New Wheel of Time Game

Red Eagle Games has partnered with Obsidian Entertainment to develop a new Wheel of Time game. Awesome! It’s a tough universe to do justice to (I think Glen and everybody at Legend did a good job, but we weren’t making an adventure/role-playing game at the author’s request). If I imagine developers like Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone and Josh Sawyer working on the franchise, I get my hopes up!

The only worrying part is this quote:

We are not licensing our WOT development rights and stepping back from the process of building these video games. Quite to the contrary, Red Eagle Games will have an internal development team of its own. However, rather than staffing up a 200 person studio from scratch, we decided some time ago that for our first games it would be far more prudent to hire a small in-house team (e.g. positions such as Art Director, Game Designer, Story Writer, Software Architect, Quality Assurance Director, etc.) and rely on a third party developer to provide the majority of developers and their associated overhead and infrastructure.

No offense to Red Eagle Games (to be honest, I don’t know much about them – even after reading their executive bios), but Obsidian isn’t the kind of studio you hire to do the grunt implementation work, or try to impose creative decisions upon. I hope there will be a real exchange of ideas here, and the development effort will allow Obsidian to do what they do best: create great RPG experiences.

Why High Fructose Corn Syrup Is Evil

Much has been made of the food industry’s overuse of High Fructose Corn Syrup as an ingredient in… well, pretty much everything (especially in America). Is it unhealthy for you? Dangerous? Or simply a natural sugar replacement that, just like anything else, can and should be enjoyed in moderation?

For the answer, I urge you to watch Robert H Lustig’s lecture “Sugar: The Bitter Truth”. While not singling out HFCS, it makes a very compelling argument against high fructose corn syrup, and for cutting foods with HFCS (and that includes most bread you buy these days) out of your diet.

Wondering why HFCS is bad for you? And in fact worse than regular table sugar? The short answer is “because it’s ubiquitous and metabolizes like fat and a toxin”, but I suggest you watch these videos for a much more comprehensive answer. It takes 70 minutes (don’t worry, I promise you’ll get hooked), and will help you make much better food decisions in the future.

Dead Space 2

I already mentioned that I’m working on Dead Space 2 now, but failed to provide any detail. Luckily, magazines all over the world are now running their cover stories on the game! In America, GameInformer (sold at all Gamestops) has a great 10-page write-up of the game that you should check out.

This is the fourth game I have worked on to receive a major cover story. Pretty cool! But this is the best cover image by far, the art department at Visceral did a great job on this.

GDC 2010 Level Design Tutorial

For my second GDC 2010 session, I’m contributing to a full-day level design tutorial: Level Design in a Day: Best Practices from the Best in the Business. With an allstar lineup of teachers, there should be useful information for people from all disciplines and of all experience levels!

(201) Level Design in a Day: Best Practices from the Best in the Business

Session Description:
In this intense day-long tutorial, attendees will gain deep insights from some of the most experienced level designers in the industry. The tutorial will cover every aspect of the level design process, from basic navigation and object manipulation tips and tricks to best practices for encounter design and level flow. As the development discipline responsible for crafting the vastly important moment-to-moment player experience, a deep understanding of core level design principles becomes essential for level designers, game designers and design managers alike. Likewise, an intimate familiarity with the level creation process can be a massive advantage to producers, testers or artists. This year´s session will focus on the Unreal Engine, while subsequent years will focus on Source, Quake, and other popular engines.

Intended Audience:
Level designers, mission designers, game designers and scripters will gain deep insights into the best practices and proven processes used by our industry’s leading teams. Additionally, writers, level artists and quality assurance professionals will come away from this talk  better prepared to collaborate and contribute to the level creation process. All attendees should have a solid understanding of the level design process, as well as a basic familiarity with the tools of the trade. Experience with the Unreal Editor will also be beneficial this year, but is not required to fully participate in the tutorial.

Takeaway:
Newcomers to the world of level design will gain a solid foundation in the art and science of level design while experienced level designers will come away from the talk with a bevy of tips, tricks, and best practices in use by some of the best level designers in the industry. Experienced producers, artists and testers will gain an intimate understanding of the level design process, and will be better equipped to manage and collaborate with this essential part of the game development process.

Speakers:
Coray Seifert, Game Designer, THQ – Kaos Studios
Matthias Worch, Senior Level Designer, Visceral Games
Neil Alphonso, Lead Level Designer, Splash Damage
Richard Carlson, Level Designer/game designer/musician/sfx dood, Digital Eel
Ed Byrne, Creative Director, Zipper Interactive
Forrest Dowling, Lead Multiplayer Level Designer, THQ – Kaos Studios
Joel Burgess, Lead Level Designer, Bethesda Softworks
Jim Brown, Lead Level Designer, Epic Games

Happy New Year!

Here we go, starting a new decade. I hope you had a great new year’s eve and a healthy and successful 2010. We went to Lake Tahoe to celebrate with a bunch of friends again, and had a great time ! Here’s a couple of iPhone pictures of where we stayed.

R.I.P. Jerry

Jerry was the first bird that Victoria and I got together. He died a couple of months ago, but had a great run (and a few love affairs) in our budgie world