Graduation Time!!!


Well, good news is I graduated from the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy today.  Hey, let's go to commencement...loads of fun but it made my parents happy.  Went to a showcase for our capstone games then went home.  Of course, graduating was a foregone conclusion starting in the 3rd (of 4) semester.  From then it was all about ramping up to jobs and getting fired and sitting on our ass in bewilderment.

I have mixed emotions.  It's good to achieve a milestone but change is coming (again).  I no longer have any obligation to go to FIEA ever again.  I no longer have school to rely on (even if it's just some place to hang out).  But worst of all I think I'm going to lose most of my friends.  Just about every friend I made starting in first grade, once we parted ways, that's it--we just stopped talking to each other altogether.  And yes, there's Facebook, Skype, all that crap but unless you're talking face-to-face, it's does little good.  The reason why this really sucks more than ever before is because for the first time in history, I knew multiple people who understood what I was talking about.  People I could talk to without reverting back to "crappy old Eric" who couldn't socialize his way out of a wet paper bag.  You go through high school & undergrad and most people are like "you want to make vidya games, lol, I'll be a more sophisticated person at my lawyer/doctor/businessman job."  I can always make new friends, I know...

But those guys are cool...and some of them are reading this and well, you always know where to find me.  On this lousy blog nobody reads, rofl.

Now about jobs.  Well, I'm still unemployed.  A month ago, I sent out applications to two places.  Sumo Digital turned me down for the second time quoting my lack of experience and I was seriously bummed but not shocking in the least.  Firebrand went "full retard" and has yet to reply to any of my e-mails.  Why they wouldn't hire me I don't know.  Then there's some local studio which had offered me an interview in a few days (again, won't say who but it's in the Orlando region) and because their folks are on such good terms with my school, unless I go there and you-know-what the bed, I will probably get the programming job.  If not, then I'm temporary up the creek without a paddle but I can still talk with the FIEA people so not all hope is lost.  After the interview, I'll make the painstaking 9-hour drive home for Christmas, make the usual pilgrimage to the mall, look at Christmas lights, etc.

My long-term Plan A is this.  Stick around the Orlando/New Orleans region (well NO has Gameloft but I don't like em too much) and get experience.  In this experience phase, I don't plan on moving unless it's a studio I really, really like.  Then spamming Sumo (or any other Sega-related offers that pop up).  Get the job offer then we're "in" with Sega.  As for Plan B, well...if Sumo flat out doesn't want me for a multitude of reasons (I'm not smart enough, they onto my Sega antics, I can't drive on the left side of the road, etc.) then I'm s*** outta luck.  What do I do then...I do some soul searching.  Maybe I will have a change of heart and love to work elsewhere but I'll probably do something drastic like start an indie studio or roll back on programming altogether and attempt a "career" at auto racing or some other nonsense.  I just don't see the point in working into my 30's-40's on games I have no interest in.  What's the point?  Patience, yes, but at some point, enough's enough.

I hope it doesn't come down to this and I'm probably in worry mode...that's not good but I'll probably shake it tomorrow after I get some rest.  Running against the wind...it's gonna be fun and exciting anyway.  Whatever happens, it's gotta be part of God's plan somehow.

Seriously though, I've said this many times but if it weren't for Sega, I probably wouldn't be in the game industry in the first place.  I mean I'm tired of playing cheerleader..."ooooo racin gaems!!!"  I'm always candid with my readers.  If not then this blog will flat out suck.  So let's go make some f'n games already.  I'll get around to more Sega All-Stars Racing stuff as well as Super Sprint...maybe as a Christmas present for you all.  Again, thanks to the all the FIEA guys that gave me fuel to persevere.  Later....

The Rosa Parks Of Racing Games

There's some more Sega All-Stars Racing stuff to talk about but we've talked about it for weeks now so let's mix things up a bit!

Anyway, at the gaming school I go to (I'll stop using its exact name...I'm tired of Google searches leading those directly to my site), the new class (cohort) is coming through.  And they are going the same stuff I did a year ago...working on games, hanging out, yada yada.  So last year, we pitched games for large teams to work on--our capstone games.  Like Battle Fortress Tortoise, the game I worked on.  Also Plushy Knight and Penned which I constantly ridiculed on this blog and (un)fortunately got my site a little publicity.

Again, pitches work in an American Idol style.  You pitch, it gets voted on, you move up the ranks from Top 30 to Top 10 to Top 5 to Top 3.  I pitched a racing game in less than 5 minutes.  Despite giving it 1000% effort and getting tons of compliments for it, it didn't even break through the first found.  I was greatly disappointed at the time but the main reason why it failed is because A. racing games are a hard genre to sell (no kidding) and B. artists aren't fond of designing cars.  Okay, fine, that's what Super Sprint is for.  I make my own damn racing game without you guys.

Let's fast-forward to TODAY.  So I watched this presentation given by this other guy whom I've never met before.  And he pitches a driving game called Warp Derby.  It's basically Twisted Metal meets Borderlands meets Portal. It's a great pitch that went last out of 10 (the "pimp spot").  And it handily made it into the Top 5 so that means a team of 15 people are going to work on a driving game.

lol wut?  Has the school finally loosened up to making a serious racing...err, driving game?  I WAS A YEAR TOO EARLY!!!  I'm happy (not totally stoked...I mean, it's still a wreck-em-up with shades of brown) but my reaction is this:

Then I realized I'm Rosa Parks on the bus.  I made three racing games last year: 30 Seconds or Less, A.R.I., and Super Sprint, which is three more than the previous record set by anyone else.  In other words, out of seven previous cohorts, no one made a serious racing game until I came along.  You have no idea how proud I am of myself.  Maybe I am overstating my "influence" but it's fun to pretend I did something important so go along with it.

As for the other 4 games that got picked, I can't make fun of them (sorry!!!) they are:

1. Play as a Corgi with a little girl who goes on Indiana Jones adventures.

2. M.C. Escher land in which you rotate 3D objects and walk along them on a 2D plane (like Fez).

3. Colorful 2D platformer in which this little alien-rat thing jumps on blocks to the beat of music.

4. Some Shadows of the Colossus game but with robots and a grappling hook (the name of the game is Grapple...ok I'll poke fun at that).

Ok, that's about it but I got one word to say to the Warp Derby team.  And this is if you want to make it through Vertical Slice in 3 months (2 games get cut).  Don't make the driving boring.  I mean, you can make a car in Unity or UDK with wheels and all that.  That's a nice feature.  But since driving is the MAIN part of the game, if you just run with the default car handling code, it'll fail.  Take care to instill a sense of speed and make cruis'n around fun.  Then add lasers, portals, all that good s***.  Just like the A.R.I. game in which I iterated over the moon rover's handling again and again and again until people liked it.  The other four games MUST fail for Warp Derby to succeed!!!  Ok, that's terrible but what else am I gonna say?  Everybody is a winner?

Speaking of which, someday I might just crack and start my own 3D racing game.  Super Sprint was cool.  But I'm thinking we need a damn Daytona USA 2/Scud Race remake or something in Unity/UDK (here's some Unity examples) so I can prove the game still kicks ass today.  I just need artists to make the assets and...*crickets*...dammit, this is going nowhere fast.  Back to Super Sprint and wallowing in my own tears!

Daytona USA 2 Saved/Ruined My Life

EDIT: Fixed some typos & stuff a day later.

Well guys, I'm back.  Let me tell you what's been going on.  Recently, I had a two week break which I spent at home in Slidell, Louisiana.  Then I drove back to Orlando, Florida and I've already completed one week of my internship.  Just didn't bother mentioning it until now.

