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ComicCon

Hello All!

I'm heading to Comic Con in San Diego tomorrow. I've never been, and this will be my first vacation in a very very long time. Looking forward to it!

I'll be going with my best friend of high-school, Jon. Haven't seen him in years, so it will be great to hang out after so long! Lots has changed, except that we're both still nerds :P

Nothing too much else new to report. I've been really focusing in on learning the guitar, and it's going well. I have half a dozen songs in my brain pan, so now I need to play them properly. Bought a Beatles book, so that's exciting! Plus 09.09.09 is creeping up pretty closly!

Actually I have a few games pre-ordered, which is rare for me. The Beatles Rock Band, Halo ODST, and The Saboteur. All of them look like I'll play it it quite a bit.

Anyways, off to finish packing.

~chris

New Twitter

I changed my username on twitter to get more 'mature' about it - seems like a paradox, no? Anyways, my new twitter address is:

http://twitter.com/cignet

PS: Indiana Jones SOK (Wii) dropped yesterday. I'm in the credits ^-^.

~chris

A Year Later

Wow, it's been an entire year since I've last 'blogged'. That sounds ancient, much like the letters IRC. Lately I've been keeping a constant flow of tweets, and facebook has fallen to 2nd. So if you're interested in diligently following me at all, I’d suggest you checkout http://twitter.com/cignet.

In other news, I'm on Star Wars now, and have been for a while. Although I can say ziltch about what I’m working on, I really hope everyone likes what we are puting together for you. Oh, and please do pickup Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings ... it's really a great adventure game, and I'm very happy with how it has turned out. 

Recently I've kept  busy by revisiting many of my older passions, specifically in music and theater. There is a website called http://www.goldstar.com/ where I can find really cheap tickets to various events in the San Francisco Bay area. Also I've been getting involved by volunteering at BATS Improv; http://improv.org. My second time volunteering will be at tonight's "Gods and Heroes". I'm just selling food, helping clean up after the show, etc..., but it's better then playing WoW all night.

I've also been getting back into reading. There was a good year or so that always had a book in hand, but as it's hard for me to read on a bus - when I moved to my current place a year and a half ago - that slowly dwindled into hardly reading. ATM (at the moment), I'm reading the final Halo novel "Ghosts of Onyx", Spy - Ted Bell, and This is Yours Brain on Music - Daniel J. Levitin. So far all really good books, and I'm slowly widdling down my stack of 12 other books on my "Will Read" shelf. 

I've gotten into reading comics, sort of. I won't read DC or Marvel, but Darkhorse has some really good series - such as the Serenity stories, and also almost anything by Warren Ellis. If you like comics, find and buy a book called "Fell". And after all of my reading, I find that my favourite genere is Mystery / Spy. 

So, my Nikon D40 camera has been getting a lot of love -which reminds me that I have to clean it tonight.  In any case, here is my web album if you haven't already known about it:  http://picasaweb.google.com/chrjames. I've been trying to get in as many photography weekends as possible, although there is only so much of Ocean Beach I can take. 

Tomorrow is a race called Bay to Breakers: http://www.baytobreakers.com/. It's a legendary event here in San Francisco where there are both serious 12k runners, and people who dress up and costume and get completely smashed starting at 8am. Tom, his sister Abby, his wife, and I are going to walk from the end of the race - which is where I live - and walk all along Golden Gate park with our cameras. Look for updates to my web album this week. (edit: pictures)

In terms of games, there isn't anything I'm investing a lot of time into. Although I'm still playing WoW, I'm dipping into it casually - as in an hour here and there. Going to get back into Halo 3 soon, beacuse I bought the new map pack and have yet to play them.  Slowing getting through Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (DS), and there are a few PS2 games that are sitting on my shelf. Borrowed Lost Odessy (360), and I have a very unplayed Red Alert 3 on my computer desk. Not to mention all of my Steam (cignet) games: Left 4 Dead, Counter Stike CS, TF2, etc...

