Hotel Room Chrysalis
As 8bitjeff awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic code de-bugger. He was laying on his soft, as it were, free food fattened belly and when he lifted his head a little he could see he was still housed in a ridiculously trendy hotel room, divided in two by a king-sized bed. He had been cocooned for two weeks in this tastefully decorated, Union Square, sleeping compartment, complete with far too expensive mini-bar, wide-screen tv, and 500 thread sheets. On top of the bed was his company-issued lap top, iPhone, and giant bag of dirty laundry. Along side these was a pile of jackets, t-shirts, and other company graft that he could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His accomplishments over the last two, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his peers, were housed in the new laptop behind military grade security.
Just 7 months before, he had toiled for the "company". It was not a bad company, but certainly it was not going in the direction that 8bitjeff saw himself moving in. After 7 months of complete freedom, which included, in some cases, freedom from an income, he had chosen to enter the Chrysalis and be re-born. Inside he found hundreds of insanely dedicated, intelligent, and driven individuals, all with a common purpose. So vastly different was this new company from the "company" that it took him all 14 days to completely comprehend his decision. The chrysalis consisted of a repeated routine: From hotel (complete with Salvador Dali coffee table - I kid you not) then to the office by way of paid taxi service. Next came a grueling, but entertaining, 14 hours day fixing bugs in a game system that was vast in scope and rich with both peril and surprisingly elegant structure. Mixed in the 14 hours were free meals, free beer, and as many healthy snacks and soft drinks that he could possibly ply himself with. When the end of each day would come, he would cocoon himself back in that taxi, then back in the hotel for a few hours of rest then start the whole process over once again.
By end of the metamorphosis, rather than finding the situation exhausting, 8bitjeff felt a renewed sense of purpose and a kinship with the other 300 or so fellow dedicated individuals who also spent countless hours making sure the game system was both fun and wildly profitable. After leaving the cocoon, he met up with his brother, who was also part of the 14 day Chrysalis. As they left the building for the final time, they mourned leaving their new friends, the free meals and the warm, safety of the pupa, but were certain that they would visit and be nourished by the mother Chrysalis many times in the coming months.
Note: Steve and I have both taken on new employment in with a large gaming company. We both spent two weeks at the head quarters, learning as much about the game systems as possible. New developers are placed on a team that attempts to clear as many P1 and P2 bugs as they can. This forces the developer to quickly sink or swim by learning the system through reading docs and asking the right people the right questions. Now that the two weeks were up, we are now working remotely on game fixes and small feature updates. Our hope is to learn enough about the system to start kicking ass making new games and features as soon as we can.
Also, my sincere apologies to Kafka for lamely bastardizing the only parts of this book I remember.
The Game Shift 001: Thoughts On Week 1
I recently moved from working in a highly structured corporate development environment at one of the world's largest toy companies to a loosely structured start-up environment at one of the world's largest game companies. The Game Shift is a chronicle of that change.
Day 1: Orientation
Day 1 was a whirlwind. I flew up the night before, but did not get to sleep until 2:00 Am. The day started at 8:00 AM with orientation for the first 5 hours. Free food was everywhere: they were not kidding about that one! However for whatever reason, my stomach decided to rebel on me. The worst pain I had ever felt, pierced my right side. Where is the appendix? Right or left? I could not remember! Still, I pretended like the pain did not exist. I picked-up my computer from IT, and it was right to learning about the dev environment. Dinner at 7:00 led to getting a taxi by 8:00 PM, and back to the hotel. A real honest to goodness 12 hour day one. Whew! Stomach still ached all night but finally went away and I fell asleep.
Day 2: The System
Day 2 was spent pouring over all the online docs that had been collected about the game I would be working on. With the stomach ache gone, things were smooth sailing. Wiki's are wonderful things, especially if someone has taken the time to document necessary things for the team. By the mid-afternoon everything was set-up, and it was time to check the task-system for my first job. When I had it I dove into the code. By the end of the day I was well on my way to finishing my first project. This was going to be easy!
Day 3: Devastation
Whatever happened between the end of day two and the end of day three I cannot describe because I can't even put really my finger on it. However, a few set-backs with the code and a creeping dread that had been collecting inside me since Monday, collided by mid afternoon. What had I done? I left a fine, stable job for this? It seemed like I had left the refined Victorian splendor of 1870's London for a trip to Tombstone in the wild west. Doubt smothered everything that day. Could I even tackle this job? Am I too old for this sh*t? I simply did not know. I felt intimidated, and out of place. My premature grey-hair and the the mileage put on my face from the last few, very difficult years at "Monolith" did not do me any favors either. Back at the hotel that night I pondered my life and fate, and then fell asleep almost instantly.
