The end of the summer is rapidly approaching, which can only mean one thing: Dare teams working to complete their projects in time for Protoplay this weekend!
For those not yet aware, Dare Protoplay is a showcase of games created during the Dare to be Digital competition. It’s running from the 13th-15th August at the EICC (Edinburgh) and entrance is free.
Two students from my CGT class are taking part this year, Andrew Glass and Iain Fergus, as part of the team Shark on a Bike so make sure to say hi to them! their promo video is here:
You can check out all of the other fantastic teams and games on the Dare website, and hopefully play them in person at the weekend.
Finally have my laptop working again, which is especially useful given that I moved my PC to my new flat but am still staying elsewhere. I almost considered posting an update from an ipod touch but after finding a dozen or so typos in the first sentence alone I figured I was best just giving up until I had a proper keyboard to use.
Anyway, here’s a brief update just to list a few things I’ve been up to since I last posted:
I graduated from Abertay! With first class honours! Wooh!
I came second in Aardvark Swift’s Search for a Star competition, following a day trip to Brighton. From Dundee. By Train. The competition was a really great learning experience (the three rounds involved a programming test, modifying and expanding upon an existing game with a few added bugs and then an interview) even if the travelling itself wasn’t so much fun.
I’m currently an intern at Tag Games over the summer, which hopefully explains both how I’ve coped without my laptop and why I haven’t had much time to blog.
So, there you have it. Expect more posts, but not necessarily right away.
Today is Ada Lovelace Day and like 2000 other bloggers across the globe, I’ve pledged to write a post on a woman in technology and/or science. Research has shown that women need female role models and given the disparity between genders in science and technology, at first it can seem like potential candidates are few and far between. On Ada Lovelace Day we hope to highlight numerous women in these fields, both to celebrate their achievements and to encourage others.
While last year many blogs covered technical superstars, this year I’d like to write about someone a little closer to home: my mum, Karin McKendrick. As well as being an insane long distance runner, she’s also a programmer and systems analyst; suffice to say I wouldn’t be where I am today without her influence.
Perhaps surprisingly, my mum originally studied Classics at university. I don’t know when she first started programming (a number of older computers and gaming systems still lurk around our house), but she returned to work after the birth of my brother and I in time to work on Millennium Bug related problems. During her break from employment (not that I think you could class raising children as “taking a break”) she completed Open University degrees in mechatronics and product design. I didn’t see much significance in basing our holidays conveniently at summer school locations as a child, but as a student myself now I really admire and appreciate the commitment that completing self-study courses must involve.
In high school, I guess a lot of the need to encourage women in technical fields confused me (one of the most shocking times was when a particularly intelligent friend suddenly decided she was terrible at maths overnight), because I was never given any reason why my gender should affect my abilities or aims. Now, I feel hugely fortunate to be where I am.
Last Friday night, YinYangYou was projected onto a giant canvas in the street so members of the public could play the game against each other. It was probably the biggest and loudest I’m likely to see a game I’ve worked on, and suffice to say was awesome.
The display was one of many attractions and events arranged around the city for Dundee Winter Light Night which, judging from the huge crowds, was a great success. Despite the freezing cold, plenty of visitors came to try YinYangYou and it was fantastic to see even young children be able to pick up and play the game. Hopefully the Winter Light Night will be organised again next year, perhaps with other student made games taking part. Continue reading »
Team Be were demoing YinYangYou at Neon Public yesterday. When we developed it as part of the week-long Next Level Dundee project I don’t think we really imagined just how many opportunities would follow so it was fantastic to be able to show the game to the public and get some feedback.
