Emzee

That'll work for now. Thanks!

The little cupcake with the candle that would appear next to your name on your birthday. That's old school BZPower right there.

Placeholder. This screenshot just showcases features, nothing in here is final, including the masks, stats, and skills. Oh, and I changed the menu. The equipment pane now has dragging and dropping, similar to some MMORPGs.

And you know what I'll be doing? Fasting! It's a pledge for charity - companies donate money to this charity for every person who pledges. It's being run by the Muslim Student Alliance at my university (I'm a part of a handful of multicultural organizations - I am not Muslim myself) Ramadan's going on now, and to give non-Muslims a taste, we fast for a day. On my birthday. Now, to clear up any misconceptions, I'm very proud to be doing this. It's for a good cause and I'll learn something in this process. In other news, I've been trying to get started on Silverlight, while also looking closely at companies like Oracle and Amazon - I'd really like to get a job in two years, and I have to know these companies to achieve that.

My Physics classes did use Calculus, that's why I said they didn't serve me well, they screwed me over. And my Prob Stat syllabus clearly states that it will require basic Calculus skills (mostly integration it seems), but we'll see.

School started this past Thursday, and I'm taking 18 credit hours (which is 6 classes for those not in college yet). I thought I'd just share what I'm taking this semester, so here we go: Digital Art - designing professional-looking artwork with PhotoshopUnderstanding World Music - studying the basics of music all around the worldProbability and Statistics for Software Engineers - MathMath Foundations for Software Engineers - more MathBusiness and Public Law - An interesting look at civil court cases involving both small businesses and corporationsProfessional and Technical Communication - teaches one how to write like an engineerI have a full load this semester. I would say how this will inevitably cut into my activity here at BZP, but my work load here is light and I haven't been that active here. At best, I'll be just as active then as I am now. I'm not looking forward to the new math classes I have to take, mostly because they involve a lot of Calculus, which didn't serve me well when I took Physics. I have to take these classes though, and do well in them, do I'll just deal with it. ...can't like I'm excited about writing either, as I'm afraid this may be another English class -- there's a reason I didn't major in English or Humanities. Math is the lesser of two evils.

I built a desktop before. Not something I'd like to do again, especially considering how much money I shelled out. Was the process as easy as it should've been for you?

Here's a screenshot of the Character Stats menu that I've been working on: The Kanohi images need a little bit of tweaking, but function-wise, they're pretty good. For the Skills Panel, you click on the glassy orbs to choose your skill level (green is low, yellow is medium, and red is high). However, each level upgrade requires a certain amount of Skill Points. Clicking on the button will do nothing if there aren't enough SP. My biggest issues are coming from the Equipment Panel at the bottom though. Allowing an easy way for the player to change equipment in a highly visual manner is a lot more complicated than one would think...

That means that you are having a happy Friday the 13th, which is awesome. I haven't heard about anything bad happening to anyone I know, so maybe the effect only happens in October?

Happy Friday the 13th everyone!

Oh yeah, definitely. It was too bad the event started off a little rocky for you guys, but I'm glad whatever happened Sunday turned things around in the best way possible. I find it odd that you say this year's review was calmer considering who was present this year.

I'm in Austin right now, chilling and taking a breather before my... *sigh* Physics final. But ANYWAY, I'm enjoying being in a different city for a day, and as mentioned earlier, I'm sitting only a few yards away from the LEGO Store that opened this weekend. I've taken quite a few pictures with my camera phone (insert lol-I'm-poor jokes here) and I'll write an in depth recounting of what I've seen later. Must say, this event's a lot bigger than I expected. Never been to a LEGO Store opening, but it vaguely reminds me of the Tyson's Corner LEGO event I was at during Brickfair last year. Will update soon. Stay tuned!

They might have all been editing their comments into the blog entry.

