A Games Developer Wannabe

2006-03-07T01:55:00.000Z

Ponnis (my Pong cover) is over :o) Handed in and done with (thankfully, it's a dull game to make) i'll upload it here for anyone who's interested in playing it once it's been marked.

I received the marks for Acerbus Blue, we got 82% which was one of the highest in the course, tho I'm not sure if it's the highest yet because although I know it's the highest for my class I don't know about the other class. I'm really happy about the result and even had one of the puzzles I coded commented on favourably by the tutor :o) (gonna iron out some bugs and check if it's ok with my group before posting it up here)

The next assignment on the list is a cover or Space Invaders. Now i know it's by far not the most original thing to do but I'm sure it's a damn sight more fun to code than Pong :p

The anticipation for Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is getting a bit much for me now, I'm starting to Yern, hehe

2006-02-21T23:44:00.000Z

Well, the Pong/Tennis game (Now with the name 'Ponnis') is due in next week, It's a pong game (I must stress, not my choice of game type, it's for an assignment) with Tennis-like rules. I did want to have a voice reading out the scores, but as my voicover lady is a little shy I may have to do them myself (I hate my voice recorded) or just leave it out.

Either way I'm going to upload a .exe file and accompanying graphics and sound files once it's complete. However no source code will be uploaded until I get graded on it. I know I've been promising Acerbus Blue (my last game) for a while now but it's still not been graded yet.

It was my birthday last week, I'm 21 :o)

The only game I'm currently looking forward to at the moment is Oblivion, but I'm sure after E3 I'll have a huge list to chat about with ya :p

2006-02-07T16:53:00.000Z

Well, the maths test went ok. Would seem all that revision payed off, still hated doin it tho :o|

I'm about half way through my pong-a-like game for my games dev class assignment. I'm goin for a beech theme I think :o)

Got a programmin exam tomorrow, will browse through my notes at some point tonight but I'm not really that worried about it.

2006-02-06T03:30:00.000Z

I have my maths test tomorrow... I spent from 2:30pm till 12:15am revising for the bloody thing. Heres how:

We're allowed to take in one sheet of A4 notes which have to be hand written by yourself. Which meant going through every note ive ever had since beggining of november, understanding it (by far the most lenghty of the tasks) and writing down important bits along with an example of how it works... then once every note was been done, transfereing those notes to the sheet of A4 I plan on taking in with me (in the smallest writing ive ever done, in order to fit as much as I can on there)...

I hate revision. I can't do it, I procrastinate. I didn't revise for my GCSEs nor for my ALevels. So it takes me ages, but alas I've gone from GCSE maths (4 years ago) to degree maths and I'm a little lost, so revise I must :o(

I've scanned the A4 sheet and I'll upload it here, just on the off-chance that someones interested, once ive taken the test tomorrow (technicaly today).

Dev Wannabe

p.s I know what you must be thinking... if he has a test tomorrow (technicaly today) then why is he posting at 3:30am? Well I cant sleep, im an insomniac at even the best times not least when I know I should be sleeping. Also due to a little Ghost story which I'll tell ya about another time :o)

2006-02-02T14:40:00.000Z

Crazy Insane Busy!

Have had quite a few projects to be in, Java work to be done and a bloody Maths test on Monday that I'm really not looking forward to. To top it all off, I've developed a Morrowind obsession.

How could this have happened? Why an older game? Well its simple, Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is comming out soon and as such there have been videos on their website... this isn't good for someone wanting to work, the lure to procrastinate is too high. Anyway one thing led to another and now I'm replaying Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind... eeek

Add all this in with the obligations to the beer and women and that leaves me BUSY :o)

Alas the chores of student life

2006-01-26T21:08:00.000Z

I've made some Gaming related Avatars (little pictures you put with your posts on forums or on MSN Messenger etc.) they're all 95 x 95 pixels

2006-01-25T02:46:00.000Z

I've decided to attempt to be in Uni every day this week, even Friday (which is very difficult to bring myself to do as theres only a one hour lecture, which isn't really worth the hour commute to Manchester) :o) I think I'll do it aswell.

Now I know that makes me sounds very lazy, like I don't bother going in, it's actually not as lazy as you think, my timetable is worked out so that I'm there every day of the week, however in truth there are only really 2 or 3 importand days and I always try to make sure I attend them.

Really quite getting into this Blitz Basic... it's geared towards newbie game developers which is just what I need :o) My pong-a-like is comming along nicely and my other project isn't doing so bad either (I found a computer-artist type guy to make me some good images to include in it) not really gonna go into too much detail about it yet cos it's likely to change dramaticly during programming.

