Tim Bivans - Programmer

A New Unity Book

2011-06-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

http://www.amazon.com/Unity-Blueprints-Practical-Guide-Development/dp/0956888704/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309379637&sr=8-1

For Love of an iPad

2011-06-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

So my wonderful job has purchased me and my co-workers iPad 2's! So, do it live up to the hype? Yes, I have to say. It does. There are a few things that I would like to see that aren't possible or available yet, but the platform is truly slick and I have no serious complaints as yet.

Alternate Reality Games

2011-02-23T05:42:00.000-08:00

I have been reading Jane McGonigal's book "Reality is Broken" with great enthusiasm. I've just reached the chapter where she talks about Alternate Reality Games and I am absolutely thrilled with this concept. I have been thinking about this sort of thing for a long time and didn't realize how much motion there has already been in this direction.

I am looking forward to McGonigal's presentation at the GDC in less than a week!

Can't believe that I'm going to the GDC in San Francisco!

Awesome!

iPhone Development

2010-11-15T05:45:00.000-08:00

I've just signed up as an iPhone Developer.

I've just found this which gives a short tutorial on how to use Dashcode, an IDE for creating web applications for the iPhone, or other devices potentially. But I'm most interested in the iPhone applications.
Another DashCode tutorial

After I watched this video, I was impressed with what can be made potentially from this platform.

So I went here to sign up and here are the first tools that they link you to.

iPhone Entrepreneur

Unity Download - Unity is a multiplatform game development tool that I need to use. I think it will work for me. I'm looking into it now.

Update - Apple is now charging $99 to become an iPhone/iPad developer. That sucks, but I plan to pony up the cash when I have it. I really need to get in on this wave. The iPad looks very hot as a gaming platform.

More stuff:
Article about 3rd party tools
Lots of Resources
Open Laszlo for the iPhone
Full ToolKit

Big Stuff Here
Apparently Apple's latest announcement that they are going to allow 3rd party toolkits to development for the iPhone applies directly to Adobe's CS5 Flash. I didn't know it until now but Flash CS5 has a iPhone packager that will wrap up a flash app into an apple compliant app suitable for the iPhone. Sweet
Details here

Mac / Cross Platform Game Engines

2010-10-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Apple's Best Four

Unity 3D - this engine is awesome, there's a free version but the paid is quite expensive but potentially very worth it.

C# Game Programming

2010-09-08T06:41:00.001-07:00

Looks like I'm going to be teaching this in Simulation and Game Design.... So I better start learning it huh?
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Articles/ArticleListing.aspx?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=65

Game Maker Resources

2010-07-27T07:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some links to resources online:

Charas project

Home Serving

2010-07-04T06:54:00.001-07:00

http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/creating/hostmyown.html

http://johnbokma.com/windows/apache-virtual-hosts-xp.html

C++ Game Programming Resources

2010-06-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

Thomas Cormen,

Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming

Matthew Austern, Generic Programming and the STL
STL Tutorial and Reference Guide.

Effective STL

SGI's STL reference

Dev.net - list of engines.
Game Middleware
Epic Games
Torque Game Builder

John Romero Apologizes

2010-05-24T12:40:00.001-07:00

For Daikatana

Developing for Android

2010-04-19T07:52:00.000-07:00

Just started looking into this.
Android ADT for Eclipse

Facebook Game Development

2010-03-26T07:38:00.001-07:00

I'm going to look into this as well. Gotta learn everything all at once!

Facebook Developer
FB Dev Wiki
Getting Started

Third Party Tutorial on FB Dev
Another Tutorial - FB App in 10 Mins
Flash Tutorial for Beginners
Tutorialized - I'm working through this one right now.... I'm liking it so far, although it's a bit dated, working on Flash 8 when Adobe is currently up to CS4 but it says most of it will carry forward, so I'm going to try it out.
Flash Buttons the New Way

Tutorialized

Flash Samples - lot of examples with code samples.
Flash Coord System - how Flash and ActionScript handle x,y coords
Mouse Coords - example of following the mouse coords
Even Better Coords Example

Illustrator - Live trace tutorial very nice.

MVC for flash Game Development - pretty good tutorial on how to use MVC in Flash Game dev

Fireworks Beginnings

2010-03-26T07:01:00.000-07:00

This is my starting place, trying to figure how I can use Fireworks as a rapid web development tool.

My Flash Beginnings

2010-03-12T13:50:00.001-08:00

Ok, so I know that in the future I'll have to teach Flash/ActionScript so I might as well start getting acquainted with it now.

So I'll start here.
Importing graphics into Flash

Learn Flash CS 4 Professional - whole series of video tutorials from Adobe to get you through Flash Dev
Understanding Symbols in Flash

Sprites

2010-03-02T20:39:00.001-08:00

Chara something
Animated Gif's in Photoshop CS4 - this is a really straighforward tutorial on how to get an animated gif created in PS. Which then can be used for a sprite.

