The aim of this project is to try to create a game on mostly open source software tools (such as Gimp and Blender) and see if a marketable product can be produced, but also to get the developers professional experience in the field of gamedesign.

The game itself will be aiming to the, as I dubbed it, “Wii audience”: People of all ages, who want to get into a fun game without learning a complicated control scheme.
The plan as of now is to work towards an Alpha in the first quarter of next year. With that, we’ll be visiting some companies to see if they would be interested sponsoring the game (with the help of in-game commercial assets). When we got a few of them on board, we can start working towards a fully playable beta, if not the full game.

When the full game will be released, depending on the popularity, there will be monthly updates as to keep adding to the existing content.
Since the game will be free for download, I’ve also scooped up the domain www.downloadthisgame.com, which will be serving as one of the main download sites on release.

Further more, progress on the ETQW modification (Wheels of War) is also coming along great.
We’ve been able to get a great team together, and currently I’m getting myself updated on the new engine, especially the process of modeling terrains with 3DS Max, which is a strong prerequisite when mapping for ETQW.
The next few weeks I’ll be keeping a log on how progress on both these projects is getting along.

I’m staying in Brighton at the moment and it seems to be a very nice place: Lots of cool people, good environment (beach nearby, wooyay) and a freelance job; What more can a man ask for? (besides beer, women and plenty of money…)
Currently I’m staying with a friend and once I got a decent job going, or have a little bit of pounds-saving, I’ll be starting to look for my own place.

I’m still trying to get accustomed to the English habits (read: Going to a pub almost every night, not saying “Have a nice dinner” when people start eating, and trying to look to the right side of the road when crossing), but that seems to be something that you get used to along the way.
As of now, I’m very busy to get myself a fulltime position as a leveldesigner, but since there’s the saying “Being at the right place, at the right time”, I’m especially happy that at least I’m at the right place now; I only got to wait for the right time */me checks clock*

The only thing I’m missing at the moment is my good ol’ computer; I had to leave it at home, as I was unable to take it with me on the airplane. Because of this I’ve also had to put my current game on a temporary hold, but I guess that time can be well spent finishing the gamedesign document and looking at ways to properly implement the in-game ads.
I’ve also joined a modteam (as the lead leveldesigner) for the game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, called Wheels of War, but as noticed; I’m also currently unable to do anything useful for that. Then again, the mod is still in its starting phase, and I guess by the time we’re working towards an Alpha, I’ll be having access to my ‘puter again.

The last few years I’ve also been researching the possibilities of bringing a semi-commercial game to the market (build on, mostly, open sourced software), and the last few months of research into the viability of it has finally payed off:
Current plans are to show off the first testbuilds on the Develop Conference in Brighton, UK (24 - 26 July), so there’s a nice deadline for me there.

One thing I still want to add to it are my building drawings/designs, most of which originated from my architecture study: I’m frantically searching for them, but I’m afraid they somehow got chucked out during some cleaning day… Certainly don’t hope so.

Then again, I’m happy that I still have all the 3DS Max models of that period, which I’ll add to the 3D models-section of my portfolio over the week(end).

I’ve also started my search for leveldesign- and testjobs in the UK and I hope I’ll be able to get into the industry as soon as possible; I definitely have the feeling that now is the right time and with my motivation and expertise I’m sure I’ll be a very good candidate for the positions I applied to.
For now, I will relax a bit and work out the last few nitpicks on the site… and wait for what is to come

Besides this ambition, I’ve also been very busy with setting up a commercial project; Something that has really come off the ground after years of brainstorming and creating vague gamedesign documents and level templates.
The years of research did pay off though, as for now it seems the possibility of bringing this to the market is quite high: Still some gaps to jump before I can start to form a complete design team, but the foundation of this house is already placed firmly into the ground.
For now I can’t tell too much about this, but the main idea that started this was to create a game by spending virtually no money. With open source tools, the Internet as your marketing medium, and a FREE fun game: One can come a long way.

More information about this project in the future. For now I’m off adding the finishing touches to my portfolio.

Gotta love the Internet. And yes, I’ll burn in hell for this mockup

Edit: Whoah, 957.232 unique hits as of now: Damn!

I’ve learnt quite some things today about the structure of my website and put an example page of my portfolio up. The current portfolio-test is a static page, but tomorrow I will be working in trying to make it to be dynamic (like the rest of the site), so updating it won’t be a big hassle.

For now I will be having a last look through some of the code… although I’ve been telling that myself for the past two hours.

I’ve also put up the temporary site for one of my current projects, the so-called ETF Minigames, which can be found here.

For now I will be working on putting up my portfolio page, but I’m not sure yet how I am going to structure it. Back to the drawing board, Batman!

I added the Hemingway theme as a base to work on, and currently I am trying to give my own flavor to it all.