I ended up with more of a virtual world or virtual ecosystem than a video game. I ran out of time to put probably the most important thing into the game - game mechanics. Also no time for sound, the player has very little agency in the world, and there are no win or lose conditions.

Overall it was a lot of fun to build though, and I got some pretty neat new technology for jsGameSoup out of it, namely the isometric camera library, and a lightweight vector math library.

GGJ was also really fun just because of the social aspect of being crammed into a room with like minded people for 48 hours. Can't wait for next year!

Got some sleep. Lots of on the TODO list for today. About 7 hours left. :)

I have a reasonably concrete idea of where I am going. Hopefully there will be time to iterate on my idea and "find the fun".

I am ready for Global Game Jam, Perth 2012!

Not going to globalgamejam? Check out Wai-con - it was a lot of fun last year and the costumes and atmosphere are enjoyable even if you are not that into anime.

PS I'll probably throw on a little bit of Disasterpeace too. :)

The RPG map above with grass, water, road, sand, and tree tiles represented in the different colours, was produced with the simplex noise demo here. It can randomly generate a basically infinite number of unique RPG maps of basically infinite size. Check the jsGameSoup documentation for more details.

I have included a modified version of Benjamin Hardin's 2009 A* implementation in jsGameSoup. This is a nice general way for entities in your game to find a path between two squares on a two dimensional board with some obstructed squares. Check the demo here and the documentation here.

Have fun!

It comes with a reasonable web interface you can access over your LAN, but I installed the fun_plug hack on it by copying the files across the network and restarting the device - easy. That hack gets you SSH access, rsync, and a bunch of other Linuxy stuff.

We are storing our media and backups on it and it is basically perfect for that use-case. I now once again have a cron-and-rsync based regular backup of all of my servers in the USA, hooray! I'm also routing all SSH traffic to our ADSL router through to it so I can access the files on the device from outside our network if neccessary.

All in all I am very pleased with this purchase.

inspiration here

A piece of the world I really enjoy.

Under Ubuntu I first downloaded and installed the mongoose source code, then I installed the package php-cgi and here is the script called phpserve that I use to launch Mongoose in the top level directory of my PHP project:

#!/bin/bash
mongoose -e error.log -r `pwd` -i index.php -p 8000 -C .php -I /usr/bin/php-cgi

After that you can browse to http://localhost:8000/ and you should see your site.

Enjoy!

Photo by Renee Glastonbury. Altered to obscure one nipple. :)

• Went to YourFonts and printed the templates twice.
• Scanned both copies, used the best version of each letter, and tweaked some stuff in an image editor.
• Uploaded the templates, paid $15, and downloaded the resulting TTF file.
• Tested it out on my blog (see the cross-browser CSS font-face declaration below).
• Loaded up the TTF in font forge and tweaked more stuff.

To get it as a web useable font:

• Use a program called ttf2eot to create a web font file that Internet Explorer likes.
• Use the following CSS font-face declaration, which works on pretty much all mainstream browsers including Internet Explorer 6.

Font-face declaration:

@font-face {
    font-family: 'MyFont'; /* Use the real name of your actual font */
    src: url('MyFont.eot');
    src: url('MyFont.eot?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'),
    url('MyFont.ttf') format('truetype');
}

You can do this with basically any TTF font, but watch out for the legal implications of using commercial fonts on the web. It's obviously fine to do it with a font of your own handwriting. There are probably lots of other free fonts you can do it with too, but read the licensing information first.

Here's to more flexible web typography!

• Setup was easy - PHP & MySQL with a simple web based installer.
• Basic mechanism is similar to G.A. - add a code snippet to the bottom of your HTML code and you are done.
• Reporting seems more comprehensive than G.A. - all kinds of interesting data, visitor trails, etc.
• Take back ownership of your stats data!

Have fun.

My new hosting provider is much more reliable than my old one. Hooray!

My new one is called prgmr.com and they are great.

I have also taken the opportunity to redesign my website. I hope you like it.

(image of Linus Torvalds in a speedo originally from xkcdsucks.blogspot.com)

Google recently announced that they are discontinuing the social features of Google Reader and folding that functionality into Google+. So basically the thing that I liked most about Google Reader, not it's social network features but it's actual social network - the one made of the real people who inhabit my Google Reader friends list - is going to disappear this some time this week. Google Reader was by far my favorite and most active social network so this is pretty crummy from my perspective.

Maybe Google don't realise the value in that network aside from the features of the software itself. Maybe they don't care because they just want to get people into Google+. Either way, we the users lose.

Oh well, this is what you get when you use proprietary software. At some point the company that develops and controls that software will do something you don't like. There is basically nothing you can do about it.

So long, Reader friends, it has been a genuine pleasure! (and for the OCD amongst you, I am very sorry for the hypersharing) :)

Today I submitted this PocketLoops prototype app to the Univation WApp competition.

This builds on my PdDroidParty work, which is the engine of the app (as well as the impending CanOfBeats re-release!).

Fun mobile-music times. :)

• http://mccormick.cx/news/entries/android-is-a-ghetto
• http://mccormick.cx/news/entries/android-iphone-evolution-intelligent-design
• http://mccormick.cx/news/entries/developing-for-apple-vs-developing-for-android
• http://mccormick.cx/news/entries/goog-is-the-new-msft

Here is the talk I gave in Sydney last weekend about Infinite 8-Bit Platformer.

I'm in Sydney for PyConAU 2011 to give a talk about Infinite 8-Bit Platformer. Hopefully you've registered already because I'm very late in posting about this!

I'll post a link to the video after it goes up.

I'll be playing some squeakyshoecore algorithmic acid this Thursday afternoon at Hermann's Bar at the University of Sydney. I'm on at 5pm. See you there!

• A non-player character which wanders around and then starts chasing the player once they come in range.
• A door which switches between closed, opening (animated), and open states.
• A spacecraft under player control which has an proximity-triggered docking procedure.

Many video game entities can be most easily modelled in this way. In jsGameSoup it is now very easy to create state machines like this. Simply include "statemachine.js" in your HTML file:

<script src="jsGameSoup/js/statemachine.js"></script>

Then call the statemachine() function on an entity inside it's constructur:

function MyEntity() {
    statemachine(this);
    ...
}

After that your entity will have a new method set_state(state) which switches it between different arbitrary states. These states are completely up to you. You can define different behaviours, events, and visual representations by creating multiple versions of jsGameSoup's normal expected methods. For example, let's say the entity above has a state "wandering" and a state "seeking" when it is moving towards the player. In this case we would define two different sets of methods:

/****** Update and draw this entity in the wandering state. ******/

this.wandering_update = function() {
    // update the entity in "wandering" mode
    ...
}

this.wandering_draw = function() {
    // draw the entity in "wandering" mode
    ...
}

/****** Update and draw this entity in the seeking state. ******/

this.seeking_update = function() {
    // update the entity in "seeking" mode
    ...
}

this.seeking_draw = function() {
    // draw the entity in "seeking" mode
    ...
}

When you want to put the entity into a particular state, you call set_state(state), for example in the init() method of the entity to put it into a certain state from the start:

this.init = function() {
    this.set_state("wandering");
}

Here is an example of a jsGameSoup entity class which switches between a "chill" and an "antsy" state. View source to see how it works.

Hopefully this will help you write games and get them infront of players more quickly.

I wrote this game in a few hours today using jsGamesoup.

Is it fun? I would like to know what you think.

(Inspired by SpoutDS).

That's right, the jsGameSoup library now plays sound effects samples on all supported platforms, right back to Internet Explorer 6. I also registered the domain name jsgamesoup.net - hooray!

With graphics and sprite animation, collisions, random number generation, sound effects, vector math, physics, and network, I think we pretty much have developing games for the web covered.

Enjoy, and remember to view the source!

The first demo shows how to integrate the sylvester.js library. This is a great little single-file Javascript library that covers the basic vector and matrix math nicely. Check out the attractors demo, and don't forget to view source!

The second demo was created by Nick Lowe and it shows off the Box2d.js physics engine integrated with jsGameSoup. Check it out! I'm really happy to have such a robust and popular 2d physics engine working along side jsGameSoup in the browser. Great stuff!

I guess there is not much else to say. This is a kinda big deal for me. I would really appreciate it if you share this around!

Let me know what you think!

Half of these photos (the ones that don't suck) are by Theron Trowbridge and are CC licensed.

