Last blog post of 2011

Sorry I posted this a little later than I intended to. I wanted to post some things showing off the project, but I honestly don't have anything worth showing besides some concepts that are still in development.

As this is the last blog post I plan on making for the year, I wanted to go through some of my goals I made for myself this time last year and see if I maybe got what I wanted done. I also want to make some goals for the next year too.

See: Goals for 2011

I guess I have completed a lot of what I set out to accomplish. :)

For 2012, I want it to be a year of personal discovery. While I've spent 2010 and 2011 becoming more outgoing and social than I have been, I want 2012 to be a year where I take risks. I want to graduate college this year and maybe start up a studio. I want to release Selatria to a wide audience. There is so much I'd like to do, and there is so much I've done this year as well that I thought I would have never done.

I wish I could say more, but I kinda became sleepy. Have a happy new year all, don't drink and drive.

It's too peaceful...

It's been a very peaceful and happy two days. I honestly don't have too much to blog about, to be honest!


I'll post more info about Selatria on the 30th. Stay tuned!

Three Years.

[Comments have been disabled for this post.]

December 26th is a date of which I hold with some sense of freedom, yet maintain some feeling of unwanted regret.

I don't blog about this type of issue all too often, because I like to be happy and optimistic in my posting style. And this may turn out to be happy/optimistic. Not sure...

Anyway, three years ago today was when I decided I wasn't going to be walked all over any longer and changed my philosophy of life, so to say. I changed my life goals to become a video game director rather than just a designer, stopped being overly nice and giving to others and having nothing in return, and parting ways with the girl I was in love with.

While my life has generally been much better and upbeat since that day, I can't help but wonder "what if..." scenarios that played off with the last one. My life would be totally different had I not made that decision, most likely. While I did greatly regret it in the few months immediately following that day (it actually sent me into quite a long depression period, my friends still joke about that to this day), about half a year later I accepted it and continued moving on with my life.

I have strived for the best in the years since, I've gotten more motivated to finish my degree and be able to support myself rather than having someone to "live" for, so to say. I've put a lot of my personal effort that I used on someone who didn't have feelings for me back to go into finishing games and projects I've put on hold and I've started many more projects in its place. This blog, for example, is one of those. Selatria is another.

I feel like I have to thank this person for helping me get on my feet, get me motivated, and make me want to write and do things with my life. No other person/friend has helped me in that way. And while I no longer contact her and have no plans to resume contact (nor do I want to). I feel like I owe her a whole lot.

Anyway, that's it. I felt like this post would be much longer than it actually was. I have a habit of writing a lot of paragraphs on something I am truly passionate about, which is why I have the blog.

Would I do it all over again? Probably not. Having felt that feeling once before, it's not something I would try again. I don't see how some people just hop from one to another, yet still claim they have the same emotions for the next person. But I do have a deep respect for those who actually stick with their loved ones for better or worse and do not abandon them in times of need. Those are people meant to be with each other.

Small December Rant.

So I was thinking about the movie "It's a Wonderful Life", which usually comes on around this time of year. And I was thinking about what life would be like had I not existed. I'm not saying this as like a depressing post, but it was kind of a wake-up call that I haven't done too much that affected the lives of others.

I'm going to change that next year, hopefully. I want to do more things that would make a positive impact on others rather than focusing on just myself and entertainment prospects.

Busy!

Sorry, I've been busy with stuff. I'll make a post on Saturday. Okay?

Selatria: Chapter 1 Preview

Some preview screenshots of Chapter 1 of Selatria. Chapter 1 is aimed to be released on January 28, 2012 as a free download.

The face portraits are done by Johan Flynn
Sprites are done by Juliet "Mangadubbgirl" Taylor

Favorite YouTube Poops/YTPMVs of 2011!

See also: Favorite YouTube Poops/YTPMVs of 2010

YouTube Poops are about as hilariously random as one can get, I love the obscure humor all of these YouTube artists are able to accomplish just by doctoring together various clips. So, as 2011 is coming to a close, I'd like to post my favorite YouTube Poops and YTPMVs (YouTube Poop Music Videos) that I've found this year.

