I’m sorry, but after 10+ years in this industry it’s finally gotten to me.
I’m sorry, but after 10+ years in this industry it’s finally gotten to me.
I’m working on a training simulator that allows people to virtually highlight text (like in iBooks) in a textField. I’ll probably post the code for the highlighting portion when the project is done.
For now, I thought I’d post this simple AS3 utility function I wrote, which allows you to find all instances of string inside another string. It accepts two arguments:
It will return an array containing the indices at which searchFor is found in searchIn. You can check the length of the array returned to get the number of times the search string appears in the search text. If the length is 0, searchFor does not appear in searchIn.
package com.baconandgames.utils{ public class Strings{ // returns an array of indexes for each occurance of searchFor in searchString // var s:String = "Haw many cats are in this sentence about cats?"; // Strings.findAllStringsInString("cats",s); // returns [9,41]; public static function findAllStringsInString(searchFor:String,searchIn:String,caseSensitive:Boolean=true):Array{ if(!caseSensitive){ searchFor = searchFor.toLocaleLowerCase(); searchIn = searchIn.toLocaleLowerCase(); } var a:Array = new Array(); var i:int = -1; while ((i = searchIn.indexOf(searchFor, i+1)) != -1) a.push(i); return a; } } |
*simplified with suggestions by my good buddy and web-ninja Rob Colburn
From something like 2007-2011 I was with a company called Brandissimo. Through them I worked on probably 100 different games, sometimes as a programmer, designer, producer and even a few times as an artist. My biggest focus was on web games for the NFL, though we also worked with a wide range of clients including Power Rangers, Urbaniacs and even Always… yes, that Always. Don’t ask.
While this video only includes a tiny slice of what we created in that time it does highlight some of my favorites.
The games in this video feature art by the talented likes of Ajay Karat, Mark Aguilar, Rich Cando, Jimmy Cross and Randy Hutchins. All wildly talented, good friends of mine :)
Not more than 3 months after the original debuted, Adult Swim and Matt Thorson have released Give Up Robot 2. If you haven’t played the original, you might want to go do so right now. It’s a great game. They both are, actually.
One of the things that these games do really well is keep you playing, dead or alive. In this series, the second you die you’re back on your feet (or wheel) to try again. And when you’re alive, you don’t want to stop. Like many games these days, they’ve left behind the often archaic idea of “lives” carried over from quarter-hungry arcade machines. These games are about rising to the challenge, not about proving you can do so in an allotted number of tries. I like that, limited lives are lame. Alliteration and unlimited lives are awesome.
For the cave-dwellers who haven’t played either game yet, the premise is pretty standard. You play as a robot with a grappling hook who has to make his way through a psychedelic arena of pits, traps and other dangers. The sequel delivers more of the same, with a few new additions such as switches, coins and new kinds of moving platforms and obstacles. And of course the charming Portal-esque computer is back to taunt you along the way. Though still 8bit-ish, the graphics are much cleaner and the robot moves a bit more adeptly; a welcomed improvement. Overall it’s not a huge departure from the original, which is a good thing because Give Up Robot was extraordinarily well received.
I feel like Matt did correctly what we all hoped Nintendo would do after Mario Kart 64… deliver the same basic engine with new levels and some new tricks. Instead Nintendo puked up Double Dash. What the fuck, Nintendo? If you haven’t played Give Up Robot or Give Up Robot 2, find some time at work to shut off and play these. You won’t regret it, unless you suck at games because these both give the concept of “Nintendo Hard” a run for its money. Good luck…
Apple announced today that they would be lifting their ban on using 3rd party development tools to create apps for their store. It only took about 4 months for Apple to remove the ban, which was enforced in early April of this year. In their official announcement Apple wrote:
We have listened to our developers and taken much of their feedback to heart. Based on their input, today we are making some important changes to our iOS Developer Program license in sections 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9 to relax some restrictions we put in place earlier this year.
Whether their change of heart is truly due to developer backlash or if it’s a result of legal pressure is unclear. I think it’s important that we focus on the outcome. Developers can go back to building games with the tools they are most comfortable. Apple still holds the key to the kingdom, but they can no longer discriminate simply based on platform of origin.
A fun game that runs well is… a fun game that runs well. Whether an app has been built with Unity, Objective C or Actionscript is immaterial. The onus of writing reliable, efficient code is still on the developer. The patrons of the App Store should be allowed to decide what belongs on the store by voting with their dollars. And now they can.
To Apple, I say thank you.
To the developers, I’ll say this: When you’re cooking up your next app, keep the words of Jurassic Park’s Ian Malcolm in mind. “…your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Make apps that fill a need, innovate or do something better than an existing app. Flooding the store with dress-up games and soundboards just because we can will only leave us with: I told you so.
As an added bonus, Apple also announced that they will finally be publishing their App Store Review Guidelines. Developers now have a clearer picture of whether their app has a shot at getting to see the wizard… before they make the long trek to OZ. TechCrunch put together a decent summary article that points out Apple’s casual tone. To me, Apple sounds like a parent taking a first cautious step with their teenager… “OK, I’m going to let you stay out past curfew just this once, don’t disappoint me.”… Let’s not get grounded again.
And no, I’m not apologizing for the title of this article…
Copyright © 2024 Bacon and Games
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