Im really trying to find a good single-player RPG that I havent played, it seems to be the impossible task... very frustrating! I want to play an older game called Planscape: Torment but I just can't find it in any shops :o| maddening.

2006-01-20T23:20:00.000Z

No uni today, only had one lecture and I had to stay and wait for a delivery so I skipped it :p arnt I the laziest!

Played some WoW tho, went through the Deadmines again with one of my alts... it's still my fave instance in the game... long but not too long so that it can be done in a few hours and hard but not too hard so you dont need a massive raid.

Also played some CS:Source, I love the remake of the militia map, everytime the CS team release a new map they get more and more beautiful. It shows you that the mappers are really learning all that the source engine cn do... lovelly :o)

2006-01-20T03:16:00.000Z

Technicaly it's Friday but since I havent been to bed yet I'm still treating it as Thursday :o)

Not been nearly as lazy today, have been to uni and had both peices of work that I was procrastinating with yesterday handed in. Makes me feel good to know there's nothing I have to do over the weekend. But since the funds are low it looks like I wont be goin out for it anyway :o| Alas what is a poor student to do?

I played the Demo for Star Wars: Empire at War today, i really like the style of the ground and space combat missions, but I'm not sure about the Galactic bits just yet, they seem a bit 'Total War' like... but I'll reserve judgement untill it's released and I can have a proper go at it. The whole Star Wars thing sets me thinking back to the days when I played Knights of the Old Republic for the first time... other than Fable no other RPG has come close to it in my eyes.

Well... I should sleep sometime, gotta get up early so I can sign for a package being delivered... nite nite world :p

2006-01-18T22:15:00.000Z

I've been exceptionally lazy today... I've got no excuse

I skipped uni today, I'd like to tell you that even though I wasn't there that I got lots of work done but what's the point in deceiving a blog?

More to report tomorrow though I'm sure :o)

2006-01-17T20:59:00.000Z

I've become a little addicted to online comics recently, It's not a good adiction as when you find a new one it pretty much zaps all your time as you read the archives, but it's an addiction none the less :o)

I've put a few of the good ones in my links to the right of the page... The best one that I can recommend is Ctrl Alt Del, very funny :o)

Recreated pong in Blitz Basic today. Not the most exciting thing to do I can assure you! I'll upload it once I'm sure I wont need to get it marked for the course.

2006-01-17T00:41:00.000Z

It's been an absolutly crazy time for me personaly... finished with my girlfriend of 4 years end of November, found a new girl half-way through December only to find out that she was SO NOT what I needed cos she drove me nuts! Christmas would have sucked ass if it weren't for my quality family and New Years I don't remember much due to the VERY large intake of alcohol. I've had many highs and too many lows... but I think it's all evening out now, which should lead to a more regular Blog post :o)

As for the text game, Acerbus Blue, I handed in before Christmas, I still havent got a mark for it yet and dont wanna upload it to the world untill I have. Will post it up onto my Community (Our Gaff - http://www.our-gaff.co.uk) as soon as I can and will link to it on here when I do.

We've moved on to a new language now, Blitz Basic, very good for making 2D and simple 3D games, will post em as I make em, I'm making a game alongside the course projects aswell :o)

2005-11-21T13:13:00.000Z

Sorry guys,

Had been a bit (well major) busy over the past 3 weeks, I had some personal problems going on as well so hadn't had the notion to post. But I'm back now and ready to keep ya updated.

Just a word about this blog first. I've decided to do regular quick updates rather than irregular long ones... I'm sure not everyone wants to read a novel every time they go blog-hunting.

The text adventure game is coming on lovely, has to be in by 13th December but I'm sure we'll have it finished and play-tested way before then. It'll be put up on the University's website somewhere but I'll publish it on here too if anyone is interested in playing it.

I had a big project in Java Programming to hand in, we had to create a short animation using Bailey & Bailey's Java Elements drawing package. I've done mine now tho so I'm considering posting the .java file somewhere once it's been marked so that you can all see my programming skills (or lack of as the case may be) first hand.

2005-10-13T14:40:00.000+01:00

Feelin' good :o)

I've got a good group for the game being made for my Games Dev class. We're starting on text adventures and it's goin cool. We've got a good story, sorta a dark horror type story set in in the 1890's about a police man cought up in dark magic and rituals. It's not my sorta story 'cos I like more light harded themes but it is a good setting for the game and the whole group seems to dig it. I'm gonna make one of my own game along side it, mainly to make sure I've got the syntax and processes down but it'll be a fully working text adventure so once it's complete I'll upload it on the blog for the world to enjoy.

