So myself and two of my best friends have set out from the Australian summer into the European winter for two months backpacking. The following will be the recollected journal of our trip:

We left Brisbane on Tuesday, after a fantastic farewell BBQ and a loving send off from the airport. We had three flights to catch, Brisbane -> Singapore -> Frankfurt -> London. The first was with Qantas and was about 8 hours. This was pretty easy to deal with (aside from myself being sick with a cold which was just wonderful to be stuck in a pressurised tin can hurtling through the air for hours on end) as Qantas has on demand in flight entertainment with every seat, so caught a few movies and TV shows. Got into Singapore, walked around what was essentially the same dozen or so stores, repeated again and again throughout a massive terminal. We found a quiet nook and enjoyed the ability to lay down. At this stage I discovered that both my international sim card didn’t work in my Iphone, and my international mastercard didn’t work either. So, we left Singapore after a 4 hour stop over into a Lufthansa flight for the next 14 hour flight.

At this point it should be noted that Lufthansa sucks. They didn’t have TV in every seat, they had ancient CRT monitors in the aisles that played disney movies. So the only entertainment we had was counting the threads in the back of the seat in front of us and wondering how hard it would be to open the emergency exit out of sheer bordom. Luckily we managed to pass out at some point and get some intermittant sleep. We got into Frankfurt, walked around for an hour to stretch our legs and got onto the next flight to London, which was delayed for a couple of hours. Much to my relief, entering into the UK was much easier than I remember from my previous horrific experiences. After almost 24 hours of travelling we had arrived in London, we took the tube to the station closest to our hostel, and we walked in to see our long lost mate Rhys at the front desk. We then spent the rest of the day at the closest English pub, enjoying the company of our old friend and struggling to stay awake long enough to get in sync with the day/night cycle of London.

Thursday, we went on a free walking tour of London, very touristy but interesting, even met a Brissie girl on the tour which was ironic that we travelled half way round the world to meet more Australians. In the afternoon we retired to a pub to rest our weary feet, at this stage my travel money card still wasn’t working, thankfully I had my friends I could lean on for day to day expenses. We then went back to the hostel to have a few more drinks with Rhys and met an awesome french dude called Axel Baron (possibly the most badass name since Max Steel). Turns out that he was basically us except french and we proceeded to hang with him throughout the week.

Friday we headed to the British Musuem. Wow. That place was incredible. You could spend days in that place and still not see everything, simply amazing. After we tired of seeing things ancient and dead corpses through security windows we then went out to a pub with Rhys & Axel for Friday night drinks. It started off well, with decent music, but then progressed into shitty pop music as the night wore on. But it was a good time, with much merriment to be had.

Saturday we walked up and down Oxford Street in search of a Games Workshop in which I could grab a few more Gaunts Ghosts books. We met the manager of the store, who recollected the events of the Horus Heresy with much fervour, even shouting and creating sound effects. This guy was King of the Nerds, he was the walking Warhammer 40,000 version of Wookiepedia - while extremely interesting, everything contained within is extremely redundant to real life. We then hit up the Camden markets in the afternoon with Rhys and Axel. I really wished Mandy was here, as the markets went on forever and there was some really great stuff that we both would have enjoyed, including an underground raver fashion outlet called Cyberdog that was simply amazing. Everything was techno, they sold everything from flashing raver goggles to raver phat pants to lava lamps. At the markets Karl and Steve both bought some trenchcoats, belts & woolen clothes from the military surplus stores, so now when we’re out and about they look like a couple of deserters from a variety of European armies.

