It is only the second week and FIEA is already in full swing. As a programmer we've already taken an assessment test to evaluate our level of understanding of some of the key programming concepts we will use here. Based off the results Tom (Carbone, our programming professor) custom-tailored the programming class for the programmers and technical producers.
In our production for media class we were split into groups of 7 and given a topic for presentation. Today we presented the project and we can now focus more on our Rapid Prototyping assignment.
For our Rapid Prototyping assignment we were split into groups of three or four with the purpose of making a "fun" game in Adobe Flash CS3. Being the only programmer on the team makes it tough to make a full mini-game from scratch in the two week time frame we were given. Things are getting tough and my free time is dwindling with each passing day but when I go to bed at night I know I love what I'm doing.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
A new cohort arrives
Well, I was going to do a post where I talked all about Siggraph, but Jon beat me to the punch. After reading his post, I was glad he summarized the show for you and not me - mine would've been much shorter. Jon forgot to mention the girl at the booth next to us and the fact that he was always 5 minutes late in the morning, but I digress...
MasterPlan sure made great strides in a few weeks, when it went from tech demo to game. I have to hand it to the students - they really pulled a rabbit out of their hat. They waited until the end to do too much - a common thing for games being developed in the real world too. Games take a long time to get running when you don't start with a game engine, and then additional time after that to get fun - which means if you're not willing to go all out at the end, you end up shipping something that's not as fun as you might've planned. MasterPlan is by no means perfect, but I definitely had fun at Siggraph demoing it, which is always a good sign. I'm hoping that the students will take some time this semester to get the game running on a computer with less than 1.5GB of RAM for GDC, and maybe add a few more bells and whistles before calling it done.
Today was an exciting one at FIEA as we welcomed cohort 4 to their orientation. We're starting to get the hang of it, so we kind of knew exactly what to talk about, what kinds of questions to expect, and all that. It is also great to see excited new students ready to become the new "best cohort ever" at FIEA, and I am confident that this cohort will make us proud. The best thing we did this time around was to create a forum on our website for all the students to communicate with, which really helped them connect to find housing and other Orlando information from afar. These students just seemed more settled and acclimated than in the past, and that's what I attribute it to.
MasterPlan sure made great strides in a few weeks, when it went from tech demo to game. I have to hand it to the students - they really pulled a rabbit out of their hat. They waited until the end to do too much - a common thing for games being developed in the real world too. Games take a long time to get running when you don't start with a game engine, and then additional time after that to get fun - which means if you're not willing to go all out at the end, you end up shipping something that's not as fun as you might've planned. MasterPlan is by no means perfect, but I definitely had fun at Siggraph demoing it, which is always a good sign. I'm hoping that the students will take some time this semester to get the game running on a computer with less than 1.5GB of RAM for GDC, and maybe add a few more bells and whistles before calling it done.
Today was an exciting one at FIEA as we welcomed cohort 4 to their orientation. We're starting to get the hang of it, so we kind of knew exactly what to talk about, what kinds of questions to expect, and all that. It is also great to see excited new students ready to become the new "best cohort ever" at FIEA, and I am confident that this cohort will make us proud. The best thing we did this time around was to create a forum on our website for all the students to communicate with, which really helped them connect to find housing and other Orlando information from afar. These students just seemed more settled and acclimated than in the past, and that's what I attribute it to.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Siggraph 2007
I recently finished my third semester at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, a Master’s program in game design and development at the University of Central Florida. Fresh off the completion of Master Plan, our 34 person thesis project done over two semesters, I was invited by our faculty to attend Siggraph to work the booth and network with as many game companies as possible. In my fourth and final semester I’m expected to find an internship or job for credit, so Siggraph seemed liked the perfect opportunity to explore employment opportunities. The following is a daily account of my first time attending the largest computer graphics conference in the world.
