PAX East Recap: Day 3

[Where did this month go? Regardless, here's a new blog post.]

Day 3: 3/13/11

Last day of PAX East means do everything you wanted to do this weekend that you didn't get a chance to do before it's over. Luckily for us, there was only one panel we wanted to see on Sunday and it didn't start until 4:30PM. So, we hit the expo floor one last time to play some games. First up was Dance Central at the Kinect booth. I did not partake in either dancing nor Kinect-ing, but Melissa and Amanda played and got free t-shirts. The guy staffing the booth looked as if he had been dancing all weekend and he seemed to know all the moves for every song (poor guy).

Next we hit up the Nintendo booth one final time. This time I stayed in the booth area to try a few 3DS games, including Kid Icarus: Uprising, Street Fighter IV 3D, Pilotwings, and the built-in AR (Augmented Reality) game. Playing the AR game made me want the 3DS slightly more, but not enough to spend $250 on it. Unlike the previous two days, there were actually free 3DS beanies given away on Sunday which was a neat surprise. Of course, we also strolled around the Pokémon booth to take a final look and snap some photos.

The two other games that I played were Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes HD and Monday Night Combat. I had played Monday Night Combat last year and thought it was great, but I still hadn't purchased it a year later. I think the next time Steam puts it on sale I'll pick it up. I hadn't played Clash of Heroes before but I knew Capybara Games worked on it and the previous DS title of the same name. It's a pretty awesome game and lots of fun but not the type that I usually play. I am, however, looking forward to picking up the Capy-published Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP for the iPod Touch later this month.

As we have learned so far, when we have free time we play Pokémon in the handheld lounge. Sunday was no exception. After wandering around the expo hall we headed back to our beanbag hideaway. We hung around here for a little bit and then got in line for "Start Your Own Damned Company" panel with Chris, Ichiro, Eitan, and Scott from before and a new addition of Damian Isla from Moonshot Games. This panel was similar to yesterday's "Just Because You Have an Idea..." panel except it was directed towards starting an indie video game company. Like Scott's talk on Friday, this one helped me decide that I want to stick towards the art of game design rather than the business side of it.

And with that, our PAX East weekend was over. What? So soon? Yup, unfortunately the time had come for us to head home. Leaving the Cat Theatre after our last panel we took one last walk around the expo hall, took some final pictures, and headed home.

(Next up, a conclusion!)

PAX East Recap: Day 2

[Oops, lost track of time and missed my "write a new blog post every day" plan. Anyways, here's day 2 of PAX East.]

Day 2: 3/12/11

Saturday was another pretty early morning, since the first panel we wanted to go to was at 10:30AM. We got to the convention center around 9:00AM and got in line at the Wyvern Theatre for "Just Because You Have an Idea, You Are Not a Game Designer." The panelists here were Ichiro Lambe of Dejobaan Games, Chris Oltyan of Dire Wolf Digital, Eitan Glinert of Fire Hose Games, and Scott Macmillan of Macguffin Games (once again). This panel, similar to "I HAVE A GREAT IDEA FOR A GAME!!" from last year's PAX East, consisted of the panelists answering audience-submitted questions and arguing with each other about the right answer. They agreed that having ideas is different from being an actual game designer and that if you want to be a game designer you should go home and actually make games. This panel was not only informative but also very humorous as always.

With little time between the end of the first panel and the start of our next panel, we decided to get in line early and play Pokémon Black & White to pass the time. Next up was "Geek Parenting," a panel about raising kids as a geek parent when your child may or may not share your hobbies and interests. I know, I'm not a parent yet and probably won't be for a while, but it seemed like an interesting panel since me being a geek parent in the future is certain. Although it was fun and interesting (even though we didn't win any of the free stuff they gave away) I had hoped that it would be more about tips for raising your child with geeky-ness rather than just "I play games with my kid sometimes."

