Nick.

We had a quick Let’s Make Games meeting today in order to organise the next event (Tuesday, June 30) and discuss future plans.

If we can secure a large enough venue by the end of the week, we’ll go ahead with a Videogame Trivia Night (which would obviously be super-awesome). Otherwise, we’ll arrange something else and hold out on the trivia until next month.

Is anyone out there able to recommend good venue for around 100 people? Preferably somewhere inexpensive and all-ages friendly.

Here are my thoughts on this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Microsoft:

• Project Natal was interesting. I’m skeptical about the granularity and consistency of controls and the lifespan of the product on Xbox360. I assume that it’s a test-bed for next-gen technology and that we won’t be seeing a fluid integration into the Xbox platform for many years.
• Milo really doesn’t interest me. I want a game to entertain me, not the other way around. As an aside, I’m surprised to have not seen sensational news stories along the lines of “Peter Molyneaux wants you to play with young boys”. See also: Seaman and EyePet.
• Games On Demand was the most interesting thing to me. However the pricing really has to be lower than retail stores for it to float.
• Microsoft seemed to be more focussed on future technology (user interface and content delivery) than upcoming titles. It feels like Xbox360 is winding down. They are churning a lot of sequels preparing to test various ideas that may make it into the next console/platform.
• Overall, I feel that Microsoft are overpromising and will definitely underdeliver. Project Natal will only really be suited to a certain set of “full body motion” games and Milo will fail to manifest into a mass-market consumer title (although aspects may appear in Lionhead’s future titles).

Sony:

• Sony felt a bit more measured than Microsoft. They are (obviously) also pursuing motion tracking, but draw on their EyeToy experience to recognise that controllers still have a place: “Can you imagine playing a shooter without a trigger?” It’s also clearly under development and not presented as the be-all-end-all of gaming. I guess part of their EyeToy experience is an appreciation for the actual market for this sort of input device.
• PSP Go feels like an end-of-line product (much like the PSOne or GameBoy Micro). It’s great to see the UMD removed, more online integration, and the size/weight reduced… but it’s just a natural upgrade/redesign. Likely timed to compete with DSi and iPhone 3G. Personally, I’ll wait for the PSP2.

Nintendo:

• Meh. (Maybe they have nothing to prove.)

After seeing what’s coming out, here are the games that I’m most looking forward to:

• The Last Guardian (Final chapter of the Ico trilogy!)
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• God of War 3

To end this post, here’s a video of The Last Guardian:

It looks like it’s going to be all PS3 and DS for me in the near term. 😉

BTW: Thanks to Diomades for posting summaries and his thoughts on this year’s E3. I’d like to hear what others in Perth think about news that came out of E3 as well.

I just returned from my trip to Thailand (where Heidi and I got married) and Korea (where we honeymooned).

It was an absolutely fantastic experience which I’ll post more about in the next few days/weeks. For now, here are some choice photos from the water pouring ceremony and wedding banquet…

At an auspicious time, we exchanged rings. Check out the new bling (yeah!):

My mum joined us with blessed string (prepared during the morning ceremony) and painted our foreheads:

After the banquet, the moment that Heidi had been eagerly awaiting… time to cut the wedding cake with a sword!:

We managed to catch a moment alone (well, aside from the photographers) as we headed out to pose for photos with everyone:

Our wedding photographers were very energetic and professional. When they saw us mucking around they suggested some fun shots like this one of Heidi laying the boot in:

That’s all that I will post here for now. Phat Studio (our wedding photographers) have an online gallery and we have even more photos for those interested.

Thanks to all friends and family for making the wedding (and preceding week) such a warm and memorable experience.

I’m off to Thailand for a while (and then onto Korea).

Keep it real until I return! 😉

I’m not taking part in the current GameJam since I have other things currently occupying my time (eg. getting married in Thailand). However, I did document a design for the game that sprung to mind when I heard the theme.

That is:

• The quote “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” and (any two of) the words: “Sheep”, “Scorched”, and “Reflection”.

I immediately imagined a screen split in two, with the bottom half being a pseudo-reflection of the top (conveying slightly different information). An animal running along the line between the two, gathering friends and avoiding enemies. Finally, the score would be the number of steps taken on the journey (distance counts, but the number of feet, hence friends, would be more important).

That was the general idea. I refined it from there to integrate the “Sheep” theme.

