Ludexor Studios

Wait, What?

So I completely missed Weekly Update 17. I’m not even going to try to hide that right now.

It was not intentional. I was so frustrated with trying to repair my computer that it completely slipped my mind what day of the week it was. Not having any obligations makes things like that far too easy.

When I realized it though, it brought to mind the question: “Why AM I doing the weekly updates?”

Let’s face it. Where Ludexor is at right now, I don’t have things worth talking about each and every week. And unless I am mistaken, with where things are right now, my list of “fans” include friends only. If they want to know how I’m doing, it’s easy enough to ask.

That aside, let’s get to the point:

I’m going to change things up a bit. I’m not 100% sure on the format yet, but the plan is to let the website be the source of “official” information, and this blog be a mix of personal ramblings and “unofficial” information. That is to say that if I say something about Ludexor on the website, it’s as set in stone as it can be. If I say it here, it’s me thinking out loud, but committing to nothing.

Now, right now, the website isn’t anywhere near what I’d like it to be, so don’t bother looking there for news just yet. I really don’t know when it will be either. The more I chip away at my to-do list, the more that gets added on, and the more there is that has to take priority over Ludexor.

I’ve quite honestly come to believe that will be the case until I have a job and move out. Which might be a while.

In the meantime, I will keep this blog active with thoughts here and there. I won’t bother with weekly updates, because they just seem silly right now. Instead, when I have something to talk about, I will talk about it. Sometimes it will be about Ludexor. Sometimes it won’t.

Speaking of which, there’s at least one thing I want to talk about:

It would seem I am officially starting my internship in a few days. I’m pretty excited about it. It involves programming. Programming is nice.

See what I mean about not always having much to say?

I’ll attempt to update the blog when there are things to talk about. Who knows how often that will end up being.

Expect it to be plenty for next weekend if I have the time to do Ludum Dare 23.

PS: I have no idea where my editor is, so there could be millions of typos and grammatical errors and whatnot. Sorry about that. As I explained to her: “I don’t English. I math. You English for me, I math for you. Yes?”

Weekly Update 16: That’s Seven More Than Nine!

Alternative title for this week: I’m so bad with titles.

What to talk about… every week I open this page up ask myself that question. And every week it’s eventually met with another question: Is this a blog about Ludexor, or is this just my own personal diary? Despite having the words “Ludexor Studios” at the top of the page, most of the ramblings here are about my life rather than Ludexor.

Perhaps I should just make that how things work. Official Ludexor news would go on the site, and ramblings and “unofficial” news would go here. Could work, I suppose. Though it could also go over as well as any time the words “New Great Taste!” are found on your most beloved snackies.

I die a little on the inside any time I see those words.

So, news:

• Moving along on the “real job” thing. There’s an internship opportunity that might happen. I’d be thrilled if it does, although with it being unpaid, I’d still have to look for something extra in the meantime.
• The continued job hunt will be keeping me busy, but I’d like to think it finally won’t be consuming “all” of my time. I’n lppking at tje tablet I’ve SYILL npt had the tome tp [lay with yet as O tyoe this. Likewise, I hope to have time to learn how to type without needing to look at the screen.
• Ludum Dare 23 is coming up, and so far I have nothing keeping me from entering. It starts April 20th. So long as have nothing happening from then til the 23rd—as I can PROMISE I will feel dead on Monday if I participate—I will be entering.

That’s about all for this week.

Weekly Update 15: Didn’t We Agree To Skip This?

I had almost posted something back last week that it would probably be best to just wait for the Week 16 update. Apparently though I only thought about saying it, and never got around to actually doing so. Let’s fix that, shall we?

You should probably just wait until the Week 16 update.

This week has been a whole lot of me working on my resume, making sure that my student loans don’t catch me off guard, and setting up my email for easier access and more timely delivery. It’s the first of those that has cost me the most time. And the best part? Despite being the biggest time consumer of this week, I can’t even confidently call it finished.

Though to be fair, I gather it’s a document that’s never finished. You spend hours antagonizing over it until it secures you a job, at which point you forget about it. That is, at least until you need another job.

