Week 30 : Coding

Another huge milestone reached, this means only 10 weeks left to get employed, yikes!

All in all this next week is about coding, I spent the weekend building an infrastructure for a Token Ring Network. Now I must pass that code to my partner and hope she is up to the task of implementing voting and token passing.

So today I revisit the AI path finding project, where I'll implement a protocol for reporting successful runs to the console. After that feature all that is left is map sharing.

Later in the week I will pick up on the RoseTree Compiler. I am at the point where I am creating the Parse Tree, and although my process yields me a tree of some sort I think I can improve it to yield just a syntax tree instead of the full parse. Before I proceed coding I need feedback from the professor so I don't waste time on a golden fleece approach.

'How did the interviews go?' you might ask. Pretty well, I have been asked to visit a site and there is still activity on my LinkedIn account, I am hoping to get a few more interviews before Spring break starts and the next phase of the hiring process begins.

See you in eleven weeks.

Week 29 : Hiring Season

It is official, 'Hiring season' is upon us. Apparently the window starts on Groundhog's Day and goes to Easter. I can say that I have been contacted by several companies already. Non recruiter interviews are scheduled let's hope things pan out. As this blog is about my quest to get a job at Tell Tale we will keep the other interview's private.  I know several former students are following my blog, they are always welcomed to ask for details. I plan on recapping to whole process once Tell tale has made their offer =)

In the meantime I get to work on my interview skills while juggling school. I hope I am burdened with traveling and finishing assignments. On another positive note, the house is done. It should be listed by the end of the day. All in all my plan is panning out.



See you in Twelve weeks

Week 28 : Save the Cat

Wow week 28, that means I have been at this for seven months. What do I have for you this week you ask?

Well, I decided to pickup a book on screen writing, don't worry I haven't given up on my dream to make games only to decide to move to LA and be the next big screen writer.

I did however spent the weekend watching some classic movies and began dabbling with a movie idea myself. Yes, I did attempt to start writing a script. I quickly came to the realization I don't have a clue on how to write a movie. Sure I have watched plenty, and read plenty of plays in my youth, but I never really attempted to write one. Heck 110 pages should be easy to bust out, boy was I wrong.

So I found a book 'Save the Cat', it is a very good read, nice and light. Most importantly it gives you the right questions to ask. What is the one line that describes the whole story? Who is this story about? How is he/she growing through the story? What is the demographic? What is the time frame?

These are all great questions that help you refine your idea. Although I am not planning on writing the next big budget movie I do think these questions help in game development. At Plastic Games we have been working on a game for a while. The game play is solid and fun but the story. . . the story isn't fleshed out. So why not use the basis for solid story telling, the movies, also for game development? It seems like the natural thing to do.

As we know, Tell Tale Games is all about story. Story drives the game. I would bet most of the story writers at Tell Tale have written scripts and plays themselves. It is not only good to learn how to write better for my personal knowledge, there is a language to script writing. It is better to become familiar that language now than to have a blank look at my face when I am asked about 'log lines' and 'act breaks'.

I actually have a book on writing for animation, that one will be read next, and perhaps a book on writing for comics. I have looked into books focused on writing for games, but I am hesitant to read them. The authors have plenty of games in their pocket but many of their credits are sports game related. I don't ever recall be captivated by the plot line in Fifa or Madden. Let's face it, good story writing is few and far between. Perhaps it is a result of the infancy of games or maybe there isn't a target audience to justify publishers creating such a niche book.

In any case a good student can take the fundamental solutions from one subject and reapply them to new problems. That is what knowledge is all about.

See you in thirteen weeks

Week 27 : Unlikely Events

Last week was very interesting, first off it snowed down here in Florida. It was an ice storm really, there was a little dusting of snow on top of the ice. Nothing that a northerner would be concerned about but this is Florida, and Florida doesn't have salt trucks. The town pretty much shut down, the University closed, the stores closed, it was sorta odd.

Then last Friday I was researching for my assistance ship, I found some interesting articles about NASA's continuous planning systems called ASPEN and CASPER. I was put on this task because the school wants to build a system for 'smart' houses using planning. ASPEN and CASPER use iterative repair on their plans so there is no conflicts.I had initially heard of their systems when I was researching for my Master's project. One of the dilemmas with planners is making sure the generated plan is still good after that small window when it is generated and executed.

Long story short I read the articles and said hey I wonder if there is any jobs for this tech. Low and behold there was a 'entry' level position in NASA's planning and scheduling department. Now I love games but  this job would be the only job that would superseded my passion for games. So I applied.

It made my top three job opportunities:
1) LUA Scripter at Tell Tale Games
2) Software engineer at NASA's Planning and Scheduling systems.
3) Developer for IBM's Watson supercomputer

It is nerve racking putting these applications out now, knowing there is probably a six month turn around before I even hear back. In fact all weekend I was a bit distraught worrying about what my future holds starting May 3rd.

 Then I told myself 'Anything could happen. Heck it snowed in Florida!' That seemed as unlikely as my ex wife contacting me . . . . until she did.

I think God is reassuring me.

See you in Fourteen Weeks