Fucking Yeah, Bitches!

Love the title! Love that it's less than a year away! Love that my-....err, can't spill those beans, just yet! But one day! man I'm dying to tell somebody! Ah well...but nope! Lipz iz sealed! :)

David

THE DNA OF A GAME

Well, there it is! Our first new, non-port game for Sony!

Well...sort of.

It's actually the result of 2 or so weeks of me doodling on white boards and notebooks and on my Wacom tablet. All those scribbles- or at least the ones that I think matter- have now found their way onto sticky notes and onto my white board. Next step is to try to fashion the game core from these elements. They won't all make it...some will die out because of scope....some will die out because- while being cool- they don't fit in with the other elements all that well. Some will die out because they were stupid ideas to begin with.

From these sticky notes, I'll write a very high level design doc and send it off to the gang in Utah. Then they will have suggestions for new ideas and for killing some of the listed ideas for various reasons; we will haggle over this and that. And then it goes off to Sony where we hope they are digging it as much as we are.

So there you go: the first step on the long, hard road to fun! You gotta start somewhere, ya know?

Have a great weekend, ya'll!

David

LEVEL DESIGN MIX AND MATCH

As some of you know, I was not involved in Twisted Metal:Black 2 while it was originally in production. I was tied up on God Of War at the time and could only watch from afar as Sweet Tooth and the boyz (yes, I'm kidding with the 'z') had another go. But for reasons to be revealed in the upcomming TM Doc, TM:BLACK 2 was canned and for a while, those levels just sat around, collecting virtual dust.

Well now we're bringing some of the coolest levels back to life and putting them on the port of TM:HEAD ON in a bonus game we're calling TWISTED METAL:LOST. Lost will have a handful of the levels (prob. 5) from the cancelled TMB2. And these lost levels are what I've been working on the last few weeks. Take a look:




So I sit here in San Diego- as well as the days I'm out in Utah- and we try to figure out how to get these levels to play great, especially in multiplayer. I send my little photoshopped images with my chicken scratch all over them out to the magic makers in Utah and then sit anxiously, waiting for a new built to go up on the network to see if I've guessed right in the changes I've asked for ...and they are all guesses, believe me! Sometimes we get lucky and it plays great...other times it's crap and we go back to the drawing board.





See those big red bars? Those are just placeholder- obviously- barriers thrown in to test out what reconfigurations of the maps could feel like. Sometimes they are just adding a little path to streamline things a bit...other times tossing up some of those giant walls changes how the level plays entirely.

NOTE: Lots of the art in these images is placeholder, like the ground texture which- clearly- is not finished. But you guys can handle some REAL behind the scenes stuff, right? Vs. the bullshit 'behind the scenes' stuff game co's usually toss out...this is the real deal, bitch! This is what game production actually looks like! Ahem....anyway....Just FYI :)

But if the game was so far along when it was canned, wasn't the play already established for these levels? Well, before the original game was canned, the levels were really just nice looking levels with cool ideas but not a whole lot of gameplay love given to them. So now we find ourselves mixing maps together, chopping out entire sections, and adding entire areas of gameplay to make them work. It's actually a really fun design exercise: instead of starting from scratch you're given a bunch of left over parts and pieces and asked to make it fun! And it really is a ton of fun doing it. It's great to see a level take shape before your eyes, to see one or two adjustments make the difference between crap and fun. I'm having a ball and really looking forward to player reactions to these new battlegrounds.

We're also trying to lock our logo down for the new venture. It's tough because on one hand we plan on doing these hard core Sony titles for hardcore and medium core gamers. And that seems to demand a specific kind of logo. But on the OTHER hand we plan on doing casual titles for more mainstream players...and THAT seems to demand a totally different kind of logo. I've been obsessing looking at game boxes from companies like Komami and Capcom where they put out casual and hardcore games. I wanted to see if the logos they chose could travel between game styles... and you know, you don't even think about it. It just kind of is and eventually, you just don't even think about it. Komani has Silent Hill and MGS but the same little red and white Komani logo also graces the cover of DDR. So it kind of doesn't matter.

And I know that...intellectually I get it: the logo matters only if the products matter. But when you own part of the damn company, suddenly it DOES matter....the trick is to be aware that it really only matters to you and some of the team and that gamers- end of the day- will only care about the logo if the products they get from you are amazing. So maybe that's my way of telling myself to stop obesssing about it, pick a fucking logo, and get back to working on the stuff that matters! Thanks Blog! I appreciate it! And cheaper than a therapist too!


