Acid for Blood

Naughty Dog at GDC 2010

2010-03-05T07:00:00-08:00

Naughty Dog, the developers of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves are set to make a strong showing at GDC 2010. Naughty Dog staff will appear in at least ten sessions at the Game Developers Conference. Arne Meyer, Naughty Dog's Senior Manager of Marketing Communications, posted a list of their sessions on the PlayStation Blog:

Thursday (March 11, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Among Friends – An UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Post-Mortem
Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 134, North Hall
Thursday (March 11, 2010) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Behind the Scenes: UNCHARTED 2’s Unique Cinematic Production Process
Josh Scherr (Cinematics Animation Lead, Naughty Dog), Amy Hennig (Creative Director, Naughty Dog, Inc.)
Room 303, South Hall

Thursday (March 11, 2010) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
Micro or Massive: It’s Fricking Tough to Achieve a Vision
Baiyon Tomohisa Kuramitsu (Graphic Artist/Composer, PixelJunk/Eden), Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 135, North Hall

Friday (March 12, 2010) 9:00am — 10:00am
GDC Microtalks 2010: Ten Speakers, 200 Slides, Limitless Ideas!
Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog), Ian Bogost (Associate Professor, The Georgia Institute of Technology), Chaim Gingold (levity lab), Gary Penn (Guru, Denki), Sam Roberts (Festival Director, indiecade.com), Margaret Robertson (Consultant and writer, Lookspring), Kellee Santiago (President and Co Founder, thatgamecompany), Suzanne Seggerman (President, Games for Change), Jesse Schell (ETC Carnegie Mellon, Schell Games), Jane Pinckard (Business Development, Foundation 9 Entertainment)
Room 134, North Hall

Friday (March 12, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Creating the Active Cinematic Experience of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
Bruce Straley (Game Director, Naughty Dog), Neil Druckmann (Co-Lead Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 305, South Hall

Friday (March 12, 2010) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
UNCHARTED 2 Art Direction
Erick Pangilinan (Art Director, Naughty Dog), Robh Ruppel (Art Director, Naughty Dog)
Room 306, South Hall

Saturday (March 13, 2010) 10:30am — 11:30am
UNCHARTED 2 Character Pipeline: An In-depth Look at the Creation of U2’s Characters
Richard Diamant (Lead Character Artist, Naughty Dog Inc.), Judd Simantov (Lead Character Technical Director, Naughty Dog Inc)
Room 135, North Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Animation and Player Control in UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune and UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
Travis McIntosh (Lead Programmer, Naughty Dog Inc.)
Room 135, North Hall

Saturday (March 13, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Getting Noticed: Why You Need an Online Portfolio and How to Make One
Jacob Minkoff (Game Designer, Naughty Dog Inc)
Room 306, South Hall

Saturday (March 13, 2010) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
UNCHARTED 2: HDR Lighting
John Hable (Programmer, Naughty Dog)
Room 305, South Hall

I'd love to attend them all, but that'd be impossible even if I wasn't a Conference Associate. All I can hope for is that my volunteer work schedule allows me to attend the Post-Mortem session and the Behind the Scenes session.

In addition to listing the sessions, Meyer began the post with a call for questions to ask the Co-Lead Game Designer of Uncharted 2 and the Graphic Artist and Composer of PixelJunk/Eden at the "Micro or Massive" panel.

[Read]

Attending on Another Even Year: GDC 2010

2010-03-02T06:00:00-08:00

In several days, I shall be flying down to San Francisco to attend the Game Developers Conference. I'll again be a behind-the-scenes volunteer as I was in 2006 and 2008. This means I'll spend the vast majority of the week working to ensure that the developers who attend GDC have a pleasant conference experience. The conference runs from 9th - 13th March, but I'll be there a bit earlier for Conference Associate training, and leave a bit later so I can attend the debriefing meeting at the end of the conference. If my work schedule permits, I'll also attend any sessions relevant to my professional interests. In short, this means that there are no guarantee that I'll actually be able to attend all those cool sessions I've read about. If I'm lucky I might be working at some of the more interesting ones, but again, there are no guarantees.

If you're going to GDC, I may see you there, though if you want to try and arrange a meet-up ahead of time, please let me know! I'm already committed to social activities on two, possibly three of my evenings thus far, and at least two day time meet-ups. I'm looking forward to meeting friends, old and new.

Cost of PC Gaming Versus Console Gaming

2010-02-21T09:25:00-08:00

I stumbled across this interesting post which compares the cost of PC gaming and the cost of console gaming. In it, the author specs out a PC rig that delivers a similar high-quality gaming experience as the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

I don't have loyalty to any one platform; I'll game on just about anything. I will say that it's far more comfortable to game from my sofa than at my computer desk.

The PC I built almost five years ago with the help of a friend is barely chugging along, and generally not reliable for much. One thing that I dislike, in the aftermath of building my own PC, is the troubleshooting. Perhaps if I was more technically-minded and if I had more patience for having to constantly Google search for help when something went wrong, it would be fine. I mostly just find it irritating.

I'm using a laptop as my primary computing machine at home. I bought it a year after I built my PC, and it's still holding up very well. I bought it from an online store, after choosing the specs I wanted. I took advantage of warranty repair service twice before it ran out. It was a relief not to have to do any of that myself.

The next time I'm in the market for a gaming PC, I'm just going to buy something off the shelf with a decent warranty. It'll cost a bit more, but to me, it's worth it because I think it will save me headaches in the long run.

The entire cost exercise was interesting to me because it's been such a long while since I kept abreast of the latest PC gaming standards. Predictably, the article concluded that building your own PC will cost you less than purchasing a console, however not by that much.