Snappy Game in Processing

I've been working on a new version of the Snappy Game in Processing. It took me only 2 days to write. Most of the time was spent editing the photographs. My neice got married recently so I did a snappy game with pictures from the wedding.
One of the many advantages of Processing is that I can write the same code and have it run as an applet or an application. Applications can be set up to run in presentation mode or in their own sized window. I used the minim library for the sound, as it is really easy to use.
When the player completes the game I have it displaying the lyrics and playing the song that was played at the wedding service. Photos of the wedding are displayed on each page and I added a randomized tint to each one. This makes the photos look different each time it is run.
If I made this service available to users, I would need to decide whether to deliver the game as an applet or an application. I kept the size of the files down by converting the photos to PNGs and making them small but the final size is still over 10MB. If the game was delivered as an applet it might take a few minutes to load and some users experience java problems running the applets. I will likely test the load time this week sometime...
The standalone version loads very quickly and has less Java problems but set up is more complicated. The user would have to extract the folder from a zip file and double click the application icon.
If I set this up as a service I would need to find a way of letting the customer send me the photos. This would need to be done by email or file upload. It takes a while to edit the images and choice of music could cause copyright problems, I'm not sure how payment for a file in a one customer game works.
The game could be set up for any event such as a wedding, party or a baby's first birthday.
I think 25 pounds would be a fair price for the work involved, If anyone would like try out the service please contact me and we could work on it. :)

To Update or not....

I suppose all developers have experienced the awful sinking feeling that occurs when you change something simple and later realise that its caused a serious error. This happened to me recently and had me working a full day trying to trace the error. Using Java Webstart has made delivery to the user much easier but, if you are not extremely careful, when compiling and signing the jar files, it can be quite difficult to find out the cause.
The great folks at Scottish games gave Solundria a mention, so it is possible someone might actually try the game. I have a newer version with some slight improvements but I'm wary of uploading in case I bring everything down again.
I think I'll postpone updating until am uk time. This shouldn't interfere with visitors, but if there is a problem, I may be up half the night again.....

Solundria in 38Minutes

School For Startups

Joining online communities has always seemed a bit of a waste of time for me. You submit your personal details and then get inundated with spam, offering to sell you a host of services you would not touch with a barge pole.
I received an email from Scottish Games which led to an article on the school for start ups workshop and the 38Minutes web site.
Scottish Games
The 38Minutes web site was accepting members from digital media companies and seeing as I could sorta say I was in this category, I signed up.
I felt in a way like a trespasser as although I work full time writing software, I am not really a company and my Java RPG game Solundria could not really be described as cutting edge.
Solundria Web Site
Anyway when I heard that 38Minutes were accepting applications for free places at the School for Start ups I half heartedly applied, and didnt expect to hear much more about it.
I updated the game and managed to totally crash web start so the game wouldnt work, 'typical', I thought. I was really pleased to get an acceptance letter, and I'm looking foeward to the boot camp!
This is the first education I will receive from the point of view of running a business. I sometimes think I spend far too much time coding to ever make any money from it. Hopefully, the wokshop will give me more insight into how to actually earn some money for the effort I'm putting into the game. They may, of course say its not worth the effort, but coding the game gives me a reason for getting up in the morning, so I'd probably continue with it anyway.
I'd like to say thanks to 38Minutes for enabling me to go to this interesting event!
I'll try to keep this blog up to date at least weekly and let everyone know what is happening in the world of Solundria.
Rosie Wood