More Fun and Games

I started this week by donning a wetsuit and stackhat and abseiling down 5, 10 and 15 metre waterfalls in the mountains around Mérida. My first time canyoning was an absolute blast and I’ll definitely be doing it again. Having spent too much time lately with one foot in a river, it was refreshing to take ownership of my “river problem” and boldly walk through the rivers, soaked to the bone and loving every minute.

We walked through some amazing little bits of jungle, but didn’t have time to take much notice of it between jumping into pools, sliding down rocks and the intermittent whistle blasts from our guide… which became the funniest part of the day.

I was feeling a little lethargic this week, so only spent a day and a half on Elevation, but it has progressed pretty well and I’ve been playing it a bit. It’s a little harder than I anticipated, so there’s definitely some tweaking to do. I’ve also realized that combos, which will give satisfaction bonuses, are desperately needed to make the game more fun and have less of a random feel. All the time spent playing card cards on various boats and in various jungles has had a big impact on how I think about games, and the combos I’m thinking of are essentially a Straight, delivering 3 or more people to consecutive floors, or Triples or Quads, 3 or 4 people to the same floor. In order to add some tactics to how combos can be planned, people will fade in when they spawn and take a while to transition between a floor and the elevator. Moving the elevator while people are transitioning will leave them on the floor. This allows you to effectively cancel a move if someone starts spawning on a different floor that you can use in a combo. The main question for me now is where to build the combo mechanism in. I could just put it into the Level class, which is currently updating the people, elevator and timers but it almost feels like there should be an Observer looking after the combos.

Mérida has been and is great, and I’ve been having a lot of fun working on the game, but I’ve been getting a little anxious here lately, I think because I’ve been here so long. I’m hoping to get the game finished in the next week and move on to Columbia on Friday but who knows, Friday is a long way away at the moment.

Luego!

Damn you Microsoft!

Far too many people are on Hotmail for me to ignore it anymore, so I now have a Hotmail address... though just for IM.

philchan612 at hotmail dot com

Camping in la Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada

On Friday night we, Ace, Marcus, Dror and I, met a group of really cool Venezuelan guys and girls in our posada, spent the night drinking with them and then joined them camping the next day.

We didn’t have much stuff for camping, so one of the guys, William, ran around with us getting a tents, sleeping bags, isolation mats and food, and organized a jeep to take the 9 of us 2 hours to la Parque Nacional Sierra Nevada, where we had a short hike to get to a great, quiet camping spot nestled in the mountains and next to a stream where we spent the night.

We were up around 3,500 meters so it was a little chilly but not too bad. There was thick fog on our way up which gave a dreamy feel to the land, added to by little babbling streams and horses grazing in the rolling hills. Given my track record I was a little nervous about slipping in a stream, but luckily there were no incidences for me.

On the way up William gave us the run down on the plants and mountains. Once we’d setup camp, our resident chief, Ace, took care of dinner. After dinner the sky cleared to a perfect night, lit by a moon so full that you didn’t need a torch.

The clear sky lasted until the morning, and we were greeted by incredible views of the fields, streams, lagoon, waterfalls and mountains around the camp. We went on a quick walk into the mountains during which the fog came back in and within 30 minutes visibility was reduced to 10 or 20 meters.

We had a quick breakfast and walked to the main road to get buses to our respective destinations; Ace, Marcus, Dror and I to Mérida; William, Poncho, Dixie, Gabby and Lisbette to Maracaibo.

It was sad to say goodbye, but I’m going to stop off and spend a little time in Maracaibo on my way to Columbia to visit them which will be great, they’re some of the friendliest and coolest people since I’ve been out here.

Fun and Games in Mérida

It’s been a while since an update, but I’ve been having a great time in Mérida. I came down with a bit of a cold for the first couple of days, but a few extra hours sleep each day got me through it.

