REGARDING THIS...

...really good write up from Kotaku and Gamespy, the solution is not to release fewer games. It's to make games much shorter. And charge less money for them.

I really do not think games should cost 60 bucks. And I also don't think they should be more than 4-6 hours each unless they are focused on multiplayer or are more gamey-games ala TRIALS HD or Popcap style games.

I really hope with digital distribution this is going to change. It's getting ridiculous that a game can consume months of your life.  For 60 bucks, it SHOULD consume a large chunk of your time but- again- for me, 60 bucks is way too much cash for a game.

10 bucks for 4 hours seems a good deal to me. I wish all 1 player games were that long. I would play more of them and finish most of them.

David

Go Destructoid!

Great article over there on arty-farty indie games. Check it out. 

They say it 1000 times better than I ever could/have. I pretty much agree with about 99% of their article.

I just wish they would have not only laid into the pretentious bullshit that gets called 'art' or 'meaningful' or 'important' in the gaming medium but would also have laid in to the pretentious, full of shit 'journalists' that insist on lauding and hyping these types of games. Often times I think these writers go on and on about a lot of this arty farty stuff so it makes them feel like their own work is important (i.e. they are letting their readers in on something special and important versus simply writing about how many new weapons exist in modern shooter/alien invasion/football sim game #42).

Not to be a hateful bastard about it. I've always wanted deeper games and deeper game journalism. But I think the only way we will get both is to call bullshit when we see (i.e. games that parade around in arty clothing but are actually full of total shit)  so it forces us developers (and journalists) to actually,genuinely, honestly try to crack the 'games as a meaningful medium/games as art' nut.

So far most of what these wanna be arty games have been doing is draping themselves in the 'moody, heavy foggy atmospheric fx, sounds of wind and echoey laughing children in the distance' window dressing used by other mediums that HAVE made people feel and think (paintings, movies, novels). And once the games kind of look like these other mediums, the game makers shout really loud, "Look! We're art and important too cause we look/sound/feel just like all that other stuff". And lots of gamers and lots of journalist buy it hook, line, and sinker.

Are there some genuine games out there that ARE on the path to proving that games can make you feel and think? Yep! And some are small, indie games and some are big AAAAA $60.00 box products. But there are not many and there are only 1-2 /year at most. And there are sure as hell not near as many as a lot of the net and certain websites/magazines would have you believe.

David

WEEKEND STASH

Had a crazy productive, busy, exhausting week out in Utah working on the game. Lot of great meetings, decisions made, and great progress on the game in general. And next week is nuts with tons of design docs I gotta write up based on the decisions we made during all those meetings.  So I need a break over the weekend (altho I'm prob gonna work a bit tomorrow). 

SO I rented some flicks for me and the kids. I've already seen Basterds and Hurt but really wanted to watch them again. I'm a MJ fan and am eager to see how that flick turned out. The other movies I'll stick on while I make my kids pancakes tomorrow morning.

Oooh, and I gotta go get me one of them 7-11 Kratos Slurpees sometime this weekend too. And hell, was that freaking GOD OF WAR III I saw on a damn NASCAR?!?! I was at Gamestop in Utah yesterday and I saw an ad for the GOW NASCAR- holy hell Sony is behind this game in a big way! How exciting! 

Ok, gotta run- chat later ya'll! Great weekend!

David 

WEEKEND UPDATE: Pics from a lazy weekend with the kids:

Prepping to make the weekend pancakes! 

Keepin' it lumpy. My brother-in-law told my dad that lumpy pancakes=great pancakes...and he is right! Ever since I started keeping them lumpy AND putting some baking powder in, my pcakes have gotten much, much better! :) 

"...life ain't nuthin' but a funny, funny riddle..."

Kids always watch cartoons while I make the cakes o' pan. They like me to make 'baby pancakes' to tide them over while I finish breakfast, set the table,etc...those little cakes in the bottom right are said 'baby pancakes'...Nothing like having a baby pancake and a sip of ice cold Diet Coke right out of the fridge...

Hell, just need some syrup and I could stick these on a pancake box! I wish they tasted as good as they look but alas, my pancakes- while they have gotten much much better- are still about a 7/10....

