New Blog Location

I have moved my blog to be with the rest of my on line stuff.

The new blog location is:

http://www.elecorn.com/blog

Thanks!

Game Spoke: Who SHOULD Win the Console War? Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft?

Notice I said who SHOULD win, not who WILL win. I think we all know Nintendo is going to win. Something I must say I'm very happy about and, to toot my own horn, something I predicted long before the launch of the new consoles.

Check out my discussion with Victor HERE.

Thanks!

Game Spokes

So my friend Victor and I have decided to formalize a few of our discussions ons on video game related stuff. We're calling them "Game Spokes".

The discussions will be posted on Victor's blog at FlatRedBall. We'll probably get one up every week or so.

Here is our first "Spoke":

Component vs. Layered Systems

It's a bit programmer heavy and a little dry, but most other spokes we do will be much more general.

Check it out!

Hidden Path Entertainment

Oh by the way, I'm now working as a Senior Graphics Programmer for Hidden Path Entertainment. The place is awesome! We share ideals about game development and I'm working with great people on some really awesome projects. I'm getting to do tools stuff as well as graphics and prototyping.

What Games Really Need

So my wife finished reading the book "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. Apparently it's kind of like the new Harry Potter.

Anyway, I was interested in her background because she was formerly a stay at home mother of 3.

So her books have been on the top sellers lists for an amazingly long time. In fact her latest book "The Host" is the current #1 best seller found here http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/index.html as of today.

The key thing that go me is this. She never planned or had dreams of becoming a writer. She didn't write the story to be sold or even to show it off to friends. She wrote it because she loved the process and loved seeing where the story would go. It reminded me of something an art teacher once mentioned. He said he paints for himself. He doesn't paint to please other people. It also goes along with that Brad Bird of Pixar said in an interview here:

http://gigaom.com/2008/04/17/pixars-brad-bird-on-fostering-innovation/

He makes movies for himself, to satisfy his own creative vision.

Here's a video of a talk Stephenie gave at BYU (former grad there) , the last few seconds are the best part where she talks about "true writers":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bjqAWK8YLQ&feature=related

So now where I'm going with this.

People in the games industry are getting way too caught up in "innovation" and "the next big thing". We don't need people focusing on that stuff. We need people focusing on making a wonderful vision become a reality. A vision with meaning. We need people who care about the game and care about what kind of experience they are giving out there. We need less worrying about what's hot and more brilliant passionate vision made reality. Disney was able to get people excited about his films and "make them their own". We need people that care more and believe in what they're working on. As a head of a project, if the people on your team don't have the vision for your project, you need to help them catch it and make them believers. I think that can be done for most anyone. Even if a game is not their ideal, they can catch the vision of the experience the game is trying to give.

As far as where innovation fits in, it's a means to an end. Great innovation is the byproduct of progress towards a clear goal. I've had lots of innovative things happen on my personal projects, but it was never because I wanted to innovate for innovations sake. It was because I wanted to do this, or have the player feel like this, or experience that. With that goal in mind, I would come up with ways to make that happen. Innovation that does not lead towards the goal of the game is pointless and should be thrown out with anything else that doesn't contribute to the desired player experience.

On Caster, I'm focusing on making it the game I want to play, the experience I want to have and want to convey to others. It needs to go out the door with my seal of approval and none other.

I think that's why I've been hesitant to consider publishing deals. After I've made the game, I'm done. Anything after that is work and gives me no motivation.

Anyway, just some scattered thoughts...

What's your take on it?

Radiant Machine No More, Viva La Indie!

I currently work for a game company, Radiant Machine, that is part of a larger company, SolutionsIQ. Sadly, SolutionsIQ has decided to close it's gaming division after we finish our current project for Wizards of the Coast. I'm not sure why they've decided to do this, but for whatever their reasons, the short of it is I'm looking for opportunities elsewhere. My latest resume is here. Any leads would be much appreciated.

In better news, I met up with some fellow Seattle indies last Saturday night and had a blast! Attendees included Amanda Fitch and Bryce Jonasson from Amaranth Games and Keith Sink from Piddlepup Games. I'm more pumped than ever to finish up Caster and have it ready for Casual Connect in July!

Working Day Comic Success!

A Link To my Comic "Peas and Carrots" the First "Working Day Comic"
Proof that it can be done, and done well!

I drove with my family to Spokane, Washington on Friday October 19th after getting out of work a little early and spent the night there with my in-laws. The next morning I got an idea for the comic and headed over to Merlyn's comic and game store at about 11:20am. I started promptly at 12:00pm (the official starting time for the Merlyn's group) and worked straight through until 4:00pm when I took a half hour break. By that time I had seventeen and a half pages finished so I was making good time. I came back and worked for another half an hour before my father-in-law and kids showed up when I took another half hour break to chat and look at the store with them and get some lunch. I completed all twenty-four pages of the comic at two minutes before seven o'clock. That's fifteen minutes a page which is what I had planned for. I thought that I would run over, but I didn't! This gave me an additional two hours to go back over my work and make adjustments and touch-ups here and there. The most significant thing I did in this "extra" two hours was to add dark black lines for panel borders.

So yes, I did it! I was the first one finished and I did all twenty-four pages in a Working Day--not spending more than eight hours actually drawing it! An entire comic from concept to completion!

I did a practice run the night before of three pages in an hour. I used a two pass method of penciling and then inking and was barely able to complete it. This is what prompted my use of going straight with pen and allowed me to finish all the pages with time to spare.

I'm very happy with how the comic turned out! I feel there is a lot of energy and expression that I was trying to capture. The pages and panels flowed from my hand almost immediately after the thoughts entered my mind. It lacks the stiffness of some of my other more well planned work. There is of course a significant lack of polish in the work. Honestly it mostly looks like quick thumbnails and chicken scratch... very sketchy. Since I was using straight pen, I had no chance to erase which increased my drawing speed, but made it hard to fix mistakes.

Next year, my focus will be on putting a little more quality into the work.

So there you go.

There is no need to burn yourself out for twenty-four hours when you can get great work done in a working day so long as you stay focused. I think about all the time some people waste when they know they have twenty-four hours to complete the project. Many probably only end up spending eight good hours on it anyway! I had a great night's sleep and was fresh for Sunday morning the next day. No coffee, no energy drinks, no falling asleep at the table. Just a good solid day's work. Honestly, outside of my hand cramping up a bit due to lack of practice, it was pretty easy going.

So next year, my challenge to you is to complete your 24 Hour Comic as a Working Day Comic.

Working Day Comic

It's that time of year again. Time for the 24 hour comic challenge!

Here's a post from last year's event.

I've decided to make myself the inventor of a variation on Scott McCloud's 24 hour comic. I'm calling it the

Working Day Comic

All the rules for 24 hour comics hold with two more on top of that.

1. You can only work 8 hours on the comic (IE no overtime).
2. You can take up to a 1 hour break for lunch that does not count towards your 8 hours.

That's it!

So if you're like me and love the idea of 24 hour comics but don't like the idea of 24 hours, or if you're a huge fan of the effectiveness of the 8 hour work day, you might want to give my variation a try.

I will be happy to post any and all Working Day Comics that you send my way. In fact, if I get more than 3 submissions (outside of my own), I'll start an official web site for it.

Best of luck!

Caster Update

Continued progress on Caster. I'll be making a new downloadable version available soon.