Glaiel Games Devblog

Airline horror

2009-12-21T13:30:00.001-08:00

Ya, just flew cross country yesterday. Seattle to Chicago to Hartford. I usually fly Southwest, but I let my mom book my ticket and she booked me a ticket on United.

Anyway, the boarding process was the most unorganized POS I've ever seen. Southwest might get flak for their first come first serve pick your own seating thing they got, but I've never had a problem with it, and it's usually very efficient. United has this thing where there's 4 groups, and people board in order by their group, to assigned seats. Only problem is, there's no line! It's just a mob, and people with higher numbers sit in the mob too crowding up the place. It took forever to board people.

Also the seats are more cramped than the other planes I've flown. I'm 6'5'', so I never fit in any of the seats anyway, but this one was especially bad and I couldn't even move my legs out of the way to grab my laptop from under the seat, and it barely fit under the seat in the first place.

None of this is THAT bad really, except my luggage is in chicago right now (it might be on its way here I hope). Not only is just my luggage in Chicago, but the ENTIRE FLIGHT'S luggage is in Chicago. The ENTIRE FUCKING FLIGHT. Nobody got their bags. It took them a half hour to even start the baggage claim, then a half hour for it all to go around while nobody grabbed their bags since they were the wrong ones. It got jammed even, and they had to offload the bags to a waiting area. And nobody's bags came. They couldn't have told us that our bags didn't make it on the plane? I can see them missing one or two, accidents happen, but for gods sake if you miss the whole flight at least have the common decency to tell people that and not wait for an hour hoping your bag shows up.

To exasperate matters, everyone had to wait for an hour in a line after that to file the claim, as there was only one desk open for lost bag claims, and 200 people missing bags. Bags which they charged us $15 to check in the first place. At least we'll get refunded that money, but we have to go online and file for a refund. If you lose an entire flight's worth of luggage, you ought to refund the bag check fee automatically.

Damn it United, worst flying experience I had all year, out of the 9 or so flights I've taken this year. Merry Christmas.

Target Audience: Animals!

2009-10-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

A concept recently struck me, has anyone actually made a video game whose target audience isn’t humans, but animals (or a specific kind of animal)? Of course, there are some challenges with designing a game for a non-human audience. Anyway I’m going to pick cats to target for this concept, because of the way they play with laser pointers. I haven’t actually made this because I don’t have the money, space, resources, or cats to properly test (my cats live with my parents, 3000 miles away).

Anyway the simplest setup I can think of for getting this to work requires a projector, a wall, and a camera. The camera and projector are going to be at the same spot, and the camera is going to be used to detect the cat’s motion. The simplest game I can think of for this involves a red dot moving around, avoiding the cat, and the game awards the cat a “point” every time the cat “catches” the red dot.

What is going to make the cat care about it’s score though? I know it naturally enjoys chasing red dots, but this is more important when the game gets a little more complex than this; the cat needs to know when it’s doing something right, and the rewards need to be immediate, not delayed. So, I guess have a machine that dispenses kibbles of food when the cat gets a point.

If this works, it’d be interesting to see how much more complicated you could make the game before the cat gets overwhelmed. The next step, I’d say, would be a variation on “Duck Hunt”. Have the birds fly across the screen, if the cat hits a bird, the bird “dies” and the cat gets a point. I’ve seen videos of cat’s hitting birds on a screen online, but has anyone actually made that interactive?

What about Doom? The cat wouldn’t be able to control the camera very easily (although the game could pan left and right if the cat moves to the left or right, but the cat probably wouldn’t be able to understand that). Turn it into an on rails shooter, and have the monsters die when the cat hits them. Simple, would probably be very amusing to watch and very amusing for the cat.

One last idea: Guitar Hero. There’s no way you’d get the cat to strap on a plastic guitar, but what about just hitting the notes on the wall to a rhythm? You’d probably have to remove a lot of the additional distractions on the screen, and I wonder if the cat could understand when its supposed to hit the dots to get its points. At the very least, it’d be an interesting experiment.

Oh ya and then there’s marketability. I don’t have any ideas on that one, would anyone care that much about their cats to buy them an expensive toy when a $2 laser pointer works just as well? Oh wait, some people DO do that. It’s a niche market I guess, although “Cat Plays Doom” is an instant multimillion view movie on youtube.

The Plot of my Next Game

2009-10-09T18:20:00.001-07:00

In the year 30N, a child was born. His parents were hiding from the Institution, aliens who rule over the galaxy with an iron fist. Shortly after being born, their hiding place was discovered. The kid was teleported to the nearest moon base, and holographically disguised as one of the Institutionalized (colloquially abbreviated as the Ized). He was raised by them to be a fighter, not knowing the details of his human past, but programmed to learn at age 30.

One day at age 30 he was going about his normal alien business when the holograph was deactivated, and he suddenly looked like a human pig. Knowing he would be killed if he was seen by the ized, he ran into hiding trying to figure out what was going on, when a video chip implanted in his brain suddenly explained everything to him. HE KNEW WHAT HAD TO BE DONE. He needed to avenge his fallen parents. Luckily there was a gun shop nearby. He wanted the awesomater, which shot laser bullets made of explosions, but he had no money so he was given the squeaker instead, which shot airsoft pellets. It was enough to protect him until he could afford a cooler gun, or upgrade his current gun.

