June 25th Mother Lode

Hahahahahaha! Struck the Mother Lode once again this June 25th and it's loaded with rumors, virtual gay parades, straight up good hidden methamphetamine and a couple WTFs! So let us dive in and roll all over this like pigs in a muddy pen.

Metal Gear Solid Film? Say It Ain't So!
Oh hell yes! Word on the street is that this is going down and its going down hard. Am I excited? Hell no! Am I going to watch it? Hell yes! Why? Well because it's a game based movie! This is going to fail so epically it would make the tattooed face lady look like a blessing! Then to add on it rumor also has it is that Christian Bale will be Snake. I swear, this cannot get any better but oh boy am I wrong. Here is section of an interview MTV had with mister Christian Bale.

• MTV: Metal Gear Solid, is this something you've ever talked about doing as a film?
• Bale: No.
  

• MTV: Are you a video game fan?
  
• Bale: Yeah.

• MTV: What do you play?
  
• Bale: That. Metal Gear Solid.
  

• MTV: You play it?
  
• Bale: Yeah.
  

• MTV: How many hours does that suck out of you on a weekly basis?
• Bale: You know what, no, I've kinda devoted my time to more constructive things of late. You know?

Yeeeaaah...I don't consider being an actor in the movie constructive. Source of income? Yes. Constructive? No. Seriously though, I just hope Hideo Kojima won't let this happen to the Metal Gear Solid Franchise. Its like threatening to throw a bucket of STI's to it.*shivers*By the way here is a joke for yah! What you get when you have a couple of cos players all dressed like MSG characters and one so happens to have a camera? Answer below.....


Here is also another short film that I found a long time ago. Very impressive stuff!





First Pitfall and then the World!
Father's start coding some ubber virus and keeping the shotty loaded because SkyNet will occur! You think I'm joking? Sure it does seem that now an days all we are presented with are cute faced and coffee-making making robot who ironically do dance the robot pretty damn well. Yet the real madness is occurring at Rutgers University where a robot has learned how to play Pitfall. Clip below shows off the university's Object-Oriented Markov Decision Processes, which is a fancy way of saying the AI's trial and error processes. So how this work is that the AI tries then tries again until it knows how to do something. The end is cute though because the robot celebrates his accomplishment with the happy dance because it knows how close it is from taking over the planet!




Duke Nukem Still Kicking!
This game just will not die! Why is this? Because developers 3D Realms are still claiming after a decade that the game is still being worked on. In the disclosure which can be found within court documents relating to the franchise specifically reads "[3D Realms/Apogee Ltd.] admits that it has continually worked on the development of the DNF for many years, and continues to do so". In addition to this reveal, it seems publisher Take-Two began development of another Duke Nukem game, Duke Begins, in 2007. This title, however, was canned in April 2009, right around the time the publisher's support of Duke Nukem Forever dried up, leading to speculation that "Duke Begins" was as much a bargaining chip in negotiations with 3D Realms as it was a legitimate product. Yet what boggle my mind is why is everyone wasting there time and money on this and let alone Take-Two. Duke Nukem is so 1996 and it should stay like that. Don't get me wrong I love Duke Nukem but as it is! So please! Let move on to something more productive! Clip below is of leaked gameplay from a while back when all this shenanigans started.




How To: Meth found in GTAIV!
Wanna be the next big meth dealer but you weren't so great in chemistry class? Then pop in your copy of GTAIV! So word is that Grand Theft Auto IV has "recipe" for the production of methamphetamine hidden somewhere in the game. I've got no idea where, exactly, but it's been revealed that during a play through of the game for its classification last year, the British Board of Film Classification "discovered an apparent recipe for the manufacture of the drug crystal meth". It was only after Rockstar informed the BBFC that the recipe was "inaccurate" that it was allowed to stay in the game, and the title could go on sale to the public. It's probably a recite to Chuck Norri's kick-ass cookies!



World of Gay Parade...and Warcraft
Gay Pride Week is one of the biggest deals in the San Francisco Bay Area, or so I've read, and apparently, it's also a big deal to one World of Warcraft. GayGamer reports that the Proudmoore Server hosted a fifth annual Pride celebration and parade put on by guilds The Spreading Taint and The Stonewall Family. According to Stonewall's homepage, this Proudmoore Pride bash was their biggest one yet. Festivities included a Nude Duel Championship, avatar modeling, DJ competition and a user-created parade float competition. It's cool to see peaceful parades occurring even in WoW. Now all we need now is a Imma Ninja Parade! Clip below is a recording of the event.

