Postmortem: Conspiracrat

A game of secret machinations. One is never ready to pull the strings of the web of secrecy.

Conspiracrat: http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/strategy-sim/conspiracrat/9163/

I made Conspiracrat as an afterthought for the Game Jolt Official Contest. I really couldn't have spent enough time on it due to me having an exam in the middle of the week. I almost made it to the deadline, but I plan on improving the game, since it shows promise, especially in the Artificial Intelligence and some possible and future multiplayer additions.

The game is a turn-based strategy. You control a secret Society in pursuit of power. To do so, you must take control of Organizations around the space. Organizations can also take control of other Organizations, creating a network. Each Organization may have a total of 5 Members, who can sway the Organization to your purpose.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is a bit lacking right now. I blame myself for not giving enough feedback to players. I also haven't implemented the "Specials" system for each Society that the manual boasts. That said, with the right balance, you can play the existing game right now and engage in a conflict of powers. I need to make it so that the mouse can move around the map. A mousewheel, which laptops lack, is needed for zooming in and out, but it is not necessary. There is a glaring lack of options given to the player. Also, the "Member" part of the game is not as well developed as I'd like. For example, the "Advancing Rank" system of the Members work, but not to any advantage for the player, ironically. I'm not entirely happy with the Society goals, either. The game needs much balancing to make it any more fun. The achievements are a bit unlockable right now, but it should be an easy fix. The interface system was not as intuitive as I planned. I will cover the artificial intelligence in another section of the postmortem.

Graphics:
The graphics were on purpose simplistic and minimalistic, a black and white effect, with a few colors thrown in. That was done because of time constraints, but also on a more philosophical point. It suggests that the Societies have dogmas that are really varied, as shown by the color, instead of a black and white approach. Well, something like that.

Music:
I used royalty-free music from Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech. I found a piece of music that fits each Society to a tee. I used the Supersound DLL to play them as Ogg Vorbis sounds after converting them from MP3s. The music is largely dark and mystical.

Sounds:
The game only uses beeps for feedback. My old computer speaker's do not run anymore, and I have to have them replaced. I used another computer to test the music and sounds, which is the one I'm writing in right now.

Artificial Intelligence:
The Artificial Intelligence is horrible compared to what was planned. I planned it so that the AI can hold diplomacy with the player and other AI. However, due to time constraints, I can't, but I will, hopefully. Also, the AI right now is largely a simple decision tree, and not even that. Although I am glad to say it doesn't cheat like some other strategy AI.

Multiplayer:
There is no multplayer in this game (yet). There was supposed to be. There was in the beginning stages of the game there was hotseat multiplayer. But I went in favor for the AI playing against a single player. I'm still looking if I can turn this into an online multiplayer. We will see.

What I Did Wrong:
I did not put multiplayer.
I did not put enough sounds for feedback.
I did not put a well developed AI.
Lots of gameplay features planned that did not appear or appear subtly, yet.
I did not focus much on the Members part, where the Double Agents and backstabbing come to play.

What I Did Right:
I picked fitting and awesome music.
I got every basic thing in the game at least in beta.
It's finished, somewhat. It's definitely playable to a point.
It has a better interface system than some of my older games.

Well, I had fun making this game! I did have Game Jolt's Good Ol' Fashioned Fun Time TM in the process. I promise updates, because I like the premise and theme. I hope I can make it a bit more like a puzzle game and a psychological, mental one at that.

The Elitinati is watching.
Aeterna Veritas is marching on.

Mindwrap: Higher Dimensions

"I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."
2 Corinthians 12:2-4

Ever since man had fallen into sin, humans have dreamed of realities higher than our bleak three-dimensional existence.

Is Heaven a higher dimension? Can the spirit world be explained as a dimension removed from our universe?

But before I go on, I will lay down the basics. As the video shows, a point has zero dimensions. A line will have one. A square has two. A cube has three. We live in a world with a visible three dimensions. Our universe also experiences the dimension of Time, but this blog post only concerns itself with spatial dimensions, not temporal.

Why can we not see or interact with other higher dimensions? We can draw an analogy from the book Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. In Flatland, the inhabitants are only limited to 2 dimensions. The inhabitants are circles, squares, triangles, and so are their surroundings. A 3-dimensional entity can look down on the flat land, but the inhabitants cannot look up to the higher dimensional being, so to speak. To the inhabitants, the being is godlike.

This will imply that God is probably residing in the highest dimension conceivable, or outside all dimensions, yet interacting with the lowlier dimensions. This reflects His attributes of immanence and transcendence.

There have been theories that the spirit world is simply another dimension. One theory states that living people have a fourth-dimensional spirit attached to the three-dimensional body until death. An interesting concept. I don't know if it has truth behind it or not.

Now, the idea that Heaven(or even Hell) is another dimension, or a dimension within our universe has more credence. The Russian cosmonauts always bragged on the fact that when they went to space, they did not find God. They haven't looked at other dimensions!

Some say Heaven is in another planet somewhere. The Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses believe God as an alien being of sorts. Songs like this support that theory:

"Somewhere in outer space,

God has prepared a place

For those who Him and obey.

Jesus will come again,

Although we don't know when,

The countdown is getting lower every day!

Ten and Nine,

Eight and Seven,

Six and Five and Four,

Call upon the Saviour while you may.

Three and Two,

Coming through the clouds in bright array,

The countdown is getting lower every day!"

