Wednesday, May 09, 2007
TOJAM 2
Okay, it’s blogging time again!
This last weekend, I went to TOJam#2, or the Toronto Indie Game Jam, an event where a bunch of programmers and artists join up together and try to produce a complete game in 3 days. Check the website http://www.tojam.ca for more information. It sounded kind of weird (for lack of a better term), but Isaque encouraged me to go, and it sounded like a fun challenge, so I went. At first, Isaque was going to go by himself (and just be a graphics ‘floater’), but then I came along and we formed a team.
Isaque had a game idea already, so I was set to go and program in Flash, as Isaque made art. There were about 60 of us, in teams of 1-4, including the organizers, who were also making a game. We were all in 1 room near the Corus U in Toronto (Corus makes children animations and things… like on YTV). Some people would go home to sleep, but I think a lot of us stayed there overnight.
So, after 3 days, Hawk and I completed a game. Well, we were done the framework and the basics pretty early, I think, but then polishing the game and actually making the concept, into the game, took a while. Adding graphics and sounds were no picnic either… but after 3 sweet days, we’ve accomplished making a game.
Wow, it was a fantastic event. Being there, seeing other programmers, and making the game, that was cool. The feedback we’ve gotten from the other programmers, and the organizers themselves, was absolutely outstanding. That, and the lack of sleep felt… rather okay too. I usually sleep about 8-8.5 hours every day, but this weekend I slept about 7.5 hours in 65 hours, starting Friday at 8:00am until Sunday night at 1:00am. First night I slept 2 hours, although I’m not sure how much of that constitutes as sleep. Sleeping on two chairs (with a hole in the middle) is NOT GOOD.
On Saturday, it was Isaque’s friend’s Akheel’s birthday (I never remember how to spell his name), and so we met him at some Second Cup in Toronto. Boy, does Akheel have a lot of Japanese friends! Apparently, Akheel runs a website called meet-up, where Japanese people or people interested in Japan come and talk. So here’s Akheel, and there’s a bunch of Japanese people!
I dunno, I’m probably making it sound like a bigger deal than it really is. After Second Cup, we went to a Mexican place for dinner. Here’s a picture:
I forget one of the guy’s names… but there’s Mark, Ahmin, Bao, Isaque, Akheel, Blake, Ayumi, Masami, Chika, and Tomomi. Japanese girls are so cute. I told Isaque, that I think it’s the way they nod their heads. Anyway, I think I joined this group, although I can barely speak/understand Japanese… so I’ll be seeing them again. That was a fun dinner, although Isaque and I were both ready to collapse. Afterwards, we went back to program some more, until I fell asleep at 2:00am.
This time was much better when I made good use of the floor. I love the floor… the flatness of it all. Coffee and chocolate good too. Anyway, at the end of the event, Jon Mak came to visit. Jon Mak is a guy I knew from highschool, and I recently found out about him again from reading the TOJAM site (he was there for last year’s) – apparently he’s a famous Indie gamer now. Here’s a picture of him now:
When he’s famous, I’ll have a picture with a celebrity. Anyway, his new upcoming game, Everyday Shooter, looks to be really awesome, on the same level as Flow and Geometry Wars. Here, follow this complicated set of steps and go to this thing and watch this thing… do it, it’s good.
(Go to http://the1upshow.1up.com/ and click on episode 68, and fast forward to about 20:27, watch for 5 minutes, enjoy, comment afterwards)
Anyway, as for our game, I could post it here… but I’ll rather wait till the tojam site has it (although many of you have seen it already). But later when it’s on the site, instead of “bao made a game, bao thinks it’s good, bao wants you to play it”, it’ll be “bao and hawk made a game, all these people think it’s good, all these people want you to play it”, and it’ll be much more effective that way :P
Anyways, back to real life now, same old same old… or is it? No, of course not. There were a few programmers at TOJam who work for actual flash game companies, so I now have two potential job contacts which I’m currently following up on. One of them is through Jon Mak; he worked with a guy named Josh, who is currently working on a flash game. I’m not sure if the game is a secret, but it’s an action rpg with anime-style graphics and beat’em up action (like golden axe). Anyway, Josh contacted me today and told me some of the details.
He lives in the States, but I (and a bunch of other programmers, mostly in Toronto) would work from home. There is a salary, as long as you continue to program for the game, and there are some incentives here and there. In my opinion, it sounds kinda… unstable, insecure, but Josh tells me it’s a pretty stable job, as long as I do the job.
