This Week In DigiPen: Chapter 2 and Chapter 3

Off to a great start with this weekly update on "Friday" thing. Given the nature of DigiPen, I should redefine the parameters of how this blog is going to work out - or in other words, not promise Friday updates. So, here's the plan, one update per week, likely occurring some time over the weekend. That's something I hope I can stick to... Anywho, updates.

Week 2
DigiPen is a very busy place with sudden demands. For example, delivering a concept presentation for the game we're going to work on for the semester (and likely year). For me, I had two (technically three) options. First, I could stick with Steve Rabin's AI project and hold out on concept presentation until that team has something more to present. Second, I could break off on my own and work on a solo project. (Technically, there was also trying to work my way onto another team - but given the nature of senior year, that can be dangerous.)

Over the weekend, I really had to work on some soul searching. What do I want to do with my last year at DigiPen? What do I want to show on my resume? What do I really value in games? That last one got me thinking - Steve Rabin's AI Project is really cool, groundbreaking even, but pushing game technology is not my passion. I was being drawn in by the carrots - the chance to work with Rabin, the chance to deliver a presentation at the AI summit at GDC, fame and fortune. My passion is with games themselves - I'm here to make good games. Working with Rabin would have been a form of selling myself out.

Within an hour after my decision, I had a prototype (yay for ProjectFun) of my current project. Blankie is about hiding under a blanket. It'll be a cute and simple game, appealing to a wide audience. I plan to make it in Flash - because quite frankly learning Flash sounds like a good idea. I did go over other technologies that I could make this in, including Unity and XNA. Unity is up and coming, but we'll see where it is at the end of the semester. XNA sounds like it would be easy enough to pick up elsewhere. Given the difficulty I had finding people that know Flash at DigiPen, it will really help me stand out. Also, I can throw my game up on my website once it's in a playable state and start getting feedback from online playtesting.

There is precious little time at DigiPen, but we do actually have some extracurricular activities - which brings me to Club Day. Held early in the year at DigiPen, Club Day allows us to advertise clubs and student groups to incoming freshmen, and for new clubs to form up. I took over for Producer Club last spring, so it was up to me to advertise and get things set up. It went pretty well, but while in Pascal I couldn't help but notice that the DigiFunk had struck again.

Sunkist stains are the worst. Maybe it's coffee?

Week 3
I developed an overview of my development cycle for Blankie over the weekend, giving me a heads up on how I was going to pull off a solo project. Having a team to back you up makes a project exponentially easier to complete; you have someone to rely on when your productivity slumps and vice versa. As part of a team, there are others depending on you and driving you forward. It's quite a difference being on your own. Luckily, my roommates helped out by suggesting that I look into what my other classes would be up to during development (particularly weeks 7 and 8 - two of the hardest weeks at DigiPen). Those weeks are littered with projects and midterms and milestones. It's not pretty.

Boerkoel's homework was a thorough kick in the pants - as to be expected. It took hours to develop a solution to a single question on the homework, which, having missed one piece of information, was entirely wrong in the end. Proofs are not my strength in the least - in fact, I'm horrible at them, and they made up the first half of the homework. It's not pretty.

Producer Club had its initial meeting on Wednesday - which none of the interested parties from Club Day showed up to. Well, that's not true. One of the veteran members did show up, but we've come to the conclusion that we don't really have time to run a club. As such, we've decided against regular meetings, but still would like to run specific events (in particular, GDC preparation and post-mortem, mock interviews for producers, and there was mention of more in depth Myers-Briggs).

Then there's researching Flash. First of all, the official tools to develop for Flash cost about $300, which is out of my budget as a poor college student. Then there's the tutorials and/or lack thereof. All of the Flash tutorials I've found this week are scattered and unorganized. I was hoping for something more along the lines of cplusplus.com, but there doesn't seem to be anything like that. Just heaps of garbage with hidden gems - all of which assume you're proficient in the Flash development tools.

The free stuff, Flex, is much more affordable, but even more difficult to come across a decent tutorial. Whereas one site (again, a hodgepodge of instruction of varying degrees of quality) had about 250 Flash tutorials, there were 23 Flex tutorials - all of which were horribly written. Finally, after four hours of digging through the internet, I came across this, a lovely tutorial for Flex 2.0. While old, it's still quite applicable and shows me the key concepts I need to make a simple 2D platformer (or rather, teaches me how to actually get a sprite on the screen, which I can figure out the game logic from there).

