The G-FloX Readme File!

Kinan Debes is the name, and GFX Studios is the dream!

My dream job is Game Programming. And my ultimate life target is to open up my own game development studio. I know it sounds crazy, but that’s why they’re called dreams. And I have every intention and desire to make my dream come true.

If you feel you can help me get where I want to go, in whatever way possible (suggestions, notes, recommendations, contacts, or even discussions…) please drop me a note. Your help is invaluable to me, and will be much appreciated.

More about me, plus contact information, in the About page.

Thanks, and welcome to G-FloX (The blog about the dream!).

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GFX Solitaire Unleashed!

Finally, it’s ready to go! My first game ever, the first fully working version of GFX Solitaire is now ready for a test drive.

The game has its own homepage now at this address: http://gfxonline.wordpress.com/gfx-solitaire/

Comments, questions, notes, and discussions are more than welcome. You can find my contact information in the “About” page. Please try the game and tell me what you think of it. Your feedback is important to me.

This game is my first step into game programming. And I am very excited to share it with you. I hope you like it.

GFX Solitaire Coming Soon…

Finally, I’ve reached the last development stage of my first game ever, the GFX Solitaire! Not an original name but who cares anyway.. It IS a fully working clone of the famous Solitaire game (a.k.a Solitaire Klondike).

I’m using the all-so-useful Microsoft XNA Game Studio platform, which serves basically as an interface between VS.NET and the CLR. However, the game programming concepts of XNA and DirectX are basically the same.

The combination of XNA and VS.NET is very useful to beginners like me. As VS.NET provides a “managed” code environment and all the advantages of C#, while XNA provides the skeleton base needed for any kind of game, 3D or 2D, plus a comprehensive set of programming and math tools..

Putting all the technical details aside, I’m very excited to bring out this game to life, not only because it’s my first game ever, but because it gave me a solid understanding of the basic principles of game programming, which is a huge achievement considering the lack of any game programming courses in the region.

Comments or questions about this game are most welcome, and I’m more than ready to share code snippets, algorithms, and more technical details on demand.

The game should be ready and kicking in less than a week (if nothing goes wrong), so check back soon for updates. In the meantime feast your eyes on this delicious screenshot:

A screenshot of GFX-Solitaire

An Update, Of Sorts!

I have uploaded a new Facebook album called “Syrian Sights and Landscapes”. It’s a selection of some pictures taken in various locations around Syria. These pictures represent the “brighter” side of my photography essays.

I’ve spent some great times discovering the country, and exploring new sites and locations. I was literally blown away with the beauty of nature, and the richness of Syrian lands.

I was using a Sony DSC-P32, far from professional, but still it took a lot of great pictures. And all the pictures given there were edited using Google Picasa’s “I’m feeling lucky” all-in-one photo treatment which is great for lazy people like me, and provides astonishing results.

A taste of the album:

A view from the road to "Slenfeh".

Michael Jackson R.I.P.

When I first learned of this tragic event I couldn’t believe it, I stood in shock, trying to fully understand the situation.

“He can’t be dead!”, I said to myself, “This can’t be true.”

Sadly, the news was right. I was terrified. Michael Jackson had a massive influence on me since I was a little kid, mesmerized by his dancing moves on stage, trying to imitate his Moonwalk with my friends at school. We bought almost every single album he produced, every video and concert DVDs we could find. Learned many of his songs by heart, and danced to them in celebration…

There’s so much to say about this man. Reasons why I loved him are described in an earlier post. However, I have to say, he didn’t deserve to die like this. He didn’t deserve to suffer throughout his life. He’s had a terrible childhood, producing music since the age of 11. His actions reflected those of the inner child living inside of him.

Michael Jackson was a legend on all frontiers, a wonderful artist, and an inspiring human being. His unexpected death saddens me, along with millions of fans all around the world. My sympathies to his family, friends and fellow fans.

Rest in peace Michael Jackson, your music shall live with us for generations to come. Thank you for everything you did, you’ll never be forgotten.

R.I.P. Michael Jackson (1958 - 2009)

In The Rain

A grim face, in a room with dimmed lights.
The smooth, calming tunes of Jan Garbarek in the background.
Complete silence from the open balcony doors.
A gentle, cool breeze slips through the room. I relaxed a bit, giving my body a chance to cool down and settle for a bit…
And just as I thought I’m about to cry my pains away, all of a sudden, that familiar splinter sound, and that familiar smell.
It started to rain! A wonderful Spring shower, so full of passion, of peace, and of redemption.

As the rain washed the streets down below, I got rid of that dark cloud surrounding my thoughts, my mind was clear again.
What more could I ask of those rain drops? They didn’t wash my problems away, but were they really supposed to do that? Are they even responsible for that? I don’t know.
I never asked anyone to care for me. Sometimes, maybe I ask them not to.I can’t bury my problems in someone else’s mind.
So what more could I ask of you? Why am I always bored of being alone when all I wish for, is just another moment of solitude?

On a thought of a better tomorrow, of a day when everything will be straight again, when I finally find that imaginary moment of inner peace. On a thought of despair, and hope, all in one, I put an end to yet another useless, empty day of this blacked out chapter of my wonderful journey that I call… Life.

Useful Firefox Add-ons

Most of us, Internet users here in Syria, are struggling each day to get the most out of our 4 Kb/s connections.

There’s no doubt that Firefox surely did help us in terms of page-rendering speeds, and its efficient caching system. But unfortunately, we can’t ask for more with 4 Kbs.

However, for those of you who love to go the whole way for a better browsing experience, here are some very useful Firefox add-ons that I use on a daily basis, all of them are freeware:

1 – Flashblock

This add-on will disable all Flash objects on every page you visit, and replace them with “Play” buttons that you can click to activate only the objects you want to see. Very useful and saves lots of bandwidth.

More info and download here: http://flashblock.mozdev.org/

2 – Gmail Notifier

This one will sit next to the search bar, and will check periodically for new emails on your Gmail account(s). This also saves the bandwidth to go check your Gmail account every once and a while to check for new emails.

More info and download here: http://www.nexgenmedia.net/extensions/

3 – FoxyProxy

This will help streamline your browsing experience. Recommended for those who use more that one proxy server, or those who use Ultrasurf (or any other proxy breakers). You can define patterns to visit certain websites using one proxy address, and others using another. The add-on will then automatically switch your proxy settings accordingly.

More info and download here: http://foxyproxy.mozdev.org/

4 – Page Saver Basic

This one will help you take images of whole websites and save them on your hard drive. Very useful for saving the page as it is displayed in your browser in JPEG or PNG format, for a later review.

More info and download here: http://pearlcrescent.com/products/pagesaver/

Hope you find them useful as much as I did. Please drop a comment if you know any other useful add-ons, and tell us your opinion.