Drained

I stayed up way too late polishing my speed map (yeah, I worked on it some more after my post). I got an A which is good, but I am completely drained and unable to focus on anything. I have no idea how I am going to finish the half the stuff I have to do in the next week. I am going to bed right now and I am really hoping that tomorrow I can wake up ready to attack my work full-force. I think the workload here is really starting to catch up with me...ugh...

Wait...what happened to my weekend?!

Well, I just finished my "speed" map, and I haven't even started my LDD. Crap. I'm not sure if I put too much into my speedmap room (probably) or if there just really wasn't enough time this weekend. Probably a little of both, but I would have at least liked to have started my LDD. Really I'd like to have gotten most of it done, but that might have been pushing it. I still have the greater part of the week and nothing else due, but getting things done during the week is always a challenge...always. Anyway, I'm tired, and I realize this post isn't really making a lot of sense, and I don't currently have the energy or brain power to make it make sense. So to make up for my lack of writing ability I bring you...screenshots!

I'm actually really happy with how the whole thing turned out, it feels almost official (though it should, since I was using an actual room from the game as a guide). Perhaps it wasn't the most efficient use of my time, but I enjoyed it and I am happy with the results, so I'll take that. =)

I <3 Radiant

Well, it's been a long day mostly full of work, but it's been pretty enjoyable all things considered. I really like working in Radiant, and I really like doing actual level design. Last term, the only level design I really got to do was in Oblivion, and since that editor is entirely mesh based (i.e., models made in some other program and brought into the game), that didn't really give me a lot of freedom. Working in Oblivion was more like decorating a set...all the pieces were pretty much defined I could just choose how and where to place them.

On the other hand, Radiant has such a robust bsp system that you can make all sorts of shapes and structures completely out of brush work. Add a powerful dynamic lighting system to the mix and you've easily got my favorite of the editors we've worked with so far. That's not to say it doesn't have it's drawbacks, I'm sure it does, but I think it's definitely the one of had the most "fun" working in, and the one that I feel gives me the most power to accomplish what I want. I mean, I spent most of the day working in it and I would still describe the experience as "enjoyable," so take that for what it's worth.

Anyway, as previously stated, it's been a pretty long day and I need to get a good night's sleep so I can be ready for another one. I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked and my LDD for DFS is due Thursday so I need to get moving on it pretty hardcore tomorrow. Also, I still need to finish my "speed" map which needs a bit of love, but here's a screen of the work in progress, night all!

Insert Witty Post Title

It's been an exhausting first week of term filled with all the unreasonable requirements and first week freak outs I've become used to. Today we had to submit our project statement and present it to the level design class, and tomorrow we have a thrilling Ethics class in the morning and a speed map in level design tomorrow afternoon (apparently focusing in lighting). I feel pretty competent in Radiant and I understood the lighting and patch (i.e., curved surfaces in Radiant) techniques we covered on Wednesday, so I'm not too worried about it, though I'd like to review some things. My role as team lead over the past few semesters means I haven't gotten quite as much experience on actual level design, so I am hoping to do more with Extinction and my DFS project (currently named 'Separation Anxiety'). I think I've got some cool concepts that should be fun to put together.

Next week is looking pretty busy (surprise!) as well. We have a level design document for DFS due on Thursday, the First Playable milestone for Extinction is a week from Tuesday so we need to start making sure things are ready for that (and I need to start preparing a presentation), and I imagine we'll probably have something else going on in Ethics. That's really it, it doesn't seem like that much on paper but the level design doc is pretty massive and the team game stuff takes much more time than is probably conveyed by "make sure things are ready." Anyway, I've been running a little hot lately so I am going to try to take it easy tonight and just play through more of Doom 3 (which is actually class/project related) and practice a bit more in Radiant. Night all!

Status Reports

I'm curious how I can be so busy that I can barely find time to write a blog post, yet worried as to what I will write on my team status report tomorrow morning. I know I've done a lot (or at least feel like it), but I probably should have written it down :). Anyway, I just finished preparing for a DFS presentation tomorrow morning and now I need to get to bed so I can get to school in time for my morning Lead Scrum. Later!

