Still in Utah- me, Scott, and Kellan went to CPK today and took a PS3 controller with us to work out the controls for our new game over lunch. Sure we looked like dorks but we got some good work done, especially since we are exploring some nice sized changes to our control set up....
++++++++++++++++ Man...it don't get much cooler than THAT! DAMN THAT IS SWEET!!!!!
++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++
Hit the Macaroni Grill with Scott and Kellan. If you've never been, they have tablecloths you can write on with the crayons they provide. Here's what we doodled while chatting games, work, and other stuff.
My doodles...never got to Pyramid Head in Silent Hill, but there is my take. GDC was sketched when we were talking about me having to miss my GDC speech. I am a big believer that doodles say much about the doodler. Not sure what these images say about me!
Kellan's sketch...by the end of the night, the dude had an exposed brain! It was really sweet and gross!
Scott's terrorist or biker gang dude....
Oh, and I found these cool Sweet Tooth cycle helmet customs online. Sweet, eh?
My childhood hero is back! The Indy 4 trailer- like a Valentine's gift to my inner 10 year old-was just waiting for me when I got up to my mac this morning. Let me tell you, if you have not yet seen it, it does not disappoint. It feels more like Crusade in it's tone and humor- much as you can deduce the end result from a trailer- and less like the edgy Raiders and Temple but I'll take 1000 Last Crusades over 95% of the films out these days. So yeah, I am a happy ass camper. No doubt.
And the film- far as I can tell from the little window on my mac- LOOKS great. It LOOKS like an old adventure movie from back in the day. I know this is what the filmmakers were going for and it seems like they nailed it.
So thanks Spielberg and Lucas.
And and thanks to my brother too.
Wait, my brother?!?! What'd he have to do with the way Indy 4 looks?!?!
Well...a little, anyway!
Get this! This is the personal cool news I wanted to share ages ago but could not:
My motherfucking brother WORKED on this freaking masterpiece! YEP! He was 2nd unit asst. camera on the truck chase that you see in today's very trailer!!!! Imagine that! He and I were just kids when we were both swept away by the first Raiders, both falling in love with the movies! And now, he's not only making movies (he's been doing that for many years), but he's fucking making not just a STEVEN SPIELBERG movie...he's making an INDIANA JONES movie!!! OH MAN! How nuts will that be to watch this movie with him and when that scene comes on- how cool!
Ok, heading out. Taking my daughters to our first annual daddy-daughter Valentine Day breakfast! Guess what swanky place they picked? They could have picked anywhere in the city and they picked...McDonalds! :) Kids after my own heart!
EDIT: some more pics for Sunday! Thank you! Please keep them coming! So cool!
EDIT: CANADA- I hear you guys and so you know, this whole thing is news to us at Eat Sleep Play (and perhaps SCEA as well).. No one ever mentioned that Canadians would get the shaft regarding art book and music. It is FIRST on my list to deal with when work opens tomorrow morning; I will keep you guys posted.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Hey! Blogging from Vegas.
Did a whole vid blog but Flixn is broke- audio is working tho. Here:
Fried from drinking and press and no sleep- but show is going great!
Heading down in a bit to the DICE awards! Watch it streamed live on Gamespot!
Anyway, first pics from people buying our game! Thank you so much!!!! :)
Thanks Carlton!
Thanks Davis!
Thanks Synthr!
Oscar, Thank You!!! And thanks for all the support over the years at the Playstation Store!! :)
Thank you Delriach (and wife of Delriach!) :)
Thank you, Rex!!!
Thanks David! For both buying our game and all the great message board support over the last few years. We SOOOO appreciate it!
RallyRes! Thanks dude- for buying our game and for creeping the shit out of me with this manip! Thanks for the support on the board as well! :)
KILRGRN, thank you for buying our new game and thanks for being so understanding about taking those scans down :) I know your heart was in the right place :)
Ray- thanks dude! And thanks for keeping Shoutbox going with all your great posts!
Torgo, thanks! And thanks for the podcast support! We still need to get the team to sign a copy for you guys!
Yeah, I'm sure I've used that headline on previous blogs...ah well.
So off to DICE in a few hours! CAN. NOT. WAIT!
Love Vegas, love catching up with old biz buddies and drinking like crazy, love that the award show is going live over the net (altho I still have no clue what to wear when I will be presenting), and hell, the show itself looks good this year too!
Few things before I go:
1- Some new TM HEAD ON interviews have hit. Check them out if you so desire:
2- To the three folks who won the New Year's contest, can you please post your mailing address to the comment section of this post? I will get those sent out this week (I THINK the Sony copies have come in...if not, I will let you know when they are... but I think they have!)
3- Twisted Metal hits the shelves today! If you buy a copy, would you please take a pic of yourself doing it (at the store). I'd love to post it- if you don't mind- on the blog. That'd be cool! I'd love to see pics of folks buying our games! So please! Send me those pics!
