Modeling Update

My plan is to spend some quality time with ZBrush this week to get solid texturing on my character. One problem remains: I don't have the newest version. Thank goodness for buy-and-download options.

Otherwise not much to report on the modeling project, but I didn't want to leave you hanging. Running D&D tomorrow as well.

We're Hiring a Teacher or Two

I got permission to post this, so, this is just to say that IADT Detroit, where I work, is looking for a full-time game faculty member.  This is to replace my old job, since I'm now Department Chair, and I need someone to teach all those game classes.

View the job posting here.

Also if you are in the Detroit, MI area and interested in part-time teaching positions feel free to contact me (go there, click 'e-mail') - I am looking for people who program in ActionScript 3 or have experience with Unreal Development Kit or equivalent game engines.

On Easy Video Games and the Impending Apocalypse

Are 'easy mode' video games putting our entire planet at risk?

Video games have had occasionally had easy modes for less-skilled players since the dawn of home console systems. However, a totally scientific study of "just guessing" has shown that the amount of easy games, or even easy modes in what have traditionally been core game franchises, is now on the rise. This runs the risk of creating a new crop of unskilled players who are nevertheless enjoying games.

So, what's the problem?  Well, it's very basic... players who use these so-called Easy, Casual, or Automatic modes may be having fun, but, are they really developing the skills that they'll need when the world is about to end?

As an example, take the video game Bayonetta. It's well-known for blistering difficulty at the high levels, but also for including a "Very Easy Automatic" mode that practically plays the game for you, executing complex and appropriate combos with a single mash of the same button.

That's all well and good, and may give a novice player some sense of mastery, allowing them to experience the good feelings associated with ripping the heads off of evil but angelic beings. However, if the End Times were to happen tomorrow, and horrifying hosts of angels really were to drop down from the sky, raining fire and doom on all of mankind, will these so-called casual gamers falsely believe that they have the real skills needed to take them down?  Skills that, in reality, involve pressing both the Y, and B buttons, as well as timely stick moves and dodges, in rapid succession?  This blogger's bet is that the casual players will find themselves lining up to become Angel Chow, while those of us with the guts and manliness to play video games on Normal or higher will be the only gamers who are likely to survive this Doomsday scenario.

...

...Okay, The Onion I'm not, so that's all the satire I've got, but it's kind of funny to watch core gamers get all bent out of shape when there is an easy mode for a hardcore game available.  See also this Shoryuken Thread complaining about the addition of an automatic mode in Marvel Versus Capcom 3.

These days I play most games on Normal or higher.  In case you can't tell, I fired up Bayonetta this last week and I'm really having fun; the intense and over-the-top action just sort of makes me want to scream with joy a lot of the time.  I'm not real good at the game yet and get a lot of bad "scores" when I fight stuff, but I do get a small sense of pride playing it on the Normal mode which carries a greater risk of screwing up and requires more mastery.  That being said if someone wants to shout "weeeeeeeeeee explosions" while pounding buttons in Very Easy, it's pretty wicked fun and I don't really see the problem, especially since Achievements and online leaderboards and everything else can verify which difficulty you're playing the game at.

I don't know if the Simple Mode in MVC3 will really get more people playing the game, though it would be cool if it did, since more people playing games is a good thing in my mind.  But one advantage that MVC has with this sort of mode that Bayonetta does not is that MVC3 is a 2D game.  I've watched a lot of game novices get super confused with how they're supposed to navigate with two sticks, or keyboard-and-mouse, in a 3D environment, and no amount of automatic combos can make that particular skill easier.  In fact I'm afraid that might be an impossible barrier for some people to get around.  Yes, it gets much easier with practice, but it's not the kind of practice that a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't game would bother to do when there are other things they enjoy more.  And as I point out above in a backward sort of way, learning to get better at very difficult games is an awesome route to a deeper experience and new levels of "hard fun," but, they aren't cultivating life-or-death skill sets.

...Or are they?  (dramatic sting)

The Project I Was Working On

Now that I'm back and have essayed to death, I'll post that my 3D model is moving along.  I had a setback, which is typical with a project such as this.  Specifically, I had put the skeleton in the model and gotten it "skinned" for animation, but that particular file has somehow gotten corrupted and won't open anymore.

So I did it again. Fortunately I've gotten it down to the point where it doesn't take me very long to line up a skeleton and skin. This is the "biped" in Studio Max, which I've found is a pretty easy way to skin a character. Once the skeleton is inside, you don't move the character directly, just move the bones and the character moves with.   I figure most people understand this process but sometimes I lose touch with what people know and over-explain things.

The checker pattern here indicates the presence of an "unwrap," which I'm using the checkers to test for flat texturing.  I'm putting the character in to Z Brush and working on her to create a nicer texture, but I don't have the latest version at home.  Hm, when will it be time to buy...?

The unwrap overall is good to go though I see a little stretch on the bottom jaw that I might tweak. I experimented with Unwrella, a product that allows for fast automatic unwrapping of a charcter.  I need to learn better how to work with it, but did have a problem with the plug-in about halfway through and did the head manually.  The body was unwrapped with the quicker Unwrella method and we'll see how much I like working with it after I start painting the full texture.

Samus is Slowly Shrinking

I took this picture at PAX, at the Metroid: Other M booth.  These are models of Samus's "Zero Suit" and her military uniform as she wears in the game "Other M." 

My initial observation was that they are pretty, but, much too small to be Samus Aran. Samus Aran is a large, tall woman, who generally towers over the men she has to deal with in her day to day life.  She would have to be, right?  To operate that suit?

There's been a lot of noise on the web lately about Metroid: Other M and its apparent betrayal of the Samus Aran character.  Samus, reviewers argue, used to be a silent but deadly no-nonsense protagonist who showed no fear and worry and was near-invincible.  The common complaint is that Team Ninja's take on her in Other M instantly turned her in to a whiny rebellious teenager instead of the badass intergalactic bounty hunter we'd all been imagining.

It's true: Nintendo did change Samus Aran. But they didn't change her instantly.

Post-Pax Report

Been a hectic week around here, so I just now am getting around to posting a PAX report.  Just my personal experiences...

Photo-heavy. Click through for the write-up and pictures.