Blog for Andrew Hull at GarageGames.com

XNA and the Indie movement

Andrew Hull — 2006-12-12T04:54:41+00:00

So i just recently got back from the XNA Open House, just down the street from my personal (closed) house. It rocked! I was disappointed in not seeing any of the GarageGames fellas there. Although, i did see Jay Moore, so that almost counts, right?

Any ways. The demonstrations were pretty amazing. I really feel that Microsoft may be doing a good thing here for the "little" guy (Indies), and i think that there is going to be quite a boom in Indie development, especially in the console arena.

Now if only i had an XBOX360.

Finally something to show

Andrew Hull — 2006-11-26T08:25:20+00:00

I've been around these parts for a while, but never really had anything to show. Still don't have much, but I'm finally getting somewhere, albeit slowly.

If you can't tell, it's a frog. In a space suit. A simple project I came up with. Something to do with, possibly, frogs. Frogs in Space. So far just called... Frogs In Space!

Now all i need to do is texture it, and rig it. Oh, and i'm doing this in Blender, so any rigging or texturing advice for that would be much appreciated!

My Endless Frustration

Andrew Hull — 2006-07-17T02:43:50+00:00

So i seem to be running into a problem that always seems to rear its ugly head at the worst times. It's also making me very frustrated. I would appreciate any help with it, whatsoever. I have here an interior that i am working on:

I'm using the upgraded version of 3D World Studio (version 5.49) which has the fixed .MAP export, supposedly. Now i don't know if i'm just doing something wrong in the modelling process, or if i'm getting bad exports, or what. Every time the engine gets to the lighting stage it's craps out. I perhaps thought that it was the amount of detail that is currently in the scene, but i really don't think that's the problem. ARGH!

Oh Venerable Lords of Garage Games, please finish Constructor soon. I hope that it will be the answer to all my woes!

If any one would like to (PLEASE) download and try exporting the map themselves, here is the link: www.macandtosh.com/House.zip

Wildlife Tycoon: Inspiration

Andrew Hull — 2006-07-02T05:40:50+00:00

First of all, NO, i am not making a Tycoon game. I saw the boxed version of Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa in a GameStop at our local mall the other day, and it gave me a flit of inspiration to really get back to work on my project.

Having also read through (well, actually skimmed) most of Jeff Tunnell's blog on Making It Big in Games, I've really taken his advice to heart. Being in the life situation that I'm in, i have most of it down already. I've got my flexible, easy, 9-2pm day job, and i have tons of free time. With no rent, i can spend as much or as little on the development of things. It's still a bit hard being only a two man team, with the other man not knowing a thing about technology in general.

Well, i'm getting back to work on my project. Which brings me to a question that i should probably post in the forums, but: I'm having trouble with using map2dif. If ANYONE can tell me their setup, i'd really appreciate it.