Status Report

So I should mention that I'm an Associate Producer at Obsidian Entertainment, working on Project Connecticut (aka the Aliens RPG). This means a lot to me - aside from the step into fulltime development, Aliens has always been a beloved franchise and I hope this project turns out as awesome as I think it can.

Coming into a project that's already in development is rough. Procedures, habits, even the way docs have been tagged and sorted are already ingrained (and more importantly, things like scope, the schedule, and whatnot); as a producer, I'd have felt much stronger coming in from the beginning, but that's not a complaint - just an observation. I think the product will be fantastic and I'm proud to contribute to it.

BlizzCon sold out incredibly quickly this year. As with most cons, I'm mostly just going to meet up with friends. Some of the Brotherhood will be there and I look forward to finally meeting some of them in person; they're the only clan I'm currently active with, other than the scattered remnants of Unorganized Raiding. At this point, the crew's had Kara on farm for some time and we're looking to take on ZA (some of us are already hardcore raiders who've been hitting it for awhile). Mostly, though, we're waiting on Wrath and being able to cobble together 10-mans. My favorite WoW buddies are a pair of teenaged boys, best friends out in some midwest state (sup Galahan, Goatboy) - interesting to me because neither of them are 18 yet. I have very little interaction with anyone younger than me these days.

Soul Calibur IV is sitting on my 360, but I got distracted by the Ninja Gaiden II demo (which was good, but somehow underwhelming). SC2 started picking up dust not long after everything had been unlocked, and I wasn't even remotely interested in SC3; unlike Third Strike, I just don't have any interest in the actual game mechanics.

Another Women in Games article. I think the problem I have with this one is that it doesn't really say anything... or is it just me? I didn't get anything out of the article; I read it, and didn't feel that I'd learned anything, or even been given anything to think about. It's almost like the article was written, just for the sake of writing - it did inspire much more thoughtful discussion on the forums, at least as far as analyzing the situation goes.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider (E3 2008)

From Joystiq (whose community seems to exist entirely of 12 year olds):

"Rightly or wrongly, we don't have co-op multiplayer in the game," he [Sean Ratcliffe, Sega's VP of marketing] offered, a statement that was met with a short, yet uncomfortable pause. "I think as much as anything it's taking inspiration from the original series but in terms of that multiplayer co-op the developer decided that they didn't want to take the game in that direction."

When it comes to re-envisioning classics, you just can't get it right no matter what you do. Fans just don't seem to understand that sometimes, developers have a different vision of a game, and sometimes they believe in it enough to risk the ire of all the bitchy "old-school" fans that will give you a failing grade no matter what you do. Yes, the co-op was one of the reasons Golden Axe was great, but so was beast riding - and this time it's the focus. Watch the gameplay footage, and I think you can get an idea of how difficult it would have been to accomplish some of this gameplay with co-op.

E3 2008 Gameplay Footage

In particular, I'm referring to the cinematic fatalities and pace of action (particularly when the beasts are involved). Sure, you can accomplish this with splitscreen, and Gears managed to detail fatalities just fine, but that was without any massive scaling worries like "how do we manage to show the action when you're riding something the size of a T-rex?" I think I can see why the developers opted to go with a single-player campaign. The only thing I'm really unhappy about right now is the way they've handled object transparency for when the player is blocked from view by the camera.

I want to believe that they're all old-school Golden Axe fans like we are, that it was a tough and difficult decision but that we'll have a better game for it. In the end, I think I don't particularly care, so long as it retains worthwhile elements of the classics but shines on its own as a new title. Me, I'm pretty stoked - looking past my incredible hardon for the Tyris redesign, it looks like a pretty solid M-rated fantasy-action title, a genre I've felt sorely lacking since the original God of War.

I like Ivy just fine, thank you

If only I had the time (and clarity of mind) to sit down and produce articles like this.

Oh, Kotaku, how I both love and despise thee!

Speaking of cleavage, here's another gorgeous Kotobukiya statue. I used to collect these in the past, though I cleared them out when I moved; only my Max Factory Kasumi made the cut. I really don't have the desk space (nor does it really suit my aesthetic) to keep amassing figures and toys, but old habits die hard!

a conundrum

erik: youre just attracted to beautiful straight women
me: hahaha
me: yeah, i'm fucked
erik: and im attracted to beautiful lesbians
erik: we fail
me: LOL
me: we fail together ;_;

Rebranding

My recent tasks have revolved around working with the Art Director on rebranding the company; new logo, brand statements, a major site facelift, and so forth. It's not just about the corporate brand - we're also working to change our own internal identity, and I've learned a lot simply through experiencing the creative backend required on such a task. It's a somewhat daunting task because we've been given five sprints of two weeks each to accomplish not only the branding but tech features and whatnot as well, in time to present at GDC Austin in September.

