DMFirmy.com

I admit it... I am something of a perfectionist when it comes to my designs. This means that not only do I want my applications to run correctly, but I want them to run efficiently and to be built using the best and most current techniques available to me. As an example, I chose to use WPF as the platform on which to build my game editor over a more traditional WinForms interface (which every tutorial and learning aid I could find used) even though I do not have a very keen sense of visual design.

Since about Christmas time I have been putting in work off-and-on on a new game for Windows Phone devices, and already I have posted about the various issues I have been encountering and some of the solutions that I have been implementing to get around them. I have the tendency to add to the complexity of my projects by getting sidetracked by some new idea that pops into my mind that I try and incorporate into my design, and often these changes distract me from the main goal of my project.

Over the past month or so I have found myself doing a lot more reading than I have done coding, and I figure that it is just about time for me to get back in gear and continue working on my new game design. Over the course of March I wound up adding somewhere around a dozen new books to my library of programming material, most of which deal directly with C#, XNA, and Windows Presentation Foundation, and I have been reading through them in depth with every spare moment I can manage.

Usually I am the type of guy that likes to spend as much of his free time tinkering with some new code as possible, and for the last couple of months the majority of that time has been spent working on my XNA game for Window Phone devices. In my first couple of weeks at work on the project I had put together a rather solid 2D Tile Based game engine this is both fast and flexible, but having to build the data files for each location by hand would be quite a large task and it became clear that I would be well served to create some level design tools as well to go along with my game engine.

I can't believe that an entire month has passed since I first posted that I was working on a new tile based game engine for XNA. Since then I have not been able to put a lot of focus into anything else (hence my long silence), and I have been working on my design in just about every spare minute I can find. Last night before bed I submitted my most recent changes to my local Subversion repository, and surprisingly enough I am already on my 37’Th revision to my GameEngine project.

On Jan 24th, Congress will vote to pass internet censorship in the Senate, even though the vast majority of Americans are opposed. We need to kill the bill - PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the House - to protect our rights to free speech, privacy, and prosperity. We need internet companies to follow Reddit's lead and stand up for the web, as we internet users are doing every day.

In protest of these two bills, this site will be joining the STRIKE, coming offline from between 8am and 8pm on January 18, 2012. Keep the internet free!

I have been doing a lot of work with the Microsoft XNA Game Framework lately, thanks to a renewed interest recently in Game Development. Having converted my DiceMachine program recently to C# from the the Visual Basic it was originally written in (and making a few minor improvements in the process) I started investigating into a realm of programming I have always been a bit scared to tread... the realm of graphics.

Anyone who knows me even a little will be able to tell you that I love computers, and I love Dungeons & Dragons. I doubt seriously that someone could spend 5 minutes on this website without figuring that out as well. Programming computers and playing Dungeons & Dragons both give me a unique type of satisfaction because I am able to create something in my imagination and watch it come to life in the world.

I recently got myself an early Christmas present of sorts and picked up a new HTC Radar 4g, and I have to say that I am pretty damn impressed with the new Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" operating system. I have used many smartphones over the years, being a tech-geek like I am I have always tried to have the fanciest smart-phone or PDA I could afford.

Lately I have been having a hard time getting myself really motivated on any of my running projects, such as trying to polish up a release version of Adventures in Text or adding some improved styles to this website. I am not quite sure what has kept me from retaining my usual sense of focus on a project; usually once I sit down to tinker with something it will be hours before I even notice the time passing.