Dear Asgardians,

I'm still new to the experience, but I realise i need to cooperate with clientele and other asgardians about the future of our country, so henceforth using "Asgardia's business proposals" i'd like to merge thoughts and ideas with creative people about a theatre company called "Asgardia entertainment".

'Tis well noted that the name is temporary, but im requesting back up from other asgardians who have formal business experiences. I know i've been reading posts lately about how we should come together, but what is coming together without the topographical understanding of the mind that we all love to develop?

Exactamundo my people, i'll be more active nowadays from now on...

Through the application of technology, it’s possible to help Asgardia grow, make money and come together as a nation. One of the purposes behind Nerdblog is to share details of progress that I am making towards building software and virtual worlds for Asgardia.

This is a cross-post from my blog, www.nerdblog.co.uk

Please support my Campaign for Strategist here: https://asgardia.space/en/blog/candidate/784722-8774-virtual-space-for-our-nation/

While my skills are currently quite modest, within the next few weeks, I will be returning to university to commence the second year of my software engineering degree. During the next year, I fully expect my capabilities to advance quite significantly as I build upon my knowledge.

However; ins spite of my current skills, I am still happy to share details of my current progress.

Calendar App.

Asgardia has its own date system, so one of the things that I have been working on recently is an application that will allow us to view the Asgard date/time. Presently, I have been working with my colleague to crack the code that converts the ‘standard’ date into the ‘Asgardian’ date.

This has been a very useful exercise as it’s gotten me used to work with Android Studio – software that’s specially designed for Android app development.

Demo of date conversion.	Demo of ‘Swipe’   interface to switch between Asgard date & Standard Date.

Naturally, this is just a proof of concept and there is still a lot to learn about the tool, but it was a small victory to get the base logic down that handles the conversion of the dates and plugging all that into the Android UI.

There are several features that we’d like to add in the future to expand the functionality.

1. App will respond to Asgardian holidays.
2. Year Day will show a special screen.
3. Google Calendar integration.
4. Thought of the Day.

Throughout the year, it is my intention to update the app with some more interesting functionality and a more interesting UI so that it might be a worthy offering for Asgardians to have on their phone.

As a lot of Asgardia is going to need to be crowd funded, I am mooting the idea of a small charge for the app to help raise money to support Asgardia and fund further development of other applications, naturally – it’ll be a while before we get to a point where that becomes a serious discussion.

Preparation for Virtual Asgardian Worlds.

One of the big platforms for me is the application of Virtual Reality to create a ‘digital space’ for Asgardia. A Virtual world where we can exist, share thoughts, ideas and knowledge to solve the problems that Asgardia is facing. To make this a reality, I need to expand my skills beyond what I’m learning on the Software Engineering Degree.

Lots of Virtual Reality development shares more skills with a Game Developer / Game Designer / 3D modelling artist than it does with a Software Engineer.

To support my learning, I have started to learn about the fascinating world of ‘Game Development’ by undertaking a course on Udemy and also familiarising myself with the tools of the trade. While I am doing a lot of my self-study in Unity, recently, I have been getting to grips with a new Game Engine from Amazon called Lumberyard. I have got all the tools set up and I spent some time exploring the starter pack that they recently created to showcase what their engine was capable of.

See the Lumberyard play-test here.

This tool has a really user-friendly interface that allows you to interact with objects in your game world in ‘real time’. I am a very visual person so I love editors that can show me how the changes I make are reflected. It makes development a lot more visceral, almost like I’m reaching in and molding it with my own hands.

Lumberyard also comes with a host of content out of the box intended to give developers a taste of what they can do with the engine and in the coming months, I will be turning my hand to creating a proof of concept called ‘Asgard Island’ which will be a fully virtual world that will allow multiple users to visit.

See the Lumberyard 'edit mode' here.

As with Asgard, there is still a lot of work to do before there are any tangible results that will inspire confidence in the project, but with will and the backing of the community, I am certain that we can start to develop something amazing for our nation.

La base de una Asgardia próspera es la libertad. Es nuestro deber como ciudadanos el luchar por ella. Pero sobre todo entender que Libertad es sinónimo de Responsabilidad. La una no puede existir sin la otra. No seremos libres de verdad hasta que no seamos capaces de ser responsables de nuestros actos.

Y por eso. Seamos responsables y llevemos este proyecto a buen puerto. Alcancemos un nuevo estado para la humanidad. Alcancemos la Libertad.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The core of a prosperous Asgardia is freedom. It is our duty as citizens to fight for it. But above all, understand that Freedom is synonymous with Responsibility. One cannot exist without the other. We will not be truly free until we are able to be responsible for our actions.

And for that. Let us be responsible and take this project to a successful conclusion. Let us reach a new state for humanity. Let's achieve freedom.