But nearly all of your posts have some variation on "when the money is right". How is it ever going to get right unless you do something to earn it? What you're doing now is NOT working. Your business barely exists. You don't make enough money to live as an independent adult. You're living an extremely extended childhood. You need to set the business aside and prioritize working somewhere where you can earn a dependable amount and get some real experience.
Oh people... Stop trying to rehabilitate Richard. It's hopeless. I know, I've tried too. But it really truly never stops going in circles of excuses. Don't believe me? this is from more than 10 years ago, when he was making excuses about another profession, but if you've tried here you'll find the exasperation, impatience, and incredulity of this former venue familiar: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/comp.sys.cbm/bgL8U8mCofE
yeah... theres also this there that sums up both the situation on their forum and this one: "[Richard] has a real problem (Get a life man, a girlfriend or something) I think he's a bit insane too, I don't want to be rude in any way, but I told him for countless times that he should change his "style" and dump this all evanghelism, he didn't listened. He's like a virus you know, an Agent Smith, spreading in all C= places. He talks like a scientist and Mr. knows it all, but until now nobody has seen anything from him, not a single piece of code, nothing, just words..."
That's all you'll get for your efforts - nothing, just words. It's hopeless, it really is. Sad, too. But hopeless.
Oct 7, 15 10:55 pm ·
·
kjdt,
I know what I have to do with the business end to increase revenue on the business. I just have to do it.
On my website:
1. No projects or plans. ( I need to do some work that is worth showcasing not just low budget clients. )
2. Improve overall website.
On the business in general:
1. Get out there and get clients. Spend some money to make some business cards and disseminate them. (Money isn't a barrier there... just need to put together a decent logo and all that good stuff)
2. Get out and be more socially involved.
3. Present work. It doesn't have to be built projects. They have to show the client that you can design.
4. Market other services besides building design.
..... the list goes on.
Bottom line: Stop arguing with you and get working at it.
You know what.... FUCK the architect license. Just do it. Licensing boards can go suck a big willie.
Are you sure you have the self-discipline to run your own business? Don't get defensive - the answer doesn't really matter to me, but you should be honest with yourself about whether you can get things done on your own. You've been in this business since 2006 and don't have business cards, isn't that a negative indication?
Oct 7, 15 11:18 pm ·
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I started my business in 2005/2006 pretty much out of pocket and from savings from other sources of income I had.
I have printed out old cards but I haven't went out and have new cards printed. You don't keep printing out cards where it costs money to print with no results. When you are making more clients by in person contact... business cards alone doesn't bring clients.
Making some new cards and other work has to be carefully budgeted and gauged. I have other work to do besides printing out business cards.
Yes, the question was whether you're really cut out to run a business. The suggestion was to be honest with yourself in assessing that. Ask yourself: do you usually do the things on your to-do lists? Do you take the steps you say you will? In a timely manner? Do you have the self-discipline?
The business cards were just an example - an indicator of a tiny, inexpensive task that you've mentioned numerous times as an important next step, and yet haven't managed to do over the course of 9 or 10 years.
You're always talking about carefully gauging budgets, and strategic prioritizing ... but cards cost as little as $10 for 500, and they don't need a logo they just need your contact info - I've gone through 10 boxes in the time you've been talking about ordering some - yet your spare backup AIA lapel pin was a higher priority item in your budget than cards... Are you sure you have any knack for marketing yourself?
Pretend you're your boss and give yourself an annual review: be honest with yourself - if you were an employee would you keep yourself around another year, based on the past year's performance?
so in 2004 you were working on developing a game to be played on a commodore? a system that was already obsolete? why?
aside from that, Jim said some nice things:
I noted to Rick that he's got too many irons in the fire. CSDOOM, an OS, C1 stuff, etc, etc. As hard as it is, he needs to pick 1 or two projects, and work on them. He's young, energetic, but overcommitted, and some of these concepts are deceptively hard.
In some respects, I wish I had the enthusiasm and the "never say die" attitude he has, but I also remember taking quite a bit of heat for that naive attitude... I also remember over-promising and under-deluvering, and the nasty effect that has on people who place trust in the project in question. Been there, done that, learned from it, won't do it again.
In the end, it's up to Rick to commit to one or two of his interests and work didligently on delivering something.
how did it work out? there is no commie doom right, so you backed out of that (even though you didn't tell people you were backing out, but rather told them you intended to keep with it?) Did the other projects go well?
why not stick with that path as a profession, instead of rebooting and trying to be an architect?