Later in the day we ordered Za from the best pizza place in San Diego: Oggi's!  They of the super bad ass thick thick thick crust! 

This was about 10-15 minutes after the delivery guy left. It's really good...

Then we broke out the kid's science kit I got at the toy store and made stuff like miniature volcanoes that actually erupt (occurring above but kinda hard to tell)...

Also made a bubbling mad scientist potion...

Bwah-Ha-Ha! 

We got bored tho and started mixing all the stuff together to see what would happen. Here is the end result: a bubbling, stinky test tube of something that looks like human feces mixed with battery acid.

In the end we poured the remaining ingredients from the science kit in the toilet to see what would happen and to try and freak out grandma (I was gonna have my oldest run out of the bathroom crying to her 82 year old grandma that something strange had come out of her stomach :) )......altho grandma showed up too late to see it cause the kids (and me) really wanted to see what the bubbling, nasty-ass concoction looked like when it was swirling down the toilet....

So that was my weekend...hope yours was fun too! 

Later! 

THE MAZE CRAZE!

As some of you know, I will be speaking with game designer/creator legend David Crane at the upcoming DICE conference in Vegas. As such, I've been getting very nostalgic for my childhood gaming days. And then I get to Utah and...well, hang on a sec...lemme set it up:

Ok, so as a as kid, I used to love this game:  

As a kid, me, my brother, and my neighbors used to play the hell out of Maze Craze on our Atari 2600. Not really much to it, just a simple batch of mazes and you try to get out first or- if I recall- stop the other guy before he gets out. Pretty fun, pretty standard.  Check out a screen:

Ok, so that's it. That's the screen. That's the game that some 28 years ago kept me engaged for hours. How times change, yes? But the point is, there's that...and then there's this:

This is the carpet in the Utah hotel room I'm staying in right now. Just looking at the floor brings me back to a simpler, more pure time of old school gaming and I thought I'd share :) Plus it's late and I gotta get to work on a document and I'm kinda procrastinating since I worked all day. But I guess it's time to get rolling on it...so lemme get going!

Nite ya'll!

David

ps. Oh! One more thing! Have you seen this?



Yes, yes. I appear on the show as you can see in the trailer. I have not see the final shows so I can't comment on outcome or anything like that. Also, since it's a reality show where the outcome is not know, I'm also contractually not allowed to talk about it. But once it airs, I'll spill all the beans! Hope it's as fun to watch as it was to shoot!

OSCARS

So they just announced the Oscar nominations...and I missed seeing them live! Which makes no sense cause I was wide awake! I'm out in Utah for work and Utah is an hour ahead of San Diego/LA so I was already up. But I guess I just forgot about them. Which- for me- is somewhat newish. I used to love the Academy Awards. I mean, I still really love the show and am still a crazy movie nut, but you know how life goes: you get other things on your plate and the stuff that used to be crazy important slips away.

I'm sure I've written about this before but as a total movie geek back in junior high and high school I'd be up at the crack of dawn to see the noms announced. I have one particularly warm memory of me in like 10th grade and my dad waking me up crazy early to watch the noms. So I'm sitting there freezing, waiting for the heater to kick in on a cold, February Alabama morning and my dad is making me biscuits while I watched the nominations being read. Man, my parents were always so supportive of my dreams. I'm so grateful for that. And they still are :) Thanks mom and dad!

So after the noms, I'd spend the day arguing back and forth about who would/could/should win with my fellow movie geeks. Ah, the life of a nerd. But I loved it! Good, good times.

Anyway, as many of you know, they've expanded the list of best pic noms this year to 10 flix instead of 5. And I've seen the vast majority of them. So here's my take...cause I KNOW you wanna know :)

• “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producer
• JAFFE SAYS: Probably will win. Should not win. Good movie that raised the bar on film making process and effects but as a pure movie, it's just 'good', not great. I think it will benefit from the whole '#1 movie of all time!" hype cause that heavily reported story makes it seem like Avatar has become part of the cultural zeitgeist. But clearly the whole #1 movie thing is more about inflated ticket prices and 3D tix being more expensive than it is about Avatar having seeped into the culture. Avatar has not become part of our daily lives. It's not like people are walking around going, "I see you!", you know?
• 
  
• “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
• JAFFE SAYS: LOVED IT! Totally entertaining. But won't win. And it should not win. What it says has been said many times before and has been said much, much better.         

