IndyCar 2007 Video

The finished Indy Car video is now on Youtube.

I played it much looser with this video, just throwing shots against the wall and seeing which ones got soaked up by the music and which ones didn’t seem to fit. The ending happens a bit quickly, but that’s okay I’m happy with the final routcome. I’ll post some frames from the HD version later.

The Wheel of Time stops turning

R.I.P. Robert Jordan.

I hadn’t read any of Robert Jordan’s books when Glen Dahlgren contacted me in 1997 about working on The Wheel of Time computer game. But I was intent on doing my research, so I immediately went to Baedeker to buy the first volume of the series. In English, of course, because the game was going to be in English.

E3 1997 happened right around that time. I’d made contacts with several other game companies in America and I had potential job prospects (Legend could only offer me a remote position from Germany), so several regulars on the #level_design IRC channel were encouraging me to fly to Atlanta to mingle with the crowd and maybe make something happen. My parents were on vacation, so I borrowed some money from my late grandmother and bought an improptu plane ticket to America.

It was during the four-hour train ride to the Frankfurt airport that I started reading The Eye of the World. My English was still rather bad and I didn’t understand every word in the book, but the writing was so good that I was captivated anyway. Sure, when it really came down to it, Jordan was treading familiar territory: black riders, a wide-eyed farmboy goes out into the big world to fulfill his destiny, mysterious mentors accompany him… But Jordan did everything in a wildly imaginative and evocative way. The characters and world felt very alive, and everything was relatable.

Of course I ended up working for Legend and on Wheel of Time anyway. By that time, I’d already read all available novels even though I hadn’t been working on the game (as had Charlie Wiederhold, another potential WoT level designer who ended up working elsewhere). And I can guarantee you that every designer involved with the game cared about and was a huge fan of the books.

I’ll be the first to admit that the series eventually died on me and I only ever made it to book 7. That wasn’t necessarily because the story had become less interesting. It just seemed like there was no end in sight!
I think I’ll read all those remaining books now. It sounds like the final volume will be finished in one form or another, and I want to be ready for that. Thank you, Robert Jordan, for all that you’ve given us!

P.S.: The trip to E3 1997 didn’t actually happen after all because of a snafu at the airport. I spent four additional hours riding back home (and reading).

The Birds

Oh, also: Victoria does an ASB retreat for work each year, where she takes all her board members to a house in Bodega Bay. Alfred Hitchcock shot a lot of The Birds in Bodega Bay. I decided to visit Victoria for a bit on Saturday and then drive around the coast to see the different shooting locations used in that movie.

The thing you quickly notice is what a sham the “town” of Bodega Bay is as it was protrayed in the movie. Hitchcock created his own, fictional town layout because Bodega Bay, as it actually exists, is much more disjointed. The town center was built on a back lot in Hollywood, and that set was augmented with footage from several disparate locations around the Sonoma Coast. Aerial views of the town were created as matte paintings.

And what can I say, the movie had me fooled. I had looked at a few scenes on the DVD before driving to Bodega Bay, and even the 1963 aerial matte painting did not reveal itself as such until I read up on the movie’s making. The set of the town center was so convincing that I actually searched for it, and the other locations are masterfully blended to create the illusion of geographically correct city.

None of this is to say that you don’t feel The Birds when you visit the Bodega Bay area. The area oozes the atmosphere that generations of audiences have come to experience from the movie. There’s quite a few locations to see. And once you drive around to those different locations and realize how everything has been put together you appreciate the movie all the more.
Below are two pictures I took at the Potter School house. You’ll recognize this building as the “Bodega Bay School” in the movie. Annie Hayworth’s house (the school teacher, played by Suzanne Pleshette) doesn’t exist. It was a facade erected up the road.

Burgaltendorf

I got the idea to search Youtube for “Burgaltendorf”, the part of Essen I grew up in. And lo and behold, there’s a 5 minute TV that shows Burgaltendorf in all of its glory. You might even say that it makes it look a little bit too glorious, only focusing on the idylic and green spots of the town. Still nice to see, even if you don’t speak German. The fortress is just a few minutes from my family’s house, we used to hang out ther a lot and walk the dog through the old moat. The hotel is on the same street as our house, as well – I grew up watching those horses through the window of my old room.

Ridley Scott

As I was finishing the Paul M. Sammon’s book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner today I was shocked to realize that Ridley Scott is 70 years old! That is pretty amazing to me. It should have registered earlier, I guess – the writing is on the wall. But to me Scott had always been this ageless entity that had been making movies (some of which stood the test of time better than others – but all of which had the potential to do so) as long as I could remember – and who, in my mind, was going to do this until long after I might have stopped caring. The fact that he will only do this for another 15 years or so (thinking positively) is weirdly surprising (and shocking?) to me.

