I was thinking this morning that I really need to post more about game development here. For one thing, game development is my job; it's what I've I done for 8+ hours a day 5+ days a week for the last 6 years straight and then on and off here and there in both professional and amateur capacities for 6+ years preceding. For another thing, I have pretty strong opinions regarding game design and the development process. Lately however, one aspect of game development has revealed itself to me as perhaps being more in need of being discussed and that is transparency or more specifically the lack of transparency between development and the audience and how this creates false expectations from said audience.
As a developer I understand the need for this lack of transparency: gamers are a ravenous horde who not only seek to devour any information about projects they're interested in, but also to speculate on that information in ways that often affect the public perception - and by association the retail performance - of a product. Simply put: you scare the shit out of us. I don't think there is a correlation with any other form of media where audience reaction can have such a massive and immediate effect on the product, certainly not in any form of media this big. Gaming sites often go after any information released by a developer or or those close to a developer with the same voracity that political pundits do gaffes from the opposite party's leaders. This is a large part of the reason why I have a disclaimer on this blog. I don't want my thoughts on games and game development (or anything else for that matter) to be misconstrued as official statements from a BioWare or EA employee. This overwhelming desire for information from fans and the lack of transparency from developers forges a relationship that can quickly (and quite often) become adversarial. Because of this however the lack of transparency persists and because of that lack of transparency I believe expectations often become outrageous. It's a vicious circle.
Anyway, I seem to have gotten away from my initial point which is that I would like to post more about game development, to be more transparent, but to do so I need to create a certain distance from anything I am currently working on. That being the case, I think I'm going to try to post some things about the process of game development in a general sense. The goal being to shed some light on aspects that people rarely ever see, without incriminating myself in the process.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Skillz
Labels:
coffee
Saturday, March 24, 2012
New Header
I'm experimenting with a new header image for the site. I never really like the old one. It had just been something I whipped together really quickly when I started the blog a few years ago and it never really said anything to me. It was also based on a really shitty picture taken with my old iPhone so the resolution was just embarrassing.
The idea behind the new header is to be a little more representative of what I talk about here, specifically: music, games, comics, Austin, etc. On the left is Dr. Dan Yemin from Paint it Black, Kid Dynamite, and Lifetime singing to the crowd at Fun Fun Fun Fest 6. The next image is the Normandy from Mass Effect. The 3rd image is The Hulk as found at Austin Books and Comics on North Lamar Blvd. And the right image is of course a street sign for our own 6th street here in Austin.
I've toyed with the idea of replacing the header in the past and was never able to come up with something I liked. I'm still not sure about this design, but we'll see if it grows on me.
The idea behind the new header is to be a little more representative of what I talk about here, specifically: music, games, comics, Austin, etc. On the left is Dr. Dan Yemin from Paint it Black, Kid Dynamite, and Lifetime singing to the crowd at Fun Fun Fun Fest 6. The next image is the Normandy from Mass Effect. The 3rd image is The Hulk as found at Austin Books and Comics on North Lamar Blvd. And the right image is of course a street sign for our own 6th street here in Austin.
I've toyed with the idea of replacing the header in the past and was never able to come up with something I liked. I'm still not sure about this design, but we'll see if it grows on me.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Top Albums of 2011 - Honorable Mention
I hate to do this, but I need to retroactively give Quiet Company's "We Are All Where We Belong" an honorable mention for my Top Albums of 2011. I didn't pick this album up until last month, but had I grabbed it when it was released in late 2011, I have no doubt that I would have included it in my Top 5.
We Are All Where We Belong by Quiet Company
Spotify: Quiet Company – We Are All Where We Belong
Twitter: @quietcompanytx
Band Website: www.quietcompanymusic.com/
At it's core, We Are All Where We Belong is a concept album about a crisis of faith. It's an album by and about someone for whom religion was once a central tenet and who (upon becoming a father) begins to question those tenets in examining how best to prepare his child for life. Two themes that seem to be at play are first: the questioning of one's faith and the reasoning behind one's devotion to a faith; "devotion" (especially when a person has been indoctrinated from childhood) so often being a result of routine and tradition more so than any personal conclusions a person has come to. The second theme at play is the age old desire of a parent to provide their child a better life than the one they had. In We Are All Where We Belong this manifests in a desire by the author to spare his child from the indoctrination and eventual crisis of faith that the author himself has gone through. With the band's previous albums having been seen by many to be "Christian Rock" to the point of having been released by a label known for publishing Christian music, the ideological shift in We Are All Where We Belong is a bold, but sincere effort that makes an indelible mark on the music itself.
