Early Wednesday morning on the news there were reports of suspicious package with explosives sent to the houses of prominent Democratic families as well as CNN, and most of these were places that President Trump has attacked in the past with his comments.
The political landscape has gotten so vitriolic that there needs to be changes. Please vote in the upcoming elections. Hopefully as blue. This far-right rhetoric is getting too violent and unbalanced and unhinged. People are willing to blindly follow someone if it means they get a little of what they want, and that's extremely dangerous.
That's my thoughts on that.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Why won't they take my indie game development advice, man?
Artist: No to exposure! Pay your artists.
Game Programmer: No to just ideas! Start implementing something.
Indie Game Producer: No to self-funding! I want others to fund my projects!
One of those three has to give. If you don't invest in your own games first and foremost, how can you expect others to? No one will ever care about your video game project more than you do.
[Based off my frustration trying to give advice online.]
In several instances in the past week, it seems like my advice and suggestions for working on indie games is falling on deaf ears. No one wants to work on projects for free unless they feel they can get something out of it. Indie game developers and producers I've met seem to think everyone cares (or should care) about the project as much as they do. Even the two co-founders of Whim Indie don't care about Selatria as much as I do. Please pay them or agree upon some kind of stake to the game that respects the amount of effort they put into it.
If you can't afford art, make a game with default assets and save up money. If you can't save up money or don't have any money, get a job to be able to get money. Make the best game you can. Even if artists or voiceovers agree to work on a cheaper indie rate, putting your own money to kickstart a project says a lot about your own dedication to it. If you're not invested in your project, why should others be?
Game Programmer: No to just ideas! Start implementing something.
Indie Game Producer: No to self-funding! I want others to fund my projects!
One of those three has to give. If you don't invest in your own games first and foremost, how can you expect others to? No one will ever care about your video game project more than you do.
[Based off my frustration trying to give advice online.]
In several instances in the past week, it seems like my advice and suggestions for working on indie games is falling on deaf ears. No one wants to work on projects for free unless they feel they can get something out of it. Indie game developers and producers I've met seem to think everyone cares (or should care) about the project as much as they do. Even the two co-founders of Whim Indie don't care about Selatria as much as I do. Please pay them or agree upon some kind of stake to the game that respects the amount of effort they put into it.
If you can't afford art, make a game with default assets and save up money. If you can't save up money or don't have any money, get a job to be able to get money. Make the best game you can. Even if artists or voiceovers agree to work on a cheaper indie rate, putting your own money to kickstart a project says a lot about your own dedication to it. If you're not invested in your project, why should others be?
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Fixing my coding/programming skill faults and going back to the basics
I am really dissatisfied with my lack of coding knowledge. During my first years of university for Computer Science, I was going through a depression and I couldn't focus on my studies during the crucial levels of university. It hurt me later on and now I'm not confident in my programming abilities.
Some team members of mine are having to fix my spaghetti code later on and spruce it up, and I can't continue to lie in mediocrity so I went back and am fixing my issues and faults for my programming language knowledge.
I purchased this book a few months ago Beginning C++ with Game Programming which uses gamification techniques to teach C++ and programming/object-oriented programming concepts.
During downtimes at work, I'm fiddling with C++ to be able to get back up to speed with what I feel like concepts that went through one ear and out the other during my university.
It's a really good book. Even if you don't know any programming, it's written so you can learn and get up to speed.
Some team members of mine are having to fix my spaghetti code later on and spruce it up, and I can't continue to lie in mediocrity so I went back and am fixing my issues and faults for my programming language knowledge.
I purchased this book a few months ago Beginning C++ with Game Programming which uses gamification techniques to teach C++ and programming/object-oriented programming concepts.
During downtimes at work, I'm fiddling with C++ to be able to get back up to speed with what I feel like concepts that went through one ear and out the other during my university.
It's a really good book. Even if you don't know any programming, it's written so you can learn and get up to speed.
