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Sunday, August 29, 2004

Ah, big news. I'm shifting gears again. It's a new job, at a game publisher. I'll be working for Nokia on their Games Publishing team as Games Catalogue Assistant. My first day starts tomorrow. Heh, I'm excited. Okay, gotta get some sleep now.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Things have been, ahem, quiet from my end on this site. But who knows with these things?

Let's get the ball rolling. In a new article on Planet Emceedeus, I examine the acquisition of Relic Entertainment by THQ, and how THQ may have paid as little as 25% of Relic's market value to acquire the company. Read it, and send me your thoughts.

On other fronts, my work with New Media BC has given me wide exposure to the British Columbia game industry. It really is quite impressive, as at last count, we have located over 140 companies in British Columbia who contribute to the game industry.

Our NX-01 Mod teaser was released not long ago, to great acclaim from the Elite Force community. It was rated the number one mod in a poll on EliteForceFiles.com, nudging out Colony 7 for the top spot. As fans of the game should know, Colony 7 came out over 2 years ago, and was the most downloaded mod for Elite Force. For our mod to attract a greater following in a few short weeks is impressive. Our whole team is very happy about this, and eager to get on with development.

At home, I have a couple of games on the go, including Ghost Recon, which I never had a chance to finish properly. Even though this game is over a year old, it still holds up well to the latest shooters. I'm brushing up my skills before I head back onto the public servers with this one.

Friday, March 5, 2004 9:50 PM

I've got a surprise for you! On March 1st, 2004, I started a new position at New Media BC as the Game Industry Program Coordinator. This is a unique position that was created upon my arrival to research and develop a program for the game industry in British Columbia. Lynda Brown, the Executive Director at New Media BC, asked me to come onboard a few weeks ago.

It's been great! Over the past month and a half, I've been working under contract to New Media BC through my company Game Goose Media. Now that I am working full-time for New Media BC, I can concentrate on helping this industry association build an even bigger and better game industry in this province.

Over the past two weeks, I've attended four events in the local community, three of which were centred around the game industry.

The first was EduGaming: e-Learning and Games at the Crossroad, a New Media BC event which happened last Tuesday. This event brought together two leading thinkers from two different industries, Paul Stacey, an e-Learning expert, and Ian Verchere, a game industry veteran. They offered a view into how a convergence betweens games and education might work.

We had to leave before the E-Gaming presentation concluded, and rush over to the Sophos Building to catch the IGDA Vancouver Chapter panel discussion. This was a panel discussion on licensing hit properties, which was originally planned for late February 2003, but which got re-scheduled to last Tuesday. Eric Holmes, Lead Designer at Radical Entertainment came up with the idea for this panel discussion, during a conversation we had a few months ago. Wolfgang Hamann, ex-Radical veteran, did an excellent job of moderating the discussion, as a wide range of viewpoints and experiences were shared.

To clinch this hat trick, I headed off the very next day for an ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver evening event at the Vancouver Film School, where an enraptured audience listened while Henry LaBounta and Ian Lloyda, Art Directors on SSX 3 shared their art production pipeline with us, as well as a heap of cool prizes. Not only did the game look good, but it sounded like a fun and enriching project to work on.

Okay, there was a fourth event, earlier this week on Tuesday, and this was a Usability Workshop. While not targetted at game designers, I did come away with a broad appreciation for the work that goes into good website usability, and some new ideas for GameGoose.ca.

That's right, GameGoose.ca is alive and kicking! Even though this new job has kept me busy like a fox in a hen-house, I've been designing new features for the site. Game Goose Media continues to be the small business with the big ideas for this growing industry portal.

If that doesn't make you happy, how about some new game jobs postings at GameGoose.ca, the fifth trailer for our Enterprise NX-01 tour mode (courtesy of Chris, our team lead).

Tuesday February 17, 2004 1:00 AM

GameGoose.ca has been in operation for over a month now, and boasts 40 registered members. The top game jobs in Canada, with full job descriptions, are available on the site. Register now!

Lately, I've been consulting on a game technology market study through my company, Game Goose Media. Also, I'm enrolled in Character Design 300 at the Art Institute of Vancouver-Burnaby, designing cutting edge expressive characters in a class of talented artists.

The IGDA Vancouver Chapter promoted me to Chapter Coordinator. I joined the IGDA Game Writers SIG. I have built a team of moderators for GameGoose.ca. Work on the Enterprise NX-01 Mod Tour Mode is nearing completion, as I continue in my role as Level Designer and Storywriter.

As a result of my recent contracts and IGDA work, I have met with Executive Producers, Game Designers, and CEOs. Plus, I have seen the inside of game companies like Relic, Nokia Canada, Radical, and Factory1 Games. I have reached an advanced level of familiarity with the local game industry.

