EPTSo.... I had planned to go to MLG Columbus for fun but it seems I won't be able to attend after all. Ack.
My loss can be your gain though! I have a reservation for the following hotel 0.6 miles from the event via priceline (fully paid for already):+ Show Spoiler +
Renaissance Columbus Downtown Hotel
50 North Third Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Must check-in Thursday night and hotel is reserved until Monday morning.
50 North Third Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Must check-in Thursday night and hotel is reserved until Monday morning.
From what I read online, usually one can call the hotel and add someone else to the reservation as a guest, and they can then check-in. I'm willing to call and try to do this for a reputable 18 or older TL.net member. Reply to this blog if you are an established member and would be interested. Will likely pick the first name I recognize that has a decent reason for wanting the room.
So, I made a game promo:
On what could be best described as a whim, I made an entry for Nokia's Calling All Innovators contest. Mostly as I figured the competition would be limited with the news of Nokia dropping their current OS (Symbian) in favor of Windows Mobile. Plus - they had a "Games->Education" category, an area I have dabbled in the past.
Unfortunately, I still did underestimate the amount of time doing a quick entry for a recently abandoned and unpopular OS would take. The best example I can give has to deal with simply playing music in one's game. There exists several theoretical methods of doing so based on the libraries available - but only one will work in the emulator included in the SDK. Which wouldn't be so bad.... if that approach also worked on the only phone available running the required OS (Symbian^3). Oh - and did I mention that if the audio code is running via the only method that works on the actual device it has a side effect of breaking debugging in the version of their SDK available at the time? Good times.
In the end, while it works installing it directly on my device, the sound in the version available from their app store doesn't make any noise. Not exactly sure why, but I theorize it has something to do with permission to files in whatever location the signed version is installed to. Will likely look into it more if we are ever allowed to update the entries (they are frozen currently).
It didn't help that the last time I had done C++ development was back in High School either, I suppose. Overall - despite a development timeframe of about a week - it was an extremely harsh week when combined with my normal 9-5. I broke my previous record for staying awake at 64 hours of working with only 1.5 hours of total sleep.
In the end, my initial assessment of the field has proven to be true. In my category, there are only 22 total entries, so my odds of winning something are not that bad. Much better than when I did the Android Developer Challenges, at the very least. And I can say I had fun doing another quick one-off game with a new technology.
Where does this section title come in? Well, the tracking period for downloads just started a few days ago and will run until June 23rd. The top 5 free and the top 5 paid applications from each category move on to the final judging. As I need people to actually download the game now, I finally got around to making a simple promo video. It's simple, it is basic, it is ..... the first time I've done any video editing what-so-ever. From my google-foo, I ended up using Windows Movie Maker for its creation - something I'm sure is horribly inadequate to making anything professional.
Feel free to comment on the promo and how I can make my next attempt better! Especially if you have experience recording off an actual mobile device for a promo. I had to make some adjustments to get my current code to run in the Emulator provided with the Nokia SDK (slightly painful as it is wasted time) and I'd rather record off an actual device anyway. Or perhaps there is some other way I should be capturing my video (besides improvements to the editing software and editing approach)?
Additionally, if you happen to know of someone who has a Nokia Astound, Nokia N8, or Nokia X7, feel free to direct them to: http://store.ovi.com/content/113877 .
