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Hey guys,

I wanted to let everyone that my new game is now available on the App Store. It's my first iOS game in the sense I didn't work with anyone else's license and made all of the art. Check it out!


http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rivers-rails/id463399129?mt=8

Choose a side for the epic battle raging in the new game, “Rivers & Rails,” now available on the App Store. Will you pick man or nature?

“Rivers & Rails” is a strategic, turn-based game by TrikeSoft LLC. Play as the dastardly Railroad Baron or the noble River Queen. Outwit your opponent and connect cities or seas to reign victorious! Defeating a well-matched opponent will require every ounce of your cunning. It only takes a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master.

“Rivers & Rails” features three different map sizes and Game Center support so players can challenge their friends online on any iOS device. The adjustable difficulty level helps ease anyone into the game play and provides more challenging matches for those who are strategic masterminds. Humorous characters and numerous achievements add to the fun and excitement.

Here are a few random quotes from published experts, if my word won't suffice.
Believe what you want, but it's actually a very researched area. Maybe you can bounce "The Protein Book" off your rock-hard, six-pack abs. Hahahahahah

"There is a myth that your digestive system needs to "rest," that you shouldn't eat too often because it somehow overwhelms your ability to digest food efficiently. Actually, the opposite is true. In the early days of human evolution people often grazed during the day--that is, they ate periodically whenever they found the appropriate plants or fruit, or happened upon an opportunity to get some animal protein. Your body handles a lot of small meals better than a few big ones. Three meals a day is good, 4 meals a day is better... Eating fairly often is a good strategy when it comes to weight control, assuming your total calories for the day remain under control, since you rarely get extremely hungry eating this way and the body has little reason to store a lot of your food intake as body fat..." (The Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding)

"...a study published over 20 years ago measured weight loss and resting metabolic rate in 38 obese patients. 3 Subjects were fed 800 calories/day (known as a very low calorie diet or, VLCD). For one week all subjects were initially fed three meals per day in which 13% of total calories were from protein. On weeks two and three of the study, groups of subjects were fed either 10% or 15% of total calories as protein. A slightly higher protein diet where several smaller meals are consumed throughout the day is better for preserving muscle mass when simultaneously attempting to lose weight. Subjects' in these groups ate three meals per day. Another group of subjects was fed a diet providing 13% of total calories from protein. These groups consumed either one or five meals per day. Finally, the last group of subjects was fed 15% of total calories from protein as five meals per day or 10% of total calories from protein as one meal per day. While that may seem confusing, remember that subjects in every group received the same total number of calories divided up differently throughout the day (i.e., one, three or five meals). In addition, there was a slight difference in the total amount of protein in each diet. Now that we have that straightened out, let's take a look at the results. Not surprisingly, when protein levels were held constant at 13% of total calories, nitrogen losses were significant (i.e., it wasn't enough protein to meet the needs of the individual). In addition, it was determined that those who had a higher percentage of their diet coming from protein (15%) and were fed more frequent meals (5/day) had a better preservation of lean body mass."
(Christopher R. Mohr, PHD Physiology)

"One of the most important and simplest things you can do to lose fat easily is to eat smaller, more frequent meals. This means eating six or seven small meals a day instead of the usual three big ones. Each time you eat, you stimulate your metabolism, which burns more calories. Eating this way also allows your body to make more efficient use of the nutrients you are putting in rather than trying to deal with a whole bunch of nutrients all at once. The process of digestion actually burns calories with protein (the building block of muscles - found in foods such as meat, eggs, soy, beans, dairy, etc.) requiring the greatest amount of energy to digest. By eating smaller, more frequent meals, your body will become a fat-burning machine!"
(Nick Nilsson)

Hahaha, do a little research. I know mama always said three meals a day, but sometimes you have to look at the science. I'm kind of an expert.

Three meals a day is bullshit. Keep your metabolism high by eating a little bit every few hours (adjust the protein and carbs depending on what you plan to do in then ext few hours).

You make some good points, Darth. The cheat day is definitely necessary for any healthy lifestyle. Take someone who loves ice cream. They may know they shouldn't eat it if they're trying to lose weight, but in the long run, it's impossible for them not to eat it (nobody wants to diet forever). So instead of binging and feeling guilty, it's better to allow yourself a designated time to slip (and eat it in moderation). Also, it actually helps fat reduction if you can zig-zag your calorie intake so you're not burning more than you're eating every day.

Lifting in the morning is a better idea than lifting later on in the day. In the morning, your testosterone levels are at their peak. You should also be rested from a night's sleep. In addition, for the rest of the day you'll be using those muscles you worked out to some extent, compounding the fatigue and stimulating the hypertrophy, especially for the slow-twitch fibers.

I think of my diet as part of a lifestyle choice. If you're trying to lose weight quickly so you can go back to eating junk food, you've got a surprise coming. It's best to settle on a diet you're comfortable with in the long-term. The Atkins diet is like running a car solely on gasoline fumes to lower costs. The car may still be able to drive and you will save on gas, but it's not good for the engine and you can expect the car to stall frequently. To make the comparison more valid, let's say you can't buy a new car if the one you have breaks down.

I would suggest basing your goal on body fat composition. Often people who lose weight from dieting end up in worse shape health-wise (and it's easier to relapse and become heavier than they were post-diet). When you restrict your calorie intake, your body tends to retain stored fat on a famine premise. Faced with a calorie deficit (esp with a low carb intake), your body burns stored protein for energy. When you lose weight through this method (3500 calories under what you burn for each pound you lose), your percentage of body fat increases, putting you at higher risk for heart-failure and other health problems.

