Technical Daze

Control Scheme Survey

Sun, 05 May 2013 20:59:00 +0100

So yeah, I should probably explain myself about this.

Those of you reading this may or may-not know that I spammed Twitter, Facebook and other social networks with a survey about touch screen controls. I stated that it was for Uni research, but that was kind of a lie. It WAS for Uni, but it was for something else that I will have to explain another time, sorry. (I have been sworn to temporary secrecy!)

Anyway, some of you wanted to know the results, and I promised I would post them. I’m not very good at this whole data analysis thing, but I’ll give it a whack;

The first question was of the multiple choice kind, which asked Players their preferred control scheme for touch screen games:

So out of a varying demographic of gamers and non-gamers and even bigger age range, (14-40, give or take). The preferred control scheme was touch to move to type, and as predicted, Virtual D-pad did quite poorly.

Although I was quite surprised to see Virtual Analogue stick was well received.

SurveyMonkey doesn’t provide any decent analysis tools to free members, so I can’t provide much insight to the other questions, however I can apparently save the page of answers, so should you want to look at all the answers given, you can do so here.
(I’m not exactly a webdev, so I just formatted all the junk out, sorry it still looks like crap.)

Anyway, hope someone out there finds it useful, and thank everyone who participated, as well as those who helped spread the survey, you all helped me greatly.

Frustration and New Year plans

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:51:40 +0000

Hey, guess I never made that post, but hey ho. Happy new year.

I didn’t really have a plan for this year, just to better myself as a person as best I can. Is the only non-explicit thing I can try to achieve, and it hasn’t been going bad so far. Although I’m taking quite a mental or at least emotional beating lately.

I got A1/A1 (100%) on an assignment today, yet I feel like crap. I’ve been thinking about it most of the day, and I think I’ve sussed why. My friend initally stated that it’s probably because I don’t “feel” anything. As in I don’t feel rewarded or self-gratification for it. It could be that, because I don’t feel any different and it doesn’t really feel like I’ve earned it. To be honest, the marking seemed way too light, and all the extra work I put in seemed wasted if anything. I’m fairly confident I did three times the work expected, and it feels crap because I can’t get marked higher than 100%. (I don’t mean this in an arrogant way, but I did work stupidly hard, and had no problems with my work, yet people had missed out whole sections of the work and got an A2, I did every section, plus improvements.) Another thing is, I can’t brag about my grades. I can’t boast my hard work, which yes is a horrible thing to do, but if something good happens, it’s nice to celebrate it without feeling like a dick. My girlfriend is having a really hard time with her Uni work at the moment, with late hand ins and failed assignments, which is even harder because I can’t say anything to make her feel better, and I can’t even tell her that I’m doing well, because it makes her feel like an idiot.

Another frustration is that everyone I know is always bloody miserable.

I try so god damn hard to keep people happy, and it just never works. I either get it wrong, or do something to piss them off. It’s driving me crazy. I just can’t seem to win.

To put it short, I’m fed up. I’m really starting to wish sometimes that I could just drop all social aspects and keep to my own devices. But I know that can’t be done, and won’t get me anywhere.

So I keep trying.

In any case, there is a silver lining. After a very stressful situation of being assessed, I managed to show off lots of my past works to a lecturer, as well as a new one recently hired. I seemed to have impressed both of them as they want some of my work, as well as a video showing off the stuff I can do. Better yet, a director of Stainless games is coming to my University next week, and the lecturer wants me to show off my work to him.

Bit scary, but hopefully will pay off in some way.

It was another one of those situations that boosted my ego and made me feel good, except I can’t talk about it because it puts others down.

People are so frustrating.

Anyway, with any luck I’ll be working more on my Tower Defence project (which I haven’t worked on lately, but as I said, hopefully I’m going to pick it back up), which would be great. I also want to get started on learning things such as DirectX, and network programming(as scary as it is). And just generally going to try and stay on top of my work and get the best grades I can.

For now, I’m just going to try and survive.

Ludum Dare 25 - Getaway

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 00:57:10 +0000

I took part in another Ludum Dare. Although I decided not to complete my entry.

