2009 May | The VidZone Network Blog

May 30, 2009

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Up

Up

Pixar remains untouchable with their latest film, especially when led in by a trailer for Sony’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which, in its first minute looks like a total Jimmy Neutron rip-off.  The last time I read the book was in first grade or so, but I don’t recall a kid inventor making non-sensical contraptions.

One of the themes of Up seems to be that misery loves company.  The cast of hereos consists of outcasts, misfits, or sad-sacks in various forms.  Through their mis-adventures together, each starting off with seperate goals for journey, they eventually learn to lean on each other, making a whole new family of their own.

The movie is full of laugh out loud quirks which work for both kids and adults.  Note I said “and.” Normally there’s jokes for kids and jokes for adults.  Many of the jokes in Up are truly multi-layered with an extra kick for those with more life experience.

Humor aside, the opening montage in itself is a wonderfully developed, touching, impactful beginning-middle-end story and could easily have been its own short.  More sensitive folks may want to pack tissues; many in my theater were audibly tearful.

Pixar is known for tackling very specific technical challenges with each film.  In A Bug’s Life, it was crowds.  In Monsters, Inc., it was hair.  In The Incredibles, it was humans.  Between the front-attached animated short Partly Cloudy and the iconic balloons lifting a house, I think their challenge here was complex soft-body collisions.  However, the balloons are far from always on screen, so maybe I’m just imagining the showcase because it was far from highlighted.

What is masterfully showcased is the use of depth.  Normally when you see CG films in 3D, all layers are more or less in clear focus.  The primary method of funneling the viewer’s attention is by popping something out of the screen.  Up utilizes traditional camera lense techniques (the “imperfect lense” seen in Wall-E) to make sure that the viewer is not overwhelmed and unsure of what to look at.  The clouds, fog, light/shadow, and frame composition also noticably contribute to the incredible sense of dimensionality. I’m 100% certain that it would still pop without the glasses.

Back to talking about people, I noticed there were numerous elderly couples or small groups attending my showing.  They weren’t accompanied by families or grandchildren, and several groups stayed through the credits.  I don’t recall any similar situation in other family movies, and I wonder if the turnout had anything to do with the protagonist.

Highly recommended.

Carl @ 12:37 am
Filed under: Film,Reviews — Tags: , , , , —

May 28, 2009

The alphabet X to Z

Or, rather, Z to X, as the case may be.

Alongside the announcement of the Zune HD (to take on the iPod Touch), Microsoft has announced that the Zune video marketplace will supplant the current Xbox Live Video Marketplace on the console. No word on if the music store will follow or if Xbox-related videos will now be downloadable to through Zune’s PC software.

I think this integration has been a long time coming. Consider that ever since the Zune launched, it shared the same servers as Xbox Live content, shared the same “gamertag,” and used Microsoft Points from the same pool. (The last point makes Nintendo’s division of Wii-only points and DSi-only points an odd decision.) J Allard and many of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices group went from working on the Xbox to the Zune. It’s always all been in the same family with what seems to me minimal political hiccups getting in the way of synergy between the two brands.

The justification I’ve been using to explain that lack of cross-over was in the licensing terms. I’d figured that maybe some time early on when the umbrella terms were drafted, they called for media playback specifically only on the Xbox 360, not taking into consideration portability to other devices.

With the video store, it’s possible, though hopefully unlikely, to have purchased the same video on both the Zune and Xbox Live Video Marketplace. The smart user with a network would have only bought from the Zune storefront and streamed the video to their Xbox 360.

Personally, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to download all the gaming videos from the Xbox Live Video Marketplace to my PC, where hard drive space is more plentiful. I have a 120GB hard drive on my console, and it is chock full of gigs upon gigs of trailers, developer’s diaries, press conferences, and concerts. I need to regularly delete older demos just to make room for a new one, and there have been occasions I didn’t even have enough space to download a new Rock Band/Guitar Hero song.

Carl @ 2:41 am
Filed under: Gadgets — Tags: , , —

May 26, 2009

Bundles vs. price-drop: value is in the eye of the beholder

Joystiq posted a leak that Sony’s sending out a new 80GB PS3 bundle exclusively to Best Buy, priced at the same $399.99 and scheduled for availability on June 9, the week following E3. Two years ago, the news of a $100 price drop made waves, but–assuming two relatively recent, non-Greatest Hits games–this bundle effectively the same savings: $100 or so.

