Notes from the abyss

Absentee bloggers are no fun. They entice you with a stream of regular posts and then disappear for weeks at a time, offering not a peep. When they do return it's just to supply excuses about a busy schedule or an obsession with the latest big game or to post frivolous items like creatures of the week.

Well, I'll not become an absentee (denial is an ugly thing). I have no excuses. But, for those few loyal readers who still stop by from time to time, here's a little update on my activities.

In short, I've been scattered, lacking focus. When I started writing this blog, I was working steadily on a single, massive, impractical project. Then I decided to turn my attention to SPUDZOOKA, and still I was focused. After releasing SPUDZOOKA, though, I haven't been able to settle on anything. I still work on things, a little here, a little there. But three things have primarily held my attention the last few months:

• A new game. No specifics yet, but I've been working on a concept for a new game quite a bit different than SPUDZOOKA, one that will focus more on story and character and, I hope, have a wider appeal (not that potato cannons aren't universally entertaining). The difficulty so far is that story and character are tricky to develop and, while I think the concept and setting are good, I haven't been able to find the game in it. People might explore for a while, but what would compel them through the story?
• A web site concept. I had an idea for a web site recently that I've been exploring, which means reading a lot about databases, php, and xml, and then tinkering with them to see if I've got the programming chops to make this idea happen.
• Procedural terrain generation. Huh? I don't know where this stuff comes from, but I got it in my head that I would try to see if I could generate an application in Unity that would dynamically generate and display an endless terrain. The usefulness of something like that is maybe a little suspect, but it could spin off into some interesting applications. Unity's terrain system is a little limited right now, for example, so something like this could help people generate more realistic terrains and link them together to create truly massive worlds. Even just linking sections of terrain terrain together is something that could be useful right off the bat, particularly in, I don't know, an RPG. I hit a few tricky parts, but I did manage to create a randomly generated terrain that loops forever. Check it out (it may take a few seconds to compute).

So, I've been working, just not on a single project. Once I settle, I'm sure regular posting will resume. For now, don't forget to check back for the next creature of the week.

Edit: I fixed the bug that people were seeing in the web player and put a new file at the same location.