A New Place to Blather

Long time no blog! There's two main reasons for this; first off is that work's been crazy and any downtime is spent doing other things to relax. The second is that I've been mostly drawn into an even easier way to post events to share with people: Facebook. I don't tend to write personal essays for the world to see, so having a place where I can restrict my expositions to trusted friends works out much better for me. Plus I can post pictures and notes from my iPhone - technology rocks!

So if you're looking for more frequent updates from me, jump on Facebook and look me up. It's kinda creepy at first because you have all kinds of friends, family, and schoolmates coming out of the woodwork after a decade to get back in touch with you - it's like a cult. The important thing is to only let people you trust connect with you, don't put any information on their you don't mind getting out occasionally, and learn to love the "Block this Application" option from people if you're not in to getting a tonne of app requests.

"Charmingly Self-Effacing"

So in a recent interview I was refered to as "charmingly self-effacing". Considering it was an English game journalist at an American game studio I'd like to think that he meant "Canadian"! :-)

To show that I'm not completely self-effacing, here's a couple of my recent online interviews:

They Are The Champions Online: Randy Mosiondz at Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Champions Online Interview 1 at GameSpot.

Woot! Although the video interview makes me totally self-conscious. I should really get some sun and lose a few pounds...

The Cat Has Been Deployed from the Bag!

Well, it's official: Champions Online has been announced! This game is going to be awesome if I say so myself! :-)

EDIT: Check out the trailer on IGN:


Also, check out this Penny Arcade blog. I'm one of the three designers he's talking about! :-)

Only In America...

So, I've officially been in California for 3 years as of the end of January. During that time I moved from "Associate Game Designer" to "Senior Game Designer". Just this week I gained the additional title of "Lead Designer" for our current project. Woot! :-)

We haven't announced anything yet for the project, but we'll be releasing a whole lotta info next month. Details to follow!

No, the Sky Isn't Falling

I've getting getting various emails and private messages from friends about the sale of CoH/CoV to NCSoft and various other rumors flying around about the state of my current project. While I can't give details, I'll just say EVERYTHING IS FINE. My project is going great and selling CoH/CoV was a huge benefit for Cryptic.

Thanks for your concern! :-)

Work Blog

Yes, we now have a work blog! If any of you are interested in the stuff that goes on at my work or the people there, check it out:

Cryptic Work Blog

One of the blog entries mentions my work on the soon-to-be-released-in-retail-stores Savage World of Solomon Kane from Pinnacle Entertainment Group.

My Pod

I had mentioned a while back that we were now in "pods" at our new office (complete with new state-of-the-art cubicles) and that I'd show pictures of what they look like. Here they are:


Me flyin' the colours!


Carlos, Ryan and me

Really, they're nothing more than glorified cubicles, but they're glorified cubicles with sliding windows and doors that you can write on anywhere with erasable markers. I guess that counts for something, right?

Five Dream Jobs for Men

A colleague sent this around the office, and I have to say, I'm inclined to agree:

Five Dream Jobs for Men

So... if you're a video game designer AND a comic book guru, do you spontaneously achieve Nirvana or something? :-)

E3 2006

E3 has come and gone for another year. I was sent down to work at the AGEIA booth to show off the PhysX in Issue 7.

My co-worker Ray and I at the Figueroa Hotel. The hotel was older, but had a nice style to it.


Blurry pic of the Figueroa lobby

Fortunately, the hotel was just a couple of blocks from the LA Convention Center, making for a nice short walk to and from the expo every day. The building itself was covered in massive stories-high game posters; I heard the Gears of War one (pictured in the center of my pic below) cost $70K. Wow. I guess it's a small drop in the bucket for a big gaming company, but... wow.


Outside the convention center beside alien drop pods

The AGEIA booth was demoing a bunch of games using the new PhysX engine graphics, which enabled real-world physics for persistent debris, and all other kinds of groovy-cool stuff. For a more detailed explanation, read this. We incorporated PhysX into all the powers and destructible objects in I7, taking the CoV ragdoll physics to the next level.


My bleary-eyed self on day 2 of the expo


My co-worker Ray doing some Mayhem!

I gotta say, it was really a cool experience working as a CoV developer at E3. I did some interviews, met with a lot of CoH/CoV fans, and answered a lot of questions. While a CoH/CoV few fans were ornery (why does the training room download have to be SO big?), the majority were really great. More than a few said, "Thank you for making such a great game! We love it!" This truly gave me the warm fuzzies. Coupled with the experience of meeting other devs who who just as jazzed about making cool games, it really made me feel good about being in the industry and bringing enjoyment to so many people. Huzzah!

