February 2012
2 posts
London Unity User Group 9
The next LUUG event is coming up on the 29th February, and it features the one and only..me!
More details can be found on the meetup page, but the general overview is below.
We’re still looking to book another speaker, so get in touch…
Another month, another LUUG! Back in the same lecture room I think. Same set-up as usual.
We have an open slot at the start of the night if...
January 2012
5 posts
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Highlights from LUUG 8.
What better way to see out January than to reconnect with the Unity community. It was our eighth London Unity User Group last Wednesday (at the time of writing!), and whilst I can’t speak for Jasper, I’m sure he’ll agree that we didn’t think that LUUG would be the success it has been so quickly. From the very first meeting we’ve seen a steady increase in attendance,...
The Word of Notch: Coding skill and the decline of... →
notch:
I am a decent programmer. I know a decent amount of computer science theory, I can type correct code fairly easy. I don’t let my classes expand too much. But I still struggle some with math, and I have a tendency to have too many cross-dependencies in my code.
I used to think I was an awesome…
Purplelilgirl Makes Games: Unity 3D Game... →
purplelilgirl:
A few months ago, I wrote a blog post on #AltDevBlogADay reviewing a Unity3D book written by Ryan Henson Creighton, Unity 3D Game Development by Example Beginner’s Guide (buy the book, it’s pretty good, so far), but I only gotten around to Chapter 4.
So for this blog…
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WatchI’ve been working on a personal project for the last week or so.
The idea is a basic puzzle game, but I want it to polish it as much as possible, as well as having the menu system and visual feedback integrated into the actual game.
Here’s a quick video showing animation, tower building and colour transitions.
I’m setting myself an aim to get it finished and submitted by the...
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Showing Unity to a 13 year old at Christmas.
I’m incredibly lucky.*
It seems that whatever I’m doing, it’s something that I love.
Over the christmas holidays I went to visit the various branches of various families, most of which don’t have a clue what it is I do. Among one of these families is a 13 year old boy that is pretty much a replica of myself at that age. Whilst we spent a good few hours over that time...
December 2011
1 post
November 2011
2 posts
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You're not playing Skyrim, you're sucking the life...
Skyrim is wonderful. It’s alive.
Wherever you go there is something going on. The characters you meet have stories, thoughts, desires. They have lives.
The more you talk to people, the more you have in common with them. You’ll do anything for them, as long as you get an XP boost in return.
However, once you finish the task that you’ve been asked to complete, they...
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Highlights London Unity User Group 7 (iOS...
Last Thursday was the 7th London Unity User Group.
Each month the attendance is increasing, and we’re getting new members signing up to the meetup page on a daily basis.
The success of the event so far has been purely down to the fact that there are so many talented people that can potentially talk at these events. There is a also a broad range of topics that can be covered. It...
October 2011
2 posts
Batman & Catman
So, Batman : Arkham City is finally out. Everyone is playing it, everyone is loving it, and a lot of people seem to be talking about Catwoman.
Some people are talking about the differences that playing as Catwoman brings to the game, some are talking about the fine job that the rocksteady artists have done to capture her ‘assets’, and then there are those that are talking about...
Super Springbreak Speedboat Hero SD Beta.
Hey, look! I made this, along with the other people at PLA Studios. (it was released a while ago, but it took me ages to move this post from ‘drafts’)
After the success of get182.com , we were really excited to release our next game. It’s more mainstream than get182.com, but it is far from conventional. At it’s core is a competitive racer,complete with custom track...
September 2011
1 post
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Busy times at PLA Studios - Our first 'game'.
It’s been busy at PLA Studios lately. Whilst in the middle of putting the finishing touches to our first game, we had a call to make a game for a well-know band. It needed to be done quick, be addictive, and give away a free song. We talked for a bit about the best approach, and then Iain came up with a great idea.
He came up with get182.
It was announced a few days later on BBC...
August 2011
1 post
3 tags
Wonderputt
I’ve been keeping an eye on, the very aplty named ,Wonderputt for a while. It was created by Reece Millidge, who is otherwise know as Damp Gnat (twitter @dampgnat). It’s not Unity, it’s Flash. Regardless, it’s beautiful, charming, and golfy(DEFINITELY a word).
