Digital Dave

Granted it’s old (7 Months), but I just came across this. Portal bots, in all their glory. Check it out for your daily dose of laughter.

So IGDA sent out their little newsletter this morning and in it was information about the IGDA Party. I’ve been reading about it from other sites, but I wasn’t sure if they distributed invites for it or not. Nope, they don’t. In fact, you don’t even need to be going to the GDC to attend. You just need to be a member and over the age of 21.

An edit, due to a bit of lackadaisical rushing for a morning blog post… Thanks Andrew.

I also wanted to mention that Jill Duffy and the crew at gamecareerguide.com posted a good article for the n00bs that are heading into the GDC. You can view it here.

I’ve been spending my off time catching up on some math topics needed for this graphics course that I am taking.   There isn’t a lot of math required for Computer Information Systems students.  I have an Analytical Geometry and Calculus I course finished, and another upper level course that reviews an array of math topics.  That is all that is required for IS majors.  So that means that I get to spend my off time learning what I need to know, when I need to know it, or just for fun.  So these past few weeks I’ve been covering some trig, linear algebra and some vector algebra.  I’ve never really messed with vectors and I found them to be pretty interesting.  It’ll be nice to apply some of this to the graphics course.

I’ve also started to run through several OpenGL tutorials at neon helium, and a few tutorials for Orge3D.

Speaking of this graphics course.  Supposedly this is an advanced course for an undergrad.  That said, it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.  There is a ton of material that we’ll be covering.  From basic display systems (clipping, view normalization, 3d graphics data structures, shading and illumination) to fundamental topics in realistic rendering (ray tracing, radiosity, texture and bump mapping, and splines and cubic curves).

I’m pretty excited for the course, but it’ll definitely be a huge load of work.

In addition to my independent project course, of which, I’ll be making a game for.

I FINALLY got a game ‘genre’ down so I can start building some systems.  My concept changed a few times, especially in light of this graphics course.  I will start coding on this game tomorrow.  I’m already behind, and kicking myself.

I’m getting pretty anxious for my first trip to the GDC, and back to California, in general.   I’ve scanned all of the events that they have listed on the site, so far, and I’ve found several programming and design topics that I will be hitting up.

I’m also looking for some gatherings to attend in the evenings.  I’ve been invited to a gathering that the GameCareerGuide.com is hosting Thursday, and apparently there is a ‘Suite Night’ that a bunch of students attend after it that I will be snooping around at.  If you’ve made your way here through myGDC, feel free to contact me (aim: aim marine || msn/email: dlmcgraw at ksu doht com) if you have anything that I don’t know that is open to the public.

So, I took an extended break away from the blog and away from, almost, everything else.  I decided to spend some time playing games while I have that luxury during school breaks.  During the semester, I rarely play anything.  This was a good time to relax and fiddle around.

One game that I played, and that I highly recommend is called ‘Peggle.’   It is a really simple game.  Pretty darn good design.  It will have you laughing for the first couple of boards.  The presentation had me rolling.  I showed it to Megan, and she was laughing pretty hard, too.  The game actually reminded me of Plinko from the Price is Right, which is still my favorite game on that show.  The objective of Peggle is to fire your ball into a maze of blue, red, pink, and green pegs.  Once all of the red pegs have been hit, then that level is complete.  Also, any peg that you hit is removed after each turn.  There are really interesting power ups for each stage that adds some flare to the game.  My favorite is the dragon ball. >;oD

But, yeah… Go try the trial.

So, my schedule for this semester is finalized.  I have the hardest time coming up with a legit schedule.  I hate taking simplistic classes for an easy A, and I don’t like classes that will not benefit me in any way. I attend classes with an open mind, and I am willing to learn about anything, which I couldn’t say while I was growing up.  I took education for granted growing up in a family where graduating high school was a rarity in itself.  I’ll write more about this later.

