Ideas From Jorge

My Original Flash Game Did Not Win

2008-04-07T11:12:00.005-05:00

Well, I feel like I'm not good enough, my skills aren't up to par, everyone is better than me, etc. whatever.

Not really. I'm fine. I'm happy for the winners of the JayIsGames.com Competition. Sure, a win would have been nice. I was really just hoping for hits to my Graphic Design Website...and I got them. (I really wanted the CS3 software license).

I had put MochiAds on there, so in three weeks I have gained about $20. That's fun. Tricked Out Trailer ended up getting 25,000 plays in three weeks. UpBug got around 8,000. That's pretty good. The winner of the "most played award" had like 1 million. Wow.

Both games are now in the MochiMedia competition...although Tricked Out Trailer is having some problems with the external movies...lesson learned. (they received over 200 games, so I'm not expecting to win this one either).

I learned quite a bit through this competition. For one, it's a lot of work to promote a flash game, not just building a complicated flash game.

I thought I had a chance with my game being funny, but I guess that doesn't carry as much weight as I had hoped.

The winner of the competition was a space shooter which was actually quite good. Similar to many games in that genre, but had it's own coolness.

So, I guess I really have to consider what I'm getting into next time there's a competition. It took way more time than I thought it would, but I'm not sure I would have been motivated to make a game like Tricked Out Trailer if there wasn't a competition.

So, to all of you that played the game, thanks.

Here's another one I've been waiting to release...it's just a simple Tic Tac Toe game, but it's cute. My 6 year old likes playing it.

Have a great day.

jorge

Flash Game Competition Update

2008-04-03T11:32:00.003-05:00

There's less than a week left in the JayIsGames.com competition #5. My two entries have been doing pretty well.

Tricked Out Trailer has been played over 20,000 times in just over two weeks. I expect it will get a couple more thousand hits before the end of the competition. The game was picked up by a couple of game portals (DigYourOwnGrave.com and Kongregate brought a bunch of hits). I'm pretty excited about the views it got.

UpBug has gotten over 7,000 plays...which is pretty good considering the game is pretty simple, and not potentially controvercial like Tricked Out Trailer. I'm planning on submitting this game to Mindjolt.com and see if it gets another round of plays...see what that does.

Tricked Out Trailer is a multi file game, which means it calls external movies during game play (the two mini games - skeet shooting beers and playing Monster Truck Poker). This causes problems with some portals. I could not get this game up on Newgrounds because of this, and I know that it would have gotten a bunch of hits there.

I tried to modify the code to make it so that I could host the external games on my server, but I couldn't figure it out. It kept messing up the score. bummer. I'm certain that would have bought me another 1,000 hits at least.

Newgrounds has been really interesting. There are so many people on that site every day, that within the first hour or so, each game I submitted would get like 200 views. That's pretty intense. The views drop sharply after a day, and then almost disappear after that, but it's a big deal to get so many hits all at once. Check out my submissions...there's probably a game or two of mine you haven't seen. I'll probably be posting more of my games there when I get some time.

Last week, the competition sponsors opened up a way to vote on the games in the competition. Here's the page where you can cast your vote by donating $1 to your favorite game. The donated money goes to the developer, and the game with the most votes also gets a $500 cash prize. That's nice.

I voted for BFD (Bovine Flatulent Defense). It's a good game.

So, if you haven't played my games, go play them. If you have, thanks (you can always play them again...if you played them early, I've updated both of them after the first week).

The nex t competition is the MochiAds/Gaia Online competition which is coming up on the 7th of April.

jorge

Pilot a Robotic Bug Flash Game

2008-03-15T15:07:00.005-05:00

I've entered two games into JayIsGames.com casual Game design competition #5. My other game is a redneck trailer sim game where you trick it out with upgrades like Wheel spinners, spoilers and undercarriage neons.

The theme for this competition is "UPGRADE".

My Robotic Bug Game entry is a simple idea that got very complicated very quickly. In fact, I think I might have made the game a bit too hard, but maybe not.

It started as an "avoid the other bugs" game that got gradually harder by adding more bugs. It starts with a couple of ants, then some spiders, then some really annoying mosquitoes.

The enemies are not intelligent...they do not chase you, but there are a lot of them, and they seem to be random, but they are actually not. There are probably some players that will find the "safe spot" where no bugs will hit you.

So it started with the bug you drive around avoiding the bugs, and eating the "food" bugs. That's it. It was kinda boring. So I added a health system, where if you eat a food bug, the heath goes up, and if you get hit by a bad bug, the health goes down. I mae it start at like Health:20%, and then when it got to 100%, it triggered the "win" and it would go to the next level.

So then I decided that once the level was finished, the reward should be a newer faster bug, that was harder to kill and needed more food. So I built those, added more enemy bugs, and it still wasn't holding my attention.

Oh, and this whole time, there are also obstacles that make the whole thing like a maze, so I played with putting those in strategic places to make the levels harder.

Then, I wanted to add weapons. Not weapons that are attached to the robot bug, but that are on the field.

I made a nuke that you drive over and it blows all the bugs away for a second or two...giving you a little much needed breathing room on the 3rd and 4th level.

Then I felt like coming up with another one, but instead of a weapon, I made a little "incubator" I called it "Horde". Basically, you drive over that and 4 food bugs speed out of it. This can help when your health is low.

The third and last powerup is the plant remover. I called it "Hydro". Basically, when you roll over it, it takes away the plants on the field so they won't be obstacles.

