So it’s a bit late, but I thought I’d post my presentation during the IGDA Kucha event two weeks ago, where I talked about why it was important to have a vibrant game developer community. Apologies for the horrid audio and video, but we were recording this on digicams so you really can’t expect much. You can also check out the other videos here.
As I stated in an earlier blog, I do love to play city planner, and a confluence of thinking about railways and the Ayala TechnoHub inspired me to lay out a fictional rail transit line spanning from Quezon City to Manila.
To start things off, in my fictional world, the Ayala corporation would decide to run their own Rail transit for the sole purpose of supporting the young UP-Ayala Technohub. They realized that companies were hesitant to set up shop there because the location was deemed too difficult for their employees to commute to everyday. First they tried using shuttle buses from the nearest LRT-2 and MRT stations, namely SM North and Katipunan, but they figured what the hell, we’ve got money to burn so why not start a rail business?
And so the ART was brought to life through the combined efforts of the Ayala companies and city mayors (HA!). Beginning in the Ever Gotesco Mall on Commonwealth Ave and stretching all the way to the Blumentritt LRT-1 station, which by the way is near the Blumentritt PNR (our original rail network, supposedly getting a revamp) station. Along the way the train would stop at UP-Ayala technohub (obviously, but also this gives access to UP as well), Quezon Memorial Circle, SM North (for interchange with LRT-2), Amoranto Sports Complex (randomly saw it on google maps, thought it might be a good station), and Mabuhay Rotonda (for access to UST and nearby schools/colleges). Not only would this rail network ease the burden of commuters coming all the way from fairview, it also connects the MRT and LRT-1 lines while at the same time providing easier access to one of Metro Manila’s few green lungs, The Quezon Memorial Circle.
I know it seems ridiculous that I just spent an hour of my day dreaming up a fictional rail network, but for whatever reason it gives me a great sense of faux accomplishment thinking up ideas like this. Now if I could only figure out a way to get paid to do this, I’d be set for life.
In case you’re interested, a larger image of the map can be found here.
Update: According to my girlfriend a similar route was actually planned by Mitsubishi and Ayala during the Cory administration stretching from QC all the way to Laguna. Unfortunately, probably due to the usual politicking, it never happened.
So, IGDA and GDAP were asked to do a short panel on the games industry by the organizers of the MCC, which we were quite happy to oblige. We get VIP passes, which I think basically entails we get in for free, and nothing much more than that. Our panel will be on Sunday, 12-1pm, feel free to attend if you’re at the con!
I was downing a San miguel Strong Ice at 11am yesterday, trying to fight the urge to throw a panic attack. I’m not normally lke this, and even my closest friends are surprised to find out that I have a very deep seated fear of public speaking. I can’t explain how I can be overly verbose in a small, casual setting (ie 2-4 people at a table) then scared like a deer in headlights the minutes 10 or more eyes set upon me simultaneously, but that’s just the way it is. Of course, the IGDA Kucha turned out well enough, and so did my presentation at the end, regardless of the fact that I was using index cards and still managing to flub some lines.
Anyway, for those unable to attend the event, I’ve posted my presentation here and my notes for each slide below, since it wouldn’t make much sense without them. Videos will be up soon, but in the meantime this ought to be good enough.
Update: For all you tl:dr types, the videos are up!
Slide 1:This is not the image of a man who gives a shit about anything. So, why do I care? Why did I volunteer to be the chapter coordinator of IGDA Manila? I certainly didn’t do it for the fame or fortune, so what’s in it for me?
Slide 2:I take personal offense knowing that this is the face that Philippine society shows to the world. I don’t want to be represented by a lecherous middle aged man who makes millions singing and gyrating to horrible songs. I want the world to know we’re better than that.
Slide 3:Chip Tsao called us a nation of servants. Was he wrong? Yes. Does that stereotype still exist? Yes. Stereotypes only change when people actively prove them to be wrong, something I hope to accomplish by nurturing the local game development community.
Slide 4:So at this point you’re saying, so what? What do I care? It’s a fair question, so in the next few slides I thought I’d go over some of the reasons why supporting IGDA is actually in your own self interest.
Slide 5:A few of you are here today to learn from your fellow game developers, but the rest of you, you’re only here for the free food and drinks. It’s okay, I’m one of you. I have tupperware in the back to take leftovers home. That’s a pro tip for all you freeloaders out there.
Slide 6:So, how do we get BETTER food and drinks and an even larger venue? The answer is numbers. Companies are always looking to expand their market and mindshare. But they want to reach as many people as possible, so the more of us there are, the more willing they’ll be to open their sponsorship wallets.
Slide 7:All the artists in the house know just how awesome and expensive Wacom tablets are. This intuos 4 costs between 16 to nearly 30 thousand pesos, depending on the size. Now what if I told you it would be possible to get a discount on this hardware?
Slide 8:Ynzal recently had a 40% off promo on Photoshop, but only certain organizations were entitled to it. GDAP, the Game Developers Association of the Philippines, was one of them. So imagine the kinds of discounts we could get on games, software, hardware, if only we come together as an organization.
