I still have to come up with a good title..

No, I do not support their troops.

But it doesn’t matter, because this won’t stop them from buying the next toys.
Expensive toys that will help us “defend peace“.

Today I was skimming through Italian news (news from a country ranked #75 globally for Freedom of Press, just after Tonga and South Africa), and I couldn’t ignore a bunch of articles regarding the planned national Military expense.

Because off course, in today’s world, peace must be defended by having the biggest gun.

Well, notwithstanding the Constitution, which reads something like “Italy rejects war as a means for settling international controversies and as an instrument of aggression against the freedoms of others peoples [...]“, the Bananas Republic is gonna do some shopping from USA, to protect itself from the bazookas of the horse-riding Taliban folks:

• 131 F-35 jet fighters
• 96 Eurofighters
• 6 frigates
• 2 submarines (submarines?! Which naval power are we fighting now?! Are they going to go fishing in them?!)
• 8 Predators
• AntiTank weaponry
• …

Ting! Thank you, come again!

Ah, don’t forget the bill, 29′000′000′000 €.
214 fucking billion Danske Kroner.

Now, in no way I want to doubt the power of the Taliban army, and the advances of their weapon systems.. but.. really?

Considering the Italian plan of leaving Afghanistan in 2013, are we really going to need all that “peace protection” equipment?

Considering the monstrous public debt, the fucked up economy, the absent research funds, health, schools, !!!

..Fuck that!

*gone for a beer*

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Banksy.. I remember this name.

Some time ago a good friend named it.. but I’ve just discovered who is it referred to.

I find them beautiful.

Go give the rest of ‘em a look!

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(via news.com.au)

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‘Okay, think of something.’

‘We could pray.’

‘Pray?’ said Smith. ‘Now, there’s one thing I ain’t tried. Let’s pray for a little precision earthquake right here.’ And Smith went down on his knees, there on the cement walkway of the bridge, bowed his head, closed his eyes, clapped hands together palm to palm, prayer wise, and prayed. At least his lips were moving. Praying, in broad daylight, with the tourists driving by and walking about taking photographs. Someone aimed a camera at Smith. A park rangerette in uniform turned her head his way, frowning.

‘Seldom,’ the girl murmured, embarrassed, ‘you’re making a public spectacle.’

‘Pretend you don’t know me,’ he wispered. ‘And get ready to run. The earthis gonna start buckin’ any second now.’

He returned to his solemn mumble.

‘Dear old God,’ he prayed, ‘you know and I know what it was like here, before them bastards from Washington moved in and ruined it all. You remember the river, how fat and golden it was in June, when the big runoff come down from the Rockies? Remember the deer on the sandbars and the blue herons in the willows and the catfish so big and tasty and how they’d bite on spoiled salami? Remember that crick that come down through Bridge Canyon and Forbidden Canyon, how green and cool and clear it was? God, it’s enough to make a man sick. Say, you recall old Woody Edgell up at Hite and the old ferry he used to run across the river? That crazy contraption of his hangin’ on cables; remember that damn thing? Remember the cataracts in Forty-Mile Canyon? Well, they flooded out about half of them too. And part of the Escalante’s gone now — David Gulch, Willow Canyon, Gregory Natural Bridge, Ten-Mile.

Listen, are you listenin’ to me? There’s somethin’ you can do for me, God.

How about a little old precision-type earthquake right under this dam? Okay? Any time. Right now for instance would suit me fine.’

He waited for a moment. The rangerette, looking unhappy, was coming towards them.

‘Seldom, the guard’s coming.’

Smith concluded his prayer. ‘Okay, God, I see you don’t want to do it right now. Well, all right, suit yourself, you’re the boss, but we ain’t got a hell of a lot of time.

Make it pretty soon, goddamnit.
A-men.’

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Today’s improvements to the game consisted in the implementation of a pathfinder functionality.

This will allow AI objects to “travel” across the levels, calculating a path that intentionally avoids predefined areas.

As you can see in the picture above, the program determines particular paths, that represent “walkable areas” (green lines), and unwalkable zones (the areas that surround the red cubes).

These maps are generated automatically, providing an extremely powerful tool to manage AI movements.

The script comes from the A* Pathfinding project from Aron Granberg.

In my particular project I intend to use this path finding functionality to drive AI vessels, such as an ally Zodiac during inflatable boats confrontations.

Another possible usage could be the reenactment of the pursuit between the spy vessel Shonan Maru 2 and the Steve Irwin, challenging each others’ seamanship skills in dangerous mazes of iceberg fields.

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There’s action going on in the Mediterranean Sea.

Various conservation organizations are fighting to protect bluefin tuna from overfishing.

As every cause worth fighting for, confrontations will inevitably happen.

Here the chronicles of the current Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd’s tuna protection operations, and my personal opinion regarding their methods.

Read the rest of this entry »

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..Omg, omg!!!

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Well, now we begin to roll.

You can finally try the first version of the latest prototype of the Sea Shepherd advergame.

As my original concept dictated, the game will be a side scroller, with focus on the navigation aspects across iceberg mazes, and highlights in fast paced zodiac pursuits.

At this initial stage, you can try the feel of navigating the Steve Irwin vessel across what should resemble a very ruff iceberg field..

I tried to balance realism in the dynamics with certain more unrealistic elements, such as exagerated buoyancy, excessive speed and manouevre capabilities etc.

The game should have a high level of realism, yeah, but I also want it to be fun and entertaining for a casual gamer.

My favourite quote.. ‘Inaccurate, but it will blow your fucking mind..!’

So, in the hope of blowing some fucking mind up, here the link to the prototype.

The more feedback you give me, the more chances to see the issues solved in the next version..!

Controls:

• Up/Down – Forward, Reverse
• Left/Right – Steering wheel

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‘Maybe life’s just more mysterious than you think it is.’

‘You know, you spent too much time with Chantilas. But, if you want to go the god route, the easy way, it’s up to you..’

‘Easy way? There’s nothing easy about a spiritual life, it’s a lot more difficult than just being intelligent.’

‘I think you’re just ignoring the facts.’

‘The facts.. I bet you had no fun in Christmas, i bet your mom told you there is no tooth fairy when you were 4..’

‘I’m a geneticist. I write code, ok?
A, G, T, P.. in different combinations, hacking the human genome, ok?
I choose what, I choose where, and either your kidneys work or you grow a sixth finger. I do that.
Now, you spot god, lemme know. ’Til then, I’ll trust my PHDs.’

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Also today I’ve adding some new goodies to the game..!

A radar function has been implemented, that will allow the player to interpret relevant info, such as obstacles or waypoints.

I’ve built this radar modifying an existing Javascript script that can be found here: http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=Radar

Soon i’ll have to begin testing the prototypes. I’m very itnerested to find out, for example, if the test players will be able to interpret the radar correctly, given the fact that the sidescrolling gameplay contradicts the usual vertical interpretation of a radar screen. It is going to be interesting to find out if people gets disoriented if the radar is rotated to follow the direction of the scrolling of the game.

I also changed the POV to make the game more similar to my original concept (Whale Defense Response).

Soon I will upload a decent prototype, so you will have the possibility to try it by yourselves.

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