Then I decided to make some of the plants where you can go under them...just to confuse things a bit.

I thought I was done. I made 4 levels, so the game could take about 10 minutes to finish. Oh, and I added a high score board (mochi Leaderboard) that tallies how many Robot Bug Vehicles you used to finish the game. The best possible score is 4 (which I still have not achieved...I think my best is 6 or 8 or something).

So then I though about a "Survival Mode". This is like that video game "driver" where like 6 cop cars are chasing you and you try to stay in front of them.

Well, I used the same idea, where you get a modified version of the "Stinkbug". I chose the stinkbug because it is fairly small (not like the cockroach) and not too slow. So I switched out the engine and added traction and navigation from the cockroach, and drop him in the middle of a mass of bugs. More bugs come out at 40 seconds, 80 seconds, and 100 seconds. There are a couple of nukes thrown in there for a moment of calm, but it doesn't last long.

Well, then I think now I have a pretty good game.

So the idea is you successfully pilot one ship, and your reward is to get upgraded to a higher performance vehicle.

Oh, and you have to do a flight check before you launch. This was a nod to the JayIsGames.com comunity, that seems to really be fascinated with "escape" games (search JayIsGames for "escape the Kitchen"...it's my favorite. It's not a complicated flight check, but you have to do it before you can deploy. (just click on buttons and switches to see what they do. Some are time toggle switches, some are press button and some are motion sensor buttons...you'll see. Don't get frustrated...it's easier than you think.

Oh, the "survival" mode has it's own high score system, capturing how long you stayed in.

Maybe in the future I will add levels, but only to add powerups and more enemy bugs. I didn't want to make the game too long because it's kind of the same thing throughout, and that gets dull sometimes if it's not a puzzle or something.

So, something I've done with this game is new for me, sort of new. I have created a game I can not beat. Well, I may have beat it once, but I have to build in cheats while I'm testing it, and then take them out for the launch. I've only created a couple of games like that, and it's funny, I always wonder what people do in those cases...maybe just get testers to test the heck out of it or something.

As far as coding goes, I think almost all of it is "HitTests". Pretty simple.

The owner of JayIsGames said that during the month that the games are being judged, the site gets over 1 million hits a week.

Here is basically what he said:

The site gets 750,000 unique visitors each month, and each competition
collection (they've had 4 so far) gets 1-5K views each day. The competitions
each got around 1,000,000 hits during the competition judging period (about
3 weeks), and this time (competition 5) is expected to "eclipse" the number
of previous visits because of some "viral" directions they are taking (ie. letting other game portals host the games simultaneously).

I hope my games get played...I hope people visit my website as a result of that, and I hope I get work from a few of those visitors.

Go play games...not just mine, play the other submissions too...these are brand new games by developers who worked very hard to get these games submitted in a very short amount of time.

Here's a direct link to the game on my website, and a link to the JayIsGames Competition page.

Oh, and that's my voice going through the flight check. I found an actual 777 flight check (the actual flight check sequence is really really long and complicated) and got some ideas from it.

jorge

Redneck Trailer Game

2008-03-15T14:35:00.005-05:00

I have entered a flash game competition over at JayIsGames.com. I entered 2 games. One is a redneck trailer game and the other is a robot bug game.

I'll write about the 2nd game later this week.

The theme of this competition is "UPGRADE".

The redneck trailer game is called "Tricked Out Trailer" and the gameplay is like a sim game. You need to make money doing several things so you can buy upgrades to your trailer.

Upgrades you can add to the trailer are: wheel spinners, a spoiler, a new paint job, decals (like a flame job or a racing stripe), some undercarriage neons, etc.

You can make money by pawning something, going to work at the beer factory, skeet shooting some shaken up beers, playing poker, or buying scratch-and-win game cards.

There are a few fun little things you can play with, like: you can adjust the antenna, you can knock out the christmas lights, and a couple of other fun things.

I really have a good feeling about this game. I think that it could win, although it probably won't.

This is where you come in. There are several ways to win. Most of the big prizes are judged, but one of the prizes will be determined by counting up how many plays a game gets.

The reason why I started making games was to get people to my business site. This is still my ultimate goal...to get some customers, be it for web design or game development. Either way, that's great.

So, if you go and play my game, click the "send to a friend" button and send it to a few of your friends.

Play some of the other games too...I am sure there will be some great games submitted.

As always, I learned so much making this game. I have a BUNCH or "Movie Clips" that are "watching" the score. For example, the scratch and win icon on the left has a watcher script on it that says: If the cash equals less than $5, then hide the icon, but if the cash equals $5 or more, the show the icon.

More compliated was the pawn shop items. Once one is sold, the code tells a "watcher" to equal "1", so if when the items Movie Clip enters the frame, it looks to see if the watcher says "1" or "0", and then shows it or hides it.

There are watchers watching if you have purchased an upgrade, if you have gained a "Golden Beer", If you have purchased the gun, and even if it's day or night.

The other huge thing in this game is that it calls external swfs. The skeet shoot and the poker game are stand alone games (sort of) that get called when the frame gets to a point once you've clicked the icon.

I also added MochiAds and Mochi Leaderboards (a high score system). The high score I chose to focus on was how much money was left over after you get your 6th "Golden Beer".

It's a pretty fun game, I think so far, everyone that's seen it hasn't been offended, and has actually laughed at least once. I think one of my friends actually shot some of his drink out of his nose while playing it.

It's not action packed...it's a sim game, but it's still pretty fun.

