Drawing for games
by Dezzymei on May.05, 2012, under Cool Apps, iPhone Apps, Technology
I have spent a significant amount of time working on “Jump Duck” over the past month. I want to create the whole app alone and so haven’t employed or asked anyone for help with graphics, audio or programming. Therefore I have spent some time sketching out what I would roughly like the ducks to look like before I put them into a digital form.
I thought I would share them on here as a piece of documentation. I have also worked out the structure of the character for the running action, as well as ducking and jumping.
Personal application/game development/consultancy
by Dezzymei on Apr.05, 2012, under iPhone Apps, Personal Info
Since leaving Softwire I have decided to work on my own games and apps, starting with the iPhone, possibly moving onto other mobile platforms, then if all things are good Xbox arcade and then maybe a full Xbox release in years to come – but these are just mad plans in my head!
I am hopefully going to finish JumpDuck but will have to rename it because someone else has taken the name!
Many people also come to me for some advice and so I was thinking of charging myself out for some consultancy. Similarly many friends have plans for websites and apps that they would like to develop and so I am available for a discussion on taking equity or being employed for a period.
However I am going to work on some of my own ideas for now (although always open to ideas that come up) as I would quite like to complete something solo first and then move on to collaborations in the future.
Becoming a push-bike courier and getting a motorbike
by Dezzymei on Apr.05, 2012, under Cycling, Personal Info
After leaving my job at Softwire I spent a brief period being a push-bike courier in London which was great fun. 11 hours a day of cycling through London, delivering upwards of 20 packages a day throughout the city. Paid per package about £1-3.45 depending on the client.
I also spent some time doing a motorbike course. I managed to put my foot down during the module 1 (which is the easy playground bit) which caused an immediate fail. I retook and passed with just 3 minors over both module one and two a week later. Immediately I went out and bought a Suzuki GSX 650 in baby blue which is stunningly powerful and incredibly beautiful.
Me and my bike
I won’t mention how quickly I have ridden this thing as my Mum may stumble across the page!
On the road
Leaving Softwire
by Dezzymei on Apr.05, 2012, under Personal Info, Softwire, Technology
I spent about a year and a half at Softwire developing various pieces of software, back and front end, on and off site. As a consultancy you get to work on all different types of projects and you tend to rotate every few months. We used lots of different languages and technologies including C#, Java, php, html, javascript, python, jQuery, Silverlight, MySQL MSSQL etc…
They are a fantastic company to work for – in fact the 6th Best Small Company according to The Times. I could not have thought of anything to make working life better there, and if I did I implemented it (like having Nando’s in the office for lunch the first Tuesday of every month or having a gym in the office). The working environment allowed you to be surrounded by incredibly smart and motivated people so you could learn a lot and solve your problems quickly and efficiently. However was relaxed enough to be an enjoyable place to work.
The client list was impressive – including ICAP, BBC, Telegraph Media Group.
I left the company to start creating my own apps and games, probably on the iOS platform – much like OK! Match. I am now doing this and might look to take some office space from Softwire in the future. I plan to start doing this by myself and if things go well possibly look to employing people in the future.
Skydiving
by Dezzymei on Apr.05, 2012, under Events, Personal Info
I have also wanted to skydive and did so in a tandem at Infinite Skydiving (see Andy Ford/Fordy).
Just about to leave the plane
Superman
They also do a course so you can do solo jumps which I may be doing soon!
Climbing Kilimanjaro
by Dezzymei on Apr.05, 2012, under Events, Personal Info
This past christmas I climbed the Kilimanjaro peak that was about 18,000 feet. It took us 6 days to climb and just 6 hours to come down. We took our time to climb because of the serious affects of altitude which cause about 60% of people to turn back if they try and climb it too quickly.
This meant that the 6 days to climb were quite slow so I decided to take the porters luggage for a couple of days – including the chairs we had.
Me carrying chairs on my head
The views on the way up were incredible. In the morning it was normally very clear with cloud gathering over the afternoon.
Me underneath a waterfall
The view half way up
The final night was the hardest physical challenge of my life. We started at 11pm and climbed to the top constantly until 8am. It was during a massive snow storm with temperatures reaching around -20 degrees centigrade. The altitude was killer and made you feel incredibly light headed. People were throwing up on the way up and being taken down on stretchers.
At the Uhuru Peak
Once we got back to the camp after the peak we all decided to head straight down and get off the mountain as quickly as possible! This took us just 6 hours to get down.
Cycling from London to Ibiza
by Dezzymei on Apr.05, 2012, under Cycling, Personal Info
The total ride was 1000 miles and I stayed in random hostels and hotels that I found along the way.
