At 10/8/12 12:29 PM, 4urentertainment wrote:

At 10/7/12 03:14 PM, Archawn wrote: Oh, god, college apps. I'm going through the application process as well, and because I'm applying to places like MIT I have to write a shitton of essays.

Have you started writing those yet? I'm still waiting on finishing my SAT's and TOEFL before doing anything. I have started on my personal statement though, which I keep hearing is SUPER important.

I just started this past weekend on my essays, I also just took my SAT Subject Tests. I'm trying to apply for Early Action so the next month is going to be super fun.

What's the personal statement for? A specific college or something?

Also if we both get into MIT we should totally be roomies :D

Is anyone else thinking about doing the newgrounds game jam this coming weekend ? I've been sort of trying to find an artist to partner up with, but I have had no real luck. I may be going solo.

http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/nggamejam8

At 10/8/12 02:05 PM, PrettyMuchBryce wrote: http://www.newgrounds.com/collection/nggamejam8

i'm seriously tempted. I've almost got away3D down, so I could do a full 3D game.

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.................. I dunno @.@

At 10/8/12 02:05 PM, PrettyMuchBryce wrote: I've been sort of trying to find an artist to partner up with, but I have had no real luck. I may be going solo.

Story of my programming life. Same, I do have a writer who has musician friends, not sure if they'll join yet.

At 10/8/12 02:10 PM, PSvils wrote: We'll try hittin' this one up! I'm super excited, since I know have NAPE in my toolset fo sho.

Nape so good.

If you didn't know, there's a thread that took me a week to find. I pmed Tom about it, and he said he'll put it in the next news post since there's almost no one in it.

At 10/8/12 12:29 PM, 4urentertainment wrote: Everything is crazily expensive, compared to the fact that it costs $200 or so per semester here in Egypt. So I most likely won't be going unless I get some form of financial aid or scholarship.

What the FUCK, man. $20k/semester here for out-of-state students, like $6k or so for in-state. I got the most selective scholarship given by the institution, and it's still a sizable amount to pay. How does the quality of uni compare to the US, if you have any idea? i.e., is it worth an extra $20k plus travel? That's a nice list btw, I know of a few other good ones depending on your potential major if you want more.

At 10/8/12 01:51 PM, Archawn wrote: What's the personal statement for? A specific college or something?

From what I'm told, all, or most, colleges want this "personal statement" where you just talk about yourself and who you are. You heard about anything like that in the colleges you're applying to? For example here's Johns Hopkins examples of "essays that worked"

Also if we both get into MIT we should totally be roomies :D

Wouldn't that be fucking awesome :D

At 10/8/12 02:22 PM, MSGhero wrote: What the FUCK, man. $20k/semester here for out-of-state students, like $6k or so for in-state. I got the most selective scholarship given by the institution, and it's still a sizable amount to pay. How does the quality of uni compare to the US, if you have any idea? i.e., is it worth an extra $20k plus travel? That's a nice list btw, I know of a few other good ones depending on your potential major if you want more.

Well obviously there's a huge difference in terms of facilities, but the quality of education is actually decent. As far as I know the major differences are that, in the US there might be some award winning professors or even Nobel laureates in the Uni whereas there would be no such thing here, and more importantly there are 0 research opportunities here.

There's also a pretty tiny variety of majors compared to the US here.

But I think the biggest reason why I think it'd be worth the travel and expenses is the environment around you. When everyone around you is really competitive and everyone has his own unique projects and ambitions. Like I'm always inspired by all those stories of people who met in college and changed the world. Like the guys who founded Google meeting in Princeton and facebook guys meeting in Harvard. And also the whole living on my own and having responsibilities, maybe getting some work experience, research opportunities etc..

But yeah, the reason Uni is so cheap here is because it's subsidized by the government, as in many other countries, except in US and UK where college fucking costs more than 3 arms and a leg.

Also, another funny statistic, minimum wage around here is about $50 per month.

At 10/8/12 02:22 PM, MSGhero wrote: What the FUCK, man. $20k/semester here for out-of-state students, like $6k or so for in-state. I got the most selective scholarship given by the institution, and it's still a sizable amount to pay. How does the quality of uni compare to the US, if you have any idea? i.e., is it worth an extra $20k plus travel? That's a nice list btw, I know of a few other good ones depending on your potential major if you want more.

I'm in debt £45,000 for tuition fees and another £8,000 for maintenance fees here in the UK. Here's hoping I don't fail the first year.

Why is university so expensive you guys :(

At 10/8/12 02:54 PM, 4urentertainment wrote: Well obviously there's a huge difference in terms of facilities, but the quality of education is actually decent. As far as I know the major differences are that, in the US there might be some award winning professors or even Nobel laureates in the Uni whereas there would be no such thing here, and more importantly there are 0 research opportunities here.

