Avatar February 2, 2010
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I see you – Na’vi
Introduction
Accessibility is a key in both movie making and in games and I believe that Avatar embodies the “simple but deep” development philosophy. This combined with cutting edge visuals and spectacle is where the film’s greatness comes from. I have heard a few people bash the script as being incredibly simple and I have also heard comments about the moving being an extremely “left” political message. For me as a viewer I think there is some truth to these comments, Avatar should not receive and award for writing and I do think it has many left wing things to say but I believe it tells a much more potent message than some people may think. The message is so blatant and simple that I don’t think many reviewers actually see it. The thesis of the film is “I see you” and I want to take a minute to describe how that message is told in a way that includes everyone but is ultimately and expression about Art rather than society.
To make and engaging story you have to create characters on screen that people can identify with and then you have to tell a story where those people progress and change throughout that story in meaningful ways. I think that one of the cheapest ways to make people connect is by making fun of people that are dislike them. I personally think Avatar sells its experience by using stereotypical caricatures to make fun of and include everyone all at the same time (no group other than the Na’vi miss having stereotypical digs).
Military
People that are military supporters get the initial buy in for the marine grunt (read protagonist) on the ground and a get things done attitude. They get to make fun of the science geeks and show that a Jarhead can come in and learn everything and blast some people up, get the girl and ultimately save the day. This is a very satisfying film on this level and is probably the best executed and the one that took the most on screen time to develop. I think this story is where the majority of ticket sales are actually from.
Corporations
Corporations and economics do not make good entertainment. So this movie easily targeted something everyone has understandably had a run in with. Phrases like unobtanium and slaughtering people to get at resources is a very powerful message.
Scientists
Scientists are one of the most interesting commentaries made by Cameron. It would be easy to make this movie a pro-science movie but instead I think Cameron even took a dig at scientists by making them unable to see the Na’vi for what they really are, due to their preconceived notions. The jealousy they have for Jake is sort of “last one picked for dodge ball funny”. I think this example is where Cameron takes his biggest step in layering the meaning into the picture. I read this, even on my first viewing, as a message to movie critics and viewers everywhere to really stop and see and occasionally admit that you are prejudiced and biased at times and cannot see.
After making fun of so many groups, the only core message I can really in the movie is purely artistic and a bit of an ego trip. Come into my created world and revel in the art. I say making fun of other groups and ego trip fairly lightly as well. I loved this movie and I think it used simple techniques to establish character. The battle scenes and heroes journey stand on their own without comment! Yes there are political messages included in this artistic film but at the end of the day the artistic brilliance created by a masterpiece created by a huge collaboration of people it what will stand the test of time. I think that at the end of the day, this somewhat simple plot tells the tale of artistic achievement and fulfillment in the best way I have seen to date. To me, that is where the greatness of the film is. Does art include commentary on social and political issues? Yes, but even more it is a window into artists worlds and imagination rendered in a way that has never been more real. Avatar is the Star Wars of this generation and I am excited to see the inspiration this work of art drives in years to come. Hopefully “I see you” James Cameron and what your collaborators brought to the screen.
“I see you” – James Cameron (Golden globes)
Entertaining Technical Distractions January 10, 2010
Posted by jhuculak in Technical, Uncategorized.Tags: igamemaker
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Over the last few months I have had a great deal of fun and pain with electronics and gadgets. In the last few months I have:
Buidling a home theater
I had been planning on building a home theater in my new house since August and I finished the majority of it in December 2009. Here is what I went with:
For roughly $3500 I have a 110″ 1080p image projected on my wall and great surround sound. I am by no means an audio or a video expert so this upgrade in quality has blown me away and was well worth the investment considering that you can spend the same about on a 55″ TV which is 25% of the size and the sound would be lacking. Some days I still wonder if I should have gone with the TV as the projector requires a bit more maintenance and doesn’t look good during the day. When I put a movie on at night, those little niggling thoughts go away and I remember how awesome theater can be! If you can control the light in your room and don’t mind playing around a little to set it up then there isn’t a better value on the market.
Repairing/Upgrading a broken PC
Moving my PC ended up being a series of unfortunate events.
What did I learn?
Research the chips a bit better. “Supported” and “Supported at full speed” are different things.