It's a fine Sunday School song, but possibly theologically incorrect. God is not a physical alien being from another planet in space. God is a Spirit. 

So, just some of my ranting, perhaps, but I hope it made you think.

CollegePlus! Forums Post-Election 10.0 Summary

The Valiant Defender's Party and the Biblical Stewardship started campaigning way before the election race even kicked off.

The Valiant Defender's Party was called WW3 Veterans of Ballistics Party until its name was changed for more politically correctness. Meanwhile, the Biblical Stewardship Party gets organized.

The VDP is the first to get a Esther endorsement.

The Biblical Stewardship follows.

The Unity Party is organized.

The Unity gets its Esther endorsement just before the Elections Debate.

The "I lost the Prezzie" Party is revealed.

The Elections Debate on Skype, hosted by Esther, is attended by VDP Joshua Loomis and Samx(me!), and BSP Heather M and Caleb J.

A dual endorsement by Samx and Esther is made for ILTP

Unity wins the election with 39 votes! VDP follows with 28, BSP with 27, and ILTP with 11.

I Love U-........kuleles & Youth Conference

     It's stuck in my head! I heard it first at a skit at Youth Conference. It was a fun time, and possibly my last youth conference I will attend, unless I come back as a chaperone or counselor or something.

     I made some decisions for Christ at the Conference. Many did, too. No less than 119 people got saved under the preaching of Jack Schaap, Kenny Baldwin, Eddie Lapina, Chris Tefft, and other great men of God. Some of my youth group were called to preach. I renewed my commitment to preaching the gospel.

Here are some pictures:

High Street Youth Department at First Baptist Church Hammond

The Chicago Bean

My sisters, with David Riggs on the background.

The guys that sang "I Love Ukuleles". Singles' session.

Guy with an epic backpack. XD

Tower Defense Doesn't Make Sense

Tower defense. It just doesn't make sense to me. But then, nothing in video games do if you really looked hard enough. Especially if you're an indie.

Tower defense is a genre of video games that concerns putting towers to inhibit and delay advancing waves of enemies that usually travel along a path to a main base. Some innovators of the genre include multiple lanes of advancing waves, playing as the advancing army instead of the tower builder, flying enemies, random paths, random towers, and whatnot. It is almost a brother to real time strategy, howbeit without movable units.

However fun to play, though, it just doesn't make sense!

Why would an advancing army ignore the towers in the way? Why don't they just destroy them when they encounter it, like all good RTSes. Its like the creator is making fun of your intelligence of tactics and strategy. No one is dumb enough to do that!

But I guess that's what makes tower defense games a bit more popular than normal real-time strategy games. RTSes make you think about how to attack and defend from a smart AI. Thinking is hard work.

In contrast, tower defense has only one strategy for the enemy AI, advance blindly onto the battlefield to the main base, ignoring all defenses! If that was an RTS commander, he would get slaughtered quickly.

So in essence, tower defense games are replays of the same thing over and over again, a failed and foolhardy AI attack in an RTS.

My CollegePlus! Family

This is mostly an inside joke... but I have to compile it somewhere! XD

Grand Daughters:
Hope In the Streets
Natasha Dalrympl
Kaitlyn Semoines

Daughter:
Anna G Trott(Agent Cobalt)

Cousins:
Skywalker2
Awesome One
Sarah Zuzula
Juliana D
Elizabeth Knopp

Sisters:
Kayla Marie(KaylaRose)
Victoria 

Twin:
Katie A

Evil Twin Sister:
Bethany K


Evil Twin:
antigmx0(yes, he does exist)


Aunt:
Laura Southards

Great Aunt:
Lauren Brecht

Nieces:
Mikayla (SuperCool95)
KJ Haines
Katie Follett

Nephews:
Joshua Young
Joshua Loomis
Thorin Howard
Micah M

Triplet Neifews:
Sofia Soul Pea
Alyssa Folck
Joshua Vincent

Grandma:
Esther Mielke

Grandpa:
Jon David

Butler:
Joseph

Fairy Godmother:
Melessa Williams(SavedByGrace)

Maid:
Whitney

Steward:
Caleb Jenkins

Attorney:
Chelsea N

Patroness:
Sarah M

Guardian:
Linda C 

Multiple Parenting Theories In Game Maker

In Game Maker, there is a system for objects called "parenting". Each object is allowed one parent. The "child" object may inherit events from the parent object. Also, the child objects are treated like their parents, but their parents are not treated as their children.

So, my goal in this blog post is to create a way for a child object to have multiple parent objects by GML(Game Maker Language) code. This, if successful, will be advantageous for many things while programming, including much more flexibility.

The Father-Mother Theory
The primary, default parent object of the child will be called the "father" object. A child can also have a secondary parent called the "mother". When a child executes events, it does so it executes the father's events first, then the mother's.


Pros: event handling is seamless
Cons: mother parent does not affect instance finding functions

Dual Object/Overlay Theory
Each child has a primary parent, and also a secondary parent. It creates the secondary parent as an invisible overlay instance. This helps so that the instance finding functions can still find both somewhat seamlessly.

Pros: instance finding functions(howbeit modified)
Cons: event handling complicated between two objects, double the memory needed

Combined Theories
Simply, combining both theories.

Pros: instance finding functions, event inheritance
Cons: event handling may conflict between the two objects, double memory needed


Here is the file:
http://gamejolt.com/open-source/games/other/multi-parenting-for-gm/8092/