So here we are in 2012, and it's a new term at Brunel University. This term sees a slight change of focus for the course. Last term the game theory was just that, talk about game-theory debates and terminology and things. It was interesting and useful, but this term is much more my cup of tea as we are doing Socio-cultural studies in games, covering things like militarism, structuralism and gender in games, So far it's been fascinating although I am stuck for what to write on this term, I find it all fascinating, and am having trouble choosing! I did ok in my theory paper I worked on over Christmas, and learnt a whole load too.
We also have a slightly more practical approach in the design classes, with one MMF (multi-media fusion) project being expected per week, which is quite a buzz. I enjoy creating games in it and like the challenge and accesibility it provides for people like me who don't 'speak code'. We have a pitch project deadline fast approaching already and so that's going to consume time once more. Waiting nervously on work from the design assessment of course.
The pressure is on, rightly so, and trying to balance work (as in my 'real' job) with the course (with my intended future job) with having any sort of life at all is quite hard work, not that I mind, it's the challenge I knew I had set myself from the start.
I am also trying to do as much reading as possible and am enjoying Third Person at the moment. My preferred reading is the collections of essays that I am engaging with - I think I handle the topics better in shorter bursts (I also don't own a bookmark, and it's easier to find your place in an short essay!)
It's hard to believe we're already 3 weeks into the term, it really has flown this year. It's almost February already, almost into actively working on the next bit of work, all too soon it will time to work on the dissertation! Gosh.
In other news Preto in Putney is an amazing restaurant!
I've mentioned before that I think the things that people do related to playing games are fascinating and I think this video (which is on the Kotaku site) is fascinating and really rather impressive, not only is is nicely filmed but it features some stunning costumes alot of which will have been 'home made' - truly hugely impressive.
I'm afraid I can't work out how to embed a Vimeo video into a Google blog without creating a war, so in the meantime you'll just have to go there and watch it!
It's worth it though - go take a look!
What it doesn't feature though is this, which is something to amuse before taking that video!
So it is December and the nights are closing in. I think everyone is supposed to be quiet as a mouse and I am putting out mince pies for santa or something.
Instead I am deep into some games!
This month I finished playing Arkham City which was splendid. I say finished, I haven't collected all the Riddler trophies or the challenge maps, but I have completed the main storyline, fought my way through baddies and bosses and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a very empowering game and extremely fluid. Brilliant work there from Rocksteady, already looking forward to DLC / the next one.
Dear Diary. I am a bad person for I have caved. I know I said I wouldn't but I just couldn't help myself. I too am a Skyrim Junkie. Or not actually. It seemed to be all everyone was talking about - one of my friends facebooks had 74 replies to a status about Skyrim. Whenever people talked about 'examples of X / Y / Z type of game' it would be Skyrim that was mentioned. It was it seemed the Mount Olympus of games. Ambrosia of gaming here I come. But I was a bit dissapointed. It's good, the dragons look cool. But it doesn't seem that good. Maybe I'm missing something. It really is just Oblivion but a bit prettier though isn't it? They might have touched up a couple of bits but it really doesn't seem that different. There are some nice features (I like the quest system, the snow looks amazing) but all in all... I think it's rather over-rated. I shall now don my flame-proof suit to protect me from the Skyrim love.
The iPad sees lots and lots of free stuff at Christmas, most of it fairly benile. Bards Tale is quite amusing and a nicely done version and soon I will pick up GTA III as I've heard it's very good. Nothing though has really grabbed me this month.
And then, of course, there's Star Wars: The Old Republic. This deserves and will get it's own post. However it is great. There we go, that's my full academic opinion. 'It's Great'. Really, it is.
Wow, end of the first semester and it went predictably fast. What I really need is a progress bar to keep count I suppose.
It would be hard to sum up everything that's happened so far but it has been great. I have really enjoyed my classes with almost no exceptions which is quite astounding. We've had Critical Analysis and Game Pitches as assessments and over the Christmas 'holidays' have an essay, a games design document and a evaluation to write. On top of that I have more MMF to learn (MMF is the game making program we use on the course).
