davidjaffe.biz: 2012

Saturday, December 15, 2012

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 :(...

Friday, December 14, 2012

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 :(...

Thursday, December 13, 2012

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!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

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

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

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

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

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

Monday, October 01, 2012

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

Friday, August 24, 2012

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?!?!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

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.