Gamecraft 2013

Before I start talking about the two days and what happened I am going to give you a quick introduction to the whole thing...

What is Gamecraft 2013?

Gamecraft is an event that was held in Derry/Londonderry where game developers came from all over to spend 24 hours making a game based on a theme. The event started at 19:00 on Friday 13th September til 19:00 on Saturday 14th September 2013. Then the judging would begin on the games and awards would be awarded for creative and great games. The Theme would be announced at 19:00 on Friday.

The Event

I arrived at gamecraft at about 7pm, with my bag full of energy drinks and sugary foods I signed in and found my team. Our team was Troll inc, probably because we all came from troll inc, our team was comprised of 6 people, 5 of which currently work for troll inc and one which used to work for the company and came for the event. Our first problem was to find power for 3 mac minis and 3 macbooks. So we had to have a last minute run to a shop to get extension leads to create an unstable fire hazard under our desk. 

The theme was announced shortly after 7pm and the theme was;

"Reality becomes a prison to those who can't escape it"

So the 6 of us huddled around and started throwing ideas down onto the table for what we could make to fit the theme, admittedly some were not the best, but we were struggling with the theme for a while. We eventually figured out a game idea, but will get to that later.

The 24 hours were a long struggle to get through the night of the 6 that started only 2 stayed through the night to make the game. The night was a cross of huge changes and developments to our game, struggling to stay awake and fighting the pain of sitting down too long. As I walked around the room all you could see was any sofa long enough for a person to lie on would have a person struggling to sleep. I was also one of those struggling to sleep at about 5am.

After half an hour sleep, the sun finally rose again and some of our team returned, so we looked at what we had left to do and worked our way through the work. We even had a playable game we were happy with 3 hours before the end. So we cleaned it up and made it play smoothly.

We have a game!

Our game is is about our character who is in a mental hospital  who is living in a grim world, and he does not see a simpler way out of the his dull and dreary reality. The player needs to find ways to inflict damage on himself as these lighten up his world. So your objective is to escape your world and find a happier place, and the only way the character can think of doing this is by killing himself

The game was made in unity using C# Scripting and could be played with both a gamepad and with the keyboard.

The Judging Begins

After a long 24 hours and wanting a rest, we finally get one, we get to show our games off and play everyone else's. There were some great games out there and was impressed by some of the new stuff coming from the Wii U DevKit. There is a full list of the games made here

We did manage to get an award for our game and we were given a certificate and a gift code for the adventures of shuggy.

The Experience

The experience as a whole was really good, the group of people and the sponsors were all really friendly and happy to talk. The night of fighting sleep deprivation is an experience I don't want to repeat too often, but is one that I enjoyed. Living off of free food, energy drinks and coffee and then fighting going mad through the 24 hours was a wonderful experience and spending it with other like minded people made it even better. Being able to create a playable and now award winning game in 24 hours is a great feeling and one I would love to repeat. 

It was great to see Nintendo and Riot Games at gamecraft and speak to them, they were really friendly and welcoming even at the early hours of the morning, I really don't know how they stayed that happy and upbeat throughout the whole event. Both Nintendo and Riot games also gave away plenty of free stuff and that is always a good thing. 

You can play the game on this link

http://troll-inc.com/Games/EscapeHarmony.html

Frozen Fishy out.

Working at Troll Inc

I have been working at Troll inc now for 4 Weeks, so far its been really fun and enjoyable. my job title is as a Junior Programmer within the company and have been working mainly with the Unity3D engine. Over the last few weeks I have been testing, removing bugs and improving gameplay of a game to be released early next year. Its only a small project, but I have learnt so much already. I was thrown in the deep end from the beginning, but from then it has been an upward struggle and now I feel more comfortable and inspired than ever to start working independently and on my final year project...

I have a few final year project ideas (which I will not write about here, unless I dismiss them)

Beta Testers

Troll inc have just started accepting emails for people to be in a beta testing group, and I would be grateful if you could sign up and help us make the game great. The game is in an early stage at the moment, and with the interest and views of other people, we can make the game great.

Terramentals Beta - Troll Inc

Frozen Fishy out

Whats Been Happening

Its been a long time since I created a new post for this blog, so i thought i would give a quick update what has been happening. I finished my 2nd year at uni, and am now working on my placement at a games company called Troll inc as a junior programmer ( http://www.troll-inc.com/ ). I am into my third week of working for them and have been learning so much in such a short time.

I finally have stable internet in a house, I have been living in a house for 2 months waiting for my internet from virgin media, but was worth the wait, now I get a good 45MB/s, so can't complain too much about that.

My driving setup is taking shape, I have got a force feedback wheel and plenty of games that it supports, new ones and old.

I have seen the trailer for GTA V and the game looks amazing, will definitely be a release day purchase for me and will be many hours of gameplay in single player and online.

So now all my house sporting out is settled, I can sit back some more and relax, catch up with some games that I missed and get some serious work done

Frozen Fishy out.

Just a quick Update

Here is a quick update about my uni work up to this point, ask questions if you want to...

I am now halfway through my second semester of my second year at University, still on the hunt for placement. I did very well in my semester 1 modules, achieving an average of 83% over 4 modules.

