Today two Microsoft reps came to campus today and gave a presentation. It was focused on video game development, getting into the industry, and Microsoft's goals with game development for the Xbox 360 and ease of gaming with Windows Vista. It was a very good and worthwhile presentation and I found it interesting as the presenter was a alumnus of my college. He answered lots of questions, showed us some demos of upcoming games such as Gears of War, screenshots of the rendering process used Project Gotham 3's graphics engine, and "tried", lol, to demo a game he, himself is leading (he's a producer of one of the Microsoft Game Studios teams that focus on MMORPGs). The game is called Vanguard and it looked pretty sweet from the shots we were shown. Unfortunately, the game appeared to still be in early beta, and the build he brung with him needed to be patched before he could connect it to the beta server.

The appointed recruiter for my college accompanied him and I was able to give him my resume and ask him about the types of classes I should take that is preferred for a Software Design Engineer job at Microsoft. I was also able to talk to the game producer, shook his hand and I think he took note of my name as well.

They also gave out free pizza and plenty of prizes...including an Xbox 360. I entered the raffle but didn't win it. However, I was able to get a T-Shirt for asking a good question, and they also raffled off video games (PC, Xbox and Xbox 360). I'd noticed that among the games they had a copy of Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3 and another game I forgot, along with Xbox games like Fable and Jade Empire and PC games like Dungeon Siege and Flight Simulator. I was picked in the raffle for those, I wanted to get Perfect Dark Zero for the future when I hopefully get an Xbox 360, but all the 360 games were taken by then so I was able to get Jade Empire, a game i've been wanting for a long time as a fan of Knights of the Old Republic.

Overall, that was a pretty sweet presentation and VERY worth the time. I was able to get recommendations on classes to take that they look for skills for, give them my resume, meet an actual video game producer working in the industry and talk to him about getting a job in it, and walked out with a Microsoft T-Shirt and a new Video Game. Sweet!

Man, been a little while since i've updated this blog (though I have been keeping my main blog updated).  Anyway i'm on Spring Break all this week, thank goodness.  I need the time off, not just to rejuvenate, but also to catch up and get ahead in my classes.  Also, the Project Lead for Atlas of War gave us, especially me, hefty assignments over the break. I'm working on the battle system so I've been designing character skills.  We're trying to get the game done by mid-March as Wolverine Soft is hosting a game showcase  and they'd like us to have a playable demo of the game ready to include in the showcase.  This has me kind of excited.  I curious as of the feeling i'll get when I see people from campus sit down and play the game, especially when the use the battle system and to know that I was largely responsible for what they will be experiencing.

Anyway, this break isn't entirely a "break".  I have a programming project to work on, the game to work on, as well as general catch-up-studying to do with all my other classes.  In the meantime, though, I'm still gonna enjoy myself on this time off.  Today my mom bought me Guitar Hero, a game i've been wanting for a long time but could never really afford it.  I've played the demo for the game multiple times and could tell it its a game that is potentially very fun and addictive.  As of this typing, I've recently just came back from Best Buy with the game, and the box is sitting right near me.  Well...now that I've blown off some dust on this blog...I'm off to play!!!  WHOO!!

I got to meet my team today.  Pretty cool group of folks.  I was surprised by how well-organized it was.  Our project lead had a checklist for everything he wanted to discuss and everyone was updated on every member's progress with their respective roles.  I've been assigned to map design and character skill development so i'm gonna re-read the script and review the theme of the game to aid in my designs.  I got to read some of the funny diologue that we'll give to some of the NPCs and they were hilarious.  We've also got someone working on a website for that we'll use to showcase the game, as well as use it to exchange game resources between us.

I think this is gonna be fun.

Today I finished my 100% run on Final Fantasy X-2.  I think this marks the first time i've played through an epic RPG twice, and maybe the first time i've been one 100%.  It was VERY MUCH worth it, especially if you've beaten Final Fantasy X.  I won't spoil it, but man did I see just what I was hoping for.  Wonderful!

Anyway, I got work to do.  I have two midterms next week and I have to meet with my new team, Onek Enterprises, saturday to discuss the game.  So i'll be busy this weekend and next week will probably fly by for me because of the midterms.  Hopefully I can put in some comfortable Metroid Prime 2 play time over the weekend, a game i've been neglecting due to busyness.(sp?)

I posted this in my stand-alone blog and i've just copied and pasted:

Today I acted...I guess on impulse and joined Wolverine Soft. For those who don't know what it is (there is an earlier blog update on it here), Wolverine Soft is an organization that promotes the development of video games on the University of Michigan campus. I looked at their website this morning and saw an announcement for their first dev session of the semester, but that happened weeks ago and I wanted to attend and possibly join, but I forgot.

