For those who don’t know, the JET Program (or the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme), grants successful applicants job placement in Japan, teaching English.  Applications begin now-ish, deadline being December 1, and successful applicants get their notification between May and August next year for departure in August.  It’s a pretty grueling application process. Well… I think so.  Remembering i’m a lucky Australian who didn’t have to take part in grueling University entrance applications unlike other countries.

So i’m seriously considering applying to the JET Program now. However, i’m very undecided about the whole thing…

The thing i love about JET is that, should you be accepted, you get guaranteed placement for at least a year! Which is great, safe, reliable etc.  However, there’s a downside: You don’t have complete control over your placement. You CAN request a region, but there are no guarantees.

Now… that’s a big issue for me.  I’m not necessarily a country-type person.  Should i be placed in a country town I would probably have to decline acceptance. I like the Japanese country side! It’s nice! But:

1. I don’t think the lifestyle is for me. I like buildings! And concrete! And ridiculous amounts of people! And riding my bike everywhere i go!
2. I’m allergic to NATURE… but maybe i could get some sort of special consideration being allergic to trees/pollen/whatever it is exactly…?

Ever since i arrived back in Australia, i’ve done nothing but suffer from allergies, to the point my doctor has told me that to get rid of it i’d either need to go through an allergy desensitization course (which may not work) or leave Australia.  And i would like to feel healthy again.

This is just a vid for those who are interested in what Cloud 9 is, but don’t really want to download it.

Ok so last week was awesome/epic/tiring/awes0me/productive/stuff.

So, as mentioned in my last post i have a couple game projects going – one of which, “Cloud 9″, is a University project and is sapping up all my time and energy – but i am VERY proud of the project.

Cloud 9 is steam-punky, fast paced racer game for the PC – think Mario Kart meets F-Zero.  And last thursday was our deadline to publish the game! EEK! And if there is one thing developing video games has taught me, its that actually FINISHING the game, to the point that you would even think of letting it see daylight, has got to be one of the hardest things you could possibly do – and i’d vote that it would be the most important thing you could do as a game developer/software developer.

It’s really easy and fun to play your role when developing a game. You know, as an artist just design and draw/model your assets, draw up your textures, design create a level in the game engine, and as a programmer you program your features to the point that you can demonstrate them – fun and challenging!  But, in my opinion, to pull everything together so that it resembles a complete game requires the least technical talent, but is by far the hardest and most taxing thing a development team could possibly do. You gain so much more insight in developing games by taking those last few steps to tie the game together than you do doing all the other crazy stuff during the development process.