Plan for Ryan Ackley

Graduation is only 6 months away, and I couldn't be happier. Sure, I'll come out of it with a B.S. in Computer Science, a lot of debt, and many good memories, but i really feel like it's time to move on. At least I get christmas break to really put the spit and polish on my game. I'm so sick of school that lately I've been doing things like playing Doom on my Zaurus during class, skipping class because working at our school's tech services department, taking calls from ignorant professors is more exciting than learning about 3rd normal form in database design. Xavier's recent .plan kind of parallels my own situation (sans me leaving a dev team) and got me thinking about my own direction. Im ready to move on from school, take some time to clear my head, and get back to work.

Ive got a notebook filled with game ideas and the talent to realise them. My darn education is getting in the way :)

Ah well.

After taking sooooo much from the GG community, I've started work on some improvements and additions to TGE that some people have been asking for and talking about for a while. So instead of kicking back and waiting for "someone else", I decided to at least lay the groundwork for some of the brighter people here to do some cool things. I know that I want them in my game, as many other people would too. The game im putting together is still being designed, but I do know a few things that I want, and that is a good starting point (after two years of just "messing around" with TGE and not being too serious). Anyhow, a few of the things I would like to have at least pretending to work over the next month.5:

>Web browser in game - How freaking cool would it be to be able to hit a key, pop up a web browser ingame, check your email or read /. or whatever, and go back to what you were doing in game? Now, not every game would require this, but as I am looking for a more free-form, live your life and steal some cars type game (real original, i know), having a "PDA" that the character carries and be able to brose the net on command sounds sweet, at least to me.

>On top of a browser, a jabber client or something similar would be mega-super sweet, but i havent really even looked into this one at all, so its just a pipe dream for now.

>Ogg Vorbis Player - Would be like "software" on the "PDA" my character is carrying. Really just files on your HDD, but also, how cool would it be to jam to your favorite tunes while playing. Looking for ideas like play list and real easy playback control.

>Other misc. PIM things that a PDA might have, such as ToDo list, which the game would add to as goals, etc, as well as the player be able to check them off and add as they think of things to do within the city.

>A mini-game for the PDA would be hilarious. Remeber System Shock 2 and all the games that came on their PDA? Now I'm dreaming...

Anyhow, a handheld organiser to be used in game would be something that I would at least start work on, see if other people dig the idea, and go from there. The web broswer is my main goal, and come hell or high water, HTML will be delivered to and displayed within TGE.

If you read this far, you must be real interested in my company/game/life/stalking me. In any case, can I have some money now?

Ryan Ackley
JKAP Games