Goals for the New Year!

Wow. wowowowowowow.
A whole other year has passed. I feel like it went by so quickly, but I also grew so much as a person. At the same time, I'm glad I sort of get to have this milestone to say the whole ordeal is over and done with, and I can have a great  NEW year to look forward to!

Before I do that, though, I wanted to take a moment to review my past year's goals and see how many I accomplished--oh yes, I've never forgotten about them! I've been very persistent and always kept them in the back of my mind. I guess you could say I've gamified my year! So, let's take a look at what I did.

 Tess's 12 New Year's resolutions

1. Go to a convention! - I certainly did go to a convention; as a matter of fact, I went to three! I went to GDC, Comic Con, and Indiecade!
2. Win a contest - Alas, I did enter a couple of contests and participated in some game jams, but I'm afraid I didn't get any prize except for the pleasure of having experienced them. Maybe next year!
3. Play a video game with a complete stranger and have a blast - Oh, that goal was DEFINITELY accomplished. Given my social difficulties I thought this was a hard one, but I found out with the right video game just about any group of strangers can play together!
4. Learn to program in one language - This was a toughie--admittedly, I didn't get to do it in time, but I am starting to take good strides in ActionScript3. With luck I'll be a pro next year and I'll be able to make my own games!
5. Have at least one incredible adventure with your best friend - I don't seem to remember going on an AWESOME INCREDIBLE ADVENTURE like I'd imagined, but I've managed to keep in touch with my closest friends, and that obviously counts for something. Still, I'm leaving this one un-met until my bestie and I can reasonably compare the events of our day to a John Hughes movie!
6. Become an expert in what makes people laugh! - I've done some half-hearted research into what makes things so funny, and I've spent a lot of time listening to an analyzing some of my favorite comedians, but I've yet to really actively put this into practice. Sure I'm a fairly funny gal, but I'll not rest until I can give someone a HEART ATTACK!
7. Play 12 iconic games - Let's see, in retrospect it's hard to decide whether or not the games I played were "iconic", but I definitely played a good couple handfuls of classic titled at GDC, and I've played a bunch of popular but more recent games. I'm going to call this one accomplished, because I'd say in this one year my breadth of video game experiences has really shot WAY up!
8. Learn some new software - I did learn new software! I've taken some classes at my school that got me into 3DS Max and over the summer I had fun building some interactive fictions with Twine.
9. Meet someone famous - I met lots of my Video Game idols at Indiecade and GDC. I got to listen to their talks and some of them even signed my sketchbook!
10. Join a group that games together regularly - Alas, I joined a small gaming group towards the beginning of the year but the club dissolved later on. Looks like I'll have to give this one another go.
11. Get rid of your gross acne - This year was riddled with stress and fatty foods. In short, not a chance.
12. Post on this blog regularly! - I don't know about you, but I'd say I did all right! According to my records, I posted approximately twice a month for a total of nearly 27 entries. And next year, I intend to write even more!

So the final Tally is..... 6/12. My, my! Not too bad, but we can certainly do better, I think. So it's time to draw up a list of next year's goals

Tess's 12 Goals for 2014

1.  Learn a new language - any 'ol language. Programming or spoken!
2.  Participate in 3 Game Jams
3.  Finish a whole game!
4. Write a song - why not? I've always wanted to do it, and it'd be a good way to flex my dormant musical muscles!
5. Read 5 whole books! - If they're about game design, of course do a write-up!
6.  Have an awesome incredible adventure with your best friend - such a good one, I'm bringing it back for another year!
7. Seriously, get rid of your gross acne - so gross.
8. Win a contest or be featured at some video game/art event! -  it's important to get your work out there!
9. Get 100 new followers on your YouTube Channel!
10. Play 5 classic games and 5 new indie games!
11. Fill up a whole sketchbook - never forget your traditional media roots.
12. And finally, keep posting regularly on this blog!

Games I Played at Indiecade: Mainichi and Dominque Pamplemousse

Oh dear, I've written so much on these two games! To be honest, I spent days proofreading and checking and re-writing this single post, simply because of the weight of the subject matter. I always find it difficult talking about serious subjects like this with any sort of directness, but I've learned in my recent writing that by being honest and open to discussion, and I can take a much firmer stance than in some of my earlier, more lighthearted entries. With any luck though, I'll be able to breeze through future posts so I can finally get caught up for the new year!