But my greatest success in recent weeks is one you will learn about very soon. So stay tuned!

Wednesday, December 31, 2003 7:20 AM

The last two weeks have been fruitful, and inspiring. I had the pleasure of attending our most recent IGDA Vancouver Chapter event on December 16th, 2003. There, I presented an outline of my new website, GameGoose.ca. GameGoose.ca is set to launch on January 1st, 2004.

GameGoose.ca is sponsored through my new company Game Goose Media, and will provide the best media coverage, market research, online community, and industry database for the Canadian Game Industry. As the Canadian Game Industry grows and matures, GameGoose.ca will be there alongside, as a catalyst and a resource.

Our Chapter meeting gave me a chance to meet a few new faces, including Raphael, finally. Raphael is a stable feature of the IGDA forums, and one person who I've been dying to meet. We shared lots of new ideas for the game industry in Vancouver, and Raphael already has contributed new ideas for the IGDA Vancouver Chapter, so we are well equipped for the new year. It was a good celebration, and an action-packed night, as myself and Karin dropped by a TechVibes event before we stepped foot in the Sophos Building for the IGDA Christmas Party.

Christmas was a welcome break, and I am looking forward to a New Year's celebration up at the home of Dan Irish and friends, where game developers from Relic and Electronic Arts Canada will be maxing and relaxing.

In the course of developing a business plan, I engaged in some market research for the game industry. Using current figures, and a few calculations, I estimate that the game industry was worth $24.73 billion worldwide in 2003. In all honesty, that figure is likely a tad generous. I'm curious what you guys think, so feel free to join me in a day or two at GameGoose.ca for the official launch of GameGoose.ca, your Guide to the Canadian Game Industry.

Friday, December 5, 2003 4:08 PM

The new dawning of a Canadian Game Companies website is near at hand. The idea was simple, the execution was simple, but the results will be astounding. Not much more can I say, but more will you see in the coming weeks.

The new search engine, which I set up through Atomz Search, has proved useful. For one thing, I found two searches for 'mailing address'. My assumption here is that someone was looking for a mailing address for a Canadian Game Company. While the current list does not feature mailing addresses, nor can you search for them, the new website is meant to include all sorts of details on Canadian Game Companies, including mailing addresses, and much, much more. I am looking for dedicated persons interested in helping the evolution of the Canadian Game Industry to work on this site. Positions available are volunteer, and they include Forum Style Designer, Forum Super Moderator, and Forum Moderator. You'll get a first hand look at the new site, and work together with me to build the best resource on our fine industry in this great country.

On a side note, the Atomz Search has showed me the extent of Planet Emceedeus in the present day. Here is an excerpt from the indexing results:

493 pages! While I'm still learning how to analyze these results, it was stunning to me to learn that I'd already racked up almost 500 pages. That's alot of content, and it's still growing.

I've been catching up on reading. First, I read Sophie's World, an Alice in Wonderland suburban mystery that weaves the lives of two girls with massive doses of philosophy history. Then, I read Return of the King. Praise them with great praise, Frodo and Samwise! Awesome, awesome.

In two weeks, I've got an interview for the position of game designer, and this will be my first in-person interview for a large studio. Anybody have any tips on do's or don'ts? Please tell me!

Sunday, November 23, 2003 9:48 PM

I'm pleased to say that Canadian Game Companies has surpassed 12,000 visits over a ten-month period, including over 4,000 unique visitors. In the month of November already, the listing has registered over 2,500 visits, and over 680 unique visitors. Every day, Canadian Game Companies has 30 new visitors checking it out. This is great news for the site, and for the Canadian Game Industry, as it shows a specific and sustained interest in the wide range of game companies that grace our fine country.

Friday, November 21, 2003 5:36 AM

You might have noticed an injection of a new style, PHP pages, and a search engine for the website. This is only a hint of what is to come. Perhaps less obvious is a slight shifting around of material, and the way I present my work. My portfolio now features a good portion of my best work, but more good stuff is on the way. Stay tuned.

Friday, November 7, 2003

A new offering of the large Canadian Game Companies list is up! There is a new layout, some additional features, like a list of the High Profile Canadian Game Developers, a clean-up of broken links, and dead game companies, and a massive update of Canadian Game Jobs for you. If there is any features you would love to see included, contact me, and help me improve the finest list of Canadian Game Companies on the web.

