"Twilight fades through blistered avalon."
Tuesday, we finally had Level Design for the first time. It’s a pretty big class. . almost too big. And there are graduate kids who have been thrown in with us. Which is probably why I was so put off by the whole thing, cause I didn’t recognize so many people. You get really acclimated to seeing the same faces, knowing what their work is like, how they react to things, that its always a strange feeling being in a class with a bunch of wild cards.
The person who stood out the most though was this kid who I knew was another one of the admins. He has a southern accent, is very very VERY chatty. And by that I mean, no one can speak a single thought without him commenting on it. Shami started out by giving us a rundown of the class, and as is typical Shami fashion, talk about where a lot of his students are today, who they are working for . . blah blah blah. And this kid just KEPT making comments about it. It was really annoying and Pierce and I just kept looking at eachother and whispering “THAT kid.” We then showed off our art bibles for a while, except we barely made It through half the class thanks to Shami going off topic constantly.
After class I walked over to the system’s office. Ben work snow during the day on Tuesday’s and Thursdays. So I wanted to stop by and say hi to him. I told him about the kid in our class that was annoying us. I just said “this really annoying kid who I’m pretty sure is another admin. . .”
“Wait, does he have a limp when he walks?”
“yeah.”
“Ooh. . . you have Hunter. . . haha.”
“So you know him.”
“Oooooh yeah. No, pretty much everyone has that reaction to Hunter. He’s got. . . I dunno, some kind of social issues.. . .”
“He’s gonna drive me insane.”
I went home and spent a quiet night at my place. I’ve been trying to enact a new rule. Where by, I decreed that I wouldn’t go over to Ben’s anymore on school nights. Its just tiring cause I usually stay late, then have to walk back to my car late at night (Ben walks with me of course but still. . .) then come home, find parking. . . Also, I think its just better that we aren’t smothering each other too much. Only problem is I think Ben didn’t get this memo. Monday night he called me when he got out of class.
“Do you have a lot of work tonight?” he asked me.
“No not really.”
“Want to come over to my place? I’ve got some drawings to do, but it shouldn’t take too long.”
“I dunno. . . we had an agreement I thought.”
“What agreement?”
“That I wouldn’t come over on school nights anymore.”
“Ohhhhh. . . right. . . no, I don’t think that was an AGREEMENT. At least I don’t’ remember agreeing to it. I think that was all you.”
“Well. . . . I want to. It’s just, y’know, I’m never home anymore other than to sleep. And Sadly I don’t’ pay for this place by the hour.”
“We could go out to eat!”
“We just went out yesterday.”
“Yeah but YOU paid.”
“Ben, the whole point of me paying was to give you a break for once. It wasn’t so we could go out MORE in one week.”
“Ohhhhhh finnnnnnnnnnnnnnneee.”
“I’m sure you can survive 3 days without my company.”
Tuesday night though I actually did have a mission, to write my paper for Survey. So I worked on writing up a game critique of Cooking Mama, while also doing some stuff for Game Crit online. Afterwards, I stayed up a little later than usual and played the Sims for a while. After I was done with the Sims, I got back online temporarily only to be barraged by Pierce who said he couldn’t figure out what to write for the paper so was just going to blow it off.
“Are you serious? C’mon just write something.”
“No. I’m tired. . and I just don’t feel like doing it.” On top of that I guess Marshall’s girlfriend was over and there were kissing sounds going on in the room and Pierce hated that and couldn’t sleep, so he was being all over dramatic and asking me to come and get him.
“Pierce, It’s 3 in the morning, I’m already in my pajamas, my car is in the overflow lot. . . You are fine honestly.” He then started threatening to call up Matt E and ask him for shelter.
“What? Matt? Why? After all he did to you. . .”
“But He’s SOMEONE and he’s here, and I just can’t take it anymore. I’ve had emotional break downs the past 2 nights in a row, and I’m about to have another one right now.” I didn’t go get him, I tried to explain to him that he was being overly dramatic and that he shouldn’t do something he might regret. He logged off eventually saying he was going to go take a shower and see how he felt afterwards.