Ok, heading to work (which means going to get a bagel and then coming right back here to my office to focus on Twisted Metal)...hope things are going well for all ya'll out there! Shit man, fall is coming! I'm so jazzed! Halloween stuff is already up at Rite Aid and I can sense the shift in the air....so great man! So ready for fall! Ok, see ya!

David

America the embarassing...

How fucking sad and stupid that the GOP wants Craig to step down for what amounts to- in my mind- nothing more than a semi-creepy act in a bathroom stall but the Republicans- and probably many Americans- have no issues allowing Bush and his evil cronies to stay in the White House. What's worse: a guy soliciting sex in a bathroom or Iraq/Katrina/Having 9-11 happen on your watch/putting folks in charge of mine and bridge safety and then watching them fuck up and get people killed/etc./etc./etc....

Not saying the Democrats would be much better. They'd be spineless wimps as well, just over a different issue, I'm sure.

I mean, what really is the problem here? I don't know Craig's work as a Senator. For all I know he was great; but I heard something about him being an uncompassionate ass, so I don't know. But either way, if he worked for me, that's all I'd care about- did he do his job well?- in regards to him staying in office.

And what the fuck is with these hollier-than-tho motherfucking politicos like Romney saying what Craig did was 'disgusting'? What is he, 8 years old? Shit man, yeah, if I was taking a shit in a stall and some dude's hand started creeping under the stall, I sure as shit wouldn't be down with that. Man, I'd probably stomp on the thing out of instinct, thinking it was a strange spider or something. I mean, yes, it is- as I said- kinda creepy. I get that, I agree with that.

But when you toss out words like disgusting, it just kind of makes me a bit ill. Because folks using those sorts of words are doing so mainly to paint themselves in this bullshit Normal Rockwell sexual light that pretty much says, "I am a robot. Only missionary sex is ok and I never think of any women other than my wife and we have sex 2-3 times a week even if we are not in the mood and why would I ever want to go into a stirp club...that's icky!- and every now and then my wife gets a 'little naughty' and wears a little something from Victoria's Secret'....fucking ugh, dude. How fucking sad that our country's views of what is ok and what is not ok sexually are so watered down and dull. Again, I'm not into bathroom stall solicitations but fuck man, maybe if parts of our country didn't demonize sex and make sex 'dirty and wrong' on one hand, but then pour it down our throats in tv and movies and advertising on the other hand, we'd be ok. Or in this case, if our country wasn't so homophobic in the first place, Craig- who seems gay to me or at least curious, assuming he did what they said he did- could go do what he needed to do without HAVING to get his fucking rocks off in a bathroom stall. Sheesh! And it's not just sex either. It's not only about here's the way you should FUCK to be accepted... it's beauty as well. It's like: here's the way you should LOOK to be accepted....even if we have to air brush the shit out of you to the point that NO ONE actually looks that way...but we'll float it out there, to hell with the fact that it fucks up kids who grow up with an impossible sense of what beauty is... Jesus man, junior high never ends, does it? I mean, if I have to hear one more time that Romney LOOKS like a president....I mean, who gives a bathroom-stall-fuck what the man looks like?!?!? I'd vote for a fucking brain in a jar if it could do good work....hell, I'd elect Lulu from fucking Hee-Haw if she'd get the work done! Shit man...

ok...off to do my work...

See ya!

ultra liberal David! :)

Let your damn kids be what they want...

Saw that USC/NFL/ARENA FOOTBALLER Todd Marinovich was arrested again for drugs. I read that this will be his 9th or 10th drug charge and he's already on probation. Seems like jail time is certain. Check out the sad, sad mug:



This fucking breaks my heart, man. For two reasons:

#1- I was at USC when Todd was there. Never met the man but we were in the same year and I had friends who knew him. It just makes me feel old I guess, seeing his pic; granted, it's a mug shot but still...last time I saw him he was like the total golden boy. He really defined the stupid term BIG MAN ON CAMPUS when he was at USC. I can't image there was one thing he would have wanted- a girl, a car, a check- that, at the time, he could not have gotten. Just amazing and sad. Boy I feel old today.

