First post of 2013 :P

Occasionally I return back to my blog and every time I do, I have the same guilty feeling. The feeling that I should post more. Every now and then that feeling of guilt boils to the point where I feel urge to get back into writing. I’ve reached that point again and so now I bring you a new blog post.

My last blog post was over a year ago and some things have happened since then. I’ll run some of them now.

So firstly I built out a new version of Expand with Chris Larkin who is now composing the score for game. I can’t speak enough about how great it has been to work with him. This new version used my own custom collision system(not Box2D), integrated with FMOD Designer, stored level data as XML instead of Lua scripts and came bundled with a level editor. This version was shown at The Indie Games Room last year and then later Freeplay, where it was nominated for an Audio Award.

I wasn’t too happy with the code for the Freeplay version of Expand so I rewrote major parts of it at the start of this year. Since then I have added support for scripting behaviour with Lua, sector groups, masking and camera support. The last two parts work very differently to other games because of the nature of Expand. They add several ideas to the game that will move it into an even more interesting direction. At the moment the game is in a broken state as I’m finishing off these last few features but I’m very happy with where the game is at conceptually. I think I’m poised to deliver the game that has been stuck in my head for the last few years and that is very pleasing. The game also has a website.

The second half of last year was exceptionally busy for me. The university offered me a full time lecturing position in which I would coordinate one course and be a supporting lecturer for two others. I don’t know what to write about this, there is a lot that could be said. Firstly, I’m relatively young for such a position and that in itself was quite alienating and often left me questioning as whether or not I deserved to be there. Secondly, the experience was incredibly stressful. Despite their being reasonable guidelines as to the breakdown of your work, the work in itself is infinite in some ways. I always felt as though I could do more as if there was a glass ceiling. If you care, like I do, then this is the sort of job that can consume your entire life. It’s the sort of job that only becomes manageable with time and experience so starting out is really tough. It’s also a job that you receive little feedback on which adds to the feeling of being an imposter. If you want the feedback you need to seek it out. When I look back on the semester I can only see the things that I could have done better despite lots of people telling me I did a really great job.

There was the opportunity for me to continue lecturing but I decided to move back to a tutoring role which feels right. While I enjoy teaching, I love making games so much more. Besides without moving into research my future in the area was quite restricted. I’ve been tutoring for this last semester. Tutoring is great, I get to spend more time directly interacting with students which is the best part of the job. Teaching is a really humbling thing, I recommend giving it a shot if you have the opportunity.

After I finished with my lecturing position I moved out of home and into an apartment with my girlfriend which has been great. I’m living much closer to the city and I have the freedom to work any hours I want(within reason). Over this period I’ve taken an interest in coffee and have learnt how to make a half decent latte on my espresso machine. I really enjoy honing my coffee making skills.

Beyond all of that I’ve made a few small games and prototypes over the last year. I’ll share them with you in another blog post shortly.

PS: I’ve also migrated all of my old blog posts from nexfinity.net over to this blog.