GDC '08: Hanging out at the 1UP Office, and Touring Pixar

Touring around, like we were lost, than found.

Taking a break from the busy conference, me and a few others were invited over to check out the offices of Ziff Davis Media, and to observe the folks of the 1UP network in their natural habitat.

What could we expect? Game writers chained to their desks, slaving away and being forced to play the worst games ever developed by man? Well, no one was chained to their desks, in fact, most of them were out to lunch. Fortunately, they slowly returned to their cubes as our wonderful host and caffeinated community manager SuperJenn toured us around. After blogging for several years on 1UP, I'd say it was about time for me to see where this incredibly complex, and at times buggy community-oriented site operates from. Fanboys and fansgirls would have loved to be in our position.

It was like being in an episode of the 1UP show. What are they like in real life, you say? I've already met most the 1Uppers at various conventions and expos over the past few years, so it wasn't like it was my first time meeting them. But for those who don't know, they're pretty much exactly the way they appear in the videos, and if you read their blogs or other writings you'd get the gist on their personalities. Just a bunch of hard working professionals, opinionated and caffeinated lovers of video games with encyclopedic minds on pop-culture... On a busy week covering the happenings of GDC, the tour was a surprise interruption (disruption?) to most of the people in the office, but they were kind enough to say "hey!" to the traveling caravan of 1UP members, CDNGRRL, Escaping_burger, Gaian, me, plus a friend of mine who was hoping to get his XBLA game some coverage on the site (which he did)... It was a tour with some business intentions thrown in.

Brooktown High, and Hulk Hogan, definite favorites of Jenn.

What's the secret that keeps the 1UP office working like a well oiled machine? Free Red Bull? For SuperJenn it's a couple of Red Bulls throughout the day, even though the health warning label says a maximum of 2 per day, or something like that, she still operates like normal. I think. I just had to get me some 1UP Red Bull too!

Gaian attempts to steal some games against the signs request.

It was great hanging out with the 1UP's at their office, plus the occasional random party meet up. Like 9-bit, EA's Will Wright event, the Prototype Party, and whatever else came up during GDC.

Shocking! Capnsmack and I joke about a 1UP community in-joke, which cannot be repeated.

It's one of the joys of convention-going. Getting to hang out with people you rarely get a chance to see. And speaking of hanging out...Let me just take this moment to apologize for not showing up at a place, where I said I would be. It was a conflict of events going on at around the same time. I feel like a total jerk. I was given a special invite which was super hard to come by, so I couldn't turn it down. As much as I hate turning down invites, I had to pick one. The Microsoft thing was great, but I think I should have gone to the Buddha! Maybe next time!?

A Pixar tour. An animator's wet dream come to life.

The next day, Bob welcomed us over to Pixar to check out what was open to the general public inside the famed animation studio. For an animator such as I, I couldn't pass up the opportunity, especially since GDC had ended earlier that day.

A group of us hopped on the BART to Emeryville, and then grabbed a bus to Pixar. The bus dropped us off a block away, and the bus driver apparently had no idea where Pixar was located. Note to self: The Bus Driver was a jerk. Here I thought it was the pride of Emeryville, and yet the locals didn't really give a damn about it. A fellow bus rider said it was beside an IHOP, but there was no IHOP in sight. So we get off, and hope that we run into it. Luckily another bus rider (who got off the bus with us), said the studio was just around the corner. Awesome! She was the only nice person we met on our trip to Pixar. Soon enough we found it! It was in an industrial area full of warehouses, not exactly a Magical Kingdom.

I went for coffee in the cafeteria, but there honestly wasn't any left. 3 large coffee dispensers were gone. No wonder they make such great animated films! They must be up working 24/7.

The Tour mainly consisted of hallways featuring awesome artwork plastered on the walls, as well as some offices in two separate buildings. The studio is pretty massive, and kinda fancy. It totally reminded me of EA Canada's campus in Burnaby/Vancouver which is totally excess in terms of planning and design. Though Pixar's studio is nice, EA's totally pwns it. Sry Bob. But I still can't believe I saw Brad Bird's office. It was locked unfortunately... I planned on stealing some secrets!

The fact that I was INSIDE Pixar, kinda made me speechless. I get kinda quiet when I'm soaking in an experience and this tour pretty much silenced me. I mean damn. This place houses some of the best talent around. Famous people (like Miyazaki) have walked within these halls. Some of the Bestest animators breath this air of ultra creativity! Daily! OMG!