More Like Rolling Downhill

Getting back into the Guildhall feels more like rolling downhill than hitting the ground running: you keep picking up speed, you have very little control, and even hitting a small bump can really hurt. Things have ramped up here way too fast for my taste. There's just so much to keep track of sometimes, I feel like my head can't quite contain it all, or I need to take a second to think about it and write it all down, but that second is surprisingly hard to find. It's been a remarkably rough couple days, not for what I've had to do, but what I've been asked to do. I'm trying to remain positive and keep school from getting to me, but it's hard sometimes. Anyway, I've got loads of work to do, so I better get to it. Bye!

Off to the Races!

Well, term started with a bang as per usual...ok, maybe not a bang, but certainly some significant work and awareness of just how much we have to do this term. We didn't have our usual morning class, so I watched the movie we were assigned to watch for Friday's class (12 Angry Men), then I hurried to run some errands before heading into class. Level Design was reasonably tame at least in terms of what we did, but we went over the syllabi for both our Level Design class and our DFS, and it definitely looks to be a busy semester.

After class I had to run out to get food for my team's first "core hours" only to find out that that the Subway had managed to lose the order. Finally, our core hours ran a bit late since we decided to show 12 Angry Men to help everyone prepare for ethics class (thus I ended up watching it twice, which probably wasn't the best plan). Now, I need to make some basic arrangements for my team and my scrum meeting with the leads tomorrow morning, not to mention finish the 12 Angry Men assignment, and try to start working on my DFS project proposal which is due this Thursday.

As I said, definitely hitting the ground running, though by this point I feel pretty used to it. It's actually kind of nice to be back to work again...kind of nice :). Well, I better get to it, later all!

I should probably be asleep...

I don't actually have a morning class tomorrow (due to the professor's schedule), but I do have them for the rest of the week, so I should probably start trying to get my sleep schedule back to normal. I got caught up playing Lost Odyssey which is really, really good. I can't really explain whether it's the story itself or the way it is told, but I am really enjoying it, and I would highly recommend it to any old school Final Fantasy fans. The story is interesting and the characters are remarkably likeable (for being an immortal badass, Kaim is surprisingly tender). I honestly can't understand why it didn't receive higher marks. Rick posited that JRPGs had fallen out of favor with reviewers much like adventure games and a few other standard genres in the past. He may be right, but I think there are still a number of JRPG fans here in the States and if you're one of them I urge you to at least try the game out. Buy it, borrow it from a friend, rent it or "Gamefly" it, whatever, just give it a chance and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

I know my initial concerns that it was going to be another Blue Dragon (which started off too slowly and blandly to grab me), but it's definitely hits the ground running, and keeps things interesting. As long as I am doing some quickie reviews, I should also say I tried out Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii today, and my advice to you is don't. It is a dull, sub-par light gun shooter that simply rehashes the storylines you've already seen if you are a fan of the series. I only played the first mission (a set of levels around the Resident Evil: Zero storyline), but unless something crazy happens, I don't imagine ever getting much out of that game. I was hoping for some more cool Resident Evil storylines or a more in-depth look at Umbrella, but it just doesn't seem to be there. But hey, that's what Gamefly's for right?

So my break is finally at an end, not as game-filled or productive as perhaps I might have hoped, but a good mix of the two. I managed to get a fair amount of personal work done (networking, cleaning up the apartment, other junk) and I played a good amount of games though I only managed to finish one this time (Assassin's Creed) as opposed to the three or four I finished in the one week break between terms 1 and 2. Still the break was incredibly refreshing which was nice and just what I need to prepare for the coming term...at least I think so. I suppose my performance and general mental health during next term will be the judge of that.

***MINOR SPOILER ALERT - ASSASSIN'S CREED***

As for my thoughts on Assassin's Creed...I thought it was a good game that did a lot of things extremely well, but made some key missteps in the gameplay department that kept it from being great. So, first the good stuff...

1. The graphics and art design are amazing, the cities look fantastic and really feel alive, and Altair's (the main character) animations and model are top notch
2. Altair's movement control is fantastic. It's easy to navigate complex structures and situations and you look amazingly cool doing it.
3. The combat is fun. A bit simplistic for my taste but ultimately it's fun and you look really badass, so I can't complain.
4. The story is actually pretty interesting. Though perhaps not executed as well as possible, the story beats are interesting and the intertwining between the future and the past is awesome. The game ends on a massive cliffhanger, which bugs me, but at the same time made me start thinking about where they're going with the series so I guess it can't be all bad.