Handed in the assignment given to me on 'Software Engineering Disasters' in computing fundamentals, I did it as a group and we got a D as a whole, not fantastic but for a first Uni assignment it's not bad. The main thing wrong with it was 'sourcing' which basicly involves a key like system to inform the reader of where I got all the information in the essay. Suppose it stops plagarism but it is annoyin :p

I've got my new iBook and iPod that I bought with the old' Student Loan ("spending money I don't have on things I don't need" lol) and I'm very impressed. Without trying to sound like a mac advert, it's a very stable laptop, well made and sturdy, very sexy looking and extremely light and portable :o) Obviously with it being a mac it's not the best for playing games on so the ol' desktop PC still has life in it :p but for non-games work mac's are IMHO much better than PC's (another PC enthusiast has been converted). I've loaded it with Jif for programmin' the text adventures and got NetBeans on it for my Java programming.

On a slight side note, I think goin to Uni has made me even more of a nerd (if that's even possible) as I've been shown some cool non-computer games, namely HeroClix and various trading card games. They rock but I think there's only so geeky a man should go... I start rehab next week ;o)

So that's all I have for this update... stay in school kids!

2005-09-29T12:06:00.000+01:00

This is my 4th day of proper Uni lessons and I have to say I'm enjoying it. Although the 1 hour commute is a bastard it is worth it once I get there. Below is an outline of the modules to my course (incase anyone is interested):

- Games Development (looking into the planning, writing and all other non-programming side of games... I'm creating a Text Adventure for this as at the mo)
- Programming (Starting off with Java and will be moving into other languages once the basics have been taught)
- Computing Mathematics (All aspects of maths that are relevent to computer games development)
- Information Systems (Looking at planning and implementing I.T into business... I can't quite see the relevence of this yet)
- Computing Fundamentals (Looking and assesing Systems Engineering and other Fundamentals)
- Computer Systems Organisation (No idea what this is about yet as this weeks lecture was canceled)

I'm really enjoying the Games Dev and Programming modules and tho the others are dulls-ville I don't mind doin them either. However having so many modules does have it's draw-backs as it means I have to be in 5 days a week and there are also Coursework and Exams for all of them... eeek!

I'm looking for ideas at the moment for my Text Adventure so if anyone has some dynamite ones that they arn't goin to use, I'd love to hear them :o)

Until next time sports-fans...

2005-09-22T10:50:00.000+01:00

I'm now 4 Days into Uni Induction Week... it's DULL!

However I have had a chance to check out the computer labs and I'm impressed, tho apparently a lot of the work done early on is on Macs so I may have to choose a powerbook when buyin my laptop (God loves Student Loans).

I also learnt a little about what stuff we'll be doin on the course, apart from the Maths and Programming lessons there'll also be games development lessons as well which I'm pretty excited about. To start off on we'll be making Text Adventures using a specific compiler made for it, this is because none of us really know how to program but they'd like us to get used to the concepts involved when designing a game.

Any thing I make will be uploaded to the net somewhere and I'll link to it on this blog :o)

Got hold of some LAN games now that I think should go down well. I've got Dawn of War, Earth 2160 and SWAT 4. All seem like they could be fun but I would still like some more suggestions.

I'll keep ya Posted!

2005-09-14T11:24:00.000+01:00

One week to go until Uni, you'd think I'd be bored after having so much time off... I'm not.

I'm gonna miss gettin up at 10am
I'm gonna miss having nothing that HAS to be done
I'm gonna miss being able to play games all day
I'm gonna miss my World of Warcraft
I'm gonna miss my 2am bed-time
Most of all I'm gonna miss my laziness

But it has to be done, because once Uni starts I'm gonna be 'all I can be', a shining star in an otherwise dull northern town :o)

Enough of that, let's talk about games...

I have a couple mates with whom I LAN. We stay up most of the night with out pooters connected and we play and I win. We mostly play RTS (Real Time Strategy) games (mainly any or all of the command and conquer games) however we do love the FPS games (mostly Far Cry but we play a lot of Quake 3 and UT2004). But the thing is we're running out of games to play, I've recently got hold of WarHammer 40k so we've got that to look forward to till the next LAN (I haven't played it yet, I want us all to start on a level playing field) but other than that I'm stumped... Any suggestions?

