What I've been up to...

What have I been up to?

No good, likely.

However I'd seriously like to make a post in regards to recent projects and commitments in my life, and regrettably keeping up with my blog hasn't been one of them.

Over the break I've been spending a lot of time organizing my digital media library. By that I mean going OCD on my music and movie collection. My movies now all have correct names on them followed by a space, a dash, another space, and the year the movie was released in square brackets. However the major work has been done on my music collection. I'm far from done, but I've been collecting 500*500 or larger images of all the album artwork produced by any band I have, adding to a text document the albums I am missing from discography's, and adding lyrics when applicable to the ever so neat ID3 tags. That will mean very little, to a very large amount of you, but at least when you come over to steal media from me, you know it will be pretty.

I've also customized my desktop, took me some time, but I'm satisfied for the time being. As well, I've reorganized my office to accommodate 4 or 5 people at once for making video games and doing homework. I've got 4 PC's around me as we speak. One built out of a metal cage, that I'm in particular, rather proud of.

I've also found the time to start French pressing my coffee again, a small step in my life to enjoy a good cup of coffee. For those of you who haven't been informed, I've developed what we believe to be a neurological disorder caused by my heavy use of Asthma medications, and the result is a lack of control over my muscles, specifically my upper body. So I've been on disability leave from Starbucks since September. Starbucks has been kind enough to keep me employed (without pay mind you) in the case of my recovery. So I've been missing quality Coffee for a few months now. Optimistically I'm on a medication that is helping me with fine motor control and is seeming to slow the symptoms, so I might be back to work in some short time, depending on a lot of factors.

I also have a good friend Phil, who with any luck might be able to get me into writing news articles for EVE online, at 'http://www.tentonhammer.com'. His peers, if they're alright with hiring me, should just have to dot the t's and cross the i's and I should be able to get an income going again thats more pleasant then working for the local Dollarama. As well, I might be able to join the Easy Tech Force at Staples, working with friends. I have a good word in with my old Manager, we were always on pleasant terms, him and I, so with fingers crossed I might be able to have a job, and a paying hobby.

So with all the doctors, job applications, technology related organization and setup, I've been quite busy. I'd love to hear what you guys have done with yourselves over the break, so please, either here or on facebook, keep me updated. Thanks again for reading guys, cheers.

Montreal International Game Summit 2009 - (Part 1)

Alright, back from Montreal, got my wisdom teeth out, and it's just about time to start the series of blog posts about the Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS).  First a little bit of background as to how the summit was set up, and how they keynotes worked. There are five main divisions on types of keynotes to be had, this helps you plan out your day, and see all the best keynotes that will help you get your monies worth out of the MIGS.

There are two days to the MIGS, November 16th and 17th; On each day there is a big keynote to start the day, two hours with many keynotes to choose from; An hour long lunch then another massive keynote;  two more hours of keynotes, and yet another massive keynote to end the day. Each smaller keynote as a series of options, broken into sections. The five main sections are as follows: Art, Tech, Production, Business, and Design.

Last year I tried to focus more on the tech and art side of things, however I found the tech too 'dry'; So this year I decided to focus on Art, Design, and Production.

I missed the first keynote of the day, due to when the train came in that morning, however I made it well in time for the second. The first keynote I attended was being held by Ubisofts own Patrick Plourde; The Lead Game Designer for the recent Assassins Creed 2. Patrick spoke of some of the challenges he had durring the development of AC2, and focused on the importance of organization and documentation when working with such a large team. Documentation means a lot of different things to a lot of differently minded people, and if you have what people are expecting in place for them when they need it, it will give them the productivity boost they need, to get crap done. I think Patrick did a great job conveying the process he used in designing Assassins Creed 2, and from the reviews I've been reading, it looked like the whole team banged out a great sequel. It's in stores now, and if you're looking for a great 'triple a' title, I'd suggest looking into it.