Driving to and from Orlando by myself was a nine-hour nightmare (that happened twice).  It rained a lot both times (precipitation for about 40% of the distance) and there were two traffic jams in which I had to come to a complete stop.  The only excitement came from a "race" between me and a geriatric couple in a white Dodge Caravan.  I pass these guys and two hours later, they start creeping up on me (at 76 mph) so I slingshot past them (at 77 mph).  Hey, anything to keep me alert is fine by me.

Me driving with my little furry friend.  I'm not ashamed.

BTW, Florida toll booths are crap.  There's this one booth that charges $3 for a two-axle car.  What a piece of crap.  What's worse is that I didn't have $3 in change on me (sorry I don't walk around with tons of cash in my pocket) so I offered the toll booth lady my debit card.  They don't take cards of any kind.  Are you serious???  The hot dog cart lady outside of the FIEA building takes credit cards but the State of Florida doesn't???  So they took my license & plate number and now I have to mail them a $3 check within a very limited amount of time that my dad agreed to pay for me.  But he got lazy and said "you got a Louisiana license plate that's crap, don't bother."  So now, if Florida law enforcement tows my car, confiscates my license, and makes me face a judge, then I know who to thank.  Thanks, dad.

So now I will tell you about this old town of Slidell, Louisiana.  That's my home.  You check out what has changed and, as usual, nothing really has.  So I made another pilgrimage to Northshore Square Mall.  Not even this mall has changed.  That's not bad seeing as indoor malls are "on their way out" but whatever, it's still good to know.  Buy some expensive cookies, some flat greasy pizza, check out the arcade, sit on the bench, I have zero interest in buying clothes so what else is there to do so I left.

It is properly fitting that as I begin working in the game industry we visit the place that actually got the ball rolling on this career path.

This is the water fountain, a picture taken while sitting on a bench.

Another water fountain...ooo, that's pretty, I love palm trees.  Yu Suzuki does, that's why the AM2 logo is a palm tree (omg, symbolism).

This is the shot directly behind where I was sitting.  It's the arcade.  That's hallowed ground there.

As usual, my head was swimming with thoughts at the time.  Now I already told my arcade story a while back and how this all began, but I omitted some details.  I should mention these now.

I practically lived in Slidell my entire life until a year ago when I moved to Orlando.  I've always known about this arcade.  At first it was "Pocket Change," then it was "Namco Arcade," now it's "Coin It Up."  Pocket Change had a Turbo (1982 Sega arcade racer) cabinet and that was great.  I loved race cars as a kid and that was one of the many games that I played at the time.  Unfortunately, my parents were always reluctant to take me to the arcade for many reasons--it costs money, the mall is a ghetto full of gangsters and miscreants, and so forth so I didn't play much Turbo.

Never mind that, let's move on.  It was about 2000.  At the time, my greatest extent of racing game knowledge was Cruis'n World and Mario Kart.  Didn't know much else.  But Penny Arcade brought in a California Speed cabinet!  That was great--the first time I played it, I thought it was the greatest that racing games could ever get.  Stupid, I know.  Then what happens?  Penny Arcade closes down.  Aww, that sucks. I felt a bit sad but whatever, let's zip ahead a year when Namco Arcade opens a month or two later.  This is the make-or-break moment.  I mean, I had an It's a Wonderful Life moment and wonder if that arcade never opened.  Like if it were replaced with sporting goods, cell phones, or a hair salon.  Let me explain why.

What I've seldom said is that those years from 2000 to 2005 were some of the worst in my life.  I'm not going to paint a picture of doom & gloom--I had two parents who loved me, I lived in a nice house, and I didn't suffer any terrible injuries or sickness.  But I did suffer from extreme anxiety which I apparently got from my mother.  There's many reasons, most of which has to do with social situations.  EDIT: I wouldn't say I was a nerd (like Napoleon Dynamite) but I was just foolish when it came to these social situations.  I went from home school to a private school and I acted like an idiot--a Socially Awkward Penguin.  I also spent a lot of time on various internet message boards, making social blunder and blunder and not knowing why.  I was a fool who had just lost all of his childhood friends and made none other at that time.  School was miserable and all I really focused on was getting good grades--I maintained all A's from 9th grade up until my Senior year of College, true story but not like it matters now.  My loving grandmother died in 9th grade.  Took tons of anti-depressants.  I spent a lot of time playing "grind-it-out" games like The Sims which really proved to be a waste of time in the long run.  9/11 just happened and that was depressing.  And finally, I had some religious questions pertaining to my Christian faith that hung over me--not stuff like the existence of God but stuff like,  "What is Heaven like and what are you supposed to do for eternity," and "If the world is supposed to end soon, why bother doing anything?"  (please, for the love of God, no one comment on these things or I will probably delete it).  Oh, and puberty, that probably made me depressed too.  I try to block out this clusterf*** part of my life as much as possible.

Well, except for one thing: Daytona USA 2.

No, really, the new Namco Arcade had a twin Daytona USA 2 cabinet.  I can't remember the first time that I played it (purely on a whim, nonetheless) but it was pure joy every time that I played it.  What was otherwise a miserable time of my life was capitalized by the times I got to go visit the arcade and play it.  But like I said before, my parents hated going to arcade.  I only got to play Daytona 2 only a handful of times every two weeks.  I kept track of my fastest times with each car, bought Namco Arcade coupons to increase my number of plays, and ingrained the soundtrack in my head (whatever bits I could hear over the roaring engines).  In other words, old racing games that I thought were "good" were now bad because Sega moved to #1 in my book.

But as you know, Daytona USA 2 never came to home consoles.  I always read the occasional story while browsing lousy Reddit Gaming about how video games changing peoples lives for the better.  Pokemon, Halo, Portal, OH MY GOD GUYS they saved my life, thank you developers!  Yet the distinct difference between those games and Daytona is that you could actually play those games at home.  YOU COULD NOT PLAY DAYTONA USA 2 AT HOME AND IT HONESTLY BROKE MY HEART WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT (and still do today).  So I look up more Sega games, I buy a Dreamcast & find out about OutRun, Crazy Taxi, Sega Rally, the Dreamcast version of Daytona, all of which were great but why Sega chose to cast Daytona 2 away made no sense to me.

Then I always talked about that day: February 1, 2005.  Aaaand, it's gone.  Goodbye Daytona USA 2, it disappeared from Namco Arcade and never came back.  I stood in the rain and cried all night while my dad thought I was bats*** crazy.  He offered me the three most encouraging words from a father that you could ever hear: "GET OVER IT...."

I felt like a goldfish whose fish tank just cracked.  There goes my primary source of happiness.  And I did the only thing that I could--frantically post on the internet about Daytona, research more about Sega, learn about game design, and ultimately wallow in a state of depression.  I even e-mailed a 20-page document directly to Sega-AM2 with a bunch of ideas for a new Daytona--yeah the ideas were stupid but at least it was a valiant attempt.  They never replied back, to no one's surprise.

Then one day, I was sitting in a chair thinking about life.  You see, up until this moment, I didn't have a clear career track in mind for the future.  Until then, my mother was trying to groom me into this preppy, intellectual type--piano lessons, Latin classes, chess club, all sorts of honors societies.  But then, just like Forrest Gump, I had a revelation and got up out of that chair and said,  "There is no doubt what I'm going to do with my life.  I'm making a new racing game.  If Sega ain't doing it, then I will.  I'm bringing back the Daytona USA name once and for all and may the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on those who try to stop me!!"  In Forrest's case, he just ran.

But I'm running too, sort of.  Running down a dream!  Go to Southeastern Louisiana University, get a computer science degree.  Never programmed anything before then!  Then I went to grad school and I'm nearly done with that.  I also made the Northshore Square Mall Counter-Strike map to exorcise some of the demons--it helped but it's still a sad state of affairs.

