Back From GDC

It has been quite a week! Coming back from GDC with great news, getting super sick the day I had to come back, catching up with Warm Gun on what we have to do next, speaking to the iphone team about what we plan on moving to next and sending followup emails to people I met at the conference.....whew.

Warm Gun got some AWESOME publicity at GDC. We recently announced our game to the public with a trailer available at www.warmgungame.com and have chalked up over 12,000 views over the weekend on our youtube channel!

I have also started doing much more in depth research into FPS games and have been trying to link gamer opinions directly to small statistical studies carried out by myself and a few friends regarding the genre. I will be posting the results as soon as they are done.

After speaking to some awesome people at GDC I have also started delving more into Hansoft and familiarizing myself with it as much as possible. At the moment Warm Gun has been using CodeSpacesSVN.

So much to do....lets start cracking! More info coming soon!

Home for the holidays...

Well it has been some time since I have made a post. I am currently still working on the Warm Gun Project but have also been asked to produce a new title coming to the iphone early in the year called It Came from the Moon!

We are currently using Unity 3D for this ICftM. In a nutshell it is a top-down shooter with a 1950's style sci-fi element. We plan on using cheezy (and funny) names and enemies.

I came home to Trinidad for the holiday's and visited my folks. There was so much food, I think I put on about 5 pounds. This coupled with the junk food I have been eating while beasting Cataclysm has also been a culprit to my added weight. All this will return to "normal" when I head back to Orlando.

The downtime with the family was welcomed and I am ready to return to work with batteries recharged and guns blazing!

Will post more about ICftM in the near future....

Updates, Updates...UPDATES!

What is new with me: I have graduated with my Masters in Game Production, finally received my work permit for the US (Only took 5 years and 4 degrees to be recognized) and am in the process of job hunting for an Associate/Assistant Production or Project Management position in the Game Industry.

Of course I am keeping myself busy. While working with Warm Gun I have familiarized myself with a new proprietary software SVN called Code Spaces . I am also in the works with a small team to produce a title for the iphone using the free Unity 3D tool while familiarizing myself even more with JIRA and Confluence. This should be interesting.

Please keep checking my blog. It is about to explode with new information from......TODAY!

Custodial Carnage goes GOLD

Today is the day! After 5 months of HARD work Random Encounter presents CUSTODIAL CARNAGE to the.......WORLD! Correct, we have a LIVE stream at 1pm EST showing our presentation. Pressure much? Maybe, but that is where we thrive isn't it? ;)

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fs-game-presentations

Thesis done! Early defense complete!

My thesis has been successfully defended one month ahead of regularly scheduled defense! The thesis focuses on examining the cohesive qualities of team members through the use of multiplayer games. Check it out! Halo fans will love this one!

WARM GUN is a GO

Some awesome news! I have been recruited by the WARM GUN team

http://emotionalrobots.com/games

The team was a FINALIST in the Make Something Unreal competition, and are working hard to really make an impression this year.

Currently we had video's of the Warm Gun mod available at China's GDC in EPIC's booth, VERY COOL! and are en route to have something "special" for GDCC in October. Be SURE to be checking that out!

Will post more details soon!

Moving to GOLD

Random Encounter is moving to Gold! With Beta all wrapped up and complete the team is putting the final touches on Custodial Carnage before it is "shipped". Final cut-scenes are going in, lighting is being reworked, ricochet is now SUPER awesome and MORE fun and essentially everything is just pretty!

Be sure to check out our Gold Presentation LIVE stream coming soon followed by our FINAL GOLD build.

Beta presentation LIVE stream

Attached is our Beta LIVE stream. I'm the guy that did the RISKS and how we plan on mitigating them :)

Check it out!

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8565796

Entering the world of Beta

Random Encounter is now heading to Beta with Custodial Carnage. Quite a few changes are being made. We spent all the way up until Alpha getting all of our tech in, getting it working and getting it functional without crashes...now it's time to make that tech fun!

The guys are heavily influenced by Red Dead Redemption by Rockstar, who visited Full Sail some weeks back. Actually, they liked the "Dead Eye" mode so well, they have tried to incorporate a version of their own. We are currently testing "UNdead Eye" which is a version of this. Matrix style, slowdown and pwnage...and its fun!

Another huge test phase is going into the Boss fight. Since the boss zombie Helga is the finale for Custodial Carnage it needs to hit home...it needs to hit home HARD. Currently we are testing iterations of the Bosses spit and melee abilities. We are trying scatter shot zombie spits, machine gun spits, more damage, more zombies, special spit...you name it, we're tying it.

By Friday we are going to be testing all these iterations with the team members and decide which one we think is best. With that done, we will be implementing and polishing it as much as possible.

Another HUGE incorporation for Custodial Carnage is a lighting system. Currently we are still going through iterations and bug fixes but we are certain that these minor issues will be resolved by the weekend.

Finally we are putting in a TON of effects. Each weapon is going to have their own effect, their own sound, their own feedback system and their own reward system. This is a HUGE stem forward for gameplay. Coupled with some AWESOME cut-scenes we have in store (you should see em they look like something from Dexter's Laboratory) and some hilarious comedic design by the team, Custodial Carnage is going to have the crowd rolling.

More updates and PICS to come! Stay tuned!!

ALPHA build as promised

Here it is folks! Our ALPHA build for Custodial Carnage. Please give us any feedback you have so we can make the gameplay as fun as possible!!

http://www.mediafire.com/?4zzaozmzem2

Custodial Carnage hits ALPHA

That's right folks, Custodial Carnage has hit ALPHA today. The team at Random Encounter will be presenting our most recent build to the GP Games Studio tomorrow morning bright and early. Be sure to keep an eye out, images, video's and an ALPHA DOWNLOAD will be posted soon!