I consider myself a fairly informed, liberal kind of gal. Marriage equality, pro-choice, education over prohibition, that sort of thing. I thought I knew what my stance was on most of the aspects I interacted with in modern life. But then I came across something I hadn't experienced very extensively before, and I feel a new chapter of my life was opened up.

I'm talking about queer representation in videogames.

Ugh. Writing is hard.

I've got a backlog of about 4 or 5 drafts of things I wanted to write about but never got around to and then kind of just forgot about. Now that I have some free time, I'd like to put those up. But nnnggg. Laziness....taking....over!

Keep tuned, I guess.

Gifs Are Actually Fun To Make

I was listening to ELO, and suddenly this appeared on my screen. I guess subconciously I'm very excited for the newest season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Maybe In the future I'll make more artsy gifs. I find it quite enjoyable to make this loopable moment of time that conveys just a little more than a single still image.

Pictures are Art Hugs

Life has been a jumble these days. It can't be explained in any other terms save one of the oldest game design principles there is: give the player too many choices and they won't be able to choose anything. So here I am, looking at what is to become of my life, full of way too many choices, most of which don't lead to anything particularly satisfying in the near future, and I'm stumped.
Things run through my mind all the time. Mostly terrifying, miserable things. They're trivial, frankly useless thoughts, but thinking them will keep me up an night, it'll keep me from being productive in the day, and it's exhausting.

I'm exhausted.

So, I just sat down and drew a picture.
I think there's nothing more satisfying than drawing a picture. Pictures are my first language; some of my best memories involve a picture somehow. When I draw a picture, I can say everything I need to say.

I pressed the pen really hard, and I blared Foreigner into my ears. Then I colored it in five times, then I looped them to make a terrifying animation gif thingy. Anyway, I want to put it here, so I can look at it when I feel tired. I'm sorry viewers, for the inevitable eyebleed that is to follow. I was nice enough to put it after the jump to spare you.

Games I Played at Indiecade: Killer Queen

Indiecade seems to have happened ages ago now, but alas, I can only ever write about my experiences when I'm not buried up to my nose in my other obligations and projects. In any case, just as I did with GDC earlier this year, I want to write about the games that impacted me the most or that I enjoyed the most at Indiecade. Normally I would group some games together into a single post with a category that connected the two, but this first game is just so big (both figuratively and literally) I think it deserves an entry all on it's own.

Killer Queen

Indiecade! It happened.

I just recently got back from Culver City, where I spent four days volunteering for the awesome, epicsauce, incrediballs event known as Indiecade! I have so many fantastic experiences I want to write about, but I fear there is so much to process I may never cover everything I want to say. Nevertheless, stay tuned for future posts where I talk about some of the things I saw, heard, and got to play. I managed to scribble down a few important thoughts I wanted to share, and over the next few weeks I'll be refining them and putting them up.

Jamming Myself Out!

This past week has been an absolute blast--I've had so much free time I've managed to add some art to the blog, put some new posts up, update my YouTube channel, get in contact with some awesome people and arrange my trip next week to LA. In short, all the things that I've been meaning to get to for months have been got to, INCLUDING my very first game project, PEW!

Since Friday I've done nothing but eat, sleep, shower occasionally, go to the gym (before showering, obviously) and work on PEW, a-la mini game jam style. I'm proud to say I actually have three whole environments completely fleshed out. You can see the awesome finished products here:

You can see the separate layers here, each one is larger than the last so that they can easily parallax.

I can't believe how well they turned out--in little more than three days I pretty much gave myself a crash course in pixel environments, grit my teeth and bore through it. It helped immensely to start out with an organized file system, looking at the Game Design Document and writing down the screen resolutions and what my process would be. Having a strict plan is super useful and helped me work much faster, even though I'm not too familiar with that work style--compare these results to my hilarious attempt at an environment earlier this year, which I drew mainly for the GDD.

The horror!

There's a marked improvement, I'd say, and what's more the entire environments feel much stronger and connected thematically. These three environments represent the scenery changes within the first tutorial level of the game--I believe that busting these out this weekend will help keep me motivated as the year goes on; I've got a great foundation and now I can just keep building from there.

What's next? tomorrow I'm going to make everything that wasn't the agents or the environment: User Interface, enemies, special effects, bullets, explosions, and so on. In the meantime I've been passing the artwork on to my programmer, who should be able to turn them all into a little demo later on this month.

