Show me your moves!

~Warning~ Most of this is a geek post!

GDC was as fun as snail pie (which is fun)! First, I'll mention what mom saw on the news. There's a new little headset thing that lets you play games with thoughts AND your facial expressions. The one I played was by Emotiv, but I was told there was another one. Anyway, I played a demo where you do things like lift rocks by imagining the rock lifting, repairing a bridge the same way, and eventually conquering a challenging of lifting a mountain. Some people found it challenging, but I RULED. It was very empowering, lifting a mountain with my mind. The demo seemed a little rough around the edges, but it is currently scheduled for Christmas, so I'm sure there will be a lot of hype then.

There was several technology things on display, like motion sensors and new kinds of input. Sony had a thing that could scan parts of a tank you drew on paper and put the tank in a playable game. My favorite games were the independent ones, because they are allowed to do more innovative stuff. Some were featured in the Indepdent Games Festival, including a Digipen one that won best student game. There was also some good ones part of the XNA Community, only featured on XBox Live. They are made with XNA though, which means any ol goober can have a game on XBox Live.

By the way, I was a volunteer at the conference so that I got a free $2000 all access ticket (still had to pay for travel and lodging) for 15 hours of work. The downsides are waking up at 7am everday, not having as much time to look at all the cool stuff and setting up job contacts, and putting up with a bunch of childish weirdos. It was RA-style silliness, where you don't mind the work and even do a little extra, but they treat everyone like kids. Not my thing. But still, completely worth it, and I will probably do it again next year. Just a note, there were a lot of lectures on how to make good music scores and audio stuff too, so if anyone wanted to do this, it'd be worth it for them too (BWILEY).

I was in a Smash Brothers Brawl tournament! I was in the top six out of 160 enthusiastic Brawl fans. It was just a fun tournament, so items and goofy levels were on, but still, it was great to experience the game so early. By the way, the game is a ton of fun to watch! Everyone was going crazy! In the first tournament bracket, I played as Ness, because I assumed he'd be a crowd favorite, and I was right. I got a huge rush out of beating people with hundreds of people cheering "KELROY!" Seriously, I'm not sure if I'll be able to play anymore without an audience. In the final bracket, I chose Zelda, because I win more with her. I was one fight away from the final game, and at first I was winning hard, but then a person I beat in the previous round starting heckling me. People told him to shutup, but he did not. It messed me up because I got a little madder than I should have. I still enjoyed myself a lot, but it is too bad that people like that exist. Anyway, a friend of mine won, so it was still celebratory.

Those were the highlights! I will probably have more to say next time, and maybe pictures and videos.

Cali Steals Your Soul

Or so I'm told!

So, I've been hearing horrible things about Missouri weather being wacky. Seattle weather is actually pretty boring compared to what I'm used to. Temperature doesn't go up and down, just stays about the same. Rarely gets below freezing. And next week I'll be in San Fransisco, which also stays about the same weather all the time.

Hey, the writer's strike is over! YAY. Now maybe they'll start making more new cartoons. Also, that bonus Heroes thing, whatever that is. TV has definately been in a dry spell lately. To be honest, I have not been tuning in to American Gladiator or other "reality television". Ever. Not ever.

So, politics have been hot lately. Things are pretty tight between Bill Clinton and Bob Bop Perama. And on the other side, it seems that Darth Applebee has been pushed into lava by John Wayne. So, between Bill Clinton, Bob Bop Perama, and John Wayne, I don't think we can lose. I am personally going for Bob Bop Perama, because he is mega-honest and recognizes the silly Red vs Blue problem. It'd be cool to have a lady president, but Bill Clinton seems to be another politician that says what we will get her the most votes, so we're not actually sure what we're going to get. I'm sure she'd be great, but I likes me some honesty. And John Wayne is just a swell guy, though it seems like he has extra war plans.

We'll see! brb, California

Code Monkey like Fritos

The musician Jonathan Coulton will be playing at GDC. He is well-liked for writing good geek music, such as Code Monkey (a song for programmers), Re: Your Brains (a song about zombies), and Skullcrusher Mountain (a song about a villain in love). He also made the song at the end of the game Portal, which was a huge game at the end of last year. Also, it was made by former Digipen students.

I really don't have much to talk about. I was barely aware a week even happened. My rendering project calculates light now. We're about done documenting our game and soon to kick it in gear. There's a math project now that I am not excited about. Done with the first step of the network project, and about to start the part that I don't know how to do. I'm going to try to do a ton of stuff this week so I have less to worry about. After all, it's hard to stress out on things I've already finished.

After GDC, I'll probably have a better idea about my summer plans. If there aren't any job prospects I'm interested in, I'll just plan on summer school and working parttime at Nintendo. I'd probably only be interested in a company that makes RPGs (role-playing games, games that are usually big on story and adventure) since that's what I want to make someday.

What's everyone else up to?

The Adventures of Sir Kelroy: Second Quest

Sir Kelroy awoke in the middle of the night to the painful cries of his broken steed, Ol Nimoy. The sting of battle had been especially harsh on Sir Kelroy's faithful motorcycle, especially since Sir Kelroy's blade, Ol Shatner, had been in the shop and he had been using Ol Nimoy as a weapon instead. Sir Kelroy's chest swelled with pity at the moanful cries of his friend and ally. If only there was something he could do to help. Oh well.

"SHUTUP" yelled Sir Kelroy. He was in no mood.

