Tis the season to be shit faced!

Merry Christmas everyone! So this would have been our annual Christmas party blog, but unfortunately this year didn't turn out exactly as normal.

(No) Cancer Update

Movie - Osmosis Jones

After my last surgery where they removed my maxillary sinus wall (the wall of bone separating my cheek sinus from my nostril) My body was a little angry about having all that cutting, sawing, and grinding. So when I went in for my checkup, they saw another growth in my cheek sinus. They said that it is probably a nasal polyp from all the inflammation, but then in the next breath told me they were going to put me on some meds and when I come back in three weeks if it is still there I would go for another surgery.

Not going to lie, I was scared. Then they put me on a super high dose of Prednisone, which made me really agitated. I couldn't shut out any form of external stimuli and ever single little thing, I would pick up on it and freak. Someone to drop a spoon and I would want to instantly want to drop kick them. Ugh...it was bad.

Needless to say, after all that wore off and close to a month of marinating my nose in Flonase sprays (which is another steroid) I went in for the checkup being very, eh....nervous. They then puffed a huge cloud of lidocaine into my nose and sinus...oh my god it numbs your throat so you can't feel when you swallow and tastes like what I imagine a camels ear wax tastes like.

Anyhow, I was scared to watch the monitor as they did it, but also had to watch at the same time. It was like being 10 and watching the Texas Chainsaw Massacre for the first time through your fingers.

Then a wave of relief washed over me. All I could see was smooth pinkness everywhere. It was gone! All of it! It was a polyp.... So I don't care if I get anything for Christmas now or forever. That was the best gift ever!!!!

NO MORE CANCER!!!

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I will put together a blog about all the things I did to either kill the cancer, or help kill the cancer that others can try.

Spread the Holiday Cheer With a Side Order of COVID

Scene from Robocop

So, Christmas is here and usually that means it is time for the party. Unfortunately, Chris our producer, and is wife went down to Florida recently to pick up some COVID. They found some and brought it back to share with everyone for Christmas!

Heh heh, actually they are smart enough not do the sharing part, but this makes twice they have went to Florida, and twice they have got COVID... So the lesson here is don't go to Florida without your CDC approved Hazmat suit :D

And so since I have to be careful of germs with my new sinus, we can only look back at Christmas parties of past here at Giggle Horse Games. So here we go!

Drunk People in Ugly Sweaters

It isn't a tradition to exchange gifts at Christmas at Giggle Horse Games, but we needed everyone to be dressed appropriately. We bought everyone stupid Christmas sweaters.

Legos and Beer

After having the majority of this year consumed by medical shit, we decided that we need to have some time off away from everything and to decompress and reflect. Cathy has had some medical issues, and of course I had that 'slight' case of cancer. We really didn't know what to do by ourselves at first, but then decided to do everything for Christmas that we wanted to do as kids, but couldn't afford it. We first had this idea that we could design our own Charles Dickens style village with Lego's app and then order the parts and plans to construct it. Unfortunately Lego doesn't support the ability to build your own sets now. So we found Christmas related buildings and we are going to sit around drinking beer, eggnog with liquor in it, and make a village one building at a time.

We couldn't do this as kids because one, they didn't make super awesome Lego sets like this, and two, they cost as much as a real fucking building! So we bought two Christmas buildings with about 1500 pieces each. Then we had to decide which one Cathy and I would get to build. So of course with two engineers with very advanced levels of mathematics...it took 15 minutes to argue over how the coin flip would work...and then we still couldn't get it right! OMG, if we had to do a fourier transform or a Calculus integral to determine this...we would have spent less time. So here are the two sets we got to start with.

Randy the Pixel Pirate will build this

Princess Cathy will build this

I'll be sure and post images of them when we are done. These are for kids to build so it might take two people with advanced degrees a long time....we will give it a try though.

Add Absolute Zero to Your Wish List!

Also remember, we can't run a game company without the support of our fans, and each one of you is important to us. For reals, not just some politicians tag line. So if you haven't already, go to steam and add Absolute Zero to your wish list. I promise you it is coming along nicely and will be out soon.

