Gearing Up For My Final Year

After doing very well (even if I do say so myself) on my work placement helping develop public security software in .NET. I am nearing the end of my time at the job. I have received great feedback from my team leaders at work and I am proud of the contribution I gave to the products I worked on. I have learnt a lot that will help me in the future and the experience has been extremely beneficial.
As I come to the end of my year (and a bit) in industry I see the final year of my degree getting closer. In order to prepare for my final year I have started to set up a source control server on a mini-atx box I have build and I have start reading papers in the area of research I have chosen to base my applied research project on.
Each paper I read makes the task I have chosen seem more complex and far bigger than I could have imagined so I am putting my efforts into narrowing down the key areas I am interested in for my proposed dissertation title.

A Year Out

I am currently in my work placement year of my degree and as you make have noticed by now this means that development outside of work is currently nothing more than playing around. It is because of this that I have paused my blogging on the subject of games development for a year. I will be back summer of 2011!

In the mean time I have just started a new blogging project that is more general about my day to day life and other geeky pass-times over at www.standinginthefire.co.uk . Watch that site for further details.

Thank You!

Easter "Holiday"

Over the last term I have made a large amount of progress in all areas. My C++ skills have greatly improved and I now feel confident that I am good enough for a games studio.

My racing game is coming along nicely. My team handed in a alpha build last which included a menu systems, car and track selection, AI, pick-ups and a HUD. Gamebryo is treating us well now we have got to grips with it.

This week I am concentrating heavily on my Mobile Devices module coursework. I am programming a Java version of Llamasoft's classic arcade title "Llamatron" for mobile phones. As well as this task I must write a essay about the limitations of mobile phones as a platform. For some reason after all the programming a essay seems like a nice break.

Ill keep you updated with my progress and show you some screenshots once everything is presentable.

2010 is going fast

So the second semester of the second year is here and the work is piling on.

In "Interactive 3D Graphics Programming" I have been using Direct X to render different lighting techniques and meshs. The project is to create a basic, reusable, graphics engine for a 3D game. While Direct X is not the easiest thing in the world it seems fairly simple after I made my own render from scratch last year.

Console Development is speeding up as this week we must start our "Demo Scene" like PSP development application. At the moment this is the hardest module and with a tight deadline to produce such a open ended project I will have to be careful with my work balance.

If you don't know know about the demo scene it is effectively a group of elite programmers who get together in large groups and challenge themselves to create amazing real time graphic and audio effects often with constraints. Such a constraint might been a low file size or that it must run on old hardware. Here is a video example of a demo scene project.

In Applied Game Development am am the lead programmer of a 9 man development team with the goal of creating a "bladerunner style" futuristic racing game using the Gamebryo Engine. We have 4 programmers and 5 artist to produce possibly the most fantastic game any of us have ever made. On the other hand the use of this industrial engine may prove too much for us. We will see. Here is a video from the makers of the Gamebryo Engine showing off some of the many games that are made using it.

Last but not least is the Mobile Devices module. Going into this semester I really didn't thing too much about it as it but now I am working on it I am beginning to realise what a fantastic language Java is. I am looking forward to having my assignment application running on my phone. The only question now is, what shall I program?

So far this semester has been tough and its only going to get harder.

Games Development Techniques - Project Complete

If you have been following the nlog then you will know that in games development techniques I have been working on a famous five total conversion mod for unreal 2004. Here is a video of the finished product.

I am fairly happy with how the game turned out. Due to the amount of time I had to work on the project I didn’t manage to implement of the gameplay features I wanted to but I guess that is how it is in industry as well. When deadlines must be met features must be dropped.

My favourite thing about the game and that brings most of the games charm is that all the audio in-game is custom made for it. The voice acting within the game was done by my family and some of my sisters friends and they have been eagerly awaiting the final game. The theme tune and in-game music was written and performed by a very good friend of mine, Calvin Hudson. He is a talented musician and his music with-in the game adds atmosphere and provides immersion.

If I were to continue developing the Famous Five game I would add more gameplay and cut down on boring travel time by adding secondary objectives between the main ones.

It took me a large amount of time to get used to the unreal code base and I feel that given a second chance to do this task I would come up with something much better, I am glad that I have had the chance to learn this scripting language. I feel that I have learnt so many languages now that I could easily just pick up any language and start programming with it. For me this whole module was about transferable skills and to learn to appreciate other peoples jobs within a games studio. I live with a first year games artist and the texturing and Maya skills I learnt have meant that I can talk to him about what he is doing and suggest things for his project that he hasn’t explored yet such as bump mapping.

I am glad I did this module because it sets me up for Applied Game Development next semester. The chance to work on a big project with artists and using the amazing Gamebryo engine.

Hiring Networker

I am hiring a networker for a personal project starting in summer 2010. Must have experience with C# and Cisco Packet Tracer. Send CV and cover letter to AJ@ajongamesdev.co.uk with the subject "Jobs".

December is here

And far far far to quickly for my liking. With the hand-in deadline for my course only 2 weeks away tomorrow, the pressure is really on. A few tweaks to my unreal games HUD and some minor game play enhancements today put me 5 cut scenes and 1 game play feature away from completion.

My 3D renderer is coming along nicely but with only 2 weeks to go I feel that I have really run out of times for new features and must turn my attention to optimisation and to making it look nice.

3D renderer as it stands

3D renderer with not so complete but colourful shading