Suddenly, a bright, calming light shone through the window. Sir Kelroy sat up cautiously as he stared, and he reached for the side of his bed where his blade usually rested. Drats! An eerie ball of light crept through the wall. It was like nothing Sir Kelroy had ever seen, at least not that week. It's pulsings seemed to be in unison with the heartbeat of creation. When it spoke, it was with the voice of the angel.

"Hey, I'm your neighbor. Can you shut that motorcycle up? Me and the wife got work in the morning."

"I shall embark on thy quest, strange spirit from beyond. Buteth, I am lacking a weapon. Does thou have one to lend?"

"Ummm... k. Here's a ukulele" said the ball of light, picking up something off of Sir Kelroy's floor.

SIR KELROY HAS ACQUIRED THE LEGENDARY GUITAR BLADE, OL DEFOREST.

So Sir Kelroy went back to sleep, because he was sleepy. In the morning, he dragged Ol Nimoy out of the stable and left for town. From what he gathered from Ye Olde Google, he must gather seven legendary bike parts from seven dangerous dungeons.

Minutes later...

Sir Kelroy looked upon the first dungeon, Montlake Bike Shop. It looked to be full of scum and debacleteers. He gripped his new guitar blade, Ol Deforest. This was perhaps going to be the most difficult challenge he'd ever face, but he would go to the ends of the earth and back in order to shut that bike up.

He approached the counter. "Hey, could you give my bike a tune-up?"

"Sure, it doesn't look too bad. It'll be done Tuesday."

"I WIN. Laters, cretin!" Sir Kelroy laughed as he ran out, slashing at merchandise with his legendary weapon.

THE END.

"Life's a mess, so keep a bucket nearby"

So, it looks like Sam will be visiting in March, if all goes according to plan. I will of course be busy will schoolwork, but I'll give him a list of things to do. If weather permits, there maybe some hiking. If not, I'll give him chores. What's that Sam? You want to see Seattle? Hmm... let's see... fresh out of that. CHORES.

Not much report this week. I do have a lot on my plate already, but I always like to have "more than I can handle" on my to-do list. We're setting up the architecture for our game, and take my word for it, technical documentation is the least fun part of making games. It's like ripping off a band-aid, only the band-aid is 44 pages of boring. I got to write the game design document last week though, which was a lot more fun. It basically describes the entire game. I took it upon myself to do it on my own, because that's the kind of stuff I'm into.

Also, did you know there's going to be a Wii Music? It will be a game my brother will beat me at. HERE:

If you don't know Japanese, he's saying "Riley will beat his stupid brother at this game. He will also beat his stupid sisters. He will beat everyone. Riley will be so great, he will defy the gods themselves at the very music they invented. It's too bad he's so ugly. La la la la. WIIIIIIIIII".

PS. I think they sent my financial aid to my home address, so if you all get the chance, forward it my way. Did this happen last semester?

ZOMG Trains!

So, every year there is a weeklong conference in Cali called GDC (Game Developer's Conference). Important game people talk about the state of the industry, talk about things they're working on, talk about employment opportunites, share ideas and information, and, most importantly, party. Am I going? Yes I'm going. Normally passes are super-expensive, but I got accepted as a volunteer, which means in exchange for having free full-access I have to put in 20 hours of work. But from what I understand, I can request which places I want to work, so I will be able to go to important talks and stuff that'd I'd want to be at anyway.

Although the talks will be awesome (There's one about Smash Brothers, I will try my best to go there), I think the main point for students is to set up connections and talk to potential employers. A lot of companies look for recruits there, so I have to update my resume. Digipen sets up their Spring Break to be the same week as GDC for this very reason. A bunch of us got a train car to go there and back and also share a hotel, so I think it's going be a great adventure. Smash Bros got delayed again, but at least I don't have to take a weeklong Smash break.

Speaking of geek things, I watched a whole bunch of One Piece this week and am caught up with the series completely. One Piece is an action-comedy about pirates, and in my opinion the only good anime still being made. Most anime = craptacular. One Piece = hilariously exciting. So, the episodes I hammered through had amazing story, and we learned a lot about a character I had previously considered boring. Plus, now there's a cyborg. SUPER! There's a total of about 340 episodes thus far, so I wouldn't recommend starting from the beginning, unless you're hardcore.

Caught up on cartoons, so I can plow through my schoolwork. There's a lot on my plate already, so I gotta get crazy. I may be doing some cel-shading for our new game, we'll see.

GO FIGHT WIN.

Round Two

Herro! Back to business. My break was great, caught up with family and friends, and now the semester is up and running. This semester looks to be a little more challenging.

I'm taking another game project class, where we are making a complete game. This time we are throwing out XNA (The game studio we were using before) and making from scratch. This is something we have to do eventually anyway, so while this semester's game might not end up as good because we have to spend more time learning, next YEAR's game (the defining project of our degree) should be that much better.

Also, I am taking a challenging math class (we need computers for this one, what with all the 3D!), a networking class (easy but necessary), and a new graphics class. The graphics class is the sequel to the class we were learning how to render stuff onto the screen. This time, we will be learning lighting, shading, modelling and other things.

I didn't think about it before, but a good game programmer has to be a master of several fields. Not only computer science (some tricky computer science!), but we also have to have a deep understanding of things like physics and lighting, and other things in the natural world that we would want to simulate. This also includes AI, 3D math, and statistics. AND if you want to be a game designer like me, there's even MORE on your plate! I need an understanding of story structure and good characters, of music, art, and obviously fun game mechanics. Then there's optional stuff like history, mythology, and other things that would be specific to games. I will be like Leonardo Da Vinci, except a version that likes girls and isn't interested in helicopters.

There is a lot for me to do. Fortunately, I'm fearless. RAWR.