The sky was grey and rainy when I woke up this morning. It rained on my way to work. I wore my rain jacket for the first time in many months. It felt like fall was upon us for the first time. I didn’t mind though. This summer was quite mild, so the transition didn’t seem as harsh or will be as harsh.
I will need to get new shoes soon. The pair of shoes that I’ve worn all spring and summer have holes in them. When the rains return in earnest, with the mini-rivers on the sidewalks, my feet will get soaked. For some reason, I feel like going to get new shoes at an outlet mall somewhere south, where the weather is warmer.
Now that the game I’ve been working on is now done, I am thinking about taking a trip somewhere to relax. I look forward to the beginning of fall.
This week was the first time I was able to use my new vacuum in a real comprehensive manner and it did not disappoint. It sucked up a ton of dirt and dust, so it obviously succeeded in it’s primary function. The machine is just so well engineered though. It’s quieter, lighter, and all the bits and pieces, and buttons are put in logic places. It’s easier to manoeuvre around furniture and it doesn’t make me feel like I’m trying to steer a massive hunk of metal, like my last vacuum did.
All the filters are washable and they’re all easy to access as well. I didn’t really maintain my last vacuum that well but this one, it’s just easier to get that done. I wasn’t the biggest fan of vacuuming before, but this new machine makes the job really palatable.
The game that I’ve been working on for the last three years, Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, was both simultaneously announced and launched today. This is the first time in my career that I’ve had a game be publicly revealed on the same day it was released. In old days of game development, you’d release a trailer or screenshots a few months to a year before launch, let the public get hyped, gamers would form inaccurate assumptions and unrealistic expectations, and then your game would be mildly received.
We did it differently this time around. We didn’t let the public speculate and make rumours about the game. We let them know the game exists and they could play it immediately. Of course, the Internet being what it is, it didn’t stop a few people from making inaccurate statements about our game, but that’s gamers for ya.
On a personal note, I feel like I had tremendous amount of professional and technical growth while working on this game. I took on a bit more responsibility and learned a massive amount about how the Frostbite engine works. Specific to this new game, I wrote the conversation system that allows players to speak to NPCs in the game. This conversation system will respond to the player differently, depending on what you’ve done in the game. I also wrote the tools that allowed our writers to craft dialogue for the characters in game. I was also responsible for extending the existing system that determines which players did the best in a multiplayer match and then awards them specific boasts at the end, eg. the player with the most assists, healing, or who played the objective the most. I also did a ton of other smaller things in the game.
I’m very proud of my work on this game and I hope that people will derive great joy from playing it.
Tomorrow is a highly anticipated day for me as the project that I’ve been working on for the last three years will have some details released to the public. Over the years, I’ve gotten good at not mentioning the details of the things I work on but it’s tough sometimes, as I want to share the details of what I helped make or what I’ve done.
After tomorrow, I’ll be able to share more of that, so I’m looking forward to it!
A former co-worker of mine, James, (the first designer who I worked with) is currently in Japan and just embarked on an audacious and remarkable journey. He is attempting to hike from Osaka to Tokyo. His route is over 1,500 km.
I am both envious and amazed at his will to do this, as he doesn’t know much Japanese and I’m pretty sure he’s never tried anything this challenging. He is blogging his entire journey and you can follow along with James here. I look forward to seeing every new post.
I am looking forward to getting lots of rest this long weekend. I am exhausted. The plan is to sleep many hours, clean my apartment, update the back end of my website, watch Netflix, and eat somewhat unhealthy foods.
Even though we’re still quite busy at work, many of my co-workers are on vacation. I get it, it’s summer, kids are about to go back to school, it’s almost fall, it’s a great time to be away. Unfortunately, because I didn’t take vacation or time off this month, it means that I have to handle some of the work that would have gone to those away. I also have to attempt to answer any questions that would have been easily answered by other people but since I’m a bit of a moron, I don’t know the answer to.
This actually happened twice today. One guy said he would have normally asked some dude on vacation but his choices were limited, so he was forced to ask me. I couldn’t really answer his question, but I did try and rather than let me continue to ramble on, he just left to talk to someone else. He was probably right to do that. Then another person came to me with a question that he didn’t want to ask me but was forced to, due to a shortage of engineers. I think I answered his question to some satisfaction.
For the last two days, I’ve had a visitor on my balcony. At least during the day, a bird has been using my balcony as a staging or resting spot. In the mornings, I can hear flapping of wings and when I quietly look out my windows, I can see a dark-coloured bird sitting on the railing or on the edge of my balcony. I don’t know what type of bird it is. Is it a juvenile seagull or crow?
It seems to be waiting for something. It also appears to be looking at something close by at another building. The roofs of the buildings around us serve as seagull nests and I wonder if this is a seagull that has been pushed out of the nest and is on the verge of entering adulthood. I’m not a rocket bird scientist, so I’m not sure.
I hope it sticks around for a few more days. It’s been quite interesting having him or her on my balcony.