So while it's fresh I'm writing up LD34, a successful failure. First time ever the theme's were tied so we ending up doing both growing and two button. Which are both great themes.My idea quickly came once I dismissed anything based on plant growing for reasons I shan 't discuss here. So I quickly settled on the idea of a ball bouncing away from an explosion shedding mass, grabbing other bits of shrapnel and trying to keep gaining mass to stay alive and ahead of the explosion.
Quick update on some side projects I’ve been working on. KBot: Twitch IRC bot written in go with some future plumbing plans. Alley Cat a GBA demake. GoDriveTracker a word tracker for Google Drive. GoCam involves Web Cameras & Cats combined with Google Drive and finally Block Project I'm not going to talk about much.
Another Develop in stormy Brighton brought friends, drinks and catch-up on various game topics. I was fortunate enough to have Sony send me, and disappointed my talk wasn’t part of the roster. This year was different from the years before for me but that’s another blog post. Here is my summary of some talks which hit home with me.
Staring at the impossible, the empty space of potentiality you fill it up with clipped syntax and hit compile. Only to see, after several failures, the magic of dreams alive on the small screen or the tiny led bleeping. This is the joy I discovered on my C64 with basic and pursued through the years… until I lost it.
It’s not a problem often talked about, but most the world is run by the extroverts. People skills and enjoying people is a potent aide. Like any skill it can be learnt and trained but people have different desires and some find it a real chore, others a pleasure.
So I was just reading this article on erasing the eraser, the importance of seeing your errors in education. The article ends claiming this is too extreme and points to IT as being the future and as...
I don’t have much time to maintain this site my primary requirements are: Simple to maintain, Easy to post blogs, Host about me, cv ect... Low Cost, Easy to index...Previously I w...
Game Designers around the world are addicted to performance enhancing drugs and many of them don't know it. They are addicted to progression and escalation. As game designers we are often p...
Often posts from a personal perspective are a contrite, self-promotion exercise of polishing the trumpets. They can also be an honest expression sometimes lost in t...
My friends know I’ve been struggling to write this article for months, struggling with the tone and the question: so I ask you, Why? It’s the most important qu...
In a world of frameworks, simple to use engines and added layers of abstraction we are in danger of leaky abstraction, both in design and programming. While t...
Games Horizon is an annual conference in Newcastle aimed at big ideas and business of games. This year brought a reasonable speaker line-up, a brilliant foam ball microphone Q&A system, well organised...
Several weeks ago, triggered partly by work events and partly Diablo III release I started really thinking about why I play[1] What is Play to me and...
A video recently cycled through my friends’ social circles which I wanted to share. John Cleese talks about Creativity and Open and Closed thinking modes...
Take a moment, think back, past the nostalgia and sepia dreams so we can consider old, forgotten mechanics. The thing we love about games is that they are com...
A year ago ago I signed up to this service, TimeHop, which emails me my tweets and status updates from a year ago, and it has been strangely motivating. To see my gro...
In some cases the most destructive action one can perform on the creative psyche is to give it absolute freedom. The blank page, blue sky, and empty word document are am...
Do you ever open an academic text or scary PDF, scan for code snippets, pretty pictures, maybe read a bit then run for the hills? One of the most important skil...
Sometimes you’re asked to design for the untestable scenario. For instance, design a system for 10,000 players to asynchrously interact in a persistent competit...
Originally written for #AltDevBlogADay
The forbidden knowledge of the game industry is mostly acquired over a smoke or drink in the pub, parking lot and corridors of conferences. Though the persona
Going to take a break from my Useless Designer series to talk about a personal project which has me very excited. While judging Dare I came across a good idea which could be brilliant: using a m...
A designer does not need to be a programmer but understanding programming is key. One of the most valuable but more expensive skills for a designer to acquire is programming...
This year was the first time I was involved in Dare to be Digital. Now I’ll admit that due to time commitments and unfamiliarity, I sent others from my team to mentor but agreed to judge. Now I’m...
Excel is the brick and mortar tool for the designer. Through really any decent spreadsheet software will do and have most the features I list, so pardon the Excel centric explanations. With Excel you can build entire complex systems and mimic game systems. Allowing you to not only prototype systems but also balance and analyze them.
Our profession develops, we form conventions and a toolbox of useful solutions. These tools make us faster, and more efficient. Conventions are not only developer driven but player driven as we defi...
The Hidden Evil of the Micro Transaction. Over the last year a lot of time has been spent thinking, writing and developing my thoughts on social gaming and by extension micro transactions. The last f...
Before moving forward with the problem we need to understand where we are coming from and the realities of the situation. The Evolution of the Dialogue Tree...
I attempt to describe what the next 12 weeks roughly will be for me as I explore the problem of social interaction as defined in games. I give a brief outline of the concepts as a shallow introduc...
As game developers we know the importance of Feedback in our games for players, but so often we forget the importance of feedback for ourselves. Implementing...
When I first started to enjoy games on my C64 alongside the board games and role-playing games one thing was king, limitations of the medium. Shortly afterwards I learnt BASIC then C, and started maki...
Disclaimer: I’m not claiming games which use these mechanics are in any way lesser. I’m merely highlighting these as easy ways to sauce up a game. Think of it like add ketchup / mayo / vinegar to...
Leaving Max for Blender. Back in the day... okay that makes me sound old. Seriously though I picked up 3D Studio Max way back when. I remember eagerly awaiting the character studio with 25... and...
Getting it out There. In my relatively short time in the industry I seem to have attracted a few fixer-uppers, reboots, ports and all round oh do you mind just finishing it off jobs. Some of the
So about two years ago I discovered the Lets Play phenomnia on YouTube thanks to Kikoskia and his awesome X-Com playthough. Which was a game I love and have played many times. I quickly discovered t...
So other than the occasional project posting my posts have gone down. This isn't because my writing has decreased but because of a new method I have. Oooh I have an idea...
