Sunday, September 30, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Hi there!
Just a quick update before I toddle off to bed:
-Ragnarokk (the viking game) is going rather well, though we had a bit of a setback this weekend. Turns out there's another student game out there that uses the guitar controller, and it's called Ragnarawk. Their game isn't really very much like ours, but just to be safe, we're going to have to change the name of our game. If anyone has any brilliant ideas, send 'em my way!
-My intermediate game class project has taken shape, finally. The game is called Polyphony, and it's...well, it's a bit odd. You have this plant, and depending on what fertilizers you put on it, different kinds of flowers will grow out of it. Now, different types of flowers correspond to different notes, so the idea is to get the plant to grow the right flowers in the right order such that they form a given melody. Sound trippy? Yeah, that's because it is. I was in a meeting the other day, thinking to myself "Okay, so if I were to add a square flower to a triangle flower, that would make...a star flower?" And at that moment, I realized I had lost my mind. Oh well. Shape/botany math aside, here are some of the images from the game (drawn by yours truly, unbelievable as that may be to anyone who's ever seen me try to draw):
This is roughly how our music/shape system works. Basically, if you've ever seen shape notation (used to be used in protestant hymnals back in the day), then you know where the concept for this comes from. We have our first playtest of this game on Wednesday, so my partner and I have furiously been churning out art and code for the past week. Here's hoping we're ready!
-I'm working on another presentation for the Game Deconstruction Group. This month's selection is Bioshock, which if you've spoken to me in the last month, you know is my current favorite game ever. I have until late October to build the presentation, so I'm taking my time in getting the research put together.
-My world building class is chugging along. This is the class where we spend a semester just coming up with a fictional world, and really getting into the details of how that world works. By the end of the semester, we've assembled something like an atlas, with maps, descriptions/pictures of the inhabitants, descriptions of the ecology, etc. My world is called Altepehua, and it's an alternate history story. The basic question that created Altepehua is, "What would happen if Europeans hadn't reached the New World until the late 19th century? How would the native civilizations have developed and spread, given an extra 400 uninterrupted years to do so?" In other words, how would the Incan, Mayan, and Aztec civilizations have grown and changed if Europeans hadn't basically annihilated them? I'm reading a lot about the history of these cultures, and trying to project how I think they would have changed (and interacted with each other) if left to their own devices. Those who are interested can read more as the story develops here: CTIN-532 Class Blog
Well, it's 3am, and I still have more Polyphony art to do, so I should probably stop procrastinating and get to it. Hope you all are doing well, and be sure to check back next week for pics of my birthday adventures. We're going to a pirate themed restaurant (like Medieval Times, but with pirates) and then to an all night techno festival in downtown LA. I am quite sure there will be massively entertaining stories and pictures from this little outing. Until then, hasta luego!
Just a quick update before I toddle off to bed:
-Ragnarokk (the viking game) is going rather well, though we had a bit of a setback this weekend. Turns out there's another student game out there that uses the guitar controller, and it's called Ragnarawk. Their game isn't really very much like ours, but just to be safe, we're going to have to change the name of our game. If anyone has any brilliant ideas, send 'em my way!
-My intermediate game class project has taken shape, finally. The game is called Polyphony, and it's...well, it's a bit odd. You have this plant, and depending on what fertilizers you put on it, different kinds of flowers will grow out of it. Now, different types of flowers correspond to different notes, so the idea is to get the plant to grow the right flowers in the right order such that they form a given melody. Sound trippy? Yeah, that's because it is. I was in a meeting the other day, thinking to myself "Okay, so if I were to add a square flower to a triangle flower, that would make...a star flower?" And at that moment, I realized I had lost my mind. Oh well. Shape/botany math aside, here are some of the images from the game (drawn by yours truly, unbelievable as that may be to anyone who's ever seen me try to draw):
This is roughly how our music/shape system works. Basically, if you've ever seen shape notation (used to be used in protestant hymnals back in the day), then you know where the concept for this comes from. We have our first playtest of this game on Wednesday, so my partner and I have furiously been churning out art and code for the past week. Here's hoping we're ready!-I'm working on another presentation for the Game Deconstruction Group. This month's selection is Bioshock, which if you've spoken to me in the last month, you know is my current favorite game ever. I have until late October to build the presentation, so I'm taking my time in getting the research put together.