Please go and play the game at jayIsGames. I am also hosting my game on my server, and it counts toward the "Viral" score I talked about earlier.

Please let me know if you played the game. Do you think it might win?

jorge

How Much Can You Make on a Flash Game

2008-02-11T16:37:00.000-06:00

It's the big question: How much can I make on a Flash game? I've recently started actively trying to get my games to make me some money, and it's actually been working.

I've started adding MochiAds to some of my games (which gets me pennies at a time).

I've also posted a couple of games on FlashGameLicense, and that's actually brought in a bunch of offers for several of my games.

I've been researching what is "a good offer" and how much can I really make on a game. Considering if it's a game that gets "dugg" and on the front page of several big online gaming sites, it looks like it's possible to make several thousand dollars...just for building a flash game. That's pretty good.

MochiMedia posted this great article about Will Hankinson and his game "filler". It's a great article, explaining quite a bit about how much is possible to make on a flash game. This is exciting.

Here are my games, just in case you are curious.

Maybe one day I'll make a game that blows up.

jorge

New Flash Game - Ladybug's Robot

2008-02-01T13:03:00.000-06:00

OK, so I had been wanting to make a flash platform game, side scroller type, and I also was liking the "escape" games. Escape games are a game where you have to click around the screen and either gather stuff or set things in motion. Here's an example of a good one called "Escape the Kitchen", and one that I made for the Meineke Auto Repair Shop in San Antonio called "Escape from the Garage".

So, I kinda mixed the two genres together and came up with this one. As the game progressed, I started thinking about why the ladybug would be building a robot, and ultimately what would happen once the robot was finished.

I was inspired by this book called "Robot Dreams" by Sara Varon that I got at the library (really great book), and a story I wrote for my Children's Stories Blog called "Robotic Ladybug".

Well, so you are a ladybug and you go around exploring the environment. You've got some bugs to eat, other bugs that you have to get rid of, a pond to jump over, some clouds to bounce on, a snake to watch out for and of course, a robot to build. The story is revealed once the robot is activated, so don't give up.

Play Ladybug's Robot

My research found that ladybugs have no enemies. In fact, the give off a bitter tasting and foul smelling substance by rubbing their legs, so that's what you "shoot", but you have to get the "bullet" first...you'll see.

I used a platform engine by Nathan Stockton, but then modified it to suit my needs.

One of the new things (for me) in this game was adding a volume slider for the music (you'll have to look around for it).

I also wanted to make it more dramatic, and I found some great soundtrack music from a guy named "Edgen" on Flashkit.com. A credit to him is at the end scene.

Another fun thing was the animation of the end story movie. Notice the part where there is something coming down (don't want to spoil it). That's an animation effect I learned fro watching Anime cartoons. Mostly just the background is moving, but it makes it look like it's moving fast. That was fun.

The robot area has a hit test with this code:

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
if (this.hitTest(_root.char.hit)) {
_root.robot.nextFrame();
_root.char.hit.gotoAndPlay("off");
_root.char.gear.gotoAndPlay("gearWait");
}
}

Basically if the ladybug is in the "hit" mode and it hits the robot hit area, then it does three things 1) the robot's movie advances one frame (revealing the next part of the body), 2) the ladybug's "hit" mode turns off, 3) the "gear" goes to wait mode.

Each object that the ladybug hits, calls a _root.char.box.gotoAndPlay("gearFall"); which tells the gear to come down so that it's ready to trigger the robot movie again.

Anyway, enjoy.

Oh, I also started putting MochiAds on my games (the little ad that displays while the game is loading) so that I can start making some money. I'll write about that later.

jorge

Einstein Law Meets with SEO Experts - Watch this Video

2008-01-22T10:34:00.000-06:00

This video series is fairly heavy on the promotion of Einstein Law, but it's not difficult to see beyond that and take home quite a bit of "meat".

This series was filmed at the Webmaster World 2006 in Las Vegas.

Einstein speaks with Danny Sullivan on subjects like White Hat vs Black Hat practices, the future of internet video, search engine results, content, linking strategies, Link Farms, being sandboxed and Website size.

Einstein then speaks with Jake Baillie about local searches (as opposed to phone books), relevancy, quality of results, TrueLocal, website spam, link trading, content resource, call tracking and vertical searching.

Then with Greg Niland about the difference between a good SEO company and a bad one, link popularity, the sandbox, search engine updates and how it affects websites, long term vs short term results, quality content and video.

Watch the video series here.

Really informative stuff. It's fairly long, so play it in the background while you work.

Enjoy.

jorge

Free Tech Event, Bryan Texas, January 26-27, 2008

2008-01-10T10:10:00.000-06:00

I just got this, and I'll be attending.

