In 1998, I enrolled into a prestigious university, but I could only get in for math, not for computer science. In retrospect, it may have been wiser to enroll in the state college where I was accepted for computer science. I would have spent less money and gotten a computer science degree instead of a math degree. As it is, I have a bachelor's degree in Discrete Mathematics and Logic with a minor in Computer Science.
In any case, going to a different college would have made only a little difference. My poor nutritional habits reduced me into a shambling zombie, so I was unable to function effectively. I didn't resolve this issues until 2005, three years after I graduated.
In spring 2001, I joined a team to program an RPG called Lunatic Ambition. This was my first substantial game project. For several months, I did alot of work on Lunatic Ambition. I set up a test scenario called Rabbit Warriors, lost most of the source code, rewrote the source code, piddled around for a while, stopped working on it, started working on it again, and then finally stopped working on it altogether.
Lunatic Ambition used the Gameframe for Java game library (which is no longer available).
Later in 2001, I wrote a program called Bot Asylum that would produce a whole conversation when you put in some input. It didn't use any sneaky artificial intelligence; it just stored a list of canned responses in a semi-clever way.
In the spring of 2002, I didn't do much in the way of extracurricular coding, but I did finally graduate from college.
After graduation, I discovered Natural Point's Smart Nav device. It allows you to control the mouse cursor by moving your head instead of using your hands. This is useful when you have problems with carpal tunnel syndrome.
Before looking for a job, I started programming a 2d arcade game called Ecoheroes. I used rather poor design practices because I initially intended for it to only be an experiment in programming my own Java game library.
Ecoheroes was loosely inspired by a game called Actraiser, though it's actually more like Gauntlet.
Shortly thereafter, I got a relatively low-paying job unrelated to programming. The only reason I could slowly pay my college debts was because my expenses were low. Living in my parents' garage and not owning a car had its benefits.
The fact that Ecoheroes actually worked caused my ego to inflate like the LZ 129 Hindenburg. I decided to make some improvements to Ecoheroes in order to be able to sell it.
During the spring and summer, I worked on Ecoheroes as time permitted. I spent alot of time refactoring the spaghetti code I had written originally. I also spent some time convincing people to do art and music for the game in exchange for royalties. I paid them a small advance (after they did the work, so "advance" may be the wrong word) on the royalties.
Towards the end of the summer, I got a second job and basically stopped coding. I used the income from the second job to buy a laptop computer that was basically as bad as the desktop computer I had before and had a non-functional down arrow key. I learned an important life lesson: don't buy used computers from random websites.
In October, I quit the second job.
In October or November, the artwork for Ecoheroes was done. I started distributing the game shortly afterwards. I only sold 3 copies, so I actually spent more money paying the people who did the art and music than I made.
I started programming a 2d RPG called Mythale RPG when I really should have been improving Ecoheroes. For Mythale RPG, I tried to use good coding practices from day 1. The engine was far superior to Lunatic Ambition.
I nearly completed Mythale RPG's game engine, but the game wasn't really how I intended it to be. I didn't have much of a design and kept adding stuff on a whim rather than focusing on the core gameplay. For instance, I added noncombat skills that allowed you to create items like in Ultima Online (which I've never played). I didn't put enough time into implementing the noncombat skills, so they were pathetic.
Mythale RPG never had any good content. It had a few game areas, but essentially no art or music for the game.
After starting Mythale RPG, I tried to make some improvements to Ecoheroes in the hope that it would become good enough that people would buy it. It actually got a bit worse if anything. Then Java 1.4.2_02 (I believe that's the number) was released. Both games started randomly crashing under the new version of Java. I was opposed to embedding the older JRE with the game because I was an idiot.
At that point, I wound up with alot more hours at work. Since I was frustrated and had no free time, I quit working on both games.
Once I had less hours again, I returned to my other job (from 2003) for around 10 hours a week for about a month.
That summer, I started Bot Asylum over from scratch. I worked on it on-and-off for about 6 months. The program was better than before, but I did even less scripting. The results were as unimpressive as before.