A friend of mine later asked me why I was working in the game industry animating video games, when I should be focusing on trying to get into a studio like Pixar. Which made me ponder my life. Then I decided to selfishly sit in Bob's desk for a few seconds of imagining what it would be like to work here. It was so good. In my head at least. Hmmm, yeah.

Look what you missed out on Jenn! Expect this in the mail!

GDC '08: Steven Spielberg's BOOM BLOX

Photo and Video Vomit

Since Steven Spielberg played the Wii alongside Miyamoto at E3 a while back, Boom Blox has been brewing. The interactive experience of the latest Nintendo console proved irresistible to the film director, who wanted to make something the whole family could enjoy. It has come a long way, and at this years GDC the games production has been laid out for all developers to learn from.

The following video and images were taken by me during the session. The video can be found on my youtube page, and is strictly for educational purposes.

WonderCon '08: X-files Movie Panel

Saturday @ WonderCon pt.2

Is it me or does Gillian Anderson look much younger, and hotter than she ever was on the X-Files? She ages pretty well, I'd say.

The return of Scully and Mulder drew a packed audience in Hall A of the Masone conference center. After a rather unexciting opening panel with cast members from the Asian-horror film remake "Shutter", Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Gillian Anderson, and David Duchovny -- fresh from filming in Vancouver -- made their way to the stage. As expected the massive crowd went insanely wild.

After the crowd had settled down, they took questions from the audience. Some were funny, others more intelligent. One person asked "what do you believe?"... Perhaps too deep of a question, the actors didn't know how to respond, and awkwardly waited for the next question. He was apparently dressed as Link from The Legend of Zelda, and made the actors laugh out of confusion. I was pretty far away so I couldn't see the complete Link getup. (Did anyone get a picture of him?) They apparently had no idea who the video game character was. Gillian Anderson joked "Is that a fetish?" referring to the costume.

Being unable to find a seat I was left to stand for an hour and a half (counting the previous Pixar Wall-E presentation by Andrew Stanton). I took video of various parts throughout the panel and uploaded it all to youtube. It's actually 9 parts, a bit too much to post here, but if you get the time, check it out.

In the last part of the panel, the panelists gave their final remarks. More X-Files movies? Lets see how this next one does first. Telling from the trailer it looks like a commercial for an episode, not so much a movie. Either way I'm glad the X-files hasn't remained buried. It's about time for a comeback!

GDC '08: Audiosurf, if you love music, this game is for you

Why listen to your songs, when you can play them?

These days beat-based gameplay seems to be becoming a popular outlet among developers who take their love for music to the level of an interactive experience, pairing audio to visuals, triggered by the players button input. It's an experience for the senses that famed game developers such as Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Rez) have attempted to achieve. No where is this trend more apparent than with independent games and their creators. Music and slick pixel-shaded-vector-art usually makes for a nice combination, from Everyday Shooter, Synesthete, to Audiosurf.

This years Independent Games Festival saw the arrival of Audiosurf by Dylan Fitterer (BestGameEver). Giving the player a choice of any song stored on their PC, or Laptop, the generated environment tracks, and difficulty are determined by the tempo of the song. "Mellow", the road goes up, "intense" the road goes down. It's quite simple, and highly accurate to the music. If you've ever driven (or imagined driving) a car while listening to a favorite song on a long road, or fast freeway, you'll notice that music can influence the way you drive. Speeding up, or slowing down, or swerving to the music. Or maybe thats just me. Other examples that come to mind when describing the tracks of Audiosurf are: roller coasters and water slides. It's that sensation of speed that comes to life visually with Audiosurf. It's amazing. But this isn't a racing game, in fact it's a hybrid beat-based, puzzle game. It's like F-Zero and Wipeout, meets Lumines.

Playing the game at the IGF, and then on my home PC to tracks The Wrath of Marcie by The Go! Team, Object of My affection by Peter Bjorn and John, and the Arcade Fire's Anti-Christ Television Blues, you get a good sense of the highs and lows of music, which make for a great environment to play on. The last bit of Object of my Affection is certainly fast, and I definitely suggest you try The Killers Mr. Brightside, and Sum 41's Walking Disaster. Audiosurf these songs, you won't regret it!

