Nearly two months without an update?

Where does the time go?  Apparently, it goes with the territory of after-holiday chaos.  *shrug*

I don’t have a lot of readers (and few subscriptions), but I really don’t care about those kinds of numbers.  I do care about the one person who took to time to write me and ask me if I had given up on things.  So this post is my reply.  I’ll try to keep it short (under a thousand words).

I have not given up on any of my projects.  I did spend many hours playing other games, but I’ve also been working on several of my exiting projects…  most specifically, THE GAME.

Yep.  I’ve been toying around with a MU* engine which is very, very bare bones.  It starts you off with no preset ANYTHING, leaving me free to shape everything to my own will and whim.  Other engines like it only had bare process communication, but few creation tools.  Or, they come with SO MUCH, it would be hard to whittle them down to what I can work with.  This one has tools for building objects and rooms, while also having messaging and permission lock-controls… which are the most basic things you need when building a MU*.

By the way, “MU*” refers to MUDs, MUXs, MUSHes, MOOs, etc…  (those are multi-user environments allowing players to interact via a text mode interface).

The one I’m working with now (and building test areas) has a builtin front-end requiring only a modern browser… and it runs well (four players tested, barely scratched the CPU load time) on my rinky-dink Linux box.  If this explodes into something sizable, I’ll be able to move it to a better box and improve performance.

I don’t have anything approximating an “alpha test” yet…  but watch for further updates as I go.

One of the other projects I’m working on is different than most of my other work…  there’s nothing inherently naughty or TF-related in it.  There will be slaves, but primarily as a commodity (might be more, hmm).  The game will have a focus a bit different than most games available.  I don’t want to give too much away, just yet, but…  I have explicit external motivation to work on that game, so it has been getting a fair amount of my attention.  Sadly, it will also REQUIRE the most attention to make progress.  I’ve given it a few weeks and have a decent idea how I want it to flow and feel.

Yes, I’ll probably add it to my Projects page when I have more info to share.

I have been doing the math… of life and all… and if I want to keep working on these projects, I’m going to have to find ways to monetize some of them… which will give me incentive to actually get things off my desktop and onto the Internet.

My rationale: I’ve had the same job for several years, and due to “corporate financial climate” none of the people in my organization have been getting raises… and this year, there will be no annual bonuses, either.  (Mind you, my group is one of the most lucrative and most advanced in the organization.  That means my group is keeping ‘negative-flow’ groups afloat… with little more than a ‘thank you, good job, keep it up’ to those of us who excel beyond the requirements.)

So…  unless I find a job that pays better, I’m going to have to take on a second job.  Yep, seriously.  Cost of living keeps going up, but my pay is not changing.  And minimum wage in the area just jumped a significant amount, which means the cost of day-to-day stuff is going to go up along with it… making my (above minimum) wages worth even less.

Bleh.  I hope it won’t come to having to make my hobbies and escapes into a way to keep the lights on… but it could happen.  We will see.

-Cameron