Been having quite a bit of fun with the honours project recently and driving out the map editor for the multiplayer game itself. The game part is near completion to (code wise) with a round base system (similar to that of worms).  The editor is also rather neat with saving and loading of individual players maps which they own. Currently a small array of simple tiles and objects can be placed as well as start points for each teams minions. The only real thing left to do is some last bug checking and error detection.

The BeakW story:

In the near future both radiation and genetic manipulation experiments have destroyed civilization. Humanity has been wiped out and without supervision particles in man built tubes have collided ripping the earth apart through black holes. Vast pieces of empty land float seamlessly almost tranquilly through space unclaimed. Until now.

Mutated music playing rabbits, non-deteriorating radiation riddled tin cans, almost extinct water drops and anorexic looking aliens wage war on one another.

Select your side and wipe out your opponents. Destroy everyone.

Some Screenshots of the Editor:

Came accross this today http://jqueryui.com/and from first glance it looks rather epic. I’ve implemented the calendar tool into the Glasgow storage quote form and can say it was pretty simple to do.  I get the feeling I’m going to be using a lot more of the UI tools they provide and will probably be buying the book on it over the next week as well. Also now helping to support island state of Niue with my recent purcahse of www.beak.nu which is my new front domain for my web hosting after beakw.com became home for my university honours project.

What a year. I could list a hundred great things of 2009 but it would only get boring after the first three .  So 2010, in four months I will have my BSc honours which really isn’t a long time away in a galaxy far far away.  2010 is also the year I plan to start reading non-web related books again, improve on the spelling, blog more, draw more (get the laptop/tablet fixed) and relax a bit more.

When I write relax more, I really mean do less work related stuff on the net and hopefully get some more hours towards drawing and programming for fun… not that work isn’t fun but unfortunately no one is going to pay me to finish my flash ISO game …

Not sure if I did ever post something I was working on in my spare time but here it is in all its basic glory -

Basic game engine: http://beakable.com/game/013.html - Purple cubes can be clicked and moved around map using keyboard arrows, crates can be pushed and orange triangles are simple blind AI.

Basic game editor: http://beakable.com/game/E002.html – Arrrow keys to move around move map, mouse to lay tiles, white buttons bottom left of map display tiles and so on. Save feature in top left.

Till next time

Having apologised in my last post about lack of updates recently I come back again with my tail between my legs. Coming up for the last couple of weeks in my honours year semester at university now and just in the middle of wrapping up some large projects which is all peachy as I’m hoping I’ll get some time at the Christmas holidays and not need to be stuck to the box. Everything is going great though. Ages ago I had posted about doing SEO for a local Glasgow company and it really is time to blow my trumpet. On my first meeting they were failing to show up anywhere near the first page on Google, not even close. However after roughly six months on they are now 1st^, 2^nd or 3^rd for their main key phrases in organic results. Phrases such as “self storage Glasgow”, “Glasgow storage”, “Storage units Glasgow” and “Storage space Glasgow” as well as many other phrases has seen their average monthly hits tripled from below 200 to over 600.  I’m Pretty chuffed. The Glasgow storage company is http://www.aabsoluteselfstorage.co.uk.

I’ve sadly ignored updating my blog and my Facebook site page over the last month as I have really been nailed down (not even tied, but nailed). Apart from about 4 smaller websites/portfolios and larger NDA flash stuff, I’ve also began my Honours year at university.  After achieving my Bachelors with distinction I decided I’d stay on and see if I can get top grades again. In my honours I have to show what I am capable of with a yearlong project, which is why I’m making http://beakw.com/. I’m hoping to progress fast through it but with the amount I have on just now it’s only getting allocated the time it requires, not the bells and whistle time I’d want.  So once I’m over this current hurdle of work I might take a couple of weeks off from it all to focus on getting those top grades.

Just a couple of days ago I launched a Facebook page for Beakable.com seen here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Glasgow-United-Kingdom/Beakable-Web-Design/144184688922. This will be used for tracking of current and finished web design work as well as linking back to any articles that Beakable may feature in from now on. Hopefully viewers will join and give both positive and negative feedback on my work and comment on the progress of Beakable.com.

After the large influx of sudden visitors from smashingmagazine.com there was an increase in the amount of people viewing and clicking the Submit button on my contact page. I guess it was a case of seeing a button and clicking it to be enthralled by what was to proceed.
Sadly and I’m sure to many people’s displeasure nothing would occur, well when I say nothing, I mean the clicker would gaze upon nothing and my inbox would receive another blank or quickly filled in email.

But now, behold, I give you a button. A button which will most definitely perform and hold up to high expectations. A button that won’t only send me an email, but will give the clicker the much desired button clicking delight they seek.
Feel free to test it out, input is now required in the contact form before you’re able to click send but if you dont have anything to say feel free to fill it with garbage.

I was over the moon recently to find that Beakable.com had been linked to from SmashinzMagazine.com (http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/30/50-fresh-portfolio-websites-for-your-inspiration/).
Under a post titled “50 Fresh Portfolio Websites for Your Inspiration” my site was amongst some amazing pieces of work that I would never have thought I’d be placed next to. The site refers to Beakable as “Iain Hamilton’s portfolio is interesting and unconventional. Maybe funny characters in the header make up the core feature that singles out this design.”
This really did make my day.

I wasn’t too sure about the changes from the frog and Jason rabbit to the snail and salt shaker, and when I do get some time I will be thinking of some new characters. However I definitely won’t be changing my header away from my cartoon styled drawings now.
It’s also worth giving a mention just now to Dustin Morris (http://www.dewtone.com) and Christine Mackey (http://www.studiom-productions.com) who both provided me with work over the last year which without a doubt took my level of design from nothing to actually being reasonably presentable now. Both of them persisted from space increases of one or two pixels to colour shade changes that over the last year greatly improved my eye for detail and positioning as well. It will be interesting to see how I improve over the next coming year.

Well it was bound to take a long time to finish when the only real time you’re allocating for your web portfolio is between work and episodes of Lost. Luckily and probably thankfully the way it’s turning out, the mind blowing shambles which is Lost has come to a halt for another eight months; which means without further ado I can finally present my portfolio at a completed level http://www.beakable.com. Although a basic version of the site has been running for the last month or so, it was still in dire need of some brushing up and tying up of loose ends.

I still expect to be tinkering away at different parts of the site over the coming weeks and hopefully improving on its overall feel.