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MikeClarke

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Blog Entries posted by MikeClarke

  1. MikeClarke
    That quote pretty much sum's up 3weeks. As some of you know I'm "studying" Computer Science at the Open University here in the UK. Basically I have course materials & exams but no real teacher and I just do it as and when i'm ready - provided assignments are in on time.
     
    I have my 4th assignment due in next Friday which is a 2,500 word report on the potential uses of biometrics for a fictitious company. I had 4weeks to get this done and I finally bothered to pull the book out this morning, I read about 30pages of the 400 worth of material. To say it's procrastination is easy but in reality I knew it was coming the entire time and I was waiting until I needed sleep. I read those 30pages at 2:30 this afternoon when I was wide awake, at 3:15 I was half asleep on the couch lol
     
    I know enough about the biometrics to write the report tomorrow but I figure I should at the very least review the study materials. The downside is that mean's cancelling my other plans until atleast Saturday.
     
    The downside is I'm wanting to switch my course from the broader Computer Science, to a more Game Dev orientated but the OU doesn't supply it any more (damn them ) so motivation is a killer. I've already told them im taking a year out after this course to see if any new courses open up.
     
    Anyway I'm writing this mostly to vent my frustration since im not wanting to pick that back up again, I can't afford to sleep with 3 kids in the house lol. I have been looking for some good books on game dev so any recommendations are welcome. Anything covering programming, blender, texture art, game concept just post me a link and I'll check em out I want to get a good collection on the go
  2. MikeClarke
    I have a tendency to write random thoughts which appear on facebook or randomly to a friend on skype. So I decided to make use of the blog system here since most of my thoughts are somewhat game related. The blog is called 'Inside the mind of eternal insomniac' which isn't far from the truth, I am an insomniac and have been for a v.long time and even if I wasn't my mind tends to function in overdrive at times and see very odd connections.
     
    So 'Welcome to the rabbit hole', my current thoughts are on three large topics.
     
    A hat of all shapes & sizes, as most indie developers will know any project on the Indie level requires you to handle various roles you wouldn't need to as an AAA developer. You fill every team spot you can. This is something that I must admit concerns me. I have a history with code (web mostly) so that should be my main focus since I've done it for 10years as a career but old fashioned level design is my passion when it comes to Game Dev that I've so far neglected to stick my head in the C++ or LUA arena' I have tinkered with some blender stuff though.
     
    The second thought im tinkering with is Operation Mosquito which is my main project, although slow going whilst I get used to things and learn it's always on my mind. I play CoD Black Ops (Original not 2) at night with family and between almost every map (and often during) my mind will wonder and I'll find myself hunting for lines of sight figuring and calculating the likely hood of a real life use trying to find that "seam" between the game and reality from a gamer perspective. - Strange, yes - Crazy, yet to be confirmed
     
    Finally my thoughts are on a post by Josh, wanting to blur gap between Indie & Modders. I got my game dev start with mods and they were great fun, but regardless of Indie or Mod finding reliable team members is never easy. I can understand why, it's a big commitment and time is a factor - not everyone can walk away from a decent job hell it took me several years to kick myself into it and my job wasn't great lol
     
    If you put your time into an indie or mod project, you need to consider the time factor, for a good rate of turnaround 10-15hrs would seem like a fair amount, obviously more or less depending on task load and availability of other developers assets. That's a part time job in itself, and I think alot of people would rather put that time into a project they want made. The game they want to play, not necessarily someone else's.
     
    I understand and appreciate this, I don't know if anyone out there is reading this but would be good if there were - or if you followed my ramblings this far in. There was a "Community project" for LE2 the zombie game. I would be in full support of a community LE3 project. Something that we provided as a framework to other people.
     
    Incase there is interest in another game, maybe fps or remake of the original LE2 project then count me in as a Level Designer I'm willing to put in the hours mentioned above and more if needed. After all would be a good learning opportunity to learn from other people here and maybe find people to work with down the line.
     
    Until next time, don't leave the rabbit hole, dont feed the shadow, tip the waitress.
  3. MikeClarke
    What do you know, i managed to come up with a random'ish name for this post. It's actually quite appropriate to my day. I was very pleased that the LCP2 is about to get underway and had a quick chat last night with Rick about the subway level.
     
    I put myself out there, I've taken on the role of level designer for that project. Still doing my own project, and I'm open for more work (free with credit - or you could donate me a custom model or somet ) Anyway, the reason "don't touch that, it bites!" is the title of this thread is I had a stupid number of interruptions today.
     
    I loaded up leadwerks at 8am, then had to get my son ready for school and feed the 3kids and boot him out the door so I could focus. 30min later we had a repair guy in for our living room couch and he was in & out for 5hrs! I did what I could during it but he kept needing help so I had to walk away and remind my 3year old to leave the keyboard alone or it'll bite (or I would ). Eventually he was done and I figured I'd focus but nope... time for her to go nursery. Usually time for a few hours peace but my eldest is home-schooled and waiting on new school work to arrive so she was under-foot the entire time.
     
    I made steady progress though, kept up with a few emails and progressed on the draft. Then the kids returned, and oh **** its Tuesday, they all do Street Dancing at the school on a tuesday so that was another joy to setup for. Now its 8pm almost and I just sent Rick over the first draft with info etc. Just ordered a take-out to relax for the evening and im thinking of going on the xbox after that.
     
    No doubt by midnight I'll be back at the pc and adding more to my own project GDD, because I'll be discussing the historical accuracy with my father-in-law over the xbox since he is a WW2 fanatic. He actually found the starting scenario after hearing I nickname all my projects "Project Mosquito" during development he knew of an operation during ww2 that involved Mosquito planes which was v.similar to what I had in mind, so I'm using "Operation Jericho" as a starting point.
     
    Oh that reminds me, I have more work to do for my uni assignment that's due in 3weeks (open uni, comp science - v.boring and quite easy) I'll probably do that assignment during a free hour or two throughout the week but I dun mind putting it off cos it's enough to put me to sleep.
     
    Anyway I will close out saying, if you need a csg level designer for a project let me know even if its small stuff always looking to get my work out there and I dun charge so it'll save you the hassle
  4. MikeClarke

    A week to forget

    By MikeClarke,

    Well that was hell, I figured i'd read the book in a day or two and get the assignment done. Leaving plenty of time to work on my projects....well that'd work out. Basically the book is insanely boring and I only finished reading it last night (whilst falling asleep). Today I sat down to focus on the assignment, but come 9am my wife and eldest were of to town for some holiday shopping, my son was doing his last day of school term and my youngest was home with me.
     
    Took me about an hour or so before I could get my work done but it's done. Now I took a leap, I ordered an Iphone, not an Iphone5 an Iphone4s nothing upfront contract which is quite nice. I haven't had an iphone or ipad before so will mostly be my testing platform.
     
    I don't have an LE3 Ios license, but im going to explore it for a while see what the games are like and see if I think I could do a good job on it. I am not using LE3 for my main project so maybe it'll be my ios toy, i could use it to try and raise funds for my bigger project via small test projects. Who knows!
     
    Any recommended apps, it uses apps right lol. I know im late to this party but I have never had a contract phone before so this is all new to me
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