But it's so easy to lose track of the "goal."  Daytona USA 2 was released FOURTEEN YEARS AGO.  A lot has changed since then.  Arcades are dead, Sega is a deplorable, hollow shell of their former selves (which'll probably die out in a few years), I've been locked in a war of attrition with this new commercial-obsessed model for game design/publishing from the likes of EA and other game companies that have been stripping me of my morale.  Oh, and the racing genre is a complete joke now but that brings me to my next point...

Maybe Daytona USA 2 was a flash in the pan?  Look, most/all of us racing aficionados can say that Daytona 2 is a "good" game.  But is it a great game?  Perhaps it left that emotional impact on me because of the circumstances--it was one of the only good things going for me during those years, I seldom got to play it, it's gone now so it makes an emotional story...to bring the game back.  And all it does is make me irrational to think about it...to get mad at stupid video games (usually other racing games that I'm supposed to "like" so much) I don't like and ostracize myself from the rest of the community.  And it makes working on games especially difficult.  Other programmers are a happy-go-lucky type--they'll work on games X, Y, and Z without problem.  Yet with someone like me, whose has become so hung up on a 14-year-old game no one remembers, I'll work on X but struggle with Y and Z simply because "I hate it" or "I wish I was working on Daytona USA."

And then there's Bart's Model 3 emulator.  Once Daytona USA 2 (and Scud Race) finally came home, I wasn't overjoyed, I was FUCKING ANGRY.  Angry cause it took me so damn long to get this game back.  Angry that Sega did next to nothing to try to bring this game back...that it took the efforts of rogue fans to save the game to make some 50-100 people on the Internet happy.  Angry at whatever outside forces, directly or indirectly, held back any chance for Sega to redeem the game.  Angry that this game got no credit until now.  Angry at video games in general which have done nothing that let me down over and over again.  I played the emulator, yes, and I was thrilled, but it's not the same as it was before.  All I could do was throw rocks at the proverbial abandoned Sega building as hard as I could before giving out.

Of course, I learned more about Sega's situation at the turn of the century and clearly they were on hard times like I was.  So beating up on Sega is equivalent of beating up the special kid on the playground and it was no use.  So while I feel inclined to help Sega not just for myself but everyone else's sakes, I don't even know if I'll work there someday.  Whatever happens to Sega, I'll still bust my ass on that definitive racing game...the "utopia project"--whether it's Daytona 3 or some other game altogether.  It's only a matter of finding out who'll help me, whether it's Sega or some other studio or group of developers altogether.

So even though Daytona 2 was made available at home, my job's not done yet.  Which leads me to me and my very first game design "job."  Like I said, I can't tell you where I'm working or what game or platform it is, but I've just submitted a few lines of code to my very first game.  It really is a legitimate game--you could Google it and find out plenty of information on it.  But otherwise, it's a mellow job in which I work alone having just ditched all my old friends at FIEA.  See, I was the only person offered an internship from my cohort.  I did my best to leave FIEA on a good note--have fun, tell jokes, take people to Wendy's for lunch, etc. so I'm demoralized.  Despite my inability to make friends, those that I do become accustomed with over the years usually go away and I never see them again.  And this will inevitably happen--if I'm trying to go to Sega (or some other important place), well....goodbye, friends!

Back to Namco Arcade, I wondered if that arcade had never opened.  Maybe I had never played Daytona USA 2, I would've probably shed that depression, grown up, and become a fully responsible adult, never having to suffer the burden of dealing with "bad" racing games that let me down.  Maybe I would've been a pianist, a lawyer, a scientist.  Or maybe I still would've been a game programmer but I would've been a much happier person, able to work on anything at anytime with no emotional encumbrances whatsoever.  Stupid things like this can be morale killers which explains why I lose the motivation to do "necessary" things like post on the blog, work on Super Sprint, and engage in racing-related activities in general.  But my brain is full of f*** and I can't continue talking anymore so yeah, that's it, I'm done, I'll return when I feel like it.  Not proofreading this for a while.

TLDR: I was miserable from 2000-2005, then I played Daytona USA 2 which made me very happy.  I wonder what would've changed with my life had I never played it and never had that burden of living up to that game in my head.

Battle Fortress Tortoise

Hi guys, this is the capstone game I've been working on at FIEA in a team of 20 for the last eight months (January - August 2012).  It's called Battle Fortress Tortoise.  It's about a clan of gnomes riding on the back of a gigantic tortoise (like a battleship).  And hordes of barbaric hyenas run up to the tortoise and climb aboard in an attempt to kill you & the tortoise.  So use your handy-dandy crossbow to shoot tracer shots (to fire cannons) and bolts (standard rifle shots) to ward off enemies.  It's a PC game that's played using the Xbox 360 controller.

August 3rd was the capstone final presentations.  All three games, BFT, Penned, and Plushy Knight turned out great--I cannot lie.  BFT was done in UDK while the other two were done in Visions.  The problem that Penned & Plushy Knight have right now is that the Scaleform license (used to render Flash movies in-game) only has a limited use so if they were to burn copies of the game now, it would be rendered null & void in a few months or so.  So some guys are working on getting the limitless Scaleform license.  On the other hand, BFT doesn't have that problem since Scaleform is built right into UDK, haha.  Yes, the BFT team has bona-fide copies of the game, box art, disc, instruction manual, all of that stuff.  Here's photo proof of the copies we received:

From March (after Vertical Slice) to July, everyone plugged away at the game.  This last month, the programming team didn't do much besides bug squashing so it was all on the producers to finish the level design, sound clips, voice-overs, trailers, box art, etc.  And this is one of the final trailers.

I suppose I could show the Penned & Plushy Knight trailers but I don't know where they are yet.  Anyway, I wonder what your opinions are on BFT.  It wasn't my idea obviously (I pitched the racing game) but yeah...the game's cool.  Props to my friends Gabe for the idea, Blake for being the fearless project lead, Max, Rock, Yanan, and Mark for being my fellow programmer friends and laughing at all my jokes, producer Jeff who actually likes racing games (so does Gabe), and everyone else for working so hard.  Check out the game's website.  Not much else to say.  After eight months, it's good to see a final product at last.  Now on to RACING GAMES, hah!!!  REVIEW SCORE: 9.9 out of 10.  Only losing one-tenth of a point for not being as good as Super Sprint.

Zynga Sucks

I'm pretty sure everybody threw up in their mouths a bit after seeing The Ville trailer.  And just when you think Zynga got away with copying The Sims...  Warning: PG-13 Language.

I do not condone profanity but I guarantee that EA's response was equally as harsh.  And it was so EA sued Zynga.

I know that this has been reported in many places so you think "zynga sucks, ea sued them, haw haw," you really need to skim over this complaint that EA wrote.  It rather lengthy and some of it is repeating what you know (i.e. description of The Sims for the idiots who think video games are a waste of time (and they're right) ) but it lays into pretty much every transgression Zynga has made.  Mafia Wars, FarmVille, CityVille, Dream Heights, The Ville with plenty of pictures...  Hey, that's GOLDEN blog post material there so props where it's due.  I mean this is good s*** we're talkin about.  Really.



"As The Sims Social increased in popularity and visibility, Zynga turned to its well-known competitive playbook: "Steal someone else’s game. Change its name," then cross-promote the Zynga clone to its extensive user base. It has been widely reported that much of Zynga’s current position in the online social gaming market is not the result of creative development and innovation, but rather has been achieved through cloning rivals’ games."

Good riddance.   EA did one thing right out of what...a million things?  How often does a big game publisher sue another big game publisher?  Well EA declared war--it's go-time baby.

Comparing Battlefield to any Zynga game, oh yeah that's fair. 

I can't say I'm surprised by this.  Recently, Zynga sued another company for using the "Ville" in one of its game titles.  Oh, and then there's this--Kotaku recently posted an interview with Zynga dude John Schappert who, by complete coincidence I bet, worked in senior positions at EA and Microsoft.  Traitor to the MOTHERLAND!!!  Then the interview is loaded with cotton ball questions...nothing truly vexing.  And the comments sections are loaded with all sorts of (thoughtful) vitriol and I think...damn, Zynga vs. EA for the Worst Company in America Contest!!!  Bank of America, pssshhh.

