Days go by and still I think about you

The weekend was a mess in a half for me. I mean generally I got some good sleep over Friday night and Saturday wasn't too bad, but Sunday night ... well I slept in my god damn car.

The good points are is that I did setup Windows Vista (build 5728 x86) on my laptop and I can't believe how much fun it is to use that operating system. It really is fun navigating, and doing everything that I was originally so used to and took for granted. I'll definatly get some fantastic screenshots and a good review of it in the comming days.

I'm still experimenting with the new Windows Media Player, IE and definatly going to give Office a spin. Good job Microsoft!

Game Testers

When I was younger I was always under the impression that game testing is the best way to get into the industry. I was also under the impression that it was job filled mostly by fifteen year olds with lots of free time and good writing abilities.

A nice thread grew quite large on IGDA that was originally started by an inspiring fifteen year old. For those of you considering this as your dream job, get the facts, and check out the post by Ramsay on pg 1.

Preparing for FullSail

I'm officially an IGDA member which means I can now attend E3 and GDC. I also had inquired help from the IGDA community and got a very welcoming set of responses. The thread stretched on for four pages and has neared almost 1,000 views. I'm going to try and summarize what I've learned below.

• Holding a part time job while attending Full Sail is unrealistic and ill-advised
• Getting a loan is not difficult and their are many lending institutions

I'm sure you've checked it out already, but the fafsa site has some info on it: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ , as well as the Sallie Mae site:
http://www.salliemae.com/

Also, you could try looking into what scholarships are available for Full Sail. Here are some search sites:http://apps.collegeboard.com/cbsearch_ss/welcome.jsp http://fastweb.com/, many schools will tell you about financial options, so calling their financial aid office would help. - ghostgirl

I seriously recommend not working a part time job while attending Full Sail. The classes are very compressed, and time is very limited. You'll need that spare time to develop your skills, and work on a demo reel. The sleep schedule is all over the place. One of my classmates had a part time job while attending Full Sail. He was 24/7 wasted, and he failed half way through the degree. There was another who also had a job, he managed. So it's possible. As long as you get the daily 8 hours of sleep, you can last no problem. It all comes down to holding the pace.
I put in far more side work because I wanted a job upon graduation. I was the only one in my class who had invested the time into a full demo reel before graduation. I think only 3 of a class of 45 landed our professions, 2 of us in the game industry. here are more people than ever being churned out of colleges, Full Sail is the correct choice, but even then I'd say your chances of getting in are less than 1%.
The longer you job hunt, the more effort you put into your talent, networking, as well as picking an ideal location, you can increase your odds by 10% or more. A lot of them just don't have what it takes, and that's a good thing for those who are truly serious about breaking into the game industry. Even then you are entering
into a field where the competition gets higher each year, with no signs of slow down yet. Do not get a bike! There are bike thieves in Florida. They caught them, but new ones crop up. They steal the bikes right out of the college parking lot (they monitor security)! I had mine and about 4 others stolen by two SOBs who are now rotting in kiddy prison. I'm pissed, because I never got my bike back. Custom made. Anyways, after they were caught, the stealing continued a short while later. They have stuff that can clip through any bike chain. I seriously recommend a car. Parking is awful, but a car can save you lots of time, and the Florida weather can be very erratic on bike. They get lots of floods, so sometimes riding a bike isn't possible. On foot or by car is your best choice.
They also have bushes that shed thorns on the sidewalks. They can pop bike tires a lot, and drivers there are dangerous for cyclists. I saw one kid die from a car smashing into them. The driver ran the light and hit the kid on the bike. On foot you are way more agile and able to better cope with all the stuff they make you carry to class.-sagema

Be very careful about taking out a loan. Read as much information and exercise caution before signing on the line. http://www.studentloanjustice.org/-melodyaw

Food will cost you a fortune in Florida. Not as many healthy things were on sale, and very few generic brands of food were sold in Win Dixie. I spend about 50% less in NY on food bills. I didn't pay a water bill at Park Apartments. The electric bill is never low. I recall 1 month I didn't run air conditioning, and was only home on average 9 hours a day (That means 30 hours of lights on max), mostly to sleep. Even then, my electric bill was $100. You have all these circuit breaker surcharges which prevent, lightning storms from destroying plugged in devices. Poor Mike had his cell phone melt one night plugged in (Pay the bill). They get lightning storms all the time there, but don't lose power much.

If you are female, guard your laundry at the Park Apartment Laundromats. Make sure you pick an apartment complex with a built in Laundromat. Get theft insurance on everything, just in case. I had theft insurance on my bike (Go me!).- sagema

I had a friend who had to take out enough "living money" in loans to support his wife and kid. I really wouldn't recommend taking out this much money in high interest personal loans. You should plan your finances out and estimate how much your total loan will be and what your interest rate will be. Determine what your montly payments will be when you graduate and how long you'll be paying them off. Ultimately, you have to make the decision yourself but I can tell you first hand that high loan payments SUCK.
-jeffason

Again thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.I also spent sometime doing research and compiling the month bills.

Please note* these are personal estimates based on my own decisions so they will defiantly differ if your in a similar situation or maybe a few years down the line.