This LudumDare I was hit by a blaze of inspiration. I was soooo excited by this project!!! Then the truck of problems ran me over, several times. Build a 3D Spatial Puzzle based on a secret phrase...
So this weekend the theme was <strong>Discovery</strong> which really inspired me. The plan was simple. Build a 3D Spatial Puzzle based on a secret phrase. The phrase is revealed when the person completes the puzzle. The idea is you could share secrets or even send messages to people in a playful fashion. I really like the concept.
When in doubt go Retro. I can point to countless notebooks some of which date back to some of my first programming experiments in my pre-teen years. One problem which I've never felt happy about...
Cut out the middle man! How many times have you heard that said as a positive call to action? Well there is a darker side to this glorious plan. It stems simply from this question, "What does the M
Level Up - Scott Pilgrim style. On reflection of this month my NanoWriMo project which I was really keen on is just not going to fit into my spare time at the moment. In better news I'm now L...
Quality of Life is so crucial, but so are your dreams. My entire adult life I have been broke, overworked and dealing with a whole side plate of stuff. So what's the biggest perk of me new job...
So I've lost sleep over the last week because I've been trying to convince people Social games are not evil. I've had some good counter arguments thrown at me. Sleep lost. Counter Arguments and final...
So basically that's the game flow detailed there. The mission select is of course random. Tonight development goal is as follows: Build a blueprint and save it, One Page Designs...
So POV declared The October Challenge : Make a game in a month and sell it. New Grid system for Game. The game is relatively simple and based in the Channels of Power world using some ideas fr...
This article is the first part of a two part discussion I wish to explore. A law for us and a law for them, the private law or privilege of a group. Being born in South Africa in the 80's my...
So the big milestone for the Data Driven Dialogue project is in and frankly it needs some time to sit on the shelf while I gather my thoughts for a fresh assault. So I set about learning Unity, s...
Tavern Talk. Okay it doesn't look like much but there is a LOT of back-end going into this. With some good work but tonight I should be able to parse the scene script. Still haven't solved my c...
Okay so talk about timing. Just days after my last post it's announced classic team based tactical game Jagged Alliance is getting an online treatment. So now often people think strange things b...
As I currently furiously work on my Data Driven Dialogue system for the end of the month delivery and continue my job hunt with furious speed. There is one other project I desperately want to approach...
Need Intel? I'm loving Starcraft 2 at the moment, and it got me thinking about my love of imperfect information in games design. I strongly recommend A Game of Thrones (board game) and...
Mere-Mortals games division is now shut. We were working late a few weeks back when the news was delivered and well the final final final letter came through today. It's all quite a process, which...
Of course there is a story. So the data driven dialogue project is moving along and well a simple problem arises. The more mechanic driven and gamey your game is, Ludology focused, the easier...
So I was listening to Another Castle interview the extremly interesting Eric Zimmerman . They were talking about the subverssive nature of play when my brain started drifting to tutorials, thinking...
I pull in Nick Lewis and Neil Richardson again to discuss some technical art talks from Develop. The main talks we focus on are Jolyon Webb from Blitz games RnD talk, and a talk about the EyePet from James Answer. We talk about RnD teams, and process. How to get artists into RnD and the advantages of doing more in Maya. Look at the advantages of Facial Bone Rigging vs Morph Target. The right right way or the hacked way. Re-targeting animations for systems like Move & Kinetic.
So got back from Develop and was slightly wiped out. So no podcast today, hoping to pipe one out on Monday. I apologise for the delay. There is good covereage at Develop site and some funny an...
I pull in Nick Lewis and Neil Richardson to discuss balancing art and code needs. We talk about how to get the best out of both. How programmers and artists can get the most out of each other. Communication between teams, and how to manage it. We also divert onto terminology, UV scrolling, cell shading, palletisation, and Futurama.
Get Talking. So I have some paper examples composed. They serve to demonstrate, but I feel are rather lacking. I don't think the true nature and power of the system will be exposed until I plug...
Sales in a Can? There is no magic, silver bullet, secret recipe or hidden formula. These words have been spoken many times by more successful, intelligent and thoughtful people than me. Yet p...
XML Data formatted with CSS. Over 13,000 characters and this blasted XML is still not complete enough to provide a decent concrete example. Thank you CSS for making it legible to the human eye.
Yes folks 100 posts in the blog! Pity it couldn't be more significant. I know this screen doesn't look like much but well it is. The sequence of events is as follows...
Image from Matt Hamm. So Games Horizon Conference for the second year running really pushed the social and freemium agenda. My viewpoint, shared by others I spoke to, is that the social gold rush...
Aquattack! for PSP minis. Free the captured fish before the fishermen haul in their nets! Try to beat your high score in arcade mode, or play against the clock in one of the 50 indivi...
Monetising Innovation. Peter Molyneux - Creative Director. Really enjoyed this talk, a real breath of fresh air. The press coverage of this has mostly been terrible focusing on sound bytes and out...
So I just got back from Games Horizon at Sage in Gateshead. Really awesome small conference which lets you really network and connect with people and some great speakers. Most of the real buzz from th...
Formatting data into a meaningful representation is a whole area of study. XML is a wonderful way to format data. Using a bit of CSS to transform XML into prettiness is a wonderful way of formatti...
We are back guys, the new site is launched and the first podcast is up. I grab Tim Kelsey & Neil Richardson to discuss cross platform development. In a world with iPhones, PS3, Wii and PC how do we write code across all these systems. That question is put on the table and we hear two different approaches.
So the website rework has been quite an endeavour made more complex by changing providers, being busy at work and going into hospital. The good news is the Comic Viewer 01 is written an...
So I was so tired of seeing a computer the last few days I switch to paper notes for a while. Still need to scan / transcribe them to digital format. Here are some highlights...
So some graph confusion between arrays and groups. It's very clear on the graph but the query starts looking strange. Really tired and not making progress. So going home, grabbing some food and hopefully I can clean up the mess in my head.
Okay some actions can affect multiple targets, my old model ignored this and hence broke in a few places. I’ve now fixed this. This resolves a few graph query issues I was having...
