Update

Its been a while since I last updated this so it's about time I showed off some of the stuff that we have been working on in uni.

Although I have 3 modules to work on (as is the case every year), I feel like I put a lot more work into one of these modules than the others (again, as is the case every year). I'm still not entirely sure why I do this, it may be because I find one module more interesting than the others and want to work a lot more on it or it could be that there is just a lot more work to do in one module over the others. This trimester I think it's a mix of those two reasons. Introduction to Graphics Programming is a module that I find quite interesting, especially the coding side, and has a large amount of work to do and because of this I am much more likely to do work for it than the other two modules I have. So, here is some of the work I have done for that module:

At first, the work was fairly easy so it wasn't too much of a hassle having a lot of it to do. We started off just setting up OpenGL and basic windows for use throughout the module and then moved on to basic 2D shapes, culminating in the creation of a 2D Sierpinski Gasket.

A 2D Sierpinski Gasket

At first this was quite difficult but looking back on it now, just a few weeks later, it seems quite simple. The main problem I had was getting the divisions to work properly but luckily it didn't take too long to figure out. After this we moved on to simple 3D shapes, cubes, tetrahedrons and the like. The majority of this work was just making sure that vertices and indices were properly calculated as well as upgrading our background code to improve how we rendered the shapes. At the end of this section we were challenged to make a 3D version of the Sierpinski Gasket using tetrahedrons.

A simple 3D cube

3D version of the Sierpinski Gasket

A 3D scene using a plane and six cylinders

 The 3D Sierpinski Gasket proved a lot more difficult to create and I ended up spending hours trying to work out how to make it work. In the end, one of my classmates helped me understand how the divisions worked and from there i was able to create the final product pictured above. Again, now that I've done it and know how it works, it seems fairly simple and thankfully I wasn't too far off the end product which helped my confidence a lot.

After this we worked on improving our graphics engine to make it even simpler to render objects and now we are working on lighting effects on our objects.

A torus with a diffuse lighting effect

The 3D Sierpinski Gasket with the diffuse lighting effect

So far I've had no problems with any of the lighting code although I have only really just started working through it. I have managed to implement an ambient lighting effect with no problems at all and a diffuse lighting effect as shown above with only minor problems, again with the Sierpinski Gasket but thankfully it didn't take me as long to get it working with the new effect.

I am extremely happy with where my skills are at the moment, given two years ago I had never attempted coding before apart from small javascript and html projects. Although I have struggled a few times in the Graphics Programming module I have always managed to work through it either by myself or with some help from my classmates and my other two modules are going well so far as well. In these modules I am using Java and C# and having absolutely no problems with the coding side of the work at all and I put this down to the work I done over the summer in C#. Simple things that used to trip me up are no longer a problem and I feel like I've gotten much faster at recognizing where problems in my code are and solving these problems.

Unfortunately due to the workload I have at the moment I'm finding it hard to find time for any personal projects but I'm trying to work out a schedule that will allow me to work on some things during term-time and with the Global Game Jam just round the corner I would really like to get my head around Unity so we can make an attempt at a professional looking game. As much as I loved the experience last year and the game we made, it was fairly simplistic and didn't really require us to code too much but this year we will have more experience and more team members which will hopefully allow us to create something much better.


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Summer

Summer has been quite hectic for me, I had a lot to deal with at the start including the stress of finding a job so i could have enough money to live. In the end i got quite stressed and ended up doing nothing for the rest of may and most of june. I eventually got a job though which made me even more stressed and it got to the point where I was sleeping all day and only rising to go to work, a lifestyle that was annoying me more because I wasn't doing anything. So I decided to start rebuilding my life and get myself together, first I made sure I had enough money to last me the rest of the summer and left my job. Then I started working on programming properly, every day for a few hours to start with and gradually increasing the amount of time I was working. Now I'm much happier, less stressed and for probably the first time in my life I'm actively working towards a proper goal (outside of term time).

I started off working through C# again and gradually building a working tile engine as well as a menu system including character selection. I'm confident that in another month or so I will be able to make a proper game using C# however, recently another project has taken my attention away from C#. In the last few weeks I have been discussing and planning to make a game with my friend who already has made graphics for games. 

This project will have us launching a game on the iPhone/iPod Touch and as such I have been learning Objective - C. Given the short time I have been working with it, I am very pleased with my progress with the language and this is in no small part to various tutorials I have been using. If you are interested in making apps or games for the iPhone,  I thoroughly recommend the tutorials on www.raywenderlich.com.

Unfortunately, I've only started saving videos of the finished tutorials but the ones I haven't included on here are on my Facebook page and show how much improvement I've made with the help of these tutorials.