#2- I always heard these stories about how Todd's father was obsessed with him becomming an NFL great and from early childhood had put Todd on that path. The big story that got repeated all the time at SC- which I can't imagine is true- was that until he came to college, Todd had never been allowed to eat a hamburger (because he was on such a strict training regimen his whole life). True or not, I can't say. But it makes me very happy that I really could give two shits what my kids grow up to be, as long as they are happy and kind, or doing what they can to become happy and kind. To that point, it makes me really happy that my parents didn't care what I grew up to be, as long as I was happy. I mean, damn people, let your kids be who they want. There is a HUGE difference between parenting and controlling. Hell, as long as you raise them to be good people, the rest is, really, none of anyone's damn business but their own. God, to think how many kids are simply ruined because they have parents who think it is their place to determine what their kids will become, who they will be, what they will want. Just amazing and, again, sad.

Good luck Todd. No one deserves a shitty life and I hope you find whatever strength you need to turn this shit around.

See ya'll.

David

Visiting with old friends...

Out in Utah for the next few days, tuning and tweaking levels for Tm:Lost and Tm:Head On. Man, being with these characters, these cars, being in this world, it feels like visiting with old friends...again! I thought I was done with car combat after Black but I'm surprised at how much fun I am having! Lots of passion for this little port, I have to say. I really hope you guys/gals dig what we are doing! Here's some quick pics:


Hmmm...


That's the car ROADKILL racing thru the Hollywood level of TM:HEAD ON. The team is in the processes of resing up the textures so it will look much nicer on the PS2 that it did on PSP. They are off to a great start!


Every TM game has 30-40 pages of tweaks. Here's just one of the pages, car dynamics. Today I was working with Scott to tune the car speeds, turn radius, decide how much skid/slide the vehicles should have. I am starting to feel when we made Black, we made too chaotic of a game. The ability to focus on the action and play in a more strategic way got lost for many players. On the port we are toying with dialing it back a bit, exploring the idea of getting back to what made the earlier TM games so much more accessable.


Here is just one page of the main menu of tweaks. It encompasses things like car dynamic tuning; weapon tuning (hit points,speed of weapon, rate of pick up regeneration,etc), AI, and lighting effects. Out of all of these pages, I usually focus on only about 4-10 of them. The others I never touch...cause I don't have a clue what the hell they do!


Art for the shell. Don't let all the Bonus Features fool you. We WANT all that stuff...not sure if we'll be able to get it all in. But we're going to shoot for as much as we can!


Lots and lots of play tuning going on these days, trying to get it just right. Here is one of the levels being tuned and tweaked. One of the most fun parts of this game is sitting with the level builders and pushing and pulling the 3d geometry around, adding a road here, putting up a wall there (well it's fun for me, I just ask for stuff and someone else does all the hard work)! I am always surprised by how one little element (a ramp, a wall, a blockade) set down in just the right place can make a level a blast to play. After all these years I still don't know how to make a great TM level. We can pretty consistently make a good level; but the great ones you just close your eyes and prey because they just sort of come together and end up great, and you are never really sure how or why. The Rooftop level in TM1 is- to me- one of the best levels we've ever made. But rooftops on BLACK is a pretty poor level to me, and we worked HARDER on the Black rooftops than on any other rooftop level in the series! Go figure! Shows what the hell we know! :)


New snazzy reflective, warbly water going into the Egyptian level. Lots of nice spfx touches going in the game- besides the upresed graphics- to make this thing really pop!


Ok, so there's a photo tour of my day. Had to get up at 3:45am to catch a 6:15 flight to Utah so I am friend. Heading to bed. Night ya'll!

David

Full Circle Moment

How fucking cool is that?!?!?

Thanks to Adam- he of Sony game design and the many 'Herminie Loves David' pics- for the great mock up. This takes me back to riding with my dad in his truck, going to Sears to pick up Yar's Revenge at the Century Plaza mall. Ahh, the good ol' days! :)

So hey, make your own...go here:

http://www.labelmaker2600.com/

Ok, back to work. See ya'll!

David

Calling All Cars: The Postmortem (Part I)

It’s been almost 4 months since Calling All Cars! was released on the Playstation Network. As of this writing, it has garnered a decent-but-not-great review score of 77/100 on Metacritic.com. It has sold well, but not so well that it’s broken records or established the current ceiling for best selling downloadable titles. Overall, it’s performed solidly, respectably, and gathered up a loyal group of fans who really seemed to dig and enjoy what we were trying to do.

So now that some time has passed, I feel I’m at a place to look back and see what we did right and what we did wrong on the title. Some of these issues are game design related, others are PR related, while some deal with the philosophical aspects of what a game reviewer’s job is supposed to be and what customers should be expecting out of these new breed of ‘smaller games’.