You know what.... FUCK the architect license. Just do it. Licensing boards can go suck a big willie.
ok, sarcasm off for a second;
Richard, I am not your typically trained architect. I took several classes, and a few years of studio at a local University, even being recognized for Freshman honors (I still have the pen!) but decided against completing the program. As a result, I do not have a University degree, NAAB or otherwise. For the AREs, I never took a prep course, even for Structural Systems and so, I think I understand your perspective in eschewing traditional learning. I'm telling you this so that you might recognize something in common with your situation.
Nevertheless, I had a real job. I worked for real Architects. I learned real things. I put in the time to meet the qualifications for my State Board. I logged the IDP hours. I passed all the ARE exams with only one misstep. I got licensed at 42, including time away from architecture. I never made huge money in those years, $45-50k tops. But I had money for all the things KJTD noted; family, house, eating out, etc. Obviously, you can too.
Finally- Stop all the scams; Assoc-AIA, Prof. Building Designer, or whatever cracker jack box certification you think will give you the credential you need to be successful. Don't waste your time on "stock plans". Most importantly; Stop all the bullshit; LISTEN more-SAY less. There is nothing "new under the sun" as they say. You are not as wonderful and unique as you think you are. Apply the advice you have been given. Take the help or suggestions that have been offered.
Richard unfortunately you seem to use the two businesses - building designer and programmer - as excuses for not moving forward whole-heartedly with one or the other. You tell the architecture forums that you've decided to focus on a kickstarter campaign for your software business, and meanwhile you tell the forums related to software that you can't move forward with your projects on that end because you're focusing on building design. You telll the architects that architecture isn't viable (even though we're doing it), and you tell the computer people their field isn't viable. Everybody tries so hard to give you advice, motivation, break things down into manageable steps for you, give you the kick in the pants you seem to need - and yet instead of taking anyone's advice, ever, or following through on anything you say you're going to do, ever, you always wriggle away with excuses. The person who lamented 10+ years ago that you never follow through and just provide more words might at well have been writing about you this morning.
^ What Jerome said... I have somewhat of a nontraditional career track as well, having spent most of my 20's flailing around aimlessly from one undergraduate program to another, completely convinced of my own architectural genius, and constantly looking for what I thought would be shortcuts toward registration. In retrospect, I was completely unprepared for college or professional practice, but my huge ego kept me from realizing it. Sound familiar? It wasn't until the age of 30 that I realized I had pissed away a decade of my prime years and had spent far more time and money looking for shortcuts than I would've spent just going to school full-time and getting my credentials in order via the traditional route.
It took me 15 years to do it, but I finally finished my undergrad degree in 2010, mostly by taking night classes while working full-time at various architecture firms during the day. (Not a path I'd recommend, but I had no money and pretty terrible grades in high school, so enrolling full-time in college right after high school simply wasn't an option for me at the time.)
With my undergrad degree in hand, I enrolled full-time in grad school at Cincinnati soon afterwards, continued working at architecture firms during co-op placements and after graduation, and at the age of 40, I'm finally done with IDP and the AREs. Barring any last-minute snafus with NCARB, I expect my initial license by the end of the month.
Richard, all this is a long way of saying that you've been giving tons of helpful advice here, and you're doing yourself a massive disservice by stubbornly ignoring it and making excuses for failure. I was in a very similar situation; part of the reason it's so painful for me to read your constant stream of verbal diarrhea here is that I probably could've written most of it myself 15 years ago. I now wish I had taken my ego out of the equation and listened to the people who had tried to give me advice at the time.
Richard, I am not a doctor, so please take this with a grain of salt, but I have suffered from depression. At one point in my life it was so severe that every small task was as daunting as climbing mount Everest. It seems that you may be suffering from some sort of depression/mental illness. You should consider seeing a doctor and getting some professional help.
The mind can dig itself into a hole that seems deeper than it really is...just saying...
Oct 8, 15 11:26 am ·
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curtkram,
What was also not taken into account on the CS DOOM 64 project was that even from day one, I had doubts of it being possible to be done and meet specifications given.
On the positive side, it was using a SuperCPU accelerator. This would allow more clock cycles to be available to process machine language instructions that are cpu intensive like rendering routines. Lets remember, the game was originally written for a 386 PC with a vga graphics card of a certain level. Additionally, the closest version for the C64 would be the Super Nintendo version but the problem is, the code wasn't all in 65c816 but also a RISC chip as the SuperNintendo games are on cartridges which includes custom processing chips in the cartridge with the game.
The only real source code with documentation of any kind available was the original MS-DOS/Windows version of DOOM.
The C64 has these challenges:
- Even with the SuperCPU, there is bottleneck in the processing. Anytime data has to be processed through to the video chip or sound chip or I/O, everything bottlenecks down a 8 Megabit per second (theoretical maximum...) bus. If I had an new video chip, sound and I/O all on the 20-Mhz bus inside the SuperCPU, it would probably not be much of a problem.
