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pegamoose_g's LiveJournal:
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| Friday, December 4th, 2009 | | 8:07 am |
What is that Doug up to now?
So, I've started (just yesterday) messing about with creating a Facebook application. My first test project is to get the Pegamoose Games word salad to generate a random status update to post to Facebook. Although I don't have it integrated with Facebook (yet), here is the test page. Feel free to comment with your favorite random phrase of what Doug is up to. Here are a few examples: "Doug thinks you should quit shucking." "Doug hates talkative iguanas." "Doug is like the dirty, red fish." "Doug likes honking gargantuan asparagus." | | Sunday, October 25th, 2009 | | 7:51 am |
Peganoose!
Word Scrambles, Cryptograms, and now Peganoose!Peganoose! is the Pegamoose Games version of hangman. Get points for correctly guessing the letters, but lose points for each incorrect or repeated guess. The word database has grown to over 1100 words! Woo hoo! Keep it growing! Now, what is the point of earning all these Pegapoints? The goal is to eventually be able to cash them in. (Cash them in? Like, for fabulous prizes?!) Er... No. But, I do have plans for using them. More details... eventually. Also, earning enough Pegapoints will earn you a place on the leaderboard. The top three players are listed on the front page, while the top ten players are listed on the Wall of Fame. Enjoy playing those games! | | Sunday, October 18th, 2009 | | 9:57 pm |
The Next Phase
DMCT NWT UMC NWBTLZJBC NBCELU LUF ELHRPCE PATV? DMCT UMC FOACWQI MCWEF VWGC UMC ATDWTUCE TWRQLT. What does that say?* It says that Cryptograms are now available. I am still working out a couple of kinks, but the Beta is ready. Plus, you can earn 25 points for correctly solving each cryptogram. *And, for those who are curious, it really says... "When can the carnivore credit its dimpled lung? When the squeaky heads gaze the unwanted napkin." | | Friday, October 16th, 2009 | | 4:57 am |
And for the next course...
Word Salad, anyone? As Phase I of the random cryptogram generator, I created a random sentence generator. These are so mesmerizing to me: "The slippery, dead monkey drove around the thunderous poodle." Well, that's good. At least the dead monkey was cautious enough not to hit the poodle. See? I'm so drawn into these random sentences so much, that I actually comment about them. Phase II is to then translate the random sentence(s) into a cryptogram (i.e. replacing each letter with its counterpart). Phase III is to enable a way for someone to solve the cryptogram back into its original form (and score points). | | Saturday, October 10th, 2009 | | 5:59 pm |
Points for Words
I have updated the Word Scramble and taken it out of "Beta". Now, players can accumulate score as they play the game. Three points for each word correctly unscrambled, and 10 points for unscrambling the keyword. The longer the keyword, the more score you can accumulate. Enjoy! | | Thursday, October 1st, 2009 | | 6:21 am |
Word Scramble!
