work on a ‘say’ and ‘character placement’ (where it says the players in the room or w/e..) that way we will have a virtual world i can at least open up where you can chat and such.. perhaps that will help boost the development on this project… Ok sleep time…
Again doing an update for a friend.. I’m kind of disappointed in myself… I figured by now I would have at least have myself ‘put’ in a room… Which I suppose I AM… But it doesn’t display anything on the client side yet… But I have done A LOT for the structure of the program.. sending and receiving information wise.. It is much better then any of my other protocols I have done.. Simpler and more secure as well… So far what you can do is… Sign on with a VALID username and password.. If invalid you have to re enter information… Once signed in client sends a request to pick a character.. Server sends available characters under your (userID) we’ll call it cuz that’s what it is.. and you select your character… Then it sends over to the server telling what char you selected.. and it double checks and makes sure that the charID belongs to you.. And it retrieves the information of that character and sends to the client… :O SO LITTLE THATS ACTUALLY BEEN DONE GAME WISE!! But I have the skeleton of the game up though.. Now all I gotta do is build around it.. That was the hard part… Next I think I am going to work a bit more on the game maker and add 4 more directions making it 8 directions.. Also adding the ability to ‘jump’ places and the command you have to specifically type to ‘jump’ to that place such as ‘pull lever’ and it teleports you to afghanistan or w/e… Actually I think I’ll work on the ‘room placement’ real quick THEN the directions… After that is done.. I believe I can start on the ‘moving around’ north south west type of stuff and what characters are in which rooms… after that being able to speak to one another which should be simple enough… And then it’s all building on top of that!
Well I promised my friend I would make regular updates regarding the text-based game I am making… Right now I’m working on the ‘backbone’ of it all… The protocol.. Right now I’m to the point where I can successfully send small or large chunks of data across the web with relative ease… There’s some things that need tweaking with it though.. But that’s all to come later… Right now I think I’ll work on the ‘gameroom’ and placing persons in the gamerooms… (which isn’t exactly a subtle task, but it is the first major step for the creation of this game.) So right now my work will kinda go 1/2 and 1/2 on the parser and on the basic game functions(server side).. But yeah.. That’s it for now.. I’ll keep you all posted.
Again it takes me forever to make a post… Busy busy last few weeks…. A lot of crap going on in life… If you want to check it out you can see what’s all happening at http://www.prayersforchristy.info
The short story of it is… Christy (my sister in law) a couple of weeks ago was found at the bottom of the stairs at her home.. She hit her head pretty bad. Her husband Dustin had found her when he came home from the grocery store and took her to the local hospital, the local hospital couldn’t do anything so they took her to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center… I think that’s what it’s called anywho.. So she has undergone 3 surgeries so far and i believe is going in for another surgery soon… Anyways check that out if you’re interested… Full story is there.
On a happier note… I poked chads throat today?
That was pretty awkward… Oh and I got that cabinet I was working on put up go me! Only took me 2 1/2 years! Lol not quite but it still took forever! I needed a hammer drill (the hammer drill on my little dewalt drill couldn’t handle it.) So I got that up and it’s looking pretty sweet….
On the programming side of things I’ve decided to dive into a ‘text adventure’ game! Haha… I intend to make it a MMO of sorts.. Sort of like those ‘MUDD’ games and such, but only cooler cuz I made it :p….. A lot of work goes into these things though… I’ve started the basics of the level editor… So far you create a grid 8×8, 16×16, 32×32, 64×64 and 300×300(for the huge world maps) I honestly don’t think i’ll go above the 64×64 though.. But the option is nice… I could of just left it custom but I figure some sort of consistency is needed. Here’s a screenshot of it for those who are interested.
It’s been a pretty fun project to work on I think… Hopefully my friend, Wayne will be helping me with it soon. But he has school and is kept pretty busy so it might not happen.. On the client side of things (Not the game maker..) I have it up and running.. There are of course the North East South West buttons, and a look button… And there is also the more classical ‘text’ functions where you type north then hit enter and you go north.. That is up and running.. I need to work on the parsing of that a bit more… It’s a little bit on the sloppy side of things… I was planning on being a little bit lenient on that side of things but i don’t think i will be anymore.. Too much room for error… So I can successfully load up a ‘map’ and navigate through it.. So now there’s the process of making monsters (which i will add to the game maker) and the process of your own ‘character’ as an actual ‘object’ wondering through these worlds I will be creating.. Then after the fighting monsters and such is done I’ll move onto the connecting of 2 worlds (doors that lead to different maps and such)… Which will also come with it’s own set of ‘commands’ (open, crawl, jump, idk whatever…) by this time i’ll move to making it a multiplayer game, so i’ll be going through all the protocols and stuff! Then there is the whole Class thing to add to the characters… leveling up, experience… etc… etc… LUCKY ME!! Anyways… If ANYONE wants to help! It would be freaking awesome! Things that might be needed.
* Simple Graphics.. (For if I decide to add a little more then text to the game)
* World developers! (Help me create the world! Room definitions… Looking definitions… secret rooms and such!)
* Coders of sorts (Help me with the AI of the monsters to wander around the world.. Neutral Enemy Friend.. YAY)
And once the game is up and running… I’ll need testers of course! And GMs as they are called in other games
Even though maybe 2 people will read this.. Maybe they’ll help!
As for programming.. I haven’t done anything for the game at all… :/ But I’ve been messing with an 
go me! Only took me 2 1/2 years! Lol not quite but it still took forever! I needed a hammer drill (the hammer drill on my little dewalt drill couldn’t handle it.) So I got that up and it’s looking pretty sweet….
