Archive for May, 2006

This embarassingly naive statement by unfortunately non-ficticious graduate of Generic Game Design Course appears in Game Developer magazine on a regular basis.

In his defence, the offending graduate offers this forum post on Garage Games.

“Yea (sic) that quote was def NOT from me…. I wasnt even alive when pong was released! So i do understand where you guys are coming from as far as seeming to (sic) cocky. It may have been a little overboard but at least its (sic) getting some notice. But sorry to make it seem like that was from me.(?) If you know me on a personal basis you would know thats not my character.”

So marketing genius strikes once again. Not only has Mr. Hartlieb’s chances of ever gaining employment in our industry been dramatically reduced, but Academia as a whole takes a blow.

This work shows that you cannot learn to animate from reading The Illusion of Life alone, with the textbook poses undermined by misplaced in-betweens and timing. Importantly, the arm poses look to be created via IK, therefore disabling the possibility of curve-based inbetweens.

Almost too close to the bone, this pretty much sums up the alsoran’s parents’ idea of how their son spends most of his days - because videogames are made by simply playing them. It could be a not-so-elaborate hoax, were it not for the actual existence of the website, let alone the course itself.

At first glance, this humourous cliche that UNDERMINES THE VERY CORE OF THE ALSORAN’S CHOSEN CAREER seems passable for a youthful industry given the 70s outfits, hair-styles and sound effects, until one realises that the two goons are in fact holding PS1 joypads, placing this effort firmly post-1998.

This fantastically realised sci-fi alien concept, complete with wellington boots and buttock-shaped head, likely doesn’t have to worry much about rain puddles given that his anti-grav utility belt allows him to walk across water devoid of any weight whatsoever.

So the alsoran arrives home after an extended holiday following E3 with a lot to think about regarding the direction of the games industry. Though there is much to write about in the immediate future, we’ll begin with what was undoubtedly the highlight of the show - the alsoran finally speaking to one of his biggest inspirations, creator of Space Channel 5, Rez, Lumines and the upcoming Ninety Nine Nights, Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

The alsoran had alwasy wanted to discuss his own findings surrounding the life of 19th century German artist Wassily Kandisky, in particular his alleged condition of the cross-sensory neuropsychological phenomenon Synaesthesia, (Rez’s devlopment code-name was “K-Project”, taking its audio/visual-crossover direction from the writings of Kandisnky). During his heavy research, the alsoran found that Kandinsky had, contradictory to documented history, not actually suffered from the condition himself but was in fact a pioneer concerned with finding true connections between the senses with his art and writing.

However, the encounter didn’t go quite as planned. After a brief introduction in Japanese, he broke down into just another fanboy and espoused the greatness of Rez, embarassingly dropping in that the experience was akin to a journey to the moon, due in no small part to the accompanying use of marijuana. Fortunately, Mizuguchi laughed, having only the previous week read an article rating the top videogames of all time to play stoned, in which Rez came out on top. Hopefully the next time they meet will be more fruitful.

Looking like a Jamie Hewlett reject, this lumbering monster plays well to the strengths of the neanderthal-proportioned limbs, but unfortunately fails to take into consideration actual movement of the root bone - which would have avoided the effect of looking like the character’s arse is nailed to a wall.

No Weekly Bad Walkcycle update this week or next, as the hard-drive failed and the alsoran is away to E3 until next week. Just seeing the initial press conferences from the major 3 today though, it looks like Nintendo are surprising with the quality of their console, Microsoft are pushing back the boundaries of online entertainment, and the truth is finally coming out a year later about Sony. A lot of speculation has gone around simply questioning how the powerhouse of the Playstation brand could possibly be ousted in this generation, and it turns out that it already was, with Sony’s E3 2005 spec claims turning out to be nothing more than outright lies.

With Killzone a no-show, and games looking visibly inferior to the supposed in-game content previewed a year ago, the alsoran hopes that joe public will become aware that the next generation began last November, and consumers should stop holding out for the PS3 - a console on par with XBOX, only one year behind on games and a generation behind online. More details on the Great Sony Charade post-E3…