2015 summary

October 2015 mixed Norway and Heathrow travel vlogs, laptop unboxings (MacBook Air, ASUS Transformer Book Flip) and self-taught iOS game development in Xcode. Game work moved from copied Flappy Bird and Space Invaders tutorials to a custom zombie shooter with art, animations, bug fixes and a tank mechanic. A MacBook Pro arrived late in the month after the MacBook Air showed heavy memory and swap use.

Side topics in October included YouTube subscriber metrics, webcomic hosting and monetization, Star Wars production trivia and an unanswered doorbell.

November 2015 was dominated by beginner Xcode/Objective-C tutorials: button sound effects with Audio Toolbox and AVFoundation, a scrolling label with NSTimer, toggling buttons, and a jumping runner game with jump physics and floor/jump bugs.

One November recording had an opinion segment disliking pugs and preferring cats, plus frustration with YouTube analytics, dislikes and Google Plus channel restrictions.

Early December 2015 centered on a new Xcode survival game with energy, hunger, warmth and happiness stats, resource gathering, cooking and building, with planned game over conditions, marketplace, quests, furniture and a pub courtship feature. A two-part platformer tutorial series followed.

Mid-December shifted to camera gear: Daniel tested the Sony 16mm f/2.8 lens, regretted its lack of optical stabilization, chose to keep his current camera and weighed reselling the lens. Footage also showed vegetation clearing near the house that reduced privacy.

Travel and outings: Stavanger, a missed fjord boat tour, a bus trip to Bergen, the Heathrow pod and a supermarket visit.

Laptop unboxing and setup: MacBook Air, ASUS Transformer Book Flip, Windows 10 upgrade and Chromebook comparison.

Xcode zombie game development: animations, collision, bug fixes, balance and future ideas.

Objective-C tutorial topics: sound effects, NSTimer animation, button states and jump physics.

December game design: survival mechanics, planned marketplace, quests and pub relationship system, plus platformer tutorials.

Online creator economics: subscriber counts versus views, ad revenue, webcomic hosting and YouTube analytics frustrations.

Camera gear and surroundings: Sony 16mm lens stabilization, test footage, resale dilemmas and landscape changes near the house.

Star Wars production facts: pay, injuries, costumes and design history.

Early October 2015 recordings (catalog dates, not verified event dates): 2015-10-05 Stavanger walk where the fjord boat tour was not running on Monday; 2015-10-07 preparation to leave the hotel by bus for Bergen.

Recordings dated 2015-10-05 and 2015-10-01 cover a Heathrow pod ride and an Asian supermarket trip.

2015-10-11: Daniel unboxed and set up a MacBook Air and ran a Flappy Bird-style tutorial game on an iPhone 6 simulator, having started Xcode the day before.

2015-10-18 to 2015-10-22: discussion of PewDiePie subscriber versus view numbers (10-18), a Space Invaders-based Xcode redesign with pixel art (10-20), and an ASUS Transformer Book Flip setup with a Windows 10 upgrade (10-22).

2015-10-25 to 2015-10-27: zombie shooter progressed with a hand-drawn zombie and respawn check, hit-detection fixes, walking animations, a Tank Runover mechanic, and arrival of a MacBook Pro downloading Xcode.

2015-10-28: Daniel introduced Comic Fury, showed his webcomics and mentioned Smack Jeeves as an alternative.

November 2015 recordings: Xcode/Objective-C tutorials on button sound effects, a scrolling NSTimer label, button enabling and a jumping runner game with Hank.

2015-12-05: an early survival game build with placeholder red blocks was shown; Daniel reported rewriting the statistics code from scratch.

2015-12-06 and 2015-12-07: a two-part platformer tutorial covered jumping and floor collision, then left/right movement with a drag-off fix; an obstacle was planned next.

2015-12-18 and 2015-12-19: after testing the Sony 16mm f/2.8 lens, Daniel decided to keep his current camera for one or two years, then said he regrets buying the lens and considered selling it despite an eBay selling ban.

An unverified report alleged that Islamic State militants were destroying Star Wars set structures in Tunisia; this is not confirmed.

Several hardware details were unclear, including whether the ASUS keyboard disables when flipped, its storage type, and details of the MacBook Air unboxing such as the second plug.

Daniel was unsure how to slow the tank, add explosions or sound, animate zombies, or legally use YouTube sound effects and search-engine images, and estimated about 40 percent understanding of copied tutorial code.

Open questions in October included whether subscriber count matters, the doorbell visitor's identity, a Norwegian road sign's meaning, and several supermarket details.

November coding uncertainties: why sounds failed on the first click, where sound setup code belongs, how to loop background music, crash causes, and how to limit jumps to two.

Other November uncertainties: icon clarity, banner ad placement, high score need, label wrap-around coordinates, syntax and storyboard behavior, and speculation about why viewers like pugs.

The survival game may have undiscovered bugs; furnishings, quests and pub mechanics are undecided; it is unclear why chimney smoke failed and why the statistics rewrite fixed problems.

In the platformer tutorials, jump direction values, floor offset and jumpValue were untested, and Daniel could not recall the earlier drag-off fix.

Unknowns include whether a zero-feedback eBay account could sell the lens, why Amazon sales are slower, the reason for the vegetation clearing, footage shakiness, the alien-looking plants and autofocus speed.