So... I need some ideas for my role-playing in the BZPRPG. I've completely hit writer's block for the story revolving around two of my characters. I need something fresh and interesting, but my brain is fizzled (too much programming?). Right now, they're working on a marketing project for school, and I need to throw hijinks and drama into that to get some desperately needed CD. If anyone has any mini-plot ideas, throw them this way please.

yeah, I think I'll have to side with Than on this one (Geez, now I know how you and Tufi felt last year!)

Have fun and pleeeeeease be safe (you know how safe you guys were last year? BE SAFER!!) I'd rather not see any "In memorium"s on the front page during this weekend. Other than that, do as many Brickfair activities as you can (unless you're the coordinator and/or this if your first time to Brickfair and meeting people, I'd recommend against spending the whole day at the BIONICLE table), and do enjoy yourselves, on my behalf at the very least.

And I must say, that Hau looks GLORIOUS on you!

Since I have nothing better to do that Sunday (>_>) I'm thinking of driving to Austin for the store opening, provided that I still have plans for Saturday. If it turns out that I won't be doing anything Saturday I'll go that day instead. I don't know why I'm putting this out there, no one I know is going and no one else would recognize me. Plus, I'm still not 100% sure I'm going (I still need to take my car to the auto place to make sure it's up for 200+ mile (per trip, so 400+ total) drive. If you hear anything back from me about this event, then you can rest assured I was able to make it.

*gasp* You said BREASTS! j/k, I've heard this from more than one MOCer already - but of course it obviously needs to be said again (for the new guys?)

Watermelon, Oranges, and Apples would be my top choices.

hehe, missed a day! Anywho, let's not waste anymore time! With anniversary week almost over, I decided it may be best to just do 2 years today and 2 years tomorrow! Not much happened during my recent years, so these entries should still be at a bearable length. In 2006, I was working on my biggest JRPG to date: The Legend of Mata Zuto: Fall of the Conqueror . The last half of 2006 was admittedly frantic because of this. In RPG Maker, you generally have to use the default menu system that it provides, but I wanted to create my own using only the resources provided by the engine (so external scripting was available). A lot of time was taken away from the BZPRPG because of this, however, I honestly was not too bothered. Ego trips and bouts of drama took out much of the fun for me (no names will be mentioned). So I effectively spent even less time on BZPower, trying to pique interest in the video game RPG fans by making something truly original. I also kept close watch on the BIONICLE storyline. Vezon was my favorite character for that year - everyone else kinda annoyed me. The VNOG had great potential, but was ultimately too tedious and boring to complete. In January 2007, I officially resigned from the BZPRPG (though I didn't make an announcement -- the people who cared would learn soon enough where I had gone). So that really opened up more time for me to make my comeback in the RPG Maker community. In February 2007, I released the first demo of The Legend of Mata Zuto: Fall of the Conqueror. It was a great success - one that, all-in-all, I was satisfied with. Keeping close watch over my game's topic and giving hints and help where needed, I continued working on my game. Later that summer was when BZPower created it's best forum: Fan-Created Games! *dodges tomatoes and shoes* I helped make it happen too, it was easily my biggest accomplishment of the year. Yup. Nothing would surpass that for the rest of the 2007... *clears throat* =P 2008 was mostly dull for me BZP-wise. The BIONICLE storyline's recent turn had completely jumpstarted my interest, but the general BZP reaction of indifference (added with a lot of people who just didn't like it) just led to me spending more time involved in the BIONICLE story than BZP for once! That hasn't happened since 2003! Anyway, in February 2008, I had finally finished Fall of the Conqueror. It was an absolute roller-coaster of a project, and it was thanks to it that I pledged never to make another game with RPG Maker 2003. I would using a real coding language from then on, like BASIC. Yes, I still had a lot to learn when it came to picking good tools for game development. Right after Fall of the Conqueror was finished, I spent the next four months transferring my other RPG Maker 2003 game (The Infestation) into an RPG Maker XP game. That was another huge success, and with both my games that I've been working on since 2002 FINALLY done, I was ready to start on the project I've been trying to do since I started making games. I was going to fill that void created by the cancelled BIONICLE PC game, and I would make a 3D Action RPG of my own.