-My world building class is chugging along. This is the class where we spend a semester just coming up with a fictional world, and really getting into the details of how that world works. By the end of the semester, we've assembled something like an atlas, with maps, descriptions/pictures of the inhabitants, descriptions of the ecology, etc. My world is called Altepehua, and it's an alternate history story. The basic question that created Altepehua is, "What would happen if Europeans hadn't reached the New World until the late 19th century? How would the native civilizations have developed and spread, given an extra 400 uninterrupted years to do so?" In other words, how would the Incan, Mayan, and Aztec civilizations have grown and changed if Europeans hadn't basically annihilated them? I'm reading a lot about the history of these cultures, and trying to project how I think they would have changed (and interacted with each other) if left to their own devices. Those who are interested can read more as the story develops here: CTIN-532 Class Blog
Well, it's 3am, and I still have more Polyphony art to do, so I should probably stop procrastinating and get to it. Hope you all are doing well, and be sure to check back next week for pics of my birthday adventures. We're going to a pirate themed restaurant (like Medieval Times, but with pirates) and then to an all night techno festival in downtown LA. I am quite sure there will be massively entertaining stories and pictures from this little outing. Until then, hasta luego!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0913/p01s04-ussc.html
I walk down the stretch of road in this picture literally every day. I am amused.
I walk down the stretch of road in this picture literally every day. I am amused.
Monday, September 10, 2007
I almost forgot!!
Remember that green screen shoot I worked on in June, and couldn't say what it was? Well, the site launched about a month ago. Head over to www.cluckhere.com to check it out.
Remember that green screen shoot I worked on in June, and couldn't say what it was? Well, the site launched about a month ago. Head over to www.cluckhere.com to check it out.
Hey everyone! Did you miss me? I bet you did.
So, the semester has started. True to form, I was busy right up until classes started, and then jumped right into classes and projects and extracurriculars. Here's what's on tap:
Internship at Fox: Wrapped this one up the Friday before classes (good thing, seeing as how working full time doesn't mix well with school). I'm really happy with how this internship went. Learned a lot, had fun. They must have been happy with me as well, since they hired two IMD people to replace me, and asked me to stay every day until my last day. Might go back next summer, we shall see.
Game Deconstruction Group: A professor of mine invited me to come and present for this organization, largely composed of important game industry types. Basically, the idea is that these guys are busy people and don't have time to play every game that's out there, so they invite intelligent, game-minded students to come in and present games they ought to know about. For my presentation, I played Maple Story, a Korean (and now US) MMO, and led a 2 1/2 hour discussion on it. The game itself is kind of lame, so I don't recommend you go out and get it, but the presentation went really well. I made some great contacts, and they've invited me back to do another game later in the semester. A guy from Yahoo games also said that if I ever had a Flash game, he'd feature it on the Yahoo Games site, so you know. Woo!
Thesis Space: I'm still employed as the site manager for the IMD thesis space. This mostly consists of telling thesis students they're not allowed to knock down walls and making sure they don't paint said walls tangerine orange. It kind of sucks to be the bad guy all the time, but eh. At least I know that when it's time for the thesis show, the space won't be a total disaster.
Intermediate Game Design: This is the first of two game classes I'm taking this semester. It's a production class, which means I'll have built a game by the time the class is over. My partner and I are talking about making a serious issue game; we're tossing around the idea of an RPG-style game where you are a homeless person in Los Angeles. This is still in a really infant stage, so stay tuned to see how it develops.
Advanced Game Design: Yes, you read that right. I'm taking Intermediate and Advanced at the same time. Why? Because I'm nuts. The game for this class is the one I've mentioned here before, RagnaRokk. We worked a lot on the game over the summer, and I'm pretty happy with how it's going so far. If anyone is interested, head over to www.playragnarokk.com/wiki to see the design doc, some level concepts, and our source/concept art library.