Wednesday, October 8, 2003

Okay, a bit of a dry spell, but the rain clouds are out again. I like rain. I'm not just talking about Vancouver, I'm talking about life for this site, and the work I do. I'm kickstarting off in a new direction, after completing the Electronic Game Art and Design Foundation program at Art Institute of Vancouver-Burnaby. I continue on a student in the Electronic Game Art and Design Masters Program, but with a part-time load. On Saturdays, I am taking 'Project Management for Games', and honing my skills with Microsoft Project 2002.

Expect big additions to my portfolio, and a new design to lay it out flat. You'll see new game design documents, new character designs, 3D animation stills, lighted and textured Maya scenes, Unreal Tournament 2003 'Ragnarok' and 'South Campus' level screenshots, and all good things that emerged after 8 months at this great art school in Burnaby. They recently changed their name from Center for Digital Imaging and Sound to Art Institute of Vancouver-Burnaby, after joining the big Art Institute family, but it's still the same reputable and intensive school.

So, portfolio ain't robust enough for you? How about some lush, stylish maps for the Enterprise NX-01 Mod, for which I'll throw you some screenshots in the next few weeks. We're aiming for a late October release of the tour mode, and we even have some nice promotional videos on our website.

But it gets better. I'll be applying locally for a game job as a level designer. Since I know how these job searches go, and it could take me a few months to find the right opportunity, I'm going to be hacking away at a part-time job. A few options, but I'll let you know when I secure a gig. On the side, if someone wants tutoring on level design or game design, or game career counselling, in the Vancouver area, I'm confident I can give you a good grounding.

Wish me luck!

If you've been a close reader, you will have noticed updates to Canadian Game Companies. But those updates are but an inkling of the great site to come, the greatest site ever to feature Canadian Game Companies on it! Yes, it's true, I'm designing a new home for this faithful list. Ideas? Comments? Email Me

Lastly, I relay a major event in my life, and that is the passing away of my grandmother, Marion Grace Duke, on August 19, 2003. She gave me the manuscript for a book that my grandfather had been writing, before he died thirty years ago. I promised to finish this book, and publish it. I've started this work already, and I plan to publish it online here, and then in print form.

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

My portfolio has been updated with examples of the title pages I have produced for two game concepts, and three of my best hand-drawn animations for Classical Animation 100. Chek them out!

Sunday, July 6, 2003

A whole heap of companies have been added to the Canadian Game Companies section, in such categories as game developers, game schools, and associations. The list is bursting with tons of worthwhile websites that will give you a lead on your job search, or information gathering. Chek it out!

The Classic Gaming Collectors of Canada are now mirroring the Canadian Game Companies list on their site. It is listed as Canuck Links. Dan Mullins has put together a great site for gaming collectors in Canada, and it's worth a peek! :)

A brand new website I designed for the IGDA Vancouver Chapter was just uploaded last week. At the invitation of James Everett, I undertook this project in order to get more web design experience, and give something back to the IGDA. The response has been very positive. I will continue to assist with this site. Plz, feel free to take a look, and send me your feedback.

Wednesday, July 2, 2003

Due to site downtime, this update was delayed, but here it is as written:

Last Friday, June 27, I attended a New Media BC event at Radical Entertainment. The event was held to announce the findings of the New Media Industry Study. Strong growth in the games sector in BC! I was there with a friend of mine from school, Karin, a game artist.

Radical is known at the moment for its game 'The Hulk'. Radical is housed in a 10-story office building, shared with two other hi-tech companies, and on the eight floor, where the event was held, they have an indoor log cabin. I didn't take any pictures of the log cabin, but you can see it here. Do you wonder what's inside the log cabin? Sorry, I signed an NDA and I can't tell you.

Just kidding! it's a 40-seat screening room, complete with large-screen TV, and surround sound. suh-weet. :)

They did an interview with us for web video! A funny story, this. There was some people filming the event, so I went up to talk to them, and ask them when and where they would release this video. They said they were doing it for New Media BC, and it would be released on the web. As they were talking to Karin and I, they surreptitiously snuck a camera up to eye level, and started filming us. Then they asked us some questions about our school, and our plans. It was quite unexpected, but I managed to tell a little bit about why I came all the way to Vancouver to study game design. Karin was even more ebullient, having some great things to say about how much she likes doing game art. Afterwards, she joshed me about how, out of all the people there, I just HAD to walk up to the people with the camera. We made extra sure the next person we talked to did not have a camera.

I even talked to a designer who worked on The Hulk while I was there!

Afterwards, we went to Tinsetown to watch The Hulk. There was a stupid guy in the audience with a cell phone that would not shut up. One time, his phone started chiming again, so somebody in the audience said to him, 'If you don't turn that off, I'm going to get angry. You won't like me when I'm angry.' Everybody laughed, and calmed down, and the stupid guy with the stupid phone finally left the theatre.