Little time to post today, just a few quick things:
1- Looks like I will be KEYNOTING the game career conference at this year's GDC. I told them I would speak, did not know it would be a keynote!!! Jeeze, there's pressure. Well look, a few things: if you plan on going know this:
a- it is going to be very off the cuff. I'm gonna go through my career steps, give a little advice on what I would have done differently, and take questions during the whole talk. I told them I did not have time to plan out a big, detailed speech and they were like: 'no worries, just talk about how you got to be doing what you are.' And so that is what I will do :) If you plan on coming, bring lots of questions so we can just shoot the shit, talk, and share war stories.
b- Contrary to what you may think, I have no intention of this being a rant or soapbox session. I will answer questions as honestly as I can- as always- but I'm not lookiong to make waves or make a barbed point or anything like that. The whole thing is helping new folks get into the biz and/or advance where they are in the biz. So I will consider the talk a success if even one person takes one thing I did (or didn't do) on my career path and succeeds even a touch because of what we talked about. So if you are coming for a reble rousin' good time...well, that MAY happen but it's not the goal. Hell, it's never the goal...it just tends to happen sometimes :)... But so know that...if you are looking for drama, look elsewhere...cause my other goal is to keep the damn thing out of the press so I will be trying not to say ANYTHING that will get me a post on Kotaku :) Much as I LOVE Kotaku, I'm just ready for a drama free GDC! Oh and hey, I'm doing a fun thing with Kotaku at GDC, come to think of it...I'll fill you in when they let me.
2- Pics! Some random pics I thought I would share:
Went to pick up diapers last night for my kids...and it occurred to me, with the youngest being 2 1/2, ain't much longer I'm gonna need to be picking up the Pampers :( You never know what the future holds and hey, there are always grandkids, but man, I'm gonna miss diapers! Is that crazy?!?! Could be, but I've really loved having babies and very small kids around the house. Ah well, on to the next stage!!!
Decided to get on the ball and make my office look a LITTLE nicer...wife got this custom framed for me...it's 3-4 transparent sheets that I laid over the map of GOD OF WAR (back when it was called DARK ODYSSEY) in order to see where all the monsters and cut scenes and puzzles went...it's neat to look at the image now and see a very, very rough sketch of what ended up being the whole game!
Here are some close ups:
Ahh, the Hydra...and look at little stickman Kratos with his dual blades...man I suck at drawing! :)
Went to ebay and purchased- and then framed- four of the games that made me fall in love with video games when I was a kid: ADVENTURE, COMBAT, DODGE EM, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. Funny thing is, if you look at Twisted Metal, God of War, and Calling All Cars, you can TOTALLY see the influence of those games!
And finally...yes, tomorrow is the big day out here in Cali...as well as in 21 other states. I am so excited and happy and proud to be voting for Obama. Look, I have not drunk the Kool Aid in that I KNOW he's a politician and I KNOW that no one is 100% what they promise in politics...but hell, if he's 40% of what he says, I'll be damn happy. Go Obama!
Here's a sneak peak of THE DARK PAST, the documentary on the history of the Twisted Metal series. It ships with TWISTED METAL-HEAD ON: EXTRA TWISTED EDITION, which comes out Feb 5th! Lots more bonus content on the disc (which you may have read about) but I wanted to give ya'll a quick look at what some of it looks like.
About 6 months ago we put a call out to hardcore/diehard TM fans to send us video clips of them talking about the series. This clip represents some of our favorites! Check it out!
#1- Check out me and Scott on the Playstation Nation podcast! Always fun to work with those guys! Find it Here!
#2- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take the TM flame wars to TMA? Me and the folks at Eat Sleep Play appreciate and LOVE the passion over the series but this really isn't the place for it. Thanks! :)
++++++++++++EDIT+++++++++++++++++++
A few more Twisted Metal: HEAD ON- EXTRA TWISTED EDITION interviews hitting today...check them out :)
Also- as to WHY FUCK WIL WHEATON, considering in the vblog I talk about how much I dig him, it was gonna be this whole joke thing making some comparison between me at one time wanting to be his buddy based on his blog...or something...I've forgotten and now all I recall is the title- FUCK WIL WHEATON!- which I really like...even though I'm a total Wheaton Fan (Wheatie? WheateiHead? Wheatonian?)...anyway...see ya!
Hey ya'll! Head on over to Gamespot.com at 4pm (Pacific time) to hear me on their ON THE SPOT show. At least I THINK I am gonna be on (not 100% confirmed yet). And I THINK they have played some of the review code of the new Twisted, so listen in and I will try to pry out some info on if they dug the game, hated it, or were kinda meh on the whole thing.
Also, if you have not seen some of our other press, check out me and Scott doing some press for the new Twisted Metal at:
Will also be chatting with IGN and 1up today I THINK. So look out for that as well!
David
ps. Thanks to Grasshopper for helping me figure out- FINALLY- how to post links to this damn site! Thanks bud!
pps. Extra special thanks to Paul 'bad ass motherfucker' Murphy at Sony PR for setting up all these great PR opps for us. Much as we love the new TM and proud as we are of it, we know without a great PR man hitting the phones, we would not be getting the kind of coverage we are for a PSP-to-PS2 port...so thanks dude!
Can't see the snow in this pic but MAN is it coming down! I was hoping my kids could log on to see how much it's snowing where I'm at- they never see snow in San Diego- but it doesn't show up in this pic. Ah well... :)
Design meetings are going great- man I love design meetings! Then it's like 2 years to get the actual game to live up to what is in everyone's head, but still...it's a blast!
Journalist Zaitsev posted this to the comment section and I wanted to share!
Isn't that fantastic? If you missed it, it's suggesting I'm a pinko commie! What would Colonel Flag think (M*A*S*H reference)?
It's amazing that one of the things that used to make America great- the fact that ideas of all kinds, no matter how different or unpopular, could be debated and brought up for discussion- is now the very thing that gets you labeled a commie. Not that this is a new trend, but I think it's been brought to the level of art form by our buddies Bush/Rove/Cheney.
Anyway, great pic Zaitsev! Thank you! And send a link when you get your story up.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
##############EDIT#############
Thanks for all the great comments, ya'll. Appreciate the input. A few quick things:
a- as many have pointed out, I am arguing for a single standard not a single console. Thanks for clarifying and helping me express it better. And just because the 'big 3' would never stand for it, as some of you say, I wonder what the big 3 would do if EA, Capcom, Valve, Ubi, Blizzard, Activision,etc. formed a consortium and made a console/standard of their own and agreed to only publish on that standard. It would at least put Sony and Xbox out to pasture unless they did something drastic, pretty damn quick.
b- For the record- to all the semi-sensationalist headlines around the net: Jaffe is not 'arguing for' or 'proposing' anything. I think my blog post made it pretty clear I was simply floating the idea, that I did not think I was 100% right, and that I was open to being educated on the subject. Nice reading skillz, ya'll!
c- Chris Kohler reads good! Thanks for taking me up on it. Read your post at Wired.com and loved it. And you are spot on: to me, 80% of the game innovation I care about comes via design, not tech. Yes, you need your upgrades but I could live with an upgrade every 8 years or so (like 2d to 3d) and then do the rest via software upgrades and perpipheral add ons. But that's just me. Thanks for your article tho. Lots of good info on the subject there....see ya at Dice/GDC!
Ok, I'm done with it. Back to more posts about me and the wife watching fecal paste slither out of young women's brown eyes. I mean, come on, THAT'S the reason you come here isn't it? Well hell, that's the the reason I post here! :)
David
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Can anyone explain to me how having ONE console would be bad for gamers? Or game developers for that matter?
The argument that keeps coming up is, ‘oh, it would stifle competition and competition is good for gamers!’
But I don’t understand this in regards to console hardware.
One game publisher would be bad. One giant game developer would be bad. I get how those things would hurt gamers. But why would one unified hardware platform?
We have it with DVD, we had it with VHS. We have it with televisions (in the sense that- for the most part- every tv is capable of broadcasting the same signal). So what do we lose by having it for game consoles?
Sure you miss out on some features that may otherwise be available if another console was there to compete. But this is always the way when one format wins over another and becomes the standard. And for those few features you lose, don’t you make up for it in so many other ways? Massive content choice, being the main one. And what about better quality products because the makers of the software/television shows/dvds don’t have to spend one instant struggling to make the same content for 2-3 different systems and instead can focus on making grate content right out of the gate? And you get MORE competition on the software side- which is, to me, where it counts- because there is MORE competition to be the best on a single system instead of content creators splintering and never ever worrying about competing with 2 out of the 3 groups.
For me, those are much bigger reasons to want a single console. Sure, you miss out on a cool feature here, a neat feature there. But we’ve gotten used to this in so many other hardware products and- in doing so- reaped the many more benefits of a single system.
Sure, our industry would have to battle it out to determine who gets to make the system. Is it one company or a group of companies? Or is it like television sets where you have multiple consoles that run the same software but with their own unique features?. And before you toss 3DO at me as an example as to why this won’t work, don’t. 3DO failed because- for the most part- it had crap games and was way too expensive and could not compete with the new game hardware coming out that was selling at much cheaper prices. But if the 3DO had been an XBOX 360 or a PLAYSTATION 2….or even a Wii? Well then I think things would have gone differently.
A lot of people will say: well, the game companies would never agree to this or that or the other. And to me, that is part of the problem our business has overall. Competition is great. But I think the leaders of the biggest groups should come together from time to time- like the big Mafia families do in the movies- and make some decisions together for the overall health of the business. Heck, maybe they already do this and I am just not aware. But if they do, they have not made the right decision on the one thing I think that could benefit gamers and game makers in a massive way: a single console.
