John will be working on the new map system, but if he wants my help I'm glad to offer it. My part will be more likely fixing bugs and coding the AI for the new enemies that he comes up with (FYI, anyone interesting in doing graphics for this game is strongly encouraged to contact us as it's our weak point). The graphics will be the last part of the game to be finished. Before that is gameplay and the progression itself.
Right now, our map system deals with a hierarchy of sub classes from the Tile base class. Anyone who is savvy to software development will probably be cringing at the thought. Even I do, and I was part of the decision due to time constraints. John and I sat down and, well, John is the one that thought of it pretty much. We'll be removing the sub classes and using a single Tile class to operate on all the tiles. To be honest, I'm still not completely clear on how it works, so I'll leave John to describe it. We'll basically be adding an additional layer to the map where currently we have the bottom layer which is non-collidables such as floor tiles and such. The second layer was originally anything collidable (switches, etc). The switches as a tile though means that we're forced to make the switches the same size as any other tile. This has many drawbacks. For a game like Zelda, it didn't make much of a difference because the tile resolution was very small for the game boy screens. So everything being in unison size was the least of their worries.
Since we have a much larger tile size, we need to be able to say that the switch can be other sizes. Just imagine a floor button switch the same size as the wall Tile. Yeah. Although that might be humorous in some parts, it's not ideal in all situations.
Eventually, I'll be creating a link on the side bar here for updates to our release build that will contain a read me with instructions on how to play since the controls have been updated slightly (I am not particularly fond of them, so any insight here would be appreciated).
The rest of this is going to be slightly off topic from the entry, but more on par with the title of this entry.
Many people struggle with motivation, and I am no exception. There is no golden rule to suddenly become motivated. However, many don't realize the power of momentum.
I try to learn something everyday. Mostly within my field, but I am pretty lenient with myself as long as it's something interesting. So, regardless of motivation status, here is my challenge:
Take 5-30 minutes of your time every day, and learn something. It's preferable that it's something you're passionate about, or within your field of interest. I say 5 minutes because it doesn't usually take as long as 30 minutes. Take the first thought of something you're not sure about, Google it, and absorb the knowledge. The best part about this, is you can even come back with more questions! Keep this momentum!
I personally am happy to talk with you about what you've learned, discuss it, analyze it, or look up and solve a question with you. My point is, do this every day. I don't stop at one thing, but that's because I have months of momentum behind me. It can take as little as 5 minutes of time to learn something beneficial. I shouldn't have to say this, but anything related to the latest movie, celebrity, politics, or anything of that nature does not qualify as beneficial. If you can tell me what the technology or history behind a current [thoughtful] movie, then I'm all for that. Something as simple as the making of snow white is absolutely baffling.
The reason this is so helpful is because you feel better about what you did for the day. You're on track to your passion, and you know something you didn't know before which, to me, is invaluable. I hope that some of you will come to me with what you've learned so that we may enjoy a cup of tea and an intellectual discussion.
As an example, here is what I recorded of what I learned one day:
- Magnetic materials in sub freezing temperatures can store a digital 1 and 0 in a space as small as 12 atoms, and are even showing signs of quantum mechanics http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/science/smaller-magnetic-materials-push-boundaries-of-nanotechnology.html?_r=1&
- The bus and CPU cycles times are closely related. Things sent across the bus, such as CPU interrupts, are determined by the bus speed (such as 400 MHz), and execution of instructions are determined by CPU type (Such as 2 GHz)
- The stack plays a fundamental role in not only programming languages with function calls, but within the CPU directly as well because when interrupt handlers are called, it must push the function onto the stack and pop it to return to the original program that was suspended. To put it into perspective, every keyboard press triggers an interrupt, stops the current program executing, handles the interrupt, and then finally resumes.
This took me about an hour of research, but all I am asking for is 5 minutes of your time. Be productive, and learn something. Some of you might be fortunate to have jobs that allow you to learn fascinating things everyday, but for those who don't, this is even more necessary. And don't say you can't, because you all have smart phones and probably have what I call "wait states" that you could quickly do something. This is meant to be a work out for the brain as opposed to a work out of the body.
This is something I challenge everyone to do.
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