The main reason is that the more I tested it, the more I found the mechanic rather dull- even annoying. I really liked the concept at first, but myself and a few others agreed that it on its own wasn’t really “fun”. I soon lost motivation for it, and hearing people having fun playing their own games really set in stone that I didn’t want to finish it.

You can find my entry here.

Which kinda sucks because people enjoyed it when I submitted it.

Oh well. Lesson learned.

If you can’t tell, I’ve been uber-busy as of late, and I apologise. I might make another post during christmas, but right now, I’m feeling kind of down. I’m going home in two days to stay with my family for a week, which should be nice. (Won’t have a computer though, thus the ‘should’ part.)

If I don’t make a post in time- Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year everyone.

…as long as Mayans were wrong. Which would suck because I go home that day.

Second Year of Uni...Commence!

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 21:48:25 +0100

So I started the second year of Uni on Tuesday, and it’s amazing how little different it feels, and as if I haven’t been away for months on end. Although I must admit it’s really different living nearby. Definitely makes breaks much nicer and not having to rush about so much.

This year’s work seems a bit easier than the last though. It’s a bit more interesting and not so much involved. Not sure if that’s because I’ve just started, or I’m actually motivated and interesting, but we’ll see. Programming is a bit slow at the moment, but it’s nice being recognised now. I’m currently procrastinating the Java practice at the moment though. Which is why the blog posts are actually being done.

While I say the work is easier, I do seem to have a lack of personal time. There’s some stuff I want to do or experiment with, but I’m slightly scared of getting behind, which I refuse to do, but as I said, I’ll see as the weeks go on. Things might change.

Unfortunately I have been placed in a group with people I’d very much like to see burn… but such is life. Just ignore them and carry on, not like I have to pay them much heed anyway.

Oh, I also finally received and email from my boss from college, and that the customers haven’t replied at all and I haven’t been excluded. He more or less concluded the project in that email, and thanked me for my work and left a few compliments that slapped a big smile on my face which I won’t ever let go of.

…I’m happy and looking forward to the future for once.

Which is definitely a nice change.

Eurogamer Expo + Indie Game: The Meet-up

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 21:34:30 +0100

Sorry about it being late, I’m not used to this kind of thing, but here we go.

So I may or may not have mentioned that I was going to the Eurogamer Expo in London, thankfully my house-mate agreed to go with me, which was fantastic because I’m utterly useless at travel.

Anyway, skipping all the useless travelling details, my mind was blown at how long the line was to get in, but I was pretty excited. Eventually when we entered, it kind of felt like a night club at first where it was so dark, but eventually I soaked in more of the environment, there was just stuff _everywhere_. Booths weren’t set up how I imagined them to be, but it was still pretty interesting. You would have some kind of wall with a poster featuring some upcoming game, with computers/consoles just under them showing the game off.

The queues for some of the games were up to an hour long, so I didn’t get to play many, however watching was more than enough.

The booth-babes were fun to oogle, or otherwise laugh at because it’s such a cheap tactic. (I mean there were 4 that had QR Codes on their pants, which is kind of pathetic considering we’re supposed to be growing away from sexism as an industry now.)

There was a giant Black-Ops table where people would compete with a huge TV and spectators going on. It was pretty loud and annoying.

I went to two of the developer conferences that were there for that day, one for a game called “Remember Me”, which is being published by Capcom and is a new IP. A very interesting one at that. I definitely recommend checking it out, the developer seemed to be really proud of the work, which was nice.

Company of Heroes 2 was one of the games that I had played and also checked out the developer conference for because my friend was into it. I’ve never played the previous game, and didn’t realise it was an RTS, but I vaguely enjoyed it. Don’t think I’m going to buy it though. (However we got beta keys for attending the dev conference).

I also got to meet some people I talk to on Twitter, which absolutely blew my mind as a whole. I’ve never met people in real life that I have met on the internet before, and doing that then just seemed so unreal. Some didn’t look anything like I expected, let alone talk, so it was a really interesting experience.

As time went on and we left the Expo, my house-mate and I went to the Indie Game: The Meet-up, which was originally intended for like 10 people, but somehow exploded into 250 people attending. (Well, only 100-200 or so turned up, but that’s still a feat).

The problem was that the venue was way too small, and there were so many people that you were literally touching five people at once. Which is hysterical considering we’re all socially awkward gamers and developers.