• “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
• JAFFE SAYS: Walked out of this. I know, I know. I'm an idiot and need to see it again but I just wasn't in the mood for it. What I saw was cool if not a touch slow. However, it won't win cause it's just not seen as that important of a movie. However, I would argue that it has done a lot for the film making process just like Avatar. To tell a sci fi story of this visual ambition for as little as it costs says a lot about how movies will get made in the future...at least that's what I think.

• 
  
• “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• JAFFE SAYS: Didn't see it. Guess I will now as I hear great things. Don't really even know what it's about.
• 
  
• “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
• JAFFE SAYS: Liked it, didn't go gaga for it like so many. It may win as it's 'about' something grown up and tangible and isn't an easy movie in terms of what it says about humanity and war and even family. I need to see this one again...think I'll rent it. I could see this one growing on me.

• “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
• JAFFE SAYS: My fave movie of the year. Won't win but I wish it would. I loved this movie. It was a good, old fashioned, entertaining love letter to the movies. Great, drawn out scenes filled with tension and excitement, very cool characters. To me, this is Tarintino's Raiders of the Lost Ark. I know that probably sounds stupid but in the same way Spielberg made one of the best 'movie movies' of all time with Raiders, Tarintino has done the same with this. Au revior, Shoshanna!
• 
  
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
• JAFFE: Some amazing performances and a strong, strong spirit. Still, felt like an afterschool special. Hope the ladies in the flic get some Oscars tho. Especially Monique (sp?), she was amazing!

• “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
• JAFFE SAYS: I LOVED this movie! I know it's one of the Coen's least successful but I just thought it was fantastic. As a kid raised Jewish it really struck a chord. Just great and thought provoking and really cool flick all around. I don't think more than 10 people saw it tho. I don't see this one winning. 

• 
  
• “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
• JAFFE SAYS: I like this and like most people with a heart LOVED the opening 'they meet' montage. But a best pic? Nah. And not cause it's a cartoon. But because it- like all Pixar movies except the Toy Story flix- goes on for about 20-30 minutes too long and is caked with this sort of melancholy that- to be frank- I'm getting kind of tired of. 
• 
  
• “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers
• JAFFE SAYS: I really liked this movie. And while I can see Bridges getting the actor win for more of a 'we really like you, Jeff!' kind of thing (and he may deserve it on merit, have not seen Crazy Heart) , I thought George C. rocked this flick. And the dude who talks about not being able to take his kids to Chuck E. Cheese? Give that guy an Oscar- he broke my heart man. But I liked this movie a lot. And if anything is gonna take best pic from Avatar, it's this. But out of this list, it's not- to me- the best pic by a long shot.

Ok ya'll...there's my prattle for the day. Off to work! Later!

David

ps. I just voted for my choices in the DICE awards and it occurs to me I should write up a list like this but for games. I think I will...my biggest issue tho is I've only played about 40% of the games last year and out of those, I only FINISHED about 2%. Which is a crime but games are fucking long dude. If I actually played ALL the games ALL the way thru, I'd never be able to work on our own game! 

OK, I KNOW I AM NOT THE FIRST TO SAY/NOTICE THIS...

...but man, it would SO SUCK to be that dude behind Lady Gaga. He's like, "I spend my whole life trying to get into the Grammys and I finally get to go and now I'm stuck behind this stupid ass Fortress of Solitude hat wearing motherfucker?!? Aw hell naw!"

And look at his eyes...look at them!! I COMMAND YOU!

Ahem...:)

But check him out: he's totally going, "I just wanna reach up and snap that damn thing off her fucking head"...

That said, I dig the Gaga...like her music, like her style, like her spirit. Plus my old Jewish grandma was called Gaga. And while she was too old for me to ever really know, people always tell me she was a fierce, independent, creative spirit. So who knows- maybe she was reincarnated as Lady G.

Or not.