Okay so the most basic Query format is a Graphed Query. Pop-able Context. Any item which is pop-able can throw away it’s parents without loss of information. You may want to keep the context if you want to use a “previous topic” action. If the depth is becoming unmanageable however you can slice off the top at Pop-able joints. Items which are not popable require their context to make sense...
Sadly no pretty pictures, but loads of progress. That is the sad truth of programming, loads of boring text before anything cool happens. So what are you seeing...
Almost missed last bus home. Really good progress has been made.Lots of clean up and refactoring making good headway.Query Response format cermented...
Tumblr Fail. So I wrote this long article about how I switched to an Atomic data model. How this is one possible implementation of the proposed model. Different code would be written based o...
Not much progress tonight. Looking at examples and the refrence scenario, getting bogged down in detail. Will look at a code implementation of Thursday...
Shadows are EVIL! Okay above you see rough and blurred. The rough pass uses a single sample against the depth buffer. Those bloody pixels are a result of the resolution of the shadow map. The...
To Debug it, Draw it. Many people will tell you this but whenever you have a problem try to visualise it. This can be applied to almost everything (except cases where visualisation is a con...
Wooot! Progress, the shadow is low quality due to PC card limits. I need to add some bias to avoid flicker, and smooth off the edges to get soft shadows.
So climbing into bed last night I got a great idea. Debug the Light ViewProjection matrix by using a camera with the same matrix. Well you know how I managed to knock together that skybox so quickl...
Shadows and Reworks. So after a lot of thought and planning yesterday I set about implementing soft shadows using shaders tonight. Sadly this meant I needed to re-haul the entire scene manage...
Lights, Camera, Action. Well lighting and shadows are a complex bag of trickery and maths. Basic Lighting is simple.Take a book outside into the sun now rotate the bugger around and throw...
Day and Night Cycle. Woot! Not only did I get a pretty awesome Sky-Sphere in place but I also managed to knock up a day/night cycle. I also cleaned up the shaders and have global lighting in...
Ye gods captain, PROGRESS.After the dismal run around the pointlessness I have actually made some progress last night and today. Coupling Issue solved with Interface. Island has day/night...
My Kingdom for a Team! What is the best tool to explore and solve problems? Explain it to someone else. Its good enough for Sherlock Holmes and its good enough for me. I hate...
The big choices I'm facing at the moment and playing around is on two fronts, GUI Behaviour and Render Pipeline. Fighting through some choices will post more shortly
So no progress yesterday as it took me forever to vote, and then I got lost in endless election cover and got no sleep, zombied through work today. Anyway got back and looking mostly at setting up...
Staying late at work to do university work is REALLY awesome, and so works. My work setup is just so much better for coding. Pro vs Express. Two Screens desktop vs Laptop...
It might not look like much but that little but of text output proves the hacked type system works. It’s horrible, sadly I’ve wasted a weekend trying to do things the correct way and failing. If I have time I want to investigate alternatives...
Hitting a massive break trying to get Model-View-Controller to work with Data Driven model. I've found out some nice stuff about C #activator but it gets messy. Ultimately I think...
AAAARGH!!!! Really slow progress, here are some of the hurdles I've been hitting. Baking Shadow Maps in 3D Studio Max while maintaining the UV(a bad tangent). Confusion between Active...
I really wish I had a pretty picture but I dont. Sadly its a problem with grunt coding tasks is there is very little pretty to show for it. In fact most of my work today has been in the...
Updated the document from my notes, and a few use cases. The main break throughs and choices are below. All the prop data will be created from an XML file a...
Cooking Calamity Use cases, defining more stuff. Well I suggest following the link for loads of stuff but the biggest thing is cooking. I knew some simple things were core to the game...
So after the coupling issue Ive been looking at Object Factories and inventories. Now something I learn to love more and more is Data-Driven development. I cannot express my love for it hig...
Coupling and Forethought. So last night I started looking at setting up the game elements and save data. The moment I started I saw coupling issues rise up like the ugly beast. Thankfully I&.
More notes on Game-Play. So Ive been at Uni and running around town so most of my work was in my note - book but it gave me some time to form some thoughts, and define some gameplay. Also...
Stupid Artist!! Oh no wait… thats me. <br /> As far back as Wednesday last week when I was working my way through this problem I joked about the artist being stupid.This was a sort
Right Ive moved over most the nice LD code into the Frank project, cleaned up a few things here and there. Made it play nice with the World Manager system. First thing I did after getting...
Okay so Im dropping out of the compo, with 12 hours left to go. I could make a game but the important parts are done and I just got a much needed reminder to get back on track. So going i...
Aaargh Maths! After a whole load of confusion between expanded polar coordinates and spherical coordinates which took the better part of the day Ive managed to generate the map.<br />On
Theme is Islands. Okay time to make a game in a weekend.At first I wasnt going to do LD17 but then I realised I could use the engine Im building for university work. This synergy m
Brick wall. Importing really simple models with a low bone count with no issue.The hand has been glitching all day.Still no closer to solver the problem. Unfortunately Im working with
The last roadblock I hit was tagging animations for export. Well after talking to the artists at work no-one knows how to do it in 3ds Max 2009 (or any version of Maya So after some digging I fou...
Small Progress but still progress. Okay so doesnt look very different.<br /><br /> Multiple Animators<br /> World and Object Management<br /> Instanced Objects and Animations<br /><br /> The World and Obj
Todays Goals. < br / > Build World Manager<br /> Make base Hand and Frank<br /> Get Hand to Pick up Frank<br /><br /> So currently Im doing one of the things I like least.Building low - level systems and
So the second biggest shot, the walk up and meep sequence needs some polish. < br / > I need to re - render it at a higher quality<br /> The little guy needs to blink<br /> I wasnt happy with light balls
Classic Dialogue for the Inn-Keeper Well it took much longer than I expected. First Complete Draft of the old Style dialogue tree. Now to replace it with my new system...
