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The new iTunes interface

…what? I use a PC! How am I able to enjoy iTunes? Well, Apple needed to expand their music industry, at least at the time that they released iTunes, so they released a version for PC.

 

Cool, right? Anyway, the newest version ( 11.0 ), has a really good interface. Not just lists and selections, but really nice moving graphics (AND lists and selections, but who cares about those static SOBs). Not only that, but the interface is actually intuitive…to a degree. Even Apple has it’s faults, even though Mr. Jobs was a swashbuckling cowboy on a joyride with his girlfriend…for much of his life.

 

For instance, the interface still runs at a weird 14-20-25-ish-FPS. Most flat canvas-drawn interface peices seem to run like that, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why. Maybe it’s because it rapes the display driver. Eh, time will tell me if I’m wrong.

I’m so sold on the huge buttons. Since I’m a natural freak and I can’t really see much (at least according to my dad, he’s wrong I think. I see fine.), I find it really nice to be able to click and expand lists rather than slog through 80 windows of graphics to get somewhere. Apple, even under the new CEO, you’re getting the basics down. Megusta.

I still still still want a Mac. Macs are friendly and they say Hello to you in THE ENCLOSED INSTRUCTION BOOK (WHY. INTERNET YOU CRAZY). They’re also colored chrome. Shiny objects.

ANyway. iTunes. Still great, still awesome. Different interface, same experience. I really recommend iTunes to anyone who loves their music to play in their ear (I’m listening to music right now!). Sure, you might have Windows Media Player, but…just…NO. I have bad times with it. That and the moron that is Google Music Manager can only suppport Windows Media Player Version 11, and Version 11 alone. WHY. IS. BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY. NOT. A. THING.

Apple, you better buy Google. I used to love the Google to bits, but it seems like they’re starting to make some stupid decisions. Only some stupid ones, I still love them to death. Just not to bits. There’s a difference.

Also, yes, I understand programming hurdles. Just not to a very high degree. THere’s a difference between not knowing how a certain function is done, and knowing exactly the command that is sent to the OS via clicking on that certain button and the commands that follow after that and etc etc. I still like to think that iTunes had some super-ultra system-cleansing power because of how ingeniously they design their products.

Currently, Sonic 2×4 music on iTune’s Miniplayer FTW.

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PCFY Progress Update 3 – and Suggestions!

I am working on the lab…yes, the lab where Proffessor Oak is, who you usually get your Pokedex from.

 

Okay, so I should probably start explaining what actually I have and how I built it…

 

Basically, I was tooling around on the YoYoGames Sandbox page and I came across a game called “Perfect Pokemon Movement”.  It was basically just a showcase, and it had what the name implied:  Your character exibited perfect movement behavior a-la Pokemon Emerald/Sapphire…etc.  There was also a sign that had text, and it also acted exactly as in the games.

 

I mucked around in the code and found it was actually easy to understand…at least for the most part.  So I got the idea for the game, downloaded some extra tilesets, and began!

 

Now for what I actually have done:

 

Field movement

Text box behavior

 

Um…that’s it 🙁  No battle system, no story, no Professor Oak, no nothing.  But I’m aiming to break the mold for Pokemon games (watch, as soon as I press “Publish” I’ll lose motivation and never ever work on it :p), so I’m still thinking about what all I could put in it…and the battle system, teams, stats, etc is going to be the most difficult part (heck, it’s the one that’s going to take up the MOST space filesize-wise).

 

SO here, I am asking you to post suggestions of content, code workarounds, anything that will help me with the game!  And to avoid turning the game into a clusterf***, I’ll only accept ideas I really like.

 

And in case you didn’t catch or don’t know what software I’m using, it’s Game Maker Studio.

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Testing IFTTT automated posting from WordPress

IFTTT isan automation service which automates certain Internet tasks with an IF-THEN behavior.

 

For example, the way I’m using it here:

IF any new post appeares on WordPress, THEN post a link to it on my Facebook page.

 

I was going to have this post with my PCFY Progress Update 2 post, but for some reason IFTTT has TWO Facebook services (FAN pages and USER pages), and I picked the wrong one. >_<

 

So now I’m sure I have it so, let me press Publish and see what happens!

 

…and it…didn’t…work…I think I have WordPress set up wrong…um…

 

god damnit…it’s an authorization problem…I’ll have to get back to you guys on this…sorry, no IFTTT for WordPress yet. 🙁

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PCFY Update Progress 2

Well, I got around the text problem I had.  What I had to do was set all the textX variables to a blank text so it didn’t cause an error.

 

After that I had another problem, which was a sprite width problem.

 

See, the font I was using before had the text as sprites, and the guy I took the example from had it set so the game knew which sprites were which letters.  And GM:S screwed up the sprite width math or whatever so the text was spaced too wide and looked weird.  So…I had to use legit text instead of sprites.

 

So I downloaded about 6 fonts until I found the one I wanted:Munrow Narrow.

If you can’t see the font, you either don’t have it installed, WordPress is using it’s own fonts because it’s a control freak, or the font system for WordPress is broken.  THe font is supposed to look like Pokemon Emerald’s text: Basically a pixely Ariel.

 

I got that working, fortunately, and I reproduced the shadow effect the original text had by drawing it twice, the second one slightly offset and colored gray.

 

Original:

 

Current:

…and I just realized the colors are reversed…oh well, I think it looks better that way.

 

I also added a cute little cutscene with my character Tomomi Kasumi-Keiko (and she does have a Facebook Page…I’m getting embarrased by writing this).

 

I’m also experimenting with moving the character on an Android phone so I can test the game on-the-go.

That’s it for now!