Walk Cycle Demo

The following video was a final for one of my classes at the Academy of Art. The original character was modeled and textured by me. I also created the hallway including the textures and lighting.

3D Work

Here is some 3D work from my time at the Academy of Art.

2D Work

Here are a couple of examples of my work from an Anatomy class and Analysis of Form while studying Animation at the Academy of Art.

One week recap...

I dropped the ball this a bit last week, posting a whopping O times. Here's a run-down of some of the things that have happened that I wanted to talk about but didn't get the chance or make the time to post about:

Wii Price and release date: November 19th for $250. I can deal with that, I was really hoping for the $200 price point, but that was probably wishful thinking. I have really been looking forward to this system. There are so many possibilities available with the Wii Remote. I know that there are very talented and creative developers out there who will really blow us away with gameplay that is truly revolutionary. That being said, I have had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the Wii and its controller over the last week being a Nintendo First Party Specialist and all, and I have one gripe: My wrists hurt! Granted, I am probably experiencing the Wii to an extreme, 8+ hours a day and five days a week, but it does worry me a bit for the future. I can only hope that the right people realize that there are times when just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should.

Tokyo Game Show: If my memory serves me correctly, didn't this show seem to be more exciting in the past? I guess the big three already showed their hands and it was just up to everyone else to show off software. Nintendo and Microsoft continue to impress me with their upcoming lineups, although some new footage of Twilight Princess would have been nice. Sony continues to disappoint. Nothing really catches my eye, except maybe MGS4, but I believe we have yet to see what actual "in-game" footage is like. On the business side, those in charge at Sony seem to be surrounded by people who only tell them what they want to hear because they are clearly not on the same page as their potential consumers. Yes, the system will sell, but to claim the price point was "very well accepted" is laughable. Personally, I have no need for blu-ray or HDMI, so at this point they have nothing to offer me. Maybe down the road, but not now.

"Xbox Killers": I, for the most part, hate what I will call "traditional news". This is the news that runs promos like, "There's a product in your house that will kill your child, tune in at 11 and we'll tell you what it is." Or anything reported on Fox (sorry, a bit of bias there). This is news that still relies on making money instead of just reporting for reporting sake because news is important. So when I read headlines like, 2 Sentenced to Death in Florida Xbox Killings, I am especially disturbed. I really bothers me when a news organization will latch onto even the most remote detail that links a story to video games and the perceived damage they do to society. There is clearly more to the story here and, more importantly, more to the reasons behind the senseless acts of violence besides reacquiring an Xbox. I would just really like it if news went back to reporting and stopped trying to please some puritanical politician or make a buck.

The Mythical 40-Hour Gamer: This article on Wired News today by Clive Thompson was very interesting. He proposes that games are too long for the "soft-core" gamer, meaning someone who really likes to play hard-core games but for whatever reason, can not afford to put in the time needed to complete these games. Now if he had been talking about World of Warcraft or Oblivion (he does mention Kingdom Hearts but not as his main example), I could understand. I know people who have put almost two solid years into WOW and looking forward to Burning Crusade. I personally put in nearly 200 hours for Oblivion but that was over six months. However, his example is Tomb Raider: Legend. Tomb Raider: Legend??? I don't want to assume anything about your skills as a gamer Clive, but come on. I personally put a good twelve hours in to the game and received all of the achievements, 100% complete. If one attempts to get all of the achievements in this game, he or she must do the time trials. When completed, that brings gameplay for the entire game in under an hour and a half. This is a far cry shorter than 40+ hours. I'm not exactly sure what's taking so long over there, but I do see your point. Do developers need to take this into consideration when developing a game? Well of course they do. And that's why, in my opinion Xbox Live will continue to thrive. Developers can give achievements for completing a game fast or getting 100% percent of everything, or both. It also gives an outlet for episodic content which will definitely make up a sizable chunk of the industry in the not too distant future. As well as independent, niche, and pick-up and play games in Arcade, especially now that Microsoft is basically opening that up to the public. Similar structures will probably be achieved on the PS3, and the Wii to some extent, but I can only see it flourishing on Live.