Thanks so much to Joe Deken for getting me out for the trip to San Diego, Family Night at a Boys and Girls Club in Long Beach where we demoed Pd with game hardware to the kids there, the Crash Space pd_LAunch events, patching circle, workshops, meeting with Miller, etc. and most especially for putting me up and driving me round Los Angeles and surrounds. Thanks too to Theron for everything he did, and for Miller for coming up from San Diego and showing is super-cool ceramic tile twist~ algorithms. I had a really awesome time. You guys rock! (also thanks again to the NYC people, especially Hans and Rivka!)

This awesomeness was designed and laser cut by Theron Trowbridge.

Also, sign up here for my Pd Workshop tonight in LA!

This is the only photo I took during my visit, which was rich with great people and adventures. Thanks to Peter, Peter, Andy, Zach and Ryan, and most especially Hans and Rivka for their most generous hospitality. You guys are wonderful!

Sign up for the New York session

Sign up for the Los Angeles session

Ok, now I got a plane to catch!

Here is my itinerary:

• Wed Apr 20 - Arrive LAX
• Thu Apr 21 - Arrive NYC, attend NYCPatchingCircle
• Sat Apr 23 - Give the "Pd as your embeddable audio engine" workshop at NYC Resistor please sign up now!
• Sat Apr 23 - My pal Zachary Cale is having a launch party for his new record that night
• Mon Apr 24 - Arrive San Diego for "Puredata Reception with Miller Puckette, UCSD colleagues and students"
• Tue Apr 25 - Van it up to LA where the festival continues
• Fri Apr 29 - Give the "Pd as your embeddable audio engine" workshop in LA
• Sat Apr 30 - "Puredata Inside Out" panel with Miller, Hans, Natacha, Theron
• Sat Apr 30 - Take part in "Music with Miller Puckette and Friends" concert/party
• Sun May 01 - Flight back home (arrive home the 3rd)

For Infinite 8-bit Platformer fans this unfortunately means that the beta-builds must go on hold for a few weeks. There is one more network bug that was uncovered recently that I need to fix before releasing the builds, so that probably won't happen until I return home in early May. That will teach me to make promises and deadlines when it comes to spare time software projects.

If you are a tech/maker/software/puredata/infiniteplatformer fan/geek/contractee and are located in these times and places and want to catch up for a beer in between festivities, feel free to contact me.

Someone painted this [legal] piece as part of the recent William Street market festival. I am pretty taken with it. Sorry about the dodgy photo.

The good news is that I think this baby is almost ready for beta-release candidate one. With just 6 items left in the TODO list, I'm getting very excited!

(Perhaps the kind reader and Infinite 8-bit Platformer fan will overlook the previous three months of childbirth related decompression in which not a single commit was made. :] )

"It's done, when it's done." -- John Carmack

If you are going to that thing at Kurb gallery it's just down the road, so drop by for a bit. :)

Hope to see you!

Also, my musical partner in crime, Fenris aka Maddest Kings Alive found this video of us playing as Chrism & Fenris some years ago. Enjoy!

We can never come up with a mathematical model of reality that is 100% predictive and accurate.

• Supply USB gamepad drivers for Android OS (this code is actually already in the GNU/Linux kernel underneath Android OS).
• Put joystick hooks into the Android Java API and market this fact to developers.
• Encourage TV retailers to sell branded USB gamepads as add-ons with their Android based set-top boxes and TVs.

Developers could then put joystick support in their games, and people could play said games on their TVs through their Android OS set-top boxes. USB Gamepads are a stable, cheap, and robust technology which everyone understands.

This may result in a new indie console gaming golden age, with all of the wonderful new indie games of recent years running in peoples' lounge rooms on their TVs just like in the 80s. Admit it, wouldn't you love to sit cross legged together under the TV and return to the days of Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario Bros., Alex Kidd, Commander Keen, and friends? Only newer, and cheaper, and open, and network multiplayer. Oh boy, that is a vision I find irresistable!

A guy can dream, right?

• Take photos with phone.
• Email photos from phone to an address on my server, which forwards:
• To a gmail address, where it goes to Google Buzz.
• To a special Wordpress email address which posts the pictures to the blog.
• The Wordpress thing also posts the pictures on Twitter and Facebook.