As always. I’m up for being proven wrong. I don’t think I have the ultimate answer and I know there are some strong feelings on this topic from some folks. But I’ve yet to have a good argument from anyone-including these vocal anti single system folks- as to why a single console is wrong. Please to educate me? Even if the reason is competition, please explain why it works in other industries but would not work in ours? Thanks!
I shit you not, Hillary winning last nite really got me upset. Is that lame? Yeah, I guess. I think I just allowed myself to hope- just for a moment- that politics as usual would not prevail. And when politics as usual did, it really annoyed me. More than it should have I think. And so I've been cranky all day.
Hate to write when I am cranky as I don't feel it's an accurate reflection of how I feel about things. I'm actually a big fan of what Nintendo is doing, how can you not be?
I know I usually put these in the corner- and will continue to do so- but in the interest of seeing the whole reaction, here's a full screen view....I forgot to tell my wife to sit off center...my fault.
No more comic book stores for me! Check out the latest video blog on the upper right of this blog to see what's up with my newest passion: Marvel Digital Comics!
Will this be the FINAL nail in the coffin for comic stores? Maybe...hell, probably. Just like music stores.
But I think this could also open up the medium to so many more people...now all they gotta do is try to make some comics that grown ups don't feel like idiots reading. I know there are some out there- used to LOVE Strangers in Paradise. But hell, I would love to read an adult oriented ACTION comic...it's like you either get the 10 year old boy superhero stories or the 20 something angsty hippie chick comix. Yes this is a generalization but it's kinda true from my 30+ years of comic reading experience.
Either way- this is great stuff for lovers of the medium and lovers of Marvel (that's me!) included! Now DC just needs to fall in line. Eager to see how well this is going for Marvel, money wise. I hope this takes off!
See ya!
David
*******************EDIT:
Adam Orth-from Sony- just sent me this image of the comic that- it seems- is still in the Sony Santa Monica bathroom! Watch the V-blog to see what the hell I'm talking about :) Thanks Adam! Just glad Herminie isn't photoshopped into the toilet!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ EDIT: NOT THIS POST! DO NOT POST TO THIS POST! Read this post....you need to comment to a NEW POST that is going up after midnite! Thanks!!! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3:30pm San Diego time. Less than 9 hours till a brand new year. Amazing how times flies although I have to say, this year has been a great one. So much has happened that I am so grateful for and so much living - versus simply existing- was packed into the last 12 months, that for the first time in memory I don't look back and think, 'man, where did the year go?!?!' It really feels like I milked the shit out of 2007. I got no regrets, just great memories. And I'm ultra jazzed for what 2008 has in store for us all.
Ok, so I wanted to give those of you who are interested in the 'Win Twisted Metal: Head On: Extra Twisted Edition PS2' contest, some info:
I did not make the time to fill out the holiday cards. I got sick and that- plus normal holiday activities- just drained my time. So no cards went out and I doubt I will ever get around to sending them. I am very, very sorry for those who took the time to go to the yahoo account and enter addresses. But let me make it up to you...in two ways!
#1- Because I feel bad for being a slacker, let's give away 4 copies of the game, versus 3! So, there ya go: one extra chance to win a copy!
#2- Since I'm tossing the whole holiday card idea, it means more than 20 folks (the original number of cards I was going to send out) now have a chance to win now! So that's good(for those who didn't make the cut!)...
So here's the deal...at between 12:00 and 12:30am on Jan 1 PST (i.e. once us Californians get to see the ball drop in NYC Times Square) I will post a new blog entry. The folks who post to that blog entry's #10,#15,#20,and #26 comments will get a copy of the game. So it's like the old school radio call in contests ('be caller #10 to win a pair of tickets to the Duran Duran concert!')...but now there are 4 chances to win...not just one! You just gotta make sure your comment lands in one of those slots! And YES, multiple comments are ok!
So good luck! I will post the winners later tonite or first thing in the am.
NOTE: If for some reason blogger has an allergic reaction to folks refreshing and posting comments fast (and yes, the comments don't have to have anything written in them...they can be empty as long as blogger will take them)...but if for some reason, it doesn't work the way I think it is...I reserve the right to find a new way to give these damn things away :)
But let's hope for the best! I think it'll work great!
By the way, if you are from out of the country, I am more than happy to send you a copy if you win, but it is the NTSC version. Also, the games will go out- I THINK- around the week we ship. But it may be a bit sooner or a bit later, depending on when we get our copies from Sony.
Ok, so that's that.
Now I gotta go get ready. We are having a little kids New Year's party/play date that starts in less than an hour. I imagine the kids and their parents will not make it till midnight so it will prob be me and the wife ringing in the new year and then her hitting the hay while I update the blog and try to whip thru a few more Uncharted chapters (I am on chapter 18 right now) before I go to bed. My fantasy is to finish the game before the holiday officially ends tomorow nite. I'll let ya'll know!
