A Glorious Return and a word on Optimism

So apparently I think it might be good to start talking to the wonderful abyss of the internet again, here in my dorm room at 2 AM. To be honest I wish I hadn't stopped, but maybe it took Meaningful Play last week to get my ass back into gear. I've missed out on giving everyone the lowdown on the awesomeness that was GDC 2010, as well as any discussion of games about squirrels, sheep, or minotaurs (significant parts of my endeavors since I disappeared from this blog).

I think maybe I had the urge to blog again because something is distressing me about the discussions I've had with designers hear at MSU after Meaningful Play. They're opposed to the guy that advocates games striving to be artwork. Few things have weirded me out more than design students, who I always picture as being overly optimistic about game design, being opposed to games as art. Maybe I'm being naive, but I'd like to think that aspiring game designers want to make games that have meaning, not "entertainment that is consumed much the same as a Coke." I know I'm still trying to be optimistic enough to think that there's potential for great art in game design.

It's Official!

We won the Ford Project, which means that myself and several other members of Spartasoft will be flown out to GDC by Ford Credit to attend the conference and present our game on the Expo floor. Which, needless to say, is really exciting. I've updated my portfolio to include a short description of the project and my contributions, as well as a link to the beta version that is hosted on Spartasoft's website.

Ford Project

Monday was an exciting for me and several of my fellow Spartasoft members, as we presented a game to Ford Credit that we've been developing for three months now. We were in direct competition with a team from University of Michigan's Wolverinesoft. All in all, I'm happy with the outcome of the project, even though Flash development does not tie strongly into my long term goals, because 3D is definitely where my hearts at. We find out next week if Ford Credit has decided to use our game or Wolverinesoft's game, and the suspense is killing me!

Bioshock Pinball Demo!

I decided to take the plunge and put up the current build of Bioshock Pinball in the portfolio. There will be some more work put into the game at the beginning of next semester (level design and audio hopefully!), but the bulk of my work has been completed, so I thought I'd show it off. Go check it out at my page!

AI

I'm currently 400 pages deeps in Millington & Funge's AI text. Part of me wonders if I'll actually be able to apply it in my classes next semester (I hope so, then again Unity can be a tricky beast to work with sometimes...). In other news I'm not sure what I'll be working on anymore after February 1st hits (the day that my Flash project gets presented). Marie still wants to make an adventure game, which would be awesome, but I also need some stuff to try out my mettle at both AI and graphics. An IGF submission would be nice too...

Additionally, the version of Power Master that was used by the student test group back in November is now available on my portfolio at jonmoore.squarespace.com for Mac and PC. Go check it out!

Website

By the way, I nearly forgot! I have a web portfolio now that hosts my work (as well as access to this blog), at www.jonmoore.squarespace.com! Go check it out! The pinball table will hopefully have a demo posted soon!

Fall Projects

Well, I just finished my finals so I actually have the time to blog a little. I've been working on a pinball machine for my portfolio this past semester. It started as a game-jam game and is coming along quite nicely, hopefully a playable build will be up soon. Power Master went into its beta test, and my work on it has largely come to a halt until a new batch of funding is acquired, but I might still put in some polish next semester while the GEL lab still has me as a free employee from the MSU Honors College.

Other hot news is the awesome competition that MSU's Spartasoft and University of Michigan's Wolverinesoft are competing in. Each team is making a game for Ford Credit, and the winning team gets an all expenses paid trip to GDC, which would be AWESOME. The only downside if that its in flash, but learning new things is still fun and insightful, even if my main interests are 3D graphics and AI.

Hopefully new games will be posted in the portfolio soon!