Another Oblivion Crunch

Well, despite our best intentions, Charles and I are once again doing the late night, early morning handoff schedule in order to try and prepare our Oblivion project for the next milestone. We wanted to avoid this situation, but once again different tasks throughout the week got ahead of us and we ended up working more on the team project (or studying for our midterm) and Oblivion kept getting put off. So here we are, I've got 4.5 hours until the 2:00 A.M. handoff and then I probably need to wake up around 8:00 A.M. to get the file back and keep working. Huzzah!

Punchy

Well, it's about 1:20 A.M. and I just got home from school. Now, I know what you're thinking, the school closes at 1:00 and I live about 5 min. away, how can I have just gotten home? Well, that is because my car decided (in a delicious bit of inanimate object irony) to not start when I tried to leave school. Those who know my car know this is not an uncommon occurrence. My car has had this issue for almost three years now and countless attempts to get it repaired have proved futile. Anyway, it seems that lately my car has decided to do this at most inopportune moments though perhaps that is currently because my life is full of inopportune moments for it to strike.

Anyway, it was another busy day in paradise. I spent the morning preparing for my midterm which was largely opinion based and I have no idea how it went. My answers seemed well-founded, but that doesn't mean the professor will necessarily agree. Then I spent pretty much the rest of the day working on team stuff like our team meeting/potluck this evening or our prototype game design document which is due tomorrow. That was my day, and now I need to sleep before tomorrow arrives and I need to do it all again. Though tomorrows particular salt mine is Oblivion work. Hooray!

NFL-predicting camel predicts Giants to win Superbowl XLII

I was watching Headline News this morning and this headline came up, which I just had to share...

Jaded

It's funny sitting in class listening to your classmates talk about their current opinions about school and work, and trying to remember to bright-eyed optimists you all used to be only a mere half a year ago. Alright, maybe "bright-eyed optimists" is going a bit to far, but when your entire schedule is just slamming you to the ground this place can really drive you nuts. I mean, I've basically spent the whole day working and I'm still behind on like three things, tomorrow we have a midterm that I have absolutely no idea how to study for and then Thursday and Friday I have two major project milestones in two days. I mean, that kind of stuff pretty much every week would make anyone go crazy or at least get bitter, and it would seem the majority of the level designers did the latter. Well, maybe a little of both...

Anyway, ultimately I think we are all excited and happy to be working on games and we can't wait until it's our job, but actually being here sucks. I mean, don't get me wrong there are rewarding times, I think I'm getting a lot of great experience, and there are things I truly enjoy, but the whole seems to delight in torturing it's students with outrageous demands just to see if it can break them. I mean, we have gone from 17 level designers to 8 in two terms. That's almost a 50% washout, which is around 8% per month. Anyway, I don't want to spend my night or my post lamenting my position here, I have a chance that not many do, and I know this is what I want to do, it's just a long, painful road from here to there...

Alright, well on that note I guess I'll wrap this one up. Sorry things couldn't be a little more fun and exciting, but it's been a long couple of weeks, and I think its starting to get to everyone, including me.

To Do List Rollover

You ever have it where your to do list is so long that stuff inevitably rolls off the back end and your daily list of tasks turns into this unwieldy mess of tasks? I think I've been planning to change my oil for like two months...

Anyway, today wasn't terribly eventful, I worked on a couple different documents and our Oblivion project throughout the day, and I'm starting to set up project management for the upcoming production of our prototype. It sure will be nice to have a week where a document isn't due. Man, that's gonna be sweet.

This week should be a bit of a bear:

• Level Design Midterm on Wednesday
• Prototype GDD due Thursday
• Team Contract due Thursday
• Programming HW due Thursday
• Oblivion Alpha due Friday

And then of course an assortment of meetings and general project management tasks that I need to start focusing on in order for my team to successfully complete our prototype. It's not exactly critical at this point, but time spent thinking about and planning these things now means a lot less time wasted later. Anyway, it's been a long day so I think I'm gonna lie down in front of the TV before I need to turn in. Night all!

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Well, it's been one hell of a Sunday. I am currently still up working on compiling and editing a first draft of the Prototype Game Design Document so that we can submit it for review tomorrow morning, and I have spent most of the day working either to write my section of the document or to try and get some work done on our Oblivion module. I also ran to pick up some groceries and decided to treat myself to a purchase of Burnout: Paradise only to get pulled over on my way home for a completely bogus ticket.

See, next to the Best Buy there's this turn that has a sign that will light up and tell you you can't turn on red at certain times. I turned at this turn and the officer claims the light was on when I turned, and I claim it was not. While I think we both honestly believe our positions the unfortunate state of the law is the only way I can argue the ticket is if the officer doesn't show up on the court date. Also, apparently I am expected to show up at the court in person within 12 working days to schedule the court date, but I have to wait at least 4 working days to ensure they have actually received the citation. Bah!