The problem why this isn’t gaining any excitement (at least from the snarky, jaded gaming forum-goers) is that, while adding value to the current box, the actual out of pocket cost isn’t decreasing.

Is a penny saved, in this case, a penny earned?

The obvious argument against a bundle strategy is that it won’t be universally appealing because not everyone likes the same kinds of games.

It makes sense for Sony.  Though they’ve been able to streamline manufacturing and drive down costs, they’re still losing money on every box of hardware that leaves the factory.  However, software (especially if it’s Sony-published) is more or less “free.  They’ll “not make” money instead of “lose more” by using the software bundle strategy.

However, all Joe Consumer wants is that leading digit of the price to tick down to a 2. The first digit of an item’s price is a very powerful psychological force and why $299.99 is irrationally more attractive than $300.00, despite a penny’s difference.  Say it out loud. Two-hundred, ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. Three-hundred dollars.  All you can hear is “two-hundred” versus “three-hundred.”

However, the existence of this new bundle doesn’t preclude the announcement of a price-drop of a non-bundle package.  But if that existed, wouldn’t it have been uploaded to Best Buy’s computers at the same time?  Was it held back to prevent the same leaks that happened at Circuit City? If that’s the case, again, why wasn’t this listing held back as well?

(image credit: AP)

Carl @ 10:03 pm
Filed under: Games,Techniques — Tags: , , , , , —

May 25, 2009

Zephyr@E3: Steering traffic

 

MyMiniCards size comparison

 

For my trip to GDC earlier this year, I needed some business cards. And fast.  I found plenty of places that would provide generic fill-in-your-info cards and others that let you upload your own designs, usually for an additional fee.  Now, I could live with that, but the processing and shipping times totally killed my hopes of receiving them in time without paying out some extraordinary rush shipping fees.

Scavenging the internet, I found MyMiniCards.com, who advertises a turnaround time of 24hrs and free basic shipping, all for less than $20 (for 100).  They let you upload up to 25 different images to put on the backs of the cards.  And provide a little case to hold 25 at a time.  Unfortunately, they were the now-popular half-size cards, but the customization and quick processing seemed a more-than-fair trade-off.  Since I was scrambling, I just went with the one design show above, a riff on my website design.

I ordered a set on a Thursday afternoon, and they arrived to me on the Monday following that weekend.  Fast! Free! (The shipping, that is.)  Print quality was sharp, the ink doesn’t run, and it’s a good, stiff cardstock. Certainly doesn’t look or feel cheap.

I have about half of that last order leftover, ready for my E3 trip, but I figured that I should probably make some event-specific cards to drive traffic toward the booth, or at least to associate myself with a project that was being shown.  After all, if the game was worth being exposed here, then maybe I’m worth being hired.

I’m similarly in a last minute situation, so I’m going with MyMiniCards.com again.  The designs I made are after the break.  (And like the cards say, come visit us at the IndieCade booth, #652 in the South Hall.)

(more…)

Carl @ 4:56 pm
Filed under: Personal — Tags: , , , , , —

May 24, 2009

Shortlist: Career hindsight

Here’s a couple of things that I really wish I could have done differently and would probably have resulted in me being better off than I am now.

1. Chat with Steve Chiang, EA Sports SVP

When I came into my internship at EA Tiburon as the Matchmaking feature owner, I was told the current state of the system was one of Steve’s pet-peeves. I was quite honored that such an important feature was trusted in my hands. I was hoping that there’d be some natural time when either my supervisor or producer would facilitate some sort of meeting with him, and there was some talk of just that. Unfortunately, it just never happened.

You should always assume that everything is important to the boss, but when you’re told that something you’re working on is something he has a particularly strong opinion about, you should go on a fact-finding mission and see what sort of particulars are involved. The way I went about it, I designed some additional criteria and logic, along with a revised GUI and flow. Feeling that that just “wasn’t enough” and utilizing my observations of other social connections between people, I also proposed some completely different systems that sidestepped matchmaking almost altogether. The guys up at EA Canada sounded excited about it when I pitched it to them, but who knows what Steve thought.

The extra kick in the butt I’m giving myself for this is that one of the people I interviewed with recently saw that I was at EA and asked if I knew Steve, since they’d worked together before. I thought the interview (or at least the conversation) went well, but maybe getting a recommendation from the big boss would have greatly aided in securing that job. (I think ultimately the interview sort of suffered from a mutual deviation from discussion about level design.)