BarCampTX

Check out the proposed topics:

Proposed Sessions

* User Centered Design/Development
* Rich Internet Applications (RIAs); pros and cons of using; technoligies: XHR, Flex/Flash, etc.
* "Design is ____" (v2) a presentation on the definition of design, its importance, and how to use it to its fullest potential - Roby Fitzhenry w/ 372
* "What is branding anyway?" - Roby Fitzhenry w/ 372
* "Do's and Don'ts in starting your own business" - Travis Ward & Roby Fitzhenry w/ 372
* 'Tips on communicating with customers for designers and web developers' - Brad Dressler w/ bcd design
* CSSBurner.com 's Toolkit (Markup and CSS)
o Getting Started (planning)
o Recyclable starting points
o The Techniques We Use the Most
+ Rounded Corners
+ Sticky Footers
+ Corner Pinning
+ Holy Grails
o Coding Practices ( or Our Clients Love Us for This)
* Optimal lawn mowing paths w/code! - Jeremy Kelley
* Meta-resources: Whats next for RESTful web services? - Ben Burkert
* Software testing practices - Ben Burkert
* 'What We Can Learn About Marketing "The Conversation" From The Online Adult Entertainment Industry' - Johnny Citizen
* Memorial Service for the term 'Web 2.0': let's put the term 'Web 2.0' to rest, have it live on in the term "Web", and keep cranking out cool new sites with better interfaces, user contribution, and open APIs.
* "MVC and PHP" or "Hey, those Rails kids had a great idea!" - Daniel Cousineau
o ...or any other PHP or Server-Side design topics, I would prefer to have a nice session on MVC even though most people (everybody except for Rails coders, and even some Rails coders) don't know the MVC design pattern at all.
* PEAR has done the work for you: Quick Forms is my hero - Daniel Cousineau
o While I would pick the above presentation over this one, a good 15-30 minute presentation on the wonders of Quick Forms (PHP only, however anyone else can get ideas and write their own libraries for Rails, etc.) and how much it speeds up dev time.
* Financing your startup 101 - Josh Tabin
* Any tech startup related issues (equity, financing, business model, etc.) - James Lancaster
* Managing the "Omni-Me" - James Lancaster
* Mobile journalist (MoJo) setup using (mostly) open source tools with podcast-type tips from a former radio anchor - Jonny Dover
* Code, values and culture: A discussion of what's important and what it means for the Web's architectural path. - Ethan Moore,

Awesome! Maybe I can present something...I don't know...what do I know.

jorge

New Flash Game Competition (#5)

2008-01-03T14:34:00.000-06:00

JayIsGames.com is having another competition, and the prizes are getting better.

Prizes:

1st place:
o $3,500
o (1) Adobe Flash CS3 Professional license
2nd place:
o $1,750
o (1) Adobe Flash CS3 Professional license
3rd place:
o $1,000
o (1) Adobe Flash CS3 Professional license
Best use of competition theme:
o $1,000
Viral award:
o $1,000 - most game views as determined by Mochi Media's MochiBot statistics for the 3-week competition judging period.
Audience award:
o $500 - determined by JIG community popular vote.

Deadline:
Sunday, March 3rd, 2008 at 11:59PM (GMT-5:00).

Theme:
Upgrade

Here are the winners from the previous competitions. I was checking them out to see if there's a "type" of game that keeps winning, but there's not. Maybe a "quality" of game.

Competition #1 Theme: Click Drag Type
Competition #2 Theme: Grow
Competition #3 Theme: Replay
Competition #4 Theme: Ball Physics

I'll be entering with something. Not sure what. I'll keep you posted.

jorge

Plan B - When Your Clients Don't Pay

2007-12-28T16:08:00.000-06:00

So, last month I reported my new plan to get my delinquent clients to pay, well, it didn't work. I didn't even get a response from them.

So I send them phase 2, and the email was a bit more dramatic:

All you owe me is $375.00. (I've attached the invoices)

And if you pay me now, my kids will have food on the table and maybe some presents for Christmas.

You can pay with a credit card online by going here: http://www.goycodesign.com and clicking on the paypal pay now button.

Have a wonderful day. And remember, just $375.00. That's nothing for you, but it's my electric, phone and water bill for this month.

jorge

This picture is the picture I attached to the email. This actually got a response. They thought it was cute, and the boss would talk to the accountant. And why wouldn't it get a response...she's so cute. I actually couldn't get her to make a sad face...even her sad face looked like a smile.

Well, it's been a couple of weeks, and still no check in the mail. So I've sent Phase 3. I'll report on that soon. Still haven't figured out what Phase 4 will look like...maybe a flash game. Hmm.

Hope your clients are paying.

jorge

Crazy Animals Flash Game

2007-12-27T15:26:00.000-06:00

I've just finished a little Flash game and posted it on my website. It's an easy game...well, it starts out easy, then gets more difficult.

You choose an animal from either a pig, a chicken or a bee, and you keep your cursor away from them. Ever 5 seconds, another animal is added to the field. Like I said, it gets harder pretty quick.

The pig is the slowest, and the bee is fast.

I've had the idea for a game like this one for a while now, but finally found the solution I needed. I needed to be able to have the animals appear in a random place on the field so that they would not all follow the same path. Otherwise, they just bounce off the walls and floor.

There is one problem in that I don't know how to check for where the mouse is and them offset the placement of the next animal. If you play this enough, you'll see that every once in a while the next animal will appear right on top of your cursor and it will end the game...sorry.

I had some trouble with the animals not going away once the game finished, but I got that figured out with a simple:

removeMovieClip(ball);

The original animal instance name on each level is called "ball".

I always learn new things with every game. This one was no exception. At the end, notice where the final "timer" number is displayed, well, I wanted to display how many animals (score) were on the field when you "lost".

So I took the "timer" variable (_root.timer), and I needed to divide that by 5 (remember that every five seconds a new animal appears). Well, I got that working with this:

score = Math.floor(_root.timer/5+1);

Oh, the "Math.floor" thing is ActionScript for "Round Down". The score was displaying with a decimal (like 8.3 or 2.7) and I needed it to display a round number. (thanks to flashkit forums for help with that!)