Time being as limited as it is these days, I’ve only had a chance to write up the first part of this postmortem. The final part will follow in a few days.

All that said: here’s what I learned from working on Calling All Cars:

LESSON #1- GET EVERY ELEMENT RIGHT OR RIP IT OUT- We should have not included a single player mode in this game. From day one, CAC was designed to be a multiplayer title, an action/party game designed to make folks scream at the tv and trash-talk their buddies (online and in the same room). And because the only way people could purchase the game was off the internet, we knew there would be- usually!- at least a handful of people online to play with (so the idea of downloading the game and not being able to play it in multiplayer mode was never a concern). The logic behind putting singleplayer in the game was- I suppose- an unconscious, ingrained game design choice born out of the pre-internet days where every multiplayer-designed title still needed a singleplayer component, even if that mode was not all that great. The problem is, if it’s included, people will judge it. Unless you bury it in bonus features- where people are grateful to get anything extra, including elements that are not-quite-up-to-snuff- there is the expectation that everything on display should be great. And this is a fair expectation. I made an incorrect assumption that it was clear the game was multiplayer centric, an incorrect assumption that most people would play singleplayer to just warm up and learn the game (I mean, who plays games like NBA JAM, or Madden for that matter, for the singleplayer?) But there were people out there judging it mainly as a singleplayer title- as was their right to do since we included it in the core package/shell- and because of this, we got lower scores on some sites and some message boards. This is not the ONLY reason we got some bad scores, to be sure, but I did see a number of reviews (pro and amateur) where people were complaining that the singleplayer game was not very fulfilling. And they were right. But it was never designed to be. The team executed it well, but there was not much to it, design wise, to begin with. So now I know. In the future, if our game is really meant to be a multiplayer title, we will only provide that and not spend valuable time trying to make the singleplayer work. We had a very talented programmer focused on single player for months. I kick myself now when I think that his talents could have gone towards making the multiplayer game player even better.

LESSON #2- SOME CRITICS GET IT, OTHERS DON’T- I got a lot of crap when I called out the Gamespot 6.7 review on this very blog. Most people didn’t like the fact that I- the designer of the reviewed title- was responding to a review, but I didn’t- and still don’t- care. I just don’t agree with those folks who have a problem with it. And today- 4 months out- I still think the Gamespot review was off base and I think I had/have every right to shout about it. And it’s not because of the review score. We got a lower score- a 6.0- from the European site Eurogamer.com, but not only did I not have a problem with this lower review, I thought it had some excellent points. Like this one:

========
More than that though is the fact that Calling All Cars! can swiftly descend into a series of multiple bumper car-style melees, with little reliance on skill required to emerge victorious from the scuffle. Too many journeys back to the clink are essentially one-note, repetitive ramming contests that effectively randomise who the eventual winner of the round will be. Short of an extremely well-timed nitro boost it's difficult to break out of this cycle once it has begun and you can't help but think that it wouldn't be happening with more balanced gameplay.
========

I love that! Well I hate it, cause they hit the nail on the head. But I love that a review understood the game- warts an all- well enough to be so eloquent about the mechanics under the hood. Their critique is so true and it’s the biggest weakness of the title, one we should have caught very early on but simply didn’t (more on why in Part II). But to the point: if you want to give us a 6 and you can back it up with good, solid analytical critiques like that? I not only can live with it, I support it and appreciate it (as a player and designer). I am a better designer for such a succinct analysis of the issue. So thank you, Eurogamer!


LESSON #3- 10 BUCKS IS WORTH DIFFERENT THINGS TO DIFFERENT PEOPLE- 10 dollars to me is an impulse buy. I’m 36, make a great living, and barely notice when 10 bucks gets spent. If 10 bucks flew out the window while I was zooming down the freeway, I’d wince but keep driving. 100 bucks, I’d turn around and go back for. Not for 10. But some- many- people think 10 bucks is a lot of cash. And that is fair. I have no issues with this. But it DOES affect the game design mindset and I am resetting my mindset for future PSN titles to make sure we pack in as much value as possible into our games. Not that we didn’t feel we were doing that with CAC, but we should have pushed harder, for extra levels and extras modes (I still hold that more weapons would have hurt the balance). At the same time though, it does get a bit frustrating to read comments from forum posters saying things like: it’s a great game but it gets old after about a week. To these sorts of responses, I usually shout the following at my monitor: ‘Dude! It’s 10 dollars! You can see a movie for that and after 2 hours (usually less) it’s over and you’ve got nothing to show for it. We entertained you for 7 days for the same amount of cash! Why are you complaining?!?!’