So this past week I attempted for the very first time to replace my violin strings. Although they now sounds really crisp, with a snapped D string it's unplayable. Grr. Also this week my friend Aaron sent me a really good Jazz chords reference, as well as Buddy gave me a link to basic Piano chords. Now all I need to do is sit my butt down and get to work on banging this stuff into my greymatter.

Climbing has, thankfully, become part of my weekly routine. For the past 6 or 7 months I've been going to http://planetgranite.com/ in the persidio. Although I have not climbed actual rocks yet, I meep on steady 5.10a and V1  climbs about 3 times a week. Plus running up and down Ocean Beach once or twice a week. Slowly I'm getting into the best shape of my life.

I've been upping my cooking skills in the past number of months. I wrote my very first recipe too - Fleur-de-lis Poulet - and am very proud that it requires a chardonnay marinate. I've also been taking cooking classes at work, including Mexican cuising and Spanish tapas. I've been having lots of fun trying out different spices, and have been slowly upgrading our kitchen with tools which normally I would have never used before - like a really nice zester.

Alright, I have to sign off here. Hope you are doing well fair reader, and I shall keep you no longer.

Cheers,

~chris

Update After 6 Months ... Again

It's been a very odd past 30 days. At the very least I am thankful to still be employed. For those of you who are not in the loop, two weeks ago LucasArts had layoffs of r ~75 people. A few good friends of mine left, although they are doing well from what I can tell.

So I finally broke down and bought a Nikon D40 (DSLR). I have not yet figured out what I want to specifically take pictures of: although my weakness is in portraiture, so I would like to start there.

I haven't had too much of a chance to use it, but I'm stoked. The d40 is my first SLR, if you can believe it. Usually I have borrowed other's, family or college, but now I have one. Bought a 55 - 200 VR lens with it, plus a UV(0) filter for each.

Aside from that, there hasn't been too much going on. The summer months are approaching, my bike has been repaired, and Golden Gate park is literally two blocks away. Just need a non-foggy day to go out: as that is one of the banes about living in the Outer Richmond district.

There are still a few hurdles to bypass, but it looks like I will be taking a trip to Spain this coming January. David - an SE on Indy - is from the Spanish Isles (apologies that I immediately do not know what their names are), and will be traveling there for Christmas. After spending a couples of family days in Thunder Bay, off I will fly to meet up with David in Barcelona. At one point we will fly to his home island, spend a few days there, then head back to the main land.

Slowly getting better at my guitar and violin playing. Not sure when I will be comfortable playing in front of others, but at least it is nice to see a progression. Surprisingly it's been great playing Rock Band as it strengthens my fingers, most of all my pinky for the 4th position on violin. Bought a Music Theory book a couple of months back, but reading Shadowrun and D&D4th Ed. have been sucking what little time I have to spend reading. And Sherlock Holmes, which is my chosen novel atm.

Last January, I was playing around with Halo 3's Forge feature and created a map called "Guardian Remix". Ever since I have been wanting to revisit the map to fix up some of the issues Marc and I found, and last week I did. Feel free to download the map (via the link) and shoot me whatever feedback you have. There is also a couple of gametypes which are on my File Share Items, but I won't pimp them yet as I still have to playtest them more rigorously.

So there we have it ... sorry, I know that wasn't worth 6 months of waiting. I'll try better next time.

~chris

Greetings Earthlings

Here is a summary of the past 6 months:

No longer working for EAM, bummed around Montreal for a couple of summer months, started to move back to Vancouver, received and turned down a offer from Activision's Treyarch studio (not LA thank you very much), received and accepted an offer from LucasArts (yay!!!), took a week in Vancouver, took a week in San Fran before work started, bought my 3rd PS2, movers picked up my stuff in Montreal on September 1st, moved to my new place on the 4th of September, and am still waiting on my belongings in San Fran (no xbox360 for Halo 3 BOO). I have new glasses and a long-board, both of which rule.

What do I think of San Fran? It rules. Thank you everyone who eased the pressures of moving to a new unfamiliar place. It is the people that make a city into a home, and they have done just that. The folks I work with at Lucas are simply fantastic, and I couldn't be happier with my decision to relocate to San Francisco.

