11th January
Well then. I've had a powerful longing to take a step sideways and make a tiny, simplified game much more like OotG. Just based on breeding tiny critters with pretty coats. No stats, battles, world to explore, trades, normal currency or anything. Genetics are considerably simpler, and images will be assembled in CSS layers, rather than dynamically.
I aim for it to be a friendly hobby game that only takes a few minutes per day, and acts like an 'introduction' or casual alternative to the big, busy, competitive main game with its 100x more complicated genetics and fancier art. This should be small and cheap to run. Hopefully adverts and a few item purchases will keep it paid-for.
Done some genetic planning, and started uploading the layers and making a random generator with JS. Base colours done...
12th January
Going quite alright. Some very primitive examples from random generator: https://sta.sh/03bfukdeowo
(it seems DA has changed how Sta.sh shows images, now the URLs are massive and the 'download token' runs out after a day or so... how crap.)
Need to stop wasting time uploading markings for this placeholder horse-thing, and draw some proper griff/peg/etc bases. Ugh.
It's too early be to doing fancy 'final' art like that, even if small!
13th January
Sketched a bunch of breeds, done some linearts. https://sta.sh/01qzq2cabxss
Will shade the plain griff and uni, and test everything with them, before going back to the rest.
19th January
Holy crap, forgot to update this all week. >.< Well, lots of progress!
- decided to be super lazy and found a free responsive design to edit. The result is very elegant and minimalist, clean. Now I have to keep getting used to this responsive and 'floaty' way of designing pages.
- unicorn base finished, and most markings ready (there are a few more sets planned, like butterfly/stars/dapples/lace, but those can come later).
The random generator is looking good!
- I wrote an Imagick function that takes a single image, loops and processes it in some way (recolour, apply texture, resize, anything) and saves all the versions in a folder with desired filenames. Of course, it's hooked up to AJAX so it's just a button click... and in 10 minutes, I generated 44 folders with each marking in 75 colours.
This will be extremely useful for future markings and the next breeds. And anything else that needs automating.
Only downside is that they still all need running through TinyPNG at some point. I haven't yet tried to integrate it here; there is a PHP API for it.
- Now, um... I can't properly test Mythnest in its own, as there's no space for new database and framework.
The best I can do is make a bunch of pages on main site, and a table in this DB, to test some unicorns and get them looped-through, breed them, show on profiles etc.
22 January
Where are the days going?! D:
Taking a while to draw the griffin's markings. Much more challenging compared to the unicorn, with feathers and so many body parts.
Also have piddled around making/editing a bunch more minigames; card matching, coin flipping etc. Haven't added them to site yet.
And have looked into Paypal buttons. I might be able to get one working, but first need proper domain and host for Mythnest. Then can try Adsense too.
24th January
Endooo...
Griff is now added to generator. Needs paint marks still, and eye colour, additional body colour, and beak/leg colour.
Starting to test some code, making DB tables for creatures.
27th January
Piss off, endo.
Meanwhile, hmm. Been doing heaps of history reading; now I have a rough understanding of Babylon, Mycenaean, Minoan, Achaemenid... and other civs/empires like that. Finally some possible background for the Marlik griff, too. Other Mannaean sites like Hasanlu and Ziwiye had the same styles and golden items with griffs and other creatures.
Anyway, that should all help with writing more accurate lore. But I need to keep working on game itself! Ummm.
- got class that holds Mythnest creature info, generates their images and thumbnails etc.
- so, need to start making creature profiles, user profiles, and test breedings.
- also wanna jazz up the dull layout, just a tiny bit. Still minimalistic but maybe paper borders or sth.
28th January
Aha. Learned the difference between mysqli fetch_object and fetch_assoc. By using the former, I can get AJAX classes working, a bit differently. Still not ideal, but more useful/proper than including a file with a bunch of functions.
... and the breeding page's insta-preview stuff is re-created, whew. Now to get the scrying working.