We were then exceptionally tired by the time we were to head off to the Matter club at the O2 in London for Infected Mushroom. But we headed round to Phil & Maz’s place beforehand and were welcomed to them and their friends graciously. We then took cabs into the O2, which consisted of a giant statdium surrounded by clubs, pubs, shopping districts and long walk ways (holy hell that place is huge, we barely saw a tenth of it). We then had our first taste of what a real club should be like and it was amazing. The place was separated into two sections, and the smaller second room was almost as big as the family on its own. The main room was impressive, no expense was spared with the O2, and in the Matter club, everything was great, the lights (they had strobes in platforms in the floor to illuminate the main floor dancers in time with the music), the sound (loud but clear) and even the bathrooms (cool hand dryers that you place your hands inside and are dried within seconds). Infected Mushroom played just short of two hours, starting at 2:50pm and not once did they stop for a break, they mixed their songs into one another so they literally played an hour and forty minute song, with an encore at the end, every second of it the crowd was dancing and loving it, it was fantastic.  The last gig I saw them at, put them at my number 2 spot (just behind Daft Punk’s Alive tour) of the most awesome gigs I’ve seen, they easily beat it. It was amazing. It was a fantastic night that we all enjoyed, we then headed back with Phil & Maz to their place and whiled away the morning. Taking the tube home was somewhat interesting as all of us were practically falling asleep. Almost missed our stops. Sunday involved sleep and lots of it. Axel left to go home that day and saw us off in our exhausted daze as we were about to pass out. Would gladly hang with that guy again in the future if we ever get the chance.

Today is Monday and we have used today to do some much needed washing and general internet research on where we want to go next. We leave for Paris via the Eurostar on Thursday morning and have booked into a hostel for a couple of nights there, then onto Luxembourg to catch Prodigy. We may be heading out into countryside England to see something, but we’ve yet to decide what. However today my travel money card was finally fixed up and I got my Iphone unlocked to allow my global sim card. We will be heading out tonight to a nice place for dinner to celebrate.

Haven’t updated this in awhile. That’s because life’s been a bit hectic at the moment.

But I can tell you that I’m working with a good friend on a Left 4 Dead campaign… and the concept is awesome.

So we’re into the New Year.

I’ve got a working alpha of my CoD4 map entitled “Substation 282″. I will continue to test it with friends and other level designers until it’s ready to be a beta release for the public. I’m really liking how this one is coming along, it’s got a lot of z-axis gameplay and I’ve tried to give every area with an advantage an equal disadvantage and allow the map to have numerous paths of gameplay flow and I think I’ve accomplished this well. Alpha level testing will help me refine this and other gameplay elements, but so far, looking good.

I’m looking forward to when Valve releases the developers kit for Left 4 Dead as I really want to work with some other level designers and create a campaign for the game. I really want to give the players more than a linear route to take which hopefully opens up the replayability of the campaign. At the moment Left 4 Dead is the current favourite for me and is great fun to play with mates online or at LANs.

Other than that I’m still looking for work (woo economy!) and enjoying my spare time with various persuits of happiness.

So life goes on. I’m awaiting graduation, searching for a job high and low. Applying for many different positions, but no level designer jobs going in Brisbane at the moment that I know of. I’m checking out all developer sites, the ones I know of at least. I recently attended the Game Connect: Asia Pacific Video Game Conference. The skills session was helpful, pretty much told me what I already knew (work on a modification, show talent in chosen field etc.) but it was nice to hear it from industry professionals. Definitely given me the drive to find people seeking a level designer for their mod. Other than that I’ve used the shiny Pandemic Studios writing pad to sketch out a bunch of new levels, one of which I’m working on for Call of Duty 4. The Call of Duty series has always impressed me as an FPS, they’ve continually made a game that’s interesting, intense and challenging in veteran mode single player and even more fun multiplayer, especially with mates at a LAN.  As such Call of Duty 4 has been my main FPS, as the cover system is fantastic. Nothing like the joy of making someone rage and quit the server by shooting them in the head through a wall. In respects to the new level I’m focusing on gameplay, wanting tons of Z-Axis combat and every strong point to have a weakness with plenty of interconnectivity in the map.

Other than that it’s been pretty good. The halloween rave was good, though there was 6+ DJs on the night and so everyones set times were fairly small. Wish I played for longer. I didn’t have anything on till Big Day Out and Soundwave, but then a friend has gotten me industry tickets to Paul Van Dyk on thursday night at the Family. Now I’m really looking forward to it. Love New York City, especially the Super 8 and Tab remix. I’m currently working on recording a few mixes (in all the spare time I seem to have), the first of which is entitled “Dreamtime” with a tripped out trance theme at fairly slow pace, not exactly for dancing, more for a chillout and relaxation.

Other than that and working on my new CoD4 level, just hanging out with mates and enjoying my spare time while I have it.

Whew. Nearly at the end of my university degree. I graduate in December. End of the line.

That means for the past 15 years I’ve been enrolled in some form of educational facility - and next year I won’t be. Thus I’m looking for some full time work, preferably in the games development industry.

