Most of these projects that I will show are/will be the result of ideas I get in the bridge between being awake and being asleep, thus the title of the blog.
The first example of this, which I am going to use to kick start this blog, is the result of many sleepless nights trying to make a primarily two-dimensional game engine do far more than it was originally intended while also improving my rigging and animation skills. The engine that I am using is Game Maker 7 by YoYo Games, and can be downloaded from www.yoyogames.com. I used Blender 2.49b for the creation of all 3d assets. Here is a demonstration video:
Procedural Crowd Simulation with Rig Demonstration from Joshua Cogswell on Vimeo.
This is not technically a game, in that the "player" only has control of the camera, and that each unit reacts to the others based on a set of instructions. Next project is to turn this into a functioning game.
On a side note, tomorrow (technically later today) I will begin a new project. I will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison and switch to a polyphasic sleep schedule. The intention of which is to condition the brain into allowing for more REM sleep through the use of short naps evenly distributed throughout the day, reducing the amount of seep needed for the body to rest. I will attempt to switch to this now, while I am between jobs, and will reevaluate after a week of trying it. As I consider this an experimental project to maximize my work capacity, I will be supplementing my posts with information regarding my status. For every one's peace of mind, I will end this experiment immediately if I begin to feel any ill effects either physically or mentally. Also keep in mind that I only plan to make this a short term experiment and am not considering long term plans to stay on this schedule.
I apologize in advance for anyone who has read this rather lengthy post and been disappointed by the content. I promise I will be better about this in the future.
