September 23, 2004
"Game Publishers Sweat Console Change"
This morning, a friend sent me this C|Net article, "Game Publishers Sweat Console Change", whose topic coincides with the discussion we were having yesterday in 511 (regarding the NY Times article "In Video Games, Sequels are Winners"). Whether this has significant bearing on the development of true "indy" games is not entirely clear, but it does seem to indicate that independent game developers who want to compete with the blockbusters on at least some level have their work cut out for them.
An interesting thing that they point out which I have also definitely been noticing is that more games are getting shorter (less entertainment value in terms of hours), and the article attributes this to the rising labor costs due to graphics. Their conclusion from this is that more and more developers will need to reuse code, rather than rebuilding each time; a conclusion they support citing EA's recent acquisition of Criterion Games (Renderware).
Posted by hyang at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2004
Console Numbers
Never really been into handheld games so I was blown away when I came across these stats in this month's issue of XBN magazine.
54 million GameBoy Advances?! Where have I been?
Now, I'm that much more intrigued by the PSP...
Posted by hyang at 04:32 PM | Comments (3)
September 13, 2004
First Post...
Finally decided that I should make a post since most of my classmates have something on their sites (and I didn’t want to be accused of not being “interactive” ). Blogging is a new thing for me so putting my thoughts out on the web is going to take some getting used to.
At the end of the first of Wednesday’s lecture series, Justin brought up how it'd be cool if we first-years would share what we submitted for admission to USC -- which seems like a great way for us to get to know each other better. I’ve decided to post some of the artwork I’ve done, some of which I submitted as my creative work sample. Before coming here to USC, I spent a few months taking classes at Gnomon, a visual effects school in Hollywood, learning Maya (what a frickin’ cool program!). I was considering finding a job as a character artist/modeler to make my entry into the game industry, but hey, you can’t beat three more years of not working, right? (oh wait…)
Below are a smattering of stills for character models I’ve built and some design sketches/drawings. Maybe sometime in the future, I’ll have these in a spiffy column of thumbnails like Jenova has on his site.
Avengeline: Gun Pose of 3D Model / Isometric View of 3D Model / 3 Views of 3D Model / Textures(512x512)
Soldier: Armor Design Sketch / 2 Views of 3D Model
Robot: Design Sketch / Front View of 3D Model / Back View of 3D Model
Gluttony: Front View of 3D Model / Side View of 3D Model
Demon: Drawing (Closeup) / Front View of 3D Model (Untextured) / Side View of 3D Model / In-Progress Render
Ninja: Design Sketch
Akasha: Drawing
And just to show that not all my work is freaky shit…
Woman: Drawing
Other things about me…
I’m a native northern Californian, grew up in the Bay Area just half an hour south of San Francisco, though I've strangely found LA to my liking. I did my undergrad at MIT in EECS, was seduced by the dark side and spent a few years in investment banking and corporate development. Since moving here to LA, I’ve worked in the lit department at a Hollywood talent agency and spent time writing screenplays. Although I love games, I’m still very much interested in traditional cinema, and am looking forward to the shorts we’re producing in our production class.
Posted by hyang at 02:33 PM | Comments (3)