Honda - When things just work...

I love this not only because it is a Rube Goldberg Machine but also is a great metaphor for game development sometimes. When you have this idea that is made of a million unknowns and then some how you string it altogether to create a boss battle or puzzle setup, the feeling is pretty much like the what you see in this ad. The part the player never gets to see is the failed attempt after failed attempt at trying to get these complex gameplay sequences working. Anyhow I found this neat and relative to what we do on so many levels I just had to put the video up… well ok I was testing to see how to put a video up but this was sort of relevant?!?

The story behind this ad is awesome so give it a read because it really brings home the trial and error experience of working on a game production. It sounds like they had a lot of “Show Stopper” bugs during the development of this commercial… I hate when a producer walks over to my desk with one of those bugs, HATE IT!

God of War on a Train!

So while I was on my vacation in Spain we were riding this train from one city to the next and this guy was reading a gaming magazine… Just as he opens past the inside over there is Kratos, I cannot seem to get away from him. It’s been three long years of working on Kratos day in and day out trying to get him feeling right and playing solid so seeing him on a train in a foreign country was sort of my personal reward for all the long hours. My deepest thanks go out to David Jaffe and Cory Barlog for trusting me to not fuck up the main character in their masterpieces!

Spain was an amazing trip! We visited Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, San Sebastian, and Madrid. I celebrated my 30th birthday at the Guggenheim with my girlfriend who wore her Frank Gehry earrings for the occasion, so that was quite a special day. We also visited the Prado Museo and Reina Sofia Museo in Madrid, the Guernica by Pablo Picasso was an amazing site to see in person. The Sagrada Familia was another amazing site which I could not help but snap a crap load of photos for our art team, the place was that inspirational. The Mediterranean Sea was beautiful but I got a little sunburn that day and was called Lobster Man for about 2 days after that by my girlfriend. Other highlights included much eating of gelats (gelato) and aquarius this crazy gatorade type stuff that was quite delicious. Since my sleeping schedule was a little messed up I played a lot of DS, which has an amazing battery life thankfully… Lost in Blue was the main focus and relevant since everything was sort of foreign to me, especially food menus in Spanish. So that was my trip in a nutshell, I highly recommend the visit if you have the time and means, it was SO CHOICE!

The Flash Game of the Week was really fun but I have decided to only do once a month so that I do not become lazy and only update the blog with flash games every week. Here is the last one until June at which point I will begin the once a month Flash Game Update… Sorry this one is a little tough to figure out since it is in Japanese but I had fun with it all the same. If this game had more levels and a gentler learning curve I might play it for hours. Go play PLUPON now!

Good Luck and Have Fun!