Keep tuned, because I did record my process for making these things, and I'll definitely put that stuff up on my channel.

Reading Raph Koster's "A Theory of Fun (for game design)"

I'm actually rather pleased with myself for managing to post something recently. I've been so busy as of late, but I'm glad things are finally starting to wind down. I've had enough free time to actually read a whole book, which is a rare event in itself these days.

At my last game design club meeting, our adviser brought in Raph Koster's A Theory of Fun (for game design) for the group to take a look at. I was the second one to get her hands on the book, and I took it with me every morning to the gym to read on the treadmill. I still remember the adviser's remarks on the book; "This is the first book you should read as a game designer."

Theory of Fun is Raph Koster's take on the idea of fun and why it matters not only to game designers, but society as a whole--it proposes that games are a powerful tool for the use of educating and furthering the development of human behavior and thought, a tool perhaps not fully wielded correctly by game designers today. The book isn't too big, I think about 200 pages or so with each page having text and an accompanying illustration. I made sure to take note of my reactions as I read through the book for the specific purpose of writing my response on this blog--my very first thought being, "this ought to be the second book you should read as a game designer."

Reflecting on My First game jam

I know, I know, I haven't written anything in a very long time, whip me vigorously and douse me in saltwater, etc, etc.
In the meantime, my very first official gam jam has come and gone. I'm going to discount the Ouya jam, mainly because it was more of a promotion than anything else, (and I also later found that apparently it was totally okay to enter things you've been working on before). So, once the Iamagamer game jam arrived,  I thought I'd give myself a clean slate.
Working in association with the newly formulated group Team Jupisday (named after the eighth day of the week), we hunkered down in our offices (and by offices I mean the living room of one of our members) and tried to put together a game in a little less than three days. I have to say, I couldn't have felt more cool or official doing this, jamming alongside other talented game makers. I was especially excited about setting up a livestream which broadcasted us jamming to the world. We had as many as 12 viewers at one time, and we got shout outs from other developers who were doing the same. Hip, or what?

The Idea Process
Once we got started, it took us about twenty-four hours before we could even come up with a concept to work with--the idea came to us just as night fell, when we were walking alone through the shrubbery to guide one of our members who had just arrived to the driveway. It was kind of frightening, but oddly titillating: we decided on creating a roguelike game where the player had to navigate her way along a path. The rest of the night we performed research to look at locations and themes. One of the members made a really great suggestion about basing the game in the Japanese suicide forest Aokigahara, so we watched an interesting documentary about it to give us some more inspiration and ideas. We also watched playthroughs of "The Path", helpfully suggested to us by someone watching our livestream. The research allowed us to give more depth to our game, and we started forming the designs, assets, and systems to be metaphors for redemption--we called it "Vaincre", after the French word for vanquish.
Our story was, the player was a young girl who found herself in a similar forest to Aokigahara, on the precipice between life and death--she changes her mind at the last minute, and the game becomes her effort to escape the forest and overcome the obstacles and mistakes of her past (represented by wild animals).

Building the Game
The team worked hard for three days straight making models of rocks, trees, birds, and wolves; we unwrapped them, textured them, re-wrapped them, boned them, and animated them. We built assets for the menu; buttons, sliders, text, lots of things. All we had to do was get a programmer to put it together in Unity for us and we were set!
We never got to finish the game. Unfortunately, our little group was devoid of a programmer, and despite our best efforts and frequent internet postings, we were unable to get one. So, due to circumstances beyond our control, the team tripped at the finish line. Needless to say, it was a pretty disheartening blow.

Postmortem(ette)
I learned plenty of new things during this experience. Among them was a variety of useful skills, like how to paint textures, how boning and animating a 3d model works; how to plan out a game with a team in a matter of days, how to take inspiration from things around you to design. I also learned helpful suggestions in preparation for the future--before you start anything, make sure you're prepared; collaborate with the group ahead of time to get some ideas ready, save up some money for decent food, make sure the venue is clean, and for god's sake, don't do anything until you have a programmer.  Finally, I think that our game, Vaincre, deserves a second pass--I hope someday in the future with the right resources we could actually turn it into something playable.
In a word, the game jam was awful. In many words, it was nauseating, stressful, anxiety inducing, creatively draining, very unhealthy (I ate nothing but pizza and hot dogs and hardly ever got up off the couch), and made me want to murder all of my team mates individually and creatively in ways that would make even the most seasoned murder-mystery writers turn their heads. But I know that I'll inevitably want to dive headfirst into another one in the future, because it's one of the most fun and rewarding activities I can participate in as a future game designer. If anything, I'll do it again so I can actually finish what I started.

