Hey all. So, this master’s program is intense. I’m loving it, but it’s sapped a lot of my free time so I haven’t been updating this blog even though I’m learning tons of stuff and working on projects right and left.

So, since I’m already writing weekly dev diaries for one of the classes, I figured I could publish them here! With names changed to protect the innocent, of course.

Dev Diary prompt 1: Your assignment (should be no longer than one page):
– What do you hope to get out of the next 12 months in this program?
– What are you most excited to learn about?
– Is there anything you’re worried about?
– In your spare time, what kinds of games do you prefer to play?

GAME 270: PROTOTYPING is of the classes I’m most excited about when scrolling through the quarter’s itinerary. The C++ sounds terrifying and the art class sounds promising but I suspect it’s less about making art and more about intelligently choosing pre-existing assets, when one of my favorite parts of game development is creating all my own art. I have always operated under the philosophy of creating many tiny games to learn new mechanics, and so I look forward to this class pressing me to the limits of what I can accomplish in a short time.

I can even get behind the philosophy of writing these diaries. When I took a Unity course over the summer preparing for this course, I wrote a daily diary keeping track of what I’d learned that day. I was less focused on what I’d hoped to learn, since it was just Unity, but this time there are three major tiers of knowledge I hope to explore:

  1. Programming. I want to learn Unity well enough to make my own games on that platform. Other languages like C++ and Unreal I hope to master well enough to pass the courses.
  2. Game Design. As mentioned, I’ve made several games on my own, so I’m not a completely newcomer to the design aspect of games, but I have never been formally trained so this opportunity is an invaluable asset.
  3. Networking. The other kids in this program are driven, ambitious, and knowledgeable in this field. I’ve never met so many people my age that I can bond with like this class. I need to befriend as many as possible and nurture connections to help me break into the industry proper.

My biggest weakness is my lack of programming experience. I passed a C class in junior year of bachelor’s, and I’ve taken multiple online courses attempting to learn Unity, but I’ve never felt like I was doing anything but stumbling through those classes and aping the instructor. I want to be able to make Unity games with the same proficiency I can create games in Clickteam Fusion 2.5.

In my spare time I play multiplayer shooters like Overwatch, Left 4 Dead 2, and Team Fortress 2. I specialize in healers and support classes.