The Secret to Success!

It's a theme as old as time itself, and in self help books, DVDs and seminars the topic is worth £ millions in turnover. In a former role, as a teacher, I worked for years helping young people develop this in themselves finding that the difference between a student succeeding and failing was more down to this than any kind of natural ability. But even so it took a while for me to understand that this is the real key. And what is 'this'?

Belief.

I have come to learn that belief is the key to personal success. For a long time I thought, and taught, that it was work, or effort, and though important I now know that belief comes first. Without belief the inclination to put in sufficient work and effort soon dies.

In a recent BBC article "From thought to profit: How ideas become viable businesses" Timothy Mitchell, a 27-year-old "eccentric genius", and former Microsoft director, who says he's cracked artificial intelligence (AI) with computer codes and programmes that actually have the ability to learn, says:

"I have seen thousands of ideas die on the vine, because the individuals that have them never get over that fear of failing".

Fear of failure, or failure to believe, essentially comes down to the same thing. You let your worry that it won't work talk you into not working at it. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

In a very real way the battle for your personal success is won or lost in your head.

This understanding has been taught since ancient times. From the Christian ideal that "all things are possible to him that believeth" to Norman Vincent Peale's call to "Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful..." from The Power of Positive Thinking, the emphasis on belief remains.

We all have inherent abilities and talents, God given, and believing in them will unlock your success. That's the key, that's the start. That is where fear of failure is overcome.

More Reading

Using belief to overcome fear of failure is the theme of many resources on the subject, here are just a few:

The Power of Positive Thinking - Norman Vincent Peale

As a Man Thinketh - James Allen - FREE!

The Power of Concentration - Theron Q. Dumont - FREE!

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey

The Secret

Mouse Wheel Animation Control with Easing

The previous post gives a simple ActionScript 2 solution for using the mouse wheel to control forward and backward play along the Flash timeline.

This example extends that to introduce an element of easing. When the user stops scrolling the mouse wheel, instead of coming to an immediate halt, the animation gently glides to a stop.

var damping = 0.95;
var accelerator = 0; //equivalent to movieclip frames per framerate frame

//detect mouse scroll
var mouseListener:Object = new Object();
mouseListener.onMouseWheel = function(delta)
{
accelerator += delta/3;
};
Mouse.addListener(mouseListener);

//manage the animation
onEnterFrame = function ()
{
accelerator = accelerator*damping;
framespeed = Math.round(accelerator);
moveframe = clip_mc._currentframe + framespeed;
clip_mc.gotoAndStop(moveframe);
};

And there you have it. Play a MovieClip animation with speed and direction determined by the direction the user scrolls the mouse wheel. And when the mouse wheel is released the animation slowly comes to a halt.

Happy days.

Controlling Flash Animation Frame, Direction and Speed with Mouse Scroll

Most animations just play, you set their frame rate, your press play, and away they go. But I have an interactive item that I want users to be able to play forwards, or backwards, at the speed they scroll their mouse.

I am using ActionScript 2 for this, and the code is blissfully simple:
var mouseListener:Object = new Object();
mouseListener.onMouseWheel = function(delta) {
     frame = (clip_mc._currentframe + delta);
     clip_mc.gotoAndStop(frame);
}
Mouse.addListener(mouseListener);

As you can see you just create a mouseListener object and then build a function that acts on the onMouseWheel event.

When the mouse is rolled the 'delta' (or the value of the mouse scroll, forward or backwards) is used to calculate a new position in a MovieClip's timeline based on the current frame. The function then moves the play head using gotoAndStop to that new position in the timeline.

And you're done... This can be used to control the speed and direction of animation play within a MovieClip. I have a few creative applications of this technique in mind for the future - I hope you find it helpful. Happy scrolling.

3D Game Environment Modeling

Setting the pace for my level 3 students... One of my teaching philosophies is to lead and show, not just explain. Doing this provides ample resource for students to see the entire process, and to aspire. Here's my example.

A job well done!

It is with some emotion that I look back on the last few years spent working as a lecturer and teacher of graphics, interactive media and game design. But today more so as I received visits from two of my old students who have made a fantastic success of their lives since attending my classes.

Both recently graduated with Degrees and have successfully found work in the creative industries they trained for. One as an animator, the other in game design. Thanks for visiting me today you two, I could not be more happy for you. Thank you for bringing me news of your other friends who I also had the pleasure to teach. If you ever read this, I am proud of you, just as I am of all my other students progressing with their education or professional careers, buying their first houses, raising their children...

