Blade Edge

Computer software | Video production | My life in general

Blade Edge main header

Plugging Along

October 25th, 2007 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

News?

Just stopping by to do some updating. Nothing much exciting has happened in the past week, though Dave and Lissa are being threatened by the California wildfires, so cross your fingers for them. I still see em online but yesterday Lissa told me they were probably moving out for a while because while they weren’t in immediate danger the air quality was getting really bad. Hopefully they and the kids stay safe.

Jetsetter

I have bought my tickets to go out to the Montreal International Game Summit at the end of November, so any fellow GDnetters that will be in attendance, holler out so I can say hi while I’m there. Before that, the first weekend of November I’ll be at the Video Game Expo (VGExpo) in Philadelphia, so if anyone else is checking that out let me know too. Finally I’ll be at the Toronto IGC in January, and I know I’ll run into a bunch of you guys there, like Rob Loach and Coldacid. After that it’s GDC in San Fran in Feb and OGDC in Seattle in May, followed by the Austin GDC in September. Quite the traveler I’m becoming! I think Canada will have to be the extent of my international travels for the time being however.

New Game and NaNoWriMo

I’m revisiting a game design concept and editing in some changes tonight. I’m going to start prototyping it next week so I can send it to GarageGames ASAP but next month I plan to once again participate in NaNoWriMo so I don’t know how much time I’ll have to work on it, seeing as I have to write at least 1.667k words a day in order to make the 30-day 50k word deadline. Which I still haven’t done. I think last year (no, the year before – I didn’t do it last year though I wanted to) I wrote like 8 pages . We’ll see what happens. Anyone else participating?

Downtime

Heading to the shore down in southern Jersey (where the beaches are huge) for the weekend with my girl. The weather isn’t looking to good, and I recently snapped my the lines to one of my kites, so it won’t be as fun as we planned but it’s a mini-vacation we both need – especially her. I’ll have to see if I can repair my lines tonight. Anyways we always manage to pull a fun time out of being together so I’m not worried.

Journeyman

Just wanted to say I’m hooked on this new NBC series. I wasn’t a big Quantum Leap fan back in the day but I did catch a few episodes channel surfing and thought it was cool. There aren’t many comparisons besides the whole time travel aspect, but the show itself is pretty well done, both acting and story-wise. The only thing I don’t understand is how Dan’s brother, being a detective, can’t seem to figure out what’s going on with Dan despite the fact that Dan told him what he was experiencing (tho he didn’t believe him at the time, true) and that Dan disappeared out of the bathroom at the charity ball and we saw no real reaction from him about that fact. So that’s a small hitch – maybe I missed something though. Anyways, any other fans out there?

Righty then, be back next week.

→ No CommentsTags:··

IGC coverage up!

October 18th, 2007 · GameDev.net

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

I finally sat down and completed my IGC coverage, which amassed 8 pages in Word and took me the better part of 5 hours to write up, referencing my notes and researching online and all that wonderful stuff. But hey, if you missed out then you can at least get filled in on what you happened to miss so head over and check it out! Did I mention it took me 5 hours?

I had hoped to bring even greater coverage by including embedded video of all the lectures/keynotes and the round tables that I didn’t attend, but it seems GG isn’t up for the idea because they don’t have any clips online for me to embed so, that kinda stinks. However my inside source says that they may re-broadcast the recordings at some point and hold a live Q&A with GG developers. I’ll keep you all posted on that.

Turns out GG wasn’t interested in my games for InstantAction after all, so that kinda made my week more bearable surprisingly since I didn’t have to crunch to get any updated demos out. Of course it sucks that I’ve failed yet again to secure a release for GC and BB, but if at first (second or third) you don’t suceed – try, try and try again. I hope to start soon on my next concept and to that end I’ve been playing lots of World in Conflict. I realized a few days ago that World in Conflict is actually the exact opposite of a game I started designing two years ago. In WiC you order up troops to be airlifted into the battle zone. When those troops arrive you control them on the map. In my game, you actually airlift troops to areas of the map and drop them off, but don’t actually control their movements on the ground. Neither WiC or my game involves resource gathering either. And controlling key areas of the map are similar in both WiC and my game as well. Interesting….

Oh and if you haven’t noticed, the publishing schedule has changed. We now have three articles being pumped out per week. Unless our lead time grows close to two months, I really don’t want to change this schedule as I think it’s a nice pace for articles. if I have to start doubling up, I would do so on Wed, then Monday and finally Friday if I really had to.

