maryrosecook

I would just write your next proper (non-toy) project in the language you want to learn. That way, you learn the language and you've made something.

Thanks!

That's a nice idea. The grid stuff is actually done by the Render Engine. If I remember correctly, it's a spatial grid implemented as an array of arrays where the indexes are the row/column numbers of the nodes.

Great. I'll check out the separating axis test, too - thanks. Incidentally, I believe The Render Engine, the framework I used, has just introduced support for this technique.

Oh wow, I hadn't heard of that. Thanks a lot.

The recursive technique you talk about is a nice one I hadn't heard of - thanks.

I actually find that collision detection does affect performance. For example, in Pistol Slut, when an exploding grenade throws out forty pieces of shrapnel, there was a noticeable slow-down before I did some optimisation.

I used The Render Engine (not in the list above http://code.google.com/p/renderengine/) to make http://pistolslut.com It's pretty nice.

Rather unusually, the issues covered by the media have actually been the most important ones. The battle over the privacy of information is far more important than the facts revealed by a small number of actual information leaks.

No, it does not. If you pay taxes here, you have to have health insurance. For a permanent employee, this is about 14% of your salary. All in, I pay about a third of my income in tax (which includes health insurance).

Point (1) does not fit with my experience here at all. Kreuzberg is central, cheap and very lively.

Ableton, the company I work for, are based in Berlin and are looking for Python devs: http://www.ableton.com/jobs It's a really nice place to work, and the pay is OK for Berlin.

Great summary of cost of living and tech scene from maxklein. You can live very cheaply here, if you work at it. Some bars serve a half-litre of beer for 1€, some reasonable apartments can be got for 120€ a month if you can live with coal-fired heating.

The other tech company I know well is SoundCloud. They are great. They are mostly Ruby-based, but they're expanding the technology they use rapidly at the moment, so they might be flexible.

Good luck: Berlin is a fantastic place to live.

Gimlets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimlet_(cocktail) They cut through like a knife.

Gin Hemingways http://www.liquoranddrink.com/Drinks/344-Hemingway-Daiquiri-... Warming on a cold day.

Hefeweizen

Coffee

They do already, but I could lengthen the reload time.

The game loading and then going blank is something I've seen and fixed in Safari, but not Firefox. What version of Firefox are you using?

Sluggish in what way?

Thanks a lot. I've tried to keep everything minimal.

I would prefer to find a set of keys that work for most people. An options screen sounds too heavyweight for a web game.

Nice idea. However, I am aiming to make a game about beating a system, rather than out-thinking someone else. The idea is to present the player with set-pieces - mostly pitched battles - that involve a few NPCs that behave in a predictable manner. Thus, the player must figure out how to solve tactical problems.

Thanks very much for your detailed feedback.

The player will get the mortar launcher - still figuring out how to make the controls work.

I hadn't thought of giving the enemies limited ammo. I will try it and see how it feels. I haven't done any work on what weapons the player gets and when. This will come once I start making more levels.

Yes, a damage bar seems like a good intermediary step while I explore other options for showing bullet hits.

That's a good idea. Thanks.

Thanks for the tip. I should have noticed this myself, as I live in Berlin (but have my keyboard set to English). Will be changing the controls to try and support Dvorak, Qwerty and Germans.

Yes, maybe bullet hits could send the player/enemies into a stagger as well as causing the existing blood spurt?

That is very useful - thanks a lot. I will try and find a set of keys that work well with both Qwerty and Dvorak.

I agree the name is risky. It was actually a funny phrase that occurred to me when I started work on the game. Later, when I started talking about it to my friends, I said it was only the working title, but lots of people said I should keep it, so I did.

Yes, I agree it needs a game over screen and a way to restart without reloading. These are both high up the list. The reason they are not there yet is that I think of the game as a sandbox at the moment.

Yes, both good points - thanks.

I'm considering doing an unrealistic Halo-like health system. That is, if you take too much damage too quickly, you die, but your health recharges when you're not getting hit. I think this allows set pieces - "I've got these resources to get through this section" - which is exactly what I'm trying for in Pistol Slut.

Thank you. I wish I was a better animater and drawer.

I think you're right that it would have been quicker in Flash. The engine I used is mostly a drawing engine, with some basic game stuff included (particles, the beginnings of collision detection). However, this project was all about learning Javascript, and working in a newish field. Plus, a lot of the time I spent was on graphics (I suck at drawing) and iterating and exploring to find the gameplay and style.

Thanks a lot. Yes: collision detection is flaky after some recent changes. Going to work on it.

Use Google Chrome to play the game. I've been working on this in my spare time for the last few months. This is an alpha version. The development has been iterative: adding something, trying it out, then often removing it. The gameplay is evolving into something that is centred around a series of tactical, pitched battles.

I'm simply posting this to show off what I've been working on. I would greatly appreciate suggestions for improvement. I know the graphics are horrible.

Your Masters will appear first on your resume, so the recipient will see you are capable of getting good marks before they see your bad marks for your undergraduate degree. When you state the marks of the latter, perhaps include a sentence along the lines of, "I was seriously ill in hospital during this period, and so got uncharacteristically low marks." Any further explanation (which should not be necessary) can be left for the interview.