So now what? Well it has been on my mind that I have been ignoring a few of my own endeavors. First off I took this blog idea, ran with it far enough to even have it's own URL, and alas this has been the first real post in, well, six months. There are a few topics which revolve around game design which I would like to have some input on - specifically longevity - and have been ignoring that self assigned responsibility.

Then there is Once Called Earth. What to do with my poor bastard child. I have left it all alone for so long, that I no longer know what to do with it. An idea now five years in my brain, yet I still do not like the "game" part of it. The story, though, sporadically pings me. I would have forgotten the idea if I believed it to be a worthless pursuit, but every now and then it haunts my consciousness with "please, do something with me". I'm afraid I will soon, but what to say after so long ... it will be a very awkward hello. After pitching the concept to a friend today, it is crystal clear that I need to tell this story. But I know the work involved in such a large project. It makes my watch have a heart attack.

A long time ago, my friend Scorpion and I had this idea for a really cool multiplayer web-game. It had zombies, vampires, werewolves, dead pirates, the whole she-bangs. The idea came after I was finished with Full Auto, and I think Rick still has the general outline. BWT: Buy Hegemony when it comes out. Hopefully we can get churning on the idea soon. It's that "lol we're geeks" indie game I really want to make. Definitely not a main-stream production project, but it has charming merits.

When I was teaching at AI Vancouver, I had a book about game design which I was slowly working on. It encompassed many faucets of game design, and even started recruiting guest authors. I went over many areas - definition, story, interface, balancing, math, etc... - but that was before I really knew what I was even talking about. Now half - or more - of that work needs to be ditched as the practical side of life shed light on a few of the fuzzier areas. I would like to rework the salvageable content and keep forwarding my mission of giving other talented passionates a guide in taking their first step into the rabbit hole.

Once Unreal Tournament 3 comes out, there is a MOD which I really want to author. Team Green. This mod simply - although not so simple to produce - put a third team into the multi-player game types. Originally I wanted to create this for the Halo universe, but the Halo PC editor / scripting tools are archaic, and the Unreal 3 level editor rocks (from a designer's pov). Either way, a three team CTF map would rule, and I really want to play one. RvB has been done over and over since Treewaves' CTF mod for Quake. I think it is time for something new.

Then, on the movie side, I started writing a script called "I'm Game". It's a feature-length about how a kid from the middle of no-where gets into the game industry .... yes, I am well aware that I was writing myself. But I also was trying to change the character a bit, and be creative with story plots, sub-plots, character design, and dialogue sequences. My inspiration was to write my own Mallrats, but without Kevin's dick and fart jokes, because he does them very well, and I do not. Plus my interest is drama with comedy highlights, then vise versa. Jersey Girl rocked. Fuck you, I have great taste.

A long while ago I designed my personal logo, and quickly realized it looked like an old 8 bit star-ship. This, I thought, was a really interesting discovery and really wanted to play with that theme. Like make a simple flash space-invaders knock-off or what have you. It's been a while since I worked in Flash, and I think that it would be fun to pick up again. Since college, I have really moved away from the platform, mostly because it is still very inconvenient to use on a website - website development is something I despise doing for a client, but get really involved in my own work. But having evangelized the tech during my 3 post-educational years (good times, right DeMo? ;) ), I still enjoy how quickly you can take a basic shape and animate it with very little ease. Also I was turned away from Flash's ill 3d capabilities (yea yea 3rd part stuff like swift, but that just another tech to learn on top of everything else), but 3D is no longer a blocked creative outlet for me and makes my 3d concerns somewhat moot. Would be a fun project none-the-less and I could probably slam out a prototype in a weekend or two.

I have a plan now, since my time off work is truly free time. First I want to tackle OCE (once called earth). This project too deeply embedded in my passions to dismiss it further. Next is to rummage around my archives and see what is best to pursue next. I'm hoping the web-game, but we'll see how that goes.

