mozidesign.com Unorganized Thoughts of a Game Designer

New Ride!

For the past couple of month my ’01 Jetta was giving me some problems, nothing serious but costly. With 60,000 miles logged and warranty expired I decided that it was time to get a new car.

So after a few test drives I finally decided upon the Scion TC. I got in a nice metallic grey shade, looks sweet and the drive is awesome. Aside from it being new, this is my first manual transmission car.

I have driven a stick shift before, but that was a long time ago, and over the years of driving an automatic (bad move) I became lazy and forgotten how to drive stick. Kind of sad, but since my Dad has more experience with stick than I did, I let him drive back from the dealer. Once home he gave a refresher course and over the weekend I got the hang of it again, for the most part.

Been driving it around on the highway and local roads and so far so good, my shifting coordination is not solid yet, sometimes I’ll ride the clutch for bit or shift too quickly causing a very jerky ride. Hopefully over the next few days I’ll have everything down and will be crusing with ease and forget I ever drove an automatic car!

Current Antics

Been busy with work and other stuff, mainly playing a lot of games. Currently I am jumping between, Supreme Commander, Gears of War, and Guitar Hero 2. Actually most my time is spent on GH2 for 360, I have played it before on PS 2 at friend’s houses or at a party, but never actually had my own copy since I don’t own a PS2.

There is nothing new about the 360 version, aside from a handful of new songs and crispy HD graphics, but fun and addicting game nonetheless. Though I suck at the game and get laughed at for playing on easy, I think I am getting hang of the controls and can play most of the songs on medium difficulty. At the moment there are only four songs on medium which I find to be impossible. Also seeing an Iron Maiden track on this game was a good sight, this game does not have enough, “metal”. Though I am sure the reason is to tailor the game to all scopes of rock, but this game needs a special, “Heavy Metal/Black Metal” expansion pack.

Aside from gaming, been busy with drumming, got an audtion this weekend. Hopefully that goes well, me and my band will be doing some orginal tracks as well as a cover. If I can, I’ll get a video up here of the audition.

Well I should get back to work, well not work but I think a LAN party is about to start…I guess that can be considered as work…

More Snow…

So last night there was a forecast that in the morning there would be some heavy snow storms. Well there was no snow this morning but it was really cold. Around noon time the snow hit and started to pile up really fast. Right now it is still snowing and probably around four inches or so out there with more on the way! I’ll probably get snowed in this weekend like I did last month.

Word of advice avoid driving in a blizzard at all costs unless necessary. My necessity to drive was to get home from work. With rush hour and blizzard it was not easy. At times my car was skidding a little bit on turns, but on this down hill road near my apartment I literally stalled and lost control of the car. I was not going fast but even with the slow speed and brake control my car lost its traction and started sliding left and right in the middle of traffic. Luckily I was able to regain control after a few minutes of sliding and other motorists were kind enough to keep their distance during this time as well

I was planning to go down to Philly to chill and practice with my bandmates but looks like that plan is postponed till next week…

GDC 07 and More! Part 2

So I left off talking about the first days sessions and events, as I mentioned I got back to the hotel pretty late. Anyways I wanted to get up early for the Thrusday sessions, the first being Cliffy B’s Gears of War presentation which I was really looking forward to.

Me being the fanboy went a bit early to the presentation hall to get a good seat since I knew the place would be packed within no time. When I got to the presentation room there were only a few other people there, including Cliff himself! Seeing one of my inspirations for getting into the games industry in person was truely memorable moment. I talked to Cliff for a bit and snagged a picture with him. ( Which reminds me, I need get my pictures and the pictures from the other VV peeps and get them online)

After the Cliffy B presentation I got a call from one of the VV peeps asking if I was going to attended the Miyamoto key note session. I did not know that it was starting soon so I opted to go, though as soon as I walked outside of Moscone North to go Moscone South I noticed a very long line of people waiting to get into the key note session. At first glance the line did not seem that bad, but as walked around looking for the end of the line I realized that the line almost wrapped around the building twice! With the choice of standing in line for a few hours or going to more sessions, I chose the latter. Though it would have been cool to see Miyamoto in person as well, I heard I did not miss much at the key note, and anything I did miss or wanted to know could be found online, so no regerts there. The one session I did miss and was highly interested in as well was Chris Taylor’s talk on the design of Supreme Commander, since it was at the same time as the Gears of War session, perhaps I can find the audio recordings to find out what I missed.

