Steel Penny Games

I bet you were reading this and thinking to yourself, "I wonder who I know that would like to work in the games industry with some fairly veteran talent, but doesn't want to be forced into doing some run-of-the-mill AAA project that is rehashing a tired old property, or has a numeral exceeding 3 in the title".  Thanks for that.  Go ahead and check our job postings and pass on the link to your friends that totally kick ass.  We like people that totally kick ass, chock full of Chucknorium. 

By the way, it's a little known fact that Mr. Norris used to make games back before he kicked ass for a living, so it's a natural regression.  Those of you who don't remember, all of Chuck's games were impossible to play for mere mortals, let alone beat.  But Chuck Norris just squinted at the screen and the AI were afraid to shoot.

Thanks,

Jason "Please don't roundhouse kick me into yesterday" Hughes

Last night went fairly well.  There were two other speakers before me.  They went on quite a long time, and unfortunately some folks had to leave early, being a school night and all...  But those who hung around were a great audience. 

It looks like my good friend Brad Clark finally roped me into talking in front of an audience of graphics professionals.  Consequently, I've spent too many hours working on a slide presentation about my thoughts on running an independent game studio, how my goals and expectations have changed over the years, and what lessons I've learned in the process of both succeeding and failing at the job.

 I'm not certain at this point whether I'll present this again in a different forum (GDC? Siggraph?  Indie Games Conference?), or if I just post the slides as a PDF or Flash file.  I guess that depends on the reaction I get from the crowd.  A band of hungry artists can be cruel, I'm told, if the queso and salsa is slow to the table.

At any rate, I'll be at El Mercado on 17th and Lavaca from 6:30pm until whenever they hiss me off the podium.

Click here for more on the 3D Austin Users Group.   It's a link on the left side of the page.

Yesterday, I had a pleasant surprise on my way to work.  Opening the front door  and making a mad dash to the car is pretty routine in Texas: in summer, it's to avoid the blazing sun and heat, in winter it'll be the rain (or lately, snow?).  As I pushed open the door, there was unexpected and substantial resistance... aha!  A cardboard box with my name on it.  Jenny and I played 20 questions for a moment guessing who had ordered what, why it would come right now, and so on.  Clueless, I slit the tape holding the mysterious box from my prying eyes.  Moments later, Ooos and Aaahs as I pulled out my complimentary copy of Game Engine Gems 1, which marks the first time I've ever been published.

Thumbing through the articles, it looks like a really great read--I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the other authors work their miracles in game development.  Eric Lengyel, my good friend, did an excellent job editing the tome and maintaining consistency (even if he moved all my consts to the wrong side of the type declarations  :-) ).  If there's any complaint to make, it's that the whole book wasn't printed in color.  Code is so much more readable that way, as are the various diagrams.  At least there's a cdrom that contains everything (and then some) in glorious color.

So, while I didn't get to go to GDC this year again--too busy--at least I have a consolation prize that promises to be pretty interesting.