But still, that POKER FACE song is really good. I assume- by the way- that it's SUPPOSED to sound like she's saying 'fuck her face' when she says 'poker' during the 'po-po-po-po-po-po-po-po-poke her face' part?

David

GOD OF WAR III SLURPEES!!!!!!!!

ARES! GIVE ME A CHERRY COKE SLURPEE AND MY LIFE...IS YOURS! 

So...how fucking cool is this?!? Here's the news story on adage if you are so inclined. Much thanks to GOD OF WAR III art director Ken Feldman for sharing this cool news with me! 

By the way, sorry the video stutters. Tried to get a higher res version and this is what I get...so fucking sick of this shit just not working. Youtube is out of sync and Viddler has issues with sound quality and buffering when it's high quality. Will record medium quality video from here on out. Later!


David

IN DEFENSE OF THE IPAD

Had the nite to sleep on it. Waking up, I want one. I want one bad.

I get all the arguments against it and they are valid. I just don't care. I still want one to surf the net with in coffee shops, on my couch, and in my hotel when I travel. HATE there is no camera (must have my video chat!) but when they offer one with a camera on the next gen, I'll upgrade if I can afford to.

Main reason for wanting it: reading Marvel Comics digital comic service (man those comics are gonna look sweet on this thing!), online news sites, and game sites on a more comfortable device than a laptop. Oooh, and I will prob use ibooks if they start publishing graphic novels and some good non fiction stuff. And man, I HOPE more magazine like applications are coming soon. Not websites, but magazine style apps (like reading full issues of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY on the thing...NOT just a link to the EW website)....

Also some people have been writing about how cool video board games would be on it (think it was Kotaku or Joystiq) and I certainly agree.

But I get it's not for everyone. The data plans are expensive, there's no REAL reason to ditch your laptop and/or iphone for this...those devices are much more robust than this device. But end of the day, this thing is just cool and I think I will use it a lot, and those are the two main reasons I want it.

But sure, maybe it will flop. If you take the geek net's majority reaction as an indication of mainstream interest, the Ipad is DOA. Lots of people sure are disappointed in what the thing does and does not do. And I get that. Like I said, I can see how it's not for everyone. That's fair.

BUT I really hate the argument I've seen pop up today where one reason to hate Ipad is cause of it being a closed system that Apple controls. Same old anti-Apple argument. And it's a stupid fucking argument because people who buy Apple know what they are in for with Apple products. And in most cases- at the very least mine- not only do they know what they're in for...they FUCKING LOVE what they're in for!

Man, I LOVE that my Apple products just freaking work 99% of the time. I can't STAND PCs. Can't stand the interface, can't stand how long they take to boot up, can't stand how fucking inelegant they are, hate the stupid Windows start up and shut down sound. Hate everything about them.

And I don't WANT to tinker with my fucking computer. I don't WANT to add cards and cables and have 5 monitors hooked up to it and some such shit.

I want the shit I buy to do the shit I need it to do...I don't care if it's a new shirt, a pack of condoms, or a brand new $2000 computer. If I buy something, damn thing BETTER work the way it's designed to work or it's going back to the store.  And none of this, "Well a PC DOES work how it's designed to work but you have to know what you are doing and nut fuck it up". Oh FUCK YOU. I'm kind of busy living a life here, you know? Kids, a business, making games, hanging out...not all that interested in getting a fucking IT degree before my PC will work how it's supposed to.

I get there is a subset of users out there that want more control over their home computing experience and God bless em', that's what a PC is for. But I wish the haters would stop trying to present Apple's closed door/tight control policy like it's a bad thing. Us Apple lovers KNOW what we are getting into with the closed door policy and dammit, most of us LIKE IT because it means the shit will work the way it was designed to. It's a damn good trade off for many of us out here. So PLEASE Apple haters, stop trying to present it like it's a bad thing to so many of us. It's just not.

Ahem...rant over :)

Damn...90 days is a LOOOONG time to wait to kick back at Starbucks and read an Amazing Spiderman digital comic.

Later!

David

SYNC TEST...

Am I in Sync?!?



By the way, hate the audio quality but I guess it beats being out of Sync! :) LATER!


David


ps. Oh no! He typed LATER in all caps! He's shouting!!! He's shouting the word 'Later' at me!?! Oh my stars and garters!