Here is a video of a simple defence game where you control the turret and have to stop the monsters of varying difficult from getting to the other side of the screen. Although this does look very simple, it took a few days to make and to properly understand what most of the code does. If there is one thing about objective - C I dislike it's how confusing it can be at times compared to some other languages.

And here is a video of me working with a sprite. I thought it was important that i learn at least the basics of sprite coding as I believe it will be the simplest way to animate our game.

I doubt I'll get round to updating this as often as I would hope as after a few more tutorials on some basics I will be concentrating on trying to build our game and making it the best it can be, after all I do want to try and make some money off this. I shall try and update on the progress of the game as I go but it will depend on how busy I am, otherwise check my twitter or facebook for more up-to-date information on how the project is coming along.

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Take this, it's dangerous to go alone

Ok, I've been lazy the last few days.

I decided to take a few days off to relax a bit seeing as I was fairly busy in the week leading up to my birthday so I've got no coding done in the past day or two but that will all change starting tomorrow an ill shall keep you all updated.

In other news, look at my cool new sword!

GAME OF THRONES!!!

Yeeeahhhh, didn't get anything done today, but it's the weekend!

What's worse? I'm going to be busy pretty much all tomorrow so i won't have a chance to do any coding. It's not that i don't want to, it's that I'm going to be far too tired after tomorrow to do anything so i think it's going to have to wait until Monday to do any more work.

So not much to report today and i think tomorrow may be the first time in a whole week that i won't be posting anything but we'll see. On the plus side I've got the whole first season of Game of Thrones to watch that i was shown last night and subsequently wanted to watch EVERY EPISODE EVER! I only saw the first two episodes last night but they were AWESOME! So that's tonight's plans, i might play some Pokemon as well 'cause Pokemon is just as awesome.

This picture does no justice to the series....and yes we have a projector in the flat.

Anyway, I'll try and get something posted tomorrow but I'm not going to promise anything at the moment but be sure to check back on Monday when I'll definitely have something for you.

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Lazy Day

First proper day of relaxing, woooooooooooooooo!

So today i told myself that i would get up fairly early and get stuck in to some C#......that never happened. I did start on C# though but didn't get too much done. So far I've started making the required tile engine for the next few tutorials but hit a rough patch when trying to convert some class diagrams into code, hopefully when i come back tomorrow I'll see the problem straight away and get it sorted so i can carry on.

Pretty much got nothing done today....it is Friday though.

Haven't played any games yet apart from Swordigo on my iPhone which is excellent and also free at the moment, its a fantasy adventure game with a few RPG elements and kept me occupied for most of last night when i should have been sleeping.

Swordigo! Recommended!

Also, my watch I'm getting for my birthday arrived yesterday!! So I'll have to go home at some point to collect it and start showing off how awesome and cool it is.

AND, if you haven't noticed yet i got round to finishing off a review last night of Sonic Generations so check it out, especially if you're a fan of Sonic or even just platform games in general.

Hopefully I'll have a bit more to talk about tomorrow when i finish off the tile engine I'm working on, but until then...


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EPIC FUN TIMES! (Seriously this time)

SUMMER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exams are now done for the year, although admittedly that last one could go either way depending how my luck holds up. I managed to sleep most of the day away after getting home from the exam which was fortunate given i had about 8 hours sleep spanning the previous 3 days.

Over the next few days I'm going to concentrate on getting a job but, obviously, I'm going to play soooooooo many games, starting with Catherine. Brilliant puzzle game with a great story and I'm looking forward to finishing it off and seeing how it concludes the story, it can be really crazy and over the top at times but its definitely worth a play through if you have the time. Apart from that, as i keep saying, I'm going to start working through C# again tomorrow now that i don't have any revision to do.

Also, if i don't get too caught up with Catherine i might finish off a review seeing as it's been quite a while since i managed to get one posted.

Anyway, time to enjoy the next few months while i don't have anything to worry about except how to spend my birthday.

***UPDATE***
Got round to doing that review i promised, if you want to see my take on Sonic Generations feel free to take a look.


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Heat Wave

I can't wait until 11:30 tomorrow morning.

After tomorrow i will officially be on summer holiday! And more importantly i won't have to study meaning i can get back to working on C#! YAY!!! And in a few weeks when I've gotten round the core concepts and done some experimenting i can start a project to make a game which, fingers crossed, i can have published in some way even if i gave it away for free. Although some money would be nice....

Of course what i would like to happen is to work on my own personal project and work on a group project with the other guys from uni. I loved working in our small group for the Game Jam and although it was much more stressful i still loved working on our group project during the semester. I really can't wait to get started on some form of project during the summer and I'll be posting any developments on any project here for all you lovely people to see.

On another note. Its absolutely boiling in my room. Window wide open, heating off, lying on top of the bed covers. Still boiling. And for once i don't have 5 or 6 different electronic products running and producing massive amounts of heat. At least on the bright side i might lose some weight in this sauna.

