Co-teaching a FutureLearn course is fun

The VFX for Guerilla Filmmakers course is at the end of its 4-week run over on FutureLearn. There’s still time to sign up (after which you can go through it at your own pace), so do so now if you don’t want to miss out on free learning.

Having worked on the course for months prior to its launch, along with the mastermind Saint Walker, it was exciting to see it finally go live at the start of February. Each week unlocked new content and saw a massive flow of students sweep through the lessons. (more…)

Writing chapter 38: Community

There’s a lot going on here. This is the tension-building chapter prior to the action finale, and there’s a fair amount of world building thrown in for good measure. Exploring a future-Hong Kong has been great fun.

However, what I want to talk about is a large mistake I made when first publishing this chapter. (more…)

Writing chapter 37: Interlude #6

I’ve wanted to write this one for a long, long time. Ever since Cal got his ability this has been on the cards – there was a tiny version of it back in arc 2 when he gives Kay a guided tour of the void, but it was restrained. Interlude #6 takes the brakes off and hints at the potential of a many more stories in the A Day of Faces universe. (more…)

How to be more productive with the pomodoro technique

I’ve been testing the pomodoro technique for the last 24 hours. I’m using it right now while writing this blog post. It’s already made me more productive and efficient – I think.

I first read about the technique last year sometime over on the Buffer blog. It sounded intriguing but I wasn’t really in a position to actually try it out – at work in particular I was in the middle of several intense projects and it really wasn’t the time to start experimenting with alternative productivity approaches.

So here’s how it works: (more…)

Writing chapter 36: ‘Contagion’

Here we finally get Kay and Simons in a room together when they’re not attacking each other, and it becomes clear that they’re natural allies. Simons is a man in the wrong place, having forgotten what he grew up wanting to do. Kay is barely an adult, but has been forced to confront unpleasant truths and figure out what she’s going to do with them. Together, they’ve got a chance to find proper purpose. (more…)

Showing your alpha build to people

Tonight I went along to my second Norfolk Indie Games Developers meet-up. As before, it was a gathering of passionate, interesting indie devs of varying skillsets (coders, artists, writers etc) chatting about all things gaming for three+ hours.

Unlike the first time I went, this evening I had something to share. I took along the hideously unfinished and untested build of Going Up, my Twine-based interactive conversation and decided to let a room full of far more experienced games devs Have At It. (more…)

Win prizes at the big Wattpad Block Party event!

The Wattpad Block Party (2nd Winter Edition) is upon us. All through February the event will be rolling, with prize giveaways and a ton of featured authors posting brand new work. Here’s how the organiser, Kelly Ann Blount, describe it:

The Wattpad Block Party – Winter Edition II is an epic online event featuring some of your all time favorite Wattpad Super Stars, New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling authors, and up and coming Wattpad writers!

(more…)

I’m teaching VFX on FutureLearn!

Two exciting things are happening in February, the first of which is a free, four week course called Visual Effects for Guerrilla Filmmakers. I’ve written about FutureLearn in the past and have done a handful of their courses, so a VFX course is of course great news.

What’s even more thrilling, for me at least, is that I’m one of the educators on the course. To go from an eager FutureLearn student to co-designing a course has been a real privilege. The course goes live on February 8th and runs for four weeks. You can sign up any time between now and the end of the final week. (more…)