Work in Progress: Innkeep Dialogue Only about 70% progress. Still so simple, ye gods this takes forever to write.So glad my dissertation is how to improve this. Cause Im passionate about...
Today's Plan. Compile the Inn-Keepers Dialogue the old fashioned way. Create the interaction in AGS. Email my supervisor to bring him up to date. Side Note: Rave music is much bet...
Okay so the day has been super productive even if it required me to learn a whole new graphing system. So the point is this writing dialogue trees is a pain in the neck.Also whats the
Dissertation progress So Ive made the reference document (see link) Im extremely impressed with Adventure Game Studio. Made a simple game in it, now I just need to do the dull ta...
Reference Scenario Ive intentionally kept it trim, and avoided too much unnecessary detail. Defining that skeleton would be enough for a GM in a role-playing game to run the Public House...
So Saturday night and all of Sunday was written off thanks to my house-mate having a house-party before going out for drinks, follow by early morning noise and more drinks… finally Sunday...
So Ive been trying to do the following tasks today. Create Scenario Reference. Draft scenario and characters. Draft topics of conversation. Compile Final Scenario reference. Complete...
Current Version of Dissertation Aims. Aim. To create a data-driven system for use in the games industry that will generate complete social interactions using seeded scenarios which expands base...
The task list is getting chomped through. Some proof reading needs to be done, but ultimately I think I can close up the Machine Learning task and put up my feet for the rest of the day. :) Ev...
Machine Learning: First Pass I still need to write my conclusion and improvements. Not to mention Proof Reading. Also the code, sanitised data and outputs are not attached. Looks like with a bi...
So Ive been trying to normalise and format the data-set for consumption and processing. Some key points. Random Corruptions. Some Data is outside the specified range. The module code col...
First Draft: Virtual Pets (Reinforcement Learning) Uni Assignment Well the first draft is there. The assignment says approx 1500 words, Im currently sitting at 1190, excluding footnotes and...
Write a short essay on the topic approximately 1500 words . Describe an example of an artificial intelligent system.Identify as precisely as possible that aspect of the behaviour that...
Lets put a pin on it. Well the animation on the screen, I had ideas of really complex animations and stuff but it doesnt really need it an time is short.So I just made a quick...
All done. The pipes are cleaned up.Im not cleaning the IK pipe as its a messy mangle, but Im leaving it in because its educational and this is a university assignment and...
Overnight. Okay so some serious progress with texturing, cameras, materials and the like. The render times are getting silly though. I rendered an overnight job at full quality every 45th frame...
Success!!! Doesnt look very different but its VERY different.<br /><br /> The wires animate around the pipes<br /> The second pipe is in using spline and loft(animates nicer than my messy IK) < br / >
Animation Task List So Im focusing on the Multimedia module if you havent noticed. Ive updated the task list and crossed off a few.Still no good way to export or print off G
Wire Solution: Snap, Tweak, Loft. So after having headaches trying to think how to do wires I am reminded by how much familiarity increases speed. Be it a familiar language, setting, project.
Distractions Away. Got a bit delayed today, power ran out so my alarm didnt go off.Anyway got to it. After some initial worrying about multi-materials, UV mapping the list goes on...
Glass Glass Glass. Wrapping my head around the materials system again. I think the work will need some great texturing and lighting to come alive. Also I think the quality of the green goo and...
Rusty to the Max. So Ive been moddelling most of this afternoon and remembering how rusty I am at this stuff.Trying to decide on the work flow path to take.Part of me wants to work on
Social Media The mess of social presence I am currently on. Twitter. Facebook. Linked In. Google Profiles. Blogger. Personal Website: Flammable Penguins. Tumblr. Four Squa...
Claire's Consciousness Calls: Designing with Limitations. Count the umms, arrs, tongue clicks and extended vowels as I stumble unedited through the topic of embracing the pain and abuse you wil...
The mess of social presence. I am currently on. Twitter. Facebook. Linked In. Google Profiles. Blogger. Personal Website: Flammable Penguins. Tumblr. Four Square. Buzz...
Case Project. Created Project. Menu System. Networking. Skinned Animated Models. Sounds like a lot but in reality I stole the Network State Sample and Skinned Model Sample used some duc...
Soooo the university tasks list commences. I have a short amount of time to do a lot of overdue work :P. Story Board Notes. Camera fly around. Focus on Read outs. Start Drainage. Camera...
Claires Consciousness Calls: Women in Games. Women in Games conference canceled due to ‘ low delegate numbersgot me so angry I just had to get my voice onto the web again.<br />DIS
I have been struggling with this concept ever since I was eight. Narrative vs Ludology. By Narrative I mean story-telling and Ludology I mean pure game play. Introduction. You see when I was aro...
Crunch goes the night. Or at least it has for over the last month. There have been brief respites over the last six weeks or so but mostly it's been early mornings, late nights and weekends. I've b...
News and Bits. Hi All, really working hard at the moment to get that last little bit of polish onto Encleverment. As anyone who talks to me can tell I really do love this little game and want to u...
Hi Again. I'm working like crazy on Encleverment at the moment so sorry for the late post. Just one attached note before the LARP post. I love MMO but I wouldn't be caught dead making one, why you a...
Hi All, I haven't forgotten about the MMO piece, the next part, "Problem: Didn't I just kill you? (Reality in a Persistent world)"will be up sometime Monday. I had a great time at Games Horizon conf
Hi all, before you ask I don't know how many parts this series will have. I have a rough outline of what I want to work through but nothing solid. Once it's all done I do plan to compile it into a mo...
Who Shall be King? Similar to the chosen one problem, but with a few more difficulties is kingship. Hierarchies are natural, humans are not anarchists by nature. Now if your playing with...
Okay I've found some topics I want to write a lot about, so I'm going to make a compromise and break them into smaller posts. Once they are all done I'll put together a complete article or podcast. F...