Currently I am undergoing a project to create a short game prototype that could develop into an app for Android/iOS. The project will be complete in 8 weeks time and we will have a playable demo. My other modules are games graphics using DirectX 3D to create simple graphic demos and to understand the basics of drawing multiple vertices and an introduction to light graphics. My last module this semester is in algorithms, to help me get a further understanding of algorithms and data structures and how they can be used efficiently.

Frozen Fishy out.

Why Frozen Fishy?

I have not put a new post on this blog for a while now, so I thought I would return with a topic that a lot of people seem to want to know. I am warning you now that the story behind the name is not the most impressive.

You may have noticed that I end every post with Frozen Fishy out. And you may be wondering why, the simple reason is that, despite my name being on show clearly to all, my online name is Frozen Fishy in most cases. It is on Xbox LIVE, PSN and Steam, and a few other online games. The story behind the name itself is almost non existent.

I remember a time when people were told to never give away details online, and so for this reason I created a name that had no resemblance to me whatsoever, but one I liked, also i have never been a fan of numbers in the name as a way of leet speak, so would have to think of an original name that was available, and names that start with 'xX' in my opinion just look stupid.

So instead of going down the road of a hardcore gamer name like 'Dominator', I went for a casual name, one which wouldn't give off a bad idea to people I am playing with. So we chose to do animals, I remember trying a polar bear combination, then that developed to polar walrus, and then polar fishy. I thought the name  polar fishy was fun, so that one stuck for a while. But due to problems with internet connection another account was made for me, the name for this one was Frozen Fishy, very similar but a bit more fun. So since 5 years ago, when I created my first Xbox LIVE account I have been known by Frozen Fishy in most cases

Frozen Fishy out.

Physical or Digital games

Many people have different ideas about whether we will only have digital games in the future, with the ability to stream games online and no longer the need to leave the house or order online and wait to play the game. The only thing limiting how long to wait for you to play after purchase is your download speed, digital seems to be the way forward for a lot of people.

Although, there will always be the nostalgia and memories of receiving a box, with a manual and a physical disc. And the collection of games that you gather over time, filling shelves, boxes and more shelves with games.  For me, just seeing a list of the games that I own is not good enough, there will be no sense of how much and how vast the collection is.

A lot of high street stores are closing down as a result of new ways to get games, but this is not just because people are downloading games on their consoles or PCs, but because of online retailers, that means that anyone can order a game/product in the comfort of their own home and wait for it to come to them. This is all good, although, you do not have the same experience of walking through the shop at new releases and looking at the back of the boxes, testing the game on show and the whole experience of buying in store.

I am all for digital downloads, but I don’t want to see a world with only digital downloads available, as with the music industry at the moment, with iTunes taking a lot of the sales for artists, there is still music being produced on CD for people who prefer their music in this form.

Frozen Fishy out.

Favourite Device for playing Games

There are many different devices for playing games; Consoles, computers, handheld consoles and smartphones are the big players in the field. I have owned a few of each of these and have played games on many. My history of consoles dates back to the Playstation 1, whilst also playing on a SNES at a friend's house as a child, for PCs, I have always had one in the house and am now currently using a laptop for day-to-day use and gaming with friends while at uni. My earliest memories of games is that of the handheld nature with the original Game Boy, handheld always has a place in the gaming industry, as you can carry your game with you and does not cost a great deal. My least experienced field is the mobile phone games, despite spending many hours on various phones playing Doodle Jump and various other apps, most of these have been on the ever popular iPhone, so I lack experience with other mobile phones.

So, for my lack of experience and game time on a phone, I am going to rule that one out as not MY favourite device for playing games.

I have owned many handheld games consoles in my life, much of which still work, proving the quality of the hardware, and have spent many hours staring at the tiny screens, but with a handheld device you are not as immersed in the gaming experience. Even though the devices are amazing in their own way and have come a long way. They do not compare to PC and console gaming.

Based on my previous post I am going to skip ahead and decide which of the many device in the remaining field...

I will take into account the consoles I loved both past and present, mainly looking at N64, Nintendo Gamecube, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Firstly I am going to rule out Nintendo Wii, despite it being a great console, it is the one that is collecting a vast amount of dust at the moment, the novelty wears off and is difficult to play a serious game or one by yourself on the Wii.
Secondly, Gamecube, great console, great games but two come to mind, Mario Kart double dash and Super Smash Bros Melee. These two are great games but that doesn't make it my favourite console by a long mile.
Lets speed this up, i'm going to rule out PlayStation 3 for my lack of good gaming experiences compared to other consoles the N64 for only having a select few good games, 007 Goldeneye, Super Smash bros and Pokémon Stadium.

So we have Xbox 360 and Playstation 2. This choice for me is relatively easy, both these consoles you can have a great time with due to great game releases and a great console.
But I am going to pick Playstation 2, solely for the amount of good memories I had growing up playing on this console. Favourite game on this console was Time Splitters 2/Future Perfect (even getting insomniac award for 23 hours spent playing non stop) and Star Wars Battlefront 1/2
There were many great and ground breaking releases for the Playstation 2, which is why it is my favourite console for playing games.

Frozen Fishy out.