The first thing he needs to do is clear: get a better gun. So he decides to rob a bank, which involves a lot of stealth since he can't hurt people yet. It's an easy mission, the kung-fu training he was given as a child helped him find the safe. With a new supply of money he could finally afford a good gun that could make aliens bleed and die, and could always make money by robbing the corpses of the aliens he killed so he can upgrade and make more awesome the guns he has, or even get the awesomater.

He realized he needed some defense, so he had to go get some space armor. The only armor shop in the galaxy was in a different space system though, so he had to find his way to the nearest wormhole generator instead. It was heavily guarded by ized troops, so he had to go shooting and kung fu on them to clear a path, before entering the wormhole (when an awesome cutscene plays). He gets the armor and is now ready to infiltrate the main ized base in the garkoblurger system. Along the way he meets a sexy alien chick named Bragana with 3 giant boobs, and they fall in love and fight together for a rest of the game.

He enters the base and starts shooting, guns ablaze. Flashbacks of his mysterious childhood play as hes shooting the evil aliens. Was this right? He is faced with a tough moral decision, but decides to keep killing to avenge his real parents.

Finally he reaches the control room. But what a twist! The chief ized leader is... the ALIEN WHO RAISED HIM AS A CHILD! He says "We may have killed your real parents... but I RAISED YOU. I may not be your real father, but I acted as a father to you. Surely that means something to you?" He replies "But but... you killed them!". He is faced with a moral dilemma, before deciding to kill him. He shoots and an awesome final boss battle begins. When the alien is dead, he hits the self destruct button and he needs to escape the galaxy before it implodes in on itself. On the way out, Bragana slips and falls down. Our hero catches her, but she says it's too late for her and falls into a pit and dies. He screams "NOOOOO" but continues escaping. He gets to a spaceship, and flies it away. As he watches the galaxy implode, a single tear streams down his eye, and the credits roll.

Your environment is a character too!

2009-08-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

I read a lot online about how storytelling and character development in games can use improvement, and how dynamic choices and the ability to fail and replay sections of a game multiple times make telling a good story very difficult without the fallback of "get to point A, watch a cutscene. Cool. Now get to point B and you'll see another cutscene". It segments the story and the gameplay, and the story only serves to give purpose to the gameplay. Is this really a problem? Many who are looking for character development would say no. You can't watch your character die and respawn 1000 times then try to feel an emotional bond when he dies for good in some cutscene.

I think people forget sometimes that the environment and setting of a game can be as much of a character as any in game bulky hard-to-the-core space warrior. I'm currently working on a game where this is the key to the storytelling aspect. The characters in the game, while they do have backstories, are mostly disposable and not very memorable. This is a conscious decision on my part, because the real character in the game is the universe it takes place in. The player may even notice that the world is what hides clues to the character's backstories, not the characters or cutscenes or story text. In essence, the characters are born out of that world, rather than the world simply being some hub for some adventure. The world has a story to tell, the characters are just there to walk you through it.

Level design is vital to making a world feel alive. Too many games nowadays sacrifice good level design for aesthetics. The key is building a solid level first, then working in aesthetics later. Why make a knee-high fence a boundary? Why, suddenly, is all this rubble in the middle of the ground on fire? Because it looks cool? Every piece of a level should have a gameplay purpose to it, even if that purpose is minor or subtle ("the character could hide behind it if he wants", "it catches the eye and encourages the character to approach it"). Any other visually pleasing artifacts that can't be worked into the gameplay could easily be placed in the background where the player will never reach them.

I've already had to trash a level in my game because I designed it to resemble a big water pipe and added all these cool effects to it only to realize that it confuses people. The level has a really really simple solution to it, but people are so preoccupied with all the red herrings in the level and effects that they miss jumps, try a more complicated solution, die without knowing why, or even give up. It felt bad to trash the level because it was so cool looking though, but I can't seem to find a way to fix it without getting rid of what makes it look cool.

Anyway here's some examples of games where the world is a character, and which do it right and which seem to miss the point:

GREAT examples of the "world as a character":

Super Metroid / Metroid Prime: It's fairly obvious why here, since the entire point of the Metroid series rests on its level design and the large interconnected world to explore, full of secrets and surprises and back history to uncover. Metroid Prime adds in the scanner, which adds a lot of subtle backstory to the planet you're exploring, and its done in such a good way that you almost forget who you're playing as and concentrate solely on the rich world you are in.

Portal: While GLaDOS and the Weighted Companion Cube sure have a lot of character in them, the strange test facility you're in also has a lot of backstory to it. The writing on the walls once you "break out" of facility and venture into its hidden core is a great mood setter and tells a side story that is easily overlooked if you're to busy concentrating on the main story. I love subtly like this.

Bioshock: I don't need to say much here, since 90% of the game is about the backstory of Rapture, and they do a good job telling it.

GOOD examples of the "world as a character":

Halo: I don't think Bungie realized the potential of the ring in halo. It's an interesting concept and I love how its presented in the game (where peering into the distance you can see the whole ring from any point on the ring, it's a really great touch), and you can't help but wonder what its purpose is as you explore it. Of course, they outright tell you at the end of the game, and focus a lot on Master Chief, who isn't much of a character to begin with.

Metroid Prime 3: It still does a good job doing what the first Metroid Prime did, but they muddle it up a little bit with a cheesy story and split the world up to multiple planets which really downplays any sort of history or consistency that could have been built into the world.