Yes I’ve seen the net response that you can buy a full used game for 10 dollars and get 60 hours of play from that used game! And to that I respond: I have no response. You are right. You can do that, and in doing so you can get better value for your money. And that applies to most downloadable titles, not just CAC. Hell, that applies to all titles, even upcoming 60 dollar monsters like HALO 3 and DRAKE’S FORTUNE. But isn’t the logic then being trotted out by this statement that: games should only ever be 20-100 hour beasts and they should only sell for 10 dollars and anything else is not worthy of my time/money?

It may very well be the logic on the part of the gamer but it’s hard to do the job of a game developer by going down that path. So the promise I can make is that we will work so hard to make you always feel you got your money’s worth. We don’t set the prices on these games (that’s the publisher) but we will pack in as much value as we can. It will never be enough for some, but for others, we hope you will play our games and always feel we gave you a great time for your money.


Ok, time to get back to work. Part II coming soon.

Oh, and let me leave you with this:




This is me and Lee Wilson, the creator of Sweet Tooth! We were shooting the Twisted Metal doc in Los Angeles last week and he flew down from Microsoft (where he is now a concept artist on Halo 3…and was on Halo 1 and 2 as well) to be part of the doc. He really was key to the series, creating the look of the world and the characters and the initial visual heartbeat of the whole thing. So thanks Lee! For coming to do the doc and for helping us bring the world of Twisted Metal to life!

Ok, gotta run…talk to ya’ll later!

David

TWISTED METAL DOC FILMING NOW...

Ain't video chat great? I'm doing all the interview questions from home in San Diego while the camera crew films the guys responding out in Utah! Sweet!



Here is Scott ready to go, out in Utah.




Kellan Hatch, creative and art director on many of the Incog/SingleTrac/Eat Sleep Play games...


Michael Jackson, art director on Twisted Metal and shell master supreme!


I'll be doing my bit in LA next week, along with the co-writer of the Twisted storyline, and one of the key concept artists for the series (who is now a concept designer for Halo 3 at Bungie!)....plus it seems like we're gonna get some great fan videos coming in, so that- along with tons of old concept art, toys, video, and other behind the scenes stuff we've uncovered- should make for a good package! I'm jazzed!

Ok, back to work! If I don't talk to ya'll before, have a great weekend!

David

BE A STAR!!!...well, sort of :)

Want to be IN the Twisted Metal documentary we are putting on the TWISTED METAL:HEAD ON port disc?

If you are interested, go here for all the info...we'd love to have ya!

http://www.tmalliance.com/tma/totallytwisted.shtml?postid=28247&replyid=28247

thanks ya'll!

David

PS. Here's some photos of the new space!


Here is the new building! It's a sweet ass space housed in what used to be an old hardware manufacturer...all the brick and wood inside- from what I understand- is original. Gives the space a nice, warm feeling. I love it! I hope it's haunted. It's so old, it just might be :)




Here is the water tower on the roof. Scott and I were up there taking pics for a profile on EAT SLEEP PLAY that will run in the Salt Lake Tribune next week. Scott climbed the tower. I did not. He is brave. I am not.


I know it's just our name on an office directory but hey, I still think it's pretty fucking cool!










Some pics inside...there's the team eating lunch on Friday...we're only about 20 or so big...nice that we can all fit in the same conference room! Hope we don't grow much more! Oh, and the pic above is us in a meeting trying to pick the company logo. Logos are tough! You don't want to look like you tried too hard, but you also don't want to be so obvious in trying to look like you don't care. My gut tells me tho, end of the day, logo is good or bad if the games we make are good or bad. That's how it gets remembered...not if it's a great logo or not.


For folks who played Twisted Metal:Black, Scott drove me by the school that was the concept art inspiration for Blakcfield Asylum! I never knew it was based on a real school...and man, it looks so close! Pretty eerie to me!

Ok, gotta run...see ya'll soon!

David

SATURDAY NIGHT AND YOU'RE STILL...HANGIN' AROUND....