Photos from Custodial Carnage

Feature Frag 2 donzo

Well Feature Fragment 2 has come....we were awesome...and now we are moving on at full steam! Alpha is within our grasp...just one week away and the team is once again going all out.


Here is a video of our FF2 build we presented before the staff of GP games this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4TsRrbukGU

Punching NOS!

Random Encounter is currently pushing the limits of their abilities as we move towards Feature Fragment 2 and Alpha. The team is literally going all out, giving all they got until we get the features in for the next milestone. But it does not stop there...stay tuned. We will be posting a Feature Fragment 2 video in T-minus 3 days!!!!

Custodial Carnage POC complete

Most recently Custodial Carnage (The game that I am currently producing) finished our Proof Of Concept or Prototype build. Our team (Random Encounter) has created a game where you play as Niel Stryker, a custodial engineer, who has to clean up the school he works in from all the kids who have been zombified. Luckily Niel packs his own lunch and was not infected by whatever was in the cafeteria food. Niel must use any and every item in the environment (including spiked medicine balls, dissected frogs and hockey sticks) to rid the school of these enemies.

Here is our base build for our game. Its very fun to play. I cant wait for the ricochet to be up and running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUg-6o0P92k

Currently reading this book based on game design. This was recommended to me by Ari Patrick

Will be posting a writeup on what I thought of this book soon!

Critical analysis of Gears fo War 2

I am currently working with Ari Patrick http://blog.aripatrick.com on analysis of an FPS. We are currently examining Gears of War 2 Menu, HUD, and first 2 levels in extreme detail.

The following are being examined:


INTRODUCTION

- Theme
- Story Overview (setting)
- Key features/Selling points

INTERFACE

- Front end menu
- HUD (How does it interest the player, is the single player of interest from this)

CHARACTER DESIGN
- Player (Appearance - can the player relate to the person in a single sitting)
- Personality (Dialogue, breaks the 4th wall)
- Allies (Appearance - do they complement the player, do they help)
- Enemies (Do they feel/look like a threat, what is required for an attack)
- Neutrals (Appearance, how does the game define neutral)

LEVEL DESIGN
- Scale (size of the level and time to completion)
- Appearance (What catches the players eye)
- Paths (Linear or non-linear, does the player care)

WEAPON DESIGN
- Variety (Are the weapons something the player wants, do you care to want more/less weapons)
- Scale (weapon drop and placement vs. size of map)
- Appearance (do the big weapons feel/look big (powerful))
- Usage (Range - shotgun (close range), sniper (long range), These are two extremes, what falls in between)
- Rate of fire
- Reticle/scope change
- Bullet Management (how long, reload time)

CUT SCENES
- Length (how long does it take to complete)
- Pacing (how long it takes relative to the pacing of the gameplay)
- Is it informative/entertaining.

TUTORIALS
- Integrated into gameplay (is the tutorial separate or part of the game, does the player need tutorials)

CONTROLS
- Console controls (How do they feel relative to competitors, is it easy to pickup and play)

Progressing with Random Encounter

Random Encounter is the name of the team that I will be producing Custodial Carnage with. Custodial Carnage is a 3rd person "shooter" involving the player controlling a janitor in a school filled with teenage zombies. As Nick Stryker you will move through a Boiler Room, Science Lab and Gym picking up objects and throwing them at the enemies to gain points. The secret behind the zombification of the school is revealed in the final stage when you confront the Lunch Lady Boss, Helga...

Orbiting the Giant Hairball!

After attending GDC (Game Developers Conference) in March 2010 I was pointed in the direction of this book by Gordon MacKenzie. The book helps explain how creativity can be lost during the "ascension" process of ones career into corporate business. MacKenzie tells about his time spent working at Hallmark and certain obstacles he overcame regarding bringing out peoples creativity by speaking to corporate business execuitives. He tries to bridge the gap that seems to have been created in certain situations where creativity is stifled because of conformity to corporate structure. The biggest takeaways I got from this book were

1. Versatility is necessary when navigating the hairball
2. Knowing how to orbit the hairball becomes more necessary as you move up through a company
3. Motivation is one of the key attributes to being versatile
4. Assisting or allowing others to realize their abilities is more useful that telling them how it is done

I think it is important to realize that the creative industry is not something can always follow a set pattern, but it should always have a positive purpose. This is shown in different game industry companies where different methodologies are used during the course of production and different companies systems that conform to their creative team.

For example, the setting of a place can help someone come into closer contact with their creative side, as MacKenzie describes in one of his stories where he "upgrades" a section of the Hallmark company with desks, lighting and props to help bring out the creative elements of people.

As mentioned above, motivation and versatility is vital during the production process, especially in the game industry. Since there is no official production methodology written that works for every single game company there is no true way to say if something is going to work. Some developers may believe an idea and design is fantastic only to find out after it is released it was not received well.

It is not to say that a "terrible" game is always due to poor development. This happens, but it can also mean that pre-production or even production was just not what research showed. Sometimes it can just be a gut feeling, and knowing how to pitch that gut feeling to stakeholders is very important. I think this book helps the reader realize how to use that feeling to ones strength and gain the trust of your stakeholders to make your "dream" come true!

Multimedia/Game Design Degree Images

Personal logo used for X-Cape
Hall design made from X-cape game
Castle design from X-cape game
Dining hall from X-Cape game
Replica image made in 3DS Max

Over the last 5 years I have completed my Associates Degree in Multimedia and Bachelors Degree in Digital Entertainment and Game Design.

Attached are images created from both degrees.