what's new?

So, it's actually been a while huh?

I just participated in the 2009 MCM, Last year, we got Honorable Mention, btw. This year, we got Meritorious, which means our paper was in the top 16%. Not bad I guess.

The problem we did was designing a traffic circle, it was actually pretty cool. If anyone cares, I would update this blog with the source and paper and stuff.

This year I had the opportunity to participate in the MCM. Starting from Thursday the 14th at 8PM to Monday the 18th at 8PM, me and two other people spent almost every waking moment figuring out how to generate Sudoku puzzles of varying difficulties. Sound like fun? It was, except for having to come back to reality (i.e. tons of calculus homework).

I don't feel things ended up that good. But I also didn't feel good going into it. One of the math professors talked me into it, because they desperately need programmers. The problem is that I'm just a freshman, and only in calc 2, not exactly ready for something like this. Though it's not like the programming involved would be out of my range, I was just unsure of how much I could do in a limited time.

Now for the most part, you can model everything without a computer, but it makes taking a thousand samples of data a lot easier if you have a simulation on the computer. As the "programmer," I dived into the code right away. But as I think about it now, I should have spent a lot more time working the problem out mentally. On Monday morning, while my teammates were in their analysis class, I had finished all the coding I was going to do, and they had the current version of our paper. So I starting thinking, and I came up with some new ideas. Ideas that were really great, but unfortunately we were way too close to the deadline to start implementing anything.

It's because of this that I feel that we did a horrible job on the project. I'm sure it's not that bad, but I'm also sure it's not great.

Anyways, for those who are curious, I have a pdf of the paper and the Java source code here:
http://timegames.net/2008MCM/

Just before Christmas I struck a deal with the admin at ArcadeBomb.com. We came to an agreement that was composed of two parts:

1) He would pay me $150 up front.
2) He would be in contact with me in a few weeks to give suggestions on how to improve the game, then we could work out logo placement and so on.

We got number one done. But its been more than a month and two has never even begun. I really don't know if I should just send the $150 back and try to just release it with my own logo and redirect traffic back to my sight, or what. So this is a delay to the initial release of the game.

But, in other good news, I am making (slow) progress. Some turrets now visually display that they are firing. And, as always, there has been a lot time spent reworking/organizing the basic "engine." Actually it's not truly an engine, but the more time I spend "reworking/organizing," the closer it gets.

For more information, check the blog. Remember to subscribe to the RSS feed to keep informed (the orange icon in the address bar).

http://commodoreproject.blogspot.com/

I've been sending emails out to everyone inquiring about sponsorship for this game. Most sponsors seem to be very busy and/or low on cash. I guess with the holidays and contests running they aren't really interested in sponsoring games.

I'm looking for someone to give me just about anything right now. I need some money upfront and quick. Then I'm hoping to make future games with links back to this site to make ad revenue.

I just finished working on the basic layout of the site. There are still some glitches with the blog layout, but I'll work on that later. Tell me what you think and I'll take that into suggestion when I work on it next. Right now, though, I got bigger fish to fry.

In other news, Desert Outpost Defense is completely done, and only waiting on a sponsor. Working with these sponsors is annoying, especially by email, it's so slow... Anyways, expect to see DOD here real soon.