Also, you'll notice that I needed to add "1". I had to do this because when you start the game, one animal is on the field, which means that there is not animal accounted for in the 1st 4 seconds.

The animal noises on the title screen were made by my 2 year old boy.

I drew these cute little animals in Flash, and you'll be seeing them again soon.

The title font is "Loki Cola"

Enjoy the game: [Play Crazy Animals]

jorge

Lightbox, Pitching and Coffee

2007-12-12T22:37:00.000-06:00

Lightbox is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. It's a snap to setup and works on all modern browsers.

That's what the Lokesh Khadar website say about it. Lokesh Khadar is the author of the project.

You've probably seen the effect: You click on a thumbnail and the window goes black with a little white box in the middle of it. Then the box spreads tall and then wide and...BING...there's the large version of the thumbnail you just clicked on.

Well, it's free, and you can download it at the huddletogether.com site.

I just updated the dogonawall.com website (fine art pet portraits) with it and I think it looks great.

In fact, you don't have to do it to just one image...you can make a slideshow of sorts, you know, the kind you click through. I think it's perfect for portfolios.

It was very easy to set up. The download on the project page includes everything you need as far as explanations and files.

Wordpress.com uses it (or something like it) to preview themes, so do many other sites. In fact, it could become one of those things that gets overused and users get tired of, but in the meantime, I am digging it.

Good job Lokesh Dhakar. Keep it up. Looking forward to your "secret projects" (especially the rediculous ones). Check out his blog to find stuff like Baseball Pitch Diagrams and Coffee Drinks Illustrated.

Hope this helps.

Jorge

Destroy my Website

2007-12-07T13:32:00.000-06:00

NetDisaster.com is a fun little toy you can use to destroy the website you love to hate.

Here's a link to destroy my website. (using ants)

You can type in whatever website URL you want and choose whatever method of destruction you want (spill coffee, nuke, meteors, flood, ants, etc.) and watch it go.

This reminds me of some old screensavers on the mac.

They even have an FAQ, a wallpapers section, a way for you to put a netdisaster toolbar on your browser, and even add a javascript code to your website so visitors can destroy your site.

The FAQ is actually pretty funny, check out an excerpt:

Does it really destroy websites? If I do attack a site, does it show up when people go on it?
Of course not. When you choose a page to be destroyed by Netdisaster, the actual page is neither altered, nor harmed or even stored by Netdisaster. Only you see a modified version on your side. The only way to make your disaster public is to give its URL (such as http://www.netdisaster.com/ go.php?url=www.site-cible.com&etc...) by e-mail or a link on a site.

I've attacked a few sites, that's pretty cool, but now, how can I have them back to their normal state?!
Imagine that you're wearing rose-tainted glasses. You're looking at the Eiffel Tower through them, and say: "Oh God, the Eiffel Tower is pink! How can I restore its original color?!" Actually, all you have to do is take off your glasses and look at the Eiffel Tower directly, without filter, and realize that the Tower is unchanged. Nobody else noticed any change, but you.

Now, say you've built a replica of the Eiffel Tower, painted it in pink, and set it up at the Place de la Concorde. Passers-by are shocked that the Eiffel Tower has changed its colour. It's just that the actual Eiffel Tower is at the Champ de Mars. The one at the Place de la Concorde is a fake! All they have to do to see an unchanged Eiffel Tower is go to its actual location.

It's pretty much the same with Netdisaster.

If the address (in your browser's address bar) starts with http://www.netdisaster.com? go.php&mode=etc..., then you are not currently browsing the actual site, but its filtered replica. To browse the original target-site, all you have to do is go to its real address, e.g. http://www.yahoo.com. The "original site" button in Netdisaster's option bar is meant for that very purpose.

By the way, think about it: if you'd try to actually change the color (or size) of the actual Eiffel Tower, this would be a tough job, and they wouldn't give you a chance to do it! Well, it's the same with Netdisaster.

It's funny that they had to put up these explinations.

Enjoy

jorge

How to Start a Graphic Design Business

2007-12-04T09:44:00.000-06:00

Well, although the title of this post sounds like I know all the answers, I don't. But I know what worked for me, and it was not difficult.

This post assumes you have clients and a computer and some graphic design skills. Oh, and that you are not starting a graphic design business in College Station, Texas (where I live). If so, there are already quite a few graphic designers in town, so you are free to give it a shot, but there's quite a bit of competition.

First thing you'll need to do is pick a business name and go to your local courthouse and register your "Assumed Name" or DBA (Doing Business As). Your DBA makes it so that you can legally do business under a "fictitious" name (other than your own name) and receive payments and represent yourself using this name.

This will cost somewhere around $10.00 to $50.00 depending on your state and county. Some states require that you publish your DBA in the local newspaper.

You'll need this to open a business bank account at your bank. You'll want a business bank account so you can receive payments from company checks made out to you business name.

Once you've done this, you'll need to go to your local State Comptroller and register with them. Tax requirements vary from state to state. Some states do not require payment of sales tax on "services" or "consulting" but require it on "products". Texas for example requires I pay sales tax on %100 of services done for print, and only %80 of services rendered for Web (classified under "Data Processing Services"). And I only charge sales tax on Texas residents. Also, I don't charge Non-Profits and when I'm being hired on by another agency as contract (they pay the sales tax).

You can set up with the Comptroller when you will pay your sales tax; monthly, quarterly, etc.

That's about it.

Hope this helps

Jorge

Bobblehead Nativity Scene

2007-11-29T13:22:00.000-06:00

I built a Bobblehead Nativity Scene!

