Monday, April 26, 2010
ToJAM 5... and sleep
Hello guys! Today it's Monday, April 26th. First, happy birthday to Duy!
Anyway, so last weekend (April 23rd to 25th) was our annual ToJAM weekend. It's usually held in the first weekend of May, but I guess things shifted around this time and it was last weekend instead of the weekend after this. Unfortunately, Isaque was on semi-vacation this time (he was still in 'ssauga until today or tomorrow), so he couldn't make it. Family, packing, preparations, and Monster Hunter Tri kept him from joining in on the event, even as a visitor.
So, we had to find an extra person, cuz if it was just me and Duy, it would've been sorta meh. Jia was in town, but like Isaque, Monster Hunter Tri kept him away from the event; actually, we didn't see him at all the whole week, cuz of Monster Hunter Tri. Anyway, long story short, I've been inviting Ricky to an unusually high number of events lately, mostly with UVSA (and he's not even Vietnamese), so we invited him to this one, and he came.
Anyway, I'm not going to discuss the minute details at ToJam. I'm not going to tell you "at 1:57 am, I discovered why the sprite animation wasn't working." I don't think any of you would want to read that. Overall... great event. This time, instead of being held at (place of ToJam 2007) or at Innovations Canada (place of ToJam 2008 and 2009), we were at the beautiful Autodesk building at George Brown. Sweet desks, lights, computers, kitchen, bathrooms, floors... no mice in the stairwell, no questionable looking bathrooms... everything was great.
They even let us use the George Brown computers, which were wonderful. I used my laptop, Duy used his desktop, and I got a laptop for Ricky to use from the office but it was pretty bad, so after the first hour of hapless stress testing of the laptop, Ricky switched over to a George Brown computer. It was like, an Apple computer with Windows 7, with 12 gigs of RAM (OMG), beautiful 24 inch widescreen apple monitor, and the entire Adobe CS4 Suite, including Flash, Photoshop, and Premiere. So then Ricky downloaded GIMP and started working away.
On top of the great facilities of George Brown, we had a lot of sponsors this year (I say we, as if I owned a part of ToJam), that provided us with free food! There was free (limited amount) of candy, chocolate, and soda, and then this dude made us free cheese tarts, and Saturday morning this dude brought in free bagels and cream cheese for everyone (I had blueberry bagel + smoked salmon cream cheese)... Saturday evening, it was a big Chinese Buffet sort of deal. Sunday evening was Free Pizza, so it was amazing.
(Aside: I just thought of a pun - Lox, Stocks, and two Smoking Bagels; not sure what to do with Stocks)
We brought waay too many snacks... I think a bit more than last time, although last time we had 5 people and this year 3. But alas, no biggie. For other foods, I had a chicken shwarma for dinner (from Pita Land, a few minutes from the building), a 6-inch meatball sub from Subway for breakfast... skipped lunch that day... a breakfast sub from Subway on Sunday... and now I totally forgot what we had for lunch on Sunday. Probably skipped it too.
For the first 3 ToJams I attended, Isaque always started the game idea first and we went along with it. Last year, on the programming side (my side), it was sorta brutal because I programmed the vast majority of the framework on Friday night, and then for all of Saturday and half of Sunday I didn't have that much to program. All the hard parts came Sunday night when we decided what the bosses would do.
So this time around, we first brainstormed ideas about a week in advance of ToJam, and after some discussion, we came up with a good idea, but two ways to implement it... In the end, my idea won because of the time restrictions we had... and boy, this time, I had sooo much programming to do. But it was okay =) Although we didn't get to 100% finish the game, or get to 100% bug-free, or get to 100% cutscenes, or get to 1% sounds/music, it still ended up pretty great.
Our game idea? A sort of, ToJAM Simulator. The idea was that the player's task would be to make a game, specifically, this very ToJam game. So they are making the game they are playing right now. Well, that was the loose idea, and much of it was still intact but we had other things here and there... umm.. long story short... It's cool.
Anyway, most other games, we don't touch after the Jam, but this game, yeah, we'll touch it... it still needs to be done, and it can still get so much more awesome. There's a ToJam arcade (since 2008) that is held a few weeks after the event at a bar, open to the public, which will showcase each and every game made at ToJam + their improvements, over many computers and projectors. It's awesome. Unfotunately this year, I think Duy and I will be in Texas at the time... oh well. Some of you guys can go in our stead.
At the end of the JAM, a lot of games were made, a lot of games were left unfinished, and a lot of the games were fun. We met some cool people (like every year), and some guy even gave us some free t-shirts. Oh, there was a raffle, and Ricky won a Fujitsu Shirt! We packed our stuff, and I think I forgot to pack a bowl and a fork.. not sure where those went. Anyway, we packed our stuff, and we got our car (from a very questionable parking lot, where the attendant wasn't around, so you put money in an envelope and slip it into his mailbox...) and where off on our merry way home.
