Depression and Gamification

This isn't an easy topic. In fact, it's the hardest thing to think about let alone talk about. The very concept of depression is downright frightening if you consider yourself strong willed and stable. The reason why it's scary is it doesn't care about your strengths at all. It will tear all your defences down in seconds and leave you to cope with your darkest thoughts with a wall to climb each time you want to feel like yourself again. It is completely apathetic to what you want and can arrive at the very worst of times. It knows your every weakness including the ones you ignore.

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.

Website Is Up! A Few Thoughts

Sometimes the biggest cliché statements in the world are absolutely correct. In this case "the hardest part is starting" heavily applies to making my current website. I bought the domain and hosting at the end of last year which hosted a site so basic it was barely worth having. I had excuses. As much as it should be embarrassing for a CS student to say I don't have much experience with CSS and HTML. CodeCademy got me sorted on the knowledge but I was pretty lazy throughout my second year at Uni. As soon as I started working on it this week though I couldn't stop. I have a few thoughts on the process though.

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.