That's it...I'm calling this bitch!

Calling All Cars is done.

Incognito sent the code off to first party QA a few hours ago for weekend test. If they find no serious bugs, it goes to Format and will be up on the network soon!

If there are bugs, the Incog guys will tackle them over the weekend.

But 99.9% sure, those bugs will not be design related. This late in the game, they never really are.

Because of that, I think it's safe to say that the designers on the game- and probably the rest of the team- are done with this thing!

What was that? Like 11 months total? Ahh....and it's still light outside!

And it's my fucking birthday today to boot! Nice ass present, if I do say so myself! Thanks Incognito!

So to all the CALLING ALL CARS folks who worked on the game and who are reading this, congrats to us all! It was a blast to work on with you guys.

Now we just gotta see if players enjoy playing it at all! Focus tests have been going real well last week and EGM gave us a nice blurb/review in the latest issue, putting us in the 'buy' category for Download games (not sure where they were able to review it as I was not aware we've sent anyone code yet, but hey, we'll take all the good press we can!!!)....maybe they were basing it off playtime at GDC?!? Hope so as the game has gotten better since then! :)

But I feel we've made a game we can all be proud of and I really, really hope players give it a shot and enjoy themselves with it!

I am sure you guys will let us know either way!

David

ps. just to be clear, the game is done for the MOST part. It's not 'gold' yet (not that there are gold masters with DL games) cause it needs to clear all the proper channels. I will let ya'll know when we've cleared those last vew hurdles!

pps. Virtual cake for us all...birthday cake AND 'Celebration for finishing the game' cake!


Man, the graphics in the actual PAC MAN game for the 2600 were WAY WORSE than this fucking cake decoration!!! Amazing!!!

STEVEN SPIELBERG! HOW DO I GET OUT OF THIS ONE?!?!

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EDIT: To the cocksucking comment poster who says I should stop thinking about the past, I offer this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uQVLFn2PTzY
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qe_zbyn1hQE

suck it, bitch!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=



Swamped with final days of CALLING ALL CARS (final focus test in LA tomorrow to make sure we got the default difficulty setting tuned right). But I had to share:



Richard Donner (director of Goonies flic as well as many, many other huge, great movies like SUPERMAN, THE OMEN, and LETHAL WEAPON) is co-writing along with Geoff Johns (who writes the best DC comics around these days). Word on the street is the live action sequel will never happen :(



Ahhh, what could have been!

Man if there's a game license besides Indy that would get me back into big epic game making, this would be it!

...but hell at least we get a comic...and maybe they can turn that into an animated DVD movie or something? Sweet! Now we just need comics for BACK TO THE FUTURE!

Ok, back to tuning!

David

ps. anyone ever find out why Cory Feldman just up and left in the middle of recording the DVD commentary track?!?! If you know, you gotta tell me!!!

SUMMER MOVIES

Harry and the boys at AINT IT COOL NEWS have posted a series of articles about the genre films that hit theaters in the summer of 1982. They relate their personal experiences with the movies of that year, talk about how magical a summer it was to be an 'almost but not quite teenager' in the early 80's and how some of the best genre movies ever hit between May and August of that amazing year (ET, Poltergeist, Tron, Conan, Blade Runner,etc). They talk about their love for the sci fi mag STARLOG and how, before the internet, it was their only link to other sci-fi/fantasy lovers, just like them.

I wish I could write better than I do because I would have expressed many of these same sentiments long ago. But hell, I guess that's why they have pro writers. And the guys at AICN- in these series of articles- do it really, really well.

If you want to have a good insight into what my childhood was like (why you want that info, however, is a different story!)...but if you do, you'll find it here:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32131 (Poltergeist)
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31765 (ET)
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31984 (Tron)

These really touched me and brought me back to a very special time in my life.

They also made me realize how important the movies used to be to me.

These days, I still love the movies but nowhere near as much as I used to. Some of it is just me getting older and just having other things that take up my time; some of it is that the magic of the movies has really been ruined with too many behind the scenes/making of docs; much of it is that the movies today are still pretty good but the business side of the movie biz seems to have won out in a big way; to the point where 95% of the time when you go to a movie, it doesn't so much feel like a movie anymore but instead feels like a 2 hour synergistic attack on the senses brought about by a number of companies trying to sell you shit.

There are those movie makers out there who are able to rise above that bullshit, the true artists working in movies today. And I am so glad they are still around.

And I'm not going to lie...Summer movie season is right around the corner and I'm pretty excited for it. In the same way a sports fan probably has fantasies that their team will make it thru every game of the season and never suffer a single lost game (isn't there a name for that?), movie fans actually hope for a perfect summer...where every flick they've seen advertised lives up to its potential. It's pretty rare....and the AINT IT COOL NEWS guys could make a compelling argument that the last time it happened was the summer of 82.

But hey, this summer brings PIRATE'S 3 (trailer looks amazing); SPIDEY 3 (trailer=meh, but the last 2 were great); Transformers (could be good in an ID4 kind of way); KNOCKED UP looks fucking hillarious, so does that comedy with Sandler and the dude from King of Queens.

So it could happen again...

Man, I gotta start carving out more time for the movies. I really do still love them, I guess. Even though these days they usually let me down, I still hold out hope. Maybe I just need to watch more of them and make the time, you know?Instead of typing on this damn thing, I should be downstairs watching my blu ray of THE DEPARTED (no, I have not seen it yet!)....

