gewgaw

…what just happened, here’s the official announcement about changes to the format of E3.

I had heard rumors about changes after this last show – and I can’t say I was sad about it. In fact – if it leads to more developer-oriented demos at GDC, and less foot strain for our ilk in May, well – it might even be a good thing!

I was trying to write design docs today when I realized that for no apparent reason the tab and shift+tab keys were no longer indenting and exdenting bulleted lists. OMFG, it took me 30 minutes to figure out what was going on… and I had to resort to Googling to figure it out.

And for that half hour I was so helpless and confused. I still have no idea how this got set – I haven’t changed autoformat settings or anything of the sort. I was so frustrated that my eye started to twitch!

Talking this over, Jon and I decided that what something as huge as Word needs is a “What I just Did do your Document” debugger – so that you can trace an error in context. It would be an interesting AI challenge.

So I had an interesting discussion about life today with a co-worker. It was about having a long term goal for your life- something you’ve decided you’d really like to achieve. This lead to me thinking about my goals in life, how they transformed, what I’m doing now, and so on.

Basically: I thought in college that my goal was “understanding story”. That became “understanding people” as I realized just how often we narrate/share storie with ourselves and each other, to cope with the ebb and flow of perceptions and events in our lives.

When you consider my original goal, it makes sense that I started studying AI – after all, why not use the computer to try and simulate people, in order to learn more about story? Of course, that’s a huge mangled mess of a discussion (which I won’t go into here) but the transition from that to games also makes sense. They have narrative elements (of varying degrees), you can tell narratives about playing them, and on and on… but it all starts with a system of designed rules. And so in a way (at least as I see it) AI and game design are really not very far apart… but games are a bit closer to something one can understand in a lifetime.

And here I am, working at EA/Sims – on games that are about people, that encourage people to tell stories as they play and about how they play… a phenomenon covered in countless news pieces , academic papers and books (more stories!!!). Better still – I’m working on stuff at the moment that really allows me to think about what a given person’s “story” really is. The things that make people different from each other, and how we notice the tiniest details despite so much “noise” in interpersonal signals.

The BEST part of this chain of thought is where it originated – with a reminding of Gnomes! My colleague had actually said something to me about my “life quest”… which was a term he picked up from Dragon Lance when he was a kid.

What is your life quest?

The other question: is the story of my life really as connected as I lead myself to believe, here? It has certainly not been a deliberate thing. I never would have guessed that I would end up doing what I do. Have I written my story as I go – so that it all makes sense? Or am I just lucky? Or is there something already written – that I’m following forward – like the trails of being in Donnie Darko?

Ahh, where is Heidigger when you need him?

I feel a pain in my cute bone! I cant bear it!

(sorry)

My dinner on Sunday evening – a tribute to peppers. Steak au poivre with butter and capers, grilled shishito and sweet peppers.

And in the garage, Sabine was having… mouse!

I finished my first ever game jam this weekend. Yay!

About a month ago, I decided to run a small game jam with some of the prototypers from my team, as well as a few other folks from the Sims division. I had never run a jam myself, and I was curious to see if we could do it in conjunction with our work schedules. So we agreed to meet in the mornings for a week and then jam on a Saturday, wrapping up with a bbq.

Oh, how plans change!

First – We found that it is nearly impossible to jam “part time”. Work requires focus and it’s really hard to switch gears from work to a side-project and back… especially if there isn’t a designated place for the jamming to occur. After a couple of days, we decided to skip the work-week jamming and schedule for the weekend.

Second – It really *is* important to jam in the same room. Working at our desks, even with group meals and AIM/MSN chat wasn’t enough. We needed to be in the same place to feel motivated and to generate a feeling of collaboration. Just seeing each other working makes a huge difference.

Third – It takes at least two days to jam.. probably three. You need time to get your head in the right space (discovery) , test out some ideas (prepro) and then have a few hours (5-10) to actually make things happen (production). In some cases you may go through several cycles of discovery and pre-pro – we saw that even in the limited number of total jam hours.

Fourth – With small group prototyping, the energy of the group is really important. You want to be sure people can express their concerns or ask questions about the codebase without feeling like they’ll be considered lame. At the same time – you want things to remain positive – so keep a lid on any complaints about the codebase itself. Post-morteming mid-process is a bad idea: it encourages people to find shortcomings with the toolset instead of focusing on the positives of their own creations.