Oh and look: if you are going out tonite, please be safe! Have a great time and Happy New Year! Looking forward to continuing to blog and chat with ya'll in 2008 (the year of Indy!!!)...
ok, gotta run...see ya'll...and good luck tonite if you are entering the contest!
Doing some house cleaning on the blog, moving some stuff around...So hey, I put a new chat box in the corner...we'll see if this one works better than the last! Be fun to talk in real time with some of ya'll! This one is better than the last in that no one but me can post as Jaffe or David Jaffe or djaffe,etc...so if you see that name, it's really me...not some 12 year old Playstation hater trying to fuck stuff up for folks. I can also ban people so that will be good if people show up trying to screw things up...so we'll see where it goes...
Also I put up a video blog feature-real easy to do so I think I will use this feature alot if people don't get sick of seeing me in person! I know the audio drops out, video skips a bit, and the whole image is not shown. Will work on fixing/improving that for next update- not sure if there is anything I can do however. It seems pretty plug and play and what you see is what you get.
The kids are asleep, the cookies for Santa are out, and there are so many presents under the tree that I vacillate between shame and excitement. As me and the family- aka wife, brother, mom, dad, mother in law, father in law, settle in to watch LOVE, ACTUALLY (love that movie!) I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the baby Jesus, Happy belated Hanukkah to those who dance the Hora, and to my fellow agnostics, HAPPY HOLIDAYS YA'LL!
As a person who is pretty much a hedonist, me and the wife celebrate everything that seems fun. We lit the Menorah (cause I was raised Jewish, but no longer am), we have a tree (cause my wife was raised Christian but no longer is), and hell, if I knew anything about Quanza (including how to spell it) I'm sure we'd celebrate that.
But the main thing we celebrate is how fortunate we are to have family and love and health. I will update I am sure before New Year's but still: have a great holiday ya'll! Be safe and have so much fun!
This is the worst sore throat I've had since I was in Vegas for the very first Sony Santa Monica Xmas party and I was up all night in the bathroom drinking tea from room service, sitting on the bathroom floor reading magazines so I would not wake up my wife.
This so sucks!
And you know it sucks cause I took Nyquil and this soar throat is so bad, the pain woke me up, even tho I'm drugged up on that shit...which I LOVE by the way!
Tea and Tylonol...what else can you do? My codine perscription- I forget why I have codine...some sickness in the past- is no longer valid. Mmmmm, codine would rock rite now....!
Oh, check this out:
Doing final Xmas shopping tonite and I popped into Radio Shack. Didn't know they sold PS games! And check it- The God of War games are for sale in there! Not that I have the skills as a writer, but if I had any energy right now, I'd attempt to write about how full circle-y it is that a game I worked on is for sale in Radio Shack. Radio Shack? What's so special about Radio Shack? Well, the Radio Shack in the Brookwood Village mall back in Alabama was the very place I used to 'program' fantasy adventure games on the TRS-80/CoCo in the back of the store while my parents were shopping at the mall....(if you can call my BASIC programming slop 'programming')...ya know...something like this:
5 CLS 10 PRINT "You are standing in front of an ancient Mayan temple." 20 PRINT "Vines cover the stone steps that lead up to the pyramid summit, some 200 feet above..." 30 INPUT "What do you do?!?"; A$ 40 IF A$ ="Take steps" GOTO 70 50 IF A$="Look at Vines" GOTO 60 60 PRINT "The vines are slippery, wet. Is that blood on them?!?" 65 GOTO 80 70 PRINT "Are you actually still reading this shitty BASIC PROGRAMMING example that probably would not even run cause I think I've forgotten the proper syntax for how to do Input strings?!?!"
Ok, gonna try to sleep again...or maybe I'll play some Uncharted. Finished Ratchet finally yesterday...LOVED IT! Started uncharted and I LOVE the theme and the look of it...controls suffer in comparison to the buttery smooth Ratchet but the ambiance and spirit of the game keep pulling me back. I worry tho about how much shooting there is. I LIKE the shooting; it's fun and really well done. But I'm at this part- right after the UBOAT- where it's like damn: ENOUGH FUCKING SPAWNING THE DRONES! EVERY 10 STEPS IS MORE FUCKING GUNPLAY!
Man I dig this game alot but I hope it's not paced this way the whole way thru...with just one shoot out after another....is it?!?
Take care ya'll!
David
ps. God I hope I don't stay sick for long...my brother and parents are in town for Xmas and they tend to love movies as much as me. So many good flicks to see...I hope I'm well enough for us to all go out...I love doing that! And there's some good stuff to see right now...the Tom Hanks thing, Atonement, National Treasure, The Great Debaters...ok, gonna go to bed and try to get well...
A sharp as hell #2 pencil, a stack of clean white paper, and a big tub of diet coke by my side. Yep, I'm in brainstorm mode. And hands down, this is the BEST part of my job.
