Final Project is still going well. Feature Fragment #1 was passed with flying colours and we are making steady progress. Since getting the Maya Model and Animation Exporter working I've mostly been making some models and putting them into the game. I've added some features like attach points too, so I'm pretty proud of it all. I could still add blending between animations, instead of just between frames though. Apart from that I've been making the menus and HUD. We are getting close to having some proper gameplay in the game so I'll need to make the HUD do more soon.
On the job front, Rare called and wanted to fly me out for an interview, but I've all but signed for EA now, which is really exciting. I'm finally going to be doing what I've always wanted to do. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to talk about and since I don't want to get into any trouble, I'll just say I'll be starting in California later this year. All I need to do is read over my contract next week. I hoping Louise is going to be coming with me. We need to sort out a job and visa for her, but hopefully that won't be too hard. She and Mum are coming out to visit later this week too!

I have been meaning to post here for weeks now. It has been over a month since last time I did and a lot has happened. First, Mum and Louise were supposed to go on a cruise but ended up staying in Orlando instead, (long story, but it was nice to see them. They are back in a couple of weeks too!)
Our Feasibility and Proof of Concept presentations went really well for Final Project. POC was done infront of Digital Art and Design students that are hoping to help us gamers out for their portfolio. It seems like we are going to get the cream of the crop to help us out since they pretty much all chose our game or one other group's. The students with the highest GPA get their top choice downwards. Works out well for us!
I'm not sure how much I am allowed to say about my job hunting, but I've been doing well with EA. I passed the programming test, spent all day in an interview during GDC and have managed to get myself two offers! Details pending on that one. I'm also getting a phone call from Rare in the morning.
Speaking of GDC, that was fantastic. I was disappointed to miss a day since there was so much I wanted to see, but I still managed to get to most of what I wanted to. The IGDA people and mentors were great, the sessions interesting and the free t-shirts of good quality. I have already written up a report on what I got up to for the IGDA, so I'll post a link here when they put it up on their site next week. Just let me say thanks to all of them, especially Rudy Geronimo for all the leg work and Mike Mika & Chris Charla for mentoring me.
Right now I'm back to work on my Maya Model and Animation Exporter. Models are in, but there is some issue with the animations. Some of the matrices for the joints seem to be in the wrong order or something... Getting annoying, but I need to get back to it. Feature Fragment 1 is on Monday.

I was not allowed to post until earlier this week, but I have been awarded the scholarship to attend GDC from the IGDA! Thanks again to Rudy Geronimo and everyone at the IGDA for the opportunity. That is really fantastic news for me and I am now even more excited about going. I have just planned out which sessions I hope to attend when I get there. I can't make it to all of them, so I have had to prioritize my choices. There is a lot in there about Microsoft and the Xbox 360 along with some Sony PS3 and PSP stuff. I have to attend some talks on Half-Life 2 and F.E.A.R. too since I love those games so much.
Since I had already booked my hotel, flight and Expo pass I had a nightmare changing things to fit the new schedule, (and it has turned out to be pretty expensive too.) Still, I get all the added bonuses of the trip to EA and having a mentor etc, so I am still really pumped about it. Since I could not return my Expo pass I donated it to my friend Duke who came along last year but wasn't planning on making it this time around.
I mentioned that I get a mentor. I am not so sure about what that entails, but I know I have been paired up with Mike Mika, Studio Head of Backbone Entertainment Emeryville. They are the creators of Death Jr. for the PSP and I can't wait to talk to him. I would like to thank him and the other mentors for giving up their time for us helpless students ;)
What else has happened recently? Well this was our last week of Game Project Preproduction and Game Design Fundamentals 2. The presentations I gave in GDF2 rocked the house and I think the design doc our team produced in GPP came out pretty well. I have started coding out a prototype of the animation system for the game today to see if it would work. I got it going after a few hours and a little debugging help from the team. I just need to modify my Maya Model and Animation Exporter now.
I started playing Condemned during the week and it looks to have a lot of the promise of F.E.A.R., which it should, being from the same company. I picked up EA Sports' Fight Night: Round 3 today too and that game is a hell of a lot of fun. I was playing it at Duke's place last night with a bunch of friends (after losing at Poker,) and it made me want to run out and get it. There is a lot more to it than the demo lets on. I probably would not have gotten it until I saw the full thing, (in HD quality no less!)