Slide 9:That’s a picture of the 12 foot orc statue in front of Blizzard’s office. How many of you dreamed of working at a Blizzard, an EA, an Ubisoft, a Square Enix? the people who make the games that you love to play? What would it take for them to set up studios here?
Slide 10:Well, companies that are interested in opening up offshore studios will usually measure two factors: How easy is it to do business in that country AND, is there a large enough talent pool of developers for them to hire? How does the Philippines compare against other countries in these aspects?
Slide 11:Doing business in the Philippines is about as efficient as the rube goldberg machine seen here. You’re forced to jump through all sorts of hoops and bribe government officials if you want anything done in time. Unfortunately, this is something we just can’t do anything about.
Slide12:What we CAN do however, is to grow a vibrant game developer community, like this one in Austin. An active IGDA chapter is proof to a company that there is a talent pool for them to hire from, and it can help offset the the difficulty of putting up a business here.
Slide 13:Remember the other slide that said the Philippines was 140th in a list of countries in which you can do business? Singapore’s number 1. However, companies found out that Singapore’s talent pool wasn’t deep enough, which is why you’ll find many foreigners, Filipinos included, working in these companies.
Slide 14:Now assuming we manage to convince studios to set up here, it’ll be much easier to convince organizers to hold game their development conferences in Manila. That way we won’t have to fly all the way to Singapore to listen to industry luminaries like Cevat yerlin, Peter Molyneux, Hideo Kojima, maybe even Miyamoto.
Slide15:The existence of all these companies also creates an informal knowledge cluster where developers can exchange ideas and learn from each other to make even better games. These knowledge clusters are also the breeding grounds for our own future game design geniuses, some of whom may be in this very room right now.
Slide 16:OK, so, I’ve talked about why I care about IGDA, and why it’s in your own self interest to support it. But the truth is that this goes far beyond you and me. By supporting IGDA, we can actually help make our country a better place.
Slide 17:Economist Richard Florida has written a series of bestselling books with one basic theory: Each country has a creative class, and this creative class is the driving for its economic development, pushing the country forward through sheer creative energy. We’re a part of that creative class.
Slide 18:And so are all these other sectors, representing fashion, music, web design, comics, animation, and yes, even cosplaying. They’re all a part of the creative class, and a part of increasing our economic output and making us a player on the world stage.
Slide 19:For comparison, Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh, which is ranked 110th in ease of doing business. But I did a google search on Dhaka cosplayers and came up empty, and by that measure I think we’re far ahead of them in terms of having a thriving creative class.
Slide 20:I’d like to leave you with this thought. What we do matters. By showing up at IGDA events and participating in the forums you’re doing 3 things: making me happy, satisfying your own self interests, and helping out your country. And since all you really have to do is give some of your time, I think that’s a pretty good deal.
Another piece of spell art for Spell Wars called Ghost Knight. Far from done, but I thought I’d put it up anyway. The armor is inspired by greenwich armor of the 1500s. It’s been a pleasing distraction from my ongoing project of large, detailed backgrounds. Although ironically, I chose a type of armor that has intricately detailed designs.
Artwork for a spell on spell wars called “Moment of Peace”. Spellwars is an iPhone game being developed by Ryan Stubblefield. I’ve mostly provided UI work for Spellwars, and this is my first stab at spell art.
A very quick mockup for an iPhone math application that I banged out in a ciuple of hours. The ships on top are attacking the city below, with each ship’s chape correspnding to a specific trait. Green was a normal ship, red is sleeker, hence faster , and yellow is slower and more ponderous but took two hits to finish off. The city has 3 layers of shields, which correspond to “lives”, which I thought made more sense than just having a life bar or three hearts on top of the screen. Ultimately this design was discarded, but I thought it was nice enough to put up here.
A bunch of UI elements from an iPhone game called Piecehunters and its Chinese spinoff I made for a small Singaporean studio. Not a lot to say about this really, except my favorite’s the incense holder and the little chinese lion (that’s supposed to be a stamp or seal, like for royalty).
Another image from the zombie game files. This is supposed to be used as an information sheet of sorts for theplayers to know what character they are, and what kinds of abilities they have. The best parallel in a video game would be the inventory screen. I really liked making this, especially thinking of the little add ons tot he folder, like the clipped picture of the zombie and the post-it note.
Yes, it is the same zombie board game. No, I’d rather not talk about it any more, mostly cause I’m lazy. I like how it came out though, so here you go.
New Star Grand Prix has been released! I worked on this game with Simon Read a couple of months back and it’s nice to see it finally getting the finishing touches. Unfortunately, not all of the art there is mine, as I think Simon’s been hit by the recent Financial crisis as well. We had to cut back on some art assets that he wanted custom made and he he had a go at the graphics himself. Still it turned out quite well (VERY well I think, well enough to make me wonder why he needed an artist in the first place, but no need to question that eh?), and the game’s a lot of fun to play even if you’re not a hardcore F1 fan.
I pitched a basketball RPG (yes, it’s possible!) game to Simon a few months ago as well, and so we may actually be working on that in the coming months.
