(Cliquer ici pour l’article en Français)
Hi there!
Here are some news today about various LethargicDog projects for 2016.
This post is intended to let my followers know about what I am working on at the moment and encourage some more people to join in!
I will split the following text in several parts to make it easier to read and to refer to.
Here are the topics that will be discussed below:
0/ Foreword and Announcement.
1/ Books, Games, Blogs and Apps in progress.
2/ Educational Content.
3/ Social Networking and Online Stuff.
4/ Software/Hardware/Services.
5/ Funding
6/ Roadmap/Calendar/Deadlines
7/ Comments/Likes/Shares
8/ French/English Content Breakdown.
9/ Personal Stuff.
10/ Bottom Line

This document will be updated all year long, mainly to add pictures, drawings and links to other posts or pages for more detailed information on each particular topic. Apart from that, it will remain unchanged in order to compare to achievements at the end of year 2016.
Let’s start!

0/ Foreword and Announcement.
This very post takes place in a new strategy for the LethargicDog Project. This year I will take the whole thing to a higher level. For that matter I will raise funds in order to invest in the tools I need (new laptop, cloud services, backup, security, documentation, training..). I will also cut unnecessary spending like Car, Television, and too many distracting activities that I may have at the moment. I will improve my health and my ability to deal with tougher workloads as well, thanks to improved diet and fitness routine.
If lucky I should be able to release one game and one app this year, as well as a couple of books, while maintaining a high frequency online presence.
The current document is a list of projects in progress, along with many release dates expected.
This will be a reference document when it will be time by the end of 2016 to check achievements compared to this initial planning.
I will split this current message into 3 or 4 posts in order to make it more enjoyable to read, and will probably translate it back to French within the coming weeks.
Thanks in advance for reading and support. Enjoy!

1/ Books, Games, Blogs and Apps in progress.
1.a/ Books
LethargicDog Geek Challenge.
A collection of 16 books of 16 challenges each, from Lego design to basic game programming. Book #1 in progress. Expected to be published in 2016/Q2 (Both English and French version) Book #1 English version available for free.

Technology for everyone.
A book teaching basic concepts for most people to read and understand. Affordable computer based application design, 3D drawing. Expected by the end of year.

1.b/ Games
Project X100309. This 3D Puzzle game development has taken place in 2010 initially. Models in Blender and the game itself in C# XNA 3.1 then 4.0. Target systems are Windows PCs and XBox One/360.
This is a Puzzle game based on a dodecahedron shape (12 faces).
Game Logic: the player has to move around the shape and rotate and drop faces at the right place in order to match colours and shapes.
Work in progress: this game development has stopped 2 years ago for 2 main reasons. First thing is XNA is no longer maintained by Microsoft and there is no point to work on a discontinued product. Other reason is that my very old laptop cannot handle 3D design anymore.
Next Step: the plan is to invest in a new laptop next month and install Unity 5 + latest version of Visual Studio and port most of code and assets in the new environment. Blender will be kept for 3D assets design and improvements. This game will be released in 2017.

Project Y150114. “The light”. This game is a much more simple 2D game developed with stencyl, a Scratch/Blockly-like environment. Target systems are Windows Android phones.
Game logic: multicolour bubble lights are crossing the game screen horizontally and vertically into a 5×5 grid. The lights turn automatically on once they enter the central 3×3 grid. The player has to turn the lights off before they leave the central grid. In order to succeed, they have to select one or several lights of a single color and click the matching color switch on the side of the screen.
Lights can be of 3 different color, speed increases at each level, goodies, bonus and traps can happen at any time.

1c. Blogs
WordPress blog: This blog is updated on regular basis since 2013/2014 and is the central point of the whole project information and communication. I intend to maintain it the same way it is working so far. See chapter 7 of the current post about engagement.
The content will be 80%, in English (Basic English, Globish), and 20% in French.

Google+ : Google plus account is split into 10 collections, discussing about fitness, motivation, Inspiration, human rights, 3d design, Game design, programming skills, Manufacturing, Robotics…
Most posts are mainly visual, pics, short videos (usually less than 3 minutes)_ content is English at 90%+
Other blogs: more accounts such as twitter are discussed in chapter 3 in this post.

1.d/ Applications
One single application is on the pipe at the moment. A windows 10 UWA (Universal Windows Application) that is supposed to work well in any Windows 10 device (Laptop, desktop, tablet, smartphone, web..)
The main goal is to show my ability to run such a project and publish my very first app for mobile.
The app is another tasks/get things done with an original multidimensional loop system. This development is at his very early stage and no delivery/release date has been set at the moment. Other projects have to be finished prior to this one to start, but I intend to start it this year 2016.
(To be continued, click here for Part 2)

2/ Educational Content.
3/ Social Networking and Online Stuff.
4/ Software/Hardware/Services.
5/ Funding
6/ Roadmap/Calendar/Deadlines
7/ Comments/Likes/Shares
8/ French/English Content Breakdown.
9/ Personal Stuff.
10/ Bottom Line

That’s all for now!
Take care.
Pascal.