Either way, the plan at the moment—and I seriously stress the word “plan” when I say this—is this:

1 - Finish touching up resume.

2 - Send “complete” resume to my college’s Career Services and potential employers.

3 - Ensure I have a good list of references’ contact info.

4 - Seek further critique on my resume specific to the game industry if I can find somewhere to do so, and subsequently send out new copies if need be. (This is not higher only because the turnaround might be considerably slow. Weeks, possibly.)

5 - Make sure a few specific people are properly informed of a few specific things.

6 - …can I say it? Can… can I really say it?

I would like to say that number six is that I will have time to do whatever it is I want. Which would mean work on Ludexor.net, finally. But I can’t promise that. Every time I finish a task that had been forcing Ludexor down on my to-do list, another high-priority task fills its place, leaving the whole project in a perpetual “I’ll get to it as soon as I can” state.

It’s frustrating, but what can you do?

Here’s hoping that next week I have better news to share.

Weekly Update 14: Not Much!

I’m going to get right to the point with this week’s update: There’s not much here! Though you could probably tell that already from the title.

That’s not to say this week hasn’t been productive… just not very productive on the Ludexor side of things in any way that would be interesting to talk about. For the most part, I’ve been poking around my web server’s interface to learn all the ins and outs of how to properly maintain Ludexor.net. I’ve also lost a few hours trying to connect the my web mail to Thunderbird for easier access. I’m not sure why it refuses to cooperate.

I’ve also picked up a tablet, and would love to talk about it, but I’ve been too busy to  seriously play with it. It’s a Wacom Bamboo Fun, for the curious out there. I hope to do some artsy things with it, but I only have about 15 minutes of experience scribbling in MyPaint with it so far, and it certainly has a learning curve.

Most of this week however has been dedicated to sorting things out outside of Ludexor. Spent plenty of time researching what the best note taking and finance bookkeeping software there was out there, cleaned up my e-mail, to-do list, hard drive, and so on. My files, notes, and otherwise tend to be a chaotic, disorganized mess, and that just won’t do. I’m trying to be responsible here.

Likewise, I have dedicated myself to moving no faster than three miles per hour while carrying scissors, unless outfitted in proper high-speed-scissor-carrying attire.

That’s about all for this week. I want to say I’ll have something super crazy awesome for next week, but my honest expectations are this: With how much is left on my to-do list that unfortunately should take priority over Ludexor, I expect to not have any “free time” (read: time for Ludexor projects) until the Week 15 update comes around. We’ll see.

Weekly Update 13.2: What’s Next For Ludexor

(There are two update posts for Week 13. One of them is me rambling about GDC, and the other is me rambling about Ludexor. This is the Ludexor version.)

I learned quite a bit from GDC. A lot of it has helped me form a new plan of attack for Ludexor. Since I firmly believe in being open about what’s going on behind the scenes, here’s some insight as to what’s happening next.

Biweekly Game Jam… Things

Since I both need something to show for a portfolio if I’m to get a job in the industry, and since it would be much more motivating and profitable to actually have something for you to play, I’m going to take up a habit of frequently making experimental prototypes. Or, since that sentence was a mouthful, every two weeks or so I am going to try to create some… thing. Those “things” will hopefully be playable games that I can make public while I continue to expand upon. If all goes well, it should mean there are gradually more things from Ludexor to play with, and that the games people enjoy most will be updated and improved often.

Getting A “Real” Job

I had an agreement with my parents—as I am still living under their roof—that I would have until the end of February to prove Ludexor is profitable enough to make a solid income, and that if that failed, I would move towards getting a job elsewhere, be it in the industry, or in, say, retail. And since Ludexor is taking more time than I would have liked to get going… that means—want to or not—they’re going to be pestering me frequently to get a job.

And to be fair, I do want to get a job. I want to secure an income so that I can get out of here. That probably sounds more harsh than I mean it to, but the simple fact of the matter is that I would much enjoy the peace and quiet of being on my own. To do that, I need money. To do that, I need a job.