So I was stumbling along when I found this little site. Its pretty basic but that's exactly why its good. So here is the link. Java Games Programming CSC207 by Philip Hanna. There are six t...
So one of the projects I did some programming on is now released. Here is the official trailer. I didn't spend much time on it what with my time on Encleverment Experiment, but I helped...
Hi all, Claire again. I meant to do another podcast no this topic but sadly my audio setup is picking up way too much noise and I shan't have time to fix it. So I've uploaded a pdf version for pe...
Hi All, I've been crazy busy in so many ways that I've neglected to keep my web presence updated. I blame all the networking tools like Facebook and Linked In because to some extent they remove the...
Weekend of Code. All aboard the fail-train. We got a few submissions but it seems the cholate confusion meant this WOC failed. I got a few entries from the regulars but the final years were too...
Download Test Version. Download the test version and give it a play and let me know what you think.<br />To play a level load run the file "swingcar.exe mytrack.trk"if you want to edit then "swingca
The editor as you can see has grown. not only can the editor do much more funky stuff with polys and adjust all their varibles. Elasticity is the bottom left, static is bottom middle, and weight is r...
So after a bit of pain and tears the editor has everything it needs. The rest is just trimming. You can do the following.... Draw Segments (and polys) Add Points. Remove Points. Move Poi...
I've been very very busy. Having fixed this bug. Then this one. I'm now working on the editor. Once this is done I'll work on Loading and Saving then the grappling hook.
It Wooooooooorks!!!!! After a day and a half of fighting with conflicting libraries my fuzzy memory nd just plain down stupidity I have all the required drawing and physics functions operating su...
Yes folks 100 posts in the blog! Pity it couldn't be more significant. I know this screen doesn't look like much but well it is. The sequence of events is as follows. Get PTK and Chipmunk s...
Wooot I have a job offer for a games industry job. Went out with my Mum for Sushi last night and we caught up on gossip. Also really ill at the moment but still plowing on with the code. Getting...
Okay I think I have an idea. SWING CAR. The idea is quite simple you have a car with a grappling hook and a track you cant navigate without grappling across gaps, and swing all around.
Theme. A to Z with a Twist is an exploration into racing games and freerunnnig games where we are trying to get from A to Z but we add something to make it interesting. BE CREATIVE AS POSSIBL...
The next weekend of code is on Easter weekend. Not planned but I kinda forget when Easter was back in January. Which was when the date was set. We are currently asking a game company to supply us...
So my work load is nicley split at the moment between three projects. Gamecube Project : Basically we need to make a game for the gamecube that demonstrates its functionality and shows we know h...
Welcome back folks. The new site is launched. We outline some PTK stuff that I showed the first years. We play a bit of catch up and talk about University work. Topics. Welcome Back. Big Thank...
Hi everyone. I presented a lecture to the first years on PTK my favourite lightweight 2D engine. Full details can be found in Code - Reference section along with downloads. . I'll be postin...
So its here the website's fresh coat of paint. Bear with me over the next few days as the goal is to have the site fully alive and kicking by the 1st March. I can promise a podcast episode this w...
The weekend is done and the coffee is finished. Download Entries. Please leave and Read the feedback. I'm sure all the entrants will appreciate it. Comments...
Theme. One-Button Joystick. Friendly to all Ages. Collection Element. Details. Your game input can only be a directional input and an action button. Up to 8 directions, keyboard or joystick...
So get ready for a great weekend of code. The code weekend page will be uploaded at 1800 on Friday. So we don't expect a huge weekend but we are all ready go go. A huge thanks to all the people...
The next weekend of Code is here. First Weekend of December. I've been talking to the guys who run our course at Northumbria and a few hopeful third parties about getting more out of these weekend...
We talk about the weekend of code. We talk about essential game design and inheritance. So come and join me and Neil. Topics. Weekend of Code. Base Structure. Inheritance. Static, Dynamic an...
The Handins are well in. Thanks to everyone who entered. I cannot say how great it is you took the time to code together a game in no time at all. Your efforts rock as do you all Claire. The...
So this weekend we are having a weekend of code. Basically the competition is simple. You have a weekend to make a game . The Rules and Hints can be found here . Final Themes. This is the fi...
RSS. MP3 [Warning: Non-technical cast. Normal show style returns next week.] So we are back! I've moved into a house of Crazy. Prepare to meet. Jason: Web Head. Neil: Audiophile and...
Too much squirrely goodness... must consume the Squirrel! Okay So I'm back from Gencon just want to get the first load off my skull then I'll do a proper post later. It was great, four days of...
Progress. Added Menu System. Added Time line. Time line Processing. Add movement Markers. Revamped Mouse Map and Sprites to avoid rebuilding map. Report Back. So its moving along slo...
So I've been battling with a couple of things. The message system, stage projection and clicking un-projection. Anyway its getting on, but I thing I might need to get myself an artist. The little...
So the thing is like this. The Queen's Birthday is on the telly and pizza is on the cook. Well I have to say its a funny feeling. Its strange. Oh well what to say facebook, red vs blue, hoodwinked...
South African Comp. So there is this great competition being run by some guys in South Africa which brings me out of the overtime coma. They are running a competition for an educational game...
I really wish I knew who to give credit to for this image, its great and serves to illustrate two points. Everyone should prepare for the Dawn of the Dead moment and humanity fears zombies becaus...
Hi guys and girls, I'm crunching through my maths assignment and what not. I had a few spare hours today but I threw them at an incomplete entry into LD48 I know I know priorities. Go check out t...
Okay we have a plan no really we do. The following maths assignment needs to be done. The aim of the assignment is to carry out an analysis of the motion of two cars moving downhill and develop a...
Come join us for another great 48hr game comp. Ludum Dare! This weekend we join the insanity known as game development in the truest spirit of creativity and basement coding. Ludum Dare...
RSS. MP3 So I promised to continue the game framework discussion would continue. This week we dive a bit deeper into organising things. Topics. Our big first year maths assignment. A...
