This story begins a week ago, about the time when i was writing my last post.

Before i wrote last post about getting help, i installed stackless python. I am not a serious programmer and i am not some linux hacker, but with little help from the google i could do it just fine. After writing the last post i found that my django projects did not work any more. When opening page at localhost i got server error instead.

Not beeing very good with linux (i installed web server, phpmyadmin, mysql, apache and everything else, following instructions at howtoforge – if you want to install ubuntu web server run google search on howtoforge perfect ubuntu server), i was puzzled where to start my search, so i posted question on stackoverflow. I was told to look for problems in my apache error log. Actually i was told to look for just error log in /var/log/. Going to /var/log/apache2/error.log from there was not very hard.

Error log contained very useful information. I found that mod_python was not working any more. Question about this problem stayed unanswered for a while. But in the end i was told that since i had installed new python, none of the modules compiled for last python version would work. Right . I really could have used that information before installing stackles. But then i probably would not have installed it and i would never learned what i know now.

After spending two days hoping that there is easyer solution than compiling all the modules again, i gave up and started with compiling python-mysql. Finding the right package was bit hard, but i found it here. When i started compiling it i found that i also needed setuptools. Quick search yielded what i needed and i got them both installed easy enough. Instead of mod_python i started using mod_wsgi for my project.

After that, the only thing i needed was PIL for my project also contained some image related operations (user mugshots), and django requires PIL for its imagefield validation. Finding PIL was not hard at all, but yet again i found that main library was not enough. I needed jpeg and freetype, which i downloaded and installed, just as easy as other libraries.

I think that after doing all this i can call myself above average linux user . In any case, thats where BIG problems begun – my django project worked, but failed to handle uploaded images. In fact it returned me validation error when i uploaded .jpg image.I tried opening the same image from python prompt and it worked fine, but since django still raised validation error i had to dig deeper. I had to get into something that was really above my head. So i looked up where this error is coming from. Found that it comes from fields.py Imagefield validation and i found that the exact line that raises the error is where it tried to do Image.load() with uploaded image. When i commented it out i saw why the error was risen – django showed me error page which told me that PIL could not find jpeg library.Now that really was a cold shower – after doing all that compiling getting error like that…

So in the end i still have not solved this problem. I guess that it is related to python pathing and i could solve it if i could remove the correct library that handles jpeg for old python and remove it. But so far all my questions about how to find it have gone unanswered. I have not given up, but since i wanted to try how easy it is to get Satchmo store up and running i reinstalled kubuntu. I will try this stackless problem again some day soon, since i still want to learn sockets and threading. After all i also want to create my own game!

While writing this post i understood though, that this is not what this text will be about.  This text will be about how to get help and how to solve your own problems. When i got my own computer, then among other things i had to (re)install windows, drivers, computer games and so on. Internet and search engines became my friends. I found out that most computer-related programs can be fixed quite easily if you want to. You just need to open browser and type in your search term.

There is a small trick though. You need to understand your problem well enough to be able to ask the right question. I guess some analytical thinking is required here, because entering ‘computer not working’ into google will not get you anything useful.  If you run into any kind of trouble, then you can almost always see some kind of error message. Entering that error message as search phrase will often get you exactly what you need to solve your problem. If  you do not get any error message, then try describing what you did before your problem appeared?

The best places to get help from are forums. They are quite easy to find and easy to use. They are the best because you can get help from the people with similar problems. You should do your research before running to post your questions in forums. Always do your research. People who are too lazy to help themselves are usually seen as someone who does not deserve the help of others. When asking for your help you should describe your problem in as detailed manner as possible. Also list the stuff you have already tried to fix your problem.

Some of the best places that i have found to get help from are:

• HTML&CSS – Sitepoint forums – http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=53
• jQuery javascript – google jquery group – http://groups.google.com/group/jquery-en
• place for all programming questions – http://stackoverflow.com

When you need help – hopefully you’ll get it from one of those sites.

1) Playability

The game has to be easy to play. The learning curve should not be steep. Player should not be thrown deep into pit of endless meaningless options. Options that are important later in the game should be hidden, farther down the list or just invisible until they become important or useful. It has to be possible to get game action going within minutes after running the game.