Thus far of the sessions I have mentioned most were really good and informative, but I accidentally attended a really crappy session. I say accidentally, becuase I at the time I planned to go to session from Harmonix which was about their designs on the Guitar Hero franchise, but Mike, a fellow VV designer suggested I go to this particular session entiled, ‘Accessibility Idol’ with him due to the fact that Ernest Adams was one of the speakers. I was not familar with who Ernest Adams was but I took the suggestion and head to the session. Now here is where things go wrong, I’ll try to be brief here.

Basically the session started late to begin with, the speakers were taking way too long to get their act together. Overall there were more panelists than audience members which was not a good sign. Anyways, once things got on track the session started with this odd almost psychedelic video, which tried to be funny but failed miserbly at trying to show the concept of poorly designed games that are intended to be accessible to those that are handicapped. After the video the panelists started talking about their own personal game ideas for the premise of accesibilty.

Before I go on, I need to backtrack for second. Bascially this session started with no formal introductions or info about what the talk was actually about or who the speakers were, the audience was left in the dark so to say as the panelists went on without a care in the world.

Anyways cutting to the chase we went to this talk for Ernest Adams, and his part of this odd talk was kind of cool where he presented a plausible game concept in the realm of accesibilty that involved a very simple flight sim of airships and zepplins. After he presented I kind of got the jist of what these people were trying to do. Bascially they were doing an ‘American Idol’ clone with many speakers and judges to approve or disapprove of game ideas. Kind of a lame premise for a GDC talk but apperently it was accepted and in all its lameness was presented. After Ernest Adams, we walked out on the session as did many others.

So at the end of the day me and some other VV peeps head out to dinner before going to any parties. We went to this really great sushi place that was across the street from Biscut and Blues. The night before, I was trying to convince some peeps to go down there with me but I ended up by myself at Jack in the Box. Anyways that was the night before…this evening we enjoyed lots and lots of sushi due to the almost endless supply of ‘sushi boats’ passing by and large ammounts of specials we ordered.

After dinner we headed to Suite Night, which was an open GDC party at the W hotel. Boy was this place overcrowded! I did not stay their long, maybe for a half hour or less, at which point I headed out with Mike. I believe Mike went back to the hotel, so I called up my friend in the area and went sight seeing with him for a few hours before heading back to the hotel myself.

On Friday, were last few sessions of GDC and also the day I was going to head back to Albany on a late night flight. Nothing interesting happened on the last day excecpt for some vendors handing out free Monster energy drinks in the morning at the front door of the convention center. No better way to start the day than with high levels of caffeine and sugar!

So that about sums up my trip last week in San Francisco, hopefully next year I will be able to attend GDC once agan.

Thanks for reading.

GDC 07 and More! Part 1

Last week was a blast in San Francisco during GDC! I came back to Albany yesterday (Saturday March 10th) around 10 am. Checked my mail and whatnot, then went to sleep for a bit. That bit turned into the whole day! All of Satruday was spent sleeping, but it was well needed sleep. During GDC I got up early for the sessions and went to sleep really late due to parties and other events. So without further ramblings I shall provide you with an overview of what happened at GDC. But before I begin I want to mention that I will not be going into any detail about the sessions in this rant but will go on for a bit about the actual event. If that is what you are looking for then here is a powerpoint presentation with a quick recap of all the sessions I attended. ( Download GDC 07 Notes)

So as I mentioned in my last post I was up most of the night packing and realized I had a few hours before my flight. Instead of playing online I went to sleep. No I did not screw my self if that is what your thinking. Though it could have happened I had three alarm clocks to make sure I got up within a few hours to make the drive to co-worker’s house to drop my car off and hitch a ride with him to airport. Anyways that morning around 4am was bloody cold, like minus 15 or something with the wind. Almost got a case of frostbite! Me being the idiot, I left my gloves in the car overnight, so when I put them on to avoid the cold, I practically froze my hands off with those ice cold gloves! So I ditched the gloves and made the drive freezing my ass off.

After a couple of hours of flying and time zone changes I landed in San Fran and headed to the hotel. I stayed at this place called the Renaissance Parc 55, kind of odd name for a hotel which I thought might some cheap place but in fact was kind of neat and swanky. Though I rarely stayed in the hotel, it was quite close to the Moscone cetner where the GDC was held so there was no need to take a cab or shuttle. Once I got settled in I headed to the Moscone center to check out the place and find out where the different sessions were located as well as get my badge and any free swag.

From there I found out a good friend of mine from high school was in the area so I chilled with him for a few hours and then headed to dinner. Me and some of the other attendes from VV went to this high class resturant I think called ‘Bacar’ or something like that. Damn the food was expensinve, 35 bucks for fish entree! Luckily that dinner was covered for so I enjoyed my expensive raw tuna dish (not really sushi was kind of cooked) without regret. After dinner we headed to the IGDA party, it was packed but kind of lame. Though all of us from VV hijacked this area on the second floor and made into the VV VIP room. Ok that was a bad joke, but nonetheless we had some fun once we were all together at the IGDA party. Got some free Google swag from there too.