RSS. MP3 So lets get started on a little project. We shall from scratch create a PTK game framework which we shall be expanding on. I'm not throwing you guys in the deep end yet but I hop...
This Bone Marrow story cheered me up for a different reason to most discussing it. Simply put its a break through for human liberty and a free society. Why you ask? Well because the method used...
So I wake up at six at the morning, then I shuffle off to work. A one hour commute, then a eleven hour work shift. One more hour to get home, east then to bed. That is it at the moment. Oh and did...
So the finest quality of a programmer is the ability to experience apathy. No really this is true, a lot of people call themselves programmers when they are really just capable of hacking out a few...
Sinfest makes this little grin appear on my face as I plot world domination. Its not like I want to rule the world I just have to for the sake of others..... no really its an act of mercy. S...
Sorry everyone but I'm really sick at the moment. Have been for a while and I'm trying to kick it. Thanks for all the feedback on he last show. For those of you who mentioned STL in response to last...
RSS. MP3 We talk about the how to shake and move the pixels. What your going to need is a timer with a marker pen, a needle with a thread, A sprite sheet with a palette, a collection of b...
RSS. MP3 RSS. MP3 Come and let us tackle the pretty and fun world of 2D games. The best and funnest way for quick and small games. On the plate this week we have an errata to last...
RSS. MP3 So we talk memory management, pointers and the insanity caused by leaks and overflows. So come talk static plumbing with us as we dive into the heap and stack on the terrible puns.
You know I need to get some trained monkeys I can tie down for a podcast each week. Okay boys and girls the podcast has failed this week AGAIN !<br /> I will try a Wednesdays / Thursday post with none o
Oh why oh why do I take my hard earned achievements and rub them into the cake batter for the little monsters of my id to devour. I dot know but I do go all out icing and cherries. I often find m...
We as human creatures build are not naturally paid up members of society we need to be shuffled and bounced by the Brownian motion of society mixing our thoughts and desires with others to build our...
Sorry about the missed show, I know I sound like a broken record but well Daniels laptop had its power pack go pop and Emma is still having some problems so it was a no go. I do promise that some r...
I was going to moan and bitch about work and what happened to me today which let me tell you follks annoies me on genocidal levels of epic proportios.... however when I got back I saw this video in m...
I'm back baby! I won't bloody the floor with the victims or my anger. Basically this is it my life goes through rocky periods. I don't like to throw my misery on the net or onto other people who ha...
RSS. MP3 We talk about whether or not games make you think and what we can do to make smarter games. So using Genetic programming a few drinks and a love of games come in and join us. Als...
I'm having trouble updating the site. The RSS feed and Odeo sites are both up to date however so click on the podcast link and you'll be able to get it all. When I get back from work I'll also throw...
A new podcast is already recorded and edited but I'm having some trouble uploading to Odeo. I promise the podcast will be up by midnight tonight even if I have to host it on a temporary ftp so I'll s...
Hi all sorry about he faulty start to new years but hey what are you going to do this time of year being what it is. I will maintain my promise of 52 shows. It just means we will have to do some doub...
Well its another year and yes we are planning to get back on track. The things I could tell you all.... aaa to be completely and utterly f***ed by life. No problem I will just have to reprogram the u...
RSS. MP3 Christmass is here and so is our show. Oh well we have our Wii's, XNA launched, played Gears of War and University has closed down for the winter break. How do we feel about normal...
Sorry about the mess folks I've been cleaning up things a lot on my side. One thing I can annouce for sure is Hamster is gone. Will he be on the podcast again... no! Will we ever see him again? Well...
I work hard to keep this blog *clean* That has come to mean a lot of things to mean, mostly it means silence. My mind overflows with things I want to pour out to the world and as sad as this may s...
RSS. MP3 Emma and I are BACK! I'm still finding where where put Hamster so in the mean time I grabbed a pet from our class. So we were cursed, its been decided. This week we talk about Wii.
16 hours, 15 minutes, and 45 seconds. For me however there is no time remaining. As I need to go to sleep and then get to work. I achieved everything I aimed for. Flags, holes, even got the isom...
THERE ARE 1 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 59 seconds left! Considering I'll be at work for 6 of those hours, call it 6 hours sleep..... hmm that leave me with 12 HOURS!!! What have I done so...
There are only 1 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes, and 40 seconds remaining. I am the Queen of all I CODE! Okay I've thrown the old FLAT render back in cause its relible and its a safe fall back all...
1 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes, and 47 seconds. So it took me all of 1 hour or so to add, a map editor with loading and saving. Not to mention collision detection and smooth out the kinks in the grav...
There are only 2 days, 6 hours, 15 minutes, and 47 seconds remaining. Just woke up. The prototype is working nice and fine. It wasn't a dream from the early ours of the morning :) Next Goal i...
There are only 2 days, 15 hours, 8 minutes, and 16 seconds remaining. Okay well the Theme is MAGNETS ! Which I'm really happy for. I teamed up with Edge he is going to be my artist. I got the th...
Its my own stupid fault, we got the recording in the can when I realised I had the mixer set to the wrong channel so it was recording a phantom mic. It was a great studio recording, probably our best...
Okay people so I've been clonking out pages of code, pages of wiki, pages of html and pages of comics. I've got to say I'm proud of my productivity at the moment. I've made a few more pages of the...
Oh well the podcast is on the proper server now. If you've been using the RSS feed or the iTunes link like good little techies you wouldn't notice anything. I have secured a small amount of space o...
, RSS , MP3 Download. First off I'm sorry about the delays, Odeo is broken and I don't know how to fix it so this is linked from an alternate host. I'm convinced the third podcast is cursed...
Okay so the insanity of the weekend. Okay I posted the cast on Friday, the posting of the cast didn't go smoothly, between editing errors and breaking the feed for about 20 minutes well... I need t...
I'm locked into what some would call a self destructive spiral, I call it life. No its not that bad its just I need to start looking after myself. I know I am not what most people would call fat but...