Now, onto the bad stuff...

1. Repetition. Basically, you do the same handful of tasks far, far too many times. I'm not talking about variations on a theme, like occur in most games, I'm talking the exact same tasks, you perform somewhere around 20 times. More variation in the missions (and the assassinations for that matter) would have gone a long way here.
2. The future. Now, I actually appreciate the information and story that is presented in the future portions of the game, but the gameplay there is non-existent. You can walk around and if you are near something that you can do something to, you press a button (the game informs you with a big message that says press any button). The information presented is cool, and it's actually fun to figure some things out (like a coded message contained in one of the emails you read), but the gameplay is boring and Desmond just moves too damn slow.
   

***END MINOR SPOILER ALERT - ASSASSIN'S CREED***

As I said, I enjoyed the game, and I very much like where the story is going, but somewhere in the middle of the game much of what I was doing felt more like a mindless grind between story bits than legitimate gameplay. It's definitely something the team can improve upon for the next iteration, but it keeps this one from being truly great. I'd say about a 7.8, definitely good and exceptional in some areas, but it doesn't quite come together in the end.

With that, I now should go as I have allowed myself to stay up an additional 30 minutes to write this post. Goodnight all!

Games, games, games...

Well, as my break draws to its close I continue to enjoy what's left of it by playing many a game in the little time remaining. I played more strategy games with Rick, a couple rounds of Soulstorm and a game of Sins. Also, my Gamefly games arrived today so I had a chance to try Devil May Cry 4 which is pretty badass. I'm playing God of War on the PSP at the same time, and both games have very different combat styles so it takes a little adjustment to move back and forth (much like playing Frontlines and CoD4 back to back). I also received RE: Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. I've got a few errands to run tomorrow but nothing that should preclude me from continuing my steady regimen of games and sleep. That's really about it, not much to report, just relaxing and getting ready to run headlong into Term 4.

End of Vacation Laziness

Well, my vacation is almost over and to celebrate (or mourn?) its end I've been being lazy and totally unproductive, which has been fantastic. I finished Assassin's Creed today and played a remarkable number of online games with Rick (Frontlines, Call of Duty 4, and about 8 matches of DoW: Soulstorm). I should have my final thoughts on Assassin's Creed up in the next day or so. I thought the game was pretty good overall but there were a few shortcomings in the gameplay that kept it from being great. Also, it ended on a massive cliffhanger, which I hate. Still the ending was pretty good despite that, so take that for what you will. Anyway, I better get to bed so I can start getting back into a normal sleep schedule. Later!

My Real Vacation

Now that my delusions of doing an advanced CoD4 project over the next few days are completely gone I've been starting to actually relax and enjoy what little remains of my vacation. I ran a few more errands today and picked up a copy of Dawn of War: Soulstorm and God of War: Chains of Olympus. Both games are pretty excellent (God of War is pretty much as good as the consoles on a handheld which is just crazy) and I've also been playing a fair amount of Frontlines with Rick. In addition, Rick recently sent me a free month on Gamefly which I have just activated and is sending me a copy of Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. So it's fair to say I have a number of things I'd like to play over the next few days.

Frontlines is actually quite a fun game, perhaps not enough to pull people away from their nightly CoD4 game, but definitely a fun and unique experience. Sadly, the game's multiplayer is plagued by horrible networking issues which make it very difficult to enjoy. When the game is running with a large number of players and minimal lag, it is awesome. Its combined arms fighting and focus on teamwork make it a very strategic and enjoyable departure from most of the 360's multiplayer lineup. Sadly, finding a lag-free server that has more than two people in it ends up being an epic quest somewhat akin to a Greek poem like the Odyssey or the Iliad.

Oddly enough, the biggest problem seems to be with the game's dedicated/ranked servers which just seem plain broken. Sometimes they won't even let you join (despite not being even remotely close to full) or the game is waiting for one more player before starting the game, but the server won't actually let anyone else join. It mars what is an otherwise fantastic multiplayer experience, and if the devs don't address it soon the window of opportunity will pass as players will just decide not to deal with it anymore. Rick and I will keep trying as we really do enjoy the gameplay, but there's only so much that even we are willing to take before it's back to CoD4 or on to something else.

Anyway, that was basically my day, now it's back to playing games and ignoring work. Later!