As a married man, my Saturday afternoons and early Saturday nights tend to either be filled with doing something with the wife & kids (dinner at RED ROBIN/Buco DeBeppo style family-dining places; taking walks with the family; going to the park or a theme park like Lego Land) or going on dates with my wife (I am a firm believer in the whole 'date night' concept...I really like being married and it's done wonders for my relationship with the wife). So those sorts of activities represent about 95% of my Saturday nights. And I love it.

But every now and then, I just want to chill in front of the tv, watch movies and shows that I want, order in some food, and just veg my fat ass out in front of whatever Direct-Tv and/or Blockbuster Video can throw my way.

Tonight is such a night. And I am so excited. Small pleasures, right?

I think alot of it comes from the fact that I was in Utah the last few days (pics of the new space to come, soon as I can get my damn pics sent from my amazing new iphone-love it! love it! love it!)...but yeah, I was in Utah Wed-Friday and it was my first time at the new space, my first real week of work for Eat Sleep Play. And while the work was not crazy hours, it was just overwhelming. It's a new job, a new company (one that I am co-founder/owner of), and new challenges. And I had such a fucking blast. I love the vibe of the Eat Sleep Play offices, not just the space itself, but the energy of the team. We've got an amazing group of folks working at the company and there's such a nice, fun vibe in the air. And I love the fact that we ALL own a piece of the place...sure, me and Scott are the co-prezes of the endeavor, but we all own a slice...it really is OUR company and I love the way that the office feels because of that. As a guy who worked for Sony for 14 years- and loved 99% of it- I can tell you it gets tough working hard when- end of the day- none of it is yours. So I'm real happy Eat Sleep Play is able to offer us all a bit of ownership in the studio. So sweet stuff. But very,very overwhelming...as in, I think my brain was working overtime to process the emotions, the work, and the new challenges of being a biz owner and starting a new game company and even though I didn't realize it at the time, the last 3 days took a shit ton out of me.

Which brings me back to tonite.

Gonna chill, eat pizza, drink diet Coke, and watch whatever the fuck I want on my big, flat screen tv. One of the things I am gonna watch is this baby:



I get that ABC wants to let this thing die, even tho the reviews have been really, really great. That's just life these days on network tv. Play to the lowest common denom, or die. Fair enough. Biz is biz. But I hope that some cable channel picks this thing up (assuming it's as good as people say it is).

So I'll watch that, maybe pop in Monster House on Blu Ray (not seen it yet), geek out a bit in front of the tv. Oooh, I should try to watch some classic Star Trek too.

Ok, anyway, gonna get to it...just had a moment before the kids go to bed and I phone the pizza place and wanted to say hey.

I'll chat with you guys next week and show you the photos of the new space. I'm so excited to share.

See ya!

David

ps. we started working out the maps for Twisted Metal: Lost this week, tuning and adjusting to make them as fun as can be. Man, it's fun to be working on Twisted Metal again. I'm loving it and hope you guys dig the new levels! Ok, gonna run. See ya!

I'M A TOON! I'M A TOON!!!!

Check out my cameo on CODE MONKEY's tomorrow (Wednesday night). It's on the cable channel G4.

I have no clue how it's going to come out but it was fun to do! It took like 15 minutes over at the Code Monkey offices in Los Angeles. It was neat to do tho, and I keep watching my mailbox for the image of me in toon form that the Code Monkey folks say they will send me! I so wanna frame that thing!

Anyway, give it a watch, lemme know how I did!

Gotta run, heading to Utah in the morning!

David

MY DAY AT THE CON (aka Geoff Keighly Teaches Me The Meaning Of Fandom)

So I went to the 2007 Comic-Con on Thursday and had an absolute blast. The con itself was way more crowded than usual (the thing just keeps attracting more and more people)! The crowds- along with the traffic jam that stretched out some 30 blocks in front of the convention center and saw me stuck in my car for over an hour- would have usually been enough to put me in a foul mood for the entire day. But I’ve really been into positive thinking lately (The Secret and all that…it really works)! So instead of focusing on the maddening crowds, I decided to shift my perception to the fact that I was- first off- simply walking around: alive, healthy, and semi-young. Considering the large amount of folks who needed wheel chairs and canes to move about the convention floor (not to mention those poor souls too sick to attend in the first place), I easily counted myself as lucky. Toss in the fact that I was walking around a massive room stuffed with all the things that inspire me and stir my soul-from sci-fi movies to long lost toys from my childhood to actual pieces of pop culture that I've had a hand in creating-and you’ve got the makings of a great fucking day.