Players can also upload their scores for specific tracks to the scoreboards. Now that may sound very typical of games today, but it's great to see who shares your taste in music, especially if you play some obscure song.

The multiple awarding winning title which is currently downloaded via Steam for the price of $10, most likely will appear on the home console distribution platforms like XBLA or PSN. When asked if he was planning on working on another music-driven game after Audiosurf, Dylan was amused, but said nothing more. Here's hoping he creates more music driven titles.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and Jeff Minter (Tempest 2000, Space Giraffe), should be happy see other game developers pushing the boundaries of music-driven games. Dylan Fitterer has opened up the possibilities of the genre giving the user control over the soundtrack, in turn controlling the level design.

Daft Punk never hurts either.

Personally I think this game is incredible. With so many decades of music history to draw from, the possibilities are endless.

Download Steam and Audiosurf HERE

WonderCon '08: Street Fighter IV, and Bionic Commando

Saturday @ WonderCon Pt.1

Going to WonderCon was definitely a last minute thing for me. I knew it was going down pretty much after GDC, but I didn't think I would actually get around to attending. As if going through a crazy convention like GDC wasn't enough of a 'geek' experience, WonderCon was like the icing on the cake.

I registered on site at Mascone SouthHall, and took a quick look at the schedule to figure out what the heck I was gonna do. It was just my luck that I hadn't missed Capcom's 2008 Video Games presentation featuring Bionic Commando, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Okami Wii, but most notably Street Fighter IV. Though before actually getting to footage of the latest Street Fighter, we were treated to various trailers of upcoming Capcom games, and even a Bionic Commando competition to see who can traverse a level using the grapple arm the fastest. A self-proclaimed Bionic Commando 'EXPERT' from Gamespot was up against various audience participants. The funny thing is, he barely made it past the first 2 hooks in the challenge level and being totally humiliated he was given the boot. The audience members in the competition were able to get the games mechanics quickly, making it pretty far within the level.

Bionic Commando, and Bionic Commando Rearmed look like some awesome fun! The co-op feature looks great, and with the addition of the automatic split-screen option depending on the distance between both players, this game looks like it's coming along rather well. Check out the video I took from the WonderCon presentation!

Bionic Commando definitely got the crowd ready for what was to come next. Two older trailers for Street Fighter IV were played for us, and after that we were treated to a third video, which we were told, has never been revealed to the public until then. Here's the video I took below:

Returning favorites always seem to get the thumbs up from fans! Despite the 'new' look of this Street Fighter, the gameplay looks totally intact.

Ready to share some good stuff from GDC and WonderCon. And some thoughts on San Francisco...

So finally I can update this blog after a hectic but educational, (and entertaining) week in Frisco at this year's Game Developers Conference. I was planning on posting updates from my adventures throughout the 7 days, but being that there was constantly something keeping me busy, I never really got around to doing it since I never had the time to sit down and actually write something.

I suppose it's a little late to do a LIVE chronological run down of events, so you'll have to deal with random GDC/WonderCon posts. Perhaps in reverse starting with WonderCon and working my way back, or whatever I feel is a 'priority' topic for posting. Besides that chronological stuff is BO-ring. What to expect?? Lots of indie gaming, 1UP antics, Pixar tour, X-files, Street Fighter IV, and MORE!

Might I add, I just got off the plane, and am unpacking stuff at home here in Vancouver. After my Saturday flight was delayed due to shitty weather, I flew in early this morning to clear skies in Vancouver. BTW, if you didn't know already... United SUCKS! And boy am I glad to be back in Vancouver. No offense to my peoples in Frisco, but the downtown core really stinks like shit (the sewage). Also the homeless people are ruder than usual (or is it Canadian homeless are nicer?). I turned down one guy who asked me for some change, and he started yelling and swearing at me. Not cool. Insulting those with cash, will not get you money, buddy. Another thing that bothered me was the BART. I know, I know, people think it's the ultimate transit system, sure it's fast and goes far and wide in the Bay Area, but WTF? The whole payment system, the lack of machines, and MAPS causes mass confusion to out of town travelers. Compared to Vancouver's SkyTrain, the BART seems totally prehistoric. Which makes me think of how the SkyTrain and Vancouver in general will be a few years down the line with the mass expansion of the transit system, and the booming growth of the downtown area. Will Vancouver end up being more like San Francisco? The negative aspects of it.

But enough about that, lets get to the good stuff. More Posts to follow!