Well the Lash La Rue team had their first meeting today, we went over many things, including the large amount of work that needs to be done in order to have it at a finished state.

I have allocated myself the tasks of

• Design document
• Squirrel and Duck interactions defined
• Chosen level destinations
• NPCs
• Asset list
• Scale chart
• Level designs
• Menu screen
• How to screen
• Backgrounds for each level - day/dusk/night (TBC)
• Character animations
• Other characters
• Assets
• Foreground
• Images from holidays
• Profile images
• Cutscenes for the ends
• Finish screens

Of all that work I set myself the task of the more design based work, so it can all be sorted before going into the more art based side of things.

So for a deadline of two weeks I will be doing:

• Design document
• Squirrel and Duck interactions
• Destinations
• NPCs
• Asset list
• Scale chart
• Level designs

As long as my dissertation and Void don't take up too much time I may be able to get some Lash La Rue work done.

So I thought I'd do another Jon Burgerman related blog entry, this time round showing off my anxiety wall image I got. Although I was a little pissed off with it as it had been raining the day it came in the post and obviously my postman couldn't care for what he was delivering and he got it all wet.

I really love it, and at the exhibit they looked amazing all spread out on the wall, must say though I was at heart hoping for the Mario Kart one!

Since then I've also gotten his book, and I must say I had no idea that Jon designed a level for Wipeout Pure. Also that I was a little disappointed because of the lack of Game On imagery in it. I am quite fond of the book cover without the poster.

I also got myself one of his new Dunnys which I must say is lovely, I really like the pastel like colours on him, makes me think of Pete Fowler god knows why though, anyway I got a cute doodle on the box too, which seems to of gotten a little smudged at some point. I was almost tempted to not take it out the box, but a day later I decided I would anyway.

I also added Jon on Twitter the other day, and shortly after doing so received a message saying he'd popped my photo of my coloured in birthday card on his site, hoping I didn't mind. And of course I don't but I've been promised a doodle for it, which is amazing, and I hope to get him to doodle on my netbook at some point, because that would look beyond spectacular. I just wish he did less abroad at the moment and did more stuff in the lovely old UK, perhaps something in Wales too!

I am now a very proud owner of a Dell Inspiron Mini 9, I had for a while wanted a little netbook, mainly because everything else I've ever owned portable computer wise has been really heavy. And to be honest if I ever want to go back home, round my boyfriends or go to a convention or conference, it's not fun lugging around something that weighs 2kg+, along with of course everything else I need.

A while ago, we're talking months and months ago, before Dell actually sold the mini 9's my boyfriend sent me this image, and at first I thought it looked silly, as why would a computer be so small.

But then after lugging around heavy stuff for so long it made me realise that something like that would really be beneficial to me.

So far I've used mine as my notes for a presentation, and just to be able to do work at university without having to bring in my large bag to carry a bigger computer in. Instead I can carry it in a small bag I own for example this one.

Which I bought from the wonderful Spun Out store in Northampton, and I can actually fit in, along with little bits and bobs, my mini 9, my journal for writing and a couple of small books (that was its contents on Tuesday anyway).

Here's a little picture of my cute new toy as I've put it in the title, I've currently got it running the beta of Windows 7, which is lovely and way better than Vista. It runs so fast on it, and it's also very quiet which freaks me out when it boots up.

But yes, I recommend people to get a little netbook if you're tired of lugging around a big bag (and don't want to use a smartphone or PDA as a portable computer) and want something small and cute to fit in a little bag. I do recommend getting a netbook that has an SSD hard drive though, just as it makes a netbook better than your average laptop.

Also if you do decide on getting one, I recommend having one of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD players as it came in handy for installing things, or of course just an external disc drive. I also bought a 16gb SDHC card for it, which works as another hard drive really. And don't forget even though it only has in my case a 16gb SSD hard drive external hard drives, networks and USB sticks are your friends.

It also acts a nice thing for playing point and click adventure games on as they are of course perfect games in my eyes for while your travelling, and just so people know they can actually run WoW, as I had my boyfriend round the other day and he got it working, was a little slow though. Good thing with the Dell mini's though is if you wanted to upgrade it you can. He's just purchased one, and more RAM and a 32gb SSD, just means he has to put them in himself. But it will of course run WoW better for if you want to do that.

It has a really nice screen, although it doesn't really do it justice in my image.

And just to show how small and cute it is, here we have my "mini kitty" as it's called with my DS, just to show how nice and small it is. Now if Dell actually did full on different colours like the Eee pc netbooks, I would go out and get a red one that would match my DS. But Dell only change shells, so I'd only have a different colour top. I would actually pay more to get one completely in one colour keyboard and all, but I don't think any company does that.

It's shiny top is just waiting for a Jon Burgerman doodle now I would stick stickers on it, but a doodle in a black pen would look so much better, here's to waiting for that day.

Dear Readers,

As well as reading about the work I produce for the Void game on this blog, the group I am a part of also have a collaborative blog for every piece of work produced to be published on. As reading it from my blog it's quite one sided as I will tend to only post up my work.

I am currently putting up most items on the blog, but I am sure other team members will contribute over time. Either way it's a place for everybody's work to be shown together, which fills in all the pieces our individual blogs are in some cases missing.

On the blog at the moment there is all the pre-production work that has been produced up until now, and there will hopefully soon be images from the production phase as well.

You can find the blog at http://voidthegame.blogspot.com.

Thanks for reading my blog, feel free to visit every now and again.

Catherine.

Ok we have started on the production stage of the game, one part which I'm sure the majority of the group has really been looking forward to. I must say I am really looking forward to seeing all our work envisioned into an actual playable space, especially the orange pads from The Anemone Sea as I really love the design of them.

Well I plan to start off white boxing in the mechanics with Andy, while also rigging the main character and doing a bit of modelling on the side perhaps.

Really to be honest though I don't mind what work I do on the project as I'm always willing to give everything a go.

I'm currently trying to come up with a plan of how we should space out the production of our work, although I feel the whole group needs to go over this plan so we can all decided what time is needed for what. Although in the mean time I've put together a quick planner for us to use and stick up in either E8 or H2 at university.

Our deadline is around the start of May, along with us all having to finish and hand-in our dissertations in March as well. I think as long as we put our minds to it, it can be achieved, especially after taking part in the Global Game Jam and seeing what was produced in just two days.

Although i have been devoting more of my time to my dissertation recently so that I can get it out of the way, but that does mean I'll be able to use my time just on working on Void once the dissertation is out of the way, as opposed to worrying about both of them at the same time.