There is hope for Blankie after all. Just four hours worth of digging to find that shining jewel.

And as a funny note, apparently the spell checker here seems to think Sunkist is a word, but platformer isn't.

This Week In DigiPen: Chapter 1

This past week was the first week of the fall semester, which means my spare time is null and forfeit. I've been thinking for the past few weeks that maybe I should catalog the adventures of a DigiPen semester, which, as you may have guessed by the title, is exactly what this is. So, with that out of the way, onward!

My summer ends on the scene of DigiPen's new campus bright and early after a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast to commemorate the new school year. It's quite different from the old campus, its grey walls and dreary students. There is much hustle and bustle abound, but most notable of feelings is that of energy - a new presence that had not existed at the old campus. Everyone is excited and happy (for the most part). I wonder how long it will last given DigiPen's high demands - it's never lasted more than a week.

Also apparent, this new building makes even us seniors feel a bit freshman-like. We have no idea where the rooms are now, so we must rely on the maps and signs around us, just as those new to DigiPen at all. It's a bit unnerving, but we should have expected it.

Then, Boerkoel happens. My first class of the day is Cryptography with the infamous math instructor, Boerkoel. He will teach you, and you will learn... or else. Much in his expected manner, he begins class by completely blowing every student's mind and making us all question how much we truly understand the field of mathematics as a whole.

For example, how do you define integers? Whole numbers, you say. Well, how do you define those? Counting numbers, you say. Well, what does that mean? Non-fractional numbers, you say. Well, what about 6 / 2? That is clearly 3, which we have accepted as an integer. Numbers that can be written without a fractional component, you say. Well, what about pi? It has no fractional component there, correct? And so on.

The hustle and bustle are still buzzing as we meet with all our friends we haven't seen since the end of the spring semester before exploring our mysterious bookstore - which to my dismay seems to be a remnant of the 7-Eleven we left behind at the old campus. There are no books (unless you count sketchbooks), but rather candies and such.

The day plays out, with each class showing to be interesting, but also the warnings flare in my mind that these classes will be difficult - which I was expecting. Luckily, I have friends in all of my classes, but still nothing truly prepared me for the drain of being at school for nearly twelve hours with classes through most of the day. Tuesdays will be rough, with Boerkoel's Cryptography in the morning starting at 10:30am, CS300 (Advanced 3D graphics) taught by an instructor with a very thick accent that speaks at 90 miles an hour, Sound Synthesis to wrap up the afternoon, and Steve Rabin's Artificial Intelligence at night, ending at 9:20pm - which got out about twenty minutes late this week (so that I didn't get out of class until roughly 9:40pm). Thursday is similar to Tuesday, but without the night class.

Wednesday was much easier. Game class, and only game class... Well, twice on Wednesdays. There's the lecture and the lab separately, but still, a nice refresher after Tuesday. There's an interesting project that Rabin would like to get going at DigiPen, something that could truly push games to a new level - but it's very, very high demand. I've expressed my interest, but I'm definitely forming backup plans, just in case.

Other discoveries of the week include the food in our new (and most definitely wonderful) cafeteria. Since the new campus is an old Microsoft building (from what I hear, the old Flight Sim building to be precise), we have a fantastic full kitchen and proper cafeteria - staffed quite properly as well! While our old caterers were definitely nice people, I'm sorry to say the food was mediocre for a more-than-mediocre price. The pizza is delicious, and I've only heard tasty things about the sammiches.

Something I've noticed is the lack of "the Magic kids" - students that were always in the cafeteria playing Magic the Gathering at the old campus. So far, I've only heard reports of a single MTG game being played, which is quite odd. Usually they gather immediately for the freshmen to argue over what order cards are played in while the veteran DigiPen students just sigh at their naivety before sorting out the matter. By second semester, all of these Magic kids will have calmed down and gained the knowledge of how every type of action and card can be played. Still, they were always there at the old campus - always were there five MTG players in the room with cards out - but now they seem to have vanished.

That's all I've got for the first week of DigiPen. It's beginning to ramp up, but I'm going to try to put in an update each week (aiming at Fridays, but you never know). Wish me luck - hopefully I won't need it.

Oh, and the DigiFunk has already struck - while not the terrible body odor smell seems to have vanished, the wake of random destruction has already hit our new Plato (see below).

This happened on the first day of school. :(