Mundinator

Tons of Games!!

2009-07-04T14:31:31-07:00

Hi there and welcome back to another episode of “Where has John been?” Well, to make another long story short, I have not really been anywhere. I have been hard at work on Fat Princess and just can’t wait to share it with everyone.

Some fart-knocker announced a release date for Fat Princess which was not true. When the date arrived, no Fat Princess on PSN so, like you might expect, people now think we missed out release date and are delayed. NOT TRUE! We never announced a release date at all. Things are all on track and going quite well actually. I feel bad for all those out there who have been bummed out that FP is not out yet…just hold on a little longer, folks.

I have been fortunate enough to get a bit of gaming time in lately which has been nice.

Overlord 2 is a lot of fun, but they really screwed up the camera control. The first one was much easier. Controlling the minions can be annoying at times as well. There is one part in the spider level where you have to control minions on spider mounts and run them through a maze on the wall. OMG it was brain melty…and not in good way. The controls were so touchy and imprecise that I believe it took me 30-40 tries to get the last part. The sense of humor is still great. If you liked the first one you will like this one as well.

Red Faction is strangely addictive. The story is kinda shite. Contrived and coincidental, but then again it is not so overbearing that it detracts from the real fun…DESTRUCTION! Lemme tell you it was a blast getting the nano-rifle that dissolves walls. Oh yeah, and the AI could have used some more work…but again, you can dissolve walls! Did I mention you can destroy things! Cool guys don't look at explosions.

Bully was entertaining for a few evenings, but something about it just didn’t hook me like other Rockstar games. Might go back to it, but then again there is a lot coming out in the next few months.

Oh yeah, and I needed to check out a game on GameTap.com, so I signed myself up for a full account. WOW is it a neat service. I can play all these addictive games that I never get tired of. Pirates and Civ 3, for example, are just endlessly replayable. I hate you Sid Meier…you have killed my productivity AGAIN!

I got myself the iPhone 3GS after seeing Noelle’s new phone be like 8x faster than my OG iPwn. With that, of course, comes Flight Control…possibly one of the most brilliant and simple games to hit in the last few months. It is elegant in its design and rumor has it that the company that made it has already made well over $1 million. That’s no chump change when you consider the game probably could be made in a single weekend if you know what you are doing.

Looking forward to a bunch of games that are to be coming out the second 1/2 of this year. Assassin's Creed 2, BioShock2, Modern Warfare 2...lots of 2s.

It's Been Some Trip...

2008-12-20T11:02:45-08:00

It’s been a number of months since I decided to open up the good old word processor and consider writing, but then again a lot has been going on in my life. I don’t know a pretty way to put this, but then again life is too short to mince words.

I joined the gaming industry over 13 years ago because in my heart, games were a powerful form of expression. In my life they brought me so much joy and excitement. I remember working hard each weekend to earn a few dollars that I would stash away so I could buy a new NES or Genesis game. I remember making a mix tape of all my favorite game tracks and sending it to SEGA telling them they should publish it as long as I got a free copy.

My memories even travel early on into the realm of multiplayer gaming, but with single player games (if that even makes sense). A few friends and I sat around playing Maniac Mansion and Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade on the PC and worked together to solve all the puzzles. Watching was just as much fun as being in the driver’s seat. I was so excited by the experience that I bought Indiana Jones: Fate of Atlantis and invited all my friends over in the hopes of recreating the moment again. It didn’t happen. It turned out I shared that enthusiasm alone that night…a fleeting thrill for my friends, but an unusually powerful experience that was not about to die because of one failed gaming adventure.

It didn’t matter. I was in love. I had found my home in the world of games. The thought had not hit me to consider being a game developer exactly yet. I loved games for sure and even was starting to gain an interest in programming. A few more years rolled on and my passion grew, but I had no way to use it other than in being a fan in buying games and being a gamer.

Living in the SF Bay Area I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by not only technology, but game companies. Lucas Arts was one of the closest and most well known and I was a huge fan. In 1995, the Marin County Fair was doing a special theme on technology in Marin County. They did a run in the paper each day of the fair listing all of the amazing companies that the county supported. I can’t remember if it was my mom or if I got the idea, but since the companies listed their address I decided to pour my heart out in a letter saying I was a passionate kid who wanted a job in games. I scrapped together a resume for the first time in my life and sent out as many letters as I could.

Time passed and I waited eagerly for the day when a letter or a call came in. I got a few standard post cards (“Your info will be on file.”) and even a personally written letter from the now defunct Stormfront Studios basically saying how cute it was for a 15 year old to be so driven and to get in touch with them in a few more years.

Luck will have it, one company, Ronin Entertainment, called me and eventually brought me in and hired me as a level designer. It was really level scripting and messing with AI scripting. It was awesome! I was in.

