Some quick updates!
I finally got my text book for the free game design course I'm taking and for thirty dollars it was well worth it! Some of the challenges you can feel how much you've learned from start to finish.
Writing a story a week has been a challenge, but I will be posting them as I finish them!
Needing a break I'll be going to see Public Enemies tonight (hopefully) or at least spending the night playing the Fury of Dracula board game (which is super awesome and highly recommended).
Also the Green Lantern story that is coming out, Blackest Night, sounds better and better every time I read about it. The whole Sinestro Corps background, the different Lanterns and now the revival of former superheroes as the Black Lanterns has got me thinking... why is Marvel popular? I mean DC crossed all their worlds in Crisis on Infinte Earths, but they just keep revisiting and cross referencing and it is that attention to detail that just keeps me coming back for more. Yeah, Wolverine is pretty intense... but The Flash running and pushing a villian through time... what does Wolverine have on that?
Anyway better (more productive) update to come!
Tim Edwards
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
The Tim and the Eight Day Stretch.
So, I am warning everyone... I may be on media blackout for the next eight days. I work straight from July ninth, to July Sixteenth and all my spare time will be spent on my course and my writing.
One thing I have learned thus far is playtesting board games is so rediculously fun! I am currently working on the deck for Propaganda!!! which I am confident enough with that once I get the playtesting done I may submit it to be published. (If I can find a publisher of board games that is...).
Oh! Also everyone keep their fingers crossed for me, I just applied to every position at Bioware that is available to me and my current level of experience with games. Soon I might indeed get a call back... but it will be a restraining order! Although with every story, and every game design I see through to completion... I feel that much more confident and even closer to achieving my goal, despite the UofA not accepting me this year (Thanks goes out to my old high school for sending out my transcripts almost five months after I applied).
No new creative items to post here, just news. Keep following though and they shall come like the rains... in Edmonton.
Thanks Again,
Tim
One thing I have learned thus far is playtesting board games is so rediculously fun! I am currently working on the deck for Propaganda!!! which I am confident enough with that once I get the playtesting done I may submit it to be published. (If I can find a publisher of board games that is...).
Oh! Also everyone keep their fingers crossed for me, I just applied to every position at Bioware that is available to me and my current level of experience with games. Soon I might indeed get a call back... but it will be a restraining order! Although with every story, and every game design I see through to completion... I feel that much more confident and even closer to achieving my goal, despite the UofA not accepting me this year (Thanks goes out to my old high school for sending out my transcripts almost five months after I applied).
No new creative items to post here, just news. Keep following though and they shall come like the rains... in Edmonton.
Thanks Again,
Tim
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Propaganda!!!
No sleep for the wicked... or the creative!
For the WW1 assignment I went and researched the effect of propaganda on the Americans to get them to agree to help their Allies and join in the war! I wrote this up but have yet to playtest it, but Hey! That's what days off are for!
For the WW1 assignment I went and researched the effect of propaganda on the Americans to get them to agree to help their Allies and join in the war! I wrote this up but have yet to playtest it, but Hey! That's what days off are for!
Enjoy!!
Tim
Old Short Story!
Quick update while I evade the Sandman for yet another night. I have a Game Design Assignment that is actually quite challenging for this week and I'm doing my best to multitask and manage my time, but work enjoys getting in the way. Also, I've begun to feel like a narcaleptic as I sit down to do the research on World War 1 for the board game assignment and fall instantly asleep. I'm sure somewhere, a veteran rolled over in his grave.
The assignment has been posted here, and I'm working on the highest difficulty. My initial thought instantly turned to a board game based around technology, industry and espionage but after doing research it has actually not helped as much as I'd initally hoped. I feel more stumped than before (Thanks Wikipedia!), but I do have tomorrow off to focus solely on that idea and writing!
Also, it seems I'll be working on a board game with my room mates which is actually exciting! (I kept telling them we should start small, or with something you can SEE the progress we're making. Millions of lines of code are lost on us artistic types!) But it seems I may have inspired them with the inital assignment board game they tested! It looks like we'll be doing a Fantasy Based Player VS Multiple Players type board game! I'm totally excited for the challenge as the scope is a bit bigger than my Snakes & Ladders wannabe as well as I'll get some team experience. I think even if they don't follow through to completion, I very well might!
Alright, so for any who haven't seen this already it's a short story I wrote not that long ago but it's just an idea for a character I've had for awhile. Feel free to leave any comments or if you'd like to give me any editing advice just feel free to leave your email address in the comments section and I'll get back to you.
For now enjoy this 25 page Action-Comedy about an excellent assassin who can't seem to move up past number 11 of the top 10 in the world. He has many moments of very poor luck and when you seem to be constantly strapped for cash, gear isn't always performing up to task! Also stay tuned... depending on how feedback goes on the story, I may actually post some Podcast clips from when I was considering turning this character into a weekly podcast show!