I have collected hundreds of words with CrazEmails (I need more... More! MORE!!! ;) Using the words I have collected, I have a working Beta of the first (of hopefully many) online games and puzzles to use the database of words. The first is Word Scrambles! This is an early beta of the puzzle. I will eventually have blanks for each of the scrambled words and have it tied into the user account scoring system, too. But, it's a great first step! I have a good list going for other uses of the words, including hangman and cryptograms. If anyone has any suggestions for other uses for the words database, please let me know. | | Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 | | 6:07 am |
Stage I - Complete
I've got good news and bad news... The bad news is I have not created a new puzzle for today. :( The good news is that I have something else that's fun! CrazEmails! I've created this for three reasons: (1) word harvesting, (2) minor advertising, and (3) it's fun! Wait... whoa, Doug... Back up. What in the world are you talking about? What's a CrazEmail? And, what is "word harvesting"? Well, I'm glad I asked. CrazEmails are like MadLibs that you can fill out and email to a friend, family member, or co-worker. For now, there are six different categories, but I can easily add more later. Now, you can tell your boss why you are out sick in a humorous way (at least, I hope your boss has a sense of humor). And, word harvesting...? Any word or phrase entered for a CrazEmail is preserved in a database. My aim is to use this word database for other, future projects, like randomly generated puzzles. Not just two puzzles per month, but continuous puzzles, randomly generated at any time! No worries, peoples... I do NOT use CrazEmails to collect email addresses, only the words. I hate spam as much as the next person, and will not send out advertisements to the emails used. And, I don't let just anyone send out a CrazEmail. People need to sign into the site to access CrazEmails. This is Stage I. Stage II is to start working on the other online games and puzzles that will use the word database. I'm not completely phasing out the Puzzles of the Month. I still enjoy working on those. But, since I have been working on so many other projects too, I want to give the puzzles the attention they deserve. And, since I feel guilty about missing puzzles more and more, I want to fill that gap with other features. So, the Puzzles of the Month will not be going away, but instead, will probably evolve into something different. | | Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 | | 1:37 pm |
Gravity, Shirts, Arena fighting, and More! (Dupe of UL Blog)
(Note: The following is a duplicate of a Blog entry for the Urban Legions blog) What do these things have to do with each other? Urban Legions, of course! GRAVITY: I have adjusted many of the events that pop up randomly in the game so that the player's approval will gravitate back to zero (0). I realized this when I was ignoring these events testing other things, like the Butter Zombies. My character quickly turned into a super villain. With the approval gravity well, players can now do nothing and result in a neutral character, bordering between hero and villain. SHIRTS!: A CafePress site is now set up with tshirts ( http://www.cafepress.com/urbanlegions). Currently, two styles are available: the UL logo on white/light shirts, and the comic book wanted poster (as used on the website's frontpage) which is used on the darker/colored shirts. CONVERSATIONS: Players are now able to "talk" with various NPCs in the game. Each has a default set of topics, and more topics open as the player learns of different sub-plots. Each player provides their own perspective of a topic, often revealing more details and hints in the game. There are at least five citizens in the game now, with several more on the way. And, at least one of the NPCs is attackable (eventually, you will be able to battle any/all of them). ARENA FIGHTING: Speaking of battles... The Astroland Arena is open for combat. Players can select to fight either a hero or a villain for $100. Conquer your opponent, and you double your money, and maybe a bit of experience on the side. Who are these heroes and villains? Why YOU, of course! The game takes a snapshot of another player's character, and you do battle against a player-as-an-NPC (PlayerNPC). Combat does not negatively affect another player's character, and does not change the course of another player's game. | | Monday, August 3rd, 2009 | | 6:11 am |
Urban Legions - Shirts
I have finally got around to setting up the CafePress site for Urban Legions: http://www.cafepress.com/urbanlegionsTwo styles of tees: the logo, and the logo in comic book form. Speaking of comic books... I had a dream last night in which I was reading a graphic novel by Gary Larson (of "The Far Side" fame). There was one page in which the comic was so funny, I fell down laughing. I laughed so hard, tears were streaming down my face. I remember the comic had a page of different animals with the headline, "Animals of the World Playing Innocent". Then, each box had about two or three animals, one of which would be grinning really big with shifty eyes. And, a bubble of text would point to that animal and say something like, "Oh yeah... That one's guilty." And for some reason, I found this incredibly funny in the dream. But, laughing hysterically at a Gary Larson cartoon (even if it was completely made up) is a great way to start a Monday, don't you think? | | Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | | 6:18 am |
A Plethora of Changes
First, all the puzzles should now be free. I thought I toggled a bit to make them free earlier, but visitors still needed to log in to view the puzzles. Now, the puzzles are free and viewable without the need to log in to the site. Submitting answers requires a log in. Second, I've managed to implement the puzzle rating system for the Puzzles of the Month. Now, people can log in and rate any of the puzzles on difficulty and enjoyment. Third, still doing a lot of changes and content updates with Urban Legions. Lately, I have been making it to where players can "talk" with various NPCs. This offers a little more guidance to the game and more background detail to the plot(s). Fourth, I'm setting up a Wiki page for Pegamoose Games (coming soon). Mainly, this will be used for Urban Legions as a pseudo guide to the game (similar to ColdFront's wiki for Kingdom of Loathing). But, I also plan on using it for Pegamoose Games to detail other products and features. And, in other news, the Austin Summer Musical for Children will be starting performances this weekend and next. This year's show is Pinocchio. I think this show is going to be incredible. Me and the other script committee members wrote a very tight, very fun script. The cast is great. Terry and her crew did an amazing job on props this year. I've been to rehearsals, but I can't wait to take the kids to see the actual performance. And, in other, other news... I've put together a spreadsheet to track the various projects that I am working on and (approximately) how much time I'm spending on each. I've created different categories (puzzle, games, urban legions, etc.). When I complete so many tasks for each category, I plan on rewarding myself with something. | | Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | | 5:40 am |
Urban Legions Blog, Auto-Notify, etc.
