Postmortem: Thanksgiving Turkey Tower Toss #IndiesVSPewDiePie

Competition Version Released

Post-Competition Polished Version Coming Soon

Thanksgiving Turkey Tower Toss was the game I made for the 72 hour Indies VS PewDiePie game jam at Game Jolt. Here are the good, the bad, and the ugly that came out of it.

Time Management: Even though I was relatively more busy that weekend, I did get a good chunk of the time I did have to make the game. Unfortunately, I did waste some time here and there, and sometimes, I think I spent too long testing. I only divided my tasks effectively halfway through the 72 hours.

Game Design: A (light) physics-based was a bit of a gamble, but i think it paid off in originality. What didn't make it in the game jam version was the Garden Gnome Carnage mode I really wanted to put. That will come to the post-competition version. I really should have focused more on designing and implementing the level generation, and designing the enemies. The Thanksgiving theme was the only one I could think of. Planning this game was better off than my previous games, thus the level of finish that it has, but not by much. The achievements was almost an afterthought, but made the gameplay substantial.

Gameplay: The gameplay was a lot better than my previous jam games and a bit more intuitive, too, using only arrow keys and Space. I also had my best final boss (in the form of a mecha PewDiePie) coded, with missiles and a machine gun. I plan to do a whole game with just bosses and complex enemies, because they are so interesting. The GCC component did not get in, yet. The SSB style to eliminate enemies didn't seem as compelling to me. Will have to change that. 

Sounds: After this jam, I now believe sound effects can make or break a game. I had a lot of sound effects and music. Since I didn't get to collaborate with anyone, I used random music generators and voiced my own sound effects using Audacity. I don't regret using 

Graphics: Graphics should have been a bit bigger. Or at least zoomed in enough to see the details. I did get some auto-tiling done, which made the game so much better to look at. I don't think anyone could tell those were Pilgrims, because they were so small!

Overall, it was better planned and better implemented than my previous jam games. And I think it's the only jam game I want to really expand further.

Seven Reasons Why I am KJV Only

by Samuel Garcia

This is an old post from a forums.

1. Translation, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is superior to the originals. 

The law of first mention in scripture bears witness to this fact. 

II Sam. 3:10
10 To translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba.

As David's kingdom was superior to Saul's kingdom, the KJV is superior to the original.

Hebrews 11:5
5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

As Enoch was superior to the original Adam, the KJV is superior to the original.

A perfect God can take a perfect Book and make a perfect Translation and will. And all evidence points that it being the KJV. 

A study of the KJV translators is amazing. They far exceed all our language(and other subjects) scholars of the day. It's been said that they debated about Greek in Latin (while speaking Latin). And yet they were the most humble men. Humility is sign of the Holy Spirit.

One can see this truth by reading the Prefatory and Dedicatory remarks in the Authorized Version. These men didn't believe they were handling "God's message" or "reliable manuscripts." They believed they were handling the very words of God Himself. As I Thessalonians 2:13 says, they ". . . . received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." 
Like the serpent of Genesis 3:1, modern translators approach the scriptures in skepticism, saying, "Yea, hath God said?" This was the first recorded sin in the Bible, and it still runs rapid through the hearts and minds of most scholars and new versionpromoters.

2. The KJV is the only translation that fulfills the prophecy of the seven purifications:
Psalms 12:6
The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

As any student of English Bible history knows, the Authorized Version of 1611 was not the first Bible to be translated into English. But even though hundreds of complete Bibles, New Testaments, and Scripture portions have been translated into English since 1611, it is obvious that the Authorized Version is the last English Bible; that is, the last English Bible that God "authorized."
...
And thus we have our answer. The seven English versions that make the English Bibles up to and including the AuthorizedVersion fit the description in Psalm 12:6 of the words of the Lord being "purified seven times" are Tyndale's, Matthew's, Coverdale's, the Great Bible (printed by Whitechurch), the Geneva Bible, the Bishops' Bible, and the King James Bible.

