Viridian Games

I have now finished 110 of the 357 pages in my current book. That’s about thirty percent. I would very much like to get this book done by the end of next week…that will take a serious commitment from me. To the tune of about twenty-five pages a day.

I also have a little something else that I’ll talk about later, when it’s actually congealed.

I am currently on page 78 of Frank Luna’s book. There are 376 pages in it. I am averaging about ten pages a day, which means I’ll be done in about a month unless I really pick up the pace. Of course, I don’t want to rush too much or I might miss things, which would be counterproductive.

In other news, last night I dreamt that I’d already lost all my weight and everyone was commenting on how good I looked. Then I woke up.

I’m 6′4″. I weigh over 300 pounds. I am a big dude.

I’m not just big, I’m wide. Even if I weren’t overweight I’d still take up a whole doorframe because of the width of my shoulders.

I also like to keep my hair real short because of how grey it is. Seeing a head full of grey hair in the mirror makes me sad, so I just cut it all off.

Plus I can do the growly voice.

Because of all this, I am constantly asked if I play football. At more than one party I have been mistaken for a security guard. I have been told that I have an intimidating presence.

But I’m not intimidating. I don’t have a violent nature. I love rainbows, and, and kittens! And small children! And…and pretty stuff! Architecture! And flowers! Lots of flowers!

Sometimes I actually like to embrace my largish nature, as evidenced by the picture above (which will go on my Aspyr badge).

But I’m really just a big fuzzy-wuzzy cuddly bear, dammit!

In the wake of my article on getting started in game programming, I have been taking my own advice and doing some learning. In particular I am getting more familiar with Direct3D. While I’ve known the basics for a while, I want to become a more advanced 3D programmer and I also need to learn vertex and pixel shaders. So I’m working my way through Frank Luna’s Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0. I mentioned this book earlier but I really can’t say enough about it. As far as I’m concerned this is the book to get if you want to learn Direct3D.

Plus, with sections on terrain rendering, particle systems and picking, this book could have been subtitled “How to Program Planitia”.

So, no work will be done on Planitia for a bit while I work my way through this book. I’m currently on page 60 of 376. I am hoping to get through the book by the end of this week, though that will take some serious work.

Dead Rising is a proper application of next-generation technology. Observe the following hypothetical design discussion:

Capcom Designer 1: Okay, what can we do on the Xbox 360 that we couldn’t do before?

Capcom Designer 2: Make the exact same kind of games we’ve been making, only prettier?

Capcom Designer 1: Dude, we’re designers, not artists. What can we do from a design standpoint that we couldn’t do before?

Capcom Designer 2: I don’t know…um…instead of putting a small number of very highly detailed models on the screen, we could put a very large number of moderately-detailed models on the screen instead.

Capcom Designer 1: Okay, that’s a good start…what kind of game could we make with that technology?

Capcom Designer 3: How about a game where you can run around and kill hundreds of zombies using anything that comes to hand?

Designer 1 + Designer 2: JACKPOT!

In other ways, though, the game is quite conventional:

Capcom Modeller 1: I’m giving every woman in this game really big boobs.

Capcom Modeller 2: Why?

Capcom Modeller 1: Because I can.

Capcom Modeller 2: AWESOME!

But it’s not about the boobs. It’s about cutting zombie heads off with a scythe. And as a result, this is the first game to ever make me really want a 360. Maybe that’ll be my Christmas present to myself…

Well, I guess I should just be happy that I managed to have a game shown there…but I would really have liked to have gone, at least once. I never thought that the day would come when there wasn’t an E3 to look forward to in May.

And how will the poor Gamespot editors assert their superiority over each other and us now?

And now Gabe and Tycho are making noises about how PAX could become the next E3. Something tells me that they simply have no idea how much trouble they are making for themselves by suggesting that.