Ridley Scott made Blade Runner when he was 45 years old. That’s older than pretty much every major player in the video game industry. I can take comfort in this realization as I look at the future of my own medium. And at the body of work I have amassed in my 9 professional years. Maybe growing old and “peaking early” isn’t as important as I initially thought. Maybe that’s what being in your thirties is all about: coming to that exact realization.

Lair In Stores

Lair is being sold in stores all over the America now. Try it out, let me know what you think!
By the way, if you have a PSP and a PS3, you can do this: (Video Removed)

NASCAR 2007 Video

I bought my Canon digital camcorder for many reasons, but the NASCAR race at Infineon was high on the list of stuff that I wanted to film. So when this year’s Toyota/Savemart 350 came around, I didn’t pull any punches. I visited the racetrack ahead of time to look at the preparations, camped out near my old apartment to film the arrival of the team trucks, hung out at the Speed stage for quite a while and aimed my lense at the garage area for such a long time that I had to sit out the next day because of a really bad sunburn. All in all, I filmed over 5 hours of video, and I had fun doing it.

Because of Lair crunch time and other projects it took me a while to edit all that footage into a movie, but it’s finally done (enough) to show to the world. So I proudly present my first Youtube video! NASCAR at Infineon Raceway – Matt’s documentary montage. I hope you enjoy it

As it naturally is with Youtube, the quality of the clip is very crappy. The source video is 1920×1080, but I had to render out a 320×240 version (which Youtube then compressed the hell out of). I’d post the full video, but can’t really do that for bandwidth reasons. To give you an idea of the quality difference, here’s two still frames of the “real” movie:

I’m pretty pleased with the outcome. Some of the shots are too shaky (and I didn’t bother stabilizing them in post), but I feel that the edit (and how it plays with the music) is professional quality. The camera just happened to be consumer I might do another video at a later point – with 5 hours of raw footage, I wasn’t able to put close to all the shots in this one video that I wanted to use.

Harry Potter

I’m prepared to go on record on the 7th Harry Potter book (no spoilers), even though the following admission might lead to humiliation and ridicule. But here it comes: I think reading the new Harry Potter book before sleep is giving me nightmares.

I just don’t seem to be sleeping all that well during those nights. My dreams are filled with paranoid and disturbing scenarios. And let’s be honest, the last Harry Potter book isn’t exactly a joy to follow. People die left and right, things get lost or destroyed every other chapter, pivotal characters are defamed and painted in pictures never imagined… the whole story is just bleak. It’s well written and I’m glad to be reading it – but joyous and fun? Barely.

There, I said it; I feel better I’m wondering if I’m just being a wimp or if the book affects early readers even worse than me. The story above might also be the reason why I’m still not done with the book even though the rest of t he world probably is.

Lair is officially done!

As announced earlier this week, development on Lair has finished and the game is off to duplication! It will be in stores on August 14 September 3. I learned a ton of new stuff making this game – and if you pour 2 1/2 years of your life into something, it had better be worth it on some personal level.

I’m aware of the reviews, of course. Some are very positive, some are not. The common complaint in those bad reviews seem to be the controls – putting the dragon streering on the motion-sensitive SIXAXIS controller doesn’t sit well with some of the experienced gamers. First of all: try it out yourself, give it a chance!
And if you want my side of the story, I will share a simple anecdote: Victoria’s family, lead by my 83-year old grandfather in law, was able to pick up Lair in less than 5 inutes, to fly around with the dragon and to play the first mission of the game.That experience right there beats anything that the reviewers can say. Because let’s face it: the hardcore crowd is an important part of the market, and I sincerely hope that everybody who reads my page and/or hangs out on NeoGAF, IGN, 1UP on a daily basis will buy Lair and enjoy it. Your guys’ opinions are important, and they matter.

BUT… making a game that my entire (extended) family can play, that’s how we will keep the creative flame (and our industry!) alive.

Check the official sources for more information on Lair. I enjoyed the experience and have tons of ideas on what to do next. In other words, I have already moved on to the next project…

P.S.: Hope you like the new vegetation in the final build

Congratulations Ninja Theory!

The main character in the Heavenly Sword demo looks absolutely stunning. Best I’ve seen in a game yet. Gameplay is well executed – but what’s with the length of that demo? That took less than 10 (gorgeous) minutes to complete!