Friday, October 19, 2018
Negative tropes and Selatria
Certain offensive tropes, particularly the bury your gays trope -- I wasn't aware of it until I saw it brought up in (as of this posting) the newest season of Voltron and noticed this term being used a lot in discussion forums. It prompted an apology from the creators and producers in several tweets.
Reading through this had me analyze and doing research on this trope, and if any video games were guilty of it. I noticed the Shopkeeper in Selatria had a lot of these qualities.
Our original vision of Shopkeeper was modeled after a close friend of mine who we casted because he could pull off a lispy voice. (At the time.) When we were thinking of characters for Selatria, we wanted to shift traditional roles to different characters. ie: Main character being a maic-user and very weak at the start, and the main heroine who is a tank and not a love interest. And we wanted to have a masculine character with feminine qualities and characteristics. So we put these all together and came up with the shopkeeper. Because my close friend was being annoying at the time, we wanted to have the Shopkeeper have this same characteristic. Then we thought what if we gave the player an opportunity to determine if they live or die throughout the game and reward them if the Shopkeeper was able to survive throughout the whole game.
It was a great idea coming from a game design standpoint, but we weren't thinking of the cultural undertones.
I don't want LGBTQ+ audiences to feel alienated from our products and feel threatened or excluded based off my own overlooking and ignorance for taking this into account on the creation of Shopkeeper, so we've decided to remove all of Shopkeeper's death scenes from Selatria with the release of the 2.0 patch in 2019, and he will be retroactively revived for players who didn't save him at the crucial points in the story. We also removed a scene in Chapter 2-4 where Mage casts a Fire spell on Shopkeeper when he says he's not paying or doesn't have enough cash.
Next time we make a story like this for the game, we will be more mindful of combining character traits to where we don't exclude groups of people in that way.
Reading through this had me analyze and doing research on this trope, and if any video games were guilty of it. I noticed the Shopkeeper in Selatria had a lot of these qualities.
Our original vision of Shopkeeper was modeled after a close friend of mine who we casted because he could pull off a lispy voice. (At the time.) When we were thinking of characters for Selatria, we wanted to shift traditional roles to different characters. ie: Main character being a maic-user and very weak at the start, and the main heroine who is a tank and not a love interest. And we wanted to have a masculine character with feminine qualities and characteristics. So we put these all together and came up with the shopkeeper. Because my close friend was being annoying at the time, we wanted to have the Shopkeeper have this same characteristic. Then we thought what if we gave the player an opportunity to determine if they live or die throughout the game and reward them if the Shopkeeper was able to survive throughout the whole game.
It was a great idea coming from a game design standpoint, but we weren't thinking of the cultural undertones.
I don't want LGBTQ+ audiences to feel alienated from our products and feel threatened or excluded based off my own overlooking and ignorance for taking this into account on the creation of Shopkeeper, so we've decided to remove all of Shopkeeper's death scenes from Selatria with the release of the 2.0 patch in 2019, and he will be retroactively revived for players who didn't save him at the crucial points in the story. We also removed a scene in Chapter 2-4 where Mage casts a Fire spell on Shopkeeper when he says he's not paying or doesn't have enough cash.
Next time we make a story like this for the game, we will be more mindful of combining character traits to where we don't exclude groups of people in that way.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Video Game Music Mashups
I've taken a liking to mash-ups in the past year or so.
My favorite mashup artists seem to be DJ Cummerbund and SiivaGunner's YouTube collection of video game music "rips".
It seems like a natural evolution from the YTPMVs of old with better music quality and heart put into them. Maybe that's not the right word...
My favorite one as of this post is the mashup which mixes The Beatles, Tears for Fears, and Nintendo.
This one from DJ Cummerbund is good too.
My favorite mashup artists seem to be DJ Cummerbund and SiivaGunner's YouTube collection of video game music "rips".
It seems like a natural evolution from the YTPMVs of old with better music quality and heart put into them. Maybe that's not the right word...
My favorite one as of this post is the mashup which mixes The Beatles, Tears for Fears, and Nintendo.
