The design and business of gaming from the perspective of an experienced developer

Category: Personal (Page 4 of 9)

My Dog Is Broken

My dog may not be as cool as the one that likes to suck on psychedelic toads (okay, I had to sneak that link in there somewhere) but we’ve been together a long time, and I knew that something was wrong when she didn’t hop off the couch to greet me when I got up a couple days ago.

She seemed to be limping, but oddly not in pain, as if her back leg didn’t work anymore. When I took her out back to do her business, she didn’t want to climb up. A trip to the vet was necessary. The vet confirmed the not-very-good: Dizzy had torn a knee ligament – a ruptured left cranial cruciate ligament, to be precise. The fix, apparently, is looping a nylon rope through the knee in such a way that it mimics what the ligament used to do, although oddly enough, the rope goes on the outside of the knee, meaning Dizzy will have a tubular scar around her knee for the rest of her life. Continue reading

Looking Forward, Looking Back

As we enter the new year, it’s worthwhile to talk about where we came from, and how it will affect things moving forward.

In many ways, 2006 was good for me, at least personally. I got married, which I should definitely mention in the ‘good’ category. Also, I got the best job I’ve ever had, and am in the midst now of developing some of the core gameplay systems for a very cool game. It’s always a pleasure to wake up looking forward to work. Continue reading

All I Want For Christmas Is True Plug ‘n Play Functionality

I hope everyone out there had a merry Christmas. Our Christmas was the fairly standard trip to the Schubert ancestral home, complete with opening some presents and watching the Dallas Cowboys choke on national TV (which is fast becoming a holiday tradition).

The big Christmas gift for me was the XBox 360 – yes, I am finally part of the next-gen generation of gamers. Normally, my gaming habits are more PC based, but as a designer, you gotta keep relevant. Although I swear to god, I will never be able to play a shooter on a console. Last night’s Rainbow Six episode was almost comical, with me taking about five seconds to line up every shot, as bad guys rained hellfire upon me unmolested. Continue reading

Telling Stories in an MMO

An interview with the head honchos of my studio has been posted. It features Producers Gordon Walton and Rich Vogel, as well as BioWare Creative Director (and my Lead Designer) James Ohlen. They’ve given up some more information about what we’re working on: namely, it’s going to focus a lot on story.

We want to bring a level of storytelling that’s equal to the single-player box games that BioWare has done. I think we can do that. One of the big challenges will be making our storytelling work in an environment that has multiple players.

Feel free to debate what that means… or even what you hope it means.

Original comments thread is here.

Nine And One!

Today, I enjoyed one of my finer wedding presents – I drove up to Dallas to see the Cowboys-Colts game, a game that Dallas won, ruining the Colts otherwise perfect season. As we left, those wearing Colts gear tried to cover up, while Dallas fans were all around me, chanting ‘9 and 1!’ – a reference to the one loss which now mars the Colts otherwise flawless record. Continue reading

Notes from the Honeymoon

  • No sleep on our wedding night – we left the reception around 11 PM, and the plane left the next morning at 6 AM.
  • When we landed in St. Maarten, we found that the new Airport is due to be completed in 3 weeks. I can only hope that it has air conditioning – the old airport did not, which made the hours-long customs wait very tedious.

Continue reading

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