Games That Inspired Me: The Oddworld Series

I'm a decent way into my final year of university now and it's time I have to start properly considering where I want to be when I graduate. During a visit home I found a bunch of old documents I made almost a decade ago. Back then all I wanted was to grow up to make games, with not really a clue how. There were a few studios and games that gave me such a strong dream as a young one. During this time of job applications and portfolio tweaking, I thought it might be prudent to go over these studios and games that got me where I am now, and see if it will help with wherever I go in the future.

How A Programmer Deals With Depression

It is (or was) World Mental Health Day. For many people, this will be a day to see mental health as a problem 'over there' that does not and will never affect them. I used to be one of those people who saw it this way. I always appreciated the seriousness of the issue but never imagined it affecting me. How can it? If it's something in my head then it can't really affect me. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, most of all when focusing on the errors in the past. If I wrote about all my mistakes in my blog then it wouldn't have months long gaps. No, this is about where I was in August, and where I am now in October.

What's This About A Development Society?

With ComSoc having the AGM soon I thought it be important to say I will not be going for the Game Development Coordinator role next year. Instead, I’m going to be building a whole new society on the role. The reasons why I think that’s a good idea take a bit longer to explain. In true computer science style I’ve decided to make a blog about it. So here are a list of reasons I think it’s a good idea. If you’re a computer science student and/or someone in the university interested in making games, please read on. People who aren't into making games but are into making software please read the * at the bottom. Also, I have added animal gifs.

Global Game Jam - From Failure to Success

Two years ago had a big moment for me. It was the first time I had the opportunity to not write about success and how great everything is in University. Instead it was about failure, which is something no one likes to talk about but has plenty to learn from. What I’m talking about is the Global Game Jam 2014 blog post where I made a list of the essentials in a game jam. Now in 2016, I want to see what I still agree with and have taken to heart, what didn’t matter to me and what new things I have learned.

First off, Global Game Jam 2016 went really well for me and my team. We placed first locally with a small, mostly newcomer, but still dedicated group of contestants. Before I speak any more about me and my team I think everyone at the Hull site did amazing work and my respect goes out to the Hull College team who persisted. Well done to all. If you'd like to see the game check it out at the Global Game Jam page.

STEMNET, Code Club and Being An Ambassador for Education

It feels weird that I only really started to learn how to code 2 years ago. I wasn't taught in the worst schools really, they weren't poorly funded and academic performance was above average for the area. My secondary school, The Whitby High School, was and still is proud of their GCSEs at C-A* yet my experience didn't leave me any more qualified to do what I wanted in life. In Sixth Form I struggled with Information Technology and ultimately wasted my time taking the module. I spent most of my time in those classes trying to learn C++ instead of whatever useless material there was and usually got asked to leave because the teacher wasn't a fan of me. It's safe to say my experience of secondary education was less than stellar.

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.

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.

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.

Platform Expos Super Late Blog Update (With Pictures)

As is my usual style of making a blog on a notable event I have left it really late again. Still though, I took a few pictures and I guess I should validate even taking them by posting here.

As for the event itself though I really loved it. I hadn't heard about it until a month before it actually happened so I was positively surprised. I wouldn't say it held the exclusives Eurogamer has or reached the levels of creativity Gamecity in Nottingham had to offer but it was a nice gaming expos/festival nonetheless. It had a large focus on indie developers and had a nice inclusion of work from current and past University of Hull students which was nice to see.