Finally, myself along with the gang that I work with are starting up another company to create our own game. No more working for other people. We have our own ideas and we have the motivation. It’s time to construct our own game.

The new game company that we just established is called Mission Critical Studios. We have begun the design process of the game which at this point is all on paper (so to speak). I’d say that in the next month we’ll start blocking out the game and putting our coding caps on. This way we can see what works and what doesn’t. The business is already started and meetings with financiers are underway.

Ah… I love starting new projects.

So, what of my other projects? I had two major things under belt… ok, I have two major things under my belt. One is the book, Half-Life 2 Mods For Dummies. The book is nearly complete as this weekend is the first time I see the end is near. I know that another round of editing needs to be done, but that comes when it comes and it’s not as nearly bad as writing the first draft. I should be done with the first draft in two weeks.

Two is the mailer project, IGotYourEmail.com. This is a web-based HTML email system complete with stats and very, very full featured. You can create multiple mailers (newsletters), multiple lists of subscribers and send them out right away or in the future; track how reads them, for how long and when; track who clicks what link in your email and follow their clicking through your website via conversion tracking. I’m telling you, there is nothing else out there that compares. This project basically finished up this week. We have a few more things to tidy up on the website regarding the layout and we can pass it onto the marketing team.

I was thinking up upgrading the uploads script on the MODSonline.com website. Right now, when uploading a file to the downloads section, members are restricted to the limits of http and PHP file sizes. This causes an issue because so many map files are larger than 5Mb (our current limit) these days. So, I did some research and found something that appears to be working.

The next step was to look into adding a progress bar to the upload. You know you go to upload 15Mb and the speed is like 85Kbps… that’s a lot of waiting to see if anything is working. I was able script something and my testing has worked. Now all I need is another 15 hours to put it all together for public use.

See, that’s the problem. With all the work I’ve got on my desk, I can come up with ideas and test them out. But when it comes to implementation, I run out of time. If I am inspired enough, I will move this project to the front of my to-do list. Otherwise, it will have to wait a couple months like alot of other ideas I have.

BTW: Talking of all that work… my wrist is hurting me these past few days. I hope I am not damaging anything from all my typing. Maybe an ergonomic keyboard would help? Do they make them with wireless capabilities?

I spent 4 hours last night trying to get a show that I recorded using Windows Media Center converted into a format that I can distribute. Microsoft loves their propritary formats and in this case it’s the dvr-ms file.

Now I found a couple programs that supposedly converts it, but then the audio and video were out of sync. That’s no good. Then I tried a plugin that cost me $30 for MCE. Supposed to be one-click compression to wmv format. Stupid program does nothing but display errors on the screen. Let’s see if I can get a refund on that junk. Finally, I found a program (my 5th program for the night) that did the job right. And here’s that info so you can follow along at home:

• Don’t use the glorified program,  DVRMSToolbox. That’s the one that un-syncs the video and audio.
• Don’t purchase Power Compress (or any other program). Their programs don’t work and I haven’t received a response to my email for help or a refund. (as I write this, I submitted another request for refund. who needs it)
• The winning program to use is DVR 2 WMV from The Green Button. Perfect operation.

Once I installed, ran and converted my video, I was able to open it in my video editor. Then I trimmed the video and compressed it for the web. Perfect…. after 4 hours of fustration and exhaustion (it was early morning hours).

I can finally start getting excited about the release of my book, Quake 4 Mods for Dummies. Yesterday, I received a few copies of the book and can now see that it was pretty much worth the effort. And there was indeed alot of effort. lol.

I expect the book to be available in store on August 7th. I’m basing this on the release date from Amazon.com.

If you’re looking to purchase the book through Amazon, please you the links found on this page. These links actually help me to earn an extra few cents per copy. lol.