Livestreaming with friends for IAMAGAMER game jam!

http://www.twitch.tv/fruitygum

See us jam!

A Musical Experience -- Part 2

I've done a great deal of thinking about music in games. I would very much enjoy someday making a game that stars a player in their own musical, meaning:

1. The player influences the music that is played, not the other way around; 
2. the environment responds to the player much in the way it would in a musical, such as other characters joining into song and dance;
3. the player can use music as a way to advance the game's narrative, such as solving puzzles or combating enemies (this is by far the most game-y part of the idea, since most musicals don't really involve this, but there are obvious connections to the way a musical works).

I understand this is a huge undertaking, so before I ever try my hand at such a project, I'm going to spend a lot of time getting better at designing games. One way I can help this idea along, though, is by breaking it down into smaller components to solve the individual design problems. Interestingly enough, the three features I listed are so intricately connected to each other that one can only be attempted after the one before it has been solved.

collaborating with other design-thinkers on reddit, I began formulating a system that stayed as true as possible to my idea--allowing players (most likely with no musical experience) to inform the way music in the game sounds, and how those sounds in turn inform the player's future actions. I've made a terrible flow chart to describe it here:

You can see there's a feedback loop going on. In order to represent this in the purest form, I then designed an interface in order to experiment with ways to make this concept the most fun and game-like:

I depicted a simple image of two people singing to each other, one being the player, the other being the game; but this could be played with to see how two players might work together. The bars on the side measure success, meaning depending on how well the player can manipulate the music, the higher the bar rises, and when they are both full, the game is won. I put in two bars so the player focuses on getting them both up; seeing as how there are no antagonists or enemies here, this forces the player to try some different combinations in order to succeed. The bottom bar allows the player to see their input in response to the game. This part probably requires the most work, because the way it looks now resembles a rhythm game too much--but the bar can be easily changed and played around with. For now, there's a single background song playing, and the player creates the melody.

This is the design problem I'm going to be focusing on for the next year or so. With this setup, I can already picture lots of iterations to play with--I'm excited to try it out!

I obviously don't mind whether or not somebody starts using these ideas and working with them on their own, otherwise I wouldn't write about it. There are lots of creative ways to go about this, I think, and it is such a challenging problem that anyone who could pull these features off in a game successfully deserves some props.

A Musical Experience-- Part 1

I'd been meaning to write this post for a while, but over time the thoughts and ideas have been growing and changingso fast I can hardly keep up with them.
It all began with a chance encounter, the day I stumbled upon this little clip:

I didn't know what it was, or where it came from, but it moved me in such an unbelievable way. The subtle way the song builds from the beginning until it finally explodes in a single moment when the two voices unite. After watching the entire movie shortly after , I realized that this was by far the best part of the film.
A while ago, I received a great piece of advice from one of my instructors: find things that inspired me or got me excited, and try to make a game of them. Try to put them into an experience to share with a player. I thought to myself, "how spectacular would it be to do something like this is a game? to play as a character who brings a song into a crescendo with their own actions?"
From then on, I got hooked. Obsessed with figuring it out how to design a system around this idea---here's the thing; I did a whole lot of head scratching and late night Googling, but as far as I knew, I had yet to discover a game that tried this; that is, put the player in the role of the star of a musical. There'd been a slew of rhythm games in the past, but I wanted to get the player to create their own music.

I went to Reddit to ask for more advice, and the ensuing discussion spawned some fantastic new material for me to work with.

It was suggested that I take a look at a game called Proteus, which came very close to the sort of thing I was looking for. Proteus is a game where the player  navigates a randomly generated landscape, interacting with objects by standing near them. Each object creates its own sound, and so depending on where the player is standing, they can create different kinds of music that flow seamlessly into each other.
I also learned a new term, "aleatoric music" which is music that is left up to a certain player to complete; not entirely random, but still very much changeable and open for interpretation. I wanted to use this term to fuel the idea behind future designs.