Oh, and free drink tokens were given out by selected people, and I received one simply because of my name, which was awesome. He didn’t believe me at first, which is a normal reaction I get, but he seemed utterly impressed. But hey, free drink.

Some people there showing off their games seemed a bit… distant or not wanting to talk, which was weird and annoying, but I’m happy I tried. I did meet quite a few interesting people and it was nice trying to break out of my social shell. It was overall an enjoyable experience, and would definitely like to go again… as long as they get a bigger venue!

Oh, and I tried to leave the pub with my drink, and the Russian security guard threatened to smash (or pour) it over my head. He was only joking though, but at the time I wasn’t sure, and was on the border of terror and hysteria. So I promptly finished that and left.

Whilst that wasn’t all that happened to me over the Saturday, those are the main events and things that I enjoyed. It was a really long day and I was really glad to get home though.

I will definitely look into doing more things like that though, it was so much fun and such an experience.

Anyway, more posts to come!

Emotions suck.

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:32:00 +0100

You know how you get some form of communication or social media that you know people you know might not read or at the very least family? Well Twitter used to be that for me, but my own mother follows me.

Now this makes it difficult to express certain feelings, despite the fact that I try to keep my emotional outbursts off Twitter, but that’s not always possible. You can’t deny that some part of you relishes the fact that someone somewhere might acknowledge your emotion and make you feel validated. Or even get lost in the noise of the internet, reminding you that you’re just another cog in the gears of life, or so they say.

By having my mother follow me on Twitter means I can’t whine about certain things, in fear of her worrying or thinking it might be about her, which is rare, but yesterday I very much wanted to express something, but really didn’t want her to see because I knew it would affect her.

I also thought about doing a blog post, because I feared she might read it, however I shall refrain from posting this on Twitter and hopefully by the time she finds this, she’ll have already done her decision.

Anyway, let me explain and vent;

Yesterday I got a call from my mum telling me that she’s decided to move in with her sister (my aunt) and that she’s going to officially move out of her home.

My home.

I know, it sounds silly and ridiculous, but hear me out. I’ve probably moved 6 times in my life (bar this accommodation). My mum had to move about a lot to make ends meet, she had a lot of debt, so it was a bit of an issue. I was a kid at the time, so I never really understood. However the home which she is moving out now is where I’ve lived through the end of school, through college, and my first year of uni, so I’ve had a bit more of an emotional attachment than the previous houses. The reason this is such an issue, is because it’s my home.

It’s the place that I can run away to if everything goes wrong. It’s the place that I can feel safe, no matter what. It’s my room, my haven.

But it won’t be any more.

It’s going away, and even worse, belong to someone else.

This means I have no where to run to now, that this accommodation is now my real home, no longer some place to stay whilst I attend University.

I was crushed, big time.

This place is great, sure. But it’s not my home, it’s not the place which is protected by the care of my family. It’s just some box in the middle of the city where anything can happen. I’m being forced to move on, and grow up.

I know, I know, it has to happen, I’m not that naive to think that everything will be perfect forever and I’ll be at home. I know I have live and write my own story and create my own home.

But I forget I’m not a child anymore. I still feel as if I’m 16 and no where near ready. Doing all these bills and things is scary as it is, but I just deal with it. Just like I’m going to deal with this whole moving thing.

In a stupid fit of attention, I wrote about being forced to move on on Twitter, and unfortunately my mum noticed it, and said she felt bad, and that scared me into thinking she would change her mind.

She can’t change her mind, she needs to do this. It’ll make her happy, it’s unfair that I have to force her to live alone just because of some childish fantasy or emotion. I may have lied about it just being a big change I’m not looking forward to, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get over it.

If I’m honest, I’m more concerned than I am worried about where I’ll end up in a few years time. It’ll be interesting to see what I can pull off and what direction I’ll take after uni. Thinking of all of this makes me wonder so many things, like will I still be with my girlfriend? Will I have kids? Where will I move to? What will I become?

I’ve never really bothered myself with stuff like that before, I’m always “Go with the flow, what happens, happens. Just do what you can”, but it seems like I suddenly have to take the wheel of my own life, and drive it myself.

