I found a couple feasible campgrounds on/near Chincoteague. The seasonal (for the year) prices are lower for my needs than the monthly rates. Even with the cost of having my camper moved, it's less expensive than finding a place to rent and paying for utilities (not to mention moving stress).

The more expensive campground is a 40 minute commute to work but has a lot of facilities, wifi, and is farther from the ocean. (Did I mention I have an ocean/water-phobia? It scares the crap out of me.) It also is an active vacation spot with activities pretty much every weekend, which I count as a negative. I'm not on vacation. I work weekends. Noise every weekend is not a draw. Plus, my cat is scared of people she doesn't know, and come to think of it, so am I.
http://tallpinesharbor.com/

The cheaper place has some bad reviews, but mostly about its rental trailers. It's not a resort. I might not have wifi (if there's Verizon coverage, I have a data plan, but I won't be able to stream TV; my DVD collection will suffice). It's also 18 minutes from work. Apparently the “views” are wonderful because it's on the water – which scares the crap out of me.
http://www.chincoteague.com/inletview/

The other campgrounds I contacted never answered phone or email.

I'm working out a time to visit and see what I'm getting into before I commit. I don't own a truck, so once I move my RV, that's where it is.

Ironscarf wrote:
I never touch coffee, unless it's in a cake.

Part of America's love affair with coffee is because of your country's monopolization of the import of tea and tendency to tax it. So you have no one to blame but your wretched ancestors. If only George III had had better acumen in choosing ministers.

Genejoke wrote:


@Lonnehart, I downloaded your game. seems to work well enough, simple thing to pass the time. My game has hit a standstill as I set my sights a little too high. Still I will finish it within a few months.

Starting simple is the way to go for people just getting into game making (or are getting back into it like myself). Making games can seem like a daunting task. Especially if you're being a one man band who doesn't have a lot of resources or equipment for the job. Music is still my barrier at the moment, and my variable work schedule isn't making it easy to make time to learn.


If your game is going to take a few months, I suggest putting it on hold and making simpler games first. You don't have to put them up on the market. They're just there to increase your skills so eventually you can get back to the game you're currently working on. I suggest watching this playlist to get an idea of the process. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z06QR-tz1_o&list=PLtCDpCcVx64PhPlM_2x1gCs-h1JZ7uRwm

I've made some simpler games but not released them, and I have some others in the pipe line. The core gameplay is in place on mine, it's the level design that is slowing me down.

heh… Clickteam has something going on and they want people who use their software to volunteer videos for exhibition or something… Honestly, I feel kinda small compared to the creators of these games. Just another mountain to climb, I guess…

Forum Thread here…
http://community.clickteam.com/threads/96049-GDC-2016-Call-for-Stuff-amp-Meeting-Schedule

Lonnehart wrote:
Well… I finally did it. I have a game up on the Google Play store (and hopefully the Amazon store).

I tried it out. It's a good start but really frustration to play. The controls are rather slow and I died a lot.

Also, the ads are VERY aggressive with non skippable ads EVERY time you die. And since the game was so hard I spent more time looking at ads than playing.

bravo1102 wrote:

Ironscarf wrote:
I never touch coffee, unless it's in a cake.


Part of America's love affair with coffee is because of your country's monopolization of the import of tea and tendency to tax it. So you have no one to blame but your wretched ancestors. If only George III had had better acumen in choosing ministers.

Why couldn't you follow our example and keep the coffee for yourselves? You've sent us Starbucks and now my daughter thinks it's quite normal to spend nearly five quid on a carton of sugary bean juice!

—

My next door neighbour has put a child's paddling pool in his garden and filled it with ornamental carp. I can't see this ending well.

—

And I still can't get quotes to work right.

Starbucks is not real coffee. It's sugary bean juice with a whipped topping. Even regular Starbucks Coffee is awful bitter dish water.


Ornamental carp are really tasty sautéed with garlic butter or a touch of lemon.

That would explain why they sent it over.

I fear these carp will end up as cat food before they have a chance to be sauteed. There's a cat at the end of the road goes by the name of Cinnamon Sprinkles - she's at least 50% leopard.

Prototype wrote:

Lonnehart wrote:
Well… I finally did it. I have a game up on the Google Play store (and hopefully the Amazon store).

I tried it out. It's a good start but really frustration to play. The controls are rather slow and I died a lot.

Also, the ads are VERY aggressive with non skippable ads EVERY time you die. And since the game was so hard I spent more time looking at ads than playing.

Hmm… I'll update the game so it won't put up ads so much… That's FGL for ya.