• General Psychology
• Intro to Operation Management
• Enterprise Information Systems (Database Class. PHP, MySQL, MS Access, Web Design)
• Interactive Computer Graphics (OpenGL)
• IS Project

Snowball Fight has been thrown to the side.  I had fun, and the project was something decent to introduce me to network coding, but I just don’t have the time (or desire at this time) to direct toward it.  The game is nearly playable 1 vs. 1.  My hopes is to get that working, and call it good.  I have a semester game project starting, and that will get my full attention…….

If I could decide what, exactly, I want to do. ;|

I must have thought about 50 different things through the break TRYING to come up with a semester project that is A) Not out of reach, and B) Something fun.  I keep running around in circles, thinking that I should just ‘clone’ something that is out there.  Or remix it somehow.  I have one unique idea that would be feasible, but it needs a lot more thought put into it.

I’ve thought about doing a 3D Bomberman that would get me introduced to the world of 3D.  In addition, I also thought about doing a 2D clone type game of Harvest Moon (a favorite of mine).  I also thought about taking a board game, and developing a computer game based off of it –  Khet, Ticket to Ride.  The interesting aspect of porting a board game is that I could code a networked portion of the game.  That is purely for fun.  These games would definitely be better implemented online and distributed through something like Facebook.  That is, if you could avoid getting sued (see: scrabulous)…  I also thought about doing a casual game, like Bejeweled.

GDC is a little more than 4 weeks away! Woofa, time is flying. O_O! *bites nails*

I did find somebody to stay with.  So that should help a lot on the finance side of things.

I’ve selected the business card that I will be distributing, and it’s off to the printing presses now.  I’m getting 250 cards, which will be way more than enough, but I don’t need to risk NOT having any since I’ll be there the entire week. Thanks Darius, and all the other individuals whom gave me feedback on my card designs.

How about the Stock Market? Cup of Recession, anyone?

*equips -The Ak’na Plate of Recession- armor* Hope I can heal myself from this one.  Good luck, if you are in the market.  The market is already down 9%, and it’s only been 17 days… ;|

I couldn’t forget to blog about the wedding.  We have our location booked, and our photographer booked.  We have set the date of July 25th, 2009.  Yes… That’s right… 18 months from now.  We have this ball rolling already.  That does mean that I might be moving to California alone while she gets everything ready.  Oh well, at least I’ll be able to give full attention to my new job.

Booked my flight out to San Francisco today.  After taxes and fees, the darn thing ended up at $200.  Not bad at all, considering the state of the economy these days.

I’ll be heading to SF the 16th.  Get there in the afternoon, snoop around for the rest of the day and continue my snoop on Sunday.  GDC it up M-F, and fly out of San Jose early morning Saturday.   Can’t wait.

Now to find a place to sleep and shower…

Step 5 of 5: Registration Confirmation
You are now registered for Game Developers Conference 2008 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, CA on February 18-22, 2008.

I’ll be attending the entire conference, experiencing everything it has to offer. I figured, heck, why not? Well, I couldn’t find any excuse not to, so here I come!

For Monday and Tuesday I thought it would be really fun/interesting to attend the Independent Games Summit. Lots of good stuff to experience. The developers of Aquaria will be speaking! *drools* I’m actually using their project for inspiration for a new, unannounced, project that I’ll be starting for an independent study project next semester.

Edit: Note to self… Fix top banner under EGA – 2001 – 2005, when I get home… Looks like I had Iraq on the mind when I put 2003. ;\

I’m pretty dead set on heading out to California next February for the  annual Game Developers Conference, which is in San Francisco this year.  I’ve got to say that I’m pretty excited about it. I was stationed in southern California, but I’ve always wanted to check out the Silicon Valley/Bay area since I always thought I would enjoy living up there a lot more than the southern part. I’m not incredibly picky on where I live, though California has the best opportunities for development, other than Texas, so it has to be somewhere in that state.