...maybe I'll go do that. Can't sleep anyway :)

Talk to ya'll later!

David

ps. and if you have never read STARLOG, they still make it. Give it a read! It's good for you!





pps. then again...I was on a media tour for TWISTED METAL:BLACK in 2001 and the PR guy took me to the Starlog offices and I was gushing to the editor-in-cheif or publisher (who has been with the mag from the start) about how much his mag meant to me as a kid. And he just tossed off this ass-holian comment about: thanks! Thanks for putting my kid thru college.

And I'm like, dude, I'm telling you your mag touched my fucking heart and soul and inspired me to reach for my goals and dreams. And he gives me this smart ass comment. Maybe he was shy. Maybe he has a hard time with compliments. Who knows...but it stuck with me....fuckin' douche.

ppps. Just kidding...he's not a douche. He was probably just having a bad day :)

pppps. I'm fucking conflicted...help.

OFFICIAL CALLING ALL CARS LAUNCH DATE

Hey guys, a few CAC updates:

#1- Geoff wrote today and told me the GAMEHEAD Calling All Cars! segment would air next week, not tonight as planned. He says they got crunched for time so guess who got bumped? Fuckers! :) Still, nice thing is, the segment will now air closer to the relase of the game which WILL PROBABLY BE...


#2- on APRIL 19TH! So about 20 days away. It's as official as things get in this realm. We plan on submitting to format next Friday and if all goes well, the 19th of April will be launch day.

People have expressed confusion as to why these smaller games keep getting pushed. Well I can't speak for any but a few but the thing with downloadable content is that we're still learning how to get our heads around having so few masters to answer to.

What do I mean?

Well, for a disc based product you have SOOOOOOO many people who MUST know the launch date and after a point of no return, that date can not slip.

You got the folks who manufacture the actual disc and manuals and you HAVE to have the gold master to them by a specific date or your game will not make you promised ship date. In downloadable games, those folks- for the most part- don't exist. You send the code off to the Playstation Network and when they are ready- once it's cleared everything- they just put it up. So we're not worrying about getting it to the factory on time anymore.

With disc product, you get paid- as a publisher and developer-by the brick and mortar retailers who buy your game. Best Buy orders 200,000 copies of GOD OF WAR II? They pay us for that. We get paid when a retailer buys the games from us, not when a consumer buys the games from the retailer. And we HAVE to have games out by end of key quarters in order to make sure we can make a certain amount of cash for that quarter which keeps stock holders happy or some such stuff I don't fully comprehend. But if- for example- we look at March 31st as the end of a quarter- and most do- then you best beleive that we need those games sent to the stores by that date or that quarter profit looks bad,bad,bad cause we didn't get paid for, for example, those 200k copies of GOWII from Best Buy. But in downloadable games, there's not really a retailer we need to get cash from. We sell directly to the gamer (yeah! so cool!) and right now, the games cost so little to make and we don't get the kind of sales volume we get- yet!- with download games so there's no big bottom line issue to worry about. So the pressure of hitting end of quarter is not so big with DL games. So that worry is gone.

Advertising is another master that disc based games must kowtow to. Game pubs may lots of cash to buy air time- well in advance- for game commercials as well as print ads in key months of magazines. If the money is spent already but the game is not ready to come out- and you don't have another ad to put in the place of the game that is running late- you've wasted the cash that was earmarked for you game...and often times, you can't get it back because the company has earmarked the rest of the cash for other games that ARE coming out on time. So you gotta be careful about slipping your sked if the company is spending dollars on the ads. But with DL games, there's not much advertising- yet anyway!. At the moment it's only PR and while it sucks to go to the press and say you are slipping, it doesn't cost anyone anything except maybe the fact that in the future, gamers will take a 'yeah, we'll beleive it when we see it' attitude with you and your team.

So the only master we really need to serve in all this- from a release date window- is the consumer. And because of this- and because the games don't cost that much which means adding a few more weeks onto the schedule is not even a blip on the financial radar of a big time publisher- we tend to ask for more time to make the games better. Sure, you can spend TOO long in the game making process, for sure. But the thing is, with games that take 6-10 months, you are often times JUST discovering your game play in like, month 7. So once you know your game, you want all the time you can get to refine and playtest and tune.

So that is what has happened with CALLING ALL CARS!

Miyamoto is well known for saying (paraphrasing): a great game is forgiven for being late, a bad game is a bad game forever.

And so we feel consumers will forget very quickly that a game has slipped the schedule if it's a great game. But a crap game will never be forgiven even if it comes out 10 weeks BEFORE the publisher promised it.

So I hope that clears things up. I feel as we do more games like this, we'll learn to hit the shipping bullseye more often. But this is new to us too. Remember, my last game took 3 years! 10 months is a heck of a switch!

Ok, wife's got cake downstairs. A friend from when she was a little girl is visiting and I wanna go chat a bit and fuck dude....CAKE!!!!

Have a great weekend ya'll; and don't forget GAMEHEAD next weekend!

And I THINK the first episode of BONUS ROUND I did this week airs this weekend on gametrailers.com. Or next weekend. But I think it's up...what, tomorrow?

And the ATTACK OF THE SHOW segment we did will air next friday night! Check it out!

See ya'll!

David

LET'S RETURN FROM LA-LA LAND CAUSE THAT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

Let's have 5, let's have 6! Let's have a dozen and pretend their donuts!

Ok, going a little 80's movie crazy there.

