The content of each talk varied a great deal, but (thankfully) I was able to keep up and got something out of all of them. Particular highlights for me were Glenn Fiedler‘s networked physics session, which focussed on how various network models relate to physics simulation, and Erin Catto‘s session on soft constraints, which worked through their use as a stable alternative to springs. While the topics covered were interesting in themselves, I think part of the attraction is witnessing how someone smart approaches a problem or subject.

The photo above is from the Ludum Dare meetup which took place in the evening before catching up with other scholars at the IGDA party.

Next stop was LucasArts, a significantly different studio. Again we had the chance to talk to some developers, but in this case recruitment specialists were clearly taking the lead. The tour we were given was fascinating, like walking through a museum of matte paintings and Star Wars memorabilia. Overall the opportunity was definitely enjoyable, but didn’t give much insight into daily life at the studio.

Finally, we headed towards Playdom for an excellent talk on Social Games from Eric Todd. I was entirely unsure what to expect from this before attending, but overall the talk itself was interesting and Eric was entirely open to answering our countless questions so I got a lot from the event.

I don’t want to conclude every single diary entry with a paragraph stating how awesome the IGDA scholarship programme is but seriously, I would never have had these opportunities without it and the organised (Jack, Gordon and Sheri) are owed massive thanks. To any students reading: don’t pass up on the chance to apply next year.

Fellow scholars proceded to appear over the course of the weekend, my first encounter being with my roomate Margret. Familiar with the area and having attended GDC before (as well as being a kick-ass person in general) she was an ideal student to learn from, and I regret that we didn’t spend much time together during the week. We hunted down a number of other scholars already in the city and (as had been arranged throught the modern miracle of social media) headed out for a tasty italian meal, followed by drinks in a noisy and inauthentic Irish bar. I hadn’t been sure what to expect from a diverse and international groups of students getting together for the first time but everyone was incredibly friendly, interesting and fun to be around. It was a fantastic experience.

After a brief food-court visit the next day, and a cream puff which may or may not have been made by gnomes, Jacob, Sam, Sho, Bobby, Mike and I headed out for a spot of tourism. Our original plan was to visit Chinatown but having progressed through the touristy area stocked with souvenirs and cheap electronics through to the grocery stores actually inhabited by locals we simply omitted to stop walking and eventually ended up at Fisherman’s Wharf. The weather was clear and sunny though cold, giving us a fantastic view, but overall the Wharf reminded my somewhat of Disneyland: too pristine, too touristy, too constructed. This real-world uncanny valley bothered me at countless points throughout the trip when I struggled with attitudes, locations and exclamations which seemed slightly too enthusiastic to be genuine, but I’m confident this is simply down to cultural differences rather than any attempt to mislead.

Catching a bus back from our trek, we met with Sangee and her local friend Filip for a spot of excessively priced tea before collecting our GDC passes. Following yet another meal, this one punctuated by the invaluable advice of Ian Schreiber and Gorm Lai, I headed with fellow scholar Salvador to a board game meetup and an opportunity to meet my own mentor, Jeff Ward, for the first time. I’m pretty inexperienced as a board gamer but thanks to the few chances I had to play during the week, it’s definitely something I’d like to continue when I return to Scotland. The evening was also a great chance to meet other GDC attendees, and it was lovely to continue to see them throughout the week. I think attending GDC alone, without the scholarship and the opportunities it presented, would have been a far more challenging experience.

I won a scholarship from the IGDA to attend GDC. Naturally, as a (student) games programmer, I’ve wanted to attend GDC since I first heard about it. Meeting other developers, attending technical sessions, witnessing the games industry on a global scale – what more could I want? Unfortunately though due to costs and exams in previous years I never saw attending as realistic. With this year likely to be my last as a student though, I couldn’t pass up my last opportunity to apply for the scholarship and thought I should just go for it. Of course, I never actually expected to be chosen!

The weeks since I first heard I would be attending have been a blur, and now I find myself in a hotel in San Francisco in the early hours of the morning, mere days from the start of GDC. I’ll be honest here, I’m absolutely terrified, but incredibly excited at the same time. I’m not a confident or outgoing networker, but I’m determined to get as much out of the conference as possible from both a technical and social perspective. On that note, if you’d like to meet up at some point then drop me an email (hazelmckendrick at gmail dot com) or let me know on twitter (@HazelMckendrick – I recently changed my username).

As for the journey here, it was stressful but not overwhelmingly so. I left my flat in Edinburgh at 3am in order to catch a flight to Paris at 6 in the morning, which was fairly uneventful but arrived later than expected. Unfortunately I needed to manual confirm ESTA details in Paris so that I’d be allowed to enter the US which added to my already tight transfer time, but thankfully a staff member appreciated my horribly broken attempts at speaking French and let me take a short-cut through the staff-only security check. After all that, my flight to San Francisco was delayed considerably as well giving me half an hour to recover between boarding and taxiing to the runway.