3. God does not respect the originals.
Jeremiah 36:22
Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah; who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

In this passage, the originals of what is today the book of Jeremiah and Lamentations were destroyed by the king. And there were added many like words! And the originals were not.

And also, no one knows where the originals are. All our Hebrew and Greek manuscripts are simply copies. Anyone who tells you they are studying the original Hebrew and Greek is a liar.

That is to say, practically every Bible language class of the Greek and Hebrew are based on the corrupt 5% manuscripts, not the established 95%. This is where our new translations come from, the Bible scholars of our day are scholars of the very corrupt eclectic texts of Wescott and Hort. If they make claims to have studied the originals, run. Run far away.

4. The power of the KJV across time and space.

Jesus said that every good tree will bring forth good fruit, and we can know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:17-20).

The KJV is the Bible of the Great Awakenings and the revivals after that. It is the Bible of our Founding Fathers and the American Revolution, a direct offspring of the Great Awakenings. Only with the KJV did we see great missionary movements. 

When the first English Revised Version in the 1900s, much revival work stopped. The ERV was made into the American Revised Version and the New American Revised Version, which is the root translation of the ESV. This was the start of the translation craze where we get all new versions. The chief editor of the NASV writes after the process:

I must under God denounce every attachment to the New American Standard Version. I'm afraid I'm in trouble with the Lord...We laid the groundwork; I wrote the format; I helped interview some of the translators; I sat with the translator; I wrote the preface. When you see the preface to the New American Standard, those are my words...it's wrong, it's terribly wrong; it's frightfully wrong...I'm in trouble;...I can no longer ignore these criticisms I am hearing and I can't refute them. The deletions are absolutely frightening...there are so many. The finest leaders that we have today haven't gone into it new versions of Hort and Westcott's corrupted Greek text just as I hadn't gone into it...that's how easily one can be deceived...Are we so naive that we do not suspect Satanic deception in all of this?
....
If we could hear His voice we would have no trouble learning His Word from the Authorized Version. Let me tell you this: You might not be able to answer the arguments, and you won't be [able to]. I can't answer some of them, either. Some of these university professors come along and say, What about this; what about that? They go into areas that I haven't even had time to get into.

As I said to you a couple of minutes ago. You don't need to defend yourself, and you don't need to defend God's Word. Don't defend it; you don't need to defend it; you don't need to apologize for it. Just say, "Well, did this version or this translation come down through the Roman stream? If so, count me out. Whatever you say about Erasmus and Tyndale, that's what I want."

And besides this, we've had the AV for 362 years. It's been tested as no other piece of literature has ever been tested. Word by word; syllable by syllable. And think even until this moment no one has ever found any wrong doctrine in it, and that's the main thing. He that wills to do the will of God shall KNOW the doctrine.

Well, time is up. Let's be people of the Book. It took my mother to heaven; and my dad, my grandfather, my grandmother. It was Moody's Book; it was Livingstone's Book. J.C. Studd gave up his fortune to take this Book to Africa. And I don't feel ashamed to carry it the rest of my journey. It's God's Book.

"Our Father, we thank Thee and praise Thee for Thy Word. Help us to love it, and preach it, and teach it, and tell everybody we can the Good News through thy Word. In Jesus' name. Amen."

Dr. Frank Lodgson

1 Corinthians 14:33
33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

And what is confusion but many versions running around?

The King James Bible was not translated during the apostate and lukewarm Laodicean church period, like the new translations. The Laodicean period is the last church period before the Second Coming of Christ. It is the last of the seven church periods in Revelation chapters two and three. One can clearly see that we are living in the Laodicean period today by simply comparing modern churches to the church of Revelation 3:14-22. This lukewarm period began toward the end of the 1800's and will continue until Christ returns. The new versions fit well into the lukewarm churches, because they are lukewarm "bibles."

