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!

Wrath of the Lich King

As you may already know i play allot of world of warcraft so i thought i better post my opinion on the newest expansion "Wrath of the Lich King" i feel i can now do a proper review as i have seen almost all of the content. I have healed all the 5-man and 10-man content as a resto shaman and it has been alot of fun. With my current guild "Freex" (http://www.freex-bladefist.com) starting 25-man raids next week i am still enthused to play.

When i first got to Northrend the first thing that struck me was the sudden change in art the art style of the gear and of the environment. The whole thing feels allot grittier (in a good way).
The first complaint i have about the new expansion is that the new gear (of which there are huge amounts) looks exactly the same. You will go from 68-80 with what looks to be exactly the same gear but the stats will get better as you go up. This gets depressing when you are 80 and trying 2 replace your gear with epics and you still have shoulders that look like the level 68's shoulders who is standing next to you.

As i leveled there was a huge amount of quests that involved new game mechanics such as vehciles and a few lame attempts of covering up the standard boar killing quest but all in all it was the funnest 10 levels in the game and at no point did i feel like quiting the game like i did when i wanted to level to 70 before the 20-60 exp boost patch.

Once you reach the end game there is the usually gear jump between what you get at level78-79 and the gear you gather from heroics which leads to groups not wanting you to tank or heal for them till you lie about your gear a few times which can be annoying but is nothing new to warcraft or MMORPGs in general.

Blizzard has tried to make some raids more accessible to casual players which has lead allot of the more hardcore players to complain about the game being too easy.
I was in Naxx today having allot of fun taking down the bosses which i could not do in Burning Crusade as quickly which has made the whole experience allot more enjoyable.

On the whole if you didn't like WoW before you are not going to like it now, but if you got bored of TBC or have stopped playing then WotLK is a really good expansion and i would recommend it to anyone.

Good times.

Update

I've been busy for sometime now doing my course assignments. These few weeks of the course have broke a few people. 20% more of the course has dropped out over the assignments and i hear of and see peoples work that makes me think they will be kicked off the course. Its very hard to workout what John Sear (CGP program leader) whats from us. In my last Ludology lecture he explained the work we must do over Christmas. We must learn to use Microsoft's XNA development kit to be ready for game design next semester. While i have Christmas work on my mind and how i can possibly interact with my family after not having to for so long i must remember to revise!
Revision has been brief because of assignment work, socialising and getting ready for 25 man raids on WoW but i am pretty confident with the material.

My Ludology assignment (remaking Kirby) was good but i feel the level i supplied to show gameplay was a little brief. I will upload the playable game here so you guys can have a go around mid January when i get my mark. This may also help you understand what level of work you must do for grades.

My Computer Architecture assignment took me a long time because i'm not very good at writing but i got through it and submitted a piece of work that i felt very happy with. I'll publish it as a post once i've got my mark back for it.
I have an exam for Architecture today and on wednesday i have to pitch my game of Kirby to my tutors as they pretend to be publisher for 40% of my ludology mark.

My game of Boggle for Software Development I is intresting. I have aced part1 and 2 and found them very easy but i have struggled on part 3. It is because i need to revise for other subjects that i have decided to call it quits on it and hand it in the way it is. My hope is that it is enough to get a B. Ill post a clean bug free version of part 2 Boggle some around mid-January.

On World of Warcraft i have been farming heroics with my flat mate and we have successfully applied to a Naxx 25man guild so i will be in Naxx 25man by Thursday. Should be on farm by the time i get ready to start lectures again after Christmas.

My Plan is to get a nice XNA game (hopefully in 3D) working some time after Christmas. I will post my progress on this blog and i will release my program as open source and let you have a look at the code and play around with it if you wish.
Once i had a good clone game running in XNA ill start work on original game mechaincs for a game that i plan to release on Xbox Live Arcade sometime in the summer.

Sorry i haven't been able to explain everything in much detail. Once this week ends and i have some time to clear my head at home i will post some more stuff in more detail and i will explain my work as i post it for download in January.

In other news i saw the film "The Day The Earth Stood Still" with the writer of Screen Suck blog so check his review out at http://geekshed.blogspot.com .

Check back soon!

Wrath of the lich king is here!

Wrath of the lich king is here!
This is my room right now.




Heres my box



My flat mate Dan with his collectors edition.
The queue at the midnight release.


The queue at the midnight release.
The queue at the midnight release.


I will review the game later but for the moment im busy playing!

Review: World Of Goo By 2D Boy

Well, being on a games programming course has changed my views somewhat of what makes a game good or bad. This review is written from the view of someone who does not want triple A titles like World of Warcraft to take over the gaming world (not that i don't enjoy playing WoW as u will most probably realise on the 13th of November as i go hyper over the release of wrath of the lich king).

World Of Goo was developed by "2D Boy" a company that consists of two guys. Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler make up the dream team. These guys have done an awesome job. This is on of the best games i have played in a long time and trust me i play allot of games!

Check them out at http://2dboy.com

The game basically consists of building structures out of "goo", a sort of cross between a creature and a flexible yet sturdy building material, to reach the goal which is a pipe that will suck up any goo that remains unused. The only game i can think of to compare this game to is the classic game Lemmings but with its crazy physics engine and the range of activities and puzzles in the game i believe it is far more than just a clone of an existing game like most modern titles seem to be.
The excellent cartoon graphics and the cleanness of the interface and interaction with the world make for an enjoyable gameplay experience. I have enjoyed every second i have been playing it and would highly recommend it to anyone.