Adobe's Frame Animation
Adobe's Q&A

Notes on Photoshop's Animation
Questions:
Right clicking on a Frame gives you the menu options: Automatic, Dispose, and Do Not Dispose. Haven't quite figured out what they do yet.
It appears that the layers and the frames are linked in some way.
Match Layers across frames?
Create New Layer for Each New Frame?
New Layers Visible in All Frames?

Podcasting 101

2010-02-22T07:29:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've done some Camtasia videos for a class I'm teaching, I've placed them on Youtube. So why not go the full distance and create a Podcast for them? Why? Because I don't know how, that's why. But I shall soon learn.

I've found this helpful bit. And I'll find others. Timothy Bivans will be in the iTunes machine yet!

Adobe Bridge - Br - Exploration

2010-02-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

In teaching my Photoshop class I came across Adobe Bridge and wondered, "What is that?". Well, apparently it is Adobe's media manager, and it looks to have quite a few cool features that I'm going to look into.

Complete Guide 1

Java Game Development

2010-01-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

Well, since I've been given this new position and all, and I am teaching Advanced Java as well this semester, I thought that I would look into Java Game Programming.

Might be an easier way into the gaming world, given that I'm more familiar with the Java language than I am with C++

----
Here is a game made with the JMonkey Engine
NordGame

I am currently installing the Java Monkey Engine for Eclipse so I will let you know how that goes.
Well, I've nearly succeeding in getting JMEngine running on a Vista box, but I'm having a devil of a time getting it running on my MacBook Pro. Pissing me off.

Here are some links:
Tutorial
forum post 1
8 Tutorials for JME Physics
More basic JME
MD5 exporter for Maya
------------------------------
Here are some links to get me started:
Java Game Programming 1
Java Game Prog 2
Java Cooperation Game Programming
Java Game Example

Applet Dev
Number one

Python Game Development -
Pygame

Triangle Game Conference

2010-01-19T05:22:00.000-08:00

I've been told that I have to come up with some personal development activity, so I've decided that this will likely be my first Game Dev conference.

Triangle Game Conference - Held in Raleigh, NC, this conference hosts around 70 different gaming companies from the area as well as educators and other interested parties. It should be very interesting. It will be my first gaming conference so I'm looking forward to it.

PHP and Apache on OS X

2010-01-14T07:43:00.000-08:00

Links just to remind me how to enable these on Mac OS X.

Apache is simple, basically you just have to turn on Web Sharing.
Good article on PHP

Crash Course in Windows Game Development

2009-12-29T09:45:00.000-08:00

Seeing as I'm about to start teaching game development, I thought it might be good to really learn how to do it. So I'm scouring the interwebs for all the goodness it can bring. My research shall follow.

Cross Platform
Ogre
Irrlicht

I've found a couple of good articles re: getting started with Windows game dev, focusing on DirectX developmenet and using Visual C++.
by Bruno Sousa
Part 1
Part 2

DevMaster - All Purpose Game Dev Portal

OO Game Design

C++ Gaming Might be a bit dated but it has a great and simple introduction to Allegro - a gaming engine that looks very promising

Dev C++

Code Blocks C++

C++ Game Programming Resource
SDL - Open Source - Cross Platform Gaming library. Going to check into this.

Troll2D - Promising cross platform library for rapid game dev.

More to come!

Game Development Research

2009-12-21T12:03:00.001-08:00

Baja Engine -
ClanLib library -
Jmonkey Java Game Engine -
Beginning with XNA -
Troll 2D -
Allegro Examples -
Allegro Wiki -
Graphics library for C++ -
Game Engines -
Game Dev.Net Cool Place for game dev news and tips -

Daddy's Got a Brand New Job!!!!

2009-12-18T12:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, yes! Thank you! Thank you!

I have been offered and have accepted a full time instructor's position at Pitt Community College! I will be teaching courses in simulation and game development.

I am so happy that they have agreed to work with me and let me pursue my master's degree while I work there as an instructor.

I start on January 4th and classes start on the 7th, so I have a lot of work to do in preparation between now and then, but I am psyched!

Regular Expressions Reference

2009-12-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

Today I had to do some form validation and I needed some quick reference on regular expressions, which is something that I don't have to use often. The site Regular Expressions came in very handy. It is not a weighty page, but it is just enough when you have forgotten the necessary syntax.

Teaching Both Java and Javascript in the Spring '10

2009-11-25T13:35:00.000-08:00

My part time teaching gig at Pitt Community College will have me teaching both Java and Javascript online during the Spring semester of 2010. I am very much looking forward to it.