Holy crap! A post! I know, I'm shocked too. Try not to faint.
Quick update on how things are going, and then I'm off for Thanksgiving. I won't lie to you, this is as much an update for me as it is for you. I figure if I write it all down in one place, that'll help me figure out where I'm at with all my projects :-)
-RagnaRokk: Oh my, this one has been a time sink. We're making progress, it's just been very up-and-down. All of the music is written, which is amazing. We have a heavy metal arrangement of Ride of the Valkyries that is probably the best thing I have heard ever. Side note: I now listen to heavy metal on a regular basis, for fun. I find this as surprising as you do. Anyway, the art is coming along and looks AWESOME. There was a major delay on the programming side of things, but this past Thursday three more engineers joined the team, so that was a major relief. I've learned that baked goods, particularly homemade pie, are an excellent currency when dealing with engineers. They will work for HOURS if I just bring them the occasional slice of pie or cookie. After Thanksgiving I am going to just stock up on flour, butter, and sugar, as I foresee many many loooooong nights in our future.
-¡Cante, florezca!: Polyphony (the flowers+music game) has a new name to go with its new look. We've taken the art style and changed it so that it looks a lot like cubism. It's kind of trippy, but I really like it. Gameplay is all in place, all the static art (the stuff that doesn't move) is in, and the composer is working away at our music. All that's left is an interactive tutorial to teach people how to play and some animated scenes that tell the game's story in between levels. Piece of cake, right? :-P
-Spatial Palimpsest: This project is, I believe, new to the blog. We're using a combination of Google Earth, Flash, and Flickr to create a method for people to document how their areas change over time. Basically, what you'd see as a user is a map in Google Earth with landmarks on it, and each landmark would be tagged with time data. So if you're looking at, say, Hollywood Boulevard, and you click on Grauman's Chinese Theatre, you could see photos and information about the theatre today, and then slide a time slider to see that same location as it looked in 1920, 1960, etc. What we're hoping to do is develop a process for how to do this kind of historical documentation, and then create a tutorial that would teach others how to do it. Dunno if it will go anywhere after it's done, but it's been interesting to do the programming for it.
-Altepehua: This is my alternate history for North America, that explores what would happen if Europeans didn't reach North America until like, 1800. I've laid out how I think the timeline will progress more or less, and am working on details of how the rest of the world works (like, why DIDN'T Europe arrive on schedule?). I've settled on my presentation format as well: the major portion will be a chapter from a high school history textbook, written as if the events in my world are actual history. There will also be corollary materials, like a sample exam and some in-class exercises, that will allow for inclusion of more world details. I will be spending the next two weeks or so writing text and creating info-graphics. Should be...fun?
-Health game: My boss and I have been working on a concept for a game that addresses social issues related to genetic blood disorders. I know, weird. Think of it like a documentary film, except instead of making a movie, we're making a video game. So far it's mostly just been a lot of research into other games that have tried similar things, but I think it'll end up being kind of cool. I just found out that the latest version of Flash will let me make programs for my cell phone, so I'm going to have to try that out and see what I can get it to do.
Hm...I think that may be it. It doesn't seem like that much when it's all laid out like this, but MAN I've been busy. Anyway, hope everyone has a great holiday, and I will see a lot of you this week!