I think it sounds kinda wishy washy, since the game’s not out yet… Josh already has a marketing plan, but… yeah… well, if the other people are getting paid a salary, then maybe it’s worth looking into. It sounds like Josh is ready to let me start working, without an interview or resume. Then again, if I can’t do the job, I won’t be doing the job for a long time, right? That sort of counts as an interview…
The other job looks to be more… real, and stable, and focused. Any of you guys know of Webkinz? No? Didn’t think so. How’bout Neopets? Yes? I thought so. Anyway, another programmer at TOJam, Felix, works with Ganz, owner of Webkinz, which is the closest competitor to Neopets for what Neopets is doing. Anyway, at the end of the event, Felix talked with me and he gave me a Webkinz stuffed animal (a Chihuahua). It comes with a tag, that has a secret code. You bring the dog home, go to the webkinz website, and put in your secret code.
Then, you have your stuffed animal, and you’ll have a virtual pet on Webkinz.com, the same as your animal. With your webkinz account, you get a room, that starts with no furniture, and then you can do things on the site to get money and buy things for your room. You can play with your puppy and take it to the doctor if it gets sick. You can do quizzes or play games for money for your dog’s room.
So I checked the arcade games, and they seemed pretty cool. There were about 20 games, each small puzzles similar to bejeweled, tetris, frogger, etc. – so, that is what I would be working on, if I was hired by Webkinz/Ganz. It looked like a good job, and Felix tells me it’s a good company and I’ll have a lot of creative control on the projects I work on. Felix put in a good word for me, and I submitted my resume and portfolio (after Felix helped me change them a bit), and hopefully they’ll hire me. Only problem is that it’s in Woodbridge, which is pretty far from here. I’d have to drive (or maybe even live there?), and that could be a problem. I could drive, I’m sure I can learn the route, but car availability might not be so fun.
So, I have this questionable, less stable work at home job, and this more stable, far away job. Also, I have to be hired by Webkinz first, unlike the other guy who I think is ready to have me work. Well, in a few days Felix will get back to me, hopefully with some good news. Of course, I don’t think I can start until after the China trip, eh?
Oh, in other news, Spiderman 3 was good. Not perfect, had some identity problems and jumbled messness, but overall it was enjoyable. And David wanted some flash fish diversion thingies, here’s two (or five): Link1 Link2
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Okay, it’s blogging time again! This last weekend, I went to TOJam#2, or the Toronto Indie Game Jam, an event where a bunch of programmers and artists join up together and try to produce a complete game in 3 days. Check the website http://www.tojam.ca for more information. It sounded kind of weird (for lack of a better term), but Isaque encouraged me to go, and it sounded like a fun challenge, so I went. At first, Isaque was going to go by himself (and just be a graphics ‘floater’), but then I came along and we formed a team. Isaque had a game idea already, so I was set to go and program in Flash, as Isaque made art. There were about 60 of us, in teams of 1-4, including the organizers, who were also making a game. We were all in 1 room near the Corus U in Toronto (Corus makes children animations and things… like on YTV). Some people would go home to sleep, but I think a lot of us stayed there overnight. So, after 3 days, Hawk and I completed a game. Well, we were done the framework and the basics pretty early, I think, but then polishing the game and actually making the concept, into the game, took a while. Adding graphics and sounds were no picnic either… but after 3 sweet days, we’ve accomplished making a game. Wow, it was a fantastic event. Being there, seeing other programmers, and making the game, that was cool. The feedback we’ve gotten from the other programmers, and the organizers themselves, was absolutely outstanding. That, and the lack of sleep felt… rather okay too. I usually sleep about 8-8.5 hours every day, but this weekend I slept about 7.5 hours in 65 hours, starting Friday at 8:00am until Sunday night at 1:00am. First night I slept 2 hours, although I’m not sure how much of that constitutes as sleep. Sleeping on two chairs (with a hole in the middle) is NOT GOOD. On Saturday, it was Isaque’s friend’s Akheel’s birthday (I never remember how to spell his name), and so we met him at some Second Cup in Toronto. Boy, does Akheel have a lot of Japanese friends! Apparently, Akheel runs a website called meet-up, where Japanese people or people interested in Japan come and talk. So here’s Akheel, and there’s a bunch of Japanese people! I dunno, I’m probably making it sound like a bigger deal than it really is. After Second Cup, we went to a Mexican place for dinner. Here’s a picture: I forget one of the guy’s names… but there’s Mark, Ahmin, Bao, Isaque, Akheel, Blake, Ayumi, Masami, Chika, and