It's over

It has been half a year since my last post. I have been too busy to much of stuff in my free time but now I'm out of University with a miserable 2:2. What brought me down was my Dissertation which I foolishly made on sound and music. In all honesty though there were other "Distractions" including a new television show involving Small Equines.

Now I'm out I'm just looking for a job any job. I have already sent out a few portfolios but no response yet (No surprise). In the mean time I have decided to work on my CGI skills and build a few pieces of work. whether they are art or just tests I hope they can build up my portfolio. The first of these is called Project Night light. Basically it is a recreation of a scene in the for-mentioned show a fantasy throne room. Stereotypical I know but it is a good place to look at bump, normal and specular maps.

The Second is my attempt at recreating the Farnsworth house. It's simple geometry, open plan and minimalism is perfect for not only practice but lighting tests.

Both are in their early days and I don't know when they could be completed.

I am also looking into making music as a hobby. I have already Fiddled around with FL Studio but now I'm looking into LSDJ and program that lets you make music through the sound card of an old Gameboy. I need this because If I am just focused on one thing then I loose all of what little personality that I have.

Hopefully I will find a job and then I can get some money, it will be even better if I can find a job making games.

Aftermath

Well the Concept doc is done, Game Jam over and now the real work begins.

A lot of written work has been done but I have been foucused on how to get to work. I think I have some idea of how to do it but I have a lot of work to do.

We Game Jam for me was ok. several problem had turned up on my account but eventualy I became a sort of Merc. If I was to do it again I will only be able to work on 3D projects (Not easy when making a game in 48 hours.

to top it off here is the final Concept shot for FP3

Blarghifragle

Well it has been a long time since I've updated this blog. so far I can't get any sleep and I'm entering the Global Game Jam on the 28th of Jan two days after my birthday. the reason why I'm typing really is because I have just finished a concept for my final year and I impressed myself (not saying much) so bask in it's awesomeness.

A Change of Plan

Things didn’t turn out as I had planned for the week. For a start I have completely scraped my idea for a game based around Zero G platform/Puzzle game, sort of “Portal” meets Dead Space in which the player is placed in a Zero G environment and needs to traverse different obstacles and traps in order to reach their goal. To aid them they would be given tools like a mid-air break and a grapple.

On the meeting on Tuesday I pitched my idea to the rest of the class. I had originally put a video up on my facebook page to ask people if this was any good so a few people knew what I was planning. Time came and when I announced it not a major uproar of applause, no Ticker tape parade and no piles of naked women on top of a mountain of money. Well I might be getting off point; basically everyone had good and bad ideas.

A lot of people had already formed groups so if I was to have anyone on board pickings would be slim. After listening to everyone’s “Elevator pitches” I aloud my mind to choose which one held the most. I had no intention of doing this alone as I have heard many stories of people working on their own not even getting something out the door so to speak

The one game that stuck in my head was Charlotte Gyseman MC Esher FPS. The one thing that really got me interested was the abandoned building art style she had mentioned. I for one love that particular style not just in games but in art and films.

So if you want to see more of this then here is the projects blog .

Last Week

Well summer is up and it is back to Uni thanks to the Ryder Cup giving us another week off. There is a lot of things to go on including work on all alone Eurogamer Expo and Uni Work so lets get at it.

I'll talk about all alone first. There has been a lot of progress on this even though the writing is not yet complete there has been some great suggestions from these guy who are doing a great job of helping me out.
Keriann Nelson- http://tudocs.ning.com/profile/KieranNelson
Jamie Boyle- http://tudocs.ning.com/profile/Jamie
of course I want to keep my cards close to my chest so no spoilers.

As for the game itself I'm finding coding very hard so I need to keep on working on that. on the Levels themselves I have one more map to go. It's been great experience and has really improved my Maya skill even if the models are simple as they can be.

Music wise I have gotten permission to use music from this great artist Named Kilton:
http://soundcloud.com/urlyd-recordings.
His songs sound amazing and fit so well with the game I can't wait to use them.

I have also made new posters here:



More in game!


As for Uni work I'm a Little bit unsure I have two ideas in my head either a Zero G puzzle game or a Music game for the Android/IPhone where you collect icons into baskets to complete a song.

As for my dissertation I want to have a look at marketing in games especially for the Halo series as during the realise of Halo Reach there were amazing marketing campaigns some viral and some more public. it might not be a bad thing to look at really because if it wasn't for Alfred Hitchcock's marketing for Psycho it might not of been the classic we know today.

I also went to Eurogamer Expo in London for the Friday, Got up at 5 in the morning just to get there. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but I did have to wait an hour to play "Brink" (Which was worth it) unfortunately I didn't get a looking with my portfolio but I got some great advice from the guys over at Rare. Apart from "Brink" I enjoyed playing Need For Speed Hot Pursuit and Crysis 2. I played others but those three were the best.

So one more Year then I have to work. I have no idea what is going to happen but as I always say...

"The only easy day was yesterday".

Straight from the hippie's mouth

Smile and Obey

I've decided to show off some of the propaganda posters for All Alone. I love the of the second world war and Soviet Union propaganda posters which had a lot of minimalism in their design. I also made them like this to give the player about what time this was set and how controlled this place was. Hopefully I can make some more soon.