2. Not the right place or time

During another phone interview, I was on a conference call with five or so people including the hiring coordinator. Ignoring my unfocused ramblings, I think the cherry on top of my total muck-up was what I chose to ask when prompted if I had any questions.

I need to clarify that I was interviewing for a job that my classmate just grew out of, so I was more or less quite familiar with the duties and work environment from talking with him. This left me rather devoid of things to ask. Not wanting to not have a question and knowing the kind of shite pay my friend was offered, I asked about the pay range. “Because I hear it’s kind of expensive there.” Ooph. 1. I was already pretty sure I made a poor impression, marking myself off their list, so there probably wasn’t any consideration towards hiring me anymore. 2. Fellow employees technically shouldn’t be aware of each other’s salary. That information should only be shared with HR. 3. It made me sound unexperienced and entitled.

Always save that kind of talk for later when you’re negotiating the actual offer.

Carl @ 2:26 am
Filed under: Personal — Tags: , , —

May 22, 2009

PrE-3

After getting the news from IndieCade late last week, I’ve spent most of my time since sorting out travel plans to get to E3.  Travel and lodging have been finalized with just a few other bits to consider.

Of course the primary reason I’m attending the expo this year is to be on hand to speak about Zephyr: Tides of War, but it’d be a disservice to the video game fanatic inside me to not take part in the rest of the mania and play some new games.  I imagine that both of these things will involve a lot of standing around with a lot of dead time.  That’s why I’ve considered picking up a netbook computer to help fill the time with some blog writing and blog reading. After that my GDC trip, I also curse the inconvenient size, weight, and short battery life of a 17″ laptop.

I’m not quite sure of my plan of attack and how I intend to divide my time between duty and leisure.  Anyone have insight on the prime times when people feel like checking out indie games versus the big blockbusters?  Morning? After lunch?…  This is one thing I really want to get right because it’s a fantastic networking/job interview opportunity, and I want to meet people who can help me get back in.  That’s certainly a selfish on reasons for networking, but a guy’s gotta eat.  (And buy Punch-Out!!.)  I realize this is a retail-centric conference, rather than something for developers’ enrichment.  However, I’m pretty sure that if anyone’s going to have interest in exploring the outer fringes, it’ll be other developers.  I have about 50 business cards leftover from GDC, and I hope that’s enough.  If not, boy, that’s a fantastic problem to have.

I’m flying in on the 1st and back home late on the 4th. If anybody would like to meet up and chat or whatever, I’d like that, too. Please let me know; it currently seems I may be the only one from the team who’ll make it out to LA.

Carl @ 1:18 am
Filed under: Games,Personal — Tags: , , , , , —

May 15, 2009

Zephyr soars into IndieCade@E3

Yesterday I received the news that Zephyr: Tides of War was selected to be part of IndieCade’s showcase at E3.  In the past IndieCade showcased such independant classics as Braid, Everyday Shooter, N, (to name a few you may be familiar with) and numerous others.  Judging for finalists in the main competition is still in progress, but to even be selected to be highlighted to a world-audience at E3…it’s enormous!  I’m sure I can speak for all my fellow teammates when I say it’s a tremendous honor to receive this recognition.  Plus, it’s another nice feather in the cap for FIEA.

The fine folks at IndieCade are offering us passes to the expo if we can make it out LA to personally curate our project. I’m trying hard to sort out arrangements for myself and sent out the invitation to the rest of the team. I’m hoping at least a couple of us will be able to fly out there.

I also figure it’d be another good networking opportunity to try to land a job. This time, I need to remember to actively ask for business cards.

I keep asking myself if this was an accident; it seems too good to be true.  But we poured a lot of passion into the project, and though there was plenty more we wish we could have tweaked before our ship date, I guess it still resulted in an exciting product.  There’s no time to keep trying to wake myself from this dream.  The show’s only three weeks away, and I’ve got some travel arrangements to make!

 

If you’d like to learn more about Zephyr: Tides of War, please visit the website at http://www.fiea.ucf.edu/~cohort4games/zephyr.

Carl @ 1:58 am
Filed under: Games — Tags: , , , —

May 14, 2009

Some FIEA plugging

Because FIEA (http://www.fiea.ucf.edu) is a relatively young program, just now on it’s fifth set of students, I want to make sure that its name gets out there and promoted well.  After all, if my alma mater looks good, then I look good.

