Today was the first day of GDC and so far I've registered and attended two summits. 

The first was about starting an indie studio and the second was about interactive narratives in games. The talk about indie studios was interesting and highlighted the importance of getting your games out on multiple platforms to build the user base. 


I was excited for the narrative summit and it had some good information, but it was mostly geared toward teaching students how to use interactive fiction tools. 

Tomorrow, I'll be attending the 8-hour game writing tutorial which should be awesome. It's beautiful out in San Francisco and I can't wait 'till the show gets going in full!

This semester, I'm taking my final English class at Pitt and I'm beginning to write my first Science Fiction novel. At the end of the semester, we have to turn in 200 pages of journal entries and 50 pages of final draft quality writing, whether it be the beginning of a novel, a short story collection or an entire novella. 

So far, I've written about 3 chapters and I decided to post my first chapter. Feel free to give me feed back and I hope you enjoy! The chapter can be found in my writing section or you can see the file below.

GDC is only a week away and I'm getting excited to soak up some sun in San Francisco! Well, the truth is I've been excited since I left last year's GDC. Last year was my first time at the show as well as my first time in California and I loved every minute. Talking to all the big developers, seeing the Indie game contests, checking out all the new tech... GDC has it all. This year, I'm looking forward to hopefully getting the chance to play the 3DS and maybe even the NGP (fingers crossed) as well as checking out some game design and writing tutorials. 

The great thing about GDC is I will inevitably learn something. The lectures and tutorials are full of valuable information from the top guns and it's great to see some of the challenges developers faced when making my favorite games. GDC is like a quick pulse-check for the industry. I can see the latest trends and challenges and how developers are pushing the boundaries of gaming further. 


I'm graduating in a few short months, and I'll be handing out a ton of resumes and looking for openings at my favorite companies. My arch nemesis, Brad Snyder, and I will be taking the show by storm. I can't wait to get on that plane to California!

With the recent announcement that even more HD remakes will be coming our way, it seems like Microsoft and Sony have embraced the remake mentality that Nintendo has been exercising this entire generation. This spring, Ico, Tomb Raider, Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell will all be receiving the multi-game collection treatment. 

Developers have been repackaging old games for years now and I must say I approve. Generally, only games that were truly classics make their way into the hands of new gamers as remakes and games that don't stand the test of time are left buried in the past. This gives younger gamers the chance to play classics without owning the old systems and recently, the updates to these games have made them even more appealing with benefits like HD resolutions and 3D support. 

Nintendo's Virtual Console is a great way to catch up on old games from a variety of developers and systems, Sony has been releasing PS1 classics since soon after the launch of the PS3, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 has played host to old gems like Banjo Kazooie and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  Having all the old games you love on your current console has a lot of appeal and while some developers seem to be milking their franchises a bit (I'm looking at you Square Enix with your countless Final Fantasy 4 remakes), I find it hard to turn down an updated classic. It's the equivalent of the film industry releasing classics on Bluray. 

I've got to say that I'm glad it's so easy to pick up old games and relive the days of Super Mario World or Final Fantasy 7 without worrying about multiple discs or blowing dust out of a cartridge. Heck, I can even pick up classic console games and play them on my handhelds! 

With the announcement of the successor to the PSP, the NGP, Sony has created a lot of excitement. The handheld device boasts a quad-core ARM cpu and a dedicated graphics card and Sony has gone on record saying that games will rival their PS3 brethren (Full tech specs can be found here). In fact, at the announcement event, many developers showed footage of their console games ported to the device with minimal loss in quality. This is all exciting stuff, but Sony of all companies should know that it will take a lot more than superior horsepower to compete with the DS and the new mobile gaming juggernaut, Apple.

Sure, the thing's got power, but Sony needs to back this thing better than the PSP if they hope to succeed. Luckily, there are a number of huge titles already in development for the system. Titles like Uncharted, Resistance, and Killzone are already in the works and it looks like the system has the developer backing it needs to get going out of the gate. Here is a commercial with some more gameplay footage. We'll just have to wait and see if these games can hit the launch window and whether the new developers (Uncharted and Resistance are being developed by SCE Bend and Nihilistic respectively) can do justice to some of the best Playstation franchises.

Other than the games, the NGP has a lot of potential. It's got an OLED touch screen, rear touch panel and, my favorite, actual analog sticks rather than the nub slider of the original PSP. Did I say sticks, plural? Awwww yeah! The NGP has dual analog sticks. Now we might be able to play those console-style games how they're supposed to be played. At least it shows that Sony is taking consumer reactions and industry standards into consideration with the dual sticks and the touch, motion sensing and 3g capabilities.

Sony is also using a new OS that is more "PC like." If Sony can make digital downloads more desirable (read: don't charge the same price as retail games) and integrate 3g multiplayer gaming, this could be the always connected system of the future. 

There's a good framework in place, now it's just up to Sony to show us that we need the NGP. There are a few concerns with the device. First off, it's huge! It's bigger than the original PSP and it's screen is the size of the PSP GO. This seems to contradict its portable nature. The analog sticks also seem to stick out and it may be near impossible to throw this thing in your pocket. Sony has stated that the final form factor may change, but I doubt it could be significantly smaller with all this tech jammed inside.

Speaking of all the tech... This is the most powerful mobile device announced and its price tag will surely reflect that. With the 3DS coming out at $250 USD, Sony will likely try and cut the cost as much as they can, but how low is realistic? $350? $400? $500!?! Sony will inevitably be taking a hit for the first years of the NGP's production, but how much of a hit can they take? And how much will additional services like 3G cost? The price will be a huge determining factor in the initial success of the platform, and I'm really hoping Sony has done their research so that they can compete with the 3DS, which is already expensive. 

It looks like we've still got a lot of unanswered questions about the NGP (like why the heck is it called the NGP and not the PSP2?), but hopefully some light will be shed in the following months. Sony could have a real winner here, but it's going to take some smart pricing and good developer backing to make the NGP rise above its predecessor.