Don’t power off a machine during a bios update (duh…this was an accident as I left the disc in the drive at boot up)
Check everywhere for a delivered package, even if it required a signature.
Run x86memtest or something like that when you get new RAM.
Keep in mind how easy pre-built laptops are! 
Next time consider just buying everything new to start with as I have probably invested what a reasonable new machine would have cost if I was searching for deals.
2009 In Review January 7, 2010
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Over the last year I haven’t done much game “making” and instead have been busy entertaining myself with movies, books and games. Since 2008 I have tracked what I have read, watched and played to see the impact that having a child had on my entertainment time. I am really surprised at how much I can still fit in! So here is a quick summary of what I did in 2009.
Games
Games took the hardest hit in 2009. I only list games that I have “completed”, not ones that I only tried. In 2009 I only finished three games vs. 9 in 2008.
Next year I am going to focus on playing more games as I picked up a bunch of games on steam this holiday season. Expect some breakdown/reviews on: Trine, Torchlight, The Witcher, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and maybe some others.
Reading
I read 10 books in 2009 vs. 6 in 2008.
- Honor Harrington: At All Costs
- Hedge Knight 2
- Graphics Black Book
- Prey
- Terminator: Salvation Prequel
- Shader X2
- Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
- Lieutenant Hornblower
- Hornblower and the Hotspur
- Hornblower and the Atropos
Of these books I really have to call out the Hornblower series. I’m usually not a fan of classic literature but this stuff is amazing! I hope to finish the entire series next year.
Movies
I watched 58 movies in 2009 vs. 54 in 2008. The best films I watched this year were:
- Avatar – I may do a blog post on this in the future but simply put: Wow.
- Star Trek – Major plot holes but a lot of fun and very re-watchable.
- District 9 – 30 million budget? This is science fiction at its best.
Blog
I didn’t hit the goals I set this year for blogging and I am going to re-evaluate what I think I can get done this year. I’m thinking of either switching to JavaScript games on this site and I am also looking at doing a few strictly programming based applications.
Expect a few blogs on purchasing a home theater system, getting used to owning a mac, upgrading my pc and a few more game breakdowns. I am hoping to do a few more programming posts as well but I think I am going to reboot my game coding again. Perhaps I will have some new goals soon.
Summary
I had lots of fun this year and didn’t work on hobbies very hard. I’m going to find more ways to make games for fun in 2010.
Down with the Sickness again… June 8, 2009
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I had another crazy sick weekend. If I get the chance I will post more tomorrow but for now I’m just trying to sleep and hydrate.
Down with the sickness May 25, 2009
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I’m a little under the weather today so my usual weekly post might be a bit delayed this week. I’m hoping to hit part II of the star destroyer modeling soon. Until then I will be sleeping and hydrating as much as possible.
Digital palate cleanser April 6, 2009
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I had an awesome opportunity a few years ago to watch Andrew Glassner do a talk on story telling. I learned a lot about story telling in that presentation however, the thing that stuck with me the most was how he broke up his presentation with beautiful images (digital sherbert) that he called palate cleansers (at least I think that is what he called them). It fascinated me because they would hit at precisely that moment when your mind starts wandering and is fatigued in his presentation. I don’t know if they were 10 or 15 minutes apart or what the magical formula was but it made the entire presentation fascinating.
What does this have to do with making games? I’ve been a bit stressed out in the last couple of weeks and decided to take a break and search for a good palate cleanser to get me back into the swing of making things. I took some time to research what classes are available around my area that aren’t in my direct area of expertise (programming/managing). There are some fascinating classes I am considering in everything from 3D modeling/animation, Sound design, stop motion animation and even acting. A little cross training or trying something new may just be the palate cleanser I need to really hit my hobby projects. At the same time I can grow a breadth of skills that will help me eventually live up to the I, Game Maker moniker.
It is kind of silly to forget how exciting the potential of learning new things is. As I was reading through course descriptions I was finding myself getting more and more energized. Rather than signing up immediately, I decided to relax for the weekend and try and play through a game: Resistance: Retribution for the PSP. I am near the end and will do a writeup when I am finished. Come Monday or Tuesday I’m hoping I will sign up for a class or two!
