Cognitive Observation #42

Beat panels FTW!

    --LazerBlade

Plans And Possible Projects Of The Future

Now that I'm a college student, I need to carefully plan what other projects I'll be working on. I don't have all of this figured out yet, but I thought you all might like to know what I do so that you can at least guess how much longer this relative dry spell is going to last.

First, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get back to work on my Chiptune EP. Second, I've got a new album idea I'm thinking about. I'm not sure if I'll be able to work it into my schedule or how long it would be before it became officiated, but know that it's on the table. Third, I'm hoping that my webcomic creative juices keep flowing so that Cognitive Observation can become regular again. Fourth, Infiltrator will probably be going on hiatus. Infiltrator was a project that was mainly there for me to have fun trying to code and experiment with game development for the majority of its incarnations, so I kind of saw this as a likely ending for it from quite near the beginning. Fifth, I'm pondering the possibility of choosing 15 topics and doing a third Music Hacker season. This depends in part on my getting a better grip on my schedule, and in part on finding 15 topics I know I can do a good episode about. And last but not least, I'm not really not sure I'll be able to continue being a game analyst. Sure, I still love the medium, but since I don't have time to play games or spend enough time thinking about them to keep interesting content going, I just don't see a wealth of game design articles as a likely part of the content for the next while.

So yea, things are a bit up in the air right now. Thank you for bearing with me while I try to get this stuff sorted out.

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #41

I know content has been a bit sparse. The way things have been going, keeping a weekly comic has been all that I can do. I finally have a way to work while I'm on campus, but we'll see what that leads to in terms of blog and YouTube content.

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #40

I've had this strip in my head for quite awhile now. It speaks artistically to me on many levels, but I still think it's hilarious as all bork.

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #39

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #38

Do you like the more overt rottenness of tone?

    --LazerBlasde

Cognitive Observation #37

I have yet to get any kind of decent buffer of comics going again. I've basically just been posting them on the nearest Tuesday that I make them. Maybe sometime in the imaginary future I'll have enough time to breath, thus being able to be creative enough to have a regular output of comics.

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #36

My biggest, grandest comic since the resolution to the skater-punk series. I'm introducing a new superhero, using color, and trying out a new art style. This took forever to draw. \

The new art style parodies the every actor is a perfect person idea by having all men have literal triangle figures, while all women have literal hourglass figures. This also allows me to have a wider range of character designs with different pieces of clothing and body shapes.


    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #35

To be fair, I've gone out of my way to be an activist against age discrimination. That doesn't mean that stereotypes aren't funny.


    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #34

Quit your whinin', can't you take a joke?

        --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #33

Having a tablet makes doing comics way easier. I actually designed this one with my tablet. Unfortunately, it's not accurate enough to draw them, and I don't have the right software. So you still get comics scribbled out in GIMP.


      --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #32

This comic speaks for itself.

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #31

Happy first Cognitive Observation in awhile! I have ideas for at least a few other comics, so if I don't have article content for Tuesdays you can enjoy those.

Cognitive Observation #30

What? All comic artists have the right to a pun every once in awhile.

Cognitive Observation #29

Cognitive Observation #27

Posting Schedule and Review Format

I like writing. It's the type of delicate blend between science and art that always rubs me in a special way. Unfortunately, I don't practice it as much as I once did. Upon considering why this is, I noticed something rather interesting about the way I handle game reviews/analysis. I can't seem to make up my mind about whether I'm doing the normal consumer advice game review thing, or whether I'm analyzing and commenting on various aspects of a game.

Upon reflection I think my preferred choice would be game analysis. This means away with review scores, and away with a hastily scraped together paragraph at the end of every game analysis set attempting to explain who will and won't like the game. Rather than taking entire games or entire concepts, I will free myself to discuss, comment, and analyze whatever game related subject I find intellectually stimulating at the time. This will probably result in more entertaining and enlightening writing because I write best about a topic when I find interesting and stimulating.

Another topic that's crossed my mind is my posting schedule. After my comic strip went on hiatus I pretty much stopped posting on Mondays. I plan to change that ASAP. Either this Monday or next I will again start posting content on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. If I find time and inspiration to do a comic every once in awhile it will be posted on a Monday as another Cognitive Observation.

Let's see what kinds of interesting things get cooked up within the next few weeks. ;)

    --LazerBlade

Infiltrator Part 16 - Path finding a' la doom

I have the terrible feeling that this is the point where this project will fall. Consider that I've stopped doing Cognitive Observations due to time constraints(guess I should officiate that sometime,) slowed down working on Infiltrator, and need to learn a completely alien facet of game development in order to continue. At any rate, here's a quickly scraped together report of the progress Infiltrator has seen during this session.

Yes, I'm still avoiding  calling this a screenshot journal. What you're seeing is an overlay of the enemy vision and yours. The next important part of Infiltrator is path finding, and the first part of that it to create a level grid with data about each unit. My grid system is a little clunky ATM, but I'm still trying to get some basic D* path finding routines built in.

Additionally, I'm also thinking about reworking the camera rig. Currently it's a top view fixed rotation scroller, but I'm thinking about turning it into a rotating camera where you always face the top of the screen. You would no longer be aiming at the crosshairs, since there wouldn't be any. You would move the mouse left and right to turn, giving a more immersive and action friendly movement engine. The problem is that this has huge effects on the core of the game as well. It could turn into a huge change, ending up being more work than it's worth, or it could be awesome.

    --LazerBlade

Cognitive Observation #26

Cognitive Observation #25

This is what I think whenever people say "bow out."