<![CDATA[David Doane's Portfolio - David\'s Blog]]>Fri, 11 Aug 2023 06:30:59 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Graduate Entrepreneur Visa]]>Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:44:26 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/graduate-entrepreneur-visaIt was a week yesterday that I sent off my graduate entrepreneur visa just in the nick of time. Its been an interesting experience getting sponsored by the university and I'm already seeing some results from it. The head of the school of computing and technology has already offered the department's support for our work (still figuring out what that support will be but all things in time). Also the Centre of Enterprise and Innovation has informed me about the incubator programme they have in the works which could mean free offices in Cheltenham. Now I just have to wait and see if I actually get the visa...

In the meantime, development is cracking on. It seems like the work exploded exponentially from our original plan, something to keep in mind if you want to do a point and click. We are nearly there though, with the exception of sorting out voice acting and music. We've already contacted some platforms to begin the verification process ahead of time and soon enough we'll be trying our hand at steam greenlight. 

This entire post seems really subdued, even to me. I blame the grey weather and my lovely cold which has been making me uncomfortable all day. ]]><![CDATA[Ludum Dare #24]]>Wed, 29 Aug 2012 09:35:39 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/ludum-dare-24Two of my team mates in Hungry Planet, Murray and Dave, took the weekend to create a Ludum Dare point and click adventure game called Plan M

Have a play and see what you think, please rate it when you're done :)

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-24/?action=preview&uid=7835
 
Back in April for Ludum Dare #23, Murray and Dave also made subAtomic, feel free to have a play of that too!

http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-23/?action=preview&uid=7835 
]]><![CDATA[Blogging and such]]>Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:32:10 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/blogging-and-suchI have been really bad at keeping up with this, so I'm going to start trying to just do quick shorter blogs now and again. 

A general update: I am now the official founder and director of Hungry Planet Games. We are currently still living and working in Cheltenham, but hoping to move to Cambridge when money allows. In the meantime, we've got our first game, a point and click adventure, coming out next month. After that we'll be taking on a slightly larger project and looking for a bit of funding to help with expenses. ]]><![CDATA[News and developments]]>Wed, 29 Feb 2012 10:07:35 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/news-and-dvelopmentsIt been a while but a lot has been happening. I've met with some lovely lawyers in London who are going to give me a hand getting set up. In addition to that, March 7th I will be meeting with an IP lawyer in the TechCity area, then I will be stopping by to the UKIE for a chat, before finally meeting an accountant firm recommended by the UKTI. It going to be a huge day!

Some of the most important news though is about visas! With the post-study visa being thrown out in April, it was starting to look like if I didn't find £50,000 by October they were going to kick me out of the UK. At best I could have gotten a prospective entrepreneur visa which would have given me another 6 months. Thankfully information came out about new visas going into use this spring. The graduate entrepreneur visa looks to be right up my alley. It provides me with 12 month and a possible extension for another 12 months. Most of the requirements are no more difficult to meet than with the post-study visa. Only a thousand of these will be issued so with any luck I'll be applying as soon as possible when they go into effect in April.

When my graduate visa runs out I will still need to have found £50,000 or have made a certain amount of money, but I'm far more confident I can swing that in two years (hell of a lot better than six months). 

In the mean time, projects are full steam ahead. International marketing for the Erasmus exchange in Germany. Aftereffects work for a minute and a half video to be shown at the expo. Lastly, and most importantly, our arcade party game is on the way. We've reached alpha and now its testing/balancing and polish. The university trailer show is on the 16th of March and COMX is on the 21st of April. ]]><![CDATA[Setting the bar for starting a company]]>Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:35:50 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/setting-the-bar-for-starting-a-companyA week ago I visited the TechCity in East London to have a tour and meeting with people from the UK Trade and Investment department. My guides were incredibly nice showing me around and I had a great time. They answered all of my questions, even the not so bright ones. After seeing the incubator where DJ Hero was developed (I was actually in their old office) and a good walk about Shortditch, we parted ways. The next day I was signed up for a mentoring program about access to finance  and being put in touch with adviser and contacts all over the UK who can help me move things along. 

