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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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.

X-Box: IkasuKiller
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TEA CAKES!!!

This ones a proper post after yesterdays quick one.

So yeah, 200 views within the space of a month, i think that's pretty good considering i barely find the time to write anything on this, and as some of you may have noticed A Game Developer Reviews: hasn't been updated in a while but i intend to sort that tonight.

Anyway, recently I've been busy with coursework (again) so I've had to curtail the amount of adventuring I've been doing in Skyrim which makes me very sad. It also means i haven't been able to play various other games I've been planning to play, ones that I've bought like Battlefield and Batman as well as ones i want to get like Zelda and Assassins Creed. Unfortunately I've also got an exam that i need to start studying for which means even less time to play games. Why do all the good games come out when all my coursework and exams are due? WHY!?

On the plus side my girlfriend bought me 36 tea cakes yesterday, although roughly half of them are now gone. But she will be happy I've mentioned her, and how nice she is, finally.

I give it until tomorrow, then they'll all be gone.

Next Goal: 500 views before the end of November, should be easy enough. I hope.

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Coursework...

Ever get that feeling that the coursework you're doing has absolutely nothing to do with anything? Well that's where I am right now. For the last week my life has revolved around databases and SQL and I can't wait until it's out of the way. I know that most people complain about coursework but I really don't mind it too much, in fact in the case of my C#, C++ and Java courseworks i fairly enjoyed it. Being pushed and learning by myself makes me feel like I have learnt a lot more than if I was just shown how to do something, it gives a sense of progress. While this is still the case with SQL programming, it is much less enjoyable and a lot more stressful so as soon as this is out of the way I can concentrate on C# and enjoying programming again. I know it sounds sad but I'm going to be doing it for the rest of my life (hopefully) so its probably a good thing that i enjoy it.

SQL. I have the utmost respect for those that have to do this on a daily basis.

Anyway, not much in the way of gaming this week, sad face. And i completely forgot about Sonic Generations coming out! On top of that I'm now swaying over if i should get Saints Row or not. Originally i had decided to leave it but recent footage and the character creation demo has made me think twice, so if one of you lovely readers could lend me £40 it would make my decision much easier!

The next review isn't up on A Game Developer Reviews: yet as I've been too busy with coursework. I was hoping to play Battlefield a bit more and get a review done for that but i think I'll wait until I've played it a bit more. So now I've got a few options but whichever i decide on you devoted readers will have another brilliantly written review to read, hopefully by Tuesday (8th).