Phil and I have created a Live Journal Urban Legions blog. This is for various behind-the-scenes discussions about our game. Some of our thoughts on why we designed things the way they are, etc.. There are only a couple of entries. It's a start. In other news... I changed the auto-notify for the Puzzles of the Month. It's something I've meant to do for a while, but just got around to doing. Before, it would send out notifications on the 1st and 15th regardless if there was a puzzle available those days or not. Now, it pings the DB, queries to see if a new puzzle is available that day, then sends out notice. Less need to send out the "Oops... Just kidding" emails. (what is the emoticon for an embarrassed grimace?) In other, other news... We are gearing up for this year's summer musical. This year, we are doing Pinocchio. Should be a lot of fun. The cast at cast call did an amazing first read through. I can't wait to see the envisioning of our script. | | Friday, April 17th, 2009 | | 5:16 am |
Reviews of Urban Legions
Every once in a while, I Google myself just to see what's Out There. When I Googled about Urban Legions, I came across a couple of reviews. There are a few negative bits, but overall it's positive. But, hey... Any publicity is good publicity, right? Pissy Little Sausages' ReviewImpulse Gamer ReviewAnd, on one of the forums I've mentioned our game, one commenter said, "I am tired of big companies spending tons of money making great titles bland. Poor zork. I knew of kol, but not of twilight and urban legions. Now I am getting addicted to ul." W00t! Yea us! In other news, we're still looking for artists willing to donate some artwork for Urban Legions. I've been in contact with a few, and need to follow up. | | Saturday, April 4th, 2009 | | 5:51 am |
Game Comparisons
I posted this on Slashdot and Rock-Paper-Shotgun, but I thought it was worth mentioning here, too... First off... I enjoy various kinds of text games from the early Infocom games, to the King's Quests, to the Monkey Islands, and event a Zork or two. Yes, Legends of Zork took elements from the world of Zork, but it lacks challenge. In the text games, I like trying everything under the sun to try to get that one step further in the game, even if that meant starting over a million times. It was part of the challenge, part of the fun. This... I found very frustrating. It's like the game is so incredibly dumbed down that it's like a slightly interactive advertisement for something I don't want to buy into. Games like Kingdom of Loathing and Twilight Heroes, are what lit a fire under me to create my own, Urban Legions. Kingdom of Loathing is incredible. Since the day I stumbled upon it via Wikipedia (looking up "Trifids" of all things), I have been hooked and play it practically every day since. I love the sense of humor. I love collecting all the crazy items. After ascending about 8+ times, the quests are getting a little tedious. But, they add new content, which makes me want to play it even more. I haven't even broken into the Hobopolis or PvP sides of the game, and it's kept me entertained for 2.5+ years. Twilight Heroes... I played for a while. Then, I got stuck on one of the quests. After a while, it got repetitive and I dropped it (mostly). I go back every once in a while. It's not a bad game. It's as easy to pick up as KoL. It's got a good sense of humor, and I've enjoyed playing it. Yet, it lacks something (for me, at least) to want to keep playing it. Maybe they've found that certain something that I lacked, and maybe I should pick it up again. Urban Legions... Why did I create this game? Because I told my friend about KoL, how much fun it was, and we both agreed it was something we should try doing ourselves. During the creation of the game, we broke away from several traditions, but kept various elements we enjoy from playing other games. One of the things we broke away from is character creation. All characters start the same except for their names. You enter a name and an alias, and you're off and running. Stats? We limit it to Brains and Brawn. I mean seriously... How often do you roll for Constitution while playing D&D? We also wanted the game to play differently. The world is very much open ended. There is an over-arching plot that we continuously add to, but there are various side quests along the way. We are