It took 11 elapsed days (including the rest day in Paris). Spending a night in the following places:
- Newhaven
- Paris
- Orleans
- Bourges
- Montlucon
- Clermont-Ferrand
- Saint-chely d’Apcher
- Pezenas
- Figures
- Barcelona
The first day to Paris 5 of us went to Brighton with me going on to Barcelona. The rest took their London to Barcelona tee shirts back on the train to London!
The group down to Brighton
The tee shirts
Day 2 saw me reaching Paris after the longest ride of my life (approximately 120 miles) starting at 4 am when the ferry got in to Dieppe. Riding on the Avenue Verte (a disused railway line that has been tarmac’ed over).
Reaching Paris
The hardest part was the Massif-Centrale which to be honest I wasn’t really expecting! The Pyranees route I took by the coast wasn’t actually that challenging as it wasn’t that steep.
The fun part of hills
That final day I met someone riding from Barcelona to Stockholm who was camping.
Reaching Spain
La Sagrada Familia
When I reached Barcelona I had the afternoon to chill which could have been nice on the beach before my ferry to Ibiza. However there was a big hill with a massive church on top (Tibidabo) which looked like fun (about a 500m climb) which after 1000 miles I should have declined to do and rested, but decided to do anyway!
View from the top of Barcelona
All in all a good trip that has inspired my friend to organise the same trip a year later, but taking it a bit slower than I did! I will likely join him to Paris though (and am doing Paris again this coming weekend!).
Status Update
by Dezzymei on Apr.05, 2012, under Cool Apps, iPhone Apps, Personal Info, Softwire, Technology
I wanted to write up a few things that have happened since my last blog post (which is quite a lot!). I am going to do this in multiple blog posts but here is an outline of things that have happened since July 2012 until April 2013:
Cycling from London to Ibiza (August 2012)
Climbing Kilimanjaro (Christmas 2012)
Becoming a push-bike courier and getting a motorbike (March 2013)
JumpDuck a week on
by Dezzymei on Jun.06, 2011, under iPhone Apps, Personal Info, Technology
So I have spent a little bit of time putting in some template images to just get all the functionality there before I spend a lot of time working on the graphics but now I have a game that allows me to jump and duck (and play appropriate animations with my stick man!), lose lives and gain points (and even gain a life from a power up of some sort), together with a score counter and a life counter (currently with just the temporary logo). The background (also temporary) also scrolls from right to left continuously which is quite nice.
I am missing the obstacles to jump and duck (i.e. the whole point of the game) and there needs to be a lot of work on the graphics, but I am leaving that til last as I want the functionality there before I do that. Contemplating whether I should get someone to help me with the graphics as it would save me a lot of time and would no doubt be better 
Part of the motivation for doing this is to complete a game alone without any help so perhaps I will get this one done (and then I will learn how to do the hard graphics stuff) and then next time if I don’t have the time I can get some help.
My agile wall has been working well and I got more than expected into done (although I have been cheating with the images a bit as they clearly need some more work but I have said that they are done for template purposes).
I aimed to get 5 hours done last sprint and got 8 (although 3 of them were image ones that I have kind of cheated with).
No retro really took place as I am pleased with my progress and my motivation is still here. I have about 6 hours of programming time left and somewhere in the range of 10-20 hours graphic design if I want to make it look nice. So a good strong development week should be able to see me complete the technical side of the game by Sunday night. It’s my birthday on Friday and I’m going to BBQs Saturday afternoon so perhaps I will have to have a day off the bike and gym training to work hard on this over the weekend to get it done. Then I can start giving it to people to test while I work on the graphics over the coming weeks.
I also have some bonus things I would like to add to this release now my progress is going well, but I will add the stories (not fleshed out) into the release 2 column and bring them in if I have time.
Jump Duck
by Dezzymei on Jun.03, 2011, under Cool Apps, iPhone Apps, Personal Info, Technology
I have recently just started developing a new iPhone app which I hope to complete by the time I go on my bike trip mid July. It amounts to about an hour work a day, but obviously I won’t be able to work on it everyday, especially during the week, but will be able to work on it more at weekends.
Motivation has been a real issue in starting work on this. A blog post went round work about motivation, and although we were not directly told to think about our own motivation because the developers at Softwire are all pretty determined (what with being very good from their university career). However I thought it would be a good idea, for the benefit of my Team Manager (TM) and future managers, to know what motivates me to get my work done. I found it as an opportunity to also address my individual motivation issue with not working on this project for months.