Well I still have all five games to judge for the GI competition, but that will have to wait until tomorrow, because I’m wiped out. I think I can sneak in a WiC mission before bed. Catch you all later.

→ No CommentsTags:···

No this can’t wait

October 15th, 2007 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

I really really really really wanna go to bed but this just can’t wait till I wake up again. I started to back up files to Mozy before I went to bed and I happened to notice something that made me laugh out loud quite suddenly – it seems Mozy has a SimCity fan in their programming department!!

Awesome. Okay I’m done. See yas

→ No CommentsTags:

Guess it’s a good thing I slept 12 hours today

October 14th, 2007 · Personal

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I’m finally back from IGC after spending an extra day in Eugene thanks to a canceled flight, but that worked out because I was able to attend the TGB boot camp instead of being stuck twiddling my thumbs and toes all day. I had a great time and accomplished many things for GDnet, Blade Edge and Game Institute. Yep, the trifecta. The best part was getting to hang out the in the GG offices. No one gave me weird stares or ever asked me what the hell I was doing there. Although I know a lot of the GG employees I don’t know them all, and it’s nice how they could stand having a total stranger sacked out on their couch plugged into their wifi and blogging on his laptop. You guys rock (GG), thanks a lot for the hospitality, and those two muffins I snatched. They were yummy. Expect my full coverage sometime this week. I know the schedule says Wednesday but I’m hoping to include video coverage like in my Demo Night articles, so it may take a bit longer to get the recorded material online for embedding.

So yea I was talking to Ben Garney from GG and he’s interested in hopefully doing some Torque-related articles to publish on GDnet. I know we don’t have a huge Torque community around here, and to be honest such articles would probably find a better home on the Torque Developer Network, but I’m interested to see what he’s proposing. I followed up some other leads pertaining to GDnet but they’re still hush-hush, sorry.

I’ve come up with some great ideas on how to make Galaxy Conquest a lot more accessible to players who need to learn how to play the game, and now I have to implement them over the course of this week. That means getting back into TGB development, but luckily the boot camp refreshed me rather well so I’m all set to get started – I just wish I had time tonight to do it!!

Lessee Game Institute… talked to two of GG’s educational outreach people in regards to working with GG more closely in the future. Nothing more than talk right now but we’ll see if anything comes from it. Obviously we’re not looking to step all over Torque School so it’s not going to be an arrangement like that. Oh yea, and I also have to judge GI’s third student game programming contest this week. Luckily there are only like 6 games to go through, otherwise I might be in serious trouble rather than just be in trouble.

I haven’t even started on my GDnet task list for this month either. Blagh. I can push some stuff aside this week but not all of it, as there are a few things I really should have gotten to last month, like redesigning and updating the About Us page and the Write For Us page. This will truly be a week where my prioritizing skills come into action.

Oh and I probably won’t be sleeping much, hence the entry title – at least I got a good head start!

Even worse is the fact that I bought World in Conflict on Sunday and I’m dying to play it and I probably won’t have any time this week to do it. Torture I tell you! Speaking of games though, I found this cool game concept on Gizmodo. Reminded me also of another unique game that was reported on by bitTech. Crazy cool ideas out there and if you want more, be sure to check out the IGF entrants as well!

Heh, funny – my mom came into my room a few minutes ago because I had left my door open to keep the air circulating since it’s too cold out to keep my windows open now…

Mom (conversationally) – “you’re awake?” (it’s not an uncommon thing, she knows)
Me – “yep”
Mom – “did you let the dogs out?”
Me – “uh, no”
*Mom shrugs and walks out of the room
Me (calling after her) “Hey! I’m trying to get to bed! I don’t want to be awake!”

Story of my life. This week should be fun Well, better go take a nap I suppose….

→ No CommentsTags:····

I’m Still Heeerrreeee

October 13th, 2007 · Software

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I show up at the check-in desk at the airport last nite to learn that my flight to San Fran has been canceled. The lady at the desk managed to get me on an alternate flight heading out at around the same time though, with a first-class upgrade as well. So that was pretty good. But then when the plane pulled up at the gate the mechanic reported a serious problem (well, I guess it was serious cause we couldn’t take off, I don’t know exactly what the problem was) so that grounded the flight, which meant I was stuck. So I had the option of catching a flight at around 5am today to be home by 8pm, or wait until tonight and take the exact same flight I would have taken yesterday, just a day later. I chose to stay an extra day so I could attend the TGB boot camp. So you could say things worked out pretty well… cept the fact that Saturdays are the days my girl and I get to spend time together, so I was hoping to be home for that. Yes indeed – bummer. Making the best of it tho, sitting here at the boot camp session ready to dig into some TGB. It’ll be a nice refresher since I haven’t really touched it in a few months. Have a good weekend people, wish me luck on being able to fly out of here tonight!

