=== Adventure Town - Mobile Game Review, Idle City Builder - 10/10 ===

     Hey everybody, it's time for another game review. Recently I had my phone cut off; as a result, I haven't really been able to keep up with Idle Heroes because you need to have an active internet connection to be able to play. So I had to start searching for a game which would be lots of fun to play without getting bored of it, and which could be played without being connected to the internet at all times. After some searching, I came across Adventure Town.

     Adventure Town puts you in charge of a little town where you must build shops and houses to gain gold and direct your heroes to defeat monsters and complete quests to earn experience and progress further into the game. As you play, you have little heroes and townspeople who will go to each shop and "buy" items. As they visit the shops, they make gold for you until the shops run out of goods at which point you must restock the goods. As with many time-based games like this, an observant person will note that shorter timed tasks such as growing wheat over two minutes will make more goods if you're constantly playing the game, but will be less effective if you're only checking up on your game once every hour.

     Growing these plants makes goods which are given to the shops which then make you gold so you can buy more buildings to make more money faster. You can't go wrong with making more money. There's also the option of building houses which make money without needing goods. The downside of using houses is that they take quite a bit of time to make the same amount of money that could be made by growing plants and stocking shops... but they're quite useful if you're only able to check up on your game once or twice a day.

     Making all of this money doesn't just go towards building more buildings. In your spare time when you don't have room for more buildings and you're waiting for resources to upgrade these shops and houses, you have to do something to keep yourself busy. At these times you find yourself needing to use the heroes at your command to complete quests that you're given or to just plain kill creatures for either money, resources, or magical elixirs which are used to craft and upgrade things. These heroes can be defeated in battle and then must take a recovery period before they can be used again, but they can never die.

     As you gain levels, the monsters you face get stronger, have more health, and do more damage. This is one of the uses for all that money you're making; upgrading equipment to have more health, defense, or damage is incredibly important if you're going to get anywhere in a world like this. Some of the strongest items require crystals which you can earn over time by defeating monsters or completing bounties. The rest of the items cost simple gold which we already know can be earned easily enough. Upgrading items consists of buying new items and fusing weaker items with stronger ones to upgrade them once you've fused enough together. The new strength of these items can be used to fight creatures or to increase your chance to be successful at completing quests.

     I think the reason I like this game so much is because it reminds me of a game I played once upon a time. I can't seem to remember the name of the game, though if I saw it I would definitely recognize it. The whole premise of the game was that all you could do was build shops and buildings to help your heroes and you could influence their decisions, but ultimately it was up to them to decide what they wanted to do; similar to one of my favorite games called Majesty. Seriously, if any of you happen to know what game I'm talking about, feel free to let me know. I would love to find this game again and see if I could get it to work on a current computer.

     All of the monster-killing you do in this game goes toward the great purpose of upgrading your guardian statue. The purpose of which is to give you money once a day which increases each time the guardian levels up. More money means more buildings and better equipment for your heroes which means more monsters destroyed.

     As with most mobile games, this is a pretty simple game to play with not a lot of action and just enough going on to keep you busy if you kept the game open to kill some time. No consistent internet connection required, a good pace of progression to keep you interested, and reasonable tasks which aren't too difficult to complete. This all makes for a great mix of gameplay which would keep you coming back for more as often as you can.

     Adventure Town gets a 10/10 from me for being another great game which is likely to keep me busy for a few months without looking for something new.

~ Kyle Welykholowa ^_^

=== Idle Heroes - Mobile Game Review, Idle Progression - 10/10 ===

     Alright, so I've been wanting to do a review of Idle Heroes for quite some time now. Idle Heroes is an idle progression game which tends to be a great type of game for those on the go who sometimes need to kill a little bit of time on their phone between tasks and other events. There are good idle games and bad ones and usually they all have the same format, but different artwork and presentation. Idle Heroes brings something completely new to the table for me.

     Idles Heroes isn't just about getting to the next amount of money that buys an upgrade to get more money faster. This game has you upgrade your heroes using money you generate while offline so that you can do more while online. Having higher level heroes lets you progress through the game in multiple ways including the campaign where you get more money as you get further into it, the tower of oblivion where you fight challenges to earn rewards, and the brave trial where you fight up to 15 opponents for rewards based on how far you get.

     Combat in this game is very simple, you click battle and they attack and use their special abilities whenever they are able to. There really isn't much for me to say about it, but that's not a bad thing at all. This game is really straightforward and I'm giving it a perfect score because a good game doesn't need to be complicated. You get 10 tasks every day which you can complete for rewards which you can then use to upgrade your heroes or purchase items. There are at least 5 ways to earn different types of currency which can be used to purchase new heroes or upgrades for them.

     There really isn't anything bad I can think of about this game other than it can take a while to progress to the next stage at some points. Every once in a while you face up against a boss or a harder group of enemies which can sometimes take a while to level up enough to be able to defeat, but that doesn't take much away from the game because there's so much else which can still be done even when you're stuck on another part.

     So Idle Heroes gets a 10/10 from me for being a great game that I just cannot put down in my spare time.

Thanks everybody and have a wonderful day! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa

Midterms - February 2017

     It is my second semester and the next round of tests are fast approaching. Am I ready? Am I prepared? I think I have some more reading and practical applications to do to be sure, but so far I think things have been going well. It's tough trying to balance work school and home life all together. Once school is done though, it will all be worth it. So long as I can keep myself on task, I'm on track for getting myself a better-paying job to support my family. With that comes happiness and comfort for us. Work and family will be a solved puzzle at that time. Then all that's left is my personal success.

     I want to have a successful hobby. Or rather... I want to make my hobby successful. I believe any hobby can be made successful with enough hard work and dedication. That is why I continue to blog and make videos and put myself out there. Because I have had some success with what I have  done and I'm sure I can do even better if I just put my mind to it and take more action to promote myself further than I already have.

     This course I'm taking for school right now is a door to open many possibilities in the future. I only need to prove my hard work and determination to show others, but more importantly myself, that I have what it takes to pull through and overcome the obstacles ahead of me no matter what path I choose to travel.

     Nearly half a course completed, only half more to go. ^_^

~ Kyle Welyholowa

Using Work Skills At Home

     This isn't really something I've thought about greatly previously, but I think I may have had a wonderful brainwave. At work, we have a daily task list. I'm sure it seems simple enough, but it's a really good reminder of what we have to do each day. And of course, we have the option of adding new tasks to future days if anything comes up that isn't normally on the list. I'm beginning to think more and more that this is something I should implement around the house somewhere. I think the easiest way for me to do so would be to use my whiteboard for such a thing.

     In the past I have tried a few different things with varying amounts of success. I've tried to just remember everything in my head... which works alright, unless you get distracted by something or are tired or anything to that effect.

     I've also tried using programs on my computer like a notepad or something; this works alright as long as you remember to open and update it every time something changes. This should be simple enough, but I've notice that if it isn't visible, it can be quite difficult to remember to update continuously.

     I've also used Google Calendar; this actually works really well also if you remember to update it all the time. This COULD be what I will start getting myself into a habit of doing along with updating my whiteboard. I think both options together would be a good habit to get into.

     Anywhos, I just wanted to talk a little bit about something we do at work that I think would be a good tool to implement at home to help keep everything under control and organized going into the future. We'll see where it goes from here. I'll keep you all updated.

     Have a great day everybody! ^_^

~ Kyle Welykholowa