Designer, Producer, Innovator
One of my friends brought to my attention some issues with the atmosphere in the pics, things like fog and shadows, as well as some poly issues with the rocks. These are all things I will be working on, so expect the scenes in the game to look a bit more realistic.
On another note before I closed the editor, I messed around with the TOD and found a nice sunrise. Which reminds me, I think it’s going to look like that outside of my window soon. Sleep time.
Enjoy!
So I’ve decided to change the season for Uprise North to winter. The decision was for story, but mostly style reasons. I love the winter scenery in northern Minnesota so I figured I would need to include that. This is setting the production of Episode 1: Roadkill back a bit, but I feel it will be worth it.
I’ve spent the last few days learning the basics of texturing and modeling with Softimage and Max. A lot of the stuff is still too WIP to show off but below are a couple of images to represent the new scenery. The pines and birches are not my models, but I retextured them. The snow is a custom texture, and my first attempt at parallax occlusion mapping. The problem with POM is that while it makes a flat surface looks like it has depth, when it collides with an object, say a rock (you can see this from the pic) it looks like the snow goes under the object. I’m planning on rounding this out by having a different terrain texture without POM to use around the outside edges of rocks, to help it blend in, as well as some creative work with decals.
Currently I’m also trying to model and texture some new brushes to make cliffsides for part of my map. I’m modeling them after Palisade Head and Splitrock Lighthouse areas, which are about 40 miles NE of Duluth, MN (hometown).
Oh, and I finally bought Left 4 Dead, and I’m loving it!
Enjoy the pics! -Jesse
Well, I am back from my first trip to GDC. (By the way if you’re wondering why I am posting things in rapid succession it’s because I just got my WordPress site up – note to self, do that sooner) The conference was amazing. I was accepted into the Conference Associates program (I was one of those guys in the yellow shirts), which made the trip very affordable. Also, my friend was nice enough to let me sleep on his floor, which made it more affordable, if a bit uncomfortable. But you can’t beat free lodging four blocks away.
I got to hear plenty of speakers, and even participate in a two day game design workshop hosted by Marc LeBlanc (CTO, Mind-Control), Art Min (Development Director, NCsoft Northern California), Robin Hunicke (Game Designer & Producer, Electronic Arts), Clint Hocking (Creative Director, Ubisoft), Tim Stellmach (Design Director, Vicarious Visions), Andrew Leker (CEO, Mind-Control), Jonathan Hamel (Senior Designer, Crystal Dynamics (Eidos)), Stone Librande(Game Designer, EA/Maxis), and Jeb Havens (Designer, EA / Maxis).
Some of these names I knew before coming, most I did not, but I left with a great respect for each one of them.
If any one is thinking about going into the game industry I strongly recommend attending the GDC, helped to clarify the path that I’m going to be traveling down to become a designer, and the people are really great. There’s nothing like walking downtown in the middle of a huge city and seeing someone with a badge down the block and waving “Hey!” (Translation: Hah! You’re a nerd just like me!). Also the CA program is an excellent resource for meeting people in addition to the free pass. You have to do some work, and may miss some sessions you want to hear, but you always have a great group of friends to hang out with. I plan on keeping in touch with the people I met there.
If you don’t want to wait for the next GDC, there’s one in Raleigh at the end of April http://www.trianglegameconference.com/, and of course GDC Austin in September, in uh…Austin. http://www.gdcaustin.com/.
Oh one more thing. Bring business cards. Another thing, get a Rolodex, because you’re going to be getting a hell of a lot of them in return. One last thing. Make sure the pocket of the bag you’re carrying your business cards in is zipped before you get to the airport. It can be messy.
Cheers,
JesseSo I finally decided to start a blog. Blogging is a bit of a new experience for me, but I wanted to make sure I had something interesting to talk about, I wanted to make sure it had a purpose. Well now it does!
I’m on my way to becoming a game designer. I worked my way through college to get a degree in biomedical engineering, got a job as an engineer, but quickly decided it wasn’t for me. At least not in the traditional sense. I have a love of science and logic that drew me to engineering, but also a strong desire to be creative, that just wasn’t fostered there.
I’m an avid gamer, I love playing games of all genres, so late last year I started thinking about a career in gaming. However looking at people in the industry and the work they’ve done, it quickly became clear to me that you need much more than a love for games to have the patience, skill, and dedication, to actually make them. It was then that I realized the work I had done with games growing up, in addition to just playing them.
On my 5th birthday my Mom bought me Super Mario Bros. 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros_3, and I played the crap out of it. But when I was done, I remembered not wanting the game to end, so I got one of those huge 180 page wide-ruled notebooks and started drawing more levels. I wrote a a little narrative in second grade about an alternate ending to Turtles II http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_(arcade_game), and in 5th grade I wrote a 70 page sequel to Stonekeep http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonekeep, with level maps scattered throughout of what it would look like to actually play. As I got older I made some basic mods for Half-Life with Worldcraft, and StarCraft with the campaign editor. Yes, I was that much of a nerd.
My one regret (well in addition to the fact that I haven’t been able to track these down, time to scour the attics at my parents’ houses), is that these didn’t appear as useful skills to me growing up, it was all just fun and games. Well now I can confidently say I’ve come full circle. I’ m ressurecting the skill and dedication that I harnessed in my childhood, and adding some of that grown-up real life experience for flavor.
I’m modding and designing full time now.
On my radar is Uprise North: Episodes 1, 2, and 3, set in northern Minnesota, a tribute to where I grew up. With 1 and 2 being for Crysis, and 3 being a standalone mod for Fallout 3 (it continues the story but you can play it without having played the others).
Also I want to make something completely my own, and have been very excited about these new XNA community games. So I’m making a new game called Pies and Stick People, in which you are a stick person and have to fend off evil invading…uh…pies. It’s intended to be a satire on action games out there, and I’ve got a bunch of cheesy ideas and bad puns to throw in. It’ll be good fun!
Well that’s all for now, I will be posting updates at least once a week. This is as much to keep me on track than anything else, but I would appreciate any and all suggestions and criticism. Hell I’ll take some flames.
Cheers,
Jesse
Jesse Alexander 
