Second Year Overview

Well I've reached the end of my second year... my thoughts? Pretty hectic, especially for such a short period of time. Gosh! it's amazing to see how much I've done in the past few months and how much I've improved overall.

Interesting year. For the first time on this course we've got to work on game engines, despite the pain and suffering some of us had to go through, it has been an invaluable experience for all. Incredibly useful thing to do, as it will teach you what it's like to work in a team, divide up your roles and test each others trust and confidence. The result of all this was some very, very impressive levels. I have admit I thought my team's level was the weakest out of the bunch, but there were some aspects about it that I think the team should be proud of. One particular aspect that I thought out team outdid to rest was the courtyard of our level. So much cool stuff could be seen in that one bit of space: falling snow, burning barrels and various bits and bobs which made it interesting.

For visual design it was cool of Chris to let us decide on the topics for the end of the second semester. The majority went with 1930s Chicago, much to the disappointment of Bart if I recall, and we pretty much did what was needed on our own. Another interesting thing was the collaborative work with the creative writing course. Basically we had some of them come over and give us a bit of text to read and interpret and then come up with some drawings based on that piece of written work. A pretty neat activity to do, assuming that the bit of text is at least a bit interesting and y'know... 'creative'. Luckily the person I was working with was prepared to make amendments to his work and happily took feedback from me and the others working with him.

As for critical studies... hurr hurr... If you're reading this Mike, know this. Repeating topics is not cool, especially if it's about to be done for the third time. This was main reason I stopped writing the blogs. To make things brief, I went on blackboard to look at the upcoming topics for the blogs only to discover that I've already done them. I thought Mike was taking the piss seeing as he really didn't bother to give us anything new to write out so I just stopped. Unfortunately not doing the blogs would result in failing the module so I eventually did them anyway. I remember too well the last thing Mike said to me before Easter: "Don't be bored of it, enjoy blogging". Oh how I tried Mike... oh how I tried.

Now then, feedback time. The main thing I think needs addressing is that we need more time to work thing that would involve scratch building models. I remember that we only had a week to do the vehicle project which really wasn't enough time since we had to not only design the vehichle but build a physical model in the same week. Some people who work on clay will be quick, but will produce a lumpy mess. People like me who scratch build from plastic sheets need a lot more time to draw, cut and cement the parts, then sand, prime and sand some more before getting access to painting (usually with an airbrush).  I guess the work load from visual design could be reduced during the time we have to work on the group project for game production. Oh yeah, one more thing. Don't make us repeat blog topics, especially in our third year (I'll be damned if I see creativity pop up it's ugly mug again).