And that scares me.

Because I don’t know how to drive.

I'm alive, honest.

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 01:26:38 +0100

So about 20 odd days later, he remembers he has a blog.

Actually, that’s a lie, I remembered a while ago but I couldn’t be bothered, then I had some news I wanted to put off posting for a while, but alas, here we go;

So as I previously stated I moved out and now live in Student Accommodation with my other half, and two friends on the same course as I am.

We get along fine, bills are scary but managable, and food is weird.

Just the way it should be.

Anyway, I’d like to say I’ve done some programming, but honestly, I’ve probably clocked 3 hours at most. Unfortunately my time is spent letting my girlfriend use the computer to play Minecraft, or spending time with my room mate tearing apart games and showing each other new genres we’re both in to.

It’s pretty fun, don’t get me wrong, but it’d be nice to have some of my own time, y’know? I don’t want to tell everyone to go away, it feels kind of selfish. I mean my girlfriend doesn’t actually have a lot she can do entertainment-wise at the moment, because she doesn’t have a computer. (Well, she has a netbook, but that runs like gnats on a treadmill).

In fact I’m only on now because she has gone away to a friend’s for the night. I have also been playing Borderlands 2 with the other two room-mates, because we thought it’d be fun, even then that’s a mental struggle half the time.

Anyway, I’m hoping it’ll all resolve when we start Uni again, (Which is less than a week). I’m kind of looking forward to having a work load again, but I also know it’s going to be stressful. I’ll manage somehow, I always do. Also going to try and get the highest grades possible this time. No more going to get by, no more telling myself and everyone that I’m going to try harder.

No I’m aiming as high as possible.

Where that is, I don’t know.

Oh, and Eurogamer is 2 days away, so that’s pretty exciting too. About to go to my first expo. (So glad I have a friend going with me though, I’d be so screwed otherwise.)

Most excited for the Indie Game: The Meet-up afterwards though. It’s amazing how a meet up with like 10 people exploded into 250, all from various areas of the industry.

Anyway, going to see life plays itself for the next few days, and try and start a routine of some sort. Also, going to try and get some Eurogamer pics and stories documented here if I can!

So I'm moving

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 12:49:00 +0100

So yeah. 20 years on, I’m finally moving out.

It’s student accommodation whilst I’m at Uni, but it’s still moving out. I’ve had this planned for over month now, but as I though, nearer the time, my emotions finally start to bubble.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. But I’d be lying if I said I was terrified. The only things I worry about are the trivial financial matters, and if we get robbed. That scares me the most I think.

But I’d also be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. It’s a huge step which I never imagined I’d be taking. Sure, mid-twenties maybe, but not now. I’m 20 at the time of writing this, I know the average is 18, but I’ve always been the kind of person who stays with their parent(s).

Speaking of which, I know my mum is starting to well up a bit, but I guess it’s normal. I’m quite close to my mum, closer than most. My whole life it’s usually just been the two of us, plus an extra few times, but they come and go. It’s weird for the both of us, not living together any more, and I think that’s what hurts her the most.

However I do need this experience now in my life, rather than later. I’m in a good situation to do this, and if anything does go wrong, it won’t ruin me.

Old readers will know that I struggle with change, so much that it can spiral me into depression for a while. Which is going to be huge test because my whole life will be changing. I’m living with people who aren’t family. I’m going to have to learn how to do things I’ve never done, which I should already know, I’m going to have to change or be aware of any odd habits.

I think I’ll freak out for a while initially, but I think I can manage. It’s good that I’m getting a start now, just before Uni actually starts, so I can get any problems out the way now. It’s also really going to test my relationship with my girlfriend. We’ve been together for 4 and a half years, now can we live together? Who knows. I really hope so, we’ve been together since school, it would be a shame for it all to go now. She’s been a constant in my life since I left school, I don’t doubt for a second I would struggle without her. But I know that life isn’t perfect.

Anyway, on a lighter tone, I’ll have no internet for 10 days…

Guys, I think I’m gonna die.

Incoming posts

Sat, 01 Sep 2012 21:27:43 +0100

I’ve been putting off a post about my particle system, not sure why. But I’ll be doing it along with another important update after. I’ll space them out though, so no massive bulk of posts.