I could ramble on about how this will affect Ludexor, but it’s probably obvious: I will have less time to work on Ludexor. We’ll see how that affects things. It is what it is.

PotatoBucket

I am going to start off by saying that I am not pulling the plug on this. However, the more I consider what I want PotatoBucket to be, the more obvious it’s becoming that it’s actually a pretty terrible project to start with. I still want to do it, and should I be able to, I still plan on making it happen. However… it seems that the best thing to do—for now—is to shelve the project. I’m not killing it, but it’s best left for later. It’s too large of a project to start with… which is silly, considering how much of a joke it was meant as when the idea was first presented.

That’s about it. There’s not too terribly much else to say, and besides, I already wall-of-texted my blog this week with the GDC post. If you want to feel your monitor is a blurry waterfall of words, go read that.

That’s all I’ve got.

Weekly Update 13.1: GDC Storytime

(There are two update posts for Week 13. One of them is me rambling about GDC, and the other is me rambling about Ludexor. This is the GDC version.)

So, last week was my trip to GDC. Fun times! If you’re looking for a short and sweet description, I have no idea why you’d expect something like that from me, but since I’m feeling nice, here’s one anyway: Entertaining, educational, and inspirational… but to be honest, not the kind of trip I’d recommend making every year without good reason and plenty of cash. I was lucky enough to have my trip paid for me—to those that funded me, thank you—but assuming future trips would be funded out of my own pocket, I can’t say there’s much of a reason to go again all that soon. There is, however, a huge benefit to those who have yet to get a “serious” glimpse into the industry… which would likely cover most of the people trying to break in.

But that said, while there will be some advice peppered throughout this post—which I will make sure to bold for those wanting to skim—I mostly plan on just rambling about how the trip went. Because rambling’s fun.

Day 1 - The Flight Out

The flight out wasn’t to terribly exciting. In fact, minus the free pretzels being handed out at the Auntie Anne’s—delicious—it was actually incredibly boring. This was in large part because I expected to have my phone to entertain me during the six hour trip, forgetting that it consumes power about as quickly as a Sega Game Gear. By the time I got on the plane, I was close to 35% battery life, which is the point where I tend to shut my phone off to save power. Most of the flight was spent… sitting.

Just sitting there.

Waiting.

Lesson learned: Always bring something non-electronic for long flights, such as a book.

When I finally arrived, I ended up eating at a diner, and ordered mozzarella sticks. They came with ranch. I found this strange, but surprisingly delicious.

Day 2 - Getting Used To The City

I had a full day before GDC actually started to give me a chance to get used to the city. And I don’t just mean the city of San Francisco, I mean cities in general.

I grew up in South Jersey. I still live here to this day even. And unlike North Jersey—what most people seem to think all of Jesery is like—there is a whole lot of nothing, covered by a blanket of trees and farmland. And simply put, I like it that way.

Cities are the exact opposite. If you find a tree in the city, you know you’ve located the city park—one of the few islands of nature left in an ocean of concrete and steel. I feel… very out of place in cities. Sunday was the day I had to get used to it.

I spent most of the day huddling in the corner of the hotel room crying softly and cuddling a single, lonely leaf I picked up at the airport.

Day 3 - GDC At Last

The third day of the trip was when GDC finally opened its doors. I got absurdly early, even opting to order an overpriced room service breakfast so that I could be sure I wouldn’t be late. I honestly didn’t know if “being late” was something frowned upon, or even really possible for that matter, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way.

I end up arriving a half hour early, so I decide to just look around a bit. I immediately notice Notch, Jeb, and a few other people who I would probably recognize as Mojang employees if I were a proper Minecraft fanboy. After a combination of both chickening out and deciding that I didn’t want to bother then when they’ve only just made it to the conference—I noticed them as they were signing in and getting their badges, after all—I decided the best course of action would be to just stand at the distance and try to covertly take pictures of them with my phone like some sort of creepy stalker.

I then go to a few talks, listening to what the speakers have to say, making mental notes here and there, while every now and then making a physical note for extra important things. About what I had expected, and not much to say on the matter.

