Overdue: Laptop, Work, Nuit Blanche, and more
I am WAY overdue to write *something*. It's not like I don't have anything to write, either -- quite the opposite, in fact.
Recent stuff. This all feeds in to itself, so lets start with the last bit of ongoing news.
Laptop!
Foremost: Thanks Dave!
I hunted around for laptops for a while, being mostly disappointed. After the suggestion to look at an HP TX2000 series laptop, I began reading more on modern tablet PCs from HPs line. The most frustrating aspect of shopping for these things, though, is that while I may know what I'm looking for, NO ONE in retail seems to know anything about the laptops. It's a damn shame.
Anyhow, after some comparisons, I decided I liked the cost and equipment of the TX 2500 tablets, and I began looking for them; comparing Best Buy, Future Shop and The Source just led me to depression. I wasn't aware until now that there's a very devious tactic to avoid price matching on computers, by ordering slightly different models of the same computer -- Between the three aforementioned stores, there is five versions of the TX 2500. No two store share a single model. Seriously, what's the point of having price matching when you're not interested in actually being competitive? It just sounds like price fixing to me.
On a whim, though, I checked the prices at Staples, not expecting them to carry the machine I was looking for. But lo, they did, and for a good sale price. At the time, I couldn't afford it, but I kept my eye on it, and the $150 off sale became a $250 off sale by the time I *was* ready to buy, and I got my hands on a lovely TX 2517 -- Full tablet, touchscreen, blue-tooth, 3 gigs of RAM and a dual core, 1.9 ghz AMD processor. Not the same power my desktop has, but that wasn't my intent. It did come with Vista, but I'm frankly not sure if I like or dislike the operating system. It's pretty, and it works. I have had some weird problems, but I could easily attribute that to all the wacky drivers that are running to operate all the unusual hardware packed in to the little box.
So that's been pretty awesome. It's slowly replacing my sketchbook, while I do more sketches and pixel drawings right on the screen. It's been very freeing. Related to this: I've been doing a lot more pixel art. For work, in fact. It's been a lot of fun... but I'll get back to that in a bit.
Right now, I want to pimp a program that may have selective use to some of you: WikidPad . Lately, I've found I wanted more consistency in terms of keeping track of information I use for game design and fiction, and ultimately, the most useful thing I could think of would be an offline wiki. So I found one. WikidPad is very useful for keep track of webbed notes, and it's pretty easy to use. There's some tricks to it, but it's a learning curve of about ten minutes, in honesty. Not only is it easy to edit and link things, but it accepts HTML and can be exported as an HTML site, if you want the info to be available afterward.
Right now, I've been working on a Wiki for the Aberrant Legends universe, since this massive campaign is drawing nearer to its epic endings, and I want to preserve all of its history for future games in the same setting. I'm also becoming tempted to write a similar wiki for the D&D campaign I've also been running "(Actions and) Consequences", and it's really weird world of Aur, where continents float amongst misty clouds above a core 'star', and where silver is a naturally feared color and omen of death. (That campaign is only just getting started, in fact. I expect the next three sessions to really explode out the plot, now that the whole original group is playing again. Exciting!)
As far as sorting info goes, WikidPad has been brilliantly useful. I know projects in the past where I would have loved to have had it, but alas. I recommend taking a look!
Back to Pixel Art. Yeah; I've been doing a lot more of it. I impressed some folks with an up-scaled version of Pac-Man art I did for internal purposes over at Decode, and we decided to go a similar route for a pair of flash games that'll be going online soon on YTV's website for a cartoon that *I* think is hilarious. More on that when I can link to it.
But beyond that, I've been having a blast at Decode. There's been ups and downs, of course -- stress makes any job blah at times. I've got my usual social concerns, since I am suspicious some of my non-essential coworkers truly dislike me (but haven't actually said as much) and that saddens me a little, but whatever. Can't be friends with everyone. For the people I *do* work with, things are good, overall. I was originally concerned about the attitude I was getting from the department graphic artist, Alex, but I think it was just settling pains. The dude is brilliant when it comes to illustrative work, so I'm glad things are patching up; he's someone I want on board when bigger projects start rearing.
Let's get some names out of the way: The whole clique from Interactive I work with in Interactive are Di (Creative Producer) and Jean Guy (Technical Lead), our bosses, and Quincy (Lead Programmer), Marc (Programmer), Jo (Programmer), Jason (Programmer), Alex (Graphic Artist) and Karen (Animator). All in all, a good group. Nothing more to add about them now, since I'd rather use this space to air my thoughts instead of gossiping. :P
As for bigger projects, however, there's been two pretty awesome developments. One: We're shipping our first iPhone/iPod Touch game in the next week or so. It's already done, we're just waiting for Apple to approve it. It is the MOST badass Whac-a-mole game you'll play, so buy it (Whack-a-Lantern) if you've already sold your soul to Apple. It's adorable, and fairly addictive. Apologies if you can't beat level 6-1, that's my fault. :P
We've got lots of awesome stuff coming up like this though. There's two proposals I'm excited about that we're waiting to hear about -- one is for a very unique tycoon game, and the other is for a totally ridiculous strategy game. Both of which should be a fair amount of fun.