→ No CommentsTags:·

I Hate PS3

October 12th, 2007 · Gaming

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I was getting my ass handed to me by Davey Jackson in Soul Calibur III so I challenged him to some Guitar Hero riff-offs and we went to plug in the GH controllers but for some reason they refused to work. We had to hook up some sort of adapter to get the controllers to work with PS3 and while we got the strum key to work so we could move up and down the menus, none of the fret keys or the start/pause keys would work on our guitars. Seems James Wiley knows how to set it up but he wasn’t around. Damn PS3. Damn you!

As for Davey, I’ll have to get him next time. It’s game night here at the Garage so I’m just chilling out watching some of the guys (and gals) play Wii Tennis. Maybe I’ll join Andy and Mark for some Marble Blast on InstantAction…

→ No CommentsTags:·

doobee doobee dooo

October 12th, 2007 · Software

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So last night didn’t go exactly as planned – many of the GG guys realized shortly after the conference that they were beat and didn’t really make it back to the office. Davey and I just played some Soul Calibur with Brian Richardson before they went out to grab some dinner. So I just chilled on the couch till John Kabus from Synapse Gaming showed up to do dinner with Josh Williams. Synapse is behind the Torque Lighting Kit and we both chatted for about an hour while Josh was talking in his office to Andy Yang about the new Office Telephone systems they were planning on installing next week. After Josh and Andy were done, I hitched a ride with Josh and he dropped me off at Mark Frohnmayer’s house just as Mark was getting home for his little “post IGC cool down” party. Mark was one of GG’s founders and a great guy to talk to. Only three other developers showed up so it was just a small little gathering. Mark showed us some of his more entertaining blog entries – he’s a pretty funny guy in that laid-back 60’s-style kind of way, you can just imagine him saying stuff like “totally” and ” right on, dude”. And he actually does sometimes . So the “party” died down rather quickly and while I waited for my friend to come pick me up I showed Mark and his friend Eric (who wasn’t a developer) Galaxy Conquest. In fact I did my first usability test ever (which is pretty amazing seeing as the game is like 6 years old (in other words I’m retarded)) and had them sit down and just try to understand how to play the game. They couldn’t (big surprise). While it wasn’t a revelation to me it was disappointing nevertheless, but I took some time later that night to draw up some ideas of how to get people playing the game without having too much stuff pop up in front of their faces and after reading the statement “you must take over your opponent”.

Right now tho I’m sitting here playing around with TorqueX in the boot camp for today. They have a TGB bootcamp tomorrow but my flight is tonight, which is unfortunate but that’s okay. I’m getting to mess about with TorqueX components which is what will be the mainstay of Torque2 and will also give me an idea of how best to leverage Behaviors in TGB. So it’s not like I’m not learning anything. Steve Zepp is running the session and answering all our questions.

After this is over I’m going to help the GG guys pack up and hitch a ride (or walk a few blocks) over to the GG offices and see if Davey’s ready to cash in his rain-check on some Guitar Hero jamming – tho I also have to talk to him about some stuff for Game Institute. Also just want to say goodbye in person to anyone who’s hanging around the offices. I’m getting picked up around 7pm for the trip to the airport and my flight home.

It’s been fun, glad I was able to make it out this year, can’t wait to come back.

→ No CommentsTags:··

Chillen at the Garage

October 11th, 2007 · GameDev.net

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

Hey people. I’m sitting on the nice comfy couch in the center of the GG common area here in the offices just chillen out after the last day at IGC. Josh Williams gave a keynote this morning to further demystify the deal that went on between GG and IAC several months ago, ensuring developers that GG has not in fact compromised its integrity or sold out to a big corporation. He says that GG’s independence in handling all game dev matters is actually baked into the contract, but either way time will ultimately tell. Still, from all the info that’s been made available both on and off the record, it seems GG has found a perfect partner to carry it into the future.

After Josh’s keynote we broke up for lunch and to hang out and play games set up on the many computers. I spent most of my time getting pwned in Marble Blast on InstantAction as many of the GG employees are of course demigods when playing that game. There were times I could bring my score into the double digits 😛

After lunch I sat next to Randy Dershner as he led the roundtable discussion on the details about the InstantAction contract and how it’s built to benefit the developers. It’s definetly a nice contract, all things cosidered. Caveats exist, of course, and I’ll be detailing the discussion in my report.