Ok, real fast as I'm rushing to put some music and podcasts on my ipod for my drive to LA tomorrow morning. Heading there to discuss some top secret stuff as well as do our final focus test for CALLING ALL CARS! This is where we put the 'catch up code' to the test and decide if it lives or dies, or stays but gets some tweak lovin'!

Also, tomorrow I will be taping two shows:

#1- ATTACK OF THE SHOW- taping this at the G4 studios at 11:30 or 12 or something like that :) Don't think they air it live anymore, but they might. So if you're around, look for me on G4! I love AOTS and have done the show a few times and they are always such cool folks over there. Looking forward to it!

#2- BONUS ROUND on gametrailers.com. If you have not seen it, this is ANOTHER fucking gig from Geoff Keighley! I love this show cause it's what I've always wanted: a video game version of DINNER FOR FIVE! Sadly there's no food or swanky eatery but hey, like I need something else to eat anyway, you know? I will be on with Kellee Santiago, prez of THAT GAME COMPANY, the folks who brought us FLOW. My understanding is we'll be chatting about small games, downloadable games,etc. Looking forward to it alot. Love the show, dig Geoff, and think Kellee is as sharp as they come. Should be fun!

Oh, also, Calling All Cars is featured on this coming Friday's GAMEHEAD (Keighley again). So watch it and let me know how I did! We taped it like last month.

Gonna be doing some other shows and podcasts in the next few weeks as the game gets ready to launch. Got something cooking with the EGM podcast that should be lots of fun and I'm hoping to get the game out there some other ways as well. So stay tuned!

So hey, me and the wife went antiquing this weekend (is that how you spell it? Fuck, I'm not even going to look it up)...but it's where you go look for old shit, right? Antiques and what not. Man I loved it! This huge store FILLED with stuff from not just stuff from MY childhood but my PARENT'S CHILDHOOD and hell, even some stuff from their parent's childhoods! What a blast! I've found a new hobby! Check this out:



I found an old DAVID SOUL record! The one me and my brother used to have...he's the guy who played STARSKY on STARSKY AND HUTCH tv show...his music was forgotten faster than his acting but man, this album, It's amazing to hold this damn thing again after all that time!


I wanted to buy this but 450.00 seemed like way too much. But check it out...it's a framed poster with original candy bar wrappers from a loooooong time ago! There's an old Snicker Bar there; even the first Butterfinger candybar design (I think it was the first).


Old, STILL WORKING stove from 1920, when my grandmother would have been using one and cooking on it. How amazing to touch something that someone from her time would have looked at as brand new and state of the art. What a cool way to connect with the past.

Ok, I gotta run, don't wanna drive sleepy. Take care ya'll; chat with ya soon!

David

IT MAY NOT BE FOR YOU...

Joel- in one of the comments from the last post- pointed me to the Kotaku post where they showed some gameplay footage from CALLING ALL CARS!

A few things about this:

#1- I don't know where they got the music from but it ain't from our game :) The CALLING ALL CARS myspace page (www.myspace.com/callingallcarsgame)has the music that will ship with the game and it sure as hell ain't the stuff they were playing in the clip.

#2- Joel asked what I thought about the comments on the Kotaku(http://kotaku.com/gaming/clips/clip-calling-all-cars-246107.php) page. Well I liked the ones who said: hey this looks like fun! There were a handful of comments that were like: what the fuck is this? This looks like Cel Damage/Shit/etc...

As for what I think about those, well look: as it should be clear from the interviews I've been doing as of late, right now in my work, I'm no longer interested in going head to head with the likes of Halo, Mass Effect, Resistance, Devil May Cry 4, etc. Hell, I don't even want to go head to head against our own GOD OF WAR. I just want to do smaller, simpler games that focus on the fun.

So regarding those comments, if they come from folks who have never even thought- and never will think- about giving arcade and casual games a shot, then I really don't care that Calling All Cars is not floating their boat. I mean, sure, I'd love to get all of our games loved by EVERY gamer, but that is not realistic. I let go of that fantasy long ago.

To make it clear- and to put some pics in this post, as I love blog posts with pics- the following games are the ones I look at now as our new competition; the following games are the ones that have players who I want to win over and make love our stuff. Games like these:













So if any/all of these games- or games of this type- float your boat, then we are going to work our butts off to make you love our smaller, downloadable stuff. We look at the above games as both our competition and our teachers. And if you dig these kinds of games BUT STILL don't like what you see with CALLING ALL CARS! then we have much to learn and hope to please you and excite you by our next game, if not this one.

But if these are not your kind of games, fair enough. You prob. won't dig the stuff I'll be directing these days. And that's cool, maybe we'll hook back up in the future.

I think the biggest issue I have is when people act as if I don't know I have a new mountain to climb here. I KNOW you are only as good as your last game; I KNOW people are sick of seeing me all over the net/mags/tv and just looking for me to fuck up. I get it, I understand it. And I am actually cool with it. I think all those responses are natural. And I am willing to work my butt off- along with the team- to make sure we earn your respect. I am looking forward to having to win folks over again; I'm also looking forward to winning over a whole new audience who would have never have looked twice at God Of War. I'm not looking for a free ride.