Update- In a few hours the game will be updated. Ads will appear less often. As for the controls, well… You're flying a damaged asteroid miner. On the bright side, you're not working against gravity to get through some pipes. :)

Thanks for the feedback. Just learning as I go. :)

Ironscarf wrote:

And I still can't get quotes to work right.

Look at the “/qoute” (inside brackets) at the end when quoting something. It's spelled wrong and should read “/quote”. Hopefully it will be fixed soon…

Thanks Lonne! Looking again I found it was spelled correctly - must have been changed now, but I found an extra /quote in there that was causing the issue.

It's not really an extra “quote”. It's the closing of the section (hence why it's spelled “/quote”).

A future game in my mind right now has this storyline… The protagonist fighting an overwhelming battle against an unknown enemy which seeks to assimilate the entire universe starting with the protagonists world. I plan on slowly revealing that the very enemy the protagonist is fighting is… Humanity itself. Or rather a horribly mutated version of it with all of its worst qualities personified. As for the protagonist, they would be human-like, but won't be as they'd be native to the universe they're fighting to save…

What do you think of stories where Humanity is portrayed as a horrible destructive force of nature rather than an evil person or organization? And what sort of “clues” do you suggest I add into the game to reveal things as subtly as possible?

Lonnehart wrote:
It's not really an extra “quote”. It's the closing of the section (hence why it's spelled “/quote”).

What do you think of stories where Humanity is portrayed as a horrible destructive force of nature rather than an evil person or organization? And what sort of “clues” do you suggest I add into the game to reveal things as subtly as possible?

It's a really overused trope lurching into hammer on the head cliché moralizing. Look how Avatar was actually a cowboy and Indians movie. Other than the Twilight Zone I can't think of another one worthwhile. But that's me.

Lonnehart wrote:
It's not really an extra “quote”. It's the closing of the section (hence why it's spelled “/quote”).

Understood, but I actually had two “/quote”s for some reason and removing one seemed to fix the issue.
—

Fishy update: Cinnamon Sprinkles either hasn't found them yet, or just doesn't fancy a swim.

Ornamental carp in a kiddie pool. Least he could have dug a proper pond. My neighbor went crazy and has this two level thing with a waterfall. And he added an illegal third story. The finest cost more than adding the level.

Haha! I can only assume he's looking after them for a friend who's moving house or something like that. He's never expressed an interest in fish, other than those cooked in foil with garlic and chillies.

I'm pretty sure I'm already suffering from post-graduation depression and I haven't even finished the semester yet. I'm concerned that my anxiety is increasing, but it's not so much panic-anxiety like I used to get as it is just a constant level of vague unease with my life. It's especially bad today, for whatever reason - I can't eat or focus on my schoolwork at all.

bravo1102 wrote:
It's a really overused trope lurching into hammer on the head cliché moralizing. Look how Avatar was actually a cowboy and Indians movie. Other than the Twilight Zone I can't think of another one worthwhile. But that's me.

I was thinking Humanity as having become a twisted force of Nature itself. You just have to look at how we've changed the planet in the past few hundred years. Now imagine that a little genetic tampering was done in an attempt to ensure things like immortality and omniscience… and that's as close as I think I can get to the depiction of Humanity that I want…

HippieVan wrote:
I'm pretty sure I'm already suffering from post-graduation depression and I haven't even finished the semester yet. I'm concerned that my anxiety is increasing, but it's not so much panic-anxiety like I used to get as it is just a constant level of vague unease with my life. It's especially bad today, for whatever reason - I can't eat or focus on my schoolwork at all.

Ugh… You're starting to make me wonder if my niece might end up feeling something similar. She just started her nursing courses. However, I know she'll make it. She's been working very hard at this. She's been wanting to be a nurse since the tender age of four.

Of course my most nightmarish time as her babysitter (as my sister was a first time mom) was having to watch a show with her… about a large purple dinosaur with green spots and his penchant for sharing and caring… All with the knowledge that the guy inside the suit actually hated children…

HippieVan wrote:
I'm pretty sure I'm already suffering from post-graduation depression and I haven't even finished the semester yet. I'm concerned that my anxiety is increasing, but it's not so much panic-anxiety like I used to get as it is just a constant level of vague unease with my life. It's especially bad today, for whatever reason - I can't eat or focus on my schoolwork at all.

Sounds like you're right on schedule to me…! ;)

I played your game Lonne. It's somewhat addictive but too hard.
I'd advise going with a font like Ariel, brighting the colours a bit, and adding some shading. Also get rid of that thing with the two rectangles in the start with that line down the middle of the screen- Instead have a transparent circle on either side of the screen and text in the middle (in Ariel) that says simply “tap to move”.
Things like that will make it look a bit more slick.