Perhaps more importantly to ME, though, is that I was recently asked to do a more detailed document on an original game proposal. MY original game proposal. Needless to say, I'm excited, and giant robots are involved. Right now I'm not sure of what the scale of the project is going to be like, entirely, so I'm still unsure of how crazy it'll be. But I'm going from the sensation of a AAA title and then stepping it backward until it's something simple and consumable. If it takes off, then I can totally push toward the more advanced title down the line. If not, it's still my first original idea to get any push, so it's a chance to start building a really impressive professional portfolio. I'm really thrilled with the direction things are going, but it's beginning to look like I may need to buy an iPod Touch so that I can show off some of my work. Maybe I'll go looking on Boxing day, it won't be terribly relevant before then.
That's all about work for now.
Nuit Blanche last night: Seriously?
I don't know how many people I know were out there last night, but I was even less impressed than last year. There were a few good pieces, (Like the Waterfall, and the alleyway turned in to an Office, and the weird installation at Maple Leaf Gardens), but there were a lot of truly dumb, half-assed, and boring pieces out there. Some of the stuff that sounded like it would be cool turned out to be really stupid. It was really disappointing. (When your work is less impressive than a giant blue balloon, suspended spinning in the Eaton Centre, you've got a clear problem.)
The real kicker was that the focus remains away from art. The streets were overcrowded and not with people looking for discussion, but with people that were tanked. Lots of surprisingly young people were absolutely wasted, and it was pretty obnoxious. Nuit Blanch is pretty officially not an 'Art Party', but a 'Party with an Art theme'.
Additionally, it's become clear to me that the majority of artists involved were the poorer kinds of students from my Studio classes -- the people who couldn't take negative criticism, the people who rushed their work, the people who pulled stuff out of their ass to describe their works intent AFTER the fact, poorly and shamelessly. For the art it's supposed to be promoting, Nuit Blanche's bar is set precariously low.
Maybe next year will be different. It was still fun, but I went out to see and discuss art, and that was clearly not on the city's agenda.
Alright! Off to lunch, and then it's on to D&D!
(Here's hoping I update more regularly, rather than these mega-posts!)
- Kagirinai
Recent stuff. This all feeds in to itself, so lets start with the last bit of ongoing news.
Laptop!
Foremost: Thanks Dave!
I hunted around for laptops for a while, being mostly disappointed. After the suggestion to look at an HP TX2000 series laptop, I began reading more on modern tablet PCs from HPs line. The most frustrating aspect of shopping for these things, though, is that while I may know what I'm looking for, NO ONE in retail seems to know anything about the laptops. It's a damn shame.
Anyhow, after some comparisons, I decided I liked the cost and equipment of the TX 2500 tablets, and I began looking for them; comparing Best Buy, Future Shop and The Source just led me to depression. I wasn't aware until now that there's a very devious tactic to avoid price matching on computers, by ordering slightly different models of the same computer -- Between the three aforementioned stores, there is five versions of the TX 2500. No two store share a single model. Seriously, what's the point of having price matching when you're not interested in actually being competitive? It just sounds like price fixing to me.
On a whim, though, I checked the prices at Staples, not expecting them to carry the machine I was looking for. But lo, they did, and for a good sale price. At the time, I couldn't afford it, but I kept my eye on it, and the $150 off sale became a $250 off sale by the time I *was* ready to buy, and I got my hands on a lovely TX 2517 -- Full tablet, touchscreen, blue-tooth, 3 gigs of RAM and a dual core, 1.9 ghz AMD processor. Not the same power my desktop has, but that wasn't my intent. It did come with Vista, but I'm frankly not sure if I like or dislike the operating system. It's pretty, and it works. I have had some weird problems, but I could easily attribute that to all the wacky drivers that are running to operate all the unusual hardware packed in to the little box.
So that's been pretty awesome. It's slowly replacing my sketchbook, while I do more sketches and pixel drawings right on the screen. It's been very freeing. Related to this: I've been doing a lot more pixel art. For work, in fact. It's been a lot of fun... but I'll get back to that in a bit.
Right now, I want to pimp a program that may have selective use to some of you: WikidPad . Lately, I've found I wanted more consistency in terms of keeping track of information I use for game design and fiction, and ultimately, the most useful thing I could think of would be an offline wiki. So I found one. WikidPad is very useful for keep track of webbed notes, and it's pretty easy to use. There's some tricks to it, but it's a learning curve of about ten minutes, in honesty. Not only is it easy to edit and link things, but it accepts HTML and can be exported as an HTML site, if you want the info to be available afterward.