The next day in Survey, Pierce showed up, he was the only one who didn’t have anything to turn in. But apparently Suanne will accept late stuff, and just deduct points from it. Pierce was telling me about how he was thinking of going to see one of the school’s shrinks.
“It’s that bad?” I asked. Honestly Pierce never appears upset to me, or at least not when he’s around me, so its hard for me to know how much he’ s exaggerating and how much he’s just hiding from me.
“I just. . can’t take this whole marshall thing anymore. I hate it, I can’t stand being home now, like, just the act of going to sleep at night, makes me anxious.”
I was talking about this with Ben later that night. He broke my rule slightly by stopping by my place on his way home from class for about half an hour. I told him about how I just think Pierce can’t handle a roommate. Like, EVER. Marshall may not be the ideal roommate, but I’m sure he’s livable. I don’t like Jenaffer, but it’s not like her presence is destroying my life. She’s nuisance but nothing to get upset about. So I don’t understand why Pierce can’t just cope, and realize it’s a part of life.
Anyway, as far as I know, Pierce hasn’t gone to see anyone yet.
Wednesday night had nothing to do really, so I got some more game Crit stuff out of the way cause I knew Thursday night would be busy, and I wouldn’t have time to take care of the stuff that would be due that night. I also played some more sims and chatted online with folks for a bit.
Thursday in Level Design, we spent the first half hour actually PLAYING unreal III (Note: the developers that made the Unreal III game, actually created an entire engine for the game. It’s such a powerful engine, that other game companies have liscensed it out, and many of the high graphics games you see today, actually use that engine. It’s cool, cause the game comes with the engine’s editor, which basically allows you to make ANYTHING or tweak anything in the game and make your own levels. The game department uses this of course a lot, and in this level design class, we can potentially upload our levels into the game itself. I happen to have gotten Unreal III at half price a while back for just $15. Probably one of the best purchases I’ve made in a while. )
We then FINALLY got back to showing off our art bibles. Really, there wasn’t a whole lot of critiqueing going on, just small suggestions on stuff. Pierce was kinda peeved because it turns out him, and Mitul (this kid from our interactive class last quarter) are both doing interior of cathedrals, in two different styles, but styles that are pretty much only a few hundred years apart from each other. Mostly what bothered Pierce was the fact that Shami didn’t’ even seem to notice, which lead Pierce to believe that he hadn’t been paying very close attention to his presentation. If anything, this to me just reads that Pierce is intimidated by having something directly to compare to him, and Mitul is a good artist, so. . . he kinda has a right to be.
At one point, Shami was talking about companies again, and mentioned that apparently Big Huge Games just went under (like last week!). I nearly chocked on my turkey sandwich when I heard that. 1. Because I had JUST been looking at them a few days ago for internships (and they actually DID have an internship program) and 2. Because they had met with Ben last year and told him to call them in a year when he had some more stuff to show off to them. So basically, they were one of his job opportunities.
So during our break, I walked over to the system’s office to see Ben.
“I have some bad news. Stay seated. . . . . . Big Huge games is no more.”
“. . . . wait. . . WHAT?”
“They’re gone.”
“When did this happen?”
“Last week I guess. Shami was just talking about it. It’s crazy, cause I was JUST looking at them a couple days ago. I didn’t see anything about that.”
“Wow. . they were fine just a year ago, when I met with them. They were looking for new people. . .”
What’s most disturbing is that well. . . as game designers we kind of feel like despite the however bad the economy might be or get, our industry would be relatively untouched. It’s part of the entertainment industry, and like Hollywood during the depression, it will be the big escape for people who. . y’know. . lose their jobs and what not. You get laid off? What’s there to do but sit down and play video games?