Along the way I have read a lot of games theory books, some more accessible than others, and been trying to keep hugely up to date (I say hugely, I mean as much as I can!) with all the 'gaming news' - Gamasutra is my regular stop over but I have about 15 sources on an RSS feed which I download and catch up with on the bus. RSS feeds are great (I think I have one above which you could follow me on, which obviously you should!) because it means they send me the news. I use Go Reader on the iPad in combination with Read It Later, which is fantastic for storing stuff for later consumption.
On top of all of this I am trying to read around the subject as much as possible. A lot of people have talked about the need to be a bit of a rennaisance man in this subject - to know as much as possible about as much as possible, which certainly seems to be the case. I have books on project management and structuralism to read next and on my christmas list is Technical Maths for Dummies. I realise how much of a geek that makes me sound. I suppose it is all part of Geekademia (which is a term I am stealing from one of my tutors (although I suppose it might be more common than I realise, it's certainly one I am fond of).
I'm also reading various psychology books, albeit mostly ones written in layman's terms to compliment some of my understanding of the topic I am writing my first 'proper' essay on, which is about the feeling of heroism in games, thus Jung is heavy on my reading list along with some Morphology of the Folk Tale and other such classics! Naturally I am also playing lots of games (I'll post up more what I'm playing in the next few days, because, once more my play-list has moved on a fair amount)
It's quite a challenge this course, I think it's been about 14 years since my last official essay, and so writing and referencing 'all formal like' is quite hard going, but I am enjoying the challenge, and slowly getting to grips with it. I am also finding that I am enjoying the reading a lot more than I thought I might before the course started. The design element is also extremely fulfilling, which I sort of knew it would be but it still deserves an honourable mention!
Conferences, guest speakers, essays, lectures and many many books make up the majority of my life at the moment, but I have to admit that I am rather loving it. Roll on semester 2.
So, in an effort to sort of put my money where my mouth is, and more importantly to please my godson (who is 9) I made him a little game. It IS very simple but it works, and that was what I was aiming for.
I thought I'd post it here mostly to see how to do it! This probably isn't the best way to upload files that can be downloaded but I am still looking for good ways to do that!
So anyway without further ado, you can download it from here
It's called Zac Wars 2 and when you click the link you click Free Download and then have to wait 60 seconds. It's worth mentioning too that it will tell you that the publisher can't be verified. That's because it's me!!
I've since then put it up on a public folder on dropbox which is a much more efficient way of popping it up here of course!
It's worth noting that that will download an .exe file which you can then click to play. It's not virus infested. Well not as far as I know!!
So the course is going well, it's deeply enjoyable, although I wish that I had 17 more days in the week to study everything that I'd like to get my head into! Life continues to be a little manic, I'm trying to get to some conferences when I can as well as the lectures, and am constantly on the look out for more games-y things I can do - if you have any suggestions then I would welcome them!
Lectures range from narrative in games to character design, from project management to how to deal with programmers (I am beginning to feel a bit sorry for them as they seem to get a hard time of it!)
I am reading more than I have for some time as I am trying to devour the essential reading and get in some reading of various texts that people describe as being 'really good read' (so far nobody has suggested any Mills and Boon).
There has been essays and presentations and at the moment the daunting task of designing our own essay title.
Everyone on the course is pretty great, there's been a lot of interesting talk about all sorts of games and general geek-ery. Still no karaoke but I haven't given in yet... It's a slight shame we only get to do one real piece of group work but I guess there's always the opportunity to do more during / later.
We have to learn how to use a game-making program called MMF which is absorbing and very user friendly, I am pottering around making little bits and pieces, and I might try and upload something here at some point (if that's even possible, if not then somewhere similar to here (I have no real idea how to upload a downloadable file to a blog so if there's a simple way then I'd welcome the advice!)
We see a lot of all of our lecturers which is great and they are all very approachable and helpful during times of lack of faith or just with generally helpful advice.
We had a visit from some old students which was both inspiring and practical - all of their advice was absorb as much as you can, make the most of everything and other similar sentiments. It was great to hear from people who were in our position a few years ago and are now, in a very real sense, 'doing it'.
