A Heartfelt Goodbye from Lucas and HIS GAME!

So, this is it! This is the end! I regret to inform you that today is my very last day at Smiley Guy Studios. It's a little bittersweet. I'm pretty sad that I'm leaving. I sat on the bus this morning just thinking about the fact that this may be the last time that I ever go this route. (I know its too sentimental but get over it!) But I'm also feeling as though the skills that I have learned here will be with me forever. I finish this year feeling more knowledgable and more confidence than I did when I started. I found fields that interested me and really dug into what makes someone good at that job. I immersed myself in the Toronto video game community and wrote a 50 page sit-com pilot! These are things that wouldn't have even occurred to me to do prior to this year. 

Aside from that, within the studio I met a ton of awesome people. They were always willing to answer my questions or just have a good conversation. Before coming here, I was quite frightened of the "real world." The point where you become an adult and all the fun gets sucked out of you. The people here however, have showed me that that's not the case at all. Most love what they do and have a good time doing it. I have to admit, when I first got here I was not quite sure whether or not Brad was joking most of the time. It's a kind of humour that takes you a little while to catch on to.

And finally... The Game! It's done! I feel really proud of what I have done. To be honest though, as an outsider who doesn't know about me; it would look quite unimpressive. The art isn't amazing and the code is pretty sloppy but I feel it's a real accomplishment. I've really never done something like this and all the skills that I used were acquired earlier this year. I acknowledge that it has flaws, but it's a stepping stone. My next game will be better, then my next will be even better than that! I'm just happy that it works. There were a few points where I wasn't even sure that this would be possible at my skill level. There had to be a few major concept changes to make sure that the game was even possible, but I pulled through. I have something now that although it may glitch out at some points, someone can sit down and play it. If you're wondering where it can be played, I have it hosted on a website which I'll link to below. I'm going to update it one more time before I leave, just fixing a bug that makes the player spawn in the wrong place and a simple mixup with one of the cloud tiles. It's not a big deal, the game works the same without these changes. It's just a matter of aesthetics. 

To end this off, I'd like to tie it back to one of my first blogs. As I walked in today, I noticed the dancing Jewish man figurine. I figure I'll leave it here for two reasons. 1) There are so many objects and trinkets laying around the office. I'm sure everything reminds a few people of a story or an experience, so I want something here that is a reminder I was here (as odd a reminder as that is).  2) I really don't want that thing back. Like, honestly I don't want to lose any more sleep over the thought of that thing on my shelf. Please. Keep it. 

I'd like to thank Julie and Mike for even after having poor prior experiences with co-op students, accepting me to work here. The year had a huge positive impact on me and I'm sure I won't be forgetting it any time soon. 

The Game: http://www.cavemenjointlink.com/

Lucas is Becoming an Inspiration to the Rest of Us

I feel really good about this week! First off, I'm on schedule with the game now! I had a my check with Aman this morning and I got some criticism on the tile set and character. He told me that I should take away the colour of the player overtop of the tiles to make sure there's enough contrast of the two. Apparently, it's helpful for colour-blind people as well as making sure that the player is always clear seen. He is also going to send me some of his previous tile sets so I can make some comparisons. I'm going to make some tweaks on them then on monday we'll lock it. Feels good to not be behind! 

On a side note, I finished my Pilot! I've been doing some work on my own on a TV Pilot. I had finished a treatment and started  the actual spec two weeks ago. Now I'm happy to say that it's done! It's 55 pages. I don't think I've ever written that many pages of anything. Mike said I should send all this stuff to him and we can talk about it. He's already given me some pretty brief do's and don't's of the industry and I'm really exited to hear more. I'll probably start writing more specs. Now that I've already gone through the motions of doing this first one, it should be easier from here on out.

Lucas' Eye on Waterloo

Ok! So, this week was pretty sweet as well. First of all, The game jam was awesome! It was super intense and straining (I barely had time to sleep.) It was also pretty rewarding seeing as how I have something to show for my time there.

I'm sorry to say that anyone reading this will have to wait one more week to play it just because me and my friend are in the process of cleaning it up a bit before we put it up anywhere. I can say however that you play as a giant eyeball and navigate through a maze without touching the walls. I hope that explanation is sort of adequate.

Also, I'm going to be entering the Junior Waterloo Programming Competition. It sounds big and fancy but it's really just a test. If you score high enough, you can win money and scholarships! It takes place near the end of February so I'll be going in for extra help sessions at school. I'm really looking forward to it.

Lucas' Blog and New Video Game

It seems as though I haven’t put up a blog here in awhile. It may in fact be because Julie hasn’t been on my case about it. Maybe that isn’t such a bad thing though. Over the last two or three weeks a lot has happened. So now I can write about all of in a huge blog. How exiting! Well first of all, anyone who reads these would probably know that I’ve been learning Java and Javascript. Well, I’ve been finally putting those skills to work. A few weeks ago I started building a small platformer game with a friend of mine.  I’ve also been doing one on my own but I’ll talk about that later. I’m having a really good time at it. They're not super fancy now but it's a start.