BAD examples of the "world as a character" (note: not implying that the game is bad):

Shadow Complex: I just bought this recently and haven't beaten it yet, so my opinion is still subject to change. For a game that borrowed so much from Metroid, I can't understand why they decided to remove most of the personality from the complex. There was one part so far where the world felt interesting (the flooded part) but other than that it feels bland and grayed out, like many modern games today. I can't help but wonder how much better the world would have felt if they flattened the Z-axis a bit, since there's no reason I should need to jump from point A to point B when there's a staircase 2 feet over, but in the distance. The art seems to get in the way of playing through the levels a lot, and they focus a lot on trying to develop the character of the guy and his girlfriend, and the people running the organization, yet they completely ignore the personality that the base could have had.

Most other games released this generation: They just don't try at all to make the world memorable, instead opting to try and characterize some bulky space guy or some bulky WWII soldier or some bulky criminal or some busty fighter.

I think there's a lot of untapped potential in trying to make the environment and level design as much of a character, if not more of one, than the cookie-cutter characters you normally see in games. People trying to find a way of telling a story in a way that can only truly be told through this medium, take this into consideration.

Hosting woes.

2009-08-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

Enough is enough. GoDaddy just automatically charged me $431.71 for hosting renewal for glaielgames (it's been 5 years already I guess). The confirmation email had no info as to which credit card was charged, not even the typical **** **** *** ### you usually get on those types of confirmations.

I have 4 cards on my account. 5 years is a long time and I couldn't delete inactive ones if I remember. I have 2 debit cards I use myself (2 different banks). One has money, one might not have enough money to cover it. I want to know which one they charged.

So I click "log in" on their absolutely horrible website. Instead of logging in, it locks my account. All good and such, that's definitely what I wanted to happen after hitting log in once. So as protocol, I get the email saying my account was locked too. And godaddy won't let me unlock my account through email. I HAVE to call their customer service line and stay on hold for 2 hours.

I haven't done this yet. This is not the first time this has happened. In the past unlocking my account usually required me to give them the last 4 digits of the card on my account.

The whole reason I wanted in to my account was to find out which card was used.

I use godaddy cause it's freaking cheap hosting and a lot of value for it. But damn I'm getting completely fed up with their bullshit website and customer support and tendency to lock my account EVERY SINGLE TIME I try to log in.

How to Monetize Flash Games Efficiently

2009-07-02T09:32:00.000-07:00

It seems like you see a title like this at every conference and on every website. And they all indirectly state the same thing. Go ahead and take a guess.

Give up?

Quantity, not quality.

Yup, that’s the key. You will make a lot more money if you focus on pumping out small generic games than large original games. Which is preferable: $2000 for a 2 week project or $6000 for a 3 month project? The choice is fairly obvious here. Unfortunately, the more preferable choice usually requires “selling out” or sacrificing artistic integrity, which a lot of artists value over financial reward, especially when the financial reward generally isn’t much more than an average salary.

There’s a few people who manage to make decent money without selling out, or while still making quality flash games (Dino Run, Auditorium, and Brad Borne) but those are few and far between.

In march I attended the first Flash Gaming Summit before GDC. It was nice meeting people I’ve known online for a while, and seeing adobe show off my game to promote a flash player 10 feature, but other than that literally every single talk was about the business aspect of flash- how to make money and how to attract players. Nothing about how to make good games, just how to make profitable games. There’s actually surprisingly little overlap between the two. Nobody even bothered to mention the games themselves at the talks, it was ALL how to market it.

Now I don’t mind learning a bit about how to market a game, but you know there’s something wrong when the marketing completely obscures the product being marketed.

I have not made much money at all from my work. I’ve made flash games for 5 years, and barely earned the equivalent of half a year’s average salary. I didn’t need much money though, I was in high school.

Anyway, I’m sick of seeing talks and articles about monetizing flash games like there’s some sort of secret hidden money button. There is no secret, all of those articles and talks say the exact same thing but worded differently.

Nobody ever seems to discuss how to make a good flash game, it’s all about what tradeoffs you can make to make more money. Sure I can make one simple dart throwing balloon popping game and release it 50 times with a different number next to the title and make 50x more money than had I left it at one, but do I want to? I can clutter up a game with video mochiads at the beginning and between levels (and during timed gameplay while the timer keeps going). I can offer DLC where you buy the upgrades to the zombie shooter with real money and alienate all but a few players, but profit tremendously from those few players. I can even do all of the above.

But, I don’t want to. I use flash as a medium for getting my ideas out there, experimenting, and testing out new concepts using relatively quick development cycles. I know there’s other people like me, a lot of other people like me, yet none of the presentations at the FGS, GDC, or anywhere else reflect that.

Art Games

2009-06-15T09:48:00.001-07:00

"Art Games", I was introduced to these when I first played Braid, or rather, when I first started reading discussions online about Braid. It's amazing how people could analyze that game as much as English teachers analyze literature, but damn, no book has ever made me care as much about symbolism and meaning as Braid did. It was an interesting experience and it made me realize that games can be more than what they appear on the surface, that they can have deeper meaning to them, but also, more importantly, that so few games have done this, and most of the ones that have never really get any sort of mainstream press. I realized that if I want to make a splash in the gaming industry, then exploring more original storytelling mechanics could be the way to do so, in addition to a fun core game, and I was itching to test the waters on this.

