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Top 3 Gadgets of 2009

January 12, 2010

For some reason, my hosting server has trouble being accessed from my home connection… very odd. I’m going to have to look into it, and maybe I can post stuff now the University’s open again and I can use their connection.

I might as well get around to doing one ‘top 2009′ list (even through it’s late), and here’s mine for technology I purchased this year (but not necessarily released this year):

1) BlackBerry Pearl 8100

Aquired around November (for free!) to replace a breaking Motorola Razr v3, and it’s a great phone that does nearly everything I want it to. Upgrading to a phone that can actually access the internet / MSN / Facebook / Twitter is a big step-up for me, and yet I still want to go bigger and better – maybe to a later model that can use 3G and WiFi. Not that I have the money, of course, but I guess that’s part of the ‘crackberry’ addiction.

gadget_bbpearl

2) Sandisk Sansa Clip+

I lost my Creative Zen Stone at some point in October (it had served me well), and took the opportunity to upgrade to something better. The Clip+ came well recommended from various portable media websites, yet it wasn’t advertised very well at all in the UK, and it was being sold dirt cheap, so even better. It’s a fantastic little thing with 8GB internal storage and expandable with microSDHC cards, and I’m glad I bought it. And so are the other people I know who own one, including my father. If you’re looking for something cheap and good, go for it.

gadget_clipplus

3) Microsoft Xbox 360

So I actually got around to purchasing a next-generation console this year, and I’m glad I did, as I’m enjoying it far more than the Wii. I’ve enjoyed games like GTA IV (100%’d, including all DLC), Fallout 3 and Mirror’s Edge, and I still have a big stack of 30+ I’ve bought over the past month to play through at some point… although with the current state of university work, it doesn’t look like I’ll have much free time in the future at all. Hurr.

gadget_xbox360

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An Introduction to Fluxx

December 6, 2009

Seeing as one of my projects this year is based on it (even though the actual assessment criteria ain’t been released yet…), I thought I’d do a quick overview of the card game in question. It’s a fun game I was introduced to earlier in the year, and I usually end up carrying a deck with me in my bag all the time, so feel free to ask me for a game.

Fluxx (created by Looney Labs) is, put simply, a card game with changing rules. The basic rules, turn structure and even winning conditions are all determined by the cards currently in play at the time, which makes for a very interesting programming project. It uses a specially-designed deck, and contains several types of cards:

  • Keepers are cards that can be played in front of you, in order to meet goal requirements.
  • Creepers are cards which stop the player from winning, therefore most be passed onto others or discarded to win.
  • Goals define the win conditions of a game, and can be changed at any point. Usually there can only be one active at a time, and requires a pair of specific keepers to win.
  • Action cards can be played in order to change the playing field by re-arranging cards, swapping hands, and all manner of different things.
  • New Rule cards change the base rules themselves, mostly saying how many cards can be drawn and played each turn, but can get more complicated (see below).

It really is an interesting game to design and program, especially with the mutable rules. For example, there’s a New Rule card called ‘Inflation’, which adds +1 to each numerical value on ANY card, which means storing all numbers on cards as variables instead of hard-coding. Constantly checking and modifying rule states and turn structures should be a challenge as well, but it’s not really graphically-intensive. I think it’s a game that would work very well on the GP2X handheld, and that Keith or Richard might appreciate it a little more than the standard broken platformer demos that seem to be on the handhelds in the lab. I’m hoping to get the graphical side of the engine up and running before Christmas (it’s coming along pretty well so far), and allow plenty of time for testing (although that’s probably not gonna happen, hurr).

FluxxMockupTest

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FFFFFF

November 26, 2009

And this, kids, is why you don’t use free web hosting. I don’t feel bad in naming and shaming 000webhost.com for suspending my account due to inactivity with no warning or notification, and deleting my portfolio website and blog. Along with all backups. Bravo…

I’ve managed to restore everything pretty quickly, with props to Host Media UK for the cheap and fast hosting service I’m now on. I fucking love Fantastico. I lost a few months of blog entries, but I managed to copy the text over from LiveJournal, so it’s all good. It’s made me remember the value of the blog, and now I wonder whether I’ll be able to go for post-a-day again. Wish me luck. See you tomorrow

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Projects Galore

October 25, 2009

Anicom’s going swimmingly. Plenty of memberships, a good choice of shows (although all Eastern, so we might have to work something out), and we have our Halloween party and another chiptune night hosted by Phil this week. Awesome stuff.

The final year modules seem to have settled in, working on a few things at the moment. Most of my concentration is going to the Games Development module, working with Allan to develop a 2D adventure game engine in XNA by Christmas. The creative guys are bringing some initial assets together well for our presentation in just over a week’s time, so I hope we’ll have something to show from the programming side. The other independent module that I can start working on now is Practical Project, and I’m still not sure what to do for it. Something graphics-wise probably, because I’m not doing any 3D modules and I’d like to learn Direct3D – Tyrone’s my project supervisor, so he’s helping me decided a project. I shoudl e-mail him about it, actually.

Having to learn Java in the Multiplayer Game Development module isn’t too bad, although the course tutoring seems a little rushed from Jean-Luc. For anyone on the module, I’d suggest picking up Core Java Vol. 1 – it’s on the Safari Books website if you’re a student, and it’s helping me tremendously. Games AI is going alright, although I need to read more LISP reference material to understand the syntax. I also need to do more GP2X research.

So… yeah. Busy. But I’m enjoying it, and that’s what counts.

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Final Year. Whee.

October 12, 2009

So here I am, back for my final year studying Computer Games Programming at Teesside University (not University of Teesside), and I’m glad that the summer’s over so I can get back into the swing of things. And although the work should be a lot harder this year, seeing as it’s quite independent, I’m looking forward to the modules I’ve chosen. I’ll be working with the GP2X systems (and maybe the PSP), learning a little Java and networking, AI, and some physics if I keep tagging along to the lectures. My independent projects for this year consist of a 2D adventure game, looking at LOD using DirectX, and on the side, I wanna try and code the card game Fluxx into a DS homebrew application – I think trying to implement all the rules would be pretty fun logic coding.

I’m looking forward to this year because I’m part of Anicom’s committee along with Bob and Morti. And it’s not just about the animu (although I’ve been running around frantically trying to get the show selection sorted the past two weeks) – It’s about making sure the first-years have fun, be social, and make friends. Most people are usually on games courses, meaning that sometimes they can’t be the most social people… so we try and help them along by introducing them to people with similar interests. And the more involved they get with the society, the greater the chance they’ll make more friends – yes, that means you, the fresher reading this. Join in and stuff. You won’t regret it.

The first few weeks of Anicom have gone surprisingly better than last year’s… well, disaster. We drew in plenty of people at during the stall, filled OL7 on the night, and ran a great games day on the Friday. Phil provided a great chiptune night in the second week, and the second session was just as popular as the first. So… yeah. Things are going very well, and I hope it stays this way.

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