Ah, that makes sense. Just because a prof is a Nobel laureate doesn't mean he/she's any good at teaching lol. I've had a few award winning teachers who sucked. One took 10 points off everyone's test grade cuz the average was above a 70. The best teacher I've had here, though, was for a dumb humanities class...not a math/science-y one.

There are 0 research opportunities when you actually need one :(

At 10/8/12 02:58 PM, Sam wrote: I'm in debt Ã'£45,000 for tuition fees and another Ã'£8,000 for maintenance fees here in the UK. Here's hoping I don't fail the first year.

Why is university so expensive you guys :(

Maintenance fees? As long as your work regimen is solid, you'll be fine. Until the bank wants their money back.

I bitched about costs in my blog post, which I might make a regular thing. It's mainly for pleasing alumni so they give more money so the uni can please the next year's alumni. A vicious cycle :(

At 10/8/12 03:04 PM, MSGhero wrote: Ah, that makes sense. Just because a prof is a Nobel laureate doesn't mean he/she's any good at teaching lol. I've had a few award winning teachers who sucked. One took 10 points off everyone's test grade cuz the average was above a 70. The best teacher I've had here, though, was for a dumb humanities class...not a math/science-y one.

I have a really great programming teacher :D

She's younger than most of the teachers and went to the same school the class is in, so she's more "in the know"
Plus, she's just really cool to just chill and talk to. A few of us just sat around bullshitting and bashing Twilight with her after class.

At 10/8/12 03:10 PM, MSGhero wrote: Maintenance fees? As long as your work regimen is solid, you'll be fine. Until the bank wants their money back.

I bitched about costs in my blog post, which I might make a regular thing. It's mainly for pleasing alumni so they give more money so the uni can please the next year's alumni. A vicious cycle :(

I don't really have many of those problems. Then again, i'm just going to AIMS, so that's a huge difference. All you guys and your fancy degrees :P

At 10/8/12 03:15 PM, egg82 wrote: I have a really great programming teacher :D

She's younger than most of the teachers and went to the same school the class is in, so she's more "in the know"
Plus, she's just really cool to just chill and talk to. A few of us just sat around bullshitting and bashing Twilight with her after class.

Some of the old farts are pretty cool. There's one programming teacher (I think) who dyed her hair red. There was a guy in her class sleeping outside her room right before her test started, and she quipped, "Well...he's fucked." I don't think we have any teachers young enough to bash Twilight, but most of them do bash our rival school. Someone got partial credit for a problem by writing something mean about them lol.

At 10/8/12 02:54 PM, 4urentertainment wrote: Well obviously there's a huge difference in terms of facilities, but the quality of education is actually decent. As far as I know the major differences are that, in the US there might be some award winning professors or even Nobel laureates in the Uni whereas there would be no such thing here, and more importantly there are 0 research opportunities here.

It's interesting to see that even in the lower-end colleges there are some fairly well-known people. My calc professor at this local university is somewhat of a decorated mathematician from what he's told us about himself.

At 10/9/12 09:36 AM, Archawn wrote:

At 10/8/12 02:54 PM, 4urentertainment wrote: Well obviously there's a huge difference in terms of facilities, but the quality of education is actually decent. As far as I know the major differences are that, in the US there might be some award winning professors or even Nobel laureates in the Uni whereas there would be no such thing here, and more importantly there are 0 research opportunities here.

It's interesting to see that even in the lower-end colleges there are some fairly well-known people. My calc professor at this local university is somewhat of a decorated mathematician from what he's told us about himself.

At my university I have a tutor who worked at lucas arts and pixar, he teaches 2 different drawing units and 2 different 3d animation units. Otherwise the rest are mostly of poor quality in this part of Australia. They mostly just freelanced as their past work...

At 10/9/12 02:23 PM, MrRandomist wrote:

At 10/9/12 09:36 AM, Archawn wrote:

At 10/8/12 02:54 PM, 4urentertainment wrote: Well obviously there's a huge difference in terms of facilities, but the quality of education is actually decent. As far as I know the major differences are that, in the US there might be some award winning professors or even Nobel laureates in the Uni whereas there would be no such thing here, and more importantly there are 0 research opportunities here.

It's interesting to see that even in the lower-end colleges there are some fairly well-known people. My calc professor at this local university is somewhat of a decorated mathematician from what he's told us about himself.

At my university I have a tutor who worked at lucas arts and pixar, he teaches 2 different drawing units and 2 different 3d animation units. Otherwise the rest are mostly of poor quality in this part of Australia. They mostly just freelanced as their past work...

I'd expect that for any field involving art and animation and whatnot, even here in the US. I imagine most 3D animators spend a great deal of time doing freelance work?

I'm probably wrong there though, I don't know much when it comes to what the typical life of an animator looks like.

At 10/9/12 04:09 PM, Archawn wrote:

I'd expect that for any field involving art and animation and whatnot, even here in the US. I imagine most 3D animators spend a great deal of time doing freelance work?

