Nick’s Blog: Progress Update
From: http://instinctcoding.blogspot.com/2009/03/progress-update.html
Well the good news is that i am currently (sort of) on schedule with the Supa Comix website. This and next week i am working on the projects folder of the website which contains pages where you edit and maintain as well as view the project or even create some. Though that are 6 pages, one of them is proving to take longer than normal. This is due to the fact that it is a big page, the edit/ create new project page, it has about 5 steps and i am working on them slowly.
With my new approach to the website it doesn't take long to create simpler pages such as the list all projects page, that took me about 10 minutes. This one has a lot of stuff that needs creating for it so it does take a long time. I am currently on step 4 of 5, and with me doing the actual project page today i can get both that and step 4 of the manage project page done.
In excellent news i have now completed my Dissertation for university, i just need to hand it in. Now i am intending to move onto my creative writing course which i intend to have all of the work done by April the 13th. Though i was meant to do one of the tasks this morning i had to work on printing my dissertation. So hopefully i can get both the tasks i've set myself for today done during my hour of work on uni stuff.
In other news me and adele have been working hard on the Survivors Diary, we've recently purchased some more bandwidth as it was proving very popular and we needed an upgrade. We are planning to work on a side project for it which shouldn't take too long to do and will hopefully allow people to enjoy more left 4 dead content.
We Watched Watchmen
taking a break from all our technical issues and hard work, me and Nick went to see Watchmen... but the viewing was interupted... by technical difficulties...
but that meant we got to see it again for free.
anyway, i have written a review about the film in the forum review section (yes we have one of those) so check that out and give us your input too.
http://www.supacomix.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?tid=184
With My Apologies And No, I Will Not Be Getting Sims 3
Ok, so the end of January has been and gone and we're now looking at the end of February... but still no Cozmo? no, unfortunately due to poor computing facilities I found myself without a functioning computer for a few weeks, and another few weeks getting my new PC up to scratch on what me and the old computer were working on.
Now I have finally been able to get my new computer to play the video files I have recorded I can once again begin editing... or at least as soon as I get the audio files back off nick.
But fear not! I will complete this project if it takes me the next 3 years to do so... but if I get off my arse over the summer: when I have no uni work to have to go thru, then I will probably get the thing done and dusted for all to enjoy. so yeah sorry about that.
with uni and now the L4D pod cast to do finding time at the moment is like finding a pound coin in the back of the couch... rare, but a nice surprise. Even though it really is only just a pound.... I mean what can you buy for a pound? lots of sweets is the answer I’m looking for... 
I’m looking forward to getting the rest of this series done as it amuses me. I wont be doing another series for "is it because I’m green" but I don’t think I will be retiring from my Sims 2 machinima work just yet... just hopefully my next series will be a bit better planed
oh and I wont be buying the Sims 3 unless it comes out on steam as I don’t want the new DRM on my computer (just in case anyone was wondering if I would take my work to that platform) i mean i would like to play it but I’d rather not because the use of my CD writer is not a sacrifice I’m willing to make for the Sims (its a new CD drive after all... my first working one for a long time)
MVW R3 and My Name is Macbeth
Right so if you are a fan of the Supa Comix youtube channel you may have noticed that Mac Vs Windows now has no audio and My Name is Macbeth has been removed. This is becuase the greedy fat cats at Warner Media Group have deemed that our videos which make no money and are mainly just for fun have used their copyright and its wrong.So our fun and happiness must be resolved becuase they cannot get a gold plated hummer for their sons third birthday. But fear not i will be re-releasing the videos with the audio track edited so that it doesn't contain their music.
A lot of people enjoyed the videos and its sad that someones greed affects that, and thus i intend to make sure that i can get better versions up on the internet so that we can still enjoy it. However if you want to have some fun with videos and stuff where you use a song of your favourite bands then i suggest that you do not upload it to youtube. Upload it somewhere that has a stronger back bone.
In retrospect this is something that new Supa Comix is going to resolve. And if you are having fun with a video we're not going to allow WMG to bully us into removing it unless we get a proper court order. However the main aim is to allow you to use resources such as musicians and composers who submit their music for free for your use on the website. So such events are not happening and that both you and the composer of the music get to make something.
Edit we now have the new version fo My Name is Macbeth up on youtube again. This one with the conflicting audio removed, you can watch it here. We will get the other video up when we can find the original video file.
2009… the year of the new Supa Comix
Well then boys and gals. We have been working hard towards one major thing here at Supa Comix, and that is a new version of the website. You have been aware of a lot of things about the new website for a long time and although i have only just got around to writing a new news post now it is all for good reasons. Major reasons are for work and uni but other things include the continuing development of two focused areas of Supa Comix.
1. New Supa Comix Website
2. Survivors Diary Podcast
I am going to talk about the second one first... so the Survivors Diary Podcast (SDP) is something that me and Adele enjoy working on and is gathering a lot of speed towars having a great community. Every week we talk about a game that we enjoy playing and it is quickly developing into one of the most successful Supa Comix projects that we've invested time and money into. It has already greatly exceeded the Fortress website. A lot of our time goes into this project that we enjoy developing and as well as that we also gather a lot of information and knowledge about advertising projects and getting recordings done etc. Something that will benefit Supa Comix in the long run.
The first point of our focus, the new Supa Comix website is something that although has not as much time invested in it is something that takes a while to construct when time is invested. The administration section is still being worked upon but this has advantages rather than disadvantages. Firstly it helps me add more towards the Supa Kode manual which i have been filling out ready for its release. But other advantages is that we can discuss what we really want from the website and i can get them implemented ahead of the website release. We have really been thinking about Supa Comix and where we want to go with it and a lot of things are going to change and even appear nearer the time of the website release. I do not have an actual finish data for it, but once the administration section is complete i hope that the time it takes to construct it all will be short. When i am confident with it i will release it as a beta and we can test it all together. !Hurray!