My Thoughts on Internet Gaming (thanks to Penny Arcade)

People have told me about this comic, but I'd never actually seen it with my own eyes. I completely and wholeheartedly agree with Gabe's theory, and I would add Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 to the list of evidence. Something about anonymity and people who are basically forced to listen to you makes the great majority of internet gamers become total D-bags, go figure...

Piracy Rant

I'm not sure exactly what triggered this train of thought, maybe it was recent discussions of piracy among my Guildhall classmates, maybe it was an article I recently read about piracy and how it is virtually destroying PC gaming, maybe it's simply my emerging career path as a game developer. I'm not really sure what the direct cause is, but I constantly have had my stance on piracy questioned and challenged without really any outlet for my own opinions, but then I realized: I have this outlet. Anyway, this isn't exactly work related, but I didn't do much today besides run a bunch of errands and play a few games, so this is probably more interesting than running through a list of the days events anyhow.

So as I said earlier, I am staunchly against piracy in all forms, but for this discussion I intend to focus on software piracy as it is the closest to me both as a gamer and as a developer. I oppose piracy for a number of reasons both moral/ethical (pirating is stealing and stealing is wrong...duh) and more economical which I'll get into in a minute. I believe, however, that the former reason is the easiest to promote and defend.

There are relatively few people in our society who would say that stealing is not wrong, with perhaps the exception of stealing in order to survive (not really topical when we are talking about music, movies, or software). That point isn't really up for debate, so if stealing is wrong than the debate must be that piracy isn't stealing, which has been my experience in the many debates I've had. Let me start by saying, unequivocally, that piracy is a form of stealing, there is no real way around this with the exception of delusions and justifications. The basic definition of stealing is:

to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right (1)

In turn, the definition of piracy is:

the unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material (2)

Where I get confused is where people see the distinction between these two statements, so let's look at some of the standard arguments:

1. It's not stealing because I'm not really taking anything. While this is somewhat true in that you haven't taken any physical item from anyone else, you have deprived them of the money they have earned by making a product that you clearly wish to have. That money goes towards paying salaries, overhead costs, and profits for shareholders that ensure the games you like keep getting made.
2. Intellectual property is meant to be free, you can't own ideas. This line of thinking is complete and utter crap. It's a good thing that Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, or Bill Gates didn't think this way or we'd probably still be using quills and candlelight. As society continues to evolve, we move more toward being defined by intellectual property, than physical property, this the future. Stop being a bum and get a job.
   
3. I know it's wrong, I just don't care. This is probably the most defensible position for a pirate. You accept that what you are doing is unethical, it just doesn't bother you enough to not do it. I'm not sure how someone can act in this fashion, but there's not really anything I can say against it since you've agreed with me as much as you can.

Now, assuming that most people can get to the point where they realize it's unethical they just don't care enough to stop, we come to the other reason I oppose piracy: Economics. Anyone who has been in an economics class or even seen one on TV understands the basic concept of supply and demand. Supply is how much of something there is and demand is how much people want it. As long as there is excess demand, there is profit to be made and people/companies will try to collect that profit by creating supply (in this case, software). Now how do these entities know what the demand is you ask? The answer is market signals.

It's not an exact science, but people are always trying to understand how to read the market, to understand what people are going to do and why. One particularly prevalent market signal are sales, as a classmate of mine would say, "the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior". That is, if a certain game sells well it is reasonable to assume that a similar game by a similar developer (or the same developer) will do equally as well. So by going out and buying that new game for $60 (or and indie game for say $25), you are telling the market that you like this game and would like to see more games like it in the future. I don't care if you pirate the game and then go telling people how great you think it is on every forum on the internet. Ultimately companies care about one thing and one thing only: profit, and if you're pirating the game you are helping ensure it fails, plain and simple. Much like the former point there are some standard arguments to this point as well. For example:

1. I wouldn't have bought it anyway. Perhaps a valid argument if you pirate the game, play it for an hour and discard it, but playing through a 40+ hour game then saying you "wouldn't have bought it anyway?" Come on, be serious, if this argument was even remotely true some of the most hardcore gamers I know would pretty much only own WoW or Everquest.
2. There isn't enough piracy to really affect a big company. Did you know that the PC piracy rate is estimated at around 80 to 90% in the US. That means that around 80 to 90% of PC game installations are pirated versions where the developer and the publisher receive no money whatsoever. I know that sounds outrageous, but just try searching for "piracy rate" on the internet and see. This may arguably have little effect on a large company with a diversified portfolio, but it could easily put a small company out of business. Accepting that these numbers are probably somewhat bloated (by pirates who just grab copies of everything for example), it still means there's a lot of money left lying on the table. It's not wonder PC gaming is sliding so heavily toward MMOs. You can't pirate your way into one of those and if you do, I imagine they'll figure it out pretty quick.
   