Through the Rabbit Hole on June 24

Mang! What a hectic week this was! Seeing I am all alone because I gave the whole week off to the team just left me overwhelmed with a ton of work. This actually brings me back to the days when it was just me and Binary Odyssey. Getting just 2 hours tops everyday and living off cereal and the occasional ramen noodle. So once again, I do apologize whole heartedly for the whole late posts but it's improving and I am finding my rhythm so bare with me. Sadly though, the rabbit hole today is somewhat, barren with news and update. All its filled with today is a tons of code and towers of paper work, but knowing me I tend to always have something to reveal and that is where Movie Night comes in.


If you have a good idea of who I am and what makes up Antoine you would know that movies has a very unique spot in my heart the same way that video games and music does. So if you were to call me up to see what I am doing on a weekend I am most likely watching a movie. I like to consider myself a movie buff because I watch any movie either it being good or bad, long or short, national or international! If it is a movie, I will watch it while eating a bowl of pop corn and some sort of beverage. Now this event is another additional event for you Binary Odyssey fans in where you come over every Friday and Saturday right HERE and hang out and chat with a whole bunch of other people while watching the chosen movie of that day. I have been working on the structure of movie night and this is how its going to be working from now on unless changes are made.

• Movie Night occurs HERE every Friday and Satuday
• One movie will be broadcast each day
• On Holidays 2 movies will be broadcast
• Movie Night starts @ 10PM EST/ 7PM PST
• Special nights start @ 9PM EST/6PM PST
• Movie Nights are Themed
• EVERYONE IS INVITED!
  

Now please keep in mind that everything you just have read are up for change because like most things I do either it being with Binary Odyssey or anything assiociated with it tend to be experiments I try and see if floats or sinks. I personally hope this one floats because the closed Movie Night session which went all night till 6 o'clock in the morning was full of technical difficulties but fun none the less after all but said and done. Therefore this coming Friday and Saturday should be as smooth as baby's bottom. Also, I have made up the schedule for the entire year and it's theme and I will be be reminding all of you when it is and what would be showing, but this doesn't mean I am not open to suggestions and movie request you might have. Even if you have a theme night you want and think would be awesome then let me know. Here is what I have schedule for this month, June of 2009. THIS IS NOT OPEN FOR CHANGE!

Theme: Indie Films

• Friday June 26, 2009
  
• Lost in Translation

• Saturday, June 27, 2009
  
• Sex, Lies and Video Tape

Hope to see you there this Friday and/or Saturday! And keep a look out for the FULL Movie Night Schedule.

dotBit: Animation

One vital thing that is always being interchange in video games is information. Either in a hardware level or in a psychological and social level information is being sent and received. This all starts when the user turns on the console and prepares themselves for an immersive experience. This is when animation becomes one very important key factor to making this possible. So today in dotBit we look closely to animation in general, animation in video games and the roles it plays.

Movement speaks volumes. This is fact even in the "real" world. If you see someone upset you would either approach and try and make that person feel better or just avoid the person all together because you might see it as a both a drag and waist of time. Body language is something we as humans cannot do without. Actors have made careers out of saying very little but projecting a whole bunch. It is how the famous saying goes: "A picture is worth a thousand words." Now knowing this information alone, how would you go about in applying this in a game?

Throughout my years of playing and studying video games and game design there has always been one keyword that is golden and it is immersion. You always wanna have the player stuck in your world. You want them to believe what they see and have them feel whatever it is they have to feel to keep them in that universe. So if you want to communicate something within the game world without breaking immersion then don't put an icon or floating text on it. When your outside walking do you see things pop-up in front of you prompting you where to go and what to do next?

Just over there.

This is where NPCs, Non-Player Characters, become very useful in video games. Your in the town called Gnir and your looking for the pub but don't know where it is you would go ahead and approach an NPC. Now through body language and tone of voice the NPC will interact with the player. This is why is why depth of a characters and NPCs are very important. Humans are not plain and simple so neither should NPCs. They need to evoke the same emotions and body language as a regular person would just to keep the immersion a live and running. So if the NPC hates or likes the player, don't give them statistics. Flaunt it! Either by the clothe the NPC wears, the type of tone of voice it projects and even the form it stands. This will help the player know if the NPC is submissive or arrogant, interested or impatient. It is also good to remember that all interaction is an exchange of status. Knowing who your friends and enemies are. Who to call for help and who to avoid at all cost.

