Hey, I'm a 22 year old student living in Sweden. Been lurking the GW forums for a couple of years now, the biggest reason being the Indie Game Development forum. Finally decided to register since I will be able to spend a lot more time on game development from here on out.
I'm currently done with my 4th year of studying software engineering, only got my master thesis left which I will hopefully be able to start on after summer. Exactly what I'm gonna do for a living I dont know, but as long as it's related to programming in some way it would be fine.
My main interests are games and game development. Don't really remember when I started playing games, but I got my NES when I was about 6. From there on I've had a SNES, Gamecube and PS2, but I started playing games mostly on PC when I was about 11, thanks to Starcraft, Diablo and Heroes 3. My favorite commercial games include: Shadow of the Colossus, Smash Brothers Melee, Chrono Trigger, Mass Effect, Gradius 5, Megaman X 1-4, Team Fortress 2 and Sanitarium (for some reason people have never heard of this excellent puzzle/adventure game, but you should really try it). Favorite indie games: Cave Story (big surprise!), Banana Nababa, Jumper 1 & 2, Alter A.I.L.A., I Wanna Be the Guy, Garden of Coloured Lights etc. I like almost any genre apart from sports games (with the exception of Nintendo World Cup!), as long as the gameplay's good.
I usually code games from scratch in C++ since I like having full control over anything, which I feel that I don't have when using tools such as RPG maker. I'm currently working on a platformer boss game together with Andiaz, whom a lot of veterans here on GW should know. I've never actually finished a game before, like so many others, but it feels a lot more positive this time around, since I know other stuff wont get in between like it has before, and it's so much easier to finish a project when you're 2 people working on it. I'm very interested in making stuff in general, like drawing and music creation, but I just don't have the motivation to stay with it long enough to get good at it. This is especially because I feel that the results aren't interactive, which games are, and that makes it extra hard for me. I don't know if other people have this problem; do you? I just feel like people would get more out of a game that I've made than they would from a piece of art or soundtrack. But I guess it works out in the end since it results in me spending more time on making games, which is what I really want to do. I've been able to get a bit farther on pixel art though, but it's mostly for complementing my game making. I don't like never knowing if you'll be able to get a pixel artist for your game or not.
Other hobbies of mine include watching movies and series, whether it's anime or just regular. Some of my favorite movies are Grave of the Fireflies, Batman Begins, The Matrix, Phone Booth, Terminator 2 and Requiem for a Dream. I'm highly anticipating WALL*E (which we don't get in Sweden until september 8th *grumble grumble*) and Dark Knight at the moment. If Dark Knight's bad I'm never gonna hype myself for another movie again, since I did that with Spiderman 3, and look how that turned out
My favorite series include Firefly, The Shield and Oz. The best anime series I've seen is by far Hajime no Ippo, if you like anime and haven't seen it yet, you seriously must take the time to do it (seriously). When it comes to music, I pretty much only listen to various electronica, especially happy hardcore and jumpstyle/hardstyle (though not Gabber, that's a bit too much for me). I've been to a couple of events so far, Trance Energy and DJ Tiesto, and I'll hopefully go to Sensation Black next year.
As far as political/religious interests go, I don't have any. I leave that to people who cares about it. Things that I find funny are usually either random (read: Internet humor), or the humor's highy sarcastic and/or dark.
That's all I can think of for now, I'm proud of myself to finally have registered an account here
