Dusk and Dawn

Friends and Family,

In case you’ve been wondering why it’s been so hard to get in touch with me for the last year or so, check it out:

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/07/screens-xbox-ro.html

Actually, I’m really excited to be working on a game that I might be able to actually play with my family without getting looks of: “Well, I don’t really understand what’s going on, but I’m sure it must be good if you made it.”

UPDATE:
Here’s a link to the Lips promo vid:
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14253699/lips/videos/lips_071408.html

Here are several liveblogs of the Microsoft keynote where we were announced:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/14/engadget-and-joystiq-live-from-microsofts-e3-2008-keynote/
http://e3.gamespot.com/story.html?sid=6193729&pid=950899&tag=top_stories;title;7
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3168697
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/articles/888/888829p1.html

My boss has never looked better:

Apparently in the months leading up to the Japanese release of God of War: Chains of Olympus”, Capcom ran a contest having people fill in dialogue bubbles in God of War screenshots. Here are a few choice entries:

–Okay sir, how would you like your shave?
–Nice and close, please.

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This ad in Famitsu for the Japanese version of “God of War: Chains of Olympus” for the PSP really tickled me:

I’m not sure what about this ad I like better: the flame-rimmed salaryman going batshit with the Blades of Chaos or the ad copy proclaiming this game a remedy for today’s stressful Japanese workplace.

Here’s a fun little truism that I ran into this morning:

Hofstadter’s Law

It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law

Ouch. Nothing like a law that recurses in on itself to wake you up in the morning.

Feeling a bit playful, I wrote up Hofstadter’s Law on the white board next to my desk with a simple implementation in C that went a little something like this:


float GetTimeToCompletion( const float estimatedTimeToCompletion )
{
return GetTimeToCompletion( estimatedTimeToCompletion * 2.0 );
}


This is the sort of thing that makes programmers giggle.

In layman’s terms, this function takes a number, doubles it (a common practice when trying to schedule for unknowns) and passes the estimate to itself which then repeats the process ad infinitum. If you look at this as applying to project planning in real life, it implies that you may never be able to find out how long something is really going to take. At least, not until after the fact that is.

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In Japan, people generally assume that anything coming out of the United States is larger than its equivalent in Japan (cars, restaurant serving sizes, people, etc.) Now, while it would be ridiculous to assume that this rule applies to everything coming out of the States, every once in a while you find something that throroughly supports the stereotype.

Consider the following picture from when a friend from the States came to stay at our apartment for a couple weeks:

Hi! I bet you thought you could sneak up on me. Not when I’m in my watch tower. I see all!

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A quick glance at my calendar makes me wonder what the “November” part of “November Gameplay Prototype” really means. I did start this week’s prototype in November although I ended up finishing it up on Sunday, December 2nd. Actually, even getting around to writing about it has taken up until now. I’ve had the zip files and screenshots uploaded and waiting for several days already. It’s been particularly busy at work, but I’m not here to make excuses. I’m here to blog.

As promised last week, I took a stab at trying to find a way to give the player more control over their performance when faced with a swarm of missiles a la Macross.

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Any fan of with the classic anime series Macross is familiar, if not by name, with the Itano Circus, the over-the-top aerial battles typified by mecha launching swarms of missiles leaving interweaving contrails of white smoke. In these scenarios, it’s common to have some ace pilot (usually the protagonist of the series) weaving his way through the intricate web of missiles to reach their target. This is the sort of situation that seems to be a perfect match to become a set-piece in a video-game.

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Oh hey, long time no see. Me? Oh, I wasn’t do anything suspicious at all.

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There’s nothing like a good RTS (Real-time Strategy) game. Panning around the diorama of buildings making up your home fortress. Lining up your units in groups like so many little, plastic army men. Sending them off in waves to attack a distant foe. Watching them scatter as my vastly superior opponent trounces them and brings the battle to my front gate.

Well, I never said I was any good at RTS games. Even when facing certain defeat, I still tend to enjoy them. If there’s anything that really annoys me about losing in an RTS, it’s the amount of time it would take for me to get from the start of a match to my inevitable defeat. While a quick match can finish up in 15 minutes or less, an RTS stand-off can drag on for hours. In this week’s gameplay prototype I tried to find a way to get a taste of the RTS fun of watching little soldiers battle it out on-screen without the usual RTS time investment.

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