Development on everything has stalled because I did something really stupid: I fractured my arm. The injury is very minor, and I should be back up and running in a week or less, but in the meantime, my right arm and wrist are going to need some rest.

Story Time:

I was biking home from a good day’s work at a warehouse, unloading heavy boxes from a trailer, and was rather tired. Since I was in the industrial park, and biking home around 4pm, there was a fair amount of traffic on the road I was on. Beside me, there lay a freshly poured concrete sidewalk. Since I was keeping as far right as possible, and was uncomfortably close to the vehicles, I decided to pop up onto the sidewalk and continue that way. Looking for an opening, I saw a ramp ahead where the sidewalk dipped so traffic could smoothly pass up to a driveway. Obviously, I took this opportunity. What I didn’t see was the dirt, grave and dust-filled gap between the fresh sidewalk and the pavement.

My thin road bike tires decided that it would be a good idea to sink into this while I was transitioning from the road to the sidewalk.

Consequently, I was carried forward by my own momentum as my bike stopped dead in its tracks. Luckily, I had thick cotton work jeans on, so my legs came out a little bruised, but otherwise just fine. Unfortunately, I was not wearing jeans on my arms; My T-shirted upper half did not fare nearly as well. Luckily, I was able to clumsily roll and prevent most of the damage, but the palms of my hands, elbow and shoulder were ground against the pavement with a considerable amount of force.

A nearby construction worker saw my tumble and came over to ask if I was hurt and if I needed first aid. My first answer was “only my pride,” but after a few brief moments of examining my hands, I replied “actually, yeah, some first aid would be fantastic.” He was pleased, since he had allegedly learned jobsite first-aid the day before.

At this point, lightly bandaged and a little dazed, I was called for an interview.

When the interviewer asked if it was a good time to talk, I replied “I did just get in a pretty bad bike accident, but yes, this is fine.” This definitely took him by surprise, but the interview continued until my phone suddenly powered off, apparently damaged in the accident.

To make a long story short, I essentially limped/biked on my twisted-up mess of a roadbike home. Upon my arrival, I noted that I couldn’t move my elbow more than ten degrees, and decided that I needed medical attention.

My lovely girlfriend helped me first to the uOttawa clinic, then to the ER, and stayed with me until 3AM despite having a bad day herself. This was appreciated greatly by yours kindly.

Today, close to a week since the incident, my arm is much better and I’m recovering well. Should be entirely better within two weeks.

Update on projects:

BattleCommander should see some improvements today, as I’m trying to implement more movement and interaction methods. Hopefully I’ll be able to replace the TILED map with a new data structure soon, which can store data about the type of terrain, and the units within. BitDungeon, another test experiment, was just created. It’s another simple experiment, but private for now. Mostly to test collisions and a graph-based room system. I’ll also be learning how to render different rooms and levels.

Hopefully, for both of these, I’ll be able to begin utilizing texture atlases to animate my characters and the environment. I’ve got a close friend working on the sound design, as well, so my games should have a little more life to them soon.

Thanks for reading,

RCF