But when I hear the question- and I often do- of: 'do you think if it wasn't for your name, anyone would care about CALLING ALL CARS' it makes me annoyed a bit I guess. Cause I'm like, look: I'm not trying to pull a fast one here. This is the stuff I like to make now, if YOU don't like it, that's fair. But at least give me a bit of credit for trying to branch out and do new stuff. Isn't it what we ALL complain about that games are too predictable and corporate? Well how do you think it gets that way? People get safe and secure and never branch out.

Now maybe I am branching out in a direction you think is lame or stupid. That's fair. We can have that discussion. But at least give me a little credit for reaching...and give us a shot if you like the kind of games pictured above. We're gonna do our best not to let you down.

But again, if all you like is BATTLEFIELD and HALO and DEAD RISING, then keep on walking. Calling All Cars! may not be a game for you...

David

Random, Ramblin' Stuff

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EDIT:

Coupla media things I wanted to bring to ya'lls attention if you are interested in hearing me gab even more! Check out:

#1- INSOMNIAC PODCAST- I am the mystery guest this week...lotsa fun doing that one! Check it out at:

http://www.insomniacgames.com/podcast/podcast.php

Click on DOWNLOAD LATEST EPISODE to give it a listen.

#2- ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY INTERVIEW: Wow, I made the big time! Give it a read at:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20014359,00.html

#3- Finally, a quick interview I did on the floor at GDC with some readers of this blog. Tons o' fun! Check it at:

http://gzresistance.com/?page_id=53

Ok, back to the blog!

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Hey ya'll...been busy trying to lock down CAC with the boyz at Incognito; we are almost done but NOT quite. I will be getting a build in today- I hope!- that has some of the code that we hope will keep scores close without making the players feel much- if anything- is happening behind the scenes. I spoke to some of the guys who worked on the old Midway games that CAC was inspired by (NFL Blitz; NBA JAMS) and it turns out those games had a crap ton of behind the scenes code that kept the games tight. We don't plan on pushing it anywhere near what the older Midway games did but at the same time, our job is to make fun and sometimes fun needs a little push in the right direction :) I may or may not let you know if the 'catch up code' as I call it, actually made it in the game.

Ok, so some random hits...NO time to edit so deal with the typos, bitches!

THOUGHTS ON GDC:
So the show was great; I loved it; best one I've been to. Often times tho, the quality of GDC has to do with if you get lucky/smart and go to the right panels/roundtables. As I am very passionate these days about the smaller game world, I hit most panels dealing with that and thus, had a great time, learned alot,etc.

Saw a pretty interesting panel from the designer/coder of FIFA 2007 on creating emotions in sports games. Man, I gotta tell you, with all the talk of emotion thru in game characters and plot points and twists and turns, I LOVED this panel cause here was a guy who was like: let's deal with emotion THRU gameplay! Granted the emotions were things like victory, shame, pride, etc. but hell, those are the kind of emotions I think games do really well. So I loved that talk evnn tho it didn't go as deep as I had hoped it would.

Chatted with my buddy Heather Chaplin, one of the co-authors of the great 'behind the scenes of the game biz' book SMARTBOMB. She's always fun to gab with but what was interesting is, as we were discussing games as art- a frequent point of discussion between us- I caught myself saying: yeah, I'm not all that interested in games as art anymore because, honestly, I have nothing to say.

And when I heard myself say this, I was like: is this apathy or maturity?

It's actually a nice place to be, whatever it is. It's nice to care and have an opinion but not be all chomping at the bit and dying to share it with everyone. I mean, sure we could have made Heartland- and may still make it one day- but from a MESSAGE standpoint, what's the point? So here's a game that says: I HATE GEORGE BUSH! I HATE THE IRAQ WAR! I HATE HOW AMERICA HAS LOST ITS REPUTATION AROUND THE WORLD IN THE LAST 6 YEARS,etc,etc,etc....it's like....so what? The folks that agree with me will nod in approval, the folks who don't will call me an ass...and there will be one more opinion out there that we've all been hearing for years. Maybe if I had something NEW to say, something fresh, ok then it makes sense. But I really don't. I just want to make games that make people feel like this:




That is really all I want to do these days....

And it was SO AMAZING to watch folks playing Calling All Cars at GDC and they were pretty much doing what they are in that stock pic above! People always seemed to have smiles on their faces and were laughing and talking smack. It was so nice to know that- for those folks who liked our game- that we did that; that we gave them that feeling! See, to me, that's a damn nice feeling! That's what games do better than any other medium!

So hey, the Game Design Challenge went great! I was REALLY worried about it for like weeks leading up. But it went off great and even tho I came in dead last, I was proud of my entry and thought it was just tons of fun. It's odd...maybe I've just grown up but I generally did not care about losing. It was the first time in my life where the addage 'don't matter if you win or lose, it's how you play the game' really made sense to me. I just really appreciated being there and pitching my stuff!



Here's Eric Zimmerman (Diner Dash fame); Harvey Smith (Deus Ex); Myself; Clint Hocking (Ubisoft Creative Director); and Alexy Pajitnov (Tetris and this year's winner!)

HAUNTED HOUSES:

Me and my wife went to Old Town, San Diego this weekend and toured the Whaley House. It's supposed to be one of the most haunted houses in the world and we did see something odd. In the upstairs bedroom we kept seeing this curtain that divided the bedroom and closet move in an odd way. All the windows in the room were closed and the curtains on the windows were not moving at all. Just this one curtain that divided the closet. And it didn't move like it was being blown around, it moved in a stiff, irregular sort of way. The docents of the house say they have heard many people talk about the curtain but I don't know. I want to buy into Ghosts and stuff...I LOVE ghosts! But this curtain seemed almost too constant to be anything supernatural. Has anyone else been to the Whaley house? Anyone seen the curtain moving?

