The main news, of course, is that our Cyberspline development team has reached Alpha. BoomBox is now feature complete. There were a few late nights but now the game has been handed over for QA testing as a prelude to Beta.
To celebrate (we did say we were an adventurous bunch) we decided to get out of the office and find out just how fit each member of the team really was by going on a hike. The chosen trail was a near 10km round trip accent up to Eagle Bluffs from Cyprus Bowl in Vancouver, which on a clear day affords a view of the City of Vancouver, its’ landmarks, suburbs, Burrard Inlet, and the expanse of water that will eventually take you to Vancouver Island.
Turns out that a few of us thought this a challenge too far. Some ran up while the rest wheezed their way up to Cabin Lake, a beautiful enclosure which served as a lunch stop. At this point the addictive gamer in us kicked in and we wanted to finish the “level” as planned rather than call it at this already beautiful spot. Strung out on the trail to Eagle Bluffs, the stealthy among us chose to search for Porcini mushrooms while the stragglers came to terms with the steep descending switchbacks and the fact that much older hikers with dogs were faring better than they.
Arriving at the rocky edge of the Bluffs and peering out over all of Vancouver provided a sense of euphoria which made the hike worthwhile.
We gained much perspective as we looked out at the landscape below. It is easy to get caught up in the design and programming of a game that we hope will be a source of fun to others, and while hard work is important, we needed to take time out to have fun ourselves.
Our return hike was punctuated by a downpour that added to the misery of the unfit, but we did see a bear cub fall out of a tree!