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February 23, 2006
Meeting Announcement: Tuesday, March 7th, 2005
Speaker: Evan Skolnick - Producer/Editorial Director, Vicarious Visions
Topic: ...And Make It Snappy! Crafting Concise, Effective Dialogue for your Game
Location: The Taproom at Brown's Brewing Company, 417 River Street, Troy, NY 12180
Date: Tuesday, March 7th, 2006
At the March meeting Evan Skolnick, Producer and Editorial Director at Vicarious Visions, will be giving a presentation based on his GDC 2006 session entitled "...And Make It Snappy! Crafting Concise, Effective Dialogue for your Game". Following Evan's talk there will be a brief discussion on progress made with the chapter Mod Project, Holy Strike.
Session Description
It's a sad fact of life: Most players hate cutscenes and in-game dialogue. Ironically, most designers hate them too. So why do so many games have so much of both? A certain amount of in-game dialogue is almost always necessary, but there is often much more than there really needs to be.
In this session we cover the basics of effective dialogue writing, and using before-and-after examples from actual shipped games, reveal the process of trimming the verbal fat, improving impact, injecting emotion, and making every precious word count.
Idea Takeaway
Attendees should come away with a better understanding of how to make cutscenes and in-game dialogue more exciting and compelling for players.
Intended Audience
Attendees who can benefit from this session run the gamut from junior designers to experienced game writers. There is no prerequisite for understanding the content of the session, apart from speaking English and being generally familiar with cutscenes and dialogue from various video games, in order to understand the context of the discussion and techniques explored.
Presenter Bio
Evan Skolnick, Producer / Editorial Director, Vicarious Visions / Activision A former journalist and Marvel Comics editor, Evan has written for properties such as Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, X-Men, Dr. Strange, New Warriors, RoboCop, and many others. As editorial director for Vicarious Visions he has tuned dialogue for bestselling games such as X-MEN LEGENDS 2 PSP, SPIDER-MAN 2 PSP and DS, ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN DS and GBA, SHREK 2: BEG FOR MERCY GBA, CRASH BANDICOOT PURPLE GBA and SPYRO ORANGE GBA, among others.
Posted by IanStead at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2006
Mod Project Meeting Report: Thursday, February 9th
We had a very productive brainstorming session for the HolyStrike mod project meeting on Thursday, February 9th. Alot of the design ideas from this meeting are in the design document on the wiki here. People signed up for different tasks for the project. Thanks to Mike Lynch and the RPI SBRL for providing us with a meeting space.
Posted by IanStead at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2006
Mod Project Update
An update by Michael Tomaino on the Chapter Mod Project:
Hey guys and gals, this is Michael Tomaino, aka calimer, aka "The Doom 3 Guy". If you don't know already I'll be serving as the Producer for the mod project. I'm e-mailing you because you signed up as an interested party for the Holystrike mod. If you don't want to recieve further e-mails let me know and I'll remove you from the list.
That being said, it would be much appreciated if more people who are on this list joined our IRC channel.
The IRC channel is a place for us to meet in real time chat and get to know each other better without having to meet in person. The information for this is:
The irc chatroom is at irc.OFTC.net #holystrike or you can use the link: irc://irc.OFTC.net/holystrike
I recommend using the irc client listed here: http://www.silverex.org/news
If you have any trouble getting into the IRC channel e-mail me and I'll do what I can to help. Bret and I visit it on a daily basis and also if we don't answer you immediately please don't just leave, we have to go AFK from time to time.
In other news Brian Hudson has stepped up as the Engineering Lead, and Matt Ostrom for the Art Lead.
We're still looking for a Design Lead so if you have the time and desire for the position please let us know.
As far as jobs, Bret and I are still finalizing the design document, but in the meantime please start learning the halflife 2 tools in the respective area that you are interested in working on so that when jobs are setup you are ready to rock and roll. If you really want a specific job immediately, join the irc and we'll think of something. For you engineers, Brian Hudson does already have a few coding jobs that he mentioned need to be worked on, so feel free to join the IRC and talk to him about that.
I think that about wraps it up, and I hope to see all of you at the March 9th IGDA meeting. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at calimer1 [at] yahoo [dot] com or Bret at demonhill [at] mac [dot] com Take care and I'm looking forward to working with all of you.
-mike
Posted by IanStead at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
February 13, 2006
Meeting Report: Tuesday, January 31, 2006
We had a great meeting last Tuesday night. Forty people were in attendance from Vicarious Visions, 1st Playable Productions, Cyberlore, RPI, the RPI Game Development Club, Mildred Elley, UAT, BAE Systems, ITT Industries and NGI Systems. The room was packed and several people had to stand throughout the meeting so it looks like we need a new place to meet. Please post on the forum if you have any ideas of where we could meet.