Back to paper planning? March 16, 2009
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The deeper I get into coding, the more I am finding that I have to ramp up to get into the groove. I cannot just go from a clean slate and code whatever I would like; I have loose ends to tie. My first reaction was to think that my code is terrible and that I was fighting against spaghetti but upon further reflection I think that I am simply up against the equivalent of task switching to rapidly in a work day. My interruption is the week I spend between working on my game rather than the quality of the code. I thinking about what I should do about it.
I could do one or all of the following:
- Larger chunk of time: Find one larger chunk of time so that I can get into things and get more meaty progress.
- Preplanning: I could do more than a two minute list of what I am going to do.
- Remove distractions: I confess…I’m an Internet addict.
Larger Chunks of Time
Anyone that has gotten into a creative groove understands how important immersion is. I find that I’m just getting into interesting territory when I have to call it quits. I think the ideal amount of time to work would be about a four hour chunk. With the hour or two I spend I find that I take most of the time to figure out where I was and then I’m just remembering everything when I have to stop. Therefore I am going to try and find a bigger chunk of isolated time to work.
Pre-planning
Although I’m on a big kick of just “do” things rather than planning, I am finding that I don’t have enough structure for my work. I think I need to take the time to do a quick design treatment of my game so I know what I am building with a few design briefs and then I think I should write up a few brief technical notes on how I am going to approach the systems. This way I can have a quick paragraph or two that should remind me of why I am building a system to do something. If I can this will be separate from the time to implement the plan even if I have to alternate weeks.
Remove distractions
How many of you out there are internet addicts? I find that since my project is a hobby and is on my free time I often drift toward searching for things I would like to buy. Current interests are Paradigm Atom Bookshelf speakers, MacBook/MacBook Pro, Intel X25-M SSD and a new house. Only one of these would help with my project and even then only if I invest the time to install windows or restart my project in a Mac friendly way. How do I avoid these distractions? I think I’m going to plan enough that I don’t need an internet connection and then switch it off to work. Any tips out there for avoiding internet addiction?
What did I actually get done?
I took the very raw and basic “particle” class and message system that I had and changed it so my asteroid explodes into a bunch of other asteroids in “sort of” an explosion. The reason this caused me to look at my planning was because I should have a rough outline of how I want the particle effects to work before I just start hacking away at explosions. I think I would have been better off posting my particle strategy rather than fighting the code for a 1/2 hour and not being sure it was a waste.
Next Week
I am hoping that I can use a template from an older book I read called Game Developers Marketplace and write up a design treatment for my little game.
Layoffs, Writing References and Independent Development February 1, 2009
Posted by jhuculak in Uncategorized.Tags: igamemaker, indie, layoffs, recession, vancouver, writing references
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Layoffs drive the reality of recession home
This week has been fairly shocking week for me personally. Usually layoffs are a cold hard number I look at on a website and feel a little sorry for. This was my first time sitting through a day of layoffs where people I work with every day for the last few years are no longer at work the next day. These aren’t people that weren’t doing their jobs. Nothing has driven home the severity of the current recession more than seeing talented people let go and finding out there is a flood of HUNDREDS of talented workers in Vancouver when six months ago any of those people could have walked across the street and gotten a great job.
Writing References
Since I am focused on “doing” rather than talking about stuff this year, I decided to put my project aside this week and devote that time to writing references for my friends and coworkers in order to do my small part. Much like blog writing, I found that these are something you need practice at to make them sound good. What I like to see in references are specific examples. Many recommendations boil down to “this person was great to work with”. I prefer to try and put specific skill examples that are both relevant to that persons profession and also to my point of view reviewing them. Those simple rules help me picture what the person has done and give my own, hopefully more credible view, into the work that they have done and also highlight work or performance that might be out of the ordinary.
Independent Development
A part of me cannot help but wonder with that many talented people in the market, is it inevitable that we will have a flood of independent games in six months to two years? Had I been on the list at my company, I don’t think I would immediately look for a job. I think I would try and start something even if money is low. I have read an article or two that look into if casual games are “wrecking the games industry” and I actually wonder if the reverse is true from a development perspective. I think next generation development has it all wrong. It is like the freaking cold war where companies are doing an arms race with the number of staff that they have and forgetting about efficiencies. I do agree that the industry got itself into this position and I am interested it will either go back to independent contracted studios or if it will generate more of a contract business. If someone wanted to start an engineering or an art contract/outsourcing business in Vancouver, the timing is ripe.