JAFFE'S PICKS

For those who give a shit about the stuff I like...here's a write up on the newly re-launched UGO.COM that covers 8 of my most recent favorite things.

My buddy Tracey John just started writing for the site and we did a really fun mega interview last week that will be hitting the site next week as well. I'll post a link.

Ok, just wanted to share. Back to work and back to eagerly awaiting news from Apple :)

David

WHAT AN HONOR...

I will be part of a panel with the legendary Atari 2600 game creator David Crane at this year's DICE. For more on the legend who created such classics as PITFALL! and LASER BLAST click here.  If you are a youngun' or just new to games I get how you could have no clue who this man is. But trust me, he made some of the best pure fun games of all time and it's such an honor to be sharing the stage with him. Surreal as hell, but a major honor for me.

From time to time, me and the teams I work with hear people telling us how much our work has meant to them, how much joy/fun/good times they've gotten from our games. And man, what a great feeling. But I gotta say, I feel the SAME WAY about Mr. Crane as people say they feel about us and our games! Me and my brother and my neighbor Michael would spend HOURS in our den, parked in front of our Atari 2600 and just lost in the worlds that David created.  To me- as a lover of all things Indiana Jones- Pitfall! is one of the best games ever created. Not only did it introduce so many of the concepts for the genre we now define as the platformer, but it just oozed adventure and excitement and stirred the hell out of my 6th grade imagination!  And Laser Blast...oh man, what a game! My brother was the best Laser Blast player but I could hold my own in that one. Oooh, and he made GhostBusters too! Oh, and Pitfall II which was crazy ambitious for the time...and a really fun game as well.

David and his games really shaped and defined my childhood in the same way that the 70's and 80's works of Lucas and Spielberg did. And I know he's just a guy, just a man...but damn, to be sitting with him, to be sharing a stage with a person who had such a significant impact on games, gameplay, the game industry, and- most importantly- my life...well that's gonna be a hell of a thrill! I hope he doesn't think I'm some kind of stalker :)

Ok, so in other news: back home from all the video editing for our video. We're showing the game to the folks at SCEE and needed to cut a trailer to give them a quick idea of what our game is. Now that that's done, back to working on the game itself! Man, sometimes the press and dog and pony and E3 and PAX stuff takes up so much time you wonder when the hell you'll be able to get back to actually working on the damn game! But hey, at least it means people care and are interested in what you and the team is making. Beats the alternative :)

Later!

David

UPDATE: Just to be fair, some people credit Crane with the first ever platformer in Pitfall! Donkey Kong doesn't count to many because it was one screen/level where Pitfall! allowed the player to run back and forth with screens linked into a seamless (for the most part) cohesive world (ala today's 2d Mario games). The thing about this is, I'm not sure if Pitfall! was the first to do this or if it was actually Smurf's Rescue on Colecovision. Since they both hit in 1982 however I think it's safe to assume they were both working to crack the nut around the same time. So, there's that :)

Happy Weekend, Ya'll!

NEW RULE...

...if game sites are going to report on every little rumor- no matter how solid or no matter how clearly full of shit- then they must stop bitching about GDC and E3 not having any surprises.

I don't think it's a game site's job to hold back leaked news, even tho- in the above case- it could very well be bullshit.  They need to attract readers, readers want up to the second news, and as long as the news is not obtained illegally, then what the hell- it's a free country.

But to use an overused net cliche: this is why we can't have nice things. Or more specifically, this is why the days of E3 and GDC being full of jaw dropping surprises are pretty much over.

And that sucks.

I used to love that about those shows. :(

David

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT FALLING FROM THE SKY?!?

It's raining in So Cal!

Not just raining but freaking POURING! And I LOVE IT!

I liked Tina Fey's take on all the water at the Golden Globes last nite. She said, "This isn't rain. It's God crying for NBC."....or something to that effect. She so funny :)

I love the rain. I would not love it if it rained all the time. But 2-3 weeks of rain per year? Oh man, that's da bee's knees as the Brits say. It's like snow used to be when I lived in Alabama. We'd get it MAYBE a few times a year and it was a major novelty. That's how rain is here in San Diego.

