Current Project
spDialog: Alert() & Confirm() Replacement
Over the last couple decades, I have primarily been a JavaScript developer and one thing that has always been a pain point has been displaying a message to a user, wait for their response, and then continue code execution. Historically, the only real option had been Alert() and Confirm() however over the last few years that's changed with more options available.
I've been taking advantaged of these newer capabilities giving me more control over code execution and providing a better user experience. However I've still had the downside that my code has generally been specific to the project at hand and having to refactor it to work elsewhere properly. So I set out on a personal quest to create a reusable vanilla JavaScript object that I can easily drop into a project. This isn't all that unique as there are libraries that include similar functionality, but I wanted to build something myself to have the benefit of full source control and customization. Plus I just wanted to have some fun.
Progress may be slow going as I don't have a ton of free time these days, however I have released an alpha of the project over on GitHub should anyone be interested. While very much a work in progress, it is completely usable and there are working examples provided.
The dialog designs are fairly generic on purpose as the entire dialog is exposed for customization. In the future, I plan to add some pre-defined style options.
Recently Completed Project
Ludum Dare 50: Delay The Inevitable
My entry for LD50, titled "Numerus Maximus", was built on a very tight time budget. Like my last competition, I decided the best way to proceed was to use JavaScript and make a pure browser based game since that is where my mindset is in coding these days. This time around I decide to leave behind the Canvas and keep it simple. The entire project is in basic HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Though it did give me the opportunity to use my new spDialog class for some of the popups. As this class is freely available to anyone who wants to use it and open source, it falls within the guidelines for the Compo.
With a theme like Delay The Inevitable, my mindset immediately when to a game that would need to be quick to play and nearly ensure the player would lose. I played around with making a game akin to Minesweeper but eventually abandoned that specific type of game play because the player had too much of an advantage. I landed on something more random where the player blindly picks tiles trying to find the #24 tile last. Finding #24 ends the game but technically the player still wins. The more tiles they can pick before finding #24, the higher their score.
Click the thumbnail to play the game or click here to view more detail about the game and development process.
Upcoming Projects
Ludum Dare
Ludum Dare is always on my radar but scheduling time to participate has been difficult. So watch here for new entries or to review my previous entries.
Pandemic
The Pandemic has caused me to have to give priority to other projects outside of personal ones. "Real Life" as it were, has been really busy lately. I do hope to be able to shift some focus back to personal projects and this site sometime this year.
Completed Projects
To view some of our completed projects, take a look at the Projects menu at the top of the page.
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On The Back-burner
Space Trading Simulation Game
We are currently working a lot in Unity3D developing a 2D game as yet untitled. The game will be a trading simulator that takes place in space and, currently, is intended to be a casual game that you can play a few minutes at a time and still accomplish something fun. Some of the features will include:
- Multiple production options such as mining ore, ice, gases, etc...
- Gain experience over time from production
- Level up to obtain better production options and more production capacity
- In game events such as special orders asking you to produce X amount of some good in Y time frame.
- Hire Logistics companies to handle shipping for you for a short time (so the game can run in background)
- Seeded random layouts including galaxies and solar systems.
- Many other features planned but not ready to discuss
Graphically, the game is still very much a prototype but we do have a video we can share. The simulation is not represented in this video and the graphics are simple place holders.
Update 9/16/2018: This project is not dead but is evolving into a more leisure style of game. However is very slow going so don't expect frequent updates here.
Update 1/4/2021: While still not a dead project, pandemic and other bill paying jobs have shifted priorities. I hope to find time to work on this more in the near future.