Holding the Baby

Had a visitor today who brought her four month old baby round to see us. Other people's babies are great. You can hold them for a while and when they burst into tears, look like they are going to throw up or make a funny smell (or all three at once) you can hand them back to the parent with the words "I think she wants you now..".

Actually Ellie was great, and took me back to the halcyon days when our two were tiny tots and didn't know more about programming and science than me.

An Eternal Question

I'm in Schipol airport trying to answer the eternal question "What do you do if you have five hours to kill in an international airport?". I've spent 3 euros on 15 minutes of internet time. But what next?

Pictures of Lisbon

This place reminds me a lot of San Francisco. Same nice weather. Same driving on the wrong side of the road.

Kind of similar bridge

Same amazing skies

..and they had a very nice conference centre too

I had a really good time over here. Next time I'm going to try to stay a lot longer.

On the way back to the hotel I passed a bus full of students who had been at one of my talks and were now heading home.

Frankly, I fear for them....

.NET Microframework at TechDays

My .NET Micro Framework talk seemed to go well. Got a good sized audience, and of course I took their picture.

I'm sorry I didn't have any hardware to show you. If I come back next year I'll try and find space in my carry on for some toys.

Hello From Lisbon

After a very smooth trip last night I'm now in Lisbon at TechDays 08. I came along last year, to the sensibly name TechDays 07 and had such fun that I've come back again and to do two sessions. I've just finished the XNA one and it seemed to OK from my point of view (although I'm worried that I might not have mentioned the book enough....)

Where I'm speaking (they have lovely weather here)

As is usual for Portugal, I had a fantastic audience.

Left

Middle

Right

After I told my first joke (the people at the back are sound technicians who are paid to be there....)

I had a great time promoting the book and VerySillyGames. I've got another session this afternoon. Wish me (and the audience) luck.

Airport departure lounges I have known

Very Silly Games Merchandise

According to this very good blog post, where there is passion there are also T-shirts.

You can now get Very Silly Games merchandise from Cafe Press. Including T-shirts.

Gadget Review

Zoe sent me this. I find it rather funny.

But What Will We Buy?

I was going down the escalator in the HMV shop in London yesterday when it occurred to me that soon everyone in this bustling, busy, store would have no reason to be there. In a few years only those who want hardware will actually need to turn up. All the music, movies and games will be available digitally via the Internet. If you factor in piracy, we are pretty much there now I suppose.

I began to wonder what we will actually go out buy in the future. I think that people's love of shopping will drive them out of the house to purchase stuff, but I'm not sure what they will actually take home. Maybe the entertainment vendors will still let us take boxes home, but now they will just contain keys to downloaded material. Maybe eventually all the media shops will vanish. In the future the high street will contain nothing but clothes shops, chemists and Starbucks......

The Bookshop of Happiness

We went to London today. We went into Foyles, the best bookshop in the UK. Other shops have a self of books about computing. Foyles have rooms. And rooms. Everything you want to know is there.  Wonderful. They had my book too.

This is the first time that I've seen my book on sale in a shop. Amazing. Actually, I bought one of the two they had, to give to number one daughter who was with us. That makes two copies of my own book that I've bought, which is probably rather worrying...

Return of the Ex Grads

Today was kind of special. We had some of our ex-graduates come to see us. These are people who are now working in the games industry, and they popped by to say hello and see what we are doing. Unfortunately I was moving at speed, having to pick up the pieces that seem to result if I go away from the office for a couple of days. So all I managed to do was grab photographs. There was no time for much chat. I'll fill in the details when Jon lets me know who's what.

The chap on the right (who's name I completely forgot to note down) is an ex-Hull grad who now works for Blackrock Studios. The game that is being played on the big screen is a yet to be released title they brought along to show off. From what I saw it looked pretty darned good.

Now, some of these people I do know. In amongst this gathering are the Electronic Arts posse, including Steven Yau (third from right in dark blue). He was once a project student of mine and is the chap who wrote the article about how how to break into the video games industry. It seemed to work for him.....

Finally, these two look pleased because they are team D&D, who have made it into the next round of the Microsoft Imagine Cup XNA Game Development competition. You can find out more about their entry here. Well done folks, and good luck.

Making a Pitch in the Imagine Cup

Today was pitch day. But before Team X got to strut their stuff we had a talk from Andrea Blakersley from Mudhut. She did a session to help the teams how to make their pitches stand out and how to structure their presentations for maximum impact. This was excellent. I don't know how much Mudhut were being paid for the session today. But I do know that the session and the support that was given was worth it. First class stuff.

I've been presenting for a while (although I've never given a venture capital pitch) and Andrea managed to come up with some insights on the process that gave me cause to think about what I do. Wonderful stuff, and just what the competitors needed at this point. I don't think that many of the students at the session actually realize how lucky they were to get tuition at this level, but I do, and you were big winners today folks.

Dave from Rare (industrial mentor) and Anthony, Johno and Jon from Team X

Team X went through the rehearsal, got some feedback, incorporated it into their material and then sallied forth for the big pitch. They were excellent. These are first year students, who joined us in September. They have not even finished my programming course yet. But the way that they sharpened up during the day, and their professional approach to the competition bodes really well for these people. Whether they win the cup or not. The other three teams from Hull were also working away during the day (to my eternal shame I forgot to take pictures of you all - for that I apologise).  I think they all got a great deal out of the event, and thanks to Microsoft for setting it up.

Just before the big pitch....

The next phase is to work up an entry and get some code running, ready for the next part of the competition.

Posh Living in Manchester

We are in a ultra-posh hotel in Manchester. Microsoft really do look after you in these competitions. For some reason I've been upgraded to a posh suite, which has a patio, huge bed and all kinds of extras (and like a proper hotel also has a kettle and stuff for making tea). Excellent.