What I love about this was I didn't have to write any code to make it happen, but it still uses open source components and my own server. It's also ridiculously convenient which is very important when you have a newborn. I don't have to rely on some horrible corporation (they are just some of the end-points where the stuff arrives). I am a pretty huge fan of things which involve writing less code.

If you like images, feel free to subscribe to the RSS feed. I promise it won't all be photos of my wonderful daughter. :)

Now I am going to post some drawings I scribbled.

PS Here is another cool internet thing someone did for selling stuff on the internet without writing any code. It came from Warren Ellis' blog.

PPS another thing is what I am reading and sharing on Google Reader, which is here.

I now posses an immense awe for anybody who has given birth. Mums are just the most incredible people for what they go through for each of us. Wow.

Scout, sorry to be a dorky dad already, but I have made a list of things that I have learned in my 32 years of life so far. You probably won't need these for a couple of years, but here they are anyway. Hopefully they will be useful when you do need them most.

Life tips for Scout

• When you don't know what to do, think of the person you most respect and imagine what they would do in the same situation.

• Life without risk is not living.

• If you feel down, fix these things first: eat good food, excercise, get some sleep, catch up with a friend. In 99% of cases your problems will evaporate.

• People trust people who are honest. Be honest.

• Be skeptical but not cynical.

• Inside every respected person is a confidence trickster. Be a confidence trickster. Act like the person you want to be.

• The only argument you ever really need is to ask "why?" again and again. This is a minimal form of Socratic questioning.

• "I am wrong," are the finest words in any language. Realize them often and update your mental model based on new evidence.

• Probably 99% of people on the planet want the same thing - peace, prosperity, and a continuation of their line. Most people are basically alright (but some very few people will screw you over for a penny).

• Have plans and goals, but be flexible. Things won't go the way you wanted, but they could go better.

• The more love, sincerity and positivity you give unconditionally, the more people will like you, and reciprocate generously.

• Iterate. That's how nature does it.

• Rules are made to be broken. It's when rules are broken that the really interesting stuff happens (but it only works if they aren't being broken all of the time).

• Practice makes perfect. You can get good at any damn thing if you just practice it long enough. Seriously, anything.

• When you get stuck, talk to people. Seek the advice of those who love you - your family and friends.

• Manufacture your own luck by chasing opportunities.

• What goes on in the world is filtered by your mind. If you feel positive, the whole world will seem positive, and visa versa.

• People will try to convince you of a universal right and wrong. They don't understand the world. Right and wrong vary according to context.

• Follow the advice of Atticus Finch. To get and give the best of people you need to understand them, so use your imagination and put yourself in their shoes to understand their motivations.

• In love, it helps to be a fatalist.

• Earning a living from your hobby is a blessing and a curse, but it sure beats working in a coal mine.

• Guilt is the stupidest emotion of all. Don't bother with it. Just do better.

• Be interested, be involved, use the gift of life and hack the world.

• You are an animal.

• Those possibly mythical people buddha, jesus, mohammed, etc. had a couple of good ideas. Find those gems and discard the large quantity of hogwash that makes up the rest of it.

• Looking at your fellow humans it can be easy to feel elitist, but just remember that the only real difference is education and wealth. Most people are just a couple of beers away from being best friends.

• An authority is a concentration of power to benefit its members. Sometimes the people who think they are beneficiaries actually aren't. If you are not a beneficiary, don't bother respecting an authority.

• Probably the most worthwhile and satisfying way to spend your time is engaged in acts of creativity.

• Probably the most worthwhile and satisfying way to spend your time is helping other humans.

• Probably the most worthwhile and satisfying way to spend your time is in pursuit of a better understanding of everything.

• Everybody has imposter syndrome. Remember that their confidence is less real to them than it is to you, and visa-versa.

• Persistence is fertile.

• Make mistakes.

• Give way so as to conquer.

• Romantic love is the most exciting and fun mental illness there is. It destabilises your brain chemistry and makes you do the strangest things. Enjoy this gift from the universe whenever it occurs.

• At some point you realise that even your biggest hero is fallible, and makes mistakes. Don't put anyone on too high a pedestal, and don't be surprised when they do stupid things.

• We tend to blame people for their ignorance, but it's not always their fault. Sometimes they are just the victims of a lacking education.

• Witness the stars, suck the night air deep into your lungs and feel the thrill. It's great to be alive.