Game companies are constantly popping up and then quickly falling back down. It’ shard to get a good studio going, but Big Huge was actually a pretty stable one, or so we seemed to believe. I wouldn’t take it as such a warning if it wasn’t for the fact that Shami on the first day of actual class was telling us about his trip to GDC, and how he saw a bunch of SCAD alumns, who had gotten let go of companies and were out looking for jobs once again.
As I had discussed with Ben later, “It’s like. . . we already have to compete with everyone who’s graduating at the same time as us. And we all know that companies want “3 years experience minimum” which is of course, impossible if nobody will hire you straight off the bat. But, if jobs start to become more scarce, we won’t ONLY be competing with fresh grads, we’re also competing with people who’ve been in the industry, for 5 or 10 years already. . . I mean. . . I feel like we might be screwed. . . .”
After class, I ran up to the package center to return the other text book I had ordered from Amazon accidently. I then hung out in Pierce’ s room briefly while he tried out Bioshock. Since we still had a lot of time before our radio shift, I went home and took a nap first before coming back out to get Pierce before 6.
At our radio shift, Jon Rushing showed up towards the end with his freshly shaven face, and cut hair. He had sent me a picture of his new look a couple days ago as we were talking on facebook. I nearly fell out of my chair in shock.
“Don’t tell anyone, K?” Jon said.
“But but. . . .”
“No, keep it a secret until the meeting on Friday.”
“OH that’s going to be hard. . but. . . why did you do it?”
“I dunno, needed a change. I’ve had that look since freshman year.”
“But. . . its so. . . different. I don’t even know if I’ll recognize you anymore.”
“it’s upsetting you that much??”
“I get really attached to people’s appearances. I’m still recovering from when Pierce cut his hair over winter break. . .”
So when I actually saw it in person, it was still, despite my warning, very shocking.
After our shift, Pierce and I went and grabbed Ben, and then went and got McDonalds (Ben had already eaten of course, so we didn’t have to worry a bout feeding him), before returning to my place for movie night. Only problem was, none of our shows were on. FREAKIN ER FINALE!! GAH!!! I’ve always hated ER, but now I have an ACTUAL reason to not like it. . .
So Instead we went into my room and watched funny videos online for a couple hours. At around 10, Ben and I took Pierce back to his place before we both went back to Ben’s. On the way, we stopped at Kroger because I had a craving for Ice Cream. They didn’t’ have the ben and jerry’s I wanted so we just got cookie dough ice cream. We brought it back to Ben’s and had our usual movie night. Apparently Ben had never seen the Back to the Future Movies (or at least, only pieces of it). His roommate had it, so we ended up watching the first two in the course of one night.
Right before I was about to leave, I checked my phone to see a bunch of text messages I had somehow missed. Apparently I had left my phone on silent, though I could have sworn I checked it earlier that evening and hadn’t seen anything. I was shocked by how many text messages I had. One was from Natalie saying something about “Change your status right now!!!” I knew instantly that I must have left my facebook page up in the studio again, and Jon must have gotten into it to mess with. Last time he did this he just changed my status to say “Denise throws up after every meal.” Which wasn’t’ really all that bad. So I couldn’t for the life of me think what it could be that would make Natalie freak out.
So I turned on Ben’s old computer (the one he lets me use) and we both checked my facebook. As soon as my homepage popped up I saw that I had like. . . 8 notices, all of people commenting on my status and writing on my wall.
“OH dear god. . . “ I then checked my status and there it was “Denise is pregnant.”
“OH MY GOD! That bastard!” Ben seemed caught between amusement and annoyance at it.
“That’s a pretty dick move,” he said.
“Oh . . . its just Jon. He’s just being silly. Nobody (I hope) that commented seem to take it seriously, but they all seemed to think that I was the one that had put it up there. Why, I have no clue. . . . anyway, I changed it to “Denise thinks Jon is a funny guy, but needs to watch it. I also then commented on his wall “Thanks for changing my status. My cousin saw it” true story, both Amber and Katlyn commented on it “she then told my grandmother, who had a heart attack and died. Thanks for destroying my family!”
