A mile on a hot day…
…and then I got some day job work done, and then Geth and I walked to Asda instead of driving because the weather was so nice, and since then I’ve been finishing off my latest game!
Need to get back to it – I’ll probably do a short update in addition to my Saturday running vlog tomorrow…
Today’s earworm playlist:
Nintendo – ‘Whispering Woods (Battle)’
Duran Duran – ‘Rio’
Pulp – ‘Disco 2000’
Frankie Miller – ‘Caledonia’
Nintendo – ‘Paper Mario: The Origami King (Main Theme)’
A very gentle mile today…
…as I’m being careful due to a slight niggle. I’ll keep an eye on it over the next few days.
I’ve spent the rest of the day making graphics for my current game project. The game is set in November, and so the colours are fairly muted! I’m using a pre-made palette from LoSpec, like I did for my last game (it was recommended in the jam guidelines and I felt that the graphics looked a lot more pulled together as a result), and it’s really helping to provide the gloomy and slightly oppressive look I need for this game.
I finished Paper Mario: The Origami King last night (sad ending! 🙁 ) and am taking a couple of days away from gaming so that I can get all my projects finished for the week. Once Saturday arrives, however, I will be back exploring digital worlds with a vengeance.
Today’s earworm playlist:
So Solid Crew – ’21 Seconds’
Duran Duran – ‘New Religion’
Judy Garland and Lucille Bremer – ‘Meet Me In St Louis’
DJ Fresh and Rita Ora – ‘Hot Right Now’
Eagle-Eye Cherry – ‘Save Tonight’
Many thanks to all of you who have been sending phone box pictures in this last week! I’ve now got a good collection to share over the next few Thursdays.
Mum and Dad are still finding phone boxes in Dumfries and Galloway…
(Coordinates 54°86’51.1″N, 4°35’76.9″W.)
The box has become a lot more overgrown than it was when the Street View image was taken (probably 2009, which was the one year that the Google cars did a perfunctory survey of rural Scotland – they have yet to return). It looks very romantic with all the weeds, but sadly it does not seem to be being cared for and will probably not be in situ for much longer.
Further sad news from Dumfries and Galloway – the Laggan box that Mum and Dad photographed for me last year has now been removed. Mum and Dad may have caught the council in the act! Dad says:
‘In fact, as we approached Gatehouse there was an Openreach van with flashing orange lights beside the site of the box at Laggan (I sent you a photo last year or the year before) and the box has now gone!’
There seems to be a big push at the moment to get rid of derelict rural phone boxes 🙁 Hopefully I will be able to collect as many as possible before they disappear.
Another family submission next week!
Another mile today…
…as I’m fairly busy this week so can only squeeze in super-short runs. I had a small bit of day job work to do today, and I also did the final bugfix for my most recent jam game. This was a bit more complicated than expected as I had to do a lot of fiddling with the Spectrum versions to get them to compile. The workaround wasn’t 100% perfect, but they’ll do for now, and with all the reported bugs fixed the game is a much better product than it was on first release.
As such, I finally feel I’m done with One Last Thing… now and can focus all my energies on the next few projects!
I’m going to squeeze in a couple more hours of coding and then get some Paper Mario played this evening. I’m on a tricky section, but I think I’m close to the end of the game now – somewhere between one and three play sessions should finish the plot, I expect.
Tomorrow I’m going to have a play with some simple graphics for the game project I’m working on this week.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Queen – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Tuesday morning’s mile today…
…and for once I was up at a reasonable time, so the run was done and dusted before 9:30am and I was able to get on with my coding. I’m quite excited about the project I’ve been working on since the last Adventuron jam finished – it’s fairly contained, as it’s the opening chapter of what I hope will grow into a longer game, but there’s still a lot to code and test. However, it’s very nearly finished now, so I’m hoping to be able to put it through its paces tomorrow.
Just finishing my admin now and then I will squeeze in a couple of hours of Paper Mario before bed.
Same again tomorrow I hope! With possibly a slightly longer run, but possibly not. We’ll see.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Depeche Mode – ‘Behind The Wheel’
Lisa Lougheed – ‘Run With Us’
Duran Duran – ‘Winter Marches On’
John Williams, Michael Land, Peter McConnell and Clint Bajakian – ‘Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis: Opening Theme’
Nintendo – ‘Toad Town’
DJ Fresh and Rita Ora – ‘Hot Right Now’
Back to my regularly-scheduled mile this morning…
…though today’s running headspace has been overshadowed by an email from the London Marathon, explaining that it will now be another ten days before they make their announcement about whether their rescheduled October date is actually going ahead. A bit more patience required 🙁 I can’t wait to have some idea of what I’m actually doing with my running this autumn.
Today, however, I’m having another Monday off, which is the new planned pattern for the foreseeable future. I got my day job work for today done yesterday so that I can have a good session on Paper Mario: The Origami King and make some progress.
Back to work tomorrow. With a bit more videogaming in the evening, I hope!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Nobuo Uematsu – ‘Town’
Nintendo – ‘Scorching Sandpaper Desert (Battle)’
The Midnight – ‘Endless Summer’
Nintendo – ‘Shroom City’
Just my Friday mile this morning…
…and I wouldn’t have had time to run further even if it had been scheduled, because I woke up really late again. I’m still struggling with my sleep pattern and this week has been especially bad. I’m actually looking forward to the nights properly drawing in as we get into the autumn, as I think it’s the light evenings that are the problem – it’s still not really getting dark until about 10pm here, and so my brain still thinks it’s daytime when I go to bed.
I’ve had a good day otherwise though. I’m enjoying the short game I’m making so much that I’m going to be working on it over the weekend, and then I’ll take Monday as a day for videogaming like I did during this last week. Geth and I are also planning to drive to Asda to do the weekend shop this evening, so we’ll be well stocked up for the next few days.
I was thrilled yesterday to find out that my most recent published game, One Last Thing…, had taken first place in the Adventuron Next Adventure Jam 😀 I worked really hard on the game and I’m so pleased that people enjoyed it. I need to do one more bugfix update, which I’ll release either tonight or tomorrow, and then I should be able to leave it alone for a while as I work on other projects.
Hopefully I’ll be able to regale you all with tales of weekend coding when I return to the blog on Monday! Until then, I’ll just be posting a couple of weekend running vlogs as usual.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Alison Moyet – ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’
Rebecca Black – ‘Friday’
Another late-start just-a-mile run today…
…and I’m feeling a bit demotivated and really looking forward to having some certainty about my autumn running plans. Just a few more days.
I’m currently finishing off some admin and then I’ll be spending a few hours coding again. I’m really enjoying keeping my current game projects short and simple, as my games usually get very unwieldy.
Probably some Paper Mario again this evening. It’s a very samey week, but it’s the good kind of samey.
Today’s earworm playlist:
ACE+ – ‘Central Factory’
Nina – ‘Automatic Call’
Rod Stewart – ‘Baby Jane’
Heaven 17 – ‘Let Me Go’