This one from DJ Cummerbund is good too.
Monday, October 15, 2018
First time on a panel (at Coyote Cross-Up 2018)
So my team and I were planning to be at the Coyote Cross-Up on October 6th. One of the artists on my team who is a good friend of mine sent me a message of one of the panels in particular. "Are you interested in joining the game industry?"
I sent the director an email asking them if they were open to me letting the students know about internships and they asked me if I wanted to sit on the panel outright. It was a bit out of my element, as I've normally avoided panels. But if these were people who were interested in the industry and maybe potential team members, I couldn't turn the opportunity down. (I remember Paul laughing so hard when I told him I was participating)
It didn't go so bad. I was seated with a professor who also works in big-budget animation films and a teacher/entrepeneur who teaches kids how to code (I wish I had that when I was a kid rather than piano lessons) as well as someone who works higher-up at Live Nation. In my head I was kind of worried about being a bit too annoying because I always thought of things to say after someone else talked. But a lot of people came to our booth afterwards and talked about how much they enjoyed it. Perhaps I'll talk about the booth experience next time.
I sent the director an email asking them if they were open to me letting the students know about internships and they asked me if I wanted to sit on the panel outright. It was a bit out of my element, as I've normally avoided panels. But if these were people who were interested in the industry and maybe potential team members, I couldn't turn the opportunity down. (I remember Paul laughing so hard when I told him I was participating)
It didn't go so bad. I was seated with a professor who also works in big-budget animation films and a teacher/entrepeneur who teaches kids how to code (I wish I had that when I was a kid rather than piano lessons) as well as someone who works higher-up at Live Nation. In my head I was kind of worried about being a bit too annoying because I always thought of things to say after someone else talked. But a lot of people came to our booth afterwards and talked about how much they enjoyed it. Perhaps I'll talk about the booth experience next time.
Saturday, October 13, 2018
My gradual decline into mediocrity as a teenager
I had a rough work week this past week for my outside-of game dev work with a lot of unrealistic deadlines.
At some point during my break, I started looking into work meltdowns to try and reassure myself that it's really not as bad as it seems. For those that don't know, I went through a meltdown of my own a few years ago and quit the software job I was at at the time. It was a toxic restrictive (physically and mentally) environment and I should have left more gracefully. One of my biggest regrets.
Anyway, one of the stories in particular was about a teacher who lost it and made their kids run less than 7 minute miles. And it took me back to when I was at middle school. I had this mis-aligned thought from my time in elementary school that I can just coast on by with A's because I was the smartest, 6th grade hit and I felt stupid. Couldn't figure out the math problems and challenges I thought was so easy in elementary school, and rather than try and learn, I gave up. It extended to my competitive nature in physical education. I tried really hard to be the fastest person, and got 6 minute miles, and by the end of the year I didn't care any more and just walked.
This sense of not trying and mediocrity lasted me throughout college, really. Rather than strive for A's, I tried to calculate what the minimum I needed to get to pass. It wasn't until I started developing Selatria where I got that drive back that I lost in 6th grade.
If you're reading this somehow and you felt like the smartest person in the class going into 6th grade and suddenly feel stupid and embarrassed that you're not. I feel you. I've been there. Don't give up and don't be afraid to ask for help. No one will care or remember you asking a question down the line and it's OK to struggle a bit.
Just don't give up like I did.
At some point during my break, I started looking into work meltdowns to try and reassure myself that it's really not as bad as it seems. For those that don't know, I went through a meltdown of my own a few years ago and quit the software job I was at at the time. It was a toxic restrictive (physically and mentally) environment and I should have left more gracefully. One of my biggest regrets.
Anyway, one of the stories in particular was about a teacher who lost it and made their kids run less than 7 minute miles. And it took me back to when I was at middle school. I had this mis-aligned thought from my time in elementary school that I can just coast on by with A's because I was the smartest, 6th grade hit and I felt stupid. Couldn't figure out the math problems and challenges I thought was so easy in elementary school, and rather than try and learn, I gave up. It extended to my competitive nature in physical education. I tried really hard to be the fastest person, and got 6 minute miles, and by the end of the year I didn't care any more and just walked.