2005-09-12T11:36:00.000+01:00

It's Monday and I start University in exactly a week, I'm nervous but lookin forward to it more. Having not done anything in the past 3 months It'll be hard to get used to having a reason to get up early but once I get into it, it wont be too bad.

Other than play around with the source code for making a Half-Life 2 Multiplayer mod I haven't done much, however after reading a few tutorials it doesn't look too daunting (tho I can't program in C++ yet so it's still above my talents for the moment).

I'm an RPG (Role Play Game) fan at heart, never used to be, in fact I pretty much hated them until I played Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic a year back (before that I'd only played a little bit of Diablo 1 and wasn't impressed). Since then tho I've played and enjoyed every RPG game I've got my hands on (with the exception of Boiling Point (not a full rpg I know but similar) which was just too buggy and unfinished for my liking).

I downloaded a demo of 'A Tale In The Desert II' (ATITD) and became hooked on the idea of MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online games), didn't get into ATITD however as it was a little too slow-burning for my tastes. I wanted to play World of Warcraft (WoW) but at the time it was unavailable in my country due to it selling out so I settled for EverQuest II (EQ2) which I enjoyed (and also Star Wars Galaxies which I did not enjoy). Finally got hold of a copy of WoW and straight away dropped my subscription to EQ2 and became a WoW-a-holic.

Due to my new-found love for RPGs I think I'd like to get into making them as my main game-type. Tho I do love FPS (First Person Shooter) games aswell and they seem easier to mod so I'll get into them first I think (If you know better let me know, I'd love to get some feedback).

Anyway, that's enough from me today, I'll let you get back to your work :o)

2005-09-10T12:42:00.000+01:00

I'm tired. After not getting to sleep till 4:30am and gettin up this morning at 9am I'm a bit sleepy, but I feel better. I've been on google all this mornin looking for articles on becoming a game developer, found This, it's a site with a good little intro and some pretty useful links (worth a look if your interested in that sorta thing). I'm currently downloading a C++ Compiler so that I may get some coding practice in (I say practice, I mean learn how to program).

I started a CS:Source map a few days ago, not done too much work on it but I think it'll help me get a feel for a bit of level design, tho not concentrating on that too much, more interested in making an original game than adding to someone else's. I have ideas but no clue on how to create them, lol

I've been interested in computer games since I was about 7 when I got a Sega Master System. I've owned at some time pretty much every major console between then and now and currently play a PS2, XBOX (tho it's much better as a Media Player once it's modded) and a GameCube (secretly my favorite console). But as any gamer will tell you PC is best. I got my first PC at 11 and never looked back.

I spend almost all of my free time sat at a 'pooter'. I did a computing A-level and an electronics A-level and was taught how to program in BASIC and in Pascal/Delphi but C++ seems to be on a much higher level and at this point in time a bit overwhelming, still that's what I'm getting into loads of debt to go to Uni to learn right?

I'll keep ya posted...

2005-09-10T02:55:00.000+01:00

It's 2:32am and I can't sleep. I keep thinking about everything I want; money, fame, love an all that, but most of all I want to be a games developer.

I'm 20 and I start university in a week, I've decided that a good way to get into the industry would be to get a degree, so I've enrolled myself on a Computer Games Design course at a local university. I wasn't always this sure of what I wanted to do, I left college at 18 and have done decidedly nothing since. I started off working part-time in a video store, but moved to a full time job on a call centre. This was a MISTAKE!

There is no more a soul-destroying, shitty job than call centre work, and after a year and a half of it I hit an all-time low. I broke-down and then promptly quit. With no other job and no idea of what to do next. I decided that my love of games should be making me money (god knows I spend enough time playing them, reading about them, thinking about them) and after some gentle persuasion from my family (that's code for doing as I'm bloody told) I enrolled in university.

This all happened about 3 months ago... so why am I now awake at 2:41am starting a blog? I found out that a friend of mine with whom I used to go to high school with is now in the industry, and I'm jealous... really jealous! It's made me realise how much I want this, but more than that it's made me realise that I don't know the first thing about being a games developer, I can't program, I can't level-design etc. etc. I'm a wannabe.

This blog is to help me put down on paper (so to speak) what exactly it is I have accomplished when I've accomplished it. I'm going to use it to chart my progress and my feelings on my rise to knight-hood (*cough* Peter Molyneux *cough*).

I'm tired now (2:48am) so I'm gonna have a wank (man's in-built sleeping pill) and lie in bed sweating, watching the clock and thinking of how tired I'm going to be when I have to get up to see my girlfriend goto work (more on that later)... night night.