The Shining Source

I thought that was you.

Never really got chance to lan before, seeing as my old laptop could only just manage Doom before falling over I think my new machine will be going on more adventures once I move to the States (it's one of these - much nicer than my old laptop).

So now onto important questions: What's your best excuse for taking the day off work? Apparently "I don't feel like working here" isn't a valid excuse anymore

I once got away with "I'm lagging behind with the laundry."

"I am unable to speak."

"I have a sore stomach."

"I intentionally ate some moderately undercooked chicken in order to give myself an upset stomach and so score the day off work because I hate working for you."

A bit extreme I suppose, but if that didn't work I would have been saying "I walked into traffic because I hate you so much"

Thankfully these days I don't have to avoid work because I actually quite enjoy it!

I can't remember,. . . I've been working for myself for several years now.
Though one time at highschool I told my parents I was being bullied to get a day off, which unfortunately backfired and ended up with me being forced to attend in order to stand up for myself against my non-existent nemesis.

God save me, I've just bought SPORE.

I would ask if it's any good, but I think the real test will come after 10+ hours with it (if it lasts long enough). I'd still like to give it a try, but I'm not keen on the copy protection scheme they used. Seems I'm not the only one.

I too was sucked into SPORE.

Its not a bad game but you have to see it for exactly what it is. Those who come into it thinking its a completely custom RTS explosions and such kindof a fare will be disapointed. The game is really simplistic in nature throughout the stages of life clear up until space travel. At Cell you just eat things, which makes sense, when you come out of the water new aspects are added in but kindof stay there for the most part until you launch into space.
Once in space it becomes more of an explorer sort of game, with lots of goals and such but it all appears to me at first glance like a real deep easter-egg hunt.

I guess the real kicker for this game is the level of customization you have on your buildings/vehicles/creatures. It can get pretty complex or extremely simplistic, all up to you. But if that were the selling point for you perhaps you should've stuck to the free creature creator

Im genuinely determined to like this game, hell i bought it..


Elv if your interested in my first go at creating life the name i go by is Brownzerg
Tachimos is very basic and since i dont have a mousewheel i didnt know how to increase the girth of the poor guy's midsection but i think i managed alright!

I like it.  It's not my normal cup of tea, but I didn't expect it to be.  Really I could have bought the creature creator alone but I thought why not go the whole hog.
My first one was Failkitty Sean...   My idea at the moment is to try to make a race of kittens to take over the universe, but at my first attempt I did poorly(unknowngly pressing the irreversible "herbivore" button at the start, thinking mammals started as herbivores).
So I added hands and that was the end of it being anything like a kitten.

To get to space mode takes just a few hours if you rush, but to beat the game it looks like it would take 40 hours or so, not sure yet.  Of course it will be open ended at the end as well.

One problem I found was that since the stages of evolution are so quick and you spend so much time perfecting your first creature, you're ready for some action when you hit civilisation mode but you're forced to create four building types and many different vehicle types all at once.  This put a lid on my creativity, as I was happy to build things, but sometimes you just want to play te game, not worry about your buildings - and of course you don't really want to go with a default maxis building or vehicle because well, this is YOUR unique civilisation.. it's quite the uneasy paradox as you slam together a few models and end up with shabby architecture.

This is the first game I've played in a long time, and it's enjoyable, just a pity I don't have more time to spend on it now to see where it goes from space.



One update I'll wait for is more creature pieces.  I don't think I'll play again until I really can make a kitten that looks like a kitten.

I ventured one more time to have another go at making a cat, which I did.  It's called Kitten under Elvenfyre.  Anyway I swear that's the last for me for a while

ps: would be awesome if you could export your creation to a 3d design program so you could use it in shining games.

Man why did I click on my own post.  Way to end up in the BONET and having to post.
Umm.  I'm about to eat leftovers.

Today I got up late.

I have a note on my phone which asks the question "what proportion of people go to work on their birthdays".  I also recorded two beats which could be good game tunes by humming them over and over again into my phone.

What's the coolest tattoo you've ever seen?
-dude with the thundercats logo on his back.

The microwave is beeping at me, my leftovers must be ready.

I got up early this morning, so the natural order of things is now restored.

I don't know about the coolest tattoo, but my (future) wife's cousin has 2 tats: One is of two penguins (on her back), and the other is a Celtic design with her fiance's World of Warcraft character name in it. I don't think even I could be that geeky.

wow brings people together. . . . .

i'm getting this weird urge to visit the forum every day.  I might have to open the source code and start looking at it.

Sadly WoW brings them apart. He's on it non-stop, to the point of neglecting other things, like eating and sleeping. He'll happily cancel plans with her to go raiding instead. I'm no expert, but I don't think that'll do a relationship any good.

I always get the Shining bug at this time of year. Reminds me of the good old days of thrashing out terrible code but playable demo's.

Yeah I had a flatmate recently who was hooked real bad.

I've made my commitment in TSS forum, and although I have other deadlines I'm already considering opening up a text editor today.  I better do some real work first.

Last time I attempted something my real problem was a lack of OO experience, which I've dealt with now.  It doesn't seem like it but it has been 3 years since my last TSS push.  5 years(i think) since Devlyn released something in it, and 8 or 9 since he and I first got on the bandwagon together.  That's a long time for me not to have released something specific so I'm determined.

My current girlfriend can believe I'm playing wow for a couple weeks for all I care, she has exams anyway so as if she needs me to get in her face right now.  It's been a love affair between me and this project for longer than I've known her, so BAM.

So what got you back into the Shining mood? For me, hearing any of the soundtracks always gets me going. I haven't sat down and done any solid Shining programming for a long time, and the last release was back in April 2003. That's a long time ago.