Everything at this point on the C64 has to be machine language. Not an excuse. Just a reality and a note of the extensive level of work. Hurdles at absolutely every point in the C64 system and its gets right down to clock cycles. You can't render a screen remotely like a VGA screen with a VIC-II chip. You don't have the color palette. You have a different bitmap matrix structure. Add to that, the VIC-II is not what people would call a video 'processor'. It is just a video display chip. One that is somewhat limited in what it can do.
In short, it was a project doomed to failure (based on specifications given for it) from the get go.
In short, it wasn't going to work and no one to date has EVER reached the specifications. They have to cheat or otherwise not achieve the specification in the first place.
The only attempts done since were merely pick and choose what aspects but none ever met the criteria of specification. No, I didn't come up with the specification.
If you know machine language programming of the C64 and C programming of the 386 (aside from 386 assembly language), you'd realize really quick that the tasks are not that simple. You'd walk away from that project after seeing what is entirely involved. You have only so many clock cycles to do things at a time during video processing of bitmap information. Bottom line: People can make video games for the C64 and they do even to this day but DOOM isn't something that can be easily ported without significant alterations and certainly not to the specifications I was having to meet which was pretty high... too high to meet with the C64/128 w/ SuperCPU. You'd be better off making a different game even if inspired by Doom or Wolfenstein.
that's all great and all. it's better to try and fail than never try at all. the return on the amount of work that would have gone into getting that to work would not be worth what you would end up with.
the whole post kind of misses what i was asking though. once you realized you would be unable to complete the doom project, did you focus on one of the other projects and finish it? why not stick with coding if you already had so much invested in that path?
So... 500+ words on the history of a failed project from 2004.
In the time you spent writing that you could have ordered your business cards, and interacting with the world. I make it a point to distribute and receive at least two cards every day. It does pay off in projects. What is the return on investment on the time to write those 500 words?
In the time you're going to spend on here the rest of today you could write your resume and send it to 20 firms.
I will take my own advice and not waste more time trying to get through to you.
Dude - I think you posted that to the wrong forum. I'm sure it get's hard to keep track of 'em all. However, here at Archinect, I'm sure we would all prefer that your refer to yourself as "Wildfire" or whatever your C=64 handle is.
Oct 8, 15 1:07 pm ·
·
so in 2004 you were working on developing a game to be played on a commodore? a system that was already obsolete? why?
It wasn't the only platform I was developing for. As for why? Pretty much, the same reason every Commodore demo scene, game programmer to this day who are still programming for the platform. I was programming for it back in mid-to-late 1980s. Reasons are personal. People still do commercial video game development for the C64. Although, it alone won't make you rich and you would develop for multiple computer platforms in order to make a living of any kind.
how did it work out? there is no commie doom right, so you backed out of that (even though you didn't tell people you were backing out, but rather told them you intended to keep with it?) Did the other projects go well?
Some projects depended on the other projects and after awhile many were cancelled. On the other hand, there were a couple of projects I did work with that were completed. If I were to work on any project for the C64/128 these days, it would be only when I feel like putting the time to it.
why not stick with that path as a profession, instead of rebooting and trying to be an architect?
The computer programming field in those days were being outsourced to India. You should note that there was a big shift of outsourcing in 2001-2005 time frame. People won't hire you unless you are from India.
"People won't hire you unless you are from India."
Um... did you try to get hired? Because that sounds a lot like things you say about architecture: "People won't hire you unless you know Revit", "People won't hire you unless you have an NAAB-acredited degree"... sound familiar? And no matter how many times we tell you those things aren't true and we or our coworkers are living, breathing examples, you still never try.
The only always-true statement that begins with "People won't hire you if..." is "People won't hire you if you don't apply." I would think though that it is also frequently true that "People won't hire you if they google you and find your 12-year history of misrepresenting yourself and not getting anything done." So you need to counteract that by creating a googleable history of getting some things done...
Today's challenge for Richard: reply to this with a message that contains ONLY one building design business-related task that you will complete today - and then report back tomorrow on that task's completion. Go!
"Commercial video game development is a bit difficult to be producing as an independent software developer. The reason is because the games that people were paying money to buy would require a budget comparable to a major movie production. We're talking like $25 to $100 Million production budget and 1000+ people involved. "
The above was copied from a post the RWCB deleted while I was writing my lengthy reply.
So Balkins response to kjdt is a period. I interpret that as a middle finger held high.
JLA is right on. Get therapy. Get it fast.
