Megan Morgan Crafts

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to talk a bit about my side project.  It ties directly into my needlepoint projects from Christmas, as I have decided to open an Etsy store.

Right now I only have a few items on there, and the price that I'm charging gives me about half of minimum wage, but every little bit helps and it is something that I really enjoy doing.  

At the time of this posting, all the items on my store are needlepoint, but I am currently working on some cross stitch earrings that should be all the rage :D

In my next post, I'm going to talk a bit about another side project that I have taken on.

Just when you thought it was safe to go on the internet

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack 

For those who have been wondering, rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Even though I don't really have any progress to report, I did want to make an appearance and talk a bit about what I've been doing the last couple of months. 

Holidays

I'm a huge Thanksgiving guy. I love cooking. I love cooking as a group. I love eating. All that said, Thanksgiving was great. My brother and his wife brought over what I am not allowed to call a Greek Lasagna. The kids helped out in the kitchen, and the spread was huge (Just to let you know, we STILL have leftovers in the freezer). Christmas is not really my thing, but we decided that lots of people love crafty stuff and lots of people love Minecraft. I think it was only a natural progression for us to make needlepoint Minecraft boxes as gifts. That being said, in my next post I'll talk a bit about my side project.

Birthday and a Creeper cake!

Happy Birthday to Darkness who turned 8675309 years old on October 6th. I won't mention exactly how old he is, but I found this very flattering, youthful photo of him.  He definitely doesn't look his age at all!

he wasn't even scared of the dinosaurs in the background

We love birthday cakes here at MMG.  This year I had a limited amount of time to come up with an idea and get it done before Darkness got home.  While it's not the prettiest cake in the world, it was recognizable.  It tasted delicious at least.  

Delicious food was had at Flaming Grill Cafe where we always have a great time, the food is awesome and lots of beers to choose from.  Some of us had 'normal' burgers, while others were brave and tried the kangaroo  and camel,  as well as deep fried gator bites. 

Speaking of beers, we were sad to discover that they no longer had Cocoa Mole Ale by New Belgium, which is described as being a spiced-up ale  with cocoa and chipotle peppers. So yummy!

We decided to try the pumpkin imperial stout, which must have been good, because we now can no longer remember what the name of it was or who it was by. Doh! It was great though, dark, tasted like fall with slight nutmeg and cinnamon flavors.

We were brave and tried American River Brewing Co.'s Incinerator which is a Habanero Pepper beer, tasty and spicy! Definitely one you want to drink on a cool night, because that one will warm you up.

So Happy Birthday to Darkness. Now get back to coding!

This blog has been brought to you by, 

Spooky  :)

Weird Al has nothing on me

I haven't posted in a while, and really have no news to report (Still getting prepped for the Oswald trailer...Soon, I promise).  After much deliberation, I decided that it would be a bad idea for me to sing for my blog (I like my readers, and don't want to hurt their ears.)  So, I'm just posting the lyrics instead.

My Avatar's A Girl

To the tune of Jessie's Girl

Yeah, Warcraft is a game

It's a game that I play most of the time

But lately people are askin' who I am in real life

Because my avatar's a girl and in real life I'm a guy

But she's easy on the eyes

And she's got a sexy body don't you know it

And maybe getting free stuff from male geeks isn't right

But you know my Avatar's a Girl

My Nightelf Avatar's a Girl

I play a woman in World of Warcraft

I play long hours in this game

And I have to look at SweetCheeks69 a lot

You know it is kind of dirty when she's dancing in the nude

I'd rather be playing Horde but Nightelves are just too cute

And she's easy on the eyes

And she's got a sexy body don't you know it

And maybe I fantasize while I'm playing late at night

But you know my Avatar's a Girl

My Hunter Avatar's a Girl

I play a woman in World of Warcaft

My Avatar's a Girl

My Ally Avatar's a Girl

That's right I play a woman

I play a woman in World of Warcraft

Then I'm runnin' with my guildies all the time

Wondering why they don't hit on me

I've been slutty and show my boobs all the time

Isn't that how we wish all girls would be

I tell ya

I play a woman in World of Warcraft

That's right my Avatar's a Girl

My Nightelf Avatar's a Girl

My Hunter Avatar's a Girl

I play a woman in World of Warcraft

My Avatar's a Girl

My Ally Avatar's a Girl

In game I always play a Girl

Transitioning into a great game

I finished the transition screen for Oswald's Chocolate Factory, and I think it actually looks pretty good!  

The actual in game transition is smooth and beautiful.  It was a steep learning curve, but I'm ready to start incorporating similar techniques in future games.

Speaking of future games.  I'm starting to give serious consideration to designing games for Steam.  It looks like a really good community (I've already started purchasing indie games that caught my eye there), and as I'm learning C# I think I'm ready to start working on a title.  I'm going to finish Oswald first, and I intend to work on one or more flash games while I work on my Steam title.  I'm really excited to start working with a new language and environment, though.

Labor Day is coming up.  Does anyone have any interesting plans?  I plan to be at work...on Labor Day...the irony is not lost on me.  Oh well...The downside of my day job.  Maybe when I get home from work, I will have a BBQ or one of the other many activities that people do on national holidays.  Maybe I will just do some work on my games instead.  :D

Anyway.  Just felt like giving an update on Oswald, and ranting a little bit.  *BIG HUGS* for everyone. 

Knowledge Level Up!

I attended another class on AS3 today, and I can't even begin to show my excitement about all the wonderful things that I have learned.

Let me start by giving a little background about me.  I haven't done any kind of real programming (I don't count Access and Excel as real programming) for almost 20 years.  At that time, I was doing most of my work in C.  Let me be clear, that is C, not C++ or C# (They didn't really exist back then).  Before that my programming experience was in Basic and LOGO.  None of these programming languages were OOP (LOGO was close, but not really the same thing).  With this in mind, my approach to AS3 has been a little backwards.  I've been creating classes, and communicating between them, but I never really utilized the mechanics that make an OOP worth learning.

Today's class focused elusively on what an OOP is, and how to make programs written in AS3 use the power that this style of language makes available.  It was a really fun and really educational experience.  I would highly recommend any similar classes available to any of my readers.  If you happen to be in the Sacramento area, check out the Meetup and the upcoming events.  It is a great community, and even my short time with them has offered me resources that I could not put a price on.

http://www.meetup.com/gamedeveloper/ 

Of course, I know that a lot of my readers are eager to hear about the progress of my next game, Oswald's Chocolate Factory.  It's been slow moving these past couple of weeks.  My work away from my games has been...well...work, and my time at home has kind of been taken up with keep up the home.  I should have some new screenshots sometime next week, and I'm hoping to have a preview video sometime the week after that.

Learning is FunDamental

Went to a class Sunday that was hosted by the Sacramento Game Development Meetup.  It was lots of fun, and I learned all sorts of new things that I will be using to make my games even better :)

I've also started going through some online tutorials on C# and XNA.  I'm still working on Oswald's Chocolate Factory, and should have it ready for Beta sometime next month.  I've been having so much fun learning, that I decided to make a day of it today.

Sometime in the next week or so, I should have some more screenshots from Oswald's Chocolate factory.  I've run into some interesting challenges, but I'm having lots of fun working through them! :)