Copied from my weekly status email at Softwire:
Motivators:
To show people more of my products and creativity (i.e. show off)
To develop something for myself, alone without any help (i.e. be independent)
To develop game creating skills (because it is something I have enjoyed and would like to do more of)
Consequence:
To make some money
Demotivators:
Tired after work and don’t want to program after a long day of programming
“Better” things to do (e.g. socialising, working out, cycling, sleeping)
I have addressed the tired issue by just eating a lot more sugars, yes it is probably counter intuitive with respect to my lifestyle (e.g. exercising and eating well to stay fit) but by changing my lifestyle in this way I am really motivating myself to get on with this project. Don’t get me wrong, I still work out for 45 minutes every morning then cycle 30 minutes to work and then back at the end of the day, but I’m just pushing development of this game more.
I am going to use an agile wall to try to motivate me more as well. Having goals and the future planned out really helps to drive the determination to get things done so that: I know I can show people stuff if I get the following tasks done, I can see how much I have accomplished myself – independently and skillset wise, and a motivational push when I am nearly ready for release.
The columns are slightly adapted from conventional Agile walls since I am a team of one, there is no “Testing” column as such (because that should be covered when I’m implementing it – or I’m not very good at what I do for a living), but I do have some testing tasks that require me to set some friends up with profiles and let them get on with it and give me feedback about bugs and enjoyment.
On the far left I have release 2 stuff which are all features that would be cool to add, but only after releasing and getting most of the game working. Things in there currently are “Home screen with about, email, options etc” and “Leaderboards – local and global”. These tasks are yet to be fleshed out, but are put there so I don’t forget about fun and cool features that I would love to add in the future.
The next column is release 1 stuff. These are tasks that are essential before releasing the game, but they are not being worked on in the “Sprint” which is the next column. The “Sprint” involves tasks that I am working on over the coming week and they represent having a good piece of functionality that I could show people at the end of it. This initial sprint started at the beginning of this week and I am planning on getting it finished by the end of Sunday however it will be done when it is done, whether it is before or after since my life comes first! However it is good to have a goal to get a certain amount of work done by a certain time so I know I would be able to release by the time I go away on my bike trip.
—————-
As an aside I wanted to mention that I have been working with a team of 7 developers, a scrum master and PO at *censored company name* (one of Softwire’s clients) for almost 4 months now. We try to keep to the agile principles but throughout the process I have had problems with it and so have the team and so we continually try to change it to suit our work and environment. Therefore I really enjoy the retrospectives. I am adjusting my own processes for my own project here that try to prevent these problems.
At this corporate company, with a large development department, we try to keep to the agile principles by the book. This means not bringing in more work than we think we have hours for. Because we are in software and things *always* run over, we take 20% off our estimated amount of working time for the 2 week sprint to account for overheads, under estimation, bug fixes etc… so when we run out (which we do occasionally, we have to have another meeting to flesh out stories that probably haven’t changed from the end of the last sprint). This would be fine if our PO was easy to track down, but seeing as he regularly can’t attend our scheduled planning meeting this never happens so we end up scraping the barrel of low priority bug fixes and cleaning up the code-base from “technical debt”.
Regularly at the end of each sprint we might be half way through implementing a story (because with a team of 7 it is very hard to keep us all working and only work on one story and get it all completed and done) and so it gets carried over to the next sprint. Similarly we might be running out of work: so people will pick up tasks that they don’t want to do, or other people would be more suited to, or just picking up the tasks that are left on the board until the end of the sprint, probably because they are rubbish tasks that noone wants to do. Yes they are essential but it puts a downer on the end of a sprint, especially seeing as everything is normally completed by then and you are not adding any functionality, just polishing edges. I guess this is just a “feature” of agile, and be thankful there are smaller things every 2 weeks, as opposed to millions of things at the end of a huge release. If you can fix it now, you probably should right?
One of my overall pieces of personal motivation (that I am sure applies to a lot of developers) is that I like to create things to show people. Cleaning up code, or making a database call run faster is great to complete, but not as fun as adding in a new piece of demo-able functionality to the project. Perhaps this is why I am interested in creating a game! Although I imagine all of the other good software practices are applicable too.
—————-
With an individual project like this I can just work linearly on stories until they are complete and then move on to the next one. It means it would be great to get things done by the deadlines (which are mostly arbitrarily set) and if I go over I will just bring other things in and get ahead of next sprint. I have planned out everything I think I need for release one, so now I just need to do it. If I think of other things I need (as I would do because I am a team of 1) I will bring them in (as I did with a couple of small tasks to do with the UI that I had not thought about!).
So far I have only really worked on it for a couple of days as I have been getting to grips with the cocos2d libraries that I am going to be using.
This is an initial screen shot that doesn’t show much, other than I have some button images, life counters and scoreboard set up.
The game will become a lot clearer as it develops more, and like all things consumer based, will be a lot nicer with graphics! (Which is why I plan to work on some of these things this weekend so I can show people).
Here is a picture of my dev setup as well (a new mac book pro with a 24″ Dell secondary monitor), with the agile board behind on the large picture on the wall.