Conclusion
So in the end, I think we are either going to see independent start ups or some contract houses that shrink the gap between foreign outsourcing and local contracts. I hope to see many of my friends among this growth.
I, Game Maker: 2008 in Review December 23, 2008
Posted by jhuculak in Game Breakdowns, Industry Commentary, Uncategorized.Tags: igamemake
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As 2008 is coming to a close I wanted to take a moment to summarize what I have done this year to become a better game maker.
Start a blog about making games
I started this blog back in September and have combined Box2D, Lua, OpenSteer into the PopCap Framework to create a game play prototyping engine. Lots of this work is half done and not exposed to Lua but the beginnings are there. In 2009 I am going to develop the asteroids like framework more and then look at posting the code and continuing on from there.
First pass at vector art
Play games, write break downs
As I play games I am going to strive to write a bit of a design breakdown for each of them. In 2008 I have a bit of a back log where I don’t have notes, but here are the games I finished (made it through the storyline) in 2008 in ranked order by how much I enjoyed them:
- God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP) - Amazing accomplishment on the PSP. I am shocked that this game is getting snubbed for PSP game of the year awards as it is a shockingly good experience executed superbly.
- Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3) - I was surprised by how taken I was with Uncharted. Great story and something a little new rather than just running and shooting. Brilliantly crafted.
- Syphon Filter: Logans Shadow (PSP) – Precise shooting on one of the most difficult control platforms. This shooting experience was so tight it makes me feel like I’m drunk playing Gears of War 2. Best combination of stealth shooting and action I have played.
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat (360) – I think most people love this game for Multi-player and I only played through the single player campaign which was also VERY solid. This game made me think of a new rule of “variety”. It offers three variations (Nuke Crawl Out Moment, Sniper Level and Shooting from the air) that give distinct different play experiences and make the entire experience more memorable. Brilliant and without that it would have been average for me.
- Crysis (PC) – Beautiful. Even though the game didn’t hold me completely this was simply beautiful and made me enjoy owning a PC again. I’m sad it didn’t sell better and I think part of this was due to over complexity in what you have to manage for a shooter. Gears simplified for the mainstream and Crysis was complicated and therefore less accessible (not just for hardware reasons!).
- Gears of War 2 (360) – See my break down. A very good game.
- Bioshock (360) – See my break down, love the design but the game didn’t capture me.
- Half-Life 2: Episode One (PC) – I’m thinking back on this and ultimately I felt this was a forgetable experience even though I had fun playing it through. Ending was weak and it felt like the reverse of the Half-Life 2 experience (weapon reveal in reverse).
- Turok (360) – Pluses: Dinosaurs, Grenades, Knives. Minuses: Uneven difficulty, uneven art quality.
Read up on games
The great thing about games is that even fiction books help! This wasn’t really a year for fiction for me and therefore I thought some of the books I have read might be interesting since most are somewhat game related. These are in order of when I read them.
- Painless Project Management with FogBugZ - This is a really good summary book of one of the most common sense, idiot proof and simple task/bug management systems around. If you like the keep it simple stupid mantra, FogBugZ and this book are a great combo.
- Zen of Code Optimization – I’m actually reading the Graphics Black Book but it is so big that I had to break out the completion of code optimization into one part. This book is ancient and I don’t think it is relevant to anyone but those of us that loved the ModeX days. Abrash is talented writer and if you are interested in assembly optimization…this is a classic.
- Programming in Lua - I wanted to learn a “glue” language and lua seemed like the best choice. I have read the book but I have not learned the language yet. I have to use this more and go over the book again. I think this book is well worth reading and Lua is a beautifully simple language that leverages its own strengths to provide major functionality in a small package. RECOMMENDED.
- Simplexity - I got this one on a whim and I think it is entertaining and barely applicable to gaming in that I think they are examples of simplexity. Games are “simple” simulations of complex game elements as well as being complicated if you break down everything under the hood. Since I’m striving to make making games simple, this book was interesting. Only for the science lovers out there.