There were also a few tables strewn about for various different companies. A few of them had contests; just drop your business card in a bowl, and either they’ll email you, or in some cases, you might have to show up back at the table. Another lesson learned from that one: Bring two sets of business cards on trips: a set of crappy cards for dropping in large collections, and a set of nice ones for handing to people personally. Or, if you want, just one set of crappy ones. Personal preference, really.

Surprisingly, I actually one of the draws. I was actually the second card drawn; the owner of the first card wasn’t there, and the rules were that you had to be present for the drawing to actually win. I won an AT&T Ericsson Sony Xperia Play 4G. I was thrilled—and to be fair, I still am. Though… I’m a Verizon customer. There’s very little I can do with an AT&T phone.

I’m still undecided as to what to do with it.

Day 4 - The Second Day

The second day at GDC was mostly filled with more talks. Lots of useful information, but nothing I would say that stands out above all the rest. In short, mobile, freemium, social, web… those words kept coming up a lot, and it’s because they’re all new areas that still offer plenty of growth. Keeping your eye on them would be a good idea.

Later that night there was a party being hosted by the user analytics company Kontagent. For some reason I thought it would be fun, completely forgetting that I am not one for bars or clubs. To be fair, if that is your thing, then they did a good job, but I spent about five minutes awkwardly doing nothing before I decided to head back to my hotel room after once again visiting the diner.

I swear, I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I ever live somewhere without a good diner.

Day 5 - Cool Tech Galore

Wednesday—day three of GDC, and day five of my trip—was when the expo first opened its doors. The expo is more or less where companies show off anything and everything that you’d want to buy from them. Translation: a whole lot of cool stuff on display.

I’m not going to sit here and describe every last thing that I came across that I thought was awesome, as this post is already becoming rather long winded. In fact, I bet if I asked anyone who’s made it this far to respond on facebook or twitter with a breakfast food item, I’d get… two, maybe three foods named. But that said, some fun things on display: Sony’s SimulView technology, a glassesless 3D overlay screen by… some company who’s card I can’t seem to find right now (I’ll fix that if/when I find it), and a live, real-time demonstration of motion capture software with a pretty good dancer… from a company I ALSO forget. More advice: If you suck with remembering something—such as names—make use of a notebook.

Wednesday of course ended with another trip to the diner. I believe a total of five root beer floats were had from that diner throughout the course of the trip.

Day 6 - Oh, Just Apply Online

The fourth day of GDC was when I planned to visit the Career Pavilion. I figured it would be a great chance to maybe, just maybe get my foot in the door.

It wasn’t.

While plenty of companies were willing to talk about what they were looking for—both in the sense of a job and in the sense of what they look for in a potential employee—there seemed to be this overall feeling of that no one was all that interested in students or recent graduates. And they aren’t exactly at fault or anything; companies want someone who is valuable to them, and they want proof of it, which most students and graduates don’t have.

It pretty much leaves you with one option: if you want to get in to the industry, you need a solid portfolio. And not just school projects either… working demos that you have worked on that people can actually play. School projects don’t hold much weight. They want to see something made to be played, not to be graded.

In the end, I was happy to have the knowledge, but disappointed that I felt no closer to any “real” opportunities than when the day started. But at least I know where to go from here.

Day 7 - Closing Day

The last day of GDC was largely uneventful. I spent most of it walking around the expo to try to catch anything I missed, as well as made sure I was around for the drawings that were taking place, just in case. It was honestly rather comical how many winners were called that simply weren’t there, and thus missed out on their prizes. The Unity booth—which was giving away an “artist’s dream package” including a high-end Wacom tablet and a whole bundle of expensive software—drew about seven or so names before they picked out someone who was actually there to claim the prize. The lesson there? If you enter a contest that requires you to be present for the drawing, make sure to be present. You never know.

Aside from that, I went to two 25 minute talks before calling it a day, and even then I only went because those two weren’t going to be recorded. It had been a long and tiring event… and I just wanted to relax. I spent the rest of the day lazing around the hotel room, minus one last trip out to the diner for my final root beer float of the trip.

Day 8 - The Flight Back

I’m going to say it right now: Always, when possible, pick non-stop flights. Always.