• Most conspiracies can be easily explained by greed, stupidity, ego, or a combination.

• Buddah's Middle Way was probably put best by Mark Twain when he said "everything in moderation, including moderation itself."

• We are basically monkeys with cognition slapped on top.

• The scientific method is the finest tool available to a sentient being in our world. Know it and you will more successfully navigate your way.

• Anyone who has been in a war will tell you to avoid them. The people who start them are never the ones who fight in them, and the reasons are never worthwhile. Steer clear of them and survive.

• Learn to let go. Being good at letting go will prevent a lot of hurt and hardship.

• See the world. The more cultures and places you encounter, the better your brain will understand the deep truths of human existence.

• Your gut feeling and instincts are excellent in some situations, and terrible in others. Learn when to use your rational mind and when to trust your gut.

• You can't avoid your cognitive biases, but you can at least learn to recognise them. You can also use evidence, maths, and data to balance against them.

• Follow the fun.

• That "do unto others" thing Jesus said is a pretty good formula for functional, friendly communities. Find the communities that practice it.

• Don't define things as successes or failures, just actions and consequences. Then choose the actions that will most likely lead to the consequences you want. Correct your model when they don't.

• Your brain chemistry will trick you into doing stupid things. Sometimes they will be fun. Sometimes they won't.

• Goverments, corporations, mafias - there are more similarities than differences.

• The paradox of creativity is that a blank canvas is a hindrance. Impose tasteful rules upon yourself and your work will flourish.

• Let trust be earned, don't give it away.

• You will be best at the things you enjoy. Do those things most and you will probably end up profiting from them.

• Mature, but don't ever grow up. Adults are assholes who hate themselves and their lives.

• There is almost always a reason why somebody is being a jerk, and often it's not their fault. Knowing that will help you realize why there is no point in being a jerk back.

• The universe is full of complex wonders that defy explanation. There is no need for flying spaghetti monsters (but sometimes spaghetti monsters can be fun to think about).

• Your own imagination is one of the best ways to have fun. Let it run free.

• The complexity paradox is that you should use Occam's razor and choose the simplest explanation that fits, but be aware that there is almost always a slightly more complex explanation that is more correct.

• Follow the advice of Bart Simpson; do what you feel like.

• Hedge your bets but don't reveal your hand.

• Economists think humans are a resource, but human intelligence and knowledge are actually a meta-resource.

• It is completely rational to be a good person.

• Evaluate ideas on their own merits, not on who is for or against them.

• Play is an excellent heuristic for understanding different systems. Play as often as possible.

• Keep your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground.

• Take advice from many people at once. The number of jellybeans in the jar is probably close to the average of everyone's guesses.

• Ask people about themselves first, how they are, what they are doing, what they like. If you are interested in someone a) you will learn something useful b) they will like you.

• Generous use of long silences will cause your adversaries to argue against themselves.

• The only real test of love is time.

• Darwin's theory of evolution is incredibly robust. Many more systems are subject to it than just the biosphere. You can rely on it (Just don't get it backwards or anthropomorphise it).

• Embrace paradox.

• Laziness is just efficiency in disguise. Make sure you slack off sometimes.

• Forget everything above and just practice critical thinking and unconditional love.

• Have fun!

This is an mp3 of the radio interview I did with Peter Barr for local radio station RTRFM

This is a magazine interview I did for Drum Media Perth; sorry it is a graphic. here is the Flash applet source of this excerpt.

Enjoy!

More links:

• Listen to squeakyshoecore here

• GarageAcidLab is the set of patches I use to play the music from squeakyshoecore. There is an Android app too which you can purchase at that link.

• You can find some other squeakyshoecore articles and interviews I did previously here.

On the 18th of December, I will also be playing a live gig in Hyde Park, Perth. I will be using the GarageAcidLab algorithms that I use to make squeakyshoecore here in Perth, Western Australia as part of the Seriously Sound System music festival organised by the local radio station, RTRFM. I am on just after midday at 12.40 in the afternoon. It should be a lot of fun!

Leading up to that I will be interviewed on that radio station at 8am local time this Friday the 10th of December. If you are not awake for it (like me), or you don't live in Western Australia, you can listen to the podcast, which I'll post here afterwards if I can figure out where it is.

Kampai!