Fire, Surgery, and Work
So, several things have happened over the last year and a half to bring updates to Contraption Maker to a halt - Fire, some health issues, and mostly work on another future project.
Most of this update is the same as what I posted on the Contraption Maker page.
[h2]The Creek Fire[/h2]
Last year in September we were evacuated from our home for 3 weeks because of the Creek Fire. The Sherriff came by our home around midnight and said it was time to get out. Packed up what we could and left. The fire ended up coming within 1/2 mile of our home. Burned almost 400,000 acres. A lot of game dev history would have gone up in flames if it had taken out our home because I have a lot of old stuff saved here - everything I worked on over the decades - a prototype Amiga dev machine when making Arctic Fox for Electronic Arts, design docs, company docs, lots of stuff.
This is a time lapse of the fire I took from my home office in the afternoon before we have to evacuate later that night. The fire was about 10 miles away at this point:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
This is one of a large number of air tankers that flew over home to fight the fire:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Surgery[/h2]
In the months before that I hadn't been feeling well. Turns out my gall bladder no longer liked me. All of us from my family were staying at my Mom's house in Fresno because of the fire. This led to emergency gall bladder surgery with this no-fun drainage tube for a couple of weeks and longer than expected recovery. In the end just a bump in the road, but not a fun one.
[h2]New Game Project[/h2]
Up until now it has been getting Minigolf Blast in shape to be release. I'm currently working on a new game with my friend who owned Dynamix with me which has made it impossible to find any time to work on this minigolf game.
It is an early access game and already plays well, but I don't really want to release it until I have online multi-player working. The planned release date show June 10, 2019 - over two years ago! I don't want to update that until I have a firm date which is just up in the air.
Most of this update is the same as what I posted on the Contraption Maker page.
[h2]The Creek Fire[/h2]
Last year in September we were evacuated from our home for 3 weeks because of the Creek Fire. The Sherriff came by our home around midnight and said it was time to get out. Packed up what we could and left. The fire ended up coming within 1/2 mile of our home. Burned almost 400,000 acres. A lot of game dev history would have gone up in flames if it had taken out our home because I have a lot of old stuff saved here - everything I worked on over the decades - a prototype Amiga dev machine when making Arctic Fox for Electronic Arts, design docs, company docs, lots of stuff.
This is a time lapse of the fire I took from my home office in the afternoon before we have to evacuate later that night. The fire was about 10 miles away at this point:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
This is one of a large number of air tankers that flew over home to fight the fire:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Surgery[/h2]
In the months before that I hadn't been feeling well. Turns out my gall bladder no longer liked me. All of us from my family were staying at my Mom's house in Fresno because of the fire. This led to emergency gall bladder surgery with this no-fun drainage tube for a couple of weeks and longer than expected recovery. In the end just a bump in the road, but not a fun one.
[h2]New Game Project[/h2]
Up until now it has been getting Minigolf Blast in shape to be release. I'm currently working on a new game with my friend who owned Dynamix with me which has made it impossible to find any time to work on this minigolf game.
It is an early access game and already plays well, but I don't really want to release it until I have online multi-player working. The planned release date show June 10, 2019 - over two years ago! I don't want to update that until I have a firm date which is just up in the air.