Rent-----------------------------$650.00
Utilities--------------------------$200.00
FIOS---------------------------- $50.00
Food for One---------------------$200.00
1 Monthly Video Game-----------$50.00
Usenet via NewsHosting--------- $13.00
IGDA Membership---------------$4.00
Magazine Subscriptions---------- $10.00
Clothing--------------------------$20.00
Haircuts------------------------- $60.00
Personal Care Products---------- $25.00
Paper Products------------------ $30.00
Toner----------------------------$10.00
Notebooks----------------------- $10.00
Gas------------------------------ $200.00
Car Insurance--------------------$200.00
Cell Phone----------------------- $45.00
Total----------------------------$1,777.00

A safe margin--------------------$48,000.00 for 21 Months
Tuition-------------------------$64,000.00
Grand Total!!!! $112,000.00

Time to start working on those scholarships -.-

Next Gen Games

Last night I browsed through atleast fifty new next-gen titles. High resolution graphics are not dead!! Their has been a common misconception that graphics in video games are as good as they get. This is simply not true! Looking at the upcoming titles I envisioned what the games would play like based on a shear picture. While the price for the PS3 is still out of this world, I would by no means regret putting a down payment on it.
The XBOX360 has also recently made an impact on the Japanese industry at the Tokyo Game Show 2006 (the E3 of Japan). Releasing one hundred ten titles and several RPGs (myself being a big fan I’ll defiantly jump on checking out the details once I get home from work). The wii is also something I would love to own or give a test drive. This being the case I am strongly considering purchasing all three and trying to write it off as a tax deduction for educational purposes.
Also I’ve found another great place for news on the industry. GameIndustry.Biz is an invaluable resource for news and information on the game industry.

XNA

Have you read the news lately?
Count how many times Microsoft is mentioned in the technology section. XBox, XBox360, Vista, Zune, and it doesn't stop there. A few years ago Microsoft introduced the .Net framework which officially replaced COM and COM+. For those less geeky readers I'll quickly explain what .Net really is since I had to go through the trouble of learning some of it right around March this year.

The Dot Net framework is a fancy word for describing a very large collection of modules that help define Windows. This includes everything from protocol handling (how you view the web, check your mail, or download p2p). Basically these are complete functions which support Windows XP from ground up and were originally known as COM and COM+ (for NT). I'm not going to get further into detail on the subject but you can imagine how fast and easy it becomes to design new software when the hard part is already done for you.

ASP.NET is the server side of the framework which allows web developers to utilize all the power of dot net and than some. ASP.NET is also very attractive as it is almost syntax insensitive. What I mean by that is that ASP can be coded using C++, C#, VB, and even JScript (Microsoft's JavaScript). It also comes with a prepackaged developing environment that while expansive is by far the best out there. I took the time to learn Visual Studio and it is one of the most customizable, flexible programming environments I've ever had to deal with. In fact if your good enough you could write your own plugins to help make the software suite your own needs. You could even customize it to work with PHP, and Lua (see VSLua) with very little effort. Using this technology, one could deploy cell phone applications with the simple download of an API. Heck their is even a Robotics department at Microsoft that has designed a package for hobbyist and professionals to easily program and build their own robots. This environment is very similar to that of making video games, in fact so simular that Microsoft has introduced XNA.

XNA is Microsoft's answers towards game development. Allowing for full fledged games to be built using the same environment as other Microsoft applications. Using C# and the same tool kits one, according to Microsoft, could publish their own indie games at a much faster rate with more professionalism. I'm defiantly going to check it out since LearnXNA has already released four free chapters of tutorials to get you started.

GDC '07 doubles in size to become the new E3

The Game Developers Conference is to take the torch once help by E3, and become the largest trade exhibition for the worldwide gaming community.The size of the show floor is to be more than doubled for the event in order to incorporate the growth of attendees, due to take place at the Moscone Convention Centre in San Francisco next March."

As GDC enters its 20th year, it emerges as the event with the largest gravitational pull of any other game industry-only event," said Jamil Moledina, executive director of the GDC."While it remains our primary goal to serve the game development community and ensure that the session-based half of GDC remains unchanged, we also believe it is time to dramatically upgrade the range of expo opportunities.""The result of our expansion is that GDC becomes the natural choice for all companies in the game industry ecosystem to exhibit and conduct business," added Moledina.The new show floor will be built around a core of existing GDC expo suites and a networking lounge, surrounded by company's ranging from publishers and developers to mobile games firms, peripheral manufacturers, outsourcing specialists and international consortia.Booth spaces, expo suites and meeting rooms will be available for vendors, while the new Game Demo Theatre will showcase upcoming games from developers and publishers.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz

The GDC is planned to be my first Game Expo, and I'll be applying for as a helping hand in November. If I'm lucky I'll be able to bring back some pictures and souvenirs.

One hundred ten

On January 8th I hope to walk through the doors of FullSail Real World Education institution for game design and development. Until January 8th there are one hundred ten days. In those one hundred and ten days there are roughly thirty weekends. During those weekends StrayStudios (the current delineation of Michael Alexander Kofman) will set out into the world of game development.

Step 1.
Send in an application to FullSail and fill out FASFA.

Step 2.
Get accepted to FullSail, take out loans, and apply for an apartment.

Step 3.
Review C++ and flex those programming muscles with a simple card game.

Step 4.

Get some coffee and count down till 2007!