What a Wonderful Birthday Surprise At The Office!

I certainly did not see this coming- what fun! :)

Jaffe

Steve Jobs spotted at San Diego Swap Meet!!!

I took my kids and some of their friends to a San Diego swap meet today. Never been to a proper swap meet and it was as fun and random as everyone said it would be!

My favorite purchase is this rip off Lego Steve Jobs figure. I have NO IDEA what he's holding n his hand- looks like a candle or some such.

Excited to get into the office tomorrow and put the l'll guy on my desk! :)

On Disneyland, Hollywood, and Kratos

Been pecking away at the great bio WALT DISNEY-THE TRIUMP OF THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION by Neal Gabler for a long while. When I read I do read fast but I don't read often, so finishing up books takes me some time.

Anyway, I came across this passage just now that really speaks to my love of movies and Disneyland and also speaks very much to my creative side.

"Hollywood- the creation largely of Eastern European Jews who expunged their pasts by devising a better world of their imaginations- refined and idealized reality.  So would Disneyland, the creation of  a wounded man who expunged what he saw as the darker passages of his past by devising a better world of his imagination, through one that was obviously colored by images of Hollywood."

As a mild manner'd (mostly in my real life, anyway) fella, I'm not as angry or mad or violent or insane as Sweet Tooth. But I DO feel that rage inside from time to time.

And as a short guy with zero muscles and excess weight (esp. as of late!) I'm not near as buff or bad ass or strong as Kratos. But I DO feel that power in me at times.

And in my dreams and in my creations -that I help to build and co-create with a whole host of people- I get to be all of those things.

Nice to know I'm in some pretty great company of other creative types who use their creative work for similar- albeit emotionally very different- purposes :).

David

The fuck are parents teaching their kids?!?

Have you seen this on today's HUFFINGTON POST?

Man, while the horrible racism is the worst thing about this video, I'd say the quickness with which this jackass in the foreground leaps up to conform to his "brothers'"expectations is almost as bad. The stupid little nursery rhyme gets rolling and up pops this asshole, all ready to dive in with gusto. I mean, just look at his stupid smile when he gets up. No seriously: fucking look at it! He's feeling all cool and cocky and good and probably showing off for one of the girls on the bus. I don't believe in violence but fuck I'd like to knock this asshole flat the fuck out.

And what's with the ryhme itself? 'You can hang him from a tree but he'll never sign with me'?!? Get the fuck over yourselves. Why the fuck would ANYONE want to sign with your stupid little club?

God this video makes my blood boil.

Clearly.

Jaffe

Some things never change...thank God! :)

Kids had a sleep over last nite and Mario Kart 8 was in high demand. It's 3pm today and they are still at it!

Seeing this- and hearing them laugh and scream and trash talk as they play- does my old, game designer, split screen loving heart much good! :) 

Talk about an honor...

Man, how I LOVED Shove Knight! It was one of my favortie games of 2014! Top 10, for sure! 

So the fact that Kratos gets to fight Shovel Knight in the PS exclusive version of the game?!? Yeah, color me super crazy excited!!!!

Pre Pax Interview

Hey!

Got to do a fun Skype call with Sir Will Wiggins the other day, wanted to park it here on the blog.

Please note that I LOVE Metal Gear Solid and I'm lovingly teasing it in this interview. LORD I hope that comes across!!!

Jaffe :)

David's Doodles Part I

AKA Stuff I Doodle While On A Call With My Lawyer And The Game's Producer And Company COO

Wherein I Weather (semi poorly) Some Mini Shit Storms

My Proposed- but very likely half baked- Way To Fix Game Journalism/Criticism

This fantastic article about the rough financial state of internet journalism (and game internet journalism specifically) from the always great Ben Kuchera got me thinking:

Let's vote on the top 10 game journalists that we feel genuinely offer us great reporting and- more importantly- great game criticism.

There are more than this for sure, but off the top of my head I'll throw the following names in the ring: Ben Kuchera, Garnett Lee, Adam Sessler, Jim Sterling, and Brian Crecente. Are there more, fuck yeah. But it's just a start.

Hell, let's throw in Leigh Alexander as well. I can't stand the woman but to show that this should not be a popularity contest and that we should do our best to pick the reporters who genuinely seem to care for the medium of interactivity. Much as I don't care for Leigh, I do think she cares about the medium and offers a valuable voice to some gamers.

Oh and I gotta throw in that guy who does the fantastic podcast A LIFE WELL WASTED- that thing is amazing!

Ok so anyway- we get a bunch of names of people doing great work in game journalism and then we- as a game community- vote and whittle it to 5 names.

