Vista Gadget - Countdown to Ice Station Santa
http://h1.ripway.com/sammaxhalloween/SNMGadget.zip
Here is a little Vista gadget I made for people to use. It displays the days remaining until the release date of Ice Station Santa. Nothing special really.
Unzip the download and bung it in your %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets folder.
I did try using some Ice Station Santa images for it, but they looked really poor because I had to shrink them down to fit them onto something this size.
Sidenote to Emily/whoever - Yeah, you can ignore the email. I'll send something else soon. I realised that ISS would basically be out by the time it is over.
Here is a little Vista gadget I made for people to use. It displays the days remaining until the release date of Ice Station Santa. Nothing special really.
Unzip the download and bung it in your %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets folder.
I did try using some Ice Station Santa images for it, but they looked really poor because I had to shrink them down to fit them onto something this size.
Sidenote to Emily/whoever - Yeah, you can ignore the email. I'll send something else soon. I realised that ISS would basically be out by the time it is over.
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You can find it here ! Just double-click on it, and voila !
(and please, correct me if it sounds bad, I understand english but I do a lot of mistakes myself ^^ it seems correct to me but... can't know ^^)
You too Guybrush.
Oh, thanks! I'm a mac user too!
However, good work, Guybrush!
It is counting down for the worldwide (Telltale's site) release date.
Do you mean a sidebar gadget for Windows XP? Or just something you can put on your desktop?
...oh, and thanks everyone.
The way the widget is coded, the time is calculated only within the timezone of the client's computer. Unless your computer is set to PST (-8:00 GMT), the countdown is off epically for outside North America. Also, we are not releasing on 00:01 of launch day. The best I can say is "sometime after 09:00 PST (-8:00 GMT)". As in, it won't be released sooner, but may arrive sometime later.
Actually... how would you all feel if I took these widgets as a base and made an uber widget for all episodes? I'll put in the notes above and add a switch between Telltale and Gametap modes. It's been a few months since I worked on any HTML, longer for widgets, and I don't want to get rusty.
And thank you Mystinsun and krin for your comments
Oh, mine is nothing special. Just a basic countdown script.
Edit - It is also my first widget!
*didn't know how to.
As far as releases, I'll be working on this on and off, but the Mac version will be out first. That's mainly because I already have my trusty old PowerBook right here and know the SDK versus the Vista box across the desk from me. Any one out there good at converting Mac Widgets with Vista Widgets (oh, I mean 'Gadgets')?
I want one for windows XP
It's actually quite cool. Though I don't use it,* I prefer it in many ways to Dashboard and the Vista sidebar.
* I don't use dashboard or the vista toolbar either, though, so go figure.
When I was running XP I used Google Desktop.
Now Leopard's out, you can install DashCode (in optional installs) and it's super-easy to make a neat countdown widget with this app
http://yohmi.free.fr/bordel/dashcode.png
I got Leopard Friday morning (thanks FedEx!) and have been playing around with the OS since. I'm looking at DashCode a little bit, but I have to weigh in the options of almost redoing the widget from scratch in order to work with the IDE. I'm still on the fence if only for that reason.
As for the actual widget itself, I've made the project's scope a bit larger. Instead of one widget per episode/project, I'm constructing something that will adapt to all episodes and beyond. The widget will pull a text file of JSON variables from the TTG server and populate the widget with all announced release information for all of TTG's projects. The benefits to this file go beyond this widget as anyone can make something based of this file. So if we have to make a change, anything that reads that file will get the updated information. Not to mention this work extending beyond a widget for an OS we don't make games for.
While it would be nice to get this done before Episode 1, don't hold your breath. This project is on my radar and I'm tinkering away at it, but it's lower on my priority list.
But to prove that I've done a bit of work, I have some quick screenshots for you! Keep in mind that stuff may and likely will change from these captures, but feedback is welcomed. Also, I took the shots from in-browser so ignore the gray lines on top of each image.
Front - The time/date on the bottom will change based on your local time zone. So for the EST zone, it will show up as 'Nov 9, 2007 12:00'. The countdown is to when we expect releasing, but the time conversions are done for you. Also, the TTG logo will change to the GameTap logo if that's the release you selected.
Back - Settings go here. The top one selects which title you want to display, the bottom the distribution channel (TTG or Gametap).
Not right now, but I'm making this widget so the OS X only aspects are at a minimum. I'm familiar with widgets having done one at my previous job, so I can ship a working something quicker.
I don't think we'll publicly announce this widget until we have it on the platforms our game actually runs on. 'Publicly' as in posting on the blog and such, but this thread should have the OS X widget when it's done.
The Javascript used should be applicable to other platforms including web pages, iGoogle, and I assume Vista's stuff. Not to mention that the JSON file can be used by anyone else so inclined... *drops the hint bomb*
- This is an OS X Widget informing you of release information on Windows games. The irony is not lost on me.
- The release times are estimates. Actual releases may occur sooner or later than what's reported.
- No warranty. If this breaks, you keep both pieces.
- This widget requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 or better (includes Mac OS X 10.5).
Not making a huge release deal out of this until we have at least something for Windows people to use. I started with a OS X widget since I've already made widgets before, but a lot can be applied to other platforms.With that out of the way, here's some details about the widget.
Timezones & Daylight Savings:
As long as your Mac is set to the correct timezone, time, and with the latest timezone updates, you should be reporting a correct countdown.
I've set the release time for SamMax201 from Telltale to be 9:00am PST. That's 17:00 UTC. In the widget however, you will see the time reported as set to your timezone. So the US east coast should see the time as Nov 9th, 12:00pm EST.
If you're confused and want to check things out, timeanddate.com is wonderful!
Multi-Widget Instances:
You can have more than one instance of widget running with different title/vendor settings.
Widget Updates:
The widget will notify you if I made an update to the widget itself by displaying a notice and a download link. You will not need to redownload a new widget for simple title release information.
Release Updates:
The widget will pull all the title and release information via a super-secret file on the Internets. This will update release times, title names, and other things. This file is also available for anyone else wanting to make a release info thingy of any sort. However, the file format may change in the next few weeks, but any feedback is welcomed!
Download & Screenshots:
TelltaleCountdown.wdgt.zip (146kb)
Feedback:
Please give me any feedback via this thread!
The only complaint is about time zone, because as we all know, the game will be avalaible worldwide, and surely later than november 9 in my coutry for example ^^
Oh, and there is better screenshots, without frames and with real 256-levels shadow ^^
Thanks again
What time zone are you in? The 'target' release time is 9am PST (-7:00), which means you'll get a different readout if you're not set to PST (-7:00) timezone.
(goes back to play Ice Station Santa.....)