Andrew Wooldridge Dot Com

Create Cool Sound Effects on Your Mac: CFXR

2008-10-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

CFXR is a mac port of SFXR which is an amazingly cool retro game sound generator. Before now, only PC folks would be able to play with this tool. Now you mac folks can also partake. Download the app, and click on "random" repeatedly to find something you like (or any of the other buttons) - perfect for indie game developers.

ThemeForest - marketplace for webdevs

2008-10-08T00:54:00.001-07:00

As a web developer, I know that there will be many opportunities to build sites for folks probably till I'm too old to type :) However sometimes freelancers have trouble making ends meet between clients. Sites like this are very cool in that you could spend some webdev time creating a cool theme or template and allow that work to pay off almost like writing a book and getting royalties. So, check it out and consider it a possible place to sell your latest wordpress or joomla theme.

Note: I have a referral tag in the link above. Hope you dont mind or think this post is just some bid for some driblet of money. I believe sites like this are essential to help freelance webdevs show off their work as well as helping out other folks build great looking sites quickly.

Academagia - indie adventure

2008-10-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

This game hasn't been released yet, as far as I know, but it looks like a mixture of Travian and Hogwarts. You choose each day what your character will do in a magical academy and play along with tons of other folks. Looks like it'll be a great game.

Mystic Mine: M. C. Escher meets Miner 2049'er

2008-10-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

This game is not released yet, but the gameplay looks really interesting. You pilot a mine car through levels picking up gems. You always go 'down' but are still able to go to any part of the level through a trick of perspective. Looks really interesting!

Easter Eggs at Minor Studios (creators of Atmosphir)

2008-10-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Minor Studios, the creator of Atmosphir seem to have a great sense of play. I was clicking around on the site and noticed that if you click on the letters of their logo you get easter egg like effects. I particularly liked the letter "s". I am really liking the Atmosphir application though I am chafing at the small number of blocks and items. Sure you can be creative and do lots of things, but I want to recreate Zelda :)

Tumbledrop - further evidence of Unity 3D's future dominance :)

2008-10-07T00:25:00.000-07:00

This is a fun little game that directs you to save a little star on a tiny island. Figuring out the right sequence of blocks to remove is actually pretty fun in a casual lunch break sort of way. I love that this was done in Unity3D -- makes me want to go out and build something like it.

23 Javascript Fractals

2008-10-02T09:35:00.001-07:00

More reasons to love javascript this morning. The folks at Nihilogic (js gods without a doubt) released an application to explore fractals. It's amazing and a hopeful sign for more intensive javascript apps in the future.

How to create fantasy worlds

2008-10-02T01:59:00.000-07:00

Alot of game creation owes its inspiration to writing. This is a great little article about how to go about creating your own fantasy world setting. Great read.

How javascript is taking over the world

2008-10-01T00:55:00.001-07:00

I'm not the only person who believes javascript is really taking off as a language. The folks at Aptana seem to think so as well and with the combined influence of faster javascript engines and software like Jaxer - we are going to see more and more javascript - based apps.

Now if someone could give me a javascript - based compiler for windows and mac I'd be in heaven.

Top Draw - js meets procedural images

2008-09-29T22:35:00.001-07:00

Javascript is taking off as a language. I mentioned this before. This is the Era of Javascript, and it's just beginning.

Check out the cool images and create some of your own!

Amazing Away 3d Flash demo

2008-09-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

The Railway Express is a great way to feature the Away3D engine. It also reminds my why I enjoy 3D games to begin with - the sense of exploration. I wish someone would create a game that not only was all about exploration and discovery, but allowed itself to be constantly updated with new worlds from the net. Hrm.

Amazing Unity 3D demo

2008-09-27T22:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, I told you Unity3D is going to be big. This appears to be a single room demo of a concept, however the fact that the Unity engine is capable of this in a web plugin is just amazing. If you want the context of this level, check out the forums.

Create Physical Objects from just your ideas...

2008-09-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

The Fabbing revolution has taken a major step forward today. The 3D making site Ponoko has released a new feature that allows you to create 3D objects just by drawing line drawings and uploading a photograph. The possibilities for this are mind blowing.

Interactive Storytelling with Pixels : StoryTeller

2008-09-24T02:42:00.001-07:00

This is a very interesting idea - you have a 3 act story which you can influence by just dragging the characters around. It makes me want to create something like this in dhtml.

Moving from MMO to Web ...

2008-09-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

Great article about how MMO's and online games are taking lessons from web apps, and vice-versa. The trend continues. Interesting reading.