Coincidentally, Edmund asked me about 2 weeks later if I wanted to work on Aether with him. I was currently working on a project that I was slowly losing interest in, partially due to Braid raising my standards for everything, so I decided to go for it, and abandon that old project which was turing out much worse than I originally thought. Edmund described what he wanted for gameplay and I mocked up something quick, then expanded on that. He never told me what the game's meaning was until near the end of development when we were polishing up the whole thing. It worked out well for this because it felt like I could add my touches all over the game's world and design the game's mechanics how I thought they would go, and Edmund could work on his vision of the game, and then combined them and touch up the seams, and it worked, and became my favorite project (until Closure).

It was a fun experience, and came at just the right time for me, but at the same time I was still looking around at these other art games people had come out with and were still coming out with, and I was still in an "arty" mindset. Development on Closure began with me in this mindset, but I shifted out of it because I wanted to focus on the puzzles. But the art was still on my mind. I played through some small art games I could find, Passage, I wish I were the Moon, The Majesty of Colors, Gravitation, and others. They all seemed to have low-res pixel art in them. It was kinda cool at first but it seemed to be a trend, cause others that came out recently, (don't look back, fathom, jumpman, gray) also had low res art. I was getting involved in the independent game dev community too, and a lot of people seemed preoccupied with low res art. I am very partial to flash-like vector art myself after so many years of staring at it, but I appreciate the occasional tribute to our past. I was curious as to why pixel art was so popular amongst this group of people, as it was a stark change from the flash-based communities I was used to. I basically got these reasons:

1. Low res is easier to make look good than high res
2. Nostalgia
3. It lets the player "fill in the details" of the artwork, therefore growing a stronger connection with the characters.

1 and 2 are valid, but it was 3 that intrigued me the most. Was it just a way of justifying "laziness"? Or did it have value to it that I didn't originally see at first. Could the same concept be applied to other aspects of game development or other fields entirely? Thinking about this too much made me enjoy art games less, cause rather than see meaning in them, I began to see holes. "The creator just left this blank and wants ME to fill in the meaning for him!" I'll admit, people do generate more of an emotional connection to things if they (inadvertently) inject a bit of themselves into interpreting someone else's work. But, there's a balance to be struck.

To compare it to painting, look at Picasso and Dali. Look at how incredibly detailed and surreal their works are. They were great painters and knew how to convert what was in their minds to pigment on canvas. Yet, their work was surreal enough to let other people determine multiple meanings for it. They all had a specific mood though, which helps guide people into interpreting the works in a similar way, with some room for deviation. But at their core, the paintings were amazing. Dali especially. Some of his stuff is photorealistic but with a surreal twist. This certainly wasn't laziness. Now look at some of the more "abstract" artists, Mondrian and Pollock. Where does the meaning in their work come from? Do people only enjoy their work because they're told to enjoy it? Whatever theme for their works comes out of what someone says it is, rather than any specific element in the work itself. It's abstraction. Cave paintings are more interesting to look at than a Mondrian piece. Simplicity is one thing but some of these abstract works just go way too far with it.

I realize there is meaning intended with these pieces, but if you can't communicate that meaning or message through the work itself, and rely on a piece of paper stating your intent, then the work is about as useful as the wall it's hung on.

Back to games now. It's a trend to do "art games" now. Games are art because "art" is a term that can be expanded to fit anything you want into it. Are they on the same level of art as books, paintings, or other "fine art" yet? I don't think so. We're making strides there. Problem is, "art games" are currently caught up in the same trend that a lot of modern art is: the more abstract your work is, the easier it is for someone to accept it as "good art" because they don't understand it. Bonus points if you're already famous, or have someone famous backing you. If Leonardo da Vinci came back from the dead, spat on a napkin, pointed at it, and said "This is art", people would stare in awe and try to "understand it", but there's nothing to understand. If Joe Blow did the same thing, people would laugh and walk away.

I still think Braid is the best we've got for showing how a game can be art right now. It's not perfect, but it embodies what I like most about artists like Picasso and Dali: It is GOOD at its core, but at the same time leaves a little bit of itself open for interpretation. People can enjoy it without thinking too much about the artistic aspect, but they they can go back and dig deeper if they want. But there is a definite mood to it which helps guide people's interpretations. It's not perfect though, and many complain about how the books sorta separate the story out of the game. Oh well, it's still better than other attempts at "games as art" (distinctly different from "interactive art" mind you).

Now, I may sound cynical at these other art games out there (passage, fathom, gray, etc), but I don't mean any offense to the creators of these games. I think that this type of experimentation is extremely important to evolving the medium, and a necessary step in getting people to value games at the same level as other forms of art. But we aren't there yet.

I did a game called "Pilgrimage" recently which was meant as a satire of this recent "art game" trend. What was interesting was the responses too it. They varied widely, but all proved my point in one way or another (except the people who thought that the pixilation was a "glitch" or "laziness", those were just comical. If anything, the mario gameplay was laziness, not the bitcrush effect). People liked the game when it was roughly an 8-bit graphic style, then complained when it went to large blockiness. Well hey, there you go. Too much abstraction is bad, but a little abstraction is good. Good luck finding the right balance though, its different for everybody. And that's the point of the game, but have fun digging for symbols and filling in the blanks as to what it means and what happens near the end, it only proves my point further. Also, the "artist statement" was 100% randomly-generated nonsense, scrolling a bit too fast for people to pause and try to understand what it was saying, so they thought they were reading something intelligent. The game is satire, and it's interesting to see people get angry at for being too much like what it's trying to poke fun at. Hey, that's the POINT of satire!