Most of all – the goal of a jam has to be pretty broad and open-ended… but you have to aim for finishing with the feeling that “something cool was made”. It’s imperative to end your sessions (before lunch, before dinner, when done) with quick group demos, so that everyone can be inspired by what they’ve seen.

In the end, we made just a few small games – the theme of the jam was music (a favorite of mine). I had a great time organizing this jam, and am looking forward to doing it again in a few months. Perhaps I’ll submit some of our stuff to EGW for GDC next year!

These bit generations games are really interesting.

Simple but mind bending, in a good way. Very Rez-y, with great music.

When I moved out to SF I bought a nice, new bike and tooled around in the south bay quite a bit – especially up on Canada Road. Even during the week (and especially in the mornings) there’s little traffic and the rolling slopes are a lovely way to spend an hour or two. For people with better legs, there are nice trails into the hills – up off of Skyline, or towards the south, as you approach the Stanford Mall.

And then… I moved to the city. I wanted to ride regularly – but the weather, hills and traffic up there, combined with mounting tasklists at work just made me feel like there wasn’t time. Also – it seemed like so much of a production to get back to it… putting bike into or onto my car, getting gear on, driving 25 minutes to a nice road…

But also – once you stop exercising, it’s just hard to get started again. You don’t make the time, so you don’t *have* the time, and it becomes difficult to remember how you ever had time in the first place. I could see my legs getting smaller and weaker, and you can feel myself getting winded more easily – but the effort of training again just seemed like such a hassle.

Well – I finally started riding again for real. I’ve been going every other morning (tho sometimes going several days in a row) for a week. AND I LOVE IT!!! It is really a lot easier than I’d imagined, especially since we have a full gym and showers here on EA’s campus. I actually drive right past a great parking spot (just under 92) every day – so now I just take an hour-ish detour and then shower/dress at the office. If I leave the house at 6:30 I can be at my desk by 8:30! And I need less coffee, and I feel happier…. it’s *almost* difficult to remember why I stopped. Here’s to me remembering just enough to keep it up.

For the life of me I’m still not quite sure why Sony decided to release Loco Roco in Europe before the rest of the territories. Even stranger still – why should clicking on the US flag on the current Loco site lead to the (significantly un Loco) PSP website before the release is universal? It seems like a marketing no-no, to me.

Despite this (and various difficulties one might have trying to get a copy in advance of the US release), I did actually get a chance to play through some of it over the weekend. And while the gameplay is pretty much as I expected from my TGS preview last year, there were a couple of pleasent surprises.

First, the camera really provides a lot of personality to the levels. There are a lot of hidden nooks and crannies… places where the game encourages you to pause and watch a story unfold. And when you find them, the camera zooms in to deliver the little vignette in cozy quarters. These cut scenes gave a soft touch to the steadily-forward, always rolling, sometimes pachinko-like gameplay.

Second, these areas often reveal new friends. And each time you pick up a new friend, you unlock a new piece of the Loco Roco house – a simulator that lets you experiment with the physics of the little rolling creatures. Something like a simpler, cuter version of Armadillo Run. Even with the pieces I’d unlocked in the first set of levels, I had quite a bit of fun playing around in this sandbox. And it uses the little analog stick on the PSP – which you really don’t get to play with that much.

All this said – I realized that I haven’t picked up my PSP in a really really long time. Probably not since Katamari, and before that, the Taiko game. There just isn’t much on it for me, and that makes me kinda sad.

Katherine and Nicole on character, on Gamasutra. Katherine’s book is out now. It has some great examples of how characters can communicate gender, affinity and so on – Check it out!

So I finally got a new TV. Since I moved to CA, I’d been using an old Samsung flat-panel, just as a stand-in. And you know, I got used to it. So when I turned on the new Bravia, I was… kinda surprised, to say the least!

Watching the Discovery Channel’s HD theater shows, I actually felt my jaw hit the floor. In some cases, the footage is so gorgeous and peaceful that it isn’t even television to me. More like a meditation on the amazing beauty of the natural world!!!

All I need is smell-o-vision to complete the picture of waking up and peeking out of my tent in the Grand Tetons at 5am, just as the sun rises and sets the mountains aflame. What an amazing world we live in!

The other night I went out to see a student fashion show. While getting dressed, I looked over my closet of safe-for-work-separates and realized that I had pretty much nothing “fashionable” to wear. Not that I’m dressing like a grandmother – I just don’t spend a lot of time keeping up on the trends these days.

