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I have been to Bulgaria to see the love of my life and it opened up a few things inside me about what's important and really it's being happy, but we all know that is not as easy as it once was but that got me thinking will people 20 years from now claim the same thing? That it was always so much better before? And in doing so claim to stop pissing and moaning and start living for the time we have. I will make my own games cause clearly my talent is yet to be taken advantage of, so screw it. You want something done go and do it yourslef and maybe that's all it takes to get noticed. (oh and yeah I walked to the mountain from where I was standing)
I have traveled far and long to find myself back where I started but do not fret my followers I have a demo from the world of (insert place) and think you could be it's savior! dare you try it?
PLAY DEMO (comming soon)
This week will be the last week I A) Work on the site B) Finish my updated Resumé
I find this Blog Spot to be a well designed site to link my personal website to but I don't see a way to really get my blog out there to view. I have the link on the site which is not how I wanted it to be I would rather have it show up with an RSS feed and update when I post but the Tutorials are less then helpful. When I log in I can see the amount of views and over the past month I've gotten a whole 4 more views...this is a bad sign. I hope the new Resumé and Finished site with fixed link tabs that should remove confusion because right now some tabs link home while others don't and link tabs are moving around too much in general. This is something I put on the back burner in the beginning because I just wanted the content but it should be easy to navigate as well. So the new resumé will be up on monster and the site will have the Virtools VMOs up and the Flash piece I helped make with the Vermont bases winter clothing company EESA.
HERE LOOK AT THIS:
A tease for the Virtools demo THE ATTIC: Coming soon!
More of the teasing for EESA's ASSAULT ON THE MOUNTAIN: Coming Soon!
Adult Swim is sick and tired of Making content for us, So it's now our turn to do all the work! This is what is said on the Adult Swim site in regards to a t-shirt Design Contest. The winner will get their shirt printed and given out for free. The site is being sponsored by Honda but it just screams fun. I have submitted two designs one of which was rejected and I'll let you be the judge as to why but Here's to hoping the one they picked gets to the number one spot! Here is the link the site all you have to do is become a member and vote your butt off to make the design you like win and in a few months you could be wearing the design you like for free!!!
ULTRAVIOLET...BMW PAID FOR THE WHOLE FILM...OK not really...
As the games industry continues to grow it's safe to say Hollywood is having trouble with where to grow. Another issues is where can they make the most money? I was just watching a PBS documentary on advertising in films. The more I continued to watch the more I began to understand the amount of control the advertising companies have on the types of movies that get made and the places these product are pushed the most. It got me thinking about advertising in games. Games and films are different in this area simply because products in games are fairly new compared to movies. According to the case study movie studios have the placement and written-in control of these products down to a science, its scary. They were spitting out examples on some of my most favorite films and once I could see where and why these choices were made it began to upset me. Hollywood simply can't make a film these days without product placement because before everything was done with investors its was all a film had behind it but more and more the investors are backing down and chain companies are moving in. This is interesting with games because most of the time finding products in a game is an after thought unless a company like EA asks for "Power ad" to be in madden 09 but games don't need it as much. There are loads of "placeholder" art for mimicking real products without having to make it a coke bottle so coke doesn't need to see a profit. I wonder if the more expensive games become the more apparent this product placement will become. Sometimes it works great and can even work to be funny or clever within a movie or game but many games are marketed to kids and for me I don't sit down to write a script or design document with products in mind I know that it can help if someone like coke could invest a large sum so that a "soda can" becomes a "diet coke" but again what does that do for the players? Does the fact that it is a coke change the experience or take them out of it?What importance does it draw away from the story? Just something to think about as you look at some of my other works at the moment.
KENDO GENERAL HOSPITAL: XTEREME GURNEY ADVENTURE
Think Crazy Taxi meets Katamari. A casual game with a fun use of physics and mission based gameplay.
Read the Design Document (Now with pictures!)
Well it been a busy last few weeks with Graduating so I haven't been able to finish my website like I planned. All I feel I need to do now is provide a explanation page for all the documents so that the viewer will know what I did on the project and the things I took away in the process. I will work really hard in the next few days to get all that organized and up and then rework my resume one more time to add the projects not just my jobs and start sending things out there...
As I was going through my old game design work I found some neat projects I did the first year at Champlain.
This is a basic 3-d model of the Nintendo DS that I made in Maya. It must have a ridiculous poly count but as much as I love to Draw it's safe to say I'm not an amazing modeler but I had fun. the first time I made the DS it had working hinges and a GBA game(modeled) that could fit inside but the computer crashed and it was never saved so I put this together in about an hour before it was due and I think it worked out well.
This was my 3-d final. I had to take everything I learned from the class and apply it to a small animation that entailed a word (Exaggeration) and making the animation work for that word. The word: Exaggeration I took literally by making a giant spoon similar to the famous "my spoon is too big" video and I think even if the video quality isn't top notch the idea I had for how to show the word being used work just fine.