The following day, Wednesday the 7th I went my first sessions which were all really interesting and informative. See presentation notes (link at top of rant) for session details. One of the sessions I attended was by Warren Spector, of Deus Ex fame. His session about storytelling was really cool, after it I met up with him and asked some questions about Deus Ex and Deus Ex 2. After the day’s sessions I and other VV peeps headed to Shaba games studio which was a few blocks from Moscone center. Shaba is another Activision studio like VV and other Activision employees were invited.

That party was pretty cool got to meet other designers from different Activision studios. Since that party was short we had another invite to the ECT or ICT party (can’t remember the name) at this place called Biscut and Blues. There was some great live jazz music here but there was no food like at the Shaba party. I got really hungry and offered others to go out to eat but in the end I got singled out since the others were drinking ( I don’t drink at all) and headed to a Jack in the Box just around the corner. While I quickly ate two fried fish sandwhichs I got a call from one of the VV peeps that they went across the street to another bar. What fun…. I followed them there just to hang out.

Anyways while we were there I got pissed off in sense and so did another designer in our crew. What pissed us off was the music. Ok it is feasible for bars to have techno or rave music which I hate, being metal head, but this place had some guys that that were playing the worst music ever. These clowns tried to make dance remixes on the fly of good rock songs, such as Song 2 from Blur also somewhere in the mix of lame dance remixes they were playing the song from the Gears of War trailer. Oh did that make my ears bleed. So with two of us getting pissed and ansy to get out we conviced the others to leave and get some food. Though I already ate I decided to eat again. This time I enjoyed some pancakes and coffee at a dinner near by. Finally after walking around some I came back to the hotel around 2am or so.

I would like to go on but I am tired right now and I am sure your tired of reading this rant! So I shall continue my story tomorrow…. peace.

Off to GDC

In a few hours I’ll be heading to the airport on my way to San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference (GDC). I have never been to GDC before nor have I been to San Francisco so it should be an interesting experience. I am not sure what my plans are for today (since I get there around noon San Fran time and it is currently 1:45 am here in Albany), but there is a party from the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) in the evening sometime so that should be fun.

Aside from that my plan for the rest of the week is to attend various sessions relative towards game design. Though I can’t remember what sessions I am attending off the top of my head I know that I will be going one presented by some people from Monolith studios where the subject is about starting game ideas and getting them approved to become produced games, there is another session I forget who the speaker is but the subject of the session is how to write great design docs for a game. Also I think on Thursday I’ll be attending Cliffy B’s presentation on Gears of War, that should be really interesting. When I get back I’ll have some notes that I will post online about the sessions I attended and what I learned from them.

I better try and get some sleep within the next few hours before I have to head out. Though I could just stay up and play online or something and not screw myself by oversleeping and missing the plane.

Snow Day!

Right now there is a blizzard outside and a foot or two of snow! Luckily a snow day was called at work so I did not have to go outside and suffer the extreme frostbite inducing temperatures.

Though I did go outside for bit to take a few pictures of snow storm, then came running back into my apartment for warmth.

So since I am stuck inside all day I’ll probably continue playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance on my 360 and maybe clean my place up a bit since I have had no time at all over the past few weeks to do it.

And speaking Xbox 360, I was talking to a fellow co-worker this morning and he mentioned that he finally caved in from the peer preassure me and other designers gave him to buy a 360 rather than a PS3. Huzzah!

Microwave

You know how there are warnings and cautions against putting metalic objects inside a microwave. Well today I accidentally left a spoon inside my dinner and microwaved it for about a good three or four minutes. I did not know the spoon was in the plate until after I pulled it out of the microwave to eat.

Now you probably have an image in your head of sparks flying and whatnot, but luckily nothing happened. The microwave still works and the food was tasty. Though it is tempting to see lightning bolts come out of my microwave I am reluctant to try it again…

It’s Bloody Cold

Here in upstate New York it’s quite cold but working indoors you don’t really feel it. However, when the fire alarm goes off it is a diffrent story…

A few minutes ago the ventalation/heating system shut off which can mean only one thing… the fire alarm is about to go off. And on que it starts, loud ringing bells and flashing strobe lights. So as mandated we all have to head outside no matter what the conditions are, which in today’s case the temperatures are below freezing with high winds. For about 20 minutes we stand outside and then return back to the office. Though it was never stated why the alarm went off, my guess is a false alarm. What sucks even more is that this happend two days ago as well…