Half A Year Already

Skills

It's been a long 5 or 6 months since I last posted although come to think of it, it's actually flown in. I have been busy busy busy. Mainly been learning new skill-sets the past 6 months including additional Unity shenanigans but also an interesting move into 2D game development again. I've been using tools such as Stencyl which implements flash and now learning Game Maker as well. All decent and powerful tools. I'm hoping to build up a collection of small game prototypes in the space of a few months.

I don't know if I ever announced this one but this was a game we built for the charity organisation Water For Africa. Made using Adobe Flash and in a group of a couple other people.

http://www.waterforafrica.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Water-for-Africa-Game.swf

But yeah, I am getting back into 2D development which is gooooood as it's not all about 3D in this industry. No solid prototypes at the moment but soon! I promise :o

My Jerb

Oh yes I had no job last time I wrote! I am now teaching a Games Design course for Clane College in the Republic Of Ireland so Whoop Whoop. I teach a crazy number of subjects including 3D, 2D, theory modules, game design and even a touch of web development. It has been a very difficult relocation with the crazy Irish accents and "yoyo" currency but great fun all the same. I am working in Limerick as a contract lecturer until September so back to the drawing board afterwards.

I teach a talented bunch of wannabe developers. I am certain some of them will make it into indie game industry which is the next biggest thing for Ireland. I am bridging contacts with other Irish folks so hopefully I will have some good news in the months to come. Here is a very cool video to check out done by a student from my home-town. It's about the Irish Games Industry.

My New Avatar

I ate him with fava beans and a nice chianti. fffffffff

Badgers Vs. Turtles

Maybe one day!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGp8ipJo4iM

Slender Man Rip Off

Again maybe one day I will give this another go. I was getting really far into it. It was scary too!

Indie Development

Okay so the biggest ones on my mind is indie development. It seems that all AAA has abandoned Ireland and we are left with Game Studio Call Centres. There are lots of Indie Development Studios forming which is fantastic and I hope to be listed as one soon enough once I find the right talent. Game designs are coming into place. Top secret of course

3D Art

Slacking slacking slacking. I've been soo busy teaching that my 3D skills aren't developing any further. Been working on an Evil Dead themed environment. Texturing process is next.

The trees are awful. They will be gone in the next update. I'm pretty much in the Mind-frame of modelling for mobile and tablet platforms which for me is the way forward.

Betsey 2.1

Outfitted with new gear like the Asus Z87 Pro motherboard, Intel i7 Haswell 4770k and a beefy new Nvidia GTX 770. A new power supply is coming tomorrow as the "Toughpower" is getting the boot.

Check Out These Blogs/Videos and Thanks for reading

Some great stuff happening! Students and other indie projects.

http://pixel8tors.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/alpha-of-grails/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAcAd1fUiy8&feature=youtu.be

http://themodfathers.blogspot.ie/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOI0hFPT7EA

What I'm doing in Unity!

So I've been playing around with Unity3D a bit! Pretty awesome tool in comparison to some others I have used! Pretty easy and intuitive way of working! Plus it works on my Macintosh too, meaning that I keep my projects on Dropbox (which don't use up a lot of space) and they open on my Mac or PC just fine!

Me and some friends done this in about 48 hours of remote game jamming! It's a Infinite Runner Space Shooter type thing.. Not bad for around 48 hours work I think! Especially when we worked remotely using Google+ Hangouts!

http://www.pixelmaniac.co.uk/UnityProjects/SpaceChase/WebPlayer.html

So after that I decided to try doing some mini bits of project in Unity.. This one is currently what I have in an open sandbox space exploration thing.. It's pretty primitive at the moment. Totally got EVE Online music in there! I don't own that ;P

http://pixelmaniac.co.uk/UnityProjects/SpaceGame/0.01/Builds.html

Then today I spent about 2 hours on some RTS camera stuff!! It's mainly not my code but just copying bits of free code here and there! Again, very primitive but it's functional!

http://pixelmaniac.co.uk/UnityProjects/Zurvival/0.01/Builds.html

Thanks for reading.

Again.. A rare blog update!

So it's been a long long time since I last posted in here.. What's changed with me?

• Didn't win Dare to be Digital
• Moved back to Northern Ireland
• Can't get a job
• Getting back into game development

Dare to be Digital.

So the last time I posted in here I said Dare was going great, it went really well! We made an awesome game and had a blast. We didn't win but who cares!! Here is our game trailer!!

Moved back to Northern Ireland.

So I moved back to Northern Ireland as I currently had no job and unfortunately my GF left me after near 6 years....

Can't get a job.

I've applied to a lot of jobs but can't get one. Industry and teaching jobs. Only had two interviews!! TWO!! I might possibly be able to do some voluntary work with my local college in town. That would be great as they have invested a lot of money into a new creative technology studio which includes a motion capture studio!!!

Getting back into game development.

So the past 6 months nearly I've been in limbo and unmotivated but eventually I'm getting back into the swing of things. I'm currently working on single manned projects but I'd like to bring on board more people! One project is a Slenderman like horror game, another is a third person space driven game using Unity. 

Yes... I'm using Unity! And I have to say that it is awesome! Oh I forgot to mention that I have a Mac Mini too!! Hopefully I will be able to do some app development for iOS! 

I also done a game jam completely online with a few mates: Bradley, Aaron and Alastair! We made a side scroller in Unity and it can be played here on Bradley's portfolio website!!

http://bradleyaustin.co.uk/unity_spacechase.html

So that's it from me! I'm going to update this a lot more regularly with game and art updates!

Thanks for reading!