I think that's it... oh wait. It's about 3:00pm now on Monday morning. Why am I blogging instead of being at work? Some of you already know ;) ... so at ToJam 2009, I think I remember telling people, that over those past 3 days, I've had about 8 hours of sleep. This year, I kept a little sleep journal. According to what I wrote down and what I remember:
Friday Night over to Saturday Morning:
3:45 - 5:15 - fading in and out of consciousness
5:15 - 6:45 - pretty good, yet intermittent sleep
6:45 - 7:15 - usual, stay awake in bed
7:15 - 7:30 - powernap, sorta
7:30 - the sad realization that no more good can come from this sleep.
will crash later.
7:44am - now. Artists are still sleeping, but I have no idea where.
Saturday Night over to Sunday Morning:
OKAY. as far as I remember:
4:34 - last time I looked at my watch. As far as I know, because I didn't brush teeth and/or otherwise washup, I was sleeping within 10 minutes. None of this tumbly cold whatever stuff.
And then at roughly 6:26, there was massive clapping around Randy. So my brain tried to figure out what's going on; someone solve a bug? is the jam over? turns out, someone solved a bug, and that woke me up.
So from 3:45 - 7:30 is 3 hours and 45 minutes, and from 4:34 - 6:26 is 1 hour 52 minutes, so this weekend I had roughly 5 hours and 37 minutes of sleep. Wheeee....
So, after coming home from the JAM, getting home at midnight, went to bed at 12:30am. But first, I noticed I haven't taken off my socks the entire weekend. Everything is fine now, but let's just say I should remember to take them off next ToJAM. Anyway, from 12:30am, I woke up at 8:14, because I was a bit cold. After laying in bed for a while, I ended up falling asleep again, and then eventually I would wake up again. I noticed the 8, 1, and 4 from 8:14 have rearranged themselves to 1:48. So I've been in bed for about 13.25 hours. Interesting. Anyway, I didn't want the 1, 4, and 8 to rearrange themselves again so I got up.
Which brings us to now.
And soon, a bowl of the best ice cream at the best price. Not sure if the sale is still on, but can't go wrong with $6.29 ice cream that's reduced to $1.97. Or maybe you CAN go wrong with it. But I digress.
:: edit :: - Okay, so after having had some ice cream, talking to Vinh, playing with the cat, and replaying our game, I waited for the numbers to rearrange themselves to 4:18 and I went back to bed, but instead of sleeping I just closed my eyes and laid there. Then after a while I checked the time, waited a few minutes, and got up at (1+4):48, or 4:108 :)
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Anyway, so last weekend (April 23rd to 25th) was our annual ToJAM weekend. It's usually held in the first weekend of May, but I guess things shifted around this time and it was last weekend instead of the weekend after this. Unfortunately, Isaque was on semi-vacation this time (he was still in 'ssauga until today or tomorrow), so he couldn't make it. Family, packing, preparations, and Monster Hunter Tri kept him from joining in on the event, even as a visitor.
So, we had to find an extra person, cuz if it was just me and Duy, it would've been sorta meh. Jia was in town, but like Isaque, Monster Hunter Tri kept him away from the event; actually, we didn't see him at all the whole week, cuz of Monster Hunter Tri. Anyway, long story short, I've been inviting Ricky to an unusually high number of events lately, mostly with UVSA (and he's not even Vietnamese), so we invited him to this one, and he came.
Anyway, I'm not going to discuss the minute details at ToJam. I'm not going to tell you "at 1:57 am, I discovered why the sprite animation wasn't working." I don't think any of you would want to read that. Overall... great event. This time, instead of being held at (place of ToJam 2007) or at Innovations Canada (place of ToJam 2008 and 2009), we were at the beautiful Autodesk building at George Brown. Sweet desks, lights, computers, kitchen, bathrooms, floors... no mice in the stairwell, no questionable looking bathrooms... everything was great.
They even let us use the George Brown computers, which were wonderful. I used my laptop, Duy used his desktop, and I got a laptop for Ricky to use from the office but it was pretty bad, so after the first hour of hapless stress testing of the laptop, Ricky switched over to a George Brown computer. It was like, an Apple computer with Windows 7, with 12 gigs of RAM (OMG), beautiful 24 inch widescreen apple monitor, and the entire Adobe CS4 Suite, including Flash, Photoshop, and Premiere. So then Ricky downloaded GIMP and started working away.
On top of the great facilities of George Brown, we had a lot of sponsors this year (I say we, as if I owned a part of ToJam), that provided us with free food! There was free (limited amount) of candy, chocolate, and soda, and then this dude made us free cheese tarts, and Saturday morning this dude brought in free bagels and cream cheese for everyone (I had blueberry bagel + smoked salmon cream cheese)... Saturday evening, it was a big Chinese Buffet sort of deal. Sunday evening was Free Pizza, so it was amazing.
