The solution to being busy is to put in as much time as you have available.
I leave at 6am from home to go to work. I work until 6pm most days at the moment. When I get home I have a family of a wife and three kids to give attention to. The kids go to bed at 8:30pm. And only then do I start work on my entry. I never go to bed after 11pm so I have at most 2 and half hours per day to work on my entry and anything else I need to do at home.
That is enough time to get something done. The most important part of it is to make sure you do something each week so that the game progresses.
Give it a go - finishing a game - even a small game will be worth it. Choose something easy - how about battleships where the player can choose if he wants to be Pirates, or Space based Robot warships? Get it working and then add Artificial Intellegence for a single player option, networking for multiplayer etc.
[4e4]Annoying contest content...
June 10, 2005 01:59 AM
If the AP's comments were angled at me, then I should add I went to Durham University (generally recognised as the best in the UK apart from Cambridge/Oxford). For what difference it makes I got a first.
Although I should have spent more time working outside lectures (I was lucky to get away with it) I still don't think Uni life is as time-conduming as life in the real world with a full-time demanding job.
But this is off-topic - if we want to discuss this further maybe someone can start a thread elsewhere?
Although I should have spent more time working outside lectures (I was lucky to get away with it) I still don't think Uni life is as time-conduming as life in the real world with a full-time demanding job.
But this is off-topic - if we want to discuss this further maybe someone can start a thread elsewhere?
314
June 10, 2005 03:28 AM
I'm still a bit unsure about if I'm going to participate in this contest or not... but anyways, if I do, I'm going with 2D! 3D modelling and animation is just, meh.
Anyhow, are there any good pointers on 2D animation? I intend to draw on paper, scan and then use Paint Shop Pro to make the changes and all.
And I really like d000hg's idea of life-forms without limbs [grin] Makes everything a whole lot easier!
Anyhow, are there any good pointers on 2D animation? I intend to draw on paper, scan and then use Paint Shop Pro to make the changes and all.
And I really like d000hg's idea of life-forms without limbs [grin] Makes everything a whole lot easier!
178
June 10, 2005 04:56 AM
For 2D artwork I can really recommend Flash MX. I dl'ed it a couple of days ago and its really easy to get something that looks good(ish). I have zero art skills but in a couple of hours (including learning the program) I got a nice ninja together, including animation. Anyway, just a suggestion.
I'm going for something 2.5D i think. If don't get a better idea, that is. :)
I'm going for something 2.5D i think. If don't get a better idea, that is. :)
178
June 10, 2005 05:42 AM
Yeah, but it can export your ani as a series of bmp or png images that you can use to sprite animation. Of course this is only for gfx, the sound and scripting and stuff is another matter :)
June 10, 2005 07:00 AM
Quote: Original post by MoeQuote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
At my university we had 6 courses this semester and with classes going from 8:00 to 20:00 in one day and from 8:00 to 19:00 in the next day and in the other days we finished at 15:00, except for wednesday. Besides that we, me and my group, had to deliver 5 assignments that took us 1 and an half months to finish (working everyday on them, at least 1 and 1/2 hours on them) and still had to deliver 2 of those 5 assignments even after the classes ended (Date was chosen by the teachers).
Going to a REAL university takes a lot of time. And if you say that you had all that time available is because you were only interested in getting aproval at the courses with the lowest grade possible and/or the homework you had to do was something that was done in 1, 2 days...
And in my country a undergraduate course is like that for 5 years (some only last 4 years). There's also Bsc that last for 3 years, but they are few because they don't have the same merit/knowledge base tha a 5 year degree has.
Do you still think it's that easy?
I don't think so.
Hey, I never meant to rag on anyone by saying that I was busy with school. What I wished to convey is that I am in school full time and wish that I had more time to work on a 4E4 entry.
I was replying to d000hg because he was saying that there's a lot of free time at the university.
1,256
June 10, 2005 09:16 AM
Quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
I was replying to d000hg because he was saying that there's a lot of free time at the university.
Ah, my bad.
Either way, I really do hope to be able to produce something. I think I am party afraid of burning out. As it is, the past few days my eyes seem to be bothering me, although staring at a computer screen for 8+ hours a day could probably do that. I am excited to see how the contest turns out. In the mean time, I think it would be cool to get a little friendly competition going in the contests forum by posting pre-alpha screenshots and photoshopped screenies from other games/4E3 entries.
402
June 14, 2005 04:19 AM
Quote: Original post by MoeQuote: Original post by d000hgQuote: Original post by MoeWhat are you studying?! I did a science degree which had a high number of lectures etc (the most except maybe engineering and chemistry degreees). I had about 20hrs of contact time plus some 'homework'. But was still able to go out every night... oh for those easy days again.Quote: Original post by d000hg
Considering the constest lasts 5 whole months, and how many hours per day some students/layabouts can put in...
Bah, yeah right! Not this student. I think post secondary education take more time than having a girlfriend, job, and computer, combined!
Actually I am taking a (2 year) program called Computer Systems Technology. I started in January so I am offset from everything (hence going through the summer). I am usually in class from 8:00am until 3:00pm five days a week. Add onto that the time that it takes to get there and back on a bus, plus homework and labs. It doesn't leave me a lot of time.
In my two years of GCSEs I only got about 2 or 3 hours a night (and none lots of nights in periods of heavy coursework - do you know how much we get? So many people are probably fine but I got excellent grades in my coursework - at the cost of less programming :(), and all of the holidays spent doing coursework, or in the case of the Christmas and Easter holidays, revising for the year 11 mocks and real GCSEs respectively. I'm now 2/3 of the way through my GCSE exams.
We then have 8 weeks of holiday, but out of that is 1 week for sixth-form induction week, then 2 weeks for a NAGTY course, Robotics - Autonomous Control (can't wait!!!) ... that leaves 5 weeks .. take away a few for friends...and I'm making a game ATM that a friend designed so basically I have no time either [sad]
|_1F3 5U<K0rz [cry]
------------------------------------Development of Rock, Paper, Scissors - The Third Dimension
June 14, 2005 05:26 AM
GCSEs aren't university. In my experience, school is much more timeconsuming than Uni if you actually do your homework. I had to leave home at 7.30, returning at 5pm becuase of the slow bus. That's quite a long working day whne you have more to do.
But 2-3 hours a night is hardly a small amount of time...
But 2-3 hours a night is hardly a small amount of time...
This topic is closed to new replies.
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