5. The KJV is the only one that claims full inspiration and preservation and infallibility.

What other version of the Bible can say this? None. There are no defenders of (insert corrupt version here) of its inspiration. Only the KJV boasts such members.

As one points out, all new translations compare themselves to the KJV first. Just the fact that the KJV is mentioned brings great emotional response. And emotional responses are a sign of spiritual warfare.

All apparent "errors" in the KJV can be explained through prayer and a careful study of the scriptures. 
...
Ninety-five percent of all evidence SUPPORTS the text of the King James Authorized Version. The new versions are supported by the remaining five percent evidence.

I vouch for this. There is no other book I can feel the Spirit living within its pages. All "errors" I have now seen promulgated in the libraries of man I can easily show not to be an error by simply cross-referencing.

6. The English language dominates the world. The KJV was translated in the most perfect form of English.

God's Word is always primarily in the language His people will use it.

In Israel's time, it was in Hebrew, for it only applied to them.

In the apostle's time, it was in Greek (both OT and NT). In the fulness of time when Greek was the trade language did Jesus come.

Today, what is the prevailing language of God's people? What is the trade language of the world?

This is why you shouldn't fear Chinese nor another language overtaking English. It is our Bible that holds that barrier.

Those that are scholars of Greek and Hebrew set themselves up as priests and interpreters and scribes. We have a living, breathing English Bible right here! It's alive, brother!

There is a common misconception that the KJV translators used the English of their day to translate the Bible. That is not true. "You" already replaced "thou". Words and usages in it were already archaic in their day(1611). In other words, the English of the 1611 Bible is not from 1611.

A serious, deep study of it leads to the fact that it is indeed the most perfect translation of the Hebrew and Greek in English. For example, "Thou" is a singular pronoun. In modern day English, we replace it with the word "you", which can be both singular and plural. However, in the Hebrew and Greek, there are singular pronouns, and "thou" is the correct translation.

Sounds trivial? NO! "You" can mean groups of people. When it replaces "thou", it removes individuality of a passage, and will lead to serious doctrinal errors.

Luke 22:31
31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

The Greek is plural for you in 31, while thou is singular in Greek. In that light, we know that Satan was desiring of all the disciples, not only Peter. This passage is fulfilled in Acts when Peter rises up as the leader and indeed strengthens his brethren.

Exodus 4:15
15 And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.

Thou refers to a singular Moses, but ye refers to Israel.

7. The KJV is the only translation which magnifies Him, Our Lord Jesus Christ, fully. 
There is no question that new translations always question the Deity, Virgin Birth, Death, Resurrection somewhere. 

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: And they are they which testify of me. John 5:39

With that I have no time left, I have to get to church. I still have more material to post.  I have written why the KJV is superior to other translations, and partly why it is superior to the originals, and I shall touch on more on the latter.

If the KJV is indeed the Word of God, and since it is the power of God in the Awakenings and the great Philadelphian Church Age of yesteryear, it would be more conducive to the Church to set it back on its rightful place. Of course, that will not happen in this lukewarm Laocidean Church, where people are forced to compromise for the sake of "fellowship". Having no rifts and no division sounds mamby-pamby, kumbayah, everyone loves everyone, and all that, but it's not the best, especially over a very, very important thing, which is the Bible and doctrine.

Matthew 10:34
34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

That sword is God's Word. God's Word must divide. And indeed it will divide, divide us in doctrine, which gives rise to different denominations; and it will divide us in its words, which gives rise to opinions of translations. We must be divided on these issues because they are the roots, and without them, whatever we are means nothing. If we compromise on these things, corruption is quick to take over as leaven in bread and whatever peace we achieve is pointless. 

Over other non-important things we shouldn't be divided, but since in this issue, there is only one true Word and only one true doctrine. The only time we are to be united is under one true Word and one true doctrine. And history shows that the Church was indeed united under the King James Bible only for about 300 years. And those were the best years of the Church until He comes.