I looked around everywhere and couldn't find one, so I thought I'd build one.

Hope you have a wonderful December, leading up to a warm and cozy Christmas Season.

Play Bobblehead Nativity Scene

Enjoy

jorge

How to set up a PHP Contact Form on your Website

2007-11-28T09:31:00.000-06:00

The first few times I tried this, it didn't work. I ended up getting some friends to set it up for me. Then I found this script that uses PHP that works perfectly.

So, requirements for this form to work is that your server is running PHP. If not, you'll have to use a cgi script or a perl script or something. I don't use those, but you can start here.

Here's a zipped file with 3 items in it: The php script "MailForm.php", an autoresponse example "autoresponse.htm" and an html page with the form built on it "contactForm.html". You can use this form, or modify it accordingly.

You will also be building a "thankyou.htm" and an "errorpage.htm". You can turn these functions off, but I like them, so I've left them on the file.

Basically, for simplicity, you'll need to put "MailForm.php" in the same directory on your server as the other pages of your website. (you can always put the form wherever you like, but you'll just have to make sure the path on the form is pointing to the right place.

OK, so I'll talk about the easy stuff first. The autoresponse file is just a plain text message that gets sent to the senders email address immediately as they submit the form. Make sure and change the title of the page (this is turned into the "subject line"), and change the message to your liking. I made mine plain text with no html...that's the lowest common denominator. The name of the file needs to stay "autoresponse.htm" or it won't work. (again, if you change it, just change the path as well).

The error page will come up if the user does not fill in all of the required fields (we'll talk about that later). So, there should be a message stating that they need to go back and fill in the rest of the fields.

Note: I put a javascript "history-1" link on mine...just to make it easier.

The Thank you page is a "confirmation" message that the email was sent successfully. I suggest that it say something like "Thanks for contacting us...we'll get back with you shortly" or something like that.

I make my error page and thank you page look like my website pages. Test my page by not filling out one of the fields to see the error page, and then send me some nice message to see the thank you page.

This contact form script does not check that the phone number is all numbers and the right amount of numbers, or if the email is correct, so you might get some people sending you emails without a way to return their message. My brother does that to me every once in a while with messages like "Your website is lame!" and signs it "Holdin McGroin". I know he does it because he loves me.

So, now the form. Checkout the contactForm.html that you downloaded. You should be able to copy that code from the page I provided and paste it directly into yours. You might have to mess with table widths.

Note: make sure and copy from the open form tag to the close form tag.

<form></form>

So, there are a few things you'll need to change:

Form action: change this path to point to your file on your server.

Recipient: This is your email or your client's...the recipient.

Subject: Change this to what you want.

Redirect: This is the path to the thank you page.

Required: These are the textfield names that are required to be filled out.

Errorpage: This is the path to the errorpage, when the fields are not filled out.

Autoresponse: This is the path to your autoresponse page...this file (autoresponse.htm) should be somewhere on your server...I put mine in the same directory as the script and error page, etc.

Now, you just have to build your form (or copy/paste my form into your page. You know, almost every time i need a form, I go and copy the form from my site and paste it into the site I'm creating. I know mine works, I just have to change paths.

I always start by creating a table with the right amount of cells, then start filling them in. When you put a textfield in, go down to the "properties" palette (dreamweaver) and write in a unique textfield name. This will organize your textfields, but more importantly, these are the names that you type in above in the "required" area of the form code. If you are not working in Dreamweaver, the textfield name looks like this:

<input name="name" type=text id="name">

You can "require" any textfield, as long as it's unique, and is named. For example, you can have name1, name2, officialname, petname, numberofkids, basically anything. You can use underscores and hyphens, but no spaces or special characters.

I've actually made a form that had almost 80 fields in it and they wanted all of them to be required. That was crazy. I suggest making it obvious which fields are required by using "bold" or "red" or a "*" or something.

You can change what the buttons say at the bottom. The buttons are created for you by the code that speaks to the browser, so you don't have to create a button.

To make a multi line field in Dreamweaver, you just click multiline in the properties palette, and specify how many rows. outside of Dreamweaver it looks like this:

<TEXTAREA name="comment" cols="30" wrap="virtual" rows="4"></TEXTAREA>

Or something like that.

I sure wish I had an explanation like this when I was learning. You know, there are a bunch of scripts and tutorials out there, just google "contact form script" or something. What I found though is that most are written by coders that assume you know something about code or where to look deep in the code to find what you have to modify. The code I use is real easy, but again, your server needs to be running php...sorry.

Hope this helps

Jorge

How to Get Your Clients to Pay on Time

2007-11-26T21:50:00.000-06:00

Well, I've gone and done it.

First of all, the headline is not true. I don't have the answer. I have some ideas, like taking credit cards online and calling the client rather than emailing them, but nothing works every time.

The real advice is that I should: 1. Not do any more work for them until they pay, and then 2. End the relationship once they pay.

I had this idea a while back about how to make my clients pay me sooner. We all have those clients. You know, the ones that somehow forget that you need money to pay bills and buy food. Well, I've got a couple.

I'm usually very forgiving and email a few times, then call, then call again before even thinking of doing anything drastic. I'll even show up the clients' home or office in hopes that they have a check waiting on the "outgoing" pile they were going to mail.

I always start my emails: "I've been having problems with my emails lately and I'm wondering if you didn't receive my last invoice...I've attached it again just in case."

