Last semester was spent learning the flaws that my budding school and degree program had and how to deal with them. This semester was spent learning and dealing with my own flaws both in issues on my self esteem as well as my work ethic. GAM150 was the pivotal class for me this year. This was the class in which I sunk most of my time into, and was also the class when I discovered concerning things about myself. We created teams of 5 weeks prior to this semester to create a 2D game using a rather bare bones in-house engine called Alpha Engine. We began with high morale and vigor but I soon realized that unfortunately some of the team didn't share the same passion and vision. This was also in combination with the fact that some of my team also had extra classes to take which further ate up time to work on the game in general as there wasn't enough opportunities to code as an entire group. This was when I also began to learn about some of my own flaws as well. With the progress of the game barely inching forward near the beginning of the year I spent as many hours as I could to get things rolling. The mantra of completing homework first was tossed out the window as my priorities were with the team. This only served to heighten my stress and forced me into a cycle I couldn't climb out of until now. While helping the team was important I only left enough time to do schoolwork in a panicked state. This shrunk the time I had to do both down to dangerous levels and I wound up being less effective than I thought I would. Not that these experiences haven't made me grow. I realized how much I learned (or at least what not to do) over the course of the semester which manifested itself when a prospective BSGD student sat with us during a GAT210 lab last week. I told her what she should do before the year, my recommendations for doing work at the school, and basically what the program is like for me so far trying to be as honest as possible. I think I was successful in this as she didn't seem scared away from the school but rather seemed as if she knew what she was getting into and wanted it. I think I still managed to cobble things together at the end though. I await the final grades for my classes and I had found a new team for next semester's GAM200 with a hope that things will go better. I loved the guys on my team this semester despite our rocky year and shared dissatisfaction with the game. I wish them the best in their adventures next year. With a new apartment I am to remain here over the summer to work as a TA for DigiPen's ProjectFUN program to inspire youth in the same way I was to go into the industry, researching into tools and systems for my next year's game team, and getting back into watercolor painting with Helen as a way to de-stress. Remember when I mentioned I would post weekly? Haha goteem What happened was DIGIPEN, this semester probably had me the most stressed out (since I began growing a group of gray hairs). However, it has been completed and after a text-based story game and CS100 I have some rather mixed feelings about the school in general. While obviously there is no other place like Digipen that I'd rather go to, it has its fair share of problems especially pertaining to its philosophy. At least for the BSCSGD program, it seems made solely to weed the less skilled out of the school. While this is a viable method for getting the best students possible, Digipen does it through rather sloppy course organization and teaching rather than difficult work. The work itself isn't that difficult, so far the only time one would find something hard is when it is taught badly. This mostly manifests itself in the two classes CS100 and GAM100, where in CS100 the material is taught similarly to a stereotypical Russian lecture in which the concepts are more or less thrown at the students. For GAM100, the class in its own right is very well scaled however it assumes everyone knows how to program when it introduces concepts the core CS class won't touch until the end of the semester. Most students in my program are scared out of it as a result and these two classes for to blame for a large portion of motivation to do so. I've heard upperclassmen describe the Digipen experience as follows: Year 1: Nuclear Apocalypse, most die Years 2-4: Fallout This is mostly due to the fact that Digipen is a young school, and it's still experimenting with the curriculum that clearly needs much work. Yet, there is no other school I'd rather go to as the best takeaways from this semester were the extremely well taught C programming class, linear algebra class, and some concepts from the weirdly organized game design classes; not to mention the first team game I've made with good m8 Zack and my beloved Helen. The following years and curriculum seems much more organized for those who have survived (I've seen too many disappear and suffer) so I'm looking forward to that. If anything this semester's curriculum has taught me that in order to improve myself at my craft it's ultimately up to what I shall do on my own make that happen. As for now it's 3 in the morning and I just came home from the plane, and winter break means nothing. The only break Digipen students get is death. I made 3 dice games as part of an assignment for my Game History class. I've been noticing a general trend for my game ideas in that the root of those concepts seem to always be stupid. I mean who the hell thinks of a backwards FPS where you fart on people to kill them.