Anyway, I'm trying not to get upset over it, but it cast a pall over one of the few rewards I've actually had time to give myself. I guess it's just another one of those things I don't really have any control over, so there's no use lamenting something I can't really change. Alright, I better get back to work if I want to get a decent night's sleep. Later!

Busy Saturday

Today was a long Saturday full of work and meetings. I met with my leads for two hours to talk about the Team Roles & Responsibilities Doc, Team Contract, and Prototype GDD we have all due this Thurdsay, not to mention actually beginning to discuss how we're going to put this whole thing together. Then I had a 2+ hour meeting with the level design team (this time wearing my level designer hat) to discuss general level design for the game and what we want to do for prototype. Then I came home and did some more stuff on the team project and finished my programming assignments for Tuesday. Now I think I'm going to play some games before I end up passing out on the couch. Night!

Not-So Eternal Sonata

So it's been a long week as you all are probably well aware. I spent most of the last 24 hours trying to get our Oblivion mod ready for the prototype milestone, and I've spent most of the week trying to manage a ridiculous load of projects. To finally let off some steam, I was indulging in my Friday night "play games and don't think about work" ritual, and I decided the time had come to take down Eternal Sonata. I was already most of the way to the end, but I got sidetracked by other games and the courseload of Term 2. Anyway, having finished the game, I have two important questions for anyone who's finished or at least played it:

1. What is that game about? Admittedly my play time was a bit broken up, but having just sat through the 30+ min. finale, I have absolutely no idea what happened. The storyline started off seeming generic enough, but then it went all crazy on me and I have no idea what happened. I don't intend to go into any details, so as not to spoil anything, but things definitely spiral off in unexpected directions.
2. Where are my achievement points? I'm not really certain how you finish a 30-hour RPG and get around 120 points, and then the rest are labeled "secret" so I don't have any idea what they are. Did anyone manage to get achievements other than the 12 "playing through the game" achievements on their first run?

Anyway, neither here nor there, just wondering what people's thoughts were. The game definitely has some high points, particularly the graphics and art style are phenomenal. The combat system is pretty fun for a while, but eventually gets boring (not unlike Tri-C's other offering Star Ocean: Til the End of Time). Sadly, the plot is probably one of the weakest aspects as it just kind of meanders around pontificating on the state of the world and lacks any real climax or resolution, this may also be helped by the broken economy and overly powerful characters which make the game seem way too easy. Ultimately I think it's a good game for people who are new to RPGs or just want to look at the pretty colors (which are, in fact, very pretty), but as someone who's been playing RPGs for a while, my key concern is story and I think the game ultimately didn't deliver like I'd hoped. Still, I got plenty of enjoyment out of it at the beginning so I can't really complain to much. Now, I'm off to play some more games before I have to head to bed to prepare for another working weekend. Huzzah!

T -8.5 Hours To Prototype

Our prototype module is due by 5:00 P.M. today. I just got the module back from the other developer so here we go...

You know it's a crunch when...

You hand the file off to another team member at 2:00 A.M. and plan to get it back at 8:00 A.M. in order to keep working on it. Oh well, things could be worse, our proposal went really well, and the professors were very complimentary. Now, I need to steal some sleep before I have to get back to work. Night All!

Pop Proposal Presentation, Everyone!

I'm not sure if I actually mentioned this on the blog, but over the past week we were basically explicitly told that we would NOT have a presentation tomorrow morning, yet lo and behold here I am preparing one. Yes, that's right, at about 5:00 P.M. today we were informed we needed to give a brief presentation on our game tomorrow morning. To be fair, I don't think this was a trick or anything that nefarious, just a measure of poor planning mixed with poor timing. Nevertheless, I should be working on Oblivion scripts tonight, but I am instead preparing for a presentation. Actually, I suppose I intend to do both as the presentation is mostly ready, just not well rehearsed. Anyway, my workload just seems to keep growing so I better get on it. Later!

Feedback's a B@$!%

Actually it's a good thing we are getting feedback on our proposal doc and the overall concept that we are proposing, but the result is a large number of small changes to make to the doc and a few substantial ones, in addition to trying to reconcile feedback from disparate sources. Anyway, I need to have most of the changes basically done tonight so I can hand it off to one of my leads for final polish and review, so I better get to it. Later!

My Day "Off"

Well, we got today off since it is MLK day which basically meant that instead of attending a three- hour class from 2:00-5:00 I attended a two-hour meeting with my leads from about 2:00-4:00. Actually, to be fair the day gave me some much needed to time to work on things other than schoolwork, most notably my apartment. Throughout last term my apartment had become progressively more disorganized, and I had finally gotten to the point where even I couldn't tolerate it anymore. My apartment wasn't dirty per se, but there were piles of mail that needed to be read, old assignments and documents that needed to be sorted and either put away or recycled, and a pile of clothes on my bedroom floor that needed to be cleaned up. Okay, that last one is just dirty...

