Introduction. (The most original of titles)

Hey there!

I figured I'd tell you guys a little about myself and create a little story throughout the development of Dr. Gizmo.

So, who am I? Well my name is Michael and I am the one who designs the levels in the game. I am more of the party-goer out of the group at Chasing Logic, I love to go out and have a good time and feel if life gives you lemons, add Vodka! I work full time in retail (stock shelves), I volunteer with Eaton Fire Dept., and I work on cars. I did go to Sinclair Community College for their computer user support program but switched into the health field as an EMT. So you may be wondering well why am I doing this: well because my imagination never dies, neither does my gaming roots. Way back when Playstation 2 was a hit, I never had a computer that could play most new games of that era. So I always played Zdaemon on dial up connection. Zdaemon is basically servers and mods for classic Doom, Doom2 and Ultimate Doom. That's when I first started mapping. The problem is with that game you couldn't make a level and have actual stories. Then I bought the coolest video game of all Time (in my opinion) Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect. I loved making custom maps on those games. I had over 70 maps made on my old Xbox.

Fast forward to 2008, my computer wasn't the best, I mainly gamed on Xbox with DSL connection and I created a gaming clan dubbed 187. OnE EiGhT SeVEN was really just a group of friends who played Halo, Gears of War and Day of Defeat.. But I ended up buying the Orange Box for Steam. And I downloaded this thing called Source SDK and played around with it. Much like the Doom Map Editor, SDK was pretty easy to figure out. So me and a group of friends (ended up just being me and Mat in the end) worked on a Half Life 2 mod we called Slow Teleport. Well we got stuck pretty bad with making an elevator. Lol So 3 years down the road, the HL2 mod gets brought up again by a different group but I could never get the help I needed.

Now 2013, I was invited by Mat to help create and design an all new video game, not just create a mod. And since Mat and I have come up with a groundbreaking new 2D platformer we like to call Dr. Gizmo. My job basically is to design the levels. I start by drawing them out on paper and then applying my basic drawings to our map editor so we can make the levels come to life by adding textures and making any changes necessary. I have a HUGE imagination and daydream a lot, even at work. So I am constantly thinking of new designs and ideas for the game itself.

I guess you could say I'm Chasing Logic.

-Mike

@specz187

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Chapter Two, ALL THE BOOKS

For this post I recommend the TLDR version at the bottom.

So, the first step to learning is to find a teacher.

Turns out books work well. So here is our light reading list:

Accelerated C++ (I'm hoping they really do mean accelerated because I'm tired of having to hear about
                             variables and functions and why we use them. I already know two languages and
                             relearning the basics can get annoying.)

Effective C++ (This book is recommended by almost everyone who's read it, the most notable of which is
                         my idol and inspiration for starting a studio Team Meat programmer Tommy Refenes. That
                         man is a genius and if you haven't played Super Meat Boy, buy it and play it.)

More Effective C++ (Not quite more of the same but it's a sequel in the same sense that Die Hard 2: Die
                                 Harder is. Basically we're going to "Die Harder" when we read this.)

So I've only got three textbooks to read. No big deal.
     This is going to suck.

The reading plan so far is to skim my way through the first one because I assume it will be similar enough to Java that I can learn the more complicated bits and be done with it.

Then to have the next two books finished within a week. Which seems ambitious but you go big or you go home when you're living a Disney film.

So while you're reading this I'll be doing reading of my own.

If it makes you feel better I apologize for the high level of boring in this post but it's hard to make reading textbooks funny/exciting. Hopefully next time I'll have something more exciting to show you.

-Mat

TLDR; GET BOOKS. READ BOOKS. LEARN GOOD.

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Chapter One, Humble Beginnings

Hi.

My name is Mathew Robinson and I have a very high opinion of myself.

I went to a community college (I'll protect their integrity by not mentioning their name here.) and got an Associates of Applied Science in Computer Information Systems with a focus in Network Engineering.

I really wanted to go for programming as I had taught myself some in high school but heard that there were no jobs for programmers and instead of doing a lot of research I simply went for something else.

I now know that my degree means I can be the fanciest burger flipper at a McDonald's the world has ever seen.

So, I have taught myself two programming languages in my free time (Python and Java for those interested. {Side Note of a Side Note: If you're interested in that you need to get a life mine isn't that cool.}) which proved to me that programming is my passion and it's what I really want to do with my life and as such I have decided I am going to learn the gaming industry standard language C++.

I will then take this knowledge and make my own game (Title in progress. One step at a time guys.) with my friend and co-founder of this gaming studio Michael Reeves.

Basically the point of this blog will be to allow people to see the journey of going from someone who has very little real programming experience (Or a useful degree for that matter) to a full blown game programmer and by following a dream/calling that you can find a way to make it work.

I guess it's time to start Chasing Logic.

-Mat

TLDR; Dude will start learning the toughest programming language and then he will use it to make games. Follow his dreams like in a bad Disney film.

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