Day 4: Turning Point
Thursday started with renewed vigor. I just knew it: I would finish my first project today, and get another one. There was no doubt about it. I was right. By the end of the day, I had succeeded, but there was more. As I looked around the building, I felt a growing affection for everything around me. I noticed things that had seemed foreign just one day prior, now appeared familiar and comforting. The way the tables were piled with computers, monitors, and people...smart people. All of them working towards common goal. I once had felt that feeling at my last job, but not for many years. Here it was again, in front of me...what I had been missing from my last job: meaning. This was not "going through the motions", and it was certainly not making games for marketing purposes at the whim of people who simply did not know the medium. Here, decisions were been made for logical reasons. In the afternoon, when the studio head bravely stood in front of everyone and explained why a release was being held back, I could only smile in appreciation. It suddenly felt like home.
Day 5: A Realization
By day 5 I was well on my way to finishing my second project. I had finally found the right people to talk to, and my work had passed code review. That day, the studio had free t-shirts to highlight the new (now delayed) release, but I hesitated to take one. For all my time working for the "Monolith", I never received any kind of t-shirt to highlight any release. Mind you, I worked there for 15 years on web sites, 10 of them making games. I was involved with the creation of over 200 web games of all types (dress-up, action, puzzle, shooter, multi-player, mmo, etc.) played billions of times. However, in all that time, we never, ever, once had a t-shirt made to highlight the release of anything. I used to look at the toy marketing teams in awe, as they seemed to create a new t-shirt for the release of any product, but not for the web sites or the games they held. We were bastard children trying to push a new medium that simply was not compatible with the old values that came with manufacturing economies of scale. As that memory passed by, I had a sudden realization. I was no longer at "Monolith." Duh! I was now working for a company, where my work was core (or at least one day would be) to the company's livelihood. I was in product development. I was no longer a service or cost center to be charged back. Instead, my job was to add value to profitable product. I reached into the box and took a t-shirt, then stuffed it into my backpack. 24 hours later, and 400 miles away, as I spent the weekend with my family before flying back for another week, I proudly put the t-shirt on and wore it all day long. I've bought-in. Now it is time to kick some ass.
Atari 800 In A Hotel Room
Jeff and I are still in S.F. doing a 2-week tour of duty with our new employer before we head home to work as remote employees. While it might appear that we have been having a blast on this trip, in reality it as been very hard work, and every night we get back the hotel we basically sack-out until morning. Tonight though, for the first time in 9 days, Jeff came over to my room, and we fired-up an Atari 800 emulator and played some of our old favorites.
In a way, it was a long-over-due, cathartic experience. Here we are, visiting the birth place of so many of our favorite games, now employed to one of the world's biggest game companies, and we've been so busy, we had not even had a chance to think about how long and far this journey has been. We both were inspired to makes games by the 8-bit era, and especially the Atari 800, and we both cut our programming teeth on the system back in the early 80's. Tonight we relived a bit of those old days.
Below are some images of the games we played, while were playing them:
Aztec: This was a game we played on the Apple II, predating the Atari by about 2 years. It used the dithered 320x200 (hi-res) mode to create some stunning animation on a 6502 machine. The graphics rivaled stuff the Mac was doing years later.
Shamus: This was a great action adventure game that appeared first on the Atari 800, mostly because some of the color cycling and display list tricks were very hard to pull off on other systems. If there was any justice, this game by William (Cathryn) Mataga and released by Synapse would been seen as a ground-breaking landmark title in video game history.
Preppie: A game by Adventure International (Scott Adams' company). This game was a real showcase for the Atari 800's sound and graphics. If you wanted to make an Apple IIe or IBM PC owner cry in 1983, you only had to boot-up this game and then tell them your Atari 800 XL cost 1/10 the price of their computers.
7 Cities Of Gold: The first great explore and conquer style game by Dan(i) Bunten Berry. We opted to play this instead of MULE tonight because we didn't have any good joysticks with us, and MULE on a keyboard is a terrible thing. 7 Cities still marvels me with its' "world builder" option that will a complete new game for you every time. Amazing.
Fort Apocalypse: Another game from Synapse. Really, Synapse is one of the lost great game companies. Nearly every game they made was a gem. This one by Steve Hales and Joe Vierra took a few ideas from Choplifter and Lunar Lander, but added an intense action element that made it one of the best arcade games of the era. The fact that you have probably never heard of it only means that you need to look (and play) harder.
Blue Max: Another Synapse title, this one was developed by Bob Polin. Activision attempted to make an 8-bit Atari computer version of "River Raid", but that one was no better (and in some ways worse) that the Atari 2600 version. To me, this game was really the "River Raid" of the 8-bit computer era.