Anyway, I spent most of the day working on getting my apartment into working order and I think I am much happier for it. It's nice to know where things are, and know that there's no hidden bill or jury summons sitting in that pile of mail I haven't had time to look through yet. The meeting with my leads went well and I think the team is in a good position to deliver our proposal doc on Thursday. We are just putting the finishing touches on the first draft tonight so we can send it into the professors for review. Hopefully, we can get some good feedback on the doc and fix any major issues before final submission. Then, the only thing left to worry about is my Oblivion project. The proposal is due tomorrow (currently, out for review) and the prototype is due Friday. It's a bit of a quick turnaround to be sure, but I think the rest of my classes should be relatively light this week so hopefully that should make things doable. Here's hoping!

Either way, it'll get done one way or another. That's pretty much all that's going on work-wise. When I get time to play games, I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy and Assassin's Creed, which is kind of annoying since they both use the same input on my TV requiring my to swap the cables out depending on which one I want to play. For now, I've got a bit more work I'd like to do on the proposal doc before we send it in for review, so I better get to that. Then tomorrow I need to start working on our Oblivion project as there are a few things we're trying to do that I know can be done (i.e., the game does it), but I haven't the foggiest idea how, and I've got to figure it out before Friday. Fun, fun, fun!

The Truth Shall Set You Free

During one of my regular "I have too much work, will this ever end!?" rants with Rick, it had occurred to me to ask my dear brother my recent whining was the same as it had been last term, and to my surprise his response was a reasonably confident "yes." I had been pretty confident that this term was somehow worse than my prior terms had been, however looking back at my posts from the beginning of last term, it would seem he's probably right. Now there are some mitigating circumstances here which may be making my current work seem worse than last term. Mostly coming off of a three-week break of doing absolutely nothing productive (for which I am entirely to blame) and this term's current focus on documentation over everything else. Also, there was that Oblivion assignment which I've already complained about so I don't think I need to bring it up again.

I think the truth is that the three weeks of blissful sleep and gaming made me forget what it means to be a student here, which is a dangerous situation. It's not always impossible to relax here its just that sometimes they make it very, very hard. Also, with the focus on game design and documentation instead of general level design, we've been operating in more of a white space than usual, which isn't a bad thing, but it's an adjustment. I like structure. Telling myself that I am going to sit down for ~10-12 hours and work on a list of tasks for my level is a structure that I can accept. Even the structure of writing the level abstracts and level design documents is something that I had gotten used to.

On the other hand, pure game design and concept development feels largely without structure. Sometimes the ideas don't come quickly or completely baked, and every discussion really only opens the door to new discussions. This is actually kind of an exciting process - basically creating a game from scratch (minus using an established engine of course). I feel like the concept for Extinction is getting better and better, but it's still a relatively slow and tedious process at some points, and nothing around here is ever allowed to proceed slowly.

In hindsight, this really shouldn't be a new experience as the conceptualization of VIRUS proceeded in a similar manner, but I guess it still felt like we had more time, and in that case we actually created the game in the same term! Maybe it's an illusion, or maybe this term is still experiencing some growing pains from the new curriculum. Either way, I guess it's something my brain is slowly getting used to again. I think by the end of my vacation, my brain was getting used to sleeping and relaxing in front of the TV and so now I'm trying to remind it what it means to be a student here. Once I've got that worked out, I think I'll be back to my sleep-deprived, overworked, perfectionist self. Though it may not sound that great it's definitely better than trying to work while your brain is still on vacation. You'll just have to trust me on that.

Now, I must go, my concept document isn't going to write itself...

Term 3 is 25% complete

If there's one thing to be said for these new 8-week terms, it's much easier to convert weeks into % completion. I mean what is 1/11? It's like 9 percent and change...

Anyway, today was a typical working Saturday. I woke up around 11:30, did my exercises, had breakfast, then had to run off to school for ~6 hours of meetings, came home and made dinner, ate dinner and watched some Futurama, then finally finished up with some CoD4. I probably should have done some work on the documents I need to write for tomorrow, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm not sure if we have more work, or I just have less tolerance for it, but this term has seemed pretty brutal thus far, and we've only just completed the second week. Hopefully, things will start looking up but I'm not holding my breath.

This term has been especially hard on the leads since we are ultimately in charge of concept development and documentation for our team. Which basically means that the eight of us (four on each team) have an extra classload of work than the rest of the cohort. The joys of being a leader, right? ;-) I guess I can't complain too much, I like the job, it's just right now we are spending a lot of time documenting and talking about things and very little time actually doing things which somewhat mitigates the sense of accomplishment. Also, when I wake up on a Sunday morning it's easier to get excited about a day full of level design work than a day full of documentation. Not to say the concept development stuff isn't cool, I actually like that kind of thing, it just needs to be offset with some sense of accomplishment along the way, and a longer timeline couldn't hurt.

Anyway, I need to get some rest so I can hit the ground running tomorrow and finish my write-ups. Hopefully, I'll more fun and interesting things to report on soon. Later!