Plus I'm kind of a homebody at times so I really love to get my coffee, open the window, and work while the rain just pours down. It's very cozy and productive and just feels like...I dunno...like I'm wrapped up in a little work cocoon. Yes, that is crazy dorky I know. Whatever. Here's the view from my window today:

Hard to tell from a still shot taken on an iphone but this year we're getting some major wind as well, so that's a cool bonus. In the pic above that big ass tree on the right is going nuts, dude! Whipping around and banging against my window just like in Poltergeist!  Speaking of: a big tree came down a few blocks away, that's how windy it is.

Now I know that most of ya'll who get this kind of stuff year round must think I'm nuts. "What's the big damn deal?!?" you must be asking.

I get that. But whatever.

Ohh and it's all overcast too (duh). Check it:

Me and the ex took the girls to PF CHANGS for lunch today. They were home from school celebrating MLK day. So this is the drive home, shot from inside the car. I post it for a few reasons:

#1- look at those palm trees! Windy I tell ya! Not as crazy as it was when I drove to the Spike awards a few weeks ago...then the wind was pushing my car all around the freeway and I literally could see about 5 feet in front of my car. Very tense but very cool. I'm racing down the freeway, blasting Jay-Z, part terrified and part like, "Come on motherfucking rain! This all you got?!?! Bring it rain bitches!"...

#2- People think I'm rich because of the games I've worked on. I am SO not rich. I make a good living for sho, but check it all you 'peeps who think I live in a mansion': I don't! I live in a nice but typical suburban neighborhood in San Diego. So all you bitches out there saying I'm all rich, please stop. OR better yet: please send me lots of cash so I can live up to your swanky image of me! :)

#3- I know the dude who made Paranormal Activity lives in San Diego and shot the movie at his house. He also used to work at Sony San Diego (which is pretty close by). So I wonder if he doesn't live around me and shot his flick in my neighborhood cause the exterior of the house in that movie looks JUST like my neighborhood!

Ok, back to work. Prepping for a video capture session with the San Diego Sony peeps tomorrow so we can cut a video for the European Sales/Marketing teams. Later!

David

ps. Man I'm kinda hyper. What the hell?!? Can you tell?!?

YES, I'M AN IDIOT

Just got back from seeing Avatar a second time.

Some of you may recall I walked out of the movie about 30 minutes in the first time I went. I was just way too bothered by the cliche story to tolerate the thing.

Just goes to show that one's mindset when doing any sort of activity is everything. From watching a film to consuming any other sort of entertainment to eating a specific kind of food, if you're head's just not into it, it don't matter how good the thing is you're trying to vibe with.

When I tried to watch the flick the first time, I think my head was way too into our game (I had gone right after work) and I couldn't really give myself over to anyone else's creative vision. I was too tied into our own vision to get swept up in anyone else's, too focused on what we were trying to do with our new title.

Today however-prob cause it's the weekend and I've had about 12 hours to detox from the job- I could just let go and let the movie wrap me up. And it did! And I loved it! I don't think it's the next big thing but it was pretty darn fantastic and some parts of the flick downright classic!

Ok ya'll: it's Saturday nite and I'm hunkering down for a late nite of planning a video that we're making to show to the European sales/marketing folks in the next few weeks. Besides that, gonna be taking breaks by  pounding away on Splosion Man on XBLA, my new addiction. What a fantastic game and a what a fantastic new character!

Talk soon-

David

FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND

And that's all she wrote folks.

In a few hours, the Calling All Cars servers go down for good. And after that, there's no way in the foreseeable future to play Calling All Cars online.  Heck, if I'm being honest, truth is: she's never gonna be online again.

I'd say she had a good run online, but she really didn't. With the exception of the first few hours when the game hit PSN, there were never more than 3-5 people playing at a time. Until tonite, that is, when a handful of loyal CAC supporters came out to say their goodbyes. Thanks for that, ya'll. I know it's just a fucking video game but that meant a lot to me to see a good chunk ('good chunk' being relative) of you folks online and giving her one more go. Check it out:

I'm a little sad, naturally, to see the online aspect shut down. This was the first online game I'd ever done and so it was a HUGE learning experience. And it was my first step away from the more story based games I'd been working on (Twisted Metal:Black, God of War) and my first step into the arcade, play mechanic experiences our new company is focused on now. I loved working on it and many on the team did as well. My biz partner Scott Campbell often says this was the most fun he ever had making a game. I don't know if it was- for me- the MOST fun but it was indeed a damn good time.

