This was the second GM(48) game jam I had participated in 2014. GM48 is a game jam that happens every season (3 months) where the goal is to create a game using GameMaker Studio in 48 hours. The theme for this game jam was ‘Guns That Don’t Shoot Bullets’. I created a game called Arena Hunter.
One Year On
Today marks a special day. It marks one year since I finished my final year report and more importantly, one year since I finished my first ever video game. The video game I created was called ‘Warrior Of Normandy’ and it was used to answer the academic question “Can video games teach basic educational principles to primary school children without them being aware that they are learning?”. I enjoyed creating the video game so much that after I graduated I started to learn Unity and GameMaker. I believe this was the first time I got interested in video game development and believed that I actually could succeed at it. The download links to the video game created and my final year project report can be found below:
EGX Rezzed 2014 Review
So EGX Rezzed 2014 is over. It was my first ever games convention and I loved every single day I went. In this post I am just going to talk about what I enjoyed on all three days while I was there.
EGX Rezzed 2014
So today I found out EGX Rezzed 2014 is happening tomorrow. Thankfully because my boss is a good guy he let me have tomorrow off. This means that I will be attending EGX Rezzed 2014 for all three days. This will be the first ever games convention I will have gone to. Hopefully I will be able to see some great games and meet some nice people. Sadly by going to EGX means that I will not be able to finish my Mini Ludum Dare Demake game. I will try and finish it another time instead. If anybody wants to meet up at EGX (would be nice since I don’t know anybody going) then leave a comment on this blog post or contact me via Twitter.
This is a step by step guide on how I managed to pair my Bluetooth keyboard (RII ProMini) with the Raspberry Pi. This might help people who are struggling with it just as I was.
- First of all, start with a fresh install of NOOBS on your Raspberry Pi and install Raspbian. This will rule out anything you have done before that would prevent this guide from working.
- Plug the Bluetooth dongle directly on the Raspberry PI board.
- Boot the Raspberry PI and connect to it using SSH from another computer.
- Switch to root.
The Bluetooth installation was not working with me when I was using the latest NOOBS build so I went with a build before December 8th 2013 (November 4th 2013 build). I have noticed on several different forums that the latest build of NOOBS is using a kernel that is stopping most, if not all, Bluetooth dongles from working. I am not sure how true that is since I am not a Linux expert. But I can say that my Bluetooth keyboard worked with a older build of NOOBS and not with the latest build.
All you need is an SSH client like PuTTY, the IP address of your Raspberry and your login credentials. I would not recommend using a wired keyboard since my installation would not work when I was using one. This could have just been a one-off situationso it might not happen to you. Just do not say that I did not warn you.
sudo -s
Wild West Roguelike Mentions
This post is some shameless self-promotion of the game I recently made for the seven 7drl Challenge 2014, Wild West Roguelike. This is the first time where I have been getting positive reviews from a game I have made. So I decided to put all them nice mentions/reviews in this post. I will update this post if my game gets mentioned anywhere else as well.
Seven Day Roguelike Challenge 2014
So it is March now and that means its time for the annual 7drl (Seven Day Roguelike Challenge). Before I continue with this post let me state two important points:
- I never made a roguelike before.
- I never played a roguelike until a week before this challenge.
So let me explain my two important points. I knew what a roguelike was but I never played one. I had seen them being played but I was usually put off by their graphics. But since games in recent years started to have roguelike features (which I found out I enjoy after playing the original version of Spelunky last year), I decided to look more into what a roguelike is. I first decided to actually play a proper roguelike which ended up being NetHack, a second generation major roguelike. I was surprised how much I enjoyed that. Whilst I was looking more into roguelikes I found out the 7drl was happening in a few weeks. Foolishly (or bravely, you decide) I decided to enter. The finished game will be submitted for 7drl 2014 and also for my March game for One Game A Month. Below is my development log of how the seven days got on.
Six Months With Art
This is just a post showcasing to the world (and me personally) on how much I have managed to improve on my art over the past six months. At first I did not believe I had improved at all but after reviewing my images I can see I have improved a lot. This is a good source of inspiration for myself to continue working hard on improving my art. Click on the post to see some of the images I have managed to create over the past six months (if you don’t like pixel art, I recommend you turn away now).
30 Day Challenge: January 2014 Summary
So I managed to complete my 30 day challenge. I believe the challenge went quite well. It certainly went more differently than I originally expected it to go. Here are some of the things I have learned from completing this challenge.
Website Version Four
If you are reading this post, it must mean you have noticed my website has been redesigned. This was a major revision compared to my old version of the website. Here is a list of some of the updates about my new website:
- It has pages to showcase my work, information about myself and most importantly, a way to contact me.
- Used Bootstrap as the framework so the website is responsive and looks nice on any device.
- Used flat design.
- Designed the WordPress theme from scratch so it works as I want it to.
There are more things I have done redesigned and developed for my website which you can read more about by clicking here.