I did this last year and it seemed to have gotten quite a bit of views, so I'm going to repeat it for this year as well.






YouTube Poops: 
Simba and Nala go to White Castle
"Damn, Simba!"




  
Pappy Happily Devours the Souls of Young Children
"HI BILLY MAYS HERE"









The Misadventures of Skooks:
"I don't want to lose my dong."





  

Dinosaur Trains, Poop, and Time Travel

"Sex Scene"

Phil and the Leather Daddy

"Did you say tickets?"

Zelda Kills Link 2011
"Well f*ck you Princess!"

Microsoft's Embarrassing E3 2011 Press Conference

YTPMVs:

The MLP Gang love Paper Mario

Mellow Friday is mellow.

I just synced my blog with my Google+ account. Interested to see how this works out.

Also, 10 free GBA games come out for 3DS (if you're part of the Ambassador program.) Make sure to get them!

I'm going to be working on my game project a lot this weekend. There's going to be an in-person meeting and I want to show the team what we have and what needs to be worked on. :]

Also: New music, new cutscenes, new user interface. I'm excited to show it off!

Also was an update to XIV yesterday, it's getting lots of good strides and what not, but I still can't recommend it to friends just yet. :|

Selatria: Additional Concept Art / Progress On Chapter 1

I've been spending most of this week (like 90% of it) working and polishing cut-scenes for Selatria. I'm trying very hard to finish Chapter 1 by January 28, 2011, and so far it looks like we're going to make the goal!

The team has been very cooperative as well! Concept Art, Music, and Voice Acting pieces have been coming at a very reasonable pace and I am seeing a game of epic proportions coming together in front of our eyes. :) There's some kind of twisted satisfaction I'm getting from all of this, even though sometimes it feels like I get swamped with all of the stuff coming in.

Concept Art:

For the concept art, at first we were planning on going a heavy anime style, but then we switched to a style that you see at the bottom. It was kind of a departure of what we had at the beginning, but I like the unique-ness of it. I am having Juliet (the concept artist in the group) continue to draw ideas for new characters in the anime style she is comfortable with, and then Johan (our art director) will transpose the designs into his personal style, which will be used in the game.




Art Credits:
Johan Flynn - Character Art, Expressions
Juliet "Mangadubbgirl" - Concept Art (In Traditional Anime Style), Hat Concept, Sprite Art
Teresa Wambold - Original Character Design
Erik Boismier - Monster Concept Art

 

 

Screenshots of actual gameplay:

Development Team Credits:

"Selatria" Copyright (c) 2011-2012 The Selatria Development Team, All Rights Reserved.

Director/Producer/Lead Game Design and Concept:
Grover Wimberly IV

Co-Directors:
Airen Blakovich (Story and Concept, Dev Team Forum Director)
Jabari Smith (Art/VA Talent Director/Casting)

Game Concept/Design Team:
Grover Wimberly IV (Lead)
Airen Blakovich
William Merriam III
Andreas Engh
Jonathan Dishaw
Jabari Smith

Storyline/Plot Team:
Airen Blakovich (Lead)
Grover Wimberly IV (Original Concept)
Vikki Ceballos (Number 016 Backstory)
William Merriam III (Sidequest Director)
Jonathan Dishaw
Johan Flynn
Tricky Walker

Art Team:
Johan Flynn (Art Director: Character Expressions)
Juliet P. Taylor (Character Concept Artist, Sprite Artist)
Erik Boismier (Monster Concept Artist)
Derrick Frainee (Main Logo Design)
Teresa Wambold (Original Character Concepts)
Shadoe

Programming Team:
Grover Wimberly IV (Lead)
Matthew Estrada
Juan Nevares

Music/Sound Team:
Luke Simpson (Lead)
Christopher Nuno
Jonathan Dishaw
Jabari Smith
Joe Wood (Sound Effects)