Oct 8, 15 2:02 pm ·
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SneakyPete,
Ubisoft and other AAA commercial video game (this is what people pay money for) quoted production budget involving $60 Million. Some games goes well above that. Some are lower. Number of people involved varies. I didn't say 1000+ people are involved throughout the entire project. Some are brief and specific. Some are more involved.
Some cases, the cost rolls in not just development/production costs but entire marketing and not just a single game but even an entire franchise. Figures in the $500 Million are in that.
I'm not talking that the game people buy on the store shelves cot $25 to 60 Million. I was talking about the production, development, launching, marketing. The whole shebang in getting it from a concept in head to the 'store shelves' (in this case, lets include the virtual stores in this day and age with Steam and others).
Therefore, my figures aren't far off from mainstream commercial game development.
Oct 8, 15 2:52 pm ·
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rob_c,
Sit down and Rotate on it.
Okay... I didn't reply to the advice after all... wasn't one of them listening not saying.
Balkins, are you capable of even taking a dump or do you just shit in your bed and say that the plumber didn't install a wide enough drain for all of your lies?
Oct 8, 15 3:04 pm ·
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Insane is a perspective. Anyone living in this fucked up world and haven't committed suicide is probably insane. So maybe I am. When humanity is this fucked up than yes. You have to be to live in the world of humanity as it is.
God has to be for not smiting humanity from the face of the earth and start all over.
Balkins you've got 10+ years of evidence pointing to your lies about promising to deliver on projects, to have knowledge on programming, knowledge on architecture, promises to yourself to finish school, to develop your businesses and on and on.
Oct 8, 15 3:18 pm ·
·
I'm not targeting you and a few others who have some fair advice.
As for Commodore software development, you don't know anything about this stuff as you weren't actually there at the time nor understand the Commodore community or understand the computer industry. Did I apply for jobs, yes. Guess what, they hired a bunch of people in India and laid off a bunch of Americans. Technically, they would hire other people than those from India. I'll take the statement as a mistatement. However, they won't hire Americans. They can pay a top notch computer programmer with 30 years experience from China for less than Federal Minimum wage in the United States. In India, for just under Federal minimum wage, you can hire a computer programmer from India that would cost $20/hr. if you hired a U.S. programmer of equivalent knowledge, skills, experience.
It's about money. How is that going to work when they off-shore the work. I don't live in China or India.
Oct 8, 15 3:20 pm ·
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rob_c,
If I know nothing about programming, how do you think I get a degree from an accredited college?
Back in the 1980s, I used pseudonyms and not the pseudonym that you see.
If you like, I'll put together a commodore 64 program. Lets say a few structural engineering calculation program to calculate beams. You can use a PC with an emulator to run it.
"I know, but I hate contractors, so I'm still working on the set, but they are going to steal your money and make money and I'm not, so I don't even know if this is worth issuing. What do you think? Do we issue the set out? Wait, just give me a week, I'm working on it."
When explaining my decisions back in 2003-2005 time frame, think about the context of the time.
Look at the situation back in 2003/2004. Indie development was not a fad. It wasn't until the last 5 years or so that there had been a resurgence in independent development. 2005 was 10 years ago. The market had some major contraction in indie development. It is hard to tell if the fad will continue or will contract.
Even today is nothing like 1980s was like by any means. One can not assume such revenue opportunities.
If Markus Alexej Persson had your shitty attitude and made your shitty excuses, he wouldn't be worth $1.5 BILLION dollars right now.
Oct 8, 15 3:41 pm ·
·
null pointer,
If they want a bid set due out the same day as they first contact me, I would give them a previously done stock plan or something. They aren't getting custom design work.
indie development has always been around, since shareware on floppies.
you might not make a lot of money developing indie games, but it can get you experience in game design, and a bigger studio might be interested in hiring you, or other people might become interested in working with you. beats doing nothing.
i wasn't talking about your 2004 decisions anyway. why not do what you're good at today? if you have experience at programming, and you've successfully completed a project for the commie back in the day, maybe you should be looking in that direction instead of architecture, which is already saturated and has a much higher barrier to entry?
there was a guy named oscuro or something like that who made a big mod for oblivion, and was subsequently hired by obsidian and worked on fallout new vegas. he didn't even do any real coding, just basic scripting with the tools the devs were able to give him. that was less than an indie game, and it got his foot in the door to a real job.
Oct 8, 15 3:45 pm ·
·
Sure. Sneaky but he probably got help to get there.
Oct 8, 15 3:50 pm ·
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curtkram,
True but the indie software development market isn't always rosy. It fluctuates.
You got a point though. I have also committed a great ordeal of time with architecture as well. That's the hard part.