Last week was Easter holidays and Mérida is a popular destination for Venezuelans, so the town was packed but, because of Easter, bars and a lot of businesses were closed. Ace and I were unable to find a cheap apartment in a good area, and computer rental is impossible to come by, so I’ve been spending a lot of time in an internet café and we’re still in the posada, which has been cool.

The main thing I’ve been doing in Mérida is working on my game. So far I’ve been spending 8 to 9 hours on it a day and it’s been going really well. I’ve gone with Java, using some SDL bindings for the graphics, input, timer and audio. I’ve got a USB key with Eclipse and all the other tools I need on it, so it’s been really easy to work from the internet café. It would be nice to have Subversion running as well, but I’ve been backing up the code onto my iPod at the end of each day in case I do something stupid.

The graphics have been a bit of a problem, but I had one of Hans’ famous brain farts as I was writing this and it’s ok now. The game is 2D, so the graphics are very simple, but I don’t have Photoshop with me so I’m using GIMP… which I really don’t like but that’s another story, and yes I could use GIMPShop but for some reason every time I try to download it the Win32 binaries are incomplete, so the download fails. Anyway, GIMP has, I think, a defect where when I try to save an image in native GIMP format it looks for a font, which is dumb as I don’t even have any text in the image, can’t find it because the font isn’t installed and then falls back to another font which isn’t installed either. GIMP then aborts the save and exits, so I haven’t been able to save anything from GIMP. Instead I’ve been working in GIMP then taking a screen capture and cropping it in MS Paint, which has to be the clumsiest graphics program ever written. Writing this it occurred to me that I should try and save the image in a different format. Luckily GIMP supports Photoshop format files, so layers are maintained, and saving works perfectly… yah!

The game I’m working on is about as simple an idea as you can get, but will hopefully be fun. The working title is ‘Elevator Game’, though I’m toying with ‘Elevation’ at the name.

I’m far from a nerd but I’ve always been intrigued by elevators and how they could benefit from some learning algorithms to know peak times for different floors in order to provide better service during those times. Writing an elevator simulator would be fun but a little dry, so in this game you control the elevator for a building and have to get people to the floor they want. Waiting for an elevator is always frustrating so the longer it takes you to deliver someone to their floor, the lower their satisfaction with your service and the lower your score. So the idea is basically to get people in the building to the floor they want to go to as quickly as possible in order to get a good score and go on to the next level. I think of it like a real time version of The Traveling Salesman Problem where the cost of each arc in the graph changes with time.

I’ve taken the Module architecture that I’ve used in previous games and expanded it to use this Game State model that Kenny used in a prototype for a game we started working on before things got insane with work. There’s a UI system in sdlJava that I was hoping to use, but for some reason it’s bound to the OpenGL bindings in sdlJava, basically you need to pass a GL context into widget creation, which I don’t have… and seems kinda dumb to me, so I wrote a simple UI framework to drive the menus and game states. This type of dynamic, event driven system is so much easier to write in Java than C++. After only a few hours everything was up and running perfectly.

After 3 days of work, the basic mechanics of the game are in place. Navigating through menus you get to the main game module, where you can move the elevator up and down in the building and if there is room in the elevator people get in. When the elevator stops at a floor that someone wants to go to, the people get out. Next up is to add the satisfaction mechanics, new graphics, music (elevator muzak of course), lots of polish and, depending on time, incorporate the combo system from v2 of the game – even I know moving a box up and down is a bit boring.

Of course, there’s some RealLife to get in as well, I’ve been neglecting my Spanish study, spent a couple of days camping, and tomorrow we’re planning to go canyoning.

Mérida... Finally

It was a little harder to get to Mérida than I expected, but I'm finally here and feeling more than a little excited.

First, Masa and I had a lot of problems getting a bus from Valencia, a connection on our way from Ciudad Bolivar, to Mérida, so much troube in fact that Masa decided to skip Mérida and go straight to Columbia. I spent the night in Valencia, enjoyed cable TV watching 3 hours of The Batman on Cartoon Network, and went to the movies, to see Firewall, before getting a bus here last night. About 30 minutes after the bus was meant to leave, the conductor told us that the bus wasn't going to Mérida that night for some reason I still can't fathom... I thought it was because there weren't enough people going to Mérida, strange since every bus was full the night before, but nearly the whole bus came to Mérida, so the reason will be an eternal mystery to me.

Anyway, I was hoping to met a Japanese guy called Ace who I met in Bèlem when I got here, but didn't have his email address. Luckily, as I was walking into the dorm to drop off my backs, he walked out :) He's going to spend the month here taking Spanish lessons, hitting the gym and learning Salsa, to which I'll add writing a computer game and talking to people at the university and we're pretty much doing the same thing. Since we're so long, we might share an apartment together, but we'll have a look tomorrow and see how much they cost.

I've been so excited about coming to Mérida for so long that I expected my dreams of a relaxed creative academic paradise set in the Andes to be dashed when I got here, but so far it's perfect. The weather was supposed to be crap, but it's beautiful and sunny today. The cable car to Pico Bolivar, the highest peak in Venezuela, was supposed to be out, but it's working perfectly. I'm sure the rain and cold will come sooner or later, maybe later today, but it wont be so bad if I'm inside working anyway.

I was talking to my big(gest) sister, Vanessa, the other day and she asked me if I'd found anywhere I would like to run away to. I said no, but in the back of my mind I was wondering if Mérida would be the place. So far, it looks like it could be. True, I've only been here for 4 hours, but I'm prone to strongly emotive comments when I'm happy, which I definitely am at the moment.

Could I be in trouble here?

Happily,
p.

Ciudad Bolivar

It's taken a few days, but I've finally recovered from Mt. Roraima and am in a great little city called Ciudad Bolivar with the 4 Japanese guys at the moment. Tonight we part ways as Masa and I go to Mérida and the others go to Caracas.

I'm going to spend a few weeks in Mérida taking more Spanish classes and writing a game that I started working on before I left Sydney. It's only a little one, so it shouldn't take too long... though those are famous last words aren't they.

Hopefully I'll be able to rent an apartment in Mérida to get some peace and quiet and might even try to rent a computer as well, otherwise I'll be spending a lot of time in internet cafes.

It might seem a little odd to take a holiday from my holiday, but I've been getting pretty excited about doing something nerdy again. I'm even going to start a new blog to document the development. It will, of course, pollute this one with nerdy stuff, but I'm sure there is someway to filter out the computer talk :)

After Mérida I'll be heading into Columbia, which I am incredibley excited about. Everyone I've spoken to about it raves about the country and people, and I'm even going to spoilt myself and get laser eye surgery there. Cali is supposed to be a popular destination for the procedure, along with Sao Paulo, Brasil. It's supposed to be cheap and reliable there, and the thought of seeing properly again without glasses makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Luego.

Mt Roraima - The Descent

Team Roraima - Before the Descent
Originally uploaded by Phil Chan.

Today’s walk down Mt Roraima to the camp where we’re spending the night didn’t turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. In fact it was a lot of fun, tiring, but fun nonetheless.

During the walk we had a bit of rain and I, of course, slipped crossing a river and ended up with another wet foot. I slipped crossing a river on the second day as well, so between these two and stumbling into the creek in the Amazon, I think I’m on my way to putting my foot in every river in South America.

We also walked past a small fire that started when a local hunter threw away his cigarette butt. The fire had burnt a few hills and we passed within about 6 meters of the flames. The fire fighters were out there with a helicopter and buzzed us a couple of times which was kinda cool.

The fire plus the dry heat, shrubby grasses, rocks and insects remind me a lot of the bush in Australia, especially out near Condobolin. It really is beautiful here, but I’m looking forward to getting back to town tomorrow. The thought of a hot shower and clean clothes is becoming increasingly appealing… though in reality they’ve always been appealing.

Sunset on Day 4

Sunset on Day 4 - 1
Originally uploaded by Phil Chan.