A link for you: PicasaWeb albums of my San Francisco adventures can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/chrjames

Word from our pretend sponsor:
Buy Jonathan Coulton's music: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/

Oh yeah, if there is a feature you would like to see on the blog (like current games playing, or what i'm listening to, or a topic for discussion), feel free to shoot me an e-mail or add a comment to the post and I'll do what I can.

Till next time,

~chris

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the incomplete outline of the Longevity post I will make sometime in the future. Near future? Well I promise before the year's end. It is no-where complete, but gives you an idea as to where I might be going with it.

Longevity

The importance of design and cultural influence.
Definition
Meaning to a Game

The Phases:
Three phases of Longevity: Introduction, Infestation, Importance.

Financial Outlook:
Financial repercussions: development time (pre, pro, post), marketing, distribution markets (demand and supply throughout lifetime).
Note: post production does not mean after the game has released. After production balancing before gold.

Timeline of product: Success versus shelf time.

Examples:
Long Life: GO, Chess, Settler of Catan, Starcraft, Bejewled, Halo
Short Life: Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Pong,

Theory:
Cultural Infusion of Games (digital vs. analogue)
Narratology versus Ludology (story vs. math)

Come Play Outside

I wrote quite a bit, only to be erased by googling something and having is erased by the turning of the browser page. Blah.

It is interesting on how many people do not peruse anything outside of work, especially in the games industry. Although the common problem is the lack of time, there are a majority of people who are just not that interested in perusing anything else game development related outside of 9 to 5.

I have been trying to find a creative outlet which does not involve games. Writing a story, learning something, or even attempt to get back into theatre - the pursuit of which is not easy. There are many folders on my hard drive of some unfinished projects I keep meaning to pick up again, but *insert some lame excuse*. One thing in particular I would like to do is make this blog one page, or at least a much smaller right bar. There is also a fair bit of writing I have been meaning to get too, and I guess nothing is stopping me now other then sleep.

Recently there is tons of media on Army of Two. 1Up being one of my preferred media outletsn here is a link to a preview video and screenshots: 1Up Preview of Army of Two

Thankfully I have the opportunity to borrow a PS2 from work and play for a bit Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence. Didn't play much since I forget to get a memory card, but the first level is extremely nice looking for a PS2 game. Need another network cable so I can play online also, which I am looking towards.

Finished reading "The Eight" two nights ago. There were many parts which felt like I was being violently dragged though really boring descriptions, and the amount of "eight" symbolisms seemed a bit overkill, plus the "placement" of characters seemed forced (not natural), AND the ending was anticlimactic, BUT there was a pretty cool character twist, ALTHOUGH the reason did not properly tie into the introducing chapter. Overall it was a "C" grade read, C for chess, since it was ALL surrounding this chess service. Very informative though, the author did her history and I admittedly learnt a good deal about the history of chess and France.

Nintendo is really trying to get their touch generation branding out there. Today I stopped by my local EB Games, to look for a copy of Electroplankton, and a bombardment of 5, yes, FIVE, dudes dressed in black logoed everything "Touch Generations" with 3 Nindento DS Lites EACH, were asking every possible customer to play a DS for a minute or two. Now this is a great guerilla marketing strategy, except when the 5 guys themselves almost take up the entire store themselves, leaving hardly any room to move. Two marketers would have been sufficient, but not 5. Either way, it was an impressive idea, although I think they would have been more effective in a more general store where all types of people go, not just gamer consumers.

Design Philosophies

I have no internet at home as I am switching services from Toronto to Montreal. Therefore the delay in posts, or at least a delay in the intended posts.

Most of the time I find it extremely hard to come up with a game development topic which requires further analogy of another person attempting to understand this relatively new entertainment medium.

Currently the main topic of many designers is "reevaluation of personal design philosophies". Jaffe, Molyneux, and even Wright. Essentially they all point to creating systems of meaningful interacting, but angled based on their perspective of what define an interesting theme. It is as if they all have the same answer to the formula, but have discovered completely different schemes on producing the product.