I’d checked the box indicating I was a vegetarian when booking the flight but was pleased to find out that the in-flight meals had meat-free options anyway. That is, until I was actually served my meal separately and it was completely different, and far less appetising, than the regular seemingly vegetarian options. Thankfully it wasn’t a big deal, because there was free ice cream server throughout the flight. Yes, you read that correctly. I had ten hours on a plane, with nothing to do but eat ice cream. Amazing.

The videos shown at immigration upon arrival were unnerving, like we were entering some sort of dystopian future, but the staff themselves were very friendly. Trying to answer casual questions about Angry Birds in between having my fingers scanned and lack of contraband confirmed was a little awkward though.

Thankfully, I managed to enter the country and take the BART to my hotel. I say that like it might have been some sort of challenge, but honestly, it was incredibly straightforward, almost verging on pleasant. The hotel itself is typical for a Holiday Inn: slightly outdated but clean and comfortable, and the blackout blinds were greatly appreciated when I went to sleep at 6:00pm after being awake for around 40 hours.

I’ve only had a brief venture outside so far to pick up toiletries, snacks, and painkillers. The first was a simple matter at a Walgreens down the street, although having someone unlock a cabinet so I could get a $1.79 tube of toothpaste seemed a little odd. Acquiring snacks was also trivial, and grabbing some fries from Burger King it was nice to get some fast food which was actually fast. The last item was a little more confusing given the absolutely massive array of painkillers available, few of which shared the names of their UK counterparts. Thankfully I guessed correctly from the directions that acetaminophen was a paracetamol equivalent and bought it at only ten times the amount it would have cost back home. Worth it though!

So this leaves me, at 5am, sitting in my hotel room and struggling to get back to sleep. I’m hoping to meet my roommate today as well as some other IGDA scholars, and to acquire a phone sim card whenever shops seem to be open. I’ll try to continue this diary throughout GDC, although I’m not sure exactly when I’ll find time; I’m looking forward to some studio tours which the IGDA has planned for us on Monday.

Don’t forget to say hi if you’re around!

Having freshly installed Windows 7 on my laptop (I usually run Linux) I’ve had to get hold of all the editors, tools and libraries I need again, and figured I would share here. Everything here is open source, free for non-commercial use or has a free trial version.

Programming

• Visual Studio 2010 for C, C# and C++ programming. If you’re a student you can get the professional edition from Dreamspark.
• XNA – nice to work with but distributing the game is awkward.
• Python 2.6 because I’m living (happily) in the past, along with Pyglet and PyGame (I haven’t actually used PyGame yet so will be avoiding it if possible).
• LÖVE, a multiplatform 2d game engine written in Lua.
• Unity. I really like the Unity engine and used it last year, but limitations in using source control and sharing projects with the free version are a massive hinderance.
• Flash in Flashdevelop with Flixel. I’ve only worked with flixel over the past couple of days but overall was really impressed.
• Notepad++, a great little text editor.

Art

I’m not an artist but it’s useful to be able to re-export a model, make your own cubes and create some disgusting coder art. Don’t forget: the more hideous you make your coder art, the faster the artist will replace it. Unless they stop to strangle you first. Sorry artists.

• Paint.Net, a huge step up from Paint.
• The Gimp, for the scary times when I need to do something more complicated than can be achieved in Paint.Net.
• Blender, for messing with the 3rd dimension and converting models.

Audio

• LMMS, an easy to use application for composition if we get so desperate I need to do that. Cover your ears if that actually happens.
• SFXR, a sound effect generator, and the online AS version.
• Audacity, for tampering or recording audio files.

Storage and Sharing

• Tortoise SVN and Tortoise Git – easy to use shell integration for source control.
• Dropbox – quick and easy backups and a simple way to transfer assets.

Recording

• Chronolaspe – a tool to record timelapses videos from screenshots or webcam captures.
• Fraps for recording the game itself.

I’ve probably forgotten a few things here, leave your own suggestions in the comments.

Hope everyone has a good new year. I’m looking forward to classes beginning and taking part in Global Game Jam again in the near future.

I got a new camera for Christmas and have a Flickr account so feel free to add me if that is a thing that you do.

• University – I am now studying MSc Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh, which so far has been really exciting, and of course a lot of work. It’s great to be able to back up a lot of the practical work I did as an undergrad with some further theory and maths. Presently I am working to choose a topic for my literature review, which might go on to be the topic for my project.
   
• Internship – Over the summer I was based at Tag Games, working on porting an existing project of theirs to a new platform. It was a great experience to work with everyone there and I think I’m now in a far better position to contribute to an eventual employer.
   
• NEON – I’m planning to attend NEON in Dundee this November (in fact I just bought my ticket). Unfortunately I missed it last year, but given the reasonable student rates and the attendance of Ken Perlin this year, I couldn’t resist.

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.

Hope that wasn’t too cheesy!

Also, feel free to use this thread for a bit of self promotion and link to your own CV – I’d be happy to return the favour and read over it.

Edit:
Updated the CV version.
Again.