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Final Year

September 27th, 2010 | Posted by mvi in Playtime | University - (0 Comments)

Had my first day back at Univeristy today, since second year I worked at Canalside Studios for a placement year (year in industry) and have had the chance to work at Four Door Lemon for a summer internship thereafter. It’s been a lot of fun and I feel I’ve developed quite a bit over that time, still a long way to go yet :) . I’m looking forward to getting stuck in into my final year (though while it’s termed that, it’s actually 8 months with 7 months of teaching.) Pretty scary to think that I’ve not got very long left at University.

This weekend just gone, I played through the first three episodes of Alan Wake, which has been pretty awesome so far. Reminds me of Stephen King meets Twin Peaks. As part of our final year we do a team project. Today we carried out personality tests, which said that I’m a “implementor-innovator.” I think we’re all a little anxious to find out the teams we’ve been assigned on Friday.

Lap has posted an interesting insight into his feelings on the Design Process at Huddersfield University, while my experiences have been similar there’s a couple of points we differ on. A good thought provoker anyway.

What I’m working on

September 9th, 2010 | Posted by mvi in Uncategorized - (1 Comments)

Besides the science fiction story I’m currently working on for Future Perfect, I’m also working on some code in my free time. I’ve been learning the (fantastic) Qt framework for a rather straightforward turn-based-strategy game I plan to release in a few weeks. In addition, I’ve been pondering on developing my previous idea for a batch file powered 3d engine into a demo. The idea is to create the engine and a LISP interpreter in a high level language, then convert the code to pure batch. 3d models and LISP scripts would then be loaded into the engine for it to display using unicode. There are a lot of challenges on this project, input polling for one, but I feel confident that it’s achievable. If I manage to find the time to do this batch project you’ll be able to track the updates here.

TODO: Alan Wake

September 7th, 2010 | Posted by mvi in Playtime - (0 Comments)

So, a couple of weeks back I finished Uncharted 2. I did most the game on hard, but dropped the difficulty down at the end because I wanted to get the game done and it seemed to get a little too difficult. In my view the first half of the game was great, but the second half felt slightly less polished. All in all a very enjoyable experience. Uncharted 2 does well in so many areas, whether it’s beautiful graphics, great audio, involving story writing/character animation (that just make the characters really come to life) and some really excellent levels. While sequels are things that I’ve come to dread to a certain extent these days (I was very disappointed by GTA IV) Uncharted 3 is definitely a game I would like to see made, perhaps as a final instalment.

My brother got married at the weekend, but more importantly than that ;-) he lent me Alan Wake. I’m really looking forward to this game. I’ve given up playing Mass Effect, despite the number of people who have told me to play it, the game is awful. The level design is not great, the objective system is virtualy missing, the story doesn’t come close to the praise it has been given and the combat is without a doubt, terrible. Apparently, that’s all been fixed in the sequel, so maybe I’ll give that a try. I’ve got to admit the trailer for Mass Effect 2 has made me very interested. Speaking of good trailers, I absolutely cannot wait for the next Deus Ex.

Science vs Science Fiction

September 1st, 2010 | Posted by mvi in Future Perfect - (0 Comments)

Something that is always in the back of my mind when I’m writing science fiction is not wanting to write derivative material. With so many interesting ideas that have been popularised for decades this is often an issue. Pondering on it on the bus today however, I was reminded of how it isn’t just advances in science that influence science fiction but also vice versa. Many authors have coined terms and explored concepts which the scientific community are considering seriously now. So with that in mind, perhaps certain ideas that have become what could be considered hallmarks of scifi should not be avoided but rather regarded as what they are. Well thought out, practical examples of good hard science fiction predictions.

The next story we’re writing for the Future Perfect series (after Africa Rising which we’re currently working on) follows the development of artificial intelligence, while this area has of course been featured in a number of distinguished works I feel there is still lots to explore. Some of the concepts I’ve not encountered before and I find an interesting implementation. The characterisation of the AI is something I’ve been having a little difficulty with, Clarke’s 2001 of course is renowned for its depiction of the malfunctioning pyschotic AI, while the recent film Moon likewise features a malfunctioning AI but in a different light. With the characterisation I hope to avoid the traditional depictions and find something new, which I believe there is ample room for (I just need to find it!)