Best Games - Beat Saber I used to go to the arcade a lot. As often as I could. The first ones I went to were filled with distinct and bizarre cabinets with games as fanciful as they were difficult. Every image on a screen had to be drawn there with only a handful of pixels and a tiny array of colors. Any sound was what could be generated by simple monophonic synths and tin can speakers. Every game was a unique and strange experience. Dreamlike. Those soon gave way to brighter, more colorful visuals that grew more defined and representative. Games with real music and voice samples. This time also birthed genres. There were racing games, scrolling shooters, and maze chase games. Some of the games were great, some not so great, but market forces that directed developers to work on the genres that would sell were already taking hold. So the arcades were filled with a lot of Pac-Man clones and Galaga clones. Still enough unique experiences were being made that an arcade goer could find something that suited them.

This past weekend was Global Game Jam. This will be the tenth GGJ that I have attended but the first time that the game I worked on doesn’t play on a computer. I teamed up with Paul and Logan Cooper to work on a board game. A 3D printed board game. In 48 hours.

I did say that the drawings would continue. I’m still coming to grips with some of the tools in Infinite Painter on the iPad. Here is a breakdown of something I started working on. If you are using an Apple Pencil on an iPad I can’t recommend enough that you get a matte screen protector. If you are used to paper or a graphics tablet with some grip to it the screen protector goes a long way to replicating that feeling. It just gives me a little more control over my lines.

We have traveled to Disney parks a few times now. On each trip I spend a percentage of it just studying the construction of, well, everything. There are so many small details in those parks that aren’t the products of chance. Each small scrape carved into the artificial stone, each crack snaking its way through a wooden pillar, each trail of rust drifting down from simulated steel rivets. All of those details have been placed there and maintained meticulously in the hope that you will never notice them. Individually these details are works of talented craftspeople worthy of respect and praise. Combined, they become invisible. Just one one small contribution the intended effect; to transport an audience of park attendees to another place and time. They will become wrapped up in the story going on around them. The real magic to Disney parks is that you are never supposed to know it’s a trick.

I got an Ipad for Christmas (and all ensuing gift giving holidays and events). Paired with the Apple Pencil we have had for a while it makes for a hell of a sketching platform. The drawings of varying quality will continue until further notice.

When I was at the Reboot Develop conference I attended one of the best talks I have ever seen. Thierry Boulanger talked about how he and the rest of Sabotage Studio made their game The Messenger. When the audience left the theater, I saw a lot of red eyes and sniffly noses. My own, I’m not ashamed to say, were also red and sniffly, but I’m sort of a softy so a particularly moving commercial might set me off.

At the end of a year you are supposed to look back at what you did, the things that happened, what you learned. I did some game dev work on the art side, I did some game dev work on the coding side, I did some previz and mapping work, I did some prop modelling, I did some writing, I did some graphic design. Having a logo I designed show up on Japanese, British, and American websites is pretty fun. I learned several new tools, did some work with powershell and python scripts, and experimented with art styles I’m not used to. Creatively and professionally it\s been a pretty good year. Here’s hoping that 2020 is as good or better.

sparks of joy like dust spread wide by years wild breezes crushed in loving hands

Best Games - Soulcalibur Sure, it doesn’t have the banger of an intro cinematic that kicked off the previous game, Soul Edge, but Soulcalibur is an absolute masterpiece. Soulcalibur did more to elevate the fighting genre than any other game of it’s time.

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The game is out on early access. Get it here!

I did some work over here but as always I can’t recommend anyone read it. I mean, sure, go ahead, but it’s all sorts of broken. The new changes are an attempt to fix that.

This screenshot is the beginning of at least the next year. I’m making a game. It’s a roll’a’round, demolition derby, beat’em’up with a heavy metal soul. Wish me luck.

Best Games - Worms 2 In the early 1970s, computers were wildly expensive machines that occupied entire rooms of universities and research centers. Students and scientists would have to book time on them to do their work, often accessing them remotely from terminals. They would have to master early high level programming languages and think in trigonometric functions. With such specialized training and access to rare and costly hardware, they did what anyone would have done. They made and played games.

I attended the RebootDevelop Red game development conference this past week. Somewhere, tucked away in the back of my memory, is the last time I ever attended a game development related conference. When I was there I witnessed a spirited demonstration of Samba De Amigo, a maraca based rhythm game. I also tried out a version of the real time translation functionality in Phantasy Star Online. If you know either of these two games, you know that it has been quite a long time since I was at a game development convention. According to people I talked to who had attended conferences like GDC and PAX, RebootDevelop is not the usual fare.