I've said before that sincerity in art is one of the things I think separates "mainstream" music from everything else. When one makes art due to the unquenchable need to create versus the desire to simply produce another consumer product, the results often reflect that. We Are All Where We Belong is easily one of the most sincere albums of 2011. It's difficult not to feel for Taylor Muse as the album maps out an emotional journey complete with peaks and valleys, hopes and fears, certainty and doubt. As one might assume, musings on the afterlife (or lack thereof) play a prominent role in several songs, but none so prominently as "Everything Louder Than Everything Else". In what I perceive to be the climax of this album (and easily my favorite track at the moment) Taylor Muse begs "Don't lay me down / I don't ever want to die / I've had to good a time / I really like it here" only to come to the conclusion "But when I go, there will probably be / no angels singing / no harps ringing / no pearly gates / no devil's flames / just nothing nothing nothing nothing". The song ends with a heartfelt lament, a sincere plea by the man who has forsaken what he no longer believes for the harsh truth he believes he was "protected" from all his life: "Don't let me go / I'm not prepared / I'm so damn scared / That I'm almost there". It's beautiful and haunting. It strikes right to the core of me and I absolutely love it.
I've said so much about the themes and the lyrics of this album that one might think I have nothing to say about the music, this however is not the case. The skill and depth on offer in this album is simply brilliant. As someone who tries to follow the local scene and who even pays attention to the lesser known opening acts at a show, I definitely hear a lot of music that isn't quite ready for prime time. Quiet Company is not one of those bands. You could take nearly any of these tracks, put them on national radio tomorrow and people would instantly think they'd missed something ... "Why haven't I heard of this band before?"
I'm probably the worst person to try and describe what certain acts sound like in terms of what other bands they're reminiscent of. The goal of such an exercise is to mention related artists that most people will know and those tend to be the bands I don't listen to much. All I can say is that it's great rock music, full of guitars, horns, keyboards, drums, soaring vocals and strings, and produced to within an inch of it's life. It's not so cynical as to be the kind of thing Pitchfork gets on board with, but if you peruse the pages of Paste you're on the right track. Just check it out already.
Spotify: Quiet Company – We Are All Where We Belong
Twitter: @quietcompanytx
Band Website: www.quietcompanymusic.com/
At it's core, We Are All Where We Belong is a concept album about a crisis of faith. It's an album by and about someone for whom religion was once a central tenet and who (upon becoming a father) begins to question those tenets in examining how best to prepare his child for life. Two themes that seem to be at play are first: the questioning of one's faith and the reasoning behind one's devotion to a faith; "devotion" (especially when a person has been indoctrinated from childhood) so often being a result of routine and tradition more so than any personal conclusions a person has come to. The second theme at play is the age old desire of a parent to provide their child a better life than the one they had. In We Are All Where We Belong this manifests in a desire by the author to spare his child from the indoctrination and eventual crisis of faith that the author himself has gone through. With the band's previous albums having been seen by many to be "Christian Rock" to the point of having been released by a label known for publishing Christian music, the ideological shift in We Are All Where We Belong is a bold, but sincere effort that makes an indelible mark on the music itself.
I've said before that sincerity in art is one of the things I think separates "mainstream" music from everything else. When one makes art due to the unquenchable need to create versus the desire to simply produce another consumer product, the results often reflect that. We Are All Where We Belong is easily one of the most sincere albums of 2011. It's difficult not to feel for Taylor Muse as the album maps out an emotional journey complete with peaks and valleys, hopes and fears, certainty and doubt. As one might assume, musings on the afterlife (or lack thereof) play a prominent role in several songs, but none so prominently as "Everything Louder Than Everything Else". In what I perceive to be the climax of this album (and easily my favorite track at the moment) Taylor Muse begs "Don't lay me down / I don't ever want to die / I've had to good a time / I really like it here" only to come to the conclusion "But when I go, there will probably be / no angels singing / no harps ringing / no pearly gates / no devil's flames / just nothing nothing nothing nothing". The song ends with a heartfelt lament, a sincere plea by the man who has forsaken what he no longer believes for the harsh truth he believes he was "protected" from all his life: "Don't let me go / I'm not prepared / I'm so damn scared / That I'm almost there". It's beautiful and haunting. It strikes right to the core of me and I absolutely love it.