Either way, it got me thinking about how much I love ghosts and stuff. There seems to be a pretty active ghost hunting community here in San Diego and I may just sign up for a tour to go with them on an investigation. I love that stuff man.

PICS: Coupla random pics from my trip and the net I wanted to share:



GANDALFFE? JAFALF? I dunno, but I love it...from the freaks at neogaf, naturally!



Another NEOGAF classic! Man, I wish they had used a new pic as I've lost like 20 pounds since this pic! Still, Jessica's hot so I don't mind as long as she doesn't!



Another JAFFE LOVES HERMINEY (I KNOW!!!) pic from Adam!



SITE FOR SORE EYES! Man, I found this little corner of old arcade games in the Metreon Arcade across from where GDC was being held. It was like stepping back in time; all those old arcade games lines up, a dark little corner. It was like coming back home!

Ok, that's it for now. Gotta get to work! Talk to ya'll soon! Gonna be in Utah next week doing what I feel is our last tuning session. Then I hope to squeeze out ONE more focus test and then that's all she wrote! We'll see how it goes!

Talk to ya'll later! And sorry for the typos...not even gonna re-read this before I post. Too much to do on my TO DO list! See ya!

David

OUR BIG DEBUT!

My understanding is that CALLING ALL CARS! will be playable tonight at a GDC event. And then on the show floor for the next three days (starting Wednesday)!

I will not be there tonite (I was supposed to be there but last minute tuning needs came up) but I will be all over the net this evening in hopes that a few GDC goers will post impressions.

Having the game at GDC is a challenge as press and other game makers are the main folks playing your baby. And they are the toughest critics of all.

But short of some tuning here and there, what they are plaing at GDC is about 95% the game that will ship. Granted, internet play will not be on display (the heart of the game...with the soul being split screen)...but that's not our game's fault; it's just the set up they gave us (no net connection)...

So I hope folks will be nice to our kid and really like it (maybe love it)?

We'll know soon enough! If you see any player impressions on the net, please shoot me a comment? I would appreciate it.

Talk to ya'll later!

David

LAZY SUNDAY

Ahhh....what a perfect Sunday afternoon.

Sitting in my office with the spring like March breeze blowing thru my window; oldest daughter is outside on the swing I just installed, being pushed by her grandpa. Wife is on the couch downstairs, reading a book.

Man, this is nice. I love that spring is almost here!

Speaking of spring, you know it's getting close when GDC rears it's head. And GDC is this week, as you may know.

I am on two GDC panels, so stop by if you get the chance.

Panel #1 is on Tuesday night- around 6 I think- and deals with the indie game scene. Odd they would choose me for such a panel as Calling All Cars, while being small, is hardly independent. From my understanding tho, they want me on to talk about bigger companies- like Sony- getting into the smaller game space (sort of like how big movie studios have their indie divisions like Sony Pictures Classics). Certainly I could/would/should never design an ultra indie darling like flOw or Dawinia, but I am digging the smaller titles so maybe I will have something worthy to say. Either way, I am excited as the first two days of GDC are devoted- in part- to the small/casual/indie game scene...a scene that I am very rapidly falling head over heels in love with! In fact, I have DEFCON's eerie music playing in the background as I type...thanks Steam!

Panel #2 finds me competing for the GAME DESIGN CHALLENGE crown against last year's winner Harvey Smith (lead designer on my top 5 all time fave game DEUS EX) and Alexy Pajitnov (he of Tetris fame and all around genius). In other words, I am fucking dead. And not just dead, but 'killed in front of industry peers whom I would like to impress as one day I may be knocking on their doors for a job' dead. And get this fucking challenge: design a game where the user interface is a needle and thread and a piece of fabric. Yeah, you read that right. A needle and fucking thread interface. Dead, I tell you! Dead!

But that's ok. I have an idea that I think is kinda cool, both theme wise and play wise. And end of the day, all you can do is pitch what you like and hope for the best. I'll let you know how I do!


++++++++++++++

I LOVE THE 80'S!


Me and the wife saw Music And Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore last week and I've been in 80's love mode ever since. NOTE: I just re-read that sentence and it could mean two things. I PROMISE you, it means the thing you think it means...not the thing it would so cool if it meant.

So...

If you have not seen the movie - and you like romantic comedies- go see this flick. It's really good. And if you were a kid/teen in the 80's and have a fondness for that time period, you MUST see this flick if for no other reason than to see Hugh Grant play an Andrew Ridgely style character who was one half of a WHAM! like duo. Check this out, the opening of the film:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GuWS4Alp43s

Not ONLY does the song SOUND 100% autentic 80's but the fucking video is spot on! I LOVE the fact that the doctor looks like a GQ model...and the red flashing heart under Hugh Grant's shirt at the end is perfect! Totally 80's!

So yeah, I got the soundtrack on my ipod the day after seeing the film and was jamming like an idiot to it while driving to LA last week for our second to last CALLING ALL CARS focus test.

Our biggest issue with the game right now is that when the battles are close, the game is a BLAST! We get amazing scores and people are laughing ,swearing, and having a great time. But when we get mismatched players- as in any multiplayer game, video or not- the scores drop as both players get bored.

