Episode 31: Where did your weirdest best friend go?

      Hello dear readers (the few who would be left at this point). I apologize for barely posting anything this year, but it's probably been the craziest year of my life so far and I haven't been able to slow down enough to blog about it. I've done everything from learning to skate, training for a basketball tournament, getting my heart broken, creating a website for the first time (I'm a software developer, not a website designer), putting out my first android app, learning to create software as part of a team of programmers, working on creating my first video game, working at an NGO that deals with economic process technologies, travelling by road to another country for the first time, pissing people off, getting really pissed off and I'm not even going to start talking about my spiritual life and my relationship with girls because those are probably the two most exhaustive stories for me this year.



I still do a fair amount of drawing.

Episode 15: Project Monkey - One month into development

        Hi guys! This weekend makes it five weeks since I started working on my first video game. In case you didn't read episode 14 of this blog, let me recap a little. After waiting for my team (a group of friends) to get serious about making a video game, I decided to go solo and make a game all on my own. It's an obstacle course racing game with cel-shaded (cartoon styled) graphics and until I decide on the final name, I'll be referring to it as Project Monkey. Since I'm making the game alone and want it out by December this year, it will be a low budget, simple game that I hope will still be fun to  play.
        Now that the introduction's done, let's dive right in. I had access to a friend's Samsung Galaxy Note so I decided to draw some concept art for Project Monkey. I will upload one image every Sunday from now on until further notice. The images might not look as good as my regular pen and paper drawings as I had to draw on a phone with a stylus but the color definitely looks better than what I could have done on paper and also reflects the cel-shaded visuals I'm going for. Maybe I'll do some black and white concept art with a pen and drawing pad and upload those later.

   Remember this screenshot from episode 14? See concept art below

Episode 6: Boil Hotter, Get Sweeter

    The first week of 2012 just went by. In case I didn't say so earlier on this blog (which I doubt), I'm Nigerian and I live in Nigeria. Also, I'm a born-again christian. With that said, on the cross-over night at my church, our pastor told us some things that God told him about Nigeria in 2012. The fifth point (out of five) said "Nigeria will boil hotter, but get sweeter". Cool!
      Flash forward to later that same day (January 1st).  The president removed the subsidy on the price of fuel in the country, taking the price from N65 per litre to N140 per litre. A dollar is equivalent to 159.55 Naira (for my non-Nigerian readers). For Nigerians, this year has started on a really bad note. The cost of living just skyrocketed and most people have been criticizing the president (who, by the way, seems to be a puppet with no backbone or ego).
     I was amazed by the sheer amount of fuel subsidy jokes on the internet just a day after the subsidy removal. Facebook, twitter and blackberry messenger were so inundated with text posts and images that by the 3rd of January, I had heard literally ALL the jokes. Every joke I saw after the 2nd was a joke I had seen/heard before. Stuff like "TGIF. . . . . , na to go pop petrol 4 club" and "The best pick up line in Nigeria is 'baby, check it out. I've got a full tank!'" amongst many others. I'll post a few pics below.

       Just do a twitter search for fuel subsidy and see for yourself. Needless to say, there are protests and strikes opposing the subsidy removal. I'm not feeling the effects of the fuel subsidy removal yet (except in transport costs of course) but due to the strikes in protest to the fuel stuff, I won't be able to go to work for the next few days. I'll be working from home. The other 2 members of my 3 man programming team are staying at my place for a few days so we can write our first computer program as a team together.
    Since I don't have to leave the house early for work now, I'll be at the estate's basketball court every morning till the strike is called off to hone my skills. I haven't balled since last semester (3 months ago!). Also, I will have a bit more time for gaming. I'm at the finale of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks on DS. I'll beat the game tomorrow and post a review. I'll even have time to practice a few songs on the keyboard. This strike actually isn't too bad for me.............hotter and sweeter huh?