Like the day before, we spent some time in the handheld lounge playing Pokémon to pass the time. Since the next event we planned to see was the Saturday night concerts at 8:30PM we spent a decent amount of time relaxing on the bean bags and making progress in Pokémon Black & White. The large number of people playing Pokémon in the lounge was very conducive to using the Entralink function and getting lots of Passing Survey results in Black & White. While we did spend 1 or 2 hours out of 4 free hours we had in the handheld lounge, we felt the need to walk around.

We went back to the expo hall for a bit and ended up wandering back to the Nintendo and Pokémon booths again (big surprise!). I wanted to try another 3DS game, so we got in line and played once more. This time I tried LEGO Star Wars, again, not knowing that I could have tried others during the same visit. I also played the Pokémon TCG Online demo again and I was surprised at how addicted I had become. While in the expo hall we bumped into a few friends and also were forced to buy a beanie from the Mega 64 guys... Good times!

As we walked around and checked updates on the PAX East Twitter page, we figured it wasn't really worth waiting 3 hours in line for the concert, especially if we had to leave halfway through to go home. Luckily, the concert was to be broadcast on TV's around the expo hall and on a projector in a special room. Unluckily, the Omegathon contest of giant Jenga took up most of the time we were there and we could only catch 15 minutes of the music... The time we would have spent waiting in line was put to other uses, though. After eating dinner at the food court we spent some time watching people play Dance Central. The two people that were up when we stopped by were pretty good, but the best dance we saw was by the Minecraft Creeper that got up after them. So, although we missed most of the concert we were able to make good use of our time and have fun before having to go home.

Day 2 is over! How's that happen? We didn't have much planned for the last day of PAX East so we tried to make good use of our final hours of the convention. Day 3 was full of actual game playing on the expo floor, more Pokémon in the handheld lounge, and the end of PAX East 2011!

(Next up, Day 3!)

PAX East Recap: Day 1

[Well, it looks like I ended up being late with this after all. Luckily, I remembered to take notes each day so that writing this post would be easier, more accurate, and more detailed than last year's post. Day 1 is looking to be pretty long so I'm going to split this post into four separate ones (Days 1, 2, and 3 and a conclusion).]

Having already gone to PAX East once before, I sort of knew what to expect and how to prepare for a full weekend of pure video game convention. The Conventionist app for iPhone/iPod Touch was pretty helpful for finding out where and when panels were being held and for a portable mini-map of the convention center. Looking at the schedule ahead of time and planning before the convention really helped us figure out what we really wanted to do and when we would be doing them.

Day 1: 03/11/11

The first day of PAX East started really early. We got up at around 6:30AM and got into Boston around 7:00AM. By the time we got to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center there was already a mega line out front. We waiting briefly outside in the dense fog until the doors opened at 8:00AM, at which point we funneled into the convention center and got in line for the 10:30AM keynote.

The keynote itself didn't actually start until around 11:00AM, but we enjoyed playing Pokémon during the time waiting in line. This year's speaker was Jane McGonigal, who's presentation was "a death-defying, life-changing, epic monster keynote." The main message of the keynote was that playing video games helps us achieve real-world goals, changes how we think (for the better), and makes us affect the people around us positively. Jane's point of view is that if more people played video games for an

hour or day we could change the world for the better. The keynote was very interesting and uplifting, especially since games are being more widely accepted into popular culture.

After the keynote we walked down to the main expo hall to see what there was to see. We did a preliminary walk around to the Pokémon and Nintendo booths to see what was being offered, but didn't check out much else then. At the Pokémon booth, the new Pokémon TCG Online game was the only thing being displayed, and there was no free swag to our dismay. At the Nintendo booth, there were several Nintendo 3DS systems with various games being demoed and free Pokémon Black & White pins being given out on the side. We waited in line and demoed a few games (I tried out Dead or Alive) and then left. I didn't find out until Sunday that we had the ability to wander inside the booth a little bit, demo a few games, and then leave. We made up for it later in the weekend, though.