EDIT: This is also from the Zynga interview: "And then he says this about the question of how one would make Nintendo's famous game free-to-play: "It's a horrible admission, but I don't know that game, Super Mario Bros, well enough to sit down and off the top of my head say what would I do…""  Anyone not surprised that these corporate big wigs don't know about Super Mario Bros?  They know how to make money but not how to make GAMES?  Figures...  EDIT AGAIN: Hey guess what guys?  This John Schappert bloke just resigned today.  After giving such a great, GREAT interview about how wonderful Zynga is???  Rage quitter.  Go work for Activision, an equally pathetic "gaming" corporation.

But really, I could care less how this turns out.  Without slandering social/mobile gaming in general (thinking about my job security), this whole new frontier is such a mess, trying to gaming, social updates, microtransactions, and advertisements all in the same package and hence it ceases to hold my attention (and maybe yours, too).  EA has been pushing tons of social/mobile games too (75% of their games this year alone, as opposed to 25% console/PC games???).  So f*** it, I really don't care.  All I know is that EA's stocks are down, Zynga's stocks are down, and Sega is making a profit again.  Maybe there will be a heaping dose of humility too.  There is a shining light at the end of the tunnel.

BTW, I wonder if Super Sprint (now named Hyper Sprint) is just as bad in terms of law-breaking.  Hmm, it can't be because A. it's a non-profit game that actually acknowledges its source material and B. I don't go as far as to copy the whole game (including the RGB values of the cars).

Anyway, why the hell am I talking about Zynga again?  Anyone here care about Zynga?  EDIT: Zynga doesn't make racing games anyway so what do I care what happens to 'em.  I should say Zynga has had a recent impact here at FIEA.  First day of classes, there's free breakfast (donuts, bagels, orange juice, etc) compliments of Zynga.  Okay!  Then a couple of Zynga folks pass on through with the usual propaganda.  And Zynga even did interviews here too.  I didn't want to work for them not because I don't really like them or their games but because they're also located in San Francisco and I don't want to move to California unless it's for Sega (because of living expenses & distance from home).  Couple of people from school actually got internships (I like them just as much had they not received offers) although they were really hard on the programmers so I don't think any of them got offers.  I see how it is.

Speaking of programmers, I feel bad for those programmers at Zynga anyway being forced into the gunfire...making clones of existing games only to potentially have them stripped away due to lawsuits.  Poor people stuck working on this crap.  I mean, isn't the game industry about making games you love?  NO, it's not.  It's about making money.  Well, money's good but not at the cost of creativity.  And now you know why I'm so miserable.  F*** video games.  Later.

Steam Sales And Civilization 5, Oh Snap

Well kids, papa's in the house and he's bringing Steam games...  I recently bought Bang Bang Racing, Sonic Generations, Binary Domain, Renegade Ops, Counter-Strike Source, Garry's Mod, and...Civilization Five.  All of these cost me less than $15 except for Civ 5 which cost $30 for the GotY and Gods and Kings expansion but that's okay!  It's worth it.

I don't want to go into too much detail about Civilization but the premise is you control your own civilization from ancient times to the present as you build cities, discover new technologies, and ravage enemy forces.  The game's turn-based (like Advance Wars) as you play versus multiple civilizations at once (either AI or human players) and can either work together, isolate from each other, or obviously wage war.  No matter how you play, there can only be one "winner" thanks to multiple win conditions.  And since the world is randomized each time and fog covers all the unexplored parts of the map, it's interesting to see how each game folds out.

Here I am, I'm Egypt.  I never started war with anyone (peace through strength) but when the Incans and Arabians started getting testy, I whooped their asses and they backed off.  What "country" you pick really doesn't matter although each has their own few different units and abilities.  For instance, Egypt has chariot archers, Rome has centurions, Japan has samurais, USA has minutemen, etc.  Otherwise, many of the gameplay elements are practically the same between every player.

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All of a sudden, while playing this game, I came to the realization this game is a metaphor for real life.  Well, what do I mean?  Each "country" is its own person.  Technically, since all the things you see on the screen are aspects of yourself and are under your control, hence you yourself ARE your own civilization.  The goal is to better one's life through many improvements that you do in the game:

1. Expand, build farms, provide resources, create new cities, meet new people, glance into the unknown.
2. Discover science, accrue knowledge, learn new things, improve one's current situation.
3. Create culture, engage in the creative process, learn about music, art, other cultures, faith in God, happiness, etc.
4. Diplomacy, make friends, work together, pick and choose what you want others to know, etc.
5. Go to war, defend yourself, take what you want, compete with others.
6. Make lots and lots and lots of money.

Look at it this way.  In Civ, you can only spend so much energy each "turn" on certain things.  You can choose to pimp out one of the six things above.  If you invest heavily on expansion, then you sacrifice your military.  Or you build your military, then that's money wasted on expansion.  Or if you go science, your culture drops and you feel miserable.  Or you can go culture but fall behind in the tech wars.  You can spend a lot of money making friends or keep to yourself.  Either way, it makes you think "Did I just pick the right thing?"  This happens all the time in strategy games--you either win or fail by a few simple choices.

Think about this--what is your daily routine like?  What do you do and how does it help and/or hurt?  Like here's some examples:

1. Go to sleep, but for how long?  Is it worth staying up/sleeping late?
2. What do I eat?  Do I eat at home, do I go pick up something elsewhere, or do I seek out other people to go eat with?
3. What do I do at school?  Do I work on Super Sprint?  Battle Fortress Tortoise?  My regular homework?  Or do I do nothing?  What's the pros and cons of each?  How much work can I get done on any of these right now?
4. Who do I talk to at school?  What do I say?  What is my mood like?
5. Play a video game?  Well, what video game?  Play some Daytona USA?  Or some Rock Band?  Or some Counter-Strike?  Is it worth putting aside many hours on a game that may frustrate you more than anything?  Or am I playing games to get more insight on life or just to relax?
6. Watch TV?  What channel?  Or should I watch a movie instead?  Or should I not watch anything at all?
7. If I have to take a risk on something that has a chance of failure or not getting the returns I like (like learning a new skill, perhaps), how long should you stretch it out until you decide it's not worth it anymore and cut your losses?
8. You want a job, huh?  Well, where do you want to work out of your realistic options?  Or would you prefer not to work at all?  I'd like to think this has a HUGE impact on someone's life.
9. Obviously this is a big one too.  You want a girlfriend (or boyfriend)?  If so, then that's a whole new level of diplomacy there--that's war games we're talking about.
10. Should I update the blog?  What do I talk about?  How much effort do I put into it?  If not, should I read the game blogs and learn more about Sega and/or other game devs in general?  If I come to an engrossing yet long article, should I read some or all of it?  Or should I read random articles about crap just for the sake of learning trivial (but cool) things like this?

I'm fairly certain learning about rubber ducks in the ocean will benefit me some day.

Now I'm overthinking things because most of us wing these things every day.  "Oh, I'll do whatever is most urgent at the time--I've done fine on autopilot, etc."  But it makes sense to me especially with this grad school I'm at.  The new year begins as people flood into the building, many of whom have never lived in this town nor met each other in person.  It's an near-enclosed environment so you're basically working with the same 60+ people all the time.

Now you're one of those students.  You look around, try to meet whoever you can, but you know those people best whom are the closest to you, usually through coincidence (you're put in desks near each other or you're working on the same team).  So you form bonds based on these things you know and have to pick and choose based on their personalities (outgoing or shy, friendly or mean) & interests (what's his/her goal?  to learn a lot, to make great games, to make money, to show off to other people, etc.)  All the mean time you have to manage your life in and out of school (i.e. doing homework, paying the bills, learning about the town and how to live, etc.).