I arrived in Manchester just in time to meet up with the team and have a look at their presentation. Things had been coming along quite nicely (as is usually the case until I turn up....)

Anyhoo, after we had to move out from the hotel meeting room to make way for the Guitar Hero setup, of which more later, we repaired to my room for a planning session. We got set up, and were just about to get to the important stuff when all the lights in the room went out. Yours truly, the suave, globetrotting traveller had forgotten to put his room card in the switch at the door, which meant that all the power and lighting had timed out. So it was a series of muffled curses and stubbed toes as I made it the length of my suddenly enormous room to put the lights back on.

So, after that we met up for a Guitar Hero competition. People seem to confuse me owning a game (I've got lots) with me actually being any good at it. This is a common mistake, in that I don't actually spend too much time dwelling on my abilities in the games (just as well), but it did mean that I ended up playing my round of the competition on the "normal" mode, as opposed to my preferred easy setting. I made a right idiot of myself, but fortunately as we were being ranked for the competition I only had to play once..

Johno from our team turned out to be quite the guitar whizz, and finished third. He took away a really nice webcam. The winner, a chap from St. Andrews, was a well worthy champion, with amazing axe skills. He got an Xbox 360. Then, after a few more tunes, it was time for bed.

Anthony and Johno getting to grips with the guitar.

Andy and Dave from Microsoft giving it their all

My digital home from home. I just like the shadows.

Open Day Book Plugging

We had an open day today. Loads of people turned up and so we had to move the talk into one of the lecture theatres. You were a great audience, and I apologize for plugging my book so shamelessly. (I just got my own copy this morning and I was rather proud of it).

I also apologize for vanishing so abruptly in the middle of the afternoon. Four of our student teams were taking part in the Imagine Cup accelerator event in Manchester, and I had to rush off and catch a train over there.

I hope you had a good afternoon, and that the trip to Hull was worthwhile.

Gamepad Racer Lives

I now have a new hero, Jerry V (Gamertag: Xyjar). He has only gone and produced a stunning video of a Gamepad racer session, complete with rocking soundtrack.

The start of the race (I love the way he has used XNA books to prop up the table!)

For those of you who have no idea of what I'm talking about, Gamepad racer is a very silly Xbox 360 game where you just make the gamepads vibrate down a slope. You can find the source for the game here. You can find Jerry's video here.  Thanks for that, you've really made my day.

Rare Come to See Us

Kieran and Kostas came to see us today. They both studied at Hull and now work for Rare. They are part of a series of game company visits that are taking place at the moment as our students show off what they have been doing, with a view to getting into the games business.

Kostas did our game development MSc course some time back. He is famous in the department as the winner of one of our programming events. I took some pictures this afternoon, but I've not got them with me at the moment, so I'll put them up later. Instead, here is a blast form the past, Kostas is the one right at the front looking thoughtful (as well he might..).

Thanks for coming guys, it was good to see you.

Social Networking and Silliness

Very Silly Games is kind of picking up speed, and you can buy my book in the UK and in the US (although Amazon UK seem to have sold out).

So when Craig suggested that I set up a Facebook group for Very Silly Games I thought I'd have a go. Not being a particularly sociable person, I'm not sure how this social networking actually works, but if it gets people writing silly games then I'm all for it.

If you want to be socially silly with XNA, you can sign up here. You stil have a chance to win a copy of the book with your best Gamepad racer video.

Having a Ripping Time

When I was abroad I picked up a pair of Ultimate Ears headphones which sound amazing. Andy put me on to them, and he was dead right about how good they are. Whilst they don't have a huge amount of bass they produce the clearest sound I've ever heard. I'm actually listening to tracks and hearing instruments that I've not noticed before.  They are a bit pricey, but I do listen to music via headphones rather a lot, and so I reckon they were worth it. Unfortunately they also show up shortcomings in badly recorded or highly compressed music, and so I'm now having to get better copies of all my tunes. I'm putting them onto my new Zune, which has a nice big 80Gb disk and puts out really nice quality.

I really hope that Microsoft bring out the Zune in the UK. I'd love to be able to use their music service as well.

Only 5% Evil

One of the sessions at GDC last week (it seems ages ago) was given by Peter Molyneaux, who is a fascinating character with a great gaming history, being pretty much the creator of the "God" game genre. He was at GDC to talk about Fable 2 which looks really good. Sort of like Oblivion but more so. And you get a dog. And your friends can join you on quests.

At one point he mentioned that the best games force you to make choices and then live with the consequences of your decisions. In Fable 2 the nastier you are the nastier you appear in the game. Which seems a bit unfair on ugly people who are actually nice folks, but there you go. Perhaps I am over simplifying again.

Anyhoo, in the course of the discussion he mentioned that according to research, only around 5% of players choose to take "the dark side" in games like this. Most players prefer to reach their goals using wholesome means. Peter saw this as something of a wasted opportunity for gamers, in that the game maker still has to create all the scenarios and dialogue for the naughty actions and so you are not playing the game to the full until you have experienced it as a villain.

I saw this as quite a hopeful sign, in that, perhaps humanity has a natural tendency to be nice when given the choice. Or perhaps it only applies to video game players (or at least 19 out of 20 of them).

How to Cheer Yourself Up

What do you do if you have had a rotten day, where pretty much nothing has gone right?

You give two lectures in quick succession at the end of the afternoon, to the .NET Post-Grads about class design and the First Year "Friday Afternoon Club" about inheritance in C#. Wonderful stuff. Special mention to the First Years, who were great fun and quite mad. I think teaching someone something is a great way to cheer yourself up.  And Tom had a copy of my book to show me, first time I've ever actually seen one. Perfect. I'm going home for Fish and Chips now.