"Six Million Dollar Tester: Making QA Better, Stronger, and Faster Through Automation"
by Leander Hasty
Leander "Lan" Hasty, Programmer at 1st Playable Productions, started out the evening with a thorough presentation on automated game testing tools and techniques. You can download the slides from Lan's presentation in a PDF file here: http://www.igda.org/albany/files/Leander_Hasty-QA_Automation-01-31-06.pdf
Some books and websites Lan suggested for learning more about automated testing and writing bug free code:
*Writing Solid Code: Microsoft's Techniques for Developing Bug-Free C Programs by Steve Maguire
*The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt, David Thomas
*Effective C++: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Design by Scott Meyers
*Bjarne Stroustrup's C++ FAQ
*Bjarne Stroustrup's "C++ Style and Technique FAQ"
*C++ FAQ Lite
*Guru of the week archive
Lan also suggested joining C++ and language design committee mailing lists.
You can see Lan again at the Game Developers Conference roundtable he will be leading in March. More information about that is on the conference website.
Albany IGDA Mod Project - 'Holy Strike'
by Bret Dunham
Bret Dunham made a presentation on the Chapter Mod Project 'Holy Strike' and then there was a discussion about the project and people signed up for the project mailing list. This will be a 6 month project and it will be based on Valve's Source Engine. Bret's idea is to modify either Counter Strike Source or Half-Life 2 and enhance it with asymetrical game play by adding a second team of Holy men. The Half-Life 1 mod Natural Selection is one of the inspirations for this project.
* You can download Bret's PowerPoint presentation slides here
* Additional information is available on the wiki.
* If you want to join the mailing list contact Bret by sending an email to: demonhill[at]mac[dot]com
* Michael Tomaino has set up a MIRC chat room at: irc.OFTC.net #holystrike or you can use the link: irc://irc.OFTC.net/holystrike
He recommends using the IRC client listed here: http://www.silverex.org/news/
Thanks to everyone who attended the meeting and especially Lan and Bret for their excellent presentations! Next meeting will be March 9th and Evan Skolnick will be making his GDC 2006 presentation: "...And Make It Snappy! Crafting Concise, Effective Dialogue for your Game"
Professors Marc Destefano and Michael Lynch from RPI sitting with students.
Posted by IanStead at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2006
Mod Project Meeting: Thursday, February 9th, 7-9pm at the RPI SBRL
Moderators: Bret Dunham - Designer, Vicarious Visions
Michael Tomaino - Lead Organizer, Doom 3 Coop Mod 'Last Man Standing'
Topic: Game Design Brainstorming and Assigning Positions to Team Members
Location: RPI Social and Behavioral Research Lab, 21 Union Street, Troy, NY 12180
Date & Time: Thursday, February 9th, 7-9 PM
The next mod project meeting will be Thursday, February 9th in the conference room at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Social and Behavioral Research Lab. The agenda is brainstorming the game design and deciding positions and titles for members of the project. Bret Dunham will be moderating the discussion with Michael Tomaino's help. Bret is the Game Director for the mod and is a designer at Vicarious Visions. Michael is the Producer for the project and is the Lead Organizer for the Doom 3 Coop Mod 'Last Man Standing Coop'. Please send an email to Bret if you would like to help out with this project and be added to the mailing list. Anyone that can't attend the meeting but wants to help on the project should send Bret both ideas and job titles they are interested in.
Read further for additional information and directions:
You can check out the forum for more information and to join the discussion about the project: www.igda.org/Forums/showthread.php?s=8ac99f42556bd454997b05d598c893e3&threadid=20079
You can download Bret's PowerPoint presentation about the mod here: www.igda.org/albany/files/Bret_Dunham-Holy_Strike-01-32-06.zip
Additional information is available on the wiki: www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/IGDA_Albany#Chapter_Game_Project_-_.22Holy_Strike.22nd
If you want to join the mailing list contact Bret by sending an email to: demonhill[at]mac[dot]com
Michael has set up a MIRC chat room at irc.OFTC.net #holystrike or you can use the link: irc://irc.OFTC.net/holystrike. He recommends using the IRC client listed here: www.silverex.org/news/
DIRECTIONS & PARKING
This meeting will take place in the conference room at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Social and Behavioral Research Laboratory (SBRL). The SBRL is located on the second floor of the Gurely building on 21 Union Street in downtown Troy, NY. Parking for the SBRL can be found in the parking lot next to the main entrance, or in the nearby streets (Union, Fulton or Grand Street).
The following directions are copied from the SBRL website (www.sbrl.rpi.edu/about/contact.html)
From the South
Take I-87, the New York State Thruway, North to Exit 23. At Exit 23, get on
I-787 north to Route 7 East. Follow directions to the SBRL (below).
From the East
From I-90 (Massachusetts Turnpike, Berkshire Spur of the New York Thruway), take Exit B1. Continue West (13.5 miles) to the Exit for I-787. Take I-787 North to Route 7 East. Follow directions to the SBRL (below).
From the West
Take I-90, the New York State Thruway, to Exit 24. From Exit 24, continue onto I-90 East. Exit onto I-787 North. Take I-787 North to Route 7 East.
Follow directions to the SBRL (below).
Directions to SBRL
From Route 7 East, exit to the right toward downtown right before 7 becomes a surface street. Merge onto 6th Avenue. Turn right onto Grand Street and take the first left on Union Street. Union Street is more of an alley than street, and the SBRL is the large brick building with the parking lot in front.
Posted by IanStead at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)