Donkey Kong: Little known fact: the Atari 800 version of Donkey Kong was one of the only a very few versions of the game that included all four levels. This was one of our favorites from day one.
Zeppelin: Another great William (Cathryn) Mataga game released by Synapse. This one used another unique feature of the Atari 8-bit computers, the redefined character set. This game features HUGE scrolling levels, with many multiple objects all moving at the same time. The scope and action of this game still blows me away as much today as it did almost 30 years ago.
Food Fight: One of the best action games of the golden age arcade, and one of the most unsung arcade game ever made. The Atari 800 could recreate the game almost down to every single pixel.
Management Sucks 001: No, It's Not "Just Business"
While working as a developer and then later as a manager for "The Monolith" for 15 years, I learned a lot about how old-style corporations feel about their regular employees. This new series, Management sucks, explores some of the experiences I had while trying to manage a team of developers in that ultra-structured corporate environment.
Many times in my final years at "Monolith" corporation, I heard these words uttered to me:
"It's not personal, it's just business"
The words were usually used to describe a situation where a very productive, yet not "directionally correct" (more on that term another time) employee, was going to be affected by a "lay-off".
To me, swallowing this kind of language was one of the worst things about being a manager. To really take in part what was happening, you needed to force it down your throat, digest it, and then make it part of your daily regimin.
My problem with this kind of language, especially with the phrase "It's not personal, it's just business", is that I really did not believe it. To believe that phrase to be true, I had to set-aside everything I truly felt about people and how they work best on a team in an organization.
The thing is, to say "it's not personal" when you are about to do the following, is a complete lie:
1. Take away someone's livelihood.
2. Show someone that the entire collection of their skills and experiences is not at all worth while to the company.
3. Giving an employee no notice of a lay-off, then using an outside agency to relay the bad news instead of doing it yourself.
4. To tell someone, in no uncertain terms, that you are not interested in seeing them again on the premises, and to treat them as an intruder and escort them out of the building, when just minutes before they were a trusted employee.
In fact, to me, it was one of the most "personal" things you could ever do. It very well is business, but it is also very personal.
Now, don't get me wrong, I completely understand "why" things are done this way, and I'm not suggesting that it is the wrong way to do it. But I am saying that, if you have the attitude that the act is "not personal, just business" you are fooling yourself. That kind of attitude helps lead to a place where you disconnect yourself from the realities of your employees.
It's something that happened to me, and it is one of the reasons I needed to make a change in my career. The same day that I actually said to myself "It's not personal, it's just business" as I sent an email that would effectively terminate a very loyal and hard working contractor, was the day I knew I needed to try something new. It was the day that I came to conclusion once and for all that Management Sucks.
Atari Greatest Hits Vol.2 For The DS Now Available
Atari hs just sent us a press release for their "Greatest Hits volume 2" for the Nintendo DS. We loved the first one, and this one looks like it will be just as good. Check out the Atari release below:
ATARI’S GREATEST HITS: VOLUME 2 NOW AVAILABLE AT
RETAIL OUTLETS NATIONWIDE
Star Raiders®, Yars’ Revenge®, Millipede® Asteroids®Deluxe and Major Havoc® Lead Line-up of 50 Atari Classics now Available Exclusively on the Nintendo DS
Los Angeles, CA – March 8, 2011 – Atari, one of the world’s most recognized publishers and producers of interactive entertainment announced today that Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 2 is now available. The ultimate Nintendo DS title for casual gamers, Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 2 features more of Atari’s popular arcade and Atari 2600 titles including Star Raiders®, Yars’ Revenge®, Millipede®, Asteroids Deluxe ® and Major Havoc®.
Atari introduced a new era of interactive entertainment throughout the 1970s and 1980s with its addictive arcade games and home gaming system. With Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 2, each spotlighted game will feature the same pick-up and play control scheme as their original arcade and 2600 console, with modern updates to align with the Nintendo DS platform. Up to four-player multiplayer via both DS Download and multi-card play will be available for 20 titles including Combat and Warlords for head-to-head gaming.
Additionally, Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 2 features a selection of interviews with Atari founder, Nolan Bushnell, an arcade gallery with arcade games and select arcade game memorabilia. As an added bonus, players can also try out the Atari 400 emulator using the Touch Screen keyboard.
The complete Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 2 line-up is as follows:
Atari Arcade Hits
Asteroids Deluxe, Black Widow, Crystal Castles, Liberator, Major Havoc, Millipede, Red Baron, Super Breakout, Warlords.