Right now, I've been working on a Wiki for the Aberrant Legends universe, since this massive campaign is drawing nearer to its epic endings, and I want to preserve all of its history for future games in the same setting. I'm also becoming tempted to write a similar wiki for the D&D campaign I've also been running "(Actions and) Consequences", and it's really weird world of Aur, where continents float amongst misty clouds above a core 'star', and where silver is a naturally feared color and omen of death. (That campaign is only just getting started, in fact. I expect the next three sessions to really explode out the plot, now that the whole original group is playing again. Exciting!)
As far as sorting info goes, WikidPad has been brilliantly useful. I know projects in the past where I would have loved to have had it, but alas. I recommend taking a look!
Back to Pixel Art. Yeah; I've been doing a lot more of it. I impressed some folks with an up-scaled version of Pac-Man art I did for internal purposes over at Decode, and we decided to go a similar route for a pair of flash games that'll be going online soon on YTV's website for a cartoon that *I* think is hilarious. More on that when I can link to it.
But beyond that, I've been having a blast at Decode. There's been ups and downs, of course -- stress makes any job blah at times. I've got my usual social concerns, since I am suspicious some of my non-essential coworkers truly dislike me (but haven't actually said as much) and that saddens me a little, but whatever. Can't be friends with everyone. For the people I *do* work with, things are good, overall. I was originally concerned about the attitude I was getting from the department graphic artist, Alex, but I think it was just settling pains. The dude is brilliant when it comes to illustrative work, so I'm glad things are patching up; he's someone I want on board when bigger projects start rearing.
Let's get some names out of the way: The whole clique from Interactive I work with in Interactive are Di (Creative Producer) and Jean Guy (Technical Lead), our bosses, and Quincy (Lead Programmer), Marc (Programmer), Jo (Programmer), Jason (Programmer), Alex (Graphic Artist) and Karen (Animator). All in all, a good group. Nothing more to add about them now, since I'd rather use this space to air my thoughts instead of gossiping. :P
As for bigger projects, however, there's been two pretty awesome developments. One: We're shipping our first iPhone/iPod Touch game in the next week or so. It's already done, we're just waiting for Apple to approve it. It is the MOST badass Whac-a-mole game you'll play, so buy it (Whack-a-Lantern) if you've already sold your soul to Apple. It's adorable, and fairly addictive. Apologies if you can't beat level 6-1, that's my fault. :P
We've got lots of awesome stuff coming up like this though. There's two proposals I'm excited about that we're waiting to hear about -- one is for a very unique tycoon game, and the other is for a totally ridiculous strategy game. Both of which should be a fair amount of fun.
Perhaps more importantly to ME, though, is that I was recently asked to do a more detailed document on an original game proposal. MY original game proposal. Needless to say, I'm excited, and giant robots are involved. Right now I'm not sure of what the scale of the project is going to be like, entirely, so I'm still unsure of how crazy it'll be. But I'm going from the sensation of a AAA title and then stepping it backward until it's something simple and consumable. If it takes off, then I can totally push toward the more advanced title down the line. If not, it's still my first original idea to get any push, so it's a chance to start building a really impressive professional portfolio. I'm really thrilled with the direction things are going, but it's beginning to look like I may need to buy an iPod Touch so that I can show off some of my work. Maybe I'll go looking on Boxing day, it won't be terribly relevant before then.
That's all about work for now.
Nuit Blanche last night: Seriously?
I don't know how many people I know were out there last night, but I was even less impressed than last year. There were a few good pieces, (Like the Waterfall, and the alleyway turned in to an Office, and the weird installation at Maple Leaf Gardens), but there were a lot of truly dumb, half-assed, and boring pieces out there. Some of the stuff that sounded like it would be cool turned out to be really stupid. It was really disappointing. (When your work is less impressive than a giant blue balloon, suspended spinning in the Eaton Centre, you've got a clear problem.)
The real kicker was that the focus remains away from art. The streets were overcrowded and not with people looking for discussion, but with people that were tanked. Lots of surprisingly young people were absolutely wasted, and it was pretty obnoxious. Nuit Blanch is pretty officially not an 'Art Party', but a 'Party with an Art theme'.
Additionally, it's become clear to me that the majority of artists involved were the poorer kinds of students from my Studio classes -- the people who couldn't take negative criticism, the people who rushed their work, the people who pulled stuff out of their ass to describe their works intent AFTER the fact, poorly and shamelessly. For the art it's supposed to be promoting, Nuit Blanche's bar is set precariously low.
Maybe next year will be different. It was still fun, but I went out to see and discuss art, and that was clearly not on the city's agenda.
Alright! Off to lunch, and then it's on to D&D!
(Here's hoping I update more regularly, rather than these mega-posts!)
- Kagirinai