The radio meeting earlier today was actually mandatory. So I got out to Pierce’s at around 1:30, only to find him still in bed, he had forgotten to set his alarm. So I went and got a pop tart from a vending machine and ate it in the car while I waited for him to get ready. We still made it to the meeting on time. When I walked in, there was Jon sitting at the main table. He gave me a sheepish look.
“Did I got too far this time?”
“nnnnnnnnyeahhh. . kinda. I mean. I have like 5 text messages from my sister freaking out. . .”
“Seriously? Oh man. . . I’m sorry.” After the meeting he came over and apologized again with a hug. Honestly I thought it was a pretty good prank. I was more mad at how everyone else reacted as opposed to the fact that Jon did it in the first place.
“I almost took it further. I was going to put an ultrasound of a baby for your profile picture.”
“OH my god, that would have been REALLY good, but yeah, I’m glad you didn’t.”
During the meeting, Jake talked about how there was this movie called C Me Dance. That was some like. . weird horribly acted religious kinda movie that was on limited release in theatres. Apparntly it was supposed to be released in Savannah but it was pulled at the last minute. So he and Victoria were trying to get a group together to drive up to Charleston tonight to go see it. He showed us the trailer on his laptop and my god. . . it seriously looks like the most awesomely horrible movie ever. Pierce and I were both intrigued. But I had a bunch of game crit stuff that night, and when I did the calculations, I realize we probably wouldn’t get home till 5 in the morning (1.5 horus to Charleston, movie at midnight). So I said I MIGHT go and Pierce put down his name (he definetly wanted to go) on the sign up form.
Afterward, we both went back to my place and I worked on game crit stuff (I wanted to get it out of the way so that if I DID decide to go, I could quickly just go and not have to worry about not getting my work done) and Pierce played Hexic on my 360 (the game he decided he would ACTUALLY write his paper on). In game crit, we were assigned groups of 4 to do these group activities things throughout the quarter. Ben, Blake and I of course all requested to be in a group together, but we got this other kid thrown in with us. Ben says he’s had a bunch of classes with him and he’s a nice guy. Anyway, I offered to have our first meeting at my place on Saturday, and also offered to bake cookies. So I looked up a good home made chocolate chip cookie recipe online, and Pierce and I at around 5, went to Kroger so I could get a few things for it. After we were done, we realized we were finally getting hungry. So I called up ben and asked him if he wanted to go to eat with us he lives just a block away so we might as well. He had just eaten but he agreed to go with us just to hang out. We ended up finally going to Zunzi’s. I got a Conquistador sandwich. I’d heard the kids at the radio talk about it before. It’s, lettuce tommatoe, chicken breast strips and a special sauce on French bread. Seriously SOOOOOOO good. I was stunned by how delicious it was. The three of us walked to the nearby square to eat for a while. I told Ben about how I might be gone all night to Charleston. At first he acted like he didn’t like the idea of me going, but then tried to pass it off as him just joking around. It’s hard to tell with him whether he was generally upset about it or not.
After we ate, I decided I needed to get a bit of sleep in case Pierce and I DID end up going tonight. So I took Ben home first, then Pierce. Pierce is the one who left his phone number, so when he gets the call (if he gets the call, its 8 now, and still nothing) he’s supposed to see if they have an extra spot, and if so, I’ll go with them. Something tells me the whole thing might have fallen through though. Oh well, no road trip after all. . .
I should probably make the cookie dough tonight, and chill it over night before I actually make them tomorrow. I also bought a brownie mix because Ben, giving me grief, when I said I would make cookies said “what if someone doesn’t like cookies?”
“Then they must not be human.”
“But its possible.”
“Then I’ll make brownies too. Okay?”
“Good plan. I like variety.”
So actually most of my homework is out of the way. We really do NEED to get started on level design stuff now though. Since our concepts have been approved, its really time to start modeling. 8 weeks is really not long enough to make everything. I’m nervous just thinking about all that needs to be done with it. Luckily my other 2 classes aren’t TOO time consuming.