dot plan

This week, work is still in a holding pattern. I applied to a good number of jobs, talked to people, and un-mothballed one of my earliest Godot projects (a digital version the Balanced Attack Model game). My current thinking with that game: spend some time making the best version of that I can, then reaching out to the creator of the BAM deck to see if there’s some way we can collaborate and/or if he’d be OK if I make it available online.

Today, I’m working on the Amazon Bedrock Workshop, the first “homework” from the Become a Solution Architect program.

Starting Monday, and for the next four weeks I’m attending CISA’s “skilling academy” for System Security Analysis full-time.

Finished reading: Game Magic by Jeff Howard 📚

Interesting book! In explaining “game magic”, the author spends a lot of time delving into magic as described in fantasy literature, history, and even modern occult practice.

Finished Listening: The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚

Done with Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Collection!

Benjamin and I have started a game jam: Crazzzy 4X Jam!

Become a Solution Architect looks promising: free training over 8 weeks, starts this weekend.

Yesterday, I spent a little time polishing my resume and applying to jobs, and took another AWS Security practice exam. The rumor mill says the hammer might fall today, but for the moment I’m still being paid to not work.

Today, I think, is for gamedev stuff.

Cease'ed

So far it’s been four days since I and most of my colleagues were ordered not to work. I started the week getting over a cold, so didn’t do much of note Monday or Tuesday. Yesterday, I registered to take the AWS Security exam in April (my certification expires in May) and took a practice exam.

Will this last days? weeks? months? I have no idea.

Rolling is Spinning

Benjamin’s recent game jam entry is Rolling is Spinning. It gets pretty tricky at the end!

I did the coding, following his concept and directions. He also did the art/animation for the ball that represents the player.

The theme of the jam is “spinning”, hence the name, to remind the judges of that rolling should count as spinning.

Game dev-ing lately

  • I’ve been helping my son on an entry for the Boss Rush Jam 2025– the concepts are his, most of the art is royalty free stuff from a humble bundle, and I do most of the coding and Godot-wrangling.
  • I’m on the last project of Compete Godot 3D, which is a first person shooter. I’ve got a world to run around in, an enemy that follows me if I get too close, and a gun that can shoot then enemy and recoils when fired, and has a muzzle flash. There’s more to do, but it’s a satisfying project.

Finished Listening: His Last Bow by Arthur Conan Doyle 📚

I’ve been checking out some older games in my Steam library that I haven’t played much. I’m not sure exactly what Jazzpunk is about yet, but I got to degauss some pigeons, and that was fun.

Just a little bit of Barbarian Blaster, the 2nd of 3 projects taught in Complete Godot 3D.

I was surprised that the first two projects are basically two dimensional (movement happens in two axis, and the camera is static). I hadn’t really considered using “3D” like that. I am now.

It turns out, I don’t have to use the “rawhide” version of Fedora just to get an updated kernel– so now the new machine is on Fedora 41, and I’m getting the kernel from the vanilla mainline repo.

If you’ve made a resolution to create your own website or blog (or have just been thinking about it) micro.one is a great way to get started. $1/month, and supports a custom domain name.