Voice Acting Team:
Luis- River Kanoff
Number 016- Kristyn Yearington
Melanie- Vikki Ceballos
Mage- Jabari Lewis-Smith
Hat- Joe Wood
Gobby- Johan Flynn
Commander- Jonathan Dishaw
Samurai-Aron
Merchant- Neil Stucky
Talker- Alexander Pett
Narrator- Peter L.Quon
Monsters-Jabari Lewis-smith, Joe Wood
  
Video Team:
David Fabian (Trailer Video Editor)
 

Scripts Used (With Permission):
Map Effect Pack - NoorXp
Credit Script - Jet
Splash Screen Script -  Vlue L. Maynara
Font Modifier - ChaosOverLord
Defense Script - Synthesize
Map Name Script - Falcao, edited by Grover Wimberly IV/Matthew Estrada
Custom Menu Script - Grover Wimberly IV
Battle Result Script - Woratana, edited by Grover Wimberly IV
Level Up Heal Script - Woratana

Tanketai Battle Script -
Original Script by:  Enu
English Localization:  Kylock, Mr. Bubble, Shu
Contributors & Special Thanks: Shu, Moonlight, NightWalker, Enelvon, Atoa, AlphaWhelp,       blackmorning, Mithran, Kaduki, Enu            
Front-View Battle System Script Add-On- Grover Wimberly IV
Class Change Script - Mithran




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Updates

Anyone still reading this? I wonder sometimes...

I spent all today posting up some video blogs and working on Selatria.

Some pictures of development of the World Map. We finally got some new dedicated artists in the group and development of the game is coming surprisingly well! One artist is doing conceptual art, and the other artist will be doing various poses of the characters.

I've also started a vlog of sorts. I'm not sure how committed I am to it, but they'll be uploaded to my YouTube account and posted here periodically.

   

Nuke the Fridge was awesome, by the way. We were able to get stuff signed by Stan Lee, I got my friend's stuff signed, and got to see some friends we havent had a chance to see in a very long while.

Was worth it! I am going back next year.

Nuke the Fridge Today! Also: Tumblr.

Hey blog readers. Nuke the Fridge is later today! I can't wait. Going to meet Stan Lee! :)

I also made a Tumblr to try it out. If you want to follow me there, check it out on:

http://ultimatespamgrover.tumblr.com/

I'll continue posting my rants every other day here. That blog will be used for more lighthearted and not so serious things, I suppose. We'll see how it works out!

Random Rant Ramble of December 2011

Okay, so I'm going to take a different approach with this post. I'm going to write about something and title it later...

So I just got out of a Computer Graphics final. We crammed in four pages worth of information  in two study sheets. Spent hours going over the formulas, and I still feel that the final kicked my ass. Luckily, I was taking the class for fun and it won't affect my expected end-of-summer graduation rate. ...I hope.

There was a giant firmware update a few days ago for the Nintendo 3DS and I've been loving every minute of it. I'm probably going to start taking a lot of video blogs in the future, so stay tuned! I'm also planning on getting Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 in the next few weeks. Probably also a battery pack to justify my long gaming sessions. ^_^

Saturday I'm heading to another convention. Well, it's a one-day convention called "Nuke the Fridge" and I'm hoping to meet Stan Lee. I'm also getting a friend's siblings comics signed by him as well as my dad and brother are getting something signed as well!

I kind of wish my friend would have came along, because she's a huge comic book fan and she would have liked this convention for sure, but she's going to be out of town.

Well damn, I've run out of stuff to talk about.

Finals start today!

Well... finals start today!

I'm excited but a little anxious. For the first time, I'm actually feeling confident about my Physics final, but I'm going to cram some additional formulas on there as well.

If I pass Physics III, I shall be done with Physics sequence! Woot

Cue motivational song:

Game Directing skills need improvement

On Friday, I went to Pasadena to listen to the creator of Ratchet and Clank and got a lot of informative tips and tricks about how to effectively lead a project. I'm not going to go into detail about what he said, because that would be straight plagiarizing. However, I did come up with some new philosophies that I'm trying to execute with the Selatria team.