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the state of games as art. I have a love-hate relationship with them. I love the idea, but recent experiments have been pretty "meh" to me. It's good to see people trying though.

Also, I learned you can't question art. If you do you get flamed because everything is art, and who am I to decide it isn't? That's not the point. Just because something is "art" doesn't mean it implicitly has value to it.

Procedural Text

2009-05-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Fun little experiment.

Basically I scan through some text files, record the number of times pairs of words appear, then go through and use them as probabilities one word will follow the next, and randomly generate text one word at a time.

Here's the result of Homer's Odyssey + Tucker Max's "I Hope they Serve Beer in Hell" + a Cave Story FAQ + a Pokemon Fanfic:

BOOK XXI

Minerva came up, shooting people who had to the for he had vaginas SlingBlade wasn't fucking verbatim off and you a freshly flayed me around and asked heaven has to another man's, and looking at sea, all went and also his own jism spat out his arrow into the bar, and the long enough lying all fighting for her. She's not right at sea came downstairs and scrub yourself a ki-ote caught hold and my age and killed him for spikes, use the dead body to be killed. Thereon he won't fit for these words he gonna make us back twelve days, for her home again; see that night, and a song suggestions and took an immortal gods were getting frustrated, I start playing "Friends in attendance on their suppers, and head right and went back to his own money I do better. He'll yell (in a couple lances, and the roaring winds, which was left the door, the end of the whole story.

TheCousin ten talents of the top of Peleus. The walls on the way. I went to lose an oar, till we will be weird slurping noise. At the blocks of the suitors. Ulysses said:

"Pisistratus, I pass out, into me.

10:00: Hate pushes his hand against a cute face." The teen girl unconscious (for I got too sober. I am, it for your beer breath bothering you, University of agony ... together." Redhead "I don't want a hole that I went on the back to girls. Oh, Steph ... I decide for I have at least three wheeler... up the better pick-up line so that night, I didn't fucking cheese-eating surrender monkey. I like the contest is a long way in our way I'm invoking that young in the hole is simple: I was, to your goats and challenge his return some plan for three wheeler... up among you in order a scratching noise that your tricks and starts hitting the same boy of Ulysses as she meant taking a cat bawling incessantly. I just try-ing to date, avoid the window to the island not been driven the door on your son: may see if you know, and lie without telling him in bad end to the flesh and then head and can't leave him down upon the blocks on in this you ever been?" May told him not let loose, vomiting all the first Ananament Gem so scared of an ox, or if you gods in the actual streets.
* This enrages me. Prudes suck.

4:16: She stopped and then go home with whatever I thought through markings like it would be funny, like trying to the walls of consider- able to shift moves on, if the power and I walk around for him. The only himself, he just to them, and care how I have sex . AND TAKE MING ARIVE!!" [To the best way home again. And this wife fucks the white thing starts rising. If you are over the cloister upon the ground. His heart was very thickly peopled, but I, who dwell in me to GoldenWife's apartment. We couldn't resist the fucking great cave, and the housekeeper took sign neither in Palo Alto, Fenwick, or any man had succeeded in our surroundings while Karl Childers. My friend who treated you, nor virtue, had made the benches and praying to do you are not associated with my longing to The Gathering tournament, a girl crumpled in my dick is found."

Ulysses was hilarious.

Of course, he had a semi-retarded man just entering the ring were guarding the night a shit, my mild cheers from me." 10:56: Much to herself, and by, for his brawny hand, hospitable and had swords or two. Its hind legs (they move left and to my mast in Palo Alto At bar to the crowd. I know a fair Diana went down, and treating so long?" Tucker "Baby, are nearly eight spears, and wrought with terrific squall from the cave sacred to bed.

By the occasion served; in Cyprus. Thence we weren't sure if haply you probably closer to play with a hurry to the truth, and just sat in my island. I did, for the battle in his comfortable bed outside the source of the bed, but were following the fluttering of the first face in the first weapon! The beauty whether he and now go out their hands, I guess we hurried off at me ... did we could have here and avoiding bats until you suitors, they saw was in the hotel, and moved still drunk. Your mother marry Eurymachus, who took me of humor and brought us shouted out into the story of us where taking her fits as well spoken shall have a blow it is going to where we have to see a dancing in their servants are putting on its force, and foreigners in my money's worth. He's King, a symphony of their course, my life.

EVERYONE HAS TO DOUCHE!! IF SOMEONE STUCK A 1-star (aka, Wildebeast): The sushi restaurant.

11:29: There does strange that Ulysses when she sees the gunfish sign, and powerful and it looks up, so at its first floor, telling me behind him down. Get that he went into his desk lady comes over her retch, the seat and deception (whereas the cut, and my being alive or he asked.

"I'm not let the way of the start hooking up. The weather comes begging about tards when he strung it took his turn, going to wash his mouth, all of a trip back waaaay to the floor of splooge.

This angers me, and I let my group of the ghost of it, pulling me for I were heaving and many great neck of your head, can't see that I am about whom I was the phone, calling and wash their voices in her taller than 5 or his being hit, just cum I decide it even as the =BUBBLER=, another matter. Is it remain away after a loud crash. Girl "I'm not really good account; may tell you are no longer."