Ever since computers were around the idea of AI, Artificial Intelligence, seems to capture the attention of engineers, especially yours truly right here. So it is evident how important AI is for NPCs. Yet it wouldn't be sold if it was not for animation. A game that executes this almost perfectly is Mass Effect. The people at Bioware knew the concept of immersion and the effectiveness of AI with animation can be. I remember playing and there was a plot twist in which I myself did find myself on the fence. So, I went ahead and asked their thoughts on the situation. Thus far I am already way immersed into the game because I am asking genuine help and feed back from the people who help me on my quest and make sure I don't get blown away from the mercenaries after me. As I approach them I notice by their face and tone that even though they did not know what was the correct decision they had my back no matter what! In part with that, this boosted my confidence in what my final decision would be.

Watch what you say fool!

Now I wondered why they knew what to say or do. Sure most games are scripted, but not so much anymore. Games like Mass Effect have a dynamic gameplay which changes every second all depending on the players actions. This is when I noticed that I wasn't the only taking in all the visual and audio data thrown at me but the NPC also was doing the same by seeing how I acted and how I responded to events that presented itself because expression tells your actions. A look of fear might signal a retreat, an angry look of determination might serve as a warning. In a conversation, changing expressions can give feedback on how to proceed. What if you could stop when you sense your words are having the wrong effect? It is also good to notw that perceived emotion suggests intelligence. Between visible observation and emotional reaction, emergent character expression will make our NPCs look a lot smarter than they really are.

Awww!

Make note, animation can tell us about our characters, tell us who they are, tell us what they're thinking, delivering what may be crucial gameplay information. It can do these things without breaking the illusion of being in the game world. With body language and facial expression as our tools we can explore the subtle side of character interaction and reach beyond familiar themes.

The Interrogation Room: Session #001

It is hot, humid and sticky and I am thirsty! Now I know I am in the Interrogation Room. I thought I wasn't gonna get enough questions but you guys did not fail. So let's start for I can go and find some water and take a nice cool bath.

1. What is your favorite video game and why? - Johnny P. of Kansas

• Well, Johnny this is a difficult question to answer but I must say it is Tetris. First off, I have more than 5 versions of it combined for either my consoles, my cellphone, my laptop and electronic handheld. Then, I have remade this game countless of times throughout my coding and game developer life, but most importantly is that fact that I STILL PLAY IT OBSESSIVELY! Oh geesh, even the theme song is my ring tone and believe it or not it is the actual rhythm my heart beats in. Tetris is the reason I thank mother Russia and all its craziness.

2. What game instilled this passion you have for game and how old were you? - Kaitlyn R. of NYC

• Super Mario Bros for the NES and Metal Gear Solid for the PSX. Super Mario Bros was the first game I ever played and I was 4 years old but that wasn't when the domino that caused a chain events. It was later on when I got older, 8 years old to be exact, and I wondered how everything worked. How did the console know I what I was pressing? How they made Mario and the universe come up in the screen? Why were they "blocky" and smooth? All these question made me wonder about video games and what was behind the curtain. Once I knew that Metal Gear Solid came around and that's when I knew I wanted to make games and that it had a place for me and my world!
  

3. What is your preferred console?

• I've been using my PS3 lately either it being for playing games, PlaystationHome, Folding@Home or even listen to music I have been having a lot of fun with the PS3 lately. Yet I use a lot the Xbox 360 because of development, but the Wii I hardly use at all and when I do it is to play the WiiWare.
  

4. What game are you excited about this year?

• The game that I want right now is Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I loved the first one and want to buy it again just to play it again because it was that awesome both story and gameplay wise and art design just made that game look amazing! Then the game that just has me curious and doubtful is MAG. I haven't had the chance to get my hand on it but I have read a lot on it and seen gameplay on it and it just leaves me curious and wondering if I am going to like it. So yeah, those are the games I can't wait for this year.
  

5. What is your favorite RTS? - Matt of Indiana

• I know you have been waiting for this answer Matt and I through thinking back to the RTSs I have gotten my hands on I found out that I really love the RTS genre but there is one game that stands out and that's the Warhammer Series. Running around as Chaos Marines and just blowing up whoever got in my way was just pure fun and it is the RTS game I go back to till today.
  

6. What is your favorite FPS?

• It is not Halo! I love Halo I really do. It introduced to me and engraved the idea of online multilayer on your console. The idea of fragging and pwning n00bs sprinkled with a little tbagging afterwards was all thanks to Halo, but dude without GoldenEye 007 there wouldn't be a Halo let alone any type of FPS multiplayer sweetness that GoldenEye brought into our homes. I remember in get together with the whole family either it being on Thanksgiving, Christmas or what have you and my cousins and I huddled around the television while we played 4 player split-screen death match. Learning that shooting to the head actually had an effect and caused an instant kill. Or running around like a mad man on fire with the Golden Gun was just pure geek galore.
  

7. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Gweneth P. of Pennsylvania

• Oh boy, let me think. So at 30 years of age I see myself with a wife and kids a couple gray hairs and living completely happy. Being one of the top game developers and influential at that with Binary Odyssey thriving and being a front runner in the game industry. That's how I picture my life in 10 years.
  

8. Who you thought took the show in E3? Brian H. of New Jersey

• Defiantly not Nintendo! Microsoft was refreshing because they left all the NPD numbers and jargon for me to chew up at another time. Then Sony did what they had to do. They needed exclusivity and they delivered with exclusivity up the wazoo! Yet Sony execution was not smooth and it went for a mighty long time. So with this said I would say Microsoft but I personally was more excited watching Sony's conference.
  

9. When will the game come out? Everyone of Everywhere

• In the year 20_ _!
  

10. McDonald's or Burger King? -Tom Tom of Team BO

• WENDY'S FOOL! EATING FREST FTW!
  

Antoine's SoapBox: Video Games & Art

Today I met someone who actually recognized me because of Binary Odyssey, quick shot out to Gweneth, and it was funny because she was upset to not find the first post of Antoine's SoapBox up and I told her it was because besides the enormous amount of work I also was stuck in Writer's Block Boulevard. Yet our conversation took to a interesting and hilarious turn when she asked me one interesting question. Are video games art? I had an answer to that but right when I was going to spill out my answer and then an explanation backing up my answer I spaced out for a good 5 minutes. Where did I go? I went down memory lane. When the controversy about video game violence is not being spoken about this topic and question is not far behind. So Gweneth, this first SoapBox rant is just for you.

"Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions."

To figure out if video games is an art form we must first observe and analyze all the other mediums that came before. We must also take note that art is a relative term, not an absolute one. What I mean by this is that if I say, "this bowl filled with fruits is art!" you can't really tell me it is not because of a couple reasons. I am the one who was moved and felt some sort of emotional enlightenment not you. Now with that said when a certain art like literature, music or films becomes culturally and even globally recognize it then does become another level of art which has a profound effect society. This can notably be seen in the Renaissance Period. A time where all art was ahead of its time which for the most part was taken with open arms and in other times, not so much. Now what I have noticed is that, like the Renaissance Period, art is always evolving with the times and for the most part portal to what's lies ahead. We now live in the era of computers and high technology. So wouldn't things like animation and video games be a logical process of art movement?

Art or the beginig of one?

Now I myself love art in any way, shape and/or form it is thrown at me and have a profound respect for it. It is then no surprise when I say that I myself use art to my advantage either through my drawings, my photography or my writings to express myself and my thoughts. Now the thing amazing about art is that the creator(s) at some point in time in their life they were inspired to make something from "nothing" which in the end displays their feelings. I for one ended up taking video games as my medium because it took all the other mediums I used to express myself with and mix it together in a very effective way. Against to what most might think, I at first never considered video games as an art because at the time when I started playing video game it was very simple with a sole objective, get from point A to point B and try to beat the high-score. Now how is that we went from Pong which I don't consider art to Okami? What it balls down to is the evolution within art and its maturity.

Are video games getting there?

Ian Bogost, Ph.D., founding partner of Persuasive Games says, “It’s an extremely simplistic question, but the spirit of it is worthwhile. In essence, we’re asking, ‘What are video games capable of as a medium?’ And that’s a very good question to ask.” As to why this is a good question Denis Dyack, president of Silicon Knights, couldn't say it any better. He says “It’s a very important question to ask, especially to game developers, as it helps give metrics to where the mindset of the industry is." So what does this point at? Not all games are not art. The same how all artifacts in other mediums aren't art. Due to the the pure fact that the source of it has to have that intention in mind. Art is maturity and cultural evolution! Popping out some mediocre music/game just for that quick buck is something that doesn't improve its art form in any way shape or form due to the fact that art is also something that comes with responsibility from both the creator and the audience.

Well are we?

In conclusion, it is ignorant to ignore the fact that video games is an art form. One which reflects to the era we live in. It also shows that the game industry as a whole is growing and maturing. Yet does it benefit the game industry and I myself as a young game developer to have video games be an art form? Will that be the rise of it all or just how it ends?