I think the game had it's flaws for sure.

The biggest one being a lack of stickiness.

Even playing tonite after 3 very, very fun matches full of shouting and overtimes and comebacks, I was done. I didn't want to play anymore. I think we did a really good job making a fantastic piece of bubble gum that was sweet and jam packed with sugar and had a hell of a bang when you put it in your mouth. But for some reason I still have not totally figured out, the flavor faded VERY fast. You could come back to it after 2-4 weeks and have that same great experience, but it was always a really short ride. Some folks say leaderboards and trophy support would have helped.  And they would have, for sure. But the core game was lacking something that kept people coming back...I think most likely in our attempt to create a fast, furious, pick up play party game that reminded us of the classic SNES and arcade games we grew up on, we neglected the depth. I know you can have both in this kind of game...hard to know if Calling All Cars doesn't have the depth because we were so focused on short term play goals that we simply forgot to put it in or because it never occurred to us to put it in in the first place (i.e. we thought the moment to moment fun would be more than enough)...

Lack of defense when carrying the criminal was another problem the game had. Not sure what the logic was in making it so you could not fire weapons when you carried him (I recall this being my request, truth be told). Not sure why we didn't have a team mode. Not sure why we didn't have a pure combat, Twisted Metal style mode. Don't know why I didn't fight harder for the bawdy, XXX rated vibe the game was originally designed to have...I think that would have been much more targeted to early adopter PS3 buyers. Hell, we shoulda just made it war themed and fucked the cartoony stuff. Not kidding about that. Altho I gotta say, I love the cartoony look :)

I guess we just didn't know what the hell kind of game was expected of us, truth be told. No one's fault but ours. But you gotta remember, this was the launch of PSN and no one really knew what these small games needed to be. I mean, Geo Wars was huge on 360 but we were not making a high score driven game, so it was hard to use what we learned from playing that title when designing this title.

I guess it really came down to us gambling wrong in terms of what kind of and how much entertainment people wanted for their 10 bucks on a- at the time- $600 HD state of the art game machine. We just thought, for 10 bucks, people woulda been trying these things and sampling them like candy. But alas, much of the same logic that applies to what people buy for 60 bucks also applies to what they spend 10 bucks on.

Perhaps it would have done gang busters as a Wii game. Perhaps it would have done just as poorly over there (altho I do think we broke even on CAC and we did get a majority of favorable/ good reviews and got a decent number of GREAT reviews. I think CAC is perceived as a failure even tho it actually was not...it wasn't a smash hit or even a hit, but it was not a critical turd and I am pretty sure IF it lost any money, it was a very, very modest sum).

Whatever the case, for me, 10 bucks was totally worth the fun I've had online and off with the game. But for many, it was clearly not.

Still I'm really proud of our baby. It's a really fun game in short bursts and gets people yelling and laughing and swearing at the tv and that was always the core goal we set out to achieve. We wanted to make people happy with this game. And so when I hear stories of people playing together and having a great time, it really does mean tons to me. And I'm sure the rest of the team would agree. And so while I'm sad to see online go, most folks never played online anyway. It seems to have found a home- albeit a very modest home- via split screen and I'm glad Calling All Cars will live on as a local party game for years to come.

Perhaps Calling All Cars marks the beginning of the end of my career making hit games. Maybe when I'm 90 and sitting in the game designer retirement home, I'll be like, "Yep, after Calling All Cars hit, it was all downhill"...

Or perhaps it will be viewed as simply a stepping stone, a learning process that we had to go thru so me and the team could move on to our next mega blockbuster!

Who knows. Who cares. That's for the future to know.

All I know is I'm really damn proud of the game.

And I know I'm grateful for all of ya'll out there who played it and who continue to play it.

And I know I'm so thankful for the amazing team at Eat Sleep Play who built the damn thing. Ya'll made a damn fine game people. Thank you so much!