Well, today they had another dev session (their weekly) and I dropped by on my way to training. I spoke with one of the members there and introduced myself. I don't really have any experience with game development in terms of programming, (though hopefully I eventually will have those skills), but I told him of my experience with RPG Maker and, convieniently for me, (and for the project team), there is a team called "onekenterprises" that is currently developing an RPG using RPG Maker that could use some more help. I had to go soon after as I had to get to Martial Arts training.

I stopped by again after training and I met with the Lead Designer and he filled me in one the game's theme, plot, and development status and seemed happy to have some more help, that made me feel good as I hope this will be a mutual benefit. He officially added me to the developer list and I think i'll mainly work as a map designer and hopefully have with dialogue. This is an exciting opportunity for me as I'll get to gain some experience working on a team to develop a game and I think it'll be a very satisfying feeling to see the game through to its completion and make it available for download. I'm looking forward to working on the game! And as an aspring software developer in either games or applications, I think i've taken a fundamental step in that direction.

I've been neglecting playtime with that game to the point where I haven't even played it in days.  Well, not anymore, its a very good game and I wanna finish it so i'll start playing that today I'm considering leaving NCAA Football 2006 at home so I can't play it at school.  Anyway, since I'm home for the weekend, I think I may go look for our Sega Genesis in the basement, I really wanna play those old games again for some nostalgic fullfillment.

I've been balancing out my playtime of this game with NCAA Football 2006 and my DS games.  I actually haven't played in a couple days.  I hope I can remember my status in the game.  Anyway, not too long ago, I found some of me and my brother's old Sega Genesis games in our basement, the thing is...I dunno where the actual system is!  I'll keep them in my possession now, hopefully I'll find the system in the future.

I have no regrets in getting a Nintendo DS, its been a great supplemental gaming system, a great entertainment companion when travelling around, and has gotten me back into handheld gaming in general.

My gaming time right now is dominated by Nintendo products.  When i'm not playing Metroid Prime 2 (An awesome game by the way), i'm playing my Nintendo DS.

Nintendogs is such a fun and cute game.  Its not really all that much of a "game" more like sort of a simulator.  Taking care of your dog is entertaining because those virtual dogs, IMO, really capture the feeling and behavior of real puppies.

Mario Kart DS has been an absolute blast.  I'm enjoying this game more than I did Mario Kart: Double Dash.  I tried out Nintendo DS Wi-Fi for the first time last night by playing this game online....and I think i'll pass on Mario Kart online from now on.  Why?  Well, i've been playing Mario Kart since Super Mario Kart, the very first one.  Every console Mario Kart since then including 'Super', i've played mostly with my brothers when not playing the computer.  We've always raced "fair",  focusing on plain cart velocity, and especially using items.  In that respect, I feel thats how the game, was meant to, and should be, played.  So when I took this game online last night, I discovered what was for me, a whole level of racing competition.  I experienced for the first time, "snaking", the act of continuously drifting in order to generate mini-turbos to give your Kart speed boosts.  People perform this technique over and over again, making it practically impossible to win, or really even maintain competitive standing in the race unless you do it yourself.  I also felt a huge lack of focus on items, a part of the game I feel is largely responisible for the series being so fun and  memorable.  And ultimately, this took the fun out of the game for me.  I don't wanna have to resort to performing that technique over and over and over and over and over again just to stay in the race, not necessarily win it.  Thus, if i'm not having  much fun online, but having plenty of fun offline, i'm pretty much done with this game's online multiplayer.  Probably the only what i'll play now, is with people I know won't "snake".

I wanna comment a bit about my Metroid Prime 2: Echoes experience but i'll leave that for another blog update, I think this one is pretty lengthy and I don't want to extend it much more.

I got Mario Kart DS today.  Haven't played it yet but this is my 2nd DS game so far.  Looking forward to some good fun with it.  I may wait until Friday to try out the Wi-Fi service as I'm unsure if its possible to do so from the dormitory I live in.

Well I just finished Doom 3, which is likely due to the fact that I'm a bit addicted to Nintendogs, otherwise I probably would've completed this game days ago as I was right at the end.  Anyway, that game was ok, good, but not great.  I'm glad its over.  I'll probably start Metroid Prime 2: Echoes tommorow, pretty much just in time for the start of my next semester of college and I won't be surprised if I spend most, if not all semester playing through it.  I think thats what I did with XIII.  I plan on picking up Mario Kart DS tommorow.