That works...usually.

My next effort is to email them and tell them that I have a bill that hasn't been paid. I blame my accounting system and ask if they would check their records to see if they paid it and got lost in the mail, or if I deposited it and forgot. I've actually done that, so it's not a total fabrication.

I've had my wife call and say, "This is Leigh of GoycoDesign, and we show an outstanding payment here for (this amount), when can we expect to receive payment?"

She's got such a sweet voice.

Of course, I have had to resort to calling and asking them outright if they are able to pay a partial payment of the invoice. Anything. A good faith amount!

I've thought about early payment discounts and late payment penalties, but have never done either of those.

My assumption is that they overlooked writing me a check.

Well, for most clients, that's the case. But I have one client who owes me money and just keeps on coming up with excuses. His latest was to tell me that he's got many people he needs to pay, and the loudest is the one who gets paid.

Basically, he just gave me the go-ahead to bug him until he pays me, right? You see that too, don't you?

That brings me to my crazy idea. I constructed a campaign using my kids in an effort to pull some heart strings.

I realize I could just call a collection agency, pay the fee and be done with it, but I guess I'm too nice. I try to justify it by saying that they might need me for more work in the future, but do I really want to work with them again?

It's really become a game. It's been so long that they've owed me this money, it's become a challenge, a conquest. Like a dragon I need to slay. Well, sort of.

The image to the right is part one. I sent it last week and I have yet to be paid.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Hope this helps

Jorge

Who Needs Designers?

2007-11-14T08:48:00.000-06:00

At the risk of upsetting some of my wonderful clients who may or may not laugh at this, check it out:

From: www.whoneedsdesigners.com

Check out a great discussion on this topic: www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk

What do you think?
1. How do you deal with clients like this?
2. Are you wondering if you need to redesign something after watching this?
3. Question Three?

Get Paid for Your Illustrations at iStockPhoto.com

2007-11-02T09:59:00.000-05:00

I was over at iStockPhoto.com purchasing some stock photography and I ran across a great article called "Vector Do's and Don'ts".

Being a computer illustrator, this article really helps with tweaking my technique. They've graciously posted a "Don't", which is basically a vector in a state that could use some reworking, and then right next to it, a "Do" which is the same illustration, redone in a more technical style. And then they talk about what's wrong with the "Don't" image, and what they did to improve it.

The article is a guideline illustrators can use when they submit illustrations into iStockPhoto.com, in the hope that they will get better illustrations, or at least acceptable illustrations.

Stuff like: Keeping the styles within the illustration the same, planning ahead, not overusing gradients, picking a style and sticking with it.

Here's an example:

And another:

Check out the "Vector Do's and Don'ts" article, hope you are as inspired as I am.

Hope this helps.

What do you think?
1. Have you tried Illustrator CS3?
2. Have you submitted illustrations or photos to iStockPhoto?
3. I'd love to see your illustrations. Do you have a website where we can see them?

Flash Game: Moon Duster

2007-10-21T14:46:00.000-05:00

Here's the game I created for the JayIsGames.com competition.

I didn't win. I didn't even place in the finals. It's cool. I still think the game is a good one. The games that made the finals are mostly games that use a more complex "Ball Physics" function. Mine was pretty simple - click the ball and it bounces!

I am just happy that I was accepted into the competition. This game probably took me about 5 hours to create the artwork and the levels, and then another couple of hours to update it with the new levels and obstacles. Most of the code was already built in my "Ick Flick" game I built last year, but I still had to change quite a bit for this game to work the way I wanted it to.

There's a ball boundary bounce function, a bunch of hitTests, a scoring system, obstacles, a score watcher (if score <=0, then go to next level), ah and the O2 gauge. I really love making these games. Thanks to FlashKit.com for advice and support.

I'm sure I can re-skin it for a paying client in the future.

Enjoy:

Play MoonDuster

What do you think?
1. How far did you get?
2. Was it too easy?
3. Was it too hard?

My Entry Into a Flash Game Competition

2007-10-04T10:50:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago I announced I would be entering a Flash Game Design Competition at JayIsGames.com. I finished my game and submitted it.

I'm fairly certain I won't win considering the caliber of submissions, but it's so fun seeing and playing the games submitted, and it was fun creating something for a competition. My game did not make it as a finalist, but I updated it, and I think it's better than the original. I added obstacles, more planets, sounds, etc.

If you are an online gamer or game creator, JayIsGames.com is a great place to visit.

Here's my entry for the competition. The theme is "Ball Physics". My interpretation was to use a ball that you can click on to make it bounce, except I changed the ball into an astronaut. You have to click the astronaut to make him jump into space to gather space debris, but he runs out of oxygen, so you have to gather oxygen tanks at the same time.

Many of the entries to this competition are using a ball graphic. Some are implementing ball physics, some are not so much. I started with a ball, but then conceptualized and came up with the astronaut. I think that makes it more interesting than just a ball bouncing around.

My favorite game entries so far for this competition are:

Day of the Bobteds

The Tall Stump

Roll

Angular Momentum

Osmosis

Contour (my personal pick as winner)

Heavy Metal Goreblood Extreme of Death 800X

Particle Blaster

Bubbles 2

What do you think?
1. What did you think of my game?
2. What did you think of the other games?
3. What is your age and gender?

Need an RGB and Hex Color Code Chart?

2007-09-28T12:53:00.000-05:00

Do you know your Hex colors? OK, what's #00bfff? Red? Blue? Sky blue? Deep sky blue?