This sense of not trying and mediocrity lasted me throughout college, really. Rather than strive for A's, I tried to calculate what the minimum I needed to get to pass. It wasn't until I started developing Selatria where I got that drive back that I lost in 6th grade.
If you're reading this somehow and you felt like the smartest person in the class going into 6th grade and suddenly feel stupid and embarrassed that you're not. I feel you. I've been there. Don't give up and don't be afraid to ask for help. No one will care or remember you asking a question down the line and it's OK to struggle a bit.
Just don't give up like I did.
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Quick word on unreleased successful Kickstarter games
Recently, I was curious and looked up development on Project Phoenix, as the last time I looked at the game, there was negative rumored controversy that the game was used to fund another project called Tiny Metal. (It looks like there was a lawsuit over this that proved the claims to be false.) I wanted to see what other Kickstarters have had similar development issues, and I found myself going across this article back from 2015.
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2015/12/10/nine-more-successful-kickstarters-that-didnt-deliver
In the back of my mind, I worry if people think of Selatria that way. Am I a failure as a Producer and Director because I keep having to push Selatria's release back? I don't think normal gamers understand how difficult it is to finish something as complicated as a game. On top of it, you get raked across the coals if it's not perfect or not what people are expecting.
As for these kickstarters, I feel that a lot of these games failed from mismanagement behind the scenes but the worst possible thing you can do is not communicate with your audience -- the people who want to play your game. If you don't have them, then who do you have? For what it's worth, I totally forgot Echoes of Eternea even existed. I remember talking about that years ago when we were starting work on Selatria.
For the record, Selatria is going well, hopefully I'll have a detailed development log in the near future that talks about it in more detail. But do check out our @whimindie social media channels if you haven't.
Until next time.
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2015/12/10/nine-more-successful-kickstarters-that-didnt-deliver
In the back of my mind, I worry if people think of Selatria that way. Am I a failure as a Producer and Director because I keep having to push Selatria's release back? I don't think normal gamers understand how difficult it is to finish something as complicated as a game. On top of it, you get raked across the coals if it's not perfect or not what people are expecting.
As for these kickstarters, I feel that a lot of these games failed from mismanagement behind the scenes but the worst possible thing you can do is not communicate with your audience -- the people who want to play your game. If you don't have them, then who do you have? For what it's worth, I totally forgot Echoes of Eternea even existed. I remember talking about that years ago when we were starting work on Selatria.
For the record, Selatria is going well, hopefully I'll have a detailed development log in the near future that talks about it in more detail. But do check out our @whimindie social media channels if you haven't.
Until next time.
Tuesday, October 9, 2018
We've come full circle in caring about realism in games
I saw a link to this video in an AskReddit thread, it kind of evokes 90's esque nostalgia. We really did come full circle to going from the design of the game to caring to realism to back to caring about the design of the game again with the rise of the indie movement. Also, NES classic, SNES classic, etc...
A lot of people want the consoles and games of old, which is great. With the technology available to us, it should be easily accessible, but it's hidden behind rights issues, deliberate withholding of titles, and scarcity. Something to think about...
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Interesting post I saw from a friend of a friend
#IHateVideogames
It was a post I saw by a friend of my best friend on Facebook. It was a picture of a disassembled Nintendo Switch and a smartphone and a broken Xbox 360 saying she wanted her son back and with that hashtag.
Now this friend of my best friend was known for teasing him (and me by extension) about being nerds with no life who can't get meaningful relationships and never leave their room.
I honestly feel that it's a cover-up for bad parenting. What's the kid going to think if he doesn't have a healthy way to spend his spare time? It's important to go outside. It's important to learn about the outside world, and gaming should be kept to reasonable standards. (No more than a couple of hours a night at worst, but only after doing homework and getting some time in the sun.)