Well, that's 5 in a row now (just, seeing as its 23:30), let's hope i can keep this up....if i don't melt in this room.

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EPIC FUN TIMES!

....but not today.

I actually got round to studying today, after catching up on some Family Guy and House. So all in all, around 2 hours of studying. I don't want to waste all my studying energy in one day do i?

So I'm slowly struggling my way through my notes on Algorithms and Data Structures and i think i can maybe just remember all the different types of sorting methods i need to know but it's in knowing all of these that i start to get annoyed. We live in an age where the internet is at your fingertips almost anywhere in the world, why should we still be taking exams on things that are easily accessible to even a child if they wanted to know about it? I personally will have a hard time remembering these 6+ sorting methods after the exam but that doesn't worry me because if i ever need to use one of these methods i can simply search for it and quickly implement it in my code, as long as i have the basic understanding of sorting methods then i shouldn't have a problem searching the internet for the specific one i need and this goes for most of the things being asked for in at least the mock exam papers we've been given. Don't get me wrong, i still think these things should be taught in lectures for the benefit of having an understanding of each method and what each one does and i do think exams are important for some modules/courses but in this specific circumstance where the majority if not all of the people that are taking the module are going to be working in an industry where the internet is constantly available i really think it would be a more accurate "exam" if the students were tested on how well they implement the things that are taught through more coursework rather than testing them on how well they retain information for a day.

Unfortunately i know the way things are and the way students are tested is never going to change, for some reason exams are seen as the perfect way to prove how well a student is doing despite the fact that the majority of people i know are definitely smarter than some exams would show, the combination of stress and having to recite specific parts of various courses within a time limit often puts too much pressure on some and as a result their marks in an exam suffer. I am considered lucky when it comes to exams, although i do study you can see from the last few blogs that i really haven't done much for this exam but my brain tends to swallow up information during exam periods meaning i can usually pass an exam without too much effort but ask me the same questions a week after and i would probably get confused and give you an answer along the lines of "Pub, anyone?".

I know i have another two years of exams left in my life and i am well aware that some jobs that i am going to apply for will ask me to take part in a coding session in which i have to solve a problem within a set time limit. One day though, I'll never have to worry about exams or tests ever again.

Hopefully soon.


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Studying....Sort of

I'm supposed to be studying right now but let's be honest, no one can ever be bothered studying. Ever.

I have an exam on Thursday on Algorithms and Data Structures, still there? Just making sure in case you fell asleep reading that immensely boring title. As much as i know that it is an important subject and there are some parts to it that i do find interesting, most of my studying has resulted in me "checking the internet", I.E. doing this and checking if any of my subscribed channels have uploaded anything on youtube.....they have not.

At this moment i would much rather be going through more C# code and learning some more of that. Although it didn't look like much, i spent 3 hours last night working through a Space Invaders tutorial through which i learned a fair amount from.

A classic!

Like i said, it doesn't look like much and it didn't require quite as much coding as the C++ version that i done earlier in the year but it does look better purely because it has animation in the invaders and a bit more colour to it than just red and blue cubes that were used in the 3D version. I also found it much easier to implement certain parts of the game, such as the control mechanisms but I'm still unsure whether that was because i understood what i was doing a lot better than when i was starting out with C++ or because it was just simpler in C#, i hope it was the former purely because i want to feel like I've learnt something over the last year but i suspect it has something to do with the latter as well.

3D version, I'm sure it would look better if I put some proper models in.

Now I'd better get back to studying.........or a may start writing up a review for something.

Either way, I'll probably be lurking around the internet for a while longer. There's plenty of time to study tomorrow.


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£4.91

Today it finally hit me. I have no money.

Since i left my last job at the start of the year to concentrate on uni a bit more I've been spending a little more than i should have been. I knew this but every time i tried to correct myself something happened....like Mass Effect or Avengers. So now I'm poor and jobless and have no income whatsoever as May is is the last month for my bursary coming through and although i have been looking for jobs on and off for the last month I've had no luck. One of the main reasons for that though is because i don't particularly want to go back into bar work, it's not that i don't enjoy it but i don't feel that i can give uni my full attention when I'm still catching up on sleep because i was working until 4 in the morning.

£4.91 All that I have left.

So now i have just under £5 to last me at least a month (assuming that i get a job and they pay at the end of the month) which of course means that i can't buy any new games. On the plus side though it gives me the motivation to go back and play some games I've been meaning to return to including Catherine, the original Prototype and Red Dead Redemption which I've been meaning to go back to and finish for a long time. And of course this means I'll have more games to review which keeps me busy which stops me eating as much meaning i don't have to spend as much on food which will hopefully mean i can stretch £4.91 to last a whole month.

Fingers Crossed.


