XNA

Ive been playing round with XNA and i have so far come up with this. I thought you might like to see it. The physics was the only issue i had but it did take me a while to get rid of any calculation bugs.

I should point out that all art work is the handywork of one "Matt Pickering".

To control the white ball you will need a 360 controller then uset the A button and the analog stick.

Here is a download link for the tech demo (If the link is broken then please email me or leave a comment)

G1 Review

The G1 is the new smart phone from T-Mobile and I am lucky enough to own one!
So i thought i would tell you guys my opinion of the device.
Since there is really two parts to this phone i will split my review into two different sections and put a small comparison with the iPhone at the bottom. The hardware section (the actual phone)



The phone has a 8.1 cm TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive HVGA screen with 480 X 320 pixel resolution which looks awesome and is very nice to look at both in the sun and at night. The touch sensitivity is very, very nice. As u drag icons and scroll through menus or around websites it feels very responsive and smooth.
The G1 has a full QWERTY keyboard that sides out from the back with great ease. I like the keyboard and the method by which u can get to the symbols just like the keyboard on your computer (i prefer this to the iPhones touch keyboard).
The camera is pretty good, not the best that you can get on a phone I am sure but it is good enough for me. The only downside to it really is that you cannot capture video on it.
The phone stores all your files on a micro SD card (i got a 8GB free with the free) which is by far enough for me. The only way you will use more than this is if you use it as your main mp3 player. If you are going to then you can lay your hands on a bigger micro SD fairly cheaply.
The battery is OK but if you use the phone a for about 12 hours straight like i did the day i got it then it will need charging once a day for its 3 hour charge period.
Other nice things about the phone are the Accelerometer, for senseing movement and which way up the phone is (nice for games developers i think *Day dreams about possible game mechanics*), the digital compass and the GPS. The GPS is awesome. Using your GPS and digital compass and google maps you can find any location and get directions to it. I have already used this to find a pizza place, phone my order ahead (part of the google maps service) and walk there to pick up my pizza. Very, very nice. The GPS has also been used for some game apps on the phone which is an awesome idea but so far all of them require alot of people with G1s in your locale to play (which will of course only happen in cities and only if your lucky) so i think these ideas need to be worked on a little more.
The last hardware item i want to talk about is the audio. The speak is quite loud and can be used to listen to music say when you want to show a track to your friend but is a little tinny for use most of the time. This leads me to the only issue i have with the G1 hardware. That is, the headphones. The headphones plug into the usb jack at the bottom of the phone so if you can say good bye to your skull candy headphones. The headphones provided are not bad and feature a good microphone and call answering button so its not too bad but i would like the option of what headphones to use.

This leads me the the second part of my review. The software.



The G1 runs the Android operating system. Android is an open source operating system developed by Google, it is based on the Linux kernel. The desktop environment is very nice and the software works seamlessly with the hardware.
Android features the "Android Market". A application where you can download applications for the operating system. There are hundreds and hundreds of apps ranging from Games to Tools that enhance even the phones simplest features such as texting. The Android market is full of apps that you will find useful. The great thing about this mobile is that instead of complaining about a thing that's not available on the phone you have the source code for the operating system and full access to all the hardware so just go ahead and program it into your phone (you program G1 apps in Java). Why not make it downloadable yourself on Android market so the rest of the G1 owners can benefit from your awesome idea, and all for free.
I believe you can charge for downloads of your application although i have not yet seen one program you must pay for to download (nice community).
The pre-installed applications include Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Talk, and the YouTube video player, all of which is use frequently.

For me, the nicest thing about this phone is that when i receive a e-mail or a IM my phone plays a tone just like when i get a text message. The reason i love this so much is that if my message is not that urgent then why waste a text message on it? I'll just email the person from my automatically synced with my google account contacts list and why they reply i will know as soon as it happens. If i want to talk people who are at their computer (most of the people i know, sad but true) then i will drop them a IM with google talk (or if u use AIM, IRC or MSN there are apps on the market for you) and talk to them from where ever i am. This is also true of other people with G1s (like my flat mate Harj) who I can constantly talk to for free.

This is the best phone i have ever owned, no doubt about it and for my contract of £30 a month and free phone (£25 is the cheapest option if you pay for the phone) it is well worth it.

Now for my promised section comparing it with the iPhone. I have played with he iPhone a fair amount and held them side by side and i can tell you this. If you are a fashionable idiot who is willing to pay over the top prices for an item that does less but has a slightly sleeker body then get the iPhone then do the rest of us a favour and stop showing it off. The G1 is far far cheaper and for a device with so many more possibilities is well worth buying over the iPhone. On the other hand there will always be people who wear tight jeans, scarfs, gel their hair up and listen to Blocparty who are always willing to pay huge money for a piece of electronics with a apple on it.

Brainpipe

While doings some revision before my Ludology exam, which is by the way 2 hours after this is going to be posted (good time to start blogging), i came across this indie game.
The first thing that attracted me to this game was the art work and how trippy it looked. So i downloaded the demo and gave it ago.




I am going to be honest. This game plays just like a missile guiding that you might find on any flash game portal but at the same time it looks and feels so much better.

"BRAINPIPE is a unique gaming experience. The ultimate objective is to transcend humanity." ~ Brainpipe Website

As this quote would suggest the game was made with so deep meaning in mind or on the other hand the whole game team were all in a strangely lit room taking acid. I vote the latter.

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!