            I’ve been going to some game-related events and been meeting some really cool people.  Some of them have made games that I actually played and so I enjoyed meeting the minds behind them, it was fantastic. I got a twitter account so I could connect with all these people. If I learned anything from these events, it’s than networking is everything. Everyone likes to follow each other’s projects and I need a way to tell people about what I’m working on so I started the “LUCAS TENNEN DOES STUFF” blog. There isn’t much there yet but there is definitely more to come: http://lucastennen.blogspot.ca/

            Over the last week and a half or so I have been working by myself on a small puzzle game called “AM I REAL?” I actually just put it up two days ago (can be found on my blog). A bunch of the work was done at Smiley Guy and I’m happy about how it turned out. It's really short, only takes about 10 minutes to get through but its my first one, so cut me some slack.  I’ve been watching the number of plays go up, refreshing the page every hour or so and I’m exited to see that over 200 people have played it! It’s a pretty big deal considering that the number before was zero. Overall the last few weeks have been busy and amazing and hopefully there will be many more like them. I should also throw out some random co-op related blurb like I usually do... I can do that next blog...

Am I Real

Cavemen Joint Linl

More Ramblings from Lucas

This is a very exiting blog. I have news of the utmost importance. For the first time ever, I am going to have a consistent reader. Yesterday I half-hazzardly told my friend Hilary about what I do here and she insisted on reading all of the blog posts. Now I can write knowing that someone is reading which is nice. Now these may be more than me sitting and spamming the keys on my laptop and autocorrecting each segment of random letters until they make a little sense. This is going to be a turning point on blog quality. Not to say that they were bad before. They were pretty decent, but now they can be incredible. They will take on a life of their own and cross over into whole new virtues of though. It will be like that episode of Futurama where bender becomes so smart that he IS the universe. It’ll be like that. Except with my blogs.  

Now, knowing that there’s a reader I feel like this is one-sided conversation. I like conversations, which are two ways. So I may say “How are you doing today?” Right now at this moment there will be no response. It would be odd if there was, because I’m currently alone in my house. (On a side note: I just had the strangest though. What if I posted this then I hear from behind me in a slithering voice “I’m doing fine.” That would scare the shit out of me. Like honestly if nobody hears from me in the next 24 hours, you know what happened.) So for the sake of making this more conversation-like, if you read this get in contact with me. I’m completely serious. Call me up and say “Hello Lucas, I just read your blog and wanted to let you know that I am having an absolutely wonderful day because I just read your blog and it just puts me in the best spirits.” If that is not the response then the call is not really needed. For the sake of saving time, I’ll just say here; “Thank you for the call. My day is fantastic too. I already know how good my blog is but its nice to hear it said out loud.” I don’t think more would need to be said on the subject but if you feel the need to go on flattering me with praise of my writing style then nobody is stopping you. 

         

Java’s coming along well too. I started making GUI’s (Graphic user interfaces) and it's neat to see someone interact with something I make.  Maybe I should make a GUI to organize all the calls that I get from people who want to praise my blogging skillz. I’ll put it on my to-do list.

Lucas Learns about Code and the Rock Horror Picture Show

I feel accomplished! I feel inspired! although I also feel like taking a nap... Last night was Halloween! It was a ton of fun. I went with a few friends to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Bloor Hot Docs Theatre. I can easily say, it was the strangest thing I have ever seen and the most fun I've had in awhile. What really baffled me about it, was that most people knew all the lines. Not just the lines, They  were shouting things in-between the lines. There was a ton of dialogue that was just the crowd shouting at the screen in unison. Whats so great about this is you can't learn and memorize these lines from watching the movie. Yes, most of the people had been there before. many, many times. Oh, did I mention what I dressed up as? I had a lampshade on my head and an alarm clock on my shoulder. I was a one night stand. needless to say I would have been the coolest kid at any party.

Earlier in the week, I started making a text-based game in java. Its pretty exiting to see something that I made actually work. Its fairly simple and the cove is very disorganized but it runs and one could actually sit down and play it. It only takes about 30 seconds to get through, but its a start. More on that later though.

Lucas Switches Focus and Discuss' Eye Strain

Something about this week seems shorter. It may be because is was...

      Near the end of last week I had been working a bit on some java code and really enjoyed it. So that is what I have devoted this week to. Java, Java, and more java. I even took up drinking coffee for the occasion. On Tuesday a friend of mine sent me a program that he was having troubles with. In between some of the strangest conversation I have ever witnesses, Brad was able to help me to correct it. It was my first "bug-fixing" experience and I can fairly say that it was quite satisfying when the program worked. All it did was calculate interest in a bank account for a certain amount of years, but it's a start. 

 

      On a side note; since its the beginning of the year, my co-op instructor has had a plethora of questions concerning our workplace. Every time we are asked about the conditions, I am ever so tempted to start rambling about how they "let me out of the cage every now and then" and how "The slave labor isn't as bad as it's made out to seem." Of course that would cause other problems so I'm forced to bite my lip and answer honestly. believe me, It's difficult. We had to fill out a sheet on safety in our workplace and little to none of it applied to me since I sit at a desk for the majority of my placement. I don't see myself getting injured unless I get a compulsive urge to put my head through one of the brick walls. Anyways, I got all ready to write about all the fire-breathing dragon in the back room of Smiley Guy Studios when Mr. Rowell pointed out that this was for legitimate marks. So instead I spoke about the dangers of carpal tunnel and eye strain. The power of good posture and taking small breaks to make sure your eyes don't explode. There may have been a few lines thrown in about how steep the stairs are too.