Speaking of which, my new level DM-Kaedan has been released which you can find here. It was entered into the Make Something Unreal Competition, but considering it is my first published level with the Unreal Tournament 3 editor I’m not expecting much. There’s some really good talent out there as Phase 1 showed, but at least this project has let me learn the editor so when I start on my idea for a cool CTF map for Phase 3 I shouldn’t encounter the same problems again.

Other than that, life goes on. My mates and I are planning to go overseas next year on a shoestring and work our way through Europe.  But we’ve still to make concrete plans, it all depends on where our lives take us. At the moment though we’ve got minimal responsibilities here so nows the perfect time to head out in the great wide world.

But the immediate future looks good, holidays and my brothers Halloween house warming party that I’m looking forward to. I will be DJing as will a bunch of others. Should be a great night and weekend recovery.

Lets see now, the past few months has been fairly hectic with family events and university. I was told that I might actually fail two of my subjects (taught by the same guy go figure) last semester. Anyway, I put in a ton of work in the end of semester and got across the line. Now the mid semester holidays have come and gone and now I’m back at university for the last semester of my degree. Scary to think that its been three years since I started. I think I’m going to enjoy this semester a lot. I’m doing Film & TV as well as Introductory Philosophy as my electives, and ironically, I think I’ll learn more from the critical reasoning, logic and argumentative skills in Intro to Philosophy than my entire course overall. Other than that I’m doing Studio 3 which involves a project of my own choice that can go towards my portfolio.

Thankfully, I’ve confirmed that I can do my level design. So I’m going to do an Unreal Tournament 3 level for this semester, which will hopefully gain me good marks as well as being able to submit it to Make Something Unreal competition and allow me to put another level on my portfolio. I’ve discovered I work much better (and much more efficiently) when I’m working towards a deadline or else I slack off and put things on back burner too much. A little bit of pressure is good.

I’m progressing well with my DJing, getting better and better with my beatmatching. I’ve helped a mate record a demo and he’s even told me he’s got a gig every Friday in September at a club now, so I know where I’ll be a few Fridays later this year. It’s good to mix with other DJs as you learn things that you otherwise didn’t know or adapt different styles to your own.

Other than that I had a fantastic weekend with mates, got to catch up with one that I rarely see anymore which was awesome. Things are looking up for the first time in awhile. Hopefully this trend continues =)

Another monthly update it seems.

Life and family events have unfortunately taken a depressing turn in the past month and doesn’t look to be improving any time soon. But thankfully there are mates, music and video games for a bit of escapism.

I’m currently working on a new level for Call of Duty 4 which was originally penned for a HL2DM map, but I’ve been enjoying (read: pwning) Call of Duty 4 online so much that I’ve decided to convert the idea for it’s style, and I have to say it’s coming along really well.

With every editor you have to learn its quirks and shortcuts until you get to a similar level of proficiency to that of the previous editor that you were using. The Radiant editor is no different, but after this learning curve, I’ve found it is very easy and fast to flesh out geometry. I’ve yet to delve heavily into its more advanced lighting and texturing features, but those will come in time.

Also it seems Epic is re-doing it’s Make Something Unreal competition, which should provide some incentive to get stuck into finishing that death match level I was working on. But after using Radiant, and then going back to UnrealEd, I kinda miss some of Radiant’s features. That said, I’ve yet to see anything like the texture customisability and possibilities of the UnrealEd in Radiant.

Since this is my last year in my degree at University, I’m making a few deadlines for myself to complete tasks for my portfolio. I’m looking to have at the very least two new levels by the end of the year, if not four. With my birthday this Saturday and Grand Theft Auto 4 a couple of weeks away, I’ll soon see if my resolve wins out.

So very busy doing… little.

Uni started back up, it’s my last year. Woo assignments. I had life planned up until now. The year 2009 is a giant question mark looming over my head. But to recap on what has been happening:

Camping at Kingscliff sucked.

We happened to be going down the week that all the water that should have rained during the drought decided to pour down. We only stayed for two days before we called it quits. It’s not fun huddling under a tarp trying to keep warm as everything you own is drenched in water.