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May

It has been a long time since I actually wrote anything for this....

So! The last few months have been fairly hectic, I've had a lot of coursework to get done and of the coursework that needed done I can quite happily say a lot more time was spent on making a working game. For the most part, I was working on the games physics which could be a major pain at points and although i eventually got it working with the help of the other two guys in the group, we unfortunately couldn't get it working in the final build. This was due to me working mainly using separate objects for the walls, floors etc. while testing and the final build using a mesh for the level. Of course, we found out nearly straight after the hand in that there was an easy fix for the problem.

Although this piece of coursework in particular was very stressful and had us working nearly to the last moment before the deadline, I had a great time. Despite all the problems and frustrations and having to run the game and do the same thing over and over again to the point I was running on automatic most of the time, it has made me realise that this is definitely what I want to do for the rest of my life. The satisfaction and happiness achieved just from getting a simple thing to work in your code is unbeatable.

Spurred on by this, I am now working through more tutorials but this time on C# as opposed to C++ and will hopefully have my own fully working game by the end of the summer. Alongside this, our year group may be adventurous enough to try making a game together over the summer, if we don't get too lazy.

In other news, I'm building up a horrendously large collection of games on Steam, much to the dismay of my bank balance. On the plus side it does mean I've had a lot more games to play, and most of them are worth the money. My only regret is that it took me so long to get back into PC gaming, it does mean having to spend a whole lot more on upgrading my PC though.

Anyway, now that I only have one exam left it frees up a lot of time. So alongside personal projects I am hoping to come back to this a bit more as well as the game review side of things, gives you lot something to look forward to, doesn't it.


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Camera Work

Today, after milling around on Steam wondering what games to add to my wishlist for when I actually have money, I buckled down to some work.

For the most part I was working on Uni stuff, some of which involved building cameras. This is part of our on-going practical work to build a game engine for use in our project.

This doesn't show the camera actually working but I'm sure you get the idea.

I'm still finishing off this part but will have it finished by tomorrow night, then I can play around with a 3rd person camera which we hope to use in our game project.

I'm still trying to find time to write a review for my other blog but feel free to have a look at the ones already there if you haven't already. The last one I put up was on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which safely gets my vote for game of the year.

Time to sleep now!

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Global Game Jam, PC problems and more!

First post of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How bad am I at updating this?

Anyway, a few note-worthy events have happened in the last month or so. Firstly, a few of us from my uni class decided to take a risk and enter the Global Game Jam with very little game coding skills to help us. Secondly, I have started trying to make some mods for various games in order to increase my skills and lastly, but most importantly, I have gotten my hands on a better computer so I'm back on the PC gaming scene after a large number of years.

The a-MAZE-ing Caterpillar! Our Game Jam project was brilliant fun to make and, although there was a few things we wanted to change, we were all very pleased with the end result, especially as it was our first attempt at making a proper working game.

Screenshot from the 3rd level of our game

Unfortunately we didn't have the time to learn how to code a game within the 48 hour time-limit so we decided to use Gamemaker, a game making program designed for those who don't know how to code or who only know very little. You still have to have a basic understanding of various logic methods but for the most part it is a fairly simple program to use. Next year we hope to improve by writing our own code and making our game without the help of such a program, and I can't wait for the large amount of stress it will bring. For those who missed it here's the link again: http://globalgamejam.org/2012/maze-ing-caterpillar. Just scroll to the download part, download, un-zip and play.

I also mentioned i had started modding some games, by this i mean i have started learning the basics of Minecraft modding and, now that i have a better computer, i am looking for more games that i can add my own ideas to.

A very simple block mod in Minecraft

In regards to Minecraft, i have gotten my head round the block images and creation, as shown above, and i am getting used to the crafting system (The block above was made by making a 4-square of dirt blocks). Unfortunately it has been a few weeks since i last touched on modding but i hope to make some time for it soon, especially since now I have......

A NEW PC!!!!!! (sort of). My little brother (who at one time had more money than sense) has lent me his PC, which although a few years old can still run new games with minimal effort. Thanks to this I have a much better work station for uni work and any modding I decide to do. Previously when building a very small Space Invaders game as part of a university practical exercise, my PC took just over 5 minutes to build and run the game (my laptop takes at least double this despite being only a year old). Now, I can barely blink before the game is up and running.

Main Hard Drive failed on my old PC

Another upside to having a much better PC is that I can finally play PC games again so I am now playing Star Wars: The Old Republic, which i can highly recommend, and Civilizations V, which has already sucked 8 hours out of me despite only being installed yesterday. So if you're on Steam I can now officially say that you can add me (ikasukiller) and recommend any and all PC games that are worth playing.

I WILL update this tomorrow again, i promise this time. So stay tuned for more and remember to add me on whichever social network you like, you can never have too many friends.

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