Review of the first semester.

Well, the semester officially ends on the 19th (tomorrow) but since i have not more lectures and all my work is in i feel it is a good time to review the semester while it is still fresh in my mind.

All in all i have enjoyed my first semester of university allot. Allot of this enjoyment has come from being independent of my family for the first time and being able to explore and new place and make new friends.
Derby is a nice city and the night life is good even if its not the biggest night out you'll ever have. Mosh is my personal favorite nightclub because of the music the DJs play and the price of drinks!
At this point you may be thinking, what has this stuff got to do with games programming?
Well my answer to that is not allot, but i do on the other hand believe that stuff like this does have an effect on your course mainly your happiness and stress levels so its a still a very important thing to discus about the course and where it is situated.

As far as the lectures and tutorials themselves go i have found almost all of them both interesting and relevant. The only exception to this has been the "Computing Environment" module. This module seems to be made up of repetitive lectures about referencing and plagiarism and work that makes you practice stuff that would have been useful before embarking on the Computer Architecture assignment but now seems like too little too late.

My favorite modules have been Ludology and Software Development I.
In the Ludology i have found learning more about the games industry very interesting and this module has helped me broaden what i think of when someone says the word "game" to me.
In Software Development I it has been an easy journey for me because of my previous course in Computing that i did at A level. This has helped me immensely to complete this module without any issues. For people without programming experience previously this has been the hardest module but also the most rewarding. It is important also to remember that although this semester this is the only programming module, next semester there is three.

Just because the first semester is over doesn't mean the work stops of course. We have been set 120 hours of work to do over the Christmas break. I am looking forward to doing this work over Christmas as it involves learning how to use XNA, Microsoft's game development software. I will posting stuff i make using XNA on this blog to show you how its coming along.

Here are some photos of memorable moment in the first semester.

Click the image to see the whole photo.


This is a lecture theatre, not your bedroom.....Good times in a computing environment a lecture.



A picture of my flat mate Dan in his oh so tidy room, showing off some tasty two week old meatballs.

A picture of me just resting my eyes....Thanks to Steve C for this picture....

I picture of some of my games programming mates and my brother (far left) as zombies at Gamecity 3 in Nottingham.

Me (back to the camera) and my mates Darren (on right looking right) and Dan (on right looking left) at Castleton in the peak district for a walk to get to know each other in freshers week. Good times.

Joe, Dan and Me (left to right) in Derby, Freshers Week.


Harj (left) and Jon (right) my flat mates playing a drinking game. More good times!


Dan, Darren, Me and Harj (left to right) in the SU bar.


Thank you for reading my post and taking a look a the photos, check back for more posts soon!