We are debating if we should put in some NBA JAMS style catch up code that gives players who are lagging behind a bit (like 10 points behind or so) a bit of a boost in various areas of the game. Not sure how we feel about this for a number of reasons. Maybe we put it in but give players an option to turn it on/off. We will see but I sure as hell ain't letting you guys know what we decide as I feel that would blow the magic of the experience.

But anyway, I'm in 80's mode, listening to tons of 80's music and dreaming about Alladin's Castle at Brookwood Mall again...the old, long gone arcade I used to practically live in. Ah, those were the days. Man, I've searched the net for pictures of that place for years and have never found ANYTHING. How I miss Alladin's Castle :(

So hey, have you guys seen this book yet:



What a great book to trigger those amazing arcade 80's memories. I wish it was a huge coffe table sized book but it'll do. And it makes me so excited to have a game coming out this month that really speaks to the love I have for those old arcade games...from like 1978 up to like 1993, there were some amazing games in the arcade that changed my life and molded me as a creative individual.... and while I probably will never make an actual arcade game, Calling All Cars, to me, has the soul and spirit of an arcade game and that makes me very, very excited, happy, and proud.

Folks will get to play Calling All Cars next week at GDC and then, in a week or two after, the game hits. We'll see the reviews, see player comments on the boards...it's an exciting but stressful time. I really want people to like the game but you just never know. I am very proud of it but who knows what gamers expect these days. Will the gamers be willing (or have a desire) to put on their 'arcade hats' and have appropriate expectations for a game like CAC or will they come to CAC expecting the same depth and breadth that they want to see in HALO3 or KILLZONE 2?!?!

I have moments where I feel we've made a balls to the wall blast to play that will keep people coming back for more and more...and then I have moments where I'm like: fuck! This thing is gonna give all the Jaffe haters all the ammo they need to just bury me.

Some people are like: dude, don't worry about it so much.

And they are right. And I've done this long enough that by this point- most times- it doesn't worry me. I know we did the best we could. But there are those times when you catch yourself hoping for the great reviews and the fan board praises....but it's key not to think on that too much, not to come to depend on that too much.

All you can do is your best and HOPE you and the team have done enough to guarantee folks that the game will provide the most important thing of all: a good fucking time!

Ok, I'm off. May update from GDC...if not, talk to ya'll soon after!

Take it easy!

David

CALLING ALL CARS SOUNDTRACK

Well, if you can call it a soundtrack!

It's only 4 songs, but hey, the game is only $9.99! What do you want for 10 bucks ya cheap bastards?!?!

Anyway, check it out when you get some time:
http://myspace.com/callingallcarsgame

We put the first 4 songs of the 5 song soundtrack online.

I totally realize it won't be everyone's cup of tea as it's:

a- a very cartoony game
b- has a bit more TWANG than any other game I've ever worked on.

But this music works GREAT for the game I feel; a great sense of the silly/slapstick/kinetic vibe we are going for.

Hope you enjoy it!

Back to tuning!

David

OSCAR IS DEAD!

Last week, an article ran in the LA Times about the Interactive Arts and Sciences awards ceremony. GOD OF WAR won a shit ton of those great awards last year and they mentioned me in the piece; talked a bit about my experiences with the show.

The gist was that the Academy want(ed) the awards to be serious and important like the Oscars but that maybe we- as an industry- are not really the kinds of folks to appreciate or participate in such an event. As the head of the academy put it, maybe we simply need to be sitting at the kids table and eating ice cream.

Now I like Joseph Olin (head of AIAS) alot; very nice guy who works his ass off to make AIAS the stellar org. that it is. The DICE conference he oversees is the highlight of the year for most of us game makers. His is a thankless job and even so, the man gives it all he's got. I am very proud he represents us.

But I take issue with his 'ice cream/kid's table' statement because it can be read as an implication that the Oscars are BETTER and more NOBLE than our awards; that the people who populate the movie business are more mature than we are.

Bullshit, Joe. They are not more mature; they are just more full of themselves. I LOVE the fact that game makers are real people who don't fall for the bullshit of the Oscars.

Hell, did you SEE the Oscars last night?

Hell, for me, watching yesterday's Oscars was a pretty eye opening experience. I TIVO it these days, watching the red carpet arrivals around 2 hours after the show starts airing. This gives me enough TIVO buffer to skip past commercials, boring dance numbers, speeches from folks that- while I appreciate their accomplishments and contributions- don't really interest me all that much. By the time I'm watching someone get the BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY award, the live show has concluded in real time. Just gotta make sure to stay off the net and not answer the phone during the last hour so the surprises are not spoiled for me.

Not that there are any surprises anymore.

But it's not because there are no twists and turns from time to time (I mean, who the hell saw the best pic for CRASH coming last year?!?)...but there are no genuine surprises because the Oscars get less and less relevant as the years go by. Hard to be surprised by something you don't really care about.

As a movie loving, wanna be director kid, the Oscars were everything to me. Me and my other film loving buddies from Alabama (all 2 of them!) woke up at 5:30am - each and every year- to see the announcment of the nominations; at lunch, we argued over who would win and why; we made sure to see all but the most boring looking flicks that were up for the best picture. It was our Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one. Yep, there we were: awkward as hell movie geeks sitting in the cafeteria bitching (loudly!) about Spielberg getting snubbed for directing THE COLOR PURPLE, while the movie itself was nominated in all the other categories. Well, as you can imagine, we were HITS with the ladies.