NCARB Says my School is not accredited, but it is....
But nearly all of your posts have some variation on "when the money is right". How is it ever going to get right unless you do something to earn it? What you're doing now is NOT working. Your business barely exists. You don't make enough money to live as an independent adult. You're living an extremely extended childhood. You need to set the business aside and prioritize working somewhere where you can earn a dependable amount and get some real experience.
Oh people... Stop trying to rehabilitate Richard. It's hopeless. I know, I've tried too. But it really truly never stops going in circles of excuses. Don't believe me? this is from more than 10 years ago, when he was making excuses about another profession, but if you've tried here you'll find the exasperation, impatience, and incredulity of this former venue familiar: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/comp.sys.cbm/bgL8U8mCofE
woah.
that's amazing.
yeah... theres also this there that sums up both the situation on their forum and this one: "[Richard] has a real problem (Get a life man, a girlfriend or something) I think he's a bit insane too, I don't want to be rude in any way, but I told him for countless times that he should change his "style" and dump this all evanghelism, he didn't listened. He's like a virus you know, an Agent Smith, spreading in all C= places. He talks like a scientist and Mr. knows it all, but until now nobody has seen anything from him, not a single piece of code, nothing, just words..."
That's all you'll get for your efforts - nothing, just words. It's hopeless, it really is. Sad, too. But hopeless.
kjdt,
I know what I have to do with the business end to increase revenue on the business. I just have to do it.
On my website:
1. No projects or plans. ( I need to do some work that is worth showcasing not just low budget clients. )
2. Improve overall website.
On the business in general:
1. Get out there and get clients. Spend some money to make some business cards and disseminate them. (Money isn't a barrier there... just need to put together a decent logo and all that good stuff)
2. Get out and be more socially involved.
3. Present work. It doesn't have to be built projects. They have to show the client that you can design.
4. Market other services besides building design.
..... the list goes on.
Bottom line: Stop arguing with you and get working at it.
You know what.... FUCK the architect license. Just do it. Licensing boards can go suck a big willie.
Are you sure you have the self-discipline to run your own business? Don't get defensive - the answer doesn't really matter to me, but you should be honest with yourself about whether you can get things done on your own. You've been in this business since 2006 and don't have business cards, isn't that a negative indication?
I started my business in 2005/2006 pretty much out of pocket and from savings from other sources of income I had.
I have printed out old cards but I haven't went out and have new cards printed. You don't keep printing out cards where it costs money to print with no results. When you are making more clients by in person contact... business cards alone doesn't bring clients.
Making some new cards and other work has to be carefully budgeted and gauged. I have other work to do besides printing out business cards.
oh dear fucking god, bloopbox didn't ask about your business cards, he asked about your discipline, are you stupid or do you just pretend really well?
Yes, the question was whether you're really cut out to run a business. The suggestion was to be honest with yourself in assessing that. Ask yourself: do you usually do the things on your to-do lists? Do you take the steps you say you will? In a timely manner? Do you have the self-discipline?
The business cards were just an example - an indicator of a tiny, inexpensive task that you've mentioned numerous times as an important next step, and yet haven't managed to do over the course of 9 or 10 years.
You're always talking about carefully gauging budgets, and strategic prioritizing ... but cards cost as little as $10 for 500, and they don't need a logo they just need your contact info - I've gone through 10 boxes in the time you've been talking about ordering some - yet your spare backup AIA lapel pin was a higher priority item in your budget than cards... Are you sure you have any knack for marketing yourself?
Pretend you're your boss and give yourself an annual review: be honest with yourself - if you were an employee would you keep yourself around another year, based on the past year's performance?
so in 2004 you were working on developing a game to be played on a commodore? a system that was already obsolete? why?
aside from that, Jim said some nice things:
I noted to Rick that he's got too many irons in the fire.
CSDOOM, an OS, C1 stuff, etc, etc. As hard as it is, he needs to pick 1
or two projects, and work on them. He's young, energetic, but
overcommitted, and some of these concepts are deceptively hard.
In some respects, I wish I had the enthusiasm and the "never say die"
attitude he has, but I also remember taking quite a bit of heat for that
naive attitude... I also remember over-promising and under-deluvering,
and the nasty effect that has on people who place trust in the project
in question. Been there, done that, learned from it, won't do it again.
In the end, it's up to Rick to commit to one or two of his interests and
work didligently on delivering something.
how did it work out? there is no commie doom right, so you backed out of that (even though you didn't tell people you were backing out, but rather told them you intended to keep with it?) Did the other projects go well?
why not stick with that path as a profession, instead of rebooting and trying to be an architect?