The assignment has been posted here, and I'm working on the highest difficulty. My initial thought instantly turned to a board game based around technology, industry and espionage but after doing research it has actually not helped as much as I'd initally hoped. I feel more stumped than before (Thanks Wikipedia!), but I do have tomorrow off to focus solely on that idea and writing!
Also, it seems I'll be working on a board game with my room mates which is actually exciting! (I kept telling them we should start small, or with something you can SEE the progress we're making. Millions of lines of code are lost on us artistic types!) But it seems I may have inspired them with the inital assignment board game they tested! It looks like we'll be doing a Fantasy Based Player VS Multiple Players type board game! I'm totally excited for the challenge as the scope is a bit bigger than my Snakes & Ladders wannabe as well as I'll get some team experience. I think even if they don't follow through to completion, I very well might!
Alright, so for any who haven't seen this already it's a short story I wrote not that long ago but it's just an idea for a character I've had for awhile. Feel free to leave any comments or if you'd like to give me any editing advice just feel free to leave your email address in the comments section and I'll get back to you.
For now enjoy this 25 page Action-Comedy about an excellent assassin who can't seem to move up past number 11 of the top 10 in the world. He has many moments of very poor luck and when you seem to be constantly strapped for cash, gear isn't always performing up to task! Also stay tuned... depending on how feedback goes on the story, I may actually post some Podcast clips from when I was considering turning this character into a weekly podcast show!
Thanks for reading along!
Tim
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Latest Updates!
Alright, since I'm in "update the blog" mode, I've updated the sidebar to also include awesome pieces of my work as time goes on. Thus far I've updated with a link to the final project of my 3D Animation Course.
NES Magic - A Rube Goldberg Machine based off the idea of what really happens when you push Power on your old NES Machine. Powered by the Triforce? Who really knows?
My other update is a project from the free game design class I am currently working on. I designed and implemented the game in less than 15 minutes and spent 45 minutes playing. Oh good times!
My final update from today will be a short story I've entitled "The Runner", which is an effort to help me manage a sense of urgency in an action story. I am weak in action sequences and I wanted to try something new. Hope you enjoy!
Feel free to leave me any comments about my work and any advice to get into the game industry is always appreciated!
Tim
NES Magic - A Rube Goldberg Machine based off the idea of what really happens when you push Power on your old NES Machine. Powered by the Triforce? Who really knows?
My other update is a project from the free game design class I am currently working on. I designed and implemented the game in less than 15 minutes and spent 45 minutes playing. Oh good times!
My final update from today will be a short story I've entitled "The Runner", which is an effort to help me manage a sense of urgency in an action story. I am weak in action sequences and I wanted to try something new. Hope you enjoy!
Feel free to leave me any comments about my work and any advice to get into the game industry is always appreciated!
Tim
Really? October?
WHOA, It's been a bit of awhile. I apparently need to work on my blogging skills. Or at least schedule myself some time to blog! Seriously... October feels like last week considering I thought about writing to this blog not too long ago, but it seems the time has passed.
Well... now that the shock is out of my system, I'm sure everyone is wondering what I've been up to, and how exciting it must have been. The sad part is, working and sleeping are the majority of my time and the rest is divided up between playing board games, writing and designing my own board games. Christmas came and went... Oh yeah, and then I moved. Then... here we are?
Alright, in more detail Christmas was intense and I pulled ahead as a supervisor. My title went from being Audio Supervisor (One Floor) to Store Supervisor (Both Floors) and then to Operations/Customer Service Supervisor (Both Floors, Schedules for the Visual Floor + Sales and Conversion Goals for the store). No pay raises though, but no pay cuts either! I recently had a job interview within HMV to see if I was ready for the next level. I want it for the challenge, the control over my schedule and for the old resume... but at the same time I really want to just work at Bioware... latest developments coming soon...
I also applied to attend school at the University of Alberta, which they gladly took my $100 and let me know I was unable to attend because of previous marks (Which is a whole other story to do with Dal-lousy back in Halifax). So I have no school plans for the fall unless Grant MacEwan comes through. Although my best friend seemed like he was trying to talk me out of Computer Engineering... but I want a job that is NOT retail. Retail feels like permanent high school, and that my friends is B.S.
So no school... but google found me a twitter for Bioware, which linked to a blog, which lead to an article, where I found...
The Holy Grail!
...Alright, all B.S. aside, I found an article that really just made sense about how to become a writer at Bioware. So henceforth I claim my laptop in the name of furthering my writing abilities as well as game design abilities. So as of next week I will begin writing one 25 page short story per week, until I get hired on. I will also be continuing my participation in Ian Schreiber's Game Design Course (Link at the top right). So far it has been an awesome journey as I created a 15 minute game: Space Disruption. It's been fun, I recommend any and all who follow my blog should read that blog and feel free to look over my game design and testing. Feel free to leave comments but I have to go write! Later!
