Week 26 : Renovation Complete

So I am stepping off topic a bit this week. If you have followed this blog you know that in the process to get ready for a new career and life I have been putting my 'ducks in a row'. Specifically I have been getting my house in Kentucky ready to be sold. I really live in California if I have have property in Kentucky, not to mention the money will go a long way. When I started this adventure, twenty six weeks ago, I decided that I needed to sell my house. If you recall in late October we had a disaster happen, a leak in the slab set me back in my timeline and budget. Well I am happy to say that this weeks concludes all the renovation. We added a new kitchen, improved the porch, oh and re plumbed the whole house. But it looks like we will be re listing the house this week and better yet an old neighbor is looking to move back to the street, with any luck I'll have it sold as soon as it hits the market! I have been blessed that my mom has taken the reigns and kept things moving.

I guess this shows you that anything is possible is you keep focused on a single task and work at it each week, like this blog.


Well, time for a morning run and then hit the books. I'll miss school, but I am getting excited to make some money with theses talents.


See you in Fifteen weeks!

Week 25 : Rock is a Moving

So it last week I was able to get all my reading done and do a round of coding on all projects. The network project was a bit frustrating because the instructor and graduate student didn't inform us to use port 50000 and higher. So I was pulling hair for a bit just getting the client and server to talk to each other.

The compiler class is fun I believe I have my Lexer working properly (spitting out tokens for string formals, ints, and floats).  I already have my BNF ready now I need to work on my parser. Tangentially related I downloaded a LUA interpreter and have begun learning that language for my potential new job.

In my AI class, my partner redid the GUI framework, which looks sweet. I added IDA* to our options, it is slow and the path it not optimal, AND in actuality it isn't pure IDA* because that takes too long. So this is a modified IDA* with open closed lists. Regardless it is cool to look at, see my Facebook account for a video.

Finally, I finished the published books of Game of Thrones very good stuff. I guess now I have to hurry up and wait for Mr. Martin to publish the next book.

See you in Sixteen weeks

Week 24 : Spring Projects

Well this Semester is shaping up to be rather interesting. It looks like my AI project should be fun. I will be working with Brett Henne a super talented engineer. We will explore dynamic navgraphs with A*. Essentially an agent will have a proximity sensor. This sensor will tell the agent which parts of the navgraph are visible. The agent will then try to go to the node closest to the target location. As they move the nav graph will become more visible. If an agent encounters another Agent they can converge and share map information. It should be neat.

Brett showed me C# toolbox on Saturday morning and by Monday night I have built a primitive prototype for the A* algorithm so cool. It is funny how much you can do when you set your mind to something.

In the meantime I need to start researching Visual Programming languages for my compiler class . . .  better start reading.


See you in Seventeen weeks

Week 23 : The Beginning of the End

It is working! Maybe it was the last week's topic, or perhaps that last week was the first week people were back from holiday. Regardless of the reason I finally got what I have been looking for, hope. Last Friday Tell Tale contacted me saying I was a suitable candidate for their Game play Programmer / Lua Scripter! Kahzahh! They plan or setting up an interview sometime in March as to accommodate when I will be graduating. All very promising.

I guess I will continue reading the Song of Ice and Fire, hoping that I get hired and posted on that project. I am a quarter of the way through Feast for Crows, I really love this series.

Now it is time to focus on school. Today denotes the final semester, I get to master the network layer, AI and build a compiler. I must admit I am excited.


See you in Eight teen weeks

Week 22 : Instructor

Funny thing, I have been applying to game companies for two months now and have not heard any word back. So over the break I decide to apply to game schools. Not only have they all replied they replied quickly, like under 24 hours. So it makes me think. . .  what chance does a student of game design actually have if the companies they want to work for won't even respond to their instructors? It is dis heartening to say the least. Are the requirements for game jobs too specialized? Does the game industry just recycle the same programmers over and over? Won't they run out of people?

Many of the positions I see require specialization, for example optimization. Which in layman's terms mean 'can you write algorithms which will be executed on parallel processors?' Well I have read the Open CL  specification, I know the concept, but never had the opportunity to build something my self. So I consider what gaming schools teach. They teach the basics, what are the tools, what is the process. . . . I doubt very much that the students of game schools build a game engine little less designing them to work in heterogeneous systems.

I once believed it was experience the industry wanted so I worked with Indie companies. Then I realized it was a piece of paper stating I knew computer science, which is why I am wrapping up my Masters. Now I fear it is the name of the school which gets you hired. I have know people who have come from highly recognizable schools get jobs in the industry right out of college but fail because they don't have the competitive spirit. A spirit I have, why else would I hold on to this dream without the slightest encouragement from the industry?

Perhaps I am being impatient, maybe I will get that interview today. I hope so, I feel I deserve as much. In the meantime I am applying to other instructor positions. I figure if I find my self teaching again I should choose a school where I can get a PhD while I teach. Though I'd rather be building games.




See you in Nineteen weeks