Anyway, sorry about the neglect, and will see you soon!

Overdue Perlin Noise

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 10:16:42 +0100

I’ve been putting off posting this for some reason, not sure why, but I think I should probably do it now.

So one major thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long time is Perlin Noise, it’s just another form of random procedural generation, which old readers know I love doing.

So the project I’m doing with Alex, I thought it would be perfect to do for, seeing as it’s a world map. Perlin Noise is very good for map generation, a good popular example is Minecraft. The world is generated using a similar algorithm. Or it used to anyway, not sure any more though.

Anyway, Minecraft isn’t the only example, but enough about that.

So I think the reason I didn’t really want to post about this was because I didn’t write the entire code myself. I wrote the reader, but not the writer. It surprised me how little code I needed, but it also seemed over-whelming at the time. Even now I probably couldn’t write it myself, but the main thing is, I got it to work with our project. (You can view the code I used here.)

So plugging it into our game, and messing around with a few things, here’s a 1024x1024 map:

The black represents mountains, and blue obviously represents water. Honestly, I think it looks amazing. I felt really bad undoing Alex’s work though, but he agreed that it looked nicer. Sorry Alex!

Well, in all fairness, Alex is currently changing the render that I worked on, so I guess it’s all in good code/faith.

In any case, as far as my other types of generation go, this is the nicest, however most shameful because I didn’t do it myself. I’m not going to take credit for it, but I will however do my damn hardest to see if I can write it myself one day.

Also you can find other pictures of the generation on my Twitter images here.

Motivational Loss

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 21:32:00 +0100

Hmm, I haven’t programmed properly in over a week. Not sure why. I’m doing some system management on the project I’ve got going with Alex, but that’s about it.

I haven’t really had much motivation to do anything, but today I remembered one of my goals, so I’m going to try taking up the Android again, but taking a new approach. I need to figure out some kind of game loop that works for me. We’ll see.

I also kind of want to keep working on my slope thing, but I have a book on Pre-calculus that I never went through, so I’m hoping maybe by learning some new kind of math, I might be able to do something. Who knows.

I keep having random urges for certain games, but I should really plan them out.

So I’ve thought of some kind of plan I need to decide on:

First, fix my body clock/routine, I need to get back into my 10PM bed, and 8-9AM wake up.

Second: Either start DirectX soon, try formally planning game ideas, which may help me create games in the long run, rather than drop them. Try the slope thing again, or carry on with Android.

It’s difficult when I want to do bugger all and play games. Especially since I’ve probably scared the crap out of my bank. Seriously, I have so many games on my Steam list it’s silly.

But I need to keep reminding myself that summer isn’t going to last forever, this free time shouldn’t just be spent on playing games, I should be building a portfolio of games I’ve created.

Because, heck, games don’t make themselves, and I can’t feed myself if I ain’t got no monies!

University Year 1: SUCCESS!

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:09:01 +0100

So I woke up this morning, not wanting to go swimming, simply because I knew I was getting my results today. I didn’t expect them till the afternoon, but I checked my email anyway- I got my results.

We’ve been given grades such as A1-4, B1-4, and so on, I was confused when we had percentages. I knew we needed 40% minimal to pass, so I was really happy to find out I had no scores lower than 40%.

Now my main worry, was the programming score.

This whole results thing had two worries for me: Failing something that I had to resit (Risk not being able to continue next year), and my programming results.

I wanted to make sure I got high scores, simply because it feels like it’s validating my skills as a programmer. Deep down my retaliation excuse was “I’ve gotten this far, I know I can program, I don’t need a grade to prove it”. But everyone wants proof and recognition. Another thing was that I wanted to make sure that I got higher scores than certain people on my course, because I have a feeling that if I didn’t next year would be a pain of people not taking me seriously or thinking that I don’t actually know anything. (I’ve actually had a few people say that behind my back already.)

So I got the percentages, it was pretty high, so I was pretty happy, but I couldn’t tell what it was in relation to A# or even B#. So I still had a worry that I might not have done as well as I had hoped.

Someone put me out of my misery though and posted a link to our Uni’s website that showed Percentages = Grade, so I did a comparison, and oh my god. I did so much better than I expected in most of my units.

