I’ve got a mushroom head.
I’m stronger than the rest.
I’ll kill Wart dead.
Mushroom head.
I’ve got a mushroom head.
I’m stronger than the rest.
I’ll kill Wart dead.
Yeah.
With veg from his machine.
With veg from his his machiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

…

This is like the fifth article I’ve seen recently that thinks a game is a story. Go ahead, read it. It blatantly says so in sentence two.

A game is a system of rules and goals. Period. Story doesn’t even begin to enter in to it.

Once again, for those who were so utterly dumbfounded by the previous statements that their brains filtered them out: A game is a system of rules and goals. Period. Story doesn’t even begin to enter in to it.

Since video games use a multi-media presentation (multi-media being little but a buzzword for “has pictures and sounds”,) people have been trying to turn them into movies pretty much ever since it was remotely feasible to try. They have, on many occasions, succeeded. Not in making truly interactive stories, but in turning a game into a movie. A movie with a 20 minute plot written by hacks then thinned out to encompass 40 hours of “interaction” consisting mainly of dragging the protagonist from set A over to set B and occasionally pressing the correct button when prompted like a laboratory chimpanzee.

This annoys me.

When I buy a video game, I want a game – first and foremost. A game. Where the fun comes from figuring out the system of rules and exploiting it to the best of your ability. And having a way to measure your success (a score, like) helps quite a bit, as well. I could care less about a story. If I want a story I’ll read a book or watch a movie. Something written by professional writers rather than introverted code monkeys.

If a game has a story as well as a game, it doesn’t offend me. If it’s well-crafted I may even enjoy it. But it is not why I am playing the game.

I am playing the game because it is fun to play the game. Ideally. There are an awful lot of games anymore that prey on the average nerd’s slightly OCD nature and are more akin to jobs where you grind out your quota than to actual fun. I do play far too many of those. But I don’t play any game because I give half a rip what is going to happen to the characters next.

I don’t have anything against interactive fiction. I had a ball with many a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book or an Infocom program. Though, my main interest was in solving the puzzles required to get the good ending. Even then, I didn’t care about story in my game. But, if what you want is a slightly interactive story (and it seems like the vast majority of so-called “gamers” do) – go for it.

Just, for the love of monkey, stop assuming it’s a game.

Tomorrow early morning my first day back to a job I hardly remember how to do with no training days just jump right in and nobody even told me who to report to I guess I’ll just have to ask at the front desk I hope somebody realizes I’ll be there I mean I was told to show up tomorrow though I don’t know who it was that told me I’m horrible with names should have written it down…

How am I supposed to sleep?

Yes, it has a setting – to 5, 10 or 15 minutes. No, I am not accidentally changing it. Changing it requires holding a button for a length of time, then pressing another button a certain number of times, then pressing yet another button to select your desired result. It’s not like I could’ve just backhanded a toggle-switch.

Also, it’s certainly not only been this clock I’ve had troubles with. I’ve had several clocks that would randomly decide “snooze” means “off”. I’ve had clocks that inexplicably changed the alarm time. And I’ve had many, many clocks that randomly decided not to sound the alarm even though everything was properly set.

Is it not possible to buy a clock that just bloody works?

(Also, what is with the “feature” that after an alarm sounds for a minute it shuts itself off? I hate clocks like that. Who in the world thought that was a good idea? A minute? Twenty, maybe. Still, it should be up to the sleeper to turn it off. That’s kind of the point of an alarm clock.)

That’s good.

However, it’s a fairly complex back-end. At least for me. Maybe “professional” programmers churn thirty of these things out a week, I dunno.

So, I’ve had a conceptual sticking-point which I hadn’t mentally wrangled a method to implement. I need what are essentially viewports. These viewports can be positioned anywhere on the screen and take up any percentage of the screen’s area. Through these viewports you should be able to see any particular part of the game “world”. The relative size and position of objects from the game “world” should be appropriate to the viewport. These concepts are fairly basic to 3D graphics, but I’m applying them to 2D. Still, should be simple enough.

Except…

I also need the viewports to be able to contain viewports. So the objects are reshaped to be appropriate to the shape and position of the viewport when viewed through another viewport’s shape at its position. If you follow. It’s already complex just to explain. Now imagine another level of viewports looking at that. Perhaps you can see why I’ve been having trouble.

I think I’ve hit upon the solution, though. Perhaps even the optimal solution, since it will strangely enough actually reduce the amount of computation needed when compared to the ways I was previously approaching it. Optimal enough for me, anyhow.

Now I just need to get it implemented and I can start to test it and maybe have images to look at next time.

(This is all currently in GLBasic, by the by. I’m planning to get a back-end of some sort running before I delve into C#/XNA, where my first task will be porting the back-end over so I can develop in parallel.)

I say finished because it works and I’m not going to update it further. I don’t even use the language I built it in any longer. It’s really not finished in my mind, though. It’s pretty rough around the edges. One day I’ll put together a more robust version.

Or not.

Since I’m not much of a cake person, my lovely mother has made me an apple, walnut and cheddar “pizza” pie. That’s just awesome.
(Also, a standard apple pie, which is rather good, as well)

Pie for breakfast!

Then it was on to opening gifts.

A shirt that makes me smile from my youngest brother’s family. Also an extra chin. It wasn’t there before, I swear!

What could this be?

A camera! I’ve been without one for quite a while since my old 2 megapixel died. Huzzah!

Time for birthday luncheon:

Double bacon Pepper Jack cheese burger…ohhhhhhh, yes!

And then we went for a movie:

…though we got there 40 minutes early

All in all, a wonderful day!

In fact, just yesterday I had my re-hire “interview” and was told the season would start the first of November.

Now? 10 days. I only have 10 remaining days of freedom! As if my projects weren’t delayed enough already just by my procrastination…

(Edit: They’ve changed their minds again. Now I have an additional week.)