This is why bodybuilders will actually add some fat to their diet (flax seed oil, etc.).

You have to talk around and find out who lives in the mansion before you can bribe your way in.

Just when things are starting to get creepy, we can count on Nikolas to jump over the line with both feet.

We should get in touch with Mr. Frisby. He was working on the sprites for this old project, and he had a lot of them done. Maybe he'd be interested in posting them here.

Ok, this should be the bulk of it. I made these three years ago, so I have no desire to edit them. My pixel art and composition skills were weaker then, so you'll probably notice some rendering inconsistencies, flaws, and general visual confusion. Although there isn't much in the way of palette unification, they don't use more than a hundred colors each, so the backgrounds would be compatible with the 8-bit settings in AGS.

http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/alley.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/alley_bucket.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/graveyard.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/graveyard_chalk.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/mansion.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/ronsign.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/scids.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/scids_bottle.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/scids_reserved.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/scidsbackroom.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/scidsbackroom_coveredmirror.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/store.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/store_bottle.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/store_items.gif
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/town.gif

In case anyone's curious, here's a super rough draft of the design document I started for the project.
http://herculeaneffort.com/upload/ron1remakedesign.gif (rename extension to .DOC)
Super. Rough.

Aight. No internet connection at home, but I'll post them when I can.

I have a bunch of backgrounds I did a few years ago if anyone's interested. Guess that doesn't really fit here though.

Hahahaa   duo VS. band 
You should watch  Flight of the Conchords:  A Texan Odyssey

This is actually what I was thinking of when I wrote it.

The White Stripes are more of a duo and less of a band.

Give yourself one day a week to cheat on the diet. The majority of diets will fail without one. Designate which foods you crave that you'll allow yourself to eat on this day. Also, not consistently eating fewer calories than you burn will help your body not to go into starvation mode -- where it will retain body fat.

Snack in threes. Instead of eating one cookie 4 or 5 times in a row, plan a snack. Pick one item from three food groups. For example, if I want a cookie, I'll eat it plus an apple and a glass of low-fat milk.

Eat small and frequently to keep your body metabolic.

Eat carbs in the morning, especially those with low glycogenic index, like oatmeal (this is important for maintaining your energy levels throughout the day). Try not to consume any carbs after dinner.

Exercise. Weight loss is tricky, because it's more important to burn fat than lose weight. Under many diets, an individual will lose a lot of muscle (since when forgoing food, your body tends to burn stored protein first). If someone loses 10 kilos of weight, but 5 of that is muscle, they're pretty much in worse shape than they were (higher risk of heart attack, etc). I would suggest getting your body composition taken and using that as an indicator instead of weight.

Best of luck!

Murray: There's something I wanted to talk to you about actually, Jemaine. Umm, it's not good news. Planet Jemaine... supernova'd. Yeah, there's nothing left of it, apparently -- just a huge gaseous cloud and the beginnings of a black hole.
Jemaine: When did this happen?
Murray: Uh, about 4 million years ago.

Hey Darth, don't get discouraged. It's a good piece and I enjoy seeing your work on PJ. As of late, the membership has boomed, and between the influx of new members and required comments for "promotion", there's a plethora of idiocy on parade.

Keep in mind that pixel art is unlike any other medium -- it was born out of technical limitations. As a result, it tends to be a less gestural vehicle for creative executions. Control is key in everything from AA placement to palette management. Some people idolize color count minimization. To me, the color count doesn't matter as long as it's justifiable. Do the extra shades enhance the impact of the piece? If you auto-reduced the palette, would the color degradation be noticeable? The best pixel art pieces are the ones that celebrate the medium.

I totally understand you not wanting to fuck around with the color count. It's tedious, and only anal retentive masochists (myself included) actually get satisfaction from it. From the bulk of your work I've seen, you tend focus on polish and textures, with inspiring results. As an experiment, I'd suggest abandoning the pixel aesthetic altogether. It was a good starting point (and it still works for the games and animation you make), but for a piece of stand-alone art, it may be holding you back. 

Above all, keep creating!

That's a good book for learning solid basics. I can't help laughing though -- there's a few pages of ethno/racial stereotypes plus a page or two of women failing at a variety of activities, hilarity for the politically correct eye.

So a government should make personal choices for its people?

Look at the prohibition and the results. Alcohol is one of the more dangerous poisons (it's a cellular toxin)  in society today, but trying to remove it from society had disastrous results. Demand doesn't disappear when the supply is restricted. A huge black market formed, organized crime increased, and the contraband lost all quality control (blindness, death, etc.).

Hell, caffeine is a physically-addictive, recreational psychoactive drug. You can OD on it, and they test for it at major sporting events (since it's a central nervous system stimulant, it falls into the category of a performance enhancing drug). Tobacco is the leading cause of death worldwide, killing over a third of the people who use it and burdening public health programs with billions of dollars worth of damage. I'd say this is slightly more deleterious than a few flashbacks.

History has proven that the legality of a drug is not about public safety, it's about politics.

How about depicting it as actual practicing or sparring?

I guess they assume that, as the ultimate deity of all forms of combat (and the son of the King of the Gods), he wouldn't need to practice fighting. Sparring would make him less badass, unlike having threesomes with fake-tittied women.

The minigame isn't framed as training, it's just that the movements are the same as the ones you encounter in later boss battles. As a result, it feels more fair than if they just sprung all these new commands on you in the heat of combat.

As for the Spider Mastermind, Hustler is the preferred weapon.