June 19, 2007
Pullin’ the blog.
Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. And I realize that the longer I wait between posts, the less and less people check it. Not to mention, I can't talk about the things I do at work (non-disclosure agreement) and I know that you guys don't want me talking about my other bad habit... World of Warcraft. So that's pretty much all that's going on in my life.
My current update is this:
I’m doing great, EA is awesome, graduation was worth the time, and having lots of money is the best feeling in the world. Opera Slinger is on display at the Austrailian Center for the Moving Image till November and was even demo'd for Congress in Washington DC by our producer Matt Laurence.
NCAA & Madden ship in the next two months and my name is on both (XBOX 360 and PS3 versions). All of the hard work and lots of student loans have finally paid off!
Even Serenity is doing great! She has made a full recovery after she hung herself in the blinds and currently living a happy life (and getting slightly chubby too).
So I’m gonna work on a nice holding page for the domain but the blog will come down. I know, I know… don’t cry… I know it doesn't seem like it but the world will go on…
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April 27, 2007
sophisticated new branching animation technology
WOW! That's mine!!!
I can't say what/how we did this, but the implementation of this features was one of my first tasks at EA!!!! This is exciting! Both Madden and NCAA will be out this summer (I worked on 360 and PS3).
This quote is from a gamespot review of NCAA.
Full quote:
The bigger change could be felt in the responsiveness of the players in the game. Players felt more nimble and quick to respond to the slightest change in direction when using the analog stick. Producers are chalking this up to some sophisticated new branching animation technology that is being built into the core football engine that powers both NCAA 08 and Madden NFL 08. Instead of players being "stuck" to the longer animations of their on-field players, branching animation will allow you to break out of an animation and into an entirely new set of moves. As one producer explained, "Why should you have to wait for an animation to finish?"
Article found here:
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/ncaafootball08/news.html?sid=6169805&om_act=convert&om_clk=newlyadded&tag=newlyadded;title;1
Another review of NCAA from IGN with the same comment:
You'll also notice a lot more control with a receiver as soon as you catch a pass. Say you're running an out pattern. You can catch the ball, stop on a dime and turn right back into the middle of the field to avoid a corner that is shading you to the outside. Right now the action is so fast it feels as if it defies physics compared to the weighty physics system in 07.
Article found here:
http://sports.ign.com/articles/784/784019p2.html
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February 02, 2007
It's ALL been worth it
I just finished my second week at EA and every day it just keeps getting better!
On the first day, I was made to feel like part of the team and my tasks are far from trivial. I expected to get some ‘keep the noob busy’ work, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. I obviously can’t talk about what I’m working on per the Non-Disclosure Agreement, but I can say that I am doing game play features for Madden NFL 08 and NCAA 08 for PS3 and XBOX 360. Just some small notes, EA is the 4th largest software company in the world and USA Today Reports that Madden 07 ranked 1st and 9th on the top selling games of 2006 (1st place was Madden 07 for the PS2 and 9th place was Madden 07 for the 360).
The atmosphere here rocks, and I’ve made some new friends. I am even participating in a Magic: The Gathering tournament that some of the employees put together (after work of course). I even have to force myself to leave at night because I can’t get over-time at this point. Even without any OT, my first week’s paycheck about made me choke. :)
This is by far the coolest job in the world. I am surrounded by some of the smartest people that I have ever met and I’m living my dream!
Going to FIEA was the best thing that has ever happened to me, period.
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September 17, 2006
I GOT IT!!!
2005 Triumph Daytona 650 with 1,066 miles
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July 31, 2006
3D Opera & Magic around Saturn
Yup, that’s all that my life has revolved around for the last few months. This upcoming week will wrap up my second semester (half way point) at FIEA. This semester revolved mostly around 2 classes. We wrote a 3D game engine from scratch with the Microsoft Xbox SDK and also began pre-production on our game, Opera Slinger, which is our huge 3rd semester project using the Torque Game Engine. However, pre-production really involved a lot of production. Opera Slinger can really be summed up as a 3D platformer with karaoke style mechanics. This will be the game we will submit to the Game Developer’s Conference next March. More to come on that later. Still absolutely loving FIEA and actually kinda sad to think that I’m already half way through it. For the last 8 months, I haven’t had much of a life outside of school with the exception of Erika. Who has been great even considering that I’m not around that much.