The biggest piece of information I received is that to qualify for an entrepreneurial visa for me to stay in the UK, I need to raise £50,000 of investment. Of course I knew that I would need money but having been given a minimum goal to reach has compelled me further to structure my work and take this all the more seriously. Its scary and exciting all at the same time. We'll keep the project rolling as January and the mentoring session fast approaches. In the mean time I'll be looking into options in Cambridge and Silicon Valley and see where we go. ]]><![CDATA[Team site]]>Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:02:49 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/team-siteMy teams new website is now live and slowly filling with content that we are creating for the game. I'll be writing the blog there too, it will be about challenges the team is facing and how things are coming along 

check it out at startselecteject.com ]]><![CDATA[Jail break game]]>Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:02:10 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/jail-break-gameMy team mate Murray is writing a dissertation about players reactions to AI characters vs human players. How players treat AI's differently from other human players and what the implications are.

This got me thinking about my own idea that could test some of his theories. I've been calling it a jail beak game. I envision the game as the player travelling down a large corridor or great hall, jumping from platform to platform avoiding falling in water or lava or some similar hazard. Players will have to leave the main path to travel down side corridors in order to free other players. 

The twist being the main player will not know if who they are freeing is a human or AI. The main player will only be able to free so many along the way. The team they accumulate will have to work together to reach the end of the hall successfully. 

So do you try and guess for human players or AI, do you find working with one better than the other? Are their stats or abilities more important who is at the controls? Do you feel emotionally obligated to try and save human players and not AI's?  ]]><![CDATA[Things I didn't learn in College]]>Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:27:41 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/things-i-didnt-learn-in-collegeFound a very interesting article about the 10 things most people didn't learn in college. Find it here

I'd have to say of all the things on the list there are four that I really could have used during my year in the industry.

How to be betrayed - I was all to naive going out into the world. Hand shake deals are meaningless, get it in writing, really really clear and specific writing! Always remember the value of the work you're doing. It's a bad sign if someone values you a lot, but doesn't want to put any money on the the table. 

Failure - I never expected to fail like I did, and the number of times I did (depending on who you ask). I was totally unprepared for such a possibility. It was soul crushing and painful. I pulled myself up though, and managed to fail in whole new ways! What I have to be proud of about my failures though, is that I didn't make the same mistake twice. I learned quickly and kept my head above water and made it through, and I'm certainly not letting that happen again.

Negotiation - I could swear there are people in this world with Jedi mind powers. I could negotiate in meetings fine, pushing my agenda, compromising when required, shooting for better win win options. But what I could not seem to hack was negotiating with my own bosses, when it came to issues that concerned me. I always seemed to let myself get talked out of how I really felt. In other cases we compromised about an issue but then the follow through never came and by the time I realized, it was too late. 

Happiness - I got so caught up in my work and job I forgot to do simple things for myself, to enjoy myself. In the end this stifled my creativity and made it difficult to interact with others because I was frustrated and without a release. When times get tough is when it's most important that you have some fun and make yourself happy, but that's what will allow you to cope with your bad situations. ]]><![CDATA[Have not done South America yet...]]>Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:50:10 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/have-not-done-south-america-yetHave been thinking a lot about where I might live after I finish university. I could go back to the US but I still want to move around the world a bit longer. On a random whim I went looking for possibilities in South America and found that Chile is looking to spark up entrepreneurship in Santiago. Food for thought.


check it out here ]]><![CDATA[Successfully online]]>Sun, 13 Nov 2011 00:28:22 GMThttp://www.daviddoane.com/davids-blog/successfully-onlineTook way longer than expected because of some customer service issues with a certain company... but I'm here ]]>