Finally, Some News!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Wow, more than a month since my last post. But I have some good reasons, and I think you'll like em!

For starters, I had midterms this week, so I would have gotten this out sooner but I wanted to be around while you checked it out. So that's excuse #1.

Anyway, so here's what I spent the last month or so working on: Andrew Animation 2.0! (technically it's the 4th logo I've had so it should be 4.0, but I don't really care). I've been working on the main site for AndrewAnimation.biz, but that's still in the works (I'm going to get some advice from someone on it, but my part is mostly finished), but more importantly, Andrew Animation Games has a completely redesigned site. In fact, it's going to replace this blog! I read up on Wordpress code, and finally got the site looking the way I wanted it. Granted I'm still not 100% satisfied, but it's good enough. After what I went through attempting to code my own Wordpress-style site, I realize how much work goes into it. I also figured Wordpress was more secure if my games ever become more wide-spread.

Point is, register and comment there if you'd like. There's one post there waiting for you, as well as a few pages I've written. Take a look at them, tell me what you think (just not here).

Oh right, the link. Go here.

And for those of you wondering why I didn't post anything else before this, it's because I wanted to close this blog with exactly 50 posts. =)

I Knew That Would Happen

I write the below post two months ago, and saved it in draft hoping I would remember to update it before the day came around. But that didn't happen. Anyway, so my blog's been around for six months now. Not much to say about that, oh well.

Anyway, so Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Only 27 days until Christmas!

PS. Me and AP might have a demo of our game soon. But don't hold me to that, knowing how I am with predictions.

What a Boring Week / Questions for You

I feel like I'm wasting a post this week, as I don't really have anything to talk about that I've done. So instead I'll make a list of things I would do if I had unlimited free time.

1. Redesign my Website

I actually am working on this one. I've finished most of the homepage and basic layout, but I need to fix the Flash menu (try moving over a button, then moving out of the menu. I don't want it to stay lit when you do that), and the homepage still looks a bit bare, but it's coming along.

2. Work on my/AP's Game

Right now, I'm working on some pretty complex "dynamic-level-loading based on camera movement" code. That probably doesn't make sense to you, but the point is that the entire level isn't moving around, just individual clips that it needs at that moment based on where you are. Again, I haven't had much time to work on this lately, but hopefully I will sometime this weekend.

3. Make my Own Blog

I've said it before, but I don't really like having a Blogger blog, because of the lack of customizability. I want to set one up on my own server, but ideally, I don't want it to be just a blog. What I want to create is a hybrid blog/forum, where there's one main post that's always visible created by the admin, but members can also create your own topics/threads. Sorta like a combination of Wordpress and bbPress. As usual, their code is too complex for me to figure out on my own, so I would have to start from the ground up. And I know I could do it, but it would take time, something which I don't have much of these days. What are your thoughts on this? Should I try to make this once I get a few other projects out of the way?

4. Make "Maze Adventure Flash"

I've wanted to do this since I got Flash 5 back in July, but AS1 couldn't do tile based stuff. Now that I have CS4, I tested some code, and it works! Unfortunately, the original Maze was made out of graphics I made with gradients in Powerpoint. If I wanted to make this into a serious Flash game, I would need to do a lot better than that. And I've found that drawing stuff from above is MUCH harder than drawing things from the side. Add that to the fact that I can't draw, and.....yeah. It actually wouldn't be that hard to code, but the graphics wouldn't look that great. If I did somehow get good graphics, do you think the game is good enough to make it on ArmorGames? Perhaps even get sponsored? Remember, I won't get around to this for a while, so don't worry about our game, AP. That's still on.

So, if you have any response to those questions scatterd throughout this post, please give them in the comments. Thanks for your help guys!

New Header!

Title pretty much says it all.

I've wanted to redo AndrewAnimation's logo for a while, and I've actually had this design for about a month. Except I've never done anything with it, since I haven't had ANY TIME TO DO ANYTHING BESIDES SCHOOLWORK!!!!!! Yes, still, the homework is ridiculous, and I just spent my entire weekend working. Seriously. But anyway, I want to redesign my site soon, using the new logo soon.

So....do you like the new logo? Did you like my old one better? Let me know your thoughts through comments, if you read this.

New Links

Just a quick post to say that I put two new links on the side there.
The blogs for WJUK and Nybuis from the Borne Games Forum.

links over there--------------------------------->

And please leave some comments.
I'm getting lonely. :-(
No, but I do want to know your opinion of Maze Adventure.

Better Colors

I just wanted to make a quick post to say that I changed the colors of the blog a bit, so it is not so... "rather funky" as WJUK put it.

Also, there's a link to this blog from the Exploding Pigeon Games Blog! (link over there ----------------------------->)
Linkage is good :-D

[Edit #1] I also put up a new banner for you to enjoy. I think I'll use something like that when I redesign my regular site.