Hello World

Okay, breaking new ground here already it seems, since this is the first blog I've ever put up on anything.

A quick introduction to get us started; I am Matt, I'm 21 and a 2nd year undergraduate at the University of Derby, studying Computer Games Programming.

The university gets a bad rep really, recently put in the bottom dozen in the country by The Times, apparently largely due to the lack of research it does. Scoring 24/200 points, Derby doesn't claim to be a research uni but still suffers in the tables because of this fact.

I think it's also important to point out that while the university is propping up the league tables, John Sear's CGP course at Derby is ranked among the best in the entire country, even by The Times' admission.

From The Times article 'Mickey Mouse' degrees?:
"Mat Henson, meanwhile, graduated from the computer-games programming degree at the University of Derby last year. In 2009, the course was oversubscribed by a ratio of 4:1, and, despite its relatively modest entry requirements (BBC at A-level) many students arrive with three As.

Like most graduates from the computer-games-programming degree, Henson walked straight from university into a job — in his case at Playgen, a London-based games company. At 23, he is already one of their lead programmers."

And in fact these figures are out of date, as when I applied the requirements were BBB at A-level, and according to the course leader the over-subscription now stands closer to 6:1 than 4:1. People are even going so far as joining the university on other computing courses in the hope that if someone leaves this course they will be be able to change on to it.

Favourite PC games of all time include Rock Band, Baldur's Gate II and the Monkey Island series and the best console I ever owned, I still maintain, was the Sega Megadrive.

So where from here?
Well, I plan on digging up a few things from last year to show you all - firstly my team's Microsoft Imagine Cup 2009 entry, secondly an XNA drink mixing game and finally an entry in a 24 hour programming competition which I took part in with my Imagine Cup team. I plan on doing some general writing and suchlike about different games and game related news stories too.

Okay, so now that we're all acquainted, on to the games. :D