I've been a busy boy, especially since Final Project has now started. We pitched our ideas and were denied making our potential million dollar idea. That leaves us with a game that is more fun to play, (I hope,) but a lot harder to make at the same time. Being an RTS/FPS it is also pretty complicated which has made decision making in the group difficult. Discussions can become very tiring, but we do seem to be making some slow progress. We are meeting over most of the weekend so that we can really get the gameplay concepts down into our design document.
Other things that have been happening: SuperBowl XL took place last weekend, but it wasn't as close as last year's game, so not as fun for the neutral fan like me.
I gave Auto Assault a quick spin while it is still in beta and it was a fun time. If the Mad Max universe were a game, then Auto Assault would be that game.
I applied to the IGDA for a scholarship to GDC this year. Hopefully I'll be chosen and given a Classic pass which is much better than the cheapo Expo pass I have ordered. I wasn't going to enter but they added the fact that you are given a mentor from the industry to hang around with during the conference. That could really help boost any networking I hope to get done while I'm there. I'll find out this week if I am successful.
Speaking of GDC, I have been trying to set up some meetings today using their new GD Connect website. You put in your details and what you are looking for at GDC and you can get a list of people that have done the same that may interest you. I have already sent messages to people from Valve and EA.
Last night two designers from Midway, Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bare, came and spoke to us at Full Sail. It was interesting to hear some of their techniques and I got to ask a question too, so I learnt a little something.
Finally, I won $20 singing karaoke last weekend at a bar here in Orlando. Not because I was good, just because singers were given raffle tickets and mine was pulled out. Some of my friends won too, including another $20 and a $50 bar tab. Good times.

Tomorrow we finally start our Final Project. At least I hope so - our timetable is a mess as it stands. As I mentioned last time the group of guys I'm going to be working with needed to get some ideas down on paper, and we did just that. We narrowed a list of around ten down to two. After working on those two for a week or so, Joe and I resurrected our idea for a game we were going to do on the side as a business. We figured we may as well work it as a group project and get it done, rather than never make it at all. We'll just see if Full Sail lets us make it. I hope so... I can't wait to say more about it!

It has been over a month since my last post and that puts us into 2006. Networking went well and Engine Development is rolling along. I've finally started on my Maya Animation Exporter which I am heading back to after posting this. Our new class this month is Software Architecture which is still a bit of an unknown at the moment. It will probably be a bit of a boring necessity, though we may learn when we use certain techniques we have already learned and why, (rather than just being told we have to use them for an assignment as has been done so far.)
But that is all current stuff. The past month was Christmas which gave me a much needed break and a chance to come back to London. It might have been cold, but I had a great time seeing family, friends and Louise. Thanks for all the presents everyone :) I got to go to Stamford Bridge and watch Chelsea beat a poor Birmingham, along with clothes and a couple of Xbox 360 games. You may well see ashleydb racing around in a Lotus on Xbox Live! for the foreseeable future in Project Gotham Racing 3.
Also last month I finally reached $100 in Google Adsense payments for PSP-Files.com after about seven months. I checked my balance again for December and I earnt a futher $70 from that alone! I don't suppose people are very interested in that, but I am over the moon with that perfromance!
As soon as next month we start our Final Project. The groups seem pretty much decided amongst the class at this point, and the people I'm going to end up with will be meeting tomorrow to try and come up with an idea. Other groups seem to have already started this, so we thought we should get our act together. Not to say we haven't been discussing it. A few ideas have been floated around in the past few months, but the conversations usually end up succumbing to stupid jokes and Futurama quotes. Or discussions about the meaning of the universe and how things work.
Chris will be back by the end of the month to start his Bachelors in Computer Animation. That means I lose the car, but gain a cook ;)

A lot has happened in the last two weeks. It was Thanksgiving here in the States last week, at which point every single American decides to go to the airport or the motorway to try and get home for a turkey dinner. I managed to avoid most of the travel problems and headed to Antigua for a couple of days to meet up with my parents and Louise who had been there for a week. It was fantastic to see them but it was all too short. Luckily its Christmas holidays soon so I shall be back in (freezing) England to see everybody in about three weeks.
A couple of days before that trip the Xbox 360 was released here and I was one of the lucky few to snag one on launch day. I've been tempted to put it up on eBay, but the profits are not that great... and I really want to keep it anyway. I only have Perfect Dark Zero right now, but it is a lot of fun, especially in multiplayer. Last night me and some of my friends here at Full Sail got together along with someone else who managed to get a 360 and played 7 man multiplayer system link (we were short a controller...) for hours on two huge HDTVs. It was really good fun. I just think I should pick up an extended warranty since I move the console about so much. I think I have only played it at home twice!
Speaking of warranties, my laptop has died, (well the screen has,) so that is in for repair. Rumours are flying around the school that HP will not be able to honour all of our warranties since they have acknowledged this laptop model is terrible and has been discontinued. They have been running out of replacement parts, (mostly motherboards,) and don't want to help us out. When mine failed, it was one of three laptops in our class that hadn't broken down. That leaves two of nearly 70. Apparently Full Sail are now getting lawyers involved and are trying to get all of us affected upgrades to the next model. Time will tell if this is all true, but some people in my class have been without their laptops for more than 3 months while waiting for repairs.
Since Console Development has been removed from the course, we are in Engine Development and Networking this month. ED seems like it could be a waste of time, but it is a chance for us to work on a personal project for 2 months. I am going to try and work on something useful for final project and either do Skinned Mesh Animation or create a Launchpoint Exporter from Maya and render the results in a 3D world. At this point I am leaning towards the second, despite the fact I have found a decent amount of info on skinned meshes online. Networking seems simple enough, (after just one class,) but the teacher throws it at you fast and there is a lot to take in! I'd best get back to it.

I finished F.E.A.R. last week and was very impressed for the most part. I didn't appreciate the terribly slow trickle of story until the very end, but it climaxed well. I gave Half-Life 2: Lost Cost a try too. Unfortunately the HDR lighting wouldn't work with my laptop's graphics card, so it kind of defeated the point. But having "directors commentary" within it was a novel concept. I watched the extras on the F.E.A.R. DVD too and it was interesting to hear what the developers had to say about the creative process. I'm giving The Matrix: Path of Neo a try now. It has some really dated graphics, but you do get to pull off some impressive looking moves.
In just over a week the Xbox 360 will be debuting, and I am one of the lucky few with a confirmed pre-order. EB Games called me a couple of days ago to tell me that they were only going to be receiving 40% of their expected allocation of 360's (and that the same was true of most other stores too including Wal-Mart and Best Buy who are official partners of Microsoft for this launch.) Luckily I had gone in to the store about two or three weeks ago and added some games and accessories to the order which helped bump me up the list. That and the fact I think I ordered back in June!
School is still going well but I am looking forward to a break. This month has been OK since we have had days off, which we used to play some sport and actually get off our arses. The class is AI which has been interesting too. Next is Computer Networking I believe, which brings us near the end and gives us just about all we need to know to make a game. Hopefully in my next post I can put some more in here about real life rather than just about games though.

I have been incredibly busy this past month, especially the last week or so. I was getting really stressed with the workload, but managed to get through it. I should have some decent grades too, which I wasn't sure about earlier. Infact, it turns out I may well be top of the class which I am really proud of if true. I was hoping to graduate Valedictorian and that may well happen at this rate! :) Anyway, enough bragging about that...
We were working on Optimization, which meant learning some Assembly and using Intel's software profiler VTune to make a program run faster. Definitely useful. More stressful was Real Time Programming. That involved messing with RenderWare to get the basics of a 3D game going. We had to get a tank driving around a hilly area and shooting at targets with various weapons. The 3D math was not a problem, it was the implementation in RenderWare which certainly handles things in its own special way. It took me a while to get going with that which is why I was so stressed out, but I appreciate the opportunity to work with something I may come into contact with again in the future.
I'm going to try and put some of my work together and up here after I post this, including some older stuff like the map for Unreal Tournament 2004 which I made for 3D Content Creation. Some things, like my Maya Model Exporter and OpenGL Model Viewer, I still want to work on. I want to get that working with animated models (the framework is all there, it should just be a slight adjustment to the exporter,) and then get it running on the Sony PSP, which I have had a quick mess around coding for.
Homebrew coding for the PSP seems to be the only decent thing to do with it since there is a terrible shortage of games for it. Grand Theft Auto will be coming out for it next week which I'm sure will sell a boatload more PSPs and bring some relief to current owners. Meanwhile I've been playing F.E.A.R. (which I have previously written about after playing the demos,) which was released a few days ago on the PC and so far I think the horror part is excellent. It is really a pretty standard FPS with a few gimmicky addons, (bullet time and hand to hand combat,) but the spooky atmosphere has made my skin cover in goosebumps at time. You can't ask much more from a game than to evoke a real emotion like that. There are some decent effects too, like the shockwaves sent from grenades exploding. Its a shame I have to run the game at 640x480 with pretty low settings to get it running at around 10-15fps on this laptop however. Chris has just gone out to buy a copy of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, so I'll have a mess around with that later on too. Might be handy to stock up on entertainment since Hurricane Wilma is on the way. As long as the power holds out anyway... otherwise having all these games to stare at will just be cruel punishment.

I've finally had a chance to sit down and try coding some stuff for the Sony PSP. So far I'm just tinkering with the demos that come with the SDK and have successfully got a textured cube moving and rotating around at your command by combining two of them. I've been moving the code around into a more manageable format to make it easy to start new projects when I want to, without having to reinvent the wheel each time. I'm trying to mess around with the texturing abilities right now, but hopefully I'll get a chance to write some small tutorials and post up the code when I get a little further down the line.
As for school, another month has started and we are working on Optimization, which means more Assembly and bit operations, and Real Time Programming, which puts us in RenderWare implementing various algorithms including some decent 3D collision detection.

Hello once again. I begin with an apology to anyone that may have received spam email coming from this domain. I noticed a lot of strange emails coming from the "email ash" form in the left column of this website but didn't think much of it. After getting about 10 every other day for a week or so now, I just looked into it. It turns out there is a simple exploit to the PHP mail() function to allow people to hijack the form and send mail to whoever they want. Hopefully no one was really affected and it was just some kid somewhere who learnt a new trick. Anyway, hopefully I have plugged the hole and the form should still work. If you have problems using it, be sure to drop me a real email (Hi [a] HiAsh.com) to let me know.
As for real life, from the lack of posting for a while you may get the idea that I have been busy. Dad and Louise came to visit Chris and I last week, (thank you both for coming!) so we got to have a mini-holiday, shopping, eating, etc. I did have to go to school during that time which was unfortunate and I'm trying to catch up now for the time not spent working. The most unusual thing we did while they were here was to go swimming with Dolphins at Discovery Cove (Sea World). They felt squishier to touch than I expected, for some reason...
Now that I am back to school work I'm trying to get a 3D model exporter plugin for Maya done along with an importer to view them in OpenGL. I have it working so far, but I need to improve it by including texturing and hopefully animation. In Machine Architecture we have been doing some Assembly code which is a pain to write, but will hopefully be useful when we start making our next big project and want to optimize some of our routines. My grades still seem to be coming in high, although the group project in SGP last month was graded as a C, by far and away my worst grade so far. With a bit of luck I can choose some better group members for our next project.
Right. Back into Visual Studio I go. Bye!

Structure of Game Production is now over and IsoMechTric is the result. It is an isomechtric, squad based, mech piloting, shoot 'em up game. This was a group project and I acted as Project Lead. I have uploaded it as part of my portfolio, so if you want to check it out, click on "Stuff I've Made" at the top of this page. What an exhausting two months it was, and while the results were not of as high a standard as I would have hoped, (at least in my opinion,) I have certainly learnt a lot about structuring and preparing for a project.
I gave a copy of the game to one of my teachers, Keyvan Acosta-Villanueva, who is taking it to an exhibition later this week to show it off. I believe he said it was for South American game designers, particularly students, but unfortunately I'm a bit sketchy on the details, so I could be completely wrong!
Next up is OpenGL and Machine Architecture which hopefully means some GameBoy Advance development and a bit of Assembly.
Also of note, I earned myself a Free Sony PSP and I hope to mess around with some homebrew code on that when I get a chance. Right now though, I'm going to be working on a networked card game with some exciting features planned as a side project.

It has been a hard two months in Structure of Game Production. And it is not over yet. Yesterday was our Beta milestone which meant working until 3am that morning to have some semblance of a demo to show. We ended up burning about 8 CDs that night since the plan was to stop working at 10pm Thursday, but when things can change with just one more tiny tweak, it is hard to resist. The demo we ended up with was nowhere near as good as I hoped since we seem to have a bug-to-lines of code ratio of about 1 to 1. And with around 25,000 lines of code, that is a lot. But after our presentation we got cracking on fixing some of the problems and the rate of improvement was astonishing. With a bit of luck, the game may actually be finished by the final deadline of Friday next week, but we also have to bug test another team's game at the same time to simulate the QA phase of production. Another group gets your game to test and report bugs, and we do the same for someone else. It is gonna be a tight finish, but to be honest I will be glad when it is all over. I have not even had time to go to the supermarket for food while working on this thing!

Yesterday the demo for upcoming PC game F.E.A.R. was released. I just played through it and was quite impressed. The shooting parts were fairly average, but then this is a first person shooter after all. There is some variety with the inclusion of Max Payne style bullet time plus various melee attacks such as a bicycle kick. The real draw for this game however will be for the freaky haunted house style goings on. They use the "little girls are scary" thing, but they do it well. You will see her scuttle infront of your path or she'll appear right infront of your face as you turn around. There are also scenes that either you are imagining or someone is putting into your head, (I suppose I would have to play the full game to find out,) again similar to Max Payne which is a game I really enjoyed. Its a shame the best part of the demo for me ran so laggy, even at 640x480.
Apparently my NeoFlash kit is finally going to be sent out. That means I can get down to some Nintendo DS coding when I get some spare time. I've also nearly earnt myself a Sony PSP so I can do some hacking away at that too when it arrives.
School work is coming along. It seems like either everything will come together at the end for this project, or it will fall flat on its face. We will certainly have a game to demo, but unfortunately I don't think this game will be very fun to play. You never know though, we may get lucky. If I have not mentioned already, the game is supposed to be an isometric, squad based, mech game for one or two players. I'll get a demo up at the end of the month. And then I'll get to spend some time with Louise who is coming out to visit!

Yesterday was my 22nd Birthday, which I celebrated about 4 different times throughout the day (midnight UK time, midnight USA time etc.) The day wasn't great since I had to go to school to do a presentation. Our group had to wait around all day since we were chosen to go last. I didn't feel much like working after busting out some late night work that week to get our game demo done in time. Neither did anyone else, so we ended up watching a load of movies including the new Family Guy straight-to-DVD movie out in September.
I got some nice presents, (Thank You everyone,) one of which was three tickets to go and see Franz Ferdinand at an MTV taping at Hard Rock Live! The show itself was pretty good, and there was a surprising amount of Scottish fans there. But before it started, they were making people cheer and dance to the CD so they could get some crowd shots and I thought that was utter crap. I went with Joe and Duke and got very, very drunk. In fact I ended up sleeping on someone's lawn last night.
In more sober news, I got to see NASA launch their new shuttle into space this week from the school car park. Incredible. There are people out there in space, how weird is that?