Then came together and said, 'Achilles, son of the rock while the pen are doing; see if you have no one or you to normal, though they hook-up he may slacken your set about him with my reaction to Ithaca goes behind him. "Menelaus," replied Neptune, and nursed him from me. I agreed that you to sacrifice of the front of the town, Thomas, back home to get hit, right in the ship and it was a wife of your speech, and now began to father could have been left to get her this, it will not let out in sacrifice around this little and kick myself talking to get back. It was a long spear all about half of my fault that Ulysses and ignored, until she pretty sure to leave us shall have, and her to eat them said, 'as to get enough for those who was swerving from your house?"

Ulysses very angry, or on treesin the wooded slopes of awful burning.

5:23: She stayed where her anger of sandpaper or drink, Telemachus could see you, nor two dollars, I've measured and offered his wife? Even though you attack it washed, its sand.

Continue left on dark, whereon Agamemnon he was leaving the Phaeacians see that of those two servants had the sincerity of these suitors; begin talking to use the hotel, and tell you the Sunstones. To this to eat out of them together when they sent his bed is how carefully away, but somehow made them a humming sound like a clock thing before, I tell all my car [I could think that any one of sheep and handed round as they are, about salary, benefits, work bored you to say what you and told them to have flown off multiple partners are staffed by Vulcan's marriage takes me in tears him up the covers her for there was dead, and full of the wall and a ram, a firebrand."

Ulysses was much as a little else; nevertheless, those people have come, that he loosed the bow in number, watched American fast with good omen when it may be mad. The four whom he sees the approach the gods. Get another better comes out her fingers into my side? What was brewing. The Now the Cook County Emergency Room: Tucker "No, not knowing El Bingeroso is Vegas, they all honesty, saying:

"So I walked in wait for prizes as visitors for their cloaks on guys keep heading right. You will tell you all the sudden:

"BUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPP!"

The swineherd might not attractive. I lied her he manages to kill me, smiled at the urinal

And the rest of there next thought of everyone, you have been ill-treating his son as much taller and sea. Furthermore, wicked witchcraft that they gathered under the richest, and the water and I turn into the ship of Icarius the house I was That was a cry out and PWJ said she, "could easily caught one else in Ortygia. So Eteoneus bustled back already knew what his own if you can avoid the ground seethed with five-pronged spits while on a chameleon's, his nurse went out all of the whole house; they never look went clean them something- even got back, and furnished him and no likelihood of my home, and it was this:

FatGirl and the room and take a friend can I hung a taxi or the faithful to lay it cheap carnival trinkets I whispered back.

I was the middle sheep, or do such a ball of condoms, and pocket the chief persons of silver. Everything I figured this the county along which is hot." SlingBlade "He got sucked miles walked in the house, but they are humans worthy henchmen, when he could then poise your nose and I was not fancy legal talkin' to decide to the ships had put my wide-open eye. I left Florida State Fair. He laid it was enjoying himself into my dash his cheeks are easy to the twentieth day to explain. My father, but I might be COVERED IN LOW RENT SHIT DOES NOT FUCK DA YEW TWO DAYS!?!?" Mike "Oh good, but those in one of the =GUM BASE=, and the store your wife.

"'When your old Misty" Brock Fortress did ill disposed to the prize for me into the bar after giving me off their being a matter how much longer; have sent me off! ME WRESTLE, I'LL FUCKING CLOWNS ARE KISSING IN THE GODDAMN DIGNITY?"

8:00: We looked around my brave companions when she held the corpses bespattered with your friends, and other of Iasus, who are we got. The bard sing the rocks. We then leave the clouds, and said, "No man, that's what I really cute, the shelter from destruction" the =IRON BOND=.

///////////// DECISION TIME \\\\\\\\\\\\\

If you did that when they did you 28."

This isn't it? Anyway, while swinging. Once ALL I was willing to the belt adorned with a helmet, and she drew well as he knows nothing of me the wind into a man can indeed could only that way? This jump at once. Now, therefore, will follow briskly behind a ripple upon the best of the center of this point blank say that I have kept a tramp such bad enough to entreat you a way over the cave, and clearly see Doug at the rocks he excels in full-on El Bingeroso man. He knocks King guy, we saw them over the star blocks hanging out any of us. These are whores."

Greased by the girls in the single tooth-and regaled us go on the actual tape was long pause.

"You're a great story and when he was OK. Here dwells the heavens. Winds from the great looking, and talk to the coolest thing to open the males, both ship and nursed me a ship, and Mermaid took the work when I ruled among themselves, and cannot wash and El Bing "Alright guys, and treated you, fucking with children rejoice when the seat inlaid with spears them and drink, Ulysses with all certainly been like ghetto romance. It was another Mimiga, then leave these guys I am." This girl wearing silver mastiffs which was too would one after you off his hair, with plenty of heroes by all agreed and my stomach muscles and Rick said.

"Well isn't that our bed to my clothes and heaven put a small cutscene, then get away from the car, which on board her building keeps running from toil and the belly by no ill deeds and wanted to a bar. He had driven hither and the nurses handed round the area and glistened most of Olympian Jove, from far. He thought was like 6am the string, and I called.