Well then. I've had a powerful longing to take a step sideways and make a tiny, simplified game much more like OotG. Just based on breeding tiny critters with pretty coats. No stats, battles, world to explore, trades, normal currency or anything. Genetics are considerably simpler, and images will be assembled in CSS layers, rather than dynamically.
I aim for it to be a friendly hobby game that only takes a few minutes per day, and acts like an 'introduction' or casual alternative to the big, busy, competitive main game with its 100x more complicated genetics and fancier art. This should be small and cheap to run. Hopefully adverts and a few item purchases will keep it paid-for.
Done some genetic planning, and started uploading the layers and making a random generator with JS. Base colours done...
12th January
Going quite alright. Some very primitive examples from random generator: https://sta.sh/03bfukdeowo
(it seems DA has changed how Sta.sh shows images, now the URLs are massive and the 'download token' runs out after a day or so... how crap.)
Need to stop wasting time uploading markings for this placeholder horse-thing, and draw some proper griff/peg/etc bases. Ugh.
It's too early be to doing fancy 'final' art like that, even if small!
13th January
Sketched a bunch of breeds, done some linearts. https://sta.sh/01qzq2cabxss
Will shade the plain griff and uni, and test everything with them, before going back to the rest.
19th January
Holy crap, forgot to update this all week. >.< Well, lots of progress!
- decided to be super lazy and found a free responsive design to edit. The result is very elegant and minimalist, clean. Now I have to keep getting used to this responsive and 'floaty' way of designing pages.
- unicorn base finished, and most markings ready (there are a few more sets planned, like butterfly/stars/dapples/lace, but those can come later).
The random generator is looking good!
- I wrote an Imagick function that takes a single image, loops and processes it in some way (recolour, apply texture, resize, anything) and saves all the versions in a folder with desired filenames. Of course, it's hooked up to AJAX so it's just a button click... and in 10 minutes, I generated 44 folders with each marking in 75 colours.
This will be extremely useful for future markings and the next breeds. And anything else that needs automating.
Only downside is that they still all need running through TinyPNG at some point. I haven't yet tried to integrate it here; there is a PHP API for it.
- Now, um... I can't properly test Mythnest in its own, as there's no space for new database and framework.
The best I can do is make a bunch of pages on main site, and a table in this DB, to test some unicorns and get them looped-through, breed them, show on profiles etc.
22 January
Where are the days going?! D:
Taking a while to draw the griffin's markings. Much more challenging compared to the unicorn, with feathers and so many body parts.
Also have piddled around making/editing a bunch more minigames; card matching, coin flipping etc. Haven't added them to site yet.
And have looked into Paypal buttons. I might be able to get one working, but first need proper domain and host for Mythnest. Then can try Adsense too.
24th January
Endooo...
Griff is now added to generator. Needs paint marks still, and eye colour, additional body colour, and beak/leg colour.
Starting to test some code, making DB tables for creatures.
27th January
Piss off, endo.
Meanwhile, hmm. Been doing heaps of history reading; now I have a rough understanding of Babylon, Mycenaean, Minoan, Achaemenid... and other civs/empires like that. Finally some possible background for the Marlik griff, too. Other Mannaean sites like Hasanlu and Ziwiye had the same styles and golden items with griffs and other creatures.
Anyway, that should all help with writing more accurate lore. But I need to keep working on game itself! Ummm.
- got class that holds Mythnest creature info, generates their images and thumbnails etc.
- so, need to start making creature profiles, user profiles, and test breedings.
- also wanna jazz up the dull layout, just a tiny bit. Still minimalistic but maybe paper borders or sth.
28th January
Aha. Learned the difference between mysqli fetch_object and fetch_assoc. By using the former, I can get AJAX classes working, a bit differently. Still not ideal, but more useful/proper than including a file with a bunch of functions.
... and the breeding page's insta-preview stuff is re-created, whew. Now to get the scrying working.