Right now, though, having visited today, you two represent everyone I have taught over the last 7 years, you are in many ways the symbols of what I hoped my career would be about. I wish you, and all my students every success. The future is bright it really is, it is in your hands, I know you can do it. And what made my day today was seeing that you know you can do it too.

Google Pulls Support for Unofficial Weather API

Well, it had to happen, it was never officially supported, and now it has. As Slashdot has reported, the Google Weather API is no more.

But... there are some alternatives, notably the Yahoo weather API - more details here:

http://dansinteractive.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/finding-weather-with-yql-and-yahoo-api.html

And, if you don't get on with that, you might take a look at this alternative:

http://www.wunderground.com/weather/api/

Happy weather forecasting :-)

Game Designers

You've heard of Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, James Cameron? Sure. All film directors. Visionaries in the medium of film. Artists and creative geniuses every one of them. But what about the medium of the computer game? Who were and are the names in games?

Perhaps like me you also "wasted" many holidays, evenings and weekends, as a youth, playing computer games. The first game I remember was "Jet Set Willy". A friend had loaned their Sinclair Spectrum to my older brother (I must have been about 8 at the time) and after what seemed an age of waiting for it to load there before my eyes was the first computer game I ever saw working in my own home. Since then I have played many games on many systems. Over the years home I have lived in hosted various home computer and game platforms - ZX81, Spectrum 48k, Oric, Spectrum +2a, NES, Game Gear, Atari ST, Atari Lynx, Master System, Mega Drive, PS1, XBOX, XBOX 360 and the Wii. Not to mention more iterations of PCs than I can remember, and of course my old iPAQ PDA, and now my Android smart phone. I played games on them all, more games than I can possibly remember, and behind each game were clever, creative designers pouring their ingenuity into their creations like the Scotts and Camerons of the gaming world.

Having recently become acquainted (and in some cases re-acquainted) with the knowledge of some influential names in the game industry, I decided to do some homework to learn more about other important names that influenced my youth. In other words, who were the Hitchcocks and Spielbergs, the game designers, behind my favourite games, and what do they have in common that I can learn from?

Matthew Smith

While possibly not strictly a game designer by the current definition, Matthew Smith probably represented the nearest equivalent in 1983. Strictly Matthew was a programmer, but as often seems to be the case (the OS user interface and the WWW being prime examples) early uses of computer technology, including in games, were driven by programmers. Mathew is best known for his work on Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy, for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Both represented early examples of the platform game genre.

Matthew's games demonstrated that playability was of high importance along with an understanding of the capabilities of the destination platform and how theses can be harnessed in creative and innovative ways. One example of Matthew applying this is the use of in-game sound in Manic Miner, it was the first Spectrum game to include in-game sound by making clever use of alternating CPU attention between game and sound.

Paul Woakes

Paul Woakes gets the first developer and concept credit for probably the game I played the longest - Mercenary. I played it on the ZX Spectrum, but it was available for several platforms. Produced in 1985 Mercenary was the first full 3D game, and first open world game, I ever played. Conceptually and technically it pushed some boundaries (particularly on the Speccy), delivering a unique gaming experience that made it stand out from the flat linear game play that was more common at the time.

Looking purely at game play (and not at 1980s technology limited graphics) Mercenary implements several of the approaches we still see today in open world games, including interactions with NPCs that push the story along and direct the player. I see Paul as a pioneer of 3D open world games.

Robin and Rand Miller

One of the best games I never completed was MYST, designed by Robin and Rand Miller and released in 1993. From a technical point of view it made innovative use of what was in effect a system of hyperlinks, and overcame limitations in the real-time 3D capabilities of the time by making innovative use of pre-rendered static images and animated sequences. The visual design was fantastic and combined with the slowly unfolding story and interlinking puzzles results in an immersive believable 3D world. Although there is no threat of violence ever in the game, the haunting loneliness, ambience and surreal landscapes always had me "looking over my shoulder".

For me this game really stands out as an example of designers Robin and Rand Miller being able to think of absolutely everything while demonstrating a high level of creativity and originality - a complex story that must be revealed in parts, complex puzzles, visual style, architecture, game play, game mechanics, use of available technology... - and how it all must come together to make a seamless whole.

Common Attributes

There are some schools of thought that suggest it is possible to "bottle excellence". That if we knew the ingredients of excellence we could teach anyone to achieve it. What attributes then do these four game designers demonstrate that I can learn from?

• Creativity - leading to originality
• Understanding of the available technology - in order to innovate with it and to push its boundaries
• A holistic view of the whole creation - seeing both the whole and the details and how they fit together
• Never giving up - because nothing ever gets finished if you do

Thanks guys :-)