GDC day 2 and 3

Couldn't get hotel internet to work before I headed out this morning so combining a summary of the days here. Day 2 was the conclusion of the game design workshop. It was very tiring mentally after the first day. The first activity was basically recreating a game without any of the digital graphics. So, taking a video game and using just some paper and dice to try to replicate some of the feeling of it. We ended up choosing League of Legends, which was horrendously hard to boil down to a simple tabletop game prototype. It felt like the teams were a little too large, as it seemed only four of the six were able to contribute here. I sort of felt left out no matter how I tried to put forth some input, but that may have just been this group of people being less collaborative. I play tested some lane fights with the remaining member while the others hammered out their idea and ignored us for the most part. I then went to lunch alone, ah well, can't always have an awesome group like that first session.

The final activity was trying to make a story to change how a game played. Basically descriptions of what pieces represent or the situation they are in can drastically change a game without changing any rules. Interesting stuff all around!

All in all even just the workshop was great for meeting people and was almost as good as a year in some game design course imo. Definitely worth ones time!

Day 3: 
This was today. First I went to a presentation about Real Sense from Intel, featuring some devs creating games for this new tech. Basically it is a camera that allows a computer to sense human gestures or bio metrics; pretty sci fi stuff! However, it is still pretty basic at this time. Still, even just what I heard was pretty neat: gestures controlling game actions, voice commands, games reacting to increased heartbeat. Lots of potential here, and I look forward to the future of such tech, especially as Virtual Reality options improve.

After that it was basically a solo day, relaxing and taking in similar presentations. I needed to sort of distance myself and recover after those first couple days. Still, after seeing all this mind blowing stuff I can't help but feel a little intimidated as well as inspired. I guess it is best to think of it this way: These guys are breaking new ground with new tech, we are all constantly learning new stuff in this industry! One step at a time into the future of gaming!

See you tomorrow for day 4 as GDC week continues!

GDC day 1

Originally I was not going to post a lot of updates. However, after the first day I have to say that there is just so much I need to do a sort of journal to even organize it!

When I first got here there were crowds everywhere. They weren't there to stand in line to register, but just to chat with groups of friends; big groups of friends. Registering was as simple as signing in and printing off the badge. After that, this being my first GDC and the groups looking pretty well exclusive I decided to just rest up for tomorrow.

Good thing I did too, because the next day when GDC officially started was a whirlwind. I met a couple other first timers, some volunteering for the convention, some paying like myself. We talked about what we did game design wise and a little about ourselves, the usual.

Afterwards I went back to my room and prepared to go. In fact I should have went earlier than I did, the game design workshop was pretty packed even arriving early! Pro tip: Arrive about an hour and 30 minutes early at the minimum for this popular workshop. Passed the time in line chatting and exchanging business cards. Then the game designing started. We ended up in some random team modifying a game first, then later in the day had to design a game based on a random set of constraints. That is two games with a fresh team in one day, which was crazy fast; amazing what we could do with a little guidance from industry vets. Thanks guys, it was an awesome first day!

Pre-GDC

So it is the day before I am traveling out to GDC... Not sure what to expect other than what I read online haha. Feel a combination of excitement and nervousness when I think about it. I go armed with business cards and resumes. Meanwhile project news: working on some buildings for a project:

Other than that still polishing animations among other things. Seems there was a bit of trouble with one project, lost an artist, so when I return I may have to try my hand at level design in Unity (not a bad idea, would be interesting).

Alright, little late again this week but been working on animation mainly. Sorry for the quality of the video I will post but it gets the basic point across which is a preview of a string of animations. If all works well we can use these to have the creature basically play a portion of it when doing some action such as walking or attacking.

As you can see I have refined this character a bit from the previous version. Fur looks a lot smoother, some more details on the face, normal map with some minor sculpting applied.

Here are the animations . It has been awhile since I have animated, so lets consider these rough animations for now. However, I also feel I will never be fully satisfied with the result at this time. I suppose more confidence would come with more practice! Taking a character from a simple sketch to a full on animating character is definitely a time consuming process. Still, it is definitely a good way to pick up a lot of skills quickly, or brush up on some things one may be rusty on.

Other projects still in the works, got some 2D animation coming up, hopefully I can get some more of that done before I head out to GDC. Also, I recently joined the Age of Aincrad team! It is a really big project setting out to create a game inspired by the popular Sword Art Online anime. To find out more about it be sure to check out facebook or their forums.

Whew, lots happening recently. I look forward to seeing where all these projects go though!

So busy I missed a week. Anyways, still working on various art endeavors to improve including a couple projects. On deck atm is this guy:

I dislike the fur pattern a bit, so will try and blend it together more. Other than that is it just refining details now and the bump map. This model is taking some time as I had to learn about alphas almost from scratch. Been learning a lot lately, it seems you can find tutorials for just about anything on youtube or floating around the internet.

Another thing I was looking at was atavism, but it seems somewhat incomplete at this time (see http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/atavism-whats-your-opinion.260957/). A lot of base elements are there, but to truly customize you still need to know how to create content. Honestly the idea reminds me a lot of Spore:galactic adventures. I put together a few scenarios/missions in that. It was cool, but no matter what you do the weapons or powers are the same presets. To add more you would have to get into the code and then add models, effects the works, or sub out what is already there for something else.

Anyways, that is all I got for game creation etc for the last couple weeks. See you again soon for more updates!

So here we have another character I started last week. Some sort of zombie. Anyways, lots of projects on deck I edited my thread on tigsource saying that I had all the projects I can handle at this time. Great place to meet up with other peeps and get better at creating things.

Also, I find myself thinking about GDC and its a combination of nervousness and anticipation I feel. Then I distract myself with project thoughts because it is easier to think about that stuff than a completely new experience lol.

Creating a demon, crazy how fast I got this mapped, a testament to a good base mesh? Hope so!

Other than that still working on various projects thanks to TIGsource forums for giving me stuff to work on. Skills leveling up, now if I could just get a game finished with a team hah. I have been noticing that many are eager to start projects, but few will take them to the finish. I am guilty of this as well, though I at least finish my part of the project if it is a team. Something about being in a team makes me feel like I have to at least keep going for other people. A solo project seems harder because as your own boss you can be too easy on yourself. Though I have read a deadline shifts some of that to a time limit and puts a challenge forward to finish something. Either way lots of projects cooking, so that's something at least.