Then we do a yearly Kickstarter to raise 175K.

125 K goes to pay 1 of the 5 reporters (pulled randomly from a hat or voted on by the folks who contributed to the Kstart) a yearly salarty. The remaining 50K goes to pay for expenses (games, travel).

The reporter posts whatever they want on a blog. There is no editor, no advertising/sales group to worry about, and they can update when they want and write about whatever they want. The only harm for doing a bad job (and I define a bad job as simply filing way too few stories) is looking terrible in the public eye that funded them and wiping out their chances of being included in next year's list.

Every time we raise another 175K, we pull another name from the hat/vote on the next reporter.  Ideally every year we can raise enough that all 5 reporters get to work.

I think good reporting is important. And good criticism is crucial to move this medium forward.

And given that I've offered over and over to pay a subscription to great gaming sites, they never seem to want to offer subscriptions/paywalls, this seems like a possible good solve.

Or am I fucking high?

Seriously, I'm in for 500 bucks if the rest of y'all are.

Thanks for reading-

David

ps. I have zero idea if game reporters make well over 125K and if they do, they may scoff at this. I don't mean them any disrespect- 125k seems like a good salary to me is all :).

You Are Not As Good As You Think You Are

I was asked by a guy who follows me on twitter what I thought about this article that just went up on Kotaku. It's written by someone calling themselves ANONYMOUS GAME DEVELOPER* (AGD) and the gist of the piece is that game developers- and thus games themselves- suffer because of the current power of the game publishers.

I figured I'd share my response here as a topic of discussion:

I agree with a number of AGD's theories about why modern games are tough to get right (i.e. AGD's write up on game's desire to be film vs. games was pretty spot on) but I reject the tired accusation that it's the publisher keeping game developers down. And I reject that accusation because of the classic line that I am sure you've heard before: you are worth what you can negotiate. 

Period.

Don't like the way a publisher treats you?

Don't sign a contract with that particular publisher. Or if you do, make sure you have what you will and won't tolerate written into the contract.

And if your studio is not good enough to demand better deals and is not clever enough to secure alternate forms of financing (thus allowing you to bypass the publishers all together) then you deserve what you get.

I am very sympathetic to the article's core (it can suck being a dev when you feel your failure stems from forces out of your control)** but that is very much the whole 'every kid who plays gets a trophy even if their team loses' thinking.

AKA: This is business.

You want to be treated better? Sign a contract demanding it.

You are not able to get such a contract? Then improve your team until you can demand in the real world what you think you are really worth in your mind.

Because at the moment the real world is making something very clear to you. And that is this:

For the time being anyway, you are not as good as you think you are. 

The people who fight against this and complain that the world is not fair are spinning their wheels and wasting their time. The people who embrace this truth can then decide to either get out of the business or put the effort into getting so good that they can pretty much write their own ticket. ***

David

* It would not surprise me if this was written by one of the editors and attributed to AGD. I have no inside info, just saying I could see this being the case.

** The idea that 'if it just wasn't for the stupid, interfering publisher we woulda had a hit/we woulda made something more artistic' is pretty tired. I'm not saying this is not the case in many instances. But in many other cases- as a guy who has worked for the publisher and for the developer- I can tell you that at least 50% of the time the developer just isn't good enough to make the great game they think they are capable of making, regardless of how much creative freedom they have.

*** In the majority of cases, when it comes to super expensive $40-$60 retail products, no matter how good a dev you are, you will still not get the best deal in the universe. This is because at that high price point marketing and brand still rule the roost because the number of people who follow quality over the siren's call of a flashy marketing campaign are not near enough to turn the tides. And a vast majority of game consumers would rather- understandably- have the comfort of knowing what they are getting for their $60 (i.e. sequels) rather than take a chance- at that same high price- on something that sounds interesting and has great reviews but is unknown. However, when you are talking digital games for $14.99 (and ideally less), talent can begin to demand amazing deals if they have the track record to back up their demands because core gamers- as always- will continue to follow the talented teams and average gamers will take chances at those lower 'impulse buy' price points. We will see this more in the coming generation of games as getting core games digitally stops being something that only the core gamers do and -with each passing year- becomes the normal way for all gamers to acquire new content.

Kratos...as Smurf?!?

Literally days before we announced the first game to the press, this was Kratos:

And then someone on the team- I think it was Ken or Max- showed us this:

If you don't know, this is the Barbarian from Diablo II. I had played Diablo I but never II, and this was sure news to me. As it was to clearly to many/all others on the team, as this was the first we'd heard of the character, let alone the similarity. 

So you can bet we changed it, lickity fuckin' split! 