Short Story: November the Fourth

November 4th.

Democracy Day.

The elections are coming! Partisan warfare is heating up. Third parties seem to be a bit popular this year. Unfortunately, they don't survive very long in the cycle.

The campaigns of both parties seem concentrated on the traditional battleground states. Ohio, mostly. District lines are drawn.

The political climate is practically the same every time. Conservatives and liberals taking potshots at each other, almost at a standstill.

Even then, government grows and grows. The eyes of Big Brother Uncle Sam are everywhere. The Federal Register is bloated beyond imagination. Anything you do, might do, think to do is cataloged and might break at least a some policies and a few laws, creating a profile for your arrest at any time.

The winner-take-all system has its critics, but our founding fathers had their reasons. It brings out the best and the worst.

Every vote counts.

November 4th.

D-Day.

The district parties send in their conscripted soldiers for this proxy war. The campaigners are out on force. Their signs and emblems cover the file and rank marching in the neighborhoods. You can see crack teams canvassing the streets.

Many just want to be left alone. So they huddle in their bunkers.

Each district is commanded by a Gerrymander, a veteran of past electoral wars. The conscripts pledge their votes.

Each one vote routes power and resources from each locality to the ongoing war effort. Illegal votes are deleted by the FedReg, as the FedReg itself routes the legal votes to each war machine.

The Democratic army from Cleveland and the Republican army from Cincinnati meet just outside the Columbus Quantum Uplink Hub to see if once can hack it and secure it before the other does, opening a floodgate of votes. Similar battles rage on the other states, but this swing state is the most important.

The Columbus Uplink is interesting, because it has a realtively large concentration of the Green Party and Libertarian Party militias already infighting amongst themselves.

The almost impenetrable fortress White House is bombarded by special operative candidate teams to remove the current President, and install their own. The Democrat snipers fire upon the hovering craft. One goes down.

The Republican commandos jump out of the craft many feet onwards the House. Don't worry, they are cybernetically enhanced.

"Watch out for the Secret Service!"

Anti-air flak take down the incoming SS drones. The old President will not give up the protocol so easily.

After the President is installed, almost literally, he/she/it uploads the new protocol. Whoever owns the protocol, owns the nuclear weaponry. They call it, "The Football".

Presidents must be natural born programs. The SS drones that guard the surrounding area only recognize protocols native to the national cyberspace.

Any independents are slaughtered and beheaded. There's nothing civil about a civil war, even one that is scheduled every four years. The more organized third parties have safehouses, or is in disguise of a larger national major party-corporation.

The real winner is the FedReg, the almighty Artificial Intelligence that runs our mask that is the government. It is Big Brother Uncle Sam's German shepherd. The more votes that circulate, the more laws that can be passed to entrap the poor humans.

So really, even the President-program is just a puppet, eternally constrained by the laws passed every millisecond, calculated by the SuperCongress.

Luckily, we have the Constitution.exe. It will delete all traces of all the tyrant. We just need the virus to activate in all the major mainframe hubs. It is old, ancient, perhaps, but its very fundamental core programming is antithesis to the bloat. The assembly code will never be the same.

If it will not work, we shall use the prohibited nanoweaponry. It is our right to bear arms. Our rights are written down in our very code.

The Federal Electoral Commission appendage of the FedReg has banned nanotechnology type-based weapons. The danger of gray goo is something AIs even fear.

We shall be free.

Every vote counts.

Short Story: Flattime

This, in essence, is supposed to allude to Flatland, except in explaining the many dimensions of time. This time elements in the story was inspired by a Facebook discussion, but the whole of it is a true story. The reference to the girls and a conference in the story was what prompted me to my fascination of time travel, and actually happened seven years ago. It is implied that the author believes them to be time travelers for some odd reason or another.

And I seriously did believe they were.

I can make things go backwards.

The steam from my coffee this morning coalesced back to its liquid.