Cool Stuff at E3

NCSoft, publisher of CoV, had a great-looking booth this year showing off a LOT of new games. Some of the coolest ones included Tabula Rasa (sci-fi MMO), Dungeon Runners (an updated Diablo-style hackfest), and ExTeel (a mecha-combat shooter).


The band Mutaytor on the Play NC stage


The PlayNC booth area

Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (MMO) had some demos running at the FunCom (makers of Anarchy Online) booth. While it could use a lot of polish, the game has potential. I mean, what red-blooded male WOULDN'T want to take on the role of a savage Cimmerian? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women! By Crom!


R:tAG the Ukrainian!

I got a chance to try out Hellgate: London as well. The feel of it is VERY cool, a sort of holy-techno-warriors-meets-demons-in-an-apocalyptic-future type feel. Check out the website, and watch for the release.


Hellgate: London booth

Webzen was really pushing Huxley this year, supposedly a "FPS MMORPG". I got a chance to play in a squad-vs-squad battle, which felt mostly FPS with little RPG. I'm cautiously optimistic about this one; it should be out this fall for the Xbox 360, so I might pick it up if there aren't any better contenders.


A sapien marine from Huxley

The thundering MMO developer giant Blizzard showed off the first expansion to the stupidly successful World of Warcraft. They revealed the new Alliance race, some blue-skinned hoofed critters called the draenei. So now the Horde has a pretty race (the blood elves) and the Alliance has these guys. Maybe things will balance out a bit more in the PvP zones? That remains to be seen.


Ow! I got a hangnail!

Pirates of the Caribbean Online is in development, and I got a beta invite. Woot! However, first glance makes me think it might be a bit too 'kiddie' to be fun, but I'll see how the beta plays. The ESRB might still rate it ARRRRRRRR! (sorry, couldn't resist)


The chair from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Yarrrrr!

The Obligatory Babes of E3

And of course, what would E3 be without booth babes? Those sultry sirens of silicon(e) may have restrictions placed on them, but that didn't stop them baring their... errr... 'talents' again this year.


These were soliciting for some hoop-shooting game


A Korean Webzen 'future-girl'


I don't even remember what they were promoting


Call of Duty 3 girl in her... fatigues?


Probably NOT their real hair

Promotion!

Well, it's official; I've been promoted from Associate Game Designer to full Game Designer! I will be one of the main developers for an unnamed new project (read: NDA), but I'll let you know as soon as the press release goes out. Yay! :-)

CoH IP

Hard at Work

Many apologies for going such a long time without updating, but it's been REAL busy at work. We've got a LOT to get done before the release date, so there's going to be a lot of late work nights.

Not that I'm complaining! It's been great, and I hope people will enjoy some of the cool things we've come up with. I can't go into details due to NDA, but I'll just say there's lots of cool tricks up our sleeves! :-)

Viva Las Vegas!

Amy and I just got back from a weekend trip to Las Vegas, Nevada! It was a celebration event for our company, so they covered the trip, hotel, banquet and a show on Saturday night! I have to say, it's GREAT being part of a company which takes care of its employees!

We arrived in Las Vegas on Friday night around supper, when we dumped our bags off at the Luxor. If you don't know, the Luxor is an Egyptian-themed hotel in the shape of a pyramid, and instead of elevators has 'inclinators' since they travel inside up the incline of the pyramid! Pretty amazing stuff.


Statues at the Luxor

After we left our bags with the concierge we rushed over to the MGM Grand to watch the performance of the latest from Cirque du Soleil: KÀ! The tickets were a bit pricey, but then again, I didn't know what to expect. It was simply amazing, and worth every penny! I think what impressed me most was the sheer amount of mechanical engineering which went into the performance. The stage itself was one HUGE slab on an arm which allowed it to revolve, incline, and even go completely vertical! And something to keep in mind - the actors will still acting on it when this was happening! Wow... just... wow!

We spent the rest of Friday night and most of Saturday afternoon socializing, running around on a scavenger hunt, and generally enjoying the sights. We managed to drop by the Hilton and get our geek on with The Star Trek Experience, which included lunch at Quark's Bar and Restaurant, the Star Trek timeline museum, the 'Borg Invasion 4D' and 'the Klingon Encounter'. Lot's of good, sci-fi fun!


YMCA with a Klingon

Klingon Weaponry and Outfits at the Star Trek Museum

Saturday night we got together for a banquet and speeches, then proceeded to the highly entertaining Blue Man Group. Very humourous, entertaining, and interactive!


Our Scavenger Hunt Team!


Lou in Vegas Gear!

All-in-all, it was a great weekend! We actually hope to go back again to see more of the sights and shows of Vegas one of these weekends. It's actually a cheap flight from San Jose, so we'll seriously consider doing it again some time!