Wow, haven't updated here in a while. Lots of good stuff has happened in the last few months. Quick list:

Went to Alton Towers, the happiest place on earth (second only to Tijuana according to Krusty but I say it's the bestest place in the world!)
Went to see Darcy Bussells farewell performance at Sadlers Wells in London
Bought a camcorder
Going to Gran Canaria on Monday
A demo of Overlord, the last game I worked on at Streamline has been released and it's actually quite fun

And...

Got a job at Core Design!

So yeah, lots of stuff has happened in addition to that but those are the main things I can think of at the moment.

Alton Towers was a completely and utterly fantabulous day. Me and Ailsa had some problems getting there to begin with but once we passed through the gates, the slightly horrible trip was forgotten. We got there just after the gates opened around 9:30-10am and went straight to the rides and we rode and rode and rode and rode and rode and ate and rode and rode and rode and rode aaall day. In total we managed to rack up some 20+ rides. This is compared to a normal busy Saturday where you'll be lucky if you can squeeze in 5+ rides with queues taking hours. We were indeed very lucky that day, and for a first timer like me it was great.

The good thing about Alton Towers is that once you pay the entry fee, all the rides are FREE. You can buy different tickets and they have VIP tickets and such for those days when the lines are long but we didn't need any of that. It is also situated in a beautiful valley with lush gardens and a gondola (that was closed ) going across the valley. All in all, a magnificent day. Unfortunately we had a helluva time getting home again but it was definitely worth it. I think we spent 8 or 9 hours just walking around, riding the rides and having a blast.

Darcey Bussell is one of the worlds best ballerinas and she retired just last week. We were lucky enough to get tickets to one of the farewell performances in London and it was amazing. I am not that familiar with ballet (although I'm getting more and more familiar thanks to Ailsa...) but even I could see that she has an amazing grace, stage presence, strength and control and and... it was just wow. It is incredibly sad that she has retired just as I got to see her but I'm really happy that we were able to go. The performance included works by several different choreographers and composers and I was in tears at a few places. It was that beautiful. Me and Ailsa saw the final final show being broadcast live on BBC last week and I had tears in my eyes at the end. So did Darcey but who wouldn't be moved by a standing ovation that went on for 10-15 minutes at least. I wish we could've been there but whatcha gonna do, I am not made out of money... yet I just wish I could have seen a few more ballets with her before she retired...

Buying a camcorder and going to Gran Canaria are linked since Ailsa desperately wanted us to be able to document our first Beachbum Holiday(tm). It will be the first time I ever go to Gran Canaria, not to mention a tourist resort. My family always made our own holidays either by going to the mountains for hiking or to our relatives in Finland. The closest thing I've gotten to that other kind of holiday was when I was between 5 and 10ish and that was to London, Paris and Legoland So yeah, we will be proper tourists with camcorder and all! Hopefully I will even have a tan by the end of it...

Overlord was a pretty fun project to work on since the style is a bit more original than the usual realistic stuff you see in a lot of games. It's a more painterly style with a slight realistic tweak to it that works really well. And then there are the minions who look like a cross-breed between Gollum and the Gremlins. And you have your wizened old helper minion who looks like a cross between Yoda and the Gremlins. I was playing the demo (after a 4 hour download...) today and it's actually quite fun to set your minions on the poor unsuspecting countryside/populace/sheep et al. I'm probably going to end up getting it since I worked on it but also because it is a cool game. Go download!

More on the last bit tomorrow

Ta for now

I started at Core Design last week and it's been great so far. The only niggle was that I had to learn Maya to do it but it was a lot easier than expected. I think it only took me three days or so to get up to speed although I cheated a bit and had a look at it at home just to get familiar with the interface. So yeah, I have a job again and I'm working on a project that seems like it can turn out quite cool in the end. As usual I can't talk about it due to NDAs but hopefully something will be announced soon so I can shout it from the rooftops.

The people here are cool and I feel at home already which is good. The atmosphere is a bit more mature compared to Streamline but then again, the average age is a bit higher here what with a few family men (and I doubt there's anyone here under 20).

Now I just need to get a driving license so I can stop using the public transport... It takes me over an hour to get to work (bus + train) and it will cost me a small fortune each month! The systems they have for season/monthly passes is retarded for lack of a better word. It's cheaper for me to buy day returns on the train for example! I mean wtf?! Another awesome example is that it costs £6.50 for a single from station A to station B. A return ticket is £6.60. What the hell? I would love to see the reasoning behind the fares here, they are just... out there you know? Apart from that it isn't too bad, just boring really. Good thing work is fun (so far ) so I have something to look forward to.

Oh yeah, speaking of Overlord, I will hopefully be able to update my site with some screenshots from the game but I won't have any specific images of assets I worked on since I didn't create any while I was at Streamline. I doubt they would want to do it for me or send me the models! So screenshots it is with some Photoshoping to blur out the background or something along those lines. The game will be out by the end of the month (just in time for when we come home from Gran Canaria!) for those that are interested

Whew, quite an update all in all.


See y'all later

Peter