Jack of some, master of none.

Learning Thai Language

Posted on by JustHonour

Many years ago (1996) while living in Bangkok I wanted to learn Thai. One particular book that was recommended to me was called “The Fundamentals of the Thai Language”. I found it to be a fantastic resource. So much so that when I wanted to continue to learn some years later (having previously not completed it) I tried unsuccessfully to find the book again. As such, I took my hunt online and discovered a useful windows help file from which I could easily print the chapters from the book. A link to the zipped .hlp file is below.

LearnThai

Included in the zip is a folder containing the instructions and necessary applications to allow .hlp files to be viewed on any Windows OS since 7 as Microsoft decided to end support for the format.

If you would rather read the book online a kind person by the name of Lyndon Hill converted the book to html back in 2006. It can be found here.

..:: EDIT ::..

It appears that the above resources no longer function. As of Windows 11 (perhaps earlier) the winhelp32.exe file will no longer install thus rendering the help file entirely useless 🙁 I did try some other hlp readers, like HelpExplorer3.0 but for some reason that only appeared to open a part of each chapter. Add that Lyndon Hill no longer has the html version on his current website and it would – at first glace – appear that we reached a bit of an impasse.

Wayback Machine to the rescue.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180821202823/http://www.lyndonhill.com/FunThai/CONTENTS.html

It is also possible to get a pdf version of the book, although I’m not sure of the legality of posting those here. Contact me if you’d like me to dig up the file for you 🙂

Save The Cows

Posted on by JustHonour

After a (probably too long) Christmas break I’ve been going through the process of implementing In Game Purchases (IAP), and setting up the Play Store page in preparation for testing and eventual release. This was not nearly as easy as adding the Unity Ads system, mostly because they required the store page to be fully completed with all the products added and a different phone – the developers (my) phone isn’t allowed to fully test if the purchase finalizes for some reason (?!). I’ve also managed to scrounge up an old iPhone 5 and borrow a Mac Book Air from a friend so I’m looking forward to repeating this process again for the iTunes Store… Along with any other hiccups the porting process will throw at me.

With all the above completed and the menus fully functioning I only need to create a demo/tutorial video for the store page (time to learn Adobe Premier) and perhaps create a few more models :-/ I should also consider adding one or two more levels to make the game feel more complete.

Settings Menu Revisited

Posted on by JustHonour

It’s been a bit of a busy month doing things mostly unrelated to my game. However, I did manage to implement the ability to purchase Characters and Levels using the in-game currency (Milk).

optionsmenu

Milk can currently be earned by watching adverts (selected from the main menu) or by simply playing the game. Each point in game is 1 milk. I’m still trying to figure out prices for the various items but I really want to keep it quick and easy to progress, while still trying to encourage the player to watch an ad or two. I’m now working on allowing the user to buy milk with real money if they choose and will leave an update once that’s done.

Cheers, J

Settings Menu

Posted on by JustHonour

I’ve finally finished the desert level. Well, kind of. It’s good enough to let me add it to the settings menu so that I can get its main functions essentially completed. I’ll still have to create an option to unlock the various characters and map types (plus add more choices to both) but that can happen at a later date <cough>Any reason to avoid making more models</cough>.

settingsmenu

I’m now looking into integrating IAP (In App Purchases) into the game. Unfortunately I may have to ditch that idea as opening up a merchant account (often quite expensive) is WAY farther than I wish to go. It’s possibly something to look at in the future but for such a simple game as this one (and one that I doubt will generate much revenue) it’s simply too much to bother with. Perhaps just keep the game Play/Watch Ads to unlock items and see how well that goes.

Creating Models

Posted on by JustHonour

This has been my month… Model making. More model making. Getting fed up and doing a bit more work on the main menu – mostly the high score system as I want folks to be able to compare their position to all other players. This required setting up a database (I added one to this site) and getting back into PHP and MySQL to write the server side scripts to allow the game to post and receive scores/rankings.

On a good note I am slowly getting a bit more proficient at making the models. Thankfully I’m not going for a photo-realistic aesthetic so my low poly efforts are fine.

Low Poly Helicopter
Low Poly Helicopter

I still have loads more models to go. Fun 😐