Update Time!

It's update time!

Spirit is progressing very nicely. I took a build of the game to E3 and had a number of people play our new baby to see how they handled it. It was very informative. Now that we're in Alpha it is the perfect time to have lots of different people play the game and see what does and doesn't work. We have three weeks left in Alpha, and the list of tweaks seem just about manageable, which is splendid.


Smoke is moving along at lightning speed. Have I mentioned that this project time-line is incredibly short? :) Fortunately, Smoke is a small game aimed at a younger audience so the scope fits the time-line... when you throw awesomely experienced people at it who are working as furiously as hell-fire to get it done! ;)


As I mentioned before, Face was going through a big change and now we're through with that change and back to making the game. The time-line has been extended as a result of this change and it seems plausible that we'll have a playable at E3 2011. So, it'll be a while before I'll have anything more concrete to share on this one.


If you haven't already checked it out, please go see my E3 2010 video recap - it's just 7 minutes long.


I hope you're having a great day. TTYL.


Jools

E3 2010

I left Austin and headed for Los Angeles on the morning of June 15. I arrived around 10am and headed for my hotel... you can watch my E3 video to see some of the action.



I love E3. I was sad when it went away for a couple of years; reduced to a small invite-only event in a tiny hangar. E3 is a very important part of the video game industry. For me it is not only a great way to see new titles and hardware but also reconnect with friends and colleagues.


E3 2010 was a milestone show because of one new tiny hardware platform called the 3DS. If it were not for one special feature, the 3DS would be a relatively simple evolution of the Nintendo DS. The 3DS displays "real" 3D on one of its screens. 3D that can be seen without glasses. It is magic. Magic in a box.


It was wonderful spending some geek-filled time with old and new friends - gotta send much love and shout outs to Tim H, Matt K, Dana D, Derek, Glen E, Jay, Jon J, David J, Aubrey N, David B, Richard I, Michael D, Matt M, Husky, Kevin, Aaron, and all of the other fine folk I was lucky enough to hang with.


Until next year... keep playing.

Jools

Alpha Alpha E3

Spirit went alpha yesterday. Hoorah! It is probably the cleanest and most complete alpha build that we've ever made at RK. Our previous games were all completed on time, but I don't think they were quite as "complete" as Spirit is now when they reached alpha. A lot of that is contributed to the genre of Spirit being different too, which allows us to focus more of our attention on the content of the game as it is a little simpler in some regards. This is actually a perfect time for the game to be alpha with me going to E3 next week. It'll be good to get friends' and colleagues' feedback on the game so we can make important adjustments to the game. If you are going to E3 and you see me, please feel free to stop me and I'll be happy to show you what we're working on and get your feedback.



I'm flying to LA on Tuesday morning. E3 opens its doors at noon. I have a bunch of meetings set up, and waiting on a couple to confirm a time. We have an assortment of pitches to present to publishers. This is an exciting time. The near-end of one handheld and the near-beginning of another. For us that means we can pitch games for both the DS and 3DS for a 2011 release. I am hoping to get my hands on the 3DS at the show. I'll be sure to share my thoughts if that happens. I plan on taking my pocket-sized video camera to record the events of the show like I did last year.


Hope you're having a great day. TTYL.


Jools