This could be hard if the game itself is complex, but through user tests, trial-error and seeing what competitors have done can give very good examples of what makes game easily playable.

One very good example excellent playability is without a doubt World of Warcraft.

2) The Story

Game becomes quite meaningless if it does not involve any story. The story is what keeps you playing, otherwise you just find yourself pondering over why you keep doing “this” or “that”.  There has to be an answer, a reason why your in-game character has to do the stuff you do.  Good story has kept me playing games like Baldur’s Gate or F.E.A.R. to very late hours of the day.

I think that interesting npc’s with real personality also fall into this category as they improve the story and interaction with the game world alot. Good examples are Minsc in Baldur’s Gate or or Morte in Planescape Tormet. The speaking sword from Baldur’s Gate 2 is my all time favourite i think – “My last owner used to say that im sharp and edgy. He was such an ass!”

3) Ability to Customize

This is where many games get their fun part. One of the best examples for this category is without a doubt Elder scrolls series games – Morrowind and Oblivion. Same with All the forgotten realms games. I have started and restarted Baldur’s Gate 2 numerous times and i have taken at least 2 hours to start a game each time. I think i restarted Morrowind close to 10 times too just to tweak and retweak my character more and more.

Now i have seen the forums where people say that this kind of customisation is way too much. I agree. There has to be simpler way to create a char, but when you have gained more knowledge about the game you should be able to go in deep, REALLY deep if you want to and get the maximum out of your char.

Character customization is just one side of the coin (or should i say cubicle). Player should be able to customize more, much more, hotkeys, keybindings, skill/spell sets, viewport (unless it is really important to keep it out of players hands – if it is beeing used as a way to build tension or build more realistic view of the game). The player has to have as much freedom as possible.

4) Restrict stuff, fix the bugs!

If you had patience to read last point of this post, then you might think im contradicting myself here. Well i am not. What i mean is that players have to be kept from breaking certain limits that ruin game, playability, story and so on. Player has to be unable to do certain things like get to the last boss early in the game, become insanely powerful – basically get too much too fast. It is really important because the game will become boring then. It also feels silly and you cant take the game company seriously if they let such flaws pass.

It is also extremely annoying if the game has been pushed through development with millions of bugs. I think that Enter the Matrix game can be brought up as an example here. That piece of “#¤”#¤ was so bugged, that i still do not know how i managed to complete it.

So the point here is – the less bugs the better. Please give players quality products. Word travels fast these days. If you ship with bugs then you wont sell.

5) Balance

There arent many sides to this story. Balance means balance. The hardship needs to be balanced and the pvp has to be balanced. This becomes harder if players have many options available. People can come up with solutions and combinations that your testing team did not figure out. Especially if your testing team is small. Balancing is hard -no doubt, but its worth the time spent on it. Balance keeps people playing because there is less things that push people away from the game. If people try and keep on trying and loosing because of game imbalance – it is probably one of the biggest things that makes players quit the game. It is just so frustrating when you cant do anything about your situation.

I wish i could be part of some game testing team, when they are balancing things. That would be cool to see.

6) Details

Details that you notice in a game (or don’t) are extremely important. Those are the things that you remember even after many years. Funny npc descriptions, conversations, movie clips or random things like Duke Nukem saying “What are you waiting for, Christmas?” when you went away from keyboard for too long, are the things that make game really cool. These are the things that start up whole new buzzmarketing chain. They also show that the developers have had fun with the game. It shows that they have had time to polish the game. I think they also love the thing, they work with, much more if they can put funny stuff, they come up with, into the game. I also always love to hear about the details others have noticed in the games.

Did you know that : “Duke Nukem 3D was one of the first games to employ a real-time audio effect to its sounds. If you went underwater, a calculated reverb was applied to sounds being played to make gunfire sound muffled and gurgly.” Source – www.gamesradar.com

7) Replayability

This is also one of the things that will keep people playing and talking about the game for a long time. This also means good publicity for game creators and makes players more interested in future games by same producers. I think there is no better example for game with excellent replayability than Baldurs Gate series. Both games were like good books that you want to read again and again. They both had numerous ways how to play the game.