World Building: This one is mostly a creative writing exercise. By the end of the semester, I will have constructed an atlas for a fictional world. I have no idea yet what my world is going to be. I'm supposed to commit to a broad world concept by Thursday. Anybody got any ideas?
Experiments in Interactivity: I'm still not real sure what this class is going to be about. It seems like it's mostly theory, but by the semester we will have built something. We just don't know what yet. We're thinking of working in the interactive environments area, so that could be fun. If nothing else, the prof for this class is really trippy and fun. I'm pretty sure they invented the idea of the doddering academic just so we'd have a way to describe this guy. So even if our interactive something doesn't turn out, at least I got to talk to the fun prof for a semester.
New house: As of the first week of August, I'm living in a new place. One of these days, I will clean my room and kitchen so I can take pictures and post them here. For now, I can at least describe the place. My room is pretty big (three queen beds long by two wide...I have a queen bed, so this is the easiest way for me to describe the room's size, haha). I have a closet that runs the entire length of the room. It has a motion-sensitive light in it. This closet is epic, I'm telling you. One wall of the room glass sliding doors, leading out into the garden in the back. I can basically barbecue out the back of my bedroom. I find this immensely satisfying. The house itself is nice; one story, five bedrooms, two bathrooms. The oven in the kitchen could be bigger, but we've got two refrigerators, so I'm not complaining. I live with friends from IMD, as well as Renae (my roommate from last year). We're pretty happy with the place so far.
Archery Club: Yeah, this one kind of came out of nowhere. A friend of mine is the VP of the USC archery club, and he talked me into coming shooting with them last Sunday. I thought it was a one-time event. I was incorrect. I am now a card-carrying member of the USC Archery Club. This means that once a week, my friends and I drive out to the archery range, some nice people give us bows and arrows, and we shoot at a wall made of phone books for a couple hours. Sometimes there are targets, sometimes it's just that big wall. So far, I'm actually not terrible. I can hit a balloon from about twenty feet...when I concentrate really hard. I figure I've only been twice, and am bound to get better. They told us at practice this week that we can bring in our own targets next week. I have access to a large-format poster printer. This should be hilarious.
New computers: Yep, plural. Once per degree, the USC financial aid office allows students to apply for a budget increase so they can get a computer. I cashed mine in this semester, and got myself a Sony Vaio laptop (it's red and adorable), several hardware upgrades for my PC, and a nice pair of wireless studio-quality headphones. I now have a nice portable machine that I can use on campus and in meetings, and a super badass tower at home for video work and (of course) video games. Plus, no more rolling over my headphone cable with my computer chair 23983459240523450924 times a day. Speaking of games, if you aren't playing Bioshock, you should be. It's absolutely fantastic. Also, Dad, Chris, Kelson, and I are going to be playing Hellgate: London come November, so if anyone is interested in joining us (it's an online game), pick up a copy when it comes out and I'll tell you what server we're on. Some of my friends from school will also be playing with us, so I expect it will be quite the raucous good time.
Whew, I think that's the long and the short of it. Hope everyone is well and happy, and let's hope it's not another month before I update here!
So, the semester has started. True to form, I was busy right up until classes started, and then jumped right into classes and projects and extracurriculars. Here's what's on tap:
Internship at Fox: Wrapped this one up the Friday before classes (good thing, seeing as how working full time doesn't mix well with school). I'm really happy with how this internship went. Learned a lot, had fun. They must have been happy with me as well, since they hired two IMD people to replace me, and asked me to stay every day until my last day. Might go back next summer, we shall see.
Game Deconstruction Group: A professor of mine invited me to come and present for this organization, largely composed of important game industry types. Basically, the idea is that these guys are busy people and don't have time to play every game that's out there, so they invite intelligent, game-minded students to come in and present games they ought to know about. For my presentation, I played Maple Story, a Korean (and now US) MMO, and led a 2 1/2 hour discussion on it. The game itself is kind of lame, so I don't recommend you go out and get it, but the presentation went really well. I made some great contacts, and they've invited me back to do another game later in the semester. A guy from Yahoo games also said that if I ever had a Flash game, he'd feature it on the Yahoo Games site, so you know. Woo!
