Worries for the future...

Hello again!

After MIGS 2011 finished, I followed up with all people whose business cards I attained. Out of all the emails/tweets I've sent, Nels Anderson, Tom Salta, Dorian Kieken, Tristian Capacchione, Manveer Heir, Richard Lemarchand, and Jason Rohrer responded. Those people have now been elevated by a tenfold magnitude on my awesome people list.

Additionally I sent my game Happy Culture Shootout to Jason Rohrer and Nels Anderson after they showed interest in playing it. I was shocked, though I sent it to them with a disclaimer, explaining how it's not a racist game. I feel burdened that I created such a risky game, as many people received the wrong impression of it. Perhaps I should just pretend that I actually made no games in my past; maybe that will be better. Or perhaps I just need to make more socially-sound games to overshadow the misunderstood Happy Culture Shootout, well... once I find the free time to do so. Regardless, I hope their reaction to the game won't be negative, that's all I hope for.

Anyway, now that MIGS 2011 is in the positive memory bank, I've been back to working hard on school work (and taking the occasional Facebook/Twitter procrastination break, shame on me). On my list is an early exam for Marketing Research this Tuesday. Then I have two projects, one for that course, and one for my other marketing course, Consumer Behaviour. They are quite hefty research projects, but likely not as big as the GDW project. Then there's a group assignment for Project Management class due Tuesday (which I've done my part, but I may have to wrap up my other group members' work, who knows.), and then an unnamed final assignment for that same course. Then I had my Modeling Assignment 4's due date postponed to the last day of classes, where Assignment 5 and 6 of the same class are also due. I'm very behind in that course, so I've got to review the video lectures and catch-up; that may take a while. Finally I have homework for Game Engine Design, and must get to level 4 by the midterm. If I do that, I get 80% on the homework section of my final mark, so I must strive to attain a level 5. Heck, I'm able to get bonus marks by getting to level 6.5! But where is the time to do all of the above?! D=

NOW what about the GDW project? Well, much of its content is in regards to my Game Engine course so I might as well elaborate on that. So far I have made NO contribution to the GDW, unlike my group members. This is mostly due to my focus on other homework, MIGS, and procrastination. That's right, I never leave time to have real fun (like going out with friends, and/or playing video games) because I have "too much work", and then I end up procrastinating anyway. How ironic. Though I've realized that my life is actually near-perfect; the only thing standing in my way of it being perfect is myself. I am the last variable to unlock happiness mode, and so far I still haven't changed it. Hopefully soon I will.

I actually hate wasting time, i.e. procrastination; It keeps me from doing work,
which ultimately prevents me from having real fun, like playing video games
and hanging out with friends, like a normal human being should!

Anyway on my list for GDW is to make a Bloom shader, Bomb vertex shader (or enemy aura shader), scripting system (mainly to make animation controllers extensible), a versatile save/load class, AND a tool. I have to make a freaking tool, and I have only two weeks to do it, along with all the other work I have to do. Plus exams? This is going to be hell. Plus I hear one of my group members having trouble with making a Game State class. I suggested using the components method taught in class, but he said that it appeared to be difficult to integrate into code, and that we'd be better off just doing regular inheritence.

Oh man, the component method. Apparently rather than doing inheritance classes, there's a design pattern where the programmer makes a base GameObject class, and has an array of pointers to a base class called "component". Then component have have many derived classes, but only one iteration of derived classes. So now a game object can have the features of a car, plus the features of a boat, plus the features of a plane, etc. This is a lot more versatile and extensive than simple inheritance, having to make a car class, then a boat class, then a car-boat hybrid class; it becomes annoying. This is at least my understanding of it. I have so much more studying and refreshing to do. Oh the woes of a university student. Then I think, is it going to be any easier when I get an actual job in the game industry? If not, I really have to get my ass in gear and become an adult ASAP. Also when I mean become an adult, I mean to be more responsible, more independent, more confident, and more mature. It's scary to think though, because a few years back, I was just a kid in high school. It's like life is moving fast, too fast.

Anyway sorry that this post is quite short compared to my last three posts. It's because I made those posts way too friggen long. Now I'm reverting back to medium-length quick posts, so that I can focus more on doing work. See ya next week! :)