The second keynote I attended was being held by Andy Beaulieu, a Software Developer and Trainer for Microsoft. He was giving an art keynote on Silverlight. If you're unfamiliar with what Silverlight is, and I know many people are, it is basically the Microsoft equivalent of Flash. I went to this keynote expecting a very art driven presentation about what new things Microsoft could do that Flash could not, and what I thought this presentation ended up being is a programmers view on a tool used by artists. When Andy was done his main presentation he had some time to show off some of the things you could do in Silverlight using a program called "Microsoft Expression Blend" the keynote actually got pretty interesting, and I started to see some of the unique power and features that Silverlight has, and I'm looking forward to being able to play around with the free SDK you can get online. I hope if he is there next year, he will pick up on audience feedback, and maybe prepare some less dry, art oriented content.

After the second keynote, we all went and got some nice little pre boxed lunches, sat around and hung out. I ended up getting a Dino 'Splode T-Shirt *thumbs up*, and then there was another really big keynote. This keynote was originally going to be given by Heather Chaplin, however due to a health complication of some sort, she was unable to attend. Her keynote was supposed to be about 'guy culture', and designers not taking their own work seriously enough. I was looking forward to that keynote in particular, because Jason Della Rocca, the content coordinator for the game summit, was saying that Heathers views were 'edgy' to say the least and was able to royally piss off David Jaffee, the designer behind God of War, and other big titles, by pointing out the flaws in the juvenile thinking going into designing modern titles in our industry.

Although Heather was unable to attend, we were all treated to what turned out to be quite a pleasant surprise, Jason ended up giving a last minute keynote based on the thought process behind design, and how to push out more ideas, and how that really ends up equating to better ideas.

Jason does a great job here, pointing out a rare idea of risk versus reward, and how to take it on practically in our industry today.  You will also notice around the 8, and 10 minute marks, where my video will suddenly flip, just ignore that, it's there for dramatic effect, I swear.

To this point I'm only through the first half of the first day of the MIGS, so expect more content soon, I'm trying not to be so blatantly structured here, but I could easily make a blog post based on every single keynote, the lunches we had, the cute photographer you see pass in my video (3:16) or, the other cute girl I met there but didn't have the guts to talk to. I'll try to keep content regular, and interesting, but I really have a lot of schoolwork, and doctors appointments to juggle right now. Keep checking back, and thanks for reading, cheers.

Black Mesa

Black Mesa (Formally Black Mesa Source) is a recreation of Half-Life on the Source engine. Some of you familiar with the adventures of Gordon Freeman, and Valves history might be saying it sounds a little bit familiar. It's true, in part, that there already was a recreation of Half-Life on the Source engine released by Valve, however that release is quite a bit different in several ways to Black Mesa.

The Original Half-Life was released by Valve in 1998, as their first title, and to say the least, they did pretty well for themselves ( 9.3million copies sold, as of 2008). Half-Life was built around the Quake engine, and once they had that license, and the foundation created by Half-Life, Valve released a few more games, some more successful than others; these games include: Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Deathmatch, as well as the expansion Half-Life: Opposing Force. All of those said games, were released within the one year period after Half-Life.

After Valve was able to bank a pretty penny or two off of their use of the Quake Engine they started development on the Source Engine, a game engine that would later be recognized for advances in graphics, physics, artificial intelligence, and other great advances in the way games function.  This Engine, is what lead the way for the success of later Valve games, including those being made currently, such as Half-Life 2 : Episode 3, and the rumored Portal 2.

The first use of the Source Engine was in 2004, for Half-Life 2, shortly after in the same year, Valve released Half-Life Source. This release is simply a digitally re-mastered version of the original 1998 release of Half-Life; It includes beefier physics, some more effects, and a couple tweaks here and there. Black Mesa, however offers a few things that Half-Life Source was not able to. If you're familiar with the original Half-Life, you should be able to appreciate the official trailer.