Ok, enough sissy talk! Time to get back to work and make another hit! Not being in the top 10 motherfucking sucks! :)

LATER!

David

META GAMES, COOL MEETING, WALKING OUT OF AVATAR

Yep, sync is still fucked up. Been posting on forums to try to get some help, but no luck :(
Fuck I'm tired- later ya'll!
David

COME ON MOVIE MARKETING PEOPLE!

Clearly I love Greek Mythology. And clearly I love cars mounted with machine guns and rocket launchers. And what do ya know?!? From watching the trailer, this movie has both!!!?!?

And I'm not one of these Chris Columbus haters. I think he's a solid director and used to be a great screenwriter (Goonies, Young Sherlock).

So I'll be there for this movie, hells yes. Not as excited for this as for the CLASH OF THE TITANS remake but I'll be there day one for both.

But COME THE HELL ON! PERCY JACKSON!?! That is the name of your hero? And that is the name of your fucking franchise?!?

I get that you can't just call it THE LIGHTNING THIEF, like the book cause you want to build brand awareness of the lead so you can do sequel after sequel and still keep the core protagonist in the title. Makes good sense. But change the fucking dude's name. You're launching a movie that- from the looks of it- cost at least 150 mill. I'm sure you've made lots of changes from the book to make the story more appropriate for the movie medium. When you were tinkering with the book to movie adaptation, didn't anybody go, "Dude, Percy Jackson is a stupid, wimpy, lame name for a hero and FUCKING TERRIBLE name for a movie franchise?!?"

Think about it: HARRY POTTER, INDIANA JONES, JAMES BOND, AND...Percy Jackson?!?! Percy Motherfucking Jackson?!? Come the fuck on. So dumb.

Hell, when the trailer voice guy even says the title at the end, you can so easily imagine after he recorded it he turned to the sound guy and was like, "Percy Jackson?!? Are they fucking kidding with that shit?!?"

"Hey mom! I wanna Percy Jackson action figure!"

Ugh.

Later ya'll! Hope your weekend is going great! Just got back from taking my kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks Part Deux. I dug it! Liked the first one as well and David Cross is always really funny in these flix.

Oh speaking of movies, I walked the fuck OUT of Avatar on Friday nite. I get I'm in the teeny, tiny minority on this one so I ain't gonna deny that people clearly love it. I just ain't one of them. And you all know my taste's. I'm not some elitist movie going snob.  Love mainstream movies and popcorn flix more than any other kind. But man, the story was SO boring and I've seen that story done over and over and over that I really was just kind of bored by the whole thing. But again, I get that I'm kind of alone on this as it's made over a billion bucks in less than a month?!!? Holy hell!

David

THANKS MOD NATION RACERS!

Just got this from Scott McCarthy, our game's new kick ass marketing dood!

Seems Tooth is getting some love over in Mod Nation! Whoever made this, thanks! It's so cool! Now if I could just get a real one! :)

Seems someone also made a KRISTA SPARKS (from Twisted Metal 2) and BRIMSTONE (from Twisted Metal: Black!) Thanks for the Twisted Metal love ya'll! What a cool idea: Twisted Metal on PS3! SWEET!!!!

LIKE I HAVE TIME FOR THIS...

Just got back from lunch and the siren's call of new games- especially new games that I've been eager to play and/or are getting stellar reviews- was too strong. But hell, I'm still playing Uncharted 2 and Mario & Luigi and a crap ton more. What am I thinking?!?!

Interesting thing on Darksiders: where the hell is the THQ logo?!? I thought THQ funded and published the game...it's rare enough to see a dev reach a status of getting the logo on the front of the box at all. But VIGIL is the only logo on the front OR back of the box (not even a THQ logo on the rear...just the name THQ in the legal text). I know THQ now owns VIGIL, perhaps they are trying to start a new brand? Anyway, just curious.

Ok ya'll- if I can get done with work early enough tonite you know what I'll be doing!

David

ps. Saturday at Comic Con already sold out?!?! Thank god a friend reminded me I can get a PRO badge which ain't sold out yet. I'd go nuts without all 4 days :)