Jason T Clark.net

Still working yall, still working… However, I would like to let you know that via this invention called ‘the Internet’, I have found a place where all of my old friends and classmates from high school are hanging out!  The name of the social network is NING, and it allows anyone to create a social networking site about…well, ANYTHING!  And to great surprise, one of our high school alums created a site for Northwest Halifax High School graduates!  Brilliant!  http://vikingcountry.ning.com is where I have been able to catch up with alot of people that I went to high school with and see what everybody is up to.  It’s been nice to see everybody again!

So if there’s anyone out there that wants to build up a quick social site, Ning is a good way to go!  For all those checking out my blog for the first time, welcome!  It’s geeked out, so get ready!

“It’s been a long time / I shouldn’t have left you / without a strong *post* to read through…”

OK, so I’m trying to sound like one of my favorite hip-hop artists, Rakim, who’s arguably one of the greatest rappers of all time.  It’s just that it’s been over a month since my last post, and I need to get pump up for my latest quests.  So let’s get cracking:

Unreal Jack City for UT3

I don’t think I’ve bitten more off than I can chew here, but it’s going to take some time to finish up the design document, and get a small prototype going, so stay tuned for more on this one….

456: The Dice Game

The design document is underway.  I’ve also been working through the 2D tutorials on XNA, and those seem to be pretty straight forward.  Once I have the first iteration of the design doc, I’ll let you guys know.

I am looking for one more established project where I can hit the ground running on.  So anyone out there who has a team of indie developers working on something, let me know.  Stay tuned for a few new posts on what I’m doing with Flash, Papervision, and Sandy3D.  I should be finishing up my tutorial on using Eclipse to create WiiFlash applications this week as well.

Alright, back to work….

OK so, I’ve briefly alluded to the work I’ve been doing around a couple projects that I’ve been working on, namely the Unreal Jack City project, and Unreal Demolition. Here’s where they stand from my perspective, and how I’ll be progressing on them.

Unreal Jack City

I was working on the design document over the weekend after watching New Jack City on YouTube five times over, and realized that there is plethora of content to be leveraged for this project. To add, I think a total conversion mod of this magnitude is going to require quite a bit of work from the design perspective, and from the development perspective. So, I think a more realistic goal for this project is to first get a workable design document completed, and then to begin work on developing a small prototype based on that design. Something like 1 short mission, that includes a glimpse of what the environment might look like, possibly a couple character models, and some decent logic which accurately portrays a small element of the game. Taking on this project from a holistic view has made me realize the amount of work that would have to be done in order to get 5 levels completed for such a content saturated idea.

Unreal Demolition 2

Since this project has already taken off by the works of Dan Weiss and the rest of the team, my goal is to simply pitch in from the scripting perspective, and to eventually try to get a level or two completed. Team Derby has been at this for quite some time, so me being the newbie to the team has its downsides, especially since I have to come up to speed on what they’ve got going on.

I’m going to write another post about a new idea that I have for a much smaller, more tangible project in a few days, so stay tuned.

Welcome to July everyone…

It’s a been quite a few days since my last post, and it probably will be a few more before my next meaningful blog entry, just because I’ve been heads down on a couple things so allow me to brief you on what my next few posts will be about:

Experimenting with Multiverse Part 4

When this entry posts, I’ll be covering my experiences with creating my own custom world for use with the Multiverse platform.  This is simply a way of informing you folks on how I began getting familar with the asset tools that accompany the server application.

My First Sketchup Build

I really like Sketchup as you can tell from my last post about it.  Next is to try something cool.  And if I can, I’d like to build something worth of uploading to Google Earth.  There are a couple of simple builds that I think are worth of trying out, so be on the lookout for my next post on this.

Unreal Modding again with UE3 and Kismet

Ah yes, back to a familiar form of homebrewed game development- modding.  Since the guys over at 3DBuzz have come out with their next installment of the Unreal modding book which covers modding with Unreal Engine 3, I’d like to get a couple posts on this as well.  I was thinking about this last night, and I have an idea for a level that should be interesting to hammer out…..so be on the lookout for that post in the next few weeks.

iPhone 3G First Impressions

I’ll be getting the new 3G iPhone sometime this month as well (woohoo!), so I know I’ll post something on that too, especially my experience with one of the games for it, like Monkeyball or Spore, so look for that as well.

That is all for now guys.  To the batcave…….

….since my last post. Things around the blogosphere have been….well, interesting. I decided to re-vamp my blog yet again, in an effort to focus more on my involvements, rather than be a point of content aggregation. I think what’s unique about blogs is that they are tailored to the given individual. My first blog was merely an RSS feed reader- not much of a blog at all.

I also feel that it’s time for me to create a portfolio of sorts. I’ve been asked lately to show off my coding abilities, and since being asked, I’ve realized that I’ve fell short in being able to deliver on that request. Since I’ve been getting to know Flash technology in recent times, I’ve committed to figuring out a nifty way of creating my portfolio page with using the very effective 3D carousel. Very Basic model, right now but hey, I’m learning.

Anyway, I also added twitter to this blog as well. A quick way of seeing what’s going on with my play-by-play. OK, back to reading.