Immutably Me

Jul 24 2008 ∞

Splinter Cell: Conviction Not So Convicted

Rumor has it that Michael Ironside will not reprise his role as Sam Fisher and is no longer attached to the project so I ran a check on IMDB to see if any credits for Conviction were on his page and found nothing.

The official forums had this to say:

With regard to Micheal Ironside not being in the game: As things stand at this moment it is the first I’ve heard of it and there has certainly not been any official statement to suggest this is true. I will however look into it immediately to try and establish where they (Kokatu) got this information from and will post as soon as I have any more info.

I can promise Ubisoft one thing: If Ironside isn’t Sam Fisher I won’t buy the game. For the record, I’ve been a fan since day one and bought and played every game to date… not playing Conviction is something I never thought could happen.

Jul 23 2008 ∞

This is possibly the worst choice of music and the most awkward performance used to promote a karaoke game I’ve ever seen. It’s the epitomy of weird.

Jul 18 2008 ∞

Emotional robot has empathy - Engadget

A robot with a combination of empathy and lie detection would be something…

Jul 06 2008 ∞

Maybe it’s just me but I think I’ll be replaying this game with Jessica Alba any time she wants to play. Shame it can’t be in person.

+ ∞

FFFFOUND! + IIIINVITATION!

I’ve been checking this (invitation only) website out for a few months now. The basic principal of it is that as people surf the Net, they come across interesting photos and images. With a Ffffound account you can tag it and it becomes added to your account as interesting and displayed on the front page of the Ffffound site. It’s a very cool concept and if anyone out there has an invite to offer, I’d love to receive it.

Jun 29 2008 ∞

Top Myths About Working in Gaming (according to Electronic Arts' head of European talent acquisition Matthew Jeffery)

I don’t feel that Jeffery actually debunks any myths but rather explains why they happen and what EA is doing to work around the many issues that persist, nevertheless it’s an interesting read.

“Any industry which faces a project deadline will have challenges. Project deadlines face all companies in all industries ranging from financial services, retail, film production, consumer goods - the list goes on. The increase in working hours in project deadline industries is very commonplace. Although no one deliberately schedules for “crunch,” it unfortunately occurs.

While studies indicate that people perform best when under pressure to deliver by a given date, the key is how to minimise longer working hours while still meeting deadlines.”

While reading this article, keep in mind that I just returned to work after a seven week stretch of time off in an attempt to use up my nine weeks of over time accumulated in less than 2.5 years.

Jun 26 2008 ∞

Making WoW Players into Lab Rats

May 26 2008 ∞

The work that Michael Hollick put into portraying Niko Bellic in GTA IV is astounding. Listen to this radio interview to get a better idea of what it took to bring Niko to life.

May 24 2008 ∞

The Star of Grand Theft Auto IV Finds a Somewhat Small Paycheck - New York Times

Shouldn’t we all be getting a piece of the pie? This article is an interesting spotlight on the lack of proper profit sharing within the video game industry.

With long hours, hard work and often disproportionate pay, perhaps it’s time we take a better look at the issue at hand.

May 20 2008 ∞

Harrison Ford on Stunts

“… an ambition of mine … is to keep human scale and reality in the stunt sequences… to stage them and choreograph them, keeping in mind the normal physics that we all live with. I’m less a fan of the kind of matrix-style, fantastic sort of action—which can be really interesting—but, in a way, it draws attention to itself, and you begin to be watching the kinetics rather than watching the character… and my ambition is to have the audience understand the fear, the triumph, the pain, the fatigue… that the character suffers or endures in these fantastic physical sequences.” —Via The Guardian

May 15 2008 ∞

Playboy Model Reveals Her Love of Games

This is a really thoughtful interview with Playboy model, Jo Garcia, about her love of games and her perception of the female demographic.

May 12 2008 ∞

About console exclusivity

I’m disappointed to see developers publicizing that their upcoming AAA titles are exclusive to one particular console over another as though it were a perk for gamers.

Would PS3 owners really care if God of War III were available on the 360? Would the Xbox 360 crowd care if Gears of War 2 could also be played on PS3? Certainly, it would be odd to see a Sony title, such as GoW, available to Xbox players but, frankly, Sony would make more money by selling their game to other console owners.

I suppose it’s obvious enough that this is simply a matter of publishers baiting hooks with AAA titles to lure gamers over to one console over another but I’m not convinced it’s smart marketing at all.

Grand Theft Auto used to be Playstation console exclusive but have now opened it up to include Xbox 360. Bad decision?

May 09 2008 ∞

A bit of irony via Mirror’s Edge ‘Debut Trailer’ HD

Hint: The irony has to do with the title and the conspicous absence of something within the trailer.

Apr 10 2008 ∞

5 [Misguided] Tips for Making Games That Don't Suck

Wired online features Ted Castronova’s 5 tips for making games that don’t suck. Unfortunately, it seems Ted still has a lot to learn.

Don’t Be Overly Ambitious “We thought it wouldn’t be too hard to design a realistic War of the Roses-era economy, complete with swords, armaments, horses, food, and clothing. You want to create a suit of armor? First you have to smelt brass to make the bolts and gather fibers to make string … We soon learned why most designers don’t do that level of realism.”

[Immutably Me: You can be ambitious within the limitations of your situation (budget, team size, experience, etc.)]

Go Low Tech “If you can’t find a professional game studio to partner with, start small. There are lots of simple development platforms to experiment with. Look at Tribal Wars — it’s an HTML-driven online game with hundreds of thousands of users. It can be played in a browser window.”

[Immutably Me: Web Games are not inherently low-tech, neither is Nintendo DS. Low-tech would perhaps be a card game.]

Think About Your Audience “We put Arden in front of Shakespeare experts and they loved it. We put it in front of play testers and they yawned. We’d get feedback like, ‘I talked to that Falstaff guy for a while and got a quest to go repair something. I logged out and never came back.’ Too much reading, not enough fighting. Arden II will be more of a hack-and-slash Dungeons and Dragons type of game.”

[Immutably Me: It’s foolish to assume that because players didn’t wish to engage in boring quests that they will be happier with killing instead. Look at the Myst series, The Longest Journey, etc. Players love exploration and discovery. It just takes skill to pull it off.]

Get a Full-Time Staff “I love my students, but they just don’t have the schedule to do this. I have a very able lead designer and an excellent lead artist, but they had to pause for midterms. You need a core group of 60-hour-a-week people.”

[Immutably Me: Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Great game experiences can be created with two people or 200. How much over time you force them into does not make a better game. Look to Fez as an example.]

Concede Screwups “You face a moment where you can admit something isn’t working or you can lie about it. It’s like in Shakespeare’s plays: The tragic heroes keep making new mistakes that compound their original mistakes. The comic heroes muddle around and find themselves in ridiculous circumstances, but in the end they accept their own humanity, and the audience respects them for it.”

[Immutably Me: Post-mortem evaluations of a game can certainly be helpful to avoiding future errors but in my experience many people don’t learn and repeat the same mistakes again and again. I would say avoid foolish errors by surrounding yourelf with appropriate professionals and learn to trust them to do their job well.]

Apr 08 2008 ∞

Iron Man Xbox 360 Trailer - The Uncanny Valley Strikes Again