At this point, around 2:00PM, we were pretty hungry and we headed to the food court. Of course, all of the food was really expensive, but it was good enough to almost be worth it. We spent $17 and got nachos, a burger, a hotdog, and a bag of chips. I've had better burgers but the nachos were tasty. We learned to never buy $3 bags of chips again and brought our own from home on Saturday.

After hanging out in the handheld lounge for a bit, we got in line for our next panel. This panel was Scott Macmillan's "Death of an Indie Studio" in the Wyvern Theatre. Scott talked a little about the history of his late indie company, Macguffin Games, and also gave advice about dos and don'ts when starting and leading an indie studio. The most important lesson I took away from it was that art and business are two separate poles on the spectrum of making games, and that I would like to focus on the art side of the spectrum in my career (I am not a business-oriented person). It was very informative and gave me more insight into what it takes to start an indie game company.

Leaving the Wyvern Theatre we headed back to the expo hall to spend some time before the final panel of the day. We revisited the Nintendo and Pokémon booths but spent more time at the Pokémon booth this time. I played the Pokémon TCG Online game for a while, but ultimately lost against the computer player. It had been years since I tried playing the card game and the automated online version encouraged me to get back into it. Once the beta opens online, I'm going to be all over it! In the expo hall we also walked by the Boston Indie Showcase booth, to check out Snapshot, Smuggle Truck, and Blinding Silence, two of which are by current and former WPI IMGD majors. All of the games looked great and you should definitely pick up Smuggle Truck to see the level I created for their level design contest. :)

The last panel of the day was called "Game Design is Mind Control." I was anticipating it being about game design elements that tap into the mind of players in order to elicit some sort of play style or reaction but it was more general and very informal. It was an entertaining panel, especially at the end when the two panelists auctioned off a dollar with two rules: 1) The winner pays his bid and gets the dollar; 2) the second place bidder pays his bid but gets nothing. In the end, the dollar sold for about $4; the second place bidder admitted that he kept bidding because he "didn't want to spend money." It was an interesting experiment to see what illogical things people will do in a game space given a certain set of rules.

Our day ended with a trip to the handheld lounge again where we went to wait for our ride home. We found some beanbags near a set of outlets to charge our electronics and used surrounding beanbags to make a mini fort. Right before we left we met up with a friend from school and he seized control of our construction.

The first day of PAX East was great. We were able to scout out the expo hall a little bit and get familiar with the convention center as a whole. The map was a little confusing and we were pretty disoriented at first, but by the end of the first day we knew our way around pretty well. Even though we planned what we wanted to see we still had to cut some panels out of our schedule due to long lines. We learned our lesson on Friday which helped us decide our schedule for Saturday and Sunday. Friday, just like all of PAX, went by pretty fast but there were still two days left!

(Next up, Day 2!)

Getting My Act Together

I haven't been as productive as I would have liked recently, due to my tendency to procrastinate and my recent obsession with Minecraft. I have, however, been working on art for the Virtual Joust project I'm working on for the Higgins Armory Museum, for which I've been working on a medieval knight model for the past few months. Unfortunately, I haven't been getting much else done...

Starting today I will be giving up Minecraft for a bit to start focusing on more important things, like getting a job. I knew I'd get addicted to Minecraft when I heard about it towards the end of last year, but didn't think it'd be this bad. For my final days I decided to build myself a big 'ole Egyptian pyramid and lock myself in it just like in the olden days, and maybe one day I'll be resurrected and a little less addicted.

One of the big things to happen in March was the release of Pokémon Black and White today. I got my copy of White as soon as the doors opened at Toys 'R' Us and have just began my new adventure. I've decided for this iteration of the series that I will not be using Serebii, Bulbapedia, or any other Pokémon database/site to aid my journey through the storyline. Since I had purchased the Japanese version while I was overseas this September and played through the main storyline I figured it would be refreshing to see the game through new eyes (an experience Game Freak was aiming to create). It'll also be great to see how the competitive community begins to evolve with a new generation of Pokémon, moves, abilities, and strategies.