You can play the game on Kongregate here » Wonderputt
Check out Reece’s website...
July 2011
2 posts
'wormholes' looks familiar.
It’s not uncommon to find some games on the iTunes store that remind you more well-know titles, but ‘wormholes’ takes the fucking biscuit, for science.
http://itunes.apple.com/app/id436080350
The Valve Manifesto - Develop. →
A few months ago Develop ran a great feature on how the guys and girls at Valve like to do their business. I found the link in my bookmarks and remembered that I meant to link to it…so it’s better late than never.
June 2011
2 posts
4 tags
PLA Studios
This is where I work.
When I graduated last year , I had a plan; get a job.
I got work pretty quickly, and whilst it was very good work, it was freelance or short term contract work. I was looking for something permanent, something that would really give me an opportunity to test myself. I applied at numerous large studios, but making rocks and barrels wasn’t what I wanted to do. The dream...
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London Unity3D user group 3
I feel bad, really bad. There’s two reasons for feeling like this. The first is that I haven’t had time to blog about anything (despite there actually be really cool things to talk about lately) and secondly for not posting about the previous London unity3d users group event. It was another great evening, with some interesting talks from the guest speakers, and some lively discussion...
April 2011
1 post
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London Unity3D Usergroup...
This Friday is the first meet up for the new London Unity Usergroup. It’s an event that myself and Jasper Stocker have been organising, and we’re very pleased with the way it’s shaping up.
The idea is to provide inspiration and advice to both new and experienced users. In order to achieve this we’ve managed to bag two very exciting guest speakers. One is quickfingers,...
March 2011
3 posts
4 tags
beatLines - A 557kb game in Unity with under 200...
I’ve always been a believer that the early days of learning game design and development should be like learning a musical instrument…you practice by playing the stuff you listen to. So why not practice game development by making the stuff you play? Then, when you’re good at the basics, you can move onto your own stuff… I really think one of the worst mistakes you can...
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February 2011
7 posts
3 tags
video game students have a hard time...
Studying a video games related course? Then you must be pretty excited about the prospects of having a career that revolves around one of your hobbies, right? Well, you should be, but there is a constant whisper through the fog that suggests what you’re doing is completely irrelevant and wont help in your search to ‘break into’ the games industry. Oh dear.
Recently graduated...
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Valve's Gabe Newell talks about marketing...
Valve are busy finishing up Portal2, entering the final stretch, where the last remaining bugs are being ironed out and marketing strategies are being revved up.
Valve are also a success. You didn’t need to even read the news last week that Valve make more money per employee than Apple or Google to know that.
That success wasn’t only because Half-Life was awesome, or any of...
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That Dead Island trailer....what do you think?
This post was lifted directly from my blogger account, so excuse the formatting issues…
There’s a lot of furore over this, opinions range from ”OMG…BEST TRAILER EVERZZZZ” and “It made me cry tears made from cola and cheetos” to “it’s in poor taste” and ”just because it’s slow motion and in reverse doesn’t make it...
Holy shit NEW RADIOHEAD →
sprocketholesandrevelations:
Roll on Saturday!!!
Holy Shit indeed, where did this come from?
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Game dissection- Mass Effect 2's UI.
I finally finished Mass Effect 2. After purchasing it on Xbox 360 on launch day, on PC six months later, and on the Playstation 3 launch, I’m ashamed to say that it was at the third attempt that I actually took the jump through the Omega4 relay.
On the two previous attempts I had completed everything up to the moment when you were required to enter the end game. Up until that point I was...
David Barnes @ Packt: What will get you a job?... →
packtdavidb:
Download now or preview on posterous
How to make your mother proud.pdf (385 KB) If you are a freelance game developer your mum probably wants to know you when you’re going to get a proper job. It’s time to make your mother happy… but what game development…
January 2011
14 posts
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Weekend Confirmed is a highlight of my week. It...
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L.A. Noire - More Gollum, less Jar Jar Binks....
