Update#72 : HAPPY BIRTHDAY >1<

It's a little late but here I'm going to wish

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 

to

THE UNIVERSE PROJECT

(Build3)

Yes it is now 1 year old today, and what a year! Less productive than I hoped (wanted to have it playable by this day) but still very productive. The foundations of a great game have been laid down and the rest is sure to follow in good order. I can't promise that it will be quick at all... I know that I have a hectic year ahead of me outside of game development but progress will definitely continue, however slow it might become. Update will remain fairly regular - if you can call this regular - and my devotion to the project will not waver. Never again. I know I have a good design approach and I'm keeping it tidy and well-organized.

In the last few days I faced a bit of CSS code trouble, where an attempt to make standardized buttons was not working ... turns out that CSS files are very specific and sensitive about their commenting rules! Urgh..

Well I guess that was a bit of a gift that the Project and I gave to each other? Figuring out this problem that I was having for a few days, and glad to know that I wasn't majorly screwing up! I also got a big bag of Jujubes.


Revealed : The birth day of (Build3) The UNIVERSE Project is April 20, 2012

Update#71 : Decorating

As is usually the case, in the process of trying to get one thing done, I find that I'm in need of something else...

This more recent event happens to be that I found myself deviating from - rather, not having - a standard appearance for common web page elements, such as text areas and buttons. Some text areas would have a black background, while others would have a well-lit pale blue, or something... so now I've been deciding and designing and coordinating all these colours for various things.

This isn't what I had in mind for getting back to 'real' work on the website, but it needed to be done anyway.


Revealed : The official 'birth date' of build3 of The UNIVERSE Project is ... April 20, 2012 ... Marking this Saturday, 2 days from now, as being the first birthday!

Update#70 : Awesomeness Restored

Alright. Database issue is fixed, and won't happen again. I now know with not only confidence but also experience that I can restore the database wherever and whenever I need to; and thus, the whole game can be recovered from a seemingly 'fatal' loss.

It's late now, so, real game progress resumes tomorrow.

Update#69 : Antiawesome Discoveries

Sooo among other things, I decided that it was time to really test my database backup/restore system and make sure that I can actually recover from corrupted and/or lost data.

I'm not going to go into detail, but suffice to say it did not turn out well. Now I am experiencing the joys of repairing(?) a severely damaged(?) database. I have a pretty good idea of what I need to do, and I'm not looking forward to it, but I guess it's an important lesson that's best learned sooner than later.

Ironically, this happens right in the middle of me developing my 'Armageddon Engine' which is the system I'll be using as developer/administrator to safely destroy objects such as stars, planets, and players ... and yet it had nothing to do with this database situation.

Update#68 : Unawesome Discoveries

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. In the efforts of trying to build the new maps, I keep discovering new little things that I need to do to support the maps. Things that I never really thought of before, either as prerequisite necessities or just not at all, as well as various other details that I didn't really think needed more than a moment's thought, which end up being integral to the whole product. I'm still plugging away, I just need to do a lot more work than I expected, as usual!

Maybe I'll share some more details later if I feel I need a break and just want to babble in more detail about what I'm doing, but for now, I'm off to satisfy some scheduled appointments.