The second big thing to happen this month is the second annual PAX East convention. Last year was great and I'm expecting this year to be even better. I have my badge and I'm ready for this weekend! Unlike last year, I'll try to be good with updating my blog each day of the convention, rather than after it's all over. Expect lots of pictures, Pokéwalker step counts, C-Gear totals, and more.

I'm also hoping to post more of my art, progress on my flixel game, links I've found useful, and other stuff. I feel as though I don't post enough about art and games and that's what this blog is supposed to be about! March shall be the month about getting back on my feet and being productive!

Becoming a Professional

It's about that time now: time to prepare myself for finding post-college employment! To get myself presentable for game companies, I have some main goals:

• Overhaul my résumé
• Tweak and fix up my portfolio site
• Purchase a domain name
• Find and obtain web hosting
• Design and print business cards

Other smaller goals are to make more art and games to present on my portfolio and creating a definitive style that is consistent throughout my portfolio, résumé, business cards, etc. Oh, and I'd like to have all of this done by PAX East 2011. I think I've gone long enough feeling like I'm not prepared to get a job and I want to start networking for real! I'll be home for about a week right before PAX, which is good. Then again, Pokémon Black & White come out at the beginning of that week, which might be bad. :D

I've been reading around Darius Kazemi's blog to get hints about writing a résumé for game companies, effective networking, and more. I suggest checking it out! Which reminds me, I've been meaning to put together a post of helpful links for fellow game development students that I've been hoarding in my bookmarks folder. Look for that soon!

Learning flixel (Again!)

It seems like the past few times I've tried to learn flixel I have stumbled across a seemingly simple obstacle and put it down to finally figure out later. The first time I tried to pick it up I was following a simple platformer tutorial as it was going out of date and the discrepancy between the tutorial and the newest release of flixel made it too hard for me to follow along. The second time I tried to pick it up again was when I was in Japan, and I don't actually remember what prevented me from getting the hang of it then...

Anyway, I've started again and I think I've got it this time! There's a quote about persistance beating talent or something like that and I wholeheartedly believe [in] it! This time I started from scratch like usual, but I followed a series of tutorials by a classmate written for the introductory Interactive Media and Game Development course here at WPI. I think my past experience with flixel, although limited, combined with these tutorials has given me the basic understanding of flixel that I've been looking for. Hopefully I'll get to know as much about flixel as I learned about Game Maker back in high school.

To begin familiarizing myself with the flixel library, I'm going to be implementing an idea I came up with while in Japan. The player controls a traveler trying to reach his bullet train in a Japanese train station and the only thing in his way is millions of businessmen. The gameplay is similar to that of a bullet hell game except the player is pushed around rather than killed. Score is based on how quickly the player reaches the train and a time limit determines how long the traveler has to catch his train. The game itself if fairly simple and easy to expand upon. I have ideas for different types of obstacles, such as faster moving businessmen and a foreigner that follows the player around, as well as some desired features, like posting scores to Facebook/Twitter and some others.

I plan to record my progress and update my blog fairly frequently while creating this game. Although I won't post everything, I'll try to write about big milestones and have demos of my progress. Stay tuned!

Global Game Jam: Day 3 + Conclusion

With only about 6 hours left we put (almost) everything together and packaged it into a game. Like usual, scope was an issue with out limited time and resources. Despite lacking some of our desired features, we do have two levels with enemy dodo birds and collectable eggs along with the basic movement of a platformer. The psychology aspect we were hoping for is absent at the moment, but we'll hopefully be able to add it in later.

On the last day I created a few more assets as they were needed, such as a title screen, background image, and "to be continued" screen. Some of the time was more or less wasted because there was more art than tech due to having two artists and one programmer. I wish I could have helped code some of the game but I am still not that familiar with how to make games with flixel. This game jam has definitely sparked my desire to finally buckle down and learn it, though.

Although we submitted an incomplete game to the Global Game Jam site, we will be fixing it up and extending it in the hope to submit it to the Intell AppUp store to win $200. The deadline for submissions is February 28th, so we have a decent amount of time to finish and polish our game. I'll try to post some of my work on the game and our progress in the coming weeks.

