Last time, we took an in-depth look at some of the inner workings of VNgen and the challenges presented by adding very non-standard finishing touches on very standardized elements. It's an ongoing challenge, and one that will remain until VNgen's completion. For the past two weeks, however, that hasn't really been the priority. The problem with standard design is that it often leaves a few gaps behind, and the problem with non-standard design is that it often leaves a mess behind. This weekend, we'll be ...

Update 14 - Hands Off!

It has now been four weeks since text was first introduced in VNgen, and two weeks since the debut of X1, the site that will serve as the home for documentation for all my work, moving forward. That site is now live, by the way, and includes an official issue tracker to publicly manage bug reports and feature requests. Needless to say, it's been a productive month all around. But as I said before, more often than not it's baby steps as opposed to huge leaps now that so much of the groundwork has been laid ...

Update 13 - Shader Business

If you've been following this dev blog for a while, you may recall at the beginning of the year I announced that, along with converting this site into a dev blog, I'd be spinning off my other creative efforts into a separate brand, then called Shaft. However, due to potential confusion with a Japanese studio of the same name, I was strongly advised not to move forward with that branding. Well, it turns out coming up with names is hard, but after days (and days, and days) of bouncing ideas around and ...

Update 12 - Introducing XGASOFT and X1, the new face of ThinkBoxly Docs!

As you may have noticed, it has now been four weeks since the last devblog as opposed to the usual two. A couple of weeks ago, I had some personal matters come up that put a halt to much of my usual work, but all that is now behind me and I am happily back to my regularly-scheduled programming—literally! On top of that, big things are happening behind the scenes which will surely pay off over the course of the summer. But in order for much of it to happen, VNgen needs to be completed—and this past ...

Update 11 - A Wizard is Never Late

Between every major milestone in development, there are always a dozen smaller things that need to be changed, updated, or added. This weekend that's exactly where VNgen finds itself—at the threshold of great change, but in the meantime working through a handful of smaller matters. And yes, I do mean a handful this time, as opposed to the singular focus of the past couple updates. There's definitely reason to be excited, both for what has transpired in the past two weeks, and what's coming next. Because ...

Update 10 - Feature Creep (is not always a bad thing)

It's that time again: another two weeks have passed and April is now behind us, placing VNgen firmly in its sixth month of active development. It's come a long ways in that period of time, and from now on it's only a matter of putting on the finishing touches before VNgen is ready for market. However, finishing touches though they may be, they're also rather large ones. This is where the rubber meets the road—where VNgen transitions from being a prototype to an actual development tool. Silence is (not ...

Update 09 - Now Hear This