I've said so much about the themes and the lyrics of this album that one might think I have nothing to say about the music, this however is not the case. The skill and depth on offer in this album is simply brilliant. As someone who tries to follow the local scene and who even pays attention to the lesser known opening acts at a show, I definitely hear a lot of music that isn't quite ready for prime time. Quiet Company is not one of those bands. You could take nearly any of these tracks, put them on national radio tomorrow and people would instantly think they'd missed something ... "Why haven't I heard of this band before?"
I'm probably the worst person to try and describe what certain acts sound like in terms of what other bands they're reminiscent of. The goal of such an exercise is to mention related artists that most people will know and those tend to be the bands I don't listen to much. All I can say is that it's great rock music, full of guitars, horns, keyboards, drums, soaring vocals and strings, and produced to within an inch of it's life. It's not so cynical as to be the kind of thing Pitchfork gets on board with, but if you peruse the pages of Paste you're on the right track. Just check it out already.
Monday, March 19, 2012
A Longer Look at the Mass Effect 3 Ending (Contains Spoilers)
It almost seems unnecessary to write a longer analysis of the Mass Effect 3 ending since it seems like everyone else has already made my point. I spent a little time today following a bunch of links kicked off by Adi Tantimedh's writeup on Bleeding Cool and the amount of well reasoned consensus people seem to be displaying over the situation is atypical of most reactionary discourse on the internet. In fact it doesn't seem reactionary at all and the few instances of people supporting the existing endings actually seem more crackpot to me than the thousands of people who are disappointed.
[SPOILERS BEGIN]
As far as my personal take on the situation, I can deal with the "Guardian" AI and the choices presented to me. I actually tend to like the idea of some incalculably old being at the helm of a galactic perpetual motion machine that involves the Reaper's wiping out the majority of organic life every 50,000 years. I like it because it allows the story to resolve itself as a tale of the races of Shepard's cycle coming together as one against all odds and achieving a level of societal evolution that no other cycle before them would seem to have been capable of. In my game, Shepard has not only united these races, but he's fought for the rights of synthetic life and proven that organics and synthetics can try to live together harmoniously; an outcome that is diametrically opposed to the Guardian's antiquated reasoning that the created will always seek to destroy the creator. The game means to give me the magical "synthesis" ending as the ideal resolution for my particular choices, but it's not ideal at all. In my version of the galaxy we have succeeded without the physics-defying synthesis offered by the Guardian. If anything, we've proven that we have what it takes to break the cycle and run our own lives.
What I want is a 4th option, the Babylon 5 option. I want my Shepard to stand against the Guardian and the Reapers like Sheridan in season 4 of B5 when he faces the leaders of the Shadows and the Vorlons and tell them to "get the hell out of our galaxy" ... we don't need them anymore. I want the former child races of the galaxy to storm the gates of heaven and demand to be taken seriously and to become the true masters of their own fate, for better or worse.
Maybe Shepard still needs to die in order for this to happen, maybe the mass effect relay network still needs to be destroyed. I don't care. I don't have as much issue with all of that nor the three options I was given. The real issue is that they were options I/Shepard was given and not options we got to choose. It's that 4th option, the option of choice that I think people feel is missing. Regardless of how you play him, Commander Shepard is a big damn hero and the endings we were given don't make me feel that way when all is said and done.
[SPOILERS END]
This is just my opinion though. I can't speak for the writers of ME3 nor would I seek to undermine their decisions. As a game developer I know that there are many things going on under the hood of a project you never see that affect every aspect of it's development. I know not why nor how the endings were arrived at and I don't seek to criticize that process. They've achieved an amazing thing with the Mass Effect series and I look forward to whatever comes next whether it addresses the ending controversy or not. So go play ME3, play them all, and see for yourself. Even if you're disappointed in the last 15 minutes, you're going to enjoy the ride; I can pretty much guarantee that you will.
