Otronicon 2010

I just came back from my first gaming/technology convention, Otronicon at the Orlando Science Center. After killing some zombies in Left 4 Dead in the LAN room, my friends and I got to experience the birth of videogames by playing Pong on a genuine Atari 2600.

Next, we went to the second level. The first exhibit we saw was the Evolution of the Mac. They had old Macintosh computers all lined up on a shelf. We also saw a dancing fountain that made water dance to music. We even got to meet the programmer.

Afterwards, we jammed out at the Rock Band Experience. An auditorium set up with stage and Rock Band equipment. The game was projected on a large screen behind the band; each player had his or her own monitor, as well. The game had many songs to choose from, our band, The Grim Pirates, did In Bloom by Nirvana.

There were many flight simulations from helicopters to jets with realistic cockpits and controls.

There were driving simulations as well. PHENIX Design Group, Inc made one were they actually used a real Scion V8 and put in a seat that would simulate driving more realistically with movement. Another one was made by Full Sail it was called Stunt Racer. This simulation would let the player drive ridiculously fast, make insane jumps and drive up walls while still reacting like a real car.

 Lockheed Martin had some touch screen tables with games like Simon Says and Tick-Tak-Toe as well as a cool robotics team game controlled from computers. Google Earth also had a cool table to look anywhere in the world.

There was also Medical Sim City, which had the latest in medical technology for training surgeons and nurses. Such as the da Vinci machine, a stitching trainer, a simulated patient and wireless conferencing for doctors during procedures.

 

The military was also present to show off their training simulations. These included M-16s with air cartridges to make realistic recoil, a game that lets you pilot any military vehicle in a virtual world and a robot that could be controlled with a Wii-Remote.

Other cool exhibits included a giant chessboard, a painting simulation which was pretty close to the real thing and of course a costume contest which means you will find a storm trooper.

 The third floor had the Artronica Gallery which had a lot of nice art made by students at Full Sail including character sculptures. One artist showed us how he made his work in Maya. Inspired we signed up for a 3D animation workshop and got to play around with some pretty cool characters.

The forth floor had some older games and also had the best new games available. There were tournaments in games like Super Smash Bros. They had the new Super Mario Bros for the Wii as well as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2: Among Theives, and Tekken 6. We ended our day with on online interview with some game developers at Armor Game. They told us valuable information on what it takes to make a great flash game and how to deal with crazy schedules in the industry.

Overall I had a great day and I owe it to Full Sail  for giving me the day off of school to check our their event. It was an awesome experience and I cannot wait to go to more conventions. I learned a lot today, but one thing for certain, if their is a will and a need for the technology, no matter what that need is, there will be someone solving the problem and coming up with creative and innovative solutions. 

Month 2: Calculus, Trig, Programming 1 and My 1st Game Jam

I have just completed my second month at Full Sail University during which I had two classes, Calculus & Trigonometry which was instructed by Shane Saeidi, and Programming 1 instructed by Doug Monroe. Both classes required us to learn a lot about a complex subject in a crammed amount of time, especially because it was December, when everyone gets a two week vacation (longest break you get at Full Sail) at the end of the month so the workload was even more jammed.

Doug and Shane both were excellent in their jobs to teach us the material. Doug found ways to help us relate to the tedious fundamentals of C++, and Shane would teach us the important parts of Calculus while making us feel smart enough to keep up with all the work. In the end both instructors made some of the dullest subjects fun and easy to learn. Whenever someone did not understand, help was offered not just from the instructors but from other students, who were more familiar with the subjects, outside of class.

After a four-hour lecture during the day we would spend another four hours in lab working hard at night. In Calculus we would just do problem after problems the lab work would turn to homework if you did not finish it, which was usually the case seeing as you have around seventy-five questions to get through.  In programming we would write programs that would teach us the principles. The lab assistants in both subjects were knowledgeable and friendly. They would help our brain understand when we thought it was already full to the max.

As if the forty-hour weeks (and one fifty-hour week) were not enough for me I took it upon myself to join the 24-hour Game Jam at Full Sail. On one Saturday around 8 programmers from different months in the program were trapped in a building and had to create a game in 24 hours. I was a great experience, no sleep just work. It really made us prove ourselves. We all just were coding, designing and eating cold pizza and stale donuts all day. The guys I met and worked with all had great attitudes and wanted to do their best when it came down to work.

Hitting milestones every few hours was difficult and when problems stopped the whole production we were left sitting waiting to get back to work. It really felt like I was working for a game company everyone was professional, but humorous as well, and we all felt like we were contributing to something we all thought would be fun. I defiantly will be signing up again.