So 13+ years later I’ve been all over. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in design, art, programming, production and sound. Now I find my home in design, but I also don’t quite know if I am satisfied…which brings me to why I have taken a few months off of writing here.

Last time I wrote I was employed by Snowblind Studios. Today I am a contractor for Titan Studios, working on Fat Princess. Before I share how damn much I love Titan and Fat Princess…I need to share a bit about why I jumped ship.

I joined Snowblind because of their track record of 10 years and 5 really solid games. That’s 1 game every 2 years and being that I am in a shipping slump, Snowblind seemed like a perfect place for me to make a difference.

I joined in Feb. 2008 with high hopes for making a game I can’t talk about and have buried in my mind. I was excited about it. There were a lot of problems at Snowblind, but nothing that was guaranteeing a bad game. I took on the adventure as the Lead Level Designer as an awesome challenge. I even brought on one of my former Perpetual Entertainment Level Designers, Matt Holdener, as my first team member and let me tell you him and I kicked some ass. I saw how we brought new energy to the team and proved that a great game lied just beneath the waves of the red tape sea. Snowblind has some great talent and the right person who knows how to harness it will kick some ass…but I was not going to be that person. In fact, I was never even considered. My heart sank as I realized I was in an “old boy’s” school where those who were around from the beginning were worth more than new peeps who might actually have more leadership skills. It’s not to say in any way that Snowblind won’t make a good next game, but they are a little too blind to allow someone new like me to make a radical difference…and for that I have no time to sit around and wait. Much love my Snowblind friends…you will make a great game. I just know that it won’t be with me as a prominent lead so I might as well get out of the way.

Ok, so the real question is how did I escape. Well, my good friend Mike Hines worked for Dark Star Industries in Colorado with some awesome friends. When Perpetual kicked the bucket for me, Mike said I should check them out, but Noelle and I were in no way interested in moving to Colorado. We love living near the water. It just so happens that Dark Star was brought to Seattle by Epic Games China who bought them and changed their name to Titan Studios. Because I knew Mike, we hung out on Friday’s after work and I got to meet about ½ the Titan team just hanging out over drinks. Come time for them to need an additional designer they fortunately thought of me.

I contracted with them for two months to test things out and just in the last two weeks they brought me on full-time. I can’t wait to share some games of Fat Princess with you all.

Noel Gallager Enters Politics by Believing Everything He Hears, Except Hip-Hop

2008-07-05T13:13:35-07:00

In the latest bit of retard people calling out video games as the reason for violence, the sooper famous ultra mega huge still churning out hit songs Oasis frontman, Noel Gallagher chimed in to share his two cents.

Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for the info about this. When talking about recent knife violence in London, GamesIndustry.biz quoted Noel as saying, "People say it's through violent video games and I guess that's got something to do with it." Yeah, that's great Noel, believe everything that people say. Weren't you the one who got up on stage and sang "Champagne Supernova in yer BUM!" when you you having fights with your brother some years back? You acted like a child then and are still acting like one now.

Ok, so next issue...why did GamesIndustry.biz put this under Politics. I'm sorry, but last I checked Oasis is a BAND and Noel is a band member and video games can be categorized under ENTERTAINMENT. It's a small bit to argue, but I don't like Oasis and I don't like it when singer dorks think they can say something about the issues of the day. Write music, sing songs and otherwise stop talking unless you are working to try to solve the problem. As much as I don't like Bono, the man is actually doing things to make a difference.

Ok...Saturday afternoon rant over.

Alone In The Dark's Mechanics Scare Me More Than the Story

2008-06-30T01:16:14-07:00

Ok ok ok...so I have been playing (struggling thru) Alone in the Dark and I fucking hate this game. Look, I really played the original on my PC some number of years ago and LOVED IT. This new XBox360 abomination...wow! Die and die more.

I made the following video right after I played the game and resisted snapping the disk in half, so bear with a few moments where I might not make sense, but here you go...

...these are my heart songs. They never feel wrong...

Diablo 3 Is Coming Out Before Duke Nukem Forever

2008-06-28T11:59:22-07:00

ZOMG! We all knew it was coming, but didn't really know it for sure. Well, today in France, Blizzard announced Diablo 3 officially and shared a bunch of screenshots and videos with the public. I have to say, the game looks awesome and, in fact, almost done. Take a look at the teaser trailer first.

The game looks quite polished already, but Blizzard (being typical Blizzard) is not giving a release date. They will release it when it is good and ready. Check out another video of how awesome and polished this thing looks.

The plan is to release PC and Mac only...which I expected. I'll write a bit more as things shake down in the next few days and I get to hear a few more people's reaction. Check out IGN's posting about Diablo 3 if you are itching for more info.