FIEA (pronounced “phy-uh”) stands for the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy and is part of the University of Central Florida. Graduates of the 16-month program will receive a master’s degree in interactive entertainment. There are three tracks available: art, programming, or production. Because classes are never scheduled simultaneously, you’re welcome to sit in on the other tracks, regardless of which track you’re in.  You may notice that one of the tracks is in production, rather than design. Everyone’s a designer, of course! So in addition to design fundamentals, producers are taught project management skills.

Unanimously, we graduates agree that thanks to the industry grade tools, group work environment, and projects at FIEA, we were able to hit the ground running with minimal ramp-up in the real world.

The faculty is ace and industry-worn, with plenty of relevant war stories to tell.  Several of them remain in active development positions outside of the university.  However, thanks to the low ratio of students to professors (current cohort is maxed out at ~50 students; mine was ~35) and one-group-of-students-at-a-time focus, they’re readily available and eager to provide guidance and feedback.

New Brochure

Our communications director Todd Deery just sent notice that the newest brochures have just left the presses, and he graciously provided me with the PDF proof so that I could share it here with you.  [PDF, right-click to download]

iPhone Crossfire Port

Our programmers were once tasked with developing and porting a simple game from the PC to the Xbox. A couple of them decided to adapt the Milton Bradley game Crossfire into a network multiplayer title. Now, its been ported and renamed x-Fire for the iPhone. Check out the website Game-Grinder.com for more details and video. I don’t think it’s network-capable anymore, but obviously with multitouch, both players can play on the same iPhone.  What is notably missing is the cheesy lounge cover of the Crossfire TV commercial song that they used as background music.

Street Fighter, ASCII Edition

Perhaps you saw this on Kotaku? This is a network rock-paper-scissors test game for the engine that the Cohort 5 programmers are working on.

Carl @ 2:02 am
Filed under: Games,Personal — Tags: , , , , , —

May 13, 2009

Driving first-day sales

One of the primary driving forces for attracting customers to purchase pre-orders is the promise of some promotional tchochke, often t-shirts, keychains, or in-game item.  That’s a great value add, but it often only attracts those already interested in the characters or franchise–fans who desire collectibles.  What attracts random passer-bys, though, is the promise of savings.  Think of the impulse purchase items by cash registers…just up-scaled.

GameStop is the last retailer out there that needs help selling video games.  Unfortunately, their reselling of used games is detrimental to the industry-supporting sale of new games, but they’re the prime candidate for who can support what I’m about to propose: meaningful discounts off the price of a new game.  But I’ll get to why GameStop later.

In most cases, when a brand new release is discounted, it’s a joint effort between the publisher and the retailer.  Both of them wind up eating some of the loss from the discount in order to simply drive the customer into the store or the product into the customer’s home.  A “loss leader” or subsidization.

Traditionally business says that you can charge early adopters whatever price you want, and they’ll willingly pay it.  Continue this pricing until sales slump, then cut the price.

I ask, why not offer substantial savings to attract additional early adopters? (more…)

Carl @ 2:34 am
Filed under: Games,Techniques — Tags: , , , —

May 10, 2009

Carl’s Movie Mini-Review: Star Trek

Star Trek

From my perspective, as not-a-Trekkie, this movie reboot is nothing if not crowd pleasing for every second.  Action, adventure, comedy, and drama fueled by strong personalities.  I was floored by the visuals because it seems for once there was no “B-team” doing any portion of the effects.  I was also amazed at the effort made in actually constructing large sets (at least I think those were practical stage elements).  Every cent spent on production is undoubtedly seen or heard.  Not a penny wasted, not a penny spared.

My only complaint is the all-too coincidental parallelism of the antagonist’s motive.  Nero’s pregnant wife dies when his planet blows up, and it just so happens that he meets face to face with Kirk whose pregnant mother escaped with him in-utero from an exploding space ship.  It doesn’t even matter that Nero was the one attacking that space ship, it’s just too coincidental to believe, and that was my only real eye-rolling moment.

Highly Recommended.  If you’re not invested in the Star Trek lore, then I’ll guarantee you’ll find something to enjoy.  Unless you’re the kind that only likes Euro indie dramas where everyone’s suicidal.  And if you are a Trekkie, I’m sure members your “team” on your favorite forum have already developed opinions one way or the other that you’re likely to share.

Carl @ 5:43 pm
Filed under: Film,Reviews — Tags: , , —


Older Posts »