Overall, I find it so interesting that music is a relatively unexplored territory in games, considering how influential it can be to a human being's experience. If a single song can bring a person to feel apprehension, sadness, joy, or elation, imagine all the damage it could do working within the right kind of game. I don't think its a question of nobody thinking of it before, but I do think it requires an awful lot of effort and knowledge on the subject to pull off well. However, I'm becoming more and more convinced that music holds a treasure trove of gaming gems to be discovered. On thing is for sure; if I want to go digging there, I first need to start thinking like a musician.
Time to go dust off the piano!

Sour Taste

I've just about had it with "Pop Culture" movies nowadays, honestly.

WARNING: this post exclusively talks about film, which is not the focus of my life's calling but indeed one of many  things I'm really passionate about. If you've interest in something about video games, I'd advise you to read another post--for those of you who feel the need to read this: beware, dear viewer, beware the spew of rantyness that is to follow!

It all started with a conversation I had not too long ago with some classmates. The topic was a frequent and popular one; the upcoming summer blockbusters. No matter how many times I tried to direct the discussion towards the newer intellectual properties, such as Epic or Now You See Me, it consistently returned to such well-worn franchises as Iron Man 3, Fast and Furious 6, The Hangover part 3, and Star Trek: Into Darkness. These classmates who were in the conversation with me were actually looking forward to seeing these movies more. It dawned upon me that this was what was considered interesting and worth watching. This was considered "cool". Is this the future that awaited me? People who were obsessed with seeing the same characters revived again and again?

Does this make me one of those hip-sters people talk about in hushed tones, never said aloud in polite conversation? I'm not upset that these things are mainstream, because I genuinely enjoy lots of the aforementioned franchises...and yet...I'm rather tired of seeing it again and again and again, as though it had never been thought of before. Some might argue that this exercise introduces new audiences to an intellectual property, but to that I simply say, so would just showing them the original. Things can be loved no matter how old you are, or how old it is, but for one to feel the need to drag a beloved franchise into the modern day so that they can continue to enjoy it is unsettling. Sick, even.

I'm dying for something fresh for folks to get passionate about. It can't be too hard to accomplish, can it? This trend perpetuates a future in which any creative mind out there will never be able to present her or his ideas without hiding behind the mask of a familiar face.

I'm probably--no, most certainly going to regret having ever posted this on the internet. I know, I know, how dare I feel upset about what people like! I'm not proud of the fact that this upsets me, but the more I think about it the more frightened I become. If people refuse to openly and passionately enjoy something new, I feel creators aren't going to bother investing in it, and and an unnerving cycle would be set in motion; a cycle motivated by pure fear of the fresh, the progressive, the original.

I'm making a promise to myself not to support any movie associated with an established franchise, not to give my money to any film which reboots or remakes, no sequel or prequel or rehash or rebrand or new look or new twist or update or downgrade or return or rebirth or anything like that. I've been consistently disappointed, and it won't stand any more.

Back in the Saddle!

If anyone follows this blog with half the interest in which I write it, they may have noticed that some entries which lack an illustration to accompany them are suddenly getting a nice update. This can only mean one thing of course, and that is that my computer is finally back amongst the living. After toiling and troubling over it for weeks and weeks, I at last saved up enough money to buy it a proper Operating System. Lo and behold, all of the problems it was having before are completely cleared up! It may be a week more before all of my suspended projects get back in motion, but I am far too happy to worry about them now.

Twiddling Fingers

Tonight I have been unable to get any sort of shuteye. I don't think it's because I'm not tired, but there's a form of unrest really stirring within me.

It's been almost a month without the use of my computer loaded with precious rendering-at-the-speed-of-light tools (swoon!), and there have been plenty of times during this recent period in which my emotions have gone between frustrated to depressed to just plain insane. At least once a day I feel myself looking at the clock and going "these are moments of my life that are gone forever".

Perhaps most frightening of all was, without my ability to easily create, I've had plenty of time to stop and assess other aspects of my life, and consider just exactly the kind of person who I am; what my goals are. Am I to just slow to a grinding halt without my tools? Shouldn't I be concerned that my day-to-day activities are absolutely unbearable without being able to create, and shouldn't I be making changes in light of this? I should be spending my time better than just staring at clocks, I think--no, now I choose to spend my time better.

Writing is an outlet which has helped tremendously. I've neglected to update this blog as often as I should, and for that, I must apologize to myself. I'm going to use this entry as a form of outlining my short-term goals, so that they can sort of be solidified, set in stone.

