Finally, after 6 years spent at 2 different schools, I have completed my Bachelor's of Science degree! My last class with DeVry for the Game & Simulation Programming program (a little redundant, no?) ended on February 28th. As a result, I now bring you the next game in my library, Escape from Area 52! This project was intended to be a Beta release so it's still very buggy, particularly the sound effects, graphics and some NPC collision detection. NEXT UP! I'll be working on a standalone page for this title complete with documentation & any possible future developments (highly unlikely, but I could get bored). Project Zed is still in the works and now that I've finished school, I'll have more time to kick out something extra awesome, or at least playable.

I've been working on a school project for a few weeks now, which I don't think I've mentioned yet. You can see progress & updates at http://wiseeyesent.com/gsp475/ or through the new Menu Item listed here (points to the same place). I'm working on setting up a cloud storage service using OwnCloud. Hopefully, I'll be able to replace my Dropbox account with this OwnCloud service, although it may be good to maintain the additional account just for the sake of off-site backups of my work here. As part of this project, I'm also working on configuring a web server from Thor, my home computer. Hopefully, within the next few weeks, https://wee.wiseeyesent.com/ will become live.

School is nearing it's end, preliminary documentation has already been drawn up, a plan is in place an there are parties interested in participating in the Zed Project. The time has come to open planning to the public. I've set up a new forum (thanks to the folks at bbPress) you can find linked on the Games page or directly here. Registration is open & free, but discussion will be moderated by myself. Any & all input or participation is greatly appreciated! I'll be posting the preliminary docs when I have the time. All of them will be reviewed and revised to ensure accuracy, completeness and readability.

Have you noticed the new changes yet? That's right, folks, I'm redoing my website. The original was built using BaseKit SiteBuilder (https://www.basekit.com/) which is extremely simple to us with its point and click interface. However, BaseKit relies upon a redirection method instead of publishing the files to your hosting account, and can introduce its own problems as well. In the interest of learning (and my {,/ in}sanity), I'm redoing the site by custom coding my pages. Of course I'm still using WordPress for this news page, but the rest are by my own hand. Portions of the site were already my own work, in particular the /dev & /folio sections. Now I'm redoing the /caffeine page still, but the home page itself has already been updated. Please feel free to send me any feedback you have on the site. EDIT 20121030: Finished the new /caffeine page, so the website is now functional! I'll probably work on integrating a mail form next, once I figure out captchas.

Project Zed has been moved to a permanent page Documentation for the project has just been turned in for final class credit & is also available online: http://games.wiseeyesent.com/files/ProjectZed_Doc-Des.docx This documentation is still pending further review & revision, but will form the foundation for the project itself. Development may begin in the near future on coding & game engine assets. Art assets and game levels still need volunteers.

The new version of WEESnake is now live on the games page! I've finally implemented a persistent high score board when playing it online embedded in a browser. Right now, only one of my testing scores is listed, so there's plenty of room for new scores! I'm thinking of putting together a contents, but I haven't been able to decide a prize yet. Please feel free to send in requests. So far I've been mostly thinking of NewEgg gift cards, but I'm sure there's something more widely desired.

EDIT: The official planning page is available here... So, while weeSnake is in the final iterations of development (still working on a persistent high score board for the online version) the next WiseEyes Enterprise project is in the planning stages at this time. Project: "Z" aka "Zed" Premise: Zombie Side-Scroller, 8-bit, Mario meets zombies Goal: Traverse level from start to finish while avoiding, incapacitating, killing or infecting any humans in the way Description: The player will control "Zed", just your slightly smarter than average undead ghoul, as he traverses 2-d levels and attempts to outwit, out-maneuver and otherwise catch the humans unawares. Humans are capable of quickly killing the player, both at a range and in close proximity. Attacking humans takes time, and leaves the player vulnerable. Infecting humans, may or may not, result in zombie allies. Controls: WASD interface or arrow keys, plus Space bar, Ctrl, Alt, etc. Abilities: Walk, crawl, feign death (detectable), burrow (not detectable), scratch, bite, devour (restore health? currently undecided)   TEAM MEMBERS: Currently, I have a few friends and individuals interested in helping out with the project, primarily with the programming aspects (writing the game in Java). The game will need a graphics engine, sound engine, NPC (Human & Zombie) AI engine as all as the overall game engine. This project will also require a 2-d artist and level designer, may need a concept artist, will require a sound artist for effects, ambiance and music. SLOTS: Graphics Programmer - OPEN Sound Programmer - OPEN AI Programmer - OPEN Engine Programmers - OPEN 2-D/Concept Artist - OPEN Level Designer - OPEN Sound Effects/Music Artist - OPEN   Please contact me by email at jcripe - wiseeyesent.com if you are interested in participating or have suggestions. I will be making a page reflecting this information shortly with ongoing updates to the project & team.

Due to finishing classes and my circadian rhythms being fucked by my night job, I have now just completed the latest release of WEESnake! You might also notice a brand new splash page, courtesy of BaseKit Site Builder. I've had some ideas for what to do with the webpage, but school has been keeping me pretty busy so far. In my free time, mostly at work, I've also been practicing a little bit of Perl programming in an attempt to hone my skills for a position on the development team. I'll introduce a perl page or general programming page soon. In the mean time, since I've finally incorporated the high score board on WEESnake, it's time for me to get to work planning my next project, "Z"...   If you have suggestions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me!

I've added a new plugin to WordPress, can you tell? Yesterday, I successfully installed & updated Akismet for WordPress, which is a delightfully free (they accept donations from private users & charge for businesses) spam blocking application. All you have to do is sign up for a key at their site, then provide it to your WordPress blog upon installation. Presto, change-o, you've got a spam free blog! All comments & content submitted to your blog, excluding registered users of your blog, will be scrutinized by Akismet for validity.   Yay, delicious spam-free blogging! ( = 8 <3 -- EDIT 20170416: Akismet helped. Disabling commenting worked better. Make sure you deal with your xmlrpc.php as well, otherwise that will be abused. Ultimately, I ended up switching this all to static files with Nikola on the recommendation of a cohort. Really liking it. Increadibly easy to restore a site if you obliterate it, especially w/ GitHub backed.

Thank you for sticking with me during my early days @ jcripe.mydevryportfolio.com. Due to a recent hiring @ HostGator.com & their generosity, including an interest in equipping me with the tools my customers use, I have acquired a webspace! :D WiseEyesEnt.com Included is this WordPress, which I'm not exactly sure what to post, other than the overdue content I had intended to post on TUMBLR. For now, you can enjoy this screen shot of my first game, WEESnake: -- EDIT: 2017-04-16 The Tumblr this image was hosted on has been deleted for a while now and I don't recall ever downloading the image locally. Additionally, the game mentioned is outdated and no longer works on current systems. A new version was built with GameMaker Studio and the assistance of cohorts, but is only an alpha level test application.