(Aside: I just thought of a pun - Lox, Stocks, and two Smoking Bagels; not sure what to do with Stocks)
We brought waay too many snacks... I think a bit more than last time, although last time we had 5 people and this year 3. But alas, no biggie. For other foods, I had a chicken shwarma for dinner (from Pita Land, a few minutes from the building), a 6-inch meatball sub from Subway for breakfast... skipped lunch that day... a breakfast sub from Subway on Sunday... and now I totally forgot what we had for lunch on Sunday. Probably skipped it too.
For the first 3 ToJams I attended, Isaque always started the game idea first and we went along with it. Last year, on the programming side (my side), it was sorta brutal because I programmed the vast majority of the framework on Friday night, and then for all of Saturday and half of Sunday I didn't have that much to program. All the hard parts came Sunday night when we decided what the bosses would do.
So this time around, we first brainstormed ideas about a week in advance of ToJam, and after some discussion, we came up with a good idea, but two ways to implement it... In the end, my idea won because of the time restrictions we had... and boy, this time, I had sooo much programming to do. But it was okay =) Although we didn't get to 100% finish the game, or get to 100% bug-free, or get to 100% cutscenes, or get to 1% sounds/music, it still ended up pretty great.
Our game idea? A sort of, ToJAM Simulator. The idea was that the player's task would be to make a game, specifically, this very ToJam game. So they are making the game they are playing right now. Well, that was the loose idea, and much of it was still intact but we had other things here and there... umm.. long story short... It's cool.
Anyway, most other games, we don't touch after the Jam, but this game, yeah, we'll touch it... it still needs to be done, and it can still get so much more awesome. There's a ToJam arcade (since 2008) that is held a few weeks after the event at a bar, open to the public, which will showcase each and every game made at ToJam + their improvements, over many computers and projectors. It's awesome. Unfotunately this year, I think Duy and I will be in Texas at the time... oh well. Some of you guys can go in our stead.
At the end of the JAM, a lot of games were made, a lot of games were left unfinished, and a lot of the games were fun. We met some cool people (like every year), and some guy even gave us some free t-shirts. Oh, there was a raffle, and Ricky won a Fujitsu Shirt! We packed our stuff, and I think I forgot to pack a bowl and a fork.. not sure where those went. Anyway, we packed our stuff, and we got our car (from a very questionable parking lot, where the attendant wasn't around, so you put money in an envelope and slip it into his mailbox...) and where off on our merry way home.
I think that's it... oh wait. It's about 3:00pm now on Monday morning. Why am I blogging instead of being at work? Some of you already know ;) ... so at ToJam 2009, I think I remember telling people, that over those past 3 days, I've had about 8 hours of sleep. This year, I kept a little sleep journal. According to what I wrote down and what I remember:
Friday Night over to Saturday Morning:
3:45 - 5:15 - fading in and out of consciousness
5:15 - 6:45 - pretty good, yet intermittent sleep
6:45 - 7:15 - usual, stay awake in bed
7:15 - 7:30 - powernap, sorta
7:30 - the sad realization that no more good can come from this sleep.
will crash later.
7:44am - now. Artists are still sleeping, but I have no idea where.
Saturday Night over to Sunday Morning:
OKAY. as far as I remember:
4:34 - last time I looked at my watch. As far as I know, because I didn't brush teeth and/or otherwise washup, I was sleeping within 10 minutes. None of this tumbly cold whatever stuff.
And then at roughly 6:26, there was massive clapping around Randy. So my brain tried to figure out what's going on; someone solve a bug? is the jam over? turns out, someone solved a bug, and that woke me up.
So from 3:45 - 7:30 is 3 hours and 45 minutes, and from 4:34 - 6:26 is 1 hour 52 minutes, so this weekend I had roughly 5 hours and 37 minutes of sleep. Wheeee....
So, after coming home from the JAM, getting home at midnight, went to bed at 12:30am. But first, I noticed I haven't taken off my socks the entire weekend. Everything is fine now, but let's just say I should remember to take them off next ToJAM. Anyway, from 12:30am, I woke up at 8:14, because I was a bit cold. After laying in bed for a while, I ended up falling asleep again, and then eventually I would wake up again. I noticed the 8, 1, and 4 from 8:14 have rearranged themselves to 1:48. So I've been in bed for about 13.25 hours. Interesting. Anyway, I didn't want the 1, 4, and 8 to rearrange themselves again so I got up.
Which brings us to now.
And soon, a bowl of the best ice cream at the best price. Not sure if the sale is still on, but can't go wrong with $6.29 ice cream that's reduced to $1.97. Or maybe you CAN go wrong with it. But I digress.
:: edit :: - Okay, so after having had some ice cream, talking to Vinh, playing with the cat, and replaying our game, I waited for the numbers to rearrange themselves to 4:18 and I went back to bed, but instead of sleeping I just closed my eyes and laid there. Then after a while I checked the time, waited a few minutes, and got up at (1+4):48, or 4:108 :)