Framework: Cards

The card game framework is finally underway.

One of the first steps is to get card images. For now, I am using a free SVG deck and sliced up the image using SliceImage. SlideImage was really nifty and saved me at least an hour of cropping out each of the cards from a composite image.

The other thing of note is that I am trying both a scrum for one and Test-Driven Design. Every day there will be some refactoring too. How extreme of me!

I expect to release the framework (for Flash 7 because it must run on the Wii) when I am done with the first game using it.

Games: Square9 ratings

After the first day on WiiCade.com, SquareNine has a 3.5 rating with 250+ games played.

July 6 Update: 750+ games played and a 3.4 rating.

Game: SquareNine

I just released a new Flash mini-game: SquareNine. It was built with the Wii in mind so it plays nicely on that system. If you like it, head to WiiCade.com to vote for it. It needs to have a 2.5 or higher rating to survive its probation period. It needs a 3.4 or so to be on the first page of the puzzle games.

If you are reading this an either want the source or to post it on another site, let me know.

Improvements over my last mini-game (Slider) is a preloader, sounds aren't on the first frame (sound movieclip with stop() on the first frame and the sounds loaded in frames 2 through N), and a really nice visual score history/meta game. My art still needs help though.

Code camp

San Diego Code Camp is this weekend. Too late to tell you to go though. Hosted at the UCSD Extension classrooms, this was a fabulous free gathering of geeks. Speakers talked on all ranges of coding. I went to an Introduction to Agile, Managed vs Self-Formed groups, Scrum, and two refactoring sessions. Afterwards, there was a free dinner and band.

I can't make the Sunday sessions. Someone from Microsoft is talking about XNA and game development that would have been very interesting. Next time.'

My take-home tasks include looking up "scaling scrum", reading a book on Refactoring, and trying to figure out how to get a team in San Diego to use scrum. I wish I was coding because then I could suggest that I need a coding partner too.

Next year I should consider giving a talk. Suggestions?

Kids Cheating in Online Games

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0703080167mar08,0,4256114.story

http://paintboy100.wordpress.com/

Online Game Infrastructure

Summary of Mastering Online Game Conference which discusses many of the things I'm going to be talking about at the Seattle Online Game Developer's Conference in May.

Torque: MMO Kit

Torque MMO workshop is starting to give independent developers a platform to build an MMO. Interesting...