So yeah, the Oscars used to mean something to me. But now, while the Oscars are still kind of cool, they are mostly lame and silly and pretentious.

And sure, some of it's because I'm older. But I think most of it is because the veil has been lifted on the 'glamor' and 'glitz' of the lives of these so called beautiful people.

Because of the internet and because of the tabloid shows and mags, the stars are revealed to be just human. Hell, in some cases, they are revealed to be humans with some pretty serious flaws.

And because of the internet and the sites like AINT IT COOL NEWS and BOX OFFICE MOJO; and some revealing behind the scene docs on some of the DVDS, the film making process is no longer all that magical either. It looks like work now, because it is work. Fun work at times, to be sure, but still a job that needs to get done. And a job that serves the corporate masters that now own pretty much every one of the studios and who clearly care much more about the bottom line than the artistic outcome.

So to watch these folks on Oscar cast talk about how IMPORTANT the movies are and, thus, how IMPORTANT they are, is just silly. To watch Jack Nicolson 'holding court' once again, and hear folks from the stage make 'in awe' comments to him as if he were Don Corleone is just embarassing. To watch ANOTHER fucking too-long montage that digs back into the 100 years of CINEMA to show us film clips from movies only kids at USC CINEMA school care about, while some overblown, wanna-be inspirational orchestral score blasts away (or worse, the fucking music from THE NATURAL...what the hell is with that song?!?)...it all just feels like bullshit. Calculated bullshit. Maybe at a time, it mattered. But now, the magic is gone. Is it just me?

I don't think so, as the viewership for the Oscars is in freefall and has been- give or a take a few special case scenarios- for years.


I think Joe's desire for us to be taken seriously is a good one. We work hard, make great products (at times), we affect the culture in a significant way, and we are NOT jokes; we are not children. We are working adults who care about what we do.

But to try to craft an awards show, or to even DESIRE to craft an awards show BASED on the Oscars, when the Oscars itself (not to mention award shows in general) is a tired old horse that needs to be put out to pasture, is a mistake.

I've bitched for years that game awards need to be done online; done as an MMO weekend like THE BURNING MAN festival, but for games. In a giant virtual world where you can wander the landscape, chatingt with famous game makers who are walking around, go to speeches by these avatars and play new demos of the up comming games and/or play demos of the nominated games; and then go to the main stage and vote in real time for your fave game of the year...and then see how the pubic votes stack up to the academy votes.

This model or not, the idea is that sure, giving out awards to celebrate your biz is the way to go. Why not? It's good for the makers and the consumers. But why are we tailoring it off the dying model that is the Oscars. Heck, even the once hip MTV MOVIE AWARDS is now losing viewers and looking old school.

There is just something old/wrong/dying about award shows. It's a model that just does not work anymore. People are too aware of the process to buy into looking at the creators of the process as anything other than...well, just people.

We need to embrace the very tech that we are celebrating! We need to take our awards online because THAT is where the fans will meet us; that is where the folks will care. That is where people will WANT to see Lord British give a speech upon being inducted into the Academy Hall of Fame; that is where people will WANT to see the game gods walking a red carpet (albeit a virtual one) and get the chance to chat with them in real time.

And hell,if that doesn't work for you, do a real awards show but air the thing on GAMESPOT or IGN or one of the other big game sites. Air it in real time, allow for fans to watch and participate in real time with voting and comments and chatting with the winners,etc...I mean, game fans WOULD want to see Tim Schafer and Ueada and Miyamoto walking the carpet...sure it's not as lucrative as say, airing it on ABC, but hell, it's not lucrative NOW. At least if you put it out there to the fans who care, you could charge for commercial time and make some dough that way AND you'd prob. get a bit more of a mature show as we'd all know we were on camera and would want to do more than sit around and shoot the shit with buddies we have not seen in years in between awards- or even while getting awards-which is what we do now.

So while we are building the virtual awards show, let's start airing the live one on a gaming site. Isn't this a no brainer?!?

I am so honored and glad we got awards for God of War. I recall my first nomination for TWISTED METAL:BLACK level design with much pride. And I would love to think the new downloadable games we are doing will have a place- if we provide great product- at an awards ceremony in the future. I'm down with awards. I think Joe and I see eye to eye on that.

I just think it's time to let go of the past and embrace...hell, to CREATE Awards 2.0.

Who's with me?

David

ps. yes, yes I know the whole 'pay to be a member/Capcom' issue is still alive and kicking. Please be aware that THAT issue has nothing to do with my views expressed in THIS post. That's a whole other can of worms but for the record, I agree with Joe that dues are a normal part of any academy and there is no reason we should be different. I would support a sliding scale if some pub simply can't afford it but I don't think the fee to join AIAS is THAT steep...is it?

TINSELTOWN

Heading off to LA for a few days for some personal biz (taxes; lawyers;etc). Also, some nice R&R with the wife before the last week of tuning and out last focus group next week.

Sorry updates so sparse as of late; trying to work with Incognito to lock CALLING CALL CARS down and be done!

Will let ya'll know what's up next week!

And check out FLOW AND QBERT! I think they are out today on the Playstation Store!!!

Take it easy ya'll!

David

MY DINNER WITH GEOFF

Chatted with Spike Tv's GAMEHEAD host (and all around nice guy) Geoff Keighley yesterday. Promoting GOD OF WAR II for the GAMEHEAD episode Mid March which is ALL about GOD OF WAR!!!