1:10 to 1:20 makes the whole video worthwhile. I am a gamer who can appreciate pretty graphics, and I like when things look nice, however Black Mesa truly is more than a new coat of paint on an old Game. Black Mesa offers not only updated AI, the original music, reconstructed multiplayer maps, and a focus on interactivity, and functionality; It also offers integrated co-op game play. The co-op available for half-life 2 and other source games, using synergy was limited, and buggy, so with any luck this game will have it integrate smoothly.

Oh yes, one thing I only vaguely hinted to, this is not a Valve development, it's actually an open source modification. This means  it is literally against the law for these developers to charge a dime for what they produce in Black Mesa. The only kicker is you need to own a source game, which isn't that bad, considering there are so many great games to choose from, that if you're interested in Black Mesa, there's a good chance you already own a game running that Engine.

The Black Mesa team expects to be completed shortly, in late 2009. Be sure to check out their site regularly, I'm sure this mod/game will be worth the 5 years they've spent in development. Thanks for reading, cheers.

Infinite Ammo

"The independent games scene is an exciting, friendly, fertile ground for innovation and creativity." - http://infiniteammo.ca/about-2/

The video games industry started with individuals, Programmers to be exact; Programmers who were typically just fooling around. Tying to make something enjoyable out of their lives of code. One Programmer would make the story, program the game, and make any crude attempt at art that the hardware could support at the time. The industry is now heavily dominated by companies grossing hundreds of millions of dollars in a given year. Game developers of today are working in what has become easily the most popular entertainment outlet in the world.

One might think that in an industry where tens of billions of dollars are made every year, constantly increasing, that you can't make a buck for yourself unless you 'give in' to the corporate atmosphere, and work for a company like Ubisoft, or EA. Kidding really, I've yet to go to a game developers website of any measurable income and not see that they treat their employees exceptionally well, in a fun, creative environment. However, the point remains, too many people are stuck with the 'go big or go home' attitude. That's where companies like Infinite Ammo prove that indie developers can create marketable content, with imagination, and quality.

I met the folks from Infinite Ammo at last year's MIGS '08. There they were showcasing their game Paper Moon. The reason this game really amused me, is that it made use of stereoscopic video. The same technology they've been using for years, in crappy movies for kids. What is also interesting, is that a company so small (A 6 person collaboration for that matter) was able to release this game for free. You can get the Windows and Mac versions here. You can also check out all of their games, including the trailer for their prototype game Marian on their games page.

The trailer I was speaking of, is for their game Marian, "An epic adventure of love & identity". One of this downfalls of indie development is exactly what you might think, budget. A game takes not only time, patients, and talent, but also requires that the people working on it have a place to stay, and something to eat once in a while. Not everyone has the luxuries most big companies do, being able to budget Chinese food and pizza into development costs. So if you feel like supporting indie development (Instead of me... Jerks) you can donate towards the development of Marian here. Any donation $10 or greater gets your name in the credits.

Something to keep in mind as well, is that game developers wont make any money from their published games until months after release. This is made worse by the fact packaging, shipping, and storing companies will require their payment within roughly half that time, often less. Even the producer of a popular game can go bankrupt regardless how well they manage their resources, if they cant afford to distribute the game. So for anybody thinking of getting into the indie development scene, be aware of the risks, but don't let that stifle your creativity or ambition, there will always be bumps in the road, regardless what path you take.

Anyways, there's your content noobs, now I'll go back to my studies ; ) Thanks for reading, Cheers.

Advretisment free

Well, as my last post detailed, I was trying to put up some advertisements on my blog to make a but of pocket cash. There is however, as slight issue with that, seeing that Google has disabled adsense account. No doubt this is because of the high volume of ad clicks per visit, but they didn't detail too much information, just referred to my account as a risk.

Anyways, I've still got work to do, but though I'd update considering I just encouraged people to take part in any ads that may appeal to them, and then I remove my ad space. Oh well, sucks, but I will continue to blog regardless. Check back for my next REAL blog post, and wish me luck on my major assignments :)