• I've felt the tugging to actually learn a new language, and I know that this language must be programming. I have the necessary tools to learn currently at my disposal, so instead of sitting around, every time I get bored I'm going to force myself to learn a little bit more!
• Staying fit has also been an important coping mechanism that has huge benefits for self improvement. I have taken it up ever since I've been tool-less and I've already felt more energetic and healthy.
• I've really got to get a job. Sometimes I feel like I'm not taken seriously as an adult, and I realize that this is because I have been too afraid to go out and claim the responsibilities of an adult. I'm going to actively seek employment and learn to be a go-getter!

Good. Maybe now I can finally get some sleep.

My Computer is Busted. Windows Vista? You Suck.

It's been down for so long now. Too long.
My Youtube channel Viva Juego? Postponed. My video game project PEW? Put off until the foreseeable future.

Now I spend my days listlessly browsing the web on my laptop, occasionally looking up towards the sky to shake my fist and cry VISTA, WHY WON'T YOU INSTALL!?

It is really hard to find reasons to continue my existence these days.

GDC in Retrospect

GDC was SUPER fun! It definitely was the experience of a lifetime, something I hope will influence my future decisions in a big way. I'd like to describe three things that happened to me during GDC, the moments that had the greatest impression me, and the lessons I learned from those moments. I think these are lessons that everyone can relate to and lean from as well.

1. Hard Work. Obviously I was doing a lot of hard work volunteering as a CA, but as I was ushering out conference attendees during the "One Reason to Be" panel, I couldn't help but overhear a conversation between two of the audience members and one of the speakers. I believe one was a representative of the IDGA, and she had a young woman there with her who she proudly announced was the winner of a scholarship contest to attend GDC. I remember specifically, she said "Only the best and brightest ever win, and here she is!" This made quite an impression on me as I finished off the day. I suddenly felt like I wasn't living up to my own potential. Up until now I had shunned the hard work, or ignored stress, or didn't bother to get my hands dirty. I realized that this was a big mistake; only the hard workers are the best and brightest, and I wasn't giving 100%. How could I ever expect to succeed without really applying myself? In the coming months, I'm going to really put effort into everything I do.

2. Humility. I never intended to come to GDC with a big headed attitude, but one of the biggest surprises to me was just how many incredibly talented and brilliant people there were out there. It was awing just to be in their presence, actually. However, as a newcomer to the scene who openly admitted she knew little about what was going on, I often felt at times through the conversations I participated in not welcome to this community even though I wanted desperately to learn as much as I could. For every amazing and awesome person I met who was excited to share their craft and their knowledge, I also encountered people who would not give me or my ideas any consideration or value. Of course, I'm certainly not claiming that I am owed any kind of special treatment or attention--I too believe that I have to earn credibility and be heard amongst these professionals. I simply want to remember how terrifying it was to experience an event like this and be treated as an outsider, so when I have reached a place of respect, I can reach out to other newcomers and put as much effort as I can into making their transition a fun and easy one.

3. Inspiration.
The best part of the entire event had to be the "Experimental Gameplay Workshop". I'd never seen such fresh, amazing, unbelievably cool games in my life. The presenters were people who had managed to create something so beyond anything I was currently capable of coming up with. I'd never been so inspired! Nowadays, whenever I feel discouraged or afraid to go on in my work, I will think of those people and those games, and I'll say "That's what this is all about--I'm in this to make something like THAT".

So it's back to nosing the grindstone, as it were. But after going to GDC and discovering a new sense of purpose and direction; after learning to put in my best effort, always be considerate of others, and believe in what I am doing, I couldn't be happier grinding away!

Playing History at GDC part 3 -- Streets of Rage, Double Dragon.

I'm not a huge fighting game buff, but when the machines are set to Free Play, why the hell not?

Working the MADE booth, I was right next to Streets of Rage, which was insanely fun to play. It's probably the game I got the most practice on; it got to the point where I could reach level three without getting a GAME OVER. It was the first time I had ever played a game where I was consciously aware of using combo moves. They helped me immensely and when I pulled off a chain of three (grab and kick, flip over, lariat finish!) I felt crazy badass. I also got to play with some other people who came to view the exhibit, and that made the game ten times better. One of the other CAs discovered with me that our players could do sweet combo moves together. I tell you, there isn't a feeling better in the world than doing a backflip off player 2's chest and smashing an opponent's face in with your heels.