The Day Before the Show - Monday 8/6:
Today I got a chance to see the Emerging Technology Exhibit. I’m absolutely fascinated by input devices so this was one of the aspects of Siggraph I had been anticipating the most. Unfortunately the real thing couldn’t live up to my lofty expectations. I had expected a scene from Minority Report, but what I got probably had more in common with a science fair (albeit a college level one). To be fair, many of the exhibits were very interesting. It’s just that a lot of them, with the exception of Microsoft Surface, weren’t very polished. Here’s a quick rundown of the most memorable:
Microsoft Surface: Like I said, this was probably the most polished of the exhibits, but it’s hard to take seriously after seeing the Sarcastic Gamer parody of it (“in the future, your computer will be a big assed table”). Still, I think it has interesting business applications, particularly in restaurants.
“Dual Blowing Screens”: I don’t remember the exact name of this, but it consisted of two screens set across from each other. When a person blows into a spot on one screen, a fan will blow air out of the corresponding spot on the other screen. They had a number of fans and pinwheels to play with, but it was unresponsive and dare I say, pointless.
CoGame: This was a cooperative game where you project images of a road (think of Lego road plates) onto a mat on the floor, to lead a robotic turtle to his goal. Maybe I’m just biased towards games, but even in its unpolished state, I thought this was one of the better exhibits. It was actually a fun game/toy and, given some polish and features, could be quite marketable.
Gravity Grabber: This was a force feedback device for your thumb and fore-finger to simulate holding onto objects. It used a strap that tightened or loosened to apply varying levels of pressure. My favorite example simulated a clear box full of small balls that actually felt like they were rolling around inside. I think the motion tracking was off somewhat, but this was quite promising.
“3D Hand Tracker”: This exhibit demonstrated technology where you could move your bare hand inside of a 3D space and have it quite accurately portrayed on screen. The example allowed the user to manipulate an open Jack-in-the-box with fairly realistic physics. All that was missing was force feedback.
String Walker: I was excited to see this in action. Imagine being able to walk throughout the environment of a game in real time or playing Madden by running around. In reality it resembled someone holding onto their kitchen counter while sliding/walking in place with slippery socks on.
The First Day - Tuesday 8/7:
Today was the first day of the show and I worked the booth in the morning. We arrived an hour before the show started to do any last minute work and to be available for the press who were already prowling the floor. I helped put out some pamphlets and arrange the wooden artist manikins that we give out to potential students (more on them later). Sadly, the only reporter who came to our booth was a German “Journalist for Digital Media” though he was very friendly and inquisitive. Who knows, maybe we’ll get some great future students from Germany as a result.
I spent the morning talking to potential students and people looking to hire recent grads when I wasn’t defending the wooden manikins from hordes of swag-obsessed show goers. For this Blog I’ll try to stick to the educational and scholarly experiences from the show, but the tenacity with which people stalked these manikins was unlike anything I’ve ever seen (outside of Christmas shopping). I could swear that some people were even sent in as a distraction so five or six of their friends could more easily snag one. At least it provided some entertainment and was a really interesting social experiment.
The greatest moments for me came from watching people’s enjoyment with our thesis project, Master Plan, which had been completed just days before the show. I was the lead designer on the project, and nothing is more rewarding than seeing someone sit down and have fun with the game, which a number of people did throughout the morning. The competitive side of me also enjoyed the reactions of people from other schools. I saw three people from a competing school stop and watch the game with a mix of shock and fright on their faces.
In the afternoon I explored the vast show floor. It was amazing to see some of the elaborate booths, such as Pixar and LucasFilm, in their finished state. Some of them were like a store, movie theatre and art gallery rolled into one. Vicon, a motion capture company, even had a small bar where they were serving beer. Some highlights included artists making models from scratch in ZBrush (which I think is a fascinating program) and trying on a motion tracking VR helmet. I also thought it was funny that the most attractive women at the show were casually walking around in ridiculous motion capture outfits, obviously on break between demonstrations. I went around to the five or six game companies who had booths on the floor, but they weren’t as receptive as I had hoped and none of them wanted my resume or a copy of Master Plan. Still, the woman at Disney Interactive was friendly and talked to me for a while about their company and their recent acquisition of Junction Point, Warren Spector’s new studio in Austin. EA entered me in a raffle and suggested I attend their “College Recruiting Seminar” that was taking place later. The seminar wasn’t really anything I hadn’t heard before, but I got a free copy of the new Harry Potter game for DS, and was able to speak in person with EA’s head of University Relations.