[SPOILERS BEGIN]
As far as my personal take on the situation, I can deal with the "Guardian" AI and the choices presented to me. I actually tend to like the idea of some incalculably old being at the helm of a galactic perpetual motion machine that involves the Reaper's wiping out the majority of organic life every 50,000 years. I like it because it allows the story to resolve itself as a tale of the races of Shepard's cycle coming together as one against all odds and achieving a level of societal evolution that no other cycle before them would seem to have been capable of. In my game, Shepard has not only united these races, but he's fought for the rights of synthetic life and proven that organics and synthetics can try to live together harmoniously; an outcome that is diametrically opposed to the Guardian's antiquated reasoning that the created will always seek to destroy the creator. The game means to give me the magical "synthesis" ending as the ideal resolution for my particular choices, but it's not ideal at all. In my version of the galaxy we have succeeded without the physics-defying synthesis offered by the Guardian. If anything, we've proven that we have what it takes to break the cycle and run our own lives.
What I want is a 4th option, the Babylon 5 option. I want my Shepard to stand against the Guardian and the Reapers like Sheridan in season 4 of B5 when he faces the leaders of the Shadows and the Vorlons and tell them to "get the hell out of our galaxy" ... we don't need them anymore. I want the former child races of the galaxy to storm the gates of heaven and demand to be taken seriously and to become the true masters of their own fate, for better or worse.
Maybe Shepard still needs to die in order for this to happen, maybe the mass effect relay network still needs to be destroyed. I don't care. I don't have as much issue with all of that nor the three options I was given. The real issue is that they were options I/Shepard was given and not options we got to choose. It's that 4th option, the option of choice that I think people feel is missing. Regardless of how you play him, Commander Shepard is a big damn hero and the endings we were given don't make me feel that way when all is said and done.
[SPOILERS END]
This is just my opinion though. I can't speak for the writers of ME3 nor would I seek to undermine their decisions. As a game developer I know that there are many things going on under the hood of a project you never see that affect every aspect of it's development. I know not why nor how the endings were arrived at and I don't seek to criticize that process. They've achieved an amazing thing with the Mass Effect series and I look forward to whatever comes next whether it addresses the ending controversy or not. So go play ME3, play them all, and see for yourself. Even if you're disappointed in the last 15 minutes, you're going to enjoy the ride; I can pretty much guarantee that you will.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed on Plenty For All
are purely the opinions of Brian J. Audette and are not at all
affiliated with, representative of, endorsed or supported by BioWare,
EA, it's shareholders, partners, or subsidiaries.
Brief Thoughts on The Mass Effect 3 Ending (no spoilers)
Having just finished Mass Effect 3 and finally being able to read articles about the ongoing debate regarding its ending, I feel like I'm going to have to side with the disappointed. Mind you, this isn't a Battlestar Galactica level of disappointment, where the final episode (primarily the last few minutes) ruined the series for me retroactively. With Mass Effect 3 it's more a mild disappointment in the setup, delivery, and execution of the game's final choice. The game basically presents the player with 3 options that (while all valid) left me wanting to argue for a 4th choice. The reason I believe there should have been a 4th choice is because I spent a good portion of the game proving that such a solution could work.
Anyway, the game (and series) as a whole is AMAZING. It moved me in ways no game has ever moved me before. As far as the ending goes though, it leaves something to be desired for those who followed what I believe is a prominent narrative path through the series. I'll get into more detail at a later point though and that post WILL contain spoilers.
Anyway, the game (and series) as a whole is AMAZING. It moved me in ways no game has ever moved me before. As far as the ending goes though, it leaves something to be desired for those who followed what I believe is a prominent narrative path through the series. I'll get into more detail at a later point though and that post WILL contain spoilers.
Labels:
games
Sunday, March 18, 2012
SXSW 2012 - Day Five
All things must end. This is as true for SXSW as it is for everything else, but this year my SXSW experience ended in epic fashion. We started the night by heading over to Swan Dive on Red River to catch DC-area band Deleted Scenes:
I had heard about these guys from Office of Future Plans' Twitter feed and listened to them on Spotify a few times. They combine DC punk/rock with a playfulness and experimentation that ends up producing a unique, but listenable sound not quite like anything else out there right now. I found the live show to be very good and a great start to the night. The next stop was Spill bar to check out a band called Elephant Stone:
This was one of my picks based solely on a single sample track and in the end I wasn't disappointed. They put on an interesting show and it's not often at all that you see a sitar used in indie rock in such a fashion. Leaving Spill around 8:30, we heading south to Lustre Pearl to meet up with some friends and catch the always amazing Tim Fite:
This is the third time I've seen Tim Fite live and it's always a fun and unique experience. I highly recommend checking him out live if you ever get the chance and head over to his web site for plenty of free downloads as well. Quiet Company was our 11pm stop, so we headed over to the Chevrolet Sound Garage on 6th to set ourselves up early for the show:
As always, these guys rocked the fucking house. If I had to pick an Austin band most on the verge of blowing up nationally it would be this one. These guys have serious chops and a style with broad appeal while still managing to be 100% sincere about their music. Do yourself a favor and pick up their latest album "We Are All Where We Belong" before the hipsters catch on and try to make it seem like they were there first.