That isn't supposed to happen. Steam goes up and scatters like all gases, not collect back to its source. Or at least gases that are not heavier than the earth's atmosphere.

I shake my head. It is rising out, not coalescing. Am I dreaming?

No, it isn't a dream. I pinch myself. My mind probably just wanted to rewind it. Maybe it's those memory supplements I've been taking? Is this almost video-like feedback the side effect?

Cool.

Huh, not really appear and disappear, it's more like rewinding time and remaining conscious. Interesting. Oh, my imaginations!

I saw three of them look at me interestingly. Three girls. They looked at me quizically. They looked eerily familiar and not familiar.

Even though they did not look out of place in this conference, they were striking. To me, at least.

Not attraction, no. A little bit of it, yes. Deja vu, perhaps? Probably rather my self-consciousness.

The feeling disturbed me enough to get out of my seat and go elsewhere.

The future is a the gravity of time.

You know how that if you jump, you fall back down? Gravity pulls us down to the Earth's core, unless impeded.

Time travel is like that. Even if you go backwards in time, once you arrive, time will automatically go forward.

Like gravity, the future affects those with more mass. We know at the speed of light, photons practically have no mass, and time is still for the photon.

So even though you can rewind to an extent, you will eventually have to go forward again.

The question is though, how do you jump?

Oh, everyone can rewind time and traverse through it. But only a few can remember, and even fewer, less than a handful, are conscious of doing so. Our memories, too, are held by time.

For example, if you rewound time for yourself, would you remember the future? Of course not, those memory of the future never existed, because they didn't happen for you to remember yet. Make sense?

Though, rarely, the imprint of energy is strong enough that they leave traces.

You know, dreams of days past? Of days never materializing? That is the trace of semi-conscious time travel. Most time travel is unconscious. Or rather, instantly forgotten as it rewinds.

After a couple hours wandering the conference, I chanced upon those three girls again. One of them asked me something. I think it was the blondish one.

I shrugged it off. I  muttered something about going to my friends. I don't know why I was feeling this way toward them. They're just girls. Of course, I have to impress them a little.

Yet, time, as we experience it is only a ray, not even a line. The ray points to the direction of the gravity. It is still only one dimensional, even if we go backwards.

But time also has more than one dimension, as space as three.

Some call it alternate universes. The branching universe theory. The reality, actually, is not made up of branches, but a width. If time is a line with length, it's width are the alternate choices we could have made at every given moment.

We too could traverse the width. Every choice we make, we could make. And we remember. And we see what could have been. Will I sip my coffee? Will I not? Will I have tea instead? That is the width of time in the moment.

You could see your reflection in this house of mirrors of yourself, making different choices. The farther you look at the horizon of time, the more radical and improbable your choice were. Width can be measured!

However, interestingly, the gravity of time affects our choices, and our choices in turn affect it. While we can ponder the choices we could have made, we are still dragged along the same ray, never completely getting out of the stream. Our free will is intact; not that we could change it, but it is we that made the change. We don't make all possible choices at the same time.

The rest of the day was inconsequential.

I left the conference a bit mellow. We boarded on a bus back to our school. I don't think I will see those girls ever again. Who are they? Why do they look so familiar?

What is the height of time, then? What is the third dimension of the temporality? Are we on a sort-of timesphere as humans are on a sphere called Earth in space?

Total alternate universes with different preconditions. A radically different time plane.

While the universe in the second dimension of time, more or less, have the same preconditions, the third does not.

This is the plane of stories. Universes with varying creation myths, alternate histories, revisionist histories, future histories of those histories, and whatnot. They all exist in the planes apart from this objective reality plane.
So if the future is the gravity of time, and if time is a sphere like Earth is in space, what is the core of this sphere? The end of time?

So if the drive to the future is the gravity of time, and time is like a sphere as Earth is a sphere in space, then what is the core of this timesphere? The end of time?

No.

God. Eternity.