EricHolsinger.net

Some people know that I’ve been working on a web game that I plan to integrate with Facebook. The initial prototype took a few weeks of halfhearted hacking and thrashing around between PHP and MySql, getting used to LAMP style programming again. I got a working proof of concept up and running and started making notes of what really needed to be done to make it work. Then, I admitted to myself that I was making a giant mess that I would not be able to build on for very long.

I looked around for a PHP framework to make things easier. Something scalable and lightweight, but sensible and clear. I found the Yii framework after peeking at CakePHP and CodeIgniter. I chose Yii because it seemed to make sense to me at first glance. I was able to get my model defined and had CRUD stuff up and running in no time at all.

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Intel is promoting a game contest called Level Up 2009. The contest is designed to promote usage of Intels development tools (compiler, threading libs, etc). It probably also serves to publicly open up the final QA process, too.

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I’ve been working on a game project in my spare time and need a good tool for vector illustration. The obvious choice is Adobe Illustrator, right? Well, I wanted to explore my options and see if I could find something cheaper. My primary criteria: Mac OS X and Wacom Intuos4 tablet support. Secondary: some sort of Adobe Flash-like animation for cut scenes would be a nice feature to have available; especially with tweening.

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I was reading the April 2009 issue of Nintendo Power and couldn’t believe the artwork for A Boy and His Blob. I was really blown away because some elements of the game resembled ideas and sketches from a project I’ve been working on with my son.
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My DVD player died about 2 weeks ago. I took the opportunity to step-up one component of my aging electronics arrangement by buying the Samsung BD-P1600 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player. It has BluRay support, obviously, and is fully HD.  The rest of my electronics pile is pre-HD craze, though - my TV still has a tube (gasp!), and isn’t digital. The BD-1600 has component A/V out.

The main draw to this device was the NetFlix and Pandora support, and WiFi. I already subscribe to NetFlix, and don’t have Cable anymore. So, I use NetFlix as my main source for that kind of entertainment. Until now, I’ve been only able to stream NetFlix over my laptop. That’s OK, but my wife wouldn’t want to watch a movie on the laptop with me.

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I was just yucking it up on the phone with a friend while walking around downtown in Portland, ME. As I was hanging up, a guy asked me if I would help him get a cup of coffee. I quickly sized him up: cheap blued sunglasses, modest over-the-head headphones around his neck, a modest blue and yellow ski jacket, black pants and black sneakers. The most striking thing was his hair: spiked up, shaved on the sides. A bit of a goatee, pointed and trimmed. I could smell some cologne or aftershave, too.

I got my wallet and said, “Yeah, I’ll give you two bucks. What’s your story?”

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Cave Story is one of my favorite Indie Games. When I bought my Gp2x, Cave Story was one of the first games I downloaded for it. I immediately introduced it to my son so that I could share the sweetness of this game.

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