Atari 2600 Favorites
Breakout, Crystal Castles, Millipede, Super Breakout, Video Pinball, Warlords, Return to Haunted House, Secret Quest, Canyon Bomber, Circus Atari, Combat, Combat Two, Demons to Diamonds, Desert Falcon, Off-the-Wall, Radar Lock, Golf, Double Dunk, Realsports Basketball, Realsports Soccer, Super Baseball, Super Football, Video Olympics, A Game of Concentration, Backgammon, Basic Programming, Brain Games, Code Breaker, Maze Craze, Video Chess, Black Jack, Casino, Fatal Run, Night Driver, Steeplechase, Street Racer, Quadrun, Sentinel, Space War, Star Raiders, Yars’ Revenge.
Developed by Atari and Code Mystics, Atari’s Greatest Hits: Vol. 2 is Rated “E” for Everyone and is now available exclusively on Nintendo DS for a suggested retail price of $29.99. For more information, please log onto: www.atari.com/agh2
Road Test: Adobe "Wallaby" Flash->HTML5 Converter Preview Version
A couple days ago, Adobe released a preview version of "Wallaby", their Flash->HTML5 converter. It's been a badly kept secret for the past few months that Adobe was working on something like this, but with the release they have finally come clean on their efforts.
Here is what they says about it:
"Wallaby" is the codename for an experimental technology that converts the artwork and animation contained in Adobe® Flash® Professional (FLA) files into HTML. This allows you to reuse and extend the reach of your content to devices that do not support the Flash runtimes. Once these files are converted to HTML, you can edit them with an HTML editing tool, such asAdobe Dreamweaver®, or by hand if desired. You can view the output in one of the supported browsers or on an iOS device.
You can get the Wallby preview version here: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/wallaby.html
Both Mac And PC versions are available.
There is a long list of things that are not supported right now. you can find that list here:
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Wallaby#Release_Notes
We tested the application, and it appears to work as advertised. Using the application is very simple. All you do is locate a .fla to convert to HTML, and select a location to place the converted files.
When Wallby has completed the conversion, you should have a .html file to load and test. We noticed that these work best in Safari and Chrome. They did not work in Opera or Firefox. This makes sense, as it was designed to work with WebKit.
Here are a couple examples we made very quickly. The first one simply moves a logo a cross the screen using a classic tween.
The second one moves the same logo, while it spins, fades and changes size:
Rocket Test Move, Spin, Fade SWF
A couple things we noticed:
1. So far, ActionScript is not supported at all.
2. The output is CSS, JavaScript and SVG. It does not look like the HTM5 Canvas is leveraged for anything at all (yet).
We look forward to testing newer versions when they are released. We'll keep you posted.
Listen to the live LAPD radio stream mixed with random ethereal music
OK, so this is way off topic (game and retro-wise), but you can expect a little more in this "random awesomeness" category now and then. The site YouAreListeningToLosAngeles.com is simply a live feed stream of Los Angeles Police radio chatter (provided by radioreference.com) played over a random selection of ethereal music using SoundCloud. Since I'm a sucker for realistic police drama (The Wire, The Shield, Chicago Code, and especially Southland), this is a fascinating background sound scape to code to.
The Pac-man Dossier Kicks Ass!
If you are at all interested in building a maze chase game in the Pac-man genre, or are just interested in the technical details about the game or how to play it, check out the incredibly detailed Pac-man Dossier by Jamey Pittman.
This treasure trove of information contains everything from detailed descriptions of the maze logic to explaining the "kill screen", Easter Eggs, and much much more.
When I was writing the No Tanks! chapter of The Essential Guide Flash Games, I really could have used this information. I looked all over the web for some technial details on Pac-man and found nothing that described the chase logic in any detail. I had to repeatedly play the game and literally guess as to how the logic was set up. I was close, but after reading this, I feel like I have enough information to build an exact clone. Let's see if I find the needed time though.
(8bitjeff is Jeff D. Fulton)
The current state of 8bitrocket Towers
It has been a long, eventful two months to begin 2011. I have not found the time to write much on the blog, but that will change as soon as Steve and I begin our new adventure in game development. I'm not sure the term "extra" time applies as I am sure we will be working our asses off, but not having to spend 25% of my time looking for new gigs will certainly give me a little "extra" time to devote to the blog even if it is early in the morning or late on a Saturday night.
While I have enjoyed some personal growth (as well as a little bit of cash) during the last 7 months of independent development, I have missed out on the daily camaraderie that goes along with working directly with other developers. Being able to work again with my brother day to day at a new game development gig certainly will go along way toward solving that problem. I have worked a little bit with my developer friends at Creative Bottle and Jet Morgan, but days that contain a healthy dose of developer give and take have been few and far between. While I use Tweet Deck to monitor many of your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn feeds on a minute by minute basis, nothing replaces the day to day, face to face contact that I had as a developer at Mattel for the previous 14 years.
Over the last seven months I have spent the bulk of my time as the single lead developer, architect, and CTO for my projects. Most of my work has been with Producto Studios, a full service creative agency and animation studio located in Redondo Beach. I have had the opportunity to work on a nice set of Flash games and interactive applications with the professional, seasoned Producto team for host of different clients. Work has been fast-paced and I have been able to bang out application design and code pretty quickly as the Producto team is very good with change control and requirements finalization. I am by no means a stickler for water-fall, non-iterative development, but with a programming staff of one (me) and tight deadlines, combined with the feast or famine nature of contract development, projects with ever-changing, creepy scope kill both productivity and morale.
Business-wise, January started very slow. We had about 10 unsolicited gigs start and stop (and a couple start again) during that time, which was both encouraging and frustrating. I found myself deep into a couple independent iPhone and Flash game projects for lack of anything else to do, but those stopped as soon as the HTML5 Canvas chapters started to come back from both the tech and copy edit reviews. Starting in late January, Steve and I started a whirlwind courtship with a big gaming company that resulted in us both accepting full-time positions to work remotely (read from home) as game developers. We have been asked to not write up anything on the company until we officially start on March 14th, so I will abide by that and not mention the them by name. In the last two weeks though two of the projects with Producto Studios have started and I have been "feverishly working on them the to ensure they are in a good state before I start the new gig.
In the coming weeks, Steve and I will be focusing the blog on our day to day adventures with the new company, as well as re-starting up daily updates to the another blog that was stalled in 2006 when we started up 8bitrocket.com. The direction will hopefully be a Superficial.com style daily send up of big and small business and management practices that we feel need being made fun of. We also will highlight games, TV, movies, books and other media that focus on the same subject. We'll see how much time we have to keep it going, but we would love to find some "extra" time in our schedules to devote to keeping it updated.
Also, Steve's last day at Mattel was yesterday, so we now have the band back together, ready to take on new gaming adventures. Now that enough time has passed, I am ready to dive back into the early history of web development for Mattel. I will be posting a little tribute to the golden years (2001-2006) in the next few days. When Steve was still working there I didn't want to write anything that might get him in trouble. I still don't plan to write anything controversial, but I did make up a song about it a few years ago that will probably rear its ugly head in a Flash video of some sort...
An Inspirational Story For Dreamers Everywhere
We apologize for being very quiet lately. Yes, we have a couple things to announce that will forever change the content and direction of this site, however for now we have to stay focused and mum.
However, I'd like to relay to you and inspirational story. Here goes:
There is this guy I know. My wife's uncle in fact. Back in the the mid-1990's, he was working as a CAD/CAM draftsman for and aerospace company. It was a fine job, if maybe a bit on the mundane side, but still fine. However, this guy wanted to do something more. In his mid-30's, he felt it was time to take a chance on his dream to work on films. Without any previous movie-industry experience, he took an animation class through UCLA Extension on 3DS Max. He stood out amongst the rest of the class and impressed his instructors with the wizardy he could produce with the program. So much in fact, that he earned an interview with Sony ImageWorks, Sony's internal special FX company.
He quickly landed a job as an animator. This was at a time when digital animation was just taking hold in the movies. His first job was to create digital butterflies for the movie The Craft. After that, he became specialist in creating living creatures in a digital form. He worked on Stuart Little, The Polar Express, The Lion The Witch And Wardrobe, among other movies. The hours were long and insane, but he kept it up, continued to impress, and worked his way into a leadership role. By the time he worked on Alice In Wonderland, he was an animation supervisor. That meant he was in-charge enough to be nominated for an Academy Award this year for his work on the movie. He didn't win the award last night (still an honor to be nominated obviously), but his story should be inspirational to anyone in technical/artistic field, who is feeling stuck and worn down in their current job. If you are dedicated and determined, taking a chance on your dreams and working very hard, sometimes works out very well.
In fact, his story was inspirational to me. When I heard that he was nominated this year, I took a long look at my own work situation. Many factors fed into my decision, but the success of my wife's uncle was in the back of my mind. I had always been impressed with his quiet determination and dedication to his work. I woke up one morning not too long ago, and I decided that it was time to move away from my own safe, corporate job, and try my hand at something really exciting. In a couple weeks I will start that new adventure, and while I can't attribute it all to my wife's uncle, his example certainly helped light the path for me, and I hope his story might do the same for some of you.
-8bitsteve