light years behind KoL in the amount of content, but of what we already have, we are already building a community of people who play on a regular basis and crave more (By the way... We love you guys and gals!). Like the others, KoL, TH, and LoZ, we provide a few turns per day with the options to subscribe for more turns per day or to buy a big block of turns that you can slowly whittle away. Sure, he and I would love to make enough money from this to one day quit our day jobs and focus solely on this and a few other projects up our sleeves, but the enjoyment we have of creating something that we are most proud of and trying to constantly out-do ourselves is also so incredibly rewarding. So, back to Legends of Zork... As I said, I enjoy playing these kinds of game, if not for seeing "what not to do". One of the first things that irked me is the combat. I can't control what my character does in regards to combat, so why even go through the motions of creating a character? The next thing that bugged me... I went to my inventory to see what I thought I gained, but didn't. To get back into the game, the only way I could figure out was to go back to the map and into the location I was just at. This took another couple of action points to do. Seriously?! It takes an action point if I want to view my character and click ONE LOCATION on the map?! Are you fbleeping serious?! That right there should have been caught during beta. I can see "Exploring the Area" as one action point, and maybe healing at home, but picking which area you want to explore, especially when there is no easy way to go from your inventory back to where you just were?! After that, I decided to call it a day. I think I still have about 22 of my 30 Action Points left. Anybody else want them? Anyone? If ya'll know of who else is out there in the world of browser-based games such as these, drop me a line. I'd love to check out the "competition". And, if ya'll would like to try Urban Legions, I'd also love to hear what you have to say aboot our game, both the good and the scathing. | | Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | | 9:40 pm |
| | Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 | | 10:26 pm |
Can't Puzzle... Clown'll eat me!
Okay. Maybe not clowns. And, maybe not eating. Except for the rabid fans. (Doug... What rabid fans? What are you on about?) I have not created a puzzle for tomorrow's Puzzles of the Month. My attention has been focused heavily on Urban Legions. Except for when I'm at my day job. But, even then, I think about UL often. I have been telling the world about our game, and the world is responding. Since I've actively been sending out press releases and invites to play the game, we get a new member or two daily, a few of which have jumped on the Subscriptions wagon. The feedback we get is still very positive. And, we have a few loyals out there who play daily. The site's hits had one big spike and now a gentle climbing slope. So, not to say the puzzles aren't important, but UL is all sorts of exciting. So, as I work on filling the city of Macropolis with even more content, I will be better about stopping to smell the puzzles... Er... Craft the puzzles. | | Thursday, January 1st, 2009 | | 2:34 pm |
Can you Digg it?
I am trying to get a Digg-A-Thon going for anyone willing to help me out. I submitted Urban Legions to Digg in hopes of boosting interest: http://digg.com/playable_web_games/Urban_Legions_ReleasedI submitted to a handful of sites the day after Christmas, and our membership has more than doubled. In two days alone, we gained over 50 new players! Can I get a Double-U, Double-Zero, T? (W00t!) And, if you can't (or won't) Digg it, maybe you could help blog about it. In other news... It sounded like Julie and friends had a good New Year's Eve. I ended the year sick in bed with Cedar Fever! Ugh! So, now that I got that out of the way, I'll be healthy for the rest of the year. Right? A few people have asked what my resolutions for '09 will be. Honestly, I haven't given it too much thought, but... (1) We still need to clean up/out the garage. (2) I'd like to see at least 100 subscribers to Urban Legions. (3) And, I've told one person that I'm threatening to be as eccentric as legally and financially possible! Happy New Year everybody! | | Monday, December 1st, 2008 | | 5:14 am |
Show me the puzzles!