In fact – I wasn’t even quite sure *what* the hip look or hem style was. It’s been ages since I leafed through a fashion magazine, and I rarely have time to shop… even for the wedding last week I picked up my dress on the day of the event. And since it was far to chilly to wear that acquisition, I went with a simple pair of dark, straight jeans, comfortable shoes (we were walking there from a garage about 6 blocks north) and a smokey-toned velvet jacket. I guess when faced with the idea of dressing in a decidedly “last season” look, I went for the standby: simple and somewhat masculine.

At the show, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much time the people there had put into their hair, makeup and outfits. Talking with my companions (both guys – one of them had a sister in the show, and had invited us), it became clear that even they had looked a little deeper when getting ready for the occasion. But not much – because it’s pretty simple. Throw on a blazer or a button-down, and suddenly it’s “Wow dude – you look sharp!!”

:)

I like that ease of transition – moving from casual to slightly classic in just one garment. It says something about you – that you didn’t fuss. Looking at the women in heels and bare-shoulder dresses, I was so happy for my extra pockets and cozy collar. And when we decided to bail on the DJ for a late-night showing of Pirates of the Carribean – I didn’t even blink. The walk to the Metreon (and dinner at Mel’s down the street) were a fine match for my outfit.

There was a time when I thought I’d grow up to become a much “fancier” gal – a lady who smelled of perfume, had nice nails, and for whom blemishes were a bad but distant dream. How wrong I was!! But I sure do feel lucky to have ended up in a place where I can rock whatever I want (say… pigtails, a t-shirt and jeans) – and feel right at home. Bad nails, red spots and all!!

And speaking of rocking – the very next morning, whilst I was still dreaming of Jonny Depp’s scruffy smile – a box arrived from Flying Lab! Inside – a t-shirt and fantastic pirate mug ( “Getting booty since 1720″ ). This was topped only by the shirt I’m wearing now (see inset)! I’m rolling in style today – thanks Joystiq!!!

Pole Position, right on your television. Even as a cartoon.

Now *that* is a soundtrack!! Wow.

—

UPDATE: But wait – there’s more!!! Droids also had a great intro. Apparently it was penned by Stewart Copeland?!Thanks, Matt!!!

Over the 4th holiday I went down to Austin for a wedding – which included some quality time with Jen and Tiny, and a host of local developers. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it!

Luckily, the weather was mild – if mosquito-y. The food, however, was significantly heavier than I remembered. Back when Doug was working at Ion, I had a sort of immunity to the onslaught of delicious BBQ that Austin has to offer – but less frequent visits have changed me. I shall have to get up to Oakland more, for practice.

Sadly, it rained during the fireworks – but I did get to play with sparklers at the ceremony. But nothing, really, could quite top the Austin Club’s foyer – talk about a patriotic celebration. Even the attendant couldn’t keep a straight face when we snapped our mock portrait. Extra points to Tiny for the cowboy boots. Yee-haw!

It’s interesting how things change. Consider, for example – this book on the rise of Nintendo.

Someone said I should check it out, and since I was buying it used, I decided to pick it up the hardcover…

Originally printed in 1993. What a difference a few years can make!

Katamari-esque chain of animals eaten… by each other.

Courtesy of Mister Donut, by way of Japan. More here and here.

Nintendo is so awesome

Dear President Bush:

Happy Birthday!

Don’t worry, turning 60 is an exciting milestone. As you know, you’ve joined millions of other baby boomers in an invigorating new decade of your life. And, like many boomers, you may be looking for ways to keep your mind sharp. That’s where we come in.

Please accept our gift of a new Nintendo DS Lite system and a copy of Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. You now join millions of people around the world who have fun challenging themselves with Brain Age. If you have never played a video game before, don’t worry. Brain Age is part of our new Touch Generations brand, which includes games that are easy for people of any age – regardless of their video game experience – to pick up and start playing immediately.

It’s obvious you don’t have a lot of time to play games which makes Brain Age such a great activity for you – just a few minutes a day with more than 15 daily training tests will help keep your mind sharp. Training tests include categories like math, reading and memorization. Try it for a few days and watch your score improve. Brain Age also comes with more than 100 sudoku puzzles – these could make your next long flight on Air Force One a bit more fun! (Perhaps copies of Brain Age for journalists joining you on your next flight would be a nice distraction!)
Have fun exploring Brain Age with your Nintendo DS Lite and be sure to let us know your brain age! Have a tremendous birthday!

Sincerely,

Your Friends at Nintendo