I had a chance to meet with somebody here on campus that has gone to the previous two GDC and he had some great things to say about it.  He didn’t really have anything great to say about the food… But luckily I don’t eat a lot, so that shouldn’t matter.  He said there are plenty of carbonated beverages, and that is alllllll I need right there!

I’m currently in the process of determining if I want to spend an entire week there, or just three days.  He did mention that the final few days are absolutely chaotic, as that is when most people tend to show up.  Though, he did mention that being there for the first couple of days awarded a great opportunity to network in a relatively calm environment.  He never did any of the tutorials, so he couldn’t tell me about that.  I’d be interested to hear about them, but from what I’ve seen, a lot of them look way above my head.  It still may be a great experience though.

He mentioned that they have a week long XNA development contest where teams gather to develop a game in the week.  That really sounds fun.  I don’t know much about XNA, but I might be able to school up on it over the holiday break.  If all else, at least I can watch how other people code, which would be interesting.

He also noted to bring lots of business cards and some resumes.  Well, I already have a fellow gamedev.net contributer working on a business card for me, and my resume has been pretty polished since I started college.  I’ll be sure to bring that stuff just in case somebody finds me interesting enough.   I really want an internship next summer, so this is a prime opportunity to get a leg up on that process.  Though, I’ll probably start sending out resumes a lot earlier than Feb.

In an effort to avoid an extremely large hotel bill, I’m going to try to find a cheap way to live out there.  First, I’m scouring the website couchsurfing.com.  Essentially, this is where people offer their couch to you for those that travel.   This could be a good thing in many ways.  Most of all, the networking (if I can find a local game developer) opportunity.  Local developer.  Knows the area, and likely knows more people… Yeah, sounds like a great idea.  What turned me onto this website is that I have a friend that has couch surfed, and has hosted her couch to others.  She said it was great.

Other than that, If I can’t find somebody to stay with, i’ll turn to my bootcamp days and sleep in a Hostel.

Anyway, I plan to document my adventure to the GDC.  I’m a picture whore, so expect a lot of pictures.

If you’ve got anything to add, in regard to the GDC, please feel free to comment.

So, I whipped together a project for my networking class today.  All we were required to do was to create a SMTP client that interacts with the mail server on the campus.  I tossed this together in about 30 minutes after I figured out that I couldn’t access the mail server on campus, while I’m NOT on campus.  Boo!

So I am starting to think heavily about the Game Industry lately. Mainly because the year 2008 is a critical year of my growth as a developer. I’ll graduate college in December (2008), and I’ll start my career in January (2009). But, which direction do I REALLY want to go? Do I want to go straight into Game Development? Do I want to start in the Software Sector?

I spent 4 years in the Marine Corps, and now 4 years at College. I’ll graduate at the age of 26. I, personally, do not want to “waste” time in the software side of the house, when all I really think about is the game industry. Hell, I spent a critical amount of time in college following the game industry. Do I have a LOT to show for it? I have a lot of persistence and dedication to show for it. Beta testing software and games, designing and developing very small games, to even bringing out some creativity to write short stories.  Do I necessarily have the programming capabilities to be in the league of AAA development? That’s where I fall in my own trap. Do I know enough to start in the Game Industry?

I’ll be looking for an internship for next summer. I can’t help but think that I want to concentrate on the game development sector before I turn to the software development sector. With any luck, I’ll have an internship that can tell me if I belong in the game industry as a programmer. I’ll get to be around the atmosphere first hand, and I’ll be around AAA programmers (hopefully).

Only time will tell with this journey, but it sure does creep up on the mind pretty often!

That all leads me to think about the Game Development Conference that is coming up in February. Should I go? I’m not concerned with being able to finance a trip, due to getting a scholarship this year. I can’t help but think how well it would benefit me on the networking side of things. Not only that, but being able to talk to programmers will allow me to get some feedback from somebody who is enduring the trip as a game developer.

Crunch time is coming up. I have just less than two months before I actively pursue an internship with somebody… *bites nails rapidly*