After a month on the marketplace we feel that Acorn of Aneush would reach more people by being free to download. Another factor in this decision is the limited amount of time we can put into further development of the game. Initially we intended to release more updates for the game but due to most of the team trying to find or finding full time employment this has not been possible.
Hopefully more people will enjoy the fruits of our labour!
We did it! Acorn of Aneush has been released on the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace. Its currently on version 1.2 as we submitted an update a few days ago for bug fixes. A limited number of the original development team, with myself included, aim to carry on development. We want to add more levels and other game modes.
Heres the link for Acorn of Aneush on WP7Lab.
Now that I’ve finished my degree I’m getting ready for the big job hunt! To get prepared I have updated my LinkedIn profile and signed up for a twitter account so I can follow some games studios. I’ve also added widgets for both of these down the side of my site…professional 
As for jobs, my goal is to be a producer in a games studio. My experiences from Canalside Studios and this year’s Team Project have made me more passionate than ever. My plan is to apply for QA Games Tester roles first as an entry into the industry. I got the chance to speak to a few industry guys at Game Republic and they said the best way is to enter as a QA then progress to lead QA, finally associate producer or producer. However, they did stress to make my career intentions clear in an interview and if the company is unable to accommodate my potential I should look for opportunities elsewhere.
I’ll be creating a new CV over the coming days and then the applications can commence!
For the final year of my degree I had a module called Team Project. The class was split into groups of 9 or 10. I was elected the leader of my team, which we named For The Win7 (FTW7). The team decided to create a simple strategy game for the Windows Phone 7. Our game was called Acorn of Aneush, a video of the game can be found in my final year portfolio.
For The Win7 was the first in the history of the team project module to fully finish a complete game within the academic year. Furthermore, we plan to release Acorn of Aneush onto the Windows Phone Marketplace within the next month for £0.99.
For The Win7 was also invited to attend this year’s Game Republic competition. To our absolute amazement and delight Acorn of Aneush won 1st place awards for Best Game Design, Best Game Technology and Best Team!
It’s been a while. I’ve been really busy with the whole university thing I kinda forgot about my website 
So this is just a quick post to show that I’m still alive.
Where to start, I handed in my dissertation last week (4th May) and it was titled “Development of a simple to use networking library for the XNA Framework”. I will be posting more about it over the next week. I may also continue development as the library, which I named EXN, could be quite useful for hobbyist and student XNA developers.
I’ve got an exam on Artificial Intelligence in a few days then my dissertation presentation on the 16th May. After all that it will be job hunting time!
I’ll post again after my exam!
First post for me in a while, I’ve been super busy recently. The week before Christmas I had two assignment deadlines. The first was for Advanced Computer Games Development and the brief was to create a 3D scene in RenderMonkey then apply different shader effects to the models in the scene. The second was my dissertation progress report. This report outlined the problems in my chosen area and then my proposed solutions. It also contained all the research I did, class diagrams and Gantt charts. I will post again over the coming weeks with more in-depth information on my dissertation.
Then after all that university work I’ve come back home to spend a few weeks with my family over the Christmas holidays. Although I must confess, I’m not getting round to doing much work lol. However I’m heading back to Huddersfield on the 3rd so I’ll have a good few weeks of hard work before term starts again.
Its been a while since I last posted but I’ve been a busy bean. Anyway, I finally got a Windows Phone 7 device! I decided to stay with the network Orange mainly because my girlfriend Lotty is also on Orange so we can get free calls to each other with magic numbers. I chose the HTC 7 Mozart which was free on a £32.50 a month contact.
The Mozart, I love it. HTC have done a great job, it’s slim and fits nicely in the hand. The screen is absolutely amazing, it’s crystal clear and vibrant. The main thing I don’t like is the battery only lasts a day. I suppose it’s no different to Lotty’s 3GS but at least I can easily replace the Mozart battery!
As for the WP7 the operating system is very good for version 1. There are a few gripes I have, the first being when you take a phone it uses the flash every time. You can turn it off but after the photo has been taken the setting resets! The second thing is the integration of your Windows Live Messenger contacts in the phone contacts. So currently I have all my friends MSN emails in my contact list and it just looks a mess. You might be thinking Chris, why don’t you just delete them off your phone? Well, if you delete them off your phone, it will also delete them from your Windows Live contacts so they will no longer be a friend on MSN. Currently there’s nothing else that I’ve found annoying but as I said, it’s not a bad first version of the OS.
I recently discovered this amazing puzzle game on the ipod called Trainyard, im not going to bother explaining the game you just have to watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWtIb7NEYgM
I have only downloaded the free version of the game called Trainyard Express which comes with 60 levels to whet your puzzling appetite. The learning curve is great, probably one of the best examples on the ipod. When I got into it I found myself mildly addicted. I’ve been playing it every night this week for 2+ hours a night. Its the sort of game that you can play while doing other things. If you get stuck you can come back to it in 5/10mins and ace the level. I’m going to buy the full game once I’ve completed the free version as the paid game comes with 150 different levels, which is awesome!
The next topic on the agenda is the release of Windows Phone 7 devices in the UK on Thursday 21st! Orange should have two devices for sale on the release day. One will be the HTC Mozart and the other is the Samsung Omnia 7. Phones4U started taking pre-orders for the HTC handset for only £27.50 a month and the handset is free. I’m not sure if that’s a pre-order price or weather other retailers will have the same pricing plan on release. I’m tempted by the HTC but I will have to see what prices are on the day but I can’t wait to get my grubby hands on one!
I went to a DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! Windows Phone 7 Community Event in Manchester on the 7th and it was great. It was sponsored by Microsoft and was mainly hosted by the guys from appamundi who are all MVP’s. During the day they covered many keys areas on WP7 development. Although the best speaker by far was Rob Miles who did a very entertaining talk on games programming for Windows Phone 7 using Silverlight and XNA.
From an educational point of view the talk on Tombstoning by Andy Wigley was very good. He basically showed you how to make your app interrupt proof which is necessary for all apps on the device.
At the end of the event they had a big prize give away. This consisted of, 6 Microsoft Arc Mouse’s, 2 MSDN Year Subscriptions, 1 Windows Phone 7 Puzzle and 1 Voucher for a Windows Phone 7 Phone! As normal, I won jack all. The friend that I went with Barnaby, won a mouse and some guy called sitting a few seats away from me won the phone! I was gutted but it was an awesome day.
I’m looking forward to the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 unveiling on October 11th in New York City. The word on the street is that the first wave of phones should be available in Europe by the end of the month. In the UK all five of the major mobile network operators will be embracing WP7. The manufactures that will be supporting WP7 so far are: HTC, LG, Samsung, Nokia and Sony Ericsson, but only HTC, LG and Samsung will have devices ready for the launch day.
The operating system has integration of Microsoft’s LIVE service platform. Which means that current Xbox 360 or PC gamers can login with their Live ID and earn more Gamer Points plus access other Live services on the phone.
Something I personally like about WP7 is you will be able to develop games quite easily using the XNA framework. I am really keen on making a game to release on WP7. If I can’t do it as part of a university project then I might have to do something in my spare time…if I can find any this year lol.
Call of Duty: Black Ops - PC
Gran Turismo 5 - PS3
Minecraft - PC