Doing doodles, sketching out ideas, working out mechanics on paper; seeing how one idea leads to another...and God, when you hit on a idea you just LOVE, ooohhh, that's a nice group of pleasure neurons that fire off and make you feel like a God! But THEN once you get one of those cool ideas, I tend to get all like 'ok, don't push it' and then I kind of sit for an hour with NOTHING coming cause it's like the Universe is like a) don't get greedy! and b) ok, YOU may like it but don't be an arrogant ass and assume anyone else will!
Ah ya know, screw it...the (a) above is totally true...the (b) is not. I never feel that way. I fucking KNOW when I've stumbled upon a sweet ass idea. I don't question it. I was just trying to sound humble :)
In fact, here. Check this out:
See? That says 'COOL!' and there is a big circle around it. I do that when I hit on something I really, really like so it doesn't get lost amid the many doodles on the many sheets of paper floating around. I also do it as a way- I guess- of expressing how excited I am. It just kind of comes out.
And the best thing is, this is the part where I- having come up with what I feel is a sweet ass idea, or having heard a sweet ass idea from someone else on the team-get the same charge players get when they play the game for the first time and see/experience something cool. Difference is, now that I've gotten the charge, the team still has to work like crazy the next 10-24 months in order to bring some of these cool ideas life and thus, give players the same charge we've had for over 2 years!
But whatever- that's the job part of it, right? No worries. Especially given the people I work with tend to take a cool idea and then thru execution, make it 50 times better anyway!
And all that aside- WHEN one of the notes/sketches/doodles that I've worked on gets made and then gets in the hands of a gamer and THEY light up and smile in the same way I did when I first sketched the thing 2 years prior...man, that makes it worth it!
Plus, fuck man, even if some of these ideas don't make it (and alot won't), I still get to sit here all safe from the cold outside, warm in my cozy office surrounded by cool pictures, neat toys, and all the latest and greatest video games and just be creative! Fuck dude...what did I do so right in my last life to deserve this?!?!
+++++++++++++++ EDIT: And that's all she wrote. We're well past our 20 card limit so THANK YOU guys/gals for all the interest. I will be sending the cards out in the next several days so you'll have to wait to see if you made the cut :)
Gotta run get the kids out of the bath- chat with ya'll later! And thanks again for playing!
David
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hey, wanna get a little Eat Sleep Play holiday cheer in your mailbox AND have a chance to win the very first EAT SLEEP PLAY game ever made?!?! Sure ya do!
So...check it out:
Here you can see our first evaaar Eat Sleep Play holiday card. I have 20 of these that I will send out to the first 20 people that send eatsleepplay100@yahoo.com a functioning snail mail address. NOTE: DO NOT COMMENT YOUR ADDRESS HERE....send it to eatsleepplay100@yahoo.com and see if you can get your hands on the card.
That alone-the chance to own what will one day be a small piece of classic gaming memorabillia!....err we hope :)- should be enough to get your ass rushing to your keyboard to enter your address! But if that wasn't enough...check this out:
There it is, the cover for our first game! I like it! Pretty snazzy, I think!
So here's how you could win a free copy of the thing!
The FIRST 3 people WHO HAVE BEEN SENT AN EAT SLEEP PLAY HOLIDAY CARD to comment on THIS BLOG (not at the eatsleepplay100 account) but THIS BLOG in 2008, will get a copy of the game!
So the steps are:
1- get a card by being one of the first 20 to send your address to eatsleepplay100@yahoo.com 2- IF you have a card AND you are one of the first 3 commenters on THIS BLOG in 2008 (SAN DIEGO TIME, BY THE WAY) you will win a copy of the game.
That's it...pretty easy, yeah?
As always, you need to be 18 to play and Eat Sleep Play makes the final rules and decisions about who won,lost,and why...no matter if you think you won or lost :)
So...hell...a free holiday card AND a maybe a free game! What the hell is wrong with you! Send us those addresses! :)
Good luck ya'll!
Talk soon!
David
ps. and don't forget. Don't comment here with the address...send it to eatsleepplay100@yahoo.com.
In Utah right now where it's cold and snowy...but I'm digging that! We never get snow in San Diego- and very rarely got it in Alabama- so I love it when it snows. I really enjoyed walking back to the office from lunch today as the white stuff started floating down. With the the snow and all the Xmas lights and decorations up and Christmas music coming outl of pretty much every speaker you go past, the whole day was really festive. I love this time of year!