After the roundtable was the IGC Players Choice Awards ceremony, which consisted of the winners being announced and coming up to say “thank you” as it’s more a fun thing than an official GDCA-style thing. Gondolier of Love took first place, followed by Metal Drift and Infinity. As the party broke up I wandered about seeing what people were doing. Most said they were heading back to the Garage so I decided to hitch a ride with Justin St. Clair after talking to Davey Jackson about maybe strumming some tunes in Guitar Hero.

So here I am, sitting on the couch while Nerf missiles shoot past my head as a war rages in the offices through the door. Davey just showed up, so I guess we can get to jammin, tho I’ll see if I can get a tour of this place first, it’s pretty big. My camera batteries died but I wasn’t planning on taking pics anyways.

Oh and I talked to Andy Yang about developer support for InstantAction so if any of you out there are interested in the idea and the platform hopefully we’ll be able to bring you lots more (exclusive?) info on it. And Ben Garney also stopped me to ask about pushing some Torque articles onto GDnet, which I was really happy to hear about, so look for that too as well as general game dev articles from the GG people.

K, time to dodge missiles and jam out!

→ No CommentsTags:··

Mmmmm lunch

October 10th, 2007 · GameDev.net

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

So I was sitting next to Randy Dersham during the morning for the keynote and InstantAction lecture. He’s the big player for IA and getting games on the platform. I showed him a quick look at GC saying I’d like to demo it for him later. Lunchtime came around and he was gone. I think I scared him away In all reality tho, he’s a busy guy I’m going to have trouble nailing down. But I got two more days so, no worries.

Lunch has come and almost gone, we’re about ready to get back down into lectures and roundtables. If you haven’t seen the news item or the Lounge post, GG is streaming live video from the conference so if you couldn’t make it but are interested in what’s being discussed then tune in now and don’t miss anything! This is also being recorded while streaming so GG will be making the videos available to me (not exclusively or anything) so I can embed them in my coverage, much like the way I did Demo Night.

So sit back and enjoy if you’ll be following along, otherwise stay tuned for my full coverage next week.

‘Scuse me now, I have to go hunt down Randy.

→ No CommentsTags:··

Long day at the Garage

October 9th, 2007 · GameDev.net, Production

Transposed from Gaiiden’s Scroll

I was going to make this a decently detailed entry, but it’s gotten too late for something like that. Also, the internet here at my friends house isn’t too good on the upload for some reason and so I can’t get any pictures online anyways. I’m going to try tomorrow – hopefully they will have internet at the conference locale.

Long story short: I woke up at 4am EDT to catch my flight out to Eugene, OR. Roughly six hours later I was in SF for my lay-over which was extended almost an extra hour. After a delayed departure and arriving in Eugene at 2pm PDT (5pm EDT) I went straight to GarageGame’s main offices for Associates Day. I’m not an Associate, but I am a press member and a friend of GG in general so that gets me access. I sat through a lecture about IAC’s aquisition of GG and what that really means, a first-ever look at InstantAction, GG’s new distribution platform, and then mingled and snacked and checked out the Garage offices. Then we all hiked over to a nearby bar lounge GG had rented out and chilled. Open bar lasted allll night, and they had a pool table I partook in. Jeff Tunnell, Josh Williams, Eric Fritz, Matt Langley, Justin Dujardin, Sean Williams, Steve Zepp, Josh Dallman, Tom Buscaglia (JR and SR), James Wiley, Josiah Pisciotta, Justin Mette… it was great to see all those guys and more people I hadn’t even really met yet. I showed off Galaxy Conquest and Blitz Blox to Josiah and Matt and they both had nothing but good things to say about both games. I’m hoping to pitch them to Josh Williams (GG CEO) tomorrow as well as I think they would make great additions to the new InstantAction platform. Josh came up to me earlier today to ask me about my thoughts on the IA platform and I told him I was psyched about it and had some games I thought would fit well.

I’ll speak more about InstantAction in my full coverage article. For now this is all I have to say as it’s now 2am PDT (5am EDT) which means I’ve been up for roughly 24 hours (I took naps of undetermined length on the plane out to Cali, no more than 2-3 hours total though). I now have 5 hours of sleep before getting up to be at the conference location at 8:30am.

Really wouldn’t have it any other way though

→ No CommentsTags:···