Level Editor 3 Level Tier DEMO
Level Editor Two Player DEMO (Bag Tag)
The site is for the most part done for viewing the work. I feel at this time it will be ok in its current form but i plan on overworking the portfolio page into much more detail. I want each thumbnail to open a new page that will give background og the projects. I want to explain what I did with the project and point out what I learned from it. This will explain my work much better to companies who look at my work. Right now I dont like the idea that if you click on a link you just get the HTML page of the whole document because in HTLM it reformatts the work like the script which is awful and the reader has little idea what they are looking at so I will fix that as soon as possible but I am moving back the the United States so im very busy getting that all done to sit and finish the site. I will do that next week when I have more time. I was able to finish gathering all the images and video I need to fully represent my level in timesplitters. Its a litle upseting I couldn't have a format people could down load and play but if you want to create it yourself it's all there. Below is a draft of what I will be presenting on the site. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the blog site you can look at a run through of the map in the editor and a two player gameplay test.
This is the second floor of the map. There are three ways for the player to reach this floor but most of it is a floor layer that moves around the middle room where the bag is kept in bag tag mode. (*note) this map can be played will all modes it doesn't jus thave to be Bag tag.
The third floor is the way to the bag or middle room should someone be playing a different mode. The green marker on the map iamge is a laser gun turrent that players can use to stop other players from reaching the middle room. Each room is color labled so players can become framiliar with the different sections of the map.(*note each area was designed with balance in mind)
(In-game screen shot of the first floor but you can see the other two floors as well)
you can "collect" cats) I felt bad after entering a chinese fast food joint to see them cooking the cats so I took it upon myself to rescue them, I am up to 43 cats saved right now. You can use them as silencers for you larger weapons but I think my new goal is to collect 50 cats and then try and set them free all at the same time!! its that emergent play that makes this game fun not the violent content...the game is always testing your resolve by having you wait in long lines to do tasks such as cash your paycheck or buy milk and while in the game you could "go postal" its more rewarding to make up your own rules otherwise if you just go around killing everyone nothing will get done and key NPC's that help complete missions will be dead and trust me you will get tired of senseless killing because it limits your choices within the game. I would also like to say the sounds throughout the game are awsome. When your close to objects such as a freezer or fan you will hear it and for a game like this you would think those things weren't taken into acount but they have and it helps the game overall. Its a 20 dollar game that should be less for the bugs and production vaule but there are some funny things with the names of objects and places in the game that give it it's own niche. So that's a little 101 with Postal 2 try it you might like it but overall its a great effort from developer Running with Scissors and can be more creative at times then the AAA titles out there.
Dead Planet Script - DOC
Dead Planet Script -PDF
Hosted from http://www.scribd.com/
Resumé -PDF
28mm SLR Album Link
I have begun the process of getting the site up as a shell so that I can tinker with it and find anything I might have missed. I have just returned from a IGDA meeting not two hours ago, which was both informative and depressing. After seeing and hearing about the state of the games industry I feel like they want to keep young potential employees out. I don't get why it's so hard to get a job doing something you love or why there's like some kind of trick to even be looked at. I have the passion and I love doing the work but all these people either in the industry or trying to be keep telling me how hard or selective it is. What's the point of getting this degree and trying so hard with documents/mods and my website if when I'm looked at (if I'm looked at) they load the site simply to close it? What more can I do to share my ideas and work to be apart of a world I love?
I have been hard at work getting this site the way I want it and not how everyone else has been telling me to do it. I feel if the site fails to explain a little bit about me to you then I don't feel I should have anything to prove to you in the first place...anyways here are the four of the final five pages I should have online for you to interact with soon!
Here is the main page you will see after typing the URL for www.RJAlinks.com. I can see you might be caught off guard by the art style but I made it then walked away for a while. I took about an hour away from it and came back and acted like it wasn't mine and I was really drawn to it more, so I have gone this route because it is very cool and I'm kind of a horror buff so it fits well with parts of who I am...right then.
This is as you can see the About me page that tries and show you a little bit of my humor and creative sense of writing while trying to get some information out as to why I want to have a career in game design but this blog is the true home for getting to know me through my updates on the site or current works I'm doing.
This is the Portfolio page which isn't 100% done yet but the layout is there. I want to have thumbnails of my work that will link or open with both the project and a file to download. This will be my best work but as with all work I never fell its complete. I feel I could always add something to make it better after it's done but I have gotten to an area where I'm happy with this work the most.
The Contact page...It's pretty cut and dry sadly....but if you look in both this page and the about me page I have my personal art stuck in the page almost hidden or changed slightly for the website but not to worry my work will also be in its final form on the portfolio and Blog link/other project page (yet to be made) so you can see the final image too!
GOES LIVE! 4/1/08*
*I really hope
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What you see before you is a lame attempt at a portfolio page that will have mainly thumbnails to the work.
So here is the start of my about me page. This page will link to this blog which is not the way i would have liked to do it but it works for now. I want to have this blog appear right in my site so you can see my updates right away and any work i have done via that be a new script or level mod....but I keep running into walls...but i'll figure it out.