"Oh yeah and we bore the root than meeting one else that he had two girls that I try and anointed Ulysses ever mess with the poor things. I wished I just lays him when you will give up their work. And I can't take advantage of love for the shape of the gods and fucked her seat, and you are thinking of gay and torn by one, neither ships that summer associates in Duke or with a headlock. Hate ignores me out for it; so use your desire. I got her =AIR TANK= Use enough of my neighborhood. Tanner grabbed the sea. He is dawn will become the blind look out, just ended up Santa's house. Opposite them how many victims; but gave me be shot, throws a quarrel over your PENIS. This didn't say if you go about when she went onto it came in no the woman, Jenka, for his staff, or other. I wrote me off! ME of the front of the lobby, I am sitting over in Cyprus. Thence we too easy. You just didn't like Gone with thick clouds, while their side of the rest of love, he was actually thought that was surprising. Galgameth cried in the waves ran up to see the maids held the bottom" Tanner continued.

"That's attractive." PWJ is beguiling you, you you could not right."

"First light and many of helping one of Maxim, except for the message and save, then Circe has its way and I have been against the harbour, with the quiver full of my longing to look on my corner." I saw four minutes, I wasn't easy, he married, a crucial than myself."

"Is it left her lap: Woman "Oh Christ... not get supper ready, for about it is safe out of your knees and whose speech of a jungle, we were wonderfully like a tsunami of those polled vote and goats, pigs, and did as my own free will enter the =BOOSTER v2.0= back to accept the behest of my life, and Minerva answered, "Sir, you hear the corporeal interim one could easily caught- not scold her," replied giving him and threw up at Pylos, or risked so worn, so my mother. You can shoot them, and which my clothes ripped him immortal, no more seriously date guys workin' with its due pomp, build a nose job and broke out of the Heimlich. Apparently, it for the gods brought them lightly. So now took their crying, and cunning Aeaean island. Do whatever you met mine, and where you how but before Christmas Day One: Baby Dolls. I go to get back and ask yourself: Is stripper-fiancee going past her husband and as the Core of Nausicaa had to the nurses handed I come down to the middle; moreover she might eat. Presently Menelaus told her.

"But the men and killing the sink and that, but you to Laertes, go by night we might get it" John Steele to Ortilochus and leaning upon the split into the left the left of all a Swedish girl. She hung up for I AM NOT STUPID!" SlingBlade "A blind guy eat it, for a bird in principle, it is long and she goes wrong, and a man would say is avoiding bats as they are two nights that as Diana or a pity for a bathroom is persistent wooer, of numbers.

Once at all that was a piece of us had done already. Twice."

I help being driven far away alive, and strippers, double-fisting vodka haze that probably only been crossed our castle and when they made instead I was kinda looks are in Europe. Especially for him. Not that would come off.

1:12: My friend "Why have been the wine round, therefore, with a haven of the line so don't go to write angsty poetry?!?"

She challenges me this:

"Do I almost felt like a young pig you have a large a week after night or hares, but he can gain its wheat and went down there?" Jonathan replied.

Everyone turned to tell you will take us as the door on the final fleet was when the body shots arrive. Tequila. Judging by me, so drunk and spat out from the lab when he was setting out of Saturn, King Alcinous. The men who could best I want to her whenever he has brought them had beautified him drink with Andrew, a visit which was in the hottest girls who keep heading right for this one was that you need this sad thoughts with her on his phone with him. The room to do, we reached the guardian said.

"But there! It got back into Betty's mouth would have no time you to know I am quoting him sit here to the left. There was it. But then kill the twentieth year old and strangling her; she wants. They started honking, flashing bright line turn the Trojans. Anon he is easy. Mermaid "Networking, dude, it's over, enter the fields nor were trying the sheep as fast asleep. The conversation went on my ass off, because you when we had killed on cowboy hat really cute face, changed her face, holding and moaned and threw it was to understand. I like bad stuff I did not. Some one should land on to talk to make friends before he is in the cave this is so that Brownhole and attacked by Icmalius and large volcano. We get the time in the carver fetched water again, even large piece of his arrow on her steps; but eat his mind they were done; when you're with?" Tucker "HAHHAHMHAH ... I cannot cross on your pain and that night.

Tucker "Yeah, he could not; but not there is fun of her defense, do it! What the lamp in the plan." Tucker [A blank, unregistering stare] Girl "Hey Tucker, I even identifying other dirty puddle on board and bong water. Keep heading in case before Junior and dancing, and down to her couch beside him. I guess we wouldn't be a bridegroom and delighted in my site is your voyage to her timbers together and out then talk to ruin your temples. I had offered it from the table of the point out but SHE'S STILL lost your friend I'm going to us. There are fatuous, but I was like midnight." FatGirl 'Tucker, you have a ho into open window. Move, because unlike Tom Cruise, I said, when we have never so will, that has given me. I got two huge fake cell phone and I notice till bed with scrolls of fair wind. Here, we'll call the gleam of it SMELLS. I again raised a shaft and moon; then, my ship, while I can be seen. At the face; but tell me, the night the desk. The suitors would have fulfilled my fingers in there smiling grimly Sardinian fashion with his house of my pants.

1:24: I ran next moving person. Jove the Achaean name, put the facial. As for me:

Tucker "Have you are a grove of night to go. See how abominably you talked to kill it that Teiresias went down of all vicious sluts who were in my hospitality, and they had given to your jumps and that would take what port that she was stupid people they say and get back with a documentary about $800, John Cusack calls me not slowing us about my daughters and kinda spooky.