One of the challenges I have had these past number of months is to, almost, obliterate my understanding of classic game design. We are in an era where interactive developers are initiating new methodologies of play with unexplored systems of interaction.

In fact, our entire gamut of interactive game systems spans: Inclusive storytelling, adversarial games, and cooperative games - organized from easiest to hardest to design. What is different is how these games are played and the complex technology supporting the medium. And after twenty years, we are finally starting to break though what was previously impossible, or at least we are starting to understand how to create truly entertaining games in a digital format.

There are games which are played by many different people of different interest across the globe. What we are starting towards, I feel, is chess or GO. A game which will never cease to be played, imbue into societies. How many of my personal favorite games are played by a modern 16 year old teens? I bet none of them have ever heard of Fallout before Bethesda Softworks announced the third installment. Or what about Goldeneye N64? Although I am positive even children today have - at least once - played Magic the Gathering, Monopoly, or chess.

This goal of longevity in digial game products is close at hand as designers are focusing energies on interactive design and not playing the card of technological gimmickry.

Currently I am playing Tetris DS, Advanced Wars DS, Trace Memory (DS), Halo 2, and World of Warcraft. I will be getting into Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence soon as it looks to be great fun online. Something which also has my time occupied is "The Eight". A fairly clever book in the The Davinci Code style, only written years before Dan Brown's book was published and with far better writing.

MMO’s and Addictiveness

A friend of mine is doing a paper on: "MMORPGS have a large impact on their users and their ability to interact in society. The undertone that goes with them is that they negatively affect hardcore users ... “a growing number of researchers have examined the negative correlation between interpersonal relationships and Internet usage” (Lo 15). I want to explore these options and find a clear result either for or against these games." So I wrote a rant in responce since I didn't feel like being all academic.

Here's what I wrote:

Personally I am sick and tired hearing about how “Online games attract people with mental heath dysfunctions”. The problem is that there are no studies which look at helping those players with their real life issues. They study, come to some sort of bias conclusion, then go out to tell the world how they made some wild discovery using the modern world’s underbelly of ‘introverts’. Freakishly enough, some people play these games because they are fun.

Why do they find it fun? Because these games are designed to allow for many types of play, many of which could be as addicting as, say, listening to your favourite band every day. Some games focus on economic challenges, others on combat, puzzle solving, and even narrative challenges, just to name a few. Online worlds attempt to collide these experiences and provide them in people centric environments. So the question really boils down to “Why is real life so boring to ‘these’ people?”, which, in essence, is what scientists are attempting to answer. Why divulge into a ‘virtual world and not use our own?” How about first answering the question “Why do people play?”. An excellent book on play theory is The Ambiguity of Play (Brian Sutton-Smith).

It’s more about how a game can be a means of fulfilling a need (social, economical, violent) which can not be obtained in our ‘real world’ because of whatever restraints: Can’t get a promotion at work because the boss is an ass, then be your own boss by creating a guild. Have a low income job and can hardly afford rent, then sell x for y gold and get surplus of potions. Bored with life, then life a different one and explore a world with no constraining laws or pre-requisites for adventuring around. All in a safe, non harmful environment.

Really it’s not about how “games” are “bad for people because they make them irresponsible”. Tell governments to get their act together and stop suppressing their own people. Help enhance lives with programs and re-establish a middle class so people can own a house and not be in-dept just from wanting to obtain an education. Really there are many issues surrounding MMORPG’s that are excellent faucets for how the quality of life is for that person. If anything, games should be used as guide to see and understand the human condition and what we see life as, how those values are taught during our learning experiences, and develop methods to improve ourselves as living human beings.

But science, though evolution theory, shows us that it is within human nature to need to be entertained. Is 6 million people on a global scale (http://www.mmogchart.com/) choosing 'game's as their medium really that bad? Maybe I should give up this life of frivolity and dedicate it to only being productive, like the good ole' communist days. Then again, I always enjoy Saturday night football with the guys and a 2-4. Oh wait, sorry I can’t make it tonight, guild meeting at 6.