Tim (Apparent Blogger @ Large)
Well... now that the shock is out of my system, I'm sure everyone is wondering what I've been up to, and how exciting it must have been. The sad part is, working and sleeping are the majority of my time and the rest is divided up between playing board games, writing and designing my own board games. Christmas came and went... Oh yeah, and then I moved. Then... here we are?
Alright, in more detail Christmas was intense and I pulled ahead as a supervisor. My title went from being Audio Supervisor (One Floor) to Store Supervisor (Both Floors) and then to Operations/Customer Service Supervisor (Both Floors, Schedules for the Visual Floor + Sales and Conversion Goals for the store). No pay raises though, but no pay cuts either! I recently had a job interview within HMV to see if I was ready for the next level. I want it for the challenge, the control over my schedule and for the old resume... but at the same time I really want to just work at Bioware... latest developments coming soon...
I also applied to attend school at the University of Alberta, which they gladly took my $100 and let me know I was unable to attend because of previous marks (Which is a whole other story to do with Dal-lousy back in Halifax). So I have no school plans for the fall unless Grant MacEwan comes through. Although my best friend seemed like he was trying to talk me out of Computer Engineering... but I want a job that is NOT retail. Retail feels like permanent high school, and that my friends is B.S.
So no school... but google found me a twitter for Bioware, which linked to a blog, which lead to an article, where I found...
The Holy Grail!
...Alright, all B.S. aside, I found an article that really just made sense about how to become a writer at Bioware. So henceforth I claim my laptop in the name of furthering my writing abilities as well as game design abilities. So as of next week I will begin writing one 25 page short story per week, until I get hired on. I will also be continuing my participation in Ian Schreiber's Game Design Course (Link at the top right). So far it has been an awesome journey as I created a 15 minute game: Space Disruption. It's been fun, I recommend any and all who follow my blog should read that blog and feel free to look over my game design and testing. Feel free to leave comments but I have to go write! Later!
Tim (Apparent Blogger @ Large)
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Life: Upgrades.
So it's been a long time since I last posted. I feel I should get back in the habit of posting my challenges, reviews and progress in getting a game career. Lately it's been getting hectic as I get trained to be a floor supervisor at HMV for christmas. I've only been at HMV since June, so this might be the fastest I've moved up at any of my jobs. I'm also realizing just because I've moved up at every job I've worked at, it literally means nothing. It's great for if I want to work retail for the rest of eternity, however it gives me no edge in any other aspect.
I can manage teams of up to forty people, I can delegate, manage tasks, work with deadlines... yet my resume apparently does not commnicate this, or these aren't worthwhile skills. I believe they are, but I'm also outside the industry staring in. I feel like I'm at the zoo, but I have been feeding the lions, now I want to be one. I said once I would literally kill a man to work at Bioware and then my friend stabbed back with "Well, they're only asking for a module... much easier." Sadly a module requires a lot of time and focus. I have focus, but very little time. I also find myself getting stuck on the most rediculous things (I just want this guy to automatically talk to the player when the module loads, why is this script not working?! ARG!) and it just taking forever. The last module I made was deep, intricate and well layed out, but for some strange reason I didn't have the problems with that one that I am currently plagued with! Perhaps it might have been because I was fresh out of my Computer Science stint and programming was still fresh. Now, I'm rusty at coding and frustrated by the little things. It only makes me more determined to finish it, but I feel like I've become limited because of my rusty coding skills.
Anyway, I just thought I'd post on here to perhaps get back into the habit and give an update to the family and friends who are curious! Thanks for the support!
I can manage teams of up to forty people, I can delegate, manage tasks, work with deadlines... yet my resume apparently does not commnicate this, or these aren't worthwhile skills. I believe they are, but I'm also outside the industry staring in. I feel like I'm at the zoo, but I have been feeding the lions, now I want to be one. I said once I would literally kill a man to work at Bioware and then my friend stabbed back with "Well, they're only asking for a module... much easier." Sadly a module requires a lot of time and focus. I have focus, but very little time. I also find myself getting stuck on the most rediculous things (I just want this guy to automatically talk to the player when the module loads, why is this script not working?! ARG!) and it just taking forever. The last module I made was deep, intricate and well layed out, but for some strange reason I didn't have the problems with that one that I am currently plagued with! Perhaps it might have been because I was fresh out of my Computer Science stint and programming was still fresh. Now, I'm rusty at coding and frustrated by the little things. It only makes me more determined to finish it, but I feel like I've become limited because of my rusty coding skills.
Anyway, I just thought I'd post on here to perhaps get back into the habit and give an update to the family and friends who are curious! Thanks for the support!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
