Bloggpengar.com and Gamezine.se

One and a half year – damn, has it really been that long?

Although no longer an aspiring indie game developer, I still spend a lot of time with games. Most promptly, I am writing for the Swedish gaming magazine Gamezine.se. I also have a couple of personal experiments in micro websites (Bloggpengar.com, MinBMI.com), just to keep myself occupied.

I have decided to leave GameFocus as it is, if only to preserve the (admittedly few) developer interviews I have conducted. Hopefully it will be of interest to someone.

So, what’s been happening?

Well, a lot of things have been going on in my life the last couple of months. Those things kept me from updating the first couple of months, and later helpt me to learn what I really want to do with my time. Sadly, this blog is not one of them.

Writing this blog have been great fun for me. I have talked to great people that I admire, and to say that it has been great is by any measures met, a big understatement. Now, I have begun gymnasium (I won’t use the pure english translation, since I probably would’ve got it wrong), tested new things, and realised that games is not really want I won’t to do, and that programming isn’t really the thing for me. This takes a lot to write down, mind you, since I have been working with it for years now. Still, I feel like it is time well spent, I have met great people and learned a lot, not only about games and programming but also about life, and everything that comes with it.

Right now, I am mainly writing. I have a swedish website where I publish short stories, and I’m working on a larger fantasy novel as a long-term project. I am hoping that it can take me somewhere, but even if it doesn’t, it’s still great fun. Which is, if I remember correctly, the very reason to why I started creating games a couple of years ago.

Well, thank you all for this great time, and good luck. I won’t remove the website, since I feel that the developer interviews I have done can still be of use for future visitors. Now, go make some great games

Funkylabs.com – Groovy games for a groovy generation!

Click here to visit…

Yep, I am still going strong. I’ve had a break due to heavy pressure from my studies, but now, holidays are closing in and game development is back in focus. The website, as it is now, is just a temporary solution since my own titles still are in production, and not due for release for quite some time As of now, I am offering games from Reflexives huge selection on the website, so if you have some extra money to spend, please stop by I am currently working on making the website a little more user-friendly and more good-looking.

Expect more updates further ahead…

Masters of Doom

This book is documenting something that is a dream for most indies – making it, and making it big. The story about Id Software and their early years is a must-read, I tell you. I couldn’t put it aside once I started reading it.

Masters of doom on Amazon

Future yesterday, website today, TGB tomorrow

Edit: Damn that my blog is getting chopped every time. Re-writing…

Well, things are looking rather bright for me right now, and i am going to explain why in this blog…

I have been totally set on going a specific school for nearly two years now. Yesterday, the selection was – what i am going to spend the upcoming three years studying. Well, guess what – last weekend, i changed my mind =D

John Bauer is a school in Gavle, around five miles from the town i live in. John Bauer is mainly a school focusing on IT, and that’s what i visited two days ago. John Bauer isn’t such a big school – the IT and Media programs combined students counts to around 350 – a pretty small school compared to the others in the city. I hav already visited John Bauer once, but this visit convinced me. After the head master had said what he wanted to say and the students had told us a little about the IT-program (well, actually wuite a lot – half of it was stuff that the headmaster already had told us about), were we free to wander around the school on our own, speaking to students and watching their work. It was really interesting, but the best of part of the whole visit was to talk to a teacher in programming. WE spoke for nearly 40 minutes about the school, the languages they teach, everything.

By the way, did i mention that all the new students recives a shiny new laptop with all the state of the art software on it? Latest editions of Visual Studio, Photoshop, InDesign, Flash, etcetera… if you would like to add a software to the computer, you simply told then what you’d want and they’ll fix it. You don’t just use the computer at school either, and when you have graduated, the computer is all yours

Yeah, so that’s where i am going to spend a lot of my time to upcoming three years – and i feel really good about it. The scool is great, as are the teachers i had the time to meet while i was there.

I have almost only worked on my website today. I hav been creating, evavluating and throwing away designs for around two weeks now – and i am still not pleased. Well, i am just going to keep on designing until i find something i really like.

Speaking of time, tomorrow is the big day. I am finally going to purchase Garagegames Torque Game Builder. I am really excited about starting to learn how to use it, and i am sure that i will have a lot of fun with it.

And since no blog is complete without an image…

Sky is falling

My grandmother has passed away

Yesterday evening, my grandmother passed away. She’ve had cancer for some time now, so it was expected, but that doesn’t really make anything easier. I will take a small break from development, but i’ll still update the blog just as often… keeping myself busy with it can hopefully keep me from drowning in sorrow. At least she could spend christmas together with her family, i believe that meant a lot for her – it did for me.

Bless her.

Practical work experience – in Germany

In April this year will i and nine other students from my school have a little special practical work experience. Everybody else will spend it localy, most not even doing it outside of our town. This small group, which am one member of, will spend it in Germany. I have notified the people in Germany about my interest of working in the IT business, so hopefully i’ll work with something IT-related while there. I don’t know the name of the city where i’ll be, neither do i know roughly where in Germany it is.

The project is a collaboration between the school in Germany and the school i am attending to. They will come to Sweden to spend two weeks over here, working at various places. Two of the german students will live over at our place, and most probably it will be two girls, in my age…

I am absolutely excited about this, it’ll be a nice experience, and it will be very fun to visit Germany as well, especially as i have never been there.

Time to decide…

The date is the 15′th of January, 2007 – and i am freaking horrified. In about two weeks, i will have to make the desiscion where i will spend the following three years studying, or even more so: What i will study.

Yeah, it is time for me to decide what i am going to do in my nearest future, and i have been thinking about this a lot. Believe me, it doesn’t become easier when you have parents to tell you how important this is for your future. I used to lean towards a technical education, and if i were smart economic-wise, i would probably take that. Some of the pro’s include:

• It is a nice school
• They actually have an guarantee for work when the education is finished
• The food is great
• The teachers are cunning
• Work available in the summer holiday

The downside? I am not sure if i want to work with it.

Then there is my second option, as i see it anyway… Taking the computer approach. One major good thing with that: I enjoy working with computers, alot, and i am fairly skilled as well. The bad thing is that, well, getting a job in the It-business seems close to impossible these days, and i have ambitions when it comes to where i am going and what i want to become – working at the local grocerystore ain’t one of them.

Anyway, i think i will go with the It. It will probably be rough, especially trying to get a job worth it when school is finished, but heck, at least i will have fun doing it