For a few weeks starting from sometime around mid-November, I’ve picked up a second job working as a freelance web
designer. The job had been frustrating from the start – the guy who wanted the site starts by telling me to “use
your creativity”, then when I try and take off on my own design he’d go “I don’t like this, please go copy *insert
site URL*”, and then I’d go back and he’d say “I don’t mean “copy” copy, I mean “creative” copy…”
I’ve had my fill of that crap. I’m not cut out to interpret this kind of crap – but I think most people who’d hire
me for web design stuff tends to end up doing that to me, so this will be the first and last web design job I take –
if I finish this one at all. I’ve e-mailed the guy to say that if he can find someone else to do it, he can take
the job – I don’t want it, not for scrap cash.
On the other hand, the job that I’ve been working on since I left school is really taking off – cumulating in a mighty cheer that is today, when a good section of the project comes full circle and a great milestone has been set. After 6 months of work, we’re finally able to achieve the prototype of the vision we set out for 6 months ago – a fully customizable game that can be played on the web, on the phone, or as a seperate application (the 3rd part is not my responsibility and is still being worked on). Today (or yesterday, seeing how the post time is past midnight), at about 11:00PM, we are fianally able to upload our full app onto the phone – which dynamically downloads the entire game’s contents and uses the GPS coordinate to control one of the player characters inside the game.
If you want to see the stuff that we’ve done so far, you can check out http://unexceptional.arts.uci.edu (Oh, just a reminder: the site is pretty vulgar with sexually explicit image/language. Not my fault – my boss likes em that way, and George can testify to that). After you register for a web account, you can use the same account to log into the applet emulation of the phone game and see how the game would look like on the phone (if you don’t mind downloading java). The GPS thing is really working on the phone now – so if you see that pulsating ball of light on the applet, it’d really follow your movement as you walk around on the phone! We actually walked out of the office and walked around campus for a bit just to see the ball of light move around (this is when it’s close to midnight).
The demo account (usename demo, password demo) allows you to see all the game editing interfaces that we have (without letting you change the content, of course). We’ve implemented a fully extendable system for organizing buildings and NPCs inside the game, as well as their attributes – basically, if you change anything through the interface, it’ll be reflected in all aspects of the game – the web, applet, and phone will all download and change accordingly.
This is the kind of job I’d like to keep – I’m excited and interested to work on the job, my employer keeps a positive attitute and appreciates my work (and understands the difficulties that come with it), and most important of all, I feel like I’m actually doing something here – for the project, for myself, for the future even. Who cares if the job itself pays scraps? I’m getting paid to feel accomplished. That’s more than good enough for me.
Anyway, the pleasure part of the deal is that I’ll be gone for Vegas starting tomorrow… I mean today, for 6 days, to Vegas and around Arizona. Suffice to say, I will not be logging into World of Warcraft during these times… but don’t you worry about me. If they don’t gimp the Rogue class before I come back, I’ll be able to kick ass and take names in no time. Short example:
At level 24, my Druid can handle one enemy of the same level; if there’s two, he may be able to get away – no guarantees there, if there’s a group then healing is useless and you can kiss his life goodbye.
At level 24, my Warrior can handle one enemy of the same level, period – if anything more comes along there’s no heal, no running away… you take your damage like a bitch and try not to cry when you get mobbed over and over.
At level 24, my Rogue can handle not one, not two, but 3 enemies of the same level – stealth, distract, and sap takes one of the enemies out of the picture for awhile – then the rogue can mop the floor with duel wield + poison + constant crit hit. If things go wrong, there’s evade, sprint, and even a smoke bomb that almost guarantee you’ll live to fight another day.
I love my rogue. n’uff said.
Merry Christmas.