I found a site that has RGB codes, Hex codes, the color name and a little box with a color sample in it. Really helpful when you are looking for a specific color.

Hope this helps.

What do you think?
1. How well do you know your hex colors?
2. Do you only use the basics or do you venture out?
3. Are you wondering why you would ever need this?

How to Add a Free Poll to Your Web Page

2007-09-26T01:00:00.000-05:00

I am needing to ask my clients what features they want in the future, so I needed to create a poll. I remember just a year or two ago when I wanted to do this it was costly and difficult. Well, for me anyway, maybe I didn't look in the right place, or maybe technology is moving faster and thus making it easier to offer things like this for free.

I found a great site that offers free polls to put on your website, blog or MySpace. It's called PollDaddy.com.

It's free. That rocks.

They've got other products I'm sure they'd like people to purchase, but for the time being, the polls are free.

You create your poll by submitting a question and all the answers, then you choose the skin and they give you the javascript, flash code or a direct link.

You can randomize the questions for each viewer, block multiple votes by IP, allow for multiple answers, and even use CSS to style your own look. Their styles aren't bad, though, so you can make a poll and post it to your site in about 5 minutes.

Once the "Vote" button is pressed, the poll shows the results right there. It's really a great app.

Here's quotes from their site:

What is PollDaddy?
PollDaddy is an online tool, which allows you to create free polls and place them on your website, blog, MySpace, hi5, Friendster or Xanga account or anywhere online that you can paste a bit of JavaScript or Flash!

Polldaddy Features
PollDaddy is simple and flexible, allowing you to customize our styles to match your website or email campaign. Deliver your poll through JavaScript, flash, direct link, widget or RSS to survey your user's opinions.

100% Free polls!
PollDaddy is free for you to use and enjoy, we hope that while using PollDaddy, you might take the time to check out our other products too.

There is no advertising on any of our polls, and we never redirect your users away from your website or blog, so if you want to start using our free polls today, then its time to sign up!

Here's a poll I created just for fun:

Fun!

Hope this helps.

What do you think?
1. Ever used a poll on your site?
2. Did people use it?
3. Were you surprised by the results?

How to Design a Good Logo?

2007-09-24T15:53:00.000-05:00

Whenever I get hired to produce a logo, I like to feast my eyes on other logos for a couple of days (if I have the time). You know, Inspiration.

I'll do a google image search for "logo" or just drive around looking specifically at logos. You know, get my brain thinking along those lines.

Well, while researching recently, I found this site called "GoodLogo.com".

This site is dedicated to the artform of the logo and its accompanied corporate identity. We hope to serve you here with the finest selection of logos, selected and submitted by everyone from all over the world. With our voting and rating system and our classification in categories we would like to give you a multidimensional view on the best logos for different purposes.

This is a site where they've got a bunch of international logos displayed. They've got a way to rate the logos and some case studies on some major logos.

It's interesting looking through these and noticing how familiar they are.

So, what make a good logo? More specifically, what makes these famous logos good logos? Well, I'd venture to say that they are just logos that are famous. Being easily recognized does not mean it's good. I mean, the World Wildlife Fund logo could have been anything. It could have been a zebra, you know? Well, although everyone thinks Pandas are cute, right?

Well, maybe one of my logos will end up being globally known. That would be fun.

What do you think?
1. Have you designed a globally known logo?
2. What is your favorite logo?
3. Has your business logo changed over the years?

Free Flash Image Gallery with Thumbnails

2007-09-21T10:30:00.000-05:00

I needed to post some pictures as a gallery for a wedding consultant, and for a home builder in the same week. I thought about popup windows using a javascript winpop, but with so many popup blockers, that's becoming less of an option.

I tried using a hover tooltip with a message and larger image (like on istockphoto.com) but the script I used didn't work on windows IE.

I thought about using Photoshop's automated web gallery thing, but it's really difficult to integrate the code that is generated by Photoshop into my existing design.

Sure, I can manually build each large image into its own page, but that is tedious and not well suited for adding images in the future.

So, I found SimpleViewer. Simpleviewer is a flash/.xml/.js system that works really well.

I found it really easy to modify and implement into my existing design. The guys at AirtightInteractive have done a great job answering questions right on their website. SimpleViewer is very modifiable. You can change the background color, add an image to the background, add captions, etc. Good stuff.

Here's an example of their viewer demo.

Here's their list of features:

* Intelligent image pre-loading.
* Intuitive image navigation
* Lightweight (17k).
* Customizable interface - Set text color, frame color and width, navigation position.
* Resizable interface - Interface scales to fit browser window.
* Cross platform - Windows/Macintosh/Linux (requires Flash 7 or higher).
* Flash 7 detection. Users without Flash 7 are messaged to upgrade Flash.
* International font support.
* Keyboard Navigation (Cursor keys, Home, End, Page Up/Down)
* Mousewheel navigation
* Optionally right-click to open image in a new window.
* Free!

Here's their FAQ and instructions on how to customize SimpleViewer.

They've even built AutoGeneration versions including Flikr, Wordpress, Server Side Script, Photoshop, Picassa, iPhoto, and others.

This is a great app. Fairly easy to use (you'll need to know some very basic html, but not flash) and free.

Also, check out their other demos...these guys are good.

Hope this helps.

What do you think?
1. What do you use to build galleries?
2. Have you used SimpleViewer?
3. Can you post a link to your gallery (even if it's not SimpleViewer) so we can check it out?