Sitting here at the camp, I have, and am, being treated to an absolutely amazing view as the sun sets behind Kukenàn directly in front of me,

As the sun sets though, the clouds and the cold roll in. Yeah, tonight’s going to be a chilly one.

Mt. Roraima - Day 4

Clouds Wash Over Kukenan
Originally uploaded by Phil Chan.

Last night was cold, C-O-L-D, but I think I have a good strategy for tonight, which involves wrapping a shirt around my head, two pair of socks on my feet and one pair on my hands.

Today we wandered around the top of Mt Roraima, stopping for some amazing fresh spring water, probably the best tasting water I’ve ever had, before checking out some crystals and visiting “La Ventana”, a window formed by some huge rocks where you can see a long, long way down.

The highlight of the day though was the landscape between each of these points. The top of the mountain looks like a set from a sci-fi movie; black blasted rocks are cast everywhere, surrounded by prehistoric looking plants and small ponds with sandy tracks navigating them.

The area around Roraima is also phenomenal, and we’re treated to one amazing view of Kukenàn and La Gran Sabana after another, when the clouds don’t block the view that is. At this height we’re above the clouds, so looking out sometimes all you can see is a sea of clouds, at night the clouds wash over the mountain drowning us in fog. I always wondered what it would be like inside a cloud, and now I know… it’s cold and it’s wet.

Before lunch we visited the “jacuzi”, which was a series of ponds filled with freezing water. I took a little dip and felt great, after which we walked through still more incredible scenery.

After a lazy lunch we walked to the highest point of Roraima which is 2810 metres above sea level. We had a little taste of La Gran Sabana and Kukenàn, but clouds once again enveloped us. The way the clouds rolled up over the mountain where we were sitting was amazing. It was as if they were playing around us, leaping up over edge, washing over the rocks, then springing up and dancing off over other rocks.

I’ve definitely been going camera crazy this trip, between the Amazon and Roraima I’ve easily taken over one thousand photos, though I wouldn’t say there are that many good ones  As much as anything, the photos make great reference material for my story, which after a long time stagnating it the back of my mind has been revealing itself more and more with every place I go. It’s practically writing itself at the moment, with many of the environments being places I’ve visited in South America.

On a more serious and troubling note, I have become far too comfortable, far too quickly with the hat, which some could say is in the “Cowboy” style, that I bought for this trip. I even had a nap with it covering my face today... truly scary.

Roraima Days 2 and 3 – The Ascent

Before La Rampa
Originally uploaded by Phil Chan.

The last 2 days have been the most physically exhausting of my life and the only word I can think of to describe how I feel is “aghh”.

Over the 2 days we’ve walked about 25kms with 15kg backpacks, which isn’t that much until you carry it all day… uphill. The only thing missing to make this a true “When I was your age…” story was the snow.

Having never hiked before I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the rolling hills and desolate trails that make this land so beautiful have completely exhausted me to the point where I went from being happy to have time with my own thoughts, spec’ing out version 2 of the game I’m going to work on in Mèrida and fleshing out the book/cartoon that I’ve been quietly working on for the last few years, to the point where it was all I could do to place one foot in front of the other without tripping on the loose rocks of the “trail”.

Today, day 3, I woke with a feeling of dread. The walk ahead wasn’t as long as the second day, but it was a lot harder. We had to literally climb up to the top of the mountain.

During the walk we crossed streams, lunched near a waterfall, climbed through jungle and then met… La Rampa, a 45 degree slope of loose rocks. I don’t think I can describe the climb in anyway that does it justice or convey what I really felt, fear, exhilaration and pure disbelief at the majesty of nature, but I took a few photos to help tell the story. Had I known how difficult the climb would be I’m not sure that I would have done it, but reaching the top and seeing the entire Gran Sabana stretched out below, the tepui Kukenàn to our right and the otherworldly surface of Roraima ahead of us made every single step worth it.

The next two days will be spent exploring the top and, no doubt, taking lots of photos. I’m dreading the trip back down, but that’s two days away, so I’ll worry about it then.