It’s been quite some time since I played Minecraft online (probably nearly a year, in fact). Well, I decided to take a break today and check into the old server that I played on back when I did play online: Project Genesis. Unfortunately, it seemed like the server had hit a rough patch and shutdown. It wasn’t all bad news though, as I discovered that one of the former admins and quite a few of the community had started up another server by the name of Oils of Oasis.
A lot has developed in the mod community over the past year, so I have a lot of adjusting to do in that arena. The server runs the mod package by the name of Tekkit, so if you want to play on the server, you’ll need to download it at http://www.technicpack.net/tekkit/.
I’ve added a page containing a few things that I’ve done utilizing Flash and Actionscript in the past. You can find them over on the Flash page at http://brandonivey.wordpress.com/flash/. Due to the fact that WordPress.com does not allow Flash files to be embedded or even be uploaded for that matter, I had to find an alternative. A friend of mine allowed me to use his web hosting to store my files and I just link to simple HTML pages that have the Flash files embedded on them. Now you can still enjoy them! Always good to have a Plan B!
When I originally decided to revive my blog on wordpress.com, that’s all it was going to be… a blog about whatever that I felt like writing about. Now, I think I’m going to turn it back into what it was before, back when it was hosted on my own domain. To that end, I’ve already added my resume back and will be going through my archives to pull out some things I’ve done in the past to create a portfolio of sorts.
I know one of the things I want to show off is my experience with Adobe Flash and what little bit of experience I have with Actionscript. Another thing I want to show off is what I’ve done with HTML and CSS so far, especially given that web development is what I’m working towards. I haven’t created anything that implements Javascript yet, but I will get to that eventually.
So I’ve been fairly quick to classify myself as a beginner when it comes to web development, but it seems I know a little bit more than I give myself credit for knowing. After meeting with two recruiters with Robert Half Technology, they set me up to take two assessment tests (multiple choice) on HTML and Javascript.
Well, I only scored 80% (45 questions) on HTML, which is not as good as I thought I would do. I seem to have trouble remembering a few of the tags. On the other hand, I scored 75% (40 questions) on the Javascript test, which is better than I thought I’d do. I guess I really have learned a few things after completing the Javascript Fundamentals track on Codecademy.
I’m going to keep going through the exercises on Codecademy. Next up is mostly about HTML and CSS, but applies a little bit of Javascript to it. Codecademy has been extremely helpful so far, so I recommend it highly to anyone that is just starting out like me, even if you haven’t ever coded anything before, unlike me.
This just in… Wollay has released a new gameplay video for Cube World that shows off some of the new features in the game, which includes something that excites me: hang-gliders. Of course, there’s been other things added, but that was the most exciting thing new thing from the video. Check out the video and the list of new things added below!
New features:
– Hang gliders: You will probably get these with level 10 or higher. They’re quite fun to use, especially when you fall down. 🙂 You get stunned and fall down when you fly against a wall.
– Sprinting (consumes stamina)
– Some attacks can stun enemies.
– New monsters and items
– Dungeons
– Rare zones: Just like items, zones can have different rarities. Monsters are stronger here and drop better loot.
– Dungeons: In the video you see a castle dungeon, featuring female Orcs! 😛
– We’re also adding new zones like lava lands
I wanted to toss out a quickie update regarding my job search. I’ve applied for a few jobs so far and I’m going to be working with two different recruiting agencies to help extend my reach. One of them is Robert Half Technology and I have a meeting with them tomorrow to speak with them a bit more about what I’m looking for and how they can help me achieve it. The other is Dickson Resources and I spoke with them a bit on the phone yesterday. Keep your fingers crossed that I get something soon, even if it is temporary!
Let’s take a look at another upcoming indie game that is tentatively called Cube World. I’ve known about this game for a few months now and I’ve periodically been checking up on its progress on the developers blog: http://wollay.blogspot.com, though the blog has not been updated in the past two months. This is understandable considering that it’s been mostly a one man team (I think they’re a two man team now) and this is probably a “when I have time” project. Nevertheless, the game looks impressive so far and I’m looking forward to it.
