Archives for January, 2009

First Rejection

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Well, my first rejection came from Spacetime Studios.

It was really disappointing because two of the company’s founders are Anthony Sommers and Cinco Barnes, two old friends of mine from Origin. So it’s almost like a “Ex-Origin employees make good” studio and I would have loved to have been a part of that.

Also, they are doing some pretty cool stuff…

But I knew it would be tough to get a position there when I went to their open house. They were mobbed by about two hundred people – artists, designers and programmers – and I saw several people there I knew were more experienced than me.

I will say that the programming test for Spacetime was actually pretty fun to complete, because it involved actually implementing a subsystem based on a design document instead of answering C++ trivia questions. (I remember once being asked what private inheritance was. I answered the question correctly, but for crying out loud has anyone in the history of programming ever used private inheritance?)

Anyway, good luck to the Spacetime guys…I wish them all the best.

Hayao Miyazaki Makes Ramen for His Staff

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

This is my favorite segment from the “Making of Spirited Away” special on the DVD. It turns out that crunching on an animated movie is a lot like crunching on a video game. The staff starts making dinner in rotation and one night, it’s the director’s turn…

Posted in Cool People | 1 Comment »

Let’s Play Starflight! 13: Puttering Around

Monday, January 19th, 2009

I really must apologize for this video…I was almost not going to post it and then…well, you’ll see. I swear the next video will be more exciting.

Posted in Let's Play Starflight! | 2 Comments »

Dwarf Fortress Video Tutorials

Monday, January 12th, 2009

If you’re like me, you’re fascinated by both the concept of Dwarf Fortress and the depth of its world simulation, but you just cannot crack the shell of that abysmal interface to get at the sweet, gooey gaming goodness inside.

Well, someone going by the handle of Captain_Duck has finally decided to make some video tutorials for Dwarf Fortress, and they are actually pretty good. I would embed one but YouTube won’t let me embed a high-quality video and you need to watch these in high-quality so you can read the text. Stupid YouTube.

Will this get me into Dwarf Fortress? Maybe. I don’t really have time for it right now (major update to Planitia coming up this week) but perhaps later, now that I understand a little better what is going on…

Posted in Cool People, Games | 4 Comments »

More Game Voyeurism

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Would you like to watch two great Starcraft II players play a game while the lead designer comments on it?

If you’re like me, of course you would.

Posted in Game Voyeurism, Games | No Comments »

Weird Fact of the Day

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

Lori Alan, who was the voice of the Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3…

…is also the voice of Diane Simmons on Family Guy…

…and the voice of Pearl on Spongebob Squarepants.

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That is all.

Posted in Cool People | 2 Comments »