After the show we took a shuttle over to the San Diego Civic Center to see the Electronic Theater, a compiling of the best films in the Computer Animation Festival. It started out with a few honored guests playing Asteroids, Tempest and the original Star Wars arcade game emulated and projected with laser lights (like the planetarium). For the geek in me that loves retro video games (particularly space shooters) this was pure bliss. After that we were treated to nearly two hours of the best animated shorts, movie special effects, game trailers and technology demos the industry had produced in the past year. I felt a few big name companies got special treatment, but overall they were really fun and interesting. Some highlights included “No Time for Nuts” a short starring Scrat from the Ice Age films, “A Gentleman’s Duel” by Blur Studio, and “Lifted” by Pixar. They also showed the trailer for Valve’s upcoming Portal which started as a student project and looks like one of the most interesting (and nauseating) games to come around in a long time. I can only hope Master Plan will have a similar fate.
Day Two - Wednesday 8/8:
I was feeling a bit under the weather when I got up, so I traded for the afternoon shift and took the morning to sleep and regain some energy. I felt somewhat guilty for wasting part of the day, but there’s no way you can experience everything that Siggraph (or San Diego for that matter) has to offer so I figure you’re better off fully enjoying the few things you do get to see.
I had only been working the booth for a few minutes when two women came up to me. They started describing their new project based on futurist Ray Kurzweil’s book "The Singularity Is Near." Apparently they are producing a feature film or animation and are looking for students or recent grads to work on the film. They said they expected the movie to have the same impact that 2001: A Space Odyssey did when it was released in 1968. Those are pretty strong words, and I couldn’t help thinking that their ambitions seemed a little far fetched, but I do have a soft spot for really good science fiction so I gave them my resume. If I wasn’t so close to starting my dream career in game design I would probably pursue this interesting proposal further.
At the end of the night a few of us attended a party at The House of Blues hosted by Vicon (the company that served beer at their booth). We were invited because they are currently building the largest motion capture studio on the East coast right in our building. In fact, I’m jealous of the future cohorts that will be able to use the facility. Anyway, the party was quite awesome and it seemed no expense was spared. DJ Diamond performed while a number of scantily clad go-go dancers rotated shifts to provide constant eye candy for the high ratio of male partygoers. A number of men seemed to be completely mesmerized by these attractive members of the opposite sex, though I imagine they would have been paralyzed had the girls acknowledged them. To add a dorky flair to everything, there were projections of the company logo all over the walls and ceilings and videos of their work continually played on the many monitors throughout the building. It was a really good time and an interesting glimpse into the nightlife of Siggraph.
The Last Day - Thursday 8/9:
Manning the booth today was just like the other days, though I almost fended off some Virginia Tech faculty when initially they only seemed interested in the manikins. I also got word very early that three of our programmers were offered internships at Midway Chicago and one of our producers took a design position at Vicarious Visions. I was already planning on hitting up the job fair as soon as I was done for the day, but that news got me pretty excited (and feeling competitive).
The job fair consisted of about 30 companies, more than half of them game companies, set up in small booths with images and video of their recent projects behind them. I was quite discouraged when High Moon Studios and Radical Entertainment (two companies I admire) barely gave me the time of day due to my lack of experience for the former and lack of Canadian citizenship for the latter. However, as I made my rounds many of the companies seemed quite interested in me and my experience at FIEA. I ended up giving out five copies of Master Plan, about 8 or 9 resumes, and talked quite extensively with a guy from Red 5 entertainment. Even though I’m not a die hard Blizzard fan, as many people are, I decided to go and talk to them as well. It was made clear early on that I wasn’t a very good fit for their company. Contrary to the way they were portrayed in the South Park episode, they do all play a lot of World of Warcraft.