Anyway, here are my grades: (Name of Unit):(%)/(Grade)

Computer Graphics for Games: 68% / B1
Fundamentals of Computing: 72% / A4
Group Project: 48% / D1
Intro to Databases: 83% / A3
Intro to Computer Games: 68% / B1
Problem Solving for Programmers: 92% / A2
Developing Object Orientated Programs: 88% / A2

Just scraped A2 for the last one, but I’m so glad. A2 is the second highest score, so I can live with that. A1 is but a dream, but one I aim to obtain. ;D

BRING ON NEXT YEAR!

Spec Ops: The Line

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:51:54 +0100

Recently acquired a copy of Spec Ops: The Line, and my god.

I heard about Spec Ops on a forum a while ago, just after it’s release, and I saw some comments about how it’s “a typical brown shooter, but not quite like the others”, this interested me, why was it different? It looked standard enough, so I tried the demo.

The game itself felt nice to play, headshots were kind of gratifying, I think the word is. The shooting in general just felt nice in the sense that it felt like a gun game that wasn’t taking itself too seriously, but keeping within the line of realism somewhere.

The demo was pretty cool, I liked the characters so far, Nolan North slightly surprised me, but if anything it helped convince me to try the full thing.

My god, the hours I spent on that game were probably the most intriguing I’ve ever spent on a shooter.

The story was SO good, the emotional impact was thin at times, but there were times where I actually didn’t know what I should do, it gives you decisions, but it has no indication of right or wrong, and in the end… Go play it, seriously, it looks like a gun game, it is a gun game, but the story, the plot, I loved it all. It felt like half way through that the whole gun stuff was literally padding in itself, it’s like they wanted to tell a story, but just needed something to make it more interesting or viable as a game. I could have happily played it without all the shooting. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun and enjoyable, but the story and connect with the characters were so well done, I just absolutely loved it.

War, decisions, right and wrong, they will break you, and this game does it in such a way that I felt like a bastard at times, and questioning my decision.

Do recommend. REALLY recommend.

Android, why do you suck?

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 10:58:35 +0100

Before you say “Why do you suck at programming Android?”

It’s because I do.

But it doesn’t change the fact that there’s no helpful solutions, it’s either option A, B, or C, all of which don’t actually help me in the slightest.

I’ve read through tutorials, I’ve gotten stuff to work, but for some reason, when it comes to the FPS management, it all goes to pot and I can’t get things to work properly.

I’m trying to port an old game I created, and I want it to be similar on all phones, which don’t give some kind of advantage just because they have different resolutions.

But the thing that baffles me, is that the low-end phone I develop on has a faster frame rate than my high-end one. It does my nut, and has a horrible inconsistency on speed rates for the sprites. If I could just get it all to regulate and be fine, I’d be flying and have this done in no time.

But apparently I’m not so lucky.

Hunger Games

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 09:48:32 +0100

So a couple of days ago, my other half lent me her copy of the Hunger Games, I’ve been curious about it ever since the film caused a cuffufle, but I wanted to read the book first.

I’ve heard mixed opinions on it, but I flat out enjoyed every moment of it.

The story was nice in itself, very well paced and very interesting characters. The plot seemed a bit out there are times, but it wasn’t really noticeable. There were times that I had to question the English, but I shrugged it off as a kind of “it’s their world, not mine”, but there were a few things that kind of irked me. My English isn’t exactly A*, but it’s not terrible either (Or at least hope it isn’t).

In any case, can’t be helped.

I don’t really want to discuss much incase of any spoilers, (and spoilers are my pure hatred in life), so I just want to say that I enjoyed the book, and very little was wrong with it. It’s not a favourite by any means, but I’m definitely glad I read it, and won’t be forgetting it any time soon. I’ve already started the second book, which is off to an odd start, but I’m sure it’ll pick up soon.

I do recommend reading it if you haven’t.

If I’ve learnt anything from this post, I shouldn’t review books for a living. Or anything by the sounds of it. I’m just gonna stick to coding.

Insomnia?

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 00:07:30 +0100

What does it take to be diagnosed with some kind of insomnia?