Also, fuck Kingscliff Beach camp site, fuck them. They refused to refund the 5 days that we didn’t spend there. Bastards. $400 is a lot of money for poorly paid university bums like myself. Thus, to anyone even remotely thinking of going there… don’t.

Anyway, now onto the good things:

Infected Mushroom: These guys were awesome. Had a great time with my mates and will definitely bring the whole crew next time. His voice is hypnotic. The live band also added something extra to the whole performance.

Future Music Festival: Although I had no intention of going originally, my brother and sister in law decided to make it their going away party. I didn’t know at the time that I would have one of the best trance experiences of my life thanks to Markus Schulz. His performance was outstanding, definitely will see him again in the future whenever he tours Australia again.

DJing: I’m loving every minute of it, picking it up bit by bit, I’m now much more confident in beat matching, but I am by no means adept at it yet. Loved playing at the after party for my brother and sister in laws farewell. Always sweet to get a room of people dancing.

There it is. Blog updated.

So far, all I can figure out is that I want to turn that unknown giant question mark of the future into music and mates.

So many things happening.

First off, Big Day Out was awesome. The Gold Coast leg of the tour was rained out and overcast, which was brilliant, as instead of searing heat, you got cool rain. The best acts I saw were Unkle and Karnivool, whose timeslots unfortunately overlapped. Unkle was just phenomenal live, I love their stuff, to see it up close and personal was something special. I really wish they had their side show up in Brisbane, but we can’t have everything we want. Karnivool are just an outstanding band, they are so tight with their music. It’s amazing for a band to sound that freaking good live. Other highlights of the show were 30,000+ people shouting “FUCK YOU I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME.. MOTHERFUCKER!” for Rage Against The Machine’s mosh… which included everyone as far as the eye could see.

Other than that, I ordered two new studio monitor speakers for my DJ setup. Also a general date in winter has been set for a mates big ‘Bush-Doof’ that he’s invited me to play at, thus giving me a goal to get decent by then.

Next week I’m going down the coast for a week to go camping with mates at Kingscliff. Should be a good week. Any mates reading this are more than welcome to come down. The more the merrier.

Soundwave soon after that, and Infected Mushroom are playing at the Arena later that night. I’m thinking of going, but I figure I’ll be wrecked for days afterwards. Worth it. After that there’s Future Music Festival which I’m going to, as a farewell party with my brother, who is going overseas for a year.

Should be an interesting few months.

Well, Christmas and New Years have come and gone and welcome the new year of 2008. Family and friends were good, plus the copious amounts of meats have satiated my ham-lust for at least another year. Unfortunately I have come down with a cold and sore throat on New Years Eve (go figure), so I have been chugging plenty of lozenges with cold and flu tablets to beat it.

Now, in recent news, I’ve decided to learn how to DJ with my styles in drum & bass, house and trance (and maybe a little hip-hop with Hilltop Hoods). With trance being my favourite genre, I’ve grabbed a couple of Pioneer CDJ 1000’s and I’m soon to grab a Allen & Heath Xone 92 mixer. I didn’t just rush out and buy expensive gear thinking I’ll be the next hot shit cause I saw Daft Punk or Cosmic Gate or Tydi. I did see those and they were great, but I’ve always been interested every time I’ve been at a party with a DJ… and my extended circle of friends contains 4 DJs who have been very helpful with advice and support. Unfortunately that mixer is $500 out of my price range at the moment. So while I wait for funds to accumulate, I’ve decided to check out FL Studio 7 and try my hand at simple producing to experience that side of it.

FL Studio is pretty fun, I’ve only got the demo, so limited saving at the moment, but still, you can create simple loops, grooves and patterns very easily after awhile and export them. I’ve also picked up a whole bunch of tracks by Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, The Crystal Method, Cosmic Gate, Thrillseekers etc. that I’ve always loved in mixes and got the originals to mix myself. Also can’t wait till TyDi releases his album. Love a lot of his work, and he’s the same age as me.

So there’s a general update. I’ve got my Bioware submission and UT3 level on the backburner at the moment, while I focus on learning some more musical aspects of life. Still, I will get to them over these holidays. Also, I’m playing Mount & Blade at the moment, which is an incredibly awesome game with a great mod community already for it, and it hasn’t even released version 1.0 yet. I highly recommend anyone get the game and especially with the Last Days mod (Lord Of The Rings).