Hmmm...

Linus Torvalis, the inventor of Linux said, "Software is like sex. It's better when it's free."

"Linux is only free if your time is worthless." -- Anonymous

I think if you combine those two quotes you'll find the meaning of life in there somewhere.

God of War Final Meeting

The God of War team had its final official meeting today. We have reached beta, and the game is solid and fun, but we have not yet reached final. We are still working, so while the meeting was great I was reminded of Pulp Fiction. You know the scene where the Wolf has made them clean the brains and blood out of the car but they have not yet driven it across town to the junk yard. That priceless quote from The Wolf in that scene was in my mind throughout the meeting. Which was nice, it kept me from getting too sappy. It was emotional for some as people related their experiences. Everyone had a chance to talk. Complements all around and I think that they are well deserved. Some apologies were given for misunderstandings. You could feel the pride and mutual adoration in the room. It was pointed out that even at this late stage when we should be sick of the game we still find it fun to play. That is a very good sign.

We then watched parts of our game. I get chills and goose bumps while playing some parts of our game. I hope that is an indication of the quality of our game and not just false pride. Involuntary skin response has only ever happened to me while playing one other game. In the original Halo about three quarters of the way through the sound track and visuals came together with some action game play and I looked like a freshly plucked chicken. I hope some gamers out there get the same experience during our game.

Oh! The demo is out. It's a limited release demo but the first 70 people to email hydra_level@playstation.sony.com with their address and phone number will get a copy.

You Have 3 Seconds To Comply

Yikes! The first robot with a gun is going to war. SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems) will be blasting targets in Iraq. I just hope that Gene Simmons isn't at the controls. What would Asimov say?

PSP Rocks

I know a couple of people that have PSPs already. They seem totally tickled with the features. My head is reeling at the possibilities of this platform. You can take a movie, preferably one that you already own, and transfer it to a memory stick. Then you can view it on the PSP. My friend had two movies ( Shaun of The Dead and The Matrix) on one 512 MB memory stick. That feature alone leads to so many possibilities. Imagine if you could combine that feature with a TiVo To Go service or video on demand. Download the shows you want to see to your PSP overnight. Then the next day you can view your shows on the bus, in a car pool, on the crapper, or wherever you like. People can even create online shows that PSP users could subscribe to and download to their PSPs. And think of illustrated audio books. Wow! It'd be awesome to write some illustrated kids book content for PSP. Or do a crazy cooking show that people could download and bring into their kitchens.

Real Time Collision Detection

My co-worker and friend Christer Ericson's book is finally out. He's been slaving over his collision detection manuscript for years and it has finally arrived.

God of War - The Hydra Battle

This is the cover for the God of War Demo Disc. The demo will be coming out soon. It's not on a wide release. Copies will only be sent to magazines and high exposure type outlets. I am going to try to get a few copies to give away.

I have been thinking for a long time now that this is how we should make games. We should release games with about this much content and sell them for less money. This demo plays for like 2 hours for an average gamer on a first time play through. It leaves the player in a cliff hang situation. I can see a series game working in this format. Episodic releases every three months would be great. I have heard the problem with this sales model is the point of sale retailers don't like games that are not the standard price. They just don't like making shelf space for lesser priced games. So, until we have Game on Demand Downloads (GODD!!! HA!) I guess I'll have to keep dreaming.  

Snowy New Year

Liana and I went to Mammoth Mountain over New Year's weekend. It was a great time. The snowboarding was fantastic.

My friends and co-workers, Tim and Jo, joined us for a few runs. It snowed so much that only the very bottom portion of the mountain was open. Which was fine, because most of our crew were novice. I went off on my own and took some runs through some trees with the deepest powder I have ever ridden. Between runs your tracks would get snowed over and the echoing boom of avalanche blasting could be heard all day long.

At night we did things like build snow chicks and

of course we had to take some time to play test God of War. I guess we are all workaholics. The condo even had a wireless network so we could use laptops to send the bugs we found directly to the office.

As we went to leave we discovered that the snow time fun was not over just yet. Phil's car had to be uncovered.

Thankfully the guy with the Bobcat showed up and joined our shovel party.  

God of Website

God of war finally has a website. Not much there right now but you can sign up for further information. At least we have a basis point. Anyway go check it out: God of War Website

Banda Aceh

The tsunami did horrible damage. I saw some images that I thought would be more effectively displayed if you could flip book between them. So I created this Flash Animation.


There is a good collection of tsunami media over at DataWhat?

And the wikipedia entry on the subject is very interesting.