- The Last Lecture – When I was 4 years old I wanted to become a professional video game programmer because of Atari 2600 and games like Yars Revenge and Phoenix. This book made me think back on what I really got into the games industry for and was a huge inspiration for this blog. I think everyone will be inspired by this one: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- Droidmaker – I had the opportunity to see the author present this at a Siggraph event in Vancouver (and got my book signed!) with Dr. Alvy Ray Smith. The presentation shocked me in how little I knew of George Lucas’ impact on digital film making and games. I mean…I knew about his involvement in many aspects of the business, but I didn’t realize he was the catalyst for so many things. I thought he got involved AFTER the ground work had been layed rather than fostering an environment for the things to happen. For anyone that was influenced by Star Wars and wants to know how things like Pixar, Lucas Arts and THX are related this is a fascinating read. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Movies and TV
I’m not going to bore you with a movie list. Instead I am going to say that I have in the last year studied the impact of having a child on my movie watching abilities and this statistic may interest some. In 2007 I watched 90 and in 2008 I watched 52. The scary thing in these numbers is that I count a season of TV as one movie and I watched way more of those in 2007. So I would say having a new born cut my TV time in half. It was well worth the trade off!
For those picky about details, I would say the best two movies I saw this year were The Dark Knight and Ironman. No real surprise!
Onward to 2009
Overall this has been a good year for getting hobby coding back into my life and I plan on really getting this going in 2009!
How many novels of code does it take? (Part 1: 90’s commercial games) March 9, 2009
Posted by jhuculak in Industry Commentary, Uncategorized.Tags: igamemaker
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I have been following a few iPhone/iPod Touch developers and at the 360iDev conference two presentations from game programmers that used to be part of large “conventional” teams caught my eye. The topic of the slide was about the relative team sizes and how drastically smaller the iPod game teams are than current game development (200:1). This made me interested in how project code base’s have changed over time. This kind of information is relevant to me making games because it lets me look at what is achievable for one programmer. Most iPhone games are possible with that, but I also like comparing to games from 10-15 years ago.
The best company I could think of to compare to the current iPhone explosion is id software. They released Wolf3D and Doom at a similar time when BBS games were taking off. Their teams started at about 5 people and the kept the same staff making games for years. They are an interesting company to look at because while other teams staffed up to enormous sizes, id only scaled its content team staying at between 2-4 programmers for years! Since their code is available I thought I would do a lines of code comparison between their projects. Here is what that looks like:
It is hard to tell how much development time went into each game. I’m going to do the simplest thing and assume that each game was worked on the entire time between release dates. That gives the below chart of the number of lines of code, per programmer, per year of development. Is this a useful statistic? I don’t know, but I thought I would compare it to writing a book as an example in effort.
(*note: I know I am missing Doom 2. I didn’t find source on that tonight but I didn’t count its time in development so these numbers are off base a little)
I read in a few places online that an average book is between 90,000 and 140,000 words. At 250 words a page that breaks down to about 360-560 pages. If you go with roughly 40 lines a page to convert to a code comparison, that is between 14,400 and 22,400 lines. So in essence, the average programmer at id went from writing half a novel of code a year to writing a large and a small novel a year. Or put another way Wolf3d was the equivalent of a 560 page novel and Quake 3 is close to 15, 560 page novels.
I do not think that ID was the norm in the 90’s with not growing their programming team. This may also be why Epic Games eventually overtook them with the Unreal Engine (not in the 90’s, after). There was a large shift away from game code to tool development and I think that ID missed that with Doom 3/idTech 4. Odds are id won the effecient development competition. I think the teams at id are still relatively small and I wouldn’t be suprised if their costs are much lower than Epic’s. That said I’m sure Epic is taking in more these days but you still have to admire a company that stays lean even if they lose from a Wallstreet perspective.
The data I have provided above is completely subjective and filled with inaccuracies so please do not think that I am presenting the above as actual “research”. The main reason I posted this without thorough investigation is because I still think it paints a picture of how much work is involved in a commercial game. There are some legendary programmers involved in those games. Making games has gotten somewhat easier with better computers, software and debuggers, but projects are growing rather than shrinking. I’m interested in looking at any statistics people will share on these smaller iPod games so I can see if there is hope for the lone indie programmer.