Eck's Journal - Still Flying

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New York, USA
This is my online journal that I mainly use to discuss Game Development. But I also record some of my other more nerdy pursuits here like Twilight Imperium or Blood Bowl games. If you like games, programming, and game programming - then you'll probably enjoy this blog. Let me know what you think. - Eck
175 comments
12 followers
66 entries
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Eck
November 18, 2023
What the heck are you talking about Eck?

Earlier this week I built a standing desk using an extra desktop I had laying around. I was doing some related searches online and this video came up about the importance of "Squaring up" your carpentry.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhdcyMxwTBM&t…

927 views
Eck
November 04, 2023
Finite State Machine - Refactor Take 2

I finally came back to my Gaslands side project after about a year. For those that don't know, Gaslands is a turn-based table-top miniatures game where you modify toy cars to look like Mad Max vehicles. The goals of a game changes based on the scenario, but in general you move around with special M…

1,300 views
Eck
September 20, 2022
Finite State Machine for Turn-Based Games

Lately I've been working on a computerized version of GasLands just for fun. Gaslands is a turn-based table-top miniatures game where you modify toy cars to look like Mad Max vehicles. The goals of a game changes based on the scenario, but in general you move around with special Maneuver Templates …

12,393 views
Eck
August 09, 2022
Struggles with Maneuver Template Modeling

Last weekend, I got the start of a maneuver template system working and I felt like writing a game dev journal about it. Specifically, I thought it might be interesting to talk about some of my failures while I was working on it. Usually we see solution articles after the problem is already solved.…

5,068 views
Eck
October 25, 2020
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Session 01

I started running Hoard of the Dragon Queen on Roll 20 for some friends and family. I haven't posted on here in a while, but I felt like writing a bit about it so here I am. ? For those of you who don't know, Hoard of the Dragon Queen is one of the first (or maybe the first?) D&D campaign/modul…

4,617 views
Eck
February 15, 2020
Battletech Developer Journal - Living the Dream

I played my first game of table-top BattleTech in 1989 and absolutely fell in love with the game. Mechwarriors piloting huge stompy robots shooting the crap out of each other with lasers, missiles, cannons was just so cool and really struck a chord with me. Since then I've played nearly every incar…

6,381 views
Eck
August 17, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 09

I'm Chris Eck, and I'm the tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future t…

5,052 views
Eck
August 09, 2019
Car Wars 02 - Pedestrian Movement

It's been a while since my last developer journal. Mainly because I've been doing lots of things besides development. I've been playing lots of video games: Borderlands 2, Battletech, Master of Orion 2, and Blood Bowl 2. I've been doing lots of Blood Bowl and Twilight Imperium stuff including wr…

6,085 views
Eck
July 16, 2019
Twilight Imperium 4th Edition - Game 3

Again we had a 6-player game planned but our 6th player canceled a few days before Game Day. One of these days we'll get a 6-player game going, but today was not the day. We did random races for everyone but the newest player who we gave Federation of Sol. These were the races:

Read more in Eck's Journal - Still Flying

6,738 views
Eck
July 07, 2019
Car Wars Personal Project

For this short holiday week, there wasn't really much to talk about on the Battletech front. I'm fixing minor/safe bugs and waiting on QA to run my Dynamic enum through the ringer. But on the personal project front, I do have an announcement. I started working on a computerized port of Car Wars …

4,892 views
Eck
June 30, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 08

I'm Chris Eck, and I'm the tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future t…

6,001 views
Eck
June 11, 2019
So you want to be a game developer?

We shipped Urban Warfare last week (the new Battletech DLC) along with the 1.6 free update. Things have calmed down enough that I only worked on some simple bugfixes which isn't really much to write about. But I did have an interesting conversation. Kiva asked me if I could talk to a friend of h…

8,682 views
Eck
May 28, 2019
Ecks Type - Side Scroller Challenge


I heard about the GameDev challenge quite a while ago but I wasn't sure if I'd have enough time to complete an entry. This weekend I decided to give it a go. I was planning on just working on it in secret and submitting it if I succeeded... But apparently some gamedev people read my twitter fe…

5,293 views
Eck
May 19, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 07

I'm Chris Eck, and I'm the tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future t…

5,611 views
Eck
May 12, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 06

I'm Chris Eck, and I'm the tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future t…

4,604 views
Eck
May 05, 2019
Blood Bowl 4 Diamonds Cup

This weekend I drove down to Pennsylvania for a pretty big Blood Bowl tournament. This is the biggest Blood Bowl event I've been to with 58 coaches ready to do battle on the pitch. My friend Kent told me about the tourney and it was a good opportunity to finally meet him in person. 