The Sims is kind of a joke compared to real life.  The Sims is a single-play sandbox game in that you can just piss around and do whatever you want--there's no end or "win condition" to the game.  But Civilization is multiplayer and it's about working around other people to progress one's set of goals.  Although there is no "victory" condition is real life, eventually the close group of people you worked with before will swap out as you're dealt another game with all new different people.  The game of Civilization never ends.  And you may not win but maybe, just maybe, you can "lose" the least.

EDIT: The reason I make this post, as stupid as it seems, is because there's a lot of things I've done that were poor decisions in the long run that I've made among colleagues of mine.  And Civ 5 reminds me of that.  So be careful how you manage your time & resources.

You know, while Civilization was interesting, I'm going to take a break from it for a while.  Two main reasons: the games can be TOO long (to go from 4000 BC to 2000 AD can take about 6-8 hours, even on the fastest settings) and at times the game can get stagnant (not expanding, not moving armies around, waiting as you move up the tech tree as money automatically flows in).  Therefore, I plan on moving to other games for the moment, finishing my duties (including Super Hyper Sprint) and actually putting my time to use.  Hopefully you will do the same.  The Daytona pics are overdue.  Later.

That's Why They Call Me The...

Well guys, I got good news...for me anyway.  I recently agreed to a programming job at a legitimate game studio!  I got a phone call last Saturday (at the Coke Zero 400 with loud music over the speakers) offering me the job and today I signed the paperwork away.  This "internship" lasts from August to December and comes with a modest hourly wage.  My job duration (and wage) may receive an extension in January assuming I play my cards right and can stick with the company in the future. TLDR: I got a job.

But first, before we move on, I will NOT tell you what studio I am working at.  It could be anywhere in the world.  Any size or number of people.  Making games of any genre or for any platform (including Dreamcast homebrew).  You may or may not have played one of their games recently.  You may have heard of this studio often or not at all.  It could also be Electronic Arts but I'm not telling.  I will also not share my level of "enthusiasm" for working there.

I will give you two hints right now to alleviate any concerns:

1. It is NOT Sega or any studios with ties to them (i.e. Sumo Digital).
2. It's a company that I feel "good" about working at, at least as of right now.  After surveying the field of realistic candidates, it's one of the top studios I had a choice of attending and I feel fortunate to get an offer there.  Other than the inevitable fear of failure & embarrassment, I remain optimistic (hell, it's an internship...I'm supposed to be a "noob" at first so there's less worry about making mistakes).

Also, it's worth saying we're grown men now.  I'll do my best not to make witty remarks about the company or any of its games nor will I spoil any NDA's (assuming there is anything worthy of being mentioned).  It's not school anymore--this is the workplace and your reputation & job is on the line.  This doesn't mean I'll hold back on my cutting remarks--I'll have plenty of good & bad things to say about games but this company is off-limits.  And most certainly no 4chan/Reddit topics like "I'm an anonymous employee of (insert company), ask me anything."

Anyway, sooner or later you may find out where I'm working--either I or someone else will reveal it to you.  But for now, it's confidential.  You're all overwhelmed with curiosity which is good...gives you a reason to keep reading my blog.

Still a strange sensation to have a serious job even if it's not until a month from now.  See, beforehand, you went to school for a few years and graduated.  Went to college a few years, graduated.  Went to grad school for a year, graduated.  Assuming you don't do anything egregious like get expelled or arrested, you know when you're going and leaving and it takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.  But here, with a job, there's no telling how long I want to stay here.  I can walk out of here at any time, either by my choice or not.  That is scary since you are more prone to screwing up more than ever yet you have more options available than ever.  Oh well, that's the expectation that comes with being a man.  A working man...

Need For Speed, Burnout, DiRT Showdown, Innovation: Thrown In The Trash

So anyway, Electronic Arts's creep continues to expand throughout the Orlando region as they had a big announcement in the FIEA building early on Friday morning (damn you EA for making me wake up so early).  This included news cameras, University of Central Florida guys, and even Florida Governor Rick Scott who made an appearance (I shook his hand while the petty lib gamers stood way in the back).  But whatever you think of politicians, we can all agree on one thing and that is Electronic Arts sucks.

EA is opening up an "Innovation Lab" right down the hall from the FIEA headquarters (we're housed in the same building as some other arty-farty UCF programs).  EA and innovation...two words that sound awkward together, huh?  Innovation for what--new Madden touchdown celebrations?  The small studio (with desks for 20 employees) had some nice digs though.  EDIT: If you're curious, here's a Joystiq article on the new studio.

But nevertheless, EA is slowly creeping up on us.  They plan on building even more studios across from us where the demolished Amway Center once stood.  Sorry, EA, but a couple of fancy buildings and IKEA furniture isn't going to make us like you even more.  Money can't buy friends, but a focus on true quality and respect for the individual (BOTH employees and consumers) does, plain and simple.  BTW, EA's stocks are going down, I love it, cocky EA taking a hit for once.

But I'm not talking about EA anymore.  God forbid I actually have to mention the letter "E" followed by an "A" ever again.  They wouldn't bother me so much if A. the games industry still had some credibility left (i.e. the Japanese games industry--Sega in particular--was still competitive and not everything revolved around cinematics/production value/uber-violence instead of solid gameplay) and B. if I weren't trapped in Electronic Arts Land down here in Orlando, FL.  Seriously, why doesn't EA open up a theme park already?  Might as well at the rate of "innovations" they've made in the "entertainment" industry.

BUT IT GETS EVEN BETTER!!!  I feel bad for the Need for Speed series--I really do.  You could call it decent up through the Underground series but now, it's a joke.  Since Black Box did such a crap job turning NFS into a movie (see Undercover & The Run), Criterion is now in charge of any future iterations for some unknown period of time.  In other words, NFS is now Burnout with a different name.

What happened here?  Why couldn't EA just let Criterion make Burnout games?  Were they that obsessed with that fetish-ized name "Need for Speed" that they needed to recycle not just the same name but also the same subtitles (Hot Pursuit, Most Wanted)?  Can't they keep the Burnout name so I can more easily identify Criterion's dreck?  Oh, and that NFS movie?  They're seriously going to make it now.  I have no expectations for this "summer blockbuster flick."  If they have that Razor Callahan dude, then maybe it'll be entertaining but I doubt it.  Lord Have Mercy on the Need for Speed brand since it's now a circus act for everyone to mock & ridicule (you heard it from me a while back!).

But hey, at least Forza is now Need for Speed!  You know, Forza Horizon looks like the old-school Need for Speeds but it still irks me somewhat.  However, as gaming evolution would have it, I wouldn't be surprised if in 5-10 years Forza turned into a crashing arcade racer too.  All modern-day racing series start out great.  Then they eventually...Burnout.  YYYYYYEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Anyway, one more racing game before I call it quits.  This is Dirt Showdown.  I saw this on Giant Bomb's quick plays and what the hell, let's check it out.

The first thing that grinds my gears is the Twitter hashtag you see RIGHT THERE AT THE TITLE SCREEN.  WHY IS THIS NECESSARY???  ARE WE SO EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO OUR SOCIAL MEDIA THAT WE NEED TO STICK IN EVERY ONE OF OUR GAMES IN SOME WAY???  Putting that aside, the rest of the game's not shocking.  The color hues are still screwed up enough to make me nauseous.  The racing looks okay but the Miami track they chose is this incredibly confined strip of road that barely does racing justice at all.  The Gymkhana/Tony Hawk "complete these goals" levels are okay, I guess.  Needs more pyrotechnics and "bro-sif" Ken Block stuff I guess.  Oh, and there's demolition derbies too.  The wrecks are incredibly tame which is guess is nice but any wrecking mini-games (ripped right out of Big Bumpin) come off as very plain.  In other words, I'm not offended by this game but I'm underwhelmed just looking at it.