As a list of things I am trying to learn a bit about that are not things on the course I'm learning how to use Microsoft Visio & Project, Maya and a bit about UDK, I am practising my photoshop skills (which are measly) and have learnt how to use Keynote and Presi, although Powerpoint remains a staple favourite. I'll probably practise a bit with some sort of art program at some point although it's never going to be my strong point. It's a lot about being a Renaissance Man it seems, and so anything I can pick up I will value. Suggestions welcome!
I've avoided buying Skyrim, because even though I would love to play it I fear it is just too much of a time sink at the moment. RIP Skyrim, see you some time next year...
Wow, it's already almost the end of November! Hard to know where it all goes, Well - this month it has gone into a few games specifically:
Dead Island - this has had a really mixed reception, which is in part I am sure due to the incredible trailer it released which had little to do with the game itself:
The reviews of the game have been equally mixed but I have loved playing it. I am playing with friends and we are taking our time with it, exploring, trying to do all the quests, and just enjoying it. I like co-operative games, far more than I like shooting my friends in the head (or in my case being shot by my friends in the head). I think it has some really interesting features too - it's a zombie game where it's bright and sunny. The island is in part, beautiful and scenic, there are some really different and quite expansive environments, some of which are quite unpleasant. I think the character choices are interesting (they're all 'tainted' people in different ways, it's also a game that lets you choose from a variety of ethnicities which I think is interesting on a different level as well. Gameplay wise it's interesting - it isn't as frantic as something like Left 4 Dead, but a bit more relaxed. All in all I've really enjoyed it.
I've also been investing many hours into Batman Arkham City from Rocksteady which is absolutely fantastic, it's very similar to the first game but more - more gadgets, more space, more moves and more characters. I'm still not finished with it, because I am playing it in a similar way to Dead Island and really savouring the experience. The combat structure is one to be envious of - it's very fluid and variable, and the way they ramp up the difficulty is clever. There are some challenges that are pretty extreme - I'm struggling with the flight ones - and the voice acting is superb taking as it does the talents of the animated series. This has been the single player game that I have enjoyed the most in a long time.
On the PC I've played a little Dungeon Defenders, which is a co-op tower defence game, which has been quite a giggle although got a bit samey - I liked what they were doing with it though and the plethora of updates might mean that it's something I go back to at some point.
I tried DC online, which is Free To Play and I wanted to be excellent... Sadly the lag was just too much for me (and I suspect everyone) - it made it literally impossible to play with all my damage (being dealt) not kicking in until about 30 seconds after I started attacking, in the meantime my enemies were able to beat me up in 'real time'. Boo. Chat on forums and things indicated that this was only in the starting areas, but it was enough to kill it for me. It's a real shame because I like the franchise but I just couldn't deal with the pain of it.
I moved on to Champions Online for a comparison which is also Free to Play - I haven't really delved into the Free to Play market before and it was an interesting venture. Champions offers a really good character customisation system in terms of costume and power IF you pay, and that was fun. I am enjoying the game play and the way it all works, but not sure if it will hold me for a very long time. It doesn't have that feeling of longevity that it would need for that. Of course also The Old Republic comes out in about a month! What's odd about Champions is that it's based on the old 1980s roleplaying game and it has stuck to that quite religiously, but that makes it feel rather dated in an odd way. There are some interesting mechanics - you have to charge up your energy meter by using a power and then can use a tougher power, which is quite fun for a while, but there's not a plethora of abilities that you can choose from at any one time and so I get a little 'button-sore' after a while. On the other hand it is free...
Naturally I played some more Sims 3 for a night or two!
I'm still playing Tomb Run on the iPhone, but my addiction to i-store games continues. I am enjoying playing a bit of Scribblenaughts - it's a bit easy but it's a lot of fun and there's a lot of ingenuity in that game. I enjoyed making a nuclear bomb the other day and getting an achievement of 'destroyed the world'.
And no, I haven't yet played Skyrim. I will, and I know I will love it, but there's only so many hours in the month and Skyrim would eat them all, so I sorta plan to buy it when I have a bit more time and perhaps when it is discounted on Steam!! I still have quite a few things I haven't yet finished so I am in no rush. Until next time :)