Tomomi. Japanese girls are so cute. I told Isaque, that I think it’s the way they nod their heads. Anyway, I think I joined this group, although I can barely speak/understand Japanese… so I’ll be seeing them again. That was a fun dinner, although Isaque and I were both ready to collapse. Afterwards, we went back to program some more, until I fell asleep at 2:00am. This time was much better when I made good use of the floor. I love the floor… the flatness of it all. Coffee and chocolate good too. Anyway, at the end of the event, Jon Mak came to visit. Jon Mak is a guy I knew from highschool, and I recently found out about him again from reading the TOJAM site (he was there for last year’s) – apparently he’s a famous Indie gamer now. Here’s a picture of him now: When he’s famous, I’ll have a picture with a celebrity. Anyway, his new upcoming game, Everyday Shooter, looks to be really awesome, on the same level as Flow and Geometry Wars. Here, follow this complicated set of steps and go to this thing and watch this thing… do it, it’s good. (Go to http://the1upshow.1up.com/ and click on episode 68, and fast forward to about 20:27, watch for 5 minutes, enjoy, comment afterwards) Anyway, as for our game, I could post it here… but I’ll rather wait till the tojam site has it (although many of you have seen it already). But later when it’s on the site, instead of “bao made a game, bao thinks it’s good, bao wants you to play it”, it’ll be “bao and hawk made a game, all these people think it’s good, all these people want you to play it”, and it’ll be much more effective that way :P Anyways, back to real life now, same old same old… or is it? No, of course not. There were a few programmers at TOJam who work for actual flash game companies, so I now have two potential job contacts which I’m currently following up on. One of them is through Jon Mak; he worked with a guy named Josh, who is currently working on a flash game. I’m not sure if the game is a secret, but it’s an action rpg with anime-style graphics and beat’em up action (like golden axe). Anyway, Josh contacted me today and told me some of the details. He lives in the States, but I (and a bunch of other programmers, mostly in Toronto) would work from home. There is a salary, as long as you continue to program for the game, and there are some incentives here and there. In my opinion, it sounds kinda… unstable, insecure, but Josh tells me it’s a pretty stable job, as long as I do the job. I think it sounds kinda wishy washy, since the game’s not out yet… Josh already has a marketing plan, but… yeah… well, if the other people are getting paid a salary, then maybe it’s worth looking into. It sounds like Josh is ready to let me start working, without an interview or resume. Then again, if I can’t do the job, I won’t be doing the job for a long time, right? That sort of counts as an interview… The other job looks to be more… real, and stable, and focused. Any of you guys know of Webkinz? No? Didn’t think so. How’bout Neopets? Yes? I thought so. Anyway, another programmer at TOJam, Felix, works with Ganz, owner of Webkinz, which is the closest competitor to Neopets for what Neopets is doing. Anyway, at the end of the event, Felix talked with me and he gave me a Webkinz stuffed animal (a Chihuahua). It comes with a tag, that has a secret code. You bring the dog home, go to the webkinz website, and put in your secret code. Then, you have your stuffed animal, and you’ll have a virtual pet on Webkinz.com, the same as your animal. With your webkinz account, you get a room, that starts with no furniture, and then you can do things on the site to get money and buy things for your room. You can play with your puppy and take it to the doctor if it gets sick. You can do quizzes or play games for money for your dog’s room. So I checked the arcade games, and they seemed pretty cool. There were about 20 games, each small puzzles similar to bejeweled, tetris, frogger, etc. – so, that is what I would be working on, if I was hired by Webkinz/Ganz. It looked like a good job, and Felix tells me it’s a good company and I’ll have a lot of creative control on the projects I work on. Felix put in a good word for me, and I submitted my resume and portfolio (after Felix helped me change them a bit), and hopefully they’ll hire me. Only problem is that it’s in Woodbridge, which is pretty far from here. I’d have to drive (or maybe even live there?), and that could be a problem. I could drive, I’m sure I can learn the route, but car availability might not be so fun. So, I have this questionable, less stable work at home job, and this more stable, far away job. Also, I have to be hired by Webkinz first, unlike the other guy who I think is ready to have me work. Well, in a few days Felix will get back to me, hopefully with some good news. Of course, I don’t think I can start until after the China trip, eh? Oh, in other news, Spiderman 3 was good. Not perfect, had some identity problems and jumbled messness, but overall it was enjoyable. And David wanted some flash fish diversion thingies, here’s two (or five): Link1 Link2 |