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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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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PS3: Ikasu-Killer 
Steam: ikasukiller
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LeighNorton88
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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.


X-Box: IkasuKiller
PS3: Ikasu-Killer 
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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
PS3: Ikasu-Killer 
Steam - ikasukiller
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Christmas Plans

This holiday season i am planning to get a lot done, assuming I can keep away from the new Star Wars MMO. Firstly I want to really get to grips with Unity so I can try making some prototype games from some ideas I have, I also want to re-read my notes on C++ so I'm ready for the next semester at uni because, being the geek that I am, I want to do really well in this year and so far I could have done better. Lastly, and most importantly, I want to complete all these games that have been stacking up. For the last month or so I have been collecting these great games that have been coming out but have had no time to play them and this holiday is the perfect chance.

On top of all that I've found an interest in Bleach (the anime not the liquid) which is slowly sucking most of my time away for the moment but luckily I'll have ran out of episodes soon and can continue with my plans. Unluckily however, play.com are selling the next few seasons I want for under £10.

Time to make some harsh decisions.

While I'm here, we have made a facebook page for MercuryForty4. There isn't much there at the moment but it'll do until we get the actual page up and running so feel free to "like" it if you want to give us some moral support.

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Mercury Forty 4

Sorry i haven't said anything in a while, I've been busy adventuring in Skyrim. More on that later.

This week I've made a conscious decision to update this blog as much as i can, even if i only update what I've had to eat that day and also to start actively working on my ambitions to own my own development company. To that end I've started designing the company logo for a very very small venture that I and 2 others are setting up. If nothing else this will serve as experience for all involved although at the moment we are still in planning stages for our first project but I'll update you on progress as and when it happens.

 

Logo Design v0.01

After much deliberation and many ideas we decided upon the name "Mercury Forty 4" with the "40" spelt out and the "4" left in its numerical form. Currently one of us is working on a website but this will probably not be active for a while as all three of us have coursework to complete which is more important at the moment. Hopefully we will manage to make some progress over the holidays.

 

Many more ideas to follow.

Throughout this venture i hope to develop my skills and hopefully build up my portfolio to the extent that companies will send all other applicants home after seeing it at an interview.

On another note, I've been slightly busy fighting dragons to find a game to review, it will be a while before i even attempt to review Skyrim and no, i will not be touching CoD because it will just descend into a rant against Activision. So, as it stands i will probably be doing a shorter review on a downloadable game but we'll see. In the meantime make sure to check my previous reviews at A Game Developer Reviews:


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PS3: Ikasu-Killer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LeighNorton88
LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/leighnorton
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