YUI3 as gateway to next-gen Dom Scripting Apps

2008-09-24T00:37:00.000-07:00

YUI3 is such a departure from YUI2 that I'm being force to relearn my javascript fundimentals, as you will as well. Baked into YUI3 seems to be concepts that will be taking javascript to a new level as a development language. Based on the collective brains of the javascript superstars inside Yahoo! this revision of the language looks like a combination of old YUI, jQuery, and lots of mojo from Douglas Crockford. Just try to wrap your brain around the basic stuff here such as Merge, Augment, Custom Events, and dynamic library loading. To me it's like finding a flying saucer with the flying instructions still inside. I just know it's going to take me amazing places.. if I can just figure out how the darn thing works!

Even if you are not a YUI fan of the past, I think you are going to take a second look at YUI3 when it leaves Alpha state - if just to learn how a truly next-gen javascript library does magical things to the DOM.

The Era of Javascript

2008-09-22T22:24:00.000-07:00

It's certainly taken a long enough time for this language to come into its own, but I believe that this year will mark the time that javascript grew up and became a powerful, serious platform for developing applications. From Air to Android to iPhone to Unity - javascript is everywhere and there's never been a better time to be a web developer. I have more ideas than time but if I can harness just 1% of the possibilities I see now then I'm sure others are going to do amazing things. Mark my words. Move over Ajax - here comes full fledged Javascript Apps.

Writing more often

2008-09-22T00:39:00.000-07:00

I'm hoping to get into the habit of writing here again more often. With things like twitter siphoning away what little energy I have to post, I think perhaps it's better to write things that have a bit more longevity and substance for a change. With that in mind I'd like to offer a bit of advice for would-be writers (of which I consider myself a member as well).

I've found two really great free applications to help you in your writing endeavors:

Adobe Buzzword and
Evernote

Buzzword is an excellent word processor that can follow you anywhere you go (as long as you are online) and has great collaboration and sharing features.
Evernote is my online grab all notebook for ideas, snippets of story thoughts, and more. It's the place to put all your junk before you get it all organized in nice little columns.

Both of these apps are free to use and I cannot recommend them highly enough - if you are a writer of any sort - be it blogging, stories, etc etc you should check out both web apps.

My only wish was that there was a fullscreen mode for Buzzword on Mac...

Adobe AIR Textmate bundle

2008-09-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

If you work with Adobe Air and have Textmate, you probably already know about this bundle. However if you don't, then I encourage you to check it out.

More evidence of a coming revolution in web games

2008-09-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

Google Chrome will be a fast, efficient browser. It'll also be an excellent platform for building web applications, which is what I think Google is "really" getting at. Browsing pages is something most browsers can to easily. I think Google Chrome is going to be for building Web Apps. And this is good for Browser Based Games as well.

The Coming Revolution in Web Gaming

2008-08-25T23:09:00.000-07:00

Every so often I run across a series of sites, news items, and other things that lead me to some conclusions about the web. I've had similar feelings about RSS before it was popular, blogging, podcasting, and other things. The feeling I'm getting now is about web games. Not just flash -- that technology is trucking right along. I mean given ultra-fast javascript in modern browsers with canvas and SVG support - we may finally get to see web-based games really take off. Not just boring lists of tabular information, and crappy graphics, but polished games with animation, sound, and interaction that competes with the likes of Flash, Silverlight, and other plugins.

There are several things holding this back a bit, however. Such things as lack of a good sound/music player built into the browser , spotty support for SVG and canvas in IE, and lack of a unified way to display downloadable fonts.

However I do see web gaming approaching someday soon a tipping point where it can compete with Flash type games -- all it needs are some great tools, great libraries, and better browser support.

Mogulus - personal videocasting

2008-08-24T01:51:00.000-07:00

Every so often I run across something so amazing I just have to blog about it as soon as I find it. You've probably not heard about Mogulus, but after about 10 minutes of poking around you'll be as amazed as I. You are given the tools to create a full fledged television station. Complete with live video, video on demand, playlists, prerecorded clips, clips from youtube, podcasts, and more! I dont know how or why these folks are doing this, but its truly an amazing site. If you have even a passing interest in having your own video channel, then you have to check out Mogulus.

Blatant plea for a Tilestack invite...

2008-08-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Yes, using your blog to ask for an invite for a new website is cheap and shallow. However, I have big plans for a tool like this - especially to see how far I can push the code for making games. Anyway - there are any Tilestack folks out there reading this, can I get an invite? triptych at gmail dot com :)

Heh, I already have several people who read my earlier post emailing me for invites as well. I guess there's a pent up desire for Hypercard like functionality...

Run! - frustratingly fun flash game

2008-08-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

From tigsource and others comes news of a simple, yet frustratingly fun flash game called Run! The point is to get across the screen without dying. A pretty difficult task but strangely fun.

Hypercard for the next generation - Tilestack

2008-08-22T21:04:00.000-07:00

If you are old enough to remember Hypercard, then you're heart will flutter when you visit this site. They are serious about trying to take the simplicity of Hypercard and bring it to the Web 2.0/3.0 world. It looks like you can create stacks to live on a web page, blog, apple desktop, and probably other places as well. Check out Tilestack.