This is why a lot of studios keep a low profile....

You just never know whose going to show up - whether its a job seeker with "the greatest game ever" idea or someone trying something a little more sinister. Over at Kotaku, they have an article about a disgruntled person spray painting "shit game" on developer Koei's front door! What a thing to see on the way in to work. I would like to say that no developer ever starts a game by saying "I'm going to make a pile of crap game." Most of the time the quality of the game is affected by the iron triangle of time, money, and scope. All of these factors must be balanced to make a game that does well in the market place. Luck is also a significant factor. Some times the gaming public has reached its saturation point for a shooter or an RPG.

The craziest thing that ever showed up on the front door of a studio I was working at had to be a homeless lady. She slept on our front porch every Thursday night for about a month. We felt bad for her so we didnt shoo her away - we just used the back door!

Yes I finally broke down....

While at Ohare airport, I paid for my first Iphone game. I think its the first trickle of an eventual torrent that may overwhelm my data plan and my bank account. Who am I kidding, xbox live arcade already does this ;)Which is why I was reluctant to use my phone for anything else than calls, email, and pics. However, bored out my mind with terrible images of Japan being shown on CNN relentlessly is a dangerous place to be. I glanced around looking for some one to engage with a friendly conversation witty, repartee or some other interaction. Who was I kidding, total strangers dont speak to each other anymore in the airport. I think most people would rather be skinned alive and fed to small crabs than have an awkward, stilted conversation about the weather. At this moment of weakness, in the gray airport lounge surrounded by other poor human beings resigned to a similar fate, I found myself drawn to that happy little red bird icon. "Im only 99 cents," he seemed to say. I think he winked at me and the next thing I know he was downloading to my desktop over the airports free wifi. I didnt even have bandwidth charges to help stop me! So I clicked and off we were. I didnt get far, the plane soon boarded but I must say its a great little time waster game. Its got everything that you need and loads of personality. The developers site is here - I wish them all the success that this little game can bring them! I have set it down for now but the little red bird might call to me again....he's sinister that way...

Hahaha - this is pretty funny

There is a lot of truth that these little guys spout. Sometimes I think Willy Nelson should have sung "Momma dont let your babies grow up to be game designers...." We dont even have a frito dispenser....

Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

I really enjoy looking at the haunting photos that these two collaborators shot in their seven week long trips to Detroit. These are some of my favorites..

The brown weathering on the glass is phenomenal to me. The broken lines are like wrinkles earned after so many cycles of weather.

The angle of the baby grand seems to point up at the ceiling where the beautiful chandelier used to be.

This sad old place looks like an refuge from A Nightmare Before Christmas. It was demolished not long after the picture was taken.

Texture site

Im always looking for good texture sites. Nothing's worse when you are running around a map and you see a texture that you used from a site in another game. This happens a lot with ones that I have grabbed from CG textures. I think everybody in the industry uses that site. Its nice to have some variety! Honestly most people probably don't realize it (or even care). Its one of my pet peeves though! Here's a site that has a large selection of textures and allows you to download 3 a day for free. Beyond that you have to pay but its pretty reasonable. I found out about it through one of Eat3D's excellent tutorials.

Olmec Heads

So I have been interested in the giant Olmec heads found in Mexico and Central America ever since I saw and exhibit at the Smithsonian years ago. I found out that Micah Wright also likes them and he has an excellent little site dedicated to them. I did not know that there are only 17 known Olmec heads. Someday when I am retired, I wouldnt mind searching for more. There must be more of them just waiting for someone to rediscover them.

Micah is a bit of a renaissance man that has written for many different mediums including video games. I have never met him but he sounds like a really interesting person that I wouldnt mind talking to over a few cervezas!

Soviet Tank Graveyard

In Kiev, there is a large tank grave yard filled with rotting cold war era tanks. They are side by side and stacked on top of each other. Space is apparently a premium there. As a kid I used to love to visit Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. They have an outdoor tank museum that has nearly every WW2 tank a kid could want to see. Lots of cool German panzer tanks some of which are painted in their authentic colors. Back then you could even climb on them a bit. The hatches and gun ports were welded shut but it was easy to imagine those metal monsters springing to life and charging across the open Maryland countryside. Here is a picture of a Jagdtiger by Narayan Sangupta he has an excellent site on Aberdeen and has many pictures of the tanks there!

Unreal Powered Goodness

I've worked with a lot of tech in my time Unreal, Radiant, Hammer, Red Storm's homegrown stuff, Bungie's tech to name a few. One of my favorites, was the tech that I learned on Unreal. The creative freedom that it gave me as a designer was incredibly empowering. Using its visual scripting language to craft game play scenarios and cinematic moments thrilled me to no end. Seeing the latest shots from GDC has me drooling over the capabilities of this latest round of tech. The cinematic quality of lighting and realistic depth of field blow me away. Take a look at it right here from a thread on Neogaf!