Sorry for the delay and confusion. Those that have memberships got the automated message that sends out on the 1st and 15th. No puzzles. I was away for the holiday at my uncle's farm where I did not have a network connection. I did have tons of good food! But, that doesn't really count, does it? The person who had the password to the wireless network, must have been the only person with the password, because everyone else who tried it failed miserably. There are a few puzzles, and I will submit them to the site by Friday, Dec. 5. Please stand by! Meanwhile... To sum up my Thanksgiving holiday: * We had more pie leftovers than turkey leftovers. And, I was told there were two turkeys. * More s'mores, Moores? * We never found Santa Claus in Comfort, TX, but we did find a dinosaur and a tie-dyed hat. * Lucy also got lost, and Charlie Brown misses her so. * Until this weekend, I've never met a vegetarian hunter. * Barbara is a Bucket of Chicken. * If Elvis ever goes up in flames, we know who to blames... Jenny!* And, there was much too much exciting underwear roaming about. Knit Knots would definitely not approve. There... That should be cryptic enough to keep you busy until the puzzles are ready. | | Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 | | 5:58 am |
Urban Legions - Beta Testing
Over the first week of open beta testing, we've had dozens of people sign up and start to play. A few people reported some bugs, which we are working through or have already fixed. For content, I am regularly adding new content daily. In this kind of game, that's sometimes hard to tell, because it is so random. However, I am nearly at the point of completing what I consider the first chapter of events (i.e. the first series of plot-related quests). One of the quests in this series diverges onto two paths, but both end at the same checkpoint. Out of the many people who have played Urban Legions, we have received positive feedback. Other than the few bugs reported, we have heard minimal negative feedback. One person said there are too many words, which, all I can do is shrug, since this is a heavily-worded game. But! this leads me to believe that: (a) if they can't say anything nice, they aren't saying anything at all, (b) our game is so awesome they are speechless, or (c) they are too shy and/or lazy to drop a quick email. Since there are several people who have come back on semi-regular basis to play a bit each session, I have a hard time believing it is "a", so I'm lead to believe "b" or "c". To give people a heads up, we currently have blocks of 999 turns a day available to beta testers. We will be switching this down to a much lower value soon as we get closer to release. And, for those of you who have provided some awesome feedback and bug reporting, we are discussing what we can offer as a regalo de muchos gracias (a.k.a. a "Gift of Many Thanks"). Happy gaming all! And, try not to stuff yourselves more than the turkey, okay? | | Sunday, November 9th, 2008 | | 7:01 am |
Urban Legions goes Beta!
Woo hoo! We've conquered a huge milestone! Last night, the online game I've been working on over the last couple of years has finally taken that leap of faith into the public Beta. Phil and I still have an enormous laundry list of features and content we would like to add. I have all sorts of plans for new events, puzzles, and plot-lines. As the game is in beta, there will be ongoing, periodic updates to content. It won't be until the game is no-longer in beta that there will be regular content release cycles. If you'd like to help beta test Urban Legions and provide us with valuable feedback, you can play the game here: www.urbanlegions.net Seating for the beta may be limited, so join early, play often! | | Thursday, October 16th, 2008 | | 9:10 am |
Wonderful
I just sent a snippet of this to my friend, but I thought I'd share it on the blog... I'm sending email and working on my game while staring out the window at the Pacific Ocean. The moon is setting in front of me, while the sun is coming up from the hills in back of me. In the distance, I can hear commuter traffic, and occasionally a wave crash upon the shore. And, last night, we could see the space station blinking in the sky over the water. This is really cool. Meanwhile... I think about my kids who are half a continent away and how they are driving my parents crazy as they send them off to school and daycare for the day. |
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