You know what.... FUCK the architect license. Just do it. Licensing boards can go suck a big willie.
ok, sarcasm off for a second;
Richard, I am not your typically trained architect. I took several classes, and a few years of studio at a local University, even being recognized for Freshman honors (I still have the pen!) but decided against completing the program. As a result, I do not have a University degree, NAAB or otherwise. For the AREs, I never took a prep course, even for Structural Systems and so, I think I understand your perspective in eschewing traditional learning. I'm telling you this so that you might recognize something in common with your situation.
Nevertheless, I had a real job. I worked for real Architects. I learned real things. I put in the time to meet the qualifications for my State Board. I logged the IDP hours. I passed all the ARE exams with only one misstep. I got licensed at 42, including time away from architecture. I never made huge money in those years, $45-50k tops. But I had money for all the things KJTD noted; family, house, eating out, etc. Obviously, you can too.
Finally- Stop all the scams; Assoc-AIA, Prof. Building Designer, or whatever cracker jack box certification you think will give you the credential you need to be successful. Don't waste your time on "stock plans". Most importantly; Stop all the bullshit; LISTEN more-SAY less. There is nothing "new under the sun" as they say. You are not as wonderful and unique as you think you are. Apply the advice you have been given. Take the help or suggestions that have been offered.
Richard unfortunately you seem to use the two businesses - building designer and programmer - as excuses for not moving forward whole-heartedly with one or the other. You tell the architecture forums that you've decided to focus on a kickstarter campaign for your software business, and meanwhile you tell the forums related to software that you can't move forward with your projects on that end because you're focusing on building design. You telll the architects that architecture isn't viable (even though we're doing it), and you tell the computer people their field isn't viable. Everybody tries so hard to give you advice, motivation, break things down into manageable steps for you, give you the kick in the pants you seem to need - and yet instead of taking anyone's advice, ever, or following through on anything you say you're going to do, ever, you always wriggle away with excuses. The person who lamented 10+ years ago that you never follow through and just provide more words might at well have been writing about you this morning.
^ What Jerome said... I have somewhat of a nontraditional career track as well, having spent most of my 20's flailing around aimlessly from one undergraduate program to another, completely convinced of my own architectural genius, and constantly looking for what I thought would be shortcuts toward registration. In retrospect, I was completely unprepared for college or professional practice, but my huge ego kept me from realizing it. Sound familiar? It wasn't until the age of 30 that I realized I had pissed away a decade of my prime years and had spent far more time and money looking for shortcuts than I would've spent just going to school full-time and getting my credentials in order via the traditional route.
It took me 15 years to do it, but I finally finished my undergrad degree in 2010, mostly by taking night classes while working full-time at various architecture firms during the day. (Not a path I'd recommend, but I had no money and pretty terrible grades in high school, so enrolling full-time in college right after high school simply wasn't an option for me at the time.)
With my undergrad degree in hand, I enrolled full-time in grad school at Cincinnati soon afterwards, continued working at architecture firms during co-op placements and after graduation, and at the age of 40, I'm finally done with IDP and the AREs. Barring any last-minute snafus with NCARB, I expect my initial license by the end of the month.
Richard, all this is a long way of saying that you've been giving tons of helpful advice here, and you're doing yourself a massive disservice by stubbornly ignoring it and making excuses for failure. I was in a very similar situation; part of the reason it's so painful for me to read your constant stream of verbal diarrhea here is that I probably could've written most of it myself 15 years ago. I now wish I had taken my ego out of the equation and listened to the people who had tried to give me advice at the time.
Richard, I am not a doctor, so please take this with a grain of salt, but I have suffered from depression. At one point in my life it was so severe that every small task was as daunting as climbing mount Everest. It seems that you may be suffering from some sort of depression/mental illness. You should consider seeing a doctor and getting some professional help.
The mind can dig itself into a hole that seems deeper than it really is...just saying...
curtkram,
What was also not taken into account on the CS DOOM 64 project was that even from day one, I had doubts of it being possible to be done and meet specifications given.
On the positive side, it was using a SuperCPU accelerator. This would allow more clock cycles to be available to process machine language instructions that are cpu intensive like rendering routines. Lets remember, the game was originally written for a 386 PC with a vga graphics card of a certain level. Additionally, the closest version for the C64 would be the Super Nintendo version but the problem is, the code wasn't all in 65c816 but also a RISC chip as the SuperNintendo games are on cartridges which includes custom processing chips in the cartridge with the game.
The only real source code with documentation of any kind available was the original MS-DOS/Windows version of DOOM.
