2007 was the second full year I lived in Vancouver. It was a year of settling in deeper, exploring, new friendships, and personal growth.
Work Lux Delux has continued its steady growth. It got a few major updates throughout the year, and the amount of new maps has been delightful. Work on the next generation Sillysoft game proceeded in bursts, but I haven't been committed to it hard-core. I decided against renting office space and hiring full-time employees in Vancouver. Lux has attracted an amazing array of online people that have played key roles in driving Sillysoft's success. In 2008 I need to focus more on how to enable and manage an online team. I like the virtual office setup, but it's been hard for me to maintain a consistent work ethic within it.
Play Looking back on 2007 I'm amazed by the number of amazing new friends I made. I basically started from scratch when I moved west, and I am tremendously happy with what I've found. The people, places, and events of Vancouver have captured my heart. Shout out to Critical Mass and the bikers, Manhunt, Picnic Summer, Soccer Sundays, Alice in Wonderland, the Drivefests, Zombiewalk and the flashmobbers, Shambhala, the Fringe Festival, the East Side Culture Crawl, the house party circuit, BarCamp and the geeks. Let's do it all again and more in 2008!
Media & Publishing I made 143 blog posts in 2007. That's a slight 3 more then the 140 from 2006. I started making random links posts (30 total) as a way to keep track of interesting sites and spread the word. I continued to work on my photography and have clearly made progress. I've settled into flickr as a stable platform to host my photos.
Video production is something that I want to get back into more in 2008. Video is the most powerful medium, and Youtube has blown the publishing field wide-open. Vancouverites come talk to me if you're interested in making videos. Witness the bicycle revolution at hand in my Critical Mass Video.
It was February when I gave in and joined Facebook. I use it regularly now as a tool and game. I still keep my photos and blog outside of fb, on the internet-at-large, but fb is aware of it. My instinct is to be against walled-in gardens like fb, but I realize the utility it provides as a communications and networking medium.
Travel I hit up Montreal for Vaganza 7 near the start of the year. I traveled to the Okanagan and down the US West Coast with my brother in March. I biked to Bowen Island in May. At the end of the summer I traveled into the mountains for Shambhala and connected with my spirituality. In the fall I flew east for a back-to-back wedding tour of Montreal and Toronto, my old haunts. I ended the year with another trip to Ontario to see family and celebrate the Festivus holidays.
Looking Forward to 2008 2007 was a huge year for me, and I'm happy with the direction I'm headed. I'm looking forward to continuing it in 2008, and pushing further. To explore more of Vancouver, including the surrounding islands and mountains. To grow the bonds of friendship that I've formed, and make even more. To manifest a happy and magical existence for myself in the world. 2008, let's boogie...
Luxtoberfest included a series of competitive "LuxShoppe" photoshop showndowns. It's all come down to a final epic match running now between Sasquatch and MBauer. The results so far are spectacular, and include these behind-the-scenes look into Sillysoft's secret operations.
The last one was just a dream. I think. Maybe a vision.
Last week I attended Super Happy Grow-op Dev House, a community hackathon party. It was plenty nerdy and plenty fun.
I went in with the idea of using some time to create a Lux map of Vancouver, since there wasn't one yet. It was a good scale project to do, since I was able to get it (mostly) done and also spend a bunch of time talking with the other nerds there.
I cleaned it up more after the event, and spiced up the theme with creative commons photos from kidcadaver and Jaako. It's now gone through the MapLAB and has been released to the plugin manager inside Lux. If any DevHousers want a copy, send me an email.
Ancient Empires Lux was included in GameTunnel's latest indie game roundup. It was ranked 3rd (out of 10 games) with a score of 7.8 and the "silver award." The pull-quote:
"The presentation here is extremely well done, with a polished interface, nice 2D graphics, and included historical notes for each period."
Also, I just found this Ancient Lux review on a Hebrew linux site. I don't know what it says (can you tell me?), but it definitely looks cool.
Two Worlds is the Lux Map of the Week. It's like sticking 2 RISK boards side-by-side, with a twist thrown in. It was put together by map-maker Sylocat.
Sillysoft Games is looking for talented Java programmers to join our team creating desktop strategy games. We are located in Vancouver, BC.
JOB 1 - Java game engine and AI programmer
Requires: - CS degree or equivalent experience - Knowledge of AI techniques
JOB 2 - Java graphics and GUI programmer
Requires: - Experience with Java2D, Swing/AWT or java-openGL - Strong 2D geometry and math skills
Bonus qualities for both jobs: - Mastery of the Java libraries - Experience with SVN, CVS, ant, XML, networking - Experience playing Axis & Allies, Diplomacy or Risk board games - PHP, SQL or web development experience
As part of a small team you would be able to have creative input during development. Flexible hours, a competitive salary and the possibility of profit sharing. We have a hit game in Lux Delux, happy customers, and a direct digital distribution channel. Our next game is loosely based on the Axis & Allies board game. This a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a profitable and growing game studio.
To apply, send an email with your cover letter and resume to lux@sillysoft.net.
Lux Delux 5.6 was released 2 weeks ago, and it came with a new map USA War Zone.
East vs West vs North vs South and spotted with major cities. Whether you want to defend her shores, or smash the great satan into pieces, Lux is here for you. Could this be used as a terrorist training program? Try it out as part of the 5.6 demo download.
I moved to Vancouver on January 7th, 2006. The start of the year was filled with finding a place to live and getting myself set up here. I was working on American History Lux at the time, but it got pushed aside a bit as I explored Vancouver. It's a pretty vibrant city (moreso then some people here think), and I partook in Moose Camp (and was captured on GETV b-roll), a meeting of the pillow fight club, some sessions of Manhunt, and the critical mass bike parade. All that and more in the first months of the year.
Work on Lux Delux continued in spurts throughout the year. The plugins were put on better display, divided into categories, and better Map of the Week awards were added. Lux was released in retail stores in Germany (looks like I forgot to post about that), and got an interface re-design. I started a 2006 in review page on the Sillysoft Wiki that lists the exact dates of various 2006 happenings in Luxtopia.
October hosted the third annual Luxtoberfest Contest and Celebration. It was the biggest and best yet, and I don't know how we can top it next year. Afterwards I got myself set up with a new MacBook Pro as my main computer. Sillysoft popped out a little Devil's Brigade Lux game, commissioned by some TV people. I set up the fast news website Hot Grog on a lark - I plan to do some more with it in the future.
Ancient Empires Lux was being worked on throughout the last half on the year, and was released in December. Shortly after that I took off for a family holiday down to Central America, and then Christmas in Toronto. I came back to Vancouver for New Year's, and that's the end of 2006. It was a good year. I started settling into Vancouver, did some traveling, and kept up the growth of Sillysoft. Now on to 2007!
Ancient Empires Lux was included in GameTunnel's latest 