Thesis Space: I'm still employed as the site manager for the IMD thesis space. This mostly consists of telling thesis students they're not allowed to knock down walls and making sure they don't paint said walls tangerine orange. It kind of sucks to be the bad guy all the time, but eh. At least I know that when it's time for the thesis show, the space won't be a total disaster.
Intermediate Game Design: This is the first of two game classes I'm taking this semester. It's a production class, which means I'll have built a game by the time the class is over. My partner and I are talking about making a serious issue game; we're tossing around the idea of an RPG-style game where you are a homeless person in Los Angeles. This is still in a really infant stage, so stay tuned to see how it develops.
Advanced Game Design: Yes, you read that right. I'm taking Intermediate and Advanced at the same time. Why? Because I'm nuts. The game for this class is the one I've mentioned here before, RagnaRokk. We worked a lot on the game over the summer, and I'm pretty happy with how it's going so far. If anyone is interested, head over to www.playragnarokk.com/wiki to see the design doc, some level concepts, and our source/concept art library.
World Building: This one is mostly a creative writing exercise. By the end of the semester, I will have constructed an atlas for a fictional world. I have no idea yet what my world is going to be. I'm supposed to commit to a broad world concept by Thursday. Anybody got any ideas?
Experiments in Interactivity: I'm still not real sure what this class is going to be about. It seems like it's mostly theory, but by the semester we will have built something. We just don't know what yet. We're thinking of working in the interactive environments area, so that could be fun. If nothing else, the prof for this class is really trippy and fun. I'm pretty sure they invented the idea of the doddering academic just so we'd have a way to describe this guy. So even if our interactive something doesn't turn out, at least I got to talk to the fun prof for a semester.
New house: As of the first week of August, I'm living in a new place. One of these days, I will clean my room and kitchen so I can take pictures and post them here. For now, I can at least describe the place. My room is pretty big (three queen beds long by two wide...I have a queen bed, so this is the easiest way for me to describe the room's size, haha). I have a closet that runs the entire length of the room. It has a motion-sensitive light in it. This closet is epic, I'm telling you. One wall of the room glass sliding doors, leading out into the garden in the back. I can basically barbecue out the back of my bedroom. I find this immensely satisfying. The house itself is nice; one story, five bedrooms, two bathrooms. The oven in the kitchen could be bigger, but we've got two refrigerators, so I'm not complaining. I live with friends from IMD, as well as Renae (my roommate from last year). We're pretty happy with the place so far.
Archery Club: Yeah, this one kind of came out of nowhere. A friend of mine is the VP of the USC archery club, and he talked me into coming shooting with them last Sunday. I thought it was a one-time event. I was incorrect. I am now a card-carrying member of the USC Archery Club. This means that once a week, my friends and I drive out to the archery range, some nice people give us bows and arrows, and we shoot at a wall made of phone books for a couple hours. Sometimes there are targets, sometimes it's just that big wall. So far, I'm actually not terrible. I can hit a balloon from about twenty feet...when I concentrate really hard. I figure I've only been twice, and am bound to get better. They told us at practice this week that we can bring in our own targets next week. I have access to a large-format poster printer. This should be hilarious.
New computers: Yep, plural. Once per degree, the USC financial aid office allows students to apply for a budget increase so they can get a computer. I cashed mine in this semester, and got myself a Sony Vaio laptop (it's red and adorable), several hardware upgrades for my PC, and a nice pair of wireless studio-quality headphones. I now have a nice portable machine that I can use on campus and in meetings, and a super badass tower at home for video work and (of course) video games. Plus, no more rolling over my headphone cable with my computer chair 23983459240523450924 times a day. Speaking of games, if you aren't playing Bioshock, you should be. It's absolutely fantastic. Also, Dad, Chris, Kelson, and I are going to be playing Hellgate: London come November, so if anyone is interested in joining us (it's an online game), pick up a copy when it comes out and I'll tell you what server we're on. Some of my friends from school will also be playing with us, so I expect it will be quite the raucous good time.
Whew, I think that's the long and the short of it. Hope everyone is well and happy, and let's hope it's not another month before I update here!
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