More stuff coming out of my archives over the next few weeks. I came up with this device over the first few weeks of the iPhone announcement back in January. This is a device that is as thin as an iPod classic 80GB (Oddly, its the same exact thickness), 32GB of Flash Memory, a wide screen touch display, and a new, kick ass OS called Blazer. The OS would be able to play music (even OGG and other formats), movies and videos, podcasts, and even your old iPod music. It would feature built in WiFi and 3G connectivity, but it would not require that you use it as a phone, because it would utilize Skype for voice chats. You could then insert a SIM card to allow you to access the 3G network, as well as use a phone application to use the voice account data on the card over all networks that support CDMA. The OS would also allow for applications to be added under an Applications icon (other icons include Music, Movies and Videos, Pictures, Camera, etc.), and would use several different API’s, including the Blazer API for developing amazing applications with a consistent user interface. I said Camera, right? Yea… 3MP camera built into the back. The device would also feature a modified version of Firefox, because hell, who doesn’t like Firefox? Well, I will post some screen shots of my idea of the UI later. Until then.

darkTech is no more my friends. I am so sorry, but it is true. I have abandoned the company I essentially founded three years ago to begin releasing works under my own name, not under the shadow of a company. Welcome to the new website, which I did promise. I have no longer kept with the CLOG, including the name, motto, and theme. I have instead opted to a Blog, a slick, slightly modified red theme, and the beginings of a new me. First off, I want to officially announce that I am the official Musician, as well as a sub-programmer, for XSoft Games, a Game Maker-based company currently developing a few games, most notiably Cities At War and Freeze Tag, both of which I am working on. I am also working on a level editor (XML based :)) for Cities At War, besides the music. That leads me to a new change…

Starting today, everything I make and release will be open source (excluding works I do for team projects, such as music for CAW, Freeze Tag, etc.), including a new API I am working on for Game Maker, called the Core API. The Core API, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (which can be viewed here). I will of course update you guys on the progress of the project over the coming weeks. Well, welcome to the new darkTech everyone… or should I say Connor’s Blog?

I am tired of political correctness, or as the media calls it, PC. PC is bullshit. Why? I am so tired of hearing ‘Oh, happy holidays!’ or ‘He is Hispanic.’. Let me give you an example. Tonight we went to the Middletown Christmas Tree lighting, where they light the Christmas tree in the town square. Well, the guy who does all of the speeches said ‘Happy Holidays to all!’. Well, guess what dipshit. I bet if the person is there watching them light the Christmas tree, I bet they celebrate Christmas. Just say ‘Merry Christmas!’. I would not be offended if someone said to me ‘Merry Christmas’ at the tree lighting if I was Jewish or Muslim. Why? Because your in that feel of that holiday. If I was at a minorah lighting and someone said ‘Happy Hanukah’ I would not be offended. So, how do we overcome this PC? Well, don’t be PC at all. This Christmas season, wherever I shop, when the cashier says ‘Happy Holidays’ as their corporate cronies have taught them to say, I am going to say ‘Merry Christmas’ because thats the feel I am in. No more, ‘Happy Holidays!’ or ‘Christmas. Hanakah. Kwanza.’ shit, its Christmas for me, so deal with it.

I was reading the YoYo Games (YYG) blog, or Glog, as Sandy, the apparent CEO of YYG, calls it, the other day. The latest news bit was about how the YYG website had reached over 8,000 games since the site went public in April (not sure, around then). Pretty cool, except YYG is due for a major decline in traffic if they keep up what they are doing now. I have pointed out a few little things that will make the difference for a strong year’s end and a even stronger new year.

Advertising -
I love the YYG website design. Why? It’s clean, fresh, and very Web 2.0-y. It is built on Ruby on Rails, is often quite fast, and definetly has content. But, when they released Beta 2 a few months ago, they introduced a new feature called Google Ads. Why the hell would you put ads on the website? I know why they did it, for money of course, because GM licenses don’t make them that much. But why would you place them right on the LEFT side of the main page? Why? It screws up the alignment, and it looks as if someone pooped on the side of the page. YYG needs to make smaller ad areas, and place them around the site, not just on the left of the page. No one likes ads, not even me, I ad block them. But they least you can do for the people without Ad Block, or IE, is make them look a bit better!

Advertising also has another segment, this time for the website, not on the website. I have yet to see any kind of YYG advertisement on anything. No web ads, no podcast ads, nothing (though Masked Media is looking for a sponsor, YoYo :P).  What they need to do is launch a two week long web advertisment crusade. The goal should be to try and get as many people as possible to the YoYo site. Why? Not everyone wants to make games. If they did, you would have people buying Game Maker licenses every day. Drive traffic to the site, advertise the hell out of Instant Play. Do it. Now.

Game Maker -
Game Maker is a good catalyst to bring people to your website: ‘Make your own games using Game Maker!’. But the thing is, we still have the same version of Game Maker 7 that came out earlier this year. Its November already. I am waiting for something new to make me want to go back to Game Maker, at least even open it. If you want people to want your product, bring it up to date. The news on the Mac version is great, YoYo just needs to show us that they are serious about the program that keeps them afloat.

How can they do this? Make some sort of built in tutorial system for Game Maker beginners. Chances are someone doesn’t want to go to some site and download a print tutorial. Make some sort of video system that shows them the basics.

To YoYo: This is what you will need to do to really kick off the new fiscal year.