Rejection and resurrection

So it was a while since I updated this now, or more likely last week. Alot of things has happened since I bloged last time (apparently, conclusion of todays topic). What has happend is that I talked to the representatives at DICE and Avalanche (which where the only companies to show up), from the representative at DICE I got the tip to redo the DiceInvaders that was sent to me so I can show my programming skills to them. I did start working on that small program a while ago but I came half way and then decided to continue to work with the project we where doing in school since we really wanted to get it done (only got a prototype but still). The tip was that I should take a week to design and implement the game and then send it to the representative that came to our presentation, (got his e-mail duh!).

I have started the design today and I am going to design it more thoroughgoingly tomorrow and on wednesday, to finally implement my design on thursday and friday. I hope I will get it done in this week so I can send it to him and then he will put in a good word (or two) for me when he gives it to the human resource manager. Why the kindness is because this representative did actually study the at the same university and the same education as I am studying right now, so he knows what courses I have taken and what I am good for (if my code example is good enough).

And now for that less fun part of the topic, rejection, yes I got rejected at my bachelors thesis spot on Starbreeze, frankly they couldn't offer me any spot neither in the fall nor now in the spring (which kinda sucks) but he did tell me why the process did drag out on the time. It was because he thought I was an interesting candidate :D and I shouldn't be afraid to search for a regular programming position at Starbreeze later on. But still I got rejected and that felt kinda bad, so I was down for a couple of hours and to kill time I did what I always do for self therapy I play destructive games such as Battlefield 2. It went just fine until a classmate started downloading stuff from my computer. Then my ping went skyhigh and I was kicked from the server. A well I thought that I got rid of my aggressions and could start to design the DiceInvaders game. And so I did, I made some sort of a mockup with pen and paper. Just wrote down the basics of what I need to implement the gameplay. I will go into more detail tomorrow, now I need to sleep cause my eyelids feels like they are dragging on the floor.

I'll drop a line soon when more and more starts to come to pieces. Todeloo!

8:30 AM Miracle

Wow that was a sudden wake up call. For the first time in my life I am actually glad to see another guy in his undies. I was up late last night fixing some assignments we have gotten in school and went to bet fairly late but I woke up at 7:45 AM the first time but then instead of snoozing I shut the alarm off and went right back to sleep (and how wonderful it was) until two of my classmates starts to pound the doorbell, I woke up like if I would have had a bad dream. I stared at my alarmclock and saw it was showing 8:30 AM, I think "Shoot I should be going to school NOW!" so I throw off my bed cover and run to the bathroom to get ready, on my whay to the bathroom I see my roommate answering the door in his underware. Then I knew he wasn't ready to go to school just yet, it bought me some time to get ready.

Today is the day before judgement day so to speak. Tomorrow we all have our presentations for some of the big game companies here in Sweden. There are people coming from DICE, Avalanche, Agency 9, Coldwood and maybe Starbreeze and/or Grin. So I'm all excited about that aswell as a little "scared" for how the day is going to be. We did all the preparations for the big day tomorrow, printed hand-outs, put up our computers for the smaller presentations when we mingle with the representatives and setup the network for those computers that needs internet access and so on. I think it's time for bed now since the time is 12:32 AM and I really want some sleep before I have to be in school. The big showoff starts at 10:00 AM sharp and we should be there 1 hour before so that leaves me with almost 8hrs of sleep.

I'll write a line or two tomorrow after the event ;)

Expansionpacks are almost 2 short

So today for a couple of hours I played the expansion pack to F.E.A.R, called Extraction Point. It really extended the story but still I got the feeling of the story being based on the movie Resident Evil, atleast there are alot of similarities between the two stories. Anyhow the expansion was a bit short as most expansions are. But still, it wen't surprisingly fast to get through it.

Today I woke up at noon, made some sandwiches for breakfast and then went to school to fix some laboration assignments that I still have to do for this Game Physics class. It didn't go so well for my part though :( but I will conquer the "world ;)" problem. Once that has been done we just need to send the assignments in to the teacher. I'm going back again on Sunday (today), *sigh* I really don't like being in school on a weekend but hey if you aren't finished thats what you have to do. I'm more and more looking forward to getting to write my master thesis at a game company but still waiting for them to answer.

I also wan't to shout out a thanks to Kirby who commented my blog yesterday. It was very interesting that there actually is someone more then my big brother, baby brother and my cousin that is reading my blog :) Please leave a comment when you stop by, you don't have to write anything fancy just a message that you popped in :)

A well time to go to bed now, airwolf just finished on Channel5 and the tv-guide for the channel started rolling so I think it is best for me to get some sleep. Good night and I'll get back tomorrow :)

First Encounter Assault Recon = F.E.A.R

Well it wasn't that much of a scary game, took a while for me to actually sit down and play it through and now in like 1-2 days I'm done. Kinda feels a bit short maybe, but then again I don't get scared that easy atleast not when it comes to games or movies. I felt that the game was more or less based on the movie Resident Evil, with the Vault and stuff only that instead of zombies you fight some flying-zombie-thingie that spawns out of nowhere.

