The first distraction: the absolutely amazing Ico and Shadow of the Colossus collection for PS3. Having never had a PS2 (both these games were originally released on that system) I missed out on these when they came out. And man did I miss out. The scope, design, music, and pacing are superb and engrossing. In fact these games were so engrossing Run + Gun has pretty much been on hold.

The second distraction is not really a distraction but more just general fatigue with a bonus helping of family obligations. I truly enjoy game development, but family and friends, well, them I love, so they get precedence. It seems like every weekend for the past month or two has been occupied, putting Run + Gun on hold. This is okay though, as it made me realize I was getting a little — not tired of, not burned out on but, well, — tried of working on Run + Gun. What I really needed was to take some time off it and come back fresh.

Which leads us to distraction number three. I’ve been working on a Javascript prototype game called Attack Vector. It’s a canvas-based game that features ballistic attacks and terrain deformation ala Scorched Earth and Gunbound.

The Attack Vector prototype has reached a point where I’ve accomplished just about everything I set out to do. Terrain deformation is in, the physics work nicely and the level editor is effective and simple. It’s been a very successful diversion and the first game project where I really just started things up and got rolling right away. It’s really made me feel like I’m starting to find myself as a game designer and developer.

Run + Gun hasn’t seen a lot of love on the past four weeks but it’s not forgotten. I’m getting back to work on it with some new perspective, a few new tricks and a renewed enthusiasm.

BKWLD also has it’s own blog so I’ll be blogging about work-related topics and things I learn about Flex through work there. You can follow me here.

It stared with getting the front bumper off which was secured with about 16 bolts and one metric (yes, metric on a 1973 American car) bolt. This took awhile since we didn’t think two of the bolts needed to be removed to pull the bumper off. We were wrong, a trend that would continue with this project.

Next we removed the hood and fenders all so we could remove the “Ventura” insignia on the fenders and then we started on the rear bumper. The rear bumper that, much like the front one, we thought we had ready to remove. The rear bumper that ate a wrench and necessitated the over-nighting of new wrenches. The rear bumper that had to have a stripped bolt drilled out of it. The rear bumper that still took twenty minutes to remove after all the bolts were removed. It’s off now.

While waiting on the wrenches needed for the rear bumper we went to work on the rest of the car’s insignia. This included a “Custom” and Pontiac logo on each side behind the rear windows and a “Custom Hatchback” insignia on the the back. Figuring these insignia were much the the ones on the fenders we took apart the interior to gain easy access to the bolts from the inside. Turns out the interior was welded in such a way to make accessing them impossible.

So we started pulling them off.

And this proceeded for about an hour with little progress. We tried razor blades, knives, screwdrivers all to get some leverage. None of it worked. In the end we invented the ultimate insignia removing tool. This tool is constructed from microfiber cloth and duct tape. It starts with a thin piece of duct tape that gets progressively thicker until it connects to the microfiber. Using this we were able to remove all the remaining insignia in about fifteen minutes.

Presently the Ventura is sanded and ready to be primed. Some pix are below.

Before shoveling:

After shoveling: