Ey yo.
Epic Games just released somethin they call the UDK: Unreal Development Kit. What's that? That's Unreal Engine 3.5 for free.
The unreal engine is pretty much the biggest motherfucker of a games development tool there is, and a license to develop in unreal is about $25,000. But now, to get independant developers hooked on it, it's about as easy to get as Audacity.
This is the software that runs Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Batman, Borderlands, Mirror's Edge, Shadow Complex, Army of Two, etc etc and it's free. So it's pretty much capable of pickin up whatever you're puttin down. Even Flash isn't free.
I won't write a fuckin huge post that nobody's gonna read, so if you're interested, then check this shit out:
www.udk.com

That's it. Just keepin y'all up to date.

I saw this thing ages ago n I was like waaaaaaht and I just did it.

Ok so like- years n years ago I was watching the first couple trailers for Gish; that game about the tar guy who like goes hard n stuff. At first I thought it was a Flash game, but it had all this 2D light and shadow stuff where I was like WHAT THE FUCK YOU CANT DO THAT. HOW- WHAT- FUCKIN- HOW DO I DO THAT? but then I decided it's not a Flash game and you can't do that in Flash. And if you could then I couldn't really get my head around it at the time.
But I thought about it, and you probably can. I just faffed about for a few minutes and I KIND OF DID?
Yeah I'm gonna say I did.

SHOCK

OOOOOOOOOOOMG oh shit now I should make a game about this.
Except its stupidly over-intensive, so it can never be used in an actual game. and it's kind of messy.

Anyway I just started LEVEL 7 of Legend of JOHNNY which is the LAST LEVEL. I don't work at Smashmouth Games anymore (reffer the last couple pages) so now I've got time to actually make games. JOHNNY's comin up oh my fuck.

That's it.
I bought World of Goo for $5.

Read my last thing if you wanna catch up on this.

Uuurrrrrggghhhh I feel like wank. The boss was off for a week or so, so I've just got round to havin a chat about my pay and over-time n all that shite etcetra.
It went fucking terribly. I said I can't do overtime and work weekends while getting paid £50 a week, everyone at home's tellin me to leave, my parents are all the fuck over me, it's not registered as an internship, I'm workin more than an intern would n all that shite etcetera.
Basically he thought all I cared about was money, said I'd get the same anywhere else, I'd usually get £0 for an apprenticeship, he knows people who he can get to work for free, faster than me, I've got bugger-all qualifications, they're a brand new company and so on. Pretty much shot down everything I said.
Then I go home and my family's got the perfect answer to all that, and think I'm a total spineless retard for not leaving. I can't just leave because my mates and family (and the fuckin internet) are tellin me to though- That would make me an idiot. I'm stuck between a job that think I'm worthless and a social life that thinks I'm a loser.

So tomorrow I'm fucking leaving. Forget aprenticeship, convincing everyone I'm not some feeble victim of this job, havin meetings about bein late or why I won't work weekends, writin everything formally and sensibly, and plannin out exactly how Im gonna talk to someone before I talk to em. Forget excuses. FORGET MONEY. I shouldnt force myself into this rock-an-a-hard-place lifestyle while I'm 18. I should be workin in a retail job and BLOWIN A FAT WEDGE ON GETTIN MASHED N BEAR GASH.

So the plan is: For the next- however long- I'll keep makin indie games from home, and that'll keep me up. I'll level up at animation, and take every opportunity I can to contribute to a team. And I don't mean these dumbass Newgrounds collabs, I mean like Power of Three, or CAN ANYONE USE XNA?, that kinda stuff. Who knows; maybe I won't even work in the industry. Maybe I'll get a conventional job and make games on the side, maybe make a business out of it in a few years. But that's way down the line.

God. I FUCKING HATE MONEY. My boss thinks I'm obssessed with it, my family think I should ask for more of it, apparantly how much you've got is a label of how fucking amazing you are, and everyone wants it all the time. I'm sick of how much money I've got.
I get paid £50 a week on this job yeah? I made Robot Dinosaurs in 2 weeks and got £2600. I'd rather get £50. If it wasn't for this stupid statistic that makes everyone freak out I'd be fine. WHAT DO I EVEN SPEND IT ON? I spend it on clothes, games, films, food, beer, car, taxis and other. I lent £100 to a mate cos he lost his job before goin on holiday (25 of us in Bulgaria, he did invite me in the first place) and I won't tell anyone cos I know exactly what they'll say, and I'll sound like an idiot.
I'm gonna get flak for that paragraph on money, but what the fuck I'd rather be eatin beans from a cup in a student dorm than sat at ome with a full savins account.
btw, sorry jetpak-guy for ever invadin you with that money drama.

ALLRIGHT Im gonna stop now before I start gettin all emo up in this ho.
I'm gonna make a fresh quick game in the next couple week, so expect that. It's called Blastmaster Borris the Bear That Blasts Big Blue Beams and it's kind of like Robot Dinosaurs crossed with Spewer but it's a side-scrollering platformer with boss fights. I'll sell it, but only cos the money'll make everyone around me think I did the right thing by quitting.
And I feel pretty great after finishing a game. Especially a small one.
Y'know what, if I leave tomorrow I might aswell tell y'all what game I've bin workin on. It's allready publicly known.
Everyone at work is gonna think I'm such a dick for leavin grrgrrrruaaahhrhrrrrrr.

I'm at a conflict:

A couple weeks ago I started workin at [yknow what I should probably remove the name], an independant studio made up of a very small team. They needed an animator, an that's me. I can't say what they're workin on cos y'know- contracts n shit. It's great for me to be here allready cos I came straight out of college without spendin 3 years on a degree. The people there are fab, and I can do the job.

Here's where things get messy though: My contractual hours are 10 til 6:30 Monday to Friday, but I actually work from 10 til 8 or 9, and I just got a phone call asking why I didn't show up today (Saturday).
I get paid £50 a week (that's about a quid an hour) and my boss had a meeting with me to see if he could get it any lower. I make a lot more than that by sitting at home making my own games.
I'd guess that they don't have a lot of money, but right as I started work they bought a £300 statue of Big Boss to decorate the office, and it stands right next to me. That's my wages for the next 6 weeks.

Considering I've got zero work experience, I've got a lot of work to do in a fucking short amount of time. I can't say exactly what I do there, but they've needed an animator for a while. If I left, they'd have to get someone new in immediately.

Now don't get me wrong; I like working there. I work in a small team where everyone knows each other, and I've met people who've worked in games for decades. Oddly enough though, my parents hate that I have this job. They hate me getting home from work at 9 or 10 every night, they hate that I spend my wages on getting to work, hate that people are phoning me askin where I am on weekends, and basically think I'm an idiot for putting up with it. If I don't quit soon enough, my dad is gonna walk in there and get me fired one way or another.

So I might actually quit.
Everyone comment on this, cos I need pushing over to one side o the fence. My brother's first job was an absolute joke, they basically hired a load of fresh-faced graduates just so they could take advantage. Leaving that place ended up workin out great for him- That was a few years ago.

Haven't made any progress on any new stuff by the way, for obvious reasons.

Since I came out of college (English college) I've bin kind of casually lookin for a job animating in games. I chose to do that instead of goin to university, so I'd expect to be lookin for a job for a while before anyone took notice. Hey guess what though, I've got an interview tomorrow at Smashmouth Games in Manchester. This is good cos they're a small studio about 2 miles down the road- It's not that great though cos I think they want a coder, and I kind of want to extend outside of working in Flash. But what the fuck it's my first job. Interview.

Another job I applied for was Character Animator at Bizarre Games in Liverpool, creators of Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars. They've got this task on their job vacancies page. Basically they give you a guy and two boxes, and see what you do. It's the classic SHIFT THIS BOX ITS REALLY FUCKING HEAVY test. I did this:

I made some great progress with Legend of JOHNNY: one full level, two new enemies and a boss in 2 weeks.
Power of 3? Never heard of it.

Ey yo, Im goin BULGARIA later for fuckin TWO WEEKS, JEEEEEEEEZUS!
WISH ME LOOK!

oh, an I ACTUALLY STARTED power de trois. I think we're a bit late.. Nah we'll be fine.
PEACE.

SAYWAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT

Yo yo yo let's cut to the chase

I'm not 100% done with it- I want to add in a scene, and I've not shown any animal animation, and the game footage is awful. It's impossible to get good game footage, cos you can't run the recorder and the game at the same time AND have a good framerate AND capture it at a good framerate. So it allways cuts out all the good frames.

Anyway my college had an exhibition yesterday to show everythin we've done over the passed year. I showed a big fat board of images, this showreel, and left Robot Dinosaurs runnin on a Mac. Long story short it was a big fucking shambles. A guy with a camera was talking to me for ages though about games, how I make games, how old games are better than new ones (whatever), and had a lot to say about Micro Machines on the Sega MegaDrive. He asked for a buiness card, I didn't have one, he wrote down my website and e-mail and said he'd pass it on to someone on the Project Gotham Racing team.
I checked and PGR is made by Bizarre Creations, who also made Geometry Wars. So THAT'S why he had so much to say about old games. Turns out they're in Liverpool and are looking for a character animator. I applied and mentioned that guy.

Also a couple mates wanna make Robot Dinosaurs with me on XNA. I don't think they'll ever get it off the ground, but I'll update with a 3D Tyranosaurus X later.

Also PLAY THIS GAME IT'S FUCKING BRILLIANT

Power of who?

wanna see some 3D stuff? okay

wanna see an alpha version of an excitebike clone? sure
A is drive
S is DRIVE!!
Arrow keys- you know the rest

I made a tile-based level editor to that game you all forgot about but I guess thats pretty dull

POWER OF 3- oh shit I guess I better get started on that pretty soon..

...

wanna see a screenshot to yeahbabygo- I mean- Legend of JOHNNY? course you fuckin do
" ...the best games that I have playes... " -FlashGameLicense.com

thats it from me, bye.

well munch my fucking bunch cos Im allready taken.

I got a PM from lenko n said yes. that means Im the lady n he's the man, so that's programming and art respectively. we came up with the game idea in a conversation that went a bit like this:

dyou like X?

yeah X is cool, we should do this with X.

ok sounds good, lets go

so dont expect a masterpiece, but I tell you now: it'll be funny and cool, and wow, and cool, and fab. Infact do expect a masterpiece. I know it's not a contest but fuck you guys, it's on.
Who are the teams? luis, glaiel-gamer and j1mp? thats no team
egoraptor, afro-ninja and kelwynshade? ppffffffff
HappyHarry and Mike? who are these guys? Ive never heard of them they sound like chumps.

Anyway we haven't decided on a music guy yet. theres a load of people who'll do it, but how are you supposed to pick one guy? how did you lot pick your guys? me n lenko have just about never spoken, so I like this power of 3 idea allready.

his first good submission was Rocket Crotch, my first good submission was Cannon Crotch.
expect something british in about 3 months time.
thanks for the wacom, ed!