Which is good cause I think this is a much better look for our guy...

...even if now Kratos- much to my never ending disappointment- seems to be fan of the Crimson Tide :(...

I Am A Shitty Ass Parent!

Terrible Parent Award Goes To...ME! 

AKA I woke up sicker than yesterday and thus cranky. So I not only yelled at the kids (for no reason*) AND at the dog (who is as sweet as the day is long** so he had NO idea what he had done to deserve my wrath), but I was also too tired to make the kids a proper, healthy breakfast.

Because I was dealing with all of that- and because being sick made me sluggish and thus made me run late in getting the kids off to school- we went thru the McDonald's drive thru and got biscuits and hashbrowns for breakfast.*** 


So yes, I suck much.

Ok, guess I should get to work and try to at least do SOMETHING right today...:)

Later y'all! 
David

* I apologized within seconds for snapping at the girls, but my oldest was like, 'That's ok, dad'...which really made me feel worse. Damn her! :)

** Yeah...so, not sure why I'm channeling an old southern grandmother sitting on a porch sipping sweet tea from a mason jar while she fans herself with a ripped page from the Penny's catalog, but there it is...

*** I am fully aware this very easily is a 'must be nice' kind of problem that I am bitching about :). Aka 'Poor guy (poor 20 lbs. OVERWEIGHT guy, might I add!) who took his kids to get drive thru food instead of making them some organic such and such from Whole Foods. for breakfast. Man, Jaffe, that IS tough. And you know, I'd feel bad for you too, I really would, if it's just I wasn't so busy dealing with the fact that my own kids are like, oh I dunno...STARVING!...stupid ass.'

ps. Oh, so here's an interview I did the other day:

Fun guys to chat with but man, come on- PLEASE stop using that horrid picture! Altho I know by asking people NOT to use it (forget that it's bad, how about the fact that it's from 2006!?!?) all I'm doing is giving haters a reason to use it more. Whatever :).

Oh, and sorry for saying 'You Know...' so much :(...

All I Want For Chrismukkah is...

All I Want For Chrismukkah is:

1. To catch up on every unseen episode of Shark Tank and Homeland.

2. Play much more of Sonic Racing Transformed, Walking Dead, Dishonored, Far Cry 3, and Halo 4.

3. Read a great new fiction book (specific book TBD)

4. Lots of time to play with the kids and hang with family.

5. To be able get into and enjoy any of the following: Mad Men, Downton Abbey, Walking Dead, Breaking Bad. I get these are all amazing shows and I respect them but I can't seem to get lost in them.

5. My dad back. And very much alive*. And super healthy and as wonderfully optimistic and happy as he was for the vast majority of his life.

6. If I can't get #5 then I'll take peace and healing for my sweet mom who- obviously- is going thru a lot right now. 

7. For the world to give this new batch a' Glee kids a G-damn'd chance. They are all really great save for the new blond hyper religious/mean girl. But the rest? Just great! And man, the lunch lady's daughter is super hot and-damn!- can she sing! I may have a tiny crush on her, truth be told.

8. Relief from my shame of being 41 and having a crush on one of the Glee kids.

9. Relief from my shame of watching- and really digging- Glee.

Ok, that's all! Is that too much to ask for, you think?!? 

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and a Magical Movie Season to you all!

David

* I ain't falling for any of your tricks, Calypso! 

Tales From Orth Nation!

Adam Orth: great friend, great designer, and all around bad ass!

Adam and I worked together on and off over the years and two of the games we worked on were HEARTLAND and CALLING ALL CARS.

He shot me some pics from some of design docs yesterday and I thought I'd share.

Been super busy so no time to dive into too much context at the moment, but figured they prob speak for themselves anyway. So here ya go :)...


HEARTLAND: Was going to be a return to more old school, opened up single player (and co-op) Goldeneye/Doom II style level design. Plus a little Deus Ex thrown in, in terms of multiple solves, as much emergence as we could intentionally create (not the mention the happy surprises):

Note: This ONLY woulda been an escort mission if you played it ONE way :). You could also get a sniper rifle AND turn on the power in the theme park (this level was gonna be like Disneyland meets Red Dawn). Doing so would let you activate the ferris wheel that you could use to ride up to a killer vantage point that would allow you to snipe the single enemy that was leading the troops that were trying to stop your buddy from getting away. Kill that guy and mission over. Your co-opbuddy could have also played the dude trying to escape. So there! :) 

CALLING ALL CARS: Amazing imagery as ALWAYS by the one and only John Wu!

