Gaming – Anna Youngs

“Pass me that glass of wine!” – Pretty much sums it up really.

So regrettably I have entirely disowned my blog in the last few months, along with my graphics tablet. Trying to make time for blogging and drawing in between the theory work is harder than I anticipated!
I have decided I am going to make time for the things I enjoy, because if I don’t do that, well then… What is the point!

I will give a little summary of 2013 as a design year so far. I finally finished my website. Proud of it. Discovered that you can really learn a lot in a week if you push yourself. At the time I didn’t really enjoy the development process as I swam though a sea of div tags, but looking back on it now, all those epic mistakes I made and the multiple times I completely broke my site really was actually worth it! It is a great feeling achieving something you felt was impossible by yourself, even if half way through the week I fantasised about throwing my laptop out the window.

I have completed a Design for the Penguin Book Award. There is a 3D model on my website, I will be submitting that into the Penguin Competition. The 6 weeks of in depth research about ‘The Big Sleep’ was awesome. Such a great book!

What else, ah yes, the theory!
I have been working on a Case Study about Social Impact Games.
The wonderful Emily Treat from Games For Change took an hour out of her day to tell me about all the wonderfully exciting developments of the new Facebook Game ‘Half The Sky’.

If you have the chance, check it out. Not only is it visually gorgeous, but also narratively brilliant. Half the Sky movement is truely touching, and to see it spread across a variety of countries via a Social Game is extremely inspiring. I am excited to share my Case Study once it is all done, it will contain lots of interesting details about our conversation and using Facebook as a platform for Social Impact Games.
Emily was absolutely great, she took an hour out of her busy schedule to talk to me and it is greatly appreciated. Not only has she helped with one of my uni modules but she gave me plenty of valuable advice about starting my career as a Digital Designer. I won’t forget the time she gave me, and will put all her advise to good use.

We had our end of year show on the 16th of March,which required a lot of preparation over the last few weeks. I feel it was a success. There was a large amount of incredible work by all the years groups involved. I am proud to be part of such an awesome cohort.

It may have been raining for the majority of the day but it didn’t dampen our spirits. Andrea brought along Guitar Hero which was extremely popular, we had a fun day! I can’t wait till next year, I have so many ideas for the show!

During my business module I have been discussing the opportunities of a work placement through my third year. In the next week I will be contacting a few companies to persuade them to let me snoop around and do a bit of work for them. I have one studio in mind that I would LOVE to be a part of. So fingers crossed. I need to boost my portfolio once all my theory is out the way, but I know I have the drive of passion behind me.

So that is pretty much me. The last couple months have been hectic but wonderful. Bring on the next few months, I hope they have exciting projects in store!

Over and Out,
Aly 🙂