Jam Packed in Hull

Teaching kids is a weird experience. I'd like to say it wasn't really that long ago since I was in high school myself (for some reason folks don't say high school here). Now I'm volunteering to help teach kids things I would have loved to learn at their age. What I quickly learned is teaching or even just helping is super exhausting but so incredibly worth it. In this post I'm just going to chat a little bit about Jam Packed in Hull and why it made for a pretty awesome weekend.

NEVER FINISHED BLOG - Vision2022

My 1st of April this year featured no pranks and I barely had any time during the day to check all the crazy stuff that would be going on in the internet. Instead of all of that I woke up close to 4 in the morning to get ready for my train to Manchester. BBC North in MediaCity Manchester were hosting an event called Vision 2022 of which people from colleges near Manchester and universities in the North were invited in small amounts. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I figured it would be fun so why not?

What I Learned As A First Year University Student

The backbone of my gamedev progress so far has been my life as a university student. My experience in the university itself has also been lovely. Someone I know has made a blog about what they would tell the past version of them before starting university. I'd like to do the same in some sort of arbitrary list of 5 things I did well in university and 5 things I didn't do so well.

Back In Hull

The fact that there was a massive hiatus directly after my "End of Hiatus" blog is not lost on me. It's not that I didn't do anything worth talking about, it's just I couldn't stir myself to post any blogs. No project work on my list was started or finished though which is a huge disappointment. As a result all of that will be worked through in my free time over the year. What a year this will be though. My second year. Before I get into second year stuff though I should go over what exactly I did do over the summer. For that, I will need to spread words out over a few blogs. I'm going to try to keep this as updated as possible. Anything I learn or do or make will be here. Probably a blog every day for a while.

Also, this blog has reached 1,000 views. Hurray!

End Of Hiatus Celebration!

It's June now and the last time I've made a post was in April. There are a few reasons why I've been away and they all pretty much point to university and honestly not much going on in the past few months worth mentioning. This blog marks an important time though, I am finished with my first year of university and I'm set for either a 2:1 or First grade for my first year, not too bad.

The Hull Hackathon Retrospective

Well it has been too long since my last blog. Last time I promised a little talk about the Hull Hackathon and the projects that were going on. As is usual tradition I rarely managed to take any pictures. Too busy doing work :D

It's hard to believe it has been a whole month since my last post. Time is going way too fast.

Mobile Game Update #8 (Hack, Graphics, Landscape!)

I can't overstate how privileged I am to live and study in Hull. For someone who wants to get into the games industry and sees my degree as more of an opportunity than an academic requirement I am in a perfect situation to meet new people and go to awesome events. One of the more recent events is the Hull Hackathon which I'll save for a blog tomorrow. What the event brought though was something awesome. My game is starting to look how I imagined it.

Mobile Game Update #7 (Fun, '80s music, a working game)

This is the first blog after submission of my Windows Game Ambassador application so I guess I've proved to myself I don't need that goal to stay dedicated to this awesome project. 1 minor case of being burnt out happened after the problems covered in the last blog (that Monday blog was a really late Wednesday blog to be honest) but I'm back and persistent as ever.

Mobile Game Update #6 (Windows Phone, touchscreens, menus)

Developing any game without hacking it together (at least by my standards) seems to take a lot of time. Since this is a long term project I don't want to make something I would have to tear apart at some point in the future. Game jams are fantastic but I don't think it should be where I form my habits for development. Even with the teething problems I have something on Windows Phone that works, well sort of works...

Mobile Game Update #5 (Sprites, Backgrounds, Ukulele Music)

The great advantage of being slow to update my blog is I now have loads to show you guys. I tried improving things and shifting stuff onto the classes last time and not long after I made that blog post I made a new project, copied the code I KNEW worked and started from a less class dependent game but one that actually worked. From having something that worked, I decided to keep within the boundaries of my knowledge and only really use classes when it makes complete sense and I know exactly what to do.

Mobile Game Update #4 (Disasters, failures, coffee crashes)

Making games is extremely hard. Making games while trying very hard not to not hack everything together and enforcing the class diagram is even harder. Doing all that while learning on the go is probably one of the most difficult things I have ever done so far. I love doing all this but it's hard shaking off that feeling you're out of your depth. I don't have much to show but I desperately need the distraction right now so here it goes.

Mobile Game Update #3 (Video! Bad Handwriting! Progress! )

The last blog was only a few days ago yet it feels like so long ago already. I've been busy since my last blog but not always with something I'd like to take up my time. My weekend was devoted mostly just to getting XNA on Visual Studio to work on my desktop. I'll talk about that at the end because it's not important and I really want to talk to you about what awesome things this Monday has brought! Seriously, this is one good update blog.

Mobile Game Update #2 (pictures, title name and software engineering!)

Behold, yet another update blog! This thing and myself might actually have a chance of getting somewhere in the next few weeks. I won't say I did this on my own or without any serious effort but I spent the Thursday night and up to Friday evening getting some concepts of classes figured out in my head and how I should apply this for games. I want to do this properly though and that costs quite a lot of time! My Saturday was sadly spend recovering from such a long work session. I promised someone I would sleep though.

Still, I am quite happy with what has been done so far.

Indie Game: The Movie: Thoughts.

It is March 2014 and I have finally watched Indie Game: The Movie. As time passed I ran out of reasons exactly why I hadn't watched it yet. I think being on Netflix and someone reminding me about it while at a desk trying to do something that wouldn't fry my brain (blog update #2 after this blog, it's a blogathon!).

What did I think of it exactly? Well, I have more thoughts on it than I expected and Twitter is no real format express them with a limit of words.

Mobile Game Update #1

Hello everyone! These past few weeks have left me incredibly busy and with recent events I can only imagine things getting even crazier. I'm writing this at 04:20 with the precise timing being no reference lost by me. This blog is the first of many I imagine which document the creation of my latest and greatest personal project: Super Awesome Multidimensional Speedboat Game or SAMS Game. I'm quite happy with the name!

Global Game Jam Hull or Why My Game Sucked

2014 has barely began yet I've felt like so much has happened already. The last time I blogged was in December 2013 and now in February 2014 I feel like I have dire need to update this blog. I wish it were with great news of success in the recent Global Game Jam of which the wonderful city of Hull had a jam session hosted for it. Instead this will be a reflection on what went wrong and most importantly why.