The C64 has these challenges:
- Even with the SuperCPU, there is bottleneck in the processing. Anytime data has to be processed through to the video chip or sound chip or I/O, everything bottlenecks down a 8 Megabit per second (theoretical maximum...) bus. If I had an new video chip, sound and I/O all on the 20-Mhz bus inside the SuperCPU, it would probably not be much of a problem.
Everything at this point on the C64 has to be machine language. Not an excuse. Just a reality and a note of the extensive level of work. Hurdles at absolutely every point in the C64 system and its gets right down to clock cycles. You can't render a screen remotely like a VGA screen with a VIC-II chip. You don't have the color palette. You have a different bitmap matrix structure. Add to that, the VIC-II is not what people would call a video 'processor'. It is just a video display chip. One that is somewhat limited in what it can do.
In short, it was a project doomed to failure (based on specifications given for it) from the get go.
In short, it wasn't going to work and no one to date has EVER reached the specifications. They have to cheat or otherwise not achieve the specification in the first place.
The only attempts done since were merely pick and choose what aspects but none ever met the criteria of specification. No, I didn't come up with the specification.
If you know machine language programming of the C64 and C programming of the 386 (aside from 386 assembly language), you'd realize really quick that the tasks are not that simple. You'd walk away from that project after seeing what is entirely involved. You have only so many clock cycles to do things at a time during video processing of bitmap information. Bottom line: People can make video games for the C64 and they do even to this day but DOOM isn't something that can be easily ported without significant alterations and certainly not to the specifications I was having to meet which was pretty high... too high to meet with the C64/128 w/ SuperCPU. You'd be better off making a different game even if inspired by Doom or Wolfenstein.
You really are sick.
that's all great and all. it's better to try and fail than never try at all. the return on the amount of work that would have gone into getting that to work would not be worth what you would end up with.
the whole post kind of misses what i was asking though. once you realized you would be unable to complete the doom project, did you focus on one of the other projects and finish it? why not stick with coding if you already had so much invested in that path?
So... 500+ words on the history of a failed project from 2004.
In the time you spent writing that you could have ordered your business cards, and interacting with the world. I make it a point to distribute and receive at least two cards every day. It does pay off in projects. What is the return on investment on the time to write those 500 words?
In the time you're going to spend on here the rest of today you could write your resume and send it to 20 firms.
I will take my own advice and not waste more time trying to get through to you.
Dude - I think you posted that to the wrong forum. I'm sure it get's hard to keep track of 'em all. However, here at Archinect, I'm sure we would all prefer that your refer to yourself as "Wildfire" or whatever your C=64 handle is.
so in 2004 you were working on developing a game to be played on a commodore? a system that was already obsolete? why?
It wasn't the only platform I was developing for. As for why? Pretty much, the same reason every Commodore demo scene, game programmer to this day who are still programming for the platform. I was programming for it back in mid-to-late 1980s. Reasons are personal. People still do commercial video game development for the C64. Although, it alone won't make you rich and you would develop for multiple computer platforms in order to make a living of any kind.
how did it work out? there is no commie doom right, so you backed out of that (even though you didn't tell people you were backing out, but rather told them you intended to keep with it?) Did the other projects go well?
Some projects depended on the other projects and after awhile many were cancelled. On the other hand, there were a couple of projects I did work with that were completed. If I were to work on any project for the C64/128 these days, it would be only when I feel like putting the time to it.
why not stick with that path as a profession, instead of rebooting and trying to be an architect?
The computer programming field in those days were being outsourced to India. You should note that there was a big shift of outsourcing in 2001-2005 time frame. People won't hire you unless you are from India.
"People won't hire you unless you are from India."
Um... did you try to get hired? Because that sounds a lot like things you say about architecture: "People won't hire you unless you know Revit", "People won't hire you unless you have an NAAB-acredited degree"... sound familiar? And no matter how many times we tell you those things aren't true and we or our coworkers are living, breathing examples, you still never try.
The only always-true statement that begins with "People won't hire you if..." is "People won't hire you if you don't apply." I would think though that it is also frequently true that "People won't hire you if they google you and find your 12-year history of misrepresenting yourself and not getting anything done." So you need to counteract that by creating a googleable history of getting some things done...
Today's challenge for Richard: reply to this with a message that contains ONLY one building design business-related task that you will complete today - and then report back tomorrow on that task's completion. Go!
.
"Commercial video game development is a bit difficult to be producing as an independent software developer. The reason is because the games that people were paying money to buy would require a budget comparable to a major movie production. We're talking like $25 to $100 Million production budget and 1000+ people involved. "
The above was copied from a post the RWCB deleted while I was writing my lengthy reply.
Bull. Shit.
JLA is right on. Get therapy. Get it fast.