Double Dragon required significantly more skill, even though the game was more simplistic in design. The hitboxes (or areas where opponents could be struck to take damage) were very small and precise. for example, if I was standing too close or too far away from an opponent character and did a punch or kick, they wouldn't take any damage; in the meantime I was getting battered to a pulp quite easily. I found my best approach was throwing a punch, then running around so they couldn't get to me, and throwing a punch again. I'm sure it looked pretty hilarious if anyone was watching--it certainly isn't a good strategy to employ should you get into any real fights.

Playing History at GDC Part 2 -- Grim Fandango and Shadow of the Colossus

Yesterday and today I have had a shift patrolling a booth by the MADE, a videogame museum based in Oakland. We had nothing to do and the booth people encouraged us to try out the exhibits, so we played the whole two hours we were there. Two of the games I got to experience were Shadow of the Colossus and Grim Fandango.

Shadow of the Colossus was so visually stunning, I could hardly believe it. I wasn't very good at the game, unfortunately (the demonstration skipped most of the control tutorials and went straight to the first Colossus) but I had so much fun just exploring the visuals of the game I didn't even notice my horribleness. I never felt more like I was playing a movie my entire life--I have to urge anyone playing to play special attention to the camera's behavior throughout the game, as it was incredibly important in conveying certain emotions. The movement of the game's objects also behave visually just as they would in a movie, even down to the motion blur, which I thought looked brilliant. Lastly, the animation was incredible. Wander, the main character, moved so humanlike in everything he did that it was very easy to believe he was a real person. I think I spent the most time watching him and his movements as I played, trying to figure out how he went so fluidly from one action to the next.

The other game I played was not nearly as visually amazing to me, but I imagine it must have been in its time--I think Grim Fandango, despite how simple it seems compared to something like Shadow of the Colossus (but really, it isn't fair to compare the two because they are so unlike each other!) has aged well. I had fun figuring out the puzzles and exploring the world, (which I loved--I mean, Dia De Los Muertos? Film Noir? Totally my thing!) but what I found was the strongest element of the game was its dialogue. I was giggling to myself many times as I played along.

Lastly, I would be doing myself and the world a disservice if I didn't mention playing Looping Louie. As I said before many times, Louie cannot be described, he must be experienced.

Damn you, Louie. Damn you.

Playing History at GDC Part 1--Myst and Jet Grind Radio

Okay, let me clarify what's been going on; I have to write about this.
I've been fortunate enough to receive a position as a CA (I think it stands for Conference Associate, but it basically means a volunteer) at GDC. Aside from getting the amazing opportunity to see a sneak preview of the game industry, I get to meet so many incredible people! I'm working all this week, which means the best parts haven't even happened yet (probably).

I want to take a moment and tell you guys about the games I've played so far. There was a little video game history exhibit and I got to play some of the games between shifts. They're amazing!

Myst was the first game I played--it caught my eye because I had just read about it in "All Your Base Are Belong to Us". I have to say, it wasn't anything like I expected. Up until now I had only seen screenshots of it, but I never knew the game was composed completely of screenshots! However, it was really interesting to play and I can imagine how hooked some players would have gotten trying to solve all of the puzzles in that amazing Myst-erious world.

The second game I played was Jet Grind [Set] Radio which I have always wanted to play--I learned from the exhibit that it was the first game to use cel-shading animation. I have to say it looked absolutely fantastic--I would have never guessed that it was the first! I loved playing it because the environments and world were one eye-candy experience after the next. The controls were a little tough to pick up, but after the tutorial levels I was pretty well acquainted. I only got through the a small portion, but I will definitely be buying that game if I ever get the chance.

I'll be talking more about the games I've played as the week goes on!

I'm at GDC!

I know I am far too old to be saying Omigosh, but Omigosh. This place is amazing. I'm having a great time!

I -Really- Hate Writing Game Design Documents!

I know, I know what you're thinking. "Some game designer. Can't program? Doesn't even like writing game design documents?!? Boo." But that is not the point of this blog post. the point of this blog post is, well, to make a blog post. I really haven't made one in a while.

But I think the reason I don't like writing out my GDDs is because they feel unusual to me; they also feel so tight and constricted, sometimes even uncreative. Maybe in time when I get more used to the concept of writing one it'll be more natural to me and even enjoyable. The only way to know for sure is practice, practice, practice!

