Before School Sprint

Hey folks,

School is just starting up again, so I’m buckling down for another year, but before it gets fully underway, I’ve got a brief period to reflect back on a busy summer.  On that note, it’s somewhat fitting that the last month was probably my busiest of all.

When I haven’t been working on a building a physics engine for my game from scratch, I’ve been trying to cram in as much fun as humanly possible before the semester starts.

Kicking August off, I took a week to go home to Florida and visit friends and family.  It was a brief visit, and a hectic one, running around from one place to the next, but it was nice to catch up with everyone again.  Punctuating the trip was a visit to Charleston, S.C. to help my sister move and prep for her new life as a Med School Student!

The Medical University of South Carolina is one of the 6 oldest medical schools in the country and actually managed to survive the civil war.  It hosts a very nice “White Coat” ceremony for new doctors-to-be every year, so after moving Janelle into her new apartment, we had the chance to enjoy the processional and follow it up with some of the world-famous cuisine of Charleston.

Me and the sis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all that, the whirlwind back in Seattle really began!

Getting into my new apartment quickly became the first order of business.  Moving in with the school buddies and teammates Scott and Zak has proved to be a great decision so far, and hopefully, it will stay that way! : )

Right after moving, it was time to get ready for a  blast from my past: a visit by two of my best friends and former roommates, Mike and Nate.  They headed up to the scenic Northwest for PAX, aka Penny Arcade Expo, the giant gaming conference held downtown every Labor Day weekend.  You might remember it from last year because of the crazy costumes video I posted.

Well, this year was equally crazy, with plenty of fun stuff to do:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And unfortunately, because I don’t have a picture of it, I battled Nate in a crazy cage match at the convention, too.  The Far Cry booth – a game where you are essentially stranded in a remote location and have to contend with wild animals and evil terrorists/mercenaries, a la old Schwarzenegger/Stallone flicks – had a cage match area where it would pit two “wild animals” – people stuffed into heavily padded animal costumes – against each other.  Nate (the bear), and myself (the honey badger) went at it for three rounds in a no-holds barred death match.  Fortunately, we’re quite terrible at no-holds barred death matches and we both survived, much to the amusement of the onlookers surrounding the booth.

Perhaps even more exciting than that, one of the older teams from DigiPen happened to be selected as one of the yearly PAX 10 – one of the ten best indie games of the year (and the only student game to make it).  We all had a chance to see them featured in the show, which was definitely a blast.  I’ll be looking forward to next year’s event, hopefully to display one of my own games.

On that note, it’s time for me to get back to work, so that maybe our team can win. See you next time!

Jon