Also i wanted to add a couple of things about Zombie Stress 2 and Gal X. These projects are our next target of concentration when we finish the website. Though Gal X is facing a possible further extension of its standby setting as we want to do something along similar lines but simpler. More news about that when we actually get around to it. I know that a lot of people are awaiting Zombie Stress 2 but we really are busy and the new website is a higher priority, but despite that me and Adele have really been talking about it and the game may go back to some form of pre-production and massive changes when we come to start on it again. There are loads of area's we want to expand it into and things we want to do with it but you're going to have to be patient and hope that the SC website is doon soon then the ZS2 will be done sooner.
Looking For the Survivors Diary?
If you clicked a survivors dairy link and ended up here then i'm glad to let you know that we have now moved it to www.l4dpodcast.net so if you want to carry on with that then head over there right now!!!
www.l4dpodcast.net - The new home of the Survivors Diary Podcast
Die in Pain, Rest in Peace… and more.
We have a new review of the Half Life 2 Total Conversion Mod: Die In Pain Rest in Peace Warm Up (DIPRIP) and it went up against 3 days of play time and got an excellent review.
In other news i am working overtime on the new Supa Comix website which is currently taking up a lot of my time. And thus the time spent playing this Mod was some time off from the website. But we have just fixed on a template and a new way to take Supa Comix its just a matter of time before the new website is completely finished.
The other good news is that with it Supa Kode is getting done as well, i will be creating an area within the forum for that projects basic data but i am toying with making a temporary website but more will be about that later.
Portal Prelude and Myspace Stuff
Well i have just written a review of the single player mod for Portal: Portal Prelude. Click the image to read the review which can be found on the Supa Comix forums.
In other supa comix news i intend to using the myspace account that we have for supa comix in a vague attempt to get more interest for the website. Though there are a lot of projects that are currently being made we need to really work at getting it going a bit more. Though if you have a myspace add us as a friend here.
Also i will be working towards getting some kind of website up for Supa Kode, though it will require some form of documentation which unless i find a good thing to do it for me i may have to write myself just so that it does what i want it to do.
News Insert
Right then, its now the end of the month meaning that the newsletter will soon be posted tomorrow. So stay tuned for that, if you want to be in the newsletter just join the forum where your activation is automatic.
The Latest News plugin has now been confirmed on the Mybb website, you can view that here.
I have written a blog post on my blog which you can read here.
I am aware that the supa comix forum sports a mybb forum logo but that is becuase i uploaded a new version of the code and the image got replaced, but fear not i shall have it repaired tomorrow.
I am also planning to write a neat little script which will display browser popularity, if you come directly from entering www.supacomix.co.uk into your browser your browser name will have been added to the database meaning that i can see which browser actually is popular on this website. Mostly curiosity but it may prove very useful.
Anywho thats all for now, though note if you are a member of the zombie stress team please be aware that there is a thread awaiting your attention within the team forum. So please check that out.
Supa Comix Website Changes
Well today is the day i enroll in my third and (hopefully) final year at university. So when the work starts to get going certain projects will come to a complete stop with their development whilst others will slow down. However some i have kept a moderate secret or at least not talked about in a while are still going to go on due to them being in a constant state of development and have been for the last few weeks.
Both me and adele will be at uni and so we will be bogged down with a lot of work, adele becuase she has a proper uni course and me becuase it's my final year so all attention must go into that work. We will pop in from time to time to update the website and spread some news about the projects.
The good news is that Is It Because I'm Green is one of the projects that will remain in production. We have 3 new episodes ready for editing but they will be released over the last few months of the year. Then we will be able to hopefully get on and finish those last few episodes next summer for the series finale and what not then.
Gal X is going to be one of the projects that will remain on a temporary hold or a slow development, this is due to the Supa Kode project. The Supa Kode project is a PHP/My SQL/MS SQL application program which will come with a lot of coding modules including a forum and a website, but they also come with smaller modules including security image creation and PHP emailing systems for your website. The last two described modules will be something that are needed for Gal X before its finished and so i am going to work on getting those done before i can release the latest version. At the minute i am working on trying to get the code into a ready state for alpha testing which should not be far away. Once this has been done then Gal X will move into a state where people can sign up.
The Supa Comix website is something that cannot really be done until Supa Kodes early modules are completed but it will be worked on once Gal X is out. There is a lot to do for this new website and we are still working on the final designs for it so please stay tuned on that.
Zombie Stress 2 is something that will have a slow development but i intend to get a lot done to it over the next few weeks if i can. See if i can get as much of it done as possible before i start to get a lot of work. I want to get it released before the end of this year and i am still in pondering about what most of it will be like. So far we have about 2 completed maps but there is a lot left to do. I will be talking to the team over the next few weeks about getting their stuff finished and ready for release.
Other Supa Comix projects, mainly The Adventures of Melon Boy will cease development for the mean time. It was planned to come out this summer but we had a lot to do with Supa Comix and so it had to be put on the back burner. It will be picked up again once the uni term is finished and we have a lot of other projects good and completed, so be ready for that to come in late 2009 maybe.
The Fortress is facing its closing down week at the minute, due to hardly any activity we have decided to close the website and the project. It will be fully closed on saturday, i will be posting another final news post later today on the website about the final closing measures of the website, so if your a fan of that site check it out later.
Me and soul will be updating this website regulary and the blog may start to look a bit different as we start to adapt some form of style to the website. But its still just in the process of being set up ready for the coming uni year so stay tuned for some changes on that.