Monthly Archives: January 2014

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Ocuara – a Mafia Lifestyle MMO

It’s surprisingly hard to find a game developer or game dev company willing to partner when you have a concept – no matter how robust the idea may seem. After all the idea is my baby, not theirs, so it’s fair to accept they’re unaware of the nuances… Fair enough. But it makes it hard to get a proof of concept done without $spending a bomb$, and that naturally results in loss of precious time in bringing the idea to market.

Naturally nobody would be stupid enough to put the whole concept down word for word on email, so its surprising to find people asking to get the “whole picture” (so they can copy it and claim it for their own, naturally). Ok so I’m suspicious and cynical – about as much as the next Aspergers-like-madness inflicted techie – but hey Aspergers is caused by too much of IT work so who cares.

So I was actually trying out some 3D graphics stuff using three.js, mainly to understand what the limitations and capabilities of the platform are. I don’t expect to have a playable game too soon (or ever) if I’m the only one tinkering around with it, but I think I’m on to something here. My main difficulty was getting the graphics together; I can manage any kind of coding without trouble but starting with a blank white screen in Corel or GIMP really gets to me.

Interestingly there are sites like archibase.net and vectoropenstock.com that offer free 3D models and graphics – under an attribution or non-commercial only license – which is great and gives me some room to work. So far here’s where I’ve got – Ocuara version 0.16.7.

Exciting isn’t it. This took me roughly 2 months of random work to get done. Obviously I don’t intend to make this into a marketable game – but if the strength of this prototype helps me illustrate the depth of my concept, that’s all I need.

Currently what I’ve been able to implement is:

  1. Pre-loading of all data in a compressed encrypted form (hack-proof, not really but close)
  2. On-the-fly processing for animations and large 3D areas
  3. Basic scenario creation/loading, basic scoring and energy/health characteristics
  4. Basics inventory information (including processing)
  5. Websockets for realtime data transfer, Webservice and Handlers for non-realtime data
  6. QTE for score boosts, XP and levels
  7. In-game actions with challenge, puzzles

Which in itself is a fair bit of work. As far as in-game levels go I’d say I’m somewhere around creating the levels 5-10 range. Once I build to level 50, I’ll have something playable that I can then open for a public BETA. Just for fun.

I was asked if I’m planning to commercialize this – the answer is no. I intend to create this game for the fun of creating it, and I will keep it public and free for a while. If it looks like it’s growing really big I’ll get in a partner to help manage it. Big is always good right, it would show that I’ve made a fun game that’s really worth playing… I hope.

Blatherings & Ramblings, The things I do for love....

How do I know if a charger will work for me?

There are 3 key points you need to check before you start using that new charger. If any of these points mismatch, you could overheat the charger or laptop/mobile/battery or even blow the damn thing.

chargers

Refer to the image above for all of these points

1. INPUT Voltage – represented as “120 VAC” or “230V” or “220 Volts” – or any combination thereof. This MUST match with your mains voltage – if for example I try to use a 120V INPUT rated charger in India (where the mains voltage is 220V or 230V) I’m likely to blow the mains and have a very burned charger & laptop on my desk.

Often you’ll also have something like 60 Hz’ and/or a ‘6.5 W’ or ‘0.05 A’ or ‘5 mA’ – these are not very critical for our purpose today.

2. OUTPUT Voltage – represented as “6 VDC” or “6 V” (DC is assumed) or “6 Volts” (DC is assumed) – is the amount of power that’ll be pumped into the device itself. This must be a near-exact match with your earlier charger – so if I have a charger that used to supply 23 volts and a new one that is 22.5 volts – that’s probably acceptable, but the charger will heat up a bit more than usual.

The additional rating of ‘500mA’ or ‘0.5A’ here is extremely important – and must be close to the earlier rating. If I swap a 6VDC 500mA charger with a 6VDC 100mA charger – i.e. 1/5th the number of Amps – my device will charge at 1/5th the rate! Or otherwise if I double it and go for a 6VDC 1000mA charger – my battery may go kaput before I have a chance to react… So a risk either way. Though if the rating were closer, like 650mA and 500mA that could probably work without too much risk.

3. The little symbol you see above the Factory ID indicates the direction of electric current flow – this is absolutely critical, and must be exactly the same as the old charger. If in doubt, DON’T use the new charger. A change in this spec can result in the device burning immediately or could cause the battery or charger to explode.

 

You would not believe the number of times I’ve seen people use incompatible chargers and damage themselves or the device they were trying to charge. The best choice for a laptop or mobile charger is always an authentic distributor for the product line, and no one else.

Once you understand what degree of leeway you have for a particular device you may consider swapping chargers – so for example a Micro USB chargeable phone will likely power up pretty well if using another Micro USB charger – or via a data-cable plugged into a laptop (since it’s based on the same basic rating).

Be safe!