Hey folks,

Well, summer is in full swing now, and July has already snuck up on me!  It’s been too long since my last post, so I’ve got a lot of details for you readers to get caught up on:

First off, if you remember my last post, I told you I would make sure I started the summer off right by taking a few weeks off.  Fortunately, with nothing major on my plate, I got a chance to do just that:

Besides enjoying some hard earned game time, I took a day with some friends to head over to Seattle and visit the Asian Art Museum, part of the SAM (Seattle Art Museum).  I unfortunately didn’t take any photos from inside the museum, but I did get a nice picture of the view from outside:

Besides being situated in a nice park on a gorgeous day, the museum wasn’t too shabby either!  B...

Hey folks,

Sorry for the long delay between posts, but I’ve been in the final semester rush for the last couple weeks and now I’ve finally got a chance to take a moment and write!

After all this time, I know many of you would like a status update on the game we’ve been working on for the past year.  The last time I said anything about it was waaaaay back in January, and Giga Gravity Games has come a long way since then:

We’ve been super excited about how everything has turned out, and are hoping to take the game to competition at PAX later this year.  The incredible thing for the team is how fun the game has turned out to be.  Even as developers who see the game every day, spending hours upon hours repeatedly testing it, we still have a great time playing it...

Hey folks,

Its been a while since the last formal post.  Last month’s post was just a link to my interview with DigiPen, so I guess I finally have to get back into the writing scene.

Speaking of writing, I know many of you are still looking for Book 3.  As I’ve stated before, I’m still working through edits – just very, very slowly.  Definitely not as quickly as I like.  I’m going to be devoting Tuesday mornings specifically to keep writing and editing.  I’ve had some very interesting ideas for books recently, so I might divide my time between several works, but at least I’ll be setting a more structured time to work than my current on again, off again style...

Hey folks,

I’m in the middle of a milestone week, so I don’t have time for a regular post, but I thought I’d put the word out that I got interviewed by DigiPen this past month about my book and working at the school.  I must admit I’ve only glanced over it – it seems really odd to read my own interview – but I thought it was kinda cool and worth posting about.  Anyway, I’ll try to catch up on the blog later this month after I finish a few key projects, including a coding challenge for an internship.

See you then!

Jon

Hey folks,

I know I haven’t posted in a long while, and I’m really sorry about that!

The past semester was pretty crazy, and I ended up spending most of my time at school, working on projects and assignments.  I know I’ve talked about the intensity of DigiPen before, but the second year definitely turns it up.  And just like anything else, if you want to be really good at something, you have to put in a huge amount of time.  My team probably averaged a little over 80 hours a week at school the past semester, so it’s definitely been taking up a lot of time.

On that note, I figured I should finally give you a taste of what we’ve been working on:

We’re currently calling it Giga Gravity Games, and it’s a four-player arena brawler where everyone fights in zero-G, sticking to the ground thro...

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...

Hey folks,

Well, first off let me apologize for not posting more often over the summer.  It’s actually turned out to be quite a bit busier than I anticipated.  Between friends, activities, and work, it’s been very, very hectic.

Many of you know I took a job over the summer teaching kids basic programming skills as part of a DigiPen summer camp/outreach program.  Although it has been a good experience, I can definitely say I honestly don’t know how teachers survive the school year!  I’ve taught for four weeks now, and every single week has ended up being exhausting!  The particular program I worked with was a strange summer camp/summer school hybrid that required myself and fellow teachers/TAs to grade assignments and submit those to the local school system...

Well folks, it’s just about that time – the start of Summer in WA, and I have to say, I’m pretty excited.  Even though it is June, the temperature is in the high 60s to low 70s and supposed to stay that way for a while.  And despite Seattle’s reputation, it’s been one beautiful day after the next.

Even without the fantastic weather, the last few weeks have been action-packed, with lots of great things happening!

First things first, I was honored to win one of two scholarships in the first annual Vandelay Web Future of Technology Essay Contest!  If you’re interested, you can check out Vandelay Web and see my essay here.  You may or may not agree with my points, but I’d love to hear your feedback on it.  Thanks again to Mark Runyon and Vandelay Web for the great honor!

And while that al...

Hey Everyone,

I’ve got a special treat for all of you today, an interview with fellow author and friend Rori Shay!

I first met Rori a couple of years ago at an SCBWI  conference  during a  critique session.  We’ve been helping each other with our  writing ever  since.  Rori has just released her first book,  Elected,  and is  promoting the rest of her series through kickstarter.  By  going to  kickstarter, you can check out her book, and pick up a  copy for only  $5!  If you contribute, and the kickstarter meets its  stretch goals, you  can get a copy of several other books, including  Book I of  The Phoenix Fallacy, for free!

 For all you readers out there, Elected is a sci-fi novel about a girl  named Aloy who is forced to masquerade as a man in order to help  her...

Well folks, one year at DigiPen is in the record books.

It’s been a busy year, but a good one.  I’ve learned an incredible amount about programming and design, and seen first hand how much it takes to put together even the smallest game project.  On that note, you can check out a brief trailer video for Skirmish below (video has music and sound – fullscreen suggested):

The game really came together nicely for such a short development cycle with a bunch of people who, honestly, had no idea what they were doing at the start of the semester!  A lot of our players have commented on how fun Skrimish is to play, and if you’re interested in trying it out, you’ll be able to download it at the DigiPen game gallery very soon.

In related news, while I wasn’t working on my own game, I had a chan...