Ang Lee has done some radical stuff in The Hulk, with its bubbly transitions, split-frames, and comic book feel. The story was worthwhile, the action was thrillling, the CG was incredible, and the ending was neat. Chek it out!

On July 1, I visited with my aunt, uncle, cousins, my friend Karin, some other friends of my aunts, including Joon, an ESL student from Japan who is staying with my other aunt, who often has students coming to stay with her. No fireworks this year made for a more low-key holiday event, but that didn't stop Granville Island form coming alive with lots of music, food, and other healthy diversions. After we took our dinner to the roof of their apartment, we could watch the ongoing festivities right across the water on Granville Island. A relaxing and yummy evening.

Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Well, I survived the first term at AiCDIS, with my sanity intact. The first term of game art and design had us take classes like 'Introduction to the Game Industry', 'Game Design 100', 'Maya 100', and 'Life Drawing'. Lots of writing, and lots of drawing, and even more time on the computer, as you can see. The largest project of the term was a toss-up between animating a walk cycle from scratch of my body in Maya, and creating a full original design concept from scratch. My walk cycle turned out pretty good, and I shall post a few screenshots here soon. I was really happy with my design concept, which ran up to 15 pages, and included a full 10-cell storyboard by me, and 8 character design sketches by Karin Fedara, another AiCDIS student, and an excellent artist.

My biggest original design concept I shall not post, but I did two actually, and I may put up the other one, as an example of the work we do. I already talked about it briefly in a recent post of mine on the Toronto IGDA forum.

You may have noticed that link points to a topic about the Toronto Game Initiative. This Initiative is a gathering of prospective developers looking to break into the game industry. The chances for success depends on a lot of factors, but there is a strong range of skillsets and experience present that could make this thing work. I have offered my long-range services on this one, and I will add a link to the Canadian Game Companies section as there is something a bit more official.

You can read a new poem written during last summer's bike trip in the Words section.

February 11, 2003

AiCDIS, my new school, is proving to be a change of pace from all the travelling I've been doing recently. I've only had two classes so far at the campus just south of the Trans-Canada, Life Drawing and Maya 100. I am told the first semester is a bit of a free ride, and then all hell breaks loose. If so, well, bring it on, cuz I am ready for the challenge.

I'm working on a number of maps for release in the next little bit. I've been learning how to create wicked terrain. My first application is a moonbase, with deep craters, and a Star Trek base close to the Earth. This and a few other designs are for Elite Force, altho I am planning to release two Jedi Knight II maps as well. I am also learning the Unreal Editor for UT2k3, and hope to release something within a month or two.

Last Tuesday, the day after I arrived in Vancouver, I had my first in-person job interview in the game industry, with a small contracter for Activision. I believe I made a strong impression, although I wish I could have gone in there with ten published levels under my belt. The cool part was making a level live in front of their eyes. I was supposed to use some basic textures, but then I just started caulking everything, so it turned into one big happy pink fusion. Dunno where this ends up, hoping for the best, tho.

Vancouver is proving to be friendly for biking, and generally getting back up to speed in these excellent surroundings has been a breeze.

January 28, 2003

I got back from Montreal last week after spending a few days there meeting with friends, and attending an amazing IGDA-sponsored Doom 3 demo by Graeme Devine. My words on the fun event.

Okay, so you might have noticed the bright new crater-style Planet Emceedeus banner. I'm thinking you guys can handle the bandwidth, but give me heck if ya find it too slow. Also new is a Web-Stat hit counter that allows me to keep track of my visitors. Over 100 in one week, and not just from Canada. You can see it at the bottom of a few entry pages, and I've left the stats open for the public, so chek it out!

January 14, 2003

Hot news! I'd like to publicly announce my acceptance into the Electronic Game Art and Design Foundation program at Ai Center for Digital Imaging and Sound in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. This program will give me a huge chance to develop my game design skillz up to industry standards. Don't worry, you'll get something new to play with before too long ;)

January 10, 2002

Portfolio update, and Canadian Game Companies is 340 companies strong. Hello 2003! :)

December 17, 2002

The IGDA Website of the Year 2002 Award Winner has just been announced! Please go to IGDA Website of the Year 2002 Award to find out who it is!

December 6, 2002

I've updated my portfolio, added a gallery of screenshots from Enterprise Mess Hall, updated the Canadian Game Companies.

December 4, 2002

Planet Emceedeus has a new section, called Canadian Game Companies. Canada has the strongest and most vibrant game development community in the world. Oh yeah, Canada!

Special thanks to Robbie Goacher for hosting this site. Please visit Eliteforce.com

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