3. I'm not hurting anyone. Wrong. If that makes it easier for you, you go ahead and tell yourself that, but there are real people whose lives pretty much depend on these sales. After having experienced what they go through to make these games possible, I couldn't imagine taking their hard work and just walking away with it, without even giving them the credit (and compensation) they're due.

In the end, I don't expect this little rant to really change anyone's opinions about piracy, and likely there are many individuals who've written far more detailed analyses of the factors and arguments at hand. Still, I needed to get my thoughts on the matter off my chest, and this seemed like a pretty valid forum in which to do that. Piracy is a bad thing, beyond being clearly immoral, it is slowly crippling PC gaming and ensuring that in the near future the only thing left will be MMORPGs and flash games. I don't know if that's what you want but I know I don't.

Major Tom over and out.

Shortest. Project. Ever.

So after our first official meeting the Call of Duty 4 project has basically been canceled. After yesterday's meeting I think everyone could feel that the scope of what we were trying to accomplish was just too big for the time we have available and our limited experience with Radiant in general and CoD4Radiant in particular. I think everyone was a bit disappointed as well as relieved and I don't think anyone was too terribly surprised. This last term was pretty hard on a lot of us, and this week is pretty much all we have to recharge for next term, so I think everyone is better off not being tied down to anything too heavy.

I still intend to work with the editor over the week and try to at least get something playable out of it before the start of term, and another one of the designers is actually running with the original concept in the hopes of bringing people back in at a later date. The size of the team (6 designers in all by the end) had just gotten out of hand, and the team's size lead to an equivalently overscoped map that we were intending to create in less than a week with no prior experience with the editor. My feeling was that at best we could make something we were reasonably happy with and kill ourselves in the process pretty much guaranteeing burnout next term.

Anyway, that is the state of things. I spent a couple hours beating my head against a weird bug in some of the CoD4 Compile Tools, and a fair amount of time today working through my driver safety course so I can get my ticket dismissed. My level right now is just the big box I intend to put everything else into over the coming days. I will post some work in progress pictures once the map is at least mildly photogenic (or at least has something to see other than a gigantic wall. Now I need to fold some laundry and relax a bit before I need to head to bed. Later!

Volunteer Experience?

Well, today's meeting lasted about five hours longer than I expected or intended. Yep, that's right, I had a nine hour "meeting" on a Sunday on my "vacation." Admittedly, I almost entirely did this to myself, and quite beyond the fact of choosing game design as my career path. I decided a little while ago that working on a CoD4 map would be an interesting and fun use of my time, and given the current Infinity Ward map contest and the fact that we are using Radiant for our big solo term project next term, it seemed like this week was the perfect time to do it.

Unexpectedly, the size of the project very quickly grew to six level designers in total working on this one level. The result is the logistics of managing everything have become suitably more complicated and as the project's organizer of sorts, I've ended up taking the lead yet again. It's not that I mind, though I guess I am feeling a bit of stress to try and manage this project in addition to getting caught up on normal life tasks which have gotten away from me over the term. Vacation is basically the only time I really have to truly discharge from the giant ball of stress that is your average Guildhall term, and I want to make sure I'm not letting that get away from me.

Last term was already grueling, so giving up what precious recovery time I have doesn't seem like a very intelligent idea. Honestly, the project's scope definitely got away from me and has lead to a few more managerial responsibilities than I really intended. I suppose it's good practice just like the team project, and there's really no deadlines or grades attached to the project so I shouldn't really stress about it, but I don't want the rest of the team to feel like they are wasting their time. Anyway, I should figure out what exactly I need to do tomorrow as the last is certainly not insubstantial. Have a good night all!

P.S. I think the concept for our map is actually relatively original and could be a very interesting playspace, so it definitely has potential, but (as always) the devil is in the details. I'll try to keep you all posted as things develop.