Ok, I had to take a day off from learnin’ but now I’m ready to get started once again. Section 3 promises to cover both C++ and Unreal Engine, and is looking to be at almost twice the length of what I’ve already learned. Let’s get crackin’! Read More >

Wheeee! I’m at the end of Section 2! Trudging through the basics is obviously necessary, but I’m itching to get into the actual Unreal Engine side of things as well. I’m happy to be done with the c++ exclusive component… and am ever closer to being able to start prototyping something of my own design. Read More >

40 more videos to go! Mind you the course is still in progress, so there’s a real possibility that there will be more to watch by the time these are done. I must say, I really like Ben Tristem’s teaching style. I feel like I want to make some Houdini tutorials at some point (I’ve had this in my head for over a year now… but it’s rather difficult to make happen now that I live in a tiny apartment with a small child…) and I can think of ways that Ben’s teaching style will influence mine. But enough on that, it’s time for me to do some more learnin’. Read More >

Oddly enough, even though we lost an hour due to that silly Daylight Savings hipster trend, looks like the wee one actually went to sleep earlier than normal. Which means it’s time for another exciting episode of Today I Learned: where I basically take notes so I can read them whenever I want later. This should take us to the half-way point of what’s currently available to watch in the Unreal course. Read More >

Wow, it’s been over a month since I last tried to follow along with this course, and there’s been an entire new section released in the meantime. Now that I’ve cleared some other things off my to-do list I’m planning on focusing on clearing my way through learning this material and then trying to put some of this newly gained knowledge to the test. Time to get crackin’! Read More >

Scratch one item off that perpetual to-do list! I’ve now “mastered” all of the 420 non-kanji words in Influent. Mastering really is their word, not mine. It means that I have successfully identified the words by selecting the object associated with them three consecutive times when presented with 10 different options to choose from. It doesn’t mean I have the ability to look at a given object and recall the Japanese word for it.

So I’ll probably continue to open it up now and then as a refresher to try and maintain and better cement the known vocabulary, but for the time being I get to move it off of my “to-do list”. At some point before the year is over, I’ll need to revisit it so that I can learn the kanji associated with the various words. I’d be surprised if there’s a lot given how many words used katakana. Read More >

Now that the school term is over, I’ve graded all the assignments and it’s time to clear some items off of my to-do list once again! Number one on my to-do list is clearing out the rest of the words from Influent. I’m probably closest to that than other goals at the moment so it seems like a pretty straight forward thing to tackle. So let’s take a look at 50 more verbs and adjectives! Read More >

I did it! I finished the game! I’m actually off to a rather slow start this year. Which is good? I guess it means I’ve spent more time being productive than playing games as it’s the first game I’ve finished in 2016. At this rate I might only manage a third of the games that I completed last year! It’s also kind of exciting as it’s the first time I’ve attempted to play through something in a different language. How’d that work out? Read More >

Menu, menu, menu. Everywhere you turn, there’s a menu. It’s been a while since I’ve had some spare time, but let’s dive in. I need to finish this game!We’re out of the woods with the “main menu” now, but of course there’s some additional screens that need attention here. We’ve got the “Pause” menu with some warnings in it, and we’ve got some hints being thrown at us so we can understand how to play the game. Let’s take a look! Read More >

I think that translating just the menus for this game has been enough to convince me that I should be playing authentic Japanese games rather than something that has been translated to Japanese. With as little as I know, I’m still able to pick up some awkwardness in the language that’s being used. And that worries me. Because I don’t know what I don’t know, and that means that everything could be a bad translation.

Nevertheless, I’m almost done with these menu screens… and I am learning something. Read More >