Friday, July 23, 2010

Back to the Roots

Well I finally got a chance to come visit family and friends here in Georgia. It's only for a couple of weeks, but it's a refreshing change of pace. Even though I'm here to visit people I have to appreciate the chance to reconnect with nature. Now, I'm as big a fan of technology as anyone else, and I'm not exactly camping in the wilderness here, but there is something to be said for looking out the window and seeing trees that weren't planted there by the city. I can live just about anywhere, but this place will always feel like another home.

So I'm keeping up the job hunt just the same. It is a bit more difficult to work on side projects while here, but I'm taking this opportunity to really flush out the details of a game I have in mind. Right now it's a very rough concept, but if I can make it work I think it might be incredible. If things work out like I plan then I can hit the ground running when I get back to Florida and bury myself in some C++. You really can't afford to get rusty in this field.

Well I'm gonna have to wrap this up for now. I'll have more details on the project once I've ironed them out. Schematics in the works.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

More to the point

I guess now is as good a time as any to explain the name I've chosen for my blog. If you already know me you might already get the play on words. For everyone else allow me to explain. I use the pseudonyms WrenchWarrior and WrenchNinja for gaming and personal account names. The initial reason I picked these names was that some of my favorite games featured a character using a wrench as a weapon. (Ratchet and Clank, Bioshock, Dark Cloud, Team Fortress 2) Even with an arsenal of weapons and gadgets at my disposal I still seemed to have the most fun taking enemies out with the swing of a wrench.

The reason the names stuck though is a bit more personal. In many ways I consider myself like a wrench. I know, I know, I just compared myself to a tool, but humor me for a bit. Now, a wrench can be used for plenty of things, including a makeshift weapon, but primarily its used to build and to break apart. As a programmer, or even just as a creator, I do just that. I build and I break apart.

The build comparison is obvious. I take an idea, find the necessary components, and assemble something for the world to use. The idea of breaking things apart, though, seems a bit more drastic for a code monkey. What I mean here is that if you want to understand or fix something, sometimes you have to break it down. Just like a mechanic would pull out pieces of a car engine to make the changes so the car can work. As a programmer I do that more often then you might think. Sometimes the best way to fix a problem is to break it apart. Then once you understand everything you replace a piece of code and reassemble it good as new.

Now that I've driven the simile that a programmer is like a wrench into the ground. I can readdress the title. By wrench in the works I mean that I, the wrench, am in development. Just like someone might say that a director has a new movie in the works; I'm still in progress. I mean that partially because I'm still working on getting a job as a game developer, and partially because I'm always in progress. As a programmer, even as a person, I'm learning and growing and improving. For that reason I will always consider myself 'in the works' until my last second on earth.

So there you have it. My little play on words. Fine, it's not the most clever name imaginable, but hopefully it helped me grant a little insight as to who I am. If nothing else it means something to me and even if I ever change the name; I will remember the original name and carry the idea with me.

Alright I've been on long enough. Despite the posts before this I still consider this to be my first real entry. I'm hoping to make this a weekly occurrence, but in the future I'll try to monitor the length. Until next time.


Friday, July 9, 2010

About Me (extended)

I started to write all of this in the about me box, but after seeing it trail on I decided to clip it down to the basics and transfer the whole thing to a blog post for anyone interested. So here is a bit more about me:

I'm a programmer and video game developer. I'm originally from north Georgia. I'm looking to be apart of a team who can create fun and engaging experiences like the ones I've enjoyed since I was a child. If given my pick I prefer to work as a gameplay programmer. It's hard to beat the feeling of building and tweaking the core mechanics of a game and ultimately providing enjoyment to the player. As long as I can be a part of a project that make a product to be proud of, then I'm in the right place. If you care to know more about me feel free to check the links under 'Profile Pages' for more insight or just send me an E-mail at RMattCrane@gmail.com.

So there should be plenty more to come. Stay tuned.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Getting Started

Welcome to the Wrench in the Works blog. I'm Ricky Matthew Crane and I'll be using this blog to showcase my work as a game developer as well as chronicle my activities moving forward. It's a bit bare right now, but I'm just getting started. Check back in soon for details, news, and downloads of my existing games. Things are going to get interesting.