So thursday evening, I went to an event, "Get your code on", organised by a group called Ladies who Code. It was at Mozilla office in London and they had a very nice office, despite the fact that it was a little small, but then again, it is in central london, in a very nice location so not surprised or complaining :)
There was a presentation by a Senior Engineer at Mozilla (http://soledadpenades.com) about an online gif chat website that she and her friend had created for fun and how it had suddenly become a success within a community and grown beyond their control thanks to many contributors adding to their open source website. (https://chat.meatspac.es)
Then we ordered some pizza started working on projects and getting to know other ladies ;)
I was fortunate to meet very nice people and had a lot of fun so I would definitely go to their event again!
And now I'm working on my own project to create games. I was talking to a couple of developers this weekend and they told me that C++ wasn't necessarily the language they used for games programming and certainly not the only language I should focus on. They told me to look at JS, ObjectiveC for mobile, if not Unity and C#.
So I just found a very nice tutorial for ObjectiveC iOS SpriteKit Tutorial so I wanted to share that with you :) http://www.raywenderlich.com/42699/spritekit-tutorial-for-beginners
Thanks to the guy who wrote this tutorial, Ray Wenderlich, I am now going to modify it and try to make my own version :)
So last week was our deadline for the HTML5 game app that my group and I were creating as our coursework.
I made a demo video so check it out ;)
I fear I sound like a bit of a bore but it took me all day to script what I was going to say in the video, practice the game so I don't get it wrong AND not stutter or say 'uhh'! haha
I made the video using audio and screen recording on Quicktime Player (Mac), then I put the audio and video together using iMovie.
The game is actually pretty fun! I'll let you know when it goes on the app stores!!
Now I'm focusing on applying for jobs, and my new second term modules.
In the end, I decided to take Software Engineering, Algorithmics, Functional Programming and Business Analytics.
Functional Programming is really fun. We are using a functional programming language called Miranda and I am loving it. Although, admittedly, it is getting more and more complex as the introductory weeks have gone by. But the way functional programming works is so cool! It's so logical it feels good! haha #supernerd
Business Analytics is less interesting for me because I feel that I know a lot about it already from my bachelor's degree. But the interesting thing about this course is that they teach you how to use the popular Statistical Analysis Software developed by SAS. People from SAS have come in to teach us and we've got a coursework to actually work on industry data.
I also just made my first six website to increase my online visibility and show that I am interested in game development.
Since when am I interested in games? Well, very recently. I've never been a big gamer but I am addicted to mobile games and so I went to this talk by a Games Industry Graduate Recruiter, Aardvark Swift at my university's career service event. It got me thinking how cool it would be if I could be a part of creating mobile games like Candy Crush and Plants vs Zombies!
So I spoke to the guy who gave the talk and I've been teaching myself C++ so I can develop games and build an online portfolio so games companies can see how I am interested.
I even entered a competition last week called Search for a Star, where I had to take an exam about C++. I doubt I got through to the next round because I just started learning C++ last monday, but it was really good experience and motivated me to crash learn C++.
Here are some websites I found really helpful: https://www.wibit.net //The guys doing the videos are hilarious. Keeps you awake (y) http://www.cplusplustutor.com http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms228358(v=vs.90).aspx //For those who learnt Java first http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~hasti/cs368/JavaTutorial/NOTES/Java_vs.html#arrays //For those who learnt Java first http://www.cplusplus.com/ //Ofcourse
Anyway, back to work! Hope you all had a nice weekend and have a nice week (y)
Wishing everyone all the best in this coming year!
I, for one, need all the luck to graduate AND find employment that can get me a Tier 2 Work Visa to stay in the UK.
Why I want to work in the UK?
Well, it's true that I can speak Japanese and French as well, so I could go back to France or Japan to work without having to worry about a Visa.
But since my main language is English, I want to work in English.
I am most comfortable and at my best when working in English.
Which leaves me with England or the US.
I'd prefer to stay in the UK because it's much closer to my family and because I love Europe.
It's a funny story actually, because in my second year of university, there was a class about the EU and the professor asked the European students whether they felt European or French/Italian/etc.
Almost everyone answered that they did not feel European but of their own nationality. But I said that since I've grown up in France/England and go often to Italy, I felt European rather than Japanese! haha.
I think it'll be a busy year but I shall power through to get the job that I want!