I assume DiRT Showdown didn't sell well at all.  Can you blame 'em?  This isn't rally racing like we know it (play Sega Rally instead, you bastards).  I've mentioned this conundrum several times but here goes again.  A lot of racing games have come out recently that have bombed in terms of sales and/or quality--Split/Second, Motorstorm, Blur, Dirt Showdown, Sonic Riders (G-D Kinect), Fuel, Grid, the "bad" Need for Speeds, et. al.  Even though I don't really like many of these games in terms of style, gameplay, or some other reason altogether, am I still somehow obligated to buy them because I'm a racing game fan?  Or should I sit back and watch as our beloved racing genre continues to flail like a fish out of water?  Will the failure of mainstream racing games result in even fewer ones being made in the future?

A lot of racing games can't do straight-up traditional racing well so they coat it with all this fancy crap that seems to fail.  We only have one hope left and that is Sonic All-Stars Racing 2.  If this game bombs, then we're finished.  I have no faith in a future run by Burnouts--err, Need for Speeds, wannabe-poser racing sims like Forza, and Mario Karts.  It's a mess.  At least Sonic All-Stars 2 looks okay so far but the whole Danica thing is awkward.  Just stay tuned for more details and pray for Sumo to deliver in spades.  Amen.

EA Tiburon Field Trip And Retrospective (Do They Really Suck That Bad?)

So today, me and 50 other people from school drove 15 minutes up the road to tour EA Tiburon for a couple of hours.  While the words "EA" and "building" together conjure images of an Eldritch Location, the real estate is quite nice.  It's in this business park next to a Charles Schwab and Fidelity place.  The first building you see is the main studio.  Adjacent are two parking garages--one for employees, the other for visitors.  So where is EA getting all these visitors???  Um, whatever, we park wherever we can.

View Larger Map

This is it if you're interested.  So anyway, it's a six-story building.  First floor has a lobby, a store full of EA goods (including wonderful t-shirts that make you a big hit at gaming conventions), a conference room, and a cafe adjacent to a enclosed park/picnic area.  Second floor is marketing/finance stuff.  Third floor is NBA.  Fourth floor is Tiger Woods.  Fifth floor is Madden.  Sixth floor is NCAA Football.  So they're working on four games at once in the building.  There's about 350 employees working here right now.

The tour began with us all going to the lobby, getting a pass and a bag of EA freebies.  I got an EA Sports blue t-shirt and foam golf ball!  Others got mini basketballs & footballs.  Damn shame cause if they still did NASCAR then maybe I'd get a tire!  But anyway we were taken into a conference room where some guys talked to us about EA and stuff.

The propaganda presentations were about the Tiburon studio--"this is how we were founded" and "we're on the cutting edge of technology/social media," you know, all that softball stuff to get you loosened up.  Later we would all split into groups--the developers, the producers, the software engineers (they don't use the term "programmer" there), the tech artists, and the regular artists.

Oh, and about that NDA I signed...hardly anything mentioned was confidential.  During the programmer presentation, it was mostly about programming/shader/new tech stuff.  I couldn't even remember it all anyway and the blinds were open so anyone could look in and see for themselves (OMG, A SHINY LEBRON JAMES IN NBA LIVE).  Although we weren't allowed to bring cameras past the front gate.  Okay, sure thing, lady.

Frankly, these chats went on for way too long...I was waiting to tour the damn building.  But nonetheless, I got to ask a few questions for the EA guys:

"Will Sean Peyton be in Madden 13?"  Everyone cracked up.  Apparently not but it's because he wasn't part of the "coaches' club" or something so his likeness wouldn't be in the game anyway.

"Do you know where Peter Moore is?"  Peter Moore...that Sega bastard that killed the Dreamcast.  Apparently, he's living in San Francisco as the COO of EA Sports.  Didn't know he moved up so fast but w/e.  I'm always on the lookout for Sega guys.

"What happened with the NASCAR license?"  Apparently, EA decided to drop the series because they thought they'd make more money elsewhere. *coughFIFAcough*  I was wearing my Daytona Speedway hat so I looked like a moping racing fanboy I suppose.  Hey, it was a good question.  If they were still working on NASCAR, I might be more enthusiastic about an EA career.

(to an ex-student) "How similar is work at EA compared to grad school?"  Not much, apparently.  EA mandates that if you work too long a couple of days that you must go home and take a break.  I guess they don't want half-asleep programmers ruining the Perforce & stuff.

I should mention something funny.  During all this, some people brought out a bunch of goodies for us to enter for a raffle.  The prizes were some old-school EA t-shirts/phone cases, a bookbag full of EA games, an authentic Cleveland Browns helmet signed by Peyton Hillis (still in the box), some pair of shoes, and a pro-gaming headset.  Everyone got two tickets each and put theirs in the buckets of the prizes they want to win.  Everyone went heavy on the EA games and the headset.  Me?  I waited and put my tickets in the box with the best odds-to-value ratio and that was the NFL Helmet.  Surprise!!!...I won an actual NFL helmet signed by Madden '12 cover star Peyton Hillis.  It was the highlight of my day.

Me upon winning the helmet

Okay, time to go tour the building.  Obviously, I went on the "Engineer" tour.  Unfortunately it was a brief one and we only stopped on one floor--the six floor with NCAA Football development.  Even more unfortunate was that I had to haul that damn Peyton Hillis helmet around the entire building..."Whatcha got there?"  "Oh, I won a Peyton Hillis helmet in a raffle!"  The place looked rather...normal.  There were hardly any employees working at the time but the ones I saw looked clean.  The cubicles were densely packed but everyone had their own posters & toys so it really isn't that much different than grad school.  They had tons of reference posters of college football stuff for obvious reasons.  There was also all sorts of free food--chicken wings, cereal, candy bars, macaroni & cheese.  And a Mortal Kombat cabinet.  Didn't stop at the NBA, Tiger Woods, or Madden floors since they're pretty much the same thing with the same floor format (uniformity, it's in the game!).

The tour ended and we went to the cafe/picnic area, got some sandwiches and drinks and there were lots of EA guys around.  Most of them were young guys.  Everyone seemed nice and not terribly obnoxious.  Obviously, being socially awkward as I am (and still holding the Peyton Hillis helmet), I stuckwith my classmates.  I get a conversation or two with some tour guides and stuff because I radiate this aura about me as I sit lonely in the crowd staring at stuff and eating free M&M's and Twix bars.  There were also cookies with EA logos on them.  I'm sure they were delicious.

That's where the EA tour ends.  Regardless of my future with EA, I still got to see a legitimate game studio for the first time so the experience was alright.  Lately, everyone's been passing out resumes for job/internship interviews.  I dropped mine in a couple of inboxes--EA's included.  So I might have an interview with them really soon.  Hmm, interesting...a job interview with EA.  I just blew my mind.  They like to devour these newbie programmers...about 75% of them from previous classes (I'm not making this up) so that's pretty heavy.

Here's a bit of an aside from my recent expedition.  Looking at Electronic Arts for the millionth time, they're still full of crap in my book.  You can bring up a million reasons why EA sucks--the DLC, the DRMs, the killing of studios, the constant iteration of the same games, etc.  But give EA some credit since they do something right.  They're efficient, successful publishers.  If it weren't for them putting out mega hits like Mass Effect or Battlefield, you'd never have the luxury of ever playing them.  As for being an "evil" corporation, I could care less how much money EA makes.  The fact is I dislike them for other reasons...things that seep over to games I am actually interested in.