The kid spends 7-8 hours a day at school doing physical education and learning, and it's important to balance that out with something fun. If they like it, don't use negative reinforcement to take away games and punish them, foster it with positive reinforcement. Teach programming and algebra and do some research on scripting languages so they can make their own games. Channel that interest in tech to something that will help their grades and their future.
Note, I'm saying this as someone who isn't a parent. Please take my advice with a grain of salt.
And FWIW - I do go outside and make sure to go on road trips and travel, even with being a nerd. I'll probably get to that in a future post.
Until next time.
It was a post I saw by a friend of my best friend on Facebook. It was a picture of a disassembled Nintendo Switch and a smartphone and a broken Xbox 360 saying she wanted her son back and with that hashtag.
Now this friend of my best friend was known for teasing him (and me by extension) about being nerds with no life who can't get meaningful relationships and never leave their room.
I honestly feel that it's a cover-up for bad parenting. What's the kid going to think if he doesn't have a healthy way to spend his spare time? It's important to go outside. It's important to learn about the outside world, and gaming should be kept to reasonable standards. (No more than a couple of hours a night at worst, but only after doing homework and getting some time in the sun.)
The kid spends 7-8 hours a day at school doing physical education and learning, and it's important to balance that out with something fun. If they like it, don't use negative reinforcement to take away games and punish them, foster it with positive reinforcement. Teach programming and algebra and do some research on scripting languages so they can make their own games. Channel that interest in tech to something that will help their grades and their future.
Note, I'm saying this as someone who isn't a parent. Please take my advice with a grain of salt.
And FWIW - I do go outside and make sure to go on road trips and travel, even with being a nerd. I'll probably get to that in a future post.
Until next time.
Friday, October 5, 2018
Letting go
Those who have known me for a long time know that it's really hard for me to let go of things.
As my real life has gotten more hectic and busy, I've had to step back a bit from actively working in the trenches on Selatria to focus on some of the other studio projects to make sure that they were progressing in a serious manner.
At first, I'll be honest, it really hurt because I made most of the cutscenes and was constantly tweaking it so it's perfect. As of Chapter 4-2 of Selatria, the main assignments of cutscenes was passed on to one of our newer game designers in the team, while I play and review it and polish it and make necessary tweaks at the end as needed.
While I ported most of the script by hand into the game for Chapter 4, I left behind vague stage instructions for how I would have directed/implemented the scene and he rolled with it and then some. The newer game designer also develops cutscenes a lot faster and more efficiently than I can.
I had to let go of my vision a bit if it means we make substantial progress on the project. I'm happy with his iteration of the scenes, and that's just the first step in learning how to let go. I was telling Jon during one of our lunches that a big factor in me wanting to hold onto cutscene creation is that I didn't have suitable talents that would transfer well and cutscenes were the only thing I had left. People can program better than I can. People can map better than I can. People can design better battles than I can. And people can design better cutscenes than I can. But I think my talent is that I can manage several teams pretty well. (This is still something I'm learning) while I'm average at the other parts.
I'm really not sure where I'm going with this ramble, but the one thing that puts me at ease is this. I don't assign these because of whether or not they can do it and I can't, it's just better to assign and collaborate where people would be most efficient. Even if it means letting go.
As my real life has gotten more hectic and busy, I've had to step back a bit from actively working in the trenches on Selatria to focus on some of the other studio projects to make sure that they were progressing in a serious manner.
At first, I'll be honest, it really hurt because I made most of the cutscenes and was constantly tweaking it so it's perfect. As of Chapter 4-2 of Selatria, the main assignments of cutscenes was passed on to one of our newer game designers in the team, while I play and review it and polish it and make necessary tweaks at the end as needed.
While I ported most of the script by hand into the game for Chapter 4, I left behind vague stage instructions for how I would have directed/implemented the scene and he rolled with it and then some. The newer game designer also develops cutscenes a lot faster and more efficiently than I can.
