http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cbbKRB k34s

This is #87569 of 1 million uses for flash CS3.

The youtube description:

Made for my schools mandatory Science Fair. The robot is programmed in Actionscript 3.0, using phidgets (www.phidgets.com) and their AS3 API. The maze is made of cardboard, plywood, foam, paint, and can be rearranged at will. The robot has some issues moving and rotating the right distance, but can make it through the maze with human help.

The science fair is on February 29th, root for us!

The total cost of the robot was around $300, not including the cost of the maze, flash, or my laptop. It was a fairly fun and frustrating project, and all that's left is the worst part- writing the paper and making the poster.

The robot can make its way through any maze you set up, and keeps track of the data it senses to build the maze in memory so it can avoid backtracking. When there is no exit, it will visit every spot on the maze once, then stop. It will cover the entire surface of the maze in the smallest possible time. Therefore, when finding the exit, it will find it in no longer than the shortest possible time it takes to cover the entire maze. Plus, it records the path it takes and what the maze looks like.

If we had more money, we could have made a solution to the running into walls. But my school would only repay us up to $400, and I didn't feel like spending too much of my own money on a school project.

Also, I love actionscript, so the fact that there was an API for it made me REALLY happy.

I am taking this time to let you know that I am "retiring" from making flash games this year.

It's a busy year for me, with school, and social aspects, and everything else going on, and I've just lost motivation for flash. Even with AS3 it's not powerful to do what I want and I just don't have time time to make flash games at the moment.

I'm ready to move on to bigger and better things, and starting in the fall I'll be attending Digipen Institute of Technology full time, which will leave me no time to work in flash. I'll be learning how to program console games in more advanced languages such as C++ and assembly.

This won't be the last time you see or hear from me though, games are still a hobby of mine and I have a ton of unfinished stuff. Weather or not I get to finishing them depends on many things, but don't expect anything soon, or even ever. I still might show my face on the forums or in reviews or somewhere.

Anyway you've all been a great audience, and this experience has been a great way to jump start my future. I hope you enjoyed all my games as much as I enjoyed making them.

Here's a picture of my science fair project this year. At my school they force all the honor students to enter it cause it's part of their grade. I decided to actually try this year (Last year I won 3rd for doing pretty much no work. I programmed some simple collision detections like circles and squares. The judges eat up any programming skills someone has.)

It's a pathfinding robot this year. I'm working with a friend, he's doing all the physical aspects of the project (building the robot, building the maze, doing the poster) and I'm doing the programming).

The robot has 6 circuit boards mounted on it, 2 motors, 2 wheels, 3 analog cables and 3 USB cords.

The large circuit board is the sensor control panel, the 2 ones in the middle are the motor control panels, and the 3 around the edge are IR reflective sensors (bought from phidgets.com).

It's an amazing little robot, we got it to rotate exactly 90° and move forward exactly 10'' through the computer, and the sensors work wonders. We haven't tested it in the maze yet, but I've run a virtual robot through a virtual maze using the commands for running the real robot through the real maze, and it works pretty well. It doesn't need to know what the maze looks like, but after it goes through it once it will have most of the maze stored in memory.

The coolest thing is that it's programmed through flash (in AS3). phidgets.com has an API for robot control in flash. You just need to be running their control interface on your computer, and it uses XML to communicate with it.

The total cost of it was $300, which the school repaid me.

Anyway if anyone here has excess income and a desire to make a robot, but doesn't want to learn C++ or java or assembly to program it, these little phidgets are amazing and easy to work with and I recommend them. I'll post a video once we get the robot working.

The science fair is at the end of February, _root for me!

So now that it's 2008, it's pretty much the last year that I'll be able to make flash games. In August/September I start college at Digipen, and from what I've heard from students there I won't have much free time to work on flash games while I'm there.

Which means that this is it for a while, I have 8 months to make a few more games while I still have free time.

So here's a poll for you all. I want to see what games of mine would be deserving of a sequel, so spew out your suggestions.

Do you want a Magnetism 3?
Do you want a Blockslide 3? (Not going to happen)
Dare I say, Pigeon Pooper 3?
Project: Monochrome 2?
Paths 3? (Happening anyway)
Nightstrike 2?
Super Soldier 2? (Only if Dan finishes castle crashers soon)
Krazy Kar 3? (I laugh)

A different game sequel?

Or a whole new game (which I will make some)?

So spout out your suggestions.

I got a GPS for my car. If you read my previous post you'll know why that's ironic.

Also a bunch of other junk.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
415976

The nutcracker is out and I give it to you as a present.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7-Ngy4 hwzQ

Coming soon.

The video really doesn't do the game justice, as we left out some key elements from the video, but you'll all have to wait to play it.

Many of you probably instantly recognize my works by my signature line preloader, which loads a bar towards the mouse. Well, no more. I have made a much snazzier, AS3-based loader which is just a lot cooler than my old preloader.

LINK:
http://www.swfup.com/file/67141

I would like a lag report though please, it if lags too much for people I'll make a less intense version.

So last Wednesday I found out that I got accepted into Digipen Institute of Technology, and I can say that that's where I'm going to college next year.

For those of you that haven't heard of it, Digipen is THE college to go to for someone looking to be a professional game developer. It's been around the longest, has the best reputation, and has the best course selection, along with being in a prime location right next to Nintendo of America and Microsoft.

So for the next 4 years (2008-2012), I will be doing nothing but math, physics, and game development in school (and a few mixed courses in other subjects). I'm pretty excited about it all. Not only will I learn how to make much better quality games and 3D games and work with consoles and handhelds, but the principals of physics for 2D games and techniques can be applied to flash too.

Anyway, If any other experienced flash artists or programmers out there applied and got accepted, or are thinking of applying, let me know. I'll need a roommate :D.

Blockslide 2. Coming Wednesday.

The game's been in development for nearly 2 years.

Programming and Level Design by Me, In-Game art by Orb, menu art by The Swain.

Still in need of beta testers, send me an IM if you want to test.

11/6 UPDATE! Play it at glaielgames before playing it at newgrounds!

http://www.glaielgames.com/playgame.ph p?id=48

GG release today, NG release tomorrow!

UPDATE

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/
409254

on NG now