I give this game 9/10 because it is so good. The only reason i would not give it 10 out of 10 is that it took me about 6 hours to complete and although there are elements within the game to keep you playing on after you have completed the story i did not feel compelled to play them. I will, on the other hand, pick this game up in about a years time and have fun playing the missions through again. I am sure of it.

World of Goo Trailer 2 Director's Cut
Uploaded by 2dboy

Ludology Assignment time!

So here we are on the 6th week of the course and my ludology assignment has has been set.
The assignment is cut into two sections. The first section is the "prototype" part of the assignment in which we must make a prototype remake of an old school game round the 8 bit or 16 bit era. This counts for 50% of the mark. The other 50% of the mark is based on the "pitch" section of the assignment. The is pitch is a "Dragons Den" style talk to the lectures as if they were publishers that you wanted to get to publish your game.
Games that are being remade by my class mates include Super Metriod, Megaman and Pacman.
I choose to remake the NES classic "Kirby's Adventure" since its such an awesome game.

Here is a screenshot of the original game.

My aim is to recreate it to the extent where the game feels the same to play and has all the features and retains the originals charm and to make the game as fun to play as humanly possible.
This is my first attempt in Photoshop of the art that i will use in my game.

I am currently busy at work creating character animations and all sorts of stuff that should be left to an artist. Eventually i will have all my art assets ready for use and i can concentrate on the programming.

While i do this assignment i must remember also that my Computer Architecture assignment must also be completed. A 1500 word report on the development of a technology of our choice over the last 30 years. I will post more about this once i have had more time to think about what i might do.

For now i must get on with my work. I'll post soon.

The Course

In this post I'm gonna run you through the course i am on. I realise that i should have started this blog a few weeks ago but in all honesty i have been out partying... I will fill you in on what i have been up to on my course from when i started till now in some later posts.

As i have said before a BSc (Hons) Computer Games Programming degree at Derby University. The course consists of 3 years at uni with a compulsory year out in industry between the 2nd and 3rd year. The modules you do each sumester run something like this.

I am sure that these modules hold many amazingly interesting and exciting things but for the moment i am only qualified to explain what the first semesters modules involve.

Ludology
Ludology literally means the study (ology) of games (Ludo being the Latin word of games). In this module we look at a wide range of subject with-in games, including information about the games industry, where it is going and where the money is. We learn about games as an art form, the indie games movement and i am such that I will learn much more in the weeks to come.

Software Development I
Software Development I is a module that is done by most of the school of computing. This module consists of learning to program in C# from the ground up. The idea of this module is that you need no prior knowledge of programming at the start in order to pick up programming in C# and become a programmer. That is not to say that prior knowledge does not help you in this module. I studied A level Computing at Brockenhurst Sixform College where i learnt to program in Visual Basic.NET. This has helped me in this module allot and i am currently finding the work very easy although still interesting.


Computer Architecture
Like Software Development I, Computer Architecture is a module that is done by most of the school of computing students. This module is all about the hardware of your computer from the perspective of a software engineer. Once again studying A Level Computing at Brockenhurst Six form College has helped me hugely in this module. I have already studied allot of the stuff this module covers, including number systems, microprocessors, and, Compilers, interpreters and virtual machines.


Basic Maths Technique
This module did worry me when i saw it at first but in all honest if you have any knowledge of basic calculus then this module is a breeze. If you don't know about calculus then all is not lost because the module leader does clam that you should have to know no more than GCSE mathematics to get into this module and learn from it. I on the other hand have been watching people struggle with the maths, these are the people who have not done maths at A Level. If you are dedicated enough and spend enough time at maths clinics and working through the tutorial work then it is possible to do well in this module though, do not be scared.

The Computing Environment
The Computing Environment is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Basically its a module with one semesters work spread over two semesters with lectures running once a fortnight for the whole year. The module itself in general to the school of computing and almost everyone has to do it. The good news however is that if you are on the CGP (computer games programming) then your tutorials will be lead by one of the games lecturers and they try their best to make the stuff in the general lecture relate to games. For instance studying research papers on AI programming in games rather than studying a paper on router technology that networking students may have to study. Apart from that i cant tell you much more other than that so far we have read papers and discussed the referencing systems in them learnt about the Harvard system of referencing. Luckly for me i studied this system of referencing in A Level Archeaology.


I will update you one work that i get for these modules and maybe i will be able to tell u exactly what you do in computing environment soon.

The start of all things blog like.

Hi, this is the start of my blog.

Ill start by telling you what is going to be include in this blog, why I'm going to bother polluting the web with my waffle and who i am.
I am AJ, full name Andrew Jones, i am currently at student at Derby University (England). The course i am studying is BSc (Hons) Computer Games Programming (http://www.derby.ac.uk/games). One of the most important things to me is to become a games programmer.
I'm not going to pretend that i am a good writer and i am dyslexic and so i apologise for the bad writing, grammer and spelling (although i do have a spellchecker here).
This blog is basicly going to contain some ramblings about:

• What i am doing on my course.
• Anything relvant to my course.
  
• Anything i am intresting in thats happening in the games industry.
• And basicly reviews of games and gadgets i may buy.

The reason i think this is worth blogging about is that people who want to learn how to program games and people intrested in the games industry may find my blog informative and find it relivant to thier intrests.

I hope this will intrest and entertain you.

¬
AJ