After the long week I had at GDC, I couldn’t wait to get back home to my own bed. I knew it was going to be a long plane ride, but that didn’t bother me. I was heading home.

Except for the part where I almost wasn’t heading home.

My trip home was scheduled to make a stop in Chicago. There was supposed to be an hour and a half between when my first flight landed and my second flight took off, which would be plenty of time for me to get off the plane, look for my gate, get lost, find my gate, find the plane isn’t at that gate, get lost again, and finally find my plane. However, delay after delay after delay with my first flight meant that I had landed in Chicago at about the time my second flight was scheduled to take off.

As soon as I stepped off the plane, I took off running.

I ran as fast as I could. I ran on the moving walkways, I ran up and down the escalator, I ran as fast I could manage, not willing to stop for a second until I found my gate.

Thankfully my first flight wasn’t my only delayed plane; the second plane was delayed as well by a half hour. Had it not been, I might have been staying a night in Chicago. I threw my arms up in victory, not caring about the strange looks I received, and then promptly plopped down on the grown, completely out of breath. I was heading home.

That’s all I’ve got for you. Well, for this post, anyway. There’s a post talking about Ludexor as well, and what I plan to do with it. If you feel you have not been adequately wall-of-texted by poorly spelled pointless ramblings, go read that too.

Or if you’re just curious, I suppose. 

Weekly Update 12: If I Told You, I’d Be Out Of A Job

Do you have any idea how much time I tend to spend on trying to figure out how to start one of these posts? Let’s just pretend the intro’s actually here this time rather than wasting all that time.

GDC

I’m going to be at GDC this week. To put things simply, I’m pretty excited. I’ll probably ramble all about it in a post when I get back. I’d ramble about it more now, but having never gone to anything like this, I don’t know what to expect.

However, I’m still going to be at GDC when it comes to post the next weekly update. You should probably expect to see a small “come back later” post, as I want to wait until I’m back home and have had a chance to collect my thoughts. (That basically translates to “expect a post late sunday”)

Jobs

On the Ludexor side of things, I ran into the problem of trying to pick a job title for myself. CEO or President can sound pompous for a one-man operation. Even owner seems potentially… eh. Though at the same time, at a glance, programmer or software engineer—the most likely “standard” job titles for myself—doesn’t quite capture what I’m trying to do by being self-employed.

It was at this point that someone made the mistake of pointing out that there’s no regulations on job titles. Thus, my job title at Ludexor is now officially Keeper of the Untold Secret. Just what is the untold secret? I’ll never tell.

On the non-Ludexor side of things, let me remind you that for financial reasons, I am still stuck at home with my parents. Much as I am enjoying this adventure called Ludexor, it’s still in the set-up phase. And while in that phase, income is at a whopping zero dollars.

Now, understandably, my parents aren’t too thrilled about that. And to be honest, I’d like to pull enough of an income to move out as soon as possible myself. They agreed to give me until March to see where Ludexor is going. With the aforementioned zero income that it’s generated so far, they consider it time I looked for a “real” job.

So what’s this mean for Ludexor? I suppose we’ll see. I’ll be applying for jobs, getting my name out there for employers to look at, and so on. I’ve been working on my LinkedIn account and have been in touch with Career Services at my college, and will be making other moves towards employment as well. My attention will probably be split roughly 50/50 between Ludexor and job seeking. I can’t predict what will happen after that.

What I can predict, however, is that that bag of animal crackers I bought yesterday is totally about to get nommed on.

Business Cards

I picked up some business cards from Moo.com, and I’m pretty thrilled with how they came out. They have the weight of, say, a nice heavy postcard. They almost feel like they are made out of plastic instead of paper. Quite sturdy. I like.

Ludexor.net

I said I was going to upload this, didn’t I?

http://www.ludexor.net

I’m working on it on my computer, so changes won’t be instantaneous. I will update it at least once a day minimum however, unless I have a terribly unproductive day.

Weekly Update 11: Shameless Plugs 101

To-do lists.

