GDC 08 Slideshow

GDC 08: Day 2

Day 2 saw me on the expo floor here at GDC. My first stop of course had to be the Nintendo booth. I was able to see the new Wii Fit peripheral in action and I have to say I was impressed. The pressure sensitive device looked like an exercise step with 2 pads on the top that read the changes in weight. It has obvious exercise applications but also could be used to expand the already great casual game library that the Wii already has. My brain goes to how it can be used to create great mini games for another Mario Party title. Next we saw the new version of 3ds Max 2008 coming out from Autodesk. We only saw a brief bit of the demo but one thing really made me excited. Now I like to work primarily in the perspective view when modeling and that can lead to problems when the software reads the pivot point for the window a fair ways away from the work. In this new version of 3ds Max you can actually adjust the working pivot so when you rotate and zoom the window it pivots around the position you set. That's amazing for my work. It's truly been a great trip and hopefully helpful for starting my career. Once I'm back home after a long day of traveling tomorrow I will be sure to post my pictures from the event. I would also like to add another developer to my list from yesterday. The great folks from Petroglyph studios were there and I enjoyed talking to them, that and they also said I smile like the president of the company. That has to be a good sign! Again a big thank you goes out to all the developers that took the time to chat with me and I hope to be able to come back next year.

GDC 08: Day 1

In my mind a very successful first day here in sunny San Francisco. The Career Pavilion at the Game Developers Conference has a great reputation as one of the best in the game industry. I found it to be full of great opportunities for those of us looking to get into the industry, if you are persistent. Most companies there are looking to hire people with experience and most positions available require at least 1 shipped title. However, the mythical internship opportunity does indeed exist. Now I am in a rare position that my degree can easily be finished no matter where I end up since I need mostly just general education classes to finish. This would allow me to accept a permanent position and still finish my degree so I do have a bit of flexibility. Now most of the bigger publishers who were there had staffed booths that were there basically to tell you to go checkout their website, but the folks at Activision were able to tell me to check in about a week when they will post their internship opportunities. 2k Games also gets a thank you for having a wonderful staff who took my interest to heart and really made me feel good about talking to them. However the best publisher booth I saw was THQ. These guys had at least one representative from each of their developers in attendance and were all more than willing to talk to a guy trying to break into games. Last but certainly not least were the folks from independent developer Day 1 Studios. Their staff were very interested in me and my search and for that I thank them.

Demo Reel

Sorry for the slight delay

Ahh delays, they happen to the best of us. Mine were some of the traditional reasons, I got sick, my computer was in for service for almost 3 weeks (hard to get anything done that way), and I just happen to have gotten engaged to a beautiful young woman who has a love of games as big as mine and happens also to be a talented texture artist! I consider myself very lucky indeed. I've also been finalizing my work samples for the GDC Career Pavilion. Anyway on to the point of this post.

Is it just me or does everybody have that one dream game they want to make? I had an idea for a revolutionary game that blends rts, fps, and rpg gameplay to create an experience that has never been done before, though many seem to have tried. My idea has a strong story rooted in an established ip and more importantly is connected to an ip I believe in, the Warhammer 40,000 license currently held by developer THQ. The game follows the player through a series of battles connected by a strong story of moral choices and revenge. By making "good" choices, and I put good in parenthesis because anybody who knows much about Warhammer 40k knows that good is a relative term, the player progresses through becoming a member of the planetary defense force and defending their homeworld against alien raiders then later becoming an elite space marine and striking a blow against the evil forces of Chaos and also the brother who joined them. Being evil allows you to play the brother as he progresses through joining a militant Chaos cult and later becoming a Chaos space marine and a champion of the dark gods. The game plays from a first person perspective with both ranged and melee combat, but the real fun is the skill based system and unique tactical orders interface.

I'm not going to give anymore away as this is the internet and all. It is a shame that publishers and developers don't accept unsolicited game ideas but at the same time I understand that policy. The hope is after some time in the industry I can eventually submit the idea and hopefully get it made as it has so much potential.

P.S if you are interested in this idea and work at a THQ owned development house please contact me.