This week I have had a fairly hectic week with my regular job which has unfortunately drawn my attentions away from focusing on my games development one quite so much! All the same I did find time to do some further reading on Java....interesting stuff.

I also received an email from the SAE Insiitute stating they where willing to give 11 full scholarships away at qantm games design college in North London (tuition fees are around (£11'000!) so I spent some time justifying why they should give it to me! fingers crossed.

If you fancy giving it a go the website is www.mycreativefuture.com.

Aside from the usual reading its been fairly unproductive apart from that i'm afraid, I also got my dreamcast on Friday....its funny how you remember games being alot better than they where, I mean don't get me wrong there is some great games on the DC but its just amazing how much the quality of gaming has improved aswell as the average gamers expectation. E.g The voice acting in Shenmue is hilariously bad. Sounds like Stephen Hawkins dropping some wu-tang clan. Anyway some games are amazing, House of the dead 2, Rez. Those kinds.

In terms of game playing this week I have also;

Nearly finished campain on Magic the gathering (this afternoon)

Come 1 off the 5 in a row for pro evo 2008 on xbox live (frustrating)

Smashed a few heads with the end of a shotgun on GoW2 (still the most laggy poorly supported online experience on Xbox live)

Anyway hope all is well and let me know if you check out the mycreativefuture webiste / have any success with it!

PEACE DJL

So here I am smashing out part 2 of what will become an epic journey to becoming a games designer. So I am still learning about the framework of games design, the actual blood and guts; programming. Needless to say this isn't the most thrilling subject but I can confirm this much; its all about grammar,numbers and spelling. Allthough that sounds like hell it is actually fairly rewarding, I made a program that can duplicate what I say. So when I type something this gets repeated back to me; really useful. I have found various bits on other sites that are also extremely good. I would reccommend this guide to making a basic 3D tank game;

http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2006/11/02/938703.aspx

You will need to obtain a program to be able to write in C#, from my experience thus far (little to none) I would reccommend Microsofts visual basic 2008.

So aside from increasing my knowledge on the prgramming front I have continued to seek advice from all the usual places on the internet, I would reccommend being selective with some of this stuff; theres an arrogant geek that made a video on youtube that made a video called "how to become a games designer" (or words to that affect) that basically tells you he can't tell you how to become a games designer, needless to say he still has a billion 5 star ratings.Hes probably one of those guys in gears who tries to put a grenade ontop of a grenade.

I also just brought a second hand dreamcast with 50 games, 4 controllers, light gun, keyboard, steering wheel. I cannot wait to get into shenmue....

I am also starting to write a couple of reviews on here to tell it how it is.

Until next week, PEACE DJL

So I have made up my mind to become a Games Designer, with little/no programming experience I am going to take the bull by the horns in an attempt to actually have an interesting career. I currently have no I.T qualifications and very little to speak of with respect to being creative....Sounds really promising doesn't it? The main thing I have got is alot of motivation. After working a dull job for to long I have decided its time to "man up" and get my geek on (if that makes sense). So in my 2nd week of aspiring to become a game designer the following has been done.

1) Lots of internet research into how to get into game design. This included researching different colleges, courses, helpful websites such as www.gamedev.net.
2) Got myself various programming tools and books. visual basic, jcreator, netbeans. flash editor.
3) Started to learn java with a book and software. Anway, I will be updating this so you lot can all laugh at me falling flat on my arse failing to get into game designing in 10 years time.

Peace, DJL P.S; Please don't tell me I have to study c++ not Java; I am aware of this I just want to start with Java as its a bit easier to understand.