I ra…

3,806 views
Eck
May 05, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 05

I'm Chris Eck, and I'm the tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future t…

3,842 views
Eck
April 28, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 04

I'm Chris Eck, and I'm the tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future t…

3,976 views
Eck
April 21, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 03

I'm Chris Eck, and I'm the tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future t…

5,383 views
Eck
April 14, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 02

I'm Chris Eck, and I'm the tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future t…

4,885 views
Eck
April 06, 2019
Battletech Developer Journal - 01
I'm Chris Eck, and I'm tools developer at HBS for the Battletech project. I've recently been given permission to write up articles about some of the things I work on which I hope to post on a semi regular basis. Feel free to ask questions about these posts or give me suggestions for future topic…
7,838 views
Eck
September 23, 2018
Twilight Imperium 4th Edition - Game 2

 

Setup

Game 2 was supposed to be a 6-player game, choose whatever race you wanted, balanced map. That dropped to a 5-player game when one of the players couldn't make it. Then a 5th player bailed last minute and his phone didn't send the message. It's worth noting that he felt terrible …

6,303 views
Eck
August 14, 2018
Twilight Imperium 4th Edition - Game 1

I finally got a chance to play Twilight Imperium 4th edition so I figured I'd do a write up. We had 5 players and it was a blast. 

For race selection, we used this website about a week before the game http://www.mygurps.com/TwilightImperium.html and selected 3 choices per player. Here's what…

7,007 views
Eck
March 15, 2018
Battletech Beta - Eck vs Connor Walkthrough

I wrote this nearly a year ago, but didn't get around to publishing it. Now that more info is coming out about the game, I think it's a fine time to share the epic struggle between Lazaraus and Talon.

Original Post:

It's been over a year since I posted last so let me catch up my Game Dev…

3,790 views
Eck
January 02, 2018
Missile Command Challenge

I caught wind of the Missile Command challenge earlier in the month and figured I'd knock it out during Christmas break. I was planning on coding more on my Car Wars prototype but the challenge took up most of my programming time. Sleeping late, hanging out with my family, and playing video game…

8,402 views
Eck
September 24, 2017
Battletech Event Editor / Data Driven Gameplay

BattleTech is going to have a Random Event System during the single player campaign. Basically as time ticks by, there's a random chance for these events to popup during the time between combat missions. You're given a situation and a handful of options to choose from. Some options may not be av…

7,425 views
Eck
July 22, 2017
Using a Metadata Database

Hey everyone - long time no post. Sorry about that. I landed my dream job over a year ago and have been pretty busy since then. I'm working at Harebrained Schemes on the new turn-based Battletech game. The last one was over 20 years ago! Come check it out at:
http://battletechgame.com/

Toda…

4,792 views
Eck
May 14, 2016
Still Having Fun

Lots of updates but not enough time to do them justice. Here's a quick bulletpoint list.


  • Sold my house back in Tennessee. That went very smoothly and it went to a good family. \o/
  • Daughter switched schools again. She's liking it, and the math is finally a challenge.
  • Still working hard at work. I've ma…
2,837 views
Eck
March 22, 2016
Living the Dream

Sorry for the lack of updates. As it turns out, living the dream is hard work. I'll make up for it with a really big post instead.

Personal Update:
So, we rented an apartment really close to work and my daughter's school. Car shopping has been terrible. The first car we went to go look at stank. An…

3,153 views
Eck
February 20, 2016
Ramping Up Unity Terrain

Personal Update:
So right now, I'm flying across the country with my immediate family. We each have about 3 days worth of clothes, the Chromebook, our phones, and that's it. We gave away or donated lots of our stuff, all of our furniture, and even our cars. The remaining stuff, we crammed into the P…

4,265 views
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