I had to let go of my vision a bit if it means we make substantial progress on the project. I'm happy with his iteration of the scenes, and that's just the first step in learning how to let go. I was telling Jon during one of our lunches that a big factor in me wanting to hold onto cutscene creation is that I didn't have suitable talents that would transfer well and cutscenes were the only thing I had left. People can program better than I can. People can map better than I can. People can design better battles than I can. And people can design better cutscenes than I can. But I think my talent is that I can manage several teams pretty well. (This is still something I'm learning) while I'm average at the other parts.
I'm really not sure where I'm going with this ramble, but the one thing that puts me at ease is this. I don't assign these because of whether or not they can do it and I can't, it's just better to assign and collaborate where people would be most efficient. Even if it means letting go.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Getting rid of facebook groups for whimindie
So on October 1st, I announced to the whimindie folks that we're going to stop using Facebook groups by the end of 2019.
Back when I started "professional" game development in 2011, we used Facebook groups as at the time I felt that was an easy way to add my friends who worked on the game and ensure people will read updates.
Fast forward 6 years later and there are far more efficient ways to keep the team together using more modern and efficient methods. We have Slack and Discord for team communication (Well, I set up the Discord for the studio at the same time we announced us slowly moving away from FB) and HackNPlan for task management.
And honestly, now that I think about it, adding people that I'm not personally friends with in real life to our facebook group is kind of awkward.
That's not to say I don't begin to come friends with the people I work on these games with, but it shouldn't be a requirement to join the studio.
Did I mention that a lot of younger people don't even use Facebook? It may be one of the dominant players right now, but that could change down the line, and this is a test to see if we can adapt to that.
Until next time.
Back when I started "professional" game development in 2011, we used Facebook groups as at the time I felt that was an easy way to add my friends who worked on the game and ensure people will read updates.
Fast forward 6 years later and there are far more efficient ways to keep the team together using more modern and efficient methods. We have Slack and Discord for team communication (Well, I set up the Discord for the studio at the same time we announced us slowly moving away from FB) and HackNPlan for task management.
And honestly, now that I think about it, adding people that I'm not personally friends with in real life to our facebook group is kind of awkward.
That's not to say I don't begin to come friends with the people I work on these games with, but it shouldn't be a requirement to join the studio.
Did I mention that a lot of younger people don't even use Facebook? It may be one of the dominant players right now, but that could change down the line, and this is a test to see if we can adapt to that.
Until next time.
Monday, October 1, 2018
Official returning post
Also, hey! I'm back. My dreams were my ticket out. It's been a little while. A month and a half perhaps? I'm going to start posting a bit more here whenever I have a bit of free time. I don't think I'll be able to talk as regularly as I used to when I started the blog, and please don't expect these posts in-between the development logs to be as concise and organized as those, as I tend to ramble.
I don't think I'll be posting these particular entries publicly on social media, but if you're somehow reading these, don't feel ashamed to bring it up to me. If I posted them here, then it's public and I expect it to be public knowledge, even if I'm not going out of the way to ramble about it to social media.
Now that's out of the way. It's been a pretty busy month. Since I've last posted in August, I've officially became chair of the IGDA Las Vegas and we had our first meet-up. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't incredibly nervous about getting up on stage and addressing the crowd. I haven't watched the recording in full, but what bits and pieces I've seen, I've not been very proud of my posture. I try to look relaxed but I tend to fidget and look around a lot. When we have our meeting in October, I'm going to sit in the second row and not the first one so I'm not constantly on camera.
Anyway, if you want to see how it went.
A lot of people come up to me and talk to me like I know what I'm talking about. I have no idea what I'm talking about. Earlier today when I went to lunch with my friend Jon, we were talking about one of the fortunes I had in my cookie. It read: "Life is about making some things happen, not waiting for something to happen." I know it came from a fortune cookie and it was supposed to be a generic message, but that's really the source of any successes(?) I may have had in life. It didn't come from my intelligence (where there isn't any) or my wit, it just came from volunteering or offering to do what no one else wanted to do. For better or worse, that's how I got to be where I am. Being opportunistic and taking any opportunity available is what gets you places. (Within ethical reason, that is.)
