Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Truth Behind Praise

This is a rant. If you don't like rants, you are free to ignore the the next couple paragraphs.

There's one thing I really can't stand about people. I can't stand how some of them suck up to you when you're really good at something, but play you down when someone does a better job. I can't stress how many times over the years I've been let down by people I thought genuinely liked me as a person and were truly friendly people.

Anymore, when someone starts praising something I do, I immediately become skeptical of that person. I've almost gotten to a point of paranoia. It's bad. I don't like someone playing me up, and then trashing me when I'm not #1 anymore. What's fair about that?

Something that is even worse is when someone doesn't like you at all until you impress them with something, then suddenly you're their best buddy. I hate that more than anything. That is also something I've seen a lot of in my life. I've impressed so many hundreds of people and gotten so much praise for different things I do, rather it's being the guy who really made Sonic ROM hacking a big thing, or playing a musical instrument, or impressing people with my overall knowledge at a young age; and yet it's so disheartening to know that few really choose to get to know me on a personal basis and see me for the person I am inside. Suddenly, when you make a mistake, you're ridiculed for no real good reason and you begin to realize that they neither liked you nor disliked you to begin with. Essentially they see you as an icon of sorts, but never really a person.

By tomorrow, I'll be fine. Occasionally though, I get in these little moods where I have to ask myself how many people truly appreciate who I am. That's a horrible thing to ask one's self. I know I'm loved, but does it extend as far as I sometimes believe it does? What really cheers me up is when after I've gotten a hard time by those who choose to tear me down, someone comes along and tells me they still believe in me. That means a whole lot, and more people should say it.

Anyway, I needed to vent because sometimes it's not helpful to hold it in and never say anything. I just wish there were more people who were as friendly as I am.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

The SAGE Release & Upcoming Release

Many people couldn't come to grips with the SAGE release of the ProSonic engine only being available for Mac. I did this because the engine wasn't where I wanted it to be for it's second release, so instead of missing SAGE and thus missing a great promotional opportunity, I prepared the engine for SAGE and limited the number of people who could play it. This would allow it to get the attention I wanted for it, and it allowed it to be tested by people who were interested.

The downside is although there were plenty of downloads, I got feedback from maybe only one or two people. That isn't helpful at all. Perhaps that's my mistake for misjudging what I thought would happen. Still, I have no regrets about holding back on a Windows release.

A new release will definitely happen in September. I have not decided on an exact day yet, but you'll hear about it from me as soon as I make a decision. The September release will include a couple extra features not available in the SAGE release. It will be released for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and MS-DOS. Some of the goals I originally set in my 7-point plan will not be accomplished by September. The reason for this is because I have reviewed some of my original plans, and quite frankly, some of them aren't absolutely essential in my opinion. They'll be done sometime, but they're not a "must-have."

Some things you can expect is further scripting support, slightly improved GPI support, VGZ compatibility (the SAGE release only supported standard VGM), and several editing utilities that can be used to modify data and customize the engine.

Object scripting is still in early stages of development, so there will only be certain aspects of it supported. I also plan on changing the way the backgrounds are rendered, but only after the September release (I don't want to get myself into a jam and create problems I can't fix in time.)

That's all there is to say about my engine for the moment. Keep coming back for future updates.