Michael Steffen

Great Hall Redesign

The Great Hall was the very first inspiration for Telmahre, which means the concept for it was born in my mind nearly 5 years ago. I struggled with myself as to whether I should really redesign it again, considering there are still pieces of art for my thesis that haven't been designed at all yet. But considering it only took me a day of work today to realize the vision I always had for this room, I'd say it was time well-spent.

Comparison between new wall (left) and the old (right)

A front-on view of the Romanesque architecture

Memory Leaky!

I knew the memory leaks in my Tantallon Engine code would kill me someday. This is the first time I tried putting all of Telmahre together. It got 2/3 the way through just fine, but as Camlan was instructing the Player on the Age of Enlightenment, Tantallon had a nasty seg-fault (oh wait, Windows doesn't call 'em that...)

Beyond USC

March already. I can't believe it. I was driving home from my internship at Warner Bros. today (looong drive!) and was thinking about my post USC career. That age old question of what I want to do with the rest of my life. Maybe "rest of my life" is too broad. How about the next year?

Game Producer?

I'm enjoying working at Warner Bros. Interactive (WBIE), and am trying to gear my internship toward discovering whether I could see myself working there (or somewhere else in the game industry) as a Producer. What I really like about Producers at WBIE is that they have a lot of creative input on the games being produced, but don't actually have to do the grunt work of level design, art, or programming. During my time here at USC, I've realized I really don't like the nuts-and-bolts of game design. To me, it's like doing a math problem--I'm not sure I'm wired to create the kind of rules systems that complex games require. I just don't enjoy it. I'd much rather collaborate with a designer who's good at what he does--sort of the way a film director collaborates with a cinematographer.

A Writer for Games? Films? TV?

So far, I don't think I could see myself as a straight-out writer. I am still researching this, but it seems to be that most writers out there write with the hope of ultimately selling their ideas to someone who will pay for them. I am very protective of my ideas and could not see simply selling them to someone. But more than that, I have a very proactive attitude when it comes to my ideas. When I write something, I'm more often than not already thinking about what I want to make it into. Again, goes back to the notion of being some sort of producer.

A Filmmaker?

When I'm at Warner Bros., I still get the greatest kick out of walking around on the Warner movie lot. Would love to make a film or two someday.

Christian Entertainment?

In my opinion, most of it's not very good or it caters solely to those who already believe (preaches to the choir). Maybe I could improve upon it, as well as promote broader-reaching messages. (If you really want to see a poor-quality Christian video game, play Catechumen . Sadly, I think they were intending to promote Christianity with it, but in my opinion it has the opposite effect).

Forget About the Entertainment Industry?

Long-term, I think I'll always have that desire to create things and tell stories, so I doubt I'll be able to stay away forever. But I am kind of burned out right now, and am looking forward to doing some different things (on the side, if nothing else). Some are more random than others:
- Travel -- Europe and a cross-country roadtrip with friends both sound appealing.
- Singing in front of a cover band
- Picking up piano again and making myself learn to play Rhapsody in Blue and some Vince Guiraldi
- Something with kids--maybe coaching an intramural/city-league boys basketball team (the younger the better so they don't know that I'm not that good).
- Getting involved at church in some way--maybe with high schoolers.
- Getting back into bike riding and surfing
- Doing some more improv comedy videos (doesn't really count as "professional entertainment", I think)

Future Projects

So when I come back from the extended vacation in which I do all of the above (yeah right), there are a lot of projects in my head that I'd like to work on to some extent. Some brief descriptions:

- Playing around with some 2D animation, perhaps making a cartoon based on my Turkeyman character.
- Continuing Telmahre. There's so much story & emotion I wanted to explore but couldn't fit into a student thesis project. I'm thinking it might be cool to write it as a series of novels (which I could later turn into a game or feature film!)
- Picking up the Ocean Temple story I started 5 or 6 years ago and then dropped in favor of Telmahre.
- A romantic comedy
- A 1990s high school nostalgia film (yep, it's been almost 8 years since I graduated!!)
- Several music videos I have in mind