I'm probably wrong there though, I don't know much when it comes to what the typical life of an animator looks like.

oh, all my tutors arent animators, just one. the rest teach design, html, games art, 3d modelling.
The course is for a bachelor degree in games art and design.
But what I meant by that is most don't have that same experience as they would from the US. which really sucks :(
and each unit right now costs 1500$ (x4 per semester or x8 per year, for x3 years)

On the topic of the Game Jam, does anyone have any theme suggestions you want to toss out there? If I decide to run with one, no one will know until Friday so it shouldn't really hurt anything. I have some themes in mind but I'm always open to better ideas.

At 10/10/12 02:51 PM, TomFulp wrote: On the topic of the Game Jam, does anyone have any theme suggestions you want to toss out there? If I decide to run with one, no one will know until Friday so it shouldn't really hurt anything. I have some themes in mind but I'm always open to better ideas.

Maybe something about the consequences of staying up all night. Maybe that is too specific and more of a movie jam theme, but it popped into my head and seemed an interesting concept. It might be able to be tied into a Halloween/horror theme easily.

Also, I am not really a flash reg... so disregard everything.

Maybe the games can have a short time limit, on the order of 60 seconds or something.

Or have color be the core mechanic.

Sorry color-blind people :S

At 10/10/12 02:51 PM, TomFulp wrote: On the topic of the Game Jam, does anyone have any theme suggestions you want to toss out there? If I decide to run with one, no one will know until Friday so it shouldn't really hurt anything. I have some themes in mind but I'm always open to better ideas.

I don't have any on the top of my head, but I think something that can relate to the whole "Halloween Spirit" would be nice. Maybe even something as simple as "Pumpkins".

I think some more seasonal themed jams would be pretty awesome :3

At 10/10/12 02:51 PM, TomFulp wrote: On the topic of the Game Jam, does anyone have any theme suggestions you want to toss out there? If I decide to run with one, no one will know until Friday so it shouldn't really hurt anything. I have some themes in mind but I'm always open to better ideas.

Selling out
Re-make your first game on Newgrounds
Make a game as if you were a total creep
Make a game PETA would make (they just made "Pokemon Black and Blue")
Make the ending to a game without making the beginning or middle

Make a flash game as if it's 2003 (people might not get why everything in the portal looks like shit)
Make a platformer where you can't jump
Make a game as if you were 6
Re-make any game from your NG submission history
Re-make any game from someone else's NG submission history
Use something from the NG Art portal as concept art.

At 10/10/12 10:57 PM, I-smel wrote: Use something from the NG Art portal as concept art.

this would be a pretty cool idea, although probably a little more defined?

At 10/10/12 02:51 PM, TomFulp wrote: On the topic of the Game Jam, does anyone have any theme suggestions you want to toss out there? If I decide to run with one, no one will know until Friday so it shouldn't really hurt anything. I have some themes in mind but I'm always open to better ideas.

"movies" would be interesting. Making a game based around the theme of a movie someone chose.

I also think it'd be more fun to let them choose the movie and see what they come up with :P

At 10/11/12 08:47 AM, egg82 wrote: I also think it'd be more fun to let them choose the movie and see what they come up with :P

Oh, and of course it'd have to be a portal movie. Too many games based off Hollywood movies out there already.

At 10/10/12 10:57 PM, I-smel wrote: Make a flash game as if it's 2003 (people might not get why everything in the portal looks like shit)

Impossible mouse avoider quiz 7

Shoot the stick celebrity Dress up tribute Demo trailer

I was thinking of this exact game, which I played all the way through in school.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050331233226/http://www.stickde ath.com/chc1.swf

Also HOLY CRAP StickDeath.com is finally down! I used it like last month, was I the last person to ever see it up or what? How prestigous!
Also making games like this would actually be a horrible game jam.

At 10/12/12 12:59 AM, I-smel wrote: Also HOLY CRAP StickDeath.com is finally down! I used it like last month, was I the last person to ever see it up or what? How prestigous!
Also making games like this would actually be a horrible game jam.

Woah... The original internet is fading away before our eyes.

At 10/12/12 12:59 AM, I-smel wrote: Also HOLY CRAP StickDeath.com is finally down! I used it like last month, was I the last person to ever see it up or what? How prestigous!
Also making games like this would actually be a horrible game jam.

oh, what was that site called... ?

it was a small site I used to go to when I was a kid, and it had some decent flash games on it.
Something like blacksheep.som or albinosheep.com or something like that.

it was just a big white page with a couple images on it linking to some games. I dunno what it's like now or even if it's still around.

At 10/12/12 02:13 PM, PSvils wrote: Anyone still know exactly where the game jam theme will be announced?

I'd assume Tom would make a post containing the themes for both jams. 7pm ET