Of the 3 dice games these I'm trying to decide between two of them for my GAT110 presentation. Here they are: Name: Demolitions Inc. Number of Players: 3-4 Objective: End with the least amount of “debris” (points) Composition:
At the start of the game the players are to launch/toss/flick their 5th dice into their tower preferably one at a time so as to not become confused whose dice belongs to whom or so the other players can find ways to prevent their towers from being hit by flying dice. The collapse of the tower in effect “rolls” all 5 of the dice for each player, and they are to collect their dice afterwards, and the bottom dice may remain uncollapsed for it to be considered a “collapse”. Players who fail to knock down at least 3 dice must retry. Once each player has demolished their tower they are to position their resultant dice rolls so they can be compared to everyone else’s. Whomever has the highest sum from the dice goes first, to which they must swap one of their dice with someone else’s roll while having the objective of getting the lowest score in mind. However, they must reroll the dice they took, thus it is recommended that players try to swap with the intention of making it harder for the player they just swapped with. Players cannot swap dice that have been already swapped. After one full rotation of “debris swapping” has completed, the players are to add up their current dice rolls and whomever has the lowest score wins. Victory: The player with the lowest amount of debris (lowest score) wins Name: Regiment Number of Players: 2 Objective: Eliminate the opposing player’s dice Composition:
Once the lines are set up the player with the smaller sum of their 5 dice goes first. They must choose one of their dice to “attack” one of the opposing player’s dice, in which each dice’s “health” is the same as their current face-up number and the damage they deal is the same. When one dice attacks another, the attacker loses the same health the attacked just had. Dice whose health is reduced to 0 are considered “eliminated” and are removed from the field. If the attacking dice is reduced to 1 health they have the option to attack one more of the opposing player’s dice as a sort of chain move, but the second attack deals just 1 damage and eliminates the attacking dice. During the game both players have the option to roll the 6th dice once when either one is reduced to two dice left on the battlefield. If the 6th dice has a roll from 1-6 players have the option to add the dice’s current roll to their army to boost their numbers. Rolls 1-4 can be used to deal damage corresponding to the roll, and the player can distribute the damage among the enemy’s dice however they wish. If the player chooses either of these options with the 6th dice it counts as their turn and they cannot do anything else on that turn. Victory: The player that eliminated all the other player’s dice wins, even if their own dice were killed in the process. As long as their attack resulted in the elimination of the opposing player they win Is when you can bomb your significant other's room with digested enchilada gas.
I've never been so awake for a math or CS class before
These professors are excellent, I actually know what I'm doing (mostly). The computer hardware and linear algebra classes both serve the CS 120 class well so I'm excited to see how that plays out and excited for the game analysis and history classes I have for the latter part of the week. It's just been a real breath of fresh air so far, the professors spend time explaining everything in "excruciating detail" and never once was I bored (even in Math of all things). I do apologize for not posting for a week, since it has been a both amazing and hectic one.I had finally met my girlfriend in person and had basically lived as a substitute roommate with her for the past week and I have to say it's been a blast cooking, shopping, playing smash, nintendoland, street fighter, and black ops with her among other things.
I had my first experience at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant with her and we wandered the streets of Redmond going to bakeries and the Redmond Town Center shopping area. Just today we took a bus with friends to Seattle to go to PAX West, my first ever convention of the sort. Lots of people, and useful information on the nature of the industry. We watched the panels for how working in the game industry is like and then saw panel on balancing player choice with narrative in games like RPGs. After that Helen and I enjoyed some Indian Food before walking to the massive market that is Pike's Place. If there's one thing I love about Seattle it's that it always seems alive- street musicians made everything seem lovely. Because of the fast rate of things happening, my mind still hasn't had time to process. School officially begins tomorrow, and I had just met the love of my life in person nought a week ago and had lived with her since. I don't feel like I'm truly here, where I can see everything that happens around me, but it is as if I am viewing it through a screen. Maybe one day I'll wake up and suddenly be in bed at home. Maybe it'll finally sink in that I am indeed really here at Washington when I get my first assignment from Digipen. I hope it happens soon, I can't last forever looking through a screen- I'll get chair sores. |
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