It's Blogger-ing time!

Puns are a bit thin on the ground at the moment, so I take what I'm given when it comes to ideas

Things are ramping up a bit in my world at the moment. Third year is officially in swing for me, and that means work! So far me and my group have had countless meetings and gatherings and things to sort out the design of out game and associated paraphernalia for this year's big projects - Making a game in the 8-bit style, then making a trailer and stuff for it in another different module that ties in with the game-making one. The group has had awesome ideas all round and I'm really looking forward to putting it together!

In other news..AAAAHHHHHH!!!!! That scream was brought to you courtesy of my Computing Project. The computing project is like a dissertation except it has a practical element as well as a written element! After a long hard time trying to think of what to do, I have come up with the following (rough) title: Creating a Crowd Simuation using Swarm Intelligence. Doesn't that sound super-clever! Basically I'm trying to create a semi-realistic crowd simulation for use in sandbox games like Crackdown of Just Cause. It will be complicated, but I think I can pull it off. I'm having a brief meeting with my supervisor tomorrow to see if it is adequate and if it is, I get to start work proper.

In yet more news, I have been playing a game a lot recently called Minecraft, which is an AMAZING indie title that really warrants peoples attention if you have some spare time. The URL is www.minecraft.net. The game is so simple in premise you'd never think it would work, but if you are even the slightest bit creative, the game is your oyster. The idea is that you (the player) goes around mining blocks, breaking them up and collecting them. Each block takes up a 1x1x1 space in the world. After you have collected blocks, you can then place them wherever and however you wish, basically like bricks in a house. Eventually you start digging down (MINING!) to reach precious ores like iron, gold and diamonds! You can craft these, as well as other materials in to useful items like pickaxes, weapons and armour. Some of the more ambitious minecraft projects include:

-A 1:1 scale replica of the USS Enterprise-D
-A scale model of the whole world!
-A WORKING COMPUTER! It actually works - Minecraft Computer!

The possibilities are endless! I really haven't done the game justice in my description, so I really do urge you to go and give it a try!

I'll draw this to a close, because there's some mining that I desperately need to do!

DFTBA readers