Sound and graphics

I think these are often least important things – look at this list. I still want to play games like BG2, Duke nukem 3d or Starcraft. Their graphics arent up to the par with current games, but so what? Other things are more important.

Good graphics, beautiful landscape, great and realistic sounds – all that improves game alot, but they are not essential

So why dont all gaming companies make great games? I asked my friend this question and his guess was planning. Things just arent planned well enough. Schedules are too tight and in order to meet the dates they have to deliver crap.

I’ll try to keep these points in mind when i start working on my dream game. Whenever that happens.

Alan.

I have always known that one day i will create my own blog as a first step of making myself visible and doing my own “thing”. For that reason i have gathered bunch of links and information about blogging and best blog CMS – Wordpress.

The reason why wordpress is good, is that it has very big community, huge userbase and most web designers know about it and design for it. Many web designer sites use wordpress as their site’s content management system too. With all the free design templates and plungs to enhance base functionality the Wordpress really is the best.

First look at these great tips from Cats Who Code:

• 8 tips to enhance your wordpress blog seo
• 10 tricks to make your wordpress theme stand out
• 10 awesome .htaccess hacks for wordpress
• 10 tips & plugins to get more comments on your wordpress blog
• top 10 wordpress hacks in june ‘09

Few more useful pages:

• Wordpress SEO tips
• 100+ wordpress tutorials from basic to advanced
• Social bookmarking plugins to share your posts
• power tips for wordpress theme developers by smashingmagazine
• 10 handy wordpress comments hacks by smashingmagazine
• 15 jquery plugins to enhance your wordpress theme

If you plan to design your own site, then check out these great theme collections:

• Place i got this theme from – web design lessons
• 30 free, amazing and versatile wordpress themes
• 43 phenomenally groundbreaking wordpress themes free to download
• 15 fresh wordpress themes

Now this is quite extensive list that helps you get great start for anybodys blog, but there are still some curious things anybody might encounter. The problems that i encountered had nothing to do with the lists above they were actually hosting related. Hosting can also be something that causes problems to bloggers. Your hosting could be in ‘bad neighbourhood’, meaning that the same hosting provider provides hosting for sites that are marked harmful or bad by search engines and beeing on similar ip to those can cause problems for your site. I hope this is something that will not be a problem to me, especially since i dont plan to be proffessional blogger.

All my problems were related to software used by hosting provider. My hosting provider – Folderburg – uses windows based servers which do not run apache as web server software. Most articles about web hosting, seo tips and so on are written from the point of view that the servers use apache software. Well my server does not and the stuff i had to figure out with the help of Folderburg help desk was:

• How to set wordpress show wordpress 404 not hosting 404 page
• How to make human friendly urls working
• How to fix site links to show correct url’s

First two points are very well explained here : ruslany.net. This site has alot of info about using wordpress and windows server software together.  solution to last point has been explained by wodpress crew here.

Word of confidence to every beginner – if you are not afraid to get your “hands dirty”, then web has alot of articles about how to fix almost anything. The chance that you are first to encounter any problem is quite small, when it comes down to web & internet. You only need to learn to ask right questions.

I have been thinking about my own blog or site for a decade now.  I have created few pages and dumped them. Because of i had no clear idea what i would or should write about.

I think i have it all figured out now. I will write about games! Actually i plan to write about many things documenting some aspects of my (business) life. Reason behind this (and this blog name) is that i am getting older, i am getting new responsibilities, but i still want to play games and do silly things that boys do from age 5 to n+5. For that reason i will write about games (like i already said) and about playing games, about which games should be played and which ones should not. I will also write about why playing games with clear consciousness is becoming harder and what to do about it. After all this i will write about how anyone can create their own games nowadays and how i will succeed in doing that. I will write about obstacles i have to overcome and things i have to learn (not to mention stuff that i have to had learn so far).

What i will not write about is my personal life. Well… perhaps only a little.

So this is the beginning. I think there will be many interesting things to read.