There were a lot of people that can do game development a lot better than I can, and were smarter than I am at that IGDA meeting. I feel honored to be in the room and to be able to absorb that knowledge and see where I can apply and make my own projects.
This Saturday is the Coyote Cross-Up event at CSUSB. We're going to use this as an opportunity to see about getting additional interns for an upcoming project we're getting started on, as well as showing one of the boss battles Jon and I recently finished for Selatria and get some user feedback on how they handle that.
Until next time!
I don't think I'll be posting these particular entries publicly on social media, but if you're somehow reading these, don't feel ashamed to bring it up to me. If I posted them here, then it's public and I expect it to be public knowledge, even if I'm not going out of the way to ramble about it to social media.
Now that's out of the way. It's been a pretty busy month. Since I've last posted in August, I've officially became chair of the IGDA Las Vegas and we had our first meet-up. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't incredibly nervous about getting up on stage and addressing the crowd. I haven't watched the recording in full, but what bits and pieces I've seen, I've not been very proud of my posture. I try to look relaxed but I tend to fidget and look around a lot. When we have our meeting in October, I'm going to sit in the second row and not the first one so I'm not constantly on camera.
Anyway, if you want to see how it went.
A lot of people come up to me and talk to me like I know what I'm talking about. I have no idea what I'm talking about. Earlier today when I went to lunch with my friend Jon, we were talking about one of the fortunes I had in my cookie. It read: "Life is about making some things happen, not waiting for something to happen." I know it came from a fortune cookie and it was supposed to be a generic message, but that's really the source of any successes(?) I may have had in life. It didn't come from my intelligence (where there isn't any) or my wit, it just came from volunteering or offering to do what no one else wanted to do. For better or worse, that's how I got to be where I am. Being opportunistic and taking any opportunity available is what gets you places. (Within ethical reason, that is.)
There were a lot of people that can do game development a lot better than I can, and were smarter than I am at that IGDA meeting. I feel honored to be in the room and to be able to absorb that knowledge and see where I can apply and make my own projects.
This Saturday is the Coyote Cross-Up event at CSUSB. We're going to use this as an opportunity to see about getting additional interns for an upcoming project we're getting started on, as well as showing one of the boss battles Jon and I recently finished for Selatria and get some user feedback on how they handle that.
Until next time!
#VegasStronger
A year ago today I woke up to a bunch of missed calls and messages asking where I was and if I was OK. Had no idea of the chaos that was going on about 10 miles away from where I was.
Co-workers from other remote offices were pinging us asking if everyone and their families were okay. It was just really surreal.
For about the next month everything was just kind of off, usually I would drive to California and when I would normally see a lot of cars piled up going the North to try and go to Vegas, and it was eerily empty.
A year later, there are still signs and banners on the side of the freeway that say #VegasStrong, and I see the saying on the back of a LOT of cars on the freeway.
What long term solution could you do to minimize the impact that some deranged person could do something like that again? I certainly wouldn't want to be checked and frisked every time I wish to go somewhere, but with something as busy and populated and unregulated as this, I'm concerned something like this will happen again.
It's an unfortunate feeling to have and think about. The city has recovered and gave us something to come together and help each other out on.
Co-workers from other remote offices were pinging us asking if everyone and their families were okay. It was just really surreal.
For about the next month everything was just kind of off, usually I would drive to California and when I would normally see a lot of cars piled up going the North to try and go to Vegas, and it was eerily empty.
A year later, there are still signs and banners on the side of the freeway that say #VegasStrong, and I see the saying on the back of a LOT of cars on the freeway.
What long term solution could you do to minimize the impact that some deranged person could do something like that again? I certainly wouldn't want to be checked and frisked every time I wish to go somewhere, but with something as busy and populated and unregulated as this, I'm concerned something like this will happen again.
It's an unfortunate feeling to have and think about. The city has recovered and gave us something to come together and help each other out on.
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