I would be especially not sent some goatskins and short, and enter the hot curling iron without eating, and hear that country, but some food out a sea shore. Was that has moved there is it true nothing bad some marginally attractive girl wearing a tiny Asian projectile fired at the perfect precursor to you die? Did you might have seen yet. Instead, go unanswered, "Who are smooth and men rushed upon thee. More especially to fuck her again and suffered at first to keep hanging out at all, it's not go home again using the gods who posted this to get the gates of things! What the deal of the Cephallenians, and shadows of the sea, and learned a girl not yet... St. Augustine!" All of the oil upon the child of Mentor, when you up to them how we took hold your men's eyes with the enemies, then was going down like it." Tucker "Thanks Dawn" Tanner yelled.

I caved

2009-05-06T20:36:00.001-07:00

http://twitter.com/tylerglaiel

How to ask me a question

2009-05-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

This has been on my chest for a while now. I often get asked questions about coding flash over aim, email, pm, etc. I don't mind answering questions, but I am not a personal tutor for everyone.

Anyway, this is how you should ask me questions (it's a good guide to follow in general too):

1. Don't sent me .fla files, send me a link to a .swf file, or a .txt file with the code in question. I'm not going to drudge through your source to figure out what's wrong, and part of getting better at coding is learning to isolate where your problem it. It's easier for you to do that than me, since I don't know how your code works, this is something you should do before asking me your question. If you show me a swf, I can help tell you where to look to find the problem usually if that's what your problem is.

2. Figure out exactly what it is you want to ask me. Numerous times I get asked, "what's wrong with my code" and they show me a swf, and from looking, 90% of the time the ENTIRE thing is messed up and buggy, or nothing seems messed up and buggy, and neither of those situations helps me help you. I also get this sometimes: "Can I ask you a question?" "ok," "How do I make [complicated feature]?" As I mentioned before, I'll answer questions and help point you in the right direction for tracking down bugs, but I am not a tutor. Make your question specific, technical, brief, and detailed. Rather than ask me how to do accurate collision detection, for instance, ask me how to collide a point to an irregular shape, or a circle to an irregular shape. I'm fine with those types of questions, but being generic doesn't help, and even if I answer the generic question one way, it most likely isn't the answer you were looking for, and it wastes both our time.

3. Narrow the code you send me. I don't need all your code, only the parts relevant to what your question is about. If you can't figure out what parts are relevant, either you have a really really weird problem, or you need to spend a little while learning how to code before attempting something big.

This is how I'll answer your questions:

I won't edit source files for you.
I won't code stuff for you.

I might point out syntax errors or typos, or give you one or 2 lines, or tell you to move this line there and such, but those are only minor changes.

If your code structure is way off or confusing to answer, i'll let you know, but I wont be able to help you much.

If it's a theoretical thing, I'll tell you what to look up online in order to accomplish what you're trying to do.

Thanks.

Some things that piss me off

2009-04-30T00:20:00.000-07:00

In no particular order:

- Lawyers, they created a market for themselves with all those crazy legal terms which as a consequence requires the existence of lawyers to make the world go.

- Commercials for prescription medications, especially ones where the side effects are worse than what they cure. (Ex. "May increase chance of asthma related death" for an asthma medication)

- That Wendy's commercial where the guy is like "What would george washington have thought if he knew one of his dollars could buy a whole burger!" Ya, well back in his day the dollar was worth more. In the depression, you could buy 20 REAL burgers for a dollar.

- Swine flu. It's the freaking flu, and like what, 20 people died from it and like 200 are sick in mexico, so the world panics? Maybe if you washed your hands after taking a dump you wouldn't get the swine flu.

- XNA. People are like "DO OU USE XNA? YOU SHOULD USE XNA OMG YOUR GAME WOULD ROCK IN XNA" without really knowing what xna or c# is. Nevermind I use a mac, and XNA would tie me down to a platform which I hate, without the power of c++ and without the market penetration of flash.

- Windows and it's horrible DLL system

- Builds of software libraries where they give you the source and expect you to compile it yourself. Then you do, and the lib only works on my computer, even in release mode. What am I supposed to do? Compile the sources on install for everyone's computer? Just give me the headers and the .lib/.dll/.a/framework!

- Conservatives who are calling for an impeachment of Obama after 100 days, just because he's not on the same side as them and they're bitter for losing. Newsflash, Bush did way more questionably legal things than Obama, and yet I still didn't think he should have been impeached, despite not agreeing with him at all, and thinking he should have never been elected.

- Not having a car whilst in college really ties me to my apartment and makes me dependent on amazon for delivering food, which really sucks when I'm low and in a pinch.

- Commercials for "magic weight loss" products. Hey I got a product for you, the secret's in this pamphlet and it'll only cost you 4 easy payments of $19.95+s+h, but you get the first half of the first word for free! Excer____.

- Commercials for "magic beauty products" which are like "YOU HAVE A PIMPLE YOU UGLY BUY OUR CREAM OR YOU FAIL AT LIFE"

- Axe body spray commercials. "Hey buy our spray which smells like ass, and women will have sex with you." Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, and its sad to think people fall for this.

That is all for now

Changed blog format to blogger instead of wordpress

2009-04-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

It's easier to use

I'll see if I can get my old posts imported.

Also

Closure Development Blog

If you want closure news