So new things:
- Got a new laptop so I have connectivity at home again! This is partly why I should be posting a little more regularly again. It's nothing special but should suit my needs well.
- Passed my three month appraisal without any major problems and even some praise for my ability to pick up the intricacies of the Unreal Engine.
So work wise what have I been up to? Pretty much continuing with requirements documentation for a variety of systems including combat and vehicles. I'm not used to having to think about systems in abstract terms so it's been pretty tricky to come up with requirements when my brain is geared towards providing solutions. It's a good practice though as you pick up things you missed and generally come up with more suitable ideas as part of the process.
Other than that I've been involved in some cross-discipline working groups essentially nailing down the design and identifying any areas that could cause trouble. This is particularly good as it gives more exposure to everyone involved about the entire project. In short it brings ideas along fast.
We are about to enter another new area of development for me as we now have a Gameplay Lead. With someone who has time to give the group some direction we are beginning a phase of 'agile' development to expose some of the core gameplay components. This should hopefully be more engaging than the endless document writing as well as showing us where we need to go in terms of design. We expect to be refactoring some of what we produce and just stubbing out a lot of the rest of it for future use. Hopefully none of the code will be throw away so here begins the proper development of the final product. Only a couple of years to go!
In other news our companies other game Crackdown should be showing at E3 this year so keep an eye out for it as it looks something special. The GFX guys finally got the full vistas into the game and blimey does it look good.
Life wise I'm ticking along, looking at a car to buy in the summer now my work is more secure. I'm back writing schlocky zombie fiction and getting enthusiasm to start a project in my own time. Not a clue what yet though!