~ Until next time! Randy the Pixel Pirate

~ Cancer update at the end

Hey Giggle Horse Fans, as you probably already know, we have been working on a point-n-click adventure game that we hope to release soon. While in game development, one of the less exciting jobs a person might be asked to do, is create marketing assets. Like this nifty button telling you to go add Absolute Zero to your wish list on Steam. So yeah! Go ahead, click the button below, add it to your Wish List, then you can read below how an asset like this button is made.

Herd Your Cats

Given that there are a million things needed to complete a video game, it is important to herd all your cats together so you don't feel overwhelmed. I have tried a bunch of different methods for project organization and tasking. Currently we use a type of Kanban scrum system, but in the end I always take a single task and break that down into a list of subtasks and put those on the black board.

Tasks needed to create my button

3D Model the Button

From the black board above, you can see that the first few things on the list involve creating the 3D frame part of the button, So I use 3DS Max and model the button the way I like. Then I take the 3D model, export it out to another program called Substance Painter where I choose all the materials and actually paint the object the way I want it to look. Before this step, the model is just grey and boring. Once I get it looking like I want, I have Substance Painter export the image maps, or textures back out so I can used them on the model inside 3DS Max. This is a process known as "Baking your textures" (Which is the only thing I know how to bake). Here is what it looks like inside Max with the textures.

3D Button Frame Modeling

Render the Button

Once everything looks the way I want, I render it out first with the Steam logo dark, then with the logo lit. After that I have to render out the shape of the button window so I can create an image mask using that as the transparency shape. I do the next steps in Adobe Photoshop, but first I have to save my window view shape out as a TGA with an alpha channel because Adobe won't let you use the existing alpha of a PNG. So when I render the image in Max, I always turn on 'Alpha Split' in the TGA settings to split the alpha (transparency mask) out to a separate file. Like in this TGA setup. Only you need to check "Alpha Split" still.

TGA File Settings

Create the Button Images

Now that I have an image of the button with the Steam logo off, an image with the Steam logo on, and an alpha mask of the hole where the content of the button will show through I can make my button. I start by putting in the background, in this case the nebula. The view port mask image will be used as a mask to only show the nebula inside the button...everything outside the mask will but transparent. Like below. Then I put the button frame with the logo off in as a separate later. Save that out 'as a copy' so it flattens all the layers into a single image and call that the 'off' state. Then I add the image where the button is lit, and save that as the 'on' state of the button.

PhotoShop Button Construction

Code the Buttons

Next I store the buttons up on the web server in a place where I know they will be no matter where in the world the button is used. So 'images' is a good place. Then all I have to do is use some embedded JavaScript in the link so that when you rollover the button the lit one shows up. When you leave the button, the button will appear off. Here is the rollover code to do this sort of thing.

<img alt="Add To Wishlist!"

onmouseout="this.src='https://www.gigglehorsegames.com/images/steam_az_wishlist_off.png'"

onmouseover="this.src='https://www.gigglehorsegames.com/images/steam_az_wishlist_on.png'" src="https://www.gigglehorsegames.com/images/steam_az_wishlist_off.png" />

</a><br />

</p>

And that is how a simple rollover button is created! Just think how much work it takes to create an entire website for a game. So keep in mind that developing a video game takes a lot of extra work that actually doesn't go into the game itself.

Cancer Free!!!

Ok, now for the important stuff that matters. I went in on Tuesday and they ran an endoscope up my nose and into my sinus cavity under my right eye. They can do this because now my sinus of my cheek and my nostril are all one big room. They removed all the bone separating them. At first, after surgery, another growth formed in there. It scared the hell out of me, but they said they were 99% sure it was a nasal polyp formed from the inflammation of the surgeries I had. In other words, my sinus cavity was pissed off! So they put me on a very high dose of Prednisone and when I came back, all of that was gone and the inside of my nose is now smooth as a baby's butt! I have to go back in February for an MRI and CT to make sure it is staying away, but for now things couldn't have been better!

So until next time, take care people!

Giggle Horse Games Dev Blog

Sunday, December 18, 2022

0003 | Giggle Horse Christmas!