 John is a stunningly talented concept artist/game developer with stunning skills and the uncanny ability to swap between pretty much any art style and BLOW YOU AWAY with all of them! I really do think the guy is a mute!  Don't believe me?!? Ask Professor X, asshole! :)... or Please check out his FANTASTIC work at his site.

Ok, gotta get back to it! Later ya'll!

And thanks Adam for this great blast from the past!

David

The Truth Is In There

I'm really looking forward to the new reality show Start Ups: Silicon Valley that hits the Bravo channel next month.

If you've not been following the making of this show- or if you have zero idea what it even is- check it out.

So needless to say- I assume- I'm jazzed by the potential of this show cause I love the subject matter. I GET it's not real but it's a REALITY SHOW and I'm not trying to be clever when I say that- by now- anyone tuning in to a reality show thinking it's a documentary is a damn fool.

So is this going to be an accurate documentary about entrepreneurs and tech start ups? Come on. I mean, I seriously doubt it. And even if there is some accuracy, I certainly doubt it will have the same sense of truth that a great doc like Startup.Com has. And even that- a genuine, dyed in the wool documentary-manipulates the audience as well, just like any medium that documents reality does (other than a security camera and hell, even that has a bit of a truth distortion simply based on where the camera has been placed).

But I won't be tuning in to this new show to see moment to moment truth. I'll be tuning in for entertainment and because the show- based on the trailer anyway- DOES SEEM to be accurate in capturing the energy and the youthful spirit (no matter your age) that you connect with whenever embarking on a scary but exciting as hell new journey.

Maybe that's the key to making a great reality show: be ok sacrificing the moment to moment truths in the name of entertaining the audience while at the same time demand the essence of the experience the subjects are going thru is portrayed accurately, even if the show creators must express that essence not thru accurate footage but thru editing tricks and music selection and 'actor' manipulation; a metaphor for the essence, if you will.

David

Heartbreak At The Green Springs 6

When I was checking my daily dose of Aint It Cool News today, I noticed that Megaforce hits DVD this week and so my nostalgia machine got to running full blast and I felt the need to share! So here we go! :)...

Man, as I kid I was CRAZY EXCITED for this flick! Stayed up nights just thinking about it, DYING for the damn thing to open! I mean, what 10ish year old boy would not go ape shit for this? I mean, just look at it the Godamn'd movie poster:

Goddamn guns of Goddamn mother fucking VEHICLES?!?! What is not to love?!?!

Alas- this was utter shite. Just a whole honkin tube of fecal paste in the form of a movie. :(

Saw this on opening day with my brother and- I think- one of my best childhood friends/next door neighbors at the Green Springs 6 theater in Bama (same place I saw Star Wars and Flash Gordon, FYI :)...

We walked out 30-45 minutes into it. It was sleep inducing. It was disappointing. It was just awful. I had stared at the coming soon movie poster above in the Birmingham News (our local paper) for the 2-3 weeks before the flick premiered and I was so jazzed. But man, what a let down.

 How the fuck could a movie that was filled with gun strapped VEHICLES be boring?!? Don't ask me, but it sure was that.

On the upside, we spent all the remaining time waiting for my mom to pick us up in the arcade! So it wasn't all bad :). We played a bunch of the obvious stuff, like Battlezone and Galaga along with the following 2 arcade games that- for some reason- never became they classics they deserved to be:

CONGO BONGO

ARABIAN

Man, those are some great unsung heroes of the great video game wars! I think I'll do a post soon about all those great almost-famous arcade games that hold just as much a place in my heart as the usual suspects that everyone remembers from the 80's arcade heydays.

Ok- off to the wonderful salt mines of video game makin! Later ya'll!

Thanks for coming to the blog!

David

Pack In Maps...The Final Frontier

Got this from a Facebook post (the Choose Your Own Adventure fan page, if you must know :) where one of the comments from someone I don't know was, 'Someday, that will be a lot of adventures...'

Man, how right he is! This thing looks like a world map from one of the coolest sci-fi video games ever!!!

It's the kind of thing that used to ship with the great Ultima and Infocom games; the kind of pack in map (sometimes actual cloth!!! :)  that you used to stare at obsessively after your parents  took you out to dinner after buying you the game; often times the packs in like the map- along with the super cool and detailed instruction manuals (R.I.P.)- were all that kept you from busting out of your skin with desire and anticipation to just be home and playing the damn game already! :)

Man, good ol' days of gaming rocked! So do games today...but man! :)

Later ya'll!

David

MOM! PHINEAS & FERB ARE HANGING OUT WITH SPIDEY AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS!!!

I grew up LOVING Marvel heroes and I still love them till this day. I still read comics (not as voraciously as I used to, but I go on binges a few times a year at least),I play the Marvel games, and hit all of the Marvel movies. I love DC as well- plus some of the indie characters- but Marvel holds the biggest, warmest place in my heart.