Ever since my other half went on holiday, and I did a strict week’s programming, my whole sleeping pattern has been ruined, and I constantly feel awful, and can’t even sleep properly.

No matter what normal tricks I use to get to sleep, it doesn’t work. I’ll lay in bed, tossing and turning to try and cool down because I seem to accumulate so much heat, that I just end up watching my watch tick somewhere between 1am and 3am till I finally conk out.

It drives me insane as well as stresses me out.

I enjoy sleep, so much so, and I’m not nocturnal by any means. Laying there, thinking, it drives me crazy. (So here’s my numbe- ahaha)

But seriously, I had a nice routine going on and enjoyed the programming, I got stuff done, and now my life seems to be in some kind of dis-array.

MEH.

Change of plan

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 23:44:22 +0100

Right okay, don’t panic, I’m not going to convert to Buddhism or anything.

Not like I’d last anyway.

It’s mainly concerning the Development Friday videos, and the fact that I want to end them. Let me explain:

The videos are great and fun to do, don’t get me wrong, but a week isn’t a long time to bust out awesome stuff from nothing, it doesn’t give me much to show off at all, and it in turn, makes me feel useless.

So rather than the video, I’m going to make more blog posts, considering I’ve been neglecting it lately, so here’s the plan:

I’m going to construct smaller blog posts based on things I’ve achieved, when I’ve achieved them. It keeps my enthusiasm, I don’t forget, and it cuts down blog posts.

Another thing is that I’ll try and break up the posts, and prevent the stupidly long ones that I have a silly habit of doing, this hopefully being the last one.

I’ll try and keep things to one topic rather than a sprawling paragraph of every detail over the week.

So yeah, I’m going to write some blog posts after this, but I won’t post them until tomorrow or later, because there’s stuff I do want to talk about, but I don’t want to spam the whole blog with like 4 posts, as well as Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, shoot the bastard who changed the logo, please. It makes me cringe on my phone, as well as on Tumblr now.

Hope you’re all having a good summer by the way!

Crazy Week

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:22:24 +0100

Okay, if you’ve watched my latest Dev Friday, I mentioned not having many things to show, this was mainly because I was busy dying on Tuesday, having a personal commitment on Wednesday (and dying), and I can’t remember what happened Thursday.

Anyway, I’m all good now so hopefully next week gets off a bit better.

Also I haven’t actually stated much about my project, so I better do that now:

So shortly after posting my Summer Plans entry, I got contacted by a graduate from my course suggesting that we team up. Honestly, I really didn’t want to, it was really outside my comfort zone.

But that’s life, right?

I tried to convince myself of every reason why I shouldn’t do it, and that it’ll flop, and I’ll just end up getting my hopes up over nothing.

But I did it anyway.

And I don’t regret it. Not one bit.

Alex has been absolutely fantastic, we’ve been working on this project for almost a month now, we have a game planned out, ideas, concepts, story, everything we need to get a solid start, and we started programming about two weeks ago.

The amount I have learnt in such little time, is amazing. I really hope this game fleshes out into something, I don’t care how big it gets, the fact is that we’ve started making a game. I have a partner, and it’s actually going well. It’d be great if this became something really good, but it’s not what I’m expecting right now. All the great indies have years of experience, and I have what? One or two? Not gonna let that stop me though, why should I? I want to be indie, so I’m going to be as serious as I can about it.

Anyway, I paid my part of the deposit on the place I’m moving to, and we should be all set soon. We move in on the 1st of August, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but hey ho, is an experience I need and am actually kinda looking forward to. (Honestly, I’m just thankful I have Lauren with me, not gonna lie, I’d be screwed without her.)

I won’t yet discuss the ins and outs of the game just yet, other than the fact that it is an RTS. Don’t want to build any hype, which will just kill our motivation.

I have no idea when I’m going to start DX11. Kind of enjoying this project at the moment, as well as avoiding Android. Seriously don’t like that stuff, but I want to get that out of the way ready for next year too.

Development Friday #02 - Features!

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:07:00 +0100

Development Friday #02 - Features!

Development Friday #01 - HSV/HSL and Camera!

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:20:37 +0100

Development Friday #01 - HSV/HSL and Camera!:

First Development Friday, tracking the progression of my skills as a programmer, and learning as student!