Philosophy 1: Try not to have people in the team acting idle.

This is mainly with respect to the different sections of the team. Since we've formed earlier this year, I've had different teams working within the project. I have a personal habit of not being able to multitask, so I would work one team to the ground and then others would sit idlly waiting for the next task.  So I want to be a little more efficient and start getting a little from each group rather than working sequentially through one section of the project which is a habit I tend to do.

Philosophy 2: Speaking up more.

I really like seeing progress, even if it's a project to where people will not be getting paid directly, I still try to remove people who aren't interested in the project. I'm aware that the game is being developed for fun essentially, but I don't want people who say they want to help work on the game and just don't contribute at all. It really annoys those of us who are giving a lot of our free time on making this game fun and enjoyable to the senses.

Anyway, usually at the first of the month, I analyze who in the group has submitted stuff and who hasn't and depending on reasoning I may remove them from the group.

Of course, some reasonings are justified: Family, work, a new son/daughter being born, or something as simple as finals/other activities getting in the way. It's all very understandable, I just hope it's at least brought up to my attention so I don't get the wrong idea. I made the mistake of removing someone a few days ago who hasn't submitted anything to the project and I thought they just didn't care about it. Turns out she was busy until after finals, but never let me know. So I got the wrong impression and I'm hoping to make amends.

-

I don't know, maybe I'm coming off a little harsh or as something that's more serious than it needs to be. I'm just very passionate about my projects and I have a lot of personal investment into it. I also don't want to be seen as the kind of leader that nags and gets on people's cases, especially if there's no immediate reward to this if only for satisfaction until we actually get revenue from selling the game, if it sells.

Well damn, I admit it. I'm a weak programmer.

Happy December!

So a couple of days ago, I put a post up about being unenthusiastic and not giving a damn about a project I was working on. While we ended up getting the project to work the way we wanted it to, as soon as we uploaded it to the professor's directory, it crashed and burned, and it was quite embarrassing.

That being said, I wanted to look in retrospect. How am I so motivated about my game project and not really motivated about code?

I guess it stems from several main things: I'm not really interested in a course I don't need, the way the information was taught, and most importantly, I'm a very weak coder.

Regarding the weak programmer part, I was trying to help my brother the other day with making functions for his C++ labs (he's in an introductory course), and I could barely tell him how to do it from scratch. I am in constant reliance of some book or reference sheet when I write code, I'm not quite sure if that's a good or bad thing, but that's where it stands.

I also learn from example and not by conceptual understanding, and there's not many professors nowadays that do that. My first C++ professor did it, and that was it. I tried learning a course on Data Structures that taught through using C++ code to explain how structuring worked, and I found myself extremely lost in pointers, code referencing, and the constant correcting of an errata list. I then retook it with another professor that showed all diagrams and little code (pseudo-code) and ended up getting an A. I can tell you a Stack is a LIFO data structure, I couldn't tell you how to code it.

And now I sit in a class for seniors and the professor there admitted that most of his colleagues got as knowledgeable as they are through self-study and learning on their own rather than learning from someone else. If that's the case, then I wish I picked up a programming language on my own before I enrolled in the university so the professors could teach useful programming techniques (which they already do) than trying to focus on still learning the language they're using after three years.

I don't fault the university for this practice, it's just hard to learn programming in general (as compared to other fields where you just memorize information for an exam), it's like math mixed with English in the terms that you need good syntax and structure as well as functionality and correct computation.

In any case, I'm glad I know programming. I like programming (believe it or not), but I know I could never get a job in it because there are simply those who can do it so much better than I can. I would rather go into the design and planning of a project than coding it. I just hope there are jobs in that position. I'm not saying I won't ever expect to code, but I would rather plan out a technique for execution and then pseudo-code it and have an actual programmer go about doing it.


...Software Engineer, maybe?