Immediately after the show closed at 3:00, a group of us headed to L.A. to see a Groundlings improv show. For those of you who don’t know, The Groundlings is an L.A. based comedy troupe that includes such alumni as Will Farrell, Paul Reubens, Jon Lovitz, and Phil Hartman. The lovely L.A. traffic made the 120 mile trek take about 3 and ½ hours but boy was it ever worth it. For one, I had assumed the cast would consist of a few up-and-coming comedians, and was delighted when Mindy Sterling, Tim Bagley, and Michael McDonald were introduced on stage. As with most improvisational comedy, you kind of had to be there to get it, but I already can’t wait to go back. As one last dose of California culture we got In-And-Out Burger and headed back to San Diego.
Conclusion:
When I checked my voicemail after arriving back in Orlando I had a message from a recruiter at one of the studios from the job fair. Apparently he and the rest of the team at Siggraph had been impressed by Master Plan and wanted to talk to me. I called him immediately and scheduled some time to talk to him on Monday.
Overall Siggraph was a great experience and I hope that whatever company I’m working for in a year will give me the opportunity to attend it once again.
http://www.masterplangame.com/
http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/
The Day Before the Show - Monday 8/6:
Today I got a chance to see the Emerging Technology Exhibit. I’m absolutely fascinated by input devices so this was one of the aspects of Siggraph I had been anticipating the most. Unfortunately the real thing couldn’t live up to my lofty expectations. I had expected a scene from Minority Report, but what I got probably had more in common with a science fair (albeit a college level one). To be fair, many of the exhibits were very interesting. It’s just that a lot of them, with the exception of Microsoft Surface, weren’t very polished. Here’s a quick rundown of the most memorable:
Microsoft Surface: Like I said, this was probably the most polished of the exhibits, but it’s hard to take seriously after seeing the Sarcastic Gamer parody of it (“in the future, your computer will be a big assed table”). Still, I think it has interesting business applications, particularly in restaurants.
“Dual Blowing Screens”: I don’t remember the exact name of this, but it consisted of two screens set across from each other. When a person blows into a spot on one screen, a fan will blow air out of the corresponding spot on the other screen. They had a number of fans and pinwheels to play with, but it was unresponsive and dare I say, pointless.
CoGame: This was a cooperative game where you project images of a road (think of Lego road plates) onto a mat on the floor, to lead a robotic turtle to his goal. Maybe I’m just biased towards games, but even in its unpolished state, I thought this was one of the better exhibits. It was actually a fun game/toy and, given some polish and features, could be quite marketable.
Gravity Grabber: This was a force feedback device for your thumb and fore-finger to simulate holding onto objects. It used a strap that tightened or loosened to apply varying levels of pressure. My favorite example simulated a clear box full of small balls that actually felt like they were rolling around inside. I think the motion tracking was off somewhat, but this was quite promising.
“3D Hand Tracker”: This exhibit demonstrated technology where you could move your bare hand inside of a 3D space and have it quite accurately portrayed on screen. The example allowed the user to manipulate an open Jack-in-the-box with fairly realistic physics. All that was missing was force feedback.
String Walker: I was excited to see this in action. Imagine being able to walk throughout the environment of a game in real time or playing Madden by running around. In reality it resembled someone holding onto their kitchen counter while sliding/walking in place with slippery socks on.
The First Day - Tuesday 8/7:
Today was the first day of the show and I worked the booth in the morning. We arrived an hour before the show started to do any last minute work and to be available for the press who were already prowling the floor. I helped put out some pamphlets and arrange the wooden artist manikins that we give out to potential students (more on them later). Sadly, the only reporter who came to our booth was a German “Journalist for Digital Media” though he was very friendly and inquisitive. Who knows, maybe we’ll get some great future students from Germany as a result.
I spent the morning talking to potential students and people looking to hire recent grads when I wasn’t defending the wooden manikins from hordes of swag-obsessed show goers. For this Blog I’ll try to stick to the educational and scholarly experiences from the show, but the tenacity with which people stalked these manikins was unlike anything I’ve ever seen (outside of Christmas shopping). I could swear that some people were even sent in as a distraction so five or six of their friends could more easily snag one. At least it provided some entertainment and was a really interesting social experiment.
The greatest moments for me came from watching people’s enjoyment with our thesis project, Master Plan, which had been completed just days before the show. I was the lead designer on the project, and nothing is more rewarding than seeing someone sit down and have fun with the game, which a number of people did throughout the morning. The competitive side of me also enjoyed the reactions of people from other schools. I saw three people from a competing school stop and watch the game with a mix of shock and fright on their faces.
