Yes! BOOM: Fireworks Defence Unit is now online on the Windows App Store!
It may take some times to appear in the searches, so check out the game here!
Category Archives: Visits and Events
Any video game conventions, conferences, talks or events that I’ve talked about or attended.
Construct2 Winners Announced
The winners of the Construct2 TouchJam have been announced both on Newgrounds and Scirra!
Unfortunately, I did not win, but I’d like to give my congratulation to the winners, as well as other entries that I enjoyed playing. I also like to say thanks to Tom Fulp for dedicating himself to write opinions for every single entry and organising the competition along with the rest of the Newgrounds Team and Scirra.
Website Redesign Launch
Hello guys!
As you probably can tell from looking around, the development blog has now been transformed closer into a website. The layout has been changed to a more cleaner look, page descriptions have been made more specific to my goals and an indie developer and finally, if you check your address bar, I have an official domain name!
Now whenever you go to this site, you shall be going to gamepopper.co.uk!
I hope to hear what you think of the new design, and I’ll be posting new updates in the near future.
Stafford Windows Games Jam
Yes, you heard it. I am running a Games Jam for students at Staffordshire University, taking place on Stafford Campus. Students will be working solo or in teams to make fun and short games made for Windows platforms, and the two best games will win either a Windows Phone 8 or a Microsoft Kinect for Windows! Games will be made using easily available game development tools such as MonoGame, Unity, Construct2 and Game Maker Studio, or for the more tech savvy, can be made using pure code to run on Windows 8/Phone 8 via HTML5 or C#, and can use the free platform starter kit to get them going.
Information on the Jam is on the Official Facebook Events Page.
Windows 8 Unity Hackathon!
As of writing I’ve just arrived home from the London. Microsoft’s Lee Scott and Simon Michael organised a two day (15 hour) hackathon, where we have the goal of making a simple and fun game in Unity for Windows 8, all part of the Windows Games Ambassador Scheme.
All this took place at Modern Jago, one of the Microsoft establishments for app developers to work on titles and get advice for their work. The layout of the place, as well as the design is very artistic and clever, and they have a lot of tech to play around with, including a 9 panel screened Xbox 360!
After an overview on what all the ambassadors have been up to and what games they’ve made, we also got shown what things Unity have that will make it possible for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 development.
Then it was on with the hackathon, we got into pairs and started building! I worked with fellow games ambassador Ben Beagley for our game.
Blitz Open Day 2013
My trip to visit Microsoft in London
Hello all! Yes, you did read that correctly, on Wednesday 14th I travelled to London to visit one of the Microsoft HQs in the UK, specifically the Yammers HQ. Continue reading
Global Game Jam, Updated Videos and More!!
Hey guys! Sorry it’s been a while since I last posted. I’ve been doing a lot of work, starting on new modules which allow me to learn DirectX, as well as Physics and AI programming techniques. I’m also waiting for the results of some assignments before I put them up online. Today I just got back from the Global Game Jam, which took place at my University Campus in Stafford.
Some quick updates, all the videos now are embedded from Youtube, which is great because viewing is much easier through WordPress and in general. Here are new games I’ve uploaded for you to try out:
It was a brilliant time, getting to work with other talented programmers and game makers from students to industry members, and I got to work in a team to make a game. I worked with another programmer (James Cox), a designer (Rob Pritchard), and two artists (Alex Mehroke and Sam Denvir) to make Anarchy Ambulance a “Crazy Taxi” like game where you obtain hearts for the black market in a not-so calmly manner. Below is a 30 second clip of the game:
(and I’ll be making a main page with a more in-depth gameplay video soon)
Download the game here and make sure you put a comment and vote on our game jam page!
EDIT: Just updated the download link, new version fixes a bug in the game.
Back from America!
Hey guys!
Sorry for the long absence, I’ve been a bit busy unpacking and preparing for another upcoming year of University. As some may recall a few months ago, I got offered a place at a summer camp in America and in mid-June I setted off for America to begin my two months of work. I had a great time meeting a large variety of people young and old and tried out some new things like boating, motorbiking and camp fires. I also worked in the Computers as each staff member taught a Science. There were three of us working in computers and we were allowed to run our own courses, so I figured why not teach them how to make games using programming.
And so the Games Programming Science Course was created! On each two weeks I got a group of enthusiastic campers aged between 7 -15 interesting in making games, and while they had some difficulties understanding some of the codes and functions I was able to help them make some interesting games, including the original Pong! The video in this post shows some of the examples actually made by the campers… Continue reading
Talk with more Game Developers
Today a few graduates now game developers from Blitz Games, Codemasters, Rockstar and Devil’s Details all came to talk about how they joined the games industry, what working in the industry is like an some advice for both applying and working for a games company. It was really helpful to hear from professionals closer to my age, as well as ones that studied at the same University as me, talking about the application and working process from a student and graduate’s perspective. After the talks and Q&A in the lecture room we all went to the Union’s bar and had some further discussions with them. They are really nice guys and definitely know a lot about programming, so I know who to ask if I need any serious help.
GAMEPOPPER 