Man, so many times I wish I could just drop Facebook altogether, but I need to be on there for the Drunk Duck stuff and contacting people I can't contact any other way. The trouble is that it's just too tempting a timewaster

Thanks, Ozone. I'll be working that into the next update, though I'll be using transparent panes instead of outlined rectangles or circles. I've found (from the people who have tested the game for me) that instead of reading the instructions they will focus on tapping only on the circles or text instead of the entire side of the screen. My niece also advised that I add powerups to make the game a bit easier. And the Ariel font looks nice. Still working on my spriting though so that will take a while. T_T

Just a question about art…

What style is this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8bKKTJK8KM

Today I braved a first grade classroom for the first time. I have worked with first graders before and they were always my favorite class, you know, kindergartener-sized humans with the ability to read and I have even considered teaching first grade at one point in my life. Oh boy, how little did those experiences prepare me for today. I was constantly having little ones coming up to me to complain about a person bothering them; two of the kids had to go to the nurse (one for an ice pack, the other for a bandaid); one kept complaining about her “tummy” hurting, which then became her head hurting, then asthma; some children were perfect; some did not know how to spell; some had entire notebooks with the text written backwards. I felt like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop.


Today my pupil told me that she wants to keep having homework because if she did not have homework, she would have never been able to meet and work with me. Such a sweet kid, and it was definitely a comment that brightened my night.


Tomorrow will be my tenth day subbing in the nonverbal autistic classroom. I love that room so much that I wrote the staff a Thank You card that I later found out made them all cry after they read it out loud. One of my favorite things to do at the end of the day is to draw with a mini white board alongside one of the students. Last time, I drew a tic-tac-toe board expecting him to play a quick game with me, but he took the board and used what I had started to make a grid and then drew an entire 2-point perspective architectural drawing of a room's interior. I know I am not supposed to pick favorites, but this kid takes the cake. I believe he exhibits signs of a natural genius and will grow up to do great things for the world one day.

I think as humans, one of the most effective things to say to someone is, “I understand you.” A lot of us are simply searching for a person who listens. Sometimes when working with a nonverbal student, I look them in the eyes and say, “I understand what you are trying to say.” And that bridges the communication gap.

Sounds very emotionally fulfilling Kawaii. Completely unlike anything I do.

Lonnehart wrote:
Just a question about art…
What style is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8bKKTJK8KM

That look is all vector graphics. It uses the same sort of processing as 3D art because it's all about the position of points, angles and curves and calculating gradient fills based on area. And that's all there is to it. I don't know how easy that is to program but it's very easy to create that kind of artwork as an Illustrator- VERY easy. As soon as you master the tools and how to get the effects (simple and very straight forward), you can do as much of that as you like.
Adobe Illustrator is the tool to use.

—————

Wow, taking a break from Facebook has been marvellous! It can become a terrible procrastination tool and crutch. I'm strictly limiting myself to one visit a day for about an hour at most (hopefully much less)- I have to get all necessary business, contacts, and catchups completed in that time and then quit it for another 24 hours.
Let's see how long I can keep this up!

Oh god- My daily visit to FB lasted less than 10 minutes.
That was easier than expected.

ozoneocean wrote:
Sounds very emotionally fulfilling Kawaii. Completely unlike anything I do.

Lonnehart wrote:
Just a question about art…
What style is this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8bKKTJK8KM

That look is all vector graphics. It uses the same sort of processing as 3D art because it's all about the position of points, angles and curves and calculating gradient fills based on area. And that's all there is to it. I don't know how easy that is to program but it's very easy to create that kind of artwork as an Illustrator- VERY easy. As soon as you master the tools and how to get the effects (simple and very straight forward), you can do as much of that as you like.
Adobe Illustrator is the tool to use.

I see. Is this the same thing?
https://userbase.kde.org/Krita/Manual/VectorLayers

Yep. That's it precisely!

Wow, taking a break from Facebook has been marvellous! It can become a terrible procrastination tool and crutch. I'm strictly limiting myself to one visit a day for about an hour at most (hopefully much less)- I have to get all necessary business, contacts, and catchups completed in that time and then quit it for another 24 hours.
Let's see how long I can keep this up!

Great plan! I might try it - then I'll have time to use the DevArt account I just remembered, then join twitter. Maybe there'll even be time to make an instagram too. Anyone here instagraming their layouts and preparatory sketches every day?

I can only handle so much. All I need are the Forums and Facebook. And I don't even spend a lot of time on those.