Laborratten Game Studios

It’s been a couple of months since I’ve done any real development on Tribal Intel, which is part of a Tribal Wars python library I started making a while back. I recently checked the stats and realized that there were over 350 downloads, which is about 100 times more than what I expected. I figured that some of those people who downloaded my library are using it, so why not continue on with it?

I have a couple of features that I (and others) want to add, but my first goal is to create a real application that will be easier to use for everyone. Right now, Tribal Intel is a text-based python script with a great menu. You know, that kind that we all use to make when first learning how to program (“Pick a number from the menu…”).

My plan is to create a GUI that will not only ease the use of Tribal Intel, but also allow for new features to more easily be added (you can only do so much with a text menu…). I’ll be using PyQt4 for this. It’ll be my first real PyQt app, so it should be a lot of fun and provide me with many learning opportunities.

I’m still mulling over possible layouts and designs, so I don’t have much to show yet. I have come up with a splash screen which I think is ok. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but I’m more a programmer than graphic designer.

More to come. Stay tuned….

Not being a very dedicated blogger, my first blog has been ignored for the majority of its existence. Recently, it has dilapidated into a pile of green, mushy goo. I can’t even log in to the admin page anymore. This presented me with a problem, since I’ve recently gotten the urge to start writing a few things again.

The above-mentioned blog uses Mephisto, a Rails app. When I go to the admin page, I see a lovely screen of text telling me all the fascinating FastCGI options. Great, just what I was looking for.

Could I fix this? Probably, with liberal use of Google searches and the Mephisto community. If nothing else, I could backup my database, wipe the install, and then install the newest version of Mephisto.

So why don’t I?

The short answer is that even though I code for a living, I have zero motivation to find out how to fix this problem with Mephisto. I’m such a casual blogger that it really doesn’t make sense for me to spend the time figuring out how to fix it and then to fix it. I also don’t see the point in going down the “backup the database and re-install” road. Especially not when my host provided me with a one-click option of installing WordPress.

I’ll admit that I was leery of WordPress. I had used it once before and wasn’t overly impressed with it (especially after seeing Mephisto for the first time). The fact that WordPress is a PHP app also made me want to turn my back on it forever. But it was there, sitting in my site’s control panel…just one click away. So I gave in to temptation and clicked.

So far, I’m glad I yielded. I’m very impressed with the improvements that the WordPress crew has made to the interface and features. I can’t speak for the latest Mephisto release (0.8), but WordPress 2.6.1 easily beats Mephisto 0.73 for my needs. With Mephisto, I was always running into little problems here and there. Some might say this is to be expected with an app that hasn’t reached a 1.0 release yet. They may be right and they may be willing to deal with it, even submitting patches that fix the issue.

I admire these people who are passionate about making Mephisto “the best blogging system ever.” But you know what? I’m not passionate about that. I’m passionate about game developement. I want to spend my time doing that. I want a blogging system that works, not something I have to fight with just to write up a stupid article about how I used reflection in Java for the first time today and that it was surprisingly straight-forward.

As it stands now, WordPress seems very able to meet my needs.