In the meantime, check out the monstrosity I'm working on now:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13uac7A2FbqC7PNvvRg7AGhvC-PzWrgoqt4cLEUgyv1k/edit?usp=sharing

Exciting News in the Tubosphere!

I hope I am allowed to make up words like "Tubosphere". Anyway, I've been working hard on my next project, nicknamed project PEW. So far, It's been a blast; I've even taken to recording my thinking process and designs and I've since put up a ton of them on YouTube!

I think transparency and community involvement in games is very important for an indie developer, but shockingly there aren't many that let other folks in on their ideas, which is a real shame. I understand the extra work that might be involved in it, but I 'm inclined to believe the rewards far outshine the risks. I am going to do my very best to share as much as possible with the community so we can all learn from each other!

An Absolute Truth

okay. whew. okay.

I've been down and out, y'all. This past couple of weeks I was NOT myself. I still am, technically, no longer the "myself " that I used to be, but during the past weeks I truly felt wrong and unnatural. I underwent some dramatic changes, grappled with some of the more essential questions humans grapple with in their life, lost and gained the will to live several times, and perhaps most importantly to me, lost the will to create.

It is so rare for me to feel that way--in fact, this may be the first time I ever did feel that way. I hope it is the last. Thankfully, I have recovered with the help of my friends, my determination, and the internet (thank the internet for everything).

I'm not going to talk about this for too much longer, I've since resolved to go out and get shit done rather than mope about trying to answer a question that may forever be truly unanswerable, and must instead be filled in with the marshmallowy caresses of personal belief. However, I do have one takeaway from the experience, one absolute truth, and I'd like to throw this out there for anyone who has ever been struggling with the tiny problem of the purpose of their existence:

You matter.

I don't know how, I don't know why, but I know that you do. You don't have to believe that the universe has a purpose, but you must believe that you have a place in the universe.
It's not much but it's a hell of a start.

My next post will be talking about my upcoming projects and stuff! yaaaay!

The Courageous Captain Pussyfoot!

For those of you who aren't aware, we finished our entry in the Ouya Create contest! It was quite the experience, let me tell you-- but I had an absolute blast making "The Courageous Captain Pussyfoot," in which the main protagonist is this adorable guy:

In order to submit our game, we had to make a "trailer," so I shot one in five minutes using my phone. It is far too embarrassing to post here, but I'll do you one better, you can PLAY THE GAME!

due to Ouya's hardware restrictions and limited capabilities, we had a difficult time keeping everything in there; the graphics were seriously compromised, and we had to take out a lot of elements that made the game so much fun. But since nothing in the rules stipulated that we couldn't release a PC version, we did so in full HD with all of the original elements in there.

CLICK ME TO GO PLAY THE GAME!

The above link will take you to Starlight Studios' website, where the team who helped me put this together provided the download link for the game. It's a small demo/prototype thing, but we hope you enjoy it!

Stuff is Happening

Holy crap, gais.

Firstly, I saw the announcement for Pokemon X and Y, and holy guacamole, it's freaking awesome. the pokemon series has transitioned OUT of the color era! (gasp). Looks like it's time to start saving for a 3DS! (and the game of course, but it will be coming out around my birthday...hint hint?)

Nextly (I know it isn't a word, dammit!) I must announce my entry into my first ever game jam. I'm gonna be participating with a few friends in Ouya's CREATE contest, and I couldn't be more excited! I'll let you know more in the coming days what's gonna be going down, but we've got some pretty amazing stuff planned! (which it will certainly take a miracle to perform in like, two weeks)

Wish me luck

Playing Journey

Allow me to introduce you to my latest obssession:

It's Journey, and it's a 2-hour length indie-developed video game by ThatGameCompany. Also, it is the most perfect game that has ever been made to date in the history of video games--notice the lack of the word "arguably" here. There are two different groups that react to that statement, one being those who disagree with me, and the other being those who have played the game.

But of course, dear reader, there may actually be a handful of people in this universe who played Journey and didn't enjoy the experience. As mentally incapacitated as these people may be, they are of course entitled to their opinion--after all, Journey is not my favorite game though I love it so; I have another favorite for personal reasons, so the same must go for these banana peels. However, I don't actually think that Journey is reserved, as it so often is, for the artistically inclined gamer--oh no, I think anyone who has the slightest interest in games should try it. Regardless of whether or not you enjoy Journey, it's easily one of the more accessible games out there that sit comfortably outside the lines of what a "typical game" feels like. In short, I'm a fan.