My kids are growing up LOVING Disney Channel and its really, really good  programming. When my girls were younger they started with Disney Junior (the great Mickey Mouse ClubHouse and the like) but Disney Junior always had to compete with Nick Junior (and the fantastic Blue's Clues and Caillou). But since the kids have gotten older and moved on to that 'not a preschooler, not yet a tween' phase, the satellite dish has been 99% aimed at Disney Channel proper*. From the always sharp and funny Good Luck Charlie and Jessie to new stuff like the great Gravity Falls to the surprisingly entertaining and genuinely good original movies like LET IT SHINE and LEMONADE MOUTH, Disney Channel seems to only be rivaled by HBO and AMC when it comes to consistently having the best programming on television.

Phineas & Ferb rank as one of the best shows on Disney Channel- it's like their Sopranos or Mad Men. It's so damn funny and so, so clever. And the songs are really catchy too. Hell, forget Disney Channel: Phineas & Ferb is probably one of the top 10 TV shows at the moment across all the channels.

So imagine my delight to have seen the image above this morning!** The episode won't air till 2013 but damn, if this isn't the coolest mash up since the Punisher stormed Riverdale***, I don't know what is!

Very, very excited! :)

David

* I actually think the dish aims to a satellite owned by DirectTV and based on what I pay for, they decide what aspects/part of the signal I receive, right? But you get the point :).

** Love HERO COMPLEX. Sad to see that the great Geoff Boucher may be leaving :(. But I'm sure he will be on to bigger and better things. Also really dig Nikki Finke's site (although I don't know if I'd dig it so much if I worked in that industry and she covered me/us...no idea about that end...she seems equally loved and hated). So I was bummed to see this. Man, I hate when mommy and daddy fite :(...

***Except maybe the time KISS stormed Riverdale. That was pretty cool too. The hell is it about Archie and his buddies that always have them cross pollinating w/the coolest media properties?!?!

San Diego Comic Con 2012- The Pictures!

Summer is racing to a close :(.

Fuck.

Ah well. Fall rocks too :).

Anyway, one of my favorite things about summer is the San Diego Comic Con. I go every year, I go for all 4 days, I stay till they close on day 4, and I am depressed for about a day once the show ends. 

I love to be surrounded by toys licensed from cool geek IP, cool new movie posters, game/comic/tv show news, geek celebs,etc.

I love hanging with new and old friends at the con in the day and in the Gaslamp District at night. 

I love working the con when we have something to promote. I love taking meetings at the con when we are in production or getting a new production off the ground.

And I love meeting fans of the work we do. Be at at panels promoting our stuff or just walking the floor, meeting fans who like our games is really one of the best parts. 

And I'm already excited for next year's con.

And I just realized that I forgot to post pics of this year's con. So, with all that said, here are some things from San Diego Comic Con 2012 that I thought were neat, interesting, odd, cool, and/or photo worthy.

Me meeting one of my fave writers and one of my fave celebs. Super nice guy. 

Me, Norman, the Judge, and some other dead guy. 

Groo's Papa.

Snazzy Art! Would love to hang on my walls at home! 

Sideshow Collectibles is just amazing! See the tiny Surfer?!? So cool! :) 

Excelsior! 

Boba Fett! Boba Fett?!? Where?!?!

One of my favorite slashers ever! 

Zelda with Blood?!? YES PLEASE!!!! :)

If religion had been sold this way to me as a kid, I'd have happily signed up! 

Thanks Warren Robinett! 

So does Lucas sue Marvel or does Marvel sue Lucas?!?

Yo Joe!

Yo Joe! 

Yo J...ah fuck it. Here's some dolls on a bridge. 

More dolls.

Storm Shadow fights a doll on a roof.

      

` 

Where's my President Bartlet Mego?!?!

Neat! 

Pretty cotton smoke! 

Doctor Who Swag Is Cool! 

Nasty! 

We Can Rebuild Him...

Bought This To Scare The Kids With! :) 

Creepy Cosplay!

Monster High

Follow That Cheap Ass Big Bird Costume

EarthWord Jim Vs. Viewtiful Joe (?) Vs Zombie Brides! 

Nice! 

My Comic Con Crush! 

Forrey Would Be Proud! 

Coolest Costume At The Con!

Doctor Strange Pose! Great costumes tho! 

Don't Look At It Marion! Keep Your Eyes SHUT! 

And just some random stuff: 

Closing Time...last few minutes of the con on Sunday: 

Already excited to see you again next year!!!