But man what a long day! An early ass flight (up at 4am to catch the 6am) and then a long, but very productive- and very exciting- day of game design on our first new game for Sony! It's always best to sleep on the ideas of the day, to let the ideas settle before you get too excited... but I'm feeling pretty good that when I wake up tomorrow I'll still be really jazzed. We'll see :)
So hey, I'm dead tired. Gonna go to bed. But first...some pics before I hit the hay:
Check it out! This is what greeted me when I got up to the office today! Our logo on the door! Ok, ok, it's not that big a deal to you probably, but hey, all of us at Eat Sleep Play own the damn company so it's pretty cool to see your company logo on the door! This is the first time I've seen it on the window and door and I gotta admit, I got a bit of a thrill :)
Here is what I am eating for dinner RIGHT NOW! As in RIGHT NOW as we speak! Isn't that...boring? Yeah, I know, I know. But hell, I figured I'd share. Hey cool, it's like we're eating dinner together....err, sort of? Whatever. Die. :)
Tomorrow is our office Xmas party. That's the tree and some of the white elephant gifts we're giving out, wrapped in old bown bags (to make the gifts even more shitty) :)
And finally, the second of the Calling All Cars figures Scott likes to carve. Pretty snazzy, eh?
Ok that's it for me. I am beat. Was gonna stay up and type the design notes but I'm fried. Try to get to it in the am.
Well that was fun ya'll. Man, I got real sloppy towards the end...rope a dope I guess! :)
So the winners are:
Tideas Sirchoode Rastor
Some really great games in there! Thank ya'll so much!
I will contact the three winners on PSN mail tomorrow and get the info we need to send out the prizes!
Happy Holidays ya'll! And thanks again for playing tonite!
David
ps. sorry for those who wanted to get in but did not...I wish there was a better way to gurantee that everyone got to play a round...next time! +++++++++++++++++
EDIT #2:
GAME IS UP:
name: eatsleepplay pw: beckinsale
my mic is not charged :( So no voice for me!
Hope to see ya'll online!
David
++++++++++++ EDIT: Yeah, that is late...let's change it: It'll be 8:45 San Diego time...8:40 for the room and password post info
++++++++++++++++++++
...actually, not crap at all! It's our first ever EAT SLEEP PLAY holiday swag! Check it out!
It's a box full of...well, hell, I ain't saying...but it's good! Really good! And it's our holiday gift to many folks in the biz this year. And it's also our holiday gift to you, loyal supporters of this new endeavor we like to call EAT SLEEP PLAY!
Well, I meant to say: it's your holiday gift if you can kick my ass at Calling all Cars tonite!
Is it lame I'm so jazzed about doing this? Probably. Who cares! Here's the deal:
I will be online tonite at 10pm San Diego Time (that's Pacific, to all you 'No Child Left Behind' folks). I will create a room in the Chief lobby and password it. The name of the game and the password for it will go up at 9:50 or so on this very blog. If for some reason, blogger is down, I will post the info on neogaf.com forums.
If you are one of the first 3 people to beat me in a game of Calling All Cars, we'll ship you out one of these babies: Eat Sleep Play's VERY FIRST- in what we know will be a long line of- Hoiday Goodies!
So I hope to see you online tonite and I hope at least SOMEONE can kick my ass!
Oh, but first, a few rules:
1. This contest is not a Sony contest AT ALL! They have nothing to do with it.
2. Winners and losers and all the details of who wins is totally up to us at Eat Sleep Play. So even if you THOUGHT you won, and we say you didn't, too bad. Not that we would ever do that, but we have to say it so we're all clear.
3. All games will be async start, so you can drop in at ANY time to play...but if you want to win, I suggest coming in at the start of a game (joining with us as we all leave the lobby) so you have more time to rack up points.
4. If I come in 4th in a game of 4, then all of those folks in the game 'beat me' and they all win...unless we've already given away 1-2 boxes. In that case, the person(s) with the highest points, take the prize.
5. Finally- and this is key- IF you play a game, you must quit out of the game room when the game is over...wait about 2 minutes and then rejoin. You can play as many times as you want but you need to drop out of the game room to make sure others have a turn. If you play two games in a row and I catch you doing it, you're out of the running.
6.If for some reason, stuff gets confusing, check my blog. I will have my laptop next to me as I play and will update as needed.
7. Finally- if you are under 18 and you win, we will not send you anything unless your parent(s) call us and say it's all cool.
8. Oh, and also: if you win, shoot me a friend invite on PSN network with your shipping info (and your age!) and we'll get your prize out this week (assuming if you are under 18, your parents have contacted us)
9. If it gets too late and no one has won and my wife is like: COME TO BED! or if my kids wake up and start crying and I gotta take care of them,etc...I will post this info and what the next steps are on my blog (i.e. 15 minutes break, end of the contest,winners list,etc)....
I'm really hoping I get to play and meet you guys tonite! Hell, it may just be like 3 of us the whole night anyway given the number of folks who play online :) But still...I will try to hook up my headset (never done it at home before) so we can chat live. Looking forward to meeting some of you readers for the first time!
And many thanks go out to my partner in crime Scott Campbell and our producer/office head/not-really-sure-of-her-title-but-we'd-all-be-dead-without-her Angelic Quntana of Eat Sleep Play for getting these great gifts and helping me out with this here contest.