I managed to destroy my laptop in 2004 and received a new one as a gift in December 2004.
I spent a considerable portion of 2004 sleeping and watching music videos.
Early in 2005, I bought some Java game programming books. Unlike similar books that I had bought previously, one of these was actually good. It explained the bugs I encountered with Java 1.4.2_02. With the information I gathered, I started writing the Java Game Programming Tutorial. Though I had some basic information written about making games with Java, I never got to the more advanced information.
While working on the tutorial, I programmed a simple puzzle game called Unmix. It's nothing special, but some people like it.
I started on a simple text-based RPG for the tutorial, but I decided that it was kind of dumb. So I bumped it up to being a regular graphics-based RPG. I decided to call it "Rabbits" and make a game like the "Rabbit Warriors" scenario that I was making with the Lunatic Ambition engine. I didn't reuse any of the code from either of the 2 previous RPGs I programmed.
In the summer, I saw 2 different late night advertisements. Between the 2 commercials, I managed to gather enough medical information to establish that I wasn't eating enough fiber (which was the primary cause of my nutritional problems). I started eating Raisin Bran instead of Corn Pops, and I was much more efficient after a week or two. Suddenly, programming became alot easier.
In the relatively limited time I spent working on it, Rabbits slowly turned into an actual game.
In March 2006, I finally finished paying off my college debts.
Over time, I could purchase more programming books that I needed. Since my debts were paid off and I wasn't paying rent, I actually had money. Getting out of debt contributed far more to my education as a programmer than the 300 units of non-programming classes and 60 units of programming classes I took in college.
Sometime in the early summer, my parents got broadband Internet access, meaning that I could easily upload games with embedded JREs. The funny thing is that my parents have no use for broadband Internet access.
In July 2006, I stopped working on Rabbits (although I didn't acquire music for it until a bit later). I left the last town out of the game so that I could work on a small project called Nanotron with Eduardo Ramirez. At first, it was only supposed to take a month or so, but we added numerous features.
At one point, I started programming something called Vulcan Compiler at the same time. It was intended to create PHP text adventure games from a simple scripting language. However, the guy who's idea this was actually wanted to work on something else entirely. I abandoned Vulcan Compiler after doing about a week's worth of work on it.
In November, we decided that Nanotron was done, but others thought that it didn't have enough features. We started revising the game.
In December, I purchased arthritis gloves, which were a great boon for my carpal tunnel syndrome.
Cow God Games and In-orbit Concepts merged into Orbital Cows Entertainment during April. This site became only my personal site, and Orbital Cows is the partnership's site.
In May 2007, I discovered that potential landlords value something called "credit". This means that people who buy things with credit cards are good tenants, whereas people who buy things with debit cards are not. Yes, the world is a mysterious place.
Also in May 2007, the Nanotron beta test took place. Nanotron was finally released in late June 2007.
After Nanotron was released, we started work on a sellable version of Unmix. Since we were making it into a game to actually sell, I took down the Java Game Programming Tutorial, which contained an older version of it.
This new version of Unmix includes 3 games in one package, called Puzzle Carnival. The other two games in the package are called Color Mix and Memory Search.
While working on Puzzle Carnival, we came up with several designs for what our next project might be, but left the final decision for later.
In November 2007, we selected the final price point for Nanotron.
By this point, the arthritis gloves had helped my hands so much that I no longer bothered using the Smart Nav device. Of course, I idiotically splashed hot fryer oil on my hands, so my hands hurt anyways, just for a different reason.
I spent most of December 2007 updating the website. The game list is now backed by an SQL database, and we started selling games as an affilliate with BMT Micro. (Previously, we sold games as an affilliate with Reflexive Arcade.)
The first quarter of the year turned out to be relatively busy for me at my actual job.
In April 2008, I eliminated the cowgodgames.com website and moved the remaining material to this site. I had moved most of the stuff over earlier, but I moved over the last few things at this point.
Copyright (C) 2006-2008 Steven Fletcher. All rights reserved.