SneakyPete,
Ubisoft and other AAA commercial video game (this is what people pay money for) quoted production budget involving $60 Million. Some games goes well above that. Some are lower. Number of people involved varies. I didn't say 1000+ people are involved throughout the entire project. Some are brief and specific. Some are more involved.
http://kotaku.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-big-video-game-1501413649
Some cases, the cost rolls in not just development/production costs but entire marketing and not just a single game but even an entire franchise. Figures in the $500 Million are in that.
I'm not talking that the game people buy on the store shelves cot $25 to 60 Million. I was talking about the production, development, launching, marketing. The whole shebang in getting it from a concept in head to the 'store shelves' (in this case, lets include the virtual stores in this day and age with Steam and others).
Therefore, my figures aren't far off from mainstream commercial game development.
rob_c,
Sit down and Rotate on it.
Okay... I didn't reply to the advice after all... wasn't one of them listening not saying.
Are you fucking insane?
Insane is a perspective. Anyone living in this fucked up world and haven't committed suicide is probably insane. So maybe I am. When humanity is this fucked up than yes. You have to be to live in the world of humanity as it is.
God has to be for not smiting humanity from the face of the earth and start all over.
So if God loves the world, love is insanity.
rob_c,
what's the lie?
Dude, you've got more issues than a garage filled with National Geographic magazines.
This is just fucking great.
Asking for a friend.
I'm not targeting you and a few others who have some fair advice.
As for Commodore software development, you don't know anything about this stuff as you weren't actually there at the time nor understand the Commodore community or understand the computer industry. Did I apply for jobs, yes. Guess what, they hired a bunch of people in India and laid off a bunch of Americans. Technically, they would hire other people than those from India. I'll take the statement as a mistatement. However, they won't hire Americans. They can pay a top notch computer programmer with 30 years experience from China for less than Federal Minimum wage in the United States. In India, for just under Federal minimum wage, you can hire a computer programmer from India that would cost $20/hr. if you hired a U.S. programmer of equivalent knowledge, skills, experience.
It's about money. How is that going to work when they off-shore the work. I don't live in China or India.
rob_c,
If I know nothing about programming, how do you think I get a degree from an accredited college?
Back in the 1980s, I used pseudonyms and not the pseudonym that you see.
If you like, I'll put together a commodore 64 program. Lets say a few structural engineering calculation program to calculate beams. You can use a PC with an emulator to run it.
you could look at depressionquest
more from kotaku
http://kotaku.com/4-video-games-that-help-you-understand-and-deal-with-yo-473476131
not all games have to be produced by EA....
Meet me in Astoria, Oregon and I'll show you the degree. I'm not mailing it to you.
Imagine hiring Balkins to design your house.
"Bid Set is due out to contractors today"
"I know, but I hate contractors, so I'm still working on the set, but they are going to steal your money and make money and I'm not, so I don't even know if this is worth issuing. What do you think? Do we issue the set out? Wait, just give me a week, I'm working on it."
x 10
curtkram,
When explaining my decisions back in 2003-2005 time frame, think about the context of the time.
Look at the situation back in 2003/2004. Indie development was not a fad. It wasn't until the last 5 years or so that there had been a resurgence in independent development. 2005 was 10 years ago. The market had some major contraction in indie development. It is hard to tell if the fad will continue or will contract.
Even today is nothing like 1980s was like by any means. One can not assume such revenue opportunities.
Dude, you missed my point.
If Markus Alexej Persson had your shitty attitude and made your shitty excuses, he wouldn't be worth $1.5 BILLION dollars right now.
null pointer,
If they want a bid set due out the same day as they first contact me, I would give them a previously done stock plan or something. They aren't getting custom design work.
Archinect really needs an ignore button.
I give up.
indie development has always been around, since shareware on floppies.
you might not make a lot of money developing indie games, but it can get you experience in game design, and a bigger studio might be interested in hiring you, or other people might become interested in working with you. beats doing nothing.
i wasn't talking about your 2004 decisions anyway. why not do what you're good at today? if you have experience at programming, and you've successfully completed a project for the commie back in the day, maybe you should be looking in that direction instead of architecture, which is already saturated and has a much higher barrier to entry?
there was a guy named oscuro or something like that who made a big mod for oblivion, and was subsequently hired by obsidian and worked on fallout new vegas. he didn't even do any real coding, just basic scripting with the tools the devs were able to give him. that was less than an indie game, and it got his foot in the door to a real job.
Sure. Sneaky but he probably got help to get there.
curtkram,
True but the indie software development market isn't always rosy. It fluctuates.
You got a point though. I have also committed a great ordeal of time with architecture as well. That's the hard part.
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