Game PIT #2 : Give a Penny, Take a Penny. Happy Halloween! Come join us as we discuss Language, Ghost Dry Cleaning, and of course baby stacking. We've ditched the background music and thrown in...
Up late editing audio... again! I swear next cast I'm going to electrify the floor. I don't know its just a long edit period. Longer than it should be but its mostly my fault for a poor set-up. I rea...
Oh well another podcast is on the reel. I'm currently editing lots of stuff out and fixing audio levels. We finished recording yesterday, and today I got my pop filters. I CANT BELIEVE THE DIFFERENCE...
I've been having some trouble with the itunes feed. The new feed is over here I'm trying to get Apple to sort out the feed on iTunes because I dont have direct editing control of the old feed. In t...
Hi All! Okay so I've updated the comic section. I'm just sorting out some hosting for the comics. In the near future once I have more money for this project I want to host the comics on our server...
Call for legal copying of own CDs. A think-tank has called for archaic copyright laws to be rewritten to take account of new ways people listen to music, watch films and read books. I really...
Welcome one and all to Game Programmers in Training. We have done it ladies and gentlemen. The site is up and the podcast feed works. Can you believe it. I know I didn't quite make my midnight lau...
Emma and Hamster came over yesterday after lectures to record. Oh my word was I freaking out. First the long wait to get the mics and mixers and million other things. Then the last minute rush for...
Thursday. I get really caught up in coding away the adventure engine.I get hold of my cousin to have a chat. We arrange to have a long chat and watch the "History Boys"Late night, or rather early
Well the adventure engine is comming along, I reckon by the end of the week it should be usable for say an alpha release. Of course bear in mind this is the engine not game content itself. Overall...
I'm so busy. Okay I wont ramble on about social junk, LGBT meetings, university doctors, job hunting and so on. Let me bring everyone up to speed. Working on FP Adventure a graphical 'text' adven...
Bad bad girl, I know I should keep up to date with this but its hard getting into a routine when nothing else is in a routine. The job hunt continues, I need to step up my looking currently I'm not...
Okay so I've been completly silent. There is a reason, things have been up in the air. I only wanted to get back to this once I had some direction. Otherwise I would have broken my iron rule about no...
Okay I know I've been crazy lately and very busy. However this post had to be made. Yesterday mere moments after Phillip remembering he left his phone at work the brakes locked up in a display of s...
I spent the vast majority of yesterday studying for a programming course I am doing. I had little or no exposure to DirectX at University so I undoing a course on it. Its relatively easy because the...
Some people have being saying I'm being too bitchy recently. I refute this claims on two counts. There is NO thing such as too bitchy. I've been in a good mood lately, it will degrade if this t...
Okay so I had a great relaxing weekend. I was alone in the flat and I spent my time watching Smallville, painting mintures and playing World of Warcraft. So basically I chilled and didn't do anything...
I shall not explain it nor shall seek to expound the thoughts. Needless to say the end result is I scream and shout a bit then feel better. To be brief I had a lot of good news on Wednesday and I was...
I know I said I would avoid posts like this, deal with it this is for my mind not yours. I watch the sweet ether roll off my lips and caress the very things of reality. Is this my soul, the ess...
Contry to popular belief I dont like sitting down. Its something i do while using a computer true, by choice however my machine is on a low lying desk. I like the floor, no cushions on the floor just...
Believe it or not people do use this as a method of solution to complex problems. Yes some people will instead of trying to grasp the problem and solve it rework the earlier findings into a dubious f...
Yeah Post number 50 Another line of my life. I miss when a line meant something completly different. You cant go back. I fee like I'm running the sequel / spinoff tv series now where they have tone...
So another day and another.... oh bugger read the title ... attacks the ranks of humanity. Truth be told life is good I've enrolled for an online post grad course to continue my education. If my prom...
Okay so I'm attacking things at a furious pace. Not a problem at all. So anyway the main thing regarding training is I have signed up to an online programming course. This is to fill in a CV gap.
Okay mention all the important stuff. First off the evil daemon of WOW addiction has taken me again and plunged my mind into a purple haze of pretty swirling pictures and numbers. I know I know, but...
Another day of infinite spectrum but still over technical usage of shading and light has been introduced to the current frame and spectrum of things as they stand. The court hereby wishes that hithro...
Sorry about the lack luster posting I've been doing recently. While on Holiday I have a valid excuse but since getting back I don't. So anyway the last few days. Since my last post I had an attac...
Oh well back at work and the world is flashing past in a dull blur of sanity. Back into the work and answering the phones of idiots. I must get some time to write about my lil adventures in South...
Okay so I've arrived. I think the chronological breakdown the best. So let it begin. Tuesday. Wake up at the crack of dawn and rush packing, I end up forgetting one or two things but nothing ser...
Crazy Bon-bon chocolate covered Bitemes eating all the ones and zero dancing on the line. I think about what would happen if my tongue was cut out. I would talk in bloody spurts of silence. No acti...
I cant believe this world, I really cant at times. Sometimes people disgust me. I mean there are those rare times that I think wow, that's a shining example of kindness. Then I seem a case of human...
Bleh pick me up off the floor and use my body as a mop with a spinal cord, my nerves are blown away feeling all from here to nowhere. I've been bitchy, emotional, and sick as a Cuban slave worker o...
Oh well I'm slicing and mixing the pieces of fabric together and trying to get my mind back to a regular state. Sadly the case is that my sweet Serenity is going to be broken by the noise of my co...
Its a fact never trust someone who collects money, someone who preaches religion, or someone who cant count past three. These people are not to be trusted with the time of day let alone anything of...
Ah yes the ability of maths to take the seeminly significant to its knees and raise up Nothing to a status of capilisation. I do enjoy maths despite my occasional lover's feuds with it. Most peopl...
Okay I admit it this week I've been lazy and self indulgent. My dicipline has flown out the window and my code is almost non-exsistent. The bleech is sucking up my time. Also adjusting to a new...