A quick look at any of the number of pictures that the developer has posted reveals one of the more obvious sources of inspiration for the game: Minecraft. The game world and everything in it is made of voxels. Think of them as the 3D counterpart to 2D pixels, but let’s just refer to them as cubes for simplicity. The inspiration from Minecraft doesn’t stop at the visuals of the game, but the way the world is endlessly, randomly generated (aka. procedural generation). Of course, there are plenty of other games that have used procedural generation, I’m just using Minecraft as a point of reference.
If you had to pack Cube World into a genre, it would probably be Action RPG, since the gameplay is sort of inspired by games such as the The Legend of Zelda series, but has RPG elements you might expect to find in one of today’s popular MMOs like World of Warcraft. Of course, I’m sure there’s plenty of other places from which the game developer draws inspiration.
Those who played Minecraft might be wonder if there’s any digging in the game, given the chosen graphical style. Unfortunately, there is not, but there will still be support for building houses. What this means in terms of gameplay, I do not know. There are also plans for crafting in the game using loot obtained from defeating enemies, as well as character customization, more character classes, weapon and item customization, a variety of different quests, and pets.
You might be wondering if there will be multiplayer in Cube World. Have no fear… for there is multiplayer! You’ll be able to play cooperatively with your friends whenever you like. Though, at the moment, there is no word on the maximum amount of players that can be on a single server.
As of right now, there is no release date for the game. It will be down when it is done. I will definitely purchase the game when it’s ready. Though, I’m curious what the method of distribution will be… Steam perhaps? We’ll just have to wait and see. Before you go, check out this fan made “trailer” for the game using a variety of in-development footage.
My friends, it is a sad day indeed. The future of the Cybersphere Digital Theater at The Renaissance Center in Dickson, TN is now uncertain. Why, you ask? Well, after my few years of watching over the Cybersphere, I have been let go. Since I was the only employee to be its caretaker, I’m not certain what goal they have in mind for it or if they even have a goal for it. They might go be shutting down the Cybersphere for a while… or for good.
I want to apologize to everyone out there: from teachers to parents, that loved to bring their kids down to the The Renaissance Center to see shows at Cybersphere. It’s a great loss to the community if this is how it ends for Dickson’s only planetarium. As for me, life goes on. There’s more employment opportunities out there for me and it’s time to go get one of them.
After a few back and forth emails with Sky-Skan, speaking with Ron, and trying a few different things, we think we have the audio up and running for little while longer. We sort of figured it was a power issue all along and it seems like it may just be the age of the power supply causing a dip in the voltage.
The story as explained by Mike from Sky-Skan:
The Clove/Nutmeg processor monitors the 5V power supply voltage. If it falls below 4.8 V, the processor shuts itself down and blinks the READY light. Well, the power supply manufacturer originally sets the supplies at about 4.95V just to be on the safe side. The processor’s power watchdog also tends to be on the high side, like 4.85V trip point. After 10,000 or 20,000 hours of operation, the supply tends to fade a few percent, and suddenly we’re on the brink of tripping the 4.8 V watchdog.
We were advised to tweak the voltage on the power supply just a tad bit, up to about 5.1 volts. Ron came in this past weekend and did just that. He tweaked it up to 5.14 volts, though before he did that, tests were showing the voltage at exactly 5v, which may mean that the power supply itself could just be going bad, which might explain the randomness of the issue.
In any case, we are sort of in standby mode to see if the issue reoccurs or not. Harsh anticipation, I know, but you’ll live. Should the power supply turn out to be bad, it’s not like it’ll cost all that much.
I have returned from a fun filled weekend (well, not really). I had to go out of town for a wedding. One of my wife’s cousins got married and she was a bridesmaid. It was a rare chance for me to actually wear a suit even though I didn’t have to do so. And I hate wearing a suit…. far too hot and stuffy. I feel like a robot in one.
Oh well, it’s over and I’m back… and that means more fun and exciting articles for you to read! Stay tuned!
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