Working with the backdrop of two pre-existing brands (one of which has already had a facelift), both with troubled pasts, makes things much more complicated - particularly when you intend to expand your audience.

We started with mood boards, which we've tightened and refined somewhat; product, tech, and audience. Our magazines, unfortunately, were rather limited; I didn't have much to contribute other than Game Developer, Maxim, and Playboy (the latter of which I didn't bring, for obvious reasons). The Art Director brought in some design mags and artsy stuff, and we had some back issues of EGM lying around, but that was it - I think he also brought in a couple of his wife's fashion and entertainment mags. I guess that says a lot about our magazine habits?

The product board follows a gradient from hardcore to casual - dark bloody reds, earthy tones, into rainbows and unicorns and so forth. CoD4 to Peggle, that sort of thing. Tech was a bit more difficult; we were looking for a sense of sleek, easy to use, intuitive; I'd have summed that up with an image of the iPod, but I think we were also trying to pull interface ideas. The audience board also goes all over the place, but I think what we really wanted to go for was the feel of identity and independence. Guys in suits, punk rockers, little girls chewing bubblegum. The three boards were the basis of our color palettes and some basic logo ideas.

What I really got out of the mood boards was that projection can be fatal. Having been lead and assisted with jumpstarting several projects, I've noticed a lot of "well, it would be cool if..." oriented around users and community. It's a common enough problem; given the leeway, leads may show a tendency to project wishes to the point where it interferes with the original goals. I was guilty of this in a previous community development attempt; given a free hand, I attempted to orient towards an older, more mature community - the kind that I myself prefer to participate in. This was not what I should have expected or even wanted to accomplish, given our existing userbase; you can't expand your intended audiences too much too quickly, or you lose focus and turn them off in waves. You also can't really expect them to behave in any specific, given manner, even when provided explicit direction and guidance - but that also really depends on your pre-existing userbase (if any) and what habits have been ingrained, as they'll be the ones to direct incoming new users. This is why early community management is important, people!

That's another important lesson for companies that intend to expand; there's a fine line to walk if you intend to go deeper than simply being a portal like, say, Ijji and Nexon. Both are portal publishers for Asian online games, and feature a wide range of titles. The audiences can vary; the kids that play Kart Rider may very well be the ones populating Soldier Front, but what if you find that most of your buyers - and remember, this is in the context of an F2P market - are older, or prefer a certain look? What if they produce a sizable amount of revenue, but aren't the majority? Who do you cater to? Can you cater to everyone somehow?

I think Ijji's logo doesn't really say anything. Nexon's is kind of the three-dimensional, open-faced cube thing - I've grown used to it and made the assocation, but can a first-time viewer with no knowledge of the brand figure it out? Will they remember it? The challenge is hitting all your logo goals without beating any one point to death, while keeping an eye on all possible avenues, audience and location.

Logo thoughts we faced:
- Colors. A 'primary' color is important - VALVe just took orange, MS/Xbox has green, Nintendo's got gray and electric blue with the Wii, Sony's got blue. What about cultural associations? What about internationally? Some countries intensely favor or dislike specific colors.
- Typefont. Bold, strong? Friendly, soft? Generic? Memorable? Does it go well with the logo?
- Separation. How do the icon and brand name fare when separated? Do they still brand well?
- Individuality. Is it unique from other brand logos? Will we be compared to other brand logos? Will we be lost in the sea?
- Audience. How's this going to do with current and potential audiences?
- Previous branding attempts - how does this compare/contrast? Will the previous logo(s) and any branding they accomplished have an effect on the new logo's audience (the current users)?
- Man, I hope this doesn't look like ass on the business cards...

To close with some random thoughts, WIGI (Women in Games International) has some sort of mixer coming up in Los Angeles. I'm not active at all in the group, I'm just a member - but I have to wonder if I'd even want to meet up with a large group of women face to face. One of the advantages for me in the game industry is that I get to keep my preferred company of guys; I don't particularly enjoy making female friends, as we rarely have any personality traits or interests in common. I don't do my nails, I'm not particularly fond of shopping - you're more likely to find me at the Spearmint Rhino than you are at Southcoast Plaza.

That reminds me - I also need to write about Jade Raymond at some point.

Alive

Yes, I realize I am a miserable failure at blogging regularly.

Things I need to blog about:

- AMD's RV770 chip. Holy sweet mother of Christ this blows me away. System overhaul in 3... 2...

- My current industry-related endeavors

- F2P as a service/experience market

- Girls in the competitive space; specifically, all-girl teams like PMS and the Fragdolls, what it means for us, the industry, and everyone else

- Games I am looking forward to

- Links to other industry-related blogs/ages I find useful or enjoyable

- More reviews!

I also intend to redo my vanity site at some point. Don't hold your breath!

New Capcomaniax!

Available July 2008, at Y5575.

Ibuki? Yes please. I've spared you from the R. Mika, but those of you that are interested can click here.