Here’s a point-by-point design:

1. You see a rainbow behind a field with a black sheep near a stream.
2. The black sheep walks to the right; You can move it vertically.
3. Sheep are grazing; When near a sheep, they follow it.
4. A grazing sheep may be a wolf in disguise; Try to avoid it!
5. If a sheep is killed by the wolf, it becomes a cloud. (So fluffy!)
6. When there are too many clouds, it begins to rain. (Game over!)
7. A rainbow appears. Its size relates to the peak size of the herd.

And here are some graphics that I threw together in Inkscape.

Sheep:

A wolf-in-sheeps’-clothing:

An entire scene (weird aspect ratio I know); click for larger version:

If anybody wants the SVG file with these graphics let me know. I’m not sure that this game is interesting enough to invest time into making it, but maybe the graphics are useful.

Good luck to everyone in GameJam! 😉

My fascination with 3D graphics started in primary school. I had book of red/blue anaglyph images. I quickly figured out how they worked and how I could make my own.

I created my own anaglyph images based on simple perspective drawing of basic geometric shapes, such as cubes and pyramids. I was pretty happy with them, but I disliked that glasses were required to view them.

In order to create 3D images that didn’t require special glasses, I developed with a few techniques for viewing and creating stereo images. I learnt to stare past the paper to focus on stereo pairs and I used tracing paper and mirrors to help me draw 3D pictures.

My favourite technique was to draw overlapping line drawings of pyramids. It was quick and easy to do with a mathematical stencil ruler. I would just draw slightly offset squares in semi-regular grids in order to create a sequence of pyramids that burst out from the page.

I’ve started revisting some of these old techniques with my favourite vector drawing program, and I want to integrate more of this style of art into my other artistic works.

Here’s an example I threw together today (click image for full-size version):

You should be able to view this image in 3D much like a regular (computer generated) autostereogram (ie. look past the image). Don’t expect anything fancy though!

While musing over GameJam, I made this basic flash program to explore an idea. Here it is:

Instructions:

• Keypad ‘up’ to increase counter-clockwise rotation
• Keypad ‘down’ to increase clockwise rotation

Note: for some reason it takes a little while for one of the legs to pop into place.

I was originally inspired by the clockwork horse kinematic sculpture which I saw a video of. The final design is more directly based on this video of a matlab simulation of one of Theo Jansen‘s fundamental Strandbeest designs.

The theme for the current GameJam is “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” and one of the following three words must be used: “sheep”, “scorched”, and “reflection”.

I imagined: a mechanical sheep walking along a beach, collecting other sheep as it gathers pace; the reflection in the water indicating wolves in sheeps’ clothing (to be avoided); the total score being a count of footsteps taken (rather than overall distance). The more sheep the more footsteps.

I’m not sure if I will take this any further.

I quite like Tom Sennett‘s flash game: “When the bomb goes off,”

I love how light-hearted it is and also that it all plays out in a fixed amount of time. Everything is transient: why don’t more games embrace that?

Here’s a screenshot:

Check it out! 😀

Today is the last day that I will be manning the Snapshot Exhibition, so it’s a good day to stop by and check out my of photos of Japan!

The exhibition is at kindly hosted by YMCA Headquarters in Leederville, and I’ll be there from 10am to 4pm.

Opening night was last Friday, and there was a fantastic turnout. People were kind enough to move through at a steady pace to ensure that everyone could see everything, and there were quite a lot of sales.

Here’s a photo from the night:

My motivation for this exhibition was to express my travel experience in Japan in a fairly concentrated format. I wanted to create something that people could look at and think “oh that’s…!” if they have been there or “what is that?” if they hadn’t.

It was great talking to people on the night. Scott (who lived in Japan for some time) said something like “it’s like you have picked my brain for memories” and many people expressed that certain photos were “structured and layered, yet natural” or “very modern” or “very traditional”… which is how I feel about Japan. There is a story behind each piece, and I’ll be free today to talk more about them.

Simon manned the exhibition yesterday and it was very quiet, so please drop by for a little while today!

Today is also that last day that we will be processing sales at the venue, so it’s also a good day to stop by if you are interested in purchasing any of our pieces (mine or Simon’s).

Update: Left a little early because YMCA wanted to closed up (sorry if we missed you!).

Simon and I will be opening our Snapshot Exhibition tomorrow night at YMCA Headquarters in Leederville.

I’ve been working on the object composition pieces today in preparation. I didn’t mean to leave it so late, but I’ve been sick.

Here’s a photo of some of the finished pieces:

Can you spot the cat?

Thanks to Ellen, Jeremy, and Jim for coming over (on late notice) for photos.