Then we did a bit for the show that airs the NEXT week about CALLING ALL CARS!

I always like talking to Geoff cause I think a) he's a nice guy and b) he does a great job of bringing gaming to a mass audience. He's sort of like the Dick Clark of video games!

So thanks for the time and interest Geoff (along with your crew). I was kind of in tuning hell (still am) when we did the interview so I was sort of dazed and unfocused. Hope you got some good stuff you can use! Looking forward to the show!

Talk to ya'll later!

David




Look how TINY that camera is!!! Amazing that they can shoot broadcast quality on a tiny ass handheld.


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EDIT:

Adam never lets me down!


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SWAMPED!

Just wanted to say hey, been swamped like crazy as we hit the final days of tuning.

As I am typing this, my 3 year old just came into my office and said: I wanna make video games just like you.

Aaaawwwww! Melts the old man's heart :)

Now she just told me not to make anymore games like GOD OF WAR cause they scare her. She walked in as I was playing thru the GOD OF WAR 2 BETA last month. Bad idea...I shut it off asap but she saw a bit of the Barbarian King battle and has not seemed to forget!

Amazing reviews on that game,eh? Congrats to the team in Santa Monica!

Ok, will post more soon, gotta get back to this final tuning.

Have a great nite ya'll!

David

CALLING ALL CARS- GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT

Back when I first started as a game designer, I assumed that game design docs were like screenplays. You wrote one- usually a meaty fucker coming in at around 200 pages- had it bound all nice and neat, then passed it out to what I assumed would be an eager as hell team who were dying to know what MY vision was! Man, what a fucking joke!

Making games is NOT like that...not at all. And over the years, I've seen my game design docs drop from 200 pages to 5-10 page pamphlets. Sure, if you add up all the additional docs that get written as production rolls on (and other team members have added ideas and mechanics and assets that make YOUR original vision a MUCH IMPROVED TEAM vision, then you prob. surpass the 200 page count). But initial docs, anything beyond 10 pages and you are just writing to hear yourself write...get a fucking blog for that, yeah?

And even with just 10 pages, you still end up changing around 80% of the gameplay once you actually get into the game making process.

So as you examine this, the CALLING ALL CARS design doc/pamphlet, that we wrote some 9 months ago, keep in mind that the game you will play next month (if you are so kind as to give our l'll title a shot),that this doc is NOT the game you will play. A good 50-80% has been changed, cut, or adjusted during the game making process. And hell, reading back over this myself, my knee jerk on some of these ideas (ex: different criminals affect player car in different ways) was: fuck, that's a great idea! Why did we cut that?!?

But there is always a reason...and often times, some of the stuff that reads great on paper does NOT turn out great in execution. Better game designers prob. have a higher paper-to-game ratio, but I ain't one of them (as I keep telling you ass holes who accuse me of being arrogant, even when I fucking TELL you I'm still learning the craft!!!)...

Anyway, so here's the doc...hope you get a kick out of it...


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And now, gotta get back to tuning! This thing is almost done!

David

BOOKSTORES AND COFFE SHOPS

I have lived in San Diego for a little over 8 months now. I like it here alot. It's great for the family, housing prices are affordable, and there's tons to do.

I still love Los Angeles tho, miss it from time to time and feel the same sense of energy that I've always loved about the place whenever I go back.

But finding places you love in your new city goes a long way towards making a location feel like home. And over the last few weeks, I have finally discovered the first place- outside of my house and little neighborhood- that I can truly say that I love.

It's a combo bookstore/coffe house in Del Mar, California. The bookstore is called The BookWorks and the coffe shop is called PANIKIN (there are a few of these coffe houses around the San Diego area but this is the only one- I gather- connected to a book store). These two stores are connected via a common wall (with an opening) and share the same floor so they really feel like one big store. For all I know they are owned by the same folks; I do not know.

What I do know is that I love being there. Love the creaking wood floors; love watching folks get all cozy as they wrap themselves in blankets (it's been cold as of late!) and play scrabble for hours; love the music they play (kind of smooth jazz or some such stuff).

I love getting a large Carmel Mocha and just sitting with my wife and talking; or just watching and listening to other people. I love reading the paper and checking up on politics and world news. And the best part is when you get tired of relaxing, you can take a break and walk into the book store and just browse. It's clear the booksellers love books. They are very friendly and seem like they would be happy to chat away about books all day long. No pressure to buy and decent seating to just grab a few books and see what books to toss back, which ones to take home

A few days ago I went with the wife and my parents and just sat and talked and laughed...that was a blast.

Anyway, while I was there I took some pictures as I just really like this place. It speaks to my soul. So I wanted to share. Here ya go:


Here's the entrance to the bookstore...it's in an old mall that's been around- or so I am told- since the 60's...



Here's the coffe shop....lotsa cool mugs and neat places to sit.




I LOVE this picture...it's like my ideal bookstore...like the place the kid snuck into when running from bullies in THE NEVERENDING STORY.




Coffe Shop and BookStore...linked together for a perfect experience!



I almost bought this book...it seemed really cool as I read thru the first chapter. Did not buy it but I think I will go back this week and get it, as soon as I finish the other book I am reading.


I got the kid's book for my kids (duh) and thought the EB WHITE book was cool as it's pretty much a blog...just his thoughts on all kinds of stuff, sort of rambling but well written (as is the EB WHITE way)...

Man, writing this makes me wish I was at that damn coffe house right now! Maybe I'll swing by this week...