Anyhow, I finally sold my car last week. Yup, my patience paid off! I got about 185% of book value on it! So taking the depreciation into account, I think I got out of it what I put into it. I am thrilled about that. So I just bought my old roommates Saturn for a fifth of what I got out of the Honda and now I’m searching for a new bike. The Saturn is in great condition and really looks nice, I lucked up on it. Now I can focus on finding my Triumph Daytona 650!
So as mentioned before, I’ve been playing a lot of Magic the Gathering. I know, I know, I’m a geek. Anyhow, I got to compete in a pre-release tournament which was really fun. They are 3-4 times a year and a blast. It’s pretty interesting to see the wide variety of people that are there and they don’t even all look like they left a Star Trek convention!
These updates have been too few and too spaced so I apologize for that. With the rate I’m posting, I’ll be surprised if I even get a read. If this is being read, I LOVE YOU!
OK, well, I’m feeling guilty for taking this break to write… so back to work.
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April 20, 2006
Game Postings & More
By request, I decided to make all of my game videos available in the navigation (look to the right) of the blog.
I will attempt to keep this up-to-date. Two more videos will be posted this month.
Then it probably will not receive another video posting until end of May when the next semester will be in full swing.
It's like 4am so this will be a short update. But as of yesturday we are now working with the XBOX XDK (Software Dev Kit). I am finally getting to play with the dev kit that has been on my desk all semester taunting me!!!!
Last night I saw Cirque Du Soleil's Delirium. Fucking awsome!
About 2 weeks ago I went and saw HEART at Universal. I'm going to see Pat Benatar on 6/10 and I just found out a few days ago that Poison and Cinderella are playing at Hard Rock Live in August. I'm all over that one too! This city ROCKS!!!!
Erika moves down here May 1 (same day as my last final project of the semester is due) and I move in the few days to follow. Sera's still stable and will be much happier in the bigger house so I can't wait to get the kids there.
OK, that's my life in a nut-shell. I'll post more soon. Love and Miss everyone!
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March 20, 2006
One of the Best...
Well, this was by FAR one of the best spring breaks ever. To top off the great week last week, we had an awesome time at Disney’s Animal Kingdom yesterday then went today to Universal Studios and bought annual passes. For the Monday after spring break, there were little lines and I was even able to ride front row on the Hulk Coaster after a short 25 minute wait. It was AWSOME! And Universal’s new ‘Mummy Returns’ coaster was ridden twice. It was really cool too but still doesn’t stand up to the big coasters at Universal’s Islands of Adventures like Hulk.
Well, I guess I need to get to work to make up for the grand I easily dropped this week between my annual passes, plane ticket home, and the dinners at nice restaurants every day.
I also mentioned previously that I was going to go see Pat Bennetar on June 10th... well, that seemed so far away to me. In just 3 weeks, I'm going to see HEART at Universal! Man, I love the 80s!
So erika's leaving tomorrow and I've got to get back to my long hours at school. So my break's over. Hope I didn't spoil myself with all of this sleep.
But it was a great break and I hope that each of my breaks from school are as exciting. FL is soooo cool! However, it's to get COLD this weekend. Like the lows are in the mid-50s. Miserable! I don't know how I ever lived in TN with all the cold weather :)
Oh, and we got our next assignment for my game in DMD and our game will be Family Guy. I’ll post more soon.
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March 17, 2006
March Update
Sorry for the delay in my posts. I tried really hard to get a nice small demo video of my game that I did with Lockheed Martin but it just isn’t small enough. It’s by far my most impressive. Anyhow… I did get a video of the other game I just did. It looks a lot more simple but was in fact a lot harder programmatically. You can download the video HERE.
A LOT has been going on. My trip back to Chatty went well and thank you to all of you who came out to see me. I had a very good time. Since I’ve been back I have really been relaxing with Erika. She’ll be here through Monday.
I hiked for 5 miles on Tuesday then relaxed the following day. Yesturday we went to DisneyQuest which is a HUGE arcade and it was awesome. I bought a season pass so I plan on making a few more trips back.
Today I have to catch up on my work as well as tomorrow cause Sunday we are going to Disney’s Animal Kingdom so I am very excited about that.
I also bought a ticket to the Cirque Du Soleil Delirium show which is coming to Orlando in late April. It’s supposed to be the largest arena performance in history and I’m sure will be f’n awesome. Some friends from school and I got tickets which are front row in the lower section so we should have great seats. And speaking of performaces, I’m going to see Pat Bennetar on June 10th! At this little place called the House Of Blues at Disney world. So got lots of stuff to look forward to in the coming months.
I should be back in Chattanooga around the first week of May when my semester ends. So I look forward to seeing you all then.
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February 28, 2006
me at school
Download my school's commercial here. I'm in it once. Also, when you see the guy sitting at the desk with electric blue lamp, that's my desk. They were looking for a programmer with code up but I wasn't around so they had our webmaster sit and look at my code.
Below is a pic that was taken during my Design For Media class (DFM). We were broken into 5 groups then had 20 minutes to come up with a game pitch. After each group pitched their idea, we were assigned another groups game to create a working 'non-digital' version to play in class. This whole process took 40 minutes and each team had a working game. This photo was snapped while we were prototyping the other teams game.
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February 24, 2006
my world
i'm having a hard time believing that it's almost March
it seems like just yesterday we were at Parkway playing darts
i miss everyone so much; i hope you all come down
there's so much to do here and i'll show you around town
school's still really great, nothing new to tell
we finished our second game; and added some neat whistles and bells
i'm posting some screenshots because the capture is too big to add
the one person i wish i could show it to would by far be my dad
on a lighter note Sera's doing great and is very stable
she's currently sitting beside me on the table
the whole picture will be seen when she finishes her meds
she is all over me constantly waiting to get fed
in only three weeks she gained over a pound
even when i give her the daily iv she barely makes a sound
through all the stress i think i'm holding up well
but i guess it's really too early to tell :)
my grades are up, i have all a's
but between work and class it causes some stressful days
sleep has really been non-existent
sometimes i feel like i'm really distant
so i decided to reward myself and buy something I like
that's right! i'm on the hunt for a new yellow bike
i'll be up there in three weeks and we'll go have a drink
with my new laptop i'll show you the games i've been able to make
i love you all so much but i need to get back to work
cause paying my bills is definitely a nice perk
-Jennie
These are environment screenshots from my recent training sim done with lockeheed martin (2 programmers and 1 artist)
It's a FPS type sim with a flooding ship. You have to save your friend and get to deck.
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December 18, 2005
Sniffle
Friday night was my going away/graduation party.
We had such an awsome time! So many people came. This is the largest group pic I got that evening. More people came later on too.
From left to right: Paula Jen Brandy Rhoda Erika Stephanie Megan Kelly Me Sean Deniece
I wil miss you all!
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October 05, 2005
ORLANDO, HERE I COME!
Around 1:30 today I get an ‘unknown’ number phone call on my cell phone. Normally I do not pick these up however, for some reason, I did today.
It was the placement director that I have been harassing at FIEA. He was calling to tell me that they accepted me into the program.
Other details:
They are accepting between 12-16 people into the program. I will know by the end of the month if they are for sure having a spring semester (they said right now it is a 97% chance). Otherwise I will go into the fall semester next September.
I was so excited, I had to leave work early and I am even sitting in class as I post this… I just can’t focus anymore today. I was (and still am) so excited that I am shaking!
http://www.fiea.ucf.edu
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September 25, 2005
Ego Boost (like I needed it :)
Last May I followed a co-workers advise by sending my resume to as many game companies as I could thing of to ask ‘what would you like to see on the ideal resume’. Having received responses from only a couple, I didn’t give it much more though.
However, last Wednesday I get an email from the tech recruiter at Sony Imageworks.
Continue reading "Ego Boost (like I needed it :)"
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