During the initial presentations, one thing we got a lot of was the "exciting new technology" from EA.  This included the new Madden tackle animations (look at this) and the realistic NBA light shaders (all the specular lights from the sweaty players, hence shiny Lebron James).  You know...it's great and all but I ask, "Where's the gameplay?"  Oh sure, for the most part new features/R&D begets new gameplay but still...it's the same game trapped in an eternal cycle.  "Oh, give us a few more years and we'll perfect it!"  Some EA guys said this is not a rehash at all and even went as far as to talk about 2K Sports and the exclusive NFL license.  BTW, did you think these guys were going to say anything remotely bad about themselves?  I don't think they're as evil as gamers say but I also don't think they're as good as they say about themselves.  Gaming is such a cut-throat business you take everybody with a grain of salt (even our beloved Sega).

In other words, if I hop on board with EA, I'm afraid most of my work with shaders/graphics.  Nothing really "new" in terms of gameplay besides bug squashing and whatnot.  Maybe I'm overstating this but that's the impression I got from the conversation.  And thus, this leads to even greater problems.  Yeah, EA puts out decent games but a lot of it is monotonous, only to be saved by massive, MASSIVE production value (EA has that $2 billion war chest, remember?).  And that's okay if that's their business plan.  I just think these big budget, broad, casual, play-it-safe titles are mainly what makes the game industry suck these days.  Hey, if EA is making money off this strategy, other publishers will follow suit.  Doesn't matter how stupid it is, if it sells, MAKE IT ANYWAY.  It it can't break 2.5 million copies, it's a failure (technically 5 million if you take it from this EA guy pertaining to Dead Space 3).

Sports, okay, I'll let those slide since there's no room to improve on that besides graphics.  But this mostly applies to Need for Speed I might add, most of which I find mediocre.  Most everything they make is a sequel or rehash in some way.  Hell, even Origin is a ripoff of Steam.  If it weren't for the HUGE IP's they've recently acquired like Mass Effect or Battlefield, I doubt anyone besides the sports junkies would care about EA.  Yeah sure, EA has recently made NBA Jam or NFL Blitz but those are just remakes which are really no better than the originals except for the graphics.  NFL Street was good but they canned it way too soon.  Skate is new I suppose.  Tony Hawk has gone to crap so at someone stepped up to the plate instead (speaking of which, where's the baseball games, EA???  Little Facebook/iPhone apps don't count).

EA I AM DISAPPOINT

On the other hand, there's one of the most beloved game developers in the world, Nintendo.  Now I'm not a huge Nintendo fan but I respect them for coming up with clever new IPs over a long time span like Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, Smash Bros, the Wii, etc.  Even if they use the same IPs often, at least they do different things with them (different generations of Mario & Zelda).  Yeah sure, they've made some blunders recently but only extreme segments of gamers really hate Nintendo.  On the other hand, you can't say the same thing about Electronic Arts whom everyone seems to be indifferent to or hate.  Holy cow, EA won the Worst Company in America contest, what did you expect...that people love EA???

And how about Sega?  Hey, I'm not denying production value is bad (Sega was on top of things with arcade hardware like OutRun or Daytona which made them even more successful) but at least these games came with revolutionary gameplay.  And how about the Dreamcast?  Most people overlook this but Sega had some serious GUTS back then!  Look at all the IP's they released in that time: Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Space Channel 5, Samba de Amigo, House of the Dead, Sega Bass Fishing, Seaman, Super Monkey Ball, Shenmue.  I mean, geez, if modern-day EA went back in time and made their own figurative Dreamcast, what games would they make for it?  A bunch of sports titles, a Need for Speed, and some more titles from other companies that they didn't make themselves.

I don't know.  Taking shots at EA gets old after a while.  It's really dumb.  So how can I still think about working for these guys?  I have my doubts.  But these guys apparently like making Madden and NBA games (I assume...defectors will be PUNISHED by their EA overlords).  And no one there is really a scumbag--they're just guys working on games and getting along just fine.  If you're not emotionally attached to one particular game/genre/company then EA is probably up your alley...BUT THAT'S NOT ME.

I make a big deal out of the games I want to work on.  This can be a terrible attitude to have at times but I can't help it since if it weren't for Sega, I'd never be in this scenario in the first place!  So assume I get a job at EA.  While I struggle to program a simple shader at an EA "incubation session," Sega continues to commit suicide and by the time I make it there, they'll be dead.  You can't flat out ask any of these guys "hey, do you know how I can work for Sega?" since they obviously want people to stick with them and no one else!  The EA experience helps a lot on resumes, if that means anything.  You can also use that in-house experience to slingshot to other EA studios across the world (this includes Bioware and DICE) but that's not where I want to touch down, of course.  Still, it's SOMETHING to think about.

I have mixed emotions about EA and the whole thing right now.  Hey, I don't know where to work right now but in the coming months, we'll just examine our job opportunities and choose.  EA's not off the table but I am super hesitant.  There's smaller studios where I'd feel more at home that are eager to hire people in the Orlando area.  I can't spend all my time worrying about the future cause then I won't have fun.  Fairly certain everyone is a bit worried as well, even if they don't express it so you're not alone.  Okay, I'm done rambling, another super late night post, signing out...

WHAT A LUCKY EA DAY!!!

Ohohoho man...you have NO IDEA how great of a day tomorrow will be.  Guess what I get to do???  Go on, say it.  Ok, I will tell you now...

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I get to go on a field trip to THE EA TIBURON STUDIOS IN MAITLAND, FLORIDA!!!

So thrilled, yes I am.  I get to go to EA.  Sounds like fun until you realize...I'm going to EA.  It's like waking up on the morning before your wedding and you realize you hate your wife-to-be.  I CAN'T GO, GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!  I'M IN THE CARPOOL HEADED TO THE PLACE--GOTTA BAIL SO TIME TO TUCK AND ROLL OUT THE DOOR!!!

Actually, I made the joke that if I were one of the carpool drivers transporting people to and from EA, I would get everyone in the car and take an "unknown shortcut" when I'm really heading in the opposite direction of the building.  Once people catch on to my antics, it's too late for them to go to EA, therefore I performed my little Schindler's List deed of keeping a handful of people away from EA forever!  Yeah, it's just a few people but it's better than none at all!  Oh, if only I had a bigger car!!  We can all go to Five Guys instead, now that place is awesome and no one would get mad at me.  *notbad.jpg*

I know that we're getting a tour of the place and are presenting our capstone games to some hardass execs.  But we also had to sign NDAs beforehand so I can't spill the beans on what I learned...?  Like what, exactly?  If I'm told they're working on a Madden 14 (ZOMG EPIC SPOILARS) does that count as breaking the NDA?  In other words, if EA is performing criminal or paranormal activity there, I can't say it.  Well, maybe...if I don't mind being fined/imprisoned just to see EA's demise.  It's totally worth it.

So the Tiburon studio has a website and holy cow--I gotta tell ya, the place has got some nice digs. I can smell the air fresheners already!  Like if this were some average Joe studio and not part of EA, I'd like it.  But no, it is in fact EA so I have my doubts.  Like I said before, at least they make sports games...better that than a lot of other crap I'd pick apart for no reason because it's not a Sega/happy/racing game.

Oh, and guess what.  They have a NASCAR exhibit there (at least a couple of years back).  OH WATE THATS RIGHT EA's NASCAR games suck and they don't even own the license anymore.  SUCKERS!!!

Anyway, it makes me wonder...what do Sega's development studios look like?  It just makes me sad that places like EA (of all GD places) are so slick and professional while I visualize Sega as an animal house full of idiots who can't piece together a coherent Sonic game.  Really, it doesn't matter how "cool" EA Tiburon is (or any other places I go after school) cause I'm movin' out anyway for many places in order to get "closer" to Sega.  What a bummer--I don't think I'll ever feel home anywhere.  I just wish Sega didn't tease us as much as they do.  I'm sleep-deprived right now so I have nothing left to add to the conversation so I'm calling it quits RIGHT NOW.