I've just got back from watching The Wedding Crashers at the cinema and thought it was hilarious. There are so many great one liners in there it is incredible. Plus a Will Ferrell cameo, what more could be asked for?
I also saw Hitch Hikers Guide today, and while it had its moments, I'm sure it is infinitely better as a book, (now ruined for my by my laziness and the movie.)
Work is coming on strongly on our group project game, (at least mine is, not sure about the rest of the group yet until I see some results.) It has the potential to be quite good. An isometric, squad based mech game, which plays in a way similar to Desert Strike. I have been working on the tile engine and editor so far, and it is not too bad. Let's just see how it turns out in a month or so.

As a Londoner, (living in the US right now, but I just so happened to be back this week,) I have to give my condolences to the families of those killed in this morning's bomb attacks. It was a cowardly act on a city while the world had its back turned, focusing on the G8 summit in Scotland. It is impossible for me to comprehend how you can hate a group of people so much as to try and destroy them. Why can't everyone get along? Seriously, its like these terrorists are children that need to grow up and realise we all live here on this planet together. We don't get a long run at life, so just enjoy what you have, not go out and hurt others.

I've just seen the announcement that London have won the bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012. Great news!

Anyway, I saw War of the Worlds last night with Louise and thought it was absolutely brilliant. Gripping throughout I think it does a really good job of showing how useless a screaming mass of panicking people really is. A couple of questionable moments, such as the blatant product placement right at the beginning of the movie, ("You should get TiVo, its awesome!") or the fact that no-one dies in the tree (I don't want to spoil it, so I'll leave it at that and you will know what I mean when you see it) but apart from that, fantastic. A bit on the scary side for a 12A rating I would say though.

CBAnimator.com is my brother Chris' site which he opened recently and has some of his work to download. The animations are really quite impressive. Try the second Lip Sync and 5 points to anyone for naming the sound clip used.
PSP-Files.com is my PSP news site which has just been totally redesigned to make it easier for me to update and be a lot easier to read. I've just kept it nice and clean and simple, although maybe it just needs something...
After getting some 99.x% marks in my classes these past few months I have managed to out do myself by getting a 102% in Structure of Game Design. Yes I am bragging and I don't care. The big grin on my face says it all! :D
* Update *
Incredible I know, but I have actually gone and updated my portfolio and uploaded some new work. itsajobthing.com and psp-files.com are mentioned and two games have been listed, Arkanoid and Teenage Mutannt Ninja Turtles! Be sure to read the notes on those since DirectX patches may be necessary to play.

I've been to EB Games at the weekend to trade in my klapped out XBox, (which has been opened and abused) for an XBox 360 pre-order. I managed to distract the guy while he was looking at the bottom, so he didn't notice the warranty voiding sticker damage and got myself $70. A problem arose that they no longer had any pre-orders left though, already! If they are in this short supply this early, I think I should pick one up then just stand outside and flog it for $500. I said that to the clerk and he told me I would probably get it too. He also said to phone them Tuesday morning as they might be given another allocation from head office.
Still no NeoFlash and the Half-Life book has been pushed back to August.
School has been a bit of a bitch so far this month as it is a late shift 6 days a week. And one of the classes is Media and Society, which I feel is a bit of a waste of time having done this stuff loads before. Structure of Game Design is quite good though. We are actually making real games! Expect them to appear on the site by the end of the month as no new work has been put up here for ages.
I wish I could go to one of the Live8 concerts, but they are on the Saturday I'm flying back to the UK for a break. Not the weekend I'm there, or even the next day, the day I'm flying. How crap is that? Poor me, *sniff* ;)