B.R.A.V.E. by Andy Hawkins

My friend Andy Hawkins at work has been working on a little pet project game for some time called B.R.A.V.E. "British Response to Alien inVasion of Earth." He is entered into a game design contest which has been running for a year now and ends on the 31st. Here is the forum with the competition. I think he has basically done everything all by himself except for the recent addition of his sister to do some modeling work.

Andy sent out an email at work a little while ago with a link to his latest version and I flagged it so I could check it out later. Unfortunately it just got buried in my in box and I forgot about it until he pointed out today that the contest deadline is in 2 days. I just wanted to make this quick post to wish him luck.

I started making my own little game twice now, once with the original Neverwinter Nights editor and then again as a Text Adventure using the Adrift engine. The text adventure one was coming along nicely until I tried to do several things that were dependent on which direction the player entered from and set it aside after two weeks fighting with the engine and then never picked it up again. That was about four years ago and I've no idea how far Campbell Wild has taken the editor since then.

No School Like Old School

Ollie Johnston, the last of Disney’s legendary Nine Old Men, passed way on Monday, April 14, of natural causes. He was 95 years old.

Full story via News-a-Rama

I'm surprised at how really sad I am at this news. He co-wrote "The Illusion of Life" which I've always meant to pick-up but never did. Think I'll make a point of grabbing a copy this weekend.

Hyper Magazine Interview

It has been a few months now so I feel like it should be okay for me to post my Hyper Magazine interview now. I don't think its right to scan in and post articles while the magazine is still fresh on the news stand. It is from issue number 173 pictured to the left.

I tried to clean the scanned picture up as well as shrink it down so that it isn't giant but is still readable. I also marked the "15 years" should be "23 years" correction. Click on the image to get a full sized, readable version.

This is a stick-up!

A few days ago one of the main featured stories on Yahoo's main page was something about how Blizzard's "World of Warcraft" ranked against the real mega corporations of the world. The story is here if you want to read it but that isn't what I want to talk about.

As I said this was one of the main featured stories on Yahoo's front page (U.S. version). It had a picture and small text blurb right in the center of the page and a few related links under it. One of these links said, "Search for World of Warcraft cheats." I had taken a screen shot of it, but then forgot to actually paste it into a picture and save it.

Maybe it was a generated link and its just based off the fact that the story was about a video game. But when we are talking about these kind of multi-player games cheating isn't the same as when you are just playing a single player game looking for infinite lives. Your actions in multi-player games, especially "pay to play" multi-player games like these modern MMO's, affect the games of other players.

If you're a WoW player you can imagine the things you could get up to if you had access to cheats like you can get in single player games. Cheats like invulnerability, flying or max damage cheats. Remember when the gold farms were able to teleport around the world and they just popped from one mine or herb to the next all over the zone? Remember how it felt to battle your way through a few mobs to reach that black lotus when suddenly there a level 3 gnome appears out of nowhere, picks it and then vanishes?

Having that link up there like that is almost the same as them having a story about the rise or fall of interest rates in the U.S. banking system and then having a link underneath the story that says "Search for bank robbing tips."

More fun with THQ

Oh look another one.

Dear Joseph,

We are complimented by your recent application for the Sr. Game Designer Level 2 (13523) position with THQ. Although we are impressed by your skills, we are unable to offer you an interview at this time. This job has been filled by another candidate who more closely meets the position requirements.
Your resume is on file with us for future consideration. Should an applicable position come available, you will be contacted.

Your interest in our company is greatly appreciated. Please accept our best wishes for your future successes.

Sincerely,
Recruiting Department
THQ

Note that they are still impressed with my skills. I still have to take issue with their innovative and creative use of the word "recent". Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe they got some new head HR person who look around and said , "WTF! Look at all these applications that have been piling up for months! Clear these out! Send these people reply emails so we don't look like one of those companies who doesn't bother responding to applicants."

Honestly though, I have no room to talk. I used to get applications on my desk back in the day that would get buried under other paper work until some poor HR person would have to come around and ask, "Do you still have those applications I gave you last month?" I really hope we wrote those people back even if it was months later.

Dear THQ

April 02, 2008
Dear Joseph,

We are complimented by your recent application for the Senior Designer (23684) position with THQ. Although we are impressed by your skills, we are unable to offer you an interview at this time. This job has been filled by another candidate who more closely meets the position requirements.

Your resume is on file with us for future consideration. Should an applicable position come available, you will be contacted.

Your interest in our company is greatly appreciated. Please accept our best wishes for your future successes.

Sincerely,
Recruiting Department
THQ

Dear THQ,

Thank you for getting back to me regarding my application for the Senior Designer (23684) position at your company; though I have to take issue with your use of the word "recent". Although I was impressed enough with your company to send you an application, I much less so now. That fact that it has taken you over four months to respond to a serious application for a position of this level leads me to believe that I would not find success in working for you.

Please accept my best wishes that you develop better business practices in the future.

P.S. I got a promotion today. I am now the Lead Game Designer of my current project. Please send Amazon.com gift certificates in lieu of congratulations.

Sincerely,
Joseph B. Hewitt IV
Lead Game Designer
Interzone Games - Perth