And when I decided to view things from that perspective, I found myself so grateful; so excited that I could share the day with my fellow geeks; enjoying the things that all geeks love so much. I surprised myself and got a bit of a high from the whole thing. Even more surprising, it's a high that I am still on. I’m back at work now, fueled and inspired to work my ass off in order to do my part to make sure that all of the games out of EAT SLEEP PLAY are worthy of- one day- being included in the amazing cannon of geek culture.

Ok, so what did I do specifically at the con? Well, I’ll tell you (he’s going to tell, he’s going to tell):

#1- HUNG WITH MR. KEIGHLY- I did an interview with Geoff Keighly from GAMEHEAD (Spike TV). Geoff’s a great guy who has always been nice to me and good to the games we make. I really appreciated his interest in our new company and that he allowed me to go on-air to talk about EAT SLEEP PLAY. So we gabbed a bit about that kind of stuff, the con in general; and then started walking the floor together, talking some more while the camera crew followed us around. I imagine some of it will make it into the show (should be airing in a few weeks). Hope so anyway, as I had a fun time doing it! So while we were walking around, I spotted this college age kid who was dressed as PUCK, the stocky-ass, Canadian super hero from the Marvel comic ALPHA FLIGHT. Didn’t get a pic, but here’s what he looks like in the comic:


So imagine a very out of shape guy, very short guy dressed in this outfit and you’ll get the idea.

So I thought it would be funny to go up to this Puck-Kid, chat with him on camera, and- to be totally honest- make fun of him a bit. Sort of like the whole Triumph the Insult Comic Dog making fun of the Star Wars geeks in that classic clip…but much less funny considering I’m really not all that clever/funny of a guy. But what the hell, right? But God, when it was over, I just felt bad. Really bad. Like, who the fuck am I to make fun of someone? Especially someone who clearly is passionate about the same things I care about? I mean, sure, I thought the guy looked pretty silly but hell, he was happy, having a good time, and seemed to know the difference between reality and fantasy. It was a really mean spirited thing to do (although I was not that bad to him) and I really wish I had not even gone up to the kid. Afterwards, Keighly and I were talking about it and Keighly set me straight: he was like, ‘ah, the guy seems happy, he’s having fun, and hey, that’s some of the kind of people who like the stuff you and I do.’ And Geoff was right, 100% right. What an ass I was. I mean, I wasn’t really that bad to him but just the idea that I felt I had the right (and the desire) to poke fun at this kid…ughh, doesn’t sit well with me. Puck-Kid, if you are reading this, I’m really sorry man.


#2- MET UWE BOWL- So Geoff was going to interview infamous film director Uwe Boll and I asked to come along. I thought it’d be neat to meet someone who has to deal with his own internet slings and arrows; see how he deals with the abuse. He turned out to be a nice, nice guy.




He is passionate about his new movie (Postal) and seems really like a decent person. I’ve never seen any of his films however so I’m not sure if he deserves the shit he takes or not. I can tell you when Geoff- on camera!- asked me if I would let Uwe direct God Of War, I told him….err, wait. Maybe that will make it onto GameHead in a few weeks. So I’ll wait till it airs before I spill the beans! But he was cool!

Oh, and check it out! He gave me some plans of the set to his new movie, FARCRY, that he’s making right now!

I taped over his email cause I know that the worst thing the net needs right now is Uwe's private email floating around! Can you imagine the hell?!?

#3- HUNG WITH COLLEGE FRIENDS- Was really nice to hang around with Jeff Goldsmith (who hosts the wonderful CREATIVE SCREENWRITING podcast for Creative Screenwriting magazine…check it out here:

http://creativescreenwriting.com/podcasts/main.html

So I hung with Jeff and Scott Hyman (fellow geek, USC alum, and game industry veteran). I never used to like to bum around with folks at Comic Con cause I liked to just lose myself and explore. But for some reason, I really dug hanging with my fellow geeks this time around, and checking out the sites. Here’s an interview Jeff and I did with Gametrailers at the show. They just kind of found me standing on line for pizza and started shooting. I like interviews like this- very casual, very real. Much better- to me- than the PR bullshit we hear all the time. Check it out here:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22881.html

Oh and here's another one from the con with me, talking about the new company:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/22861.html

Man, my forehead is shiny as shit. What's up with that?!?!

#4- SPENT SOME MONEY- Bought some stuff….check it:

Here's some of what I bought. I always wanted some original comic art. This page is from JLA 112 from Ron Garney. I like it but would have loved something with Spidey but those were going for mucho bucks.