Graphs are just as good as pictures

In the most recent issue of game developer, Midway's QA Manager, Paul Sterngold, describes a situation in which a miscommunication between his teams and their outsourced QA partners led to an unexpectedly large bill at the end of the test cycle. He goes on to describe Midway’s solution, with the support of Amritt Ventures, which involves a series of graphs that quickly describe a project's status and performance statistics of the QA test teams.

Being in QA, I spent some time reading over the article and attempted to analyze the graphs, hoping to garner some information that may prove useful to my own company. After a while I noticed a trend that reinforces a one of my fundamental beliefs about this industry: more hours do not produce results. A quick comparison of the upper-right blue graph to the two yellow graphs indicates that as tester hours go up, the number and quality of the bugs go down. All the while, costs appear to be going up as indicated by the green graphs. Granted, I am deciphering these graphs with only the data and information I can glean from them. There may be more to the story, but as my title suggests, graphs are just as good as pictures.

Quality of life is very important to me, as it should be to all in the business. I have not been in the industry too long and I am fortunate to have worked myself into a position that does not require extensive overtime. I have done my share of late nights, but it has been my work ethic that has earned the respect of peers and advancement to my current position. I, like the people I respect in the industry, am willing to work as many hours as it takes to get the job done. If I feel I have given my all in a normal workday (by which I mean eight to nine hours), I see no need to stay any longer than necessary. And still, despite overwhelming evidence that supports it, people continue to believe that more is better when it comes to working a QA team. I, on the other hand, feel that a team of well-trained, motivated individuals will consistently out perform low-paid, under-trained, and over-worked testers any day of the week. Except on Saturday and Sunday, their job will be done within normal working hours.

Saint's Row = US Foreign Policy

I will try not to let my political position impose upon my posts but I just loved this article when I read it earlier today on Wired News.

Hey, my fellow knuckle-dragging gamers: Ever want to understand American foreign policy? Want to grasp why the U.S. invaded Iraq when it had no connection to 9/11 and no WMDs? Want to comprehend the Bush administration world picture? Then don't bother reading Foreign Affairs or The Wall Street Journal.

Just pick up a copy of Saints Row.

Give Me Honor, or Give me Death

Introduction

I set this blog up several weeks ago and have since hemmed and hawed over what how I would start my posts. I guess I feared what people would think of my thoughts or ideas. But then it occurred to me: I doubt too many people will read this or even care what I have to say. I'm sure my thoughts will get lost among the hundreds of thousands, or millions, of blogs on the series of tubes that is the Internet. Still I have never been consistent when it comes to recording the bursts of genius that go off in my head and so the world has yet to experience them as well. This will give me an opportunity to do just that and hopefully nurture those bursts and seed the growth of new ones through practice. I also hope to somewhat use this blog as a portfolio of sorts in an effort to show off what I have done and what I'm working on in an attempt to continue working in and influencing the video game industry as whole.

For those wondering about the origins of my blog title, "The Giant's Drink, it is an homage to my favorite book of all time, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone. Anyway, in the story, Card envisioned a game that can access the subconscious of the player and is truly an open-ended, "sand box" experience, and this was about thirty years ago! The game is unpredictable at best and is constantly changing and growing like some sort of living organism or virus.

It is unfortunate that this game could not be a reality, at least not in the near future. Excluding the technical deficiencies that would be needed, such as insane AI and real time world creation, I just don't see a publisher taking the risk. It has been said a thousand times, so here I just reiterate some long held opinions, but the market is too saturated with cash cows and there is not enough room for the truly creative endeavors. It all comes down to money, I guess. Working at a major publisher, the majority of the stuff that I get to work on is licensed franchises. All of our new IP has been developed for the Xbox 360 or the PC, so I don't get to really get to be hands on since I work only on titles for Nintendo hardware. But what I have had the opportunity to work on just seems to lack something that makes them special, with the exception of the Avatar games; I have enjoyed them on all platforms.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not some kind of art house game snob. I greatly appreciate creative games and try to support them whenever I can. Still there will always be a spot in my collection for franchise games. For better or worse, I will continue to play games in several series: Halo, FIFA, Tony Hawk (although I have skipped the last two iterations, high hopes for Project 8 though), Metal Gear, and even Zelda. Franchises keep the industry afloat and keep me employed. My only hope is that the future will employ a better ratio between the fluff and the sincere.