Latest news from Starbreeze is that they still haven't evaluated me yet, but I feel like I still have a chance. I told them that I have relatives in Uppsala, whom I could stay with if the case is that I get the position. If I don't get it I'm gonna try to search for a job or master thesis spot at Valve in Seattle. But I need to write a cover letter first. I maybe could get some help from my big brother in the states to look through my CV+Cover letter.

And now the time is 3:18 AM Saturday morning, maybe time for me to hit the sack so I can do something fun of tomorrow :)

Todeloo!

Crunch time = no sleep ?

Well it's crunch time (again O_o) and I'm in school writing a paper on physic simulation(s) on GPU with 2 of my classmates. Soon the cleaning ladies will come and say hello ;) While I'm here I tend to spend some of the time on youtube (can't help it) when you get bored with doing the same thing every hour you want a break. What could be better then watch some small movie clip on youtube to pass the time :)

Below is a clip that brings back alot of memories

And also this clip to pass the time it's more of a music video, it is very neatly done :)

Well I'm getting kinda tired and want to sleep, I think I'm going to put in a "last" effort and start to make the power point presentation and then find a couch to take a nap for a few hours so I can get by this day too.

Lunchbreak + projectpresentation

So here I am at the lunch cafeteria with my laptop and savour a really good meal while I'm blogging :) As the topic says for today I have done the presentation of my special project in school, it went.. uhm... well. My colleague isn't that keen on doing a presentation in english, which I on the other hand is. Why the discussion about doing the presentation in english is that 4 projects get to do it for the representatives from the visiting game companies that will come here on the 20:th of March. I'm all excited about that, even if we don't get to show our presentation we will be outside the presentation hall and demonstrating our redundant game servers.

From one thing to the other I have been multitasking while playing my games at my spare time now. On my XBOX I run Madden NFL 07 and let the computer do most of the gameplay unless I want't to take over and play for a bit (or when my Superstar is on the field). On my computer I continued to play Splinter Cell: Double Agent, although I have stumbled upon more and more bugs in that game. Bugs in the way of I'm doing some action and then I'm not satisfied with it and want to retry it, then I go to the menu and choose load last saved game, when it then loads the game does some action it is not supposed to do and has to terminate. Very annoying! And I have patched it to the latest version (1.02).

This weekend was a very "wet" one so to speak, alot of drinking came in the picture as of my class had a glhf-dinner (good luck have fun-dinner) to celebrate our "last" time togheter before we go on with our master thesis at different game companies. For myself I haven't gotten any master thesis position at Starbreeze Studios... yet. I'm not giving up, last night I sent them another e-mail on how urgent it's getting for me to get a position, still waiting for them to answer. I'm hoping to get an interview with them soon, since next period starts the 23:rd of March.

A well thats all for now, time is almost up and I need to get back to listen to the rest of the presentations.

Update: I have now finished Splinter Cell Double Agent and man what a truly great game. I almost cried when I knew I've finished it. No I'm off to bed it's 2 AM now and I should probably get some sleep before I go to school again :) Cheers!

Weekend = over;

Okey so a little programming joke with the topic for the blog today but what the hell :) Just wanted to pop in and say that I've been playing alot of Madden NFL 07 on my xbox and my superstar is getting kinda good so early in the season . I really love the new play system that EA has made for this game, that you only control you character when he is on the field. Sure you could control the rest of the team when he's not on the field if you want but I feel that it's more convenient this way.

Haven't been working at all this weekend as I had hoped to do. Instead I baked some bread and went to a party where one of my friends got so drunk that the police came and put him in the arrest room at the police station until he woke up.

Ahh crap now the time is 4:24 AM on this monday morning and I have to get some sleep, I have a dentist apointment in the afternoon and I have to get some work done tomorrow. I don't really like going to the dentist now when the government has stopped paying for my dental visits. It's going to cost me around $91, and for me a poor student that's quite some money just to throw at one tooth to be fixed.

Well now I'm going to bed catch you later!

The excitedness continues

Okey, so now I have been busy working my ass off in school for this project that I am doing with my classmate, (it's still not finished but we're getting there). In the meantime I've _not_ been working so hard on that worksample that DICE wanted me to submit but I guess I blame the other project for that. I have also been in contact with another game developing company called Starbreeze Studios and I know that they want programmers, but they are a bit slow on evaluating me. Hope they can decide soon so I know if I'm going to write my master thesis or not.

If I don't get to write the master thesis anywhere I will retake some classes that aren't finished. Do the things that needs to be finished and then if I get a new shot at writing my master thesis somewhere I will probably get my degree :D

A rather short post since the time now is 1:12 AM and I really should be in bed for like 1h ago :/ so I guess I'll post more when things start to come about.

Goodby and thanks for all the fish ;)

Oh and a minor update! I finished Call of Duty 3 today on my XBOX it was awsome, like the graphics and that you got to play the missions from the different allied forces view. The game would have been even nicer to finish on my big brothers Sony Bravida "46 fullHD (1080) flatscreen TV (and XBOX360) but noo I decided to stop when I was like 3 missions from the end and thought that they where going to release CoD3 to PC but found out that they won't. So I got a bit disapointed but I finished it anyways. :)