I hate to-do lists. And I mean, I loathe them. They’re notes—something I hate as well. I have a perfectly functional brain so why not put it to work? Yet for some strange reason I decided to maintain a to-do list this past week. The verdict?

I guess you could say I feel pretty stupid. Keeping a to-do list helps a hell of a lot—a whole lot more than I would have expected. If you’re someone who hates to-do lists—or notes in general—then take it from someone who despises them just as much: they’re extremely useful.

Of course, that probably comes as no surprise to a good number to you, so lets get on to the part where I offer up a link, causing you to question if I really enjoy the product, or if I am being paid to promote it. (Pro Tip - This bowl of ramen in front of me says it’s not the latter)

http://www.wunderlist.com/

Wunderlist is a simple, elegant to-do list. You can access it from just about any computer or smart phone, and so long as you have an internet connection, your tasks are synchronized between all of your devices. It’s quick and easy to use.

Oh, and it’s free. Hard to beat that.

Speaking of free software, let me advertise a few more pieces of junk mention another combination of software that I’ve recently fallen in love with: GIMP, MyPaint, and Inkscape.

If you know any of those, it’s most likely to be GIMP. You might consider it “the poor man’s Photoshop.” Or, if you’re a fan, perhaps “the superior open-source Photoshop alternative.” But either way, it’s basically an alternative to Photoshop, with the major selling point being that it’s completely free.

Now, great as GIMP may be, it’s an image manipulation program. (GIMP, after all, stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program) While it does a wonderful job at what it does, it’s not exactly tailored towards art. But that’s where the other two programs come in.

MyPaint is an art program. It’s designed around the idea of providing tools to create any sort of brush, marker, pen, pencil, crayon, chalk, or otherwise you’d want to draw with, and allowing you to do so on a canvas that you can manipulate like a piece of paper as opposed to a digital image. Learn to use it well, and you can create art that looks seriously non-digital.

On the other side of things, we have Inkscape. Inkscape is a vector art program. And unlike Photoshop or GIMP, it is very clearly dedicated to vector art; the tools provided are far more robust, and yet at the same time, simple enough to pick up quickly enough. (Vector art, for those unaware, can be zoomed in indefinitely without getting blurry or pixely; this is because it is actually drawn with equations rather than saved dot-by-dot)

Put all three of these tools together, and you’ll have just about any tool you need to create, edit, draw, or manipulate any sort of image you choose.

Oh, and again, they’re all free.

Clicky:

http://www.gimp.org/

http://mypaint.intilinux.com/

http://inkscape.org/

Isn’t advertising great?

Speaking of which, a heads up about the website: There will be ads. That might not come as a huge surprise, but for those who are caught off guard, the reason is pretty simple.

I want to make PotatoBucket—and very likely future Ludexor projects—as free as possible. There might be fancy non-essential extras for sale, but I would like to avoid charging for the core product. The more open and freely available I can make this thing, the better. However, if I don’t make an income off of this somehow, Ludexor will have to be pushed aside in favor of a more traditional nine-to-five job. And as much as dislike ads, they can be pretty effective.

I want to make it clear though that I intend on making ads obvious and unintrusive. Obvious in that you will know when you are looking at an ad, and unintrusive in that they won’t get in the way or make the page look needlessly ugly. You should be able to easily tell the difference between when you’re trying to be sold something and when I’m just rambling on about something I like. (For an example of the latter, see the first half of this post.)

And speaking of the webpage: For what it’s worth, I’m going to be uploading incomplete versions of the page starting… first thing tomorrow. What’s that mean to you? Well, if you want to get an idea of what state the webpage is in, just go to it and poke around. I will make sure to upload changes as I work on it; it should come together soon enough. Beyond the fact that I “need” it done before March, I’m fairly sure I’m done learning the tools and languages I need to do this—at least enough to proceed.

Speaking of—are you sick of that phrase yet? I’ve used it quite a few times in this post alone.

Anyway, speaking of learning, I have to say that’s one of the reasons I really enjoy this project that is Ludexor. I feel like I’m really learning things.

I also feel like I talk too much sometimes.

tl;dr, am i rite???