In Defense Of Super Sprint & Electronic Arts

Edit: Moved the racing conclusions to the previous post.

You may notice I've been posting more often recently.  So far in this Summer semester, we've been free-floating a bit.  Haven't had any other work other than to work on our capstone games/portfolio stuff.  Chilling out with other people.  It's good but it's like we're organelles free-floating in the cytoplasm.  Now's the time to prep for future careers.  And hence, another long-winded discussion on my future career plans on tap for you guys.

So, about Super Sprint.  I've still been working on this thing.  I've added plenty of features such as track selection (as seen above), better collision detection with "realistic" physics (so you can't overlap the other cars, see above again), better keyboard controls, more settings & improved menus, real-time position tracking, general improvements to code/performance, and, of course, network play (complete with a chat window).  I'll probably give a more detailed explanation of how this stuff is done in future posts.

Right now, I've got basic online working but there's so many kinks to work out to keep a server & multiple client session moving from race to race while accommodating for any minor holes that could crash the server.  It's incredibly tedious and all I can really do is chip away at it.  I could possibly release an off-line only version of Super Sprint with the new stuff but I have to get the online portion solid as soon as possible.

The reason I keep bringing up Super Sprint, much to the chagrin of everyone reading this, is not to rub it in anyone's faces or to get a million downloads.  The main reason why is because I want to have at least one "solid" racing game on my portfolio heading towards the future.  Honestly, I don't know how many racing games I'll get to work on in the future.  Between the combination of game studios to choose from AND the abysmal failures of the racing genre in recent times, odds are slim to none that I'll get the chance to work on a racing game that I'll truly like ever again.  So before I enter the workplace, now's my chance to "cherish" a racing game for the very last time.

This brings me to my next point and that is job opportunities.  In about a month or two, several companies, such as EA, Electronic Arts, EA Tiburon, EA Sports, and Electronic Arts in Maitland, FL, will come around doing internship interviews with students.  My pickings will be very slim and there's no getting around that.

I had a sad, pitiful goal as soon as I entered the game industry that you all know too well.  As I hit the floor running, I make a bee-line towards Sega of America.  Get Sega of Japan/Yu Suzuki/Toshihiro Nagoshi on the phone.  Make another Sega racing game, particularly Daytona 3.  Then the game gets made and the world is eternally blessed for our efforts.  The problem is THIS IS NEVER HAPPENING (at least not right away).  Sega is an inept company which is hardly on the move.  They're developing fewer games and hiring fewer employees.  They don't even develop their own games in the US anymore.  See the Sega post I made earlier.

But there's always a home at EA...  I already burned bridges with EA in the past with my incredible "EA sucks" post.  But now I may have to rethink that opportunity.

For some reason, the best analogy involves the 2005 movie Lord of War, featuring everyone's favorite Caucasian male celebrity, Nicholas Cage.  The movie is about an arms dealer (Cage) who buys weapons from the Soviets and sells them to African mercenaries/terrorists/militia men.  He's a wealthy, well-to-do man but his job is clearly dangerous, illegal, and immoral.  But when Cage's character is confronted with his decision to aid in the death & destruction of other people, one of his quotes (and I paraphrase) is "I'm a necessary evil...if I don't sell weapons to terrorists, then others will, so what's the difference?"

So let's say I remain the little rebel that I am.  I reject the EA propaganda and turn down any offers that they  give me as I storm out the building seething from the mouth in a fine display of bravado and swagger.  Okay, fine.  You got 'em that time, boss.  I can go work for some other local studios like N-Space which specialize in hallmark titles such as Call of Duty and Hannah Montana games for the Nintendo DS.  Radical!  Then some other schmuck in the long line of EA wishfuls hops on-board with them and The Powers That Be continue to bang out Madden, Tiger Woods, and other Origin crap titles that continue to settle in the morass known as the video game marketplace.  So by me refusing to work at EA, does that change anything???  I put myself in a worse position and nothing is gained from it.  Way to go, me!!  You held out...for nothing.

Crap picture of the EA HQ in Maitland, Florida.

Let's look at the benefits of working at EA Tiburon.  First of all, it's close to where I live now so I don't have to sweat it out moving half-way across the country for someplace completely unknown.  Lots of old FIEA classmates will be working there as well.  The studio isn't a bad place to be--the working conditions and pay are pretty good.  They got rid of the yearly contracts so now you get paid healthcare (I think).  The experience of working at a top-notch studio looks great on my resume.  Plus, I'll be working on Madden or Tiger Woods.  In all honestly, I'd MUCH rather work on something innocuous like a sports title rather than something that would grind my gears, such as RAGE, Diablo, or Mass Effect (yes, I said it).

But like I said before, that's not the point of going into the game industry...to be a subservient lackey for EA for the majority of my career.  We must get out of here and work on actual good racing games.  One problem is that to game studios, their workforce is their greatest asset.  Unlike other goods produced such as cars & furniture, the value of video games drop rapidly a year or two after release so all they've got is their workforce.  Therefore, big studios like EA can be a bit "clingy" when it comes to keeping their employees.  If a person quits, it takes much time to bring in new employees to fill the position and get them up to speed.  In other words, studios hate people who move from studio to studio a heck of a lot.  It looks like crap on your resume.  So when you pick a job, be prepared to spend at least a year there.  I don't want to spend too much time at EA while Sega continues to whither away like a dying rose!

Never mind Sega for a moment.  We're looking for racing game studios in particular (EA and NFS DOES NOT COUNT).  Too bad that the only racing games that are made nowadays are dinky little $2 games (I tilt the iPhone and the car steers!!!) or big-budget dreck that we've seen for the last 5-10 years such as Need for Speed, Burnout, DiRT, and Forza.  Hell, even being able to work on ANY racing game would be nice but which studios specialize in racing development nowadays?  Uh, EA (sort of, they're outsourcing NFS games every which way).  Then there's Codemasters though I'm not a fan of many of their games (DiRT).  Then there's Sumo Digital, probably my best secondary target besides Sega and will always be high up on the list.  Don't forget Slightly Mad Studios (Shift series) and...uh, Eutechnyx (NASCAR: The Game)?  Kind of running out of options here.  Gotta keep my eyes peeled for all racing job opportunities that crop up here and there and hope the interview process is successful.

...there is one option left on the table that's really not worth mentioning but here goes.  We start our own company.  Hire some guys (preferably ex-classmates or online Sega fans) and make the games we want.  But that would require so much business & legal work that I'd need tons of help.  And assuming you do make it to the "big leagues" (more than half of all start-ups fail miserably), most of your projects will be menial tasks from EA/Activision--the games that are so irrelevant they are too lazy to make on their own (i.e. Madden on the 3DS).  If you could wheel & deal with Sega it would be worth it but it's not likely so it's hardly worth the entrepreneurial effort.

I've made the hiring analogy of a NFL Draft before in the past.  Basically, as an employee, you have very little choice in where you want to go, especially when you are just starting out.  You may hate the company/organization/team/colors you play for, but you gotta make it work for the betterment of everyone around you.  And if somehow Sega manages to wither away in the next 5-10 years...well...at least I hope the good little drones that buy the EA titles are more "blessed" due to my work.  If Sega is "doomed" anyway, then why not help other people?  It's not my dream but it's better than nothing.  So you must make do with what you got.

This has gone on way too long...I'm done.  Gonna keep plugging away at Super Sprint.  Hopefully, we'll be able to catch Sega's eye though unconventional means besides working there.  That's one reason why this blog exists too.  And Happy Memorial Day, we support the guys in uniform that gave their lives for our freedom.  I've said this plenty of times before and I'll say it again.  Already made the "official" Memorial Day post so it's alright.

BTW guys, you gotta buy this to help save Sega: