flashisms

Big Balls of Gas

2010-03-07T00:47:00.008-05:00

When the world sucks, I look up. Yes, its nerdy emo time. Things suck, but guess what? The earth still spins, the sun still burns, the stars and planets travel across the sky just as they've always done. All the unfair wrong things that happen on this little blue planet is just that, happening on the little blue blue planet. Of course, at the end of the day it isn't much consolation as everything that matters to us happens on earth, but sometimes its good for a little bit of perspective.

End nerdy emo time.

Here is another photoshop fart. It's the star, like the sun, converting its hydrogen into helium, doing its fusion thing.I'm not sure if I'm happy with it. It looks like the sun, warm and fuzzy and, well, yellow. What I want was more along the lines of this. Angry, violent, powerful, hot sun. I don't know if making it red would've accomplished that though. I suppose it needs more hot spots and sun flares. And I should probably lay off the blur tool. Perhaps the next appearance of a sun type star, I would have to be absorbed by a black hole? It must be impossible to make a star eating black hole warm and fuzzy right??

Connect Four - multiplayer!

2010-01-08T01:46:00.010-05:00

Finally. Its far from being polished, but it lives!!
700+ lines of ugly, messy, obzokie, code. My original plan was neat, simple, organized, and very clean code. However, due to lack of examples, documentation, and understanding of actionscript 3 (that falls on me), I have this monstrous excuse of fake object oriented programming. Somewhere along the line, though, I stopped caring and just wanted to get it to work. And by god and batman, it works.
There are still quite a few kinks to work through, and the interface and graphics leave lots to be desired, this is probably not the final version. It's also not set up for anyone to play against each online yet, so here, for your pleasure, are screenshots.

Here we have the login screen. Our beta tester, the goddam batman is logging in. (Theres no password functionality yet)

Next is the chat screen, where you can banter with each other and see when users enter and leave. We also have the game room list as well, where you can add and create game rooms, where the actual game will be played. Spectators are allowed to watch (but thats a feature that will be added on later.)
Next god will create (since he likes to create things) a room. A window pops up and you can name your room and give it a password if you like (I don't think I finished that part properly either). As soon as god clicks "create", he will be transported to eden (the game room).
What we have no screen shot of, as I had a brain fart and forgot to take one, is of the game list in the chat screen that batman (the non game creator) would see. He would click on the game room name (in this case "eden"), and the game will then begin. The screenshot below is god's pov, waiting for batman to enter for the game to begin.Finally, the epic battle ensues and the winner is...
Like you didn't see that coming. It's the goddam batman for crying out loud. What the winner window should actually ask is if you want to restart or exit. Another thing on the list of fixes.

Overall however, I did enjoy making this. It's been a while since I actually had something consume me where I stayed up late fixing, woke up early tinkering, completely losing track of the time, ignoring everything from food to a cat gnawing at my foot. Fun times.

why does no one love me god?

2010-01-06T15:37:00.002-05:00

While testing, I had some fun.

Not so Massive Multiplayer Online (NSMMO)

2010-01-01T03:07:00.005-05:00

Well i'm working on connect 4 and trying to get it into a multiplayer online game, logins, chats, the works. I had some issues (Im looking at you smartfoxserver), but I think I got the gist of it. I spent of the early hours of 2010 trying to get a chat to inform when a user enters and leaves a room. So far, its looking up to be a great year.

Here's a snap shot of my workspace, all wonderful 3360 x 1050 pixels of it. Notice, all the cool people from mozart to the the goddam batman are beta users. Yes, I amuse myself very much.

TSK - Remidi

2009-12-28T02:50:00.004-05:00

Being that my profile picture is so awesome with awesome hair, a friend liked it so much she wanted a character modeled after it. This character, however, takes a little more care of her hair and has more fashion sense. Despite her saying that the current creature in my profile is wearing a laundry bag (dammit, its a cheap alternative to a trench coat!!), I finished the pic and was happy with the result. Sometimes I forget how much fun doodling is. ::cough three-doodlers cough::

Connect Four - part 2

2009-12-28T00:40:00.003-05:00

Same as before, just with a winner check.
Tried to update graphics, but for some reason i forgot how to make smooth vectors and didn't feel like spending time on it. But it works, so yay.
Up next for connect four, perhaps, multiplayer online?

Connect Four

2009-12-27T01:53:00.001-05:00

New project: Connect Four.
Not much to say, you have red and green chips, and you slide 'em into the slots.
As of this moment there's no calculations to check for a winner, but you can still play. The graphics suck at the moment, but will be fixed. Stay tuned for part 2!

Space stufF

2009-12-10T11:45:00.000-05:00

Its stuff, and its in space.

There are a couple things i don't like about it, but overall i'm just happy that i have a planet with some stars in the background together.

I am also aware that this is not flash related, but i haven't done anything flash related recently. Maybe this shouldn't be flashisms, it should be... stuff melissa does... as you can tell, i'm not good with titles.

Ripple Tank Week

2009-07-20T21:54:00.000-04:00

The title is a reference to my high school days where Physics class was what made my day. Other than the unnatural obession with me thinking of my Physics teacher as Professor Severus Snape from Harry Potter (Potions and Physics can be similar, what with bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses), I truly did enjoy the class and in particular the labs. One week, instead of lectures, we spent time in the lab learning about ripples, which my teacher enthusiastically dubbed "Ripple Tank Week". I remember that Professor Snape--I mean my teacher spent a bit of time at my station probably because I got through all the experiments. Professor Sna--I mean my teacher had really nice hands, and coupled with Physics, I was in nerdette heaven.

This post isn't about my strange teenaged delusions of reality however. We have a new flash experiment; this one looks like ripples, hence my nostalgia. I used an open source library called Tween Max that makes the colors and blurring, etc. There's nothing much else to say about it.

Mmm.. Snape...

Banner and Particles

2009-06-19T02:01:00.000-04:00

We have a new banner, and I think I'll start messing around and jazz this blog up.

Here we have some particles that behaves like a water fountain. Reminds me of the game Legacy of Cain: Soul Reaver. I think it was the first one, where there was a really pretty water fountain; each drop of water was a particle. It was very mesmerizing. It goes as high as your mouse.

To boldy go where no man has gone before!

2009-06-15T01:31:00.000-04:00

Yes, it's been a while, but I couldn't stay away from flashing for long.

Here we have a simple layer manipulation to make it look as if you are floating through space.
Imagine, if you will, Jean Luc Picard speaking of seeking out strange new worlds and seeking out new life forms and civilizations. Unfortunately, my flash app doesn't take you into warp speed.
It also reminds me of the intro of FF7 before you see Aerith staring into the lifestream.

Enjoy.

Because of the server the file is uploaded on, whenever you try to change directions, there is a slight pause.

Also, space is infinite, but because of this nifty simulation and because I am so great, I shall allow you to see the ends of the universe! (aka if you go in one direction for a bit, it will slow down and eventually stop).

Bouncy Balls

2009-04-15T02:34:00.001-04:00

Actually, it looks more like bouncy eggs...

A simple animation test with particles. Soon to come more particle movement and particle swarms!

My god... it's full of stars!

2009-04-03T14:12:00.000-04:00

I've always liked the art of greg martin and digital blasphemy and wanted to imitate it. However, I always seem to get distracted and never put a lot of time into trying. Anywho, I had a dream last night that you could actually see the night sky in NYC (my reasoning for the dream was that everyone was going green and wanted to live in the dark) and my subconcious mind gave me some beautiful images that nasa would be jealous of. Since we don't have the technology to hook up printers to your brain, I decided when I woke up to try to get it onto photoshop.
What I got was nothing that I envisioned. But, it's a start.
There's two pictures here, one is of a starfield, and the other is a planet. I wanted to put the planet in the starfield, but it looked so much out of place that I just left them separate.
Aah well, next time then.

Generated Modern Art

2009-03-29T15:18:00.000-04:00

I saw someone do this somewhere on the internet before, and when I tried it, it wouldn't work. After frustrating myself and giving up, I put it to the back of my mind. I decided to try to make a whiteboard today, and somehow, instead of making a whiteboard, this came out. Eh.
After messing around with it a bit myself, all the little circles of different colors came out looking like an abstract painting and I swear I could see a nature scene within it. So I figure you artists out there could have fun with it.
Click the mouse, and your pretty picture is gone. Bwah ha. The background is white, as is the background of the page, I did that on purpose just to be evil. (Bwah ha)x2

Mostly Finished BlackJack

2009-03-29T01:08:00.000-04:00

Yay.
This was a little harder than I anticipated, since you're playing against the computer. I had to figure out all the rules, and since I've never played blackjack or cared about it before this, I probably got some of them wrong.
Basically, the dealer has his own hand, you can see his first card, can't see the rest. He deals himself cards until he has 17 or more (which I read somewhere is what the dealer actually does). I wasn't sure that when you choose to stand, if the dealer still had turns. It seems to me as if he should, so the dealer deals himself stuff until he's ready.
One issue is that your "turn" happens before the dealer. So if you win or lose first, he doesn't get a turn, and loses the opportunity to tie with you.
Now, with the case for aces, it counts as 11. I am too lazy to figure out how to make it 1 or 11, so yeah.
I wanted a cheesy casino look for the design, so there you go. Its not exactly what I envisioned, but I did it on flash itself and i'm not so familiar with the interface. Then I realized I could have made an image in photoshop and plop it in, but this will do.
This could also be made multiplayer. However, that brings up other issues and I probably won't be able to post them on blogger. Its something to look into though.
Since all card games follow the same concept (decks, cards, hands, turns), all the issues found here would probably be solved in the next card game, which means I will most likely move on and leave this as it is.

Enjoy!

Oh yeah, for some reason if there's a lag on the server where the flash file is saved, you get lags with the animation which sometimes gets out of whack and gets all glitchy, so be aware of that.

BlackJack!

2009-03-28T00:13:00.000-04:00

Here we go, a primitive version of Blackjack.
Press the Hit Me button, and you get your cards.
If they're over 21, you lose.
If you manage to get 21, you win.
However, since you have no other options (like standing), most of the time you will lose. Bwah ha.

Its ugly, but I will pretty it up eventually, and actually add a dealer hand so you can hit or stand.

Its a Hand! Animated!

2009-03-20T01:21:00.000-04:00

As promised: Animated.
I noticed a few bugs from Hand Part 2. After you send a card to the pile, you are still able to send it to the Hand, and vice versa. This causes some problems because the pile (or hand) still thinks it has that card. Anyway, this is fixed in the animated version. However, this version has a bit of a problem itself. If you manage to click on a button (to pile or to hand) while the card is still animated, it will freeze in the center and stay there. I'm not sure why that happens just yet.
Both the un-animated and animated versions share another bug. When sending a card from the hand to the pile, the card sometimes disappears somewhere in the middle of the pile, rather than the top. I didn't pinpoint the exact circumstances where it happens just yet.

Other than that, enjoy animated goodness.

Matching Game

2009-03-19T13:49:00.000-04:00

From the bowels of my computer, I found this that I made last year using the tutorials found in ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University Book. Its a matching game. I got help with ideas for the icons (the tropical drink, etc) from A Strange Boi.
Its a pretty nifty game, but gets rather tedious after one play.

Its a Hand! Part 2

2009-03-19T03:02:00.000-04:00

Now we've got a easier to understand interface for the Hand. Basically, you click the deck, the card pops up, and you can then choose the button "To Pile" to send it to the pile, or "To Deck" to send it to the deck.
The awkward thing about it, however, is that the hand cards are still clickable and would send it to the Pile if you click it. I have to figure out a better way to set that up, perhaps with using the buttons as well.
Perhaps, comming soon, some animations?

Its a Hand!

2009-03-18T15:05:00.000-04:00

Ok here we have a hand.
As you click through the deck, your card will go to the hand.
If the hand fills up, it then goes to the pile.
The cards in the hand are clickable as well.
When you click a card on the hand, it goes to the pile.
Once you have an extra spots on the hand, your deck cards will fill up the hand again.

Its a Deck! Last part, I promise

2009-03-16T22:57:00.001-04:00

Ok, finished Deck.
Difference now, when you click shuffle, it shuffles only whats left in the deck.
Good way to make sure it's working is that the deck starts off sorted, so wait until the last 10 cards (since you'll know the order) and shuffle.
Any bugs or errors, let me know!

Its a Deck! Part 2

2009-03-16T22:52:00.000-04:00

Another Deck. Except this time when you get to the end, the deck magically starts over, kinda like what happens in the easy version of solitaire.

Its a Deck!

2009-03-16T22:36:00.000-04:00

Basically, what we have here is a deck that you can click through all 52 cards.
It goes from the deck, to the pile.
When you get to the end, nothing happens.
You can shuffle, and the deck starts new, all shuffled, with an empty pile.