In the afternoon I explored the vast show floor. It was amazing to see some of the elaborate booths, such as Pixar and LucasFilm, in their finished state. Some of them were like a store, movie theatre and art gallery rolled into one. Vicon, a motion capture company, even had a small bar where they were serving beer. Some highlights included artists making models from scratch in ZBrush (which I think is a fascinating program) and trying on a motion tracking VR helmet. I also thought it was funny that the most attractive women at the show were casually walking around in ridiculous motion capture outfits, obviously on break between demonstrations. I went around to the five or six game companies who had booths on the floor, but they weren’t as receptive as I had hoped and none of them wanted my resume or a copy of Master Plan. Still, the woman at Disney Interactive was friendly and talked to me for a while about their company and their recent acquisition of Junction Point, Warren Spector’s new studio in Austin. EA entered me in a raffle and suggested I attend their “College Recruiting Seminar” that was taking place later. The seminar wasn’t really anything I hadn’t heard before, but I got a free copy of the new Harry Potter game for DS, and was able to speak in person with EA’s head of University Relations.
After the show we took a shuttle over to the San Diego Civic Center to see the Electronic Theater, a compiling of the best films in the Computer Animation Festival. It started out with a few honored guests playing Asteroids, Tempest and the original Star Wars arcade game emulated and projected with laser lights (like the planetarium). For the geek in me that loves retro video games (particularly space shooters) this was pure bliss. After that we were treated to nearly two hours of the best animated shorts, movie special effects, game trailers and technology demos the industry had produced in the past year. I felt a few big name companies got special treatment, but overall they were really fun and interesting. Some highlights included “No Time for Nuts” a short starring Scrat from the Ice Age films, “A Gentleman’s Duel” by Blur Studio, and “Lifted” by Pixar. They also showed the trailer for Valve’s upcoming Portal which started as a student project and looks like one of the most interesting (and nauseating) games to come around in a long time. I can only hope Master Plan will have a similar fate.
Day Two - Wednesday 8/8:
I was feeling a bit under the weather when I got up, so I traded for the afternoon shift and took the morning to sleep and regain some energy. I felt somewhat guilty for wasting part of the day, but there’s no way you can experience everything that Siggraph (or San Diego for that matter) has to offer so I figure you’re better off fully enjoying the few things you do get to see.
I had only been working the booth for a few minutes when two women came up to me. They started describing their new project based on futurist Ray Kurzweil’s book "The Singularity Is Near." Apparently they are producing a feature film or animation and are looking for students or recent grads to work on the film. They said they expected the movie to have the same impact that 2001: A Space Odyssey did when it was released in 1968. Those are pretty strong words, and I couldn’t help thinking that their ambitions seemed a little far fetched, but I do have a soft spot for really good science fiction so I gave them my resume. If I wasn’t so close to starting my dream career in game design I would probably pursue this interesting proposal further.
At the end of the night a few of us attended a party at The House of Blues hosted by Vicon (the company that served beer at their booth). We were invited because they are currently building the largest motion capture studio on the East coast right in our building. In fact, I’m jealous of the future cohorts that will be able to use the facility. Anyway, the party was quite awesome and it seemed no expense was spared. DJ Diamond performed while a number of scantily clad go-go dancers rotated shifts to provide constant eye candy for the high ratio of male partygoers. A number of men seemed to be completely mesmerized by these attractive members of the opposite sex, though I imagine they would have been paralyzed had the girls acknowledged them. To add a dorky flair to everything, there were projections of the company logo all over the walls and ceilings and videos of their work continually played on the many monitors throughout the building. It was a really good time and an interesting glimpse into the nightlife of Siggraph.
The Last Day - Thursday 8/9:
Manning the booth today was just like the other days, though I almost fended off some Virginia Tech faculty when initially they only seemed interested in the manikins. I also got word very early that three of our programmers were offered internships at Midway Chicago and one of our producers took a design position at Vicarious Visions. I was already planning on hitting up the job fair as soon as I was done for the day, but that news got me pretty excited (and feeling competitive).
The job fair consisted of about 30 companies, more than half of them game companies, set up in small booths with images and video of their recent projects behind them. I was quite discouraged when High Moon Studios and Radical Entertainment (two companies I admire) barely gave me the time of day due to my lack of experience for the former and lack of Canadian citizenship for the latter. However, as I made my rounds many of the companies seemed quite interested in me and my experience at FIEA. I ended up giving out five copies of Master Plan, about 8 or 9 resumes, and talked quite extensively with a guy from Red 5 entertainment. Even though I’m not a die hard Blizzard fan, as many people are, I decided to go and talk to them as well. It was made clear early on that I wasn’t a very good fit for their company. Contrary to the way they were portrayed in the South Park episode, they do all play a lot of World of Warcraft.
Immediately after the show closed at 3:00, a group of us headed to L.A. to see a Groundlings improv show. For those of you who don’t know, The Groundlings is an L.A. based comedy troupe that includes such alumni as Will Farrell, Paul Reubens, Jon Lovitz, and Phil Hartman. The lovely L.A. traffic made the 120 mile trek take about 3 and ½ hours but boy was it ever worth it. For one, I had assumed the cast would consist of a few up-and-coming comedians, and was delighted when Mindy Sterling, Tim Bagley, and Michael McDonald were introduced on stage. As with most improvisational comedy, you kind of had to be there to get it, but I already can’t wait to go back. As one last dose of California culture we got In-And-Out Burger and headed back to San Diego.
Conclusion:
When I checked my voicemail after arriving back in Orlando I had a message from a recruiter at one of the studios from the job fair. Apparently he and the rest of the team at Siggraph had been impressed by Master Plan and wanted to talk to me. I called him immediately and scheduled some time to talk to him on Monday.
Overall Siggraph was a great experience and I hope that whatever company I’m working for in a year will give me the opportunity to attend it once again.
http://www.masterplangame.com/
http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/
Technochocolate August
It's been a while! Sorry about that.
The summer has pretty much flown by. Milestone after milestone has rolled by for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and we're closing in on the end of production pretty soon. I'm not pulling crunch hours yet but I can see them fast approaching. I'm doing my best to enjoy my free time while I still have it. I went to the beach for the first time in years, and I've been making more and more regular visits to Universal Studios' CityWalk. My friends working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare have been crunch far more than me -- it's nearing the end of beta. IGN got their hands on the game and they seemed to really like it. Here's hoping it does well.
I picked myself up a Xbox 360 Elite and The Darkness, which is tons of fun, but I'm actually spending even more time downloading and playing game demos from Xbox LIVE. The Bioshock demo is the best thing since popped corn, and the Dynasty Warriors Gundam demo gets me giddy in ways only a true giant robot fan would understand. So far I'm really pleased with the purchase. Gears of War and Dead Rising top the list of stuff I want to pick up next. Actually, now that I think about it, somewhere here at work has a copy of Gears to sell me ... today! Perfect!
I'll try to give y'all another update once things start to cool down. Busy busy!
The summer has pretty much flown by. Milestone after milestone has rolled by for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and we're closing in on the end of production pretty soon. I'm not pulling crunch hours yet but I can see them fast approaching. I'm doing my best to enjoy my free time while I still have it. I went to the beach for the first time in years, and I've been making more and more regular visits to Universal Studios' CityWalk. My friends working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare have been crunch far more than me -- it's nearing the end of beta. IGN got their hands on the game and they seemed to really like it. Here's hoping it does well.
I picked myself up a Xbox 360 Elite and The Darkness, which is tons of fun, but I'm actually spending even more time downloading and playing game demos from Xbox LIVE. The Bioshock demo is the best thing since popped corn, and the Dynasty Warriors Gundam demo gets me giddy in ways only a true giant robot fan would understand. So far I'm really pleased with the purchase. Gears of War and Dead Rising top the list of stuff I want to pick up next. Actually, now that I think about it, somewhere here at work has a copy of Gears to sell me ... today! Perfect!
I'll try to give y'all another update once things start to cool down. Busy busy!
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