Alright let's get serious
It's been a month and a half without an update and a whole lot of stuff has happened in between, so here we go:
1: Mobile Game Development
As I mentioned before, I have written up a contract for developing an original mobile game for a private client. What I hadn't mentioned is that it's been signed and development has been started! My artist, my audio engineer, and myself have devoted our Sundays to working on it, and we are ahead of schedule! We are creating a game set in a cyberpunk dystopian future where you rage against the machine! I can't give out many more details as I am under a non-disclosure at the moment, but I'm going to argue the point to the client that developing this game in secret is bad for business and an active development blog is good publicity and can raise a bit of hype. But trust me - it'll be awesome and it's scheduled to be out soon :D
2: Psychology/Perception Project
This is a pretty sweet gig that I can actually talk about! I am working on a Psychology experiment with Thomas Beesley at UNSW regarding perception that uses the Oculus Rift. Part one of three of this project is almost complete now, and it's actually kinda fun to use.
Oculus Rift view of the perception experiment
Among all those randomly-rotated and coloured cylinders is a capsule, can you find it? That's basically the goal of the subject in this experiment. They have to locate the cylinder by looking around for it with the Oculus Rift, centre it in their vision, and press the space bar, then a new randomly-generated selection of objects appears and they repeat for about half an hour. The twist is that for every 16 sets, the same 8 sets keep appearing, but the subject isn't told about that. The test is to see if people subconsciously memorise where the cylinder is in the repeated sets and therefore find it faster.
The way the objects wrap around the camera
To really utilise the Oculus Rift view to its fullest, I made the grid of objects wrap around the camera in a hemisphere. For the benefit of my client, I've added several sliders to the inspector window allowing him to tweak the details about this program before he's ready to use it - including the radius of the hemisphere around which the objects wrap, the number of objects generated per set, scale of objects and such.
The program also records head movement of the subject and creates a report at the end of the test detailing how long each set took and other details. This project is great because the constantly-changing nature of the program is teaching me to keep all kinds of backups and how to morph code over and over again without it becoming a nightmare.
3. Quit My Day Job
I worked as a technical assistant at UNSW carrying computers and tables and such. It was a pretty sweet job, quite well paid, but the problem was time. I wanted this job as a casual 3 day a week type deal so I'd have some extra cash to support me and my business, but for several months and for the foreseeable future they want me here 5 days a week and I have to fight to get the occasional Tuesday off. For someone who doesn't have a masters degree and isn't trying to start up their own business it'd be a dream come true, but I've been here a year and I don't want to spend any more time carrying things around, so I'm putting my eggs into one basket for now, handed in my resignation, and I'll be out of this job by April.
4. Moved House
I have relocated from Randwick to Surry Hills! I live as close to the CBD as I could, so that way when people look up my business address on Google they'll see it's near Hyde park and say "Wow CBD, this guy must be a big shot!". That's the theory anyway, assuming people actually look up the physical addresses of software companies any more. I now live by myself in a large studio apartment which is exactly the size I need, with air conditioning and an internal laundry! Just like a real grown-up!
5. Books Read
I found a great little shop on Oxford street called Beautiful Pages that sells books and posters regarding design and freelance artistry. I bought a poster about being effective and creative that used the word "Fuck" a lot, and a book called The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau. I've always seen my goal of becoming my own developer business as possible and my dream but possibly a little unrealistic - why would anyone have a regular job with a boss when they could do this instead, there must be something I'm missing - but having only read halfway through this book so far I'm inspired, I'm convinced, and I'm motivated to get this thing going. It was this book that finally gave me the courage I needed to take the next step and quit the day job! Anyone who's reading this who's thinking of doing their own freelance thing like me, go buy that book. And while you're at it, get Steal like an artist by Austin Kleon, and Damn Good Advice by George Lois.