L.A. Noire looks good. I’m not going to say whether I think it will actually be a good game game or not, I’ll leave that to the fanboys, but regardless of the review scores, what L.A. Noire gives us is that the opportunity to sit on the sofa and go…
“oh, it’s him! you know, that guy from that show”
Just like we do with TV shows.
The technology being used...
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An offer you can refuse - Mass Effect 2's digital...
The news that Mass Effect 2 was coming to Sony’s PSN was a welcome one. I like digital distribution as a platform when it’s done correctly, which makes it frustrating when the benefits of digital distribution are ignored.
Valve is doing a great job with Steam, it recognises how it can benefit the consumer, as well as the developers, and tries to keep everyone happy. Crazy Steam sales...
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Buy one, get one free - Valve giving as good as it...
Valve are very successfully. Many times I’ve called them ‘the Pixar of the games industry’, and there are very few development studios that are in touch with their communities as Valve are.
There are also very few who are as generous.
Last e3 Gabe Newell surprisingly strode out onto the stage at Sony’s keynote press conference, and within 3 and a half minutes did a...
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PuzzleRaiser development issues, fixes and design... →
Thanks to those that tried out the puzzleRaiser prototype build. Had lots of really nice feedback. The best thing is that most of the concerns were based around technical issues, which is great because I’ve not touched anything outside of the basic game mechanics.
All I wanted to know is whether the basic idea is actually any fun, then I would know whether it was worth carrying...
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PuzzleRaiser - My new #Unity3d Game V0.051579244
So here it is, PuzzleRaiser.
Download Links
Mac V0.051579244
http://www.therussmorrishosting.co.uk/puzzleraiser/puzzleraiser051579244_mac.zip
Windows V0.051579244
http://www.therussmorrishosting.co.uk/puzzleraiser/puzzleraiser051579244_win.zip
Web Player V0.051579244
http://www.therussmorrishosting.co.uk/puzzleraiser/puzzleraiser051579244_web/puzzleraiser051579244_web.html
Without...
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Queen wins premier league, dev gets reward....
So, the very friendly (judging by the 10 minutes I chatted with him last summer) Miles Jacobson got an OBE…
He’s one of the directors at Sports Interactive, the developers of Football Manager, so I’m guessing she’s had some good seasons this year, taking Wycombe Wanderers to the premier league title and qualifying for europe for the first time…
...
December 2010
4 posts
Gran Turismo 5 - Drop the 5?
I wrote a proper blog post about this around a week ago, but I forgot to save it before I moved onto something else…so it got lost.
The short version was that I started playing Gran Turismo 5, and despite really enjoying it, there’s a few things that I thought would have been interesting to introduce/change.
Horrible, HORRIBLE UI aside, the biggest thing I’d liked to have...
Develop's 30 under 30 →
I know a few of the people on here, and I’m well chuffed for them.
This list always inspires me…I’m more determined than ever to get on it!
(it means getting a job and being too busy to blog first though!)
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Music in video games/ Why I LOVED Red Dead...
Any game that pays attention to the way that it uses music to improve the overall experience always gets a thumbs up from me. In fact, my absolute favourite moment this year in video games is down to the use of music, and the overall use of music in the game is highly influential in it being my favourite game of the year. That game is Red Dead Redemption.
A big part of my Starlings design was...
November 2010
4 posts
lowercasenospace-deactivated201 asked: hey man, i like your blog and i think its very interesting, im doing a games desgin degree in university and im in a project to make a zombie level in the unity engine, any tips for me getting ahead of the game? cheers, Dave
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Gaming moments of the year #1...
As it gets towards the end of the year, and all the typical ‘game of the year’ awards are dished out, I was thinking of some of my favorite moments in gaming over the last 12 months, and they weren’t all necessarily from my favorite games. They also weren’t the stock, sequenced events that every player will be experiencing as they play they game, but events that seemed...
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Starlings - Playable Prototype
After a year of on-off development, I’ve decided to make the playable prototype version of Starlings available for download. This build represents around 4 months of development, from late January to late May, and is what I handed in for my final year university project.
Whilst it’s not everything I want to put into the game, it represents everything that I initially set out to...