Assignments!

The third and final update from my first year, I shall call it... Assignments!

The second term of the course set me up for a range of assignments, from programming an Address book in c# using windows forms, to programming an Address book in c++ using a variety of Data structures . While that was fun, I have to say I most enjoyed the Game Design assignment, in which I was tasked with designing a game for somebody I know outside of the normal demographic, and then following through and making it using XNA.

I chose to move forward with a design I created for my little sister, which turned out to be a physics platformer. After a number of different prototypes I found a system that worked pretty well and subsequently spent a ridiculous amount of time programming it. What resulted was a pretty cool little game, which allowed you to design your own levels and incorporated cooperative play.

A mechanic of the game that I am quite fond of is that the two players experience different directions of gravity, and so have to use each other to progress through the levels. This was the underlying design idea for the game and it turned out pretty well.

I would upload the video I created for the hand-in, however I have since installed the Windows 7 RC and I can not find it on any of my memory sticks! If I find it I will make sure to update this entry. What I do have is a screenshot of the prototype version, hopefully it will give you an idea of what the game is about. It is a VERY early version.

Stephen

The Imagine Cup

Second in the list of key events is the Imagine Cup, which is a Microsoft run event (sense a theme?), in which IT students from across the globe compete in several categories. My obvious choice was Games Development and our focus was the millennium goals.

Initially I did not plan to enter the imagine cup as it would take up a lot of my spare time, which between playing American Football for roughly 15 hours a week, matching that with lectures, and then doing university work outside of lectures, was severely lacking. The push that I needed came in a Ludology lecture, in which we were set tutorial work of getting a partner and producing a rough prototype of a game for the competition. The idea was that we would continue on, which we did, and went on to recruit two other members, one more programmer and an artist. Our entry for round one was functioning well and provided a pretty good representation of what our game could one day be. That was until we broke it, conducting a last minute repair job we managed to get the game into a state which would eventually boost us through into the second round.

And this is where the fun began, the culmination of some great team work and a really good effort on each members part pushed us to the point where we were able to submit what we feel is a pretty awesome game. We are awaiting the results of round 2, which is the semi-finals, and are definitely hopeful for a trip to Cairo for the world finals!

If you are wondering about entering this competition in the future, I would definitely recommend it as not only did I learn a lot about both programming and game design concepts, my ability to work as part of a team improved.

If you are interested in seeing our entry, here is a short video showing some of the key mechanics.



(Thanks AJ :P).

Stephen

X48- Game Camp

In the first of a few highlight posts about my first year I am going to tell you the wonderful story about my experience at the X48 Game Camp.

X48 was a new event started this year hosted by the University of Derby and Microsoft, it entailed teams from universities across the UK spending 48 hours making a game on a theme to be set on the day. I was entered in as a wild card, being one of only a few first year programmers to attend the event, which meant that I would have to find a team on the day.

I ended up in a team with two other students from Derby who were also first years so it was reassuring that I would not be completely outmatched in regards to programming skill. The unveiling of the theme, "evolution", eventually led to us deciding to make a game where fish.. eat fish... ! It sounded pretty good at the time. We had definite delusions as to what could be achieved in 36 hours of actual work time, no matter how many cans of red bull and dominos pizzas you can consume. Which was a lot, if guided daily amounts meant much then I should definitely not have made it past the 24 hour mark.

After a long period of ripping our hair out and being dazzled by the event mentors, including Marcus Lynn from Lionhead and Dean Calver from Splash Damage, we finally came up with a game that was pretty fun to play. We didn't win any prizes, but we were in the top 8 out of (i think) 30 teams, which I am very proud of! Other than ending up face first in curry the next night, it was definitely a great experience and I suggest it to anyone who gets the opportunity.

If you want to check out the game (you will need an xbox 360 controller) or anything else about the event then follow this link! http://www.x48gamecamp.com/fish-eat-fish/

Stephen

The first of many

Hello world,

See what I did there? This blog is going to hopefully give the world an insight into the trials and tribulations of my journey to the video games industry. I have just finished the first year of the Computer Games Programming course at Derby University, and decided it was finally time to start my blog. (I had planned to do this before Easter... And then assignments started to rear their ugly heads!). I may include other random bits of information, and it is highly possible that I will go off on incredible tangents, but maybe you will enjoy that?

If you have any questions about anything feel free to send me a message.

So... Expect fireworks, cos its about to get crazy!

Stephen.