Sorry for the slow posting this week- not much time as both my kids were sick and I've been getting my head into new designs (which is nice, but take most of my creative energy....yes, these blog posts take creative energy, you ass! :)
Anyway, more posts this week but for now, I just saw this and Xmas came early...I'm sure many of you have already see it by now but I wanted it on my blog cause it's so fucking great!
Seen a few posts- and talked to a few folks- who say it reminds them of Temple of Doom. God, I hope the film is better that that. To be fair, TOD is a good, solid Indy flick and I think- if I may be the Indy geek that I am for a moment- that the Indy character in TOD is much more consistent with how he is in Raiders than how Indy comes across in Last Crusade...so I like that alot. The film has grown on me over the years but I think anything coming after the kind of masterpiece that was/is Raiders was bound to be a disappointment. Not in an AfterM*A*S*H sort of way, but still TOD was a bit of a let down.
Anyway, man this just brings me back to my childhood. So glad they made a good, old fashioned movie poster for this flick. I didn't expect less. In fact, it was exciting to hear Spielberg say that he was not changing his directing style to keep pace with more current action film techniques. I like that. I think Indy by way of Michael Bay- much as I dig some of Bay's work- would just feel wrong.
So I'm jazzed for this thing- can't wait! Gonna drive up to LA to see it in a giant theater with a fun crowd. Hell, maybe I'll fly back to Birmingham and see it in my old home town...that seems like the right way to revisit my childhood hero.
Ok, gotta get the day started. Talk later!
David
ps. I'm sure like EVERY summer, there will be 1-2 standout films and the rest will be crap. BUT if you look at the movies hitting this summer- and the directors behind them- it seems to have the potential to be pretty fucking great! Batman! Ironman! SpeedRacer! Indy! Shit, there's a few more I can't remember but still...I'll be there!
pps. had a good lunch with the producer of the GOD OF WAR movie a few weeks ago. Some big news COULD be coming on that front soon but nothing set in stone yet. But yeah, the project is still alive! And looking strong! BUT the funny part is, I was just sitting there kind of gushing over movies, what to go see, what was coming out, etc. Just being a fanboy. And he- the producer of the GOW flick and many other movies, including this summer's GET SMART, which looks really funny- was just so nonchalant about the whole thing. I mean, it's clear he loves the movies but it's also clear that- to him- it's a great job, but it's still just a job. And at first I was a bit disappointed. I wanted to grab him and scream: 'DUDE! You make the coolest fucking shit on the planet'! But then I realized that when something is your job, as much fun as it is, you tend to forget how cool your work really is. I have people come up to me all the time and gush over games, and get excited about new games coming out and I'm excited along with them but nowhere near as jazzed as they seem to be. And I think it must be the same thing. When it's your job, when you see games way in advance, when you get many games for free, when you MAKE the damn things...well sometimes you forget how cool your medium really is. So this meeting really made me stop and think and realize how amazingly lucky I am to do what I do, and how cool the medium I work in really is. So yeah, I'm very damn crazy excited these days about my work...and who can ask for anything beyond then when it comes to your job? I guess the best job is the one that does not feel like a job...and that's what I got! Ok, I'm rambling now...I really gotta run...see ya'll!
This is the game I directed/lead designed that is currently running on Playstation Network! The critics pretty much hated it but it has its fans and I am one of them! I'm super proud of this thing and I think it's a blast! Hope to see ya online while it's still alive :).
THE LITTLE COMPANY THAT WAS...
We've officially shut down The Bartlet Jones Supernatural Detective Agency. I am almost certain it shall rise again one day in some form or another but at least as far as ver 1.0 is concerned, 'She's dead, Jim'. And I'll miss her. What a great team, a great company, and a great experience. Thanks for everything, Bartlet Jones! And thanks to Sony for the opportunity to launch our little adventure; y'alls faith in us remains so appreciated! Y'all rock!
No idea why it's a 'guilty' pleasure. But it is! :) Love this show!
JUST FINISHED (AND I LOVED IT!)
WOW- WHAT A COOL MOVIE!
WATCHING:
And EAGERLY waiting for next 4 episodes!
WATCHING
...and STUNNED by how good, funny, and emotional this is! Was not a fan of the original so this really caught me by surprise!
PLAYING:
Took me FOREVER to get around to playing this! WOW! LOVE IT! Limbo was cool but 'meh' for me. This tho? Next level shit, right here!
READING:
WATCHING:
Watch this with my 12 year old. Season 2 not as strong as season 1 but it's still lots of fun! ...And I don't WANNA fit in!!! :)
PLAYING
My kid finally got a PC so her and I play this networked on weekends! She's in her room and I'm in mine, shouting to each other as we play! So much fun! :)
THE FEW, THE PROUD, THE...peeps who follow this blog :)
Posts