And with that, go play our game! You can find it here. You can also play it in your web browser here but probably only for a limited time (as my only storage space may expire tomorrow D:).

Global Game Jam: Day 2

Saturday was our longest work day of the game jam, and we got a decent amount accomplished.

I finished up making tiles for our platformer and also created the player character and animations. Later, I worked on a base boss sprite and animation that we can recolor and decorate to make different bosses. So far we have one boss and four total design ideas. Josh came up with the idea to name them all after US presidents, so we have Dodoham Lincoln, George Washington (or Dodoington), George Bush, and The Dodo Formerly Known as Taft.

Jeff has been working on all the code himself using some platformer code that he has been working on before. I'm not sure the exact status of that, although I'm told we have basic platformer mechanics and jumping on enemies implemented. Hopefully we have a decent amount to show at the presentation at the end of the jam!

I'll be writing a Day 3 and wrap-up combination post later to recap what happens today and to hopefully show off our game!

Global Game Jam: Day 1

And we're off! I meant to write this last night but the beginning of today is good enough.

After watching the keynote and getting our theme, we started discussing game designs. Our theme this year is "extinction," which leads to several obvious routes. Two obvious ones are "everyone is [going] extinct and you have to prevent/solve it" and "make [insert species here] extinct." There's also the psychological definition which is to make a certain behavior extinct by gradually removing positive reinforcement to a stimulus or giving negative feedback to a stimulus that was once positive. Our group decided to do a combination of both the biological and psychological definitions in one; a sort of double-extinction.

The basis of our game is that the player is told that they are to make a species extinct while our game design [hopefully] makes a certain behavior of theirs (collecting coins, for example) extinct at the same time without them noticing. After throwing ideas back and forth we decided that our game would be a platformer that consists of a vengeful man in a dinosaur suit (dino-Batman, as he is currently being called) who travels back in time to kill all the dodo birds, one of which who traveled forward in time and killed his parents. The player will be told to kill all the dodo birds and presented the option to collect dodo bird eggs, which make tasty omlettes. Ultimately, the player will be killing dodo birds and forgetting/subconsciously choosing not to collect eggs.

Our current plan is to do a little research into the psychology behind extinction so that we can successfully implement it in our game. The platformer "game" part that the player sees and comprehends as the full game is fairly straightforward. It's a basic platformer with movement and jumping, enemies, and hopefully bosses. The player can jump on dodo birds to kill them and can only progress when all the dodos in an area are killed. Levels will be broken up by highly-characterized bosses that will be entertaining and fun. Dodo eggs will be placed in easily accessible areas but not right in the player's path. There will be environmental hazards like death pits and potentially one other that the player should avoid. The game will keep track of score as an aesthetic classic game feature, but lives will be infinite. The art style will be happy and colorful, and also somewhat comic. Our hope is that the game will be silly and fun enough that the player will keep playing until the end, where we reveal the psychological extinction that has hopefully occurred.

I think that's it for now. I'll try to get another post up tonight or tomorrow morning to summarize Saturday's work.

Global Game Jam 2011 Begins

I'm going to be on top of the ball this time and actually update my blog as stuff happens! This time, I'll be blogging about my experience at this year's Global Game Jam. The Global Game Jam is an event that takes place worldwide, where sites around the world host a game jam at roughly the same time as everyone else who's participating. Jammers have about 48 hours to complete a game and submit it online for the world to see. Last year there was a theme and some constraints, as well as some fun achievements for jammers to shoot for. As far as I know, there aren't any constraints this year, just a theme and optional achievements.

Anyways, the WPI Global Game Jam site will be in the IMGD Lab and we will begin at 5:00PM tonight. I've already talked to someone about a game jam idea (one that sort of fell through last term) so hopefully we'll be able to crank it out and put it online by Sunday! I'll be writing a new blog post each day of the game jam to detail what we got accomplished and hopefully have a playable game on my portfolio by the last post.