Cool DVD I got from the Stan/Joe/Kevin gabfest at UCLA a few months back. It's good...not great, but decent.


I wore out my cassette of this back in high school, writing movie scripts while I blasted this on my boom box (yeah, we called them boom boxes back then, fuck off!). It doesn't hold up all that well, kinda cheese ball. But still, it brings back memories and there are some parts that are still pretty good.

Thing is, I thought this CD was long out of print. But you can find everything on the comic con floor. In this case, some dude was selling bootlegged soundtracks. Some were soundtracks long out of print/press/circulation/whatever…some were soundtracks that were never released (WarGames?!? With dialogue from the movie?!?! What the hell!!!) But it was great to buy these and the dude was super nice cause his credit card machine was down and I had no cash (the wife had take out our limit from the ATM earlier that morning so I was kinda living off credit cards for the day). But the guy- this was so nice- just gave me the cd’s and told me to mail him a check! Amazing huh?

Oh, and check out my Spidey! Suck it, Tallirico! No way you could have this one!!!! (note: just kidding! did anyone see Tommy's amazing Peter Parker/Spidey costume?!? That was great!)


Bought this cool spidey statue for my home office. It’s fun setting up the home space, the San Diego branch of Eat Sleep Play! I love working from home and figured I needed to surround myself with lots of geeky things to keep me happy! Maybe when I get the place all decked out, I’ll shoot a video tour of my home office. Why? Who knows…it’s late…just an idea ☺

#5- LOOKED AT COOL STUFF- Saw lots of cool stuff. Like this:



Fat Ronald! See, now this is how they should fucking promote McDonalds to kids. You ask me Ronald is as bad as Joe Cool was. They really should ban that fuck. He’s bad news.



KRATOS LIVES! How cool is that, to see a character I had a huge hand in creating on someone’s tee shirt! This is actually the second time I’ve seen a GOD OF WAR tee-shirt (first was on 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica a few weeks ago). It’s really a thrill to see something you worked on out there in the world, clearly an important enough character to someone that they put on a tee-shirt with the damn dude on it!




Isn’t that nice? Not sure if you can read the text, but it’s a girly looking R2D2 like action figure (called RT-K2) that seems to have been made for a kid at the Make A Wish Foundation. Warms the heart.





Here’s ROCK N ROLL from 1985…one of the first GI JOE action figures they made (from that time period). I remember buying Rock N Roll and his cool motorbike at my local Service Merchandise in Alabama…this was like 2-3 months before the cartoon and comic hit so I just thought they were cool toys. Didn’t know they would go on to be a mini cultural phenom.


Flash and Ming Bobbleheads! The day they hit, I’m buying them. Hell, I’m even going to give the new Flash Sci-Fi series a chance! Loves me some Flash G!






The Ark! What can I say?!? I wish I could have stolen it and taken it home. And OH MY GOD! Forget Marion being in Indy 4! What about those fucking rumors on the net about what Indy is looking for this time??!? HOW FUCKING COOL WILL THAT BE IF IT TURNS OUT TO BE TRUE?!?!!!!!



TURN YOUR KEY,SIR! I'M SORRY, I AM SO SORRY.....ahem, anyway....SO, what the hell is this? A sequel to WarGames?!?! Dude, I don't care if this is some low budget Sci-Fi Channel original series or straight-to-video movie: I wanna see it! WarGames is in my top 10 movies of all time! Was there any footage of this? Any news on plot? Stars? Someone give me some info!





Look at these things! Day one purchase! So fucking cool! I gotta get Freddy, Jason, and Michael Meyers! They are scary…but cute at the same time! Who knew it was possible! Same company had some cooler, more realistic toys from the classic 70’s/80’s horror flicks- like a little play set where Jason as a boy- from F13th- was leaping up from the water, like he did at the end of the movie! Man, that scene scared me to death as a kid! Speaking of Jason, anyone see Jason X and that scene where he had the chick in the sleeping bag and picked it up with her inside and started slamming the bag against the tree?!?! OH MY GOD! That was the best kill ever!.....well, that or the hammer in the bald guy’s head in Halloween II.

Ok, it’s getting real late and I gotta get to bed. I really need to make more time to write better blog entries in the future. I used to put more time into making sure they read well, were meaty,etc…but these days I’m so busy I feel like I’d rather post more often and just more brain dump than really write a nice entry. Ah well, something for me to think about…

Goodnite ya’ll!


David