With nothing lined up for 12pm, we headed over to Friends bar on 6th to catch And So I Watch You From Afar a second time. My main goal was to get up front for this set and after the previous band finished and the front of the stage cleared out a bit, I was able to stake my claim:
The band put on a phenomenal set despite a few technical difficulties and instrument malfunctions. One of the highlights for me was in finally seeing them play "Don't Waste Time Doing Things You Hate", one of my favorite tracks from their first album. They closed the evening with a powerful performance of "The Voiceless" that saw guitarists Rory Friers and Niall Kennedy jump into the crowd and continue playing whilst crouched on the floor and surrounded by fans:
If that wasn't enough, as the song ended in a crescendo of feedback and noise, Niall handed me his guitar. For a moment I was dumbfounded and then (understanding his gesture) began strumming the hell out of the instrument, contributing to the cacophonous climax of the evening. After 30 seconds or so of being the 5th member of And So I Watch You From Afar, Niall took back the guitar, gave me a hug from on stage and said "thanks" ... I have to assume not just for the strumming, but for my obvious admiration of the band as evidenced by my hardcore rocking out over the previous 50 minutes:
So, drenched in sweat and with a giant grin across my face I reunited with my friends and bid farewell to SXSW for 2012. It was a perfect end to an excellent week of music in one of favorite cities in the world and a place I'm so glad to call home.
I had heard about these guys from Office of Future Plans' Twitter feed and listened to them on Spotify a few times. They combine DC punk/rock with a playfulness and experimentation that ends up producing a unique, but listenable sound not quite like anything else out there right now. I found the live show to be very good and a great start to the night. The next stop was Spill bar to check out a band called Elephant Stone:
This was one of my picks based solely on a single sample track and in the end I wasn't disappointed. They put on an interesting show and it's not often at all that you see a sitar used in indie rock in such a fashion. Leaving Spill around 8:30, we heading south to Lustre Pearl to meet up with some friends and catch the always amazing Tim Fite:
This is the third time I've seen Tim Fite live and it's always a fun and unique experience. I highly recommend checking him out live if you ever get the chance and head over to his web site for plenty of free downloads as well. Quiet Company was our 11pm stop, so we headed over to the Chevrolet Sound Garage on 6th to set ourselves up early for the show:
As always, these guys rocked the fucking house. If I had to pick an Austin band most on the verge of blowing up nationally it would be this one. These guys have serious chops and a style with broad appeal while still managing to be 100% sincere about their music. Do yourself a favor and pick up their latest album "We Are All Where We Belong" before the hipsters catch on and try to make it seem like they were there first.
With nothing lined up for 12pm, we headed over to Friends bar on 6th to catch And So I Watch You From Afar a second time. My main goal was to get up front for this set and after the previous band finished and the front of the stage cleared out a bit, I was able to stake my claim:
The band put on a phenomenal set despite a few technical difficulties and instrument malfunctions. One of the highlights for me was in finally seeing them play "Don't Waste Time Doing Things You Hate", one of my favorite tracks from their first album. They closed the evening with a powerful performance of "The Voiceless" that saw guitarists Rory Friers and Niall Kennedy jump into the crowd and continue playing whilst crouched on the floor and surrounded by fans:
If that wasn't enough, as the song ended in a crescendo of feedback and noise, Niall handed me his guitar. For a moment I was dumbfounded and then (understanding his gesture) began strumming the hell out of the instrument, contributing to the cacophonous climax of the evening. After 30 seconds or so of being the 5th member of And So I Watch You From Afar, Niall took back the guitar, gave me a hug from on stage and said "thanks" ... I have to assume not just for the strumming, but for my obvious admiration of the band as evidenced by my hardcore rocking out over the previous 50 minutes:
So, drenched in sweat and with a giant grin across my face I reunited with my friends and bid farewell to SXSW for 2012. It was a perfect end to an excellent week of music in one of favorite cities in the world and a place I'm so glad to call home.
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