Congratulations for Perseverence. Its true life can be shitty and at times you work really hard for something. I mean I've had a lot of obstacles through this path and its been years of effort but...
I haven't touch a line of code. My brain feels light and fresh. Like I've had a weight lifted off my shoulders. Don't get me wrong I love and enjoy coding but sometimes you need a break. Currently...
Okay what is it with focus. I need to take my mind and place it in a slingshot and launch it away at top speeds because currently it feels like a fuzzy cloud of cute hugs and kisses that's just goi...
Oh well another day has come in and I rocked up to closed glass doors, early, cold, and awaiting someone with keys. I must say I didn't expect to be in this position at this stage of my life. On...
Timer Needs fixing. Okay so I knuckled down and played the demo a bunch of times. Focusing once again on the combat. I kept forcing myself to envision this or that but in the end it just didn't fe...
I'm being horribly distracted these last few days. The main reason I'm easy to distract is I feel a bit rudderless about the project. I know something is missing from the game, the most important t...
Approx 3 hours. Still need to fix my VB timer. More importantly I need to Kill Phil, and no I dont have time to go learn the five point palm trick. The huggable bastard gave me a dvd of fun stuf...
I often wonder why saints dance on silver skies. I mean what is the band playing cause last I heard all the good music, art and culture was down under. I mean at the end of the day you need to reme...
Approx 5 hours. Slow day, progress is like wading through Jello. Anyway what I have achieved. Oh my VB Timer got broken, hence approx time. Whats been Done. Mouse Picking. Type Generation...
I was fighting with the evil monkeys of maths, collisions, point to line distance and other wildlife. I do not wish to talk of it however it is in a mildly amusing corner of agony and pain in my b...
Good days and bad days. I got back on Saturday night and started coding, however my brain was slush and my fingers slow. I managed to code the transversal but then I realized I needed to...
So Another frightful morning has dawned. Okay well as you can see the Matrix mode of the game is coming along. I spent a lot of time on basic structure stuff with trees and such. Most o...
Oh well sleep is optional according to my body at the moment. So let me move into the next phase. I have a scattering of papers around me on the floor, two notepads filled with doodles o...
Yes it is compleeeeeeeted! Okay its not completed what has been done is I have succesfully completed the combat class and one ice class. I still need to toss in the graphic effects (th...
Voting Complete. The LD48 voting will continue for a while but my voting session is complete. I have definite favorites, and certain views on other projcts and comments however overall a good exp...
Oh well so I had yesterday off as part of the whole early shift mess. I spent a goodly time on the phone to my bank, the clinic, an agency, not to mention sending tons of emails and admin junk to v...
TWEEK Version. Last night spent a few minutes changing controls and adding a speed setting because some people were confused by the control system. Apparently my reflex's are Ninja-like, bleh...
You never collapse the day after a true crunch, a feeble attempt you crash the day after but a proper grin you run on adrenaline and string for a while longer then after you get a proper sleep, zom...
CLICK HERE FOR FINAL SUBMISSION. Notice there wil be a later polished version by the weekend. Oh well midnight rolled around. It was 4 hours from the deadline but it was the deadline I set myse...
31 Hours. http://ludumdare.com/files/183_31Hour.rar. It seems rest has helped. A lot of time on sprites and a determination of a blind dominatrix in latex. I will complete this game and it will b...
28 Hours in. http://ludumdare.com/files/164_28Hour.rar. With under twenty hours left on the clock I need to start rushing. To took 5 hours out, 4 for sleep and 1 for bath and to just freshen up.
19 Hours. Insanity is not merely a state of mind is a state of the Cthulian Empire. To answer your questions the code has once more blurred into nothingness. I'm going to have something to eat and...
14 Hours. Basic collision detection setup. Still a bit to buggy. Might need to put some kind of turning curve on the worms. Also looking at stopping them flocking but move in the same direction sl...
7 Hours In. Okay I've been up since early this morning coding Dune Worms. The attack is taking FOREVER to code. I've been hitting lots of glitches and stupid mistakes on my part. Currently I'm...
The voting as it stands at the moment, the top five are. 211 - Magnetism (attraction repulsion) 148 - Swarms. 111 - Infinite Levels (random/procedural generation) 102 - Evolution...
Okay I didn't update yesterday. Bad Claire, no chocolate, none not a piece. Okay back in the world of the sane I have recently raised the Cthulu alert to orange today. Sometime, somwhere insanity i...
Magical C++, oh the insanity I have signed up for a weekend of code. Ludum Dare 48 Hour comp . Basically you get given a brief and you have 48 hours to make a game that works. Basically you depri...
LARP LARP LARP. Bear in mind I was crewing the morning, so I got flashes of the adventure. For the King. The king is sick, and not looking to live long but this starving cobbler couldn't care...
Okay not much coding time, HOWEVER bare in mind that timer does not include all the time spent with a piece of paper and pen, along with dusty linear algebra memories. All the time chatt...
I've been coding collision and matrix math. I'm pulling my hair out and DESPERATELY trying not to be tempted into signing up for WOW again. I'm horrible. Self Control. Its horri...
You ever wake up to that feeling of being misplaced. I mean I've woken up on and in more couches, floors, beds, cars and people than I would like to recall. My own bedroll as such has moved around...
I haven't been coding as much as I would like but I've got a bit done. I've also submitted a request to be moved to the early shift so I can get more coding done. Here is what's been add...
No this is not a second code post. The code is going slow. I wanted to talk about ICE. Intruder Counter-Measure Electronics. The term was first popularized by William Gibson in his novel Neuromance...
Okay well my current coding project is named Phantom for the moment. I wont go into detail at this time about the project. I wanted to talk about a timer I've started using. Since cuttin...
First and foremost I'm a geek. Yes I am I do a lot